Zee Links and Minifeatures: May 2006 Archives

Carnival of the Capitalists



Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: Stop Buying Cr*p



RINO Sightings Recommended: enrevanche



Carnival of Liberty Recommended: Et Tu Bloge

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Pigilito Says has an article every communist apologist should read, concerning the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.



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I may have more later today.

Via World According to Nick, a do it yourself Demotivator page.

Build your own demotivator

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Language advisory: Hold The Mayo has a very worthwhile suggestion for making a point with Senator McCain.



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Argghhh! has a piece of courtroom humor that I had never heard before.



While we're at it, via Jawa Report comes an submarine story that should not be read before or immediately after eating. Make sure you visit the restroom before reading it, and a language advisory also applies. I laughed so hard it hurt. The Cook Shack



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American Political War on Terror Over at Milblogs. Read it.



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Q and O notes that Charles Grassley has decided to vote against the senate immigration bill because it has many Loopholes. I think some of his loopholes are small-time quibbles on the edges of a bill that is seriously flawed because the mindset of those creating it is flawed. Nonetheless, as I said a few days ago, if the choice is this or nothing, I'll take this. I'd rather'd have the House Bill.

Carnival of The Vanities RecommendedPart-Time Pundit (regarding congressional privilege)Jack Yoest (visit to Arlington National Cemetery)

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If you're going to be a link whore, be a link whore. Hit Associated Press! AP Unveils Deal to Tie Stories to Blogs



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Because of my trouble with Dell, I went over to Jeff Jarvis' place to see if there were any updates to his ongoing saga, and found instead, a nice three part piece on a panel of journalism types that also included Hugh Hewitt. Part One Part Two Part Three. Many good thoughts, but there were still those "journalists" who are unclear on what the troubles are, namely, first, that they've let their prejudices and agenda get in the way of their reporting while pretending they haven't, second, the fact that they are clueless about what they are reporting about but nonetheless hold themselves out to be experts. I have been witness to a few major news stories. In every case, those "news" reports I read later missed central facts, chose misrepresentative emphases, and in general,just blew it. Furthermore, I can't recall ever reading an article where I have relevant professional qualifications where the reporter did a good job on the professional knowledge angle. The sample size is large enough to be indicative. If they're that badly wrong, that often, when I can fact check them, why should I trust them to get it right when I can't or haven't?



To give many of them credit, they appear to be waking up to this reality. "Use the public," Mr. Jarvis writes them as saying, "there are people out there who really know this stuff!" To which I say, "Halllelujah!" but the proof of this is in the doing.



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Captain's Quarters had a conference call with Ed Meese on the similarity between the current senate bill and Simpson-Mazoli.



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I meant to run this yesterday, but with the internet being so intermittent I didn't notice it had slipped out of the Links and Minifeatures unsaved Revisionist History: Antiwar myths about Iraq, debunked in OpinionJournal



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Via Instapundit, who makes the point that this political solidarity likely has a lot more to do with fear of being caught themselves rather than any concern for their fellow Congresscritter, various congresscritters are crying that searching a congressional office is violating seperation of powers, despite the fact that there was a pesky little thing called a judicially approved search warrant executed.



Volokh Conspiracy notes that the Judiciary Committee is going to hold hearings on abuse of executive power as a result.



The relevant text of the Constitution:

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

1) As I read this, this says you can't arrest them while they're actually in the halls of Congress in session. Says absolutely nothing about executing valid search warrants. They also cannot be charged for what they say in Congressional session. Has nothing to do with criminal activity elsewhere.



2)As I understand it, bribery in six figures is a felony, negating any defense under this section.



3) This has nothing to do with whether Jefferson was Democrat or Republican, an ally of the president or an enemy. He's being investigated for being more crooked than a fractal boundary. They have him on film and in the presence of witnesses taking $100,000 in cash bribes. Just as with "Duke" Cunningham, the FBI is quite correctly furthering the investigation to the logical conclusion.



4) So much for the part of the 1994 Contract With America that said Congress was not above the law.



5) It appears that about once per generation, the FBI has to remind Congress not to get too outrageous in its corruption, lest the public get wise to the game.



These rascals have grown too rotten to countenance. Time for new rascals. Luckily, most primaries are still to come. You can vote for for other members of the same party you usually vote for, so you needn't even vote for those of the opposition.



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Tomorrow's article will be new. Look for it bright and early at 7AM Pacific

Carnivals



Carnival of Liberty

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Got a search this morning for"how do I fill out a truth in lending on an option arm?"



For crying out loud. Anybody with any doubts about requiring your own license to work in this business (as opposed to working on the firm's license) should now have had those doubts dispelled. Not that even the California license is difficult. But to be selling the godforsaken P.O.S.es and not to even understand how to fill out the Truth In Lending.



