Zee Links and Minifeatures: February 2006 Archives

Carnivals:



Carnival of Personal Finance. Recommended: Insureblog, Ask Uncle Bill



Carnival of Debt Reduction



Carnival of the Capitalists. Recommended: Eidelblog, professor Bainbridge, Spooky Action



Carnival of Investing



RINO Sightings Recommended: Respectful Insolence, Decision '08, DANEgerus



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I just got a search hit for "WHO PAYS BEST YIELD SPREAD OPTION ARM" (sic). Lasted zero seconds, as in obviously not what the scumbag was looking for. Had to be somebody who makes a habit of selling negative amortization loans, or wants to. Hey scumbag! Read this if you intend to be in business very much longer. The lawyers are going to have fun with you, and I'm going to enjoy reading about it.



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Home Sales Data Shows Housing Boom Slowing. Except that they're comparing on a month to month basis, and January is always the slowest month for closings. Why? It takes about thirty days to get a sale closed and nobody wants to move the Christmas tree. Nowhere does it mention sales for last January as a comparison.



Don't get me wrong. I think we've got a bubble in a large part of the country, particularly high priced urban areas, and it's going to hurt a lot of people. I just hate seeing bad articles like this.



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More interesting times: Taiwan's Chen scraps China unification body



Let's get real here. Left to their own devices, China could conquer Taiwan, albeit at such a cost as to make the conquest worthless except as a salve to pride, and would likely snuff out one of their best sources of external capital. I don't believe the communist leaders care about either the human cost to Taiwan or the economic costs to the rest of China. This is one of the huge disadvantages to totalitarian systems.



Chen, for his part, has stopped pretending that Taiwan is interested in reunification under the current circumstances. They aren't, in case you were unclear on the concept, and Taiwan has been a real democracy for about fifteen years now. They aren't interested in going back to a dictatorship; they had quite enough of that under the KMT. The idea of Taiwan reconquering China under the current circumstances is laughable. The only thing that the Taiwanese government can realistically hope to do is drive reform in China by making it a more open society, and that's the sort point that has the Communist mainland worried. Taiwan can't hope to conquer, but it can lead, and that has the communists scared.



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The Birmingham News has published some old Civil Rights era photographs that they found in an closet. Story here. Photos here.



I haven't looked through all of them yet, although the one of half the audience of a council meeting hiding their faces speaks the most to me of those I've seen. Can't get it to display again, but this one is certainly powerful.



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You can't make stuff like this up: Sen. Clinton Says Rove Obsesses About Her.



I really thought there were safe, common medications to deal with these sorts of problems.



In other news, this is priceless: Dear Hillary: Don't Run


HT
Wizbang



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HT to Personal Financial Advice for the link to this Money article on outer space.



The easy place to make money (after orbit, of course) is in the asteroids. G Harry Stine wrote about it in the Third Industrial Revolution. Until they are terraformed, Mars and Venus have nothing we cannot get elsewhere cheaper. The most important consideration is not distance, but how much energy - fuel - you have to expend to get there. The surfaces of the major planets are expensive, while the minor planets are much cheaper. Especially with robots or nanotech.



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Unfortunately, I am only 20% evil - but it's a highly targeted 20 percent. How Evil Are You?



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Iraq the Model has learned anew the fact that clerics will never turn their back on secular power, and says some other things that need saying.



I'm pretty sure the attack on Samarra was an Al-Qaeda act of desperation. They're certainly getting to the end of their strong of ideas. But certain parties (pun intended) didn't hesitate to take advantage of it.



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Strategy Page has some input worth reading on the Dubai Ports World taking over of US Ports.



Wizbang has thoughts of their own. Basically, this is a PR failure, not a mistake in approving the sale.



Indepundit has more.



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Tim Blair has an exercise in historical perspective.



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Armies of Liberation notes the imminent nature of the presidential election in Yemen without candidates.



I think it's pathetic that the opposition is considering a boycott. If you don't play, you definitely can't win. Absolutely guarantee it. Whereas if you play but are cheated, there may be something you can do about it.



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You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department (Chapter II) The William J. Clinton Foundation is seeking interns. It's promising them hands on experience.



HT to Michelle Malkin

Cool! Jurassic beaver



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Interesting times in the Phillipines: Philippines President Declares Emergency



You've gotta wonder where they'd be if they had just applied for statehood instead of independence.



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Not certain if this is good or bad. Arab firm to delay U.S. port takeover



It buys more time to allow emotions to cool down, but it could be a fig leaf for DPW withdrawing. On the other hand, the article does state that the shareholders of the british company it's buying "will be paid".



