Links and Minifeatures 11 15 Tuesday

New computer was delivered Monday. Finally got it configured about 9PM. How nice it is to have a sharp, easily readable display! Will put the other one in the shop to use as a "learning" computer for Hilda. Will go get a router so both computers can use the nifty new laser printer (or the ancient inkjet when we want color).



And with the largest portion of writing for the commercial sister-site done, I should be back at the site mines more often.

**********



Carnival of The Capitalists is up! Recommended: Financial Methods for his report on the San Francisco Fed noticing what I'd written here back on June 23rd.



Carnival of Personal Finance is also up!



RINO Sightings is also up!



Carnival of Liberty is also up! Recommended: Pubcrawler, who stands up for the politically unpopular but correct notion that the oil companies are not "price gouging."



**********



I'm a Numenorean. Which race of middle earth are you?



**********



Michael Barone has a thoughtful column up about President Bush finally deciding to take the battle back to those who have been slandering and libelling him about the Iraq War. I have long wondered why the administration remained silent on this point. Perhaps the Eeevil Karl Rove was selling the Donkeys rope to hang themselves with. Because the record is decisively damning against them.



Michelle Malkin has a wonderful article going into the nuts and bolts of the Donkey "Bush Lied" meme, and why they thought it would work. They've got way to google the question automatically. For those who haven't seen it there, here it is:



http://www.google.com/search?q=clinton+iraq+1998



**********



La Shawn Barber has a good entry aggregating ways to help boost your traffic. If you have a site of your own, you can always pick up a couple good tips by following her "how to build your traffic/following" posts.



**********



Looks like Jane of Armies of Liberation was on al Jazeera slamming the Saleh regime in Yemen like she does so well!



She also notes that UPI has taken note of Yemen's arms trafficking, a fact she brought attention to months ago. Maybe somebody at UPI finally got around to Googling Arms trafficking. It puts them well up on the competition.



**********



Jawa Report has a wonderful post up about effective (and not so effective) weapons used by our troops and the insurgenst in Iraq. I don't get dozen's of emails direct from the troops in Iraq, but everything I read in the post is on a par with what I'd expect from my knowledge of the weapons. Never served in the military, but a long time ago, I had occasion to shoot on ranges with M-14 and M-16. I know which I'd want to be plonking bad guys with. Anybody has access to 9mm and M1911A1. Okay, the 9mm is hands down more accurate - not that it matters (much) at handgun ranges. If you're close enough to want to use a handgun, you need to put them down NOW!



**********



Nominations for The Weblog Awards are now open.



I am not going to nominate myself (that's gauche) but I am going to make it easy for others to nominate me in the categories appropriate for this site.



Best of the top 500-1000 Blogs



Best Business Blogs



(I am also eligible for Best New Blog, but think Don Surber stands out amongst sites I know are less than a year old, and probably deserves to win.)