January 06, 2007

DOG BITES MAN: Media Matters Distorts Opponents' Positions.

UPDATE: Read this, too.

POWERLINE HACKED: Joe Malchow emails: "In case folks are asking, yes, PL was hacked. And probably *not* by a
fan of Mitt Romney."

HEY, MAYBE THERE'S SOMETHING TO THIS OLD-MEDIA STUFF AFTER ALL: I'm now ensconced in a posh suite in Las Vegas, where I'll spend the next couple of days wandering around the Consumer Electronics Show courtesy of Popular Mechanics, which will be doing saturation coverage. Blogging still has trouble on the 'getting someone else to spring for the suite' front. . . .

I'M GOING TO THE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, and not the Association of American Law Schools conference. But if I'd gone to AALS, I could have attended this discussion of academic freedom.

Plus, evidence that law schools are gaming the U.S. News rankings.

THE AP SEEMS TO STILL BE DISSEMBLING about Jamil Hussein, according to Dan Riehl.

IS MALIKI getting serious about the militias? That would be nice.

DO NOT PUT PEOPLE IN WASHING MACHINE: It's a roundup of wacky warning labels.

MELANIE PHILLIPS:

The fight in Washington with the army top brass has not just been over whether more or fewer troops are needed in Iraq. It’s also been over a major difference in strategic perception. In order to win in Iraq, it is essential to defeat Iran. This is for the blindingly obvious reason that the principal instigator of the war in Iraq is… Iran. I have never understood how anyone could think that you can win a war by refusing to fight the aggressors and instead running around trying vainly to put out the fires they are starting. As I said last month here and on many other occasions, the coalition cannot secure Iraq without first defeating Iran.

It has also long been clear that Iraq is merely a front in wider regional — and indeed, global — war. Iran declared war on the west in 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini announced his intention of conquering the west for Islam. The response of the west has been to ignore the fact that war was thus declared upon it, as was demonstrated by attacks upon it ever since by Iran — along with the Sunni/Wahhabi Islamists, who were both its deadly theological rivals for regional hegemony and at the same time its allies in the war against the free world.

(Via Newsbeat1).

ANN ALTHOUSE: "The cry of 'eugenics' always goes up, but what are the people who raise it really worrying about? Not the return of the Nazis. It's all-too-convenient the way the Nazis pop up to assist in making the argument you already wanted to make."

If the Nazis didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent them.

UPDATE: Bill Quick responds, but if I understand his point correctly then I think he misses mine. I was commenting -- as was Ann -- on the trivialization of the Nazis: If everyone you disagree with is a Nazi, then no one is a Nazi. I think that Bill is charging us with trivializing the Nazis, or denying their evil, which is exactly the opposite of the point we're making. But I'm blogging from an airport -- a place that subtracts at least 20 IQ points on a good day -- so maybe I'm missing something.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bill says more in the comments to his post, but I think we're still at cross purposes. Yes, there are Nazi-level horrors in the world now. But -- as Ann notes -- the actual topic under discussion, genetic choice in IVF, isn't one of them. To be a Nazi kind of thing, the government would be making the decisions, and killing people who resisted. Thus, Nazi analogies in this context, though predictable, are also silly.

ENERGY PROBLEMS for Iran?

PREDICTIONS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD IN SCIENCE, from -- who else -- Popular Science.

GEORGETOWN: Home of rich diversity!

A COOL-SOUNDING underwater photography contest. The deadline is tomorrow.

And speaking of photography, Lisa Scheer has some nice stuff posted. We share an affinity for odd signs and graffiti.

STEM CELL UPDATE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, (free link) reports:

For all the bluster over Iraq, taxes and budgets, the first direct confrontation between the Republican president and the new Democratic Congress may come on an entirely different subject that has gotten relatively little attention recently: stem-cell research.

That reality will become more clear this coming week, when the House has pledged to take up a bill expanding federal support for embryonic stem-cell research. The issue -- sensitive because many social conservatives and religious leaders believe it is morally wrong to destroy human embryos to extract stem cells -- has prompted the one and only veto President Bush has issued in his term. House leaders now propose to pass the same measure the president killed with that veto last year.

I think the Democrats have Bush in a difficult position here.

January 05, 2007

PELOSI'S APPROVAL RATING: lower than Bush's? You wouldn't know that from the press coverage.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh notes that things aren't quite as close as they appear. He's right to note that, and I should have followed the links myself. I'm guessing, though, that these numbers would be getting a lot more press attention anyway if the party affiliations were reversed.

DUKE (NON) RAPE UPDATE: Lots of new developments at K.C. Johnson's blog.

TERRY MCAULIFFE charges John Kerry with "political malpractice." Seems about right to me.

PHOTO- AND VIDEO-BLOGGING Schwarzenegger's inauguration.

"APPLEGATE?"

MORE IRAQ REPORTING from Bill Ardolino.

THE PLASTIC TURKEY THAT wouldn't die.

PODCAST QUESTIONS UPDATE: Various questions are answered! First, have I considered doing a podcast using Apple's GarageBand software, now that I have a Macbook Pro? Yes. Haven't done it yet, but I've fooled around with the software a bit, and it's enough like Acid that it's easy to figure out.

What kind of microphones do I recommend? Good question. If money's no object, an ElectroVoice RE-20 is a good way to go. I don't use those, because money is an object, and besides I already have some other mikes. I use an AKG C3000, and Helen uses a Marshall MXL microphone. For guests I've used an SM-57 because I have several of those utility mikes lying around, but I've just recently bought this Sennheiser on my brother's recommendation. I love the SM-57 as an instrument mike but I've never been crazy about it as a vocal mike. For vocal podcasting, most any microphone is okay, but ideally it shouldn't have too much of a proximity effect -- in which low frequencies are boosted when you're close to the mike -- because people you're interviewing tend to shift around. Whatever you get, use some kind of pop screen and you'll improve your sound a lot, at low cost.

For sound treatment -- the new podcast space is a bit echo-y -- I had planned to stick up some Auralex foam, but an InstaPundit reader who's at Ready Acoustics offered me a customized sound treatment if I'd do a review. I've gotten some of their bass traps and high frequency panels via FedEx now, but haven't put them up. I'll let you know how it turns out -- they're almost certainly overkill for the space, but it should be interesting. The 3D graphic of the room that they constructed after I sent them photos and measurements was kind of cool, too.

If you're starting from scratch, you might want to consider a podcasting kit like this one. I haven't used it, but it's probably quite good, and quite reasonably priced. It says something about the popularity of podcasting that many music dealers and manufacturers are offering products aimed specifically at that market. An earlier post on this topic can be found here.