If there is a reason beyond fear to deny them the contract, I want to hear about it. Failing such a reason, however, I think we need to allow them to proceed, as I said in this article



Don Surber has more.



So does Dean at Dean's World, and although Mary Madigan disagrees, the accusations are too general to carry any weight with me. Am I immune to deception? No. Do I want to see actual specific evidence of DPW terrorist affiliations before I reject them? Yes.



Big Lizards has more logic.



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Here we go again with speculation driving the price up: Oil Prices Jump $2 After Saudi Explosion



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Mixed Emotions Department: Mayor suspended in Nazi jibe row. On one side of the fence, this is "Red Ken" we're talking about, one of Saddam Hussein's chief apologists and general hater of western democracy. On the other side, this is a freedom of speech issue and even though Britain doesn't have a First Amendment like we do, it's always a Bad Thing when the ability to communicate your observations is compromised. So I'm mostly unhappy.



LATER: Done With Mirrors has an actual transcript of the incident. Yes, Red Ken was gratuitously verbally abusing a journalist ("and this is a Bad Thing how?"), but said journalist needs to Grow Up.



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Restless Mania notes that President Bush has called for doubling NATOs troops in Darfur. That's good news!



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Below the Beltway notes that the state of Texas is now requiring a lawyer endorsement for their hunting licenses.



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This bothers me. This really bothers me. Ogre finds a reference to a California government employee who was fired for being Christian. Reading the article, okay, I can see if she was pestering her coworkers, but the usual tack for that is counseling and then a warning letter. Mayhaps she was probationary. Somehow I can't see them firing a jewish or muslim probationer for the same offense.



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If you read Iraq the Model, you know that Zarqawi may have finally found a winning strategy, although the curfew appears to have quieted things down.



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HT to LGF for a link to a Ben Stein column about losing the war on terror.



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Volokh Conspiracy wonders if Pell Grants are unconstitutional, and also, how they could be used to leverage against the religious beliefs of private colleges.



RULE: (and warning to censors, especially leftists everywhere) If you allow a power to be used to silence your opponents, it will one day be used against you.



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Finally, Victor Davis Hanson has a column worth reading about the situation in Iraq and what it takes to win.

Carnival of The Vanities Recommended: Mensa Barbie (good works in Iraq)



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Cool! Pluto May Have Rings



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What he said: Wizbang lays the smackdown on Sharia law.



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"No Arabs Need Apply" Looks like Vodkapundit agrees with me that the UAE company set to run the port of New York should be scrutinized, but not barred from the job unless we can find evidence.



Dr. Sanity is looking for the upside.



Daniel Drezner has an evenhanded article on the pros and cons, and comes out pro.



Okay, my first response was "What are they thinking to even consider it?" However, my later, considered response is that this is what America is all about. Yes, the UAE company needs to be scrutinized. Yes, their handling needs to be watched. But if they can satisfy our inspectors as to their diligence, the transaction needs to go forward. I'm as nervous as anyone about some freighter carrying a nuke into the harbor. On the other hand, preventing that is not the port concessionaire's charge, nor are they capable of preventing it.



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Q and O has a good article on the possibility of Mr. "I invented the internet" Gore running again. All I can say is that if algore captures the Donkey nomination, I hope the Elephant Candidate is not only sane, but is really good at keeping a straight face.



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neo-neocon has some information about modern day indoctrination that you'll think has got to be a hoax. Until you dig a little, including this article she links that has got to be a modern day children's equivalent of The Protocols of The Elders of Zion, or indoctrination straight out of Brave New World.



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Jihad Watch has a completely fair and rational examination of a teachable moment with regards to freedom of speech. Works for me. If I was a teacher, I'd probably do it.



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HT to Jawa Report for a pointer to an INDC Journal about the conditions this war is being waged under.



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Big Lizards covers one unelected judge making himself a "majority of one", despite the higher courts, despite a lawfully imposed punishment, despite the will of the voters.



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Armies of Liberation has more coverage of Yemen's Get Out Of Jail Free Week.



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Captain's Quarters has some worthwhile reporting on the efforts to get the bureaucrats at the Department of State to pull in the direction indicated by the elected President.



These bureaucrats are Americans and entitled to their opinions. They are not the elected policymakers of the American people. If they find the current policy of the administration to be one they cannot accept and promulgate the way they are paid to, they should do what anyone else does in that situation and resign (or retire, if they are eligible). If their expertise is really all that, the publishers of the New York Times would likely be willing to pay them to write about it in multiple forums.



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Victor Davis Hanson has some much needed perspective on peace movements.

Carnival of Investing. Recommended: Scatterbox,



Carnival of Personal Finance. Recommended: Insureblog, Entrepreneur's Journey



Carnival of Debt Reduction



Carnival of the Capitalists Recommended: Bargaineering, Liberal Wrong, Financial Methods, Small Business Trends



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Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive



Since Yahoo links often change, here's another: Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive.



