Links and Minifeatures 04 22 Saturday

Carnival of Vanities is finally up very late.

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PT Barnum's Estimate Was Way Too Low Department: Phony doctor gives free breast exams. Let me get this straight: 76 year old man going door to door posing as a doctor offering free breast exams, and at least two women in their 30s believe him? Nor, after reading the article, do I hold out much hope that they knew better but were looking for some action.



The Yahoo story has a picture of the guy, although Yahoo links are notoriously impermanent.



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Brings a whole new meaning to "money laundering": Retiree flushes fortune down the toilet. Plumbers ended up retrieving an unknown portion of it for him, and told him he could still exchange the deutshmarks for euros.



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Today, Allawi admitted to what has been obvious for a couple weeks: Iraqi PM Abandons Claim on Another Term. He was Sadr's creature, and the Kurds and Sunni weren't having any. Now we'll see if the Shiites can pick someone without too much baggage.



Later: Looks like the Sunnis have signed off on the new pick: Iraqi PM pick may end impasse One of Allawi's allies, and Reuters describes him as sectarian.



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Business Groups Lament No China Trade Deal. Well, duh. President Hu Jintao's bread is buttered on the side of not giving up anything. China's got political unrest, and the government there is hoping to distract the public with how well the economy is doing. Maybe if President Bush was in a stronger situation, politically, he'd be in shape to make the Chinese give up part of what's going on, but as dedicated as President Bush's domestic opposition is, and with the war on terrorism going on, he just doesn't have manouevering room.



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Ninth Circuit Court goes loony yet again: Court: Schools can ban hurtful T-shirt slogans. If you read the article, the quote from the dissent says it all. The "heckler's veto" is precisely what it is used for in debates concerning such things as affirmative action, whether such groups have special rights, etcetera. If anytime someone disagrees you can shut them out of the debate by claiming "hate speech", you win by default. Yeah, this particular t-shirt wearer was a human sized unitary rectal aperture. But the cure is worse than the disease.



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Looks like Nepal is no closer to a resolution of its problems: Nepal's embattled king promises democracy Unfortunately, the opposition is rejectng it, evidently saying something along the lines of "Democracy is Okay, as long as your side isn't elected."



So taking dictatorial power in response to Maoist rebels (i.e. dedicated to the establishment of a dictatorship) and corruption in elected officials isn't exactly an optimal solution to the problem. Giving in to the rebels is worse.



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About Time! CIA Fires Employee for Alleged Leak. What's the difference between this employee and the president, you ask? All the critical factors. The CIA is supposed to support, not undercut, the policies of the current administration. CIA Employees are not elected representatives of the people for the purpose of making policy. They are appointed subordinates of the president for purposes of carrying out the policies decided upon at a higher level. If the employee had the authority to declassify, why did they not do so rather than leaking to the media? The president has this authority. The CIA employee signed an agreement not to do these things as a condition of employment before they even received any classified information. If they couldn't carry through, why did they sign? Why did they accept appointment?