December 02, 2006

LONDON POISONING UPDATE: This isn't that surprising: "Scientists at the U.K.'s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, west of London, have traced the polonium 210 found in London to a nuclear power plant in Russia."

"I'M A PEEPAL PERSON:" Heh.

If I were a tree, I'd marry Aishwarya Rai.

JOSH CHAFETZ has a column in the New York Times on what Congress needs to do on ethics reform.

Josh's approach seems unlikely, but it's better than the usual ethics-establishment approach, of which I've been critical in the past.

UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

ME, AUSTIN BAY, AND RICHARD FERNANDEZ: This week's Blog Week in Review is up.

BYRON YORK: "it seems illustrative of the Obama phenomenon that so many Democrats have gotten so excited about him and don't even know his name."

With most candidates, the less you know about them, the more excited you are.

COOKWARE BLEG: Reader Mike Skelton emails: "I know you have posted on cookware in the past, have you any new information to pass on? We're looking for a new set of non-stick pans."

Got any advice for him? Other than this, I haven't bought anything nonstick in a while.

DUKE RAPE UPDATE: KC Johnson reports that the Duke Board of Trustees just met and, well:

The Bob Steel-led Board of Trustees has just concluded its regularly scheduled meeting. The Board offered no comment on the serious conflict of interest allegations leveled against Steel by a left-to-right coalition of good-government groups in yesterday’s Washington Post. But the Board did make two moves—one by action, one by inaction—that made perfectly clear where the Board stands on Duke’s future.

Inaction

In its final meeting before the deadline to apply to Duke’s Class of 2011, the Board remained silent about Mike Nifong’s “separate-but-equal” system of justice for Duke students.

Parents considering spending the more than $40,000 annual tuition to send their son or daughter to Duke should, therefore, have no doubt that the institution will remain silent in face of a prosecutor who employs a different set of procedures for Duke students than those used for all other Durham residents. Prospective parents also now can be assured that the BOT has no complaints with the Durham PD’s official policy of meting out greater punishment to Duke students than to all other Durham residents for the same misdemeanor-level offenses.

Many might argue that with this silence, Duke’s trustees have failed in their fiduciary duty to the institution. But Steel, obviously, has a different vision of his proper role. . . . With its actions and non-actions today, the Board responded to those who have been urging Duke to take a clearer stand on the case. Not only is the Board unwilling to challenge Nifong’s “separate-but-equal” system for Duke students, but it went out of its way to reward the faculty who have acted as Nifong’s campus cheerleaders.

There's much, much more.

AN ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE QUESTION: "What if the Secretary of Homeland Security used general funds to build a mosque and pay an Imam?"

REYES IN, HARMAN AND HASTINGS OUT: The Wall Street Journal has a roundup. It's a free link.

IN THE MAIL: Transgender Rights, from the University of Minnesota Press. It's well-reviewed ("A must for transfolk and their allies!") and raises interesting questions. Are the transgendered "disabled?" I'd say no, but I confess I haven't given the subject a lot of thought.

UPDATE: Reader Diane Wilson emails:

As a “transgendered folk” (and a long-time reader of Instapundit) I have to speak up and say NO! I transitioned more than 11 years ago, without losing my job, my relationship, my church, or my friends. Over the next several years, I survived a dozen layoffs as my employer (Nortel Networks, a major telecom equipment and software company) imploded. I chaired a major, week-long professional conference (Usability Professionals’ Association, 2003 and 2004 conferences). I now work for a consulting firm, where I interact with our client’s business partners and customers every day. I’m active in my church (Unitarian) as a lay leader and facilitator of small group ministry.

In what way would I be considered disabled? I don’t get it.

Me neither.

WHEN CLUELESS PR PEOPLE target bloggers.

VAGINOFASCISM: Would that be fascism with a human, er, face?

VIDEO FLYCASTING LESSONS at The Itinerant Angler.

And check out the photoblog, too.

RICHARD MINITER HAS MORE on the flying imams: "Now new information is emerging that suggests it was all a stunt designed to weaken security."

Read the whole thing.

MICHAEL LEDEEN is now blogging for Pajamas Media.

December 01, 2006

THANKS TO THE MIRACLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDING, I've been watching a lot more of Larry Kudlow's show lately, and he's definitely on a roll -- unlike some righty television and radio shows that have seemed in a funk since the elections, he's stayed sharp and on-point.

Tonight he had Steven Emerson on, talking about jihadists in the United States -- the topic of Emerson's new book, which he was of course promoting. I'm inclined to believe that there's a lot of money and a lot of highly dubious influence flowing from Saudi Arabia and Iran (mostly the former) to the United States. But, still, not much in the way of action, five years since 9/11. Why? I'm not entirely sure.

EASTERN EUROPE IS UNHAPPY WITH THE UNITED STATES: "'Our boys are good enough to die in Iraq, but not good enough to get a tourist visa in America,' a senior Baltic politician complained to me recently."

We should be making nice to them. Very nice. It doesn't cost much, and they'll notice. And it's the right thing to do.

UPDATE: Reader Ben Poulos emails:

The people complaining definitely have cause. It is extremely hard for most people to get a visa, even student visas, and when someone in the US is willing to sponsor the applicants (like family visits or similar friendly visits)

One of the major problems is the cost; we charge $100 for each application, and then there is another charge for the visa, if approved.

For some context, $100 dollars in Ukraine is about 2 months pay for a basic job. Not even a bad job; just a normal job. It's a huge barrier for people who want to come here for a visit. Pretty much the only people who can pay the cost are the really rich, and the mafia. The majority of the people in a country can't afford the visit.

I realize that the money is intended to keep non serious applicants from gumming up the works. However, there are other ways we can provide disincentives to non-serious visa applications, and still make it possible for normal people to apply for a visa. We should at least have a program where the fee can be waved in certain situations. The fee is also meant to pay for our costs, but $100 dollars seems a bit much for a 15 minute visa interview.

Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jeffrey Rank emails:

Eastern Europeans are getting the short end of the stick, definitely. However, as EU accession occurs, things should become somewhat less stringent. That's the hope among the people I know there.

Strange, immigration demands high ratings, officially, for Eastern Europeans because they could come here and stay illegally, perhaps being exploited, adding to the crime rate, and/or "doing jobs Americans won't do." The question then is, why just them?

Perhaps the Romanians and Bulgarians need to sue us for discrimination. Until they do that, I'm not sure a group of people who understand the horror of socialism and the expansionism of Islam would be the sort of chap this country needs.