UPDATE: Tom Spaulding -- who as John Fogerty's guitar tech has lots more audio cred than I do -- writes: "I love the M-Audio gear I own. Check this out: M-Audio Podcast Factory." Looks like a good, cheap solution. I actually use the Mobile-Pre USB audio interface myself. It's a bit noisy for music applications, but fine for voice.

MEDICAL TOURISM is accelerating. "So we should all be very pleased to see Asian biotech and medical entrepreneurs eating the very lunch out from underneath late-stage researchers and new businesses in the US and Europe. It's the only way that those insulated folk inside the regulatory fence are going to feel any meaningful pressure to help tear it down - and thus better serve us over the long term."

JOHN HINDERAKER ON SURGE TALK: "I don't particularly object to sending more troops to Iraq, but to what end? As long as we implicitly accept the proposition that violence in Baghdad means our effort is a failure, we put our fate in the hands of the extremists on both sides. If some Sunnis and Shiites are determined to kill one another, I doubt that 9,000 more troops, or even a much larger number, will stop them."

He also observes: "If the principal tangible difference between the President's position and the Democrats' is the addition of 9,000 troops on top of the 140,000 already in Iraq, then the differences are even narrower than I thought." Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Bill Quick thinks the Democrats are being played. But he's just as uncertain as me about why Bush has given Syria and Iran a pass.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ivo Daalder wants failure in Iraq before 2008. Or something like that.

MORE: Okay, looking at this the next morning my characterization of Daalder is a bit unfair. He already thinks it's a failure -- even though he supported the invasion of Iraq -- he just wants to be sure it's seen as a failure before the election.

STILL MORE: Reader Rachel Walker emails: "Why are people (especially Democrats) declaring Iraq a failure and want Americans to leave? Don't they realize that A) we will have a real genocidal issue over there and B) the Dems will have to deal with it sooner or later? Thank you very much."

I think that too many people in both parties are more worried about the 2008 elections than about the actual war. This is a very bad thing.

PAJAMAS VIDEO: Richard Miniter interviews Flemming Rose, "the man principally responsible for the publication of the notorious Mohammed cartoons in that paper last year."

JOURNALISM VS. JAWBONING.

FRANCE AND GENOCIDE in Rwanda.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR A VISITING PROFESSOR IN BUSINESS LAW at the UT Law College.

PELOSI ON MOLLOHAN: What's a little federal investigation?

BUT IT'S NOT A PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR: "Assailants gunned down a Muslim preacher known for his anti-Hamas views on Friday, witnesses said, moments after he exited a mosque where he delivered a sermon criticizing the Islamic group's role in a wave of Palestinian violence. The slaying came as thousands of mourners marched through Gaza City carrying the bodies of seven Fatah men killed in a standoff with Hamas. Thursday's gunfight was the bloodiest single battle in weeks of factional fighting, and Fatah said it was suspending talks with Hamas until the assailants are brought to justice."

WHY ARE AMERICANS SIMULTANEOUSLY OPTIMISTIC AND PESSIMISTIC: "A new AP-AOL News Poll finds that while most Americans said 2006 was a bad year for the country, three-fourths thought it had been a good one for them and their families."

I think the first commenter has the answer.

BARNEY FRANK ACCUSES BUSH OF ETHNIC CLEANSING in Louisiana. I guess by letting Ray Nagin get reelected, thus ensuring that the place would remain a disaster . . . .

OH NOOOOOO: "Big Oil profits in danger as price of crude slides."

A LOOK AT THE MIDDLE EAST, HOMOSEXUALITY, and "Occidentalism."

I SCORED A "21" ON THAT TEST TOO, though I have to say it was a pretty dumb test. But does this make me "objectively moderate?" I prefer to think of myself as extremist, but in an eclectic fashion.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh comments.

DON SURBER: "Forget that investigation of Mollohan. He now chairs the subcommittee that oversees the FBI budget. Some swamps are drained, others are protected wetlands."

IRAN IS DENYING reports that Khamenei is dead.

A LOOK AT North Korea's biochemical threat.

MICHAEL TOTTEN REPORTS FROM BEIRUT: "It's like a Phish concert for terrorists."

ARE TODAY'S ELECTRONIC GADGETS WORTH THE MONEY? USA Today says that some are and some aren't:

Tech companies constantly revamp their product lines, as anyone who has ever paid top dollar for a cutting-edge device knows. Driven by brutal competition, they release faster, cheaper, more feature-laden gadgets each year. More than 2,700 companies are expected to unveil their latest and greatest beginning Sunday at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is expected to draw more than 2,700 exhibitors.

The show's 140,000 attendees will see firsthand the effects of Moore's Law, an industry rule of thumb that says electronics roughly double their performance every two years.

But how much have they actually improved this year? Is it worth paying for a pricey, top-of-the-line camera, TV or other device that may be outdated — or obsolete — in a few months? Or would it be better to wait until next year to buy? USA TODAY asked the experts to find out.

I'm going to be attending the Consumer Electronics Show myself, as part of the Popular Mechanics contingent -- and yes, it was awfully nice of the PM folks to invite me along. I'm actually going to be doing more gadget reviews, etc., for them in the future.

UPDATE: What about my TCS Daily column? You may well ask. ("I am asking." "And well you may!") As some readers have noticed -- and thanks for that! -- I'm not doing the weekly column there anymore. I liked it, and Nick Schulz is a fine editor, but I wrote that weekly column for five years straight and it was starting to turn into a bit of a grind. Nick was gracious enough to let me go, and I think he's better off taking the money he was paying me and using it to hire fresh new writers, especially as he has a special talent for finding new voices and encouraging them. I've missed the column a bit these past few weeks, but Helen says I'm a lot more fun on weekends. A column's a lot more work and stress than an equivalent number of words in blog-post form; I'm not sure why, it just is.

I wrote a while back that I was trying to reduce my workload a bit, and I still am. When Helen was sick, this kind of work was a nice escape from thinking about our troubles. Now that she's doing better, I find I'd rather spend a bit less time at the keyboard.

GREG SARGENT EMAILS: "Glenn, I think I've proven that the 'lonely Kerry' story is bogus."

Here's his post.

UPDATE: Bryan Preston responds.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Tom Nesbit emails:

The explanation that Kerry sought out reporters at the meal, to the exclusion of troops, is just further proof of Kerry’s political tin ear. Why in the world would he take the bait over a relatively obscure picture to reinforce the idea that he does not care for the troops? He is in Iraq, in the presence of soldiers, and he chooses instead to eat with reporters. He admits to purposely avoiding the soldiers. What do you want to bet there will be another clarification within 48 hours that only compounds Kerry’s aloofness? Is it a tempest in a teapot? Sure, if it were any other capable national politician. Kerry, though, might just be able to make it a full fledged storm.

