December 08, 2007

THE GOOGLE MOON RACE IS ON.

MORE ON NBC.

THIS IS COOL: Nanorobot for drug delivery and diagnosis. Bring it on!

Plus, making nanotubes with bacteria.

HOLLYWOOD SCORES AGAIN: Golden Compass disappoints at box office. I've heard it's okay, but nothing special.

IT'S PRETEND TO BE A TIME TRAVELER DAY. I like this tip: "Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell 'NOOOOOOOOO!'"

ED MORRISSEY IS even more unhappy with the CIA.

BANGALORE nanotechnology.

THE AUDACITY OF OPRAH.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH: I don't know this blogger, but here's a post containing what's said to be a firsthand report from the Omaha mall shootings by someone who saw the shooter but escaped.

A LOOK AT ESPRESSO-DRINKING AND HEART HEALTH: It's good news. (Via Frank Wilson).

CAN YOU AFFORD TO BE a stay at home mom?

AVIAN FLU UPDATE: Worries about potential human-to-human transmission in China.

CLOSER INSPECTION reveals more Huckabee problems. I liked him when we talked to him, but I don't think he's ready to be a frontrunner.

JESSE WALKER READS THE NATION and declares Marxism dead.

WE'RE EMBARRASSINGLY BEHIND NIGERIA on the cellphone front:

OK, I'm something of a tech junkie. As such, I've been particularly pleased to see the communications revolution taking hold in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. Back in the early '90's when I was doing my fieldwork, calling home to the US was a big deal. I had to schedule a call a day or two in advance with NITEL (Nigerian Telephone and Telegraph, the State Monopoly), and then I would pay $6 a minute for the call.

Now, however, cell phones have smashed NITEL's monopoly, and in many ways, Nigerians have access to better communications technology than most Americans, since their phones are all "unlocked." One of my Nigerian brother-in-laws was shocked to hear that I didn't have wi-fi internet access on my cell phone. "Hot spots are everywhere here now... so I never pay for international calls anymore." As a result, I get calls from Nigeria all the time (occasionally even during class... always a hoot for my students here in Kentucky).

Plus, how this is impacting academia.

EXPLAINING THE FUNCTION OF QUOTATION MARKS.

SOME RECOMMENDED gifts for moms.

A LOOK AT CHINA'S "suffocating" air pollution.

ANOTHER PRO-SURGE CONVERT:

There are two stories here: 1) A formerly anti-war general flips on supporting the war, and now believes Petraeus has the right strategy; and 2) Batiste has left VoteVets.org, and the antiwar movement, and joined up with the pro-troop, pro-surge, pro-victory Vets for Freedom.

I wonder if this will get the attention it deserves.

MARK HALPERIN: The McCain scenario.

COMING SOON TO A JURISDICTION NEAR YOU: More on libel tourism, from Roger Kimball.

NEWT GINGRICH: Boycott NBC.

SAVE YOUR KNEES with an underwater treadmill. No, really.

CAFE AND MORE, at the Carnival of Cars.

MORE PROBLEMS for Eliot Spitzer.

ARNOLD KLING ROUNDS UP the best economics books of 2007.

IN THE MAIL: A copy of Mark Levin's Rescuing Sprite, with a very nice inscription from the author. Thanks!

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE who don't support Hillary. "Hillary is not just another professional woman of my generation, who ought to inspire sisterly empathy. She is a throwback to an earlier era, when women found their place through their husbands."

Perhaps they see her as more Lurleen Wallace than Amelia Earhart.

UPDATE: The Insta-Mom emails: "I remember Lurleen Wallace. I was a citizen in Wallace's Alabama. And Hillary Clinton is NO Lurleen Wallace!"

THE TEDDY BEAR THAT embarrassed Sudan.

I MENTIONED THE CHINESE AGE OF EXPLORATION the other day, and a reader informed me of this not-yet-published alt-history novel on that topic: 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. It could easily have worked out that way, and if you'd been watching things in, say, 1400 it probably would have looked like the way to bet.

UPDATE: A somewhat related item from Rand Simberg.

ANOTHER UPDATE: S.M. Stirling emails:

Noticed the bit on your blog about the Chinese "exploration" fleets of the 1400's. In point of fact they didn't do any exploration at all; they were prestige projects 'showing the flag' along trade routes that had been in operation for centuries, if not millennia.

Experienced pilots were available for every single mile. The Chinese did no exploration and had no interest in going anywhere they didn't already know about; they were about as likely to find the Americas or sail around the Cape to Europe as they were to fly to the moon by putting their heads between their knees and spitting hard.

Furthermore, the reason they built very big ships was to impress the locals, not because of any technological superiority. Wooden sailing ships of more than about 2000 tons burden have severe technical problems and are less seaworthy than those of more moderate size; that's why a 2000-ton ship remained "very large" well into the 19th century, when iron and then steel frames and hulls became available. The finest of the China tea-clippers, the Cutty Sark, was around 900 tons displacement.

Even in the late 1400's, European ships were more efficient and the advantage increased over time. Eg., the 'water-tight compartments' of Chinese junks were of value only when the ship hit a rock. In between, they meant that the vessel couldn't have a gun deck, and that moving cargo around was much more cumbersome.