Yes, we couldn't have that. And another longtime reader/emailer writes:

Ben Poulos is correct. My wife is from Poland, she and her mother are now US Citizens living here. My wife's sister is a surgical nurse living in Warsaw. She is married, they own a home and have 3 teenage children.

My wife's sister has been trying to get a tourist visa for 4 years. She wants to visit her mother, who is 82, before she dies. She can't get one because - she is told - she is too likely to overstay her visa and stay here illegally. She's offered to put up the deed to her house as a bond, but she's ignored.

(If you publish this, please don't use my name)

Meanwhile illegal immigrants from Mexico face few barriers.

EUGENE VOLOKH POINTS OUT that the Washington Supreme Court just ruled that citizens have a right to keep and bear arms under both the Washington state and federal constitutions.

He also reports that the Kentucky Supreme Court recently found the same thing, with regard to the Kentucky and the federal constitutions.

SOME MUSIC REVIEWS from the Insta-Wife.

GATEWAY PUNDIT IS ALL OVER THE ICE STORM IN ST. LOUIS that has 500,000 people without power.

The folks without power probably can't read it, but for the rest of you here's a blackout survival guide from the folks at Popular Mechanics, and some guidelines on home generator safety. Generators can be useful, but they're dangerous if not used carefully.

LITVINENKO UPDATE: "Scientists probing the death of Alexander Litvinenko said on Friday that two more people had been contaminated with the same radioactive poison that killed the former Russian spy."

N.I.S.T.: Paperless electonic voting cannot be made secure.

I agree.

WALTER OLSON: "Tumbleweeds are not yet blowing through Manhattan's vacant streets, but if New York is to hold onto its precarious pre-eminence in global finance, the US will need to get serious about reforming its costly and punitive legal environment for capital issuance. That was the message from yesterday's much-awaited report by an expert panel on the competitiveness of the country's financial markets convened by Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary."

I think there's an excessive degree of complacency on this topic.

DER SPIEGEL:

Authoritarian states like China, Iran and Egypt are having trouble dealing with the burgeoning number of critical online diaries. These blogs, which multiply by the second, expose news about incidents that many regimes would prefer to keep hushed up. In many countries, blogs are giving people their first real taste of democracy. . . .

It is this power of information that has made bloggers as feared as they are vulnerable in many countries.

Blogs are generally seen as a part of the "vague media." Since their inception in the mid-1990s, they have multiplied exponentially. Nowadays a new Internet diary is launched every second, and the number of blogs doubles every five months. Forty-one percent are in Japanese, 28 percent in English and 14 percent in Chinese. The German contribution to a many-faceted "blogosphere" uninhibited by convention lies at a mere 1 percent, leading the German blogger community to ironically and self-desparagingly refer to itself as a kind of blogging backwater.

Der Spiegel, however, misses one German blog that is taking on the apologists for autocracy.

FINALLY, A WAR PLAN THAT MAKES SENSE:

Just days before the Iraq Study Group releases its top-secret report, President George Bush today ordered the Pentagon to preemptively redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq to “neutral neighboring countries including Iran and Syria.”

“I’ve said that I won’t order our troops to make a graceful exit from Iraq,” said Mr. Bush, “But I never ruled out making a graceful entrance into Iran and Syria where I expect our partners in peace to welcome us with open and raised arms.”

The order surprised many, coming as it does on the heels of news that the Pentagon has discovered “smoking gun” evidence that terrorists in Iraq use weapons shipped from Iranian factories to kill U.S. troops and others.

But Mr. Bush said the Iraq Study Group, Kofi Annan and other Democrats have convinced him that engagement with Iran and Syria is crucial to finding a “holistic solution” to the Iraq situation.

Heh. Indeed.

THE FLYING IMAMS: "What didn't happen."

AUSTIN BAY looks at why autocrats dislike Bush.

JOHN TAMMES ROUNDS UP more news from Afghanistan that you may have missed.

TIM LYNCH LOOKS AT double standards in police shootings.

DANIEL HENNINGER tries to assess the Pope's divisions.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Star Wars redux.

GENERAL JOHN ABIZAID, in The Harvard Gazette:

America cannot walk away from Iraq without risking another world war. That warning was sounded at the Kennedy School forum Nov. 17 by Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), the man responsible for U.S. military strategy in the Middle East.

"We can walk away from this enemy, but they will not walk away from us," Abizaid told the forum audience during a discussion titled "The Long War."

"We have not failed yet and we will not fail if we all understand what we have to do. If we can stay together nothing can stop us and we can make the world a better place."

Abizaid cited what he called the three greatest challenges facing the world - the Arab-Israeli conflict; the rise of extremist groups "with a dark vision of the future"; and, specifically, the dangers posed by "Shia revolutionary thought."

"Where these things come together is in Iraq," he said. "It's absolutely not an easy thing to do," Abizaid went on to say. "But the sacrifice that is necessary to stabilize Iraq must be sustained in order for the region itself to become more resilient against these three challenges."

And while admitting that the recent upturn in sectarian violence in Iraq is disturbing, Abizaid said politicians cannot set arbitrary deadlines for the withdrawal of American troops.

Read the whole thing -- and remember that the big rap against Rumsfeld was supposedly that he "didn't listen to the generals." So will the Democrats, and Rumsfeld's successors, listen to this general?

IN THE MAIL: A bunch of CDs from Columbia Records, which is now trying to market to the blogosphere. It's an interesting selection: Five for Fighting's Two Lights, John Mayer's Continuum, System of a Down's Mezmerize, Bob Dylan's Modern Times, and Tony Bennett's Duets. Yeah, it's an eclectic collection, though I could have done with more techno and less pop. This is more the Insta-Wife's kind of stuff, so maybe I'll get her to post some reviews. Still it's interesting that the music companies are targeting bloggers for their promotional efforts now.

ROGER BATE:

Another World AIDS Day has arrived today and, although hard to believe, the situation across the globe is worse than before.

The AIDS epidemic is described by the United Nations as the "most destructive in human history" and accounting for more than 25 million deaths so far. Leaders of rich and poor nations should be commended for applying their citizens' largesse in fighting the disease. But the UN, and ultimately these leaders, must be equally criticized for failing to deliver accountability where its programs are concerned.

So it is with some interest that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said earlier this week:

"The challenge now is to deliver on all the promises that governments have made. Leaders must hold themselves accountable — and be held accountable by all of us. Accountability — the theme of [this year's] World AIDS Day...requires every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that AIDS stops with me."

It is ironic that the accountability that Mr. Annan so passionately speaks of has been thin on the ground when it comes to the UN's promotion of treatment for HIV.

Where the U.N. is concerned, accountability is very thin on the ground in general.

