READER TED NOLAN wonders what’s up with the Treasury Department’s sharply lower limit on Savings Bond purchases:

The annual limitation on purchases of United States Savings Bonds will be set at $5,000 per Social Security Number, effective January 1, 2008. . . .

The reduction from the $30,000 annual limit in effect for both series since 2003 was made to refocus the savings bond program on its original purpose of making these non-marketable Treasury securities available to individuals with relatively small sums to invest. Approximately 98 percent of all annual purchases of savings bonds by individuals are for $5,000 or less.

Seems odd to me, too. The announcement says the limit was last set at $5000 back in 1973. What, we’ve got so many people wanting to buy our debt that we can afford to be choosy?

UPDATE: Here’s a news story, though it doesn’t really say much that isn’t in the press release. Except this: “At a time when Americans are saving less than ever, the Treasury Department has lowered the amount that investors can spend on U.S. savings bonds in a year.” This seems like a bad idea, and I’d like to know more about the reasoning behind it. Plus this:

“Would you consider a person who buys a lot to be one of your best customers?” asked Daniel Pederson, a savings bond expert.

So why hurt your best customers?

His guess is that the strategy is to promote the sale of Treasury securities, instead of savings bonds.

Hmm.

STILL MORE Scott Beauchamp documents posted by Bob Owens.

VOLCANOES UNDER THE ICE, in Antarctica.

FIXING THE AMERICAN DIET, one kid at a time? “Don’t eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”

INDEED:

“Target the Jews” has got to be a whole chapter in the “Dictatorship for Dummies” handbook.

And Hugo Chavez has got himself a copy.

AND IT’S NOT LIKE WE HAVEN’T TRIED! “‘We cannot ignore the recent improvements both in the security and political situation in Iraq,’ Staffan de Mistura, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said in a speech to the Security Council.”

HMM: There’s this: “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration.”

And there’s this: “The stock market was in meltdown today as nearly £60billion was wiped off London shares as fears of a US recession sparked a global sell-off.”

Coincidence, I’m sure.

UPDATE: “They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.”

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN AND WHAT WAS: Bob Krumm has thoughts on Fred Thompson’s campaign.

VOTER SUPPRESSION IS EVIL, except when it isn’t.

Then there’s this.

UPDATE: Oops. The link seems to have killed Heritage’s blog — at least, it’s showing an “exceeded CPU quota” at the moment. That should fix itself soon.

FROM MARSHA GARRISON, thoughts on why marriage rates have declined, and what policy changes might reverse or mitigate this trend. (Via Larry Solum).

THE ECONOMY’S SLOWING DOWN, but the news isn’t all bad: “Venture capital investments in U.S. startups climbed to a six-year high of $29.4 billion in 2007, raising hope that ample money will still be available to back promising new ideas even if the staggering economy falls into a recession.”

BOB OWENS’ SCOTT BEAUCHAMP FOIA REQUEST has borne fruit.

ANNOUNCING THE Nebula Award nominees. I’m happy to see that Tobias Buckell’s Ragamuffin made the list, as I enjoyed that one.

UPDATE: Science fiction author Tony Daniel — author of Superluminal and Metaplanetary, both books I enjoyed — emails with a correction. Seems these aren’t quite nominees:

The way the Nebula voting works is that SFWA members formally recommend works throughout the year. After a work passes a certain threshold of member recommendations (currently, I think this is ten), it makes the preliminary ballot. The preliminary ballot is then mailed out and voted on by the members to form the final ballot – a group of four. At that time, another work is usually added by a committee appointed to make sure works of particular merit are not overlooked. (I’ve served on the screenwriting committee on three occasions, for example.) This brings the final ballot in each category to five. The other categories include the short story, novelette, novella and the screenplay (or other dramatic work).

What you’ve linked to is the preliminary ballot for novels. That list will be winnowed to four – with a fifth added by the novels committee, and that’ll make up the final ballot. The awards are going to be given out in Austin, Texas this year, I believe, on the last weekend in April.

Anyway, I think I’ve got all that right. The politicking within SFWA can be fierce at this time of year! Not that it isn’t the rest of the year, for that matter.

So I hear.

ROGER KIMBALL: “I am glad that our former paper of record is getting some small portion of the obloquy it deserves for ‘Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles,’ the front-page story it ran on January 13 inaugurating a series about the supposed violent tendencies of American soldiers who had returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Plus, don’t miss The Media Violence Project.

ONE WAY TO FINANCE YOUR NEXT RELEASE: JillsNextRecord.com.

OPINIONS ARE stubborn things.

CATO PODCAST: Ilya Shapiro on the Stoneridge decision.

PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST DEREK LOWE looks at research on aging and life extension. “Some people may not be able to get past Aubrey de Grey’s hair, and may have decided the whole subject is out on the fringe. But, increasingly, I don’t think it is. This stuff could work, eventually, and if it does, it’ll be one of the biggest inflection points in the history of the species.”

SAVE WINDOWS XP: A petition and campaign.

ANOTHER DRUG RAID GONE WRONG:

Officer Jarrod Shivers was shot and killed while executing a search warrant in Cheseapeake, Virginia Thursday night.

The suspect had no criminal record (at least in the state of Virginia). And he says in an interview from jail he had no idea the undercover cops breaking into his home were police. The suspect, 28-year-old Ryan David Frederick, also says a burglar had broken into his home earlier this week.

Though the raid was apparently part of a drug investigation, police aren’t saying what if any drugs were found. They won’t even confirm that police had the correct address. But they have arrested Frederick and charged him with first-degree murder.

Full story here. Stay tuned for more.

T.M. LUTAS is back.

A LOOK AT HUCKABEE’S EFFORT TO expand his appeal beyond evangelicals. It didn’t work.

IT’S ON! And Baldilocks is buttering the popcorn.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN CLAIMS vote irregularities in Nevada.

MICHAEL YON IS PROFILED in today’s New York Times.

He’s heading back to Iraq shortly. If you like his work, consider making a donation.