Kerry does have special talents in that direction.

THE JOY OF CLERKSHIP.

GOOGLE INTERVIEW HORROR STORIES: The one about the military veteran is particularly bad.

Amusingly, one of the Google ads accompanying the story is for jobs at . . . Google!

"CULTURE OF CORRUPTION" UPDATE: A standing ovation for Rep. William "Freezer Cash" Jefferson.

BORDER POST OVERRUN: "A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico. According to the Border Patrol, an unknown number of gunmen attacked the site in the state's West Desert Region around 11 p.m. The site is manned by National Guardsmen. Those guardsmen were forced to retreat." Seems like a big story, if true.

IN THE MAIL: Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule's Terror in the Balance: Security, Liberty, and the Courts. It's a rather contrarian take on the question of civil liberties and the war on terror.

MARY KATHARINE HAM says that the Washington Post was unfair to her church.

SPACE DEBRIS:

Pieces of a spent Russian rocket reentered the atmosphere over Colorado and Wyoming early on Thursday, showering parts of the western United States with space debris, U.S. space monitors said.

Pieces of the Russian SL-4 spacecraft that survived their blazing descent intact most likely landed in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, U.S. Northern Command spokeswoman Air Force Major April Cunningham said.

One of my space law students a few years back brought in a "Skylab Crash Helmet" -- a novelty item sold back when Skylab was about to reenter. Bring 'em back!

MAOISTS VS. GAYS: Many gay activists supported the guerrillas, only to be turned upon when they weren't needed any more. So maybe gay rights supporters around the world should hire mercenaries . . . .

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Andy Roth reports that Jim Moran seems to be paying the price for his pre-election pork promise that: “When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I'm going to earmark the shit out of it.”

Moran in fact got shut out of the subcommittee chairmanships. That's probably a good sign, suggesting that the Democratic leadership is at least ashamed of pork, something that the GOP leadership wasn't for most of the last Congress. Unfortunately, as Roth also notes, the records of those who did get important Appropriations positions aren't all that great. Still, this counts for something, I guess.

ARNOLD KLING: Two strategies for avoiding truth.

Some of Kling's thoughts are echoed in this essay, and in this shorter piece.

A NEW INTERNET CRACKDOWN IN IRAN.

MORE ON COMPACT FLUORESCENT LIGHT: Megan McArdle doesn't like it: "The problem is that after five minutes of sitting under a compact flourescent bulb, I feel like an extra in a Fellini film. I use one in the range hood, and if I had closet lights, I'd install them there. But there's no way I'm using them as my primary form of illumination unless legally forced to do so; it's just too murderously depressing."

I put one in my study; it sucks. I put a different brand in Helen's study -- looks great. Put a third brand downstairs -- it sucks even more than the one in my study. I'm told that the quality of light issue is a lot less when it's in a lamp with a shade than when it's in an overhead fixture. Still experimenting. . . .

DANIEL DREZNER on the Democrats' trade policy: "Baucus' embrace of a service pact with the EU, coming so soon after Angela Merkel's quasi-TAFTA proposal, makes me wonder if the Bush administration will become more enthusiastic about the proposal -- or run away, scared it's an EU-Blue State conspiracy."

JOHN CONYERS wants to bring European-style hate speech laws to America.

BLOGGING THE DETROIT AUTO SHOW: At Popular Mechanics.

DARFUR UPDATE: Tim Collins calls for an army of mercenaries: " So, for $1.3bn - approximately £700m at current exchange rates and half of Sudan's military spend - you could field, feed and sustain an army for a year that could beat anything in Africa , permitting you to deal with the Sudanese forces and their attendant militias. A cost too far? Well Live Aid raised $300m in a single concert to buy food for a starving Ethiopia in 1985. In the UK alone we've apparently just drunk more than £1bn in booze over Christmas. So put in those terms it is not so much."

There are, as he notes, legal and diplomatic issues.

January 04, 2007

DEAN BARNETT OFFERS F.A.Q.'s on the new Congress. "Pelosi’s smackdown of CAIR the other day was a symbol that the Democrats know their role has changed."

THOUGHTS ON THE MILITARY, from Victor Davis Hanson.

50 MARATHONS IN 50 DAYS: This guy's a machine. Or maybe an eating machine:

You wouldn't believe the stuff Karnazes consumes on a run. He carries a cell phone and regularly orders an extra-large Hawaiian pizza. The delivery car waits for him at an intersection, and when he gets there he grabs the pie and rams the whole thing down his gullet on the go. The trick: Roll it up for easy scarfing. He'll chase the pizza with cheesecake, cinnamon buns, chocolate éclairs, and all-natural cookies. The high-fat pig-out fuels Karnazes' long jaunts, which can burn more than 9,000 calories a day.

I'm speechless.

"PLEASE DON'T MAKE BLOGS INTO FACULTY MEETINGS:" I don't think we should make anything into faculty meetings, except perhaps as a last desperate weapon of war.

WES CLARK'S FOOT IN MOUTH: At least this time around he'll know about the hand sanitizer.

JAMIL HUSSEIN: IS HE OR ISN'T HE? Bob Owens has some thoughts.

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus on Hussein's apparent existence: "That's one important component of credibility!"

I'm expecting Michelle Malkin to get to the bottom of this.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ OF THE BELMONT CLUB talks about Iraq and Andrew Sullivan on Hugh Hewitt's show. Audio at the link.

DON SURBER: Blogs can save newspapers:

One of the things I have seen going recently are newspapers. Particularly afternoon newspapers. Did I mention the Daily Mail publishes in the afternoons? If the Dead Tree Media is a herd of dinosaurs, the PM newspaper is the sick member of the herd.

PMs have been sick for the 30 years that I have had the pleasure to be a newspaperman.

Blogs could save them.

But for newspapers to be saved, newspaper people will have to get over their fear of blogs, as Surber has done.

CINDY SHEEHAN, making Democrats look good:

The Sheehanoids managed to cow Rep. Rahm Emanuel into shutting down his press conference. And from the Angry Left bloggers who once cheered her on: silence. Browsing the homepages of the Daily Kos, Atrios, Talking Points Memo and the Puffington Host, we can't find a single mention of the erstwhile moonbat heartthrob.

It comes as a relief to realize that many of those who once treated Sheehan as a heroine did so merely out of partisanship, not hatred of country.

Indeed.

IRAN'S SUPREME AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI is reported to be dead.