A LOOK AT THE A.P., MEDIA BIAS, and things "everybody knows."

ARNOLD KLING LOOKS AT education and entrepreneurship. "I have been losing interest in the contests between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. I am more anxious about the outcome of the struggle between innovators and incumbents in the field of education."

THE ASSOCIATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARS splits.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER on alternative fuels. Plus, a turbocharged, hydrogen-powered Prius.

AT THE LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION, The A-Prize:

It is awarded to the person or organization responsible for creating an Animat/Artificial life form with an emphasis on the safety of the researchers, public, and environment OR the person or organization who shows that an Animat/Artificial life form has been created. (The second case is to uncover unpublicized or unsafe projects.)

Kind of interesting.

WELL, SOMEBODY HAS TO DO IT: The Coalition to Preserve Civilization.

HERE'S MORE ON THE LITVINENKO POISONING, in the New York Sun, and here's the Edward Jay Epstein page they reference. Was it a case of failed nuclear-weapons smuggling?

This is more plausible than Pat Buchanan's jewish-conspiracy theory, but the Putin regime's history of poisoning troublesome opponents with exotic substances makes that seem the most likely explanation here.

November 30, 2006

I'VE BEEN WONDERING why everybody makes a big deal about the ISG report leak -- it seems as if it stands for more or less the current plan. The Mudville Gazette seems to see things the same way, describing it as a "360 degree about face," which seems about right.

No big surprise -- it's not like the ISG is made up of a bunch of guys who've spent their lives thinking outside the box. And the Mudville Gazette notes that the Security Council has just renewed the mandate for the international force in Iraq, at the request of the Iraqi government. So this seems to be much ado about nothing, as a "cut and run" doesn't seem imminent, but there's no real sign of a "new direction" either. And now that the Security Council has acted, wouldn't it be, ahem, unilateral of us to pull out?

UPDATE: Another take: "Reading the Washington Post, doesn't it sound a bit like they're going to just re-serve current policy?"

Stay the course! Or as Greyhawk puts it in the comments: "We are going to end up going in a 'new direction' that is the same direction we were going in before, except it will be new. Hope this clarifies."

ASKING MUSLIMS TO SPEAK OUT in defense of a journalist under a fatwa of death over the Danish cartoons.

I'M WATCHING EUGENE VOLOKH AND DENNIS PRAGER on this topic -- of which I was only vaguely aware -- of whether newly-elected Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison should take his oath of office on a Bible or on the Koran. Volokh seems to have the better of this argument by a huge margin. In fact, I think that Prager's argument that oaths must be on the Bible is absolutely nonsensical. But weirdly Paula Zahn keeps cutting Eugene off. I'm sorry, but Prager's reference to "the American Bible" as the root of the Constitution is ridiculous. What's "the American Bible?" And whatever happened to that bit from the Constitution about "no religious test"?

UPDATE: Rather than Prager, I recommend reading this post by Mark Daniels. I think you'll be able to find the key bit on your own.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Video, courtesy of Hot Air.

I USED TO BE BI-CURIOUS, but now I've just gone all the way to becoming "bi," as I'm now in possession of this entree to the Mac world. So far it seems pretty cool, although every time I try to post in movable type I get a popup warning that it says I can disable by setting "safari_warning='false'" -- but I can't figure out how to do that.

UPDATE: Solved that problem -- by switching to Firefox!

RICHARD MINITER is now blogging for Pajamas Media.

POPULAR MECHANICS: "Experts: Spy Death Radiation Risk Minimal (Unless You're a Spy)."

UPDATE: More developments here. Not encouraging ones, though.

MILBLOGGER JASON VAN STEENWYK is unhappy with the AP's response to the Jamil Hussein scandal:

I didn't get out in front of the whole Mystery Captain Jamil Hussein story too early, because it's really easy for Americans to screw up Arabic names. Now that the Iraqi Information Ministry has also come on record saying this Captain Hussein does not exist, it's clear that AP has a problem.

But this bogus source is the least of AP's problems.

Kathleen Carroll, a senior VP and executive editor of Associated Press, is now saying she is "satisfied with AP's reporting."

Yes, only two sources will go on record, and one has recanted his testimony, while the other apparently does not exist, and Kathleen Carroll is "satisfied with the AP's reporting."

Jason isn't.

UPDATE: Is AP stringing us along? But don't miss this cautionary note from Allah.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT at an American university.

OKAY, I HAVEN'T BLOGGED MUCH TODAY, but Danny Glover rounds up some interesting tidbits.

ON CAPITOL HILL, listening for the sound of promises breaking. Welcome to the majority!

ERIC UMANSKY IS SAYING I TOLD YOU SO:

A few years ago, Erin Brockovich spearheaded a lawsuit alleging that an oil-rig next to Beverly Hills High School was causing cancer. She got all sorts of attention. I dug into the story for the New Republic and concluded that, well, Brockovich was full of it and that moreover she had a knack for fomenting panic in communities by misleading them about purported toxins in their neighborhoods and potentially even forging testing data.

Why I am telling you this? Because a few days ago a judge seemed to agree with me and tossed Brockovich and her suit to the curb.

Umansky's original TNR piece can be found here.

AS MAX BOOT HAS POINTED OUT, THE IRANIANS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS:

U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006.

This suggests, say the sources, that the material is going directly from Iranian factories to Shia militias, rather than taking a roundabout path through the black market. "There is no way this could be done without (Iranian) government approval," says a senior official.

What I continue to be puzzled by is why the Bush Administration has taken such a low-key attitude toward Iran when its role in fomenting problems in Iraq -- and its unrelenting hostility to the United States -- has been obvious for years. I had assumed that a key reason for invading Iraq in the first place was to let us put pressure on the mullahs, something that we don't seem to have even tried to do.

TPM MUCKRAKER REPORTS:

The leadership ambitions of two senior Democrats have already been deep-sixed for their murky ethics histories. Here's a third Democrat heading for a powerful post whom folks may want to keep an eye on.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) is under investigation by the FBI. And he's set to assume a top post which would put him in control of the FBI's budget. Neat trick, eh?

The FBI's probing Mollohan for possible violations of the law arising from his sprawling network of favors and money which connects him to good friends via questionable charities, alarmingly successful real estate ventures, and hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarked funds.

The investigation appears to be active and ongoing. We're told that the Feds continue to gather information on the guy. Yet the Democrats look poised to make Mollohan the chairman of the panel which controls the purse strings for the entire Justice Department -- including the FBI.

Seems like a bad move to me.