That loud scream of anguish you heard was probably me.



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So much for high gas prices meaning anything that folks will act on, as opposed to merely complaining about it: Baby Boomers Push RV Ownership to Record



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Buying Property, Minus the Hassle



Limited partnerships have their advantages, but you've got to be careful. REITs and limited partnerships and all of that does add another layer of things to go wrong, while not really insulating you from the consequences of bad decisions. Think of them like mutual funds. Except that mutual funds do not, typically, leverage fifty percent or more of their investment.



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Opinion Journal on myths or Iraq and attempts to revise history.



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Jihad Watch notes that the imams of Kabul have called for their countrymen to join the Taliban.



Sigh. I really want to believe in moderate moslems, but I guess once they've had a taste of real coercive power, the clerics find it hard to go back to simply leading.



Toronto Star has the source article.



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Tomorrow's article will be a repost. I ended up working on a couple of ideas for non-financial posts today, one of which I've now posted and the second of which needs to percolate some more before I'm ready to finish it.

Carnivals



Carnival of The Capitalists Recommended: Isaac Schrodinger



RINO Sightings



Carnival of Debt Reduction



Carnival of Personal Finance

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Remember the spreading hole in the Ozone layer that was going to let radiation down to the surface of the earth and turn all life into horrible mutations? Report: Ozone Hole May Disappear by 2050



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Right Wing Nuthouse is a voice of sanity to elephant purists.



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Via Respectful Insolence, my blogging style is Logical and Principled. What's yours?



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Enrevanche has actual quotes from Saudi school texts. Go check them out; they're every bit as outrageous and over the top as any has claimed.



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I kept losing my internet at work today, so the above is spottier than I would have preferred

Local News is treating the Marine Investigation as if guilt were an established fact, rather than merely under Investigation



Report: Local Marines Killed Women, Children

Military officials said Thursday that a criminal investigation into a firefight in western Iraq that left at least 15 civilians dead is not complete, but they did not dispute a congressman's charges that the attack by the Camp Pendleton-based Marines was far worse than originally reported.

This is a feature of any serious investigation. They don't eliminate suspects, much less publicly, unless they're certain of innocence, and probably not even then until the investigation is complete. If they did, one of the key questions the defense attorney would ask is why they said that. Some investigations exonerate their targets and the investigators themselves still never admit it to the media. What the military spokesman said was:

"There is an ongoing investigation, therefore any comment at this time would be inappropriate and could undermine the investigatory and possible legal process," said Marine Lt. Col. Sean D. Gibson, spokesman for the Marine element of U.S. Central Command.

In other words, precisely what proper procedure says they should say, no matter what the investigators think at the moment.

Officials in the Pentagon and at U.S. Central Command declined to say whether Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., was correct in saying that the Marines killed innocent women and children "in cold blood" during the attacks last November. Murtha said U.S. troops overreacted and that nearly twice as many people were killed than first reported.



Time magazine reported in March that an Iraqi civil rights group said Marines barged into houses near a bomb strike in Haditha, Iraq, throwing grenades and shooting civilians.



Murtha told reporters Wednesday, "It's much worse than was reported in Time magazine," according to the Army Times newspaper.



There was no firefight. There was no [bomb] that killed those innocent people," Murtha said in the Army Times report.

Isn't that what the investigation is intended to establish? If the military doing the investigating does not yet know themselves, how can Rep. Murtha possibly know? It is possible he's made up his mind because he wants it to be true? Google Representative Murtha for the past couple of years (since the Iraqi invasion) and decide for yourself if you think it might be likely that the above quotes are politically motivated. I notice the article failed to report previous incidences of Murtha accusing people of things that might have been politically motivated. Accusations that investigations did not bear out.

Murtha, a former Marine and veteran of combat in Vietnam, has been a consistent ally of the armed forces as a member of Congress. He has called in recent months for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.



He said combat stress prompted the Marines' alleged rampage, according to the Army Times report.



"It's a very serious incident, unfortunately. It shows the tremendous pressure that these guys are under every day when they're out in combat," he was reported as saying. "One man was killed with an [improvised explosive device] and after that they actually went into the houses and killed women and children."

My opinion hidden. Click when you've dug up enough evidence to have made up your own mind.







Opinion Journal has more



Argghhh! has the statement of a participant in the taking of prisoners.









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Former Fed Chair Says Housing Boom Over But Sees Stable Prices I respectfully disagree with the latter prediction, but must admit he's got a certain level of qualification I don't.



