December 29, 2007

SAY UNCLE CORRECTS WATE-TV on assault weapons hysteria. Somebody needs to have a talk with Knoxville's police chief Sterling Owen, too. Lots of law-abiding citizens -- and voters -- own highfull-capacity weapons. And given the miserable record of my local government lately in handling credit cards, legal obligations of openness, etc., they should show a bit more respect for law-abiding citizens. . . .

UPDATE: Reader John Steakley emails with a correction: "They aren't 'high' capacity. They are 'full' capacity." Excellent point. Correction made.

USA TODAY Dowdifies Fred Thompson?

A VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH in Egypt.

HEH. I never noticed the resemblance to PeeWee Herman before.

MICHAEL YON: "Unfortunately my concerns for Afghanistan are proving well-placed. Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked. Together they might be called 'Troublestan.'"

THOUGHTS ON LAW PROFESSORS, HAPPINESS, and distribution curves, from Tom Smith.

Some other thoughts here.

WRITER'S STRIKE UPDATE: Notes from the sidewalk.

DUMB LAW OF THE WEEK: "New Jersey enacted legislation on Thursday banning some convicted sex offenders from using the Internet."

We should ban felons from New Jersey politics, too, but then who'd be left to run the state?

A SPACE JUNK update from Popular Science.

GOOGLEBOMB, or GoogleDud?

BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I ROCK AND ROLLED: I don't listen to much rock anymore; as James Lileks said a while back, "Techno does for me now what rock used to. Why, I couldn’t care less." But I had to drive across town and popped in a Heart album and it was quite good. Crazy on You is without a doubt the best Cold War-inspired song about oral sex ever. Other tunes held up well, too.

HEH.

LOOKING BACK at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, and what promises came true, and didn't. My reporting from last year's CES is here. And here's that 108" Sharp flat-screen TV they're talking about.

ADVICE: "Barack -- may I call you Barack? -- this is not going to help. Apart from the absurdity of claiming that the housing conditions of one's grandmother amount to foreign policy experience, no Iowan who has been as successful as Barack Obama would let his grandmother live in a 'tiny hut.' Somebody ought to take up a collection for the poor woman."

CHRIS DODD unloads on Obama and Clinton. He's not very nice to Bill Richardson, either.

DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: I linked this review of Jonah Goldberg's book last night, and a reader pointed out that the text reference to Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration contained a hyperlink to articles about the National Rifle Association. The error is still there this afternoon. Despite having the same initials, those are not the same . . . .

I'm sure that mistake is not the fault of David Oshinsky, the reviewer, but rather of some undereducated staffer at the Times, but it serves to illustrate the need for the kind of history lesson Goldberg offers, as well as a point made by many, that the NYT doesn't take its hyperlinks very seriously.

UPDATE: Ouch: "The NYT should be making a conspicuous show of its professionalism and superior resources on the web, but instead it is making mistakes that would mortify me — in my little one-person operation."

WHY WE'RE IN THE PERSIAN GULF.

HILLARY CLINTON SOCK PUPPETS.

Should've hired an expert!

MICHAEL BARONE: Lessons from the Surge.

A BIG PAKISTAN ROUNDUP from Jules Crittenden.

A LAME CHRISTMAS VIDEO that takes the cake:

Via FrontBurner.

HERE'S PROF. KENNETH ANDERSON'S REVIEW of Jack Goldsmith's The Terror Presidency. Our podcast interview with Goldsmith is here.

MORE ON THE PROBLEMS AT HARPER'S.

DUDES, YOU'RE BEHIND THE CURVE: This is the blender to have.

HUCKABEE SLIPPING? I don't think polls are much use in predicting the Iowa caucuses, but we'll know soon enough.

SAUDI ARABIAN nanotechnology.

JOHN EDWARDS: Obama living in Never-Never Land.

The former North Carolina senator labeled "ridiculous" comments made by the Obama campaign that seemed to link former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination to Sen. Hillary Clinton's vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq, embraced Sen. Barack Obama's politics over Clinton's, and said an anti-Obama flier from a pro-Clinton union was "misleading" and "deceptive."

Ouch.

HUCKABEE'S BAD WEEK continues.

More here, including video.

WHAT'S ON Tom Goldstein's iPhone.

MICHAEL YOUNG LOOKS FOR NEOCONS IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION and can't seem to find any: "So maybe it's time to stop referring to the neocon policies of the Bush administration. The neocons are gone, many for so long that no one seems to remember their leaving. What we now have in Washington is a mishmash of old political realism and improvisation, topped with increasingly empty oratory on freedom and democracy. That should please quite a few of Bush's domestic critics. He's returned to the futile routine in the Middle East that they always urged him to."

In other words, the bureaucracy won, with predictable results.

December 28, 2007

BENAZIR BHUTTO MAY BE DEAD, but she's got a book coming out entitled Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. Interestingly, the Insta-Wife used to babysit for Bhutto's agent, Andrew Wylie. Well, it's interesting to me, anyway.

