Links and Minifeatures 12 20 Thursday

Bush signs bill giving struggling homeowners relief

This is temporary relief from the income tax on debt forgiveness. If you're going to do a short sale, get it done now.

Private Papers on California's new healthcare boondoggle.

Arnold had positively flipped his lid on this issue. Talk about how to kill a state economy.

I am reminded of the F. Paul Wilson classic "Lipidleggin'" (read it all. Shouldn't take more than a couple minutes)

It's so nice to read stark, coherent sanity in another real estate site. Here is one beautiful example: Looking Through the Wrong End of the Telescope

Ask yourself what the transaction means to you. If you worry about what the other guy is getting out of it, you're going to hose yourself, certain as taxes. Like the dog in Aesop's fable, grabbing for the other bone only to lose your own. If it's the best deal for you, it simply is not important what how much the seller is walking away with, what you think the market in the area will do for the buyer, how much the agents are making, or what the loan officer is making. I have seen people rape themselves financially over the fact that they didn't want someone else to get a benefit. There is no area of a real estate transaction that seems to be immune from greed envy. Stake it through the heart before it bites you, because it will suck you dry worse than any legendary vampire.

Selectively playing hoaxes: This tale, The Tale of an Ivy-League Hoaxer, suddenly got splashed all over the papers and the blogosphere when it was admitted to be a hoax. I had only read about it on one conservative blog before that, and it hadn't been in any of my news sources. Now it's everywhere.

Compare and contrast the the Columbia noose story, which was all over the news for over a week until Columbia figured out it was likely a hoax and sequestered all evidence, and the media allowed it to fall down the memory hole. Here's search engine results to refresh your memory http://www.google.com/search?q=Columbia+noose&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Here's what I wrote on October 26

Has anybody other than me noticed that the Columbia Noose Incident has fallen into the memory hole? this is the most recent substantive information I can find. And as I said then,

Remember that I promised an apology if it turned out there was credible evidence that the Columbia Noose incident wasn't a put up job? Remember that I also predicted it would fall down the memory hole if evidence surfaced that it was? I've been trying to follow developments, and there just isn't much.

The difference lies in who is being slandered and libeled. Some animals are more equal than others.

I find myself in agreement with John Leo, who notes the important difference, although he notes some news sources who did pick it up before it was revealed to be a fabrication.