Zee Links and Minifeatures: March 2008 Archives

Carnival of Insanities

Carnival of Personal Finance

Greece wants the Elgin Marble back:

Greece to Britain: Hand over artwork

Lord Elgin, a British diplomat, removed about half of the sculptures and friezes remaining on the Parthenon between 1801 and 1805. He had the permission of the Ottoman Empire that then ruled Greece. The British Museum obtained them from Elgin in 1816 and has displayed them free to the public since. Last year, 5.4 million people visited the museum.

I'm inclined to believe they should be returned. This situation is roughly equivalent to if the US had given permission for them to remove Iraqi antiquities in 2003. Only the fact that it's been 200 years gives the British any kind of claim. Yes, the Ottomans were the legal authorities in control of Greece at the time. So what?

Want a license to behave illegally? Get elected to Congress!

Court won't review FBI's Congress office raid

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it won't overrule a decision that FBI agents violated the rights of a Democratic congressman during a search of his office, a decision the Bush administration says will hamper future public corruption investigations.

He must have really gone over the line. No "Name that Party". On the other hand, it is Reuters, not AP.

The appeals court ordered the FBI to give Jefferson back all privileged legislative files and copies of files taken from his office during the 18-hour raid in May of 2006.

The appeals court said FBI agents should not have viewed documents in the office without first giving Jefferson the opportunity to say the material involved legislative business.

Jefferson was charged last year with racketeering, soliciting bribes for himself and his family, fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

They found $90,000 cash in his freezer, wrapped in aluminum foil. They had a valid search warrant, issued by a federal judge, to search his office.

So congressional offices are off limits without warning. With warning, he can move incriminating evidence elsewhere - and that's if another court will even sign another warrant with precedent thus.

Hot Air catches another of Obama's Bill Clinton imitations.

Including his campaign's method of denial, even though it was Obama's own handwriting:

Through an aide, Obama, who won the group's endorsement as well as the statehouse seat, did not dispute that the handwriting was his. But he contended it doesn't prove he completed, approved - or even read - the latter questionnaire.

Remember the Columbia Noose Incident, where a hangman's noose was found on the door of a professor, and Columbia suddenly clammed up after reviewing the tapes? They're not going to be able to sweep it under the rug. A Manhattan grand jury has subpoenaed the records

Does anyone want to bet that the tapes show something other than the professor herself or a close associate placing the noose?

I'm planning a light week this week. I'll have reprints at least every day, but an encounter with a willfully ignorant troll has me feeling demotivated.

Why Do Palestinians Get Much More Attention than Tibetans?

The answers reveal a lot about our failings as a society.

Open letter to Obama concerning his pastor, who apparently was the beneficiary of an upper middle class childhood

Lenderrama on what's really important to loan consumers. I've been telling people this here for almost three years now, and in person for a lot longer than that.

Classical Values on an FBI scheme to entice people into clicking on a link, thereby causing the FBI to get a warrant to ransack their computer and dwelling for child pornography.

Simply speaking, this is vile. People need to get fired and maybe even go to jail over this one.

USA Today actually likes something George Bush did. No, don't have a heart attack or look around for flying swine. It happened while he was governor of Texas.

Private Papers has ten issues that need less emotion and more thinking.

Our political dialog has been controlled by emotional two year olds for long enough.

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

Q and O on the real situation with big oil. It isn't ExxonMobil and Chevron profiteering.

Why I love the internet, part sixteen gazillion and forty-three

Video at Bloodhound

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of Real Estate

I guess it's not just local: Existing home sales post surprise rise

Volokh Conspiracy on the Taiwan presidential election.

Earth a little more resilient than computer models

What a shock. Until we figure out a way to control for variations in the solar "constant", it's going to be very difficult to make a solid case that humans are doing anything significant.

American Media found the space to rehash all of their old discredited allegations about Iraq over the weekend, but for actual news, we have to go to the BBC: Iran 'behind Green Zone attack'

You want "Speaking Truth to Power?" This is speaking truth to power!

In order to be worthy of praise for confronting something, there must be an element of personal risk, and not just that that Horrible Power Structure Will (gasp!) Ignore You.

In converting away from Islam, he's earned himself a death sentence from every Islamic fundamentalist out there. It's been centuries since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 cemented freedom of worship for all the world - at least as far as Christianity is concerned. You can dislike Christian fundamentalists and their preaching all you want - but they're not going to try to chop off your head.