A YEAR-END DEFENSE OF REBECCA AGUILAR: "It might have something to do with the fact that the shooter is white." [LATER: That link's stopped working. Try this one.]

If Aguilar's behavior was so seemly, then why did KDFW move so quickly to get the video off the Web? (More here, And background here.)

MICKEY KAUS: "Truthchecking the MSM's Truthcheckers."

NAOMI WOLF'S regrets.

WHAT? COLONEL SANDERS ISN'T AN ACTUAL COLONEL in the United States Army? Never mind.

THIS SEEMS LIKE A NON-STORY: Giuliani advised the maker of Oxycontin. So what? Yeah, it gets abused -- most drugs do -- but it also provides a lot of people with pain relief. I think the "crusade" against Oxycontin is just more drug-war hysteria, putting Giuliani on the side of the angels here. Well, paid on the side of the angels, but that's as much as you can ask from lawyers in private practice . . . .

GO FIGURE: Traffic on Daily Kos Decreasing As Primaries Approach? Well, Kos has been pretty thoroughly co-opted, and become part of the Democratic establishment himself, which no doubt makes the site seem less fresh and interesting.

UPDATE: An alternate explanation: "Daily Kos is less fresh and interesting than in the past. But that's because Kos hasn't been as active there. He has stretched himself thin by taking on columns for establishment media outlets like Newsweek and The Hill. He's also the father of two children as of April. . . . The Kos brand is languishing because the blogger is the brand and the blogger has more than his blog to feed these days." That's a good point, though of course the two aren't entirely inconsistent.

Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus wonders if it's General Petraeus's fault: "I was at a very nice left-wing party over the holidays and the youthful antiwar types were saying that traffic was down on all the left-wing sites because of ... Iraq. ... That's not what I said. It's what they said. ... Iraq just isn't as salient now that it doesn't seem to be spiraling into apocalypse. . . . Of course, some right-wing sites seem to be experiencing a mild decline since August also. Maybe the whole blogosphere was about Iraq!" Hmm. InstaPundit traffic is up considerably since August. But then, InstaPundit has a somewhat broader focus than just politics and Iraq. Come for the war, stay for the nanotechnology! And the gadgets! And the science fiction recommendations! And the podcasts . . . .

WESLEY CLARK ATTACKS BARACK OBAMA for Obama's attack on Hillary.

HEIL, WOODROW! That's the title of David Oshinsky's surprisingly positive review of Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism in Sunday's New York Times. Excerpt:

Coming of age in the 1960s, I heard the word “fascist” all the time. College presidents were fascists, Vietnam War supporters were fascists, policemen who tangled with protesters were fascists, on and on. To some, the word smacked of Hitler and genocide. To others, it meant the oppression of the masses by the privileged few. But one point was crystal clear: the word belonged to those on the political left. It was their verbal weapon, and they used it every chance they got. . . .

Leftists still drop the “f word” to taint their opponents, be they global warming skeptics or members of the Moral Majority. The sad result, Goldberg says, is that Americans have come to equate fascism with right-wing political movements in the United States when, in fact, the reverse is true. To his mind, it is liberalism, not conservatism, that embraces what he claims is the fascist ideal of perfecting society through a powerful state run by omniscient leaders. And it is liberals, not conservatives, who see government coercion as the key to getting things done.

“Liberal Fascism” is less an exposé of left-wing hypocrisy than a chance to exact political revenge. Yet the title of his book aside, what distinguishes Goldberg from the Sean Hannitys and Michael Savages is a witty intelligence that deals in ideas as well as insults — no mean feat in the nasty world of the culture wars.

Read the whole thing. Our podcast interview with Jonah is here.

A REVIEW OF The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, from someone who's read the book and who took two kids to the movie.

THAT WOULD BE NUMBER TWO, DAVID: Is the Internet destroying our culture, or is it just annoying our snobs?

FROM TIME TO THE NEW YORK TIMES? The HuffPo is reporting that Bill Kristol will become an NYT columnist in 2008. So far, HuffPo commenters seem less than pleased.

ARE LAW PROFESSORS UNHAPPY? Not this one!

TRUST THE GOVERNMENT WITH YOUR PERSONAL DATA: Full Social Security Numbers Were Compromised In Election Commission Theft.

SNOWBALLS: Fred Thompson vs. the press.

BLOOMBERG GROUP RUNS anti-gun ad in Iowa. Dan Riehl comments: "If that's the first card Bloomberg has decided to play, his entry into the race is bound to help the Republican candidate more than anything else."

CALLING FOR A 2008 SCIENCE DEBATE. Sounds like a good idea to me. And through the page, I notice that my former Tennessee colleague Stuart Pimm is one of the organizers.

Of course, the result might not be pretty.

RANDY BARNETT: Was the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Conditioned on Service in an Organized Militia?

