Zee Links and Minifeatures: December 2005 Archives

Hmm, maybe I even scooped Armies of Liberation on this. YEMEN: Tens killed in remote landslide

**********



Michael Crichton, of all people, has something to say about complex systems and fear and cause and effect. (HT Roger Simon



**********



Iraq the Model has wonderful news about the Iraqi elections. Seems they've actually sat down like adults and accepted the actual counted results and figured out how to deal with the situation. Having a vote means having a voice, not necessarily getting what you want, as anyone other than the bluest of the blue who live in California could tell you. Seeing as I'm a reddish shade of purple myself, other than Arnold being elected governor, I can't remember the last time I voted for anything that won.



Looks like their equivalent of Bush Derangement Syndrome just died and didn't go to heaven.



**********



Dean's World notes that 2005 has been a great year for the prgress of freedom, and wonders what a difference it might make if the whole world was free.



Sorry. Out of time

Michael Yon makes an excellent point about propaganda. Everything you see that was selected by someone can be viewed as propaganda for their point of view. Sometimes propaganda is pretty much true and accurate, at other times it can be true but a horrible misrepresentation, still others any relationship between it and truth is coincidental. But just because it's propaganda doesn't mean it's wrong.

**********



As a public service announcement, may I state that this article on bankrate, Extra year-end mortgage payment could cut tax bill is flatly wrong by what I know of the tax code. What it looks like they are trying to do is jam 13 months of interest into twelve. However, according to my understanding, the current deduction in the actual code has to do with interest accrued to the bank. They accrued so much interest for the 365 days in 2005. They are not going to give you a 1098 for an amount higher than that. You didn't pay more than that. You may have paid some of your 2006 interest early, but this has precisely zero effect upon your 2005 taxes, as the banks are on accrual method. The IRS is not going to give you credit for the money in the year before the bank pays taxes on earning it. This is a good way to get in trouble. One more example of paying attention to journalists who have no clue getting you in trouble.



(And it was front page on the search engine, too. Lots of suckers out there.)



**********



Carnivals:



Best of Me Symphony



Carnival of Personal Finance. Recommended: fivecentnickel.com (detailing a phishig scam), A Financial Revolution (a short term phenomenon, but still useful)



Carnival of the Capitalists



**********



"A implies B, B implies C, then a miracle happens, D implies E"



That's the kind of argument TPM Cafe makes. It goes straight from identification as possibly terrorist involved and proceeds direct from there to automatically picking them all up for coercive interrogations. Okay, if they were going straight from monitoring programs picking up possible terrorists to hauling all such persons in for maximum toughness questioning, I'd be concerned, but they don't even do that with murder suspects. More likely, all hitting a false positive does is monitor more conversations and get a human involved. Small point, and easy to gloss over, but we haven't seen any indication that those identified get brought straight in for waterboarding. Furthermore, he assumes that the false positive bias is identical to the false negative bias, something that anyone involved in statistics and sampling knows methods of correcting.



**********



Armies of Liberation details the state of corruption in Yemen





**********



Kesher Talk asks: "Does anyone know what you are supposed to do if you get a feedback from Trackbacks that "You are pinging trackbacks too quickly." Is there a fix for that? Or just wait and trackback later on?"



As far as I know, other than trackback later, not really. This is a relatively new anti-trackback spam feature that needs a little more work. The difficulty is that Haloscan (and other) systems are making the assumption that any time there are multiple trackbacks from a post, it's obviously from a splog, not realizing that the originating post does reference both. This is a real issue for folks running carnivals, for instance, and while Powerblogs does auto discovery for me, it hits my "Links and Minifeatures" every time, so if I'm dead set on sending a trackback (rare), I have to come back with a manual one later.

"I don't care what kind of ceremony it is," says 16 year-old high school student Koam Chanrasmey.



"I just want to celebrate it because a lot of other youths will do the same thing and have fun. That's it," he says.