ANOTHER RUSSIAN POISONING? "Yegor Gaidar, former Russian architect of Russia’s market reforms as acting Prime Minister for Boris Yelstin, is being treated in a Moscow hospital after coming close to death with a mystery ailment during a visit to Dublin." Doctors think he was poisoned.

Plus, radioactive planes.

YES, BLOGGING HAS BEEN LIGHT: Today is root canal day. Recovering OK but not blogging much for a bit.

Meanwhile, note that Stephen Hawking is once again calling for space colonization:

Humans must colonize planets in other solar systems traveling there using "Star Trek"-style propulsion or face extinction, renowned British cosmologist Stephen Hawking said on Thursday.

Referring to complex theories and the speed of light, Hawking, the wheel-chair bound Cambridge University physicist, told BBC radio that theoretical advances could revolutionize the velocity of space travel and make such colonies possible.

"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out," said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer.

"But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe," said Hawking, who was due to receive the world's oldest award for scientific achievement, the Copley medal, from Britain's Royal Society on Thursday.

Bring it on.

BILL ROGGIO WILL BE EMBEDDING IN IRAQ AGAIN shortly, and has some interesting things to report on how the credentialling process works for bloggers. Plus a PayPal button if you'd like to support his work.

IN THE MAIL: Eric Flint's new alt-history novel, 1824: The Arkansas War. It's the second installment to his alternate history where the War of 1812 went differently. I'm enjoying Sam Houston's prominent role -- since Sam was a Maryvillian, like me, I heard a lot about him when I was younger. Though I don't remember hearing much talk about his fondness for whiskey and large knives. . . .

A CONVERSATION with Bjorn Lomborg.

FROM CATHY SEIPP: Kramerology 101.

MAX BOOT: Iran and Syria aren't our friends. ("Hard to believe, but those who advocate negotiations under such circumstances are known as 'realists.' A real realist would realize that Syria and Iran are only likely to accommodate the U.S. when they're afraid of us.") It's a sad comment that our foreign policy establishment needs to be reminded of this, but . . . .

LOTS OF COVERAGE from the L.A. Auto Show.

I WONDER WHAT THEY'RE HIDING?

Tony Blair is under increasing pressure to halt a three-year-old corruption inquiry and avoid losing a £10 billion extension to an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

The news comes after Saudi Arabia suspended negotiations on the 20-year-old Al-Yamamah deal after Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigators tried to access some of the Saudi royal family's bank accounts in Switzerland.

Thousands of jobs in Britain and Saudi Arabia would be at risk if the Saudis dropped an order for 72 Typhoon jets and, instead, signed a contract with the French for up to 36 rival Rafales. . . . The deal, which was signed off by Britain and Saudi Arabia in August, has been brought to the brink after the SFO asked to access bank accounts in Switzerland.

Something pretty embarrassing, I'd guess. I wonder where that money was going?

November 29, 2006

I'VE SUDDENLY GOTTEN A LOT OF DONATIONS LATELY, which I appreciate -- if you donated through PayPal I've thanked you; if you donated through Amazon I don't know who you are unless you click the button that keeps it from being anonymous -- and I've also gotten some emails asking if I'm depressed or something. Is that why people are donating?

I'm not depressed. I am, however, extremely busy. In the last couple of weeks I've turned around two articles to law reviews, done revisions for the paperback edition of An Army of Davids -- coming out in January, I'm told -- read and commented on a bunch of student paper rough drafts for my space law seminar, and my Administrative Law class's comments on proposed regulations (as usual, actually filed with the agency in question) and finished up my Popular Mechanics column, as well as the usual stuff I do all the time. That may have made my blogging seem a bit more sparse, or detached, or something. But life's actually pretty good, aside from being busy.

STILL MORE ON ALCEE HASTINGS and the Democratic leadership. I think they've made a good decision.

AFTER A LONG ABSENCE, Beldar has returned.

MORE RACIST REMARKS captured by YouTube.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, "JAMIL HUSSEIN," AND "GEORGE HARLEIGH":

What this means is that you don't have to be real to be right.

Much less to be quoted!

And don't miss Austin Bay's column.

UPDATE: Further thoughts -- worth reading as always -- from The Mudville Gazette.

MORE ON POLICE MILITARIZATION, in today's Wall Street Journal:

Simply put, the police culture in our country has changed. An emphasis on "officer safety" and paramilitary training pervades today's policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn't shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed. Police in large cities formerly carried revolvers holding six .38-caliber rounds. Nowadays, police carry semi-automatic pistols with 16 high-caliber rounds, shotguns and military assault rifles, weapons once relegated to SWAT teams facing extraordinary circumstances. Concern about such firepower in densely populated areas hitting innocent citizens has given way to an attitude that the police are fighting a war against drugs and crime and must be heavily armed.

Yes, police work is dangerous, and the police see a lot of violence. On the other hand, 51 officers were slain in the line of duty last year, out of some 700,000 to 800,000 American cops. That is far fewer than the police fatalities occurring when I patrolled New York's highest crime precincts, when the total number of cops in the country was half that of today. Each of these police deaths and numerous other police injuries is a tragedy and we owe support to those who protect us. On the other hand, this isn't Iraq. The need to give our officers what they require to protect themselves and us has to be balanced against the fact that the fundamental duty of the police is to protect human life and that law officers are only justified in taking a life as a last resort.

Read the whole thing -- the link should work for a week.

UPDATE: Reader Gary Cameron emails:

I think it's important to separate issues that involve the safety of individual cops from the so-called "police militarization" controversy.

Joseph McNamara, as a former cop speaking out against the recent NYPD shooting in the WSJ piece, is the police equivalent of those former Bush officials turned media darlings who turn on the administration after they leave office. His credibility with the MSM media stems solely from the fact that he once worked as a cop, as well as his willingness to speak out against pretty much anything rank and file police officers believe in, which he has done ever since his very short and controversial term as San Jose police chief. This is not to say that the opinions of most police officers (or the NYPD shooting, for that matter) are necessarily 'right', just that McNamara has no more credibility or insight on these issues than anyone else.

I think the following quote from his piece is very telling:

>>Police in large cities formerly carried revolvers holding six .38-caliber rounds. Nowadays, police carry semi-automatic pistols with 16 high-caliber rounds, shotguns and military assault rifles, weapons once relegated to SWAT teams facing extraordinary circumstances.<<

Back in 1985, while a street cop in Vancouver, BC, I ended up firing all six of my .38 rounds at point blank range into the 10-ring of a mentally-disturbed gentleman. He had stabbed me in the side after stabbing a young man in the stomach, just missing the baby he was carrying. Nothing happened. He didn't stop trying to kill me until another member also shot him. Police officers carry "high-caliber" semi-automatics nowadays because they should have access to the best tools possible when they are really needed. Trust me on this: even the most routine call is an "extraordinary circumstance" to a cop in trouble.

