Links and Minifeatures 02 27 Monday

Carnivals:



Carnival of Personal Finance. Recommended: Insureblog, Ask Uncle Bill



Carnival of Debt Reduction



Carnival of the Capitalists. Recommended: Eidelblog, professor Bainbridge, Spooky Action



Carnival of Investing



RINO Sightings Recommended: Respectful Insolence, Decision '08, DANEgerus

**********



I just got a search hit for "WHO PAYS BEST YIELD SPREAD OPTION ARM" (sic). Lasted zero seconds, as in obviously not what the scumbag was looking for. Had to be somebody who makes a habit of selling negative amortization loans, or wants to. Hey scumbag! Read this if you intend to be in business very much longer. The lawyers are going to have fun with you, and I'm going to enjoy reading about it.



**********



Home Sales Data Shows Housing Boom Slowing. Except that they're comparing on a month to month basis, and January is always the slowest month for closings. Why? It takes about thirty days to get a sale closed and nobody wants to move the Christmas tree. Nowhere does it mention sales for last January as a comparison.



Don't get me wrong. I think we've got a bubble in a large part of the country, particularly high priced urban areas, and it's going to hurt a lot of people. I just hate seeing bad articles like this.



**********



More interesting times: Taiwan's Chen scraps China unification body



Let's get real here. Left to their own devices, China could conquer Taiwan, albeit at such a cost as to make the conquest worthless except as a salve to pride, and would likely snuff out one of their best sources of external capital. I don't believe the communist leaders care about either the human cost to Taiwan or the economic costs to the rest of China. This is one of the huge disadvantages to totalitarian systems.



Chen, for his part, has stopped pretending that Taiwan is interested in reunification under the current circumstances. They aren't, in case you were unclear on the concept, and Taiwan has been a real democracy for about fifteen years now. They aren't interested in going back to a dictatorship; they had quite enough of that under the KMT. The idea of Taiwan reconquering China under the current circumstances is laughable. The only thing that the Taiwanese government can realistically hope to do is drive reform in China by making it a more open society, and that's the sort point that has the Communist mainland worried. Taiwan can't hope to conquer, but it can lead, and that has the communists scared.



**********



The Birmingham News has published some old Civil Rights era photographs that they found in an closet. Story here. Photos here.



I haven't looked through all of them yet, although the one of half the audience of a council meeting hiding their faces speaks the most to me of those I've seen. Can't get it to display again, but this one is certainly powerful.



**********



You can't make stuff like this up: Sen. Clinton Says Rove Obsesses About Her.



I really thought there were safe, common medications to deal with these sorts of problems.



In other news, this is priceless: Dear Hillary: Don't Run


HT Wizbang



**********



HT to Personal Financial Advice for the link to this Money article on outer space.



The easy place to make money (after orbit, of course) is in the asteroids. G Harry Stine wrote about it in the Third Industrial Revolution. Until they are terraformed, Mars and Venus have nothing we cannot get elsewhere cheaper. The most important consideration is not distance, but how much energy - fuel - you have to expend to get there. The surfaces of the major planets are expensive, while the minor planets are much cheaper. Especially with robots or nanotech.



**********



Unfortunately, I am only 20% evil - but it's a highly targeted 20 percent. How Evil Are You?



**********



Iraq the Model has learned anew the fact that clerics will never turn their back on secular power, and says some other things that need saying.



I'm pretty sure the attack on Samarra was an Al-Qaeda act of desperation. They're certainly getting to the end of their strong of ideas. But certain parties (pun intended) didn't hesitate to take advantage of it.



**********



Strategy Page has some input worth reading on the Dubai Ports World taking over of US Ports.



Wizbang has thoughts of their own. Basically, this is a PR failure, not a mistake in approving the sale.



Indepundit has more.



**********



Tim Blair has an exercise in historical perspective.



**********



Armies of Liberation notes the imminent nature of the presidential election in Yemen without candidates.



I think it's pathetic that the opposition is considering a boycott. If you don't play, you definitely can't win. Absolutely guarantee it. Whereas if you play but are cheated, there may be something you can do about it.



**********



You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department (Chapter II) The William J. Clinton Foundation is seeking interns. It's promising them hands on experience.



HT to Michelle Malkin