Is it just me, or does this seem to be "posing for the troops" to anyone else? If martyrdom were what he wanted, he could have found it by now.



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Too Funny Not to Link Department: Cheney's Got A Gun.



Lyrics here



Audio here



Video here



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I do apologize for not having more. I'm kind of focusing on the sister site until it's fully functional

Eidelblog has a good article on the "windfall" for oil companies, and how it is a good thing, despite the NY Times characterizing it as a corporate giveaway.



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Belmont Club has a wonderful account of the century ago Moro guerrilla war in the Phillipines. It makes several points worth making, the most important of them being at the end. Some readers may consider it long, but it is worthwhile.



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My local tree killers had a good article today about Congressman Pombo, trying to bring environmental legislation out of the 1970s mindset. While I consider myself an environmentalist, I have always believed that extremist environmental legislation is not only a Bad Idea, but mostly unconstitutional as well. Species have been arising and going extinct for hundreds of millions of years. To take the tack that we have to stop the earth's biological clock completely is irrational, and as far as I can understand the relevant issues, bad science. We do need a certain amount of unbroken open space, for any number of reasons, and we probably need more than we've got in many urban locations. But many of the things that property owners have to do to appease the environmental neo-nazis are beyond rationality.



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The local rag also has some good information about immigration loopholes that get exploited because employers have no requirement to verify documents.



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Captain's Quarters says it very well when he says that the press corps will have earned the right to criticize the newshandling of others when they actually run all of the news, like they keep saying their job is, rather than self-censoring because they are afraid that, for instance, some islamic crazies may target them. They bait the White House because they know it is safe - their press pass won't even be suspended. But the logic they use to bait the White House goes by the boards as soon as there are possible consequences to them.



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Victor Davis Hanson has two worthwhile columns in Why No Nukes For Iran? and A European Awakening Against Islamic Fascism?



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Volokh Conspiracy went back and dug out an old Dr. Seuss political cartoon from before he made it big in children's books. The one he showed, from August of 1941, is still relevant in a different way today.



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Via Instapundit comes the story of a wounded soldier and widow of an american soldier won a 102 million verdict from an Al Qaeda financier.



Facetious snark: Don't you just love it when one enemy of civilization attacks another?



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Tomorrow is the President's Day Holiday here in San Diego schools. You'd think that with all the stuff about Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks that the school went over with the Kindergarten class, of which my daughter is one, they could at least have familiarized her with exactly who George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were. No such luck. My wife and I got a completely blank stare when we asked her what the school has taught about the two most important Americans ever. We did our best to remedy the situation on a kindergarten level, but the level of resistance is high, as if to say, "If it's so important, why didn't the school teach it?" I have a parent conference Tuesday; I think I'm going to ask a few pointed questions.

Strata-Sphere has a good bit of rationality on the UAE company that's buying the british company with the port contracts, and some excellent background on his reasons. I have to admit it makes me nervous, and given the facts of the situatio, there should be additional monitoring of their performance. But if we cannot show a link between them and terrorists, we are obligated to allow them to try. To do otherwise is to betray what makes us americans.



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ROFASix has an article on how the assault on Iwo Jima was a mistake and perspective on the differences between then and now. I'm intermittently working on a long article on a similar subject. His is worth reading.



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Professor Bainbridge misses Newt Gingrich. Agreed that he's a bomb thrower. Agreed that he runs off at the mouth disturbingly often. Agreed that he can't always articulate himself clearly, and he has shown clear contempt when it wasn't warranted disturbingly often. He "gets it" on where to stand on the issues right way more often than most major political figures.



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Atlas Shrugs has an account of how the Russians moved Iraqi weapons to Syria.



More later if I get a chance!

Environmental Republican has a good article and the correct response to Massachusetts ordering Wal-Mart to carry the morning after pill. You know, if a merchant decides not to carry something, decides to preclude the possibility that they will make money on an item, that usually means there's something about that item which is unattractive to the merchant.



I think that Wal-Mart's appropriate response should be to carry the darn thing - for five times the price of any other drugstore.



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AnarchAngel has a good article on the Cheney hunting accident.



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Elvis sighted, apprehended and arrested?



When the "Cold Fusion" thing was exposed as bad science over a decade ago, scientist started calling the occasional experiment when energy was apparently generated "Elvis sightings"



Now it appears as if someone actually has gotten cold fusion to work. Tabletop nuclear fusion device developed.



HT Forward Biased.



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Ogre has a long article about the ACLU targeting the Boy Scouts (and why they leave the Girl Scouts out, who share the same property, I wonder? Could it be issues of political correctness?).



