NASHVILLE BLOGGER and former Tennessean journalist Bill Hobbs writes that the New York Times is recycling lies about Bill Frist:

Frist would be holding a handful of pencils to distribute and didn’t want to prick himself on one of the sharp points – but his innocuous comment was seized on by the anti-Frist reporters for the Memphis Commercial-Appeal and the Nashville Tennessean as “evidence” that Frist had been racially insensitive.

It was absurd then – a lie propagated by two newspapers that had already endorsed Frist’s opponent, the incumbent Sen. Jim Sasser – and most everyone in the newsroom at The Tennessean, where I worked at the time, knew it and was embarrassed by the story. It is even more absurd now for the NYT to recycle it in an attempt to undercut Frist as he ascends to the post of Senate Majority Leader.

Perhaps the Times will issue a correction, in due course.

I SUPPOSE THE ANTI-GLOBO CROWD WILL BE COMPLAINING about this soon.

RETAIL SUPPORT BRIGADE SITREP: Frankly, the situation doesn’t look that great. I was at the mall this morning and it seemed no busier than an ordinary Saturday — not like the last Saturday before Christmas. Maybe people have already done their shopping, or maybe they’re doing more of it online (I certainly did) but it certainly wasn’t as busy as it usually is just before Christmas.

Or maybe, as Mike Straka observes, customers are staying away because of bad service. But I have to say, I’ve found the service to be better than usual this Christmas season. The Kaybee toys folks were passing out free cookies, the Williams-Sonoma people were doing superfast free giftwrap, and everyone in every store I visited was pleasant and helpful. Which, now that I think about it, may just be another sign that the Christmas season is going badly.

It’ll be interesting to see if the stats match my impressions.

CATHY YOUNG ON SODOMY LAWS:

It’s amazing to think that in the United States in the 21st century, you can get arrested for something you do in your bedroom with a willing adult partner. But 13 states still criminalize some types of sexual acts; in four of them, “deviate sexual intercourse” is prohibited only between people of the same sex. . . .

Many conservatives who oppose gay marriage, the inclusion of gays in the Boy Scouts, or school programs promoting gay acceptance argue that they are all for tolerance—just against the public recognition of homosexuality as equal in moral stature to the union of man and woman. Whatever one thinks of such a position, sodomy laws would seem to provide these conservatives with the perfect occasion to demonstrate the sincerity of their pro-tolerance stance. For the most part, however, conservative commentators have remained disappointingly silent on Lawrence v. Texas.

Conservatives have long said that they want to get the government off our backs. If that’s a principled stance, they should certainly want to get it out of our beds.

Well, I certainly agree.

I’VE BEEN, WELL, NOT EXACTLY CRITICAL of the claims that the Bush Administration is politicizing government science, but quick to point out that this is a problem that’s been around, well, forever. (Insert obligatory reference to CDC gun-violence studies here.) Nonetheless, I’m disturbed at this report that the CDC is no longer promoting condom use as a response to STDs, even though condoms are highly effective against AIDS. Sure, they’re not perfect protection against everything. But then, seatbelts aren’t perfect protection either, and they promote those.

The problem, of course, is that once the science is politicized and the public health community forfeits much of its public trust, well, the door’s open. I’d like to see the public health establishment focus more on science and less on politics. But then, I wanted that five years ago, too.

UPDATE: Reader Dick Dalfiume emails that concern over the guidelines is overstated, and sends this link to the actual CDC page on the subject. I have to say that I agree with him that the story exaggerates the degree of the change.

DWIGHT MEREDITH has another post on Thimerosal. Ross at The Bloviator has a response. Both of these links go to their main pages because of the usual Blogger problems.

I don’t really have much to add to what I said before, really. The Thimerosal/autism connection is, perhaps, not ruled out, but it’s certainly not ruled in. As Dwight says:

The best scientific evidence to date neither proves nor disproves that thimerosal included in childhood vaccines causes autism. The causal relationship, if any, between thimerosal and autism remains an open question. It is a question we should answer though science and not through politics.

