January 12, 2008

A SHOCKER: Anti-war Soros funded Iraq study. Say it ain't so!

UPDATE: More thoughts here: "This is an academic scandal, insofar as these institutions have lent their brand equity to what is essentially a fraud on the public. Fortunately, they are all so well-established that they can afford for George Soros to dissipate a tiny bit of their reputation. But -- and this is important -- let us not hear complaints from any of these institutions about 'anti-intellectualism in American life.' Americans do not trust our pointy-headed institutions of higher learning in matters of public policy for very good reason."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Art Fougner, M.D., emails:

The reputation of an outstanding medical journal ( The Lancet is more highly regarded than the New
England Journal of Medicine.) has been permanently sullied. The editors should be sacked. And they complain when a drug detail man buys lunch for a doctor's office. My God!

This goes beyond lunch.

"WHAT IS TO BE DONE?" About the Supreme Court.

CANADA'S KANGAROO COURT: On video. More here.

UPDATE: "Pure, uncompromising brilliance."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Comments from Mark Steyn.

Ms McGovern, a blandly unexceptional bureaucrat, is a classic example of the syndrome. No "vulnerable" Canadian Muslim has been attacked over the cartoons, but the cartoonists had to go into hiding, and a gang of Muslim youths turned up at their children's grade schools, and Muslim rioters around the world threatened death to anyone who published them, and even managed to kill a few folks who had nothing to do with them. Nonetheless, upon receiving a complaint from a Saudi imam trained at an explicitly infidelophobic academy and who's publicly called for the introduction of sharia in Canada, Shirlene McGovern decides that the purely hypothetical backlash to Muslims takes precedence over any actual backlash against anybody else.

Read the whole thing.

MORE: Canadian reader Duane Mailing emails:

WOW! Those videos are absolutely incredible! Best thing I ever heard from the mouth of a Canadian. I was laughing so hard I was crying. A real man stands and speaks the truth....in this day and age...brilliant! I never thought I'd hear anything in real life that compares to Howard Roark's courtroom speech from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead but I just did and I can hardly believe it. I am truly inspired by Ezra Levant.

I expect this will get a lot of attention. (Bumped)

THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN FOXHOLES, and there are no vegans in tsunamis.

STEVEN LANDSBURG defends Huckabee over the Fair Tax.

I'll just add, as I've noted before, that many critics of the Fair Tax proposal act as if Huckabee invented it. Actually, it's been the subject of discussion for a while, and there's a bestselling book involved. This doesn't make the plan a good idea -- there are plenty of bestselling books that outline bad ideas -- but it seems as if discussions should reflect the plan's origins.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Arnold Kling, who favors a "semi-fair tax."

A LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA on race and politics.

THE NEW YORK TIMES SAYS RETURNING TROOPS ARE MURDERERS, but Marc Danziger checks the math.

Bruce Kesler has more. "The few stories the NYT’s presents, however colored for effect, are tragedies. But the greater tragedy is that we have to suffer the NYT’s agenda of defamation of another generation of veterans."

HAPPY No Pants Subway Day!

AN INSTANT TREATMENT for Alzheimer's disease? Bring it on!

THOMPSON VS. HUCKABEE.

UPDATE: Thompson keeps up Huckabee criticism.

ANOTHER CONSPIRACY THEORY exploded.

LOTS OF LOVE for the Audi R8. I'll keep that in mind for whenever I want to replace the Mazda . . . and have a hundred grand or so burning a hole in my pocket.

EVENTUALLY, HOWEVER, HE'LL BE RIGHT! A roundup of Paul Krugman recession predictions.

JONAH GOLDBERG will be on C-SPAN's Book TV tonight at 10 pm Eastern, talking about his new book. Schedule for repeats is here.

THE CARNIVAL OF CARS is up!

GLOBAL CLIMATE DATA: "A feast for cherry-pickers."

THOUGHTS ON CAPITALISM'S PR PROBLEM. On the other hand, nothing provides better PR for capitalism than socialism, once it's put into practice. . . .

WELL, OF COURSE: "The iPhone is definitely a sexy phone. It's also the perfect vehicle for bringing mobile porn to Americans, according to adult content producers at the annual AVN convention in Las Vegas."

AP TRIES TO REWRITE RATHERGATE HISTORY, leaving out the forged documents.

VOTE SUPPRESSION EFFORTS in Nevada?

"SORRY, BARACK. YOU'VE LOST IRAQ."

HILLARY: THE MOVIE.

SAY UNCLE: "First, it was news. Now it’s opinion. Funny that."

THOUGHTS ON JOHN MCCAIN AND FREE SPEECH, from Roger Kimball.

PREVIEWING THE DETROIT AUTO SHOW: You can deliver my personalized Lamborghini any time now . . . .

BUSH IN KUWAIT. More here.

AN INTERVIEW with Marine Corps Commandant James Conway.

WILL BLU-RAY EARLY ADOPTERS GET SHAFTED? Hey, wait -- that's me!

A BIG CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW WRAPUP. Plus, a Macworld preview. And a look at new attractions among cell phones.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ann Althouse.

ASTEROID LIKELY TO MISS MARS after all. Well, it was always likely to miss, of course, but the risk has been revised downward tremendously.