Now that's a healthy attitude (by most people's measure - it agrees with me). I would like more people here to have it. But he's in Cambodia



Sometimes you'd just with the ACLU would come up to Foamy's (NSFW - severe foul language advisory!) level of thinking. It's a party. Have fun. Nobody is forcing you into church. Nobody is forcing you to worship baby Jesus, to light a menorah, or bow down towards Mecca, or even burn a Yule log. I'm not religious in any kind of organized sense. But let them have their fun, and just maybe, you might have a little more fun because of it. And you know, it really isn't painful. What are you, some kind of Puritan?

**********



Slinging mud at the wall, desperately hoping it'll stick. Alito Defended Officials From Wiretap Suits, This was his job - to promulgate his client's point of view. I don't recall any of this sort of nonsense when Ginsberg was nominated, or Breyer.



**********



Housing sector has problems - big problems - but this is over the top. New Home Sales Fall More Than Expected. How many people do you know who want to move just before Christmas? This happens every year. It's why most of my time away from the work is in December. It's why I had no problem hosting Carnival of Liberty twice in a row.



**********



Iraqis March to Denounce Election Results



See how successful we're been in creating an Iraqi democracy. Already at their equivalent of Bush Derangement Syndrome! :-)



Follow the development of the story at Iraq the Model here, here, here, and here. What it's looking like is everybody's favorite, control those who are counting the ballots.

Mister Snitch has the idea for a Best Posts of 2005.

**********



Q and O has more on whether the President's surveillance was legal. I am not qualified to pass judgment on the legality. I am qualified to say it was rational, logical, and correct, even if it is emotionally unwelcome to most or politically frightening to the testicularly challenged. These days, nothing makes people stupid or crazy like the notion that the government might be watching.



**********



Carnival of The Vanities is up! Recommended: Smallest Minority, Sophistpundit,



**********



Think your boss is a jerk? No whining or we'll fire you, a compilation of employer horror stories.



**********



So we won't actually enter into insanity for six more months. Senate passes Patriot Act extension.



**********



Michael Yon has some perspective on the elections in Iraq.



**********



I got an email from a reporter about my little blurb on the proposed Sheboygan spaceport in this Links and Minifeatures. I suspect he's never really paid attention to a launch or launch broadcast, because the email said something about turning downtown Sheboygan into a pile of glass. Well, I've never been to the proposed spaceport or anywhere close, but I doubt it. There's not that much energy in a launch. On the other hand, it might not be the most wonderful thing in the case of an abort, and the extreme noise would likely be a factor as well.



**********



Speaking of being a RINO, is anyone else uncomfortable with the Kitzmiller decision due to the fact it is an unelected judge overruling the desires of elected school board members? Similar to Roe vs. Wade, I like the result, but am seriously unhappy with the means, which was a bad precedent. Yes, Intelligent Design is creationism in secularist's clothing, and no, I don't want it taught in science classrooms. It falls flat on its ridiculous backside as a scientific theory for a mind boggling number of reasons. Nonetheless, this is not the way to deal with the issue.



If I don't like judges overstepping their authority, I must be against it when they happen to agree with me also.



**********



Dean's World has some good advice for the Donkeys that I heartily agree with. However, I must point out that the exceptions to the offyear elections rules of thumb are, ahem - the most recent two offyear elections. In fact, the last time that rule's predictions were validated was 1994. We only get offyear elections once every four years.



**********



He chose... poorly



Wizbang has details



**********



I know it's a hard appeal right now. There have been too many causes with legitimate needs this year. If you have a few extra bucks, though, please consider helping the little girl Mudville Gazette talks about. American soldiers are trying to save her from spinal bifida, routinely treatable here in the United States. The donation page is here.



"No one is so wrong as he who does nothing because he can only do a little."



**********



Victor Davis Hanson brings some moral focus to our day.



**********



Volokh Conspiracy deconstructs some mind-numbing stupidity.



**********



HT to Hugh Hewitt for directing us to the Department of Justice laying out its case in the NSA wiretap brouhaha, and also The Faculty Blog from the University of Chicago.



Powerline also has its own thoughts on the matter.



**********



HT to Instapundit for a link to The Agitator and many Cory Maye items. This man is guilty of nothing except being a victim of bad procedure.