I certainly have no argument with that. But that being the case, it seems, ahem, premature for some people (not Dwight, who explicitly disclaims it) to claim that Eli Lilly caused autism and then paid off the GOP to protect it — given that neither part of this statement is supported by, well, any actual evidence.

And TomPaine.Com’s rather slippery efforts to blow this up into a scandal reflect poorly on it, and on the left, which seems nowadays to be recycling black-helicopter theories from the nutty right willy-nilly. Next we’ll be hearing that Bush has millions of Chinese troops stationed just across the border in Mexico, ready to support a coup in which he’ll be installed as dictator.

PATRICK RUFFINI liked The Two Towers better than The Fellowship of the Ring. That puts him in the minority. Then again, he also calls the movie “Rumsfeldian,” which is a description that probably didn’t occur to anyone else.

PATTY MURRAY IS TAKING IT ON THE CHIN regarding her remarks about Osama’s generosity:

Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., a potential Senate opponent in 2004, called Murray’s comments “bizarre” and uninformed. “You have to wonder what country Sen. Murray has been living in since September 11th,” he said.

Murray “seems to know more about Osama bin Laden’s generosity and kindness than she does his hatred for America and his vow to destroy our country,” Nethercutt said.

Nethercutt, who is also talked about as a possible candidate for governor, said he welcomed a chance to debate Murray on bin Laden and other topics.

“I’m sure Washington state voters would like to hear more of Sen. Murray’s very strange view of America and the world,” Nethercutt said.

I’ll bet he does welcome the chance.

ERIN O’CONNOR has been all over the Boalt sexual harassment story. Here’s the latest installment, which features this observation:

Interesting at Boalt how fast it has all moved past the guilt or innocence of a single faculty member (who was never actually charged with anything) to the collective guilt of the entire male faculty, none of whom have (presumably) done anything. Nevertheless, in true Stalinist fashion, this is going to be used as a pretext for punitive measures against them as a group, including the now-usual re-reducation and a de facto hiring and promotion freeze of male faculty. What’s even worse is the supine way this is all being accepted as inevitable.

Stefan Sharkansky has been doing, er, Useful Work, too. Here’s his latest post demonstrating how one-sided and agenda-driven the news coverage of this event has been. And scroll down on his page (and Erin’s) for much, much more on this topic.

My advice to male faculty at Boalt — go somewhere more civilized. You won’t regret it.

THE NEW YORK TIMES HAS AN INTERESTING ARTICLE on the problems facing today’s liberalism in an age of terrorism.

I have to say, though, that while today’s liberalism may be inadequate to current events, I think that the more muscular liberalism of previous decades — the kind favored by the anticommunist Cold War liberals, for example — would have been up to the task. One of the problems facing liberalism is that it has made lefty academics and journalists into its party theoreticians, and they’re not up to the job.

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH does a Bill Frist / Patty Murray comparison that seems, well, a bit cruel.

THE PAYPAL DONATIONS KEEP POURING IN: Thanks, folks. It’s not Andrew-Sullivan-league, but it’s much appreciated.

That people will voluntarily, and pretty much spontaneously, donate money to support something they can get for free says something profound, and probably positive, about human nature. I certainly feel positive about it!

HEH. YOU’VE GOT TO CHUCKLE AT THE TIMING OF THIS DEVELOPMENT:

Sen. Robert Byrd still is looking forward to his big screen debut.

Byrd said he is eagerly awaiting the Feb. 21 premiere of the Civil War movie “Gods and Generals,” which will include his cameo as Confederate Gen. Paul J. Semmes.

Fitting, somehow.

ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS have held their own “alternative” Miss World pageant in northern Nigeria.

SORRY, GEORGE: But this isn’t nearly as funny as this.