The Chinese were an inventive people but not technologically inclined as a society. When the British stormed the Taku forts in the course of the Opium War, they found that the Chinese cannon were all fixed to baulks of timber (in a manner obsolete in Europe in 1400) and that the only models that could be aimed properly had been made under the direction of Jesuit missionaries in the 1600's. And this in the country that invented gunpowder, and probably first used it as a propellant!

The Chinese were perfectly capable of casting cannon equal to those of the Europeans in the 1600's, or for that matter the 1840's -- they had fine craftsmen who made large, intricate castings and had been using cast iron several hundred years before Europeans got around to developing the blast furnace. They just weren't interested enough to do so, not until the gwailo marched into Beijing and molested their womenfolk and used the graves of their ancestors for an Aunt Sally.

The wages of isolationism.

THE "INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY" apparently enjoys limited respect with the American public:

Just 18% of American voters believe that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 66% disagree and say Iran has not stopped its nuclear weapons program. Twenty-one percent (21%) of men believe Iran has stopped the weapons development along with 16% of women.

Interesting that women are less persuaded than men.

FROM ILYA SOMIN: More on how foreign libel and hate-speech laws threaten the free speech of Americans. "As a tentative proposal, I suggest that Congress consider the possibility of creating a federal cause of action for US citizens who have been victimized by a foreign libel or hate speech lawsuit attacking speech that would be legal in the United States under the First Amendment. The US writer should be able to recover any damages that the foreign court forced him or her to pay, plus legal fees, plus perhaps some amount of punitive damages in order to promote the goal of deterrence."

December 07, 2007

CAPT. ED SAYS don't dismiss the CIA tape-destruction scandal.

I don't know a lot about this, but it's possible further evidence that I was right to oppose Harriet Miers' nomination. Well, that's probably unfair -- she opposed destroying the tapes, according to ABC. On the other hand, she'd be a Supreme Court justice now, which would be ticklish. As I argued, the path from White House Counsel to Supreme Court is not one that should be too short.

Should we abolish the CIA? Well, it's probably too early to draw that conclusion.

UPDATE: A different view from reader Thom Wilder:

I think I preferred the cold war days when congress and the press, and the general public for that matter, had far less knowledge/scrutiny of what the CIA does. Secrecy is the only way an intelligence agency can do its job. If it's actions are public, as now, then they become a mere political pawn. Can you imagine how the cold war might have turned out without the CIA or SAS having had the ability to perform it's operations almost entirely out of view and out of scrutiny?

Gitmo and terror interrogation tapes are small potatoes in the larger scheme of things, and they are better off kept secret, as they once were. Just as I don't trust Congress to run a war via legislated, politically-motivated surrender dates and withholding of troop funding, I don't trust them to run an intelligence agency via politically-motivated reports and knee-jerks to things like destroyed interrogation tapes. (I'll take my chances entrusting the Military, and yes the CIA.) I don't even trust Congress to have a single worthwhile thing to say about it one way or the other.

An intelligence agency by definition must operate in secret, otherwise there is little point to it's existence, and little hope of actually gathering good intelligence. The CIA is perhaps now just another role-player in the daily political soap-opera that is our two-party travesty of a government has become, written and executive-produced by the left-biased MSM.

The old system rested on a degree of patriotism and self-control that is no longer present in our political class, including the media. It also depended on a willingness to discipline those who departed from the norms. That, too, is absent.

CONGRESS! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? An amusing parody.

AMAZON'S 'BOTS DELIVER gift recommendations for girlfriends and wives.

DON'T TELL JONAH GOLDBERG: The Flying, Screaming Monkey Toy.

JAMES LILEKS:

Said the concerned public official: “This is not an ‘oops.’ I hate to differ, but yes, this is the technical definition of “oops.” This is the equivalent of thinking you won the Powerball and running up every credit card you have

“Lundgren said the trouble began in August when a clerk went into Mattson's file to change the designation of the property, at 233 Lake St. E., from homestead to non-homestead to reflect its change in status after its sale.

"The clerk filled in the $18,900 proposed valuation, but then mistakenly hit the key to exit the program. The computer added four zeros to fill out the nine numerical spaces required by the software, thus indicating the value was $189,000,000.”

This generated new estimates of increased property tax revenues.

“Those three entities -- which were counting on the $2.5 million in increased property tax collections -- now face the daunting task of raising taxes or cutting budgets to make up for the shortfall.”

Good grief.

URBAN COUGARS IN THE DALLAS AREA:

Flyers now warn of the danger: A mountain lion sighting on the Allen-Lucas border that's putting families on edge.

"We moved out here for the space and for our daughter so she can have a place to play and go hunt frogs, but now I can't let her out," said resident Jana Zettl.

It's another David Baron moment. I've written about this before.

UPDATE: A different kind of cougar is roaming Dallas, as well. Rrrowr!

A CHRISTMAS TIP SUGGESTION FROM MY BROTHER: Tip your garbage collectors. "If anybody deserves a little extra credit for toiling in the cold, I think it's them." They certainly work harder this time of year, too.

My brother's band, 46 Long, has a cool new website, too.

PRAISE FOR SELF-DEFENSE as incitement to violence. Sigh.

MIKE ALLEN: Why the New 35-MPG Fuel Economy Standard Is a Bad Idea. He thinks high gas prices will do a better job of encouraging economy. He may be right. Already sales of light trucks and SUVs are plummeting.

THIS SEEMS KIND OF UNFAIR: Last year, we interviewed Gordon Crovitz, and he described himself as "the last person in the country with 'newspaper publisher' in his title who nonetheless is an optimist."