Fed Cuts Rates by 3/4 Percentage Point

Bankers are absolutely consistent. Live in fear of inflation. Leave money too tight for too long, then panic and over-react when the what you've done becomes undeniable. Then when the problem passes, crank things up too tight again and wait for the cycle to repeat.

Rate sheets today (March 18th) seem consistent with yesterdays, though - very little difference thus far from the sheets with the massive retail cut that came through yesterday afternoon. Ya think maybe the Fed tipped off the banks? Bankers tipping off banks? Nah, couldn't happen (end sarcasm). But they only dropped rates by about 1/4 percent, so we might see a little more in the way of retail rate cuts as the week goes on. Market forces will determine, of course.

Sad News: Arthur C. Clarke has died.

He hadn't written anything I enjoyed for a while, but his earlier career is awe-inspiring. "Reunion" is and remains one of my favorite stories of all time. It's less than two pages, but you'll remember the last sentence. Childhood's End, City and The Stars, and many others. Compared to those, "2001" was enjoyable enough, but limited in imagination.

And Still I Persist has a very cogent explanation of his influence.

Victor Davis Hanson makes quite a cogent point about Gaza and Hamas

Dalai Lama says he's ready to meet Chinese, but is rebuffed

The Dalai Lama said he'd like such a meeting to occur outside China but would travel to Beijing if the outlook seemed positive. "If there are concrete indications, I am ready, I am happy, after this crisis -- in a few weeks, in a few months," he said.

but

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news briefing that China hadn't softened its stance on dialogue with the Dalai Lama, and likened the Nobel Peace Prize laureate to a gangland figure.

and

"We must judge the Dalai Lama not merely by his words but also by his actions," Qin said. "As we have repeatedly pointed out, Dalai is a political refugee engaged in activities of splitting China under the camouflage of religion."

Qin said the exiled Tibetan leader was the head of a "Dalai clique" that orchestrated criminal unrest, which began in Lhasa last Friday as Tibetan mobs torched scores of Han Chinese-owned stores, set street bonfires, threw rocks at police and overturned vehicles. Since then, ethnic unrest has spilled outside Tibet to three neighboring provinces.

Actually, he threatened to resign as head of Tibet's government-in-exile if the rioters didn't stop the violence.

If the Dalai Lama wanted, he could trivially have made Tibet into another Kashmir or Chechen war. The mountains of Tibet are more forbidding than Afghanistan, where the Soviet empire met its end. But he has chosen a Gandhi-like path of peaceful resistance. Unfortunately, the Chinese government is not the British, and so instead of independence (or autonomy, which seems to be what he's really after) after considerably less than 49 years which Gandhi achieved because the British behaved decently, we have the least publicized genocide in the world still ongoing because the Chinese government will not.

Fannie and Freddie Set Free

Another stone fell into place in the federal government's plan to build a path to credit market recovery. On Mar. 19, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, or OFHEO, said it was reducing the amount of capital it requires Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) to maintain on their balance sheets above statutory requirements. By reducing the capital surplus level from 30% to 20%, the regulator will provide up to $200 billion in immediate liquidity to the distressed mortgage-backed securities market.

Stuff like this does more than anything else to restore liquidity. However, I'm going to be the first to say that I don't currently understand why the requirement was in effect, so I'm not certain loosening it is a good idea.

But while the extra capital will set the jumbo markets moving again, Larkin says he doesn't expect spreads between mortgage rates and 10-year Treasuries to shrink meaningfully until the government says it will guarantee Fannie and Freddie paper. That would trigger a wave of refinancing, he believes: "You'd be creating a floor in housing. You'd be stimulating a whole bunch of new demand."

Well, duh! But I don't think the government is likely to do that, and I'm inclined to believe that it would be a bad idea. I'm sure Merle Hazard will have something to say about it soon.

Q and O on free markets and government subsidies causing disruptions therein.

Video: Gingrich lowers the boom on Obama

Leery lenders demand more from borrowers

ust when consumers and the U.S. economy need banks to lend more freely, the mortgage industry is making it harder to borrow - even for those with good credit.

Man, those crack professional reporters at AP are right on top of the phenomenon - a mere forty days after I covered it all this and more in The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Lender Fear

More and more, we're approaching a stage where in order to make sense on many subjects and be in touch with developments, you've got to be a working professional in that field of expertise - not journalism.

Why I love San Diego: It's still winter by the calendar, and today my clients, an inspector and I were out at a property we have in escrow. All of us were in shirtsleeves enjoying the sun. The inspector said he was going to wear shorts for his work tomorrow.

