Zee Links and Minifeatures: July 2006 Archives

Carnivals:



RINO Sightings Recommended: Bloggin' OutLoud and aTypical Joe, for the fact that they agreed to host a discussion debate upon gay marriage, posted on each other's sites, and kept it civil, issues oriented, and engaging. Also Pigilito Says for an article on the published research - or lack thereof - on intelligent design.



Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: Brian Kim (how to make that raise really count) Stop Buying Cr*p (reading credit card offers. If something sounds like I might be interested, I read the entire thing. Carefully. Twice before I sign, which I never have. Otherwise it goes to the shredder)



Carnival of Real Estate



Carnival of Investing



Carnival of Capitalists Sorry I don't have time to go through it for recommended articles.

UN rights body orders US to shut "secret" jails.



No word on well-known gulags worldwide. Or several dozen entire countries that imprison their entire population.

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Mexican Man who lied to get Border Patrol job sentenced



I ran a whole series on this guy last August



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Willisms has an excellent piece on pension reform



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What did you expect? Caracas threatens oil cut in case of US aggression



The fact is that thanks to forty years of ignoring alternative energy sources such as nuclear, political opposition to developing US petroleum sources, and just generally not having the guts to carry through with making a bad situation better, the US is stuck with the large oil producing nations. With the economies of China and India growing as they are, the oil producers no longer need the US as a customer. Their leverage on us: enormous and growing. Our leverage on them: still significant but decreasing.



Don't you think it's time we got off the ball and started doing something about this?



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The Al Gore of Mexico? Mexico left takes election protest back to streets



I know that the Mexican elections were not clean. All three parties routinely play games with the voting. What I do not see is any real evidence as to whether PRD cheated better than PAN. Did PAN take an election that PRD would have won, or did PRD make it look closer than it was? Nobody knows right now. But the election results is all they've got and there is zero evidence another election would return a better (as in cleaner) result.



Mexican elections are a joke. But they're the best thing they've got.



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Spot on! Rove says voters not stupid

Rove said work, family, friends and other interests consume much of voters' time and crowd out campaigns and policy.



"The American people are not policy wonks," he said. "But they have great instincts and they try to do the right thing."

Every so often, Mr. Rove comes out and says something like this that convinces me he is, if not a genius, at least more in touch with the heart of the US than any other political figure in a long time.



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ICANN to Cut U.S. Apron Strings?



I hope not. Private entities are too subject to demands from state actors like China and North Korea, and we could find ourselves subject to "politely requests" to alter or delete content lest we find ourselves stripped of our domain names (or even, potentially, access). Don't even get me started on the UN "solution." I would be willing to have a consortium of democratic countries with a free press, although most nations fall shorter than they would have us believe. But it appears to me, even leaving aside the question of who built the internet, that the United States has done an excellent job, far better than any other country would have a prayer of having done, in its stewardship of the internet. Actually, in my opinion, if the US were to cede stewardship to any other actor currently on the table as a serious proposal, we would end up creating a second internet within a very few years, in reaction to unacceptable changes said entities would put the internet through. That "Internet II" would quickly gain the lion's share of the internet market. Or we could just save ourselves the trouble by not ceding control of the internet in the first place.



Blackfive illustrates why the UN is the worst possible place to deposit custodianship of the internet.



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More identity theft woes: Sentry Insurance says customer data stolen They buried the lead, but if you read the article, over 112,000 people.



This is going to continue until we make it impossible. How? Not by making the penalties tougher. Not by making the data more secure. With appeals and the like, criminal or civil penalties are a joke. Nor is any amount of security is going to stop those in charge from turning, as happened here. But by requiring biometrics, and notifying the real owner immediately anytime someone tries to use their identity, even if it's them. The idea is to make certain it is them. By putting the information out there where anybody can tell that the person using the identity is not the rightful owner if only they will do their due diligence. Mind you, this is going to be scary, and our concepts of privacy are going to change radically, but it's the only way to make it really work. Otherwise, the situation is going to get worse and worse as the identity thieves get better and better, to the point where our global financial markets are going to collapse or come very close to it.



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Texas Rainmaker notes John Bolton smacking down John Kerry



Or, Knowledge of details beats denial of issue. Every time.



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HT to enrevanche for a link to an article in the

Economist telling us that welfare to work, far from being a right wing reactionary ideal, reduces not only the welfare rolls but poverty as well.



Perhaps if the left did not claim every idea that does not come from their end of the political spectrum was a "right wing extremist, out of the mainstream" idea that will cause a catastrophe, I might believe them more often.



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Via Below the Beltway, So Big and Healthy Grandpa Wouldn't Even Know You, indicating how well we have it, or, to put it another way, capitalism extends lives, and makes them healthier.



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Mortgage Fraud Blog has an article on avoiding mortgage fraud through stopping appraisal fraud.



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Powerline notes more reports of Iraqi WMD being boved to Syria.



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a humorous Mideast Idol



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Asymmetric Information notes some troublesome news on the economic horizon.



The thing holding the economy and consumer confidence together right now is a large influx of foreign dollars buying US Treasury bonds because the return is decent and it's more secure than anything else in the world.



Folks, if the chinese (and others) stop buying dollars because they think the returns will be better (or more secure) elsewhere, and look for the thirty year fixed mortgage to go to nine percent at least. If they start transferring their money that's already here out, I have no idea how bad it'll get. And sooner or later, this will happen. What are we going to do when that happens, other than go through a severe economic contraction? The time to start planning is now, so that when it happens, we're ready to take ameliorating action.

Al-Qaida calls for holy war against Israel. This is not the first time Moslems have called for holy war against Israel. This is not even the first time they have been frank about their aims:

al-Qaida now views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."

(snip)

"It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahri said. "We will attack everywhere."

Now what are the chances that politicians will pass up political games in order to deal with this? What are the chances the moonbats on the left and isolationist wingnuts on the right will believe them?



Israel decides not to expand offensive



Thus marking it as essentially defensive in nature. A true offensive would sweep through Lebanon as a whole (at least) in order to annihilate Hesbollah. But they are limiting the territory they are cleaning out to that within easy rocket range of Israel. 1400 rockets launched towards Israeli civilians in the last three weeks, and counting. I'm actually disappointed in the decision, as it removes any possibility that this will come to a final resolution unless the Israeli cabinet changes its mind. Hesbollah is not going to change. They get their funding and other support from the mullahs in Iran, they get their hate from anti-Jewish propaganda and holding generations old grudges against Israel for winning a fight the Arabs started.



The difference between understanding war because it's been constant for the last sixty years, and not understanding it because it's been 140 years since the last fighting on your soil: Deadly conflict brings out harder Israeli edge

Even among Arab residents of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and one of its most mixed, there was little sympathy for Hizbollah or Lebanon, where more than 400 people, most of them civilians, have been killed by Israeli air strikes and shelling.



"I am an Arab but I am also an Israeli," an electrician, who gave his name as Nabil, said as he helped friends clean up a restaurant that has been closed since the fighting began on July 12.

neo-neocon and Michael Totten on the current political situation in Lebanon.



Lileks has his own thoughts.



Jawa Report has an email that makes a liar out of the UN - Hesbollah was using them for cover. LGF has more. Wizbang has still more details, in that the UN allowed Hesbollah to set up their post around and within the UN post.