I have no objection to high-capacity handguns. I do think, though, that McNamara is right about the psychological change that's gone on. (Kind of like the change in Hill Street Blues, where the catchphrase went from "Let's be careful out there," to "Let's do it to them before they do it to us.") I think that's a bad psychology for police.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Sven Swenson emails:

Col. Jeff Cooper long maintained that most police officers do not have the training and discipline to be trusted with more firepower than is provided by a 6-shot revolver. He reasoned from long observation that high capacity handguns, assault rifles & such encourage "spraying & praying", which endangers bystanders. It's a psychological thing. The man with a singleshot is going to make his one shot count. Under stress, the guy with a belt-full of 20-round mags is likely going to fill the air with lead to little effect.

The recent shooting in Queens is a case in point: The officers fired 50 or so rounds and only hit *the car* 21 times, much less its occupants. That's spraying and praying, and ought to be considered reckless endangerment, no matter how evil the guys they're trying to take down.(Don't get me wrong, I don't blame the police, I blame the people who issue them such high firepower weapons but *never* give them enough money and time for training.)

Pax your correspondent who relates putting 6 .38s "into the 10-ring", it might be worthwhile to remember that it takes about 12 seconds for a person to lose consciousness once their blood pressure drops to zero. His heart may be completely gone, he's effectively dead, he just doesn't know it yet. I'm sure that's a very looong 12 seconds when someone is stabbing you, but 6 .45 acp hydrashocks to the heart might not have done any better.

That and the possibility that your target is wearing a ballistic vest or totally wakked on drugs led the Colonel to advocate the "Mozambique" even with a .45: One or two shots center mass immediately followed by a shot to the head. If you shoot the guy between the eyes and he keeps coming, then you can complain to me about your ineffective .38.

Sounds like a zombie. They're everywhere these days! As I recall, by Hollywood convention only shotguns work against zombies and other evil powers.

BILL ROGGIO WRITES on Anbar and The Washington Post.

AHMADINEJAD SENT A LETTER TO THE UNITED STATES: Daniel Drezner writes back.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:

Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit. The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of our material progress, common decency, and scientific excellence, is at risk in this new millennium.

But our newest foes of Reason are not the enraged Athenian democrats who tried and executed Socrates. And they are not the Christian zealots of the medieval church who persecuted philosophers of heliocentricity. Nor are they Nazis who burned books and turned Western science against its own to murder millions en masse.

No, the culprits are now more often us. In the most affluent, and leisured age in the history of Western civilization--never more powerful in its military reach, never more prosperous in our material bounty--we have become complacent, and then scared of the most recent face of barbarism from the primordial extremists of the Middle East.

What would a beleaguered Socrates, a Galileo, a Descartes, or Locke believe, for example, of the moral paralysis in Europe? Was all their bold and courageous thinking--won at such a great personal cost--to allow their successors a cheap surrender to religious fanaticism and the megaphones of state-sponsored fascism?

Just imagine in our present year, 2006: plan an opera in today's Germany, and then shut it down. Again, this surrender was not done last month by the Nazis, the Communists, or kings, but by the producers themselves in simple fear of Islamic fanatics who objected to purported bad taste. Or write a novel deemed unflattering to the Prophet Mohammed. That is what did Salman Rushdie did, and for his daring, he faced years of solitude, ostracism, and death threats--and in the heart of Europe no less. Or compose a documentary film, as did the often obnoxious Theo Van Gogh, and you may well have your throat cut in "liberal" Holland. Or better yet, sketch a simple cartoon in postmodern Denmark of legendary easy tolerance, and then go into hiding to save yourself from the gruesome fate of a Van Gogh. Or quote an ancient treatise, as did Pope Benedict, and then learn that all of Christendom may come under assault, and even the magnificent stones of the Vatican may offer no refuge--although their costumed Swiss Guard would prove a better bulwark than the European police. Or write a book critical of Islam, and then go into hiding in fear of your life, as did French philosophy teacher Robert Redeker.

And we need not only speak of threats to free speech, but also the tangible rewards from a terrified West to the agents of such repression.

Read the whole thing.

I guess it's more of that Gramscian damage that Eric S. Raymond was talking about.

PATTERICO ACCUSES ME OF FAIR-WEATHER FEDERALISM for supporting Congressional legislation to rein in no-knock drug raids.

That's silly. Congress clearly has the power to pass laws, under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, to prevent states depriving citizens of life, liberty or property without due process of law. When cops bust down your door and shoot you without -- very -- good reason for being there, that's a deprivation of liberty and property, and often life, without due process, the very kind of thing Congress was empowered to address. So unless Patterico thinks that the 14th Amendment is itself an improper impediment to federalism, I don't see the problem here. What's more, the no-knock problem stems from federal policies -- the "war on drugs" and the free distribution of military equipment to local SWAT teams -- and thus further justifies a federal corrective. Under federalism, one role of the federal government is to protect citizens' rights against unconstitutional encroachment by the states. That's what the 14th Amendment is about. And the doctrines of official immunity that make lawsuits difficult in such cases are found nowhere in the Constitution, but are the creation of activist judges, reading their policy preferences into the law. They are worthy of no particular deference.

UPDATE: I see that Patterico has updated to say that he doesn't think the immunity-stripping violates federalism, which makes me wonder what our disagreement really is. At any rate, Ilya Somin has some further thoughts on how this problem was mostly federal in creation anyway.

ANOTHER UPDATE: In a later update, Patterico says that I'm inconsistent on federalism in light of my Schiavo comments here:

After talking about small government and the rule of law, Republicans overwhelmingly supported a piece of legislation intended to influence a single case, that of Terri Schiavo. As former Solicitor General Charles Fried observes:

" In their intervention in the Terri Schiavo matter, Republicans in Congress and President Bush have, in a few brief legislative clauses, embraced the kind of free-floating judicial activism, disregard for orderly procedure and contempt for the integrity of state processes that they quite rightly have denounced and sought to discipline for decades."

I think he's right. As with Bill Hobbs, quoted below, I don't have an opinion on what should happen to Terry Schiavo -- though given the rather large numbers of judges who have looked at this case over the years I'd be especially reluctant to interfere. Can they all be deranged advocates of a "culture of death?" But regardless of the merits, Congress's involvement in this case seems quite "unconservative" to me, at least if one believes in rules of general application. Florida has a general law, and it's been followed. That people don't like the result isn't a reason for unprecedented Congressional action, unless results are all that matter.