Carnival of Real Estate

The San Diego Special Edition

Science of sleep

Lack of sleep is unhealthy. After only six nights of four hours of sleep, test subjects were in a pre-diabetic state! Leptin levels were depressed, causing people to believe they were hungrier - and they ate more, gaining weight. All sorts of other issues documented at the link!

Much ado about nothing: CAN SPAM act

The fine is the largest ever imposed for a violation of the federal CAN-SPAM Act, the Federal Trade Commission said. The act, approved by Congress in 2003, bars deceptive practices in e-mail advertising.

$2.9 million? That's nothing on the scale of their revenues or income.

Shares of ValueClick fell 90 cents, or 5 percent, to $16.57 in midday trading. The company has traded between $16.24 and $36.70 in the past year.

When it gets de-listed, then we'll have made some progress.

Here's something I don't understand. Alimony, etcetera is a hold-over from the days when women were essentially property. Why isn't NOW looking to put Alimony in the past along with Jim Crow?

Mills Awarded $48.6M From McCartney

The answer, of course, is that NOW isn't an equality-seeking group. They're a power-seeking group, and alimony and asset judgments give power to women.

It appears from the story she married him in 2002. Even if divorced today, that's only six years. Paul McCartney has a large, pre-existing net worth that she made no significant sacrifices and did no significant work to help earn.

$48.6 million for six years. $8.1 million per year, not counting however long since they stopped sleeping together. Yes, they have a daughter together, but this is totally separate from child support. This is pure ex-husband to ex-wife transfer. How would he not have been better off hiring one of Elliot Spitzer's girls? $1000 per hour times 8640 hours per year equals $8.64 million per year, and you wouldn't need them more than one third of that time at most - or about $2.9 million per year. In reality, what do you think the average time per day would be? Maybe an hour every two days? With the leftover change, he could have hired a surrogate mother, and had millions left in his pocket. And women wonder why men don't want to get married? It's not like she's not much further ahead of the game than she would have been without him, simply due to the people he introduced her to and the opportunities she had because she was married to him, without any transfer payments at all.

I'm also wondering exactly how she is morally superior to a prostitute. Without some sort of "by definition" fiat (as in "religious fiat"), I'm not getting there. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The bloom is definitely off the media rose: Obama walks arrogance line

Voters won't cut Obama as much slack on the humility test because he's sold himself as something different. While rejecting the "me"-centric status quo and promising a new era of post-partisan reform, Obama has said the movement he has created is not about him; it's about what Americans can do together if their faith in government is restored.

The power of his message lies in its humility. As he told 7,000 supporters at a rally last month, "I am an imperfect vessel for your hopes and dreams."

Nobody expects Obama to be perfect. But he better never forget that he isn't.

Stunned Bear Stearns investors eye legal claims

Here's the deadly line:

Nobel said his firm has been contacted by investors who bought the stock as recently as last week. Some of these buyers, he said, took their positions after Bear CEO Alan Schwartz said in a televised interview on Wednesday that the company does not see any pressure on its liquidity and had about $17 billion in excess cash on its balance sheet.

"You have investors who are upset because they feel as though the company was not truthful in reporting its financial condition," Nobel said.

Gallows humor, realtor greet Bear's stunned staff

Actions speak more truth than words

Always, always, ask yourself "What benefit does this person derive if I believe what he tells me?" They may be telling the truth anyway. But just because you don't understand they benefit doesn't mean they aren't getting one.

USA Today has the right point of view on the Air Force Tanker Deal. Boeing had the deal locked up - until Senator McCain blew the whistle on illegal payments they made to get it.

The contract was then re-bid, and a consortium that included Airbus and Northrop won the contract, fair and square under heavy scrutiny. The deal and jobs that would have gone to Washington and Kansas instead went to Alabama and Florida - as the plane is still being built in the US. In fact, about as much of the aircraft will be US made as would have been the case had Boeing gotten the contract.

Senator McCain deserves praise, not just for blowing the whistle, but for being willing to stand up to the smears of opposition party lawmakers in Washington as well as corporate dissemblers who know darned well that their company would have gotten a very sympathetic contract had they not paid kickbacks. Indeed, Boeing was very lucky it wasn't barred from the process of the re-bid of the contract entirely.

Let's see. Company pays illegal kickbacks and bundles campaign contributions in way to get around law, and is awarded huge Air Force dollar contract for billion dollar planes. Whistle blown, at considerable political risk, by John McCain. Contract re-bid under intense scrutiny. How is this not a good thing for citizens of this country? Do we want to encourage corruption in our government contracting system? Has some sort of "spoils system" for government contracting become the main point of the system?