ANOTHER MAJOR stem-cell advance.

HUMANITY'S Top 10 Existential Risks. We're not talking Sartre here.

THIS SEEMS LIKE PROGRESS: Iraqi Lawmakers Pass Key Benchmark De-Baathification Law: "Iraq's parliament adopted legislation Saturday on the reinstatement of thousands of former Baath party supporters to government jobs, a key benchmark sought by the United States as a step toward national reconciliation. The bill was approved by a unanimous show of hands on each of the law's 30 clauses."

UPDATE: More thoughts from Ed Morrissey.

SCHWARZENEGGER V. SPITZER on state funding for higher education.

RUDY GIULIANI responds to rumors about his finances.

OUCH:

IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.

Like I said.

APOLOGIZING TO Fred Thompson.

WITH ALL RESPECT TO BROOKS BROTHERS, what the Hell is this?

UPDATE: Is this some sort of horrible trend? Given my well-shaped manly calves, I suppose I should welcome the opportunity for display, but . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: The end of WASP culture?

MORE: Various readers blame Angus Young.

January 11, 2008

WHY VOTE REPUBLICAN? Bush DOJ betrays gun rights. "There was a saying during my years in DC that the GOP operated on two principles: screw your friends and appease your enemies. Yup." Is this too harsh? Possibly, but Dave Hardy would know, wouldn't he?

BAD NEWS FOR Blumenthal.

DAILYKOS: Vote for Mitt!

UPDATE: In the same vein, a reader emails:

I've been wondering if it would make sense for Republicans to cross over in states where they can and vote for Hillary hoping that if Clinton is the Dem nominee, then blacks may vote Republican in November or sit out.

I dunno, but it seems a bit tacky. Doesn't it?

STRATEGYPAGE: "The kind of terror we associate with Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia can show up a lot closer to home. Take, for example, the recent 'Tamaulipas Drug War' just south of the U.S. border in Mexico. In an era of 'small war,' what amounts to a major battle took place on January 7th, in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. "

BLOOMBERG IN THE HOT SEAT:

Mayor Bloomberg has been asked many times whether he harbors presidential aspirations. Yesterday may be the first time he was asked the question under oath.

Mr. Bloomberg spent the day sitting for a deposition in a civil lawsuit, the first time he has done so as mayor. The defamation case against the mayor was brought by a South Carolina gun salesman who claims the mayor spoke ill of him in the press. The deposition lasted the entire workday, and the topics ranged from Mr. Bloomberg's views on the Second Amendment to whether he intended to run for president.

Read the whole thing. (Via SayUncle).

TAKE THAT, TROLLS! (CONT'D): Jonah Goldberg's book is now up to #8 #7 #6.

And, if you somehow missed it, our podcast interview with Jonah is here.

UPDATE: Reader Chris Nath emails:

I just went to the local Barnes & Noble where I found Keith Olberman's "Truth and Consequences" prominently displayed on a middle of the aisle table - impossible to miss. Curious, I went in search of Jonah Goldberg's book and where did I find it? A single copy languished on the bottom row of the current events rack with just the binding end of the book showing. Coincidence?

I'm sure. (Bumped).

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Steve L. emails:

I live in the East Bay (about 30 minutes from San Fran) I went to my local Barnes and Noble and was unable to find a single copy of the book. I asked customer service and was told that the store didn't bother to order any. Not only that, but the nearest *FIVE* Barnes and Noble stores had ordered a total of ZERO copies. I went down the street to Borders, saw them prominently displayed on the front table and bought 2 copies.

Good for them. And there's always Amazon. I wrote a column on this phenomenon a while back. And reader Chris Green writes:

The fact that (as Chris Nash's email suggests) certain booksellers are tucking Goldberg's book away in obscure places has probably boosted Amazon sales and the book's rating on Amazon.

Where else to you get the book if you can't find it at the bookstore?

Indeed.

WEIRD ATTACKS ON John Edwards.

UPDATE: "Shut up, Larry." Plus, this: Does Chris Matthews Have a Problem With Women?

ILYA SOMIN: The opportunity cost of Ron Paul: "One of the main points cited by Ron Paul's libertarian defenders is his fundraising prowess. And it is indeed true that Paul has succeeded in raising far more money than most political observers would have expected. As of October 29, the Paul campaign had raised some 8.3 million dollars, and no doubt it has taken in more since then. However, now that it's clear that his candidacy is both a flop politically and likely to damage the image of libertarianism, this fundraising success turns out to be a double-edged sword. The millions of dollars spent on Paul's candidacy could surely have instead been spent in other ways that do far more to promote libertarian causes."

This may or may not be true in practice -- would the money have actually gone to the Institute for Justice, or just been spent on beer and skittles? But Ron Paul wasn't a very attractive face for libertarianism. As I've said before, that in some senses was a good thing, since it illustrated the power of the message over the messenger. I fear, however, that he'll wind up doing more harm than good to the image of libertariansm. But perhaps not. To some degree the Big Media folks seem to be giving him a pass on the racism issue, perhaps on the theory that no one who's anti-Bush can really count as racist . . . .