Now this: "People briefed on the matter said that both Mr. Zannino and L. Gordon Crovitz, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, would be succeeded by trusted lieutenants of Rupert Murdoch soon after the takeover was complete." Though to be fair, he was optimistic about the Wall Street Journal as a newspaper. Still . . ..

BETTER ALL THE TIME: Phil Bowermaster rounds up all sorts of news you probably missed. Brighten up your weekend by reading it!

HEH: An objective look at Mitt Romney's speech.

VIDEO: Voices from Anbar.

THOUGHTS ON "STEYNOPHOBIA" AND LIBEL TOURISM: "I think ultimately we are going to need some legislation — a federal cause of action against those who intentionally use foreign courts to attempt to suppress American free expression rights. We also need diplomatic pressure to be brought to bear against the countries that are the practitioners of this anti-democratic extortion racket and the countries that allow their courts and other official institutions to serve the purpose."

PREDICTION: The N.I.E. release will cause Iran to go full steam ahead. Thanks, "intelligence community!"

I understand that Israeli representatives will be meeting with the Joint chiefs in a couple of days, to present evidence that the NIE is wrong.

AYAAN HIRSI ALI: "In the last few weeks, in three widely publicized episodes, we have seen Islamic justice enacted in ways that should make Muslim moderates rise up in horror. . . . But where are the moderates?" Scared, or tacitly approving, I guess.

UPDATE: Here are some: 6,000 Iranians Attend Funeral of Executed Gay Youth.

Too bad so many in the West are ready to betray them. Otherwise, one might be forced to take a stand . . . .

Meanwhile, C.J. Burch emails: "If the MSM made a hundredth of the effort on behalf of moderate mulsims that they made on African-American rights in the sixties (and they were right in doing that and God Bless them for it) we would have a much better world, and a much more noble MSM. Today I would argue they are doing the opposite of what they did in the sixties... empowering powerful jihadis at the expense of weak moderates all over the world."

But see the link just above . . . .

DON SURBER is celebrating the new media age. Not bad for a guy who can say: "not only do I work for a newspaper but for an afternoon newspaper in a 2-newspaper town."

MICKEY KAUS:

Reminder: Back in January, the courageously incoherent Sen. Chuck Hagel called the "surge"

"the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it's carried out."

He got lots of glowing coverage. But whatever the surge is, it isn't that. ... Why mention this? In case anyone feels an urge to draft MSM favorite Hagel for president on the Unity'08 ticket.

I'm guessing that urge is pretty weak, except in a few newsrooms. And even there, it's probably resistable.

THAT TIVO makes you look younger. Some people will want to buy two!

LEE HARRIS thinks Romney bombed. But this editorial from The Examiner is fairly positive.

OUCH: "Hollywood gets shown up by pro-war YouTube videos and a didactic antiwar cat."

MY EARLIER POST ON liability for places that ban guns led to some objections: Malls are private property, so why can't the owners exclude guns if they like?

Well, malls are only sort of private property. You can, for example, exclude people from your home because you don't like their race or religion; mall owners can't do that because it's against public policy, and a mall is a place of public accommodation. In addition, business owners generally take on a higher duty of care for customers on their premises, including a duty to protect them from the violent acts of third parties if those acts are reasonably foreseeable. The question is, given the tendency of mass shootings to occur in places where guns are banned, and given that gun bans take away customers' ability to defend themselves -- and other customers -- does this result in liability of shopping malls when such shootings occur? Or, at least, produce a duty to have more armed security than they otherwise would have (the Omaha mall appears to have had very little) in order to make up for the increased insecurity created by the gun ban? The question isn't open and shut, but it seems to me to be ripe for litigation.

MOJAVE SPACEPORT UPDATE: Earlier I noted a report noted by Rand Simberg and several other space bloggers that the Mojave Space Port was in danger of closure by the FAA. I also emailed Patricia Smith, the FAA's Associate Adminstrator for Commercial Space Transportation. She responds: "The report is totally inaccurate."

I'm very happy to hear that, and very grateful for the swift reply.

SNAPPY ANSWERS TO SILLY QUESTIONS ABOUT GUNS: (1) We don't allow felons or the mentally ill to carry guns. Iran seems to fit in to this category . . .

(2) Suits against gun manufacturers are an attempt by government officials to circumvent the political process, using tort law to do what they can't do via legislation because the voters oppose it. I don't think that applies to my example at all.

I'll add that I'm pretty sure that nobody in the Omaha mall was thinking, "Good thing the crazy guy is the only one here with a gun."

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT: They told me that if George W. Bush were reelected, religious zealots, with cooperation from the state, would be crushing the speech of freethinkers. And they were right!

NBC IS REFUSING TO RUN PRO-TROOPS ADS from Freedom's Watch, but you can see them at the link. They told me that if George W. Bush were reelected we'd see a sort of soft fascism in which corporate media would freeze out views that were politically uncongenial. And they were right! "Freedom of speech: at some of our networks, you can't even buy it!"

UPDATE: Indeed: "Watch the ads on the Powerline blog linked to. Are they perhaps offensive in their very innocuousness? Do they paper over the complexities by using such simple phrases as 'Thank you'? Perhaps it is too controversial to say 'We think you're heros!' Is NBC's position that they support our troops, but they find anybody saying 'thank you' to them offensive?" The ads seem completely unobjectionable to me.

