Links and Minifeatures 12 06 Tuesday

Best of Me Symphony is up!



So is Carnival of Personal Finance! Recommended: Old Niu's Blog (actually, he has a second, more important point in his article that even he apparently missed. To quote Dr. Laffer, "In order to capture an elephant, you don't plink its (backside) with arrows after it's already passed. You get out in front and DIG A HOLE!" For the forseeable future, healthcare is necessarily going to eat up an ever larger share of GDP. No, there are no immediately obvious killings to be made, but some investments in the sector - subject to diversity requirements - are likely to be extremely lucrative long term investments)



Carnival of The Capitalists is also up. Recommended: Blog Business World, Coyote Blog, The Common Room



most recently RINO Sightings has been posted, and a wonderful karaoke version it is, too. Recommended: Tinkerty-Tonk, Inside Larry's Head.

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9/11 Panel Cites Inadequate Security Steps. That's because there are two ways to take adequate security precautions. The first is by stopping the motivations and ability for attacks. We're doing pretty good at that. The second is through means that the American people will not accept, because Vulnerabilities Happen. It's easy to accuse someone else not fixing a problem when they are the ones that would have to pay the price politically.



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California teen wins science competition. He's homeschooled.



The website, with the presentations, is here



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Scrappleface on the sort of Justice Saddam evidently prefers. I promise not to cry for him.



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Hopeful news: Pigilito Says has an excellent article on how the Indonesian government has brought in prominent Muslim clerics - to debunk the terrorists religious claims. Score another one for the good guys!



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Argghhh! has a good article up, and good thoughts on, a major change in the Department of Defense. As someone who sees the benefits we got out of the European Recovery Plan (aka Marshall Plan) and will likely see out of Iraq, I think this is a very good thing on the balance.



He also directed me to The Officer's Club for some excellent ideas on how the next front in the war on terror could open. I hope not; as I've said, I think the mullahs in Iran are going down soon regardless, but if forcibly deposed by us, they'll always be able to say the evil americans did it, and quite likely spark a twenty-year civil war.



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Worth reading. I may have an answer for him once I think about it for a bit. (Via Vodkapundit.)



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Looks like Howard Dean has pushed Smash just a little too far. As I have said here (among other places), what he said does not rise to the level of treason. But it is in support of our enemies. And most of the populace seems to realize it's all for politics. As bad as Elephant numbers are (and they are putrid, for a host of good reasons), Donkey ones are worse (for a number of even better reasons). Their recent antics amount to dropping the last pretense that any of their opposition is for the good of the country, in favor of raw naked power. I'm not naive enough to believe the Elephants aren't part of the power game also, but the Elephants are at least waging most of the War on Terror intelligently and all of it wholeheartedly, realizing that if there's no country, there's no power to be had in ruling it. In 1944, Thomas Dewey declined to criticize Roosevelt's conduct of the War, saying he would rather lose the presidency than the war or the country. Today, the Donkeys don't even need to be running for anything, they just want to make trouble out of spite. It doesn't take committing treason to be counted among our country's enemies. I really feel sorry for those few Donkeys such as Joe Lieberman who have stood squarely against the enemies of this country. Because if this continues, next year will be their Waterloo. And to think that I was considering registering Donkey a few days ago so that I could vote in their primaries, because I thought they might still be salvageable.



(The only difference voter registration makes in this country is whose primaries you vote in. Since I figured there is, on the average, more difference in the intelligence with which Donkeys approach public office, I was hoping to make a small difference in who spoke for their party. I no longer believe this hope realistic, and if the Donkeys continue in present vein, we're going to need a new opposition party after next year because their coalition is dying as we watch).



Captain's Quarters has more.



Scrappleface shows the fundamental disconnect.



Michelle Malkin has a round up.



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Asymmetrical Information has some useful ideas on the state of the housing market, but working the retail end (and what I compete against every day) has shown me exactly how creative the financing has gotten. When I tell people exactly how many Negative Amortization and Short term hybrid interest only loans there are out there, particularly in high cost areas such as Southern California, the most common reaction is simple denial. As in, "I don't believe you." The problem is that it's really hard for people to believe the numbers are what they are. They are real, but people don't believe them.



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From Armies of Liberation, looks like the Saleh regime is pulling out it's last line of peaceful defense: Claiming some articles by the opposition journalists insult Islam. And when they increase the budget by this much, they must need the money for something, and the only thing I can think of is military action. Here's hoping I'm wrong.



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Anne Althouse has some great coverage of the arguments and issues in FAIR vs. Rumsfield.



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Michael Barone has an excellent article about Britain's reformed House of Lords. I strongly suspect that eventually, that will be remembered as Tony' Blair's main accomplishment as Prime Minister, and it won't be remembered fondly. The British threw away a system where an institution that was reluctant to challenge Commons at all but nonetheless had a verifiable long term vested interest in the health of the nation, for one dominated by cultural elites with no such position.