NEW YORK'S CONSERVATIVE PARTY endorses Fred Thompson.

UPDATE: Bill Quick: "I think we’re about to see what will later be described as an 'amazing turnaround' for Fred in South Carolina."

EMBARRASSMENT FOR INTERPOL:

South Africa's police chief Jackie Selebi is to be charged with corruption and "defeating the ends of justice", state prosecutors say.

A court on Friday rejected an urgent application by Mr Selebi, who is also the president of Interpol, to try to stop the prosecution.

He is alleged to have received at least $170,000 (£90,000) from a convicted criminal over a five-year period.

Sigh.

LARRY KUDLOW: Are we all Democrats now? I'm pretty sure Fred Thompson isn't.

UPDATE: No, really: "Taxes get so depressed when they hear Fred Thompson is in charge that they cut themselves."

COULD WE HAVE SOME MORE OF THOSE, PLEASE? Senators for the Second Amendment.

"YOU MIGHT BE ASKING, 'What the heck is a sport activity coupe?'" "I am asking." "And well you might."

"GALL AND GULLIBILITY:" The combination is sort of a trademark, really. But -- at the risk of sounding like Brit Hume to Ron Paul last night -- it's funny to me that folks on the left want so badly to create a Gulf of Tonkin out of an incident in which the U.S. Navy did nothing. Sixties nostalgia runs rampant.

UPDATE: Related item here.

POLITICO: Racial tensions roil Democratic race.

I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE! I DRINK IT UP!

HERE'S A STORY I MISSED YESTERDAY: "A federal judge Thursday rejected a request by war-on-terror detainees in Guantanamo who sought a hearing on the destruction of videotapes showing CIA interrogations of terror suspects, a court source said. . . . He said that while a ruling he issued in 2005 'prohibits respondents from destroying evidence regarding any torture, mistreatment, or abuse of detainees that occurred at Guantanamo Bay ... (the) petitioners do not assert that the destroyed tapes depict interrogations that occurred at Guantanamo Bay and respondents have represented to the court that the interrogations depicted on the tapes did not occur there.'" Apparently, most folks missed this.

IT'S A TASER! IT'S AN MP3 PLAYER! And it comes in leopard-skin finish!

CHEAP, ACCESSIBLE HEALTHCARE: To be banned in Boston?

These kinds of clinics are getting good reviews elsewhere. Is it too cynical to suspect that the real opposition stems from fears that they will make national healthcare seem less urgent?

IN BILLBOARD, JOHN ONDRASIK WRITES about his CD for soldiers project.

UPDATE: Oh, in case you missed it, here's our Ondrasik podcast interview from last year.

STILL MORE EVIDENCE THAT claims of a vaccine/autism connection are bogus.

THE D.C. CIRCUIT on interrogations:

Ruling in a case of four Britons who formerly were detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the D.C. Circuit Court decided Friday that the prisoners have no right to sue top Pentagon officials and military officers for allegedly torturing them and defiling their religious beliefs while they were held at the military prison. The Court applied several different legal theories in rejecting all of the claims of abuse and arbitrary imprisonment, but the end result was that there was nothing left of the detainees’ legal challenge.

In a second ruling Friday affecting individuals captured during the “war on terrorism,” the Circuit Court decided that the Pentagon has no legal duty to release to the public the opinions or advice that outsiders gave to the government on the creation of “military commissions” to try war crimes charges against detainees.

Follow the link for more. (Thanks to reader Sean Sirrine for the link).

SOME POST-C.E.S. THOUGHTS from Michael S. Malone.

DON'T WE CARE ABOUT THE EARTH? "Most of France's electricity has been generated by nuclear power for years, and now Great Britain is again looking to atomic energy. Why can't we increase nuclear output in this country?"

ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS. I want a robot.

NOT ALL WOMEN ARE ROLE MODELS, at Ms Magazine. Israeli women don't count, apparently.

UPDATE: More here.

A LOOK AT BARACK OBAMA'S SPACE POLICY.

Mark Whittington has some thoughts. "Unfortunately it constitutes a return to the 1990s during which astronauts flew in circles in low Earth orbit and commercial space was ignored."

UPDATE: A reader emails: "I tried to follow the Obama space policy back to find the original position paper on the Obama website. There doesn't appear to be one. Furthermore, it looks like everybody who's commenting on the piece points at the same link you did. I wonder if this is bogus?"

Seems unlikely, but I couldn't find it on the site either, though I found the site somewhat hard to navigate. Any Obama campaign folks want to respond?

CAN YOU SUE IF a computer reads your email?

MODERN MECHANIX is a very cool retro blog.

OBAMA AND HILLARY, IN BLACK AND WHITE: "I don't think the Hillary puzzle has to be explained by covert racism on the part of New Hampshire Democrats and Independents; covert stodginess and a reluctance to admit that they are voting like their grandmother and not their kids may be the real cause."

I GUESS THOSE BIG STARTING BONUSES STILL AREN'T BIG ENOUGH: "College grads who want wealth and social status are passing up law and medicine for careers in investment banking." It not only pays better, it's a better lifestyle. Then there are the law-firm layoffs.

KICKING MEN OUT OF DAY CARE: The latest Ask Dr. Helen column is up!

