January 19, 2008

FOX NEWS FADES?

JAMES LILEKS: "You can say this for winter: when it’s five below at one in the morning and the wind makes worried moans, it’s good to be inside with a fire and a toddy and similar boons of civilization." Plus, a Jessica Rabbit reference.

FROM JACK BALKIN, A LOOK AT which American legal blogs are banned in China.

FOX, CNN, AND NBC HAVE CALLED IT FOR MCCAIN. Huckabee is second, and Fred Thompson still seems to be holding onto third. I think this is pretty big -- If McCain can win South Carolina convincingly, he can win conservatives, and if Huckabee can't win in South Carolina, where can he win? And a third-place finish is good enough to keep Thompson going, I think -- especially when a lot of his votes come out of Huckabee's hide, since Thompson clearly isn't a Huckabee fan.

UPDATE: I'm watching Huckabee's concession speech and all of a sudden he's talking about the evils of big government.

ANOTHER UPDATE: We're at my dad's and he's happy that Romney's fourth, so he can't claim "a bronze." The Olympic analogies are getting old.

"DEAR THIRD WORLD FARMER:" Ouch.

HUCKABEE COMES IN FOURTH among non-evangelicals.

OOPS: "AMERICA’S favourite television presenter is paying a painful price for her intervention in the US presidential campaign last month. Oprah Winfrey has been dubbed a 'traitor' by some of her female fans for supporting Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton."

AT THE MOMENT, THOMPSON IS IN THIRD PLACE, but it's close with only 33% of the vote in. Here's a report that it's gloomy at Fred HQ. He gave a great speech, though. I don't see why he'd quit the race before Super Tuesday, especially if he pulls 3rd in South Carolina.

UPDATE: 68% in now, but still about the same so far.

DUNCAN HUNTER IS QUITTING. Our podcast interview with Hunter is here.

STEPHEN GREEN is drunkblogging.

SUNDAYS WITH DAD, AND MORE: At The Line Is Here, an "Anti-Nanny-State collective."

A RUBE GOLDBERG APPROACH to web design. Just watch for a few seconds after it loads. (Via Samizdata).

BASED ON EXIT POLLS, CNN says it's a close race for #1 in South Carolina between McCain and Huckabee and for #3 between Thompson and Romney, but too close to call.

HOW THE WORLD views Obama. "The European right appears more enthusiastic about the liberal Obama than the left. . . . The Latin American left, sensing that the story of racial mobility implicit in Obama's personal story is too good an ad for American society, has chosen to moderate its embrace of the black American senator. "

FOX HAS JUST CALLED NEVADA FOR HILLARY. Obama's behind, but not all that close. A fairly big win for Hillary, I think -- judging by how stressed she and Bill have seemed this week, they obviously thought a loss in Nevada would have been very damaging.

SOME MODEST PROGRESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN TENNESSEE: "The state Senate voted 24-6 on Wednesday to authorize Tennesseans with pistol carry permits to take their weapons into establishments that sell alcohol, so long as they don't drink themselves."

I'M BEING SUPPRESSED: "Bill Clinton, speaking at a Vegas YMCA last night, made more charges against Obama and claimed to have, with Chelsea, personally witnessed voter suppression by the Culinary Workers." Hey, some of them carry cleavers.

HDMI: THE FULL STORY: Here's part one. And here's part two.

WILL SUPER-DELEGATES sink the Democrats? I've made a similar point myself. Too much insider politics may turn off Democratic voters, particularly if Hillary is the beneficiary.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: "After reading most of the McCain animus on conservative blogs, I’m a little worried that some of it goes over the top. . . . McCain’s past support for the flawed immigration bill, McCain-Feingold, and opposition to tax cuts, as well as temper flare-ups at those who questioned his conservative fides are legitimate concerns. But many believe that the two key issues right now are winning, in conservative fashion, the war in all its theaters, and controlling out-of-control spending. He seems in the forefront there. Moreover it seems odd to fault him for telling the truth—however politically unwise—that all the jobs in the automotive industry simply aren’t coming back as before."

STANLEY KURTZ: "The mainstream media is now the key to the battle against Canada’s so-called human rights commissions. Despite the sensation on the blogosphere, the Ezra Levant inquisition is being ignored by big media in Canada, and here."

TAKING "PREPAREDNESS" TO THE NEXT LEVEL. Reader James Rummel writes:

I read the Popular Mechanics article that you linked to, the one that discusses the various Terminators that have been introduced over the years. Thank you kindly for brining it to my attention.

Speaking as an old shooting enthusiast, I noticed while watching the two available episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles that the various weaponry deployed against the kill-crazy deathbots wasn't very effective. They are just too well armored, too well built. But I suppose a .50 sniper rifle would still make some holes since it was designed to defeat armor.

I have wondered why the anti-gun lobby wants to ban the .50's, even though they have yet to be used in a crime. Maybe they have sold out to the enemy of all mankind in the hopes that they will be spared? It makes as much sense as any for their irrational hysteria against these weapons.

I also noticed that the Terminators in the TV show will shut down for a few minutes if they come in to contact with electric current, even current as mild as standard house current. Popular Mechanics back in October mentioned a new TASER device that could be fired from a standard shotgun. This increased the range from 15 feet to over 100. It might very well be the only hope for mankind!

You might be wondering why I am so interested in the subject, a TV show based off of a fictional war where a computer network named Skynet nukes most of humanity before trying to exterminate the survivors. But did you know that the British have already set up a military satellite communications system which is named Skynet?

Right about now I bet you're thinking that adding a .50 Barrett and a few TASERS to your home defense arsenal might not be a bad idea.

"Adding?"

UPDATE: Reader Darren Duvall, MD emails:

Your correspondent Mr Rummel is incorrect that the .50 BMG has not been used in a crime. A police officer was killed in Colorado with one in 1995 or 1996.

I'm not anti-50 cal, but it does pay to be as accurate as possible when it comes to contentious issues. The VPC and their hoplophobic ilk are against .50 caliber rifles because they are a small segment of the firearms market that can be marginalized, period. It is entirely accurate to say that they are virtually never used to commit crimes.

My personal choice for an anti-Terminator weapon is an EFP. A molten copper slug at 5,000 fps beats the Taser. If the Terminators attack, it may turn out that the Iranian defense plants are our last, best hope. Weird world.

Heh.

ERROR CORRECTION UPDATE: The above contains an error:

This is absolutely untrue. The incident he refers to is the death of Deputy Sheriff Timothy Mossbrucker in Jefferson County, Colorado in April of 1995. Deputy Mossbrucker was killed by Albert Petrosky as the deputy responded to a "shot fired" call at a small shoping mall. The suspect had gone there to kill his wife and her boyfriend (her boss) after he found out they were having an affair.(he did kill both of them) He then waited in the parking lot for the cops to show up (I suspect so his death would be a suicide by cops). Deputy Mossbrucker was the first unit in. The suspect shot him three times through the windshield of his police unit killing him instantly with an 7.39 SKS rifle.

The problem was, Petrosky had thrown every gun he owned into the bed of his pickup to go have his 15 minutes of glory. Included in those firearms was a LAR Grizzley big bore 50 BMG. There were also 5 empty 50 caliber casings in the bed of the truck that probably were thrown into the bed the last time he had been out shooting the rifle. There is no evidence to indicate he fired the 50 BMG during his shootout with the cops.

The suspect was taken into custody a short time later but committed suicide in his jail cell before he was ever brought to trial.

The reason they claim he killed the deputy is the press was allowed access to the crime scene about an hour after the shooting and the photographer took a photo of the LAR Grizzley and the fifty cal ammo. He just created the headlines "Deputy Killed By 50 BMG" for the next day's paper.

That's from John Burtt of the Fifty Cal Institute, via Prof. Joseph Olson.

VOTING PROBLEMS in South Carolina?

UPDATE: Reader Sean Brittain sends this report:

I went out at about 1:00 to vote. There had been a total 220 voters at our polling station when we got there. The weather is getting worse, so I will be surprised if the number of voters at our polling station doubles by closing time. I'm a Fred supporter, so I've been happy to hear about his resurgence. However, I didn't see any Thompson signs around the school where I voted. The only candidates represented along the road where McCain, Huckabee and Romney. I'm not sure what any of this means (if anything), but I thought I'd send it your way on the outside chance that it's a useful data point.

Thanks. And here's more on those voting machine problems.

SPARED GITMO, FOR NOTHING: Terror Informant for FBI Allegedly Targeted Agents.

REMEMBERING the original Mazda RX-7. "Like the Datsun 240Z a decade before, the RX-7 revolutionized the sports car market. With performance easily on a par with the Porsche 924 and close to that of the contemporary Chevrolet Corvette, but at a vastly lower price, the RX-7 became a legend. It was an immediate smash sales success, became the first sports car for a generation of young drivers, and quickly established itself as a force on the race track." I had one of those -- a 1980 model -- and it was a great car, though with some rough spots. What I like about the RX-8 is that it recaptures the feel of the original RX-7, but without the rough spots.

DAVID BERNSTEIN on Ronald Reagan and "States' Rights."

