Links and Minifeatures 08 24 Thursday

Israel adds third leg of strategic triad. Two nuclear launch capable submarines.



It would deter anybody vaguely rational. Unfortunately, that doesn't describe the Iranian regime.



Also, Iran has 1.6 million square kilometers of territory. (source) while Israel has 20,330 (source)



One bomb does for the entire country of Israel, or at least its populated heartland. Iran would require dozens, if not hundreds, and the mullahs would believe they're going to paradise for the murder of millions.



Can anybody think of a suitable deterrent against the imams?



That's why they can't be allowed to have nukes.



And therefore, I'm happy about this: West likely to reject Iran's response

The U.S. State Department has said that Iran considered its proposal to be a serious one and promised to review it, as did the five other nations that offered political and economic rewards to Tehran July 1 if it agreed to a freeze enrichment.



But the diplomats suggested that despite assurances of a serious review, the capitals involved found little of substance in the document.



One of them said that much of the Iranian response, delivered Tuesday, confines itself to "a history of Iran's nuclear program from Tehran's point of view," including arguments that enrichment was its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

On the other hand,

If IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's report finds that enrichment is continuing, as expected, the council is then likely to move toward economic and political sanctions.

(sarcasm on) I'm certain Khameini and Ahmedinejad are shaking in fear. (sarcasm off)



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New Homes Slump Worsens



On the other hand, if you read between the lines, buyers will never have more power than they do right now.



If you insist on being able to sell in six months for $50,000 net profit, go away for the next five years at least. I really do not even want to talk to flippers right now. But if you're willing to look and bargain and fix, you will do very well out of the current market, particularly if you can wait until it turns. It might start to turn next spring. It may not be until Spring of 2009. But if you wait until prices are rising again, you will miss the best bargains. Once prices start rising again, people will come out of the woodwork, and buyers will no longer have the power they do now.



Yes, it's a risk. But economic reality time: those who take the risks make the big bucks.



WSJ saying what I was saying a year ago and more. this article I wrote in February is the closest thing to an encapsulation, and I wrote it as a looking back sort of thing.



It could be bad for quite a while. But those who have the guts to get off the sidelines with sustainable investment will do extremely well for themselves.



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Pluto loses status as a planet. From promoting three to demoting poor Pluto, that's the difference between the prroposal and the final adoption.



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U.S. air marshals to go native



Finally, after being five years, they're allowed to dress to blend in with the other passengers, instead of wearing attire that says, "kill me first!"



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Oh my! It looks like Judge Anna Diggs Taylor should have recused herself.



In other war news, Michael Barone reviews The Path to 9/11 by ABC news, of all folks. Not exactly the strongest supporters of the Administration. I intend to watch it when it airs (I have to watch 10 hours of TV per year).



Victor Davis Hanson also has some clear thinking.



LGF has a clip of the investigation of whether Israel used chemical or biological weapons. Nope. As if you really needed to ask.



via several places, Zombietime rebuts the claim that that Israel targeted Red Cross Ambulances in Lebanon.



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Scrappleface on the virtues (?) of placing too much weight on polls. I don't know where we got the idea that facts or intelligence or reasoning are popularity contests, but we need to stop propagating it.