Reading that entire post, it seems to me that my predictions of Republican problems ahead have certainly been borne out in spades, but it wasn't really a federalism argument as such. (In fact, in an earlier post -- scroll down from that link above -- I noted that the bill wasn't necessarily unconstitutional, just a bad idea.) Nonetheless, I think that the kind of legislation I've suggested -- stripping officers of official immunity in no-knock cases, where we've seen that there's a pattern of misconduct and that state remedies have proven inadequate -- is at the very core of Congress's 14th Amendment powers. On the other hand, the Schiavo intervention seems much farther from that mold.

At any rate, doesn't this go both ways? That is, isn't Patterico inconsistent to have supported the Schiavo legislation while regarding Congressional legislation over no-knock raids as posing troubling federalism problems?

It seems however, that the actual remedy that I've proposed raises no problems in his mind, so this entire disagreement is fairly abstract. I have great respect for his abilities as a blogger, but I remain convinced that no-knock raids should be limited to very narrow circumstances, and that officers -- and government agencies, for that matter -- who engage in them should not be able to hide behind doctrines of official immunity that themselves have little warrant in the Constitution.

ARNOLD KLING LOOKS AT entrepreneurship and marriage.

IN THE MAIL: James Swanson and Daniel Weinberg's new book, Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution.

It's a coffee-table book (Helen pronounced it "gorgeous" with all the photos, woodcuts, etc.) that follows up Swanson's earlier book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. We did a podcast interview with Swanson a while back -- you can listen to it right here.

LOOKS LIKE BILL FRIST WON'T BE RUNNING in 2008. I agree with A.C. Kleinheider that it's a good move: "Frist is not over politically -- not by any means. But to trudge through this campaign just because it had been planned for so long would have been idiocy. Frist is smart. He read the tea leaves and saw that the presidency wasn't in the cards. Now, he will have the time to regroup and retool his image."

CHESTER ON IRAQ: "Go native."

AUSTIN BAY AND REUTERS LOOK AT NATO IN AFGHANISTAN:

Since early last summer, the Taliban and its remaining Al Qaeda allies have been testing the NATO force. The Taliban wanted to inflict at least one casualty-heavy defeat on a NATO ally, and then magnify that in the media. The Talibs goal: a “Spanish-style” withdrawal from Afghanistan by a NATO nation.

The Taliban has failed –and failed miserably.

Good.

CALL ME CRAZY, but I don't see why the federal government should be spending tax money to tell grownups not to have sex:

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it's a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults.

"They've stepped over the line of common sense," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education. "To be preaching abstinence when 90% of people are having sex is in essence to lose touch with reality. It's an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health."

Abstinence education programs, which have focused on preteens and teens, teach that abstaining from sex is the only effective or acceptable method to prevent pregnancy or disease. They give no instruction on birth control or safe sex.

The National Center for Health Statistics says well over 90% of adults ages 20-29 have had sexual intercourse.

I should certainly hope so.

A LOOK AT MOB RULE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES: This is only a problem in a few, mostly elitist, institutions, but it is a problem.

UNSCAM UPDATE: Claudia Rosett reports on an oil-for-food investigation done right:

For starters, the Cole inquiry has set a standard of clarity and transparency that the U.N. itself has yet to adopt — and shows no signs of doing so. The Cole commission conducted public hearings, and appears to have posted the vital underlying documents in full on the web. The interviews of the U.N.-authorized inquiry into Oil-for-Food, chaired by Paul Volcker, were all done in secret, with snippets released at the sole discretion of Volcker and his team. And although Volcker’s $35 million inquiry — the only investigation with full access to the U.N. itself — went to the trouble of amassing an archive of some 12 million pages, much of that digitally searchable, Volcker never released many of the vital underlying documents. He now appears poised to hand the trove back at the end of next month to the same U.N. where Annan’s former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, spent months shredding executive office papers potentially relevant to the investigation.

The Cole report exemplifies why Volcker’s archives need to be delivered into the public domain — or at the very least, entrusted to authorities with a less glaring conflict of interest in handling any potentially damning information not yet disclosed. Cole’s findings, which in the AWB case go well beyond the Volcker report, are presented in a style so clear and direct that one might infer the investigators genuinely wish to communicate to the public the full extent of their discoveries. That’s quite a contrast with the reports released last year by Volcker’s committee.

Indeed. Plus there's this: "Lest this seem a problem solely of the past, it bears noting that U.N. secrecy goes well beyond Oil-for-Food. Even now, the U.N. keeps secret many of the germane terms of its global business in procurement contracts, through which it spends billions of taxpayer dollars every year on everything from printer paper to peacekeeper rations. This secrecy paved the way for another U.N. scandal, the bribery saga still unfolding in the U.N. procurement division — in which one U.N. staffer pleaded guilty in 2005, in U.S. federal court, and two more have since been indicted (both have pleaded not guilty)."

AN AMERICAN CIVIL WAR? More thoughts on Orson Scott Card's Empire, in my TCS Daily column this week.

THE EXAMINER EDITORIALIZES:

President Bush was right to declare yesterday in Latvia that he will not withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq until the “mission is complete” because “we can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren.” It appears Bush’s characteristic Texas stubbornness is the only thing standing between victory and the U.S. defeat that has all but been proclaimed by Washington’s foreign policy establishment and its friends in the mainstream media like “60 Minutes” reporter Lara Logan. She insisted in her weekend interview with Gen. John Abizaid that “managing the defeat” is America’s only option.

It is to be hoped that Bush’s main target with yesterday’s declaration was his father’s former Secretary of State, James Baker, head of the soon-to-be-sainted Iraq Study Group. The ISG is widely reported to be preparing a recommendation that Bush seek the aid of Iran and Syria in resolving the war in Iraq. Iran and Syria may be U.S. opponents, but they have a common interest with us in establishing a stable regime in Baghdad, we are told by the Foggy Bottom Realpolitikers and the media experts for whom NBC’s decision to call it a civil war represents a “Cronkite Moment.”

Such advice is worse than wrong-headed, it is a denial of reality. Iran and Syria have one primary interest — U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and ultimately out of the entire Middle East.

Read the whole thing. And note this observation, too: "There is another crucially important denial of reality akin to the 'managing defeat' syndrome. Evidence is rapidly accumulating that major Western media organizations are being had on a daily basis by the propaganda efforts of the Jihadist insurgency." What's worse is that they don't seem to mind.

UPDATE: "The Iraq War: 'Proxy,' not 'Civil.'" Yes, and they're the proxies of Iran and Syria. These people are not our friends.