THIS SEEMS LIKE BIG NEWS: "The CIA on Friday admitted that cyberattacks have caused at least one power outage affecting multiple cities outside the United States." (Via Slashdot).

BILL BRADLEY is providing constantly updated coverage of the Nevada and S.C. contests.

Fox just called Nevada for Mitt Romney. Huckabee's currently showing #5, behind McCain, Thompson, and Ron Paul, though only a small percentage of votes are actually in.

UPDATE: Bob Krumm is in South Carolina and says people care more about the snow that's falling than about the primary now: "Snow-just the mention of snow- might make all turnout predictions worthless here."

It's also snowing in Atlanta. Not a flake here, so far.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A report from Nevada reader Charles Chase -- click "read more" to read it.

Read More ?

YASSER ARAFAT'S FAKED BLOOD DONATION: What's notable is the willing acquiescence of the press.

SARKOZY OF ARABIA: I see this as a positive development.

YOU WON'T CATCH ME IN ONE OF THESE: A 340 mph production motorcycle.

MICKEY KAUS: "Another country is complaining about an influx of Mexicans crossing its borders looking for work. That country is Mexico."

LOTS OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND NEVADA UPDATES at Sister Toldjah's place.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT: "A Belarus court sentenced a newspaper editor Friday to three years in prison for reprinting a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked worldwide riots when it was initially published in a Danish newspaper." When American celebrities complain about crushing of dissent in America, remind them that this is what it really looks like.

And if you don't want your religion dissed, you might as well start blowing people up. Obviously, it works. Nice incentive structure, there.

AT AUTOBLOG, a gallery of photos from the Tokyo Auto Salon.

WHAT IRAN truly fears.

PHIL BOWERMASTER SAW CLOVERFIELD and liked it. "I'm pleased to report that Cloverfield does not disappoint on any level."

JONAH GOLDBERG IS STILL #1 on Amazon. And I hear he'll debut on the New York Times bestseller list next week. Nonetheless, I keep getting emails like this one:

I work at Barnes & Noble (in California) and we have not seen the book in our store. I checked and BN.com has it at #8 right now. I checked 4 - 5 zip codes on the BN.com web site for store availability and only one had it in the store.

This is really interesting because it is B & N's stated policy to be politics neutral about the content of books. They sent a memo around to employees explaining the policy when the OJ Simpson book came out for example. And they do have any number of controversial books on all sorts of topics all the time.

So I am somewhat mystified.

Beats me. Perhaps they underestimated its popularity. But I'm sure it's costing them sales to the Internet.

UPDATE: Reader Stephen Barron emails:

Piling on about B&N...

I live in CA but am in Wichita KS over weekend for business. I went looking for Jonah's book in one of the local B&Ns and couldn't find it. Heck, I saw Newt's book, Colbert's book, David Frum's book, etc. There was a wide variety of political persuasions represented, although I think this particular store actually leaned a little to the right, but Jonah's book was not to be seen.

And reader Todd Frehafer writes: "I wrote to Jonah about the same phenomenon in the Rt.9 Chestnut Hill, MA store. When I asked about the book, I was told it 'wasn't in stock and wasn't on order.'"

They can't stock everything, and for whatever reason didn't stock this book. So people will order it off Amazon. And next time they shop, they may go straight to the Internet and not even venture down to the store to look.

MORE: Roger Kimball does some research.

BOW DOWN, CHRIS MATTHEWS! "You cannot be disrespectful to Hillary Clinton, the woman."

BYRON YORK reports from South Carolina. Will Thompson pull off a surprise? Hey, the early returns are in his favor. . . .

COMPLAINTS OF VOTER INTIMIDATION IN NEVADA.

A PAPER AIRPLANE designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere from space.

THE LANCET blows it again.

THE YEAR OF THE GUN: Brannon Denning and I have a piece on the Supreme Court and the Heller case, in See Also, the online edition of the Texas Law Review.

UPDATE: A somewhat prettier and easier to read version can be downloaded here. (Bumped to top).

HERE'S A ROUNDUP OF CAUCUS/PRIMARY NEWS FROM Nevada and South Carolina.

DON SURBER says Kos's plans misfired.

A.P. REPORTER GLEN JOHNSON: "RUDE AND UGLY." Hey, it's only sheer good luck that he wasn't outright murderous!

DO HOUSE REPUBLICANS "GET IT?" I hope so, but "hope" is the operative word.

January 18, 2008

CALIFORNIA BUDGET BLUES. "But lost in the furor is any self-reflection, such as why would UC Davis recently pay John Edwards, multimillionaire trial lawyer, $50,000 plus to give a brief lecture on poverty? Such questions are never answered, much less raised, since the problem is always framed as a matter of a shortage of income, never a surfeit of unnecessary expenditure. . . . At some point we Californians should ask ourselves, how we inherited a state with near perfect weather, the world's richest agriculture, plentiful timber, minerals, and oil, two great ports at Los Angeles and Oakland, a natural tourist industry from Carmel to Yosemite, industries such as Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and aerospace—and serially managed to turn all of that into the nation's largest penal system, periodic near bankruptcy, and sky-high taxes."

SOMEHOW, I THINK THIS WAS OBAMA'S PLAN ALL ALONG: "John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Barack Obama's praise of the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan - an anathema for many Democrats, particularly union members considered crucial to winning Nevada's Democratic caucuses Saturday."

PAUL STARR WARNS DEMOCRATS THAT they can still blow the election. Luckily for them, they only have to run against the Republicans, or they'd really be in trouble. . . .

HOW TO write a novel in two months (while still blogging).

THOUGHTS ON men, women, and retirement.

UPDATE: Somehow, I'm reminded of this Maureen Dowd column from 2001.

TALIBAN WEBSITES hosted in the U.S.?

REWIRING YOUR BRAIN to support multitasking. I'm pretty sure I've done that . . . .

BUSH'S STIMULUS PLAN. Compare to Hillary's.

Plus, criticism of "stimulus" plans from the Republican Study Committee. I'll just note that there are worse things than recessions, and trying too hard to stop one may be worse than letting the business cycle run its course.

UPDATE: I'm reminded of these 2001 words of wisdom from Andrea See: "This story reads like the government's trying to be comforting about the economic trough we're in. Anyone with half a brain (and did a basic class in economics) would know economies move in cycles. We've had the high point, now it's time for the low. Sucks as it does, it really needs to happen."

FRED THOMPSON RESPONDS TO HUCKABEE on the Constitution.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh defends Huckabee.

JAY GRODNER UPDATE: The anti-military lawyer who keyed a Marine's car had his day in court and it wasn't pretty. Blackfive has the story.

THOMAS EDSALL: Will the GOP blindside the Dems on national security?

Hmm. Blindside? How can it be blindsiding when, as Edsall says, "Republicans are making no secret of their intentions in the general election." I guess if you take advantage of a national-security blind spot, you can still blindside, even without secrecy. None is so blind as he who will not see . . . .

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

RON BAILEY: "I can remember in the 1980s when all the 'smart' folks were panicked about the Japanese buying up all the best real estate such as the Rockefeller Center. The American sellers laughed all the way to the bank in that deal. Sheesh!"

SOMEWHERE, T.M. LUTAS IS SAYING I TOLD YOU SO: "Iraq's army and police could be ready to take over security in all 18 provinces by the end of this year as the U.S. military moves toward a less prominent role in the country, U.S. officials said on Thursday."

Well, he's got more reason than most.

"MAD COW" DISEASE: The 21st Century's Swine Flu?

High numbers of future deaths in the UK from the human form of mad cow disease are unlikely, researchers have said.

The Imperial College team calculate there will be around 70 future deaths.

They say the worst case scenario could see another 600 deaths, but that this is unlikely.

(Via An Englishman's Castle).

JONAH GOLDBERG IS CURRENTLY #1 on Amazon. I hope he sends a nice thank-you note to all the lefty bloggers who have been savaging him. I don't think he could have done it without them!

BYLINES OF BRUTALITY: "As Casualties Mount, Some Question The Emotional Stability of Media Vets."

MATTHEW YGLESIAS WRITES:

One thing that doesn't get talked about enough is that people in Washington are pretty out of touch with the basic economic picture in the United States. Not in the usual, pat, pseudo-populist "oh you're out of touch" sense but in a pretty literal one -- the DC metro area is both quite affluent and economically unusual.

That's right, notwithstanding the D.C. area housing bust. But the difference is even greater than Yglesias suggests. Bad news for the country is usually good news for the DC area, since it tends to promote more government programs and spending, meaning more jobs not so much for government workers as for lobbyists, contractors, and other hangers-on, And journalists and pundits!

In the comments, people talk about different parts of the country and how they're doing. Around Knoxville, things aren't too bad. Houses aren't selling very fast, but in my opinion that's partly because people are asking too much. In a development near me, people are trying to sell houses that they bought a couple of years ago for $300-350K for over $400K. They're actually asking more, in some cases, than the developer is asking for brand-new houses in the neighborhood; the brand-new houses, meanwhile, seem to still be selling. Meanwhile, I see lots of help-wanted signs. Things may slow down, but at the moment it's certainly not visible to the casual observer. In other places -- Cleveland, for example, or Detroit -- it certainly is.