UPDATE: What does this mean? Is it true? I don't know, but oil prices are down.

DANIEL GLOVER looks at rumblings in the Republican blogosphere.

Plus, Patrick Ruffini returns to blogging.

MOVING THE GOALPOSTS in Congress.

VICTORY IS SWEET for Dean Barnett. "After almost three years of blogging, I have taken home one of those prized 'Wanker of the Day' awards that that Atrios guy gives out. I couldn't be prouder."

HDTV ON YOUR LAPTOP: I review an interesting gadget for Popular Mechanics.

UPDATE: Reader Gary Boyd emails:

Got one of the Pinnacle Pro Sticks for my son for Christmas. Rather than buy a TV for his dorm room this seemed a much better deal, particularly since he has an enhanced laptop display. Set up time was reasonable and the mini-remote works great. Both analog and HD signals come in from the local channels with the included antenna and the cable hookup is painless.

Highly recommended.

Thanks for the second opinion.

THE NEGROPONTE SHUFFLE: Bob Owens has it all figured out.

IN THE MAIL: (Actually, something I ordered for a project I'm working on). Travis S. Taylor et al.'s book, An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion.

I had an interesting discussion on this topic with some NORAD guys when I spoke at the Air Force Academy several years ago. The book looks okay, but not as focused as I'd hoped -- though admittedly the topic itself is pretty unfocused. The Amazon reader reviews are good.

DEAN BARNETT: "If you’re looking for a blogger to feel some pity for Saddam Hussein because his executioners were primitive and rude, you’ve come to the wrong place."

SINCE THE DEMOCRATS WON, NOBODY CARES ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOTING FRAUD ANY MORE, but the problem hasn't gone away. Had just a few thousand votes in some key districts gone the other way, we'd be hearing about Diebold conspiracies ad nauseam. But regardless, the subject remains important, and it deserves attention between election cycles, when there's actually time to do something about it. Certainly we need to get our act together before 2008. And, of course, there are lots of non-electronic problems, too.

More on that subject here.

JULES CRITTENDEN: "Iran wants war. Iran just doesn't want to fight it."

It's been obvious that Iran is behind much of the internecine slaughter in Iraq. I don't understand why we haven't been returning the favor by fomenting insurrection in Iran -- or what made the mullahs so confident that we wouldn't. I continue to wonder if they've managed to deter us from significant action, somehow.

A LETTER TO LOU DOBBS on the middle class.

SOME QUESTIONS, from Victor Davis Hanson.

A SEMESTER LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT: Don Surber on Duke University:

The DNA cleared them in April. I saw it then. Any reasonable person saw it. Helen Keller would have seen it. Instead the anti-jock, anti-male, anti-white, and anti-intellectual biases politicized the case and it continued.

The cowardly university president and his silent partners — where were the Duke law professors? — just killed Duke. The school’s new name is Duke lacrosse team. The players aren’t to blame; those who refused to speak up for the players are.

Yes, this has been a PR disaster for Duke, and the Duke Administration has helped to make it so.

JEFF BEZOS' SECRETIVE PRIVATE SPACE COMPANY, BLUE ORIGIN, has unveiled its new spacecraft.

More here. Bezos says his goal is to lower costs so that ordinary people can travel into space. I'm cool with that.

Plus, he's hiring!

AT BLACKFIVE, some thoughts on strategy for the Long War.

Plus, some thoughts from The Belmont Club. Also here.

January 03, 2007

ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS protesting the Democrats. Well, they did vote for the war.

As Ann Althouse comments: "Aaagghh! Now, everyone's sick of Cindy Sheehan. " Video here.

The antiwar crowd destroyed the Democrats once; they're set to do it again.

MAKE YOUR CAR a wi-fi hotspot.

UPDATE: Plus, wired beaches.

NEWS FROM SOMALIA:

There was not a hijab or niqab in sight as clubbers at the Global Dance Hall worked up a sweat to gangsta rap and Kenyan hip-hop. Instead, women shook their hair and stole glances at the men lining the wall.

Quite what Mogadishu’s Union of Islamic Courts would have made of the occasional flash of ankle beneath the long dresses is anyone’s guess. But no one cared as they celebrated their new freedom.

It's something.

The Glenn and Helen Show: Kay Hymowitz on Marriage and Caste in America

Does marriage still matter? We talk to the Manhattan Institute's Kay Hymowitz about her book, Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age. Hymowitz talks about the role of marriage in childrearing, wealth accumulation, and more -- and how the unequal popularity of marriage is making the rich richer and the poor poorer. It's interesting stuff, though I remain unpersuaded that gay marriage is any threat, and remain unclear on how that fits with the rest of her analysis.

You can listen directly -- no downloads needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the file by clicking right here, or you can get a lo-fi version suitable for dialup, cellphones, etc. by going here and selecting lo-fi. A free iTunes subscription -- the best way to go -- is available by clicking here.

This podcast is sponsored by Volvo Motors at volvocars.us.

Music is by The Have Nots.

As always, my lovely and talented cohost is taking comments and suggestions.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Duke does the right thing at last:

For the second time in as many weeks, the Duke administration has taken a powerful step toward bringing this disastrous affair to a close. This afternoon, on behalf of President Brodhead, Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta formally invited Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann to return for the spring term.

The symbolism of this move cannot be missed: with the decision, the Duke administration is formally saying that the presumption of innocence no longer can be ignored and strongly implying--through its deeds--that no one in the upper levels at Duke any longer believes in the credibility of Mike Nifong's allegations. Coupled with Brodhead's repeated demands that Nifong recuse himself, this act signals a dramatic, and welcome, shift by the administration on the case, and a statement that from here on out, Brodhead will stand on behalf of due process.

Better late than never. But still late.

UPDATE: Reader Brian Gates is unimpressed:

Wow. The school canceled their sports season, the faculty publicly condemned them, and they had to leave the university. But a year later, Duke has decided these young men are entitled to the presumption of innocence. That's mighty white of them.

I'm no law prof, but isn't the presumption of innocence most useful before a pile of facts come out indicating that the accused are, in fact, innocent?

Yes.

CLAYTON CRAMER is planning his book tour, in support of his new book, Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie, so if you're on the East Coast and would like him to stop by, drop him a line.

PAJAMAS MEDIA: Free Blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman! I've written about him before, but he's still in jail. Follow the link to see what you can do.

THE "REVERSE SUCKUPATHON:" This seems rather common.