UPDATE: Some related thoughts here.

FROM BLOGBURST TO TV: Jon Henke emails that the Thompson campaign is running this TV ad in Iowa with money raised from the blogburst.

FROM MICHAEL YON, a news flash for Osama bin Laden.

POOF.

THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO regulate online communication.

BLOG: Middle East Strategy at Harvard.

JOHN FUND: Why Charlie Wilson's War couldn't happen today.

ROAD TESTING the Terraniac. With video.

MORE ON Huckabee and stem cells, from The Politico. And it goes beyond stem cells:

Mike Huckabee last year accepted $52,000 in speaking fees from a bio-tech giant that wants to research human embryonic stem cells, a non-profit working to expand access to the morning after pill and a group pushing to study whether tightening gun control laws will reduce violence.

Ugh.

IRAQPUNDIT on Pakistan and Iraq.

JOHN HINDERAKER CHARGES HARPER'S with smearing U.S. troops.

ELEVEN IRANIAN SPECIAL-OPS TROOOPS killed in Iraq.

UPDATE: Oops, I misread that. They were "special groups," not special ops -- Iranian-backed militias. Was a bit rushed this morning as we were getting ready to return home from Atlanta, where the Insta- wife and daughter were hitting the after-Christmas sales. Or trying to, as a lot of stuff was sold out.

A FRIGHTENING POST FROM JEFF JARVIS, on the lowest common denominator and free speech.

Almost as depressing, however, was this photo of air travel as it used to be. Sigh.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Investor's Business Daily tells Bush not to be shy:

The Congressional Research Service issued a report last week confirming that earmarks not included in the actual bill but written into accompanying reports — which is most of them — do not have force of law and can therefore be disregarded by the president. . . .

But don't just blame Democrats. This out-of-control, unaccountable waste and abuse of the citizens' hard-earned money is a bipartisan disgrace. Byrd's Republican counterpart on the spending panel, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, out-oinked even Byrd, with $774 million in earmarks. So did Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens, infamous for the taxpayer-funded Bridge To Nowhere and responsible for $502 million in earmarks this time around.

Not only would the president have the Constitution on his side if he declared war on the earmark racket; he would have the vast majority of Americans with him. Most people are tired of finding out after the fact that they've paid for billions of dollars in projects that should have been locally financed — or maybe not built at all — due to the 11th-hour stratagems.

I hope the President does the right thing.

I LIKE THE SNOWFLAKES at Katie Granju's new digs.

SAY IT AIN'T SO, RON: "Yes, I know I wrote an article tentatively supporting Ron Paul, but please, someone, tell me this clip in which Dr. Ron Paul rejects the theory of evolution has been edited to remove the full context of the remark."

GHALIA AYMEN REPORTS FROM PAKISTAN:

As they mourn and try to recover from the shock of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistanis are trying to come to terms with the security failure that allowed such a carefully coordinated shooting-suicide bombing to take place, and asking themselves if it was, indeed, a failure —or a conspiracy.

Neither answer is a good one. Even if there was no government–approved conspiracy to eliminated her, the fact remains that Bhutto was presumably being protected by the tightest security possible. Pakistanis ask themselves if someone of her stature is so vulnerable, how can a common person be safe in their home?

The feeling of insecurity and uncertainty combines with the general atmosphere of sadness and mourning. Bhutto’s supporters and even those who would not have voted for her are expressing their sympathy for her and her family.

The sadness is quickly transforming into anger.

Read the whole thing.

ABE FOXMAN: "We welcome and accept Will Smith's statement that Hitler was a 'vicious killer' and that he did not mean for his remarks about the Nazi leader to be mistaken as praise."

STEPHEN KAUS: Hillary bucks the spirit of the 22nd Amendment. Yes, that's Mickey's brother.

240 PROTESTS AGAINST the Iranian Regime this month.

AN AWFUL ARTICLE on Ahmadinejad.

December 27, 2007

BARACK BLASTS "secretive" Clintons.

PEOPLE USING INTERNET EXPLORER were having trouble opening the Pajamas Media Straw Poll to the right. I fixed the coding problem and it should work for you now. Please vote!

LEE HARRIS OBSERVES that cleverness is not on top, and never has been. Jurgen figured this out a while back. . . .

HEH.

JOHN PODHORETZ: The End of the Primary’s Holiday From History.

REMEMBERING THE ARCHITECT of victory in Anbar.

COULD AN UNTRAINED PERSON LAND A JETLINER IN AN EMERGENCY? I could, but only if I could plug in a keyboard and mouse, and run Flight Simulator . . . .

IS THE U.S. LIKE ROME? Carter Wood says no, and adds: "Besides, everyone knows it was overtaxation that caused Rome's fall."

A FINAL SOLUTION TO THE REDNECK PROBLEM. Jeez. (Via Hot Air). Call me crazy, but I doubt that the forced migration of millions from Texas and Mississippi to the East Coast would result in liberal nirvana . . . .