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Fed's Hoenig warns of rate overshoot risk Good to know the Fed is considering what most people who work financial retail have known for months. I've said they probably overshot by about a full percent here, before the most recent hike.



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Immigration measure said likely to pass If this bothers you because you want it more strict, consider what happens if no bill passes: The status quo. I may want more, but this bill is preferable to that. Who knows: This could be enough. If there's still a perceived problem in a couple of years, we can go after more.



So long as they actually enforce it, of course.



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EU asks US to consider plane sales to Iran



This is why the eventual conquerors of France will be flying Mirage jets.



They want new airplanes? Here are some suggestions: one two three four



Maybe we should sell them some forked tail doctor killers? Allah forbid their population of lawyers should become too high!



(lest I be misunderstood, the above aircraft are probably safer than most commercial aircraft when operated within their limitations by a conscientious pilot. However, having worked a few years in the industry, I'm also familiar with how people in certain professions often fail to take intelligent precautions when it comes to small aircraft.)



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Wizbang notes that BellSouth has demanded a retraction of the USA TODAY story that claimed call pattern monitoring.







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Dr. Sanity shreds the reporting from the front about 105 casualties in Afghanistan which "just happened" to fail to mention that 80+ of those were enemy casualties.



Big Lizards has more details



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Many places are reporting, like Jawa Report that Iran has passed a law mandating clothing for everyone and different styles/markings for religious minorities (Yellow stripe for Jews, blue for Zoroastrians, red for Christians). I hope that I don't have to sketch the most obvious of many historical precedents for you. On the other hand, I've seen one story purportedly by an Israeli calling the story a hoax (can't find it again). So keep your outrage in check pending further confirmation.



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Captain's Quarters note that there may now be proof that the biggest class action lawfirm in the country paid named defendants kickbacks of lawyer's fees. This has been obvious to students of economics and logic for years; who would go through all that court plaintiff rigamarole for fifty-one cents and a coupon for a small order of fries? It costs more than that to ride the bus to court one morning. Needless to say, finding evidence is a welcome development.



His story focused on campaign donations. I'd rather focus on the good to the economy not having to deal with these shakedown artists.



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An exercise in perspective from Victor Davis Hanson



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Volokh Conspiracy fact checks Slate.



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"Tell the truth but not all of it" Michelle Malkin adds some relevant facts to an LA Times Story.



Oh. THAT leftwing media bias.



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Funny site: Dear NSA.com Mining your data since 2001!



HT enrevanche

Carnivals



Carnival of The Vanities Recommended: Fearless Philosophy (Cory Maye)



Carnival of The Capitalists Recommended: Professor Bainbridge (amending Sarbanes-Oxley) Insureblog (how transparency in medical billing is important)

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Okay So I'm Not Really a Cowboy has an excellent article about marginal tax rates, who pays taxes, and all that sort of stuff.



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Definitely good news 'Triple Neptune' find raises hopes about extra-solar planets



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Interesting: Giant Slab of Earth's Crust Found Near Core So the Continental Drift theory may need to be modified.



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Are commercial real estate loans going to hurt banks? Doubt it. I'm not an expert, but the few times I've had a client who wanted one, I've learned that they usually require about 40% of the money to come from the borrower, and I've never seen less than 20. Remember that the loan always gets paid first if something happens. The commercial market is not overheated like the residential market, if at all.



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Does this actually surprise anyone? A world of spies has its eyes trained on USA



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Too much information: DNA study maps human-chimp split

The researchers, from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, propose that humans and chimpanzees first split up about 10 million years ago. Then, after evolving in different directions for about 4 million years, they got back together for a brief fling that produced a third, hybrid population with characteristics of both lines.



That genetic collaboration then gave rise to two separate branches â€" one leading to humans and the other to chimps.



The work has inspired both admiration and skepticism. Many paleontologists have a hard time believing that some of the fossil humans that are known to have lived during that era could have been pairing up with apes.



"It's a totally cool and extremely clever analysis," said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard who wasn't involved in the study. "My problem is imagining what it would be like to have a bipedal hominid and a chimpanzee viewing each other as appropriate mates â€" not to put it too crudely."

Yuck.



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Transparency Makes Fraud Harder: Fraud Data to Be Shared by Regulator



HT Mortgage Fraud Blog



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Q and O analyses the security angle to the immigration debate, and finds it worthy of concern.



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Dean's World has a very good bit on the lack of symmetry in the way the sexes are treated in this country, and why young men are tired of it and therefore leery of marriage.