Big Lizards notes the size of Israel's opposition as opposed to Israel.



Victor Davis Hanson notes that for the chattering classes, it's more of the same outhouse, different day. How long before those who keep believing, against all evidence, that Israel's enemies are peaceful, consider changing their minds? Have they all got to be dead before we can have an honest conversation?

Carnival of The Vanities

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Officially now a "buyer's market". This is at least twelve months behind the power curve here. Inventory (Supply) is climbing. Demand is falling. And for the kewpie doll, prices will...?



Related: Housing market slowdown rippling across the economy



I think once enough sellers get it through their heads that the bull market of two years ago is gone, and start asking reasonable prices by today's standards, the housing market will start flowing again. There is tremendous desire, at least here locally; what there isn't is a lot of places to live at prices people can afford with sustainable loans.



Blame the artificial scarcity caused by opposition to development, opposition to high density housing, and the recent psychologically driven feeding frenzy.



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Attorneys: Accused troops won't testify against each other

In the notice, the Marine Corps said that it intended to call each man as a witness to testify against his squad mates in the alleged premeditated kidnapping and murder of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad on April 26 in Hamdania, Iraq.



Seigel's co-counsel, Joseph Casas, said the notification of the government's intention is part of its legal strategy. Once Jodka or the other men invoke the military equivalent of their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, that opens the door for prosecutors to use hearsay statements each may have made.

Not to mention this little item generally called failing to abide by the rules of discovery (at least as I understand them). If it is discovered that the charges are bogus, the Corps is hosed, the way they've treated these Marines (and one sailor). But nobody can say they're not doing their best to convict them. Perhaps if they are acquitted, even the grievance mongers will agree they might be innocent of the charges?



Probably not. But we can hope.



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Six death squad members caught in Iraq

U.S. military commanders have struggled to quell the violence and have only recently intensified their efforts to disrupt groups of Sunni gunmen and Shiite militias responsible for much of the violence. Last week, U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted 19 operations specifically targeting death squads. All but two were in Baghdad.

What happens when you try to make an omelet without breaking eggs? Same things happen when you try to make a civilized liberal democracy without taking on those driving it towards barbarism.



Bush, Maliki agree on more US troops for Baghdad, which is intelligent under the circumstances, so long as you don't allow it to turn into a real life version of Whack-A-Mole.



And some Congresscritters are evidently completely ignorant as to the nature of alliances. You don't expect our allies to agree with everything, just like we don't agree with everything our allies say or do.

A group of House of Representatives Democrats circulated a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert urging the Illinois Republican to get an apology from Maliki for denouncing Israel or cancel his address on Wednesday to a joint meeting of Congress.



Ron Bonjean, Hastert's spokesman, said there was no intention to cancel Maliki's speech, and accused Democrats of "political gamesmanship during an election year."

The important thing is they are working with us where our aims intersect, and aren't working against us where they don't. That's an ally. Perhaps not a perfect ally, but an ally. Iraq would be a poorer place if we tried to turn it into an ersatz US. Could it be political gamesmanship? Absolutely. Could it also be sheer rank stupidity? Yep. What was that about attributing to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity?



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3 hospitals south of I-8 could fail, report says



All kinds of complaints about the state of the system, but nothing about the elephant in the room causing it. And they laud the report for it's "honesty"?



In related news, Lawmakers offer immigration alternative



Why will we not accept what we can get now? Even the unmodified Senate Bill is better than nothing, which is what we'll get if this stalemate continues. I want the house bill, but I'm willing to compromise and try for more later. All or nothing is a good way to get nothing - which keeps us on the course for disaster we're on.

RINO Sightings recommended: Politechnical (the nature of pacifism), legal redux (copyrighted files)



Carnival of The Capitalists Recommended: Wenchypoo (corporate security)



Carnival of Debt Reduction Recommended: Debt Collection Lawyer (debt collection)

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Watch your back when Fox News wishes well.



You've got to have some serious respect for a Legacy Media company with the guts and savvy to hit back at its critics. If you'll notice one thing about the attacks, it's that they're all actually counterattacks. But then we know the Legacy Media expects people to just sit there and take what they dish out. After all, when you can't do anything to the bully, that's the best thing to do. But Fox has their own network, and if they want to strike back, they have the means.



You've got to read it for nothing more than the way they kissed off Ted Turner.



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As a public service, I've added John T. Reed to my siteroll. As a debunker of extravagant claims, he's done yeoman's work. His list is impressive.



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The right thing to do: Bush presides over soldiers' citizenship



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Groups meeting in smoke-free cities



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Something to always keep in mind: Low-ball your employees, and you do the same to customers. But this has been known for thousands of years: "Do not bind the mouths of the kine that tread the grain."



There are places that are wonderful bargains on the surface where I will never shop again, because the costs of their customer disservice outweigh any benefits I may receive due to lowered cost. My time is valuable, and if I have to spend an extra half hour, or if I can't get what I need, that's more costly than the few dollars I save, never mind the extra stress and aggravation.



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Cool! New Life in Dead Star, the wavefront of which reached Earth in 1987.



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Amid all the outbreaks of violence, a hopeful sign in Iraq from Iraq the Model



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Once again, Scrappleface has skewered a pretentious politician.

Via Don Surber a humorous tale of How to Get The Police To Hurry

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Hong Kong democrat speaks.



Is anyone really surprised that communist China is advocating authoritarian solutions, as opposed to democratic ones? Trying to keep things under their control as opposed to allowing the people to choose? Playing games with election rules?



Great Britain didn't really have any choice but to agree to allow Hong Kong to revert to China. They didn't have the force to defend it against a determined assault, as China's negotiator pointed out by saying, "We're not Argentina." But the long investment that Great Britain made is being squandered, a little at a time. Of course, China's rulers are trying authoritarian methods to keep a modernizing population in check, and they are going to discover that relying upon the power of the peasantry to do anything they are told is problematic when that peasantry no longer holds the balance of power.



It may take generations and happen peacefully, or it may be very bloody and very quick, but China is headed for a political revolution. The Chinese communists may have dodged the bullet that took out the Soviet Union, but in so doing they put themselves squarely into a landslide of political liberalization, which goes with education and leisure time and disposable income. I don't think even world conquest would allow them to stop it, because they are relying upon the rest of the world to act as free societies act in order to make it work, and if they were to conquer the world that would no longer be true.



I love it when brutal, murdering dictators are caught in a catch-22. I'm just hoping as few other folks as possible are hurt when it comes to a head.



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Louisiana doctors outraged at murder accusation.



First off, it's an accusation. Nobody is above an accusation, as anybody who cannot be accused cannot be held responsible. The people concerned still have to face a jury, and the evidence that exists for the charges may or may not be sufficient to convict them. As I understand it, though, not to charge them given the evidence the prosecutors have would be inexcusable. But if the apparent facts stand up under trial, they took it upon themselves to administer lethal injection to four of their charges. They didn't have to stay, and I, for one, wouldn't have faulted them for leaving. But they made a decision that was not theirs to make, depriving four people of their lives, because they thought they were suffering too much. Why not let the people involved make that decision? Why not just roll the dice and see if they survived or not?