UPDATE: A pungent response from Bill Quick.

STUDY: Web ads better than TV ads.

WELL, IOWA IS LOCKED UP.

HMM: A fully-submersible concept car.

The Glenn and Helen Show: Jonah Goldberg on Hillary, Huckabee, and Liberal Fascism

It's sure to make a splash, and it's already got some left bloggers in a tizzy even though it doesn't come out until next week. It's Jonah Goldberg's new book, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. The title comes from H.G. Wells, and the history won't be news to people who've paid attention -- which means it will be news to a lot of people -- but Goldberg has a lot to say about the "progressive" roots of both socialism and fascism and the way they're reflected in contemporary politics. (He goes out of his way to make clear, though, that he's not saying liberals are fascists.) Plus, thoughts on the Hillary and Huckabee candidacies.

You can listen to the show directly -- no downloads needed -- by going right here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the whole file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here, and you can get a lo-fi version suitable for dialup by going here and selecting "lo fi." And, of course, you can always get a free subscription from iTunes if you like -- and why wouldn't you? Show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com.

This podcast was brought to you by Volvo Automobiles. Music is "Nobody's Full" by Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere. (Bumped.)

A FINANCIAL SURGE:

It's no front-page news that Iraq is a dangerous place. But a capital magnet? The presses have stopped for less. According to the not-quite-closed record book for 2007, Iraqi sovereign bonds, the Iraqi currency, and the Iraqi stock market have each logged astounding, not to mention politically provocative, gains.

Not many would have predicted that Iraq's long-dated, dollar-denominated debt would have proven a safe haven during a worldwide credit crisis. But the 5.8s of 2038 did just that. Since the subprime mortgage meltdown began in August, these evidences of indebtedness of the government in Baghdad have gained no less than 18.3%.

Interesting. I seem to recall someone arguing last summer that the surge wasn't working, based on the performance of Iraqi financial instruments. I wonder if they'll revisit that argument now.

DAVE HARDY: "47 Senators have requested that Interior Department modify its regulations to allow [gun] carrying in National Parks. Since National Parks are often large, thinly populated with LEOs, and frequently contain wildlife that may think that humans taste very good, it seems like a plan to me."

I'VE MENTIONED THIS BEFORE, but here's more on cut-and-paste in police reports:

"It's a shortcut and I shouldn't have done it," Officer Daniel Pratt said in his recent testimony, before apologizing on the stand.

When asked by defense attorney Mary Carey why police officers aren't supposed to cut and paste, he responded: "For the obvious reasons of mistakes and every statement is individual."

Carey said, "I'm absolutely appalled that the person who we trust to be honest would present evidence in an official document that was false. "The fact that there's history in that department presenting falsified police reports makes me extremely worried of the propriety of any reports coming out of that department."

"It's impossible to know whether it's one bad apple or a culture of fraud and deceit," she said.

I can see why people do it, but I can also see why people don't like it.

MUCH MORE ON THE BENAZIR BHUTTO ASSASSINATION, including statements from various Presidential candidates, at The Corner.

Plus, a questionable reaction from Bill Richardson.

UPDATE: Dropping the ball at NBC.

And Huckabee apologizes. Apologizes? Jeez, he is Jimmy Carter.

ANOTHER UPDATE: At the Huckabee post linked above, an update with this from the Huckabee campaign: "Gov. Huckabee while speaking at a campaign event earlier this morning in Florida intended to extend his deepest sympathies to the people of Pakistan when he used the word 'apologies.' He is outraged and saddened by the attack and the loss of a world leader whose life he believes was a profile in courage."

OLEG KOZLOVSKY: A thorn in Putin's side.

CLEAN, 75 MPG DIESEL CARS: Bring 'em on.

AL SHARPTON, STILL RELEVANT? "The piece remains mysteriously congratulatory, given the low batting average Sharpton boasts on peaceful, lasting resolution of such conflicts." Gee, you think?

BENAZIR BHUTTO killed in suicide attack. (Via JWF).

UPDATE: Big roundup here. Watch for further developments.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here and here.

MORE: Some perspective from Bob Krumm:

Ms. Bhutto was killed at a campaign rally just two weeks before a Pakistani election. It is worth remembering as we begin our own campaign season in earnest next week that no matter how acrimonious the political discussion becomes, we live in a country where those who root for the death of their political opponents exist far outside the mainstream and that even if an assassination attempt were to occur here, there is zero risk of anything but an orderly transition of power on January 20, 2009.

Excellent point. And follow the link for more.

BILL RICHARDSON AND FRED THOMPSON are leading among InstaPundit readers at the moment.

MARK WARNER emails that he's trying to get 1500 new donors before the end of the year. Our podcast interview with him can be heard here. I don't know much about his Republican opponent, Jim Gilmore.

BRITAIN STILL DOOMED.

