Links and Minifeatures 2009 02 23 Monday

Carnival of Real Estate

While New York Bleeds Washington Thrives

That's because the growth industry is government. Of course the Washington DC economy is growing - Barack Obama and the Democrats who control Congress just agreed to spend $1.2 Trillion dollars on the government. Before that, George W. Bush and the Democrats who controlled Congress then (some of whom were officially Republicans) had increased the size of the federal government by an amount unprecendented since, well, the early part of Bill Clinton's term.

It wouldn't be the first time that Washington benefited from a national crisis. Back in 1930 the District of Columbia was a quiet Southern town, scoffed at by New York sophisticates. But as the federal government ramped up to fight first the Great Depression and then World War II, its population grew 65% in two decades, vs. just 14% for New York City.

The trouble would be finding a time when Washington didn't benefit from a national crisis. Government has been a growth industry since the 1930s. Every time there's a problem, no matter how transient, the putative solution that has gotten implemented has been "more government, permanently." Washington is going to grow as long as government is a growth industry.

A reality check for our government: Our Battered American

Obama's Pentagon review: Gitmo meets the standards of the Geneva Conventions

When does the military's compliance with international law qualify as bad news? When you're a new president desperate for excuses to follow through on a dopey campaign promise that'll please your nutroots base and no one else.

and

Actually, insofar as this gives The One a handy alternative to expanding our renditions program, it does mean good news for him -- or rather, it would if the left still cared about renditions, which they haven't since January 20th. Exit question: With opposition to closing Gitmo already near majority levels, the media had better keep this as quiet as possible, huh?

Read the whole thing

In case you missed it:

Video: Santelli tears up Obama's mortgage plan and his inclusion in the new White House Enemies List

Santelli's Chicago Tea Party: The Quest for Our Nation's Soul

The Revolt of the Kulaks Has Begun

What happens when the government repeals Posse Comitatus so they can legally send the army?

Rapidly Collapsing U.S. Foreign Policy

Iran, Russia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Syria - all within one month of Obama's inauguration.

Do you think that just maybe Bush's foreign policy wasn't as bad as it was portrayed by his political enemies?

Why Bank Nationalization Is So Scary

He misses the most obvious: When all the lenders are run by the government, who gets (and keeps) credit becomes a matter of government policy. What happens when the government doesn't like a good idea? What happens when the government doesn't like a particular person? There will be no other alternatives. What happens when the politicians of the current government don't like a particular idea, because it threatens their world view or the constituency of a powerful politician? What happens when a particular powerful politician doesn't like you? What happens if you're already in hock to the only lender there is when that politician makes that decision? There won't be any other choices.

I'm intentionally omitting "what happens if they do like a bad idea?" That one is obvious, and they do it all the time. They just voted to spend 1.2 Trillion dollars on subsidizing their electoral supporters.

Love doesn't scale.

I think a lot of political confusion can be traced to the mistaken idea that love scales. It doesn't.

Beautifully succinct summation of a bad assumption and why it is bad.

See if you can find a copy of David Friedman's classic "Love Is Not Enough" I first found it in Jerry Pournelle's "The Survival of Freedom". I'm sure Amazon has copies, or a used book store near you. If anyone knows of an online source, let me know, as I tried it on two search engines and came up empty.

ACORN claims that they're helping an innocent victim reclaim her house.

Michelle Malkin has the real story, and documents to prove it.

I have no sympathy for this person, but loads of sympathy for the person who bought it in good faith whom she is making difficulty for.

Stuart Varney nukes ACORN and the Obama plan

Bobby Jindal explains what the stimulus should have done