UPDATE: In the comments, a discussion of sex between teenage boys and older women. Is it bad?

TAKE THAT, TROLLS: Jonah Goldberg's book is still at #10.

MATT WELCH:

Has Paul really disassociated himself from, and "taken moral responsibility" for, these "Ron Paul" newsletters "for over a decade"? If he has, that history has not been recorded by the Nexis database, as best as I can reckon.

Much research follows.

BOB ZUBRIN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Grass makes better ethanol than corn. Actually, I'm pretty sure Zubrin knows that . . .

You can also turn it into methanol, and I believe that's a good deal easier. And if you missed it, our Zubrin podcast is here.

MICKEY KAUS: "There isn't another contested Democratic primary for 9 more days? What are we supposed to do in the meantime? Can't they speed the process up?"

HOW THE IPHONE blew up the wireless industry.

BOB KRUMM: "Some speculate that Fred Thompson went easy on John McCain last night and is playing the role of stalking horse for him. I disagree and here’s why."

WE'LL HAVE TO CUT BENEFITS, OR SUFFER: "The US is at risk of losing its top-notch triple-A credit rating within a decade unless it takes radical action to curb soaring healthcare and social security spending, Moody's, the credit rating agency, said yesterday." My guess is, we'll suffer.

ARE THE MEDIA rooting for an Obama tragedy?

FRED THOMPSON IS ENDORSED by Human Events.

"SNOW FALLS ON BAGHDAD, for first time in memory."

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene emails: "I had no idea Al Gore was in Iraq."

THOUGH THE MCRIB IS ACTUALLY KINDA YUMMY: "In South Carolina, Fred's all in. If he wins, he deals Huckabee a pretty tough blow, as the argument will be made, 'If Huckabee can't win South Carolina, where can he win?' Thompson will tout himself, as one of his guys put it to me, as authentic barbecue to Huckabee's McRib."

SAME OLD CORN, different flakes. What did people do before Photoshop?

A ROBOT ROUNDUP.

WATCH OUT, CNN: 400,000 viewers for Breitbart TV. By comparison, "As of 2005, CNN in primetime attracted less than 700,000 daily viewers, but with a budget of zillions of dollars and a ton of real estate, technicians and on-air talent."

NOT THAT THE LANCET STUDY needed any more discrediting, but there's a new one out producing a fourth the numbers.

Plus, doing the math on Saddam.

January 10, 2008

THE BBC: Preaching diversity while not actually practicing it.

JONAH GOLDBERG IS now up to #11 #10 #9 on Amazon.

As Rand Simberg notes, "All the one-stars at Amazon by people who haven't read Jonah's book are not only being pulled down, but they're creating sales." (Bumped).

A POST-DEBATE ROUNDUP from Brendan Loy.

UPDATE: More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Riled.

ANBAR UPDATE: "Iraq's western province of Anbar, hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency for the first four years of the war, will be returned to Iraqi control in March, a senior U.S. general said Thursday. In a telephone interview from Iraq, Marine Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, commander of the roughly 35,000 Marine and Army forces in Anbar, said levels of violence have dropped so significantly—coupled with the growth and development of Iraqi security forces in the province—that Anbar is ready to be handed back to the Iraqis. . . . Thus far, nine of 18 Iraqi provinces have reverted to Iraqi control." Halfway there: T.M. Lutas's prediction from April is looking pretty good.

UPDATE: Rounding up the history.

DON SURBER: Bush is wrong. "Trading land for peace does not work."

MARK STEYN: "Actually, it was (Democrat) Bob Kerrey doing the whole secret-muslim thing and (Democrat) Bill Shaheen doing the sold-cocaine thing and (Democrat) Andrew Young doing the Bill Clinton's-slept-with-more-black-women-than-Obama thing. We NRO guys are staying well clear."

JOHN PODHORETZ: "Fred Thompson is not only winning this debate, he is giving the most commanding debate performance we’ve seen from any candidate in either party since the beginning of this endless primary process."

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA'S LAWSUIT AGAINST GUN MANUFACTURERS has been dismissed.

Now for the lawsuit by gun manufacturers against various municipalities, charging a conspiracy to deprive them of civil rights . . . .

OH, GOODY -- ANOTHER DEBATE! They're liveblogging tonight's GOP debate at The Sundries Shack. More liveblogging at Heading Right.

UPDATE: More liveblogging here.

And Freeman Hunt is on the case, too.

I'll just observe that Fred Thompson looks better. He lost weight for the campaign over the summer and it made him look thin and drawn. I think he's put a bit back on -- maybe it's the road food -- and he looks more like himself.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bob Krumm is liveblogging, too. So is Ann Althouse.

Hey, they're even live-blogging at The New York Times, and with this surprising observation: "Mr. Thompson rocks tonight."

Still more liveblogging from Zombyboy.

MORE: Okay, Ron Paul just said a Navy destroyer shouldn't worry about a speedboat. I guess he's forgotten this:

STILL MORE: Ouch.

Plus, Thompson-vs-Huckabee video.