I have followed the case against the Boy Scouts in Balboa Park. As a youngster, I was a scout and used those facilities. It has become painfully obvious to me that this is a crusade against the Boy Scouts. Yes, I mean that in all senses of the term. The people involved are utterly unwilling and unable to make reasonable accomodations. The various governmental entities are free to encourage voluntary associations to perform actions which are beneficial to society at large. If those organizations are guilty of excluding those who are in opposition, or those who do not or cannot abide by membership requirements from their organization, they should be permitted to do so.



Homosexuals have been on a rampage against the Boy Scouts ever since the national organization ruled out accepting homosexuals as scout leaders. Consider what would happen were a scouting leader to be guilty of the same breaches as any number of Catholic Priests? Priests are supposedly screened thoroughly, scout leaders become scout leaders by volunteering. This is a reasonable concern. Think it isn't? Tell that to any number of catholic dioceses around the globe. Like it or not, that's evidence. I know several fine men whom I would trust in that situation despite their being homosexual or bisexual. But how many men's good deeds would it take to counterbalance one man's evil one?



The Boy Scouts have determined they do not wish to undertake that risk. That is their right - their duty - to make such determinations in the best interests of the organization as a whole. I disagree with it. My wife disagrees with it. We concede it is their prerogative. Anybody who doesn't have their head super-glued inside their posterior realizes the good scouting does for the community. Having to defend against these suits does nothing to augment that.



Atheists are a weirder case. The actual scouting code does not mention religious requirement. It says "Reverent". The Oath says "For god and my country", but scouting has religious awards for just about every religion under the sun. I spent six years in scouting, and I don't remember any group prayers being said (perhaps in the religiously based troops, affiliated with a particular church or temple, it's different. Of course, back then, they were allowed to meet in schools). They did organize a yearly trip to church, but members were free not to attend (I skipped more than once, and I was a leader).



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Mark Steyn has a wonderful column on demographics.



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Jawa Report has a factual takedown of the "200,000 is a huge number" idea that the ACLU is trying to pawn off.



In very much the same vein, NRO discusses the search for these moderate muslims they keep telling us are the majority of the religion.



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Iraq the Model has some reporting on the jockeying to form a government. I'm not certain I know the players without a program, but it looks like normal political jockeying in a democracy to me.



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Jane from Armies of Liberation has a guest post over at Politburo Diktat regarding the great escape of 23 Yemeni members of al Qaeda, including some charged with the Cole bombing. If you have any willingness to learn of the subject at all, I suggest you go read it.



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Sauce for the Gander department: HT to LGF for a link to a MEMRI article noting that now that Iran is developing nukes, the clerics are now saying that sharia does not forbid the use of nukes.



In other words, "When they nuke us, it's satanic. When we nuke them, that is permitted"



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Victor Davis Hanson has an article about the effects of sexual harrassment law that should be required reading.



Those who have seen the sexual harrassment police in action know that the IRS nazis are rank amateurs by comparison.

Carnival of Liberty. Recommended: oxford University Press Blog, Combs Spouts Off



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I've had a chance to fool with zillow.com a bit now. More than once person I've read in the last few days was disturbed by how much they knew about their personal residence. What I can observe is that it appears to be based upon public sale records which anybody can look up, either at the county recorder's office or through the title company of your choice. The Multiple Listing Service has all of this information, and more. Furthermore, zillow does seem to consistently overvalue properties where I have access to better or confirmatory data, here in San Diego County. Since I don't have MLS access outside of that and my other sources are substantially less informative, I'm hesitant to regard anything outside San Diego County as being confirmed. Nonetheless, for those homes within those confines, when it's telling me that houses are worth more money than than they have priced at for several months still unsold, as it did for literally every overpriced home I checked, something is wrong, and my money is on the GIGO factor being wrong, not the market.



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I just got spammed - by a spammeister soliciting my business. I'm not going to respond, but here is the text of the email, which came under the title "mailing Dedicated Server". I think it's someone who wants me to pay them to send spam, but I thought I'd share this little factoid and let my readers decide for themselves what this person is up to. If there's a governmental agency that would be happy to have this information, let me know.



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Last Amazon talks about extending NATO membership to Israel. I do think it's a good idea, but of late NATO has become more irrelevant. The europeans need it more than they ever have, but they don't realize that they need it, and therefore such membership would be largely symbolic. I also think that France and other NATO members with large Islamic populations would do everything they could to prevent it. Israel and NATO is a good fit, but I just can't see France, Germany, and Italy mustering the intestinal fortitude. It would likely be the death blow for the original NATO (although I thing the eastern european members would stick).