I am happily married to the world's only perfect woman. Yet I have seen friends and coworkers go through worse than hell. One man divorcing after eight years who was told by the court that he'd be expected to support his ex-wife for the rest of his life. Another earning roughly $30,000 per year "allowed" to keep $400 per month to live off of because the judge "knew" how much he made and wasn't interested in documentation to the contrary. A third whose wife pushed him into the high paying career as a condition of staying married, then divorced him because she couldn't stand the weird hours that he had to work and the location he was assigned to, but wanted not only 75% plus of his gross pay but the right to take the two kids 600 miles away to live and to force him to pay for all visitation. Another whose wife wanted to divorce him because she wanted to be with her new paramour and initially told her future ex-husband in the presence of witnesses "and keep your filthy kid, too!" but who later demanded and got custody because her lawyer told her how much child support would be involved. Not to mention one guy I know whose girlfriend assaulted him with a kitchen pan but in defending himself, she got a bruise on her arm and so he got beaten up by the police and arrested for domestic violence and a couple other charges, never mind that he looked like the victim of a cattle stampede before the cops started in. Not to mention the ex-wife of one of my friends, who joined the Hare Krishnas after their marriage, wouldn't let him eat meat after that, and performed all sorts of other emotional tortures and mindgames, not to mention selling his car one day so he was forced to get rides from her and couldn't go anywhere without her taking him. He called up a mutual friend singing "Happy Days Are Here Again!" when the Krishnas sent her to out of town for a few weeks. We tried to get him to divorce her for several years before he gave up, and the court treated him like the bad guy.



If you want to encourage marriage, you're going to have to somehow change the perception that if it ends, the man is automatically going to get the high speed rotating stainless steel shaft no matter what happens. Many younger men today are willing to sire children and even to pay child support, but not to marry. Ladies, we have heard how much this hurts you so many times we can quote chapter and verse. Backwards. In our sleep. It's not even close to how much it harms the children or the man involved. If you want a better chance at the man picking up more of the load of the children, you're going to have to level the playing field.



Because no matter what you've heard from Catherine MacKinnon, the man is not always the problem, and definitely not always the only problem.



(Every single one of the men in the previous examples has since found other, apparently rational, women who want them in their lives, despite the fact that most of them are dead broke from having to pay their previous wives the majority of the paychecks)



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Respectful Insolence has some details on the Ward Churchill report.



Volokh Conspiracy has a chain of articles as well.



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Armies of Liberation has a good bit on prospects, or lack thereof, of the commanding officer of the USS Cole, left high and dry by the Navy in the name of protecting higher ups.



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Michelle Malkin has the actual records of the briefings the Donkeys were swearing they never got, including USA Today's whining about how awful it was that they couldn't blab about this classified information they had received.

Carnivals



Carnival of Liberty Recommended From My Position

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I've heard people say suicide is painless but I don't believe them. Case in point: Union Authorizes Strike Against Delphi.



The costs of making parts are so high, partially due to unions shaking down management, and partially due to simply bad management, that it's a miracle all those automakers haven't found alternative suppliers already. People gripe about industry moving to other countries, then pull stuff like this, where Delphi is in bankruptcy and just hoping to get enough in the way of concessions so that they are actually able to operate profitably again. Then the Union conducts a strike authorization because they're afraid the company will somehow bamboozle the court into modifying their contracts. Hello! Earth to UAW: Delphi is in bankruptcy. This means they are in trouble, and the plants are in danger of closing completely. Bankruptcies where there is no merit get tossed. Furthermore, only the deity of your choice knows what a bankruptcy trustee will do to management's attempts to pull the company out. The largest single reason Delphi is in bankruptcy is high labor costs. UAW has a choice. They can give a relatively small amount now, or they can lose the company entirely when the companies who buy from Delphi decide to get their parts elsewhere (by which I mean Mexico, Taiwan, China, Brazil, India or some lucky recipient to be named later). It's not like they have to buy from Delphi, much less Delphi plants in the US.



Unfortunately, union elections are conducted on the basis of "look what I did for you this time!" and "Look what my opponent did to you this time!" There's not a lot of room in there for looking at the situation dispassionately with an eye towards saving everyone's bacon.



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Dutch MP to quit amid asylum row



I'll believe this is motivated by principle when the Netherlands starts rounding up and deporting everyone else who lied on their asylum or citizenship application.



Most folks have feet of clay, something they've done in the past that would be cause for action against them. The Yahoo story makes plain that this was public knowledge quite a while ago. To quote, since Yahoo links are notoriously impermanent:

Hirsi Ali has admitted giving a false name and date of birth. She allegedly also claimed she was fleeing directly from war-torn Somalia instead of Kenya, where she was living with her family and enjoying refugee status. Hirsi Ali says she fled to escape an arranged marriage.