MICKEY KAUS: "Are you impressed with a drop in home values of 6.6% over a year? It doesn't seem like such a big correction, given the dramatic run-up in prices over the last decade or so. ... And don't declining prices make housing more... what's the word? ... affordable?"

LOOKING FOR WRONGED GUN OWNERS:

The National Rifle Association has hired private investigators to find hundreds of people whose firearms were seized by city police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to court papers filed this week.

The NRA is trying to locate gun owners for a federal lawsuit that the lobbying group filed against Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city's seizure of firearms after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

In the lawsuit, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation claim the city violated gun owners' constitutional right to bear arms and left them "at the mercy of roving gangs, home invaders, and other criminals" after Katrina.

Read the whole thing.

December 26, 2007

DOG BITES MAN.

MARK STEYN: "I don't accept that free-born Canadian citizens need the permission of the Canadian state to read my columns. What's offensive is not the accusations of Dr Elmasry and his pals, but the willingness of Canada's pseudo-courts to take them seriously. . . . This morning I spent 20 minutes mulling over a couple of offers for overseas rights to America Alone from the Islamic world. It seems that Muslim publishers from Turkey to Indonesia are more robust than Osgoode Hall law students. What a sad comment on the decayed Dominion." And on Osgoode Hall law students.

UPDATE: I've mentioned it before, but if you want to support Steyn you might buy a copy of his book and send it to:

Canadian Human Rights Commission
344 Slater Street, 8th Floor, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1E1, Canada
Telephone: (613) 995-1151
Toll Free: 1-888-214-1090
TTY: 1-888-643-3304
Fax: (613) 996-9661

A LOOK AT blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.

FRESHMEN keeping their distance.

A FRED THOMPSON blogburst.

UPDATE: More here.

CHINA VS. THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: This isn't comforting.

FREE BUGS BUNNY cartoon downloads.

BILL CLINTON: "We Need To Stay in Iraq to Protect the Kurds From The Turks." At HuffPo.

RISKY BUSINESS? Japan drills for methane hydrate.

ADVICE TO HUCKABEE from two-time Iowa Caucus winner Bob Dole.

MICKEY KAUS: "How grudging and testy is Bob Wright's acceptance of the surge's relative success?" Not as grudging and testy as it might be . . . .

And the "Anbar Awakening" wasn't something that happened in spite of U.S. activity. Read Michael Yon on the subject.

IN THE MAIL: When Duct Tape Just Isn't Enough: Quick Fixes for Everyday Disasters. Looks quite handy.

JONATHAN ADLER: "The Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research is seeking state approval to train science teachers. This is one of those ideas that should be left on the shelf, right next to Lynne Spears' book on parenting."

Plus, debating creation vs. evolution in the comments. More support for creationism than I'd have expected there.

I LIKE THIS. Business people for Big Media outlets may feel otherwise. "For some casual bloggers, a bigger bite of the online advertising pie."

Plus, this non-pecuniary upside: "Getting paid might even help validate what may otherwise seem like a silly or obscure obsession."

HILLARY CLINTON blogs for Glamour magazine.

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CANDIDATES: People want to know who I endorse, or who I'd vote for. I don't do endorsements -- I think they're presumptuous in newspapers, and I'd feel silly telling people how they should vote at this point. Most of my readers probably know more than me anyway. But since people keep asking, here are some thoughts. Since they're kind of long, click "read more" to read them.

Read More ?

ARE CHRISTMAS SALES REALLY DISAPPOINTING? If so, it may be because women's fashion has missed the boat. Rachel Lucas expresses this view in her own inimitable fashion:

The biggest issue is WHO IN THE HELL IS MAKING THESE CLOTHES? I mean for f*ck’s sake, people. I haven’t seen such ugliness in all my life, even the 1970s. Everything is orange and pink and bright red, covered in ridiculous patterns that make you have a migraine. Nobody wants this sh*t! You can tell because of every item, there are 50 each of the orange, pink, and bright red left, but maybe one green and one blue remaining, either in extra-small or extra-large. Get a clue, designers. A g*ddamn CLUE. . . . Who slept through design class the day it was explained that MOST women have what we call a FIGURE, which means their waist and their hips are not the exact same circumference? We’ve been over this before and I will spare you another rant about it. It’s enough to say that by the time I came out of the dressing room, I was almost in tears and ready to start killin’. . . . You want women to spend money, try making attractive clothes for normal human females. It can’t be that hard. GAH!

The rest of her post also offers other, er, clues to why people might have chosen to stay home. I'm glad I did nearly all of my shopping online! (Via Colborne 2016).

UPDATE: Another post on this theme from Peg Kaplan: "From Macy's to Nordstrom's to TJMaxx and points inbetween, I saw enormous quantities of clothing that I wouldn't wear if someone paid me to do so. After over an hour of pawing through racks and racks and racks of sweaters, blouses, jackets and more that I couldn't imagine putting in my closet, much less wearing on my body, I could only think to myself: 'No wonder stores are complaining. Who, other than some 15 to 24 year olds, would buy this stuff?'"