**********



I do not know if I will have time for any more of these until the 27th. I'm working on several "full" articles as time permits.



If I don't post another fest before then, here is wishing you and yours well.



If you are a regular reader who wants to give me something, might I request the gift of your participation? Not that I can't use money, but there have been no donations in the six months the donation button has been up, and the little girl above (among many others) needs it worse than I do. But participation costs nothing. Ask me about things that don't make sense to you. Challenge me if you think I'm wrong. Tell me when you think I've done something noteworthy - good or bad. If nothing else, ask me a question. So long as we keep it oriented towards the issues, it helps both of us to disagree (I keep trying to recruit an old friend who is a rational liberal as a co-writer here). Sometimes I feel like Voyager - broadcasting out into empty space and nobody is listening, despite the fact that most days my server logs now show somewhere over 1000 visits most days and nearly twice that number of page requests.

Well, today marks six months that I've been at this.



Tomorrow I will be hosting the Carnival of Liberty again. Please stop back by for lots of good stuff.

**********



Monday seems to be Carnival Day. In order of discovery:



Carnival of the Capitalists. Coyote's got Acme products in the spotlight. Recommended: Bard's Eye View, Photon Courier, Insureblog



Best of Me Symphony. Recommended: Shiloh Musings



The Very First Carnival of Investing is up!



RINO Sightings is also up! Recommended: Argghhh!, Strata-Sphere,



By the way, boys and girls, we're all supposed to be adults here. If you've got popups on your site or your site tries to seize control of my browser, be advised 1) I am not coming back, 2) I am not going to bother sticking around to read, and 3) I definitely am not linking to or recommending your post, and in fact I will de-link you if you're already listed.



**********





Dean's World has more about what he wants to see Treason trials for the leakers.



Volokh Conspiracy appears to say that the surveilance may not have been within the limitations of the law.



Contrast with the latest rants from Kos



Powerline has some rational, as opposed to legal, thoughts on the matter.



Real Clear Politics considers political implications.



**********



Media bias confirmed.



**********



Opinion Journal has a long laundry list of which sex is valued more by society.

Dr. Sanity has THE ultimate round up on the events of the past few days. I guess you have to be a professional to deal with that much insanity.

**********



Decision '08 cites Rudy Giulani on the failure to renew the Patriot Act.



**********



I want really want to know how people can look at all the pictures of the elections in Iraq and NOT be profoundly moved? I'd like to understand this, really I would. I've seen hundreds, and the effect gets stronger with each one I see, not weaker. I've seen pictures of little kids who will be able to tell their younger siblings what it was like before. I've seen pictures of members of the new Iraqi Army, and Police Force, and even poll workers who will be able to tell their grandchildren that they helped make it happen, much like the heroes of our own Revolution. I've seen pictures of old women and their daughters beaming like they've won the lottery, the Oscar, and the Nobel Peace Prize all in one (and come to think of it, the Iraqi people would be a great nomination for that last). People who have helped turn their nation's back on barbarism and repression, however imperfectly, and onto a road of democracy. Free people, who now know the are free because they now have the power to do something at the most fundamental of all levels, determined never to become slaves again.



And I want to know, how can anyone with any pretensions at being an American not be moved?



Somebody sent Michael Yon a video.



**********



neo-neocon has an excellent argument about and debunking of Jane Fonda's "Killing machines"



**********



Captain's Quarters has the authoritative debunking of the New York times claim that the surveillance the president ordered was illegal. The president's action was logical, intelligent, correct, and legal. Had he failed to order it, we would be justified in accusing him of negligence, if not outright dereliction of duty.



Hugh Hewitt has more.



dean's World wants to see treason trials. Intellectually and emotionally, I'm all for it, as it appears there is evidence of treason. Politically, though, it would be a disaster, even with so-called "moderates".

Camp Katrina wrote to tell us to compare and contrast the treatment the media gives conservatives with a given problem, with the treatment they give liberals with the exact same problem. In other words: Oh. That liberal media bias.