This is not triage. Triage is concentrating your efforts upon those who need it most in such a way as to save the maximum number. You don't concentrate on those with minor, non-life threatening injuries because you can get to them later. You do concentrate on those who need help now but won't take more than their share of resources, because your objective is to save as many as possible. And if the person would require more resources that could better be used on other folks, you don't terminate them, you just put them off to the side and hope hope you can get to them before the worst happens. If the allegations are true, what these people did was murder, and far from seeing extentuating circumstances, I see aggravating ones. It was their duty to try and save these people, not to administer lethal injection. Like if a cop came by and used their official position to come into your residence, then pulled out a gun and shot the people in order to rob the residence.



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Below the Beltway notes that NASA has registered the name "Orion" for its next generation manned space vehicles.



Lest you be unaware, Orion has a prior history as a name for a space vehicle, of which I definitely approve.



And in fiction, at least two major relevant works, Orion Shall Rise (which every libertarian should read) and Footfall



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When Victor Davis Hanson and Dr. Sanity tag team the hand-wringers and enablers, you know it's going to leave a mark.



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Via LGF, Outcry as border guards seize British 'dirty bomb' lorry heading for Iran



Okay, that's our Scary Story For Today. Too bad it isn't fiction.



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Posting at 10:30 Saturday night? Now you know I have no social life. Please come back Monday morning for the second Carnival of Real Estate. New original articles are set to post tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursay.

Carnival of The Vanities Recommended: Western Resistance (a story of a Filipina maid's experiences in Saudi Arabia. WARNING! A lot of very bad stuff! Not for the weak of stomach)







The Latest news in the self-destruction of the Donkeys: Lieberman trails anti-war foe in Senate primary

The three-term senator and vice presidential nominee in 2000 has support of 47 percent of likely Democratic voters against 51 percent for Ned Lamont, a millionaire who gained on Lieberman by portraying him as too supportive of President George W. Bush, the Quinnipiac University poll showed.



But the poll, which has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points, shows Lieberman prevailing in November's mid-term election if he runs as an independent.

The Donkeys can't win with this strategy, and they lose the centrists further and further with these purges. If you examine Joe Lieberman's voting record, it's definitely left wing. But he is a solid supporter of the President on one issue, and he's not afraid to vote his conscience. The average voter looks at that and says, "Even though I may agree with the Democrats more, they don't want me if I disagree with them. Maybe I'll join the Republicans, who are willing to put up with dissent in the ranks, and some of the foremost dissenters are looking like good bets to win their next presidential nomination."



Or to take a more mundane example, the guy who demands absolute total loyalty from his friends isn't going to have many.



At first glance, Bush Speaks at NAACP doesn't appear related, but it is. Blacks have been completely loyal to Democrats for over forty years. carrying water and voting for Democrats despite real fixes for the urban underclass (which they say is their reason) not being on the Democratic agenda. Eleven percent was better support than a Republican had had from Blacks as a group since Eisenhower. But let the blacks start looking at other solutions than the Democratic ones which have been failing for the past forty years, let them start voting Republican, and the Democrats are no longer nationally competitive.



Lest you be confused, that's a Bad Thing. I am not a Democrat and do not agree with most of their parties agenda, but we need two healthy nationally competitive political parties to remain a healthy republic.



To be certain, Joe Lieberman does bear a certain amount of the blame for this, by stating publicly and early on that he'd make an independent run if he loses the primary. I'd expect Republican partisans to do the same. But to challenge him in the primary in the first place is counter-productive.



Decision '08 has more thoughts. Money quote: ""Hey, we've only got three seats, but at least they vote exactly the way I want them to...""



UPDATE: Corrected disagree to agree

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Fed chief says inflation expected to fall but he could still raise rates anway. What do you expect? He's a banker, not an economist. Banks have a phobia about inflation.



His base realization comes about a year too late for the economy, even if he intended to act on it, which he said he doesn't.



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Patch of Titan resembles Earth



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Justice prevails: Judge overturns Wal-Mart law



I really dislike WalMart, but this was essentially the state of Maryland reaching out and passing a law for them only. It did nothing beneficial, and penalized WalMart for their success.



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House Votes To Acquire Soledad Cross



Way too much energy and money has been spent on both sides of this issue over the last twenty-off years. Maybe now that the end is in sight, they'll move that energy to something significant, like maybe, I don't know, urban planning? Dealing with the governmental waste and corruption in America's Finest Banana Republic? Perhaps getting rid of the political machine that runs San Diego and prevents the other stuff from being dealt with?



Yes, I am older than twelve and I do know better. But I can hope.



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Ford Shares Down After 2Q Loss



This was all known information. One wonders why people that would sell upon this information were still invested in Ford. The reasons appear to be that they are on schedule or a bit ahead with phase I of a plan to save the company, which is to stop doing things that are costing them money. This will buy them time to execute Phase II, which is to design and produce cars that people want to buy at the prices they can charge. No word on how that's coming yet.



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Cool! On your mark, get set: Science! Kind of Improv Science Teaching. Now there's a reality program I could really enjoy! Not to mention creating celebrities worth celebrating!



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Iran rejects demands to freeze nuclear work, warns UN

Tehran has repeatedly insisted that it is ready to negotiate, but at the same time has rejected any "preconditions" being imposed.



"Iran has welcomed the offer from the big powers, and the examination of it is continuing. This takes time, and the reply will be given on August 22," said the statement, billed by state television as an "important announcement".

Q: How long does it take to decide whether you're going to negotiate?



A: Long Enough to get you terrorist catspaws to engineer a confrontation with Israel to distract attention!



My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy illustrates.



The administration, however, recognizes that this is a delaying and distracting tactic, and even the Russians are waking up:

Western countries have presented Russia and China with a text that would require Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing activities.



"My instructions remain to get this resolution passed as soon as possible, this week if possible," the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said on Wednesday.



Russia has also hardened its tone against Iran, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signalling on Wednesday that Russia may agree to sanctions if Iran refuses to budge.

On the subject of our UN Ambassador himself, Atlas Shrugs notes that at least one former opponent has become a Bolton convert.



I keep saying that Harry Reid's best option on Bolton at this point is to slide his confirmation in on some innocuous other bill. Because if President Bush renominates him, the hearings are going to be political disaster for anyone opposing Mr. Bolton.



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ROFASix has some excellent thoughts on the Stem Cell Veto.



Q and O also injects some much-needed rationality.



Democratic Underground also reacts. The Alleged Thought Process is hysterical.



Just one more, this one having to do with prominent Democratic politicians. After ROFASix's recitation of the facts of the matter, the score is perfect - seven of seven - executing the political pander manouver, as opposed to scientific evidence.



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The Kossacks are doing their presidential poll. Favorite nominee as of when I looked? Russ Feingold with 1659 votes out of 4140.



Here's his voting record



I shouldn't need to say any more.



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Q and O suggests that Israel adopt terrorist methods of warfare.



Cool thought, and a good idea on the face of it. Then you ask, "what happens next?"



Then larger state actors, such as, say, China or Russia get involved. Even India. Some group of Chinese mercenaries with no official connection to China destroys, say San Diego or Washington DC with a nuclear warhead that "somehow" went missing from official inventory.