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Looks like State of Flux has figured out what "peoples of the Book" means. Basically, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. An argument can be made based upon requirements set down in the Koran for most other major religions, but those are the only religions explicitly named, and the only ones generally recognized. A good muslim is required to treat honorably with peoples of the book, but this requirement seems to be more honored in the breach.



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Looks like AARP has come out in favor of investing the social security trust fund - but in GNMA securities, and by the government, not by individuals controlling their own investments.



Are they trying to sink social security? Yes, GNMA usually pays more than treasuries, and that gets it out of Congress' direct control. On the other hand, think supply and demand. When the supply of money for something rises, the price, aka interest rate, falls. Because it's earmarked, the rates drop, probably ending up below the price of treasuries. Mortgage providers everywhere rejoice. Treasury prices rise, as there's less money there, so Treasury investors rejoice.



And of course, the people who are forced to contribute these taxes have no control over them. Has anybody considered that the AARP has got to know how badly off social security is, as evidenced by their die-hard resistance to allowing younger folks to control some of the money that is being extorted from them?



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Q and O makes an excellent point about the monopolistic public education system in the US. Yes, it's been made thousands of times before. It needs to be made again and again and again, until it changes.



As I reported Monday, US News and World Report had an excellent profile of one company that is working.



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neo-neocon has a very good article about the nature of propaganda. Just because it's rah-rah doesn't mean it's wrong or incorrect.



And Robert Frost is still spot on in his definition of a liberal. Now, as then, it was an observation on the meta level.

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.

Armies of Liberation has a post up about the Yemeni government libelling two journalists, tarring them with guilt by false association. She's asked any foreigners (non-Yemenis) reading it to please make comments. I believe this is worthy of supporting.



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Carmival of Insanities. Recommended: Broken News, Winds of Change, Peace Moonbeam Chronicles



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My second pr0n request hit. I was result #42 (Hitchhikers' Guide fans rejoice!) for the phrase, "naughty picture search engines" on ask.com. Went to my main page, where 1) I have a link to the Axis of Naughty, a group that is the opposite of the Alliance of Free Blogs. 2) I have recently made a pledge that I will perform a search engine hunt for anyone in a country where the search engines are compromised, and 3) I occasionally post links to pictures, but at least thus far none of them has been worse than PG.



Somehow, I don't think that's what the searcher was looking for.



BWAHAHAHAHA!. Actually, that's worth two evil laughs. BWAHAHAHAHA!.



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Politburo Diktat has a nice exercise in perspective on the situation in Iraq.



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Buzz Machine has a nice acticle about the asymmetrical nature of press tolerance: How they can dish it out and expect everyone to act as if they've done you a favor, but can't take it.



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Belmont Club discusses negotiations with Iran over nuclear weapons from a point similar to my own. Why should the Iranians negotiate? They are quite certain europe has neither the wherewithal nor the will to do anything about the mullah's intentions.



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Asymmetrical Information has a good article on the economy, and the deficit. With the exception that supply and demand apply to everything, including the supply and demand of money, I largely agree. When the government sucks up money by running a deficit, it drives the price (interest rate) up.

Government demand for money is relatively inelastic; the bureaucrats have been told to spend this money, and it's not like it's really theirs. It's not their worry what they have to pay for it. But corporate and individual demand for money is more elastic. Result, when government borrows, there will be fewer real investments made in future productivity.



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Out of time!

Carnival of the Vanities is up.



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Social Security Choice writes some more about a great article he found at Students for Saving Social Security.



The train wreck is coming, and for anybody sixty and below (at least), you can expect it to happen in your lifetime. For those of use who are above thirty now, probably when there is not time or opportunity to do anything about it as an individual then, and after you have put a major portion of your income for your entire working life into it. The question is are we going to do what we can now to mitigate it, or are we going to wait until we as a nation have bankrupted ourselves on benefits we cannot afford to pay. Because the nation cannot afford these benefits, and if we wait until the train wreck happens, the social and economic consequences will be catastrophic. Those obstructing social security reform are laying the seeds for their own political destruction.



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Here's an article that talks about something really smart. Something equivalent to this should be the first item on the agenda of every school and every organization in the world. Its title? Smart People Ask Questions



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Financial Rounds has another severely helpful item: List of top tax scams. And here's the original article at the IRS website



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Entrepreneurial Mind has some information of importance to anyone thinking about starting a business, as I am next week: The cost of compliance.



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There's a new housing resource that may be helpful. Zillow.com. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, other than a quick glance at their front page, but it might be worthwhile.



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Hezbollah leader in Lebanon says Bush and Rice should 'shut up' about prophet drawings



Dear Islamic World: Now you have a window upon a pale shadow to that which you have been subjecting the Christians and other non-believers, and especially the Jews.