**********



If you don't know who he is, don't release him until you do. This is not a difficult concept, but at least one Iraqi evidently needs some remedial on it: Iraq Freed al-Zarqawi Last Year



**********



Let me get this straight. Instead of being heartless corporate drones, some Ralphs managers had a heart and snuck around the company to rehire some people who couldn't afford to miss work due to a lockout, and Now they're being criminally indicted?



Folks, that particular strike was felony level stupidity on behalf of the union leadership. They led their workers right off a cliff over the "principle" of 100% covered health benefits - something the supermarkets who deal with the union could no longer afford and stay competitive. If it had been the supermarkets intent to break the union over it, they easily could have. Instead they gave the union a pretty decent contract at a point when otherwise the union would have been as dead as PATCO. If the individual workers don't want to go out, if they want to keep working, if they're willing to stand up and tell the union that it's being unreasonable in the first place, shouldn't that be their option?



Given the competitiveness and thin net margins in the local grocery market, it would have been to the stores' advantage to crush the union while it had the chance, especially since they had made the investment of the three month strike. That they did not indicates they're trying to be good citizens - better citizens than their nonunion competition. For the government to then come down on them for their acts of compassion is real incentive not to be so nice next time. And people say that corporations have undue influence over the political process.



**********



I'm not certain a Fatah victory would have made that much difference, but Hamas rolls to victory in local West Bank voting is not good news.



Captain's Quarters analyses Hamas strategy, and what could be done to counter it.



**********



Wizbang has a post up debunking the worst media myths about the flooding in New Orleans. I don't agree 100 percent (how many cities are not only below sea level but below a large adjacent lake that hurricanes regularly funnel water into as well?). Nonetheless, a lot of valid points.



**********



HT to Mudville Gazette for a pointer to the stirring story of a Wall Street Journal writer who has become one of our newest Marine lieutenants today. Go read the whole thing.



**********



Iraq the Model has extensive election coverage, much of it personally observed. Estimates are that the turnout was around an incredible 70%! I don't think any american state has hit that in thirty years. Congratulations to the Iraqi people. Like Ben Franklin told us two hundred eighteen years ago: You've got a democracy if you can keep it.



Mudville Gazette has a wonderful roundup of the Iraqi elections.



Indepundit has a concise synopsis, and compares it to what various large media outlets are saying.



Victor Davis Hanson has the strategic level review.



On the Unhinged front, Decision '08 has found the top ten Kos reactions so we don't have to.



**********



A dose of much needed budget rationality from Asymmetrical Information. That A may be a worse problem than B is in no wise an excuse for not dealing with B. Quite frankly, I doubt that the political will to stop the social security/medicare trainwreck exists. Nonetheless, it is in everyone's best interest to start dealing with it now. The longer we wait, the worse the coming torture going to be. Right now we're at "Rogue Police Interrogation." I'd really prefer to deal with it before we get to "Inquisition," let alone "People shredder."



**********



Looks like the Yemeni regime is really unhappy with Armies of Liberation, They're speaking in Tongues!

There are many who interested on writing about the Yemeni affairs. But only few of them who put the hand on the defectiveness places to diagnosing the situation in the country. May be the American journalist and political analyst Jane Novak taking advanced position on the experts list of the Yemeni cases. However, she is new epoch in interesting the Yemeni Affaires.



There is no dubiety that the media campaign against Novak powered by the governmental and rule party media and others which orb in it's falk supported it's thesis. It was busy with attacking Novak and harassing her instead of explaining the wrong thing in which she was talking about. It was thinking that in this way they will kill her theses against the corruption in the state.

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



**********



Here's some rationality from a Hollywood personality: Freeman Criticizes Black History Month



**********



Michelle Malkin lays the smackdown on the NY Times on the whole "domestic spying" thing.



The reaction I had when I heard about it was basically "Hooray!!", and now I say "Hooray!!" wholeheartedly for someone willing to stand up and call BS BS. The whole privacy issue is over-rated and wrong headed, a product of wrong assumptions, as I go over in the articles here. Get over it.



Scrappleface hits the nail dead on the head.



**********



HT to Instapundit for a link to a Club for Growth article about Sugar protectionism killing the domestic candy industry.