"I am astonished about how fast it all went. Within 48 hours my citizenship is revoked over matters that were public knowledge three and a half years ago," she said.

She has certainly been a productive member of Dutch society these last fourteen years, setting a beautiful example of courage in the face of real intimidation, death threats, and the need for around the clock protection. Holland has set a precedent that may be the critical nail in its own coffin as a tolerant pluralistic society.



Fear the people who fear your ability to speak.



Jihad Watch has her statement resigning parliament, as well as one possible explanation as to How it happened





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Research Fraud Rampant in China.



One of the many consequences of a lack of transparency. That these rip-off artists have the unofficial approval of the state is also fairly well known. I used to know a guy who had a simple medical patent. Amazingly enough, the vast majority of people infringing upon his patent were from Communist China.



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Panel Finalizes Access to Nazi Archive



It is important to remember. It is tempting to believe that people would never do that. People did. Ordinary people, not just the psychotic maniacs in charge. The youngest eyewitnesses are in their late sixties now, while those who saw as adults the barbarity of the concentration camps are in their eighties and up.



Denial sets the stage for it happening again.



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Iraq the Model notes that the Iranians are supplying al-Qaeda with Anti-aircraft missiles.



I do not want a fight with Iran. If we can hold off their craziest mullahs for a couple of years, there's going to be a revolution. Unfortunately, it's starting to look unlikely that we will be able to hold off.



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Those towards the right who are going full-bore anti Bush because the speech was only about 75% in line with your preferences might give Big Lizards a read. Calm down. Take what you can get now. If and when it works, chances are that you will be able to get more later. If you demand all or nothing right now, the american public is likely to give you nothing.



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Video of flight 77 hitting the Pentagon here at Judicial Watch



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Think the War on Terror has been botched? Read Victor Davis Hanson for a pale shadow of the article military historians could write about mistakes of past wars.

Carnivals:



RINO Sightings Recommended: Politburo Diktat (debunking Intelligent Design) Strata-Sphere (surveillance programs and 9/11)



Carnival of Personal Finance

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Judge grants preliminary injunction against high school exit exam

The ruling could affect 47,000 seniors, about 11 percent of the class of 2006, who have yet to pass both the English and math sections of the exam.

(snip)

"They have not offered any evidence that would support that the reason why they have not yet passed the (California High School Exit Exam) is because of some failure by the state," the state lawyers wrote. "To the contrary, the reason why these students have not yet passed the CAHSEE is due to their lack of English skills, as established by their own admissions."

Let's see. The can't pass an English test and claim they should graduate anyway because they have poor english skills?



The state doesn't come off any better by saying, in effect, "these kids had a wonderful education but couldn't pass the test because they had poor english skills." Question: What were the schools supposed to be doing for these people six and a half hours a day for twelve or thirteen years? If proficiency in English wasn't a major part of it, we need to abolish every such school district.



A pox upon both their houses. The alleged students for sabotaging any value that diploma may have had for others. The alleged schools for failing to teach them one of the major tools for prospering in the United States.



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Sorry about not having any new articles for a few days. My wife and I had a discussion about the time (and money for hosting) that I've been spending here, so expect to see some changes soon.



I wrote two articles today, and they're set to go tomorrow and Wednesday. Tuesday's subject is inducements to use a particular lender for a purchase, Wednesday's goes over some refinancing math as to whether or not it pays off. I have at least two more articles incubating on the front burner (appraisal fraud and more on the limitations of believing the initial paperwork), that I hope to post by Saturday at the latest.



I'm also going to try to do more Links and Minifeatures this week than last. Getting off to a bad start, I know.

Carnival of The Vanities Recommended: Escape From Cubicle Nation

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Cool! They've got a mathematical model of how Neptune might have captured Triton, which always appeared to have been formed elsewhere, as well as orbiting retrograde to other moons.



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Men Pay the Ultimate Price to Attract Women



I hope someone gets film of when they tell Maureen Dowd, Catherine MacKinnon, and Susan Estrich.



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via LGF comes this IRNA article confirming that Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush was a call to Islam, with likely effects I discussed yesterday.

Jihad Watch has the text of the letter President Ahmadinejad sent to President Bush.



I'm going to hide some text here so that you won't read interpretations until you've looked at it, if such be your desire.



He thinks it's a Call to Islam, as encouraged by Mohammed in the Koran, possibly as a prelude for an attack. Reading it in it's entirety, I was thinking "Statement of causi belli according to an Iranian hardliner." Sort of analogous to our own Declaration of Independence in a twisted around kind of way. My estimate is that President Bush is not the real intended audience of the letter, which is intended to furnish ammunition for the apologists here in the US as well as rally the Islamist faithful. As is implied by the fact that it was an open letter.