Personally, I think blowing the whistle, as John McCain did, is precisely what we should be able to expect from our public servants, and the Washington state politicians who are decrying what he did are covering themselves in even more shame. I think the fact that Senator McCain was willing to do what is best for the country, while so many other politicians were not, is a major point in his favor in the current presidential campaign - especially against two of the senate's biggest porkmeisters.

Don Surber has some very cogent questions that need to be asked at the next debate.

Obama's choosing his position based upon politics of the moment

neo-neocon contrasts with John McCain

Reading this over as I get ready to publish, I wasn't intending to make this a "support John McCain issue" of L&M. Nonetheless, all three prior items that caught my interest have something indicating one or more reasons to do that. I'm going to let it stand. What's more important than making a sane rational decision about who's going to have the most important and influential job in the country (if not the world) for the next four years?

Given the candidates on the table, I'd support John McCain if the parties of the candidates were switched.

I'd support John McCain if the sexes of the candidates were reversed.

I'd support John McCain if the races of the candidates were switched.

It's not just about character. It's about leadership ability. It's about voting record. It's about deeds. It's about where I think the country should go - where I think the country needs to go. I have my quarrels with John McCain's version - but they're a lot smaller and more subject to accommodation than the differences I have with the alternatives.

Finally, sometimes events can force a President to act now. I believe John McCain has the ability to act for the good of the country, without first convening focus groups on the political consequences to him and best possible spin to put on it. I do not believe that about either of the alternatives.

I believe John McCain has demonstrated himself more capable of owning a mistake than either of the alternatives ever will. McCain-Feingold notwithstanding. For instance, Keating Five is a dead issue precisely because he owned up.

Things happen in the four years the next president will be in office. Unforseeable things. I believe Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton capable of the sort of leadership that takes the country where it wants to go anyway. I believe John McCain capable of the sort of leadership that takes us somewhere we don't want to go, but can be persuaded.

I'd rather have a lot of people for our next president. But they're not running for the job, or they're not running any longer. The three choices we have at this point in time are John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. Of those, there is precisely zero doubt in my mind at this point that John McCain is the best choice. Yes, it might be possible for events to move me off my support of McCain before November. But I don't think it's very likely.

Readers and Commenters are welcome to disagree (so long as kept within standing comments policy).

Carnival of Real Estate

The New York Times is reporting that John McCain lost his temper when a reporter asked him a question about his conversation with John Kerry exploring a 2004 VP slot. Judge for yourself.

This and the accusation of marital infidelity - despite a four month investigation they did that revealed no evidence of this. The Times may have endorsed John McCain for the Republican nomination - but given the evidence of the Times' other behavior towards him, that's should probably be taken in the same kind of context as saying, "If the Nazis had taken over the world, we would want Hermann Goering in charge." In other words, in their viewpoint, still a murdering war criminal - just not as bad as the other murdering war criminals.

In point of fact, John McCain isn't a war criminal at all - results of North Vietnamese torture notwithstanding. He wasn't my first choice, but he's worlds better than any other alternative still standing. In fact, the reason for the Times' endorsement of him as Republican nominee can basically be reduced to "He's demonstrated himself capable of working with Democrats better than any other Republican." But as far as the Times thinks, the worst Democrat is better than the best Republican, and they've demonstrated they're willing to first smear, and now, in my opinion, flat out lie to further that belief. They have forfeited any claim to impartiality (again). You might consider this in the context of their treatment of our current Republican president as well.

Instapundit: THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, lawyers who challenged the powers-that-be would be subjected to secret disbarment proceedings.

And they were right!

Multiculturalism cannot survive

Anti-war judge rejects foster teen's bid to join military

Seems to me the people of the state of California need to impeach this judge for denying the development of her charge due to her personal prejudices.

Much more at Argghhh!

Still, in the end, the judge gave the wrong reason to keep the boy out of the Marines. She didn't say that Marine DEP was dangerous to his health right now. She says that she is against the Iraq war (how does she know he'll even go there? Marines are getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan, go to Ethiopia, Djibouti, El Salvador and many other places on humanitarian and relationship building programs).

The Marines, contrary to many idiotic anti-military people like this judge, do much more than go places and break things, though that is often their favorite. They teach more skills than killing people. They teach discipline. They teach thinking. They teach exactly what the judge thought they didn't care about: camaraderie, team work and taking care of the members of your unit.

In short, they teach brotherhood.