If it's wrong or unacceptable for them to do it to you, it is equally wrong and unacceptable for you to do it to them. You earn respect by giving it. You earn peace by being peaceful. You earn acceptance of your differences by being accepting of others. Guess what? Your accounts in all three areas are significantly overdrawn.



If the Muslims started apologizing en masse for the much stronger slurs that have regularly appeared in their news media for longer than I have been alive, and stop putting them in, then and only then will they have any kind of standing to request an apology. Until then, they should learn to take what they dish out. And thus far, it's a bare shadow of what they dish out.



Captain's Quarters has more perspective.



Michelle Malkin has the roundup of how the Muslims faked up more offensive cartoons to "stir the pot".



Congratulations to Armies of Liberation! Published in Middle East Times. She disagrees with me, but that's cool.



Belmont Club covers, among other things, the admission of Danish imams that they were intentionally inflating the offense by including extra, more offensive in context, images amongst those that were actually printed.



Tim Blair has more.



Pigilito Says covers a journalist with a compare and contrast on American response to insults versus Islamic response. Not so much praising us as damning the Islamic response, I'm afraid.



On the other hand, INDC Journal covers some very reasonable responses from the Islamic world.



It is worth noting in defense of Islam that there are roughly one billion Muslims in the world. It'd be amazing if there weren't several million fruitcakes among them. Certainly there are that many in any other group of a billion. But the way in which they express their insanity is particularly disturbing. When this movie and this movie came out there was certainly controversy, calls for censorship and protests, especially in the latter case. Nobody was calling for beheadings.



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This is bad. Fiery plane collision kills 3; debris falls on homes, park. This is all the specific information I have, but I used to work at Gillespie Field; once the aircraft turn left crosswind they are out of sight of the tower behind a ridge within half a mile. The story said both had just departed Gillespie, and it's good sense as well as routine to tell the pilot of departing planes what the one in front of them is doing. Pilots are responsible for vigilance under VFR rules, and under those rules, once a pilot reports another one in sight, the controller's responsibilities are fulfilled. My guess, especially given the presence of a student pilot, is pilot error, but until I talk with some witnesses, that is only a guess.



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Michael Barone makes a point about government research and procurement, and how the Air Force is dealing with the problem (by buying GPS equipment from Radio Shark, among other things). He points to the fact that government funded basic research is now 30 percent of basic research as opposed to 60 at it's peak.



This is a good thing. The difficulty is that the government is never spending it's own money. The dollars to fund a five year study of basketweaving in Atlantis does not come out of the pocket of the bureaucrat granting it. If it did, said bureaucrat would be much less sanguine about granting it. Instead, the more money the bureaucrats spend, the more they are rewarded, as government measures these things, with suborinates and promotions and raises and larger budgets in the future. Contrast that with a corporate manager, where if a million dollars of the company's money is spent, that manager had better be able (in general) to show a million dollars worth of results for the company. And those who are spending money that is actually theirs, earned with the sweat of their brow, are more careful still. Many of those requesting, even demanding, government funding are themselves multi-millionaires. Why don't they put some skin in the game themselves?



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Armies of Liberation reports on the Yemeni military raping Somali refugees.



Now that's about as pathetic an excuse for humanity as you can get.



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HT to Dean's World for noting that the US and eropeans are getting together openly and officially to promote democracy in Iran



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Protein Wisdom has a good article about the resolution of the domestic monitoring on foreign calls, and one final danger. I agree that I'd rather have the President running the program with consent from a judge, than an appointed judge who has to keep no one happy.



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HT to Jawa Report for An Interview with Kate O'Beirne



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Last but certainly not least, Truth Laid Bare has some porkbusters news worth reading. I've sent to Filner, Boxer, and Feinstein, for all the good it'll do. Not that any of them is particularly egregious on pork, but they're not exactly the sharpest watchdogs when it comes to the taxpayer's money.

Carnival of the Capitalists. Recommended: Political Calculations



Carnival of Liberty.



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Weird search engine hits: "2005/2006 classified site for individuals that wants to sell cat parts"



Sent them to This page. They must have been a fairly determined (or frustrated!) searcher, as it was the eighth page of results.



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Cartoons published in Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands.



Cartoon Protesters Direct Anger at U.S.



The U.S. base was targeted because the United States "is the leader of Europe and the leading infidel in the world," said Sher Mohammed, a 40-year-old farmer who suffered a gunshot wound while taking part in the demonstration in the city of Qalat.



On the other hand, a small hopeful sign:



In Baghdad, Iraq's top Shiite political leader criticized attacks on foreign embassies by Muslims.