Please read it for yourself. I am interested in what others have to say.

Via neo-neocon (who has her own worthwhile input), More confirmation in the New York Post.



Protein Wisdom says the obvious very well.



Scrappleface has the only possible reply from President Bush. Simultaneous reading of this reply and consumption of beverages is contra-indicated.



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Captain's Quarters has a nicely reasoned article on HUD Secretary Alfonso Jackson's turnabout on whether or not a Bush hating contractor had it's contract killed.



Two points I would like to make. First: What proportion of corporate contracts would you expect to stay rewarded if you told a loyal subordinate that the CEO was a incompetent and he intended to see that CEO replaced? Having a government contract is not some sort of right. Someone who tells you he's an in-your-face partisan of the other side may have incentive to use that contract to arrange for political embarrassment. I don't agree with revoking the contract but I can certainly understand the rationale and concede that it was a reasonable, intelligent response. I don't call my clients, who are putting money into my pocket, names. They'd dump me. I cannot blame Secretary Jackson for that.



Second, I would like to know how the above action by Secretary Jackson can be unacceptable, while Hillary Clinton's firing of the formerly nonpartisan employees of the White House Travel Office in favor of political appointees is acceptable? They didn't declare themselves her enemy, and as I recall, about half of them were registered Democrats. The only offense any one of them was guilty of was having served the Republican previous administration.



Volokh Conspiracy covers the legal angles.



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Meet the new members of the UN Human Rights Council: Cuba, China, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan. I wish I was joking. Okay, I'm not aware of any major human rights violations Azerbaijan is guilty of, but that's not something I can say about the other new members. As the UN proceeds upon its quest to prove itself capable of making any situation worse, no matter how bad it was to begin with, Michelle Malkin has a round up.



Crimenetly, as many pies as the UN has their fingers in, you'd think they'd occasionally accomplish something beneficial by accident. No such luck, I'm afraid.



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Putin offers Russian Women Cash to have more babies



Glenn Reynolds has a good discussion.



Foreign Affairs has more.



I can tell you how to encourage children in one short sentence: Cut back on social insurance for old people. I'll let you folks do your own research to confirm or deny. You won't be convinced if I just lay it out.



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Professor Rudy Rummel, posting at Dean's World, has a list of the mass murdering realms of the twentieth century. For those condemning colonialism or imperialism, it is a damning condemnation of communism. 148 million citizens dead at the hands of their own communist governments.



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I've decided to do away with the "issues" email. Try as I might, I just couldn't get folks to use it, and so I am deleting that mailbox. Use the "dm" email for everything.



Stay tuned for more changes coming up, and there will be a new mortgage article tomorrow morning, as well as quite possibly a political one later.

Carnival of Liberty

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Holy Rabid Moonbats Batman! Ten Leftist Conspiracy Theories



I'm perfectly willing to entertain evidence in support of any of them. Given the realities of the situation, however, I'd more likely bet the ranch the other way than bet a nickel that any of them are likely to be true.



HT Wrightwing



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Chapomatic has an interesting post titled "On A Genocide Prevention Corps" Worth reading in that it tells us what we need to do if we really want to get involved in genocide prevention.



Unfortunately, the political will to succeed at genocide prevention does not exist in this country. I wish it were otherwise, but wishing does not make it so. We're having enough political trouble with the die-hards about what's already on our plate, in which the United States has vital immediate interests. I'm not sure we have the leftover resources for Darfur, but if those who run our military say we do, I'd vote for intervention. Every person whose government treats them like that makes for a less secure, less happy world, and any investment we make will be repaid many times over. But if we were to intervene, many domestic interests would turn it for their own ends, with the end result that we'd depart with the mission unfinished and the end situation would be many times worse. Indeed, the false hope engendered would magnify the damage.



I'm not a religious man in the traditional sense, but if I were I'd hope there was a special hell reserved for people like Milosevic and the Khartoum government, among others. And second one right next to it for those who play political games for their own benefit with the victims of those in the first one.



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Eidelblog goes a bit over the top in taking apart a socialist methodology, but I suppose that if you need shaped charges to penetrate the solid neutronium head plating. It makes a lot of points that cannot be made too often.



While you're there, Eidelblog also ably defends the Laffer Curve, while directing me to Poor and Stupid's excellent speech to the National Organization of Investment Professionals.



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Wizbang notes that Israel may have saved the life of Palestinian president Abbas from the Hamas thugs in his own government. I'm no huge fan of Abbas, but he's all that's keeping an even worse group of terrorists from complete control of the Palestinian apparatus and an even worse situation for the civilized world.



