Links and Minifeatures 2008 06 30 Monday

Carnival of Real Estate

Carnival of Personal Finance

Clark: McCain a hero, but lacks command experience

Underscoring during a national television appearance a position he has been expressing for several weeks, Clark said performing heroic military service is not a substitute for gaining command experience.

General Clark? If John McCain hasn't done anything like that, the Barack Obama, who never served, never took the training, never had any reason to gain understanding, is even weaker. John McCain has been serving on the Armed Services Committee. He may not have commanded a squadron in wartime, but he commanded a squadron that was prepared to go to war. And he certainly served. Furthermore, with his unpopular calls for the "surge" long before the Bush administration got on board, he's certainly earned a certain amount of credibility as understanding current military issues.

No, John McCain wasn't a commanding general in time of war. But he's seen combat, and he has commanded, and he has earned credibility on his knowledge of military issues. Barack Obama seems determined not to.

Obama did the right thing: disowned the comments right away. But General Clark can be viewed as taking himself out of consideration for the Vive-Presidency. Obama still needs to get him out of a position of speaking for his campaign, but this is a start. You can only disown what you don't implicitly endorse. Yes, it may have been the politically intelligent thing to do, but it was also the right thing, and Barack Obama got it right. We can all give him the benefit of the doubt as to why, providing he does carry through. If he wants real credibility on his action, Wes Clark cannot be permitted to speak for the Obama campaign in the future

More at Hot Air

Snark via Instapundit:

The Saddest Thing About Barack Obama's Available Military Expertise...

...is that though he has Wes Clark in his corner, the only person he knows with the experience of getting a bomb on target is Bill Ayers.

Not precisely fair, but accurate.

Private Papers

The causes of this paralysis are clear. Action entails risks and consequences. Mere thinking doesn't. In our litigious society, as soon as someone finally does something, someone else can become wealthy by finding some fault in it. Meanwhile a less fussy, more confident world abroad drills, and builds nuclear plants, refineries, dams and canals to feed and fuel millions who want what we take for granted.

Department of the Blazingly Obvious: Hypermiling techniques dangerous, illegal

They include rolling through stop signs to avoid braking, turning off a car's engine or shifting into neutral to coast down hills, over-inflating tires to decrease rolling resistance against pavement, and other techniques.

Can a Man Be Raped by a Woman?

You may be surprised.

Very surprised.

Seven Words You Can't Say in the 2008 Campaign

Amusing Dog story: Took Hilda to her grandparents for the week yesterday. Ever since we got back, Julia (the puppy) has been obsessively guarding little Ramona. She thinks in dog terms. We went away from the house with two kids, came back with one, ergo we had an accident and lost a kid. She didn't even want to come sit on the couch with me when I was reading last night, preferring to watch over sleeping Ramona.

(I'm not certain whether Mellon has just been through it before, or if she's just incapable of doing anything about it)