"We value and appreciate peaceful Islamic protests," said Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. "But we are against the idea of attacking embassies and other official sites."





In related news: Rice says Iran, Syria stoke Muslim cartoon anger.



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Tinkerty Tonk notes that there may be WMD in Iraq after all. As I've said, given as much time as the Iraqis had to hide them, the miracle would be finding significant stockpiles.



She also notes an article in the Washington Post wondering if the information about Iranian nukes is a plant. I must admit it's possible, but the article does appear to me to be wishful thinking on behalf of the anti-administration Washington Post.



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Pigilito Says has a handy dandy tongue in cheek quick look at joining the Religion of Pieces™



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Armies of Liberation notes that the Yemeni government has shut down a newspaper, falsely accusing them of having run the Danish cartoons.



She also has more on the lack of fall out from 23 Al-Qaeda escaping.



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Donkey headquarters is going to look like the aftermath of shooting Scanners.


HT
Balloon Juice



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Big Lizards explains the meta of why the Donkey's are in such trouble, and they are likely to lose more seats this year if nothing changes.



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Victor Davis Hanson has some historical perspective that more people could use.

Carnivals



Carnival of Investing. Recommended: Old Niu's Blog (I do not agree with the forward forecasting 100%, but it's worth reading for the way he treats some concepts in accordance with the Law of Large Numbers), Daily Dose of Optimism (a compare/contrast of Japanese corporate culture and structure with our own).



Carnival of Personal Finance. Recommended: Financial Reference, Conservative Cat for a nice detailed article about "hot stock tips" emails. I think I remember getting the same one; I forwarded it to enforcement@sec.gov.



Carnival of Debt Reduction



RINO Sightings



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Not a good sign: Iran Tells Nuke Agency to Remove Cameras



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Wizbang has a nice article on bioethics and the current administration's track record.



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Q and O wants to form a libertarian group than can cooperate and form coalitions. I wish him luck. Help him if you can. I've tried hard enough without any notable success for at least twenty years.



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Mudville Gazette debunks the latest left wing craziness about our soldiers: That the women are so scared of going to the latrine that they are not drinking water and therefore dying of dehydration. What he says makes sense in light of what I remember from Boy Scouts. It also makes sense in light of realpolitik. He closes with "I propose the following theory: Regardless of the number of individuals in the group, the combined IQ of people who believe this story will never exceed 10." I'm with him.



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Dr. Sanity has a wonderful article about guilt cultures versus shame cultures.

Just got a search where the search was "negative ARM loan explained in Spanish" Interestingly enough, the question itself was in english. Well, I'm certain somebody has articles in spanish, but my spanish is weak enough that I do not trust myself to translate. On the other hand, I'm going to post a Useful Tip for those who don't know. Alta Vista has a free service called Babel Fish (From the original Hitchhiker's Guide radio program. Early internet had a very high concentration of science fiction geeks like me) that will translate a web page (cut and paste the URL) or up to 150 words ad hoc at a time. Actually, it used to be unlimited but I see why they've cut down. They're pretty good but they do have their breakdowns, so be wary of "My hovercraft is full of eels," or "My uncle is sick but the highway is green," type stuff. One of the things about the old listservs was that pretty soon everyone learned a lot of tricks and resources, and I thought I'd pass this one on. I also added it to the "Other Resources" roll to the right. If you have any to pass on to me, I'd love to get them.



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Digger's Realm has an article on the Mexican military covering drug smugglers, opening fire on US law enforcement, and personally threatening them and their families.



Black Jack Pershing, call your office.



This needs to get dealt with. Have Condi summon their ambassador and say "We want those responsible caught, tried, and punished. You have two weeks to make the arrests. If your military attempts to frustrate our border guardians again in any way shape or form, it will be treated as an act of war. Frankly, Mr. Ambassador, we both know to the last centavo how corrupt your government is at all levels and what a favor we would be doing the Mexican people by adding 31 new states to our union. The people of Mexico are worthy of better, and if they didn't have such a shortsighted group of kleptocrats leading them, they would be a world economic power in the same league as the United States. Thus far, it has not been our responsibility or worth our trouble to deal with the problem, but on top of everything else we have to deal with because of your incompetence for the last ten generations, this is too much. Our patience is at an end. Either start acting like a responsible democratic government, or face the consequences, and nobody with a Mexican government job from dogcatcher on up will ever be allowed to work in a government job again. That is all. Dismissed."



Discuss. I thought Vicente Fox and PAN might be the start of real change for Mexico, but it has become more obvious to me since that PRI, PRD, and PAN are all the same stuff from nearly identical outhouses.



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HT to Argghhh! for a pointer to a beautiful column Farewell to the Fallen.