Has the California foster child system ever been able to teach that

How is this judge going to keep him out of the military when he turns 18 in a few months? And if the $10,000 bonus he would have gotten isn't available? I'd think that should be actionable, as failure to discharge her duty as a trustee, which is the only duty higher than fiduciary.

Here's the legal definition:

TRUSTEE - Person or institution that oversees and manages a trust.

A trustee is one to whom an estate has been conveyed in trust.

The trust estate is not subject to the specialty or judgment debts of the trustee, to the dower of his wife, or the curtesy of the hushand of a female trustee.

With respect to the duties of trustees, it is held, in conformity to the old law of uses, that pernancy of the profits, execution of estates, and defence of the land, are the three great properties of a trust, so that the courts of chancery will compel trustees, 1. To permit the cestui que trust to receive the rents and profits of the land. 2. To execute such conveyances, in accordance with the provisions of the trust, as the cestui que trust shall direct. 3. To defend the title of the land in any court of law or equity.

It has been judiciously remarked that in a great variety of cases, it is not easy to say what the duty of a trustee is; and that therefore, it often becomes indispensable for him, before he acts, to seek, the aid and direction of a court of equity.

Methinks a certain judge failed in that regard to so much as consider her legal duties as opposed to her personal prejudices.

Also:

TRUSTEE, estates. A trustee is one to whom an estate has been conveyed in trust. 2. The trust estate is not subject to the specialty or judgment debts of the trustee, to the dower of his wife, or the curtesy of the husband of a female trustee. 3. With respect to the duties of trustees, it is held, in conformity to the old law of uses, that pernancy of the profits, execution of estates, and defence of the land, are the three great properties of a trust, so that the courts of chancery will compel trustees, 1. To permit the cestui que trust to receive the rents and profits of the land. 2. To execute such conveyances, in accordance with the provisions of the trust, as the cestui que trust shall direct. 3. To defend the title of the land in any court of law or equity. Cruise, Dig. tit. 12, c. 4, s. 4. 4. It has been judiciously remarked by Mr. Justice Story, 2 Eq. Jur. Sec. 1267, that in a great variety of cases, it is not easy to say what the duty of a trustee is; and that therefore, it often becomes indispensable for him, before he acts, to seek, the aid and direction of a court of equity. Fonb. Eq. book 2, c. 7, Sec. 2, and note c. Vide Vin. Ab. tit. Trusts, O, P, Q, R, S, T; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.

How has this judge acted to the benefit of her charge? I think she has demonstrably acted in precisely the opposite fashion. If some attorney wants to help this young man sue the state of California for breach of duty when he turns 18, I think that would be justice.

Personally, I think this whole case would be worth the assignment of a military lawyer, or even hiring a paid civilian gunslinger - an excellent use of discretionary dollars for the Pentagon. It would not only demonstrate that the military is willing to look after the interests of this young man when the State of California failed, but it would prevent other judges from making the same mistake.

Never mind, the money, the marketable skills they may learn, or even just the fact that they have a secure job they can count on as long as they don't screw it up. One thing I see looking in at the military from the outside is a very real sense of family. That's something those in foster care don't get from the state, and yet it is something that is a real benefit to most individuals. And it isn't given freely - it's earned. The few orphans I've known in my life would do quite a lot to get it.

In short, I can't think of a single level this judge didn't make a mistake on - except that she was true to her personal prejudices.

If that's not grounds for removal, we've got a problem.

Department of Poetic Justice: NY Governor Linked to Prostitution Ring

This clown made his political reputation through overzealous prosecution of securities activity. Some of what he did was needed, beneficial, and locked up bad guys. Too many, however, were harassing people on a technicality that made no difference, or even may have actually helped shareholders.

his stint as governor has been marred by several problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear Spitzer's main Republican nemesis.

The Greeks called this hubris.

Michelle Malkin has more.

Glenn Reynolds writes against journalistic shield laws. He makes the point that now pretty much anyone can be acting as a journalist, and also that it creates a privileged class.

Cool! Saturn moon Rhea may have rings

Rhea would be the first non-gas giant found to have rings if this is confirmed. The obvious source, IMHO, would be gravitational captures of some of Saturn's material. The Saturnian moon system is more than complex enough to make this happen.

A reason for men to want to do housework: Men who do housework may get more sex

Dean Urges Do-Over Voting in Fla., Mich.

By strange coincidence, right after Hillary pulls some big wins and Obama's empty suit status starts to show.

Armies of Liberation on Internet censorship in Yemen.