November 28, 2006

SWAT TEAM OVERKILL: The folks at Popular Mechanics have posted my column on the subject early.

Plus, here's more on that Atlanta shooting.

HEH: "Glenn might know how to produce these podcasts. But I know how to sell ‘em."

KIND OF DUMB, yet also kind of cool: A TV wristwatch.

MORE ON RACIAL DISCRIMINATION in university admissions. What's interesting is that people are so unselfconscious. That'll probably change once the lawsuits gather momentum.

LAURIE DAVID ON SCIENCE EDUCATION.

TPM MUCKRAKER REPORTS that Alcee Hastings is dropping out of the race to head the House Intelligence Committee. That's bad news for the GOP, but good news for the Democrats, and the country.

UPDATE: A look at some revisionist history on Hastings, revised again.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: "If not Harman, who?"

PAUL BELIEN on Ralph Peters on Europe. And I should have linked this item from Mark Steyn the other day, too.

LOOKING INTO THE ETYMOLOGY OF "Christianism."

I continue to think that the term draws an unfair equivalence between Islamist terror, and mere Christian social conservatism, which are hardly comparable. I disagree with the latter, but those people aren't the enemy, just people with whom I disagree.

UPDATE: Now this is beyond the pale.

But apparently the "Christianists" continue to wreak destruction:

The controversial broadcast of MADONNA's CONFESSIONS tour special on US TV failed to lure viewers and ended up finishing fourth in its time slot.

Either that or she's just, you know, over.

ANOTHER UPDATE: What he said: "It says quite a lot about Sullivan and his ilk that they've managed to get a person like me -- who deeply loathes Christian fundamentalism and supports gay marriage -- to actually defend fundamentalist Christians against unfair smears by gay marriage supporters."

Yeah, I dread the day Sullivan starts promoting nanotechnology or digital cameras . . . .

More on that here: "I think it's intended to do more than link those Christians whose politics Sullivan doesn't like with Islamists; it is also meant to be undefinable, which, by being unfair to everyone, does great mischief. Because, if only Andrew Sullivan knows what the word means (assuming he does), then he gets to behave as the Red Queen and label anyone he wishes as a Christianist. Or not. . . . I'm sorry, but this is getting really wacky."

Yes, it is. But the illustration is amusing!

MORE: Further thoughts from the suddenly reenergized Prof. Bainbridge.

OUTDOOR SURVIVAL TIPS, from the folks at Popular Mechanics. Not quite the same as the disaster-preparedness stuff that has been covered here before, but close enough that some people may be interested. "Got a condom aging in your wallet? In a pinch, it can carry a gallon of water. (Unlubricated tastes best.)"

OVER AT RAND SIMBERG'S they're discussing innovative policy ideas from the Democrats.

The Glenn and Helen Show: Orson Scott Card on Empire and Division in American Politics

Most people agree that political divisions have gotten worse in recent years. Orson Scott Card's new novel Empire looks at whether and how those divisions might lead to an American civil war in the near future. It's a thriller novel, a la Tom Clancy, but it's also a cautionary tale. We talk with Card about the novel, about storytelling, about the political scene, and what Americans should be doing.

You can listen directly -- no downloads needed -- by going right here and clicking on the gray Flash player, or you can download it directly here. You can subscribe via iTunes -- and, really, why not? -- by clicking right here, and you can get a lo-fi version suitable for dialup by going here and selecting the lo-fi version.

This podcast is brought to you by Volvo USA. If you buy a Volvo, tell 'em we sent you!

Music is "Splitters" by Mobius Dick.

HOWARD KURTZ on Secretary of State Matt Lauer.

UPDATE: If you don't defer to Lauer's expertise, you might want to read John Keegan on the subject.

FOUAD AJAMI ON "THE REALISTS" AND REALITY:

It was not naive idealism, it should be recalled, that gave birth to Bush's diplomacy of freedom. That diplomacy issued out of a reading of the Arab-Muslim political condition and of America's vulnerability to the disorder of Arab politics. The ruling regimes in the region had displaced their troubles onto America; their stability had come at America's expense, as the scapegoating and the anti-Americanism had poisoned Arab political life. Iraq and the struggle for a decent polity in it had been America's way of trying to extirpate these Arab troubles. The American project in Iraq has been unimaginably difficult, its heartbreak a grim daily affair. But the impulse that gave rise to the war was shrewd and justified.

Nowadays, more and more people despair of the Iraq venture. And voices could be heard counseling that the matter of Iraq is, for all practical purposes, sealed and that failure is around the corner. Now and then, the memory of the Vietnam War is summoned. America had lost the battle for Vietnam but had won the war for East Asia. That American defeat had brought ruin to Vietnam and Cambodia, but the systems of political and economic freedom in Asia had held, and the region had cushioned the American defeat, and left a huge protective role for American power. Fair enough: There was Japan in East Asia, providing political anchorage and an example of economic success. There is no Japan in that arc of trouble in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are poor pillars, themselves prey to forces of radicalism--the first weak in the scales of military power, the second a brittle, crowded land with immense troubles of its own. That overall strategic landscape, too, should be considered as we debate and anguish over Iraq.

If, as seems disturbingly likely, Bush takes the Baker approach, I think we'll pay dearly in the future.

ATLANTA SHOOTING UPDATE:

Officials say the FBI will lead an investigation into the fatal shooting of an elderly Atlanta woman during a drug raid last week.

The announcement was made by Police Chief Richard Pennington at a news conference Monday afternoon, where he was joined by officials from the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office, the GBI and Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. . . .

Police have said “Sam” had sold drugs from inside Johnston’s home to an informant, prompting the officers to seek a “no-knock” warrant. Such warrants are frequently used by police to get inside a home before suspects have a chance to get rid of drugs.

But a local television station aired an interview on Monday evening with a man who said he was the informant, and he said he never told officers that he bought drugs at Johnston's house.

Pennington said at a news conference on Sunday that the department will review its policy on “no-knock” warrants and its use of confidential informants.

I think that should be happening nationwide. In fact, I think it's time for federal legislation.

CATHY YOUNG:

Maybe the next frontier in the academic battle against all varieties of oppression should be "drunk studies." Why not an academic program championing the idea that "alcohol abuse" is an artificial construct based on the mainstream culture's oppressive notions of what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate consumption of alcohol? "Drunk studies" could tell us that the stigmatization of drunkenness stems from the Western valorization of such dubious values as self-control, rationality, and obedience to social norms, and reflects a pernicious fear of rebellion against inhibitions and authority. Of course, it would also question conventional wisdom -- supposedly based on scientific evidence, but really rooted in anti-drunk bias -- about the deleterious health consequences of alcohol abuse and the dangers of drunk driving. After all, the goal of "drunk studies" would be to empower drunks!