I get to go to my daughter's play! Bye for now!

Indepundit has a good article about why he's opposing the "Cut and run before we win" crowd. I support him fully.

**********



Carnival of The Vanities is up. Recommended: The Politics of CP,



(I was an editor's choice! The Happy Dance will now commence!)



**********



HT to Asymmetrical Information for a pointer to Vox Baby. who has a good compromise to the social security insolvency issue.



**********



Armies of Liberation has a whole list of pointers to vital statistic on Yemen, and more on the possible fallout if Saleh actually retires as he's said he will. In the second article as well, where the military of Yemen gets its experience.



**********



Captain's Quarters has an article detailing the problems with multilateralism in war. Apparently, our allies in Afghanistan aren't getting the job done like they said they would. If we'd just done it all with the help of a few real allies, maybe we'd be mostly done. Certainly the Iraqis are a lot more prepared to stand on their own than the Afghans.



**********



Michael Barone has a good article about executive pay that I find myself largely in agreement with. Yes, the person making the strategic decisions deserves to make more, but not 1,000 times more. Furthermore, bonuses and incentives should be contingent upon them actually doing something good for the company, causing profits, market share, share price, etcetera to rise over an extended period.



**********



Powerline has an excellent interview with Congressman (formerly Colenel) Kline, just returned from a trip to Iraq. Money Quote:

We were able to stay in Baghdad, not Kuwait, and we spent the whole time inside the Sunni Triangle. And in the time I was there I didn't hear a gunshot or explosion. But the most important thing was the prevalence of the Iraqi security forces. They are really out there now, and they are doing a good job.

Quagmire? Unwinnable? I think not.



**********



Scrappleface asks: "When you see a shimmering, transparent bubble wall, you gotta to ask yourself: Which side of it am I on?"



This is a real world concern and question. That so few are asking it is testament to how disconnected they are.



**********



The Instapundit himself has an excellent torture round up.

The Agitator has coverage on Cory Maye's gun. Now the cops are saying it's unregistered. If this hasn't come out before now, they have just convinced me that they screwed up and Maye is innocent. It's the first Agitator has seen of the allegation, and it wasn't mentioned in any of the news stories I linked SundayWhen you start throwing mud at someone to see what sticks, you're afraid that the facts won't support you in the case at hand.

**********



Carnival of the Capitalists is up! The carnival page is likely to be unsafe for work. Recommended: More Than Right, The Coyote Within, Sophistpundit,



**********



Tinkerty-Tonk has an excellent article on "Slow Pearl Harbors". Furthermore, their nature tends to make them more costly than any "fast" attacks, because we pay for them in installments.



**********



Sorry, out of time for today!

RINO Sightings is up! Recommended: The Agitator, Digger's Realm



Carnival of Personal Finance is also up!



Best of Me Symphony is also up. Recommended: ROFASix,

**********



Heartless Libertarian has some worthwhile thoughts on the case of Corey Maye, on death row for shooting a cop he had every reason to believe was a violent criminal invading his home.



**********



Below the Beltway has a good article of something I've said several times here: That the real reson behind the run up in housing prices is government regulation and obstacles to construction. People who say they want low cost housing for the less well off on one hand, and then throw as many roadblocks in the way of people trying to actually erect enough homes to keep the price down on the other. The one intelligent thing that the City of San Diego has tried in the last fifteen years or so was the "City of Villages" concept. You had to be here to witness the NIMBY backlash in order to believe it. Needless to say, it's dead, which is a real shame for those people who don't enjoy 90 minute commutes at 90 mph from Hemet or 2 hour plus commutes from the Imperial Valley.



**********



Nasdaq has altered the composition of the Nasdaq 100. Here's the Yahoo version with slightly more information, but likely a less permanent link. This is a market capitalization based Index, like the S&P 500, but is heavily weighted towards technology sector companies. If you're wondering how it compares to S&P for the purposes of asset class, smaller number of stocks better (not good) for non-dilution, heavily weighted towards one sector bad for diversification. They're also all large cap.