EVEN MORE: Kathryn Jean Lopez: "Okay, where has this Fred Thompson been for the last year? This is the man who published commentaries with us last year. This is the man who people wanted to draft. This is the conservative guy conservatives are attracted to." He does seem to be having a good night.

Meanwhile, a lame response from Huckabee -- in response to being asked about raising taxes: "I raised hope." Who knew hope could be so expensive? . . .

Earlier, Ron Paul said he defended Israel's strike against Iraq's nuclear reactor. Nice that he supports Israel's defending itself with preemptive attacks. Too bad he doesn't support the same thing for the United States . . . .

More video here.

HEH: "So, there are a bunch of 30-something New Yorkers who are so enraged at whatever undifferentiated conspiracy deprived Obama of a victory in New Hampshire that they formed a pact to part with a tiny portion of their wine budget and give money to a political campaign for the first time. And to think people say that the Clintons make people cynical about politics."

Related post here.

WHY GIRLS SHOULD play with boys.

UPDATE: Reader Ellen Dahlgren emails: "I would have expected you of all people to have made the point that the shooting sports are one area where women can compete with men with virtually no physical disadvantage. High School and College rifle teams are co-ed." Hey, nobody's perfect. That's what I have readers for. And I like getting gun-related email from someone named Dahlgren!

MATTHEW YGLESIAS SPECULATES on how McCain would look in HDTV.

But actually he looks pretty good. You can see for yourself right here by selecting the high definition version of the interview.

ANDREW CUOMO GOES AFTER INTEL: "Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York issued a wide-ranging subpoena to the Intel Corporation on Thursday as part of an investigation into whether the company violated federal or state antitrust laws in the way it priced and sold microprocessors."

Gee, why would a New York Attorney General go after Intel? “'At IBM, we strongly believe that our unique joint development partnership with AMD at East Fishkill, N.Y. is key to overcoming power and heat challenges as the industry reaches near atomic scales,' said Gary Patton, vice president, technology development at IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center."

Intel just better not try any "shuck and jive" in response . . . .

UPDATE: A reader emails: "I'd be more impressed if Cuomo went after Spitzer's lackeys for their obfuscation and stonewalling over their involvement in the Troopergate mess."

SERIAL KILLERS, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL.

RON PAUL RESPONDS TO HIS CRITICS ON CNN. But: "67% of blacks are in prison"? Surely that's not what he meant to say. Are 67% of prisoners black? I don't think that could be it.

UPDATE: Nope: "Although blacks account for only 12 percent of the U.S. population, 44 percent of all prisoners in the United States are black." Bad enough, but I don't see how that could be the source of his number.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Jones emails: "Have you considered the possibility that Paul said '6 to 7 percent' rather than '67 percent'? That still might be an inaccurate figure, but it's at least a little more plausible!" Yeah, but I replayed the video and it's pretty clearly 67%. You can listen for yourself -- it's at about 3:05 - 3:09.

MORE: Reader Brian Macker emails:

Ron Paul brought up 67% in context of drug war. He is using this statistic:

"Thirty-seven percent of drug-offense arrests are black; 53 percent of convictions are of blacks; and 67 percent -- two-thirds of all people imprisoned for drug offenses -- are black."

From here:
http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-0/119692401586430.xml&coll=1

I don't think he's a racist. All the "evidence" seems to have innocuous explanations.

Well, the "innocuous" explanation is that Paul let people publish crap under his name and didn't care enough to read it so long as the money came in. Is that something we want in a President, or even a serious candidate? As reader Corinna Cohn emails: "I really like Dr. Paul and I still plan on voting for him in the Nevada caucus, but what really bothers me about that interview is his attitude of, 'How can you hold me responsible? It was the editor's responsibility; I'm just the publisher.' Not a very 'buck stops here' type of attitude for someone who wants to be Commander-in-Chief." Nope.

STILL MORE: Reader Scott Adcox emails: "Looks like he may have gotten that number by prepping for the debate tonight. In SOUTH CAROLINA, blacks make up 67% of the prison population, at least they did in 2003." He's right -- it's at the link with the 44% figure above; if you scroll down you can see it broken down by states and South Carolina has the 67.2% percentage for black inmates.

MORE STILL: Bob Krumm: "If after watching this you don’t come away thinking that (a) Ron Paul is a racist or (b) Ron Paul so carelessly oversaw the operation that bore his name that he can’t be trusted to oversee the Presidency, then check a mirror so that you can see what a kook looks like."

OUCH: "Perhaps if Mr. Yoo had decided to pursue a life of terrorism, he too could be represented by his alma mater. . . . We trust the dean of Yale Law, Harold Koh, is proud of suing an alumnus on behalf of a terrorist, and that Yale's other alumni know how their donations are being used." I've heard a lot of complaints that Koh has politicized Yale Law School in ways that Tony Kronman and Guido Calabresi were careful to avoid. This will add fuel to that fire.

WHERE WERE THEY WHEN MICHAEL MOORE WAS RELEASING? Judges: Anti-Clinton film is advertising.

REP. JOHN DOOLITTLE (R-CA) WILL RETIRE. That opens the way for his primary challenger Eric Egland. Mostly, I know Egland from his attendance at Blog World Expo, where he seemed like a nice guy. Here's his website.