This is a supremely cheap way to wage warfare that is extremely expensive for the opposition. It would also destroy civilization and have us living in mud huts fighting off the mutants in a real life game of Aftermath, by making it impossible to govern and impossible to defend yourself.



No thanks.



It shows that someone is thinking, though. Keep at it. Somebody is going to have the stroke of genius that make the problem much more soluble. For my part, I'll join the folks trying to think of that something.



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Armies of Liberation notes that the Yemeni regime is encouraging free access to jihad (or hirabah) for its youth.

Isn't this rich? Carter blames 1980 loss on Walter Cronkite

"Updated opinion polls right before the election took place showed that we had slipped," Carter told Shirley. "And it was primarily because Walter Cronkite and everybody else was talking about it being the anniversary of the hostage taking."

Gee, Jimmy, you don't think it had anything to do with the fact that you allowed it to go on for 444 days, 365 at that particular moment that you are griping about, and that it was still going on at the time? Seems at least as newsworthy as the anniversaries of the Iraqi invasion to me. How about the fact that you were the worst excuse for an economic leader we've had since Herbert Hoover? That you gave away the Panama Canal despite it not being in our domestic interest and the fact that a decision wasn't due for thirty more years? That you allowed the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan essentially unopposed? How long do you want me to go on? The fact is that we were suffering from a national disease, and you were the symptom in chief. Ronald Reagan helped most of us to recover, but there still is that portion of the populace led by yourself among others that is evidently beyond help.



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US News (2d item) reports that Senator Tom Coburn Of Oklahoma has introduced a bipartisan bill to create an online searchable database of all federal spending. I think this is a fantastic idea, and it apparently has an excellent chance of passing. When the average citizen now has the means to tell how much is being spent and for what, this is certainly a powerful tool for those who contend too much is being spent.



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Finally, US News has a fascinating article on the "eyewitnesses to history" project, with some particularly interesting accounts:



One of Lincoln's doctors

The genesis of the Interstate highways? Eisenhower's report on highways from 1919

Letter from a concentration camp liberator, and one from a survivor

A letter home from an escaped slave who had joined the Union Army

Thomas Jefferson on the storming of the Bastille



National Treasures, all of them. Most of them are worldwide treasures.



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Indonesia didn't relay tsunami warnings. So much for their griping after the previous tsunami about the United States didn't care enough to establish a warning system for the Indian Ocean, didn't care enough to warn them. We did, and they didn't pass it on.



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It was only a matter of time, and I wonder if this is the first time it's happened: Endangered Flower Illegally Planted for purposes of killing a twenty acre development.



I'm a pretty solid envionmentalist, but people have to live somewhere. See The Economics of Housing Development for an in-depth discussion of this phenomenon.



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Browsing YouTube:



MATURE CONTENT ADVISORY Lord of The Rings Parody: The Council of Elrond Nothing shown on camera, but language and That Which Is Implied may not be for everyone. END MATURE CONTENT ADVISORY



Chad Vader, Dayshift Manager



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First official confirmation of what I've been saying for months: San Diego home prices dip as condo fever cools.



I still think they're living in fairy tale land, though. Por ejemplo:

"The conditions aren't there for a big rebound in prices or for a big drop," he said. "We would need a big drop in interest rates to get any significant movement on prices on the upside. We would need to see some significant job losses, a recession at the national level, to get a big drop in prices."

Sky-high inventory. Rising rates leading to prices people cannot afford. Forty percent of all purchase money in the last two years was negative amortization, another forty short term interest only.



There are fantastic deals out there, a fact which I go into on my other site. Prices have fallen, and it's only manipulation of how they have been reported that has kept it from being reported before this. I think they will drop further, as inventory keeps piling up, but I don't know. What I do know is that it's a terrific time to be looking for a long term real estate investment, especially if you've got some cash. As I keep telling folks, the only time the value is important is when you go to sell or when you go to refinance. The bargains that are out there are there now. There may be more or better bargains later, if the price drops more, and people get more desperate, but there are bargains now, where there just weren't any two years ago. Find a good Buyer's Agent (*grin*), and you'll be very happy. Here's a link to an article I did a while back on my other site: Clients Who Can Still Make Money in San Diego Real Estate



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Via Dean, Top 10 things likely to be overheard from a Klingon Programmer



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The Anchoress has a story of an Afghani man who took a year to create a magnificent rug for President Bush.





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Carol Platt Liebau on the issues of the stem cell debate.



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Coyote Blog has a good post about estate tax and the stepped-up basis that is currently in place, and how repealing estate tax would also repeal stepped-up basis.



I would add one more thing: Do the people concerned have any idea how tough it can be to establish tax basis for investments bought by parents or grandparents twenty, forty, or eighty years ago? Stocks are tough enough, but things like real estate? Can you imagine documenting to the IRS satisfaction how much was spent to maintain or upgrade it?



I am by no means a defender of estate tax. I want it gone, as taxing assets that have already been taxed is vile. But it is important to do it in a considered manner, and there are things higher up my hit list.

RINO Sightings Recommended: Armies of Liberation (more two facedness in Yemen) , Respectful Insolence (debunking alternate medicine)



Carnival of The Capitalists Recommended: Econbrowser ($80 oil), Insureblog (health care options), View from a Height (Chavez' effect upon Venezuela's economy)



Carnival of Personal Finance



Carnival of Investing



Carnival of Real Estate



I will be hosting Carnival of Real Estate next week. You may submit via Conservative Cat or email me directly by Sunday 3PM Eastern, Noon Pacific)

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A "No **** Sherlock!" moment: Study: Many People Not Prepared to Retire



When I can't go to a fast food place or any number of other low skill employers without seeing seniors working there. When in all my time as a financial planner, I was the only person on course for a real retirement I encountered? Most people aren't willing to give up spending every penny now. Somehow they just never get the idea that all the warnings out there about not saving enough for retirement applies to them.



I am not there yet, but I intend to be prepared to retire even though I have no intention of actually retiring. I'll probably slow down at some point and I may even change careers again. But actually retire? Only if my health deteriorates so much that I can't work. Work isn't just a paycheck to me, and if it is to you, it's time to do something about it. Right Now.



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Japan insists on quick N. Korea resolution Smart of them. If history is any guide, we're about to see a major expansion of the War on Terror.



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Via Argghhh!,

A World Without America?



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Victor Davis Hanson pulls no punches on the facts of the War on Terror.



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Just when you thought the New York Times had taken every punch that was coming, along comes Lileks Screed with a haymaker that hits like a runaway train.



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I don't often say or link to things with this verbiage, but Captain's Quarters has Saddam Hussien's shopping list. Of supplies to create WMDs.

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Via Instapundit, a person who understands what is at stake: Thank you for delaying my flight

Citgo to stop selling gas to U.S. stations Might make a significant price difference in the midwest, where it mostly applies.

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Killer kangaroo, demon duck of doom roamed Outback Prehistoric weird animals in Australia!



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Hurray! San Diego bans smoking at beaches, parks

"Nonsmokers are fed up and fighting for their rights to clean air," said Robert Berger, president of Healthier Solutions Inc., a nonsmokers rights group.