PERRY DE HAVILLAND REPORTS from the Golden Umbrella Awards.

HOW TO BE A ROLE MODEL: "Betty Friedan ruined a Super Bowl party in my very own home by wearing a black leather miniskirt and swinging her (not bad) legs clad in fishnet stockings back and forth in front of the TV screen so that nobody could see the plays. She radicalized a sizable bunch of neutral men into committed anti-feminists that day."

POSTGLOBAL: "Does Hugo Chavez's defeat in Venezuela's constitutional referendum mean the beginning of the end for Latin American leftism?"

THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS: Iraq Bonds Rally on U.S. Troop Surge, Oil Earnings.

IN THE MAIL: John Kao's Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back.

IN TEACHING, IT'S CALLED "DOING A FADE" when you step back and let the students deal with a problem mostly on their own. This story from the New York Times had me thinking of that in connection with Iran:

The leaders of France and Germany said Thursday that Iran remained a danger and that other nations needed to keep up the pressure over its nuclear program despite a United States intelligence report’s conclusion that Tehran was no longer building a bomb.

Speaking at a joint news conference at the Élysée Palace, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said they had not changed their minds despite the findings of the American intelligence estimate released Monday, which some believed would have eroded support for tougher new sanctions.

I don't believe that the Administration, or the "intelligence community," is smart enough to be doing this on purpose, but it may have the same effect. And now that France and Germany are led by non-idiots, it may even work out.

THOUGHTS ON THE FAILURE OF GUN CONTROL, from Roger Kimball.

REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR with five survivors.

ANOTHER DEMOCRAT ON IRAQ: "The security situation in Iraq has improved dramatically in the past few months. That's the assessment of North Dakota Congressman Earl Pomeroy, who just returned from a visit to Iraq. . . . The congressman says his visit proved to him that General David Patraeus, who is in charge of American forces in Iraq, has done an extraordinary job." First Murtha, now this. This will make the troop-defunding effort a bit more difficult, I imagine.

UPDATE: Similar thoughts.

DON'T TELL ANN ALTHOUSE: Squirrel armor.

FORGET WAR OR POLITICS -- if you want lots of reader email, blog about free shipping!

CONGRESS -- creating a legal obligation to report your horny kids?

TONY KRONMAN'S NEW BOOK on values and higher education gets a thoughtful review over at Gay Patriot.

ANOTHER BUBBLE? Surely not.

G.I. JILL: Miss Utah, combat medic.

FIGHTING THE E.U. "REFORM" TREATY in the House of Lords.

HEH. John Edwards seems the most natural, somehow. (Via Mellow-Drama).

MICKEY KAUS: "Hillary's supposed to be the experienced one who can handle foreign policy crises. Yet in the current campaign it's Hillary who seems panicked and Obama who projects calm."

CRUSHING OF DISSENT, in Bali.

ANOTHER BLAGOJEVICH SCANDAL, in the Chicago Tribune: "Federal agents are investigating real estate deals involving Gov. Rod Blagojevich's wife as part of a three-year corruption probe into allegations of favoritism and fraud within his administration." (Via NewsAlert).

UPDATE: Name that party! Will Collier emails: "The Chicago Tribune story on Blagojevich you linked to does not contain the word 'Democrat.'" Yeah. Chicagoans know, of course, but the Trib is supposed to be a national paper. And I had to stop and think myself.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Harmon Ward emails: "Won't leaving 'Democrat' or 'Democratic' out of the articles that also contain the word "Corruption" reduce the instances of finding those articles when they are Googled?" Good point. I doubt that's their goal, but it is still significant.

GREENHOUSE UPDATE: Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year. I'll believe it's a crisis when the people who keep telling me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis. Like, you know, substituting videoconferences for tropical-island junkets.

MORE ON CONGRESS'S DUMB WI-FI BILL from Glenn Fleishman:

The bill, as written, was rushed into session using an expedited procedure that avoided the usual review. Declan McCullagh writes at Cnet that the legislation also changed substantially before being brought to a vote. So reasonable opposition didn’t form before its passage. The Senate could approve a similar view, but it’s hard to know how enforceable it will be.

The bill, as written, would probably kill free wi-fi nearly everywhere. Could EVDO providers be behind this? Or is Congress just this stupid? I guess the two hypotheses aren't mutually inconsistent.

December 06, 2007

TRACKING THE Ron Paul spam botnet. See, I think this kind of thing hurts him more than it helps him.

ZIGGING WHILE ROMNEY ZAGS: Fred Thompson -- I'm not a churchgoer.

Asked about his religious beliefs during an appearance before about 500 Republicans in South Carolina yesterday, Fred Thompson said he attends church when he visits his mother in Tennessee but does not belong to a church or attend regularly at his home in McLean, Va., just outside Washington. The actor and former senator, who was baptized in the Church of Christ, said he gained his values from "sitting around the kitchen table" and said he did not plan to speak about his religious beliefs on the stump. "I know that I'm right with God and the people I love," he said, according to Bloomberg News Service. It's "just the way I am not to talk about some of these things." . . . And he did not seem particularly concerned that his admission would hurt him with voters. "Me getting up and talking about what a wonderful person I am and that sort of thing, I'm not comfortable with that, and I don't think it does me any good," he said. "People will make up their own mind about that, and that's the way I like it."

I like that, too.

