Links and Minifeatures 11 16 Wednesday

By the way, my reading of the schedule has me hosting RINO Sightings on Monday. Please send submissions to me or use the Meta Carnival Submission Form at Conservative Cat. And of course stop by here Monday November 21st for Raging RINOs!

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On this day in history, Congress actually did something right. Senate Passes Bill to Shore Up Pensions



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Art of the Blog has a good bit about Iowa's Senator Grassley (Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee!) being a pandering, demogogue who flunked Econ 1A with his desire for a Windfall Profits Tax. Praise whatever universal powers you worship for Senator Hatch.



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Right Wing Of The Gods has the best take on the McCain amendment that I've seen.



McCain may be grandstanding, but all things considered, I think I like the idea of legally prohibiting torture. If there ever is an justified exception where it was necessary, that is what Presidential Pardons are for. Torture is not only unreliable, but is a bad business for everyone involved, and we should discourage it as much as practical.



Looks like Vodkapundit agrees.



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No Government Cheese has as exhaustive an analysis of the contrast in legal reproductive rights of the two sexes as I have seen.



Let's get this straight: a woman has the right to do anything she pleases with a prospective child while she is pregnant, up to and including an abortion while she's having labor contractions, while a man basically has the right to keep his pants on, and if he fails to do that, he has no choices and basically unlimited responsibility.



Is there anybody who seriously claims women are the discriminated class here? I would be happy to debate it with you. Just suppose the situation was 180 degrees reversed. Woman has right to keep pants on, but if she fails to do that, no ability to divorce self from baby unless baby's father permits her to do so. Abortion without father's consent illegal, of course. Probably stoning offense. Must support baby throughout life. State will come after her for support. Can even be sued for support by child (or by state!) if father permits her to relinquish responsibility.



Ladies, is being a field hand in the Old Confederacy prior to the Civil War starting to look attractive by comparison? Because as bad as things were for women a hundred years ago, they were never as bad as they are for men right now.



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World According to Nick has a good debunking of a pro-illegal immigrant article.



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Wizbang has some excellent suggestions to the Donkeys on halting their slide to oblivion as a national party. Problem is that any or all of the suggestions require deep change in the Donkey party and its attitude. And the Donkeys themselves are deep in Denial about their need to change. If they can convince themselves "It's all about Evil Karl Rove and Cheating Chimpy McBushHitlerburton," then they spare themselves the need for any tough choices. And thus far, they appear to be convincing themselves.



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Volokh Conspiracy has a nice piece about academic blogging being harder than normal academic writing. "Scholarship without a safety net." Excellent point, and I'm wondering if it won't contribute to more ideas seeing the light of day via serious follow up research. When you self-censor, nobody else sees it. If the prof's best friend happens to be someone who thoroughly but wrongly trashes an idea, it's gone. But once it's out in the 'sphere, anybody can run with it.



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No Government Choose has a hilarious satire on on the left wing's take on the whole "Bush lied" meme.



Problem with tinfoil hats is that they actually increase the susceptibilty to mindrays.



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Hugh Hewitt has the ultimate roundup on the Elephant Senators trying to woo the Donkey's MoveOff base.



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Lot of stuff around the 'sphere today about the launch of Open Source Media. I'm having difficulty putting this into words, but my Edsel Sense is tingling. Many strong egos used to working alone, now trying to work together. They may have a good strong business plan, somewhere, and I realize that pre-launch any business plan has confidential elements, but they have observable effects even when they are confidential. I haven't seen any symptoms of strength yet. The conflicting things that lesser lights of the 'sphere have been told regarding participation would have me concerned, were I an investor.



I'm neither investor nor participant (I'm too new and too small to have been approached, and I didn't approach them as I have a business model of my own that has inherent conflicts with theirs in that it discourages me from accepting advertising). Furthermore, I wish them the best of luck, and the wildest of successes. But if they're trying to be more than a collective bargaining unit (i.e. blogger's union) to get better advertising rates, said effort does not yet seem apparent. Nor do I see the sort of activity which would cause a hypothetical blogger's union to succeed (and no, I'm not talking about kneecapping the competition).



Note to any Open Sourcer who may read this: I have yet to see a coherent mission statement. I have yet to see an "elevator ride" sales pitch. I have yet to see any kind of coherent business strategy articulated. I have yet to see any kind of editorial standards articulated. I'd really like to. I have been paying attention, because I'd like your venture to succeed (I'm probably going to want to advertise if I can be convinced it'll deliver bang for the buck). I poked around on your site today. Maybe I clicked right past them, but I didn't find any of those things. However on target Dilbert is with making fun of those things, when they're done right, they make all the difference. The fact that they seemingly haven't been done at all, and the company is "open for business" says something, and it's not good.



UPDATE: This paragraph got me noticed (in a good way) by legendary blogger Steven Den Beste! The happy dance will now commence! HT to Chapomatic.



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UPDATE: Aaron's cc has spades nominations up. I was originally hoping to be able to get in as one of the small diamonds, as my primary issue sphere is appropriate for that. But he's gotten spades down as being issues sites willing to call a spade a spade. Well, that's this place, described precisely. Furthermore, my primary sphere (things financial) is completely unrepresented in the Spades thus far. Should I toss my hat in for the spades? (comment or email)