No kidding. If smokers were conscientious about their exhaust, it would never have come to this. Unfortunately for the conscientious among them, there are too many who aren't. I am tired of being unable to enjoy or even to patronize public places I pay taxes to support because people will not control their exhaust. I'm perfectly willing for private owners to set the rules in their establishments, providing they tell me the rules when they are trying to entice my custom. Publicly supported spaces are a different matter entirely. I don't have the option of refusing to pay that section of my taxes they represent.



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This information is useful only in the aggregate: Mortgage Rates Drop for 1st Time in 5 Wks. it's always a tradeoff between rate and cost. If you don't include the cost to get that rate, it's like saying gasoline sales are up. Just as there are two components to gasoline revenues, price per gallon and gallons sold, there are two components to mortgage rates - rate and price to get it. You can assume that where people are going to choose is going to be approximately the same relevant frequencies on the rate/cost tradeoff scale, but that is an assumption, and it may or may not be valid. I don't know. I suspect no one does. This is just a measurement of the mean rate that was recorded, and may have no correlation with whether the mean rate/cost tradeoff went up or down, and it's a delayed measure - useless for consumers trying to lock loans today.



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Plame sues Cheney, Rove and Libby for revealing her identity.



Now we have removed the last vestiges of doubt as to what the agenda was. Sure it was stupid to confirm Bob Novak's information, but when you're listed in Who's Who for crying out loud, it gives no further information that this country's enemies would care about to confirm the information. Confirming publicly available sourced information is not a crime, and if it is a tort, it should not be.



I really don't think Wilson and Plame want to go through discovery with Cheney et al. It would be an exercise that not only destroys whatever remaining credibility the Disloyal Duo may have, but a political disaster for the Donkeys, as well.



The Corner )or at least Jon Podhoretz) agrees with me.



Captain's Quarters has a lot more analysis of how silly this is going to make Plame and Wilson look, including the .pdf. Read it if you're in the mood for a laugh.



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NIMBYS run amok Scripps Ranch residents sound off about new airport plan



I have zero sympathy for these folks. They were a major force in the City of San Diego not taking it over back in the nineties, protesting in favor of moving the ownership to the Marines because they thought that was going to be the same as the Navy. When they discovered the Marines needed Harriers and Helicopters (particularly large helicopters), which make a lot more noise than Navy aircraft, they carried on about that as if the world was ending. They delayed and delayed the airport resolution demanding study after study because the solution was all to obvious as well as consistent, that is, Miramar. Now that there are no other accessible commercially viable sites left, there is no other answer but they are still stonewalling. Far as I'm concerned, these people can take a long walk off a short pier.



Grow up.



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Paralysed man moves computer cursor through thought. We are on our way! From there, it's not long until they can move other things. Not that much further until we can replace the neurological reason he may be paralysed. And the thing that may drive it all is the ability of the average person - paralysed or not - to link directly with a computer while their hands, etcetera, are otherwisse occupied.



We're going to need those cars that drive themselves, you know.



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The Supreme Court Taketh Away and Congress Giveth Back: White House agrees to court-martial-style trials of terror suspects



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Arianna Huffington, of all people, is wishing for the equivalent of soccer's red cards in politics. I believe she fancies herself as the referee, when in reality, she'd have been carded off herself years ago.



I vehemently disagree on the subject of some one individual, or small group of individuals, being able to dispense political red cards. For one thing, what would happen when someone said they didn't like the job they were doing? Red Card, of course.



There is a Red Card, of course. It's administered by the electorate to those politicians it deems to have become too obnoxious. It's called losing elections. We don't need any lesser group setting themselves up as arbiters of what constitutes legitimate debate.



Of course, this goes hand in hand with the left wing idea that if those poor ignorant masses would only do as their betters instruct, we'd all be singing Kum-Bi-Yah in no time.



Or at least until the first group of totalitarians armed forces arrived.

Carnival of Liberty Recommended: Homeland Stupidity (dairy industry regulations), London Fog (Milton Friedman on do-gooders)

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Both predictable and completely consistent with past actions: Iran Plays For More Time. Basically, they are trying to give the West, or more precisely, the leaders of the west, who are democratically elected, an excuse to look the other way while Iran develops nuclear weapons. Failing that, do their best to delay action until it is too late.



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detainees to be given Geneva Convention rights.



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I've just agreed to host the second Carnival of Real Estate. I do have a reservation about a Carnival of Real Estate, which is the major reason I didn't try to start one, and that is steering a middle course between "bash the professionals" (as all too many forums on the internet do - see the financial ones for some pretty egregious and stupid examples) and "Everything is so beautiful!", the standard sales-oriented garbage that tries to tell you that real estate is "so wonderful!" and how you "always make money!" and all the similar nonsense put out by boards of Realtors® everywhere.



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Funny! You know the singularity has arrived when... over at Dean's World.



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Armies of Liberation has the human rights report for Yemen. Execreble.



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Finally had the opportunity to watch Serenity. I liked it quite a bit. I had never had the opportunity to watch Firefly (there are only 24 hours in the day, and my usual passive entertainment ration is about 5 minutes per week these days), but I was impressed by the writing and acting and the way the effects didn't try to be spectacular, they just told the story. My wife also liked it, and said we'd have to get Firefly now.

RINO Sightings Recommended: Armies of Liberation (the possibility for a freely elected government in Yemen)



Carnival of Personal Finance Recommended: Experiments in Finance ("How I learned to care about economics")



Carnival of Capitalists Recommended: Liberty Papers (market distortions due to land use regulation)

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This is intelligent and worthwhile. TTLB is trying to motivate some folks to set up a system to deal with DDOS attacks. I have no idea of the technical issues, but I like the idea of anyone who is the subject of one being able to metaphorically thumb their nose at the attackers.



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Judge: FBI Raid on Lawmaker's Office Legal. No kidding. This was obvious to anybody who could read the Constitution. Except maybe congresscritters. Although I'm not certain they can.



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Iraq the Model on the situation for Iraqis in Baghdad.



I think their central government better get hopping to do something about this. If it takes soldiers on every corner to enforce the peace, that's what it takes. A country that allows its citizens to be intimidated like this is on the ropes.



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Dr. Sanity has a long article about child rearing that may open some eyes.



She missed, however, the compare and contrast with standard leftist american ideologies such as Why mommy is a Democrat, and Friends don't let friends vote Republican. Maybe it's because I'm right of center and most of my social friends are pretty left-wing, but the vast majority of what I see aimed at delegitimizing, denigrating, and dehumanizing one's political opponents is aimed from left to right. Perhaps I'm just more sensitive to stuff aimed from left to right. I certainly have no problem finding rightwing delegitimization of the left when I go looking for it, yet the vast majority of what I come across on daily websurfing and in personal conversations is aimed from the left at the right. Perhaps it's just that I try to go looking for opposing viewpoints, and I'm certainly not attracted to those sites that, IMHO, make a habit of known kneejerking. But it seems that 95% of the time when I encounter a partisan behaving badly, it's a leftwinger. This is even more lopsided than the ratio in the other direction was when I was much younger in the early 1970s.