COLLIN MAY RESPONDS TO PATTY MURRAY:

Until last October I worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. My job was fundraising. I wrote funding requests and financial reports for one donor: the European Union. My division was one of six that secured funding for ICRC activities. Each year our divisions tallied the total amount of donations coming from the various nations and organizations. We then produced a bar graph that listed the largest donors beginning with the most generous. And each year, first place in donations went to one nation: the United States. Indeed, in terms of the bar graph, American contributions towered above all others. Before working for the ICRC, I also worked for the United Nations. The case there was similar to the Red Cross. The US alone stood out ahead of all other donors.

Of course, Murray is correct to note that Osama bin Laden has used his vast family fortune (one he did absolutely nothing to earn) to win converts to his cause. By comparison, the money provided by the American government comes from taxpayers of various degrees of wealth, from American billionaires to the guy selling hot dogs on the street.

And Murray is also correct to point out that America did drop bombs on Afghanistan. But perhaps in her smug wisdom she might go further and ask another question. What were the results of bin Laden’s stewardship in comparison to those American bombs? Again I can refer to my work at the Red Cross. During my time with the ICRC I wrote funding requests and reports on Afghanistan both prior to September 11 and after. Prior to September 11, Afghanistan had experienced periods of sustained drought especially in Ghor province and Herat. This situation was complicated by an interminable civil war. After September 11 and the eventual attack on Afghanistan, I had the opportunity to talk with people who worked directly in Afghanistan. All told me about the incredible change in Afghanistan. Almost overnight, the country went from a land living in fear of the Taliban and al Qaeda operatives to one where children were playing in the streets, often kicking around soccer balls given them by American, British or French soldiers. And what about the activities of the Red Cross? Well, as my source in the field told me, the Red Cross now had access to areas previously prohibited by the Taliban. The humanitarian activities of the Red Cross were ultimately aided by those American bombs. . . .

Incidentally, my source in the field quipped, half jokingly half seriously, “I wish the US would invade a few more countries, it would make our job a hell of a lot easier.” He wasn’t an American by the way.

He may get his wish.

UPDATE: Here’s Murray’s response to her critics, which is just about as lame as Lott’s. I don’t think Michele is convinced.

MARK KLEIMAN says the current policy of vaccinating only health and emergency workers makes no sense. I think he’s right. Also read the update to his post, with which I obviously agree, too.

HAS THE INVASION OF IRAQ ALREADY BEGUN? Donald Sensing has some interesting comments in response to the Tom Holsinger column from StrategyPage that I linked last night.

THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS that Frist has it sewn up for the Majority Leader slot.

To all the other stuff people are writing about him, I’ll only add that I ambushed him with a question about nanotechnology on a radio show a few years ago and he fielded it with ease, demonstrating considerable knowledge of both the technology and the policy issues. That impressed me.

READER FRED BUTZEN OBSERVES:

If it’s true that that Republican cross-over votes defeated Cynthia McKinney, then the GOP has shown that not only can it clean up its own bigots: it can also clean up the Democrats’!

Heh. You won’t be hearing this line from Carville, I’ll bet.

FRATERS LIBERTAS DOES A BIAS TEST on AP’s description of Bill Frist. It comes back positive.

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON is crediting the blogosphere with Lott’s decision to step down.

HERE’S YOUR FINAL EXAM ON 20TH CENTURY RACIAL HISTORY: Bill Clinton would flunk, based on his recent statements.

DAVE KOPEL writes on Frist’s Second Amendment voting record, which he characterizes as slightly weaker than Lott’s.

WATCHING THE TALKING-HEAD SHOWS on Lott’s resignation, I notice that the new Democratic theme is that the Republicans should “prove that they’ve left racism behind” by supporting appropriate legislation next year.

I agree. I think the Republicans should demonstrate that they’re taking the country beyond the legacy of segregation by passing the “End to Racism and Segregation Act of 2003,” which would provide that neither the federal government, nor the states, nor any entity receiving federal funds may take race into account in any manner in the making of hiring, firing, promotion, or benefits decisions.

What better way to show we’ve moved beyond racism than to put an end to official racism by statute?

UPDATE: Nick Gillespie offers a similar proposal.