ERIC SCHEIE: "But is a take-off on a Renaissance painting blasphemy? Should Nancy Pelosi condemn it? I don't know. Did she condemn the Mohammad cartoons?"

AP EXCLUSIVE: Blagojevich and extortion.

MY EARLIER POST ON FREE SHIPPING and Amazon Prime produced this email from reader Travis Corcoran:

I'm an entrepreneur (I launched SmartFlix.com and grew it to about $1 million/year in revenue...with no venture capital!), and last month I launched HeavyInk.com: sort ofan Amazon.com for comic books, graphic novels, etc., crossed with the social networking aspects of Facebook.

I've been insistent from the get-go that we offer free shipping on everything. You can come in, order a comic book for $1.99, and you get a 20% discount, and free shipping.

Yeah, we lose big money on the person who orders one comic book.

...but the value proposition is so simple and compelling, that we get tons of customers, who soon start buying enough stuff that it's, on average, worthwhile.

Bezos was/is right!

And reader Kathleen Hay emails: "Surprisingly, new parents tell me Amazon Prime for diapers is the cheapest possible and great because you don't have to leave the house." Plus, as I've noted in the past, it's environmentally friendly!

UPDATE: Reader Fred Butzen emails: "I was sold on Amazon when I found I could go on it, and with a few clicks of the mouse send stuff to my son, who at the time was with the Army in Iraq. It still amazes me. I've heard a genius defined as 'the man who has a profound grasp of the obvious'. That sure sounds like Jeff Bezos." I'm a fan. And so is Cranky Greg, even though he's, well, cranky.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chris Farley emails: "I second DRJ. He told my EXACT story, except I finished all of my Christmas shopping, plus birthdays for my wife and twins, well before Thanksgiving. Heck, I’ve got everything wrapped and ready to put under the tree and it isn’t even decorated yet!"

I wonder if this tends to appeal more to men, who tend not to enjoy shopping for its own sake?

MORE: Reader Kimblerly Stresing emails:

After reading your feedback from men on Amazon, and your statement "I wonder if this tends to appeal more to men, who tend not to enjoy shopping for its own sake?" I felt I just had to respond.

I have been using Amazon as my primary source for Christmas shopping for quite a few years now. I love shopping just as much as the next woman, and I find that shopping Amazon is a far more satisfying "shopping experience".

For instance, I needed to purchase the new Steve Martin biography, for my Father-in-Law. In the "related items" area (which I ALWAYS check out) there was a children's book by Steve Martin. I had no idea he had written a children's book! Well, needless to say the book ended up in my cart, for all of the toddlers on my list!

For a person who enjoys shopping that "related items" category is pure heaven!

There are many reasons that I rely on Amazon for my shopping, and the shopping for shopping sake is definitely part of it!

I stand corrected.

PHOTOS OF THE Bolivian plane stoning mentioned below. Heh.

DON SURBER: We invade Iraq and Iran gives up WMD.

ONE MONTH LATER, the Rebecca Aguilar story is back, with a fairly friendly treatment at Poynter. Not seeing anything about her at the KDFW website, though.

MICKEY KAUS: "Sell your studio stock: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has hired Chris Lehane, according to Hollywood-writers-strike-must-read Nikki Finke." That's no way to win over Kaus, anyway!

I HEARD NEAL BOORTZ holding forth on the Omaha mall shooting this morning on the way to work, and I realized I haven't posted on it. I don't really have anything to say that I haven't said before. But it's worth noting -- since apparently most of the media reports haven't -- that this was another mass shooting in a "gun-free" zone. It seems to me that we've reached the point at which a facility that bans firearms, making its patrons unable to defend themselves, should be subject to lawsuit for its failure to protect them. The pattern of mass shootings in "gun free" zones is well-established at this point, and I don't see why places that take the affirmative step of forcing their law-abiding patrons to go unarmed should get off scot-free. There's even an academic literature on mass shootings and concealed-gun carriage.

Perhaps we need legislation. If it saves just one life, it's worth it.

CONGRESSWOMEN QUIT PAGE BOARD over scandals. Shouldn't we just get rid of pages and hire actual, paid adult workers to do this stuff?

NO LOVE FOR THE BURY-SQUADS at Digg.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM, this week's edition of PJM Political is now online.

HELEN THOMAS: These newfangled blog things are dangerous.

HUGO CHAVEZ IS HAVING A BAD WEEK: "In a violent show of anti-Venezuela sentiment, a crowd of about 200 Bolivians hurled stones at a Venezuelan military plane and prevented it from refueling after it landed on Thursday, local radio reported." (Via JWF).

UPDATE: More here.

FROM THE FRIENDLY AMAZON MAILBOTS: Recommended gifts for geeks.

MICHAEL MALONE on living in a surveillance society. That's the topic of my next Popular Mechanics column, too.

JIHAD made in Britain.

ADVICE TO ALUMNI: "Donors -- Remember Princeton."

MUST OUR NEXT PRESIDENT BE scientifically literate? It wouldn't hurt.

SOME CHRISTMAS, ER, CHEER. Courtesy of Dan Collins, who clearly has too much time on his hands.

A PRE-OSCAR ROUNDUP of best -film picks from the National Board of Review. Hollywood's antiwar flood doesn't do very well.

BRIAN APPLEYARD on the virtues of science fiction.

IN THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, some recommended books for kids.

More kids' book recommendations here.