It's gotten to the point where it's so "Dog bites Man," that I just don't want to hear about moonbats behaving badly any longer. I know all about Kosola and Frisch Fraying On The Fringe. I'm tired of reading the same nonsense over and over and over. Maybe if we just start ignoring them when they go over the line, they'll realize they won't get publicity (which is what they want) and stop. In short, I used to be disgusted. Now I'm just annoyed enough to change the channel. Not that I advocate giving them a free pass if they do anything actionable. But like the class clown out for attention, if you just pretend to ignore them, they'll modify their behavior until they're worth paying attention to again.



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Michael Barone on the Mexican elections. Informative as always, showing the electoral faultlines comparable to those in the United States.



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Captain's Quarters has some analysis on the Israel-Palestine situation that has been said roughly ten billion times before, with the difference that now it seems to be picking up a critical mass of adherents. The world may finally have seen enough evidence of the pathological state of Palestinian politics to be prepared to support necessary Israeli countermeasures.



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Regime Change Iran on Mohammed Al-Baradei and his hook up with Tehran.



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Siflay Hraka on why the NutRoots™ has gone so overboard against Lieberman. You'd think with a 0-21 record they must be getting desperate for a big, provable win. You'd be right. Let's hope for one more swing and a miss from them in a manner that cannot be denied, and maybe we can get back to occasionally constructive dialog.



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Did some 'roll updating. If I'm on your roll and you're not on mine, please email me so I can rectify the matter. Spamsites, con artist sites, and similar nonsense need not apply.

Coke re-evaluates trade secret protection. Specifically, how to protect them.

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Test of New Method of Spacewalking Successful



Not to mention their description of the view:

"It's beautiful," Fossum said. "The thin glow of the moonlit Earth below."



And when Mission Control pointed out to Sellers that he could view Britain over his left shoulder, the British-born spacewalker said: "Wow! Oh, my goodness. It's a beautiful day in Ireland."



Looking down at the Caspian Sea several minutes later, Fossum said: "This is a good view ... I'm in a dream; nobody wake me up."

Just because our parents screwed up the possibility for us doesn't mean we have to mess it up for our kids. Any of the next couple of generations could likely make the big step off earth possible for their kids, also, but somebody has to actually do it before earth runs out of the necessary resources.



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Interesting: Coral can change its skeleton composition.



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If they can marry, this requirement is completely fair on the part of employers. Gays at Globe told to marry or lose benefits. Since homosexuals are allowed to marry in Massachusetts, relaxing the requirements for marriage that heterosexuals have makes no sense, and could be grounds for a lawsuit on the part of those heterosexuals. "If John doesn't have to marry his boyfriend to get him benefits, why does Jim have to marry his girlfriend?"



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Hurray! Volokh Conspiracy notes that the UN Conference on Small Arms is ending with no document, and no plans for a follow up conference. Hurray for John Bolton, and others!









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I've written a spreadsheet that compares two loans in a time dependent manner to help one answer the question of which loan really is better for you. It turns out I'm a little surprised by how quickly paying a point or two tends to become worthwhile. I've tried a couple dozen examples thus far, and it's working out to generally about two years or a little less when you add everything up, even when you consider the later effects of a higher balance.



I'm toying with the idea of making an email of this sheet and my "own versus rent" financial computations spreadsheet a "premium" when someone donates $X to the site. Feedback?

Calderon wins Mexican presidential race By about 250,000 out of 41 million votes cast. Just half a percent, and both candidates won about 35% of the vote. Mexico has no electoral college. His opponent, Obrador, is vowing to fight it in the courts. He wants his supporters to demonstrate, and is blaming fraud, which is likely true to a certain extent, if in both directions. ("What am I supposed to do, accuse him of cheating better than me in front of the others?") Obrador is vowing to fight in court. Let's hope the battles stop there.



Don Surber found an article where the Mexicans are basically saying they would not be supportive of unsportsmanlike conduct.

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If at first you get people mad, Keep trying and maybe they'll get mad anough to smack you down like the self-important nincompoop you are.

"Our military will continue with missile launch drills in the future as part of efforts to strengthen self-defense deterrent," said the statement, carried in state-run media. "If anyone intends to dispute or add pressure about this, we will have to take stronger physical actions in other forms."

What are you going to do, starve in their vicinity?



More:

U.S. officials: Second long-range missile test unlikely

The long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, which some fear is capable of hitting the western United States, failed almost immediately after launch, said a senior U.S. official with direct knowledge of the intelligence on the testing.



It spun out of control seconds after it was launched and the North Koreans never had operational control of the missile, the official said. It failed so quickly, the official added, that the United States was never able to ascertain in what direction it was headed.

Okay, this is good news in context, but who spilled the beans and why does he (or she) still have a security clearance and why isn't he (or she) in jail?



Belmont Club is noting that even the hardcore european critics of missile defense are getting interested.



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As if it weren't already obvious: Bush: I'd rather be right than popular

"When history looks back, I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular," Bush said.



"The president that chases the opinion poll is the president that will have failed policy," Bush said in an exclusive joint interview along with his wife, Laura, at the White House.

I can hear his predecessor saying "D'Oh!" from here.



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Lieberman to Opponent: 'I'm Not Bush'



Joe Lieberman is a pretty leftwing kind of guy, if you look at his overall voting record. But he's also a decent human being and looking out for the best interests of the United States, and he's willing to to vote with the political opposition to those ends, so the NutRoots want him purged, a la Trotsky.



I don't know why I suddenly wanted to filk this song:

One purge over the line, Sweet Stalin,

One purge over the line

Sittin' out east in a gulag baby,

one purge over the line

Scrappleface, as usual, has me beat.



LGF has the video.



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If you ever wondered why most of the movies made are a waste of your time, here's your answer: Hollywood's Hottest Investments



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Beastly Colors: Mammoth Blondes and Really Hairy Brunettes Blonde Mammoths??



I'd say something snarky about "THAT explains extinction!" except that then the blondes of the world would...



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Age of the Sierra Nevada revealed At least 40 million. The results are indirect circumstantial information, but we're not talking criminal convictions here, so enough circumstantial evidence becomes convincing.





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Sometimes the obvious needs to be said: How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico



Now, blaming Bush for thirty-odd years of what came before his term, as the article does, is simply unreasonable. But the article illustrates that the problem is solvable, if only someone spends the political capital.

Edwards says: "When we start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce."



While Congress debates building a fence on the border, these veterans say other actions should have higher priority.



1. End the current practice of taking captured Mexican aliens to the border and releasing them. Instead, deport them deep into Mexico, where return to the US would be more costly.



2. Crack down hard on employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the aliens won't come.



3. End "catch and release" for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for illegal migrants not from Mexico to be set free after their arrest if they promise to appear later before a judge. Few show up.

Well, duh!



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Read it: neo-neocon on The Pied Pipers of Palestine. Old news to me. But every once in a while one should be reminded exactly how sick the enemies of civilization are.



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Big Lizards has some questions about Townhall.com website amalgamation.



I hope the day is not fast coming where it's a choice of which major amalgamation we join, and if we don't, there's zero chance of getting traffic from anyone. First Pajamas Media, now Townhall. If anyone hasn't noticed the Pajamas Media brethren becoming far less willing to link outside their group, you haven't been paying attention. Now it appears Townhall.com is pulling the same sort of nonsense. Okay, that's their right - but where do they get the new writers, and how do they determine what's good?