EZRA LEVANT UPDATE: The suicide of reason in Canada.

AMY ALKON: "For people who are supposedly about seeing women 'as people first,' these feminists sure are all about pussy!"

RAND SIMBERG WRITES in defense of (Fred Thompson's) laziness. "As an engineer, I'm extremely impressed with his efficiency. "

MORE ON why beer is good for you.

HOW CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE? "Max Sawicky's old blog, now manned by new faces, is apparently no longer specializing in passionately and unapologetically left-wing heterodox economics. Now they just spout random nonsense."

HOWARD KURTZ: "I just got back from Michigan and South Carolina, so I'm prepared to share my insights on how the Republican race is going. . . . Journalists are ticked off because the Republican race is defying our attempts to wrap it into a nice, neat narrative. This is what we do for a living. And if we can't say what's going on, who needs us? You could get just as good a take from your Uncle Harry." Yep!

THE SMARTEST, BEST Terminators of all time.

I also recommend S.M. Stirling's novels on the subject.

DELL'S ALUMINUM LAPTOPS delivering electrical shocks? I wouldn't be surprised if there's less to this than reported.

BARACK OBAMA and the Anti-Defamation League.

JOHN LEO: What's new in diversity.

THE NEW YORK TIMES AND VETERANS: Ralph Peters gives them both barrels. "To a darkly humorous degree, all this reflects the Freudian terrors leftists feel when confronted with men who don't have concave chests. But it goes far beyond that. . . . the Times' feature was an artful example of hate-speech disguised as a public service."

USING DNA FOR nanotechnology construction.

DAN RIEHL: "There was absolutely no reason for Huckabee to bring up the Confederate Flag issue in South Carolina, especially with such a coarse remark destined for a Democrat commercial in the Fall should Huckabee ever get the nod." That seems to be Huckabee's style -- "any weapon to hand" -- with little concern for consistency or consequences.

UPDATE: Bob Krumm says Huckabee might as well be a Democratic plant. "Notice that he’s the only candidate in the Republican field who prefers to pander to identity politics instead of talking about issues." The Republicans' Al Sharpton? Sharpton has better hair . . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARY GRANT. In response to some blog posting or other I just bought His Girl Friday. Maybe I'll watch it today, to mark the occasion!

THE COMING American matriarchy?

HELEN AND I DID EARLY VOTING, and the turnout is reportedly quite high.

Based on what people were chatting about when I voted, the big turnout in Knoxville was drawn mostly by local races -- big County Government issues here -- and secondarily by people who wanted to vote for Fred Thompson and Barack Obama.

I don't think that's transferable to other elections elsewhere, but we'll see.

DAVE WEIGEL: "If you'd said in January 2007 that Congress would fully fund the Iraq War, that there would be no timelines, and that a pro-war group fronted by Ari Fleischer would humiliate MoveOn... well, you'd be smarter than me." Hard to imagine that anyone could be that smart!

January 17, 2008

SAFE, LEGAL, AND RARE: No one left to gloat to.

TOM CRUISE explains Scientology.

LIMBAUGH ENDORSES FRED THOMPSON: Well, David Limbaugh, anyway.

BRING IT ON: "Breakthrough Could Mean 40-Hour Laptop Batteries."

TEN YEARS AFTER MONICAGATE. Plus, James Taranto on The Lewinsky Decade.

IF Y0U MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO, you can listen to this week's PJM Political online now.

MY EARLIER POST ON SCIENCE EDUCATION produced this email from reader Jenn Oates:

Glenn, I teach science at a middle-class high school in Elk Grove, CA—it’s a suburb of Sacramento. Many of my students—entirely too many—come into my 9th grade classroom woefully unprepared for even the most basic rigors of high school science. They do not study. They do not do homework. They do not get the direct connection between how much effort you put into something and the quality of the results. They do not know the difference between an inch and a centimeter. They have trouble with the simplest algebraic calculations (like f=ma). They pay no attention whatsoever (beyond the Al Gore school of bad science) to what is going on in the universe, so much of what I teach has no brain Velcro to stick to. Worst of all? They are embarrassingly incurious. They really don’t care, and if what I do isn’t magically fun, they’re not interested. I work very hard to make what I do interesting and relevant, but they can’t be bothered. My graduate work in science and my efforts thereof mean nothing to them. Not all of them, of course, but enough.

Still, I am expected to turn every student into a science genius-in-the-making. Right. I can do that. Give me better prepared students and perhaps I could.. But it isn’t a Science or Math problem, it’s an attitude problem on the part of the students—their education is excellent, as our district has very high standards. What they make of it is, sadly, too often…not.

It’s quite discouraging. What is the answer? Let me totally revamp the educational system in California and I might be able to begin to address the problem. J

Thanks for keeping things like this in the forefront…

Kids used to be more excited by science. But back then science was doing more visibly exciting things -- moon flights, etc. -- and got more favorable, and modestly more substantive, mass-media coverage. There's still good science coverage now, but it's more of a niche item, I think.

NO ITUNES REQUIRED: LOTS OF TV SHOWS FOR FREE DOWNLOAD, including episode one of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I actually watched the first two episodes of that show, and I think it's pretty good.

ROGER SIMON: Will new media destroy Hollywood?

A MEMBER OF CONGRESS unprepared for discussion? I'm shocked.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL looks at Republican candidates' tax plans.

THOUGHTS ON AFGHANISTAN, from Herschel Smith.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Huckabee going off the rails: "Mike Huckabee joins Mitt Romney on my personal list of candidates for whom I would not vote even if the only alternative is Hillary Clinton."

MORE ON THE DELIGHTFUL Mazda Furai. I think it should inspire the RX-9.

TOM MAGUIRE notes an anti-war coincidence.

IS THE GOLD MARKET topping out?

ADVICE TO MIKE HUCKABEE: Read your bible.

CAR DIAGNOSIS -- and even emissions testing -- with a $300 add-on.

HAPPY MONICAVERSARY! And Rogers Cadenhead has thoughts on Matt Drudge as "My generation's Edward R. Murrow."

IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST on the tiny ASUS Eee PC, a reader notes this article from the Wall Street Journal, in which Walt Mossberg says it's cool, but (1) it's too small; and (2) he doesn't like Linux. "Too small" is in the eye of the beholder, but it seems just big enough to work to me -- as a reader said earlier, it's big enough for surfing and doing email, which is what most people do. I'd call it a second or third computer for geeks, or an inexpensive computer for a kid, but not a main computer for most people. As for the Linux -- the basic functions are easy enough to use, and most people won't go beyond that. And you can install Windows XP if you want.

I just had one of our IT guys in my office, though, and he was immediately taken with it and said he was going to buy one posthaste. So did one of my colleagues. On the other hand, if you wait a bit they're going to put out a Wimax-enabled version. And if you want some data on my experience with reliability, ruggedness, etc. over a longer term, well, stay tuned. But it does seem to work fine, and it's cute as a bug's ear. For $399 that's not a bad start.

OLD MEDIA HACK ATTACKS BLOGOSPHERE, GETS PRAISE FROM OLD MEDIA: Janet Maslin offers a charitable review of Lee Siegel's Against the Machine, but even she has to include this part:

The vindictiveness and disproportionate influence of the blogosphere is a particularly sore subject. Who is it that “rewrote history, made anonymous accusations, hired and elevated hacks and phonies, ruined reputations at will, and airbrushed suddenly unwanted associates out of documents and photographs”? Mr. Siegel’s immediate answer is Stalin. But he alleges that the new power players of the blogosphere have appropriated similar powers.

Mr. Siegel himself became a great big blog-attack casualty when, in what he wishfully calls “my rollicking misadventure in the online world,” he was caught pseudonymously praising himself on the Web site of The New Republic, where he had been a particularly savage and reckless blogger. One of the improbable virtues of “Against the Machine” is that it presents a rigorously sane, fair and illuminating incarnation of its more often hotheaded author.

If all bloggers had the low standards evidenced by Lee Siegel -- and, more recently, The New Republic -- maybe he'd have a point. But some people just weren't made to blog, and they seem particularly angry at the blogosphere. Meanwhile, I guess we should brace ourselves for an onslaught of Andrew Keen-style young fogies.

FRED THOMPSON vs. everybody.

ABOUT TIME: A move toward free wi-fi at the Knoxville airport. Jack Lail likes the idea.

IN THE MAIL: Michael Shermer's The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics. Looks quite interesting.

MORE ON the state of science education. It's a cliche to say that if our schools thought science was as important as varsity sports, we'd be doing a lot better. But it's a cliche because it's true . . . .

THE WASHINGTON POST ENDORSES unilateral military action.

STILL MORE on The New York Times and the "murderous vet" canard. The NYT wouldn't publish this sort of thing about other groups even if it were statistically supportable, for fear of promoting prejudice; in this case, however, they're willing to run with it even when it isn't statistically supported. Which tells us something about their priorities, I guess.

