Links and Minifeatures 02 13 Monday

Carnivals:



RINO Sightings. Recommended: Strata Sphere



Carnival of Investing. Recommended: Daily Dose of Optimism



Carnival of Debt Reduction



Carnival of Personal Finance



Carnival of the Capitalists. Recommended: Financial Methods, Scrivener

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Rebel says Nepal's king faces exile or execution

No future in Nepal for king — rebel leader



Just a few days old: Stalemate, One Year After King's Coup



some older articles:

Nepal

King Gyanendra's Promises Are Waning Fast

Exclusive: Rebel leader on Nepal's 'last war'

Nepal rebels rule out peace talks

Written a couple months before the the King took power In Nepal, it's the king to move



I'm not impreseed by the Nepalese King in this article: Interview with King Gyanendra

On the other hand, between this article and the others, I'm even less impressed by the rebels.



This article appears to have some good analysis: NEPAL: It is time, the political parties unite for the common cause of democracy



It seems like the situation is vaguely analogous to Iran in 1978-79. The Shah was no enlightened democrat, but the other choice was far worse. I had some Iranian acquaintances at the time, and I remember conversations to the effect of me telling them to think about what they were going to replace the Shah with, first, and them telling me that they would worry about that later, after the Shah was gone. Well, Khomeini had made preparations to make certain that he was what replaced the Shah, catching the real pro democracy faction off balance, and the rest is history. I'd hate to see the same thing happen to Nepal, which doesn't have the mineral wealth of Iran to fall back upon.



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Update 1: Gore Decries Treatment of Arabs Post 9-11



Can you imagine if this clown had been president on 9/11? Along about now he'd be telling the nation, "Yes, I know that we've lost somewhere between 12 and 20 million dead to the terrorists. But we can't presume they're guilty until they're convicted in a court of law, and we can't gather any evidence domestically until they actually act, which, if you'll pardon my saying so, tends to destroy the evidence and render prosecution moot. It doesn't matter if someone is a donor to Al Qaeda, they're still a mostly legal resident and we have to respect their human rights. Meanwhile my administration's priority is still compliance with Kyoto."



I know it's ex post facto, but the results of that election and the fact of 9/11 have been entered into my ledger as evidence that there may be a benevolent guiding intelligence to the universe.



Gate. Hinge. Ne'er the twain shall meet.



Michelle Malkin has more take down of His Idiocy, and a round up.



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Prairie Home Companion Film not political 'on purpose'. Let's see: you were blissfully unaware that the subject of the film is one of the Donkey's more dedicated partisans, and so the whole thing came as quite a suprise to you?



Go sell that one to someone else, Mr. Altman. I'm not buying.



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Resistance is Futile has a good post covering The University of Oregon using public funds to aid illegal aliens. I can't even use the term "undocumented workers" since they're aiding them to get those documents in a way that games the system and appears to be contrary to law.



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Dr Sanity covers the Donkeys playing partisan politics with national security. If there's anybody who thinks it's evil for the Elephants to run the national security issue at them until they shape up, those people must be hardcore Donkey partisans. We need at least two credible parties capable of handling the government without leading us to disaster. The Donkeys are determined not to be one of them. If this doesn't change, we need a new opposition party, lest the result be disaster when the Donkeys are eventually elected.



(I would be very happy if the Donkeys grew some credibility on national security, because it's a trump issue with voters. Once we have two parties where it's not actively suicidal to vote for either, that will make for real debate on other platform differences)



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Dean's World has the scoop of ADA distortion. I think the ADA was a beautiful thought, wrongly executed, and I run across abuses of it about once per week. It may not be politically correct to stand up and say so, but it's long part time to fix ADA abuses.



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Victor Davis Hanson has an article worth reading on much the same subject as my article on The Basis of War.



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I would have read this anyway, as I subscribe to US News Dead Tree edition, but HT to Michael Barone for talking about it and giving me a link to the US NEWS article on the KIPP program.



Here's a link to the KIPP website



Now, as the father of two young daughters who is willing to make whatever commitment is necessary to get them an education (I put several hours in per week leading the elder through kindergarten schoolwork), I am interested. I am more than interested. I've only been dealing with the education cartel a few months, and already I am frustrated beyond belief at how little they accomplish with the time and resources they are given.



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It's a good day when you read Michelle Malkin's report that Batman's next task is whuppin' on Al-Qaeda, and your once every few weeks look at Eject! Eject! Eject! yields very good news on his next project.



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Volokh Conspiracy has a heck of an article about the First Amendment and it's interaction with international law, and some justices who suprisingly lined up on opposite sides from what you might expect.



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The National Zoo's Panda Cub in the east coast snowstorm.



HT Hugh Hewitt



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Today marks ten years since my wife and I had our first date. Males everywhere, you may be envious. On top of being married to a wonderful woman who has her head on straight as well as being the most beautiful woman in the world, this means I get to do stuff on the 13th, and since two days in a row would be excessive, I get a pass on the actual Valentine's day thing, while everyone else is fighting for dinner reservations (We're taking ourselves and the girls to the restaurant where we had our first date). I've had my share of bad luck, but romantically I did the equivalent of hitting a multi-state lottery jackpot.