Of course, the jury is still out on whether the business model will work. But one thing every business model needs is prospecting for new products, and being willing to look wherever it takes to find them. I just don't see it happening with current amalgamation groups.



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Armies of Liberation notes than a journalist has been killed for an anti-regime article, and the killers cannot be aprehended because (wait for it!) they're being sheltered by the powerful.



Reading Jane's site gives me a keen appreciation for what democracy advocates (and accountability and transparency advocates) go through anywhere else other than the United States.



They may call him Chimpy McHitlerburton, but no matter how many opposition articles are written criticizing his administration, I've never heard of any retaliation on the part of the administration part on any level beyond verbal lamentation. Not credibly, anyway. Most of us do not understand how incredibly good we have it.



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Captain's Quarters continues to do yeoman's work on reporting on the Iraqi WMD discoveries.





Chemical Projects in 2003



Anthrax and Saddam



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Volokh Conspiracy has a rather neat article about housing discrimination and restrictive covenants. Restrictive covenants are where property cannot be sold to a given ethnicity, in this case, "yankees" (people from above the Mason-Dixon Line).



These are actually fairly common, almost more common than not, with properties that are old enough. The covenants still run with the land, but are unenforceable. The subsequent owners bought under the covenant, and so it becomes part of the consideration, and as such, cannot be removed without potentially risking the property. But they cannot be enforced either - the attempt runs afoul of more federal and state laws than I can name. But if those laws were ever removed, the covenants would once again be in force. This would have some interesting effects in law, as most of them here in San Diego are in areas with large amounts of minorities.



Now what they should do is pass a law removing restrictive covenants as may currently run with the land. That way, if bigots of whatever ethnicity ever did manage to get ahold of the government, they wouldn't have such ready made lever in the case of a large number of properties being already restricted. At a minimum, it would force them to start from square one. Besides, this removes a little more of the stain of racism, at no cost to anybody.







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Warren Buffet, you missed out. Here's the charity you should have donated your $37 billion to, at least in my unworthy opinion: Tau Zero Foundation

Carnival of Liberty Recommended: New World Man (thoughts on our Founding Fathers)



Carnival of Personal Finance



Carnival of the Capitalists



Carnival of Vanities



(How pathetic! Three large carnivals with no recommended posts, although I did pick up an idea for an article.)

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Bullets: check. Feet: check. Pain: check. Blood: check. Difficulty walking: check. It appears North Korea has shot themselves in both feet. Rice Cites World Outrage at N. Korea. Seventh N. Korean Missile Intensifies Furor



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Mexican Vote in Limbo They do not have the traditions of democracy we do. And yes, they have a lot of "clean election" issues. This could be trouble. Civil War type trouble.



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Popcorn Time! Riehl World View covers the financing of the left half of hte 'sphere.



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Nathan Newman has a post worth reading on US Grant, Civil War General and out 18th President.



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Belmont Club has an Independence Day post about a a staunch American and friend of the United States.

Carnival of Investing Recommended It's Just Money (chasing returns in the market)

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Dean's World has a declaration, that I wish to subscribe to, of a sort that I have ascribed to for a very long time, and wish to register my support.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men and Women are created Equal, that they are endowed by nature with certain unalienable Rights, which among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, governments are instituted among Men and Women, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.



Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that Humanity are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of those living under Dictatorships of whatever form; and the history of the world's present Dictatorships is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over their people. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:



Dictatorships subject their People to:



Laws without their Assent, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good;



The obstructed of Justice, by refusing their Assent to Laws for establishing independent Judiciary powers;



Prison without Trial by Jury;



Their Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries;



Taxation without their Consent;



Swarms of Officers and Officials to harass them, eat out their substance, and loot their possessions;



The expropriation of their commerce, products, and monies for personal use;



Corruption so vast that bribing officials and officers is the only way to get anything done;



The dissolution of what ever Representative Houses they suffer too exist, for opposing with manly firmness their invasions on the Rights of their People;



And Death by the bullet, sword, and tank treads for only demonstrating their Right to be heard.



The Worst of these Dictatorships subject their People to:



Mass Impoverishment, Famine, and early Death;



A border-to-border Forced Labor, Concentration, or Reeducation Camp;



Internal and foreign Deportations and mass Migration that deprives them of their Homes, Villages, Communities, and Roots;



Torture, Rape, Genocide, Democide, and Demoslaughter;



Rule by Fear;



And the Death and Destruction of Aggressive and Imperial Wars without the People's Assent.



We, the Free People of this World, therefore Declare, appealing to the Souls of Dictatorships' Victims for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the People of the World, solemnly publish and declare, that all Dictatorships are Criminal Governments; that their People of Right ought to be Free; that they ought to be Absolved from all Allegiance to these criminal Governments; that the sovereignty and independence of these criminal Governments ought to be totally dissolved; and that as fellow Human Beings their People ought to have the full Power to speak their Minds, follow their own Religion, peaceably Assemble, establish Commerce, elect their Representatives, and to do all other Acts and Things that Free People may of Right do.



And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Rightness of our Declaration, we mutually pledge to Communicate this declaration far and wide, and to support by whatever peaceful means at our disposal the freeing of these subject People.

Here is the standalone that you can email to anyone. When I checked it out, it told me that I was only the fortieth visitor. From a website that gets as much traffic as Dean's World, I think it's time to tell my fellow citizens of the world that we can do better.



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Below the Beltway following up on his previous post against farm subsidies.



When I say I want to end corporate welfare, I mean it. I want farm subsidies, and everything else of comparable nature, gone. If we, as a country, don't need a particular thing for its own usefulness, we shouldn't be collecting taxes at the metaphorical point of a gun in order to subsidize them. It's wasteful, inefficient rent seeking behavior.



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An intelligent, and unexpectedly strong response to Iranian delaying tactics: Iran Has Until July 12 to Stop Enrichment



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Over at my professional site, I have satisfied the compliance officer and gotten up template posts, including the first examples, of real loans and real bargain properties here in San Diego.



category link for potential Bargain Properties is here. I hope to do at least a couple per week.



category link for loans. I intend to do posts based upon this template about once per week.



here is the category link for both



I hope to have a link to my office's local MLS up over there within the next few days. Right now, I'm explaining to them that rational internet users hate frames.



Out of time for today. Have a safe Independence Day, and tell a vet or serviceperson thank you. There will be a new article tomorrow and Wednesday, but I won't be doing more writing until Wednesday.

For those is San Diego (or people who need a loan anywhere in California), over at my professional site, I'm going to be starting quasi-regular features on loans I can really do at the time I post, and properties of interest in the San Diego area.



If you're in Manhattan, of course, these properties will seem cheap to you. If you're somewhere housing prices are cheap, they'll seem outrageous.



Nothing there yet except an introductory post. I'll try to do at least one set of each per week.



Here's the link for The loans only

Here's for properties only

Here's for both

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Carnivals:



RINO Sightings



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Below the Beltway has an intelligent post on ending farm welfare. I have always wondered by what logic we subsidize active farms, but this is just land that used to be farmland.