DARFUR UPDATE: The International Community -- a guarantor of inaction:

Some non-military options may otherwise be proposed. Travel bans may be imposed on military and civilian leaders, while assets held by Sudanese leaders overseas may be frozen. Most effective might be measures to target Sudan’s oil revenues, which provide the government with most of its cash. Sales of equipment to maintain the country’s oil infrastructure could be limited, for instance. And in extremis Port Sudan could be blockaded, thus choking off all of Sudan’s oil exports at one stroke.

But most of would depend on getting an international consensus. China, Malaysia, India and Russia are all deeply involved in Sudan’s booming oil industry. These are unlikely to support any sanctions that would hurt their own considerable interests. China, which imports about 5% of its oil from Sudan, has been a staunch supporter of Khartoum. Western countries might try unilateral action, but this is rarely effective. America has maintained comprehensive economic sanctions against Sudan since the mid-1990s, yet the economy is booming.

Nor, even if outsiders could agree on rhetoric for a plan B, is there any guarantee that action would follow. Too often, foreign (and in particular Western) countries have talked tough on Darfur but done nothing. In the past the West has bullied the Sudanese government into making commitments, such as to disarm the janjaweed, but when Khartoum failed to do so there was no follow-up. One reason for Khartoum’s assertiveness against the UN in Darfur is that it has learnt that the West, bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, seems to be full of empty threats on this issue. If that perception does not change, nothing else will move fast.

The real problem is that nobody cares enough to do anything.

JAMIL HUSSEIN UPDATE: Michelle Malkin and Bryan Preston are going to Iraq. As far as I know, Kathleen Carroll of AP isn't.

UPDATE: Read this post, too.

SOME LOVELY PHOTOS, from Kenneth Parker.

LARRY LESSIG at the Berlin Hackers' Conference. (Via Cory Doctorow).

UPDATE: Lessig's pretty hard on the Democrats and Howard Berman over intellectual property, which makes me wonder -- yet again -- why the Republican Congress never took the opportunity to expand fair use rights, gut the DMCA, and generally stick it to the entertainment industries, which are a crucial source of funding for the Democratic Party and the left generally. It's not like this tactic wasn't obvious. (I wrote in 2002: "Will Republicans take advantage of this opportunity? That depends on whether they want to be a majority party - or history." Well. . . .) Plus, it was the right thing to do.

And read this, too. And for some further thinking on the general subject from an original-intent perspective -- rejected, alas, by the Supreme court -- see this article that Rob Merges and I wrote.

THE CONCOURSE OF HYPOCRISY: This is why I drive a hybrid. And avoid dumb bumperstickers!

Personally, though, this would have been my pick for first place.

KOFI'S GONE, BUT HIS SCANDALS REMAIN: "The UN said today that it would launch an investigation after the Daily Telegraph reported allegations that UN personnel have abused children in southern Sudan. Members of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Sudan are facing allegations of raping and abusing children as young as 12, The Daily Telegraph reported today. . . . This paper has learnt of more than 20 victims’ accounts claiming that some peacekeeping and civilian staff based in the town are regularly picking up young children in their UN vehicles and forcing them to have sex. It is thought that hundreds of children may have been abused."

If these were U.S. troops, it would be proof that Bush is Hitler, and America is evil. Since we're talking about the U.N., though, it's just one of those regrettable incidents that can't be helped, really.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Hanging with Hezbollah.

The first time I met Hussein Naboulsi, Hezbollah’s media relations liaison, he was perfectly friendly. But he later threatened me with physical violence because I cracked a joke about Hezbollah on my blog. On another occasion I was detained for two hours by Hezbollah because they suspected one of my photojournalist colleagues was a Jew. A reporter friend (and I’ll keep his name out of this) was harassed because of an entirely innocuous article he wrote about them for a mainstream left-wing American magazine. Chris Allbritton, who works on occasion for Time magazine, wrote the following on his blog during the July War: “Hizbullah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”

This is how Hezbollah treats Western journalists. I’d say I’m surprised more journalists don’t mention this sort of thing in their articles. But most journalists don’t write first-person narratives. Industry rules generally don’t allow them to describe these kinds of incidents.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that if the Israelis were acting similarly, industry rules would require them to describe these kinds of incidents. But read the whole thing to find out why hassling bloggers is different.

SCIENTISTS TO CELEBRITIES: Keep your mouths shut about science unless you actually know what you're talking about. "Sense About Science has urged stars not to dip their toes into tricky scientific issues without checking their facts first. Here are some examples put forward by the charity of dubious science uttered by celebrities - together with the views of its experts." Follow the link for some celebrity-embarrassing moments.

MORE COMPETITION FOR GOOGLE: As I've noted before, the barriers to entry are low.

I'm not sure I buy the Coca-Cola analogy to Google presented here. Store shelf space is actually very expensive, so barriers to entry are much higher in the soft drink world. And Coke's taste is pretty consistent -- Google, by acting in ways that dilute its trustworthiness, is tampering with its own brand integrity in ways that Coke never did, except perhaps in the case of the "New Coke" fiasco.

REAL HEROISM in New York.

TOP FIVE ROBOTS YOU CAN BUY RIGHT NOW: By Daniel Wilson, author of the indispensable How to Survive a Robot Uprising, and the forthcoming Where's my Jetpack? I've been asking that question for years.

SYMPATHY FOR Monica Lewinsky.

Plus, fighting the matriarchy.

THOUGHTS ON bloggers, newspapers, and accountability.

HOWARD KURTZ ON GERALD FORD REVISIONISM: "Another way of putting that is that many journalists, three decades later, are admitting that they misjudged Ford and were wrong about the Nixon pardon."
They said nice things about Reagan after he died, too, despite hating him in office, and they're already gearing up to do the same thing with George H.W. Bush, who was treated quite unfairly during his term. (See, e.g., the supermarket scanner story). It's as if the only good Republican President is a dead Republican President.

UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails:

The reason for the media praising dead republican presidents is to make the current Republican president look bad in comparison. This is a twofer -- you show that you're not prejudiced against republicans, and you paint the current president out to be a traitor to the better traditions of his party, even if those better traditions are only recognized posthumously.

Indeed.

A POLITICAL SCANDAL IN BOSTON!

Romney has allowed potentially unqualified people to hobnob! I wonder if the Globe is planning on publishing a special edition to publicize its latest reporting coup.

I smell a Pulitzer! Er, or something. As Dean Barnett comments: "It's not exactly stealing turkeys from the needy."

AT POLLSTER.COM, Mark Blumenthal tries to unravel the conflicting Iowa poll data. My explanation: People just don't care that much about the 2008 elections yet.

EMBEDDED BLOGGER BILL ARDOLINO: "I just got back from a first mounted patrol/IED hunt in and around Fallujah."

Read the whole thing. And if you like his reporting, consider making a donation, since that's what's supporting his work.