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via Argghhh! , an Orson Scott Card piece that says at length what I said in about two paragraphs a couple of weeks ago. He gives more depth, more examples, but the conclusion and basic reasoning is the same.



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Jihad Watch has the text of the letter President Ahmadinejad sent to President Bush.



I'm going to hide some text here so that you won't read interpretations until you've looked at it, if such be your desire.







Please read it for yourself. I am interested in what others have to say.



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I'm likely to have retreads for the morning article for the next couple of days. I gave you folks five articles last week, and it looks like I may have to dial it back a little this week.

Carnival of Investing



Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: Insureblog



RINO Sightings Recommended: Pigilito Says



Carnival of The Capitalists Recommended: Membox

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Cool! Saharan Sand type Dunes Found on Saturn's Moon Titan



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Election manipulation in Yemen. Forged Voter Records. Assaulting and intimidating election monitors. All the usual suspects.



It's enough to make you grateful for our founding fathers all over again.



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Via LGF, The Corner reports that Scooter Libby's defense team supposedly has five folks who will testify Joseph Wilson told them his wife worked for the CIA.



So there's a strong possibility that the person who blew Plame's cover was Wilson himself? Oh, irony!



Do you suppose there will be any charges filed?



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Sorry about the lack of new stuff. I spent the weekend refinishing kitchen cabinets, which now look gorgeous (and they'll look even better when I put the doors back on and drawers back in), as a result of which I'm sitting here so sore it hurts to type. Belt sander and orbital all day Saturday, hair of the dog Sunday, which is to say manual sanding, followed by staining and varnishing. It's been nearly thirty years since I did that much of this sort of work.



My brother (who we told about our plans) had the gall to call while we were at dinner Sunday night about 7:30, and ask if there was anything he could do to earn some money. Well, not now. Saturday and Sunday, I'd have let him bring his laundry over and watch movies with the kids while Ramona and I worked, and probably even have paid him a few bucks to keep the kids out of the way. Or, I'd have paid him more to help me while Ramona watched movies with the kids. But with everything done but the re-assembly, which will take maybe an hour of easy work, he calls like he wants to earn money. I didn't bother to call him back, but if he were a politician, I'd predict a great future.

If you're looking for my article on "Southern California Real Estate and Loan Market Outlook" the link is here. For some reason it's not displaying on the main page, and I can't access it myself at the moment to fix the typo in the title. I had to get the link from email. Probably something I inadvertently did myself, and I've asked Powerblogs tech support for help. I hope to have it restored soon.



UPDATE: Okay, I've got a copy of the post in email, but Powerblogs is acting awfully squirrelly here. The post is not showing up at all now, and that includes after I cut and pasted it a second time. I will post it again as soon as this problem gets straightened out.



UPDATE AGAIN: As I was getting ready to post, I decided to try one more time. The link above is now fixed. I hope this is the last word on the subject.

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From Remarks by President Bush to the American Council of Engineering Companies

But the problem is, is that there are fewer payers per beneficiary into the system than ever before. In other words, there is a heavy burden on a young generation of Americans coming up to pay the promises that Congress has made. And I really, really think that Congress has got to address this issue with me.



I tried last year, I took it on, Social Security in particular, and went around the country saying, folks, we got a problem — on the theory that when the people said we got a problem, Congress would respond. Well, I got half of it right. (Laughter.) People said, we got a problem. And it's so political up here that it's difficult at this stage of the game to get people to come together, to come with a bipartisan solution. Look, we don't have to cut programs. It's like making sure you slow your car down to the speed limit. You don't have to put it in reverse. There are common-sense ways to keep the promises to the generation that is fixing to retire, but make sure that future generations will have a sound Social Security and Medicare system.



So I just want to assure you this issue is on my mind a lot. I like to remind people that the job of a President is to confront problems, no matter how difficult they may look, and not pass them on to future Presidents. I also believe — (applause.) So we're in the process of working with Democrats and Republicans to come together to forge a bipartisan solution so that we can say we did our duty, that we came and we made the system work better. It's a really important issue.

This man may make mistakes and I certainly have my disagreements with him, but he's a walking talking miracle: an elected politician willing to take responsibility and fix a problem that he could ignore. The whole speech reads like something Reagan would have said, but even Reagan never had the guts to tell Congress he'd give them the political cover for fixing social security.



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via Combs Spouts Off, I read Of Fire in a Field, having to do with 9/11 and United 93, both the flight and the movie. I highly recommend you do, as well.



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What he said: Captain's Quarters on the differences between natural rights and civil rights, as that difference relates to the illegal immigration debate and the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 60s.



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Frontpage tells us what the Cuban Revolution was really like.