UPDATE: Reader Matt Bodenstedt emails:

Perhaps some enterprising young journalist will endeavor to tell the stories of young men and women whose lives were on the wrong track, joined the military, and can now rightly be considered among America’s finest. I’ll bet they’d find many, many more such stories out of the pool of Iraq/Afghanistan vets than the 121 “murderers.”

Interesting idea. Perhaps it might slip by an editor if they sell it as "charmingly retro."

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here.

MORE: Ouch: "The article embraced the hoariest of overwrought clichés - the US combat vet as psychotic killer. But on what evidence? None at all. Indeed, it's impossible to take issue with the statistics cited by reporters Deborah Sontag and Lisette Alvarez - because their article doesn't have any."

And another ouch, here.

IN BRITAIN, treating terrorists like pedophiles. Interesting approach.

WHAT'S UP, DOC? TREATING OSTEOPOROSIS with genetically engineered carrots.

PRACTICING WHAT THEY PREACH, I GUESS: "Anti-war Groups Retreat."

THOUGH AT THE TIME IT WAS BLAMED ON TAX-CUTTING REAGANITES, the Minnesota bridge collapse turns out to have been the result of a design error. More on that, and on the plans to replace it, at the link.

A LOOK AT online reputation.

And some related thoughts from TigerHawk. Plus, I've had some more extensive thoughts here.

JOHN TIERNEY ON FEAR OF TERRORISM: The problem, of course, is that there's no real way to establish what's a "proper" or "rational" level of fear, because terrorism -- unlike, say, hurricanes or cancer -- isn't the product of extraneous causes but of human agency. You can make a good case that some people fear it too much, or too little, but only at the extremes.

ACTOR (AND KNOXVILLIAN) BRAD RENFRO has died.

DID THE PILL turn men into slackers?

January 16, 2008

SO I'M WRITING THIS ON THE Asus Eee PC that I mentioned a while back. Unlike the two supertiny computers that I reviewed for Popular Mechanics, this is big enough to type on, and the 7" screen is big enough to read. I wouldn't want to write a book, or even a law review article, on this gadget, but as a (comparatively) inexpensive portable blogging tool it''s not bad.

UPDATE: Reader Laura Blanchard emails:

I bought one after you blogged about it, and it's a dandy road machine. Most folks don't need to do much other than e-mail and note-taking (or in your case blogging) on the road. This thing is small and light enough that I am willing to carry a laptop almost all the time now.

It was the EEE or a Blackberry for me. EEE wins.

Yeah. And it costs 1/5 what my little Sony did, which not only makes it cheaper to buy, but also lets you worry less about losing it or having it stolen.

READER EDWARD CROWLEY EMAILS: "I was in the car, listening to Sean Hannity and he siad that he was going to have the first exclusive interview with Jonah Goldberg about his new book. I missed the interview, because I arrived at my destination, but remembered to email you so you can correct Hannity and tell him he is oh... I don't know.... a little behind the times.... and let him know that you had the first breaking interview with JG- what a month ago. Hannity needs to catch up with the times!!!" Well, he should subscribe to the podcasts, for sure.

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll emails: "Hannity’s interview wasn’t even the first radio interview, since your interview with Jonah aired on XM’s POTUS ’08 channel on Friday January 5th as part of Pajamas’ PJM Political show." Good point!

SOME BAD NEWS FROM PAKISTAN, from Bill Roggio.

BUSH BEGS THE SAUDIS: He'd be better off implementing the Zubrin plan . . . .

UPDATE: Bush gets some criticism from Fred Thompson.

VIDEO: A pro-Huckabee, anti-Thompson, push-poll.

MEGAN MCARDLE ON AGING BABY BOOMERS: Read the whole thing. I love the opening paragraph.

HIL FORCE ONE: But what about the greenhouse emissions? Don't they care about the planet?

IS HUCKABEE'S APPEAL regionally limited?

THE QUEST FOR better body armor.

MORE ON L'Affaire Ron Paul. I've written before on the bizarre confluence of "neoconfederate libertarianism."

THE TOP TEN NEW CARS from the Detroit Auto Show.

AN ARMY OF CLYDE TOMBAUGHS:

Three Racine sophomore students were notified on Monday that a celestial body they discovered during a science project had been verified as an asteroid.

The students at Racine's Prairie School will be able to name the asteroid, temporarily identified as "2008 AZ28," in about four years, according to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., the international authority on known objects in the solar system.

I actually wrote about this very phenomenon in An Army of Davids. Astronomical work that used to require a university is now routinely done by amateurs.

MICKEY KAUS makes himself popular with the netroots crowd.

MORE ON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTE, at Ars Technica. Conclusion: "As of today, only sixteen states mandate both a voter-verified paper trail (VVPT) and a random manual audit of election results. The remaining 34 either don't have a mandatory VVPT, don't have mandatory audits, or don't have either. So that's 34 possibilities for a close presidential contest to produce the same blizzard of data, analysis, accusation, and uncertainty that we saw on a very small scale with New Hampshire. Let's hope for a blow-out, landslide victory by one side, because I get tired just thinking about anything closer."

Read the whole thing. And we really need much better security and auditability for voting. And voters.

SO WITH ABOUT 6,000 NEW VOTES since I asked people to hit this week's Pajamas Straw Poll, the big winners are Fred Thompson and Barack Obama. Big losers: John Edwards and Mike Huckabee.

DON SURBER: "OK, this is a survey by Playboy. But I don’t read Playboy, so I got it from Political Wire."

NO NEED TO PLAY NAME THAT PARTY HERE!

A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying—money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

I suspect that there's a good deal more corruption of this type, actually.

BURNING OUT ON AMERICAN IDOL: "If it's good, you're supposed to bond. You're supposed to care as these characters begin their journey into the months long sifting process. They prod you to bond by presenting mini-melodramas that emphasize the contestants' close bonds to their mothers, their sick children, and their horses and kitties." Kinda like the campaign, which a lot of people are burning out on already, too . . . .

REMEMBERING the Subaru SVX. I always thought those were kind of cool. Plus, unlike the WRX, they weren't ugly as a monkey's butt. I mean, the WRX is surprisingly fast, and it handles well, but . . . .

TRUST IN MEDIA PLUMMETS, especially on Iraq.

TECHNOLOGY MARCHES ON: The Cappucino Cam.

BLACKFIVE: Can we risk allowing Airbus to build our air fleets?

UPDATE: Reader Bill Reece emails:

I think that some further information is warranted than the glib one liner you posted in the link. The EADS proposal includes Northrop-Grumman as a major partner in the project. If the contract is awarded to EADS, it would build the airplanes in a new facility in Mobile, Alabama as part of a major capital investment in the U.S. economy with the likelihood that EADS would also expand its operations to include the construction of civilian aircraft as well.

The persons involved in the project from the bottom of the totem pole to nearly the top would be American workers living and paying taxes in the U.S. Boeing is every bit as much a "multi-national" corporation as is EADS. Many prominent American defense specialists and political figures have expressed no concern whatsoever on the issue of EADS building these planes and the only pending issue for the DOD to decide at this point is which proposal is overall most cost efficient and practicable for the U.S. Defense Department. Suggestions about anything else being a problem in this competition is mere paranoid chauvinism. In addition, while the governments that support EADS may not have a pristine record, at least EADS does not have a record of bribery and corruption in U.S. defense contracts such as its main competition has in its past.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a resident of Mobile.

"Mere paranoid chauvinism" is probably a bit strong.

"UNCOMMITTED" delivers a victory speech in Michigan.

HEY, DO ME A FAVOR, and if you haven't voted in the Pajamas staw poll -- top of the right sidebar -- this week, please do. I'd like to see how InstaPundit readers view the race now. (Bumped).

GOD, SCHMOD, I want my monkey-man!

Alternate take: "Now our future is going to be a mix of both Terminator and Planet of the Apes." Couldn't it be more like Barbarella?

GOOD NEWS, OR BAD? I'm not sure. U.S. Economy: Inflation Slows, Production Unchanged.

UH OH: "Europe's economies show signs of slowing significantly even as inflation rates rise, introducing the word 'stagflation' into the scenarios that some economists are sketching out for 2008." Given that the United States' economy is clearly slowing, if not clearly in recession, we need stronger growth elsewhere to help mitigate the effects. I doubt we'll see that, though.

MONICA LEWINSKY -- source of a "lasting stain" on mainstream media? Out, damned spot!

FRED THOMPSON smacks the Department of Justice on the Second Amendment case.

APPLIANCE-BLOGGING, from the Insta-Wife. I'll just note that I warned her that front-loaders are less reliable, but she liked the looks and the efficiency. Which was a reasonable choice.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE GOOD NEWS: "Two teams of US scientists have demonstrated silicon-based 'thermoelectric' materials that could convert waste heat back into electricity[1,2] - potentially giving a boost to the efficiency of everything from power stations to refrigerators. Until now, efficient thermoelectric materials have used pricier metals such as bismuth or tellurium. Switching over to silicon could have a global impact, allowing large-scale thermoelectric devices to be produced more cheaply." I hope it pans out. (Via Nanodot).

