Links and Minifeatures 2008 02 14 Thursday (Happy Valentine's Day!)

Q and O on why we can't afford a President Obama. Least of all the poorer portions of the population.

neo-neocon on Obama's "over-promise and under-deliver" campaign.

Something that needs to be said about Title Insurance

Classical Science Fiction I find relevant to the election of 2008

"The Masculinist Revolt" by William Tenn (aka Phillip Klass). This short story was nominated for a Nebula in the 1960s. It probably should have won. This story seems to be different to just about everyone who reads it, so don't be surprised ifyou don't have the same reactions as everyone else. An emotional interest group just barely fails to get its way when an even stronger emotional urge wins the day. No logic involved. It strikes me that the Democratic primary is the collision of two such groups. The Republican primary seems to be one such group who have lost but won't give up.

Unfortunately, we've gotten to the point where our major decisions are ruled by emotional interest groups.

Two more short stories come to mind as having applicability in our current election: "Marius" by Poul Anderson, and "The Liberation of Earth" also by William Tenn. But that last one has been echoed in every election on the planet since it was written.

All three of these are worth reading, and fairly easy to find. None of them takes more than about ten minutes to read.

The story Robert Heinlein couldn't bring himself to write about the rise of Nehemiah Scudder (which regime's eventual fall is told in "Revolt in 2100") would also be applicable, although not only or even primarily to Mike Huckabee. Religion takes all kinds of forms, as Al Gore demonstrates. This story, you have to extrapolate from "Revolt in 2100" and a few others of Heinlein's works, but the main points are pretty obvious.

Yes, Obama's feel good populist soak-the-rich rhetoric rhetoric really has started to frighten me. And I don't scare easily. I can only hope that after another eight and a half months of this economic idiocy, people are smart enough to turn away from this easy, seductive message.

I know I said only a few days ago that I'd rather have President Obama than President Hillary. What's that saying again? Oh, yeah : "Be careful what you wish for. You may get it."

Off to take my family to Disneyland! It's the first visit for Ramona (the three year old)! Supposedly, the room has free wifi, but if the site isn't updated for a day or two, you'll know the reason.

I know I've been lazy as far as new articles the last couple weeks. I'll try to put out more in the next couple weeks.

If you've noticed the site being slow, I've been Google-lanched regarding the article Conforming Loan Limits and the Economic Stimulus Package - thousands of hits on that one article the last two days, 99% plus via google search.