A NOT-SO-FOND FAREWELL to Eliot Spitzer: "Spitzer did some good but also a lot of harm to Wall Street and beyond. Competing financial centres, possibly including the rapidly-growing hub of Dubai, will rush in to fill the gap as capital becomes ever more fluid in this information age."

A SENSE OF PROPORTION, at Reuters.

LIVING LONGER BY STAYING IN SCHOOL:

The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income.

Year after year, in study after study, says Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, education “keeps coming up.”

And, health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to be crucial — money and health insurance, for example, pale in comparison.

Dr. Smith explains: “Giving people more Social Security income, or less for that matter, will not really affect people’s health. It is a good thing to do for other reasons but not for health.”

Health insurance, too, he says, “is vastly overrated in the policy debate.”

Instead, Dr. Smith and others say, what may make the biggest difference is keeping young people in school. A few extra years of school is associated with extra years of life and vastly improved health decades later, in old age. . . . “If you were to ask me what affects health and longevity,” says Michael Grossman, a health economist at the City University of New York, “I would put education at the top of my list.”

I'm not sure that the causal relationship is there. It may just be that idiots are more likely to drop out of school, and also to die young as a consequence of idiotic behavior. As John Wayne said, life is tough, and it's tougher when you're stupid.

MORE THOUGHTS ON STATELESS WAR-FIGHTING, from Josh Manchester. His reference to the Pablo Escobar approach is interesting.

SPECIAL TREATMENT for Suzanne Magaziner on a DUI charge?

SPIDERMAN AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION: If you think that this story line parallels what's happening in America today, then you're definitely in comic-book territory.

UPDATE: Frank J. emails: "It should be noted that Rumsfeld is apparently opposed to the meta-human registration act because here he is pictured with Spider-man and Captain America who are leaders against the regulation (not a photoshop... sadly)."

Isn't that whole plotline a shameless ripoff of The Incredibles anyway?

RUSSIA: The leader in spacecraft launches.

DON SURBER ON GRIM MILESTONES: "Hussein's carnage averaged 70 to 125 civilian deaths every day for the 8,000 days he reigned. His 20,000 civilian deaths a year (on average) were considered 'peace, while last year, under war, there were 14,298 civilian deaths."

January 02, 2007

A TRANSATLANTIC Free Trade Area? " Now I'm beginning to wonder if John O'Sullivan knew something I did not 18 months ago. I hope so -- for one thing, I could then look forward to [hearing] Sherrod Brown complain about Polish plumbers."

JOHN BROCKMAN ROUNDS UP THINGS TO BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT. It's interesting reading.

UH OH: "Today, amid a global oil boom, Mexico can barely keep up with its usual production, and it certainly can produce no additional oil or other energy. . . . You think Iran and Saudi Arabia are running out of oil? You think Venezuela is an oil disaster? Well, they are. But just check out the mess in Mexico."

Sounds like we should be working on oil shale and tar sands, and building new nuclear plants, while we still have time.

OBAMA/OSAMA CONFUSION at CNN.

UPDATE: More here.

DEMOCRATS AND ETHICS: "If Democrats don't seize this rare opportunity, their party will pay for a long time. Not only will they disillusion their own supporters, but, more important, the angry centrists of the Ross Perot stripe who voted the Republicans out last year will either go back to the GOP or seek other options."

I think that's right. (Via CQ).

HOW TRUE: "At every historic juncture since Israel was created in 1948, rhetoric has taken precedence over pragmatism in the Arab world. As a result, every one of these historic junctions has resulted, without exception, in material defeat for the Palestinians."

THOUGHTS ON PROTECTIONISM AND TRAFFIC, from Daniel Drezner.

MARK TAPSCOTT ON KATRINA FRAUD: I TOLD YOU SO!

Remember the news photo of Bush flying over New Orleans and looking down on the devastation? He got lots of grief for not going there and being physically on the ground in the aftermath of the storm.

I told colleagues at the time that the attitude embodied by that picture could cost the Republicans control of Congress because I knew the billions in disaster aid that would follow would become a nightmare of waste, fraud and abuse unless the whole thing was done out in the open.

It was that same attitude of resistance to openness that led the GOP congressional majority to refuse to come clean on earmarks and to their view that they could buy their way to re-election with boondoggles and billions of new federal spending just like the Democrats had done for 40 years before them.

But have they learned their lesson yet?

A GRIM MILESTONE that the news media missed.

PATTERICO POSTS A YEAR-IN-REVIEW assessment of the Los Angeles Times.

MY MOTHER WAS RECENTLY COMPLAINING that nobody in her generation (just pre-Baby Boom) has made it to positions of power. With the new Congress, that turns out not to be the case.

CASTRO'S HEALTH MAY BE DUBIOUS, but Castro rumors are flourishing.

JAMIL HUSSEIN UPDATE: The Associated Press is playing The Black Knight.

Readers, however, are likely to look at its allegedly impressive edifice of reporters, editors, and fact-checking and conclude, "It's only a model!"

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: "I think I have a solution. The AP reports that Jamil is dead. Then Bob Woodward can interview him. That should clear up all the questions."

BLOGCRITICS names the best films of 2006.

I'm guessing that Roger Simon wouldn't include Dreamgirls.

BILL ARDOLINO continues to blog from Iraq.

JAMES WOOLSEY: "Bet on major progress toward independence, spurred by market forces and a portfolio of rapidly developing oil-replacing technologies."

IN THE MAIL: An advance copy of Brian Doherty's new book, Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. Looks very interesting.

ANOTHER TEST FOR PELOSI:

There is so much wrong with the Conyers situation that Pelosi shouldn’t have to think twice about nixing Conyers’ chairmanship. Let us look at how the Conyers scandal epitomizes the ethics mess in the House:

First, releasing its report late on Friday before the New Year’s holiday weekend made it clear that the House “Ethics” Committee intended to minimize public understanding of the Conyers scandal. This is classic Washington Establishment manipulation of the news cycle to insulate itself against public accountability.

Second, Conyers responded to the “Ethics” committee by “accepting responsibility” for a “lack of clarity” in asking aides to work on his re-election campaign while on the official payroll instead of going on a campaign staff, as the law requires, and to do personal chores for him. The allegations came from senior staff members, including a former chief of staff, not interns or other short-term aides who might have questionable motives.

Third, the “Ethics” committee report also concerned a second investigation of Conyers from 2003 on allegations that his aides also worked on the Carol Mosely-Braun presidential campaign and JoAnn Watson’s Detroit City Council race. Would Conyers have applied the same slipshod legal standards to his Bush impeachment effort?