CONGRESSIONAL STONEWALLING:

Florida law enforcement officials have been denied access to the office computers of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, despite a direct appeal to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for help in their investigation of sexually explicit messages sent to current and former teenage congressional pages.

Well, it's only fair -- Dennis Hastert did his best to protect William "Freezer Cash" Jefferson, too.

ANOTHER REPORT from South Carolina.

TEST-DRIVING THE Prius plug-in hybrid.

UPDATE: Related item here.

JONATHAN ADLER: "I also think conservatives should pay attention to how they believe respective presidential candidates would deal with the vast federal bureaucracy, large portions of which are staffed with civil servants who are hostile to a conservative governing agenda. Transforming government requires more than being able to give a good speech and make sound policy decisions." He's right -- and though Jonathan is a Thompson guy, this is at the root of my worries about Thompson. He can give good speeches and make sound policy decisions, but his management abilities, as demonstrated in this campaign so far, have been less than stellar.

FINDING SMUGGLER TUNNELS along the border.

WHO WROTE RON PAUL'S NEWSLETTERS? Reportedly, it was Lew Rockwell. Not a huge surprise.

UPDATE: Related item from Robert Bidinotto.

LEGAL PROBLEMS FOR Vladimir Putin. Made worse, I suppose, by the fact that he's stashed his billions outside Russia. The problem with despotism, I guess, is that it makes it hard to trust your own banking system . . .

IN THE MAIL: Mark Smith's Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. It's a special election edition, but I didn't look to see if there was an explanation of Karl Rove's coded messages to operatives, delivered via the New York Sun's crossword section . . . .

BOB OWENS: HARPER'S DEFAULTS on Scott Horton's credibility.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Bipartisan demands that Bush do nothing about earmarks:

The leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee are calling on President Bush to back away from threats to kill funding for lawmakers’ pet projects.

The pre-emptive warnings from the top Democrat and Republican on the panel are the clearest signs yet that President Bush could face a bipartisan backlash if he uses his executive authority to wipe out the more than $7 billion in earmarks.

Yeah, nobody wants that except the taxpayers . . . . The Republicans, in particular, who are behind this demand are the reason why the GOP lost in 2006, and if Bush listens they'll be the reason why the GOP loses in 2008.

They won't care, though, as long as they are permitted to suck unmolested at the government teat.

FORT DIX SIX UPDATE: "A group of men accused of planning an attack on Fort Dix face additional charges, including attempted murder, after a grand jury concluded there was evidence the men tried to kill uniformed members of the military."

AT THE DETROIT AUTO SHOW: Taking a surreal and illegal test drive in a Chinese hybrid.

THIS ISN'T NEWS, but it bears repeating:

The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia, the National Science Board said Tuesday in its biennial report on science and engineering.

The United States’ position is especially delicate, the agency said, given its reliance on foreign-born workers to fill technical jobs.

The big problem is that the American workplace doesn't make technical jobs attractive enough. The pay is okay, but less than that of other professionals, like lawyers. And the working conditions for engineers and scientists are generally quite poor -- too much Dilbert, not enough Skunk Works. They act as if there's a positive conspiracy to take all the fun out of it, according several of my friends who work in the area.

UPDATE: Reader Ken Braithwaite emails:

It got much worse after Sarbanes-Oxley. Suddenly we revamped all our processes to include "separation of duties" and other constraints ostensibly to prevent the merest possibility of fraud. But not really of course: really to provide ass-coverage at every level. But this applies as well in all sorts of situations where fraud is not an issue, like developers testing their code. The effect where I work has been disastrous.

People respond to incentives, and incentives were distorted at every level by SOX requirements.

It's a metaphor for the society at large, I fear. And another engineer reader who prefers anonymity writes:

I would just like to say that yes, the pay could be better, and the old, dusty cubicles could be nicer offices, and I do feel like I live in a Dilbert strip. But the worst thing in my opinion is the management at my company, where the rewards and recognition for a job well done are few and far between. I've worked for over twelve years now as an aerospace engineer, and in that time I've had a fair amount of success on various projects, but have never gotten above a three on my performance evals.

I still think I would be bored doing anything else, but sometimes I just want to say screw it all and go use my abilities somewhere that I could make a lot more money. And I'm not alone.

One of my friends noted that engineers tend to do their best work -- and their happiest -- in a "skunk works" kind of setting where there's a close connection between what they do and the actual making of stuff, with feedback both ways. He also noted that every company he'd ever worked for seemed to do its best to make sure that these kinds of settings didn't exist . . . .

MORE: Bill Quick: "The tendency to denigrate the positions of those who actually make things work is endemic in the American business culture, which even after decades of supposed 'streamlining' is top-heavy with a relatively useless management culture." I think it's a problem that goes beyond just the business culture, but yeah.

JEFF SOYER transcribed the gun-control part of the Democratic debate. None of the Dems look very good.

UPDATE: From the comments:

They’re not “illegal guns.” They’re “undocumented firearms.”

Heh. No gun is illegal!

SHOOTING FOR THE MOON, with the Chevy Volt. An interview with Bob Lutz and Bob Boniface of GM.

HOW TO GET real French cheese.

A "GRIM STATISTIC" FOR HILLARY in Michigan: "Roughly 70 percent of Michigan’s African-American voters — a group that makes up a quarter of Michigan’s Democratic electorate — did not cast their votes for Clinton, choosing the 'uncommitted' option instead. Yet these voters weren’t uncommitted at all: in fact, according to CNN exit polls, they overwhelmingly favored Barack Obama, whose name did not appear on the ballot."

TIGERHAWK OFFERS "A few short and obvious political observations following Michigan."

DRAGON SKIN: The name is cool, but the body armor, not so much. That's according to Michael Yon, who's selling his on eBay, and emails:

This is what I think of Dragon Skin. I don't want to see American soldiers wearing this body armor. It's inferior to and heavier than alternatives. I spent about $4,000 for mine and just put it on Ebay starting bid: $1. I'll be happy to get $2 back from it. When I go back to Iraq in a couple weeks, I will not be wearing Dragon Skin. The controversy over body armor is largely manufactured and is impeding the fielding of better body armor.

If I were the Dragon Skin folks, I'd be unhappy about this anti-endorsement from such a prominent source.

SHOULD HARVARD last forever?

HEH: "Kill six millions Jews in Germany, your name becomes a synonym with evil. Kill between 44 and 72 million Chinese, you get a café named after you. It's a funny old world, eh?"

Related thoughts here.

January 15, 2008

SO I WATCHED THE PILOT EPISODE of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which I recorded the other night. Not bad, and Summer Glau makes a surprisingly credible Terminator robot. Well, maybe it's not surprising considering her scarily-credible role as a biologically enhanced killer on Firefly/Serenity. Sorry -- tried to switch to the Democratic debate, but couldn't bring myself to watch another political show tonight. Ann Althouse was covering it if you're interested, but even her heart wasn't in it.

Gateway Pundit, meanwhile, showed a Terminator-like indefatigibility, and has some video that you may want to see.

And Dave Weigel blogged the Democratic debate, too: "Apparently, the biggest issue in Nevada is whether Clinton regrets what Edwards regrets he regretfully said about Obama's regrets. This is a high-def root canal."

And Megan McArdle was liveblogging the Democratic debate, too.

UPDATE: On the Terminator episode, a reader named Anna emails: 'Just thought I'd let you know that it's currently available for free on iTunes. I'm not sure how much longer it's going to be free, but I'm downloading it right now." Cool.

CELEBRATING THE END OF THE FORMAT WARS? A big sale on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disks at Amazon. (Via TigerHawk).

HEH: "I visited the macsweeper.com website. I know I probably shouldn't have but I used a Windows PC so I knew I wouldn't get infected." No, really, don't go there on a mac. And personally, I wouldn't go there on a PC.

JIM TREACHER EMAILS: "These primaries are like the Special Olympics: Everybody gets a ribbon! "

UPDATE: Brendan Loy: "You know what this means? Chaos!" Plus, on the Democratic side: "It certainly looks like a moral victory for Uncommitted!"

IS THE CADILLAC PROVOQ a sham?

AUTOBLOG has a gallery of pictures from the Detroit Auto Show that you may enjoy.

MORE DIEBOLD claims!

FOX PROJECTS ROMNEY TO WIN. Also Hillary.

UPDATE: I'm watching Huckabee say he feels my pain. Is this just an Arkansas thing?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now I'm watching Romney, and he looks energized by the win. Or maybe it's just that he's a bit happily unkempt. But what's with the repeated quoting of George Herbert Walker Bush?

MORE: The Thompson campaign: "The Republican campaign for President remains wide-open."

HILLARY, BILL, and the crown jewels.

A VOTER REPORT FROM MICHIGAN:

Mr. Reynolds: Turnout was quite low in my precinct (Grand Rapids area), though the weather here in West Michigan wasn't nearly as bad as some of the major media reports made it out to be.

No exit pollers. I had been hoping to tell them that I voted for Ron Paul both discredit exit polls further (if that's even possible) and drive the lunatic fringe of the Paul crowd even crazier. Disappointing.