FRANK WARNER on Iran, the N.I.E., and fissile material.

STANDING UP for political free speech. "The new organization, SpeechNow.org, is asking the Federal Election Commission for permission to accept donations of more than $5,000 a person, which is the current limit for federal political action committees. The group says it wants to use the funds to take out political advertising in support of candidates who favor less campaign finance regulation and in opposition to those who favor tighter fund-raising rules."

A NEW HUCKABEE IMMIGRATION PLAN.

DUMB LEGISLATION ALERT:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

This is stupid, unworkable, and betrays a deep ignorance about how these things -- especially wi-fi spots -- actually work. Which makes it a fit product for this Congress. . . .

HINT: IT'S NOT WALMART. What's killing small business? "Local officials who simultaneously decry big box stores and national chains while doling out burdensome regulatory structures and complicated permit processes should understand that regulatory burdens hit the smaller, independent places hardest."

QUAGMIRE ALERT, as we see the grim toll mount: "NBC boss Jeff Zucker is expected to make big cuts on the newsgathering and operational side of the company's news division, including eliminating an entire level of MSNBC's management team, in a bid to save between $20 million and $40 million." Of course, cutting newsgathering means eliminating their big advantage over new media with less infrastructure. As I've said before, hard news is the killer-app for Big Media, but they seem curiously uninterested in playing to their strength.

BILL BUCKLEY ENCOUNTERS Godwin's Law. It's not pretty.

BLOGGING? IN COLLEGE? Consider the 2008 AFF College Blogging Contest. There's a $10,000 cash prize.

IN THE MAIL: Jed Babbin's In the Words of Our Enemies.

ROMNEY'S SPEECH: Ed Morrissey thought it was pretty good. Mona Charen really liked it.

UPDATE: Ed Cone comments. Full text ,and more thoughts, at Power Line.

ANOTHER UPDATE: John Podhoretz thinks the speech was a flop.

DON SURBER: The war is twice as popular as Congress.

I TOLD YOU SO: Gary Milhollin and Valerie Lincy write in the New York Times: "We should be suspicious of any document that suddenly gives the Bush administration a pass on a big national security problem it won’t solve during its remaining year in office."

Gee, do you think?

I HADN'T PAID MUCH ATTENTION to the Bush White House / Blogger kerfuffle -- Danny Glover has a roundup here -- until I got an email from CBS public eye asking my opinion. Here's my response:

It reads like wishful thinking to me. The White House -- like the GOP generally -- has been extremely lame in dealing with the blogosphere, which is why the left blogosphere has done better since 2004. I get the usual PR stuff, but if they're doing anything more blog-sensitive than that, I haven't been seeing it.

Further proof of their ineptitude, of course, is present in the very bragging that is at issue.

IT WOULD BE A NICE CHANGE: Can a pork-busting Randian lead the GOP?

HOW CONVENIENT: "Just in time for the election, Michael Newdow's 'Under God' lawsuit is back, along with a challenge to 'In God We Trust' on U.S. currency."

JOSH ZADER POSTS December movie trailer reviews.

THIS SHOULD MAKE THE U.N. BUREAUCRATS IN BALI CHEER: Flying more to reduce global warming.

DON'T THANK ME, THANK JEFF BEZOS: Reader DRJ emails:

I know you get lots of email so I'll make this pretty quick.

I first "discovered" Amazon.com from reading your website several years ago but I was tentative about using it at first. Over the years, I ordered more and more items and last year I joined Amazon Prime. If I'm typical, Amazon Prime is one of the best ideas Amazon ever had because my online orders increased significantly after that.

This Christmas will be all-Amazon at our house. I've already ordered at least 20 items and, despite the ease of ordering, we're well within our target budget and getting everything we wanted.

So I just wanted to say, Merry Christmas and Thanks!

As I've noted before, Bezos got a lot of flak from Wall Street for his "fixation" on free shipping, but it's paid off. Amazon Prime rocks. It's certainly caused me to shift an awful lot of my shopping to Amazon. I actually kind of resent it when I have to go to an actual store to buy things.

And some related thoughts, here.

THE INSTA-WIFE COULD HAVE USED THIS: "Transplanting genetically engineered cells into the heart may reduce the risk of a fatal condition which occurs after heart attack, research suggests. Ventricular tachycardia - an unusually fast heart rhythm - is the main cause of sudden death after heart attack. In mice, transplants of skeletal muscle cells engineered to produce a specific protein prevented the condition." Instead she got Tikosyn and an ICD -- good, but not as good as a cure.

UPDATE: Note that this starts out with embryonic stem-cell research, but led to reverse-engineering adult stem cells to do the same thing. This seems to underscore my point, made here repeatedly, that it's a mistake to shut down embryonic stem cell research even if you believe that adult stem cells will eventually be the winning play.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jeff Johnson emails: "Thanks for linking to the article on heart stem cells. Like you, my 43 year-old wife has had a ICD implanted due to ventricular tachycardia after heart failure. This is definitely a 'faster please' development for us." Yep. I get irritated at people who don't seem to realize that slowing down research costs lives.

EXCERPTS from Mitt Romney's speech on religion.

WINNING IN IRAQ: T.M. Lutas is saying "I told you so."

UPDATE: And Lutas isn't the only one gloating. I think it's okay to gloat about things that are good for America.

FORGET THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE -- how about a lobbyist to nowhere?