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Lest Darkness Fall has a good article on the effects of the illegal alien boycott on Los Angeles. San Diego was much the same, from what I can tell.



My supervising broker (himself a legal immigrant from Mexico while a child) said it best, "If this is what happens when they boycott, I hope they do it more often!"



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Ogre notes a certain consistency to the "Big Government" mindset.

Carnival of Insanity Recommended: Thomas Joscelyn, Canadian Financial Stuff, Israelly Cool (16 minutes but especially recommended!), One Cosmos, Done With Mirrors,



The above was a carryover from last week. I didn't submit to any carnivals this week, although I'll have Carnival of Liberty tomorrow. Here are the links from some I often do submit to:



Carnival of Capitalists



Carnival of Personal Finance



RINO Sightings

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A lot of people are writing about how translating "The Star Spangled Banner" into spanish bugs them. It would not bug me if the words and sentiment were the same as the original, but they are not. Mind you, I think the protesters
have every right to do their version, but it's not helping them make their case, as far as I'm concerned. If they sang "The Star Spangled Banner" in english, or even translated literally into spanish, I might be impressed with their patriotism and willingness to adopt the US as a homeland, to assimilate enough into our culture, etcetera. With the version they are pushing, they make me believe they are whining gripers about having merely gotten the best immigration deal available anywhere in the world.



We need immigrants who want to be part of our society. Would be colonists need not apply, as far as I'm concerned.



Now, I live in San Diego, and my office is in a heavily hispanic area less than 10 miles from the Mexican border. Thus far, I have noticed zero difference between today and any other day, nor has anyone else in my office.



Seems to me that the big May 1 "strike" is a bust, as I predicted.



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Via ROFASix, an article detailing Congress' willingness to cut appropriations for combat necessities in order to pay for weapons systems that may never work. I cannot believe they are still spending money on the V-22. That thing should have been staked through the heart ten times by now, and would have, if not for Congress.



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What he said: Respectful Insolence has the best take on the Andrea Clarke case that I have read so far. Money quote:

If the hospital and those supporting the withdrawal of care against a family's will are going to make the argument that we as a society can no longer afford to provide what it considers "futile care" to Clarke and others like her, that doing so raises everyone's health care costs and uses up scarce resources for little or no benefit, they should make that argument rather than hiding the what is clearly primarily an argument weighing the good of the patient versus the good of society in unconvincing arguments based "personal autonomy"--or explain how it serves personal autonomy to let a woman die against her and her family's will.

I agree completely.



Make no mistake. Eventually we are going to have to have that argument. Attempts to avoid it by claiming, like the hospital here did, that further treatment is against the best interests of the patient when the patient does not agree, is deceitful at best. As medicine gets more and more capable, and more and more expensive, there will clearly be a point at which we have to give up treating a given patient. I fully expect that that point will eventually be variable from patient to patient and even from time to time, based upon monetary concerns. But attempting to sidestep this debate by pretending you are motivated by patient welfare is vile.



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neo-neocon has an article up questioning whether we in the United States should prosecute leakers, and whether it should be criminal.



My take is that it varies with the status of the individual doing the leaking. If it is someone with no special access or priveleges, who came by the information because others failed to contain it, that should not be a criminal offense.



If, on the other hand, it is someone who pledged secrecy through obtaining and accepting a security clearance, with all that that entails, then it should be prosecuted as Treason without exception.



If this is someone who truly believes the good of the country requires this disclosure, they should be willing to accept the consequences of doing so. Gandhi, MLK, and others who used civil disobedience thusly were quite willing to face the consequences. Gandhi faced the judge and told him that he freely admitted his guilt, he was unrepentant, and he planned to commit the same crime again, so if the judge believed that the law was just, that judge had no alternative but to impose the maximum penalty.



We will not continue to function indefinitely as a society unless we can rid ourselves of the poisonous idea that that those placed in positions of authority are always evil, always wrong, or always cowards fleeing the political consequences. Like it or not, these are the people that have been entrusted with making those decisions by the people of this country. It does all of us violence to dodge the decisions of those who have acquired said power legitimately. You want to be the one to make those decisions, you get yourself elected. Until then, you agreed to be a minion. If you cannot continue to do so in good conscience, the correct thing to do is resign. Not that this gives you the right to leak the information you were entrusted with, of course.



For those cases where it did serve the good of the country, that is what executive clemency is for. But in order to procure this kind of clemency, you have to roll the dice that the average citizen of the country will agree that what you did was, under the circumstances, correct. You may have to spend some time in jail first, of course. But that never stopped those whose teachings and example the leakers are claiming to be following.



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Sorry - out of time for today!