**********



Opinion Journal has a great article about war naysayers being afraid of success, and gets a HT for directions to this article on the great job John Bolton's been doing. I still think Reid's best option is to quietly cave and attach his confirmation as a rider to something uncontroversial and necessary.



**********



Captain's Quarters has the goods on what is likely a second Syrian assassination of an opponent in Lebanon within the past year. I have long been of the opinion that Syria is the most sensible next target in the War on Terror - easiest logistics, easiest conquest, smallest bite, obviously least tenable position of all the rogue states who are the opponents of civilization, most unstable politically. If the Assad regime has a lick of sense, when the US says "Boo!" he'll capitulate, because otherwise he's going to face the same sort of death the Ceaucescus did and for the same reason.



**********



I knew Arnold had it in him! Clemency denied for Tookie Williams. Here's another article in case the more informative Yahoo AP article gets moved. Suffice it to say, Arnold went right down the line noting the claims of Tookie's supporters that were not believable, and why they were not believable.



Michelle Malkin has a round up. Is it just me, or has she got to be the blogger with the strongest Technorati skills going?



**********



Iraq the Model covers the start of the elections in Iraq. Proof things are going well? I had a tough time finding one news story on it, but it was easy finding stories on them finding more tortured prisoners in Iraq, but I had to go to the Iraqi 'sphere to find anything on the election. Man bites dog is news. Dog bites man is not.



**********



Q and O discusses the well-known fact in financial circles that the measurements of inflation are larger than actual inflation by about two-thirds of a percent or so, in light of the Democrat's claims that real wages are slipping. Well, duh. This is depth charging fish in a barrel. Corporate margins have been declining since the 1950's too. We going to put the corporations on welfare too, to make up for their reduced profits? Insanity.



**********



Rhymes With Right has an article paying tribute to our one MIA soldier in Iraq.

It looks from a Google and Yahoo result that I'm coming to this one late, but it's still worth hitting. HT to Owner's Manual (an article worth reading) for turning me on to a story at The Agitator about a man on death row for shooting a police officer. What that doesn't tell you is he was peacefully asleep in his home when the police officer served a 'no-knock' warrant by breaking down the door to the wrong address. (it is in dispute whether announced or not.) This guy, named Cory Maye, should not be in jail at all, much less of death row. He was justifiably in fear for his life and the safety of his family. Oh, and I failed to mention that he's a black man, and his target was the white son of the police chief, and the jury was all white also. This looks like real racism. Why aren't Tookie's defenders leaping in? Where is all of the high profile help?



Here is the AJS summary.



here and here and here is the hometown news coverage.

**********



Strata-Sphere is in favor of a proposal to help modernize Poland's military. This makes sense. Everybody gets something they want by agreeing.



**********



State of Flux has an excellent article (even if it does use Wikipedia as a source) on the growth of the Iraqi economy, and how it is seemingly growing beyond an oil-based economy. If true, this could be the best long term news for Iraq out of the whole regime change operation.



**********



Eidelblog has a heck of a good post on pensions and pension guarantees. He misses the fact that the number one reason for pension shortfalls is timely funding of obligations, but nails the rest. Yeah, FASB put pension obligations on the reports back around 1991, and GM took a $23 Billion dollar hit because of it. There are even penalties for corporations who fail to make contributions in a timely manner. Nonetheless it happens (and Buddha only knows how many governmental employers play the same game). They decide they want the cash now, and "We'll make it up later"



**********



Louisiana Libertarian covers a "We Hate Bush" rally in New Orleans. That's not what they called it. But that's what it was. He also has photos posted. This is what comes of allowing idiocy to think it's valid. Moonbats, Moonbats, Stupid Brainless Moonbats...



**********



Carnival Of Insanity is up! Recommended: National Review Online



**********



Looks like there's been some sort of Explosion in a fuel depot near London. They're saying it wasn't caused by any third parties, although I'm not sure how they can tell that at this stage unless someone copped to something extremely stupid.