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Combs Spouts Off covers the conviction of a Saudi man and his wife for slaveholding, among other offenses, right here in this country. Money quote: "What did he do?" from the man's daughter, who wins today's People Unclear on The Concept award.



Slaveholding is vile, abhorrent, and completely unacceptable. That anyone continues to tolerate it today, 117 years after Brazil banned it, the last western country to do so, is nothing short of an abomination. Even non-western cultural backwaters such as Nepal banned it so long ago (1925) as to be essentially beyond living memory. Why does it persist, and persist so strongly that they don't even realize they did anything wrong when it's explained to them, in Islamic countries?



Multi-culturalists, you may now hang your heads in shame. Because there are lines that must not be crossed by anyone - and this is one of them.



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Yemen is correcting their voter lists. Okay, there are dozens of games that can be played with elections even if the list of those eligible is correct. But there are hundreds, if not thousands, of games that can be played if the list is not correct. So mark this as a step in the right direction.





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On Hamdan, Combs Spouts Off has an article worth reading on Hamdan, which leads me to wonder if impeaching Stevens and those who joined him in this opinion is likely to be productive. They willfully ignored the directly worded commandment of Congress in the law that there be no judicial jurisdiction, a right they have repeatedly ruled Congress possesses.



A point needs to be made here. That these justices ruled at all on the case is a direct violation of the law. They are not intended to be judicial monarchs, or even oligarchs. They are not supposed to have authority to make the law, only to interpret it, and the point needs to be made that they cannot stray too far from the mandates of the legislatural branch.



legal redux has more, reinforcing what I just said.



Mark Steyn has the justices discovering a right to jihad.







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I am Batman. Actually, we all are Batman. Spiderman, too.



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I'd say that this article at Jihad Watch is evidence in the against column for Moslem peaceful existence with the West.



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Buzz Machine is asking the two Times to come up with a statement of principles in when they will and will not print information such as the disclosure of the SWIFT program. This makes good sense, and we can then judge them upon the contents of those principles and how well they adhere to them.



It has become all too clear, however, that the two Times will print whatever is to the detriment of the political party they do not like, and suppress what is detrimental to the political party they do.

A new Canadian tool can re-grow teeth. Sorry about the Yahoo link. The article mentions using it to grow bones also. It doesn't mention this, but I'm wondering if it would help osteoporosis. If so, it could significantly help quality of life, and extend how long people can work and take care of themselves.



Later: here is a link that will likely be more permanent.

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Supreme Court mostly endorses Texas Redistricting. I find it ominous that the one esception they made was District 23, which was evidently redrawn for political purposes, but in doing so put hispanics is another district, and the court said that part was illegal because it disadvantaged hispanics. Right when the VRA is up for renewal. Good timing, and I hope this gives Congress the cojones to put amendments into the VRA that it has needed for twenty years.



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Supreme Court Rejects Military Tribunals. Okay, so our forces can hold them indefinitely, but cannot put them on trial, which would have at least the possibility of clearing them. Otherwise, they're in for a potentially long wait (A policy I agree with, by the way). Exactly how is this a victory for those who want the enemy combatants released?



Has anyone else figured out why these prisoners are in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as opposed to say, a base in Turkey or Central Asia or one of our remaining bases in Germany?



Here's a hint: Suppose one of the prisoners escapes. Where is he? What do you think Castro is going to do to him? Castro's political options reduce to repatriating them or making them disappear into a shallow grave somewhere. Much as he hates the US, what happens if someone he repatriates subsequently does something else terrorism related? Game, set, and match to the U.S.



Looks like Blackfive agrees.



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How Failure Breeds Success. Prediction: The companies in the article who persist in being willing to swing and miss will stomp their competition. Most major companies who went under did so because they played it too safe. RCA developed the technology we use today for flat panel screens but were too concerned that it would take business and money away from what was their cash cow at the time, conventional color television sales. So someone else developed it, and instead of RCA getting the money, that someone else did, and their color TV division still lost the business. RCA is gone; they're just a nameplate someone else uses for branding.



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Roots of human family tree are shallow. This always seemed obvious to me, but they've got mathematical models. I do wonder if they account for the fact that most people in the past were born, lived, and died in the same place.



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USA Today retreats from BellSouth, Verizon report. This was journalism of fairy tales from the beginning. Ask yourself: how hard would the government have to work under existing legal programs that have the courts' approval? Why should public megacorporations agree to open themselves up to privacy act suits, costing millions to billions? The companies accused demanded a retraction. USA Today gave them the most miserly one they could get away with, on the Friday before a long weekend buried in the middle of the paper.



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Stolen laptop with veterans data recovered. It says in part

"A preliminary review of the equipment by computer forensic teams has determined that the data base remains intact and has not been accessed since it was stolen," the agencies said in a statement. "A thorough forensic examination is underway, and the results will be shared as soon as possible."

Please, if you are one of those veterans, or may be, do not take their word for it. Take precautions now, or continue them if you have already done so.



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via Q and O, Why are Muslims not integrating into Western societies?



I want to be able to integrate muslims into our civilization. Much evidence exists on both sides, depending upon, in my estimation, the will of the individuals and communities involved. If the muslims will integrate, they are the same as any other citizens. But if they will not willingly allow non-muslims the right to live their lives as they wish, then the community of moslems must be destroyed.



To automatically answer "Yes," to the question of whether muslims can integrate sufficiently into modern civilization is no more open-minded than to automatically answer "No." The fact is that the evidence runs both ways, the jury is still out, and it is most likely to return a mixed verdict.



Michael Totten has an article with some evidence in favor of "Yes."



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Thank you to Wizbang for telling me about Let's Say Thanks, sponsored by Xerox. Pop on over and send a card or two or several dozen. I particularly liked Courtney's design.



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My reasons for supporting Israel over the Palestinians are much the same as Jay Tea at Wizbang, to which I add the attitude of the respective sides. If the Palestinians were willing to settle for a state in Gaza and the West Bank, they'd have it by now. Whether they have admitted Israels' right to exist in legal theory (Fatah) or not (Hamas), they have made it their de facto policy to do their best to destroy Israel. The fact of that matter is that they exist on Israeli sufferance, a fact which they have found it convenient to ignore for decades.



Big Lizards has more.



Captain's Quarters has more worthwhile thoughts.



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Iraq the Model notes that the Iraqi Prime Minister has clarified that his amnesty offer does not apply to those who have killed troops, be they Iraqi or foreign.



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Yet another causus belli, if we want it:

US, Iraqi forces clash with Shi'ite militia

Iraqi security officials said Iranian fighters had been captured in the fighting, in which a sniper shot dead the commander of an Iraqi quick reaction force and two of his men. They did not say how the Iranians had been identified.

Captain's Quarters has more.



He's right. It's not foolproof, but accent is a valid method of identifying origins.



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Traffic in June skyrocketed, enough so that I was questioning my server logs. Per day traffic almost doubled from May, which was my previous record. 124,033 visits, 265,160 page views for June, an average of 4000 per day, and a couple of days in the last week went over 6000. Running total 507,186 visits, 1,482,355 page views as of the end of June. But if it's not real, I can't find evidence, so I'll relax and enjoy it. Thank all of you for stopping by, a bigger thank you to those who participate, and especially thank you to those who spread the word.