DOES MANDATORY "DIVERSITY TRAINING" JUST LEAD TO MORE LAWSUITS? I certainly hope so . . .

UPDATE: "Not loving the chains."

LARRY KUDLOW says that Bush has had "a very good year." Well, certainly by comparison with the year before, anyway. And I agree with Larry that Bush and the GOP need to move against pork: "The statute of limitations for Republican overspending, over-earmarking, and over-corrupting that caused huge congressional losses in last year's campaign will not run out until the GOP shows taxpayers it again can be trusted on key issues of limited government and lower taxes." Yes.

BEST OF THE WEB is back from holiday break.

FROM MICHAEL TOTTEN: A fresh look at Hezbollah.

From Michael Yon, a thank you letter from a commander in Iraq.

Both of these guys are supported by reader donations, so if you like their work, don't forget the tipjars.

TURNING PLOWSHARES INTO SWORDS: "Computer network security personnel are encountering more and more ugly surprises when they take apart the hacker programs that are planted in PCs. . . . While most of these super-payloads are being used for stealing money or salable information from individuals or companies, these tools can also be turned into military weapons."

OST-ALGIA: "That’s how it used to be in the Soviet Union; nothing but delicious lobster, all the time, for everyone."

AUSTIN BAY: "Sometime within the next six months or so, al Qaeda or Saddamist terrorists will attempt a Tet offensive."

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: I hope this guy is right: "I don't think that the antiwar spin after Tet would have succeeded--even given the idiotically unrealistic expectations the Johnson administration had created--if the Web had been available."

It's true that the Web, and talk radio, make the "wall of sound" approach to consensus-manufacture much more difficult.

IRAQPUNDIT: Dude, where's my story? Reader C.J. Burch emails: "It's almost like journalists don't want to tell about what is really happening."

Doesn't fit the narrative.

THE SURGE'S COLLATERAL DAMAGE: "The successes of President Bush's troop surge in Iraq are quieting things down in another, unexpected place: the Democratic campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire."

A TIME FOR CHOOSING: A Ronald Reagan blast from the past.

JOHNATHAN PEARCE on the growth of sovereign wealth funds: "The truth is, emerging economies in Asia, coupled with the petro-dollar wealth of the MidEast, parts of Asia, Russia and even Africa, is giving these funds a degree of market muscle that has taken some investment observers by surprise, but it should not do so. We are living through a major period of change in the economic clout of non-western states. We might as well learn to profit from it."

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, David Leonhardt argues for higher taxes on booze:

Each of the three taxes is now effectively 33 percent lower than it was in 1992. Since 1970, the federal beer tax has plummeted 63 percent. Many states taxes have also been falling.

At first blush, this sounds like good news: who likes to pay taxes, right? But taxes serve a purpose beyond merely raising general government revenue. Taxes on a given activity are also supposed to pay the costs that activity imposes on society. And for all that is wonderful about wine, beer and liquor, they clearly bring some heavy costs.

Nowhere in the discussion, though, are the -- apparently quite significant -- health benefits of alcohol taken into account. Shouldn't there be some balancing? After all, the vast majority of people who drink will never kill anyone in a drunk-driving accident, yet most of them probably drink moderately enough to get the health benefits.

For that matter, people who die early of cirrhosis probably save the government money in Social Security and Medicare. I'd be interested in seeing a fuller accounting of costs and benefits. Given the questionable track record of "public health" interventions in recent decades, at any rate, I'm going to be skeptical of these proposals. When the parasite problem is solved, perhaps we can talk about further efforts in social engineering. Well, no, not even then.

MOST-ADMIRED MAN AND WOMAN? George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton.

UPDATE: Ron Coleman asks, how can this be?

THE HUCKABEE / NOVO NORDISK STEM CELL STORY doesn't seem to be getting much media traction. It's like they're rooting for him. Some discussion here, though: "Over the weekend, it came out that Huckabee received $35,000 in honoraria in 2006 from a company that does stem cell research, the very same company that social conservatives blasted Mitt Romney over because his blind trust had invested in it. Huckabee's take of $35,000 from the stem cell researchers was but a small sliver of the roughly $378,000 in outside fees that Huckabee raked in during his final year as Arkansas' governor. Too bad he didn't have Hillary Clinton's facility with commodities trading--such a skill probably would have made things easier for Huckabee."

UPDATE: Reader Jason Palk emails:

Long time reader, first time e-mail response:

I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill here, or if there are serious issues here, then just about every candidate is taking money from a corporation with politically inconvenient sources of income.