FRITZ SCHRANCK HAS THOUGHTS on mortgage bailouts and self-inflicted financial risk.

SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO BE LONELY: Your body has 10x more bacterial cells than human cells.

JOHN BOLTON on the N.I.E.: "Rarely has a document from the supposedly hidden world of intelligence had such an impact as the National Intelligence Estimate released this week. Rarely has an administration been so unprepared for such an event. And rarely have vehement critics of the 'intelligence community' on issues such as Iraq's weapons of mass destruction reversed themselves so quickly. . . . That such a flawed product could emerge after a drawn-out bureaucratic struggle is extremely troubling."

UPDATE: Related thoughts here: "

KYLE SMITH reviews Charlie Wilson's War:

I somewhat enjoyed “Charlie Wilson’s War,” but I’m glad I don’t have any money invested in it. It would be exaggerating only slightly to call it The Congressional Record meets “Ishtar.”

How strange is this film? So strange that there aren’t really any stakes for the main character. So strange that pages and pages of dialogue float by trying to convince you to care whether the 1981 covert ops budget for aid to Afghanistan’s mujahideen fighting the invading Soviets was $10 million or $40 million, or how many T-55 tanks the Soviet invaders used. So strange that Democrats are shown killing Commies. Not calling for sanctions against them; not filing paperwork against them in the U.N.; not calling for investigations of how their prisoners of war were treated: just getting them in the crosshairs, and pow.

Well, I might pay to see that -- if I didn't also have to watch Tom Cruise.

UPDATE: And I don't have to! Somehow, probably having something to do with being on my first cup of coffee, I read "Tom Hanks" as "Tom Cruise." Now, Tom Hanks I might pay to see.

Cruise I might pay to avoid. Which opens up a new profit avenue for Hollywood, if they're smart enough to exploit it, I guess . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Brian Gates emails: "A movie about American efforts to fight totalitarianism that focuses on one Democrat in Congress? I think I'll wait 20 years and watch the sequel, 'Joe Lieberman's War'."

December 05, 2007

MARY KATHARINE HAM talks MILFS with Bill O'Reilly.

FRANKLIN FOER ON BEAUCHAMP, via IowaHawk.

THE PLEO ROBOTIC DINOSAUR gets a good review at BoingBoing -- except for the torture films.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON STANFORD AND THE MILITARY:

If you believe the left’s theories about hegemony and hierarchy in education, you’d have to conclude that when the Dean and 80% of the faculty send such an email to students, it sends a signal to those faculty and students who support either the Solomon Amendment and/or “don’t ask, don’t tell” that their views are marginal and illegitimate. It tells students and faculty of the right “what their elders and betters want” and that “they’ve got to kiss ass and toe the line.”

Obviously, I’m not suggesting that faculty should hide their political views under the proverbial bushel (well, duh!). I am suggesting that collective actions by faculty on controversial political issues needs to be undertaken with great care. I’m also suggesting that there is a double standard among many law school faculty who somehow manage to simultaneously bring this sort of pressure on students while embracing the left’s theories of hegemony and power in education.

Indeed. But that sort of pressure is just to encourage them to do the right thing and think the right thoughts.

UPDATE: Related post here.

FRED THOMPSON gets serious.

Plus, don't let the government tell you what to eat.

UPDATE: Also, locking up the Jack Bauer caucus.

TEACHER NOT CHARGED for dumb blog comment.

AS YOU KNOW, I SUPPORT LIFE EXTENSION: "10 Minutes Of Staring at Boobs Daily Prolongs Man's Life by 5 Years."

UPDATE: Debunked. But why take chances?

THE ROBOTS AT AMAZON send this list of gift recommendations for cooks. I certainly see some things that I wouldn't mind getting.

Also, recommendations for gamers. Nice of them to be so helpful.

MORE ON HILLARY'S slide into protectionism. She's a weathervane, and that's the way the Democratic winds are blowing.

STRATEGYPAGE: "Al Qaeda appears to be moving its main effort to Afghanistan, after operations in Iraq, North Africa, Somalia and Europe (not to mention North America) have all largely failed. But continued Taliban activity in Pakistan and Afghanistan has provided al Qaeda with one area where they might be able to have a little success. But that will require a change in methods."

ARLEN SPECTER slams Harry Reid.

GIRLS DOMINATE THE SIEMENS COMPETITION: "In a first for the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology for U.S. high school students, girls walked away with top honors in both the individual and team categories."

MICHAEL O'HANLON offers advice for the Democrats on Iraq.

STILL MORE home theater advice, this time on audio setup.

IF WE HADN'T, THE TERRORISTS WOULD HAVE WON: World Turns Attention to iPhone, Boobs and Videos, Forgets Osama.

CONGRESS DECLARES a pink Christmas. "And they dare say they support the troops?"

TAXPROF: STANFORD ALUMNUS SAYS THAT Stanford is violating the Solomon Amendment. Actually, if you read the full story, it's "at risk" of violating the Solomon Amendment. And there's this: "The U.S. Department of Defense referred calls to the U.S Department of Justice, which had no comment at press time."

UPDATE: Lawprof Tom Smith asks: "Did Stanford's office of general counsel approve this letter? Whose brilliant idea was this? Normally it's a good idea in a big university that gets hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, to run what is arguably a violation of federal law that could jeopardize that funding, by some cool headed lawyer type who can weigh the benefits of the proposed action (which in this case are -- what exactly?) against the risks (at least a small possibility of a really bad outcome, and the certainty of appearing ineffectual, self-impressed and sanctimonious). But if so many law professors signed the letter, it must be legal, right? I mean it; that was a serious question! Stop laughing!"