Stay tuned for more comprehensive data . . . .

UPDATE: Ouch:

The Michigan Democratic ballot is a sham that was rigged by Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and her supporters to give the nation the impression that she’s the leading candidate in Michigan, an angry former Sen. Don Riegle said Monday.

Riegle appeared at a rally in Detroit today to encourage would-be supporters of Barack Obama and John Edwards to vote uncommitted in Tuesday’s primary. Riegle said he supports one of the two, but wouldn’t say which.

“What happened in Michigan is not very different from what used to happen in the old Soviet Union,” Riegle said. “The Clinton machine manipulated the ballot. They don’t care how they win, only that they do. It’s wrong and people need to know that.”

(Via Gateway Pundit).

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rand Simberg knows Don Riegle and thinks it's a sign that Democrats are getting tired of the Clintons.

MORE: A memo from Hillary.

AT GAYPATRIOT: Of Rush Limbaugh, Jonah Goldberg, Bias and Bookstores.

In related news, Jonah Goldberg's book is up to #4 on Amazon. I credit Matthew Yglesias!

HANDS-ON with the Apple MacBook Air.

UPDATE: Love!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Doubts!

MORE: Too big! "What's wrong with 12" like my PowerBook G4? I'll check it out, but I'm guessing that the MacBook Air will prove too big and too expensive for me."

A BABY BOOMLET:

Bucking the trend in many other wealthy industrialized nations, the United States seems to be experiencing a baby boomlet, reporting the largest number of children born in 45 years. The nearly 4.3 million births in 2006 were mostly due to a bigger population, especially a growing number of Hispanics. That group accounted for nearly one-quarter of all U.S. births. But non-Hispanic white women and other racial and ethnic groups were having more babies, too. . . .

An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. Fertility levels in those countries have been lower than the U.S. rate for several years, although some are on the rise, most notably in France. . . . To many economists and policymakers, the increase in births is good news. The U.S. fertility rate — the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime — reached 2.1. That's the "magic number" required for a population to replace itself.

Countries with much lower rates — such as Japan and Italy, both with a rate of 1.3 — face future labor shortages and eroding tax bases as they fail to reproduce enough to take care of their aging elders.

Interesting. I credit the Spears family.

SOLIDARITY WITH JOE SIXPACK: Gourmet food comes to the Congressional cafeteria:

The menu transformation is part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “Greening the Capitol” plan to make the House campus more environmentally friendly and socially progressive.

But there can be a downside to delicious. Not everyone is happy with the enhanced offerings. Many congressional employees have complained that as the food quality has increased, so have the prices.

“It’s a big jump from high school cafeteria to fancy-pants gourmet. I just wish my pay improved,” said Caryn Schenewerk, a staffer for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

Read the whole thing.

LIMBAUGH ON McCain and Huckabee.

AN EARLY LEAD FOR ROMNEY? Possibly. Make of it what you will.

YOU COULD SEE THIS COMING: "Michael Nifong, the former North Carolina district attorney who unsuccessfully prosecuted Duke University lacrosse players for rape, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors including the athletes."

CORRECTING BOB HERBERT on gender relations:

They're more like doctors who carry beepers. They've chosen a line of work where their clients determine when their services are wanted, and they're being paid for attending to those needs whether they are in the mood or not. That's difficult to do, so show some respect.

To them, and to everyone else who has to answer a bell or beeper!

A LOOK AT Apple TV 2.0.

BILL BRADLEY CONTINUES TO report from Michigan.

DEAN BARNETT: Driving Mr. Romney. "I often marvel at how the public perception of Mr. Romney differs so radically from the man I know. The blame for this lies in the campaign he has run."

NANO-ART from Zyvex labs. Thanks to Mary Katharine Ham for the link.

LOSING THE PRO-GUN BASE. Bad news for the GOP.

EXPENSIVE WINE TASTES BETTER -- because it's expensive? "A new study out of California has shown that 'the sensation of pleasantness that people experience when tasting wine is linked directly to its price'. This means that it's likely that a $10 bottle of merlot will taste more like a $90 bottle of merlot if someone tells you it's $90."

FRED THOMPSON'S new ad in South Carolina.

SO THE CAR INDUSTRY IN MICHIGAN IS IN TROUBLE, but foreign carmakers are eager to open new factories in the United States -- just not in Michigan. If I were a Michigan politician, or voter, this would make me think about what Michigan is doing wrong.

THE LATEST ON THE JUST-ANNOUNCED MacBook Air. It's thin!

FRED THOMPSON goes after McCain.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FACING CONGRESS? Apparently it's hearings on baseball and steroids. Extreme Mortman gives 'em the needle.

"THE HIDDEN DART sometimes sticks."

FANS OF GUINNESS, OR OF RUBE GOLDBERG, will enjoy this commercial.

BRENDAN LOY has thoughts on South Carolina.

LOTS OF MACWORLD COVERAGE from the Popular Mechanics folks. "In Steve We Trust?"

DAVID BROOKS on what some of us are enjoying about the Clinton / Obama contest: "The problem is that both the feminist movement Clinton rides and the civil rights rhetoric Obama uses were constructed at a time when the enemy was the reactionary white male establishment. Today, they are not facing the white male establishment. They are facing each other."

GOP CANDIDATES at the Detroit Auto Show. Of course, they should have been talking about . . . well, you know.

FROM BILL BRADLEY: Continuously updated Michigan primary coverage.

IN THE MAIL: A new edition of Isaac Asimov's Pebble in the Sky. I'm glad to see classic science fiction staying in print.

JAMES LILEKS ON THE HOUSING SLUMP:

I'm on a neighborhood email list that has some people who work in the real estate and financial field and they report that one of the remarkable problems with these properties is that the owners often don't really seem all that interested in selling them. The owners being banks, finance companies, etc. You would expect that when the price drops below a certain point, buyers want to buy but not if the sellers won't cooperate.

I think that the problem is that a lot of them still think that this is a game of hot potato--they think they can unload the dogs as paper to another institution with less hassle. Somebody needs to tell them game over man.

I am not saying it has to be the government, but there is an accountability problem here. Some of the entities that hold these houses are big banks with shareholders, who ought to be concerned about the financial health of a bank that is essentially treating properties as losses without actually writing them off. I am also waiting for some enterprising lawyer to sue a bank for not maintaining a property that leads to some awful crime. Right now, the lack of maintenance is mostly creating headaches for neighbors, in unshoveled snow, uncut grass, etc. One realtor mentioned that a lot of foreclosed property owners didn't bother winterizing the houses and now some have ruptured plumbing to go along with all the other problems that make it an unattractive purchase.

Plus, inklings of worse to come.

UPDATE: James Lileks emails: "That's not James Lileks. And I should know, being him. It’s from another buzz.mn blogger." D'oh! The dreaded co-blogger confusion strikes again!

THOUGHTS ON Jerry Seinfeld, language, and law.

PLANTED QUESTIONS: It's not just Hillary: "A Romney staffer's mother plays herself in the real-life campaign stop: 'Romney Visits Economically Anxious Family.' It's like when TV producers find an aunt with the medical problem du jour...." And it underscores the phoniness problem that Romney has.

GM UNVEILS another hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

My driving experience with -- and reservations about -- the fuel-cell Equinox can be found here.

HILLARY WON'T LIKE THIS: "Is Barack Obama the New Bill Clinton?"

A ROUNDUP OF BOOK REVIEWS from this weekend.

RICHARD COHEN on Obama's Farrakhan test. (Via The Volokh Conspiracy, where there are more thoughts).

CAMPAIGNING TO bust the budget.

DID SYPHILIS COME TO EUROPE FROM the New World?

Plus, a new drug-resistant bacterium is being sexually transmitted among gay men.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Why on Earth would we choose to put the Clinton family drama at the center of our politics again?

BRITAIN: (Over) Ripe for Revolution.

THE CONVENIENTLY LOST CONTRACTS of campaign contributors.

A ROUNDUP OF Caldecott and Newbery Award winners.

MODELING urban panic.

OUCH:

GM's outspoken Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told reporters today at the Detroit Auto Show the U.S. government's 35 mpg CAFE standard will push car prices up by $4,000 to $10,000 per vehicle, or an average $6,000.

By contrast, implementing Bob Zubrin's flexfuel plan would do much more good, and would cost only about $100 per vehicle. Plus, U.S. auto companies are actually ahead of foreign competitors in flexfuel technology. I'm just sayin'. . . .

"IS THIS THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY, or a John Edwards rally?"

BAD NEWS FOR HILLARY: Red State Dems See Obama as Electable.

GOVERNMENTAL ARROGANCE: "Here's a rule of thumb: It is not incumbent upon you to prove a document is public. It is incumbent upon a government employee to prove it is not."

MORE ON THE COOL-LOOKING KARMA HYBRID, with video.

January 14, 2008

OBAMA RIPS UP THE RACE CARD? I credit Brendan Loy.

THEY SHOULD PUT JERI THOMPSON forward more often.

FOR THE FEW WHO ARE INTERESTED, here's the result on the gubernatorial succession committee that I served on.

UPDATE: Longer story here. And more here.