Your characterization of Novo Nordisk as a firm that participates in embryonic stem cell research is correct, but belies the fact that millions of diabetics around the world rely on Novo Nordisk's products. The first thing that comes to my mind is that it is a company that makes insulin, not as a company that participates in stem cell research, but you do not characterize it as such in any of your posts so far on the subject. It would be far more benign to your readers to see that Huckabee was paid by a company known for making diabetes drugs that happens to do research in embryonic stem cells.

If this remains a serious issue in your mind, I would point out that many universities that fund embryonic stem cell research in lieu of taking federal research funds are supported by their congressmen and senators, even though their primary purpose is not to support embryonic stem cell research. We should then speak out against anyone speaking on any University of California campus, for example, as those campuses receive funds and carry out embryonic stem cell research.

The same argument can hold true for any corporation that carries out as its primary purpose some service or good, but at the same time does some that is politically inconvenient, such as bribing foreign officials or God forbid, spending too much money in Congress.

Hmm. But wouldn't these defenses apply equally to Mitt Romney, who got grief from pro-life people for investing in Novo Nordisk?

Look, I'm pro stem-cell research. Leaving aside the separate question of whether a sitting governor should earn a lot of money from people who may have interests relating to his day job, I don't have a problem with people taking money from Novo Nordisk. But if you think embryonic stem cell research is so bad that Romney's investment was bad, why isn't it just as bad for Huckabee to take money from Novo Nordisk?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bob Krumm emails:

I’ve long thought that gotcha politics about who took campaign contributions from whom is usually a silly game to play. Even a max donation of $2,300 is hardly enough to sway a US Senate candidate, much less a presidential aspirant. However, this wasn’t a simple campaign contribution. This was a payment of $35,000 along with an unspecified agreement to distribute thousands of copies of Gov. Huckabee’s book. This wasn’t a contribution; it was a relationship.

Yes, it's more than just a contribution.

JACK LAIL has thoughts on crowdsourcing fatigue.

ROGER KIMBALL on Will Smith, Hitler, and the perils of benevolence.

MY EARLIER SUGGESTION that immigration enforcement, minimal as it is, is still making a difference seems to have been correct:

In the past year, U.S. immigration police have stepped up workplace sweeps across the country and teamed up with a growing number of local forces to train officers to enforce immigration laws. . . . Mexican consular sources in Phoenix say they are seeing a spike in the number of immigrants applying for Mexican citizenship for their U.S.-born children, which will allow them to enroll in schools in Mexico.

They are also seeing a rise in requests for papers enabling families to carry household belongings back to Mexico, free of import duties.

Members of the Brazilian community in the U.S. northeast, meanwhile, say they are starting to see an increase in the number of illegal immigrants heading back to their homes in Brazil in recent months.

Apparently there's more sensitivity to enforcement at the margins than many people believed.

UPDATE: A reader suggests that the falling dollar is why people are leaving -- since the money they send home would be worth less. That sounds plausible, but I checked the dollar/peso conversion chart and the dollar's about where it was in May, and when you look at the five year chart things seem to have been pretty stable, so that doesn't seem especially likely.

Several other readers noted the irony of needing Mexican citizenship to enroll in Mexican schools, when American citizenship is not required to enroll in American schools. I don't know the Mexican law on the subject beyond this passing reference in a news story, but I suspect that a demand for strict reciprocity would produce amusing political results.

PARASITES:

Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday.

Sounds like it deserves more attention.

December 25, 2007

TODAY'S BLOGGERS: Descendants of Julius Caesar?

SLED POLICE -- with radar guns. I agree with the commenter who says, "When cops start this kinda thing, it’s time to start laying them off. They have way too much time on their hands."

UPDATE: Orin Kerr thinks my provocative headline is misleading. I guess he's right, though I saw the story as evidence of creeping nanny-statism, likely to produce a slippery slope leading to mandatory helmet laws, actual speed limits, etc. Plus, who didn't know that sleds can go 19 miles per hour, roughly as fast as a man can run? This seems to be how most of the commenters at Don Surber's blog, linked above, saw it too. We've been down that slippery slope in plenty of other areas, and we didn't need a sled to do it. But to the extent my pithiness was misleading, I apologize. Meanwhile, Meryl Yourish has thoughts that I hope are tongue-in-cheek. Er, can you do that while wearing a mouthguard?

SHIITE LEADERS attend mass in Baghdad in a show of support for Iraqi Christians.

CHRISTMAS RETAIL SALES UP, BUT BY A MODEST 3.6% -- but online sales were up 22.4%. The New York Times calls those numbers "bleak," a term that's more accurately used in reference to its stock prices . . . .

Related post here. It's all about the narrative.

UPDATE: Reader, and hedge-fund manager, George Zachar emails:

Investors now have to gauge not only the reality of economic data, but its predictable willful misrepresentation by the press. We therefore have to speculate not only on underlying conditions, but on the effectiveness of the effort to scupper Main Street confidence.

On another matter, tech unfriendliness is a big driver in NYC commercial real estate, and the conversion of many older buildings into residential lofts.

