Links and Minifeatures 01 13 Friday the 13th!!

I won't be flying American Airlines any time soon, even if I do fly somewhere. American Airlines charged over reserve pilots reduced benefits during deployment.

**********



Dean's World provides a fresh breath of rationality on the wiretapping issue. Thank you, Dean.



In another Privacy vs Transparency argument, further evidence in favor of transparency: USDA Using Satellites to Prosecute Farmers (yeah, it's Pajamas Media. Get over it. I said I wish them well, and I mean it. I just don't see them having a clear understanding of how they're going to make money.)



HT Instapundit



**********



Pigilito says adds two important data points to the situation facing old europe: One a Disturbing Brain Drain (at least to Germany) and the second, France figuring out that their approach to immigration wasn't optimal. Unfortunately, the demographics of the french situation make this akin to starting to bail out the boat after the gunwales went awash.



**********



Issues with the Real I.D. Act.



Reading this, I'm mostly impressed by all the whining going on now that Congress has forced them to clean up a system that had gotten completely out of control due to political pandering and gutlessness. It's politically uncomfortable to fix, so they're thinking of any excuse they can come up with, never realizing how incompetent it shows them to be.



On a related note, Say Anything has an excellent article on the implications of the purchase of disposable cell phones.



See also The Anchoress



Michelle Malkin has a good roundup, and thoughts of her own.



Hemet is about 85 miles from me. My wife's grandmother lives there, and many cousins. Many people commute from there to San Diego, others to Orange County, still others to Los Angeles. I've been in that Target store. There is a good chance that clerk saved the lives of some of my family members and many other people here in Southern California. Maybe even me.



Thank You.



As for the New York Times: May your corporation go bankrupt. May your editorial and policy staff become unemployable anywhere in the media industry. May you fall (metaphorically) off the edge of the earth unknown, unmourned, unremarked.



**********



Kevin Drum has something for the moderates on the question of national security.



Victor Davis Hanson has some cold-bloodedly logical advice about preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.



After that, I was severely grateful that Scott Ott, the genius who runs Scrappleface, had a relevant article where I could laugh instead of cry.



**********



I support this Truth Laid Bare initiative

An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers



We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.



We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.



But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.



As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.

I know I said I wasn't going to handicap the race for majority leader. There's no way to know who will win. But I can think of no scenarios where the above hurts, and many where it will help.



**********



"Manouvering the junction of commercial airliners into offending skyscrapers"

"Manufacturing large amounts of unstable explosives"

"Creating crimson perforations in humanoid surface tissue"



Michelle Malkin has the goods on Jose Padilla's application to join Al Qaeda. They asked him his hobbies.