UPDATE: Had him as a D at first -- I knew better, don't know why I typed the wrong thing. I blame Diebold!

I'VE BEEN REMISS in not mentioning Jonah Goldberg's book-blog.

A REPORT FROM THE FRED THOMPSON blogger conference call. Plus, a pro-Fred blogburst.

PAKISTAN TURNS ON ITS ISLAMIC RADICALS. Let's hope they make some progress.

JONAH GOLDBERG'S BOOK is now up to #16, and I hear it was even higher midday. I think the attacks on it have backfired.

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste emails: "Isn't it interesting how placement in the Amazon ratings has replaced the NY Times Best Seller list as a measure of book success?"

I think replaced might be a bit strong. But yeah, I see the point.

A LOOK AT CARLA BRUNI, Sarkozy's new girlfriend fiancee and the probable future First Lady of France. Unless Fred Thompson gets elected, America is pretty sure to be left way behind. Nice picture.

WHY THE POLLS WERE WRONG -- guys like this:

My goal as a political opinion poll dancer is to take up as much of his time as possible by giving misleading, long-winded and totally inaccurate answers to survey questions in hopes of one day producing an outcome — not a Hillary Clinton victory, per se, just a result that defies the pollsters — like the one produced last night in the “Live Free or Die” state. And, while I would like to take sole credit for the results in New Hampshire, I know I must share credit with others like me.

I suspect that people do this sort of thing a lot more than they used to. If I were a pollster, it would worry me.

THOUGHTS ON Tupac Shakur and racism.

PEOPLE ARE DRINKING TOO MUCH: Blame Crate & Barrel. Though, actually, outside of alarmist news articles aren't people drinking less than they used to? Sure seems that way to me.

Anyway, boozing is good for you. So long as it's done in moderation, and you exercise, anyway.

IF JAMES LILEKS WERE A DIRTY OLD MAN, his blog would look like this one.

ADVICE TO PRODUCT DESIGNERS, from Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman.

ABC NEWS: The Rezko Connection: Obama's Achilles Heel? "Obama's Connection With an Accused Political Fixer Raises Questions."

UPDATE: Andrew Cuomo on Obama's "shuck and jive." As Dan Riehl notes: "Thank God he's a Democrat, or this might actually be racist."

Of course, what will really doom Obama won't be scandals or racially dubious language, but John Kerry's endorsement. Those Clintons are subtle . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: "How come no one has complained about how the Harvard Law guy is getting ganged up on by the Yalie law types?" I think that, as a sympathy-attracting move, that's not going to fly.

WHAT DO WOMEN WANT? A look at women voters and Hillary.

FULL IMMERSION: A curved 42" widescreen monitor for gamers.

MCCAIN JUMPS AHEAD OF HUCKABEE in South Carolina.

ANOTHER DUMB S.W.A.T. RAID:

A tactical law enforcement team broke into Tom Shiflett's home and took his 11-year-old son to hospital for court-ordered medical treatment for a minor head injury.

Garfield County's All Hazards Response Team raided the home Friday night, a day after Jon Shiflett fell after grabbing the handle of a moving car. The child was returned to the family at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, hours after the raid.

"Inappropriate is not nearly strong enough a word. It was gross irresponsibility and stupidity," said Ross Talbott, owner of the Apple Tree Mobile Home Park south of New Castle who rents to the Shifletts and who witnessed the raid. "Is this Russia? I don't know what we're coming to when they think your kid needs medical help and they send a SWAT team."

In the end, the injury wasn't as severe as caseworkers from the Garfield County Department of Social Services thought when they went before a judge seeking a search warrant and order for medical treatment.

The doctor recommended fluids, Tylenol and ice to treat the bruises, according to a copy of Jon's patient aftercare instructions.

People should lose their jobs over this. But they probably won't. Accountability is for the little people.

UPDATE: Here's the police side of the story:

Use of the Garfield County All Hazards Response Team (AHRT) was appropriate to seize Tom Shiflett's son for medical care because of Shiflett's confrontational history and repeated lack of cooperation, according to Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario.

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think we would have been able to accomplish it with just the deputies we had on duty," Vallario said. "The end result of what happened was based on (Shiflett's) decisions, not mine."

The team used force to break into Shiflett's home Friday night in Apple Tree Park near New Castle, and seized his 11-year-old son, Jon Shiflett. The boy was examined and returned hours later with the recommendation to ice his bruises and take Tylenol. . . . Vallario said Shiflett's statements that his family members were thrown to the ground and that the warrant was never announced are false. He said two Garfield County deputies arrived Friday before the AHRT and explained the warrant and that they would need to take the 11-year-old boy in for medical evaluation.

"He was rather vulgar in his response," Vallario said Tuesday. "I was given a court order, and I really don't feel I have any choice but to comply with that court order."

Read the whole thing. There are two stories here, but this still seems excessive. Meanwhile, reader Herschel Smith makes an excellent point:

Consider the irony. The Marines and Army have now progressed in their counterinsurgency campaign and the understanding of the population to the point that they can cordon and knock. They are respectful, cautious, and unwilling to impose anything foreign or hostile to the culture or the honor of the head of household. Yet in America we have men donning tactical gear to forcibly enter the homes of people and remove them for … forced medical service for non-life threatening injuries. It is a sad picture.

