Links and Minifeatures 06 21 Wednesday (Summertime!)

Carnival of Investing

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On this day in history: Kofi Annan gets one right. It is an appropriate metaphor, as more and more countries move towards acquisition of nuclear weapons, the controls on them getting into the hands of terrorists and revolutionaries rises. Nothing scares me like the thought of some terrorist or "champion of the people" getting their hands on ABC weaponry (particularly Atomic or Biological). A state actor, no matter how tyrannical, has controls and limitations and reasons not to use such weapons (The chief of which for most, I might add, is that the larger nuclear powers would open the entire six-pack of "Whup-***" in response). A non-state actor has fewer constraints, and nothing to lose. You can't respond to a nuke from such a source with another nuke. If Al-Qaeda nuked one of our cities, it would do us less than zero good to respond in kind. This is one of the reasons I don't want Iran to get nukes while the mullahs are in power. It is entirely within their stated beliefs to hand one over to Hezbollah or Al-Qaeda with the intent of detonating it somewhere in the heartlands of the countries they consider to be their natural enemies.



Which is why this is important, and a good idea for the US and other industrialized countries, as it binds India with more incentives to be responsible about its nuclear materials. US Congress moving toward action on US-India deal



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I see that the trend towards hiring hackers to find computer security weaknesses is continuing. Want to outwit hackers? Hire an ethical one. Other than just not allowing remote access, it really is the only way.



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Expect to see more and more of this Police launch eye-in-the-sky technology above Los Angeles. Expect it to get more and more automated, as the price for such things plummets and people get more expensive. They're going to be on streetlamps, and centrally coordinated, before too long. Private entities are going to put them up, also. Outlawing it would just drive it underground, and make the bugs harder to find, and the people using them harder to trace. But if we enact controls aimed at allowing us to know they're around and who is using them, and giving us the ability to monitor those users, they will be a beneficial technology.



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Angry in the Great White North has a good article about the prospect of the North Korean missile test.



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OK So I'm Not Really A Cowboy has a good article on affirmative action.



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Expensing lap dances is over the top, but Unrepentant Individual shows he understands the importance of the sales department.



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Q and O has an excellent article about the Iraqis moving towards force withdrawal.



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Regarding the death by torture of two american servicemen, Argghhh! has it right. The Germans and Japanese were into reprisal killings. It did them no good. They will do us no good. They are no deader than any of the others who have shed their blood in our cause. If the perpetrators are captured, by all means put them on trial and shoot them if convicted. But it does not do honor to the memory of those men to talk of reprisal killings. That is not what this country is about. If it were, I'd move elsewhere and start rooting for her enemies.



I was thinking of a different piece of fiction than John was, however. The Gordon R. Dickson story "Brothers" is an infinitely better description of the American soldier, science fiction or no. If you haven't read it, you should. It's part of his very popular Childe cycle ("The Dorsai books"), so it's pretty easy to find one of the collections it's in. As I remember, it is usually packaged with "Amanda Morgan," a tale of the difference between free people and the tyrants who would rule over them. Those who would be slaves will never get it, but I wouldn't expect them to.



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Here's the source of the allegations that Daily Kos is the subject of pay for play. NRO:'s The Plank.



Okay, pop some popcorn. But I can't really take the NutRoots™ seriously. Even for this, to grant it relevance is to concede the NutRoots™ more than they are due.



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Stop the ACLU notes that the Pentagon is going to charge 8 servicemen (7 marines and one navy corpsman) with murder, and describes the interrogation techniques used. We can't do this stuff to civilian felons or terrorists. Why can we do it to Marines? Because they're better men than terrorists?



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via LGF, Document Details WMD Recovered In Iraq, Santorum Says. Now Rick Santorum is in a world of hurt, politically. He is the least popular member of the senate with the home state voters. So he has a motivation to invent things like this. Nonetheless, this looks credible. Over 500 Sarin filled shells. It is also consistent with other things I have linked here.



Now, should the weapons be verified, we know that the leftist chants of "Bush Lied" will stop, right?



They say everyone needs one good laugh per day. I try to help.



Captain's Quarters has more. It's starting to look solid.