Links and Minifeatures 2008 07 24 Thursday

Over at my more local area site, I'm starting a series on the neighborhoods in the areas I work. The first is Neighborhoods of La Mesa: Rolando. I'll be following it with others, probably before the end of the weekend.

Althouse on John McCain vs Barack Obama on Iraq, and rips a partisan shill masquerading as neutral.

Senator McCain appears to be removing the kit gloves the press has been treating Senator Obama with.

Just a little bit of bias

HT: Instapundit

Willisms makes a point that can not be made too often about prosperity.

World According to Nick makes a good point about defense against terrorism. It doesn't help the victims any, but it does enable the vast majority of the population to live normal lives.

The best way to make certain that proportion that gets to live normal lives is as large as possible is very simple: Cut down on the number of terrorists.

Proof Positive that Mike Aguirre is too stupid to be allowed out without responsible adult supervision: San Diego sues Bank of America to halt foreclosures

San Diego's city attorney said on Wednesday he filed a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp and its Countrywide unit to prevent the mortgage lenders from foreclosing on homes in the city, which he aims to make a "foreclosure sanctuary."

OK, let's hypothesize that he gets what he wants. Lenders can't foreclose. What happens when the final resort of a lender to recover its money is taken away?

That's right, no new loans.

Price of housing crashes as nobody who can't pay 100% cash can buy property. Wealthy investors swoop in and buy properties that were formerly half a million dollars for maybe $30,000 each, tops. This lasts until the armed and violent uprising against city government, or the voters put in someone who may not be a great political panderer, but who does understand something of cause and effect. They then turn around and sell them for several hundred thousand with owner carrybacks (hey, I could get into earning 8% on $300,000 when I only have $20,000 in the property! It's a reasonable risk)

Meanwhile, when the problem is fixed and lenders start making loans, those properties then become worth current value plus economic appreciation in the meantime.

HT: Tigerhawk

Obama's character seems amazingly consistent

That's not a compliment in this case.

I didn't remember the name, but it's long past time we created a Dorwin Award. And Barack Obama is the obvious first recipient if we do.