It is indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Phil Dean emails:

Kudos to you for fairly reporting the police's side of this story, which is something that a lot of internet libertarians seem to consider beneath them.

Based on the facts we know, I don't agree that the raid was necessarily excessive. Consider: the police have to enforce the court order. They sent two deputies to knock on the door and ask. They were unsuccessful. THEY STILL HAVE TO ENFORCE THE COURT ORDER. Now, whether this particular court order was reasonable or not is a separate issue, but that's not the cops' doing. And as far as "accountability" goes, they can also be held accountable for NOT executing a court order pertaining to the health and safety of a child. Just another one of the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't scenarios that make modern law enforcement so much fun.

Here's my thing: critics of SWAT teams invariably say that the police's legitimate interests can be served without tactical uniforms and big guns, that if the police would just be reasonable and knock on the door, all would be well. Fine. But here the police did that, and it didn't do any good. When they escalate, of course, they're fascists.

Fair points. Though I doubt they'd have gone this route in a fancy neighborhood nearly as quickly as in a trailer park.

AT SAYUNCLE: "Another case of the press taking dictation from The Violence Policy Center."

WHAT NEWSPAPERS CAN DO that bloggers mostly can't.

CLOUD COMPUTING: Ed Cone interviews Nick Carr.

MORE ON THE RON PAUL PROBLEM, from Rand Simberg. And Hot Air notes that now that he's back in the debates, he can expect to be grilled on the subject of race. Oh goody.

THREE INTERESTING SCIENCE ITEMS FROM ALAN BOYLE, including a roundup on progress toward low-cost fusion. Bring it on! Not only do we need the power, but I always liked Robert Bussard.

DR. SANITY: A not-so-inexplicable anger.

"IRON MY SHIRT:" A radio stunt:

It turns out the guys who the Daily News named work for Boston station WBCN 104.1 FM, and are members of the Toucher and Rich Show.

So much for real political protesting, eh? But it amuses me that few news outlets bothered to do the leg work to find all this out and went ahead to report this incident like it was legitimate. It did give the MSM a chance to show Hillary looking PC by claiming she was being confronted by examples of "sexism" run wild, though. So, maybe that is why they didn't want to look into it too hard. It would destroy the illusion of Hillary's "strength" and place the focus on a radio stunt.

Nice work, guys.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, religious intimidation would lead to self-censorship by artists. And they were right!

JOHN MCCAIN AND JOE LIEBERMAN: The Surge Worked:

The question we face, on the first anniversary of the surge, is no longer whether the president's decision a year ago was the right one, or if the counterinsurgency strategy developed by Gen. Petraeus is working. It is.

The question now is where we go from here to sustain the progress we have achieved -- and in particular, how soon can more of our troops come home, based on the success of the surge.

Don't rush things.

DON'T SUPPORT OBAMA? It's because you're a racist! There could be no other possible reason.

UPDATE: Phil Bowermaster disagrees: "Looks to me like he's not saying that people who don't support Obama are racists; he's saying that people who lie about voting for Obama are racists. That still may be a huge reach, but there is something peculiar about the behavior of these democrats who say they're for Obama but vote for Hilary. Taranto noted this yesterday."

ANTI-GUN FOLDEROL from Citi Services.

UPDATE: Citi responds, but SayUncle isn't satisfied.

JONAH GOLBERG'S LIBERAL FASCISM is now up to #20 on Amazon despite the best efforts of the anti-Jonah lefty blogosphere. Somebody even hacked the page -- an Amazon first, I think -- and replaced the cover photo with one of Jonah with a Hitler mustache, though Amazon had taken it down by the time I heard about it. The toxic response to the book, as some reviewers are noting, kind of proves his thesis . . . .

DRIVING AROUND in Intel's mobile WiMax demo.

January 09, 2008

WAGE PRESSURE IN CHINA.

ROMNEY AND OBAMA are actually ahead in the delegate count.

UPDATE: But Romney's behind Fred Thompson in the polls? Can this be right?

CHINA IN AMERICA: Representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level. Call them the Copyright Commissars.

UPDATE: Orin Kerr: "Would ISPs risk massive liability under the Wiretap Act to try to combat copyright infringement? I can't imagine why they would do that, but I suppose that's a question to ask them and their lawyers."

HUCKAPPEAL: And some related thoughts here.

PROPHECY: Last week, Jonah Goldberg wrote:

Imagine the Democrats do rally around Obama. Imagine the media invests as heavily in him as I think we all know they will if he's the nominee — and then imagine he loses. I seriously think certain segments of American political life will become completely unhinged.

Now note this email from an Andrew Sullivan reader:

Watched the NH returns with some friends last night, and something quite unexpected happened when the AP called it for Clinton -- inexplicable ANGER. I was surrounded by people in their early 30's, registered Democrats, receptive to the Clintons in the 90's, and I swear I thought someone was going to throw their wine glass at the tube during her 'victory' speech.

And that's just one primary! All is proceeding as Jonah has foreseen. I wonder if Glenn Greenwald has figured things out yet. Probably not . . . .