Yeah, the press reports have consequences besides their intended one, of swinging the elections.

UPDATE: Reader Eric West emails:

The same schmuck, Michael Barbaro, wrote a similar story in 2005. He also wrote a story back in September of his year trying to say back to school sales only looked good, but really weren't:

Why do we care what the some schmuck at the New York Times writes anymore, anyway?

It's like reading something Andrew Sullivan writes and instead of saying, "Sullivan thinks....." we write, "The Blogosphere today announced that...."

Bologne. We need to get out of the habit of saying, "The New York Times....." and giving backing to these folks. Instead, we should say, "Michael Barbaro wrote....." and treat him just like we'd treat anyone in the blogosphere.

Good point. Why let people hide behind institutions? And, of course, Barbaro's other retail coverage has sometimes been a bit tendentious.

MORE: Well, this makes the NYT look worse, even if it doesn't necessarily make the economy look better -- apparently the NYT was reporting good and bad spins on the same numbers in two different stories on its front page today. And Kevin Drum says that since the numbers aren't indexed for inflation, sales actually dropped, which would be "bleak" -- but that doesn't get Barbaro or the NYT off the hook because their story didn't do any indexing. On the other hand, are Christmas goods subject to deflation not inflation?

A LOOK AT HOW THINGS ARE GOING for the Automotive X-Prize and other high-mpg pursuits.

SO I JUST BOOKED A DIVE TRIP THE OTHER DAY, and what do I get in the mail but this. How do they know?

INTERESTING THEORY: An argument that one reason for the housing bubble is that new technologies don't retrofit well to older houses. I'm not sure there's much to it, but hey . . . .

CROW for Christmas.

SYRIA THREATENS SPAIN. Spain fails to respond appropriately. Yeah, I know, it's a dog-bites-man story.

IN "NUMBERS UNTHNKABLE A YEAR AGO," Iraqis crowd churches for Christmas mass.

CNET: The year in tech politics: "Democrats in 2007 controlled both chambers of Congress for the first time in a dozen years--and with the power shift came a scattershot year for technology policy. Sweeping initiatives like elevating minimum wage and lowering prescription drug prices, not technology topics, took the forefront. What that meant was a year of largely unfinished business--or, less charitably, unfulfilled promises--for high-tech companies." (Via Slashdot). Plus, this bad news: "Post-election plans from the Democrats to require paper trails of all oft-maligned electronic voting machines used in federal races also appear to have collapsed."

TOM HANKS AS 007. I'd actually pay to see that.

(Via Randy Barnett).

SHUTTING DOWN THE F.E.C. -- plus, Simon's Law: "The politician who campaigns hardest on cleaning up corruption is the biggest crook."

SPENDING CHRISTMAS ON YOUR OWN? Join the discussion.

OKAY, WE'RE NOT HAVING THE TROPICAL CHRISTMAS that we had last year. But it's still a nice one. Hope yours is, too.

MERRY CHRISTMAS: Space-based solar energy for Palau:

In September, American entrepreneur Kevin Reed proposed at the 58th International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad, India, that Palau's uninhabited Helen Island would be an ideal spot for a small demonstration project, a 260-foot-diameter "rectifying antenna," or rectenna, to take in 1 megawatt of power transmitted earthward by a satellite orbiting 300 miles above Earth.

That's enough electricity to power 1,000 homes, but on that empty island the project would "be intended to show its safety for everywhere else," Reed said in a telephone interview from California.

Reed said he expects his U.S.-Swiss-German consortium to begin manufacturing the necessary ultralight solar panels within two years, and to attract financial support from manufacturers wanting to show how their technology — launch vehicles, satellites, transmission technology — could make such a system work. He estimates project costs at $800 million and completion as early as 2012.

Plus, it's greenhouse-friendly:

"The climate change implications are pretty clear. You can get basically unlimited carbon-free power from this," said Mark Hopkins, senior vice president of the National Space Society in Washington. . . . Some seem to hear the call. The European Space Agency has scheduled a conference on space-based solar power for next Feb. 29. Space Island Group, another entrepreneurial U.S. endeavor, reports "very positive" discussions with a European utility and the Indian government about buying future power from satellite systems.

I hope it works.

December 24, 2007

A CHEERFUL CHRISTMAS IN BETHLEHEM: For the first time in years.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The media, the military and the surge.

THE NEXT 25 YEARS IN MILITARY ROBOTS: Some people would rather their robots make love, not war.

FINISHED THE NEW Harry Turtledove book last night. It was good -- a bit more scattered since it's really several novellas loosely knit together, but still good.

PEACE ON EARTH? "While the headlines concentrate on peace breaking out in Iraq, that's but part of a worldwide trend for the last few years. Violence has also diminished, or disappeared completely, in places like Nepal, Chechnya. Congo, Indonesia and Burundi."

REASON INTERVIEWS