**********



The Jawa report has an editorial on something I've long wondered about - or actually, been certain of. Why is it that the Legacy Media don't give a rat's about the people in Iraq to rebuild it, only the "we're so sorry!" apologist surrender monkeys who aren't doing anything to help and have no intention of doing so?



**********



Indepundit is stirring up all kinds of activism. I confess that I've fallen behind while I'm sick. Perhaps I'll make some time to do catch-up tomorrow.



**********



Too much new good stuff over at Armies of Liberation to list individually. I suggest you go read the whole front page.



**********



Michael Barone has some very good advice on what we should do about failing high schools: Let them try different stuff and see what works. Let's not try to have a big national strategy - instead let all of the competing ideas try to sell the schools individually. That way, we find out which of them really does and does not work. Yes, we could do a disservice to many students, but if we wait for a national policy, they're all going to lose out.



**********



Affordable Housing Institute sees a canary in the national housing mine shaft - subprime delinquencies - and calls market top nationally. I'd be refreshed to see an incidence of subprime loans as low as 19%.



**********



Powerline has some points that are worth considering regarding the CIA undercutting the president.

Carnival of the Vanities is up! Recommended: Isaac Schrodinger (Actually worse than what I thought the situation was!), Ruminating Dude (I've written lots of snippets on AMT, including one today, but nothing this in-depth),

**********



It will come back to bite you, part 77,000. Supreme Court Rules in Student Loan Case. This guy, like many others, probably thought he was being smart by not repaying his student loans. Wrong. He wasted his money on legal fees all the way up to the Supreme Court fighting collection efforts. Just because they don't have any way to enforce collection now doesn't mean they never will. Unpaid student loans never go away - they stay on your credit report, too. I have no sympathy for this clown.



In another case, observers see six of nine justices acting sympathetically with the government case in FAIR vs. Rumsfield, the case that will determine if the government is allowed to withhold money from colleges who do not allow recruiters. Pentagon's case gets sympathies. Excellent! I'm not exactly happy about the military's gay policy, but there are some pretty sharp managers running the military. I have to concede they just might know more about making the military work well than I do - and their job is to make the military work well, not to make certain classes of citizens feel good about themselves. When Harry Truman ordered the integration of the military back in 1947, he did it in consultation with the leadership, and the military became integrated - really integrated - twenty years before the rest of the country seriously tried. They were extremely progressive then, and it's the same culture. Before accusing them of being social neanderthals, maybe we should take some time to understand their thinking.



**********



YOWZA! They're predicting half a million jobs in construction lost! Hang on to your assets, this could get rough.



**********



If they had done this in the first place, they might have won, or at least made it a lot uglier: Zawahri urges attacks on oil targets.



**********



This is moderately good news: U.S. House backs alternative minimum tax patch. It would be extremely good news if it was permanent.



**********



This explains the ugly black plume of smoke I saw this morning: Gas tanker trailer overturns, catches fire. Could have been much worse, though. It was right across the road from a major storage facility. If that went, the east end of Mission Valley would have been gone.



**********



Pigilito says has a goor article about assimilation in the United States versus assimilation in Europe. But we still need to require them to learn english if we want them to become truly a part of our society.



**********



Wizbang has an excellent post on the end of the battleship era, with which I must reluctantly agree. It's true that it's a good thing when your ammunition costs less than the target, and it's a bad thing when the reverse is true. But the Iowa class is just too far outside our current industrial support capabilities. The day of the battleship has been gone since before World War II began.



**********



Indepundit moves to phase II.



**********



HT to Volokh Conspiracy for a pointer to a Affordable Housing Institute article on how there's been a lot of wind but not much action on Kelo, and how even that is petering out. Go back to what I wrote for more analysis on how to deal realistically with the issue.



**********



Think of it as evolution in action: Federal air marshals shot and killed a man Wednesday who said he had a bomb



**********



Sixty-four years ago today, the United States was ambushed by the Japanese. Pearl Harbor was only the first of several coordinated attacks. We had been negotiating with their ambassadors for months. These negotiations were not in earnest; the Japanese had no intention of reaching an agreement, or of abiding by any agreement that was reached. They were simply lulling us with a false sense of security that while negotiations were in progress, they surely would not attack. Sixty-four years ago every congressman but one managed to figure out the implications. Have we become that much stupider, that much more gullible, or is a large segment of our population fixated on "If you really, truly, believe," type fairytales.