UPDATE: Check out this post over at DailyKos, and note the accompanying poll on whether the New Hampshire primary was rigged by those evil, Hillary-loving dudes at Diebold. (Bumped).

RESVERATROL UPDATE: "For the first time, scientists have proof in human subjects that a derivative of an ingredient in red wine combats some symptoms of aging. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals announced the results here on Monday at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference." (Via Bill Quick).

I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE to note Barack Obama's channeling of Bob the Builder.

BILL RICHARDSON quits.

VIRGINIA POSTREL posts a rare criticism of Reason magazine over the Ron Paul affair. Actually, I think it's the only time she's criticized the new regime; the only time I can remember, anyway.

IT AIN'T EASY BEING GREEN: "Greenpeace opposes genetically enhanced (GE) rice. Greenpeace opposes man-made global warming. What to do when a company proposes to sell GE rice that cuts greenhouse gas emissions to Chinese farmers who can then earn greenhouse gas offset credits?"

LONGEVITY UPDATE: A roundup from The Economist.

HEH: Voter cited by opponents of Indiana's ID law registered in two states.

THE LEFTY BLOGGERS WILL NOT BE HAPPY: Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism is now up to #31 on Amazon.

NEWSPAPER WOES hurting the Spelling Bee.

MORE ON RON PAUL, from Rand Simberg.

A CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY in San Francisco: "The City of San Francisco has lost its appeal to get its gun ban reinstated."

MICHAEL YON: Moment of Truth:

There’s only a small group of writers who honestly spend enough time in Iraq to make serious claims based on firsthand accounts. But I’ve seen the Iraqi Army with my own eyes. I’ve done many missions in 2005 and 2007, in many places in Iraq, along with the Iraqi Army: please believe me when I say that, on the whole, the Iraqi Army is remarkably better in 2007 and far more effective than it was in 2005. By 2007, the Iraqis were doing most of the fighting. And . . . this is very important . . . they see our Army and Marines as serious allies, and in many cases as friends. Please let the potential implications of that sink in.

We now have a large number of American and British officers who can pick up a phone from Washington or London and call an Iraqi officer that he knows well—an Iraqi he has fought along side of—and talk. Same with untold numbers of Sheiks and government officials, most of whom do not deserve the caricatural disdain they get most often from pundits who have never set foot in Iraq. British and American forces have a personal relationship with Iraqi leaders of many stripes. The long-term intangible implications of the betrayal of that trust through the precipitous withdrawal of our troops could be enormous, because they would be the certain first casualties of renewed violence, and selling out the Iraqis who are making an honest-go would make the Bay of Pigs sell-out seem inconsequential. The United States and Great Britain would hang their heads in shame for a century.

Alternately, in an equation in which the outcome is a stable Iraq for which they (Iraqi Police and Army officials) are stewards, the potential benefits are equally enormous. Because if Iraq were to settle down, and then a decade passes and we look back and even our most severe critics cannot deny that Iraq is a better place, a generation of Iraq’s most important leaders would have deep personal bonds with their counterparts in America and Great Britain. This could actually happen.

Read the whole thing. He's got a book coming out in April. Hit the tipjar, or preorder his book, if you want to help.

THE FUEL-CELL POWERED Cadillac Provoq. As I've mentioned before, it all depends on where the hydrogen comes from.

ADVICE ON COMPARING BLU-RAY PLAYERS. At CES, everyone seemed convinced that Sony has won the format wars.

I've been pretty happy with my Blu-Ray player, though I don't have a fancy home-theater audio setup. I believe, however, that it supports all the new audio features that I don't use.

VIDEO: Making your own vacuum tubes. (Thanks to Telford Forgety for the link.)

AT WIRED, some highlights from MacWorld.

"YOU CAN'T SWING A CAT IN THIS TOWN WITHOUT HITTING A BLOGGER." It's been said before, but it's still true. I was at the Fresh Market picking up stuff for dinner and wound up with my Highlander Hybrid parked next to Randy "SKBubba" Neal's Prius. We caught up a bit and he said he still loves the Prius. He thinks that nuclear power and plug-in hybrids are the wave of the future. I hope he's right.

VIDEO: Hands-on with new gaming gadgets.

TOM MAGUIRE on The Impending Obama Media Backlash.

TECHNOLOGY FOR LIVING: A look at the Next-Gen Home.

SOME PROMISING NEWS ON civil rights in Georgia.

THE RING ON ZARQAWI'S FINGER: Michael Totten posts a new report from Iraq.

OBAMA'S NEW LINE: "Yes we can!"

He's channeling Bob the Builder. Well, there are worse role models, though this may play into that whole "inexperience" thing . . . .

UPDATE: Hey, maybe this explains why Obama's doing so well with the youth vote!

JOHN FUND ON VOTER FRAUD: How can anyone object to asking for ID?

Our podcast interview with Fund on this topic is here.

LEFTY BLOGGERS WILL WAIL AND GNASH THEIR TEETH as Jonah Goldberg's new book sits comfortably high in the Amazon rankings at #49. But they can at least post "reader reviews" calling him the real fascist!

ED MORRISSEY: What happened to the Ron Paul supporters?