HUFFINGTON POST: "The Clinton campaign is supporting, if not actually inciting, a Nevada State Teachers Association lawsuit against the Culinary Workers Union. The reason? The Culinary Workers Union has arranged for its members to caucus in their workplaces, to cast their votes in the hotels and casinos that support that state's economy instead of taking time off to get to polling places--at the risk of getting fired. That lawsuit was filed right after the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama. Gosh. What a coincidence."

ON THE UPSIDE, SHE'S LIKELY TO WIN MICHIGAN:

How do you think Detroit’s largely black population is going to react when they go to the polls tomorrow and learn that

(a) Hillary Clinton is on the ballot

(b) Barack Obama is not on the ballot

(c) Write-in votes are not counted?

If the Clintons think they have a potential race problem brewing in the Democratic Party now, they haven’t seen anything yet.

Ouch.

UH OH: Clinton booed at MLK rally in New York. (Via Gateway Pundit).

UPDATE: Joe Tobacco says there are no audible boos on the video.

FREDMENTUM IN SOUTH CAROLINA? Well, most places, apparently, but not all.

UPDATE: More here.

THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIAN CHARITY from Fred Thompson:

Mixing theology and social issues on the campaign trail is rare for Fred Thompson, but he discussed it today answering a question from a member of the audience.

A woman asked him if he would “as a Christian, as a conservative” continue President Bush’s programs to combat global AIDS.

“Christ didn’t tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it,” Thompson said.

“The government has its role, but we need to keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us as individuals and as Christians on the other.”

He received a round of applause for his answer, and went on to expand on the role of government in fighting AIDS and other diseases.

Read the whole thing.

INDEED: "When the amputee is barred from the Olympics because his prosthetic legs give him an advantage . . . then you know how wonderful technology is."

SATURN INTRODUCES plug-in hybrids for 2009.

ROMNEY: The weakest Republican?

A LOOK AT FIVE Automotive X-Prize competitors.

REPORTS THAT NEWT GINGRICH IS BACKING HUCKABEE turn out to be false:

Also, there has been some speculation that I have endorsed a Republican candidate or that I am supporting a particular candidate “behind the scenes.” Nothing can be further from the truth. The fact is that I have offered my advice to any candidate that wants it and have had personal conversations with several candidates on a number of issues. My goal is to help every candidate be the best they can be. I want the strongest possible field because ultimately that will lead to a stronger America.

That's too bad in a way -- I had thought that if Newt was supporting Huckabee, Huckabee had to be less of a big-government social engineer than I feared. Newt's also blogging about his new book, which sounds interesting.

OKAY, HERE'S THE plug-in hybrid that I want!

MORE: Obama camp slams Clintons over drugs talk.

OBAMA: It took men to give women the vote. Heh.

UPDATE: Yes, this is a Scrappleface parody.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, college students would be forced to sign loyalty oaths. And they were right!

A RACIAL SPLIT in the Democratic Party. "Overall, Clinton and Obama are close nationally in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. But, among white voters, Clinton leads 41% to 27%. Among African-American voters, Obama leads 66% to 16%."

HERE'S A WEBSITE SUPPORTING PORKBUSTER JEFF FLAKE for the Appropriations Committee. (Via Capt. Ed).

DEMOCRATS FOR A DAY: "An Obama precinct captain in Nevada has circulated a flyer that urges Republicans (and independents) to become Democrats just for a day in order to stop Hillary."

MATT BAI: "The most dangerous place to be in the rest of the country is between the Clintons and an elected office."

NEWBERY AND CALDECOTT AWARDS ANNOUNCED: Roundup here.

AN HD-DVD FIRE SALE: "Now, Toshiba's third generation 1080i-capable HD-A3 is selling for a mere $139.98 on Amazon.com. The 1080p-capable HD-A30 is not much more expensive at $179.98. For the price of an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, consumers can now purchase a fully-fledged set top box with 1080p support."

RASMUSSEN: "Over the past several days, the only real movement in South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary has been a four-point gain for Fred Thompson and a five-point decline for Mike Huckabee."

HERE'S MORE on General Motors' cellulosic ethanol effort mentioned below.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN a still camera and a video camera? Less than it used to be.

DAVE KOPEL: "To understand the Second Amendment, it helps to consult Justice Stephen Breyer's book, Active Liberty."

SOME VERY UPSETTING NEWS FROM TIM BLAIR:

Feeling poorly for some time. Saw a doctor a few weeks ago, who sent me to a specialist, who booked me into hospital for tests.

It’s cancer.

Please drop by and offer him your best wishes for a speedy recovery.

FERRARI'S biofuel 430 spider.

UNVEILING THE NEW Corvette ZR1. With video.

CITIZEN, arm thyself.

A RECIPE FOR stuffed leg of lamb. Sounds yummy.

ANDREW CUOMO on the Second Amendment.

THE AUDI R8 -- now with a V12 diesel. "This unit generates a huge 500 hp and 1,000 Newton-meters (737.56 lb-ft) of torque." Don't worry -- if you black out from the acceleration, your foot will probably slip off the accelerator and you'll wake up . . . .

IN THE MAIL: Richard Thompson Ford's The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse. As fresh as today's headlines . . . .

The Glenn and Helen Show: Rudy Giuliani and Gene Sperling on Politics and Policy

IT'S A BIPARTISAN ELECTION DOUBLE-HEADER. We caught up with Rudy Giuliani as he barnstormed across Florida this weekend, and asked him about the Second Amendment (he says it protects "an individual personal right to bear and carry arms, not just one that's related to the militia"), about health care, energy policy (including the Zubrin plan), and much more.

Gene Sperling is the author of The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity. He also chaired the National Economic Council in the Bill Clinton Administration, and serves as senior economic advisor to the Hillary Clinton campaign. He talks about Hillary's stimulus package, health care, and whether we're in danger of 1970s style "stagflation" again.

Plus, Helen managed to crack me up over "podcast tax credits." You can listen directly -- no downloads needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the file and listen at your leisure at by clicking right here. You can get a lo-fi version suitable for cellphones, Treos, and dialup connections by going here and clicking "lo fi." And, of course, you can always get a free subscription via iTunes. Free! Show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com.

Music is "Black UFOs," by Mobius Dick. And, as always, my lovely and talented cohost is taking comments.

WHAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR, at the Detroit Auto Show.

MICKEY KAUS: "It's hard to believe that Obama's Afrocentric church--with its troubling attack on 'the pursuit of middeclassness'--isn't going to be an issue in the campaign, soon."

MITT ROMNEY goes for the gold.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: New York Times: The Pork King keeps his crown:

The new earmark disclosure rules put into effect by Congress confirm the pre-eminence of Representative John Murtha at procuring eye-popping chunks of pork for contractors he helped put in business in Johnstown, Pa. The Pennsylvania Democrat, a power player on defense appropriations, exudes pride, not embarrassment, for delivering hundreds of millions of dollars in largesse to district beneficiaries. They, in turn, requite with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations. . . . “This is about jobs,” the congressman insists. But the Murtha operation — which has become a model for other entrepreneurial lawmakers — is a gross example of quid pro quo Washington. Every one of the 26 beneficiaries of Mr. Murtha’s earmarks in last year’s defense budget made contributions to his campaign kitty, a total of $413,250, according to the newspaper Roll Call. The Pentagon, seeking its own goodies before Mr. Murtha’s committee, is noticeably hesitant to challenge his projects. And we’re not hearing a lot of objections from his colleagues — not after members have ladled out a fresh $15 billion for their own special interests, just in time for the coming elections.

It's as if the whole system is corrupt.

MORE THOUGHTS on the FTC's carbon-offsets investigation.

THOUGHTS ON Michael Kinsley and Libertarianism.

FIRST THE BROOKS BROTHERS THING, NOW THIS. Dear God, what does it all mean?

A BOLD MOVE: "I am writing this short piece just so it is on record that I predicted that Fred Thompson would win the 2008 election."

BOB ZUBRIN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: "Using patented microorganisms and transformative bioreactor designs, Coskata ethanol is produced via a unique three-step conversion process that turns virtually any carbon-based feedstock—including biomass, municipal solid waste, and a variety of agricultural waste—into ethanol, making production a possibility in almost any geography. The technology is ethanol-specific and enzyme independent, requiring no additional chemicals or pre-treatments. Simply put, the Coskata process can produce ethanol almost anywhere in the world, using practically any renewable source, including feedstock, garbage, old tires and plant waste. And it can do so for less than a dollar per gallon."

More on why this matters, here.

OUCH:

If not for the massive volunteer work of persons concerned about the Second Amendment, George W. Bush would not have won the very close elections of 2000 and 2004. To state the obvious, the citizen activists would never have spent all those hours volunteering for a candidate whose position on the constitutionality of a handgun ban was "Maybe."

The SG brief was one that might have been expected from the administration of President John Kerry. As a Senator, Kerry voted for a resolution affirming the individual Second Amendment right, and also voted for more repressive gun control at every opportunity.