For those who were there and did their best with what they could, I will remember. I will make certain my children remember. But even if every one who fought and everyone who remembers is gone, the fact of what you accomplished will remain. Those of you who were there, and those of you who responded in our hour of need, kept the light of liberty alive for another generation. Millions, even hundreds of millions, lived free lives, better lives, because of what your deeds. No careless, forgetful human can ever erase that.



It seems wholly inadequate, but Thank You.

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.

**********



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.



**********



California teen wins science competition. He's homeschooled.



The website, with the presentations, is here



**********



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



**********



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!



**********



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.



**********



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



**********



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.



**********



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.



**********



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.



**********



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



**********



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.

Carnival of Insanities is up (over at Dr. Sanity's, of course!). Recommended: Miserable Donuts, Corante

**********



Big Lizards has some things to say about whose information he believes in Iraq. Certainly one narrative holds more cohesion and more consistency over time.



Neo-neocon has two posts up in a series: Part One and Part II, concerning the forseen as opposed to actual difficulty of the war in Iraq. I believe that what we were told ahead of time corresponds much more closely to what actually happened in 99 percent of all historic incidences (for instance, what the Japanese troops were told in the beginning stages of World War II and what the Russian troops were told upon the commencement of their invasion of Finland, what the German people were told about World War II by Hitler, what the British people were told by Chamberlain and his predecessors...) So it wasn't perfect. At the very least, it was an honest analysis which has been borne out to a large extent by events. If, in the immediate aftermath of the initial phase, it appeared horrendously pessimistic, it wasn't, and remains largely correct.



While I'm on the subject, Mark Steyn has a column about the contrast in media treatment of Joe Lieberman and John Murtha, and about real world consequences.



National Review Online has a column about what the President has been saying recently and the reception it has gotten.



**********



Victor Davis Hanson has a wonderful article up regarding race relations, and excuses versus facts, and the real motivations of those making accusations in this area.



**********



HT to LGF for The Big Black Book Of Horrors, concerning the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime. Please go read it if you haven't already, to learn exactly what it is we were and are fighting there.



**********



Via Instapundit, an excellent article concerning male learning modes and how our industrial education system is failing boys (statistically) much more horribly than it has ever failed girls.

Hmm. The times they are a changin'. Email bright and early this morning. Another bank is discontinuing two somewhat questionable loan products (Stated Income, Stated Asset and forty year fixed).

**********



Amazing beliefs over at Angry Albertan



**********



Left Brain Female has an excellent fisking of an alarmist (Okay, defeatist) AP article on Bulgaria and Ukraine, withdrawing their troops from Iraq precisely when scheduled.



**********



I get a fair proportion of my traffic right here in San Diego. Daily Kos supports Steve Young in the 48th district to replace Cunningham. If one quick look at his campaign website doesn't convince you to vote for his opponents, you may be beyond help.



**********



Armies of Liberation has another update on Yemen. The regime has a response to the opposition parties' calls to change to a Parliamentary government: label them conspirators.



**********



Victor Davis Hanson has a wonderful article up on the political situation and Iraq.



**********



Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent article on why the legacy media is truly doomed.

Carnival of the Vanities is up! Recommended: Coyote Blog

**********



Rowdy teens beware: the Mosquito is coming. This is the first time I've ever been glad that hearing deteriorates with age. The man then exploits this as a vulnerability ala Isaac Asimov's story "Search by the Foundation." Cool!



**********



If this guy is telling the truth, it's the last nail in the coffin of "Bush lied."



HT Wizbang



**********



I don't usually send Christmas Cards, but I'm considering joining this campaign to Sent a Christmas Card to the ACLU



**********



Folks may want to stop back by tomorrow for fireworks. I have a post on Index funds set to go (at 7 AM/10AM Eastern, like all my other weekday financial posts) that's sure to raise some hackles amongst their True Believers.