Volokh Conspiracy notes exactly how far overboard the harassment thing has gotten. A janitor at Notre Dame receives a letter telling him he can't read a book about how Notre Dame University defeated the KKK in the presence of black co-workers on his break. One of the early triumphs of the civil rights era, and and reading it in their presence is regarded as harassment of blacks.

Sometimes you just want to start singing McDonoughs Song.

Aging geeks like me have one more reminder of our mortality: E Gary Gygax has died.

It's become fashionable in gaming circles to bash his creation, but when you consider that D&D was the very first game of its type, it's amazing how good it was. His primary error (and that of the company that still publishes its successors) is sticking to the initial model despite later ideas making role-playing more enjoyable.

It's been over a decade since I last played anything D&D based. GURPS does a better job with any gaming milieu where you don't want magic. I happen to think the way Mage handles magic more than makes up for its lack of coherent indexing, when you want that play element. But the initial GURPS system didn't begin development until D&D was about 15 years old, and Mage is more recent still. Expecting the original first effort in the genre to be as good is like expecting Thomas Edison to have come up with the Blu-Ray DVD system. Later developers got to keep all the good ideas and start over with the stuff that didn't work out so well - but they all owe the EGG and his original partner Dave Arneson for coming up with the basic idea and a lot of the basic framework. So even though I stopped playing his products, he was still a contributor for a lot of fun I've had in role-playing games

(One news report headlined it as "Gary Gygax Fails Final Saving Throw", which I thought worth a chuckle, and if some people might think it was in questionable taste, I don't think he would have been one of them. Oh, and by the way, the copyright on my original three book boxed set was 1972, not 1974 like some news reports have been saying.)

Fed Chief: Mortgage Crisis to Continue

One of the suggestions Bernanke made was for mortgage and other financial companies to reduce the amount of the loan to provide relief to a struggling owner. "Principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may be a relatively more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure," Bernanke said.

Bernanke acknowledged this idea might be a tough sell to lenders. Lenders, he said, are reluctant to write down principal. "They say that if they were to write down the principal and house prices were to fall further, they could feel pressured to write down principal again," Bernanke said.

I can give them a better idea: Stop the over-tightening of financing rules. I predicted back in 2005 that when the crash came, 100% financing was going to go away. Well, now that has happened, but 100% full documentation loans actually have a very good track record as far as repayment. Even stated income loans with down payments of 20% or more have a good track record - nobody is going to commit $100,000 of their own money that's going to be the first thing lost if they can't make the payments - and those are gone also. Going overboard on tightening just crashes the market because, as I wrote this morning, The Mortgage Loan Market Controls the Real Estate Market. Over-tighten mortgage rules, and you cause the bust to become worse. This whole lender cycle of over-loosening and then over-tightening mortgage rules does nothing but encourage boom and bust cycles. Because you know what happens when the market finally hits bottom? It's starts going up again, which means lenders will start loosening restrictions again which means that loosening will cause prices to spike upwards again - and we're off to the races. Again.

Carnival of Real Estate

Carnival of Personal Finance

Victor Davis Hanson

It is a cop-out to say George Bush caused all these problems. They loom large mostly for two reasons. One, the United States promotes global democratic capitalism, and our military ensures international free commerce in the air and on the seas. This bothers regional dictators and terrorists eager to carve out their own spheres of influence, regardless of who's sitting in the Oval Office.

It's nice to read analysis written by an adult.

I'm not going to embed this video, because the language and imagery are definitely not family friendly. Wizbang posted a video of a so-called "peaceful" protest in Berkeley. Be warned if you go view it that it is definitely Not Safe For Work or a family environment.

For those of you on the left: I'd be working to restrain this sort of thing if I were you. Today, Republicans are tarred by association with everything that was done to resist integration in the South - and it wasn't even Republicans, but Southern Democrats that did it. I don't believe that all of those on the left can possibly be so scared of their political opposition that they need to threaten, intimidate, and even physically abuse those who would debate them.

The civil rights marchers of the fifties and sixties won because they refused to become violent or intimidating, and appealed to that which was decent in their fellow Americans. They insisted upon being civil and nonviolent. Even a Klansman in full regalia would quite likely have been safe, even surrounded by them. That doesn't appear to be the case here. I strongly doubt that MLK would be standing with these people.

If you don't want to be tarred with the same brush, take steps now to disown these people, because it appears to be only a matter of time until they do something so barbarous that it enters the lexicon much like the murderers of Medgar Evers

I doubt this is a coincidence: At U. of California, a Systemic Governance Crisis