I'm trying to stop, but . . . .

BUSTED! Hillary Campaign Acknowledges That County Chair Backing Hillary Passed Along Obama Muslim Smear Email.

Marc Ambinder has more.

OMAR FADHIL: What happens after the surge.

Plus, Bill Roggio: Iran's ratlines into Iraq.

WHAT HAYEK MIGHT THINK about Hugo Chavez.

BANNING HUMANS ON MARS: And how to get around it. Thanks, Congress! It reminds me of when Chinese court politics led to a ban on overseas exploration in the 15th Century, just as the Europeans were starting. That worked out well for the Chinese. The difference is that in China, the eunuchs were in favor of exploration . . . .

RON PAUL: Libertarian Enemy Number One?

PERU: Latin America's next success story?

TROUBLE FOR HUCKABEE?

Plus, Huckabee on foreign policy. What NIE report? This is what happens when you move up in the polls.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse: "Will this doom the Huckabee campaign? It should."

MORE: David Weigel doesn't expect a Huckabacklash: "The fact is that reporters really, really like Huckabee. One reason is his general affability but another is something the other GOP candidates can't steal: His liberalism." Except on, you know, creation science and abortion, I guess.

BOB KRUMM HAS THOUGHTS on Hillary, Kindergarten, and privacy.

BBC "TOOK TERRORIST TRAINERS PAINTBALLING:" Because nothing says "journalistic detachment" like helping terrorists brush up on their fire-and-movement skills.

THOUGHTS ON FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY, from Daniel Solove.

IN THE MAIL: E.J. Dionne's new book, Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right. Dionne proclaims the death of the Religious Right as a political influence, which seems to me to be an exaggeration. In fact, they've achieved a lot of their goals in terms of shifting the debate their way -- just listen to the Democratic candidates talk about the importance of religion, and note that vocal pro-choice politics have been marginalized in the Democratic Party and eliminated in the Republican Party -- and they're still around, if lacking the energy they had in the 1980s. Dionne seems to want to see more from the Religious Left, too. We're likely to see that, since -- as I've noted before -- Hillary is very much a member of the Religious Left.

SARKOZY WANTS TO lift the arms embargo on China.

GREENHOUSE UPDATE: ENVIRONMENTALISTS SUE to block wind power.

SHOULD WOMEN GET MARRIED? The latest Ask Dr. Helen column is up!

VIDEO: COPS FORCED TO chase doughnut truck.

GREENHOUSE UPDATE: "More than 10,000 jet into Bali for global warming conference. " You just can't make this stuff up. Sadly, you don't have to.

JOHN BIRMINGHAM DEFENDS soulless postmodern materialism. And where's my 108" LCD TV?

HEH: "On the other hand, maybe a miracle will happen and the atmosphere will not be damaged."

A "CHICK FLICK" for guys.

POLITICAL PROGRESS IN IRAQ? Jules Crittenden reports.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Some insight into the power of the pork issue:

House Republicans have been fighting and winning the few little battles they can, considering they are in the minority in a body where the minority has few rights. But tonight they won big on a motion to recommit the Intelligence Authorization Act to committee, with instructions to remove all earmarks from the bill.

This is one of many such little wins the House GOP has enjoyed, peeling off moderate and marginal-seat Democrats as they do so. The committee is not obligated to follow the instructions, but they can only ignore them if Democratic leaders are willing to ram the earmarks through, over a clear majority vote of the House.

It may just be a symbolic vote, but it demonstrates just how powerful the Democrats think the earmark issue is — 62 Democrats voted with a unanimous Republican caucus, including many of the most vulnerable: Boyda (Kan.), McNerney (Calif.), Lampson (Tex.) and Chris Murphy (Conn.), to name a few.

If Republicans have any chance of winning back the majority next year, the earmark issue holds forth more hope for them than any other issue right now.

Unfortunately, as noted, the Senate Republicans haven't gotten the word.

RONALD REAGAN or Jimmy Carter.

HUCKABEEING AND NOTHINGNESS: Great title.

ALCEE HASTINGS resigns from Intel committee. That seems like a good thing, though Hastings disagrees:

In an interview with Congressional Quarterly in April, Hastings expressed some anger at “Democrats in high places” who made an issue — during his bid for the chairmanship — of the fact that he was impeached and removed from office as a federal judge in 1989 on corruption and perjury charges.

Yeah, can you believe they'd be so uptight?

THE ISRAELIS are not buying the N.I.E.: "Israeli officials yesterday disputed the conclusions of Monday's surprise U.S. assessment of Iran's nuclear program, citing 'clear and solid intelligence' that Iran is continuing to develop nuclear weapons to threaten Israel and Europe."

A LOOK AT Naomi Wolf, the Second Amendment, and "modern Minutemen." From Megan McArdle, who observes: "I could have done better than this on a freshman composition, spotting Ms. Wolf three beers and an entire day wasted on Law & Order marathons."

Some thoughts on the "state militia" theory here.

December 04, 2007

TIM BLAIR: "Australia’s environment minister may be the only politician on earth charged with such responsibility who is banned (by his own party!) from talking about climate change."