Links and Minifeatures 03 15 Wednesday - Beware the Ides of March!

Carnival of Liberty Recommended: Robot Guy. As an addition, Barry Goldwater established before he left the senate that it takes only an Executive Order to withdraw from a treaty. If it looked like there might be something to gain, that would be a real possibility with a realpolitik president. Charlotte Capitalist





Carnival of the Vanities

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Now THERE'S a couple that knows how to fight!



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Is there anyone who thinks this isn't posturing for the far left? Feingold Accuses Democrats of 'Cowering'. Money quote: "Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., tried to hold a vote Monday on Feingold's resolution but was blocked by Democrats"



(later) Captain's Quarters documents the Donkeys as they run from this bill.



In short, it's to their political advantage to have it before Congress. But as for actually voting for it, that sound you hear is crickets chirping. On the moon. They know it's a loser, and their votes on the issue would come back to haunt them, some in a few months, and others, particularly in 2008.



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pfadvice is claiming a new scoring system for credit has been agreed to.



I found this as confirmatory evidence, and more on Experian's website. All Transunion has is an announcement popup with no significant information. Equifax had a similar announcement with a bit more information, but nothing substantial. I emailed the given contacts to find out what the implementation schedule and scoring mechanisms will be.



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HT to Tinkerty Tonk for a pointer to false child abuse complaints at Sean Gleeson. The linked post is part one of a five part saga, and I left the following comment on part 5:



You have a valid professional complaint against this lowlife, who if he cannot be bothered to follow the law, should not be in the profession. Here in California, that's a violation of the professions code. It probably is in OK as well.



Here is a list of OK Realtors Associations:



http://www.ired.com/boards/ok.htm



Here's a link to the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission



http://orec.ok.gov/



Complain to both the Board of Realtors and the state. The former is a professional association that probably won't do anything, but they'll make his life interesting (in the chinese sense) for a while. Even if they throw him or his brokerage out, it doesn't put them out of business. The latter is where you have a real chance to stop this nincompoop before he does this to anyone else, with possibly tragic results.



end comment



Several years ago one of my neighbors (who thinks - erroneously - that I don't know who it was) falsely accused me of animal abuse. Fortunately, I had just been to the vet that day for a routine visit. I referred the inquiring officer to the vet, and I got a quick letter saying that the complaint had been found to be groundless. That lucky coincidence saved me no end of heartache, and that was for a dog. Now, I love my little dachshunds, but they're not my girls. My father-in-law was a Child Protective Services worker for several years, and I've heard some front line stories about abuses of the system, which easily takes the gold medal for overzealous reactions and defenses away from Torquemada's Inquisition. I don't blame the CPS people; it's the way the legislatures write the laws to comply with political interests. Organizations who make campaign contributions win. Lawyers win. Doctors win. Social workers win. People with political agendas win. Parents, families, and especially children all lose.



False accusers belong in the same hell they try to put other people into. My sense of accusers who aren't willing to sign their names to a public complaint is that the complaint should automatically be consigned to the wastebasket without wasting a the time of any living human. If someone really believes they're stopping child abuse, they should be proud to step forward and take credit for the report. I would be. The only reason for not doing so is because you are ashamed of what you did. And if there ever is a case where there are credible reasons why someone might suffer (say, because the person turned in is a mafia don), it should need a judge's order to seal it.



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I thoroughly agree with Michael Barone, among others. Like him, the one subject that turns me into a flaming left winger is CEO pay. (Actually, a lot of other current and former financial planners are this way.) It doesn't bother me so much for the privately held corporation - although they're a lot less generous than the public ones. It's the publically traded companies lack of self-interested strong negotiators that all go along with the culture so that their own lavish compensation package doesn't suffer the same examination.



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Via Michelle Malkin a 5 minute video that in the end, demonstrates what a good thing it was for the Jedi and Sith that they never encountered D'Artagnan or Cyrano. Stop thrust, anyone?



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Armies of Liberation doesn't write exclusively on Yemen. Today, she has an excellent article on the Phillipines and what may be the root of their problems: identity group politics.



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Asymmetrical Information examines the health care system and its constraints, mostly political.



I've always said it is pretty easy to design a fair, rational, economical health care system - but that it's politically unworkable. It is also easy to design a politically correct healthcare system, but such will reliably fail far worse over the long term than anyone's worst nightmare of an unrestrained free market.



As an illustration of the first point, consider a healthcare system where the young - up to about age 25, where most folks who are going to graduate college have done so - get automatic free care, and the coverage declines over time to where those over whatever age is the limit for productive work get only routine or preventative care.



As an illustration of the second point, every universal coverage scheme ever tried. They have all proven themselves economically untenable, actuarially.



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Big Lizards has the report on corruption within the Iraqi army that was planning to allow terrorists to infiltrate for purposes of attacking the green zone.



It was foiled by the Iraqi army. They took down their own people, even their own bosses in some cases.



That sound you hear is me cheering. They get it, at least enough of them to make the difference. It's about the rule of law, and what's best for Iraq as a whole. Many americans could use this reminder. This is the final piece of evidence for me to know that our efforts in Iraq have borne the necessary fruit. There will still be casualties, setbacks, and all sorts of problems.



If I had anything to do with the effort in Iraq, I'd say I was proud of them. You folks who have been or are over there, pat yourselves on the back. You have a right to be proud of a job well done!