Fourth, the Conyers scandal shows it’s still business as usual for the “Ethics” committee. Pelosi should demand that Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the committee leaders who signed off on the Conyers report, be removed permanently from the panel and barred from leadership of other House panels.

Finally, Pelosi should heed former White House chief of staff and ex-congressman Leon Panetta, who said “you can attack one party for having a lack of ethics, but if any of your own members have problems, it dulls the message with the American people, they begin to put everybody in the same box.” In other words, whenever one member of the House has an ethics problem, it damages the credibility of all members of the House, including most especially its most visible leader, the speaker.

Jim Wright and Dennis Hastert both suffered from that problem. So will Pelosi, if she's not careful.

MY COLLEAGUE JOAN HEMINWAY'S BOOK, Martha Stewart's Legal Troubles, is now out. Our podcast on the book, and on overcriminalization of corporate matters, and life in general, can be found here.

YESTERDAY I mentioned a book on space that I'd like to see. Turns out it's on the way.

EASON JORDAN: "If an Iraqi police captain by the name of Jamil Hussein exists, there is no convincing evidence of it - and that means the Associated Press has a journalistic scandal on its hands that will fester until the AP deals with it properly."

And he should know about such things.

POLITICIANS' PROMISES HAVE SHORT LIFETIMES: "As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking. . . . instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories."

JAMES MCCORMICK REVIEWS Mark Steyn's America Alone: "In more academic hands, America Alone would have been longer on statistics and historical references, and much shorter on wit and clarity. But in our current political environment, it’s hard to imagine an academic book, drawing on the same facts and arguments, climbing onto the bestsellers lists as quickly as this one. This will be the book that gets the arguments out in front of the general public in a palatable, even amusing, way. And because of the harmony of Steyn’s argument with the broader historical/technical discussions in the Anglosphere Challenge, Mark Steyn will be the leading proponent for American (and secondarily Anglosphere) exceptionalism over the next few years."

BILL HOBBS HAS NEW BLOGGING GIGS at ElephantBiz and EcoTotality.

A BIGGER ARMY?

Now that U.S. Army brass have come out in favor of increasing the size of the force, there is all sorts of chatter about where the recruits are going to come from. Well, they're coming from the same place they've always come from. Today, the military has 2.2 million active duty and reserve troops, out of a population of 300 million. That means, out of every million Americans, 7,334 of them are military. But at the end of the Cold War, fifteen years ago, the military had 3.7 million troops, out of a population of 250 million. That was 14,800 military personnel for every million Americans. Then, and now, the military depended on volunteers. The "shortage of volunteers" the media talks about, does not exist. In the last fifteen years, the military kept raising its standards (mostly in terms of education, and scores on military aptitude exams) in order to exclude recruits it believed would be less successful as soldiers. Lower the standards back to 1991 levels, and you have all the troops you need.

But the military, particularly the army, likes the higher standards. This is something that is little discussed, and largely unknown outside the army itself, but those stratospheric recruiting standards have produced the most professional and capable military in American history.

Quality vs. quantity. One solution is to recruit foreigners, something that the U.S. military has done throughout its history.

January 01, 2007

PUSHING COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS at WalMart. Plus, Bush triples aid to Africa.

Lefties are in charge everywhere, apparently.

SOME COOL GUITAR VIDEO from Tom Spaulding.

PROSECUTE the Flying Imams?

MICHAEL YON: "Christmas seems to have escaped the bonds of Christianity. During the past month or so, I’ve seen Vietnamese preparing to celebrate Christmas in Hanoi, 'Sings' stuffing stockings in Singapore, and Muslims galore wearing Santa Claus outfits in Jakarta. . . . This war is strange. I never hear soldiers worried about their own morale sagging. Contrary, the war-fighters here are more concerned to bolster the morale of the people at home. . . . The morale at war is higher than I have ever seen it at home; makes me wonder what they know that most Americans seem to be missing."

JON HENKE TAKES A NEW JOB.

And he's right to say with regard to the blogosphere, "the Republicans are getting into the game a bit late."

PAST, FUTURE, whatever.

PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR DETROIT: I saw a Ford Edge the other day, and I have to say that it was very attractive. Don't know what it's like under the skin, but it was certainly pretty. Which I guess is why Ford is pushing it so hard.

UPDATE: Reader Joe Girardot emails: "Was your title for the post about the Ford Edge a Freudian slip? Shouldn’t it be: 'Put your hands together for Detroit'? Or are you thinking about stickups?"

Actually, it's a song by Fedde LeGrande, one of the big dance music hits of last summer. Though the title would have worked for last month's effort by Big Three auto executives to get federal protection against imports . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's a review of the Ford Edge.

FAKE, BUT not so accurate. And here, too.

Some things haven't improved as much as they might have.

IS SAUDI ARABIA RUNNING OUT OF OIL? Actually, I hope so. (And it's okay with me if Iran runs out, too). But it's certainly a reason -- well, another reason -- to be pushing shale oil / tar sands, etc. Earlier post on this topic here, and don't miss our podcast with Roger Stern and Lynne Kiesling, here. (Via PJM).

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MEDIA: The Red/Blue divide, and media cluelessness regarding same, in three letters. (Via Ed Driscoll).

UPDATE: Brian Noggle says that ABC is right, and the critics are wrong.

STORMTROOPERS AT THE ROSE BOWL PARADE: Though the ones in the picture look a little short to be stormtroopers.

IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, William Burrows recommends five books on space.

They're good recommendations, but here are a few of my own -- besides the obvious, I mean -- for your additional consideration.

1. Michael Collins' memoir, Carrying the Fire. Insightful and very well written. Collins has written a number of interesting books, but this is my favorite.

2. Walter MacDougall's ...the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. Scholarly, but fascinating for pretty much anyone with an interest in the subject.

3. Ben Bova and Byron Preiss, Are We Alone in the Cosmos? The Search for Alien Contact in the New Millenium. If you're interested in contact with extraterrestrial intelligences -- and really, who isn't? -- this is an excellent source.

4. Bob Zubrin's The Case for Mars. Zubrin's Mr. Mars, and this is the best single explication of his case, though his Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization is also excellent.

5. Space produces good pictures. Kevin Kelley's The Home Planet, a collection of pictures of Earth from space, is absolutely beautiful -- I've given copies as gifts many times. I also like Michael Light's Full Moon, full of beautifully reproduced photos from NASA's master negatives from the moon flights.

The book I'd like to see -- I considered writing it myself, but didn't ever get around to anything -- is a book tracing the ongoing private space race among private entrepreneurs ranging from XCOR to Armadillo to Scaled Composites and Blue Origins. A sort of space version of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine. I'd certainly buy a book like that, and I suspect that a lot of people would.