The 2004 Bush victory over Kerry made a great difference in the US posture at the 2006 UN gun control conference, and in the signature of the Protection of Lawful Commerces in Arms Act. The election does not appear to have made a difference in the management of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, or of the Office of the Solicitor General.

The Solicitor General's brief is being poorly received, which is bad for the GOP.

MORE ON OBAMA AND RACE, from Brendan Loy:

He is, it turns out, perfectly willing to let this racial stew fester, so long as he thinks it will work to his advantage -- even though the controversy is totally baseless, and he knows it. That suggests to me that, as president, he would let any racial controversy fester if he deems it politically advantageous.

The last thing we need is a President who encourages festering racial controversies.

You know, I've noted before that if Hillary attacks Obama too hard she risks losing black supporters -- and others who've invested in Obama. But it works both ways -- if Obama looks too much like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, or even like he's too close to those two politically, he'll lose a lot of people who've rallied to him precisely because he promised "a new kind of politics." You can't run as a uniter, and engage in racial politicking at the same time. Well, you can -- but it won't work very well.

Here are some sort-of-related thoughts from Reihan Salam.

THOUGHTS ON KATRINA, from Gerard van der Leun.

January 13, 2008

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SURGE, from Iraq-war skeptic Stephen Bainbridge.

THOUGHTS ON HILLARY and the vast right-wing conspiracy.

A REPORT FROM Abu Dhabi.

MORE SIGNS OF FREDMENTUM?

UPDATE: Bill Quick is excited.

WHENEVER I GET AROUND TO REPLACING MY RX-8, it's going to be with one of these. Well, I hope, anyway. Yowza.

JOHN KERRY BEATS DOWN GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS -- but Extreme Mortman is made of sterner stuff.

OBAMA IS really hurting Hillary.

PHIL CARTER IS REALLY UNHAPPY with the New York Times vets-as-murderers story. "I've got a one-word verdict on this article and its research: bullshit." (Via Abu Muqawama).

I REMEMBER WHEN THIS COUNTED AS A BIG HARD DRIVE: But now you can get 32 GB flash memory cards. And they're even introducing 48 GB flash memory cards. Only problem -- what can you back them up to, besides a huge hard drive? That's 6 or 7 DVD's worth of data.

I SHOULD NEVER HAVE POSTED on this.

THIS IS COOL:

University of Minnesota researchers have created a beating heart in the laboratory.

By using a process called whole organ decellularization, scientists from the University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair grew functioning heart tissue by taking dead rat and pig hearts and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells. The research will be published online in the January 13 issue of Nature Medicine.

“The idea would be to develop transplantable blood vessels or whole organs that are made from your own cells,” said Doris Taylor, Ph.D., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair, Medtronic Bakken professor of medicine and physiology, and principal investigator of the research.

Bring it on!

TOM MAGUIRE takes a skeptical look at Paul Krugman.

UPDATE: Related item here.

FREDMENTUM? Piling up the pesos.

Plus, "Mittmentum" in Michigan? Mitt would be doing even better in Michigan if he were pushing Bob Zubrin's flexfuel plan -- which would not only hurt OPEC, but which would benefit American car companies, who have an advantage in flexfuel technology.

UPDATE: Or is it Johnmentum in Michigan? Plus, a Thompson/Huckabee comparison.

THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION IS LOOKING INTO possible carbon offset scams.

IN BRITAIN: NO-GO ZONES for non-Muslims? Reader Fred Ray emails: "I grew up in the segregated South in the 50s and early 60s. Turns out I was really living in the multicultural South. Who knew?"

HILLARY CLINTON attacks Barack Obama.

UPDATE: The Uniters.

MORE: Obama Calls Clinton Allegations “Ludicrous.”

THE KIND OF JOURNALISM YOU OUGHT TO SEE IN NEWSPAPERS: Joel Rosenberg has a series on botched SWAT raids and demilitarizing the Minneapolis Police Department.

NO CONSENT REQUIRED for organ harvesting in Britain.

I don't know if "I'm using it" will make them go away . . . .

NOW FOR SOME REALLY IMPORTANT NEWS: the new Bond girl.

GEORGE W. BUSH in Abu Dhabi.

Plus, Code Pink in Little Havana.

IT'S NOT JUST HUCKABEE: "Why isn’t Barack Obama’s faith-based problem making national headlines and the nightly news?"

COSMETIC SURGERY at the mall? My local mall even has a place that does 15-minute teeth-bleaching. It's not even a storefront, but a kiosk with a few dentist chairs around it.

REVITALIZING OLD GAME CARTRIDGES with the Retro Duo console.

AUTOBLOG will be posting lots of coverage from the Detroit Auto Show.

And there will be 7 automotive X-Prize teams there, too.

A SHORT STROLL AROUND DOLLYWOOD DEMONSTRATES THIS: Obesity now a 'lifestyle' choice for Americans, expert says.

WHEN BUREAUCRATESE MEETS THE MUSIC WORLD: The Army is looking for a "Professional Celebrity Rock Music Band".

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that Fred Thompson is surging in South Carolina. And I just got an email from a journalist who says that crowds at Thompson events are suddenly over-capacity. Is it a tipping point for Thompson, or just a blip? Stay tuned.

CHICAGO: A place where "prostitutes are more likely to have sex with city police than they are to be arrested by them." It's called "protection sex."

NEWS FROM ALGERIA: "In reaction to their defeat in Iraq (where 500 terrorism deaths a month is a low figure), many al Qaeda operators are moving to North Africa, where it's safer (American soldiers and marines are farther away). December saw a spike in terrorism related deaths; 56 (versus six in November)."

UPDATE: Link was wrong earlier. Fixed now. Sorry!

LUKEWARM ON compact fluorescent bulbs. My own experience here. I'm still pretty happy with these.

UPDATE: Reader Dave Walter emails:

You can take the credit for most of the illumination in my home and your blog posts on cf bulbs are always illuminating, but the NY Times article you link to in 'LUKEWARM ON compact fluorescent bulbs' says less about the bulbs and more about the NYT (insular, complacent, reactionary, elitist, lacking balance - although they do briefly discuss "distaste for change" 3/4ths of the way through) Reminds me of all the complaints about how terrible CDs sounded when they first came out.

I started using compact fluorescent bulbs on a whim several years ago after an Ikea blow-out. Those early Ikea bulbs are pretty poor in design (they jut out of lamp shades, waiting to be whacked, or won't fit inside housings) and light output is poor in the lower wattage ones. All, however, are still burning (whereas all the wine glasses from the same trip are long broken and the Luxor lamps held together with wire and duct tape). After reading about your experimentation on your blog, I started replacing my incandescent bulbs with the GE Soft Whites whenever they are on sale at the grocery store (joined your bulb group too) and I don't miss incandescent bulbs at all. Actually, I had to check the lamp on my left just now to make sure that warm yellow glow really was one of those old Ikea rectangular-tube monstrosities. The greatest advantage I've found is using 26 watt bulbs that don't overload my the wattage of my reading lamps and provide enough illumination so that I can read without glasses - especially useful after a few glasses of wine.

Always happy to hear about people's experiences.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader emails:

I purchased a six pack of GE Softwhite 100s (product code 47709) at Sam's Club. I have one left in the pack, and one currently in use in a fixture. The other four have died. This is in less than one year of use, despite the fact that the pack claims these are "Guaranteed*" 5 year bulbs. The pack cost about 12 bucks. While I have no doubt that they saved me some money on electrical usage, I am underwhelmed by their reliability and longevity compared to incandescents. Just thought you'd like to know.

Yeah, that's not saving you any money, regardless of electrical savings, given the bulbs' price. I haven't had any of the GE's fail yet. However, I'm told that if you put them in enclosed fixtures where the bulb is horizontal -- especially if you have incandescent bulbs in the same fixture -- they won't last as long. I had that happen with some other fluorescents that I put in a 3-bulb ceiling fixture with a couple of 60 watt incandescents. They didn't last long, I guess because of the heat buildup from the incandescents.

I'd return those to Sam's, anyway.

MORE: Reader Katie Kearns emails:

Not only do they not last as long in covered (or recessed) fixtures, some will have a nasty tendency to smoke and even catch on fire. There are a lot of not very safe ones out, including the one that my landlord apparently put in a closed fixture in my bathroom. I discovered this when my house was filled with the smell of burning plastic. We found it smoking quite unpleasantly. After a quick search on the net, I found out this was frighteningly common, especially for certain makes and models of lights (ours were Costco specials...). We searched through the house and found a total of 8 of these fluorescents, all of which were in inappropriate places.

This is one reason the ban on incandescents makes no sense -- half the fixtures in my house are recess and/or covered. I can't put a compact fluorescent there without creating a fire hazard! (Which I'm sure is probably worse for the environment. And my house!)

The incandescent ban is asinine.

EXTREME MORTMAN is excited about Nevada.

ECHOES OF the Fourth Century.

MY EARLIER POST on Brooks Brothers' hellish new fashion ideas has produced various other links to heinous men's fashion.

It's like the Pee Wee Hermanization of the American male. What evil mastermind could be behind that? . . . Uh oh.

UPDATE: Ugh.