And I know just the guy to head up the program: Professor Zane Lamprey of MOJOHD's Three Sheets. Hell, that show's an education all in itself.

BRUCE KESLER has more on the big media's problem with stringers in Iraq reporting, with a list of some of the bogus stories it has produced. "The key question that must be answered is where the funding will come from for a major, credible examination of major media reporting in Iraq? It's not coming from the major media, or J-schools, or J-journals. Their paychecks depend upon not revealing the Emperor's illusory threads."

A LOOK AT THE ROLE OF OUTSIDERS in university tenure decisions. This seems right to me: "Educational institutions may appoint whomever they wish, but they cannot expect immunity from public criticism."

ANN ALTHOUSE: "Why not engage with me instead of trying to make me into your enemy? I have supported gay marriage in numerous posts on this blog for almost three years, and I am a law professor who teaches a course in Religion and the Constitution. Why don't you see me as a valuable ally or, at the least, a person to avoid reprinting lies about?"

I could ask the same thing. In fact, I have!

SCALIA THE civil libertarian?

MICKEY KAUS: "With the midterm election safely in the past, the NYT's Robert Pear reveals that the Bush administration delegated the task of saving the Medicare drug plan to ... a competent civil servant." Analysts say that this business of holding positive stories until after the election is common media behavior . . . .

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE looks at the Alcee Hastings vs. Jane Harman battle: "In 1989, the Democrat-controlled House impeached hastings by a vote of 413-3, with none other than Nancy Pelosi voting for impeachment. After a trial before a Senate committee, Hastings was convicted of the requisite 'high crimes and misdemeanors' and duly removed from office by the Senate. Hastings was only the sixth federal judge to be impeached and removed from office in the entire 200+ year history of the US judiciary. If you'll pardon the pun, given Harman's unimpeachable credentials, this seems like a very easy choice." And note the sensible observation from Kevin Drum.

November 27, 2006

FREE BOOKS FOR THE TROOPS: John Scalzi has arranged for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to get free copies of his book, The Ghost Brigades.

If that's you, or someone you know, go here to find out how.

MORE REPORTS OF BOGUS IRAQ STORIES FROM A.P.: Kind of makes you wonder about the reporting from Iraq. Okay, it's more like "confirms your suspicions" than "makes you wonder," really.

PUTIN: Set up by the Jews?

Claudia Rosett has a different view.

ATLANTA SHOOTING UPDATE: The story just got a lot worse:

The confidential informant on whose word Atlanta police raided the house of an 88-year-old woman is now saying he never purchased drugs from her house and was told by police to lie and say he did.

Chief Richard Pennington, in a press conference Monday evening, said his department learned two days ago that the informant — who has been used reliably in the past by the narcotics unit -- denied providing information to officers about a drug deal at 933 Neal Street in northwest Atlanta.

"The informant said he had no knowledge of going into that house and purchasing drugs," Pennington said. "We don't know if he's telling the truth."

The search warrant used by Atlanta police to raid the house says that a confidential informant had bought crack cocaine at the residence, using $50 in city funds, several hours before the raid.

In the document, officers said that the informant told them the house had surveillance cameras that the suspected drug dealer, called "Sam," monitored.

Pennington on Monday evening said the informant told the Internal Affairs Unit hat he did not tell officers that the house had surveillance equipment, and that he was asked to lie.

If this is true, the cops involved should face serious jail time. And this is just more evidence that we need legal protections against these sorts of raids.

EUGENE VOLOKH looks at the romance of engineering.

A LIST OF "insanely great gadgets." Some of them were news to me, and I'm a gadget kind of guy.

YOU DON'T SAY: "Lure of great wealth affects career choices."

Plus, this shocker: “The bigger the prize, the greater the effort that people are making to get it.” Someone rewrite the economics textbooks, stat! (Via Ann Althouse),

UPDATE: Reader Byron Scott emails: "The linked article 'Lure of great wealth affects career choices' is all about middle-class people moving into upper-class incomes. Just a month ago (you know, prior to the Democrats taking power) all I remember hearing about was how the great divide between the poor and the wealthy was widening. It’s amazing how quickly things turn! Those Democrats must be better than even they tried to convince us they are."

Heh.

THE DOGS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: Joshua Trevino is blogging from Istanbul.

WINDS OF CHANGE HAS ITS REGULAR IRAQ ROUNDUP posted.

Plus, trying to create an American Madrid?

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: "Not friends of starving Africans."

I don't know -- they seem pretty friendly to the idea of starving Africans, to me. . . .

ARNOLD KLING ON AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM: "Compared to the United States, other developed countries, particularly in Continental Europe, put up more regulatory impediments to entrepreneurs, particularly the important subset of entrepreneurs that I will define below as change agents. In underdeveloped countries, regulatory impediments are compounded by crime and corruption, creating an environment even less conducive to entrepreneurship. . . . If the United States is exceptional because of our entrepreneurial culture, then our natural allies may not be in Continental Europe, in spite of its democratic governments and high levels of economic development. China seems more dynamic than Europe, but I would argue that China's government-controlled financial system ultimately is not compatible with American-style entrepreneurship. Instead, we may have more in common with other nations of the Anglosphere, as well as such entrepreneurial outposts as India, Israel, and Singapore."

THEY'RE STILL CALLING FOR A BOYCOTT OF PILOT OIL, in response to Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam's membership in an antigun mayors' group organized by Mike Bloomberg.

Some of the other members are pretty iffy, but I think this is really bad for Haslam's statewide ambitions for a simpler reason. His weakness is that he's seen as a country-clubby guy who cares more about how other rich guys feel about him than about how the voters feel. The Bloomberg thing is just fodder for that.

MAGICAL REALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Chester takes a look at the Iraq study group.

WOULD GROWING OLD BE SO BAD, if people treated you like you were young?

A QUIZ ON DIVERSITY in higher education.

ROWAN CALLICK: "The Democrats are being lauded in Europe and much of the Americas as the heroes of the hour, rescuing the USA from those mad neocons. But in most of Asia the perception is quite different -- of the Democrat majority as a threat, an enemy of trade, and a busybody across a broader range of issues than the Republican human rights campaigners with their predictable religious focus. In China especially, where the mid-term election itself attracted little media interest, its outcome is now starting to arouse loudly expressed concern about the future relationship of the two great powers."

CENTCOM IS DEMANDING A RETRACTION FROM A.P. over bogus Iraq reporting.