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Armies of Liberation has the scoop on 23 Al Qaeda members who just happened to escape as the trial for the Cole bombers begins.



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Inside Larry's Head has some arabic cartoons about jews that put the lie to any need for concerns as to their religious sensitivities.



Compared to these, the infamous danish cartoons are a paean to sensitivity. So mild as to not be worth mentioning



So what's it like having the illusion of the shoe on the other foot? I can only observe that everyone else has already demonstrated at least a million times more sensitivity towards Muslims as they have towards other religions. Your religion and your faith have got to be laughably weak and childish not to be able to handle it.



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Family in town for the weekend so if I don't post any more, you know why. There are articles waiting to go tomorrow morning and Monday.



Diminishing Returns has an excellent post on the state of the educational system.



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Boxing Alcibiades has a worthwhile "finger in the tyrants eye" idea: Volunteer so anyone in a strongly censored country can email him a request for a Google search, and he'll put it up.



Works for me. Sign me up as an Anti-Censor (Reverse Censor? De-Censor? In-Censor?). If you live in a country where the search engines have been censored, send me an email requesting a search and I'll do it. Depending upon how many request I get, I may do multiple search engines. No pr0n requests please, and anything that a wife or supervisor might find objectionable on the search level will be my discretion and the availability of a time and place where I can execute without consequences. If anything that comes up that may be objectionable, appropriate warnings will be issued.



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HT to Vodkapundit for sending me to twenty questions on Able Danger



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Baby steps: Captain's Quarters has the goods on the first action congress has taken in 9 years to trim the growth of entitlement programs. $40 billion is over $100 saved for every man, woman and child in the country.



We need more and bigger, as Captain Ed tells us. But I'll take a baby step forward over drifting backwards every time.



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La Shawn Barber has a very balanced post up on racial "intelligence" that's well worth reading. For the record, I disagree with her over the likely cause of racial disparities. I do believe that the gaps are there and are real, but are a phenomenon of cultural disparities, not anything innate. Mental acuity is at least partially a function of the effort put forth by and the amount of practice undertaken by a given individual. Some cultural groups within the country encourage this to different extents, some discourage it, also to different extents. It is no great stretch to imagine that if putting effort and education is everything to one group, and actively counter-image to another group, there will be differences in how well, in aggregate, the groups make use of the material. There will always be outstanding individuals in any group, just like there will always be lazy, hostile, and indifferent students. But if 90 percent of group A puts all of the effort into educational success that they can, whereas 90 percent of group B stigmatizes it, a reasonable person will expect differing outcomes from the two groups in aggregate, as measured by identical metrics.



Not to advocate this, but if we randomly assigned kids to parents upon checking out of the hospital, I believe any difference in results between the races would be gone in a generation. Because the same random percentage of babies born to group A parents would have group B parents raising them as of those born to group B parents. This is not a proposal, and in fact I find the idea revolting. It is simply an illustration of where I believe the problem lies. If you're going to tell me your "culture" is different and that you're proud of it and don't want to change, that's fine, but you lose the ability to complain about differences in levels of success brought on by those same cultural differences that you're so proud of.

Carnival of Liberty. Recommended: Fearless Philosophy (I don't agree 100% but it's worth reading), The Sharpener, Eidelblog and again Eidelblog



Carnival of The Vanities. Recommended: Play One on TV



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Q and O has the goods on Iran wanting to acquire missiles. If they don't carry nukes, they're kind of expensive for the damage they'll do. And the project name, as well. As McQ says, connect the dots. The picture that results is catastrophic.



LGF found an article noting that the UN has found plans for a nuclear weapon in the possession of the Iranians, as well as noting military involvement in the supposedly peaceful reactor program.



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Social Security Choice reports on one thing the President got very right in the State of the Union address. If the government were a corporation, the SEC would have Congress in jail.



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Greenspan raised the funds rate one last time on his last day. Talk about consistent to the last.



Federal Funds Rates are probably higher than they should be by 50-100 basis points. Bernanke is a banker, same as Greenspan, but I'm hoping his other background will help moderate his banker's instincts to keep inflation low at all costs. Greenspan created the last bump in the economy, and whereas that was probably a good thing, all things considered, it isn't an experience I'd care to repeat.



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Captain's Quarters notes that Egypt has asked Hamas to recognize Israel, and has some good ideas on the consequences thereof.



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Knew it was too good to be real department: LGF notes that France Soir has fired the editor who ran the Mohammed cartoons.



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The Agitator has more in the case of Cory Maye, still in jail sentenced to death for defending himself in his home.

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About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the Zee Links and Minifeatures category from February 2006.

Zee Links and Minifeatures: January 2006 is the previous archive.

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