Windows XP gets the slows

Daughter returned from overseas last weekend, bringing back her Compaq/HP 6516 laptop with the slows. Apparently the machine caught something awful from a flash drive in the Kirghiz Republic. It boots slow and runs slow. Takes 3 minutes to boot. Runs so slow as to cause static while playing music.
So, we ran AVG anti virus, Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad Aware, Microsoft malicious software removal tool, Malware bytes, and UnHackMe. No improvement. Uninstalled a good deal of HP bloatware on general principles, found a patch that allowed us to see hidden files. Studied Task Manager's process list, looking for strange processes. No joy. Something is lurking in the laptop and we can't see it. If you can't see it you can't kill it.

Poltical Thing

TV was full of 9/11 remembrances all day yesterday. This lasted up and into the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. They had some pundit on, talking about 9/11 and he said something like "It's too bad that 9/11 became so political."
Hmm. Unprovoked attack in peacetime with higher casualties than Pearl Harbor. And this guy thinks it shouldn't affect the politics of the United States? Pearl Harbor got us into WWII and ended with nuking the enemy. By those standards, the American response to 9/11 was quite restrained and civilized.

Kim Jong Il may be ill. Or dead or dying

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il failed to appear on the reviewing stand for the North Korean version of a Fourth of July parade. He hasn't been seen in public for several weeks, creating speculation that he is dead or dying.
If so, the world gets to see if the North Koreans have a succession plan. Last time, Kim Il Jong managed to pass the dictatorship to his son, Kim Jong Il without a ruckus. If there is an heir apparent this time, I never heard of him. If the seccession doesn't pass smoothly to someone, the country may fall apart. Leading to a sticky situation.
The South Koreans will face intense pressure to intervene to maintain order and rescue numerous relatives from the chaos that will break out. The Chinese will be under pressure to intervene to maintain North Korean as a buffer state. They certainly don't want the pro American South Koreans to expand North and become their new neighbor. The possibilities for serious trouble are obvious.

Lipstick on a Pig

Fox news has been replaying Obama's "Lipstick on a pig" comment all day. Much as I enjoy watching the media bash democrats for a change, and much as I like Sarah Palin, I'm prepared to give Obama a pass on this one. It's a well worn cliche, I use it myself upon occasion. Obama is pretty bright, and he likely knew the cliche would draw a chuckle from the crowd. It's a zinger, but Sarah has tossed a few good zinger's Obama's way ("kinda like a community organizer only you have real responsibilities") . So maybe Obama is entitled to a zinger or two himself.

Freddie and Fannie

We taxpayers are gonna take a solid hit on this one. It's probably necessary, Fannie and Freddie bonds were sold all over the world and were regarded as good as US treasuries. If we default on the Fannie/Freddie bonds, it will weaken the credit of the United States, making it much more expensive, maybe impossible, to sell the bonds that keep the US government solvent. Right now the US enjoys the reputation of the safest haven for money on the planet. Anyone can invest in the US and not get ripped off, not get nationalized, and not get inflated to death. Even the Chinese, who don't like us very much, buy our T-bills 'cause they are safe. If the Americans welsh on the $5 trillion worth of Fannie/Freddie bonds, the rest of the world will not soon forget. And the world wide river of money flowing into the US will dry up. So the treasury had to step in.
Big question, what to do next? Do we really need Fannie and Freddie to finance houses? Up till the 1980's banks financed mortages from deposits. To get more deposits, the banks used to pay real interest on savings accounts. Today the banks pay depositors dirt, and prefer to raise money by selling bonds on Wall St bearing a hellova lot more interest than they will pay a depositor. Or, they sell the mortgage outright to Fannie, Freddie, or a gullable Wall St brokerage house like Bear Stearns. Trouble with the "sell the mortgage" plan, is that once sold, the mortgage issuer is off the hook. Assuming enough gullable buyers, the issuers will write terrible mortgages and sell them off for good money. That is the cause of the sub prime catastrophy.
So where do we go now? I think we ought to wind down Fannie and Freddie, over a ten year period. Have them buy ten percent fewer mortages each year until in 2018 they close their doors for good. Prohibit them from dabbling in the sub prime swamp. Prohibit them from lobbying Congress and from hiring ex politicians.

Want can I say about Sarah Palin?

Darn little that hasn't been said by others. She has dominated the media for the last week.

Technical experience vs people skills

The airwaves are full of talk about experience, who has it, who needs it, who brings what experience to what ticket. "Foreign affairs experience" is spoken of with bated breath, as if it were the unified field theory revealed but to a few. Actually, foreign affairs are about the same as domestic affairs, only the foreigners can't vote against you. So you can push them a little harder than domestic opponents and still get reelected.
A president comes into office and is immediately overwhelmed by a zillion professional advisers from the bureaucracy, the military, the intelligence services, the lobbyists, the congress, the press, academia, the party, and every joe citizen with access to email. There is no lack of experts on any question under the sun. The trick for the office holder, is to find the few truly knowledgeable advisers and filter out the zillions of loudmouths with mere opinions. Everyone has an opinion, only a few truly know what they are doing.
In this respect, Sarah Palin is well experienced. Taming the Alaska political machine, winning the governorship, acheiving an 80% approval rate, raising five children, dealing with a husband who races snowmobiles, and cutting a tough deal with big oil, shows a rare understanding of people and negociation therewith.
If God forbid, something should happen to McCain, Palin looks tough enough to carry on. And, she shares McCain's views, so a succeeding Palin Administration would not negate everything a McCain administration managed to accomplish. Her practical experience exceeds that of Obama.