DANIEL DREZNER: "Let's end the year talking about trade." Byron Dorgan and Sherrod Brown are discussed, too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR: "You'd never know it from the headlines, but, overall, things quieted down in the past year. Fighting has died down considerably, or disappeared completely, in places like Nepal, Chechnya. Congo, Indonesia and Burundi. This continues a trend that began when the Cold War ended, and the Soviet Union no longer subsidized terrorist and rebel groups everywhere." Read the whole thing, together with Bill Roggio's similar roundup below.

MORE FROM SOMALIA: "Defeated Somali Islamists fled their last stronghold and headed toward the Kenyan border on Monday in what looked like the end of nearly two weeks of war with the Ethiopian-backed government."

BILL QUICK LOOKS AT MEDIA LOCKSTEP, but he also notes the fifth anniversary of the term "blogosphere."

LOTS MORE KIDNEY-BLOGGING at Virginia Postrel's. Just keep scrolling.

DAVE BARRY posts his year-end review.

THE INTERNET -- is there anything it can't do? In my last TCS column I mentioned my dishwasher's annoying beeps. Reader Tim Hoffman sent this link to instructions on how to silence it, and they worked. Now our house is just a little bit more tranquil.

BILL ARDOLINO IS BLOGGING FROM BAGHDAD, and posts an interview with Quais Abdul Raazzaq, a correspondent for Reporters Without Borders who is nostalgic for the Saddam regime.

BACK FROM IRAQ, Bill Roggio looks at the worldwide state of jihad.

HAPPY NEW YEAR: "How does one know when the critical point in a Republic's loss of its basic liberties like freedom of speech has been passed? A Dec. 22 notice from the Federal Election Commission looks very much like that point for America."

A MAD COW BREAKTHROUGH, of sorts: "Scientists said yesterday that they have used genetic engineering techniques to produce the first cattle that may be biologically incapable of getting mad cow disease. The animals, which lack a gene that is crucial to the disease's progression, were not designed for use as food. They were created so that human pharmaceuticals can be made in their blood without the danger that those products might get contaminated with the infectious agent that causes mad cow."

Just add a gene for no cholesterol and we'll really have something.

THE MICHIGAN CIVIL RIGHTS INITIATIVE is back in effect, as the Sixth Circuit vacates a District Court injunction.

December 31, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2006 was a good year for me, especially when compared to 2005. For the world it was a mixed year, with ups and downs and no clear theme. Will 2007 be more of the same? It could be worse. Or better.

UPDATE: Professor Bainbridge is taking your predictions for 2007.

TOM SMITH: "So what is the name for that feeling, that nothing could be more beautiful, and yet more sad, than these times we have with our kids and our parents? You want to slow it down, but you can't. You realize 10 years is nothing, and 50 not much more. Your little brother is not so little, you're not so little yourself, the kid who pounded on the pedal car with you died years ago, your baby is a teenager, your three year old is in a hurry, and New Canaan is busy becoming a New England version of Brentwood. Most of it is good, of course; that's what life is. If it were frozen, it would be dead."

THE BOSTON GLOBE REPORTS that Mitt Romney is connecting quickly with bloggers. He certainly seems far more active than, say, Rudy Giuliani.

PHOTO-FOODBLOGGING from Osaka.

I QUESTION THE TIMING OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT:

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has "accepted responsibility" for possibly violating House rules by requiring his official staff to perform campaign-related work, according to a statement quietly released by the House ethics committee late Friday evening.

"Late Friday evening" on New Year's weekend? It's like they're trying to bury the story or something. (Via Bill Quick, who is also unimpressed).

UPDATE: Mark Tapscott:

Federal law makes it a crime for a Member of Congress to use official staff members to perform campaign or personal duties. Many official staff members participate in their bosses' re-election campaigns every two years but they go off the official staff payroll when doing so.

So, isn't it convenient that the House ethics panel made Conyers' oddly phrased confession public on the Friday afternoon before the New Years weekend?

If the incoming Democrat majority in Congress is serious about cleaning up the mess left on Capitol Hill by the Republicans, they will end such transparent gambits to minimize the fall-out from a Member admitting to breaking the law.

Indeed.

NIFONG UPDATE: The Washington Post editorializes:

"THE PROSECUTOR has more control over life, liberty and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have citizens investigated, and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations."

Robert H. Jackson, then the U.S. attorney general, spoke those words to a group of federal prosecutors in 1940. But they ring disturbingly true today about the conduct of Durham County, N.C., District Attorney Michael B. Nifong in prosecuting three Duke University lacrosse players. Just before Christmas, Mr. Nifong dropped rape charges after the accuser said she "could no longer testify with certainty that it occurred." But the three men remain charged with kidnapping and first-degree sexual offense, which carry equally severe penalties. Mr. Nifong should drop those charges as well.

Read the whole thing.

HOME AGAIN, after fairly decent driving conditions. We overnighted in Valdosta, then drove through light rain and medium traffic today. Not too bad, even in the dreaded Atlanta section of the trip. It's clear that higher gas prices still aren't causing people to drive more slowly. It's nice to be home, but looking at this picture and comparing it to the dreary, rainy weather in Knoxville makes me wish we'd stayed a few days longer . . . .

2006: "A year awash in fear and fascism."

MORE FROM THOSE EVIL PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES: A universal flu vaccine? Bring it on!

MORE KIDNEY-BLOGGING, from Virginia Postrel.

A GOOGLE TIPPING POINT?

Taken in a vacuum, a fairly trivial thing happened a few days ago. The co-founder of Firefox, Blake Ross, wrote a post criticizing Google called “Tip: Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose“. He takes issue with a new Google search feature that promotes certain of their own products over organic search results. See Google searches for Calendar, Blogging, Photo Sharing and others and see Google pushing Google Calendar, Blogger and Picasa, respectively, above what is supposed to be the most relevant results - Google search. Even a search for Yahoo Calendar has these Google results above the obvious destination the user was searching for.

I say this is trivial incident taken in a vacuum because, quite frankly, Google has every right to promote their own products on their website. But I think Ross’ post may be a sign of a change in attitude towards Google that’s been percolating for the last year or so, and is beginning to manifest itself. The fact that a highly respected entrepreneur finally spoke out should be a wakeup call for Google.

I've noted declining trust in Google over the past year or so, and it seems that the problem is getting worse. Google should be a lot more worried about this than it seems to be -- all you need to do to take your business elsewhere is type a different URL.

THE ROOT OF "HOMELAND" IS "HOME."