Links and Minifeatures 11 01 Tuesday

Sorry I didn't post much over the past few days. Flu shot I got Friday kind of got to me, like they say it sometimes does. I still feel like I am going to lose the contents of my stomach - except when I actually eat, I usually find that I am very hungry. The rest of this week is likely to be light also, due to two conferences and a legal deposition in addition to the above.



On the definite plus side, the baby Ramona took her first undeniable steps on Friday, for me. I wasn't expecting it or egging it on; it just happened. She's been "cruising furniture" for several months. She just decided she wanted daddy, and didn't bother to sit down and crawl. A few quick steps and there she was. Ramona (my wife) was jealous of course, especially since she was upstairs at the time and missed them. The baby has since repeated it, of course. But that doesn't change the fact that I was the only one who got to see the first time.



Also on the plus side, Thing has recovered enough that he's chasing his ball, climbing the stairs, and as of Saturday, looking like he's got enough meat on his bones that I reduced him back to his regular rations. There for a while he was looking positively emaciated (and Mellon's weight went up as Thing passed on his food), but he's been eating more of less normally again for a couple of weeks now, and he's filled out to where his vertebrae aren't sticking so far out that they form a high ridgeline along his back. I was worried about a certain little dog for a while.

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Here's A Beautiful Tribute.



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RINO Sightings is up. Recommended: Armies of Liberation, Louisiana Libertarian



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On another subject entirely, Victor Davis Hanson has a much needed dose of reality for the perpetually outraged.



Belmont Club covers someone with the guts to say what may really be necessary.



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Michelle Malkin has a short roundup of electoral fraud. As I've said a few times on this site, I want this stuff cleaned up. If it means I've got to go through a little more in order to vote, so be it. Might even be a good thing if people have to go to a little more trouble to vote.



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Predictably, Eric's Grumbles thinks the Supreme Court should butt out of the abortion issue, along with the rest of the government. In principle, I agree, and I would in practice also if we could get issues like paternity suits (no authority to make decisions means no imposed legal responsibility) resolved rationally.



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Carnival of The Capitalists is up. Recommended: Stone City, Coyote Blog, Pacesetter Mortgage (I don't agree that "Stated Income" should be completely abolished, but there should be a very large print disclosure/affadavit listing the pitfalls, as well as cash reserve requirements, etcetera. It is abused, but sometimes people cannot document the money they really do make. See my essays on Prequalification, and also levels of income documentation).



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Carnival of Personal Finance is up. Recommended: Bargaineering



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Carnival of Liberty is also up. Recommended: Soldier's Angel = Holly Aho, Watchful Investor (It is to be noted that China has no one on death row because they get taken out and shot in the back of the head immediately - and the family gets a bill for the bullet!)



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Despite losing 8 plus days of data due to a server change, finished October with 24,547 visitors from sometime about 7AM on the 9th through the end of the month. That's only 40 less than the entire month of September which counted all 30 days, so I'm happy. 73,593 page views for the same period. Running totals: 82,896 visits, 257,157 page views.



I am grateful to all of you for stopping by. If you have something to say (or a question to ask or a contribution to make), speak up!