SEXISM AT THE FBI: But then, if they reported the truth all hell would probably break loose.

DAVID HALBERSTAM receives a serious Coshing at the hands of, well, who d’you think?

OKAY, I’ve gotten various emails pro and con (mostly con) on the Wellstone memorial service campaign rally last night. I responded to some by noting that, to me, it’s as if somebody used a eulogy as an opportunity to pitch life insurance. With a Tupperware Party as the reception. But I think that this says it all: The event was too tacky for former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura.

UPDATE: The PennLive link above isn’t working for some people. Here’s another. And Mike Hendrix and Stephen Green agree with Jesse. And Porphyrogenitus contrasts this with another funeral that got less attention.

Minnesota reader Rich Kaul writes:

As someone up here in MN who’s had a front seat to all this I am bemused by the Wellstone “event.” Earlier in the day the DFL Chair was complaining that the Republicans were inappropriately politicing by issuing a set of debate challenges to whomever the DFL nominated as Wellstone’s replacement. He was howling about how inappropriate it was to discuss politcs at this time. And then they go and have that campaign rally over all the local TV stations last night…

And Democratic reader Nick Foresta sends what I think is the first non-critical email ever:

Glenn,

You guys are absolutely right about this one. Shameless doesn’t begin to describe it. The memorial was slap in the face for everything the man stood for. Who was in charge of this mess?

I don’t know, but whoever it was should be ashamed.

ANOTHER REPORT of Saudi efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. And another reason to remove the Saud family from its current rule over Arabia.

JESSE JACKSON AND AL SHARPTON are reportedly being sued for racial comments to the tune of $60 million.

FOR MOXIE’S BLOGIVERSARY PRESENT, I suggest that you get her, well, a date. She’s cute, she can dance, and she drives a Porsche. How hard can it be? Harder than you’d think, apparently.

MORE CAMPAIGN GAY-BASHING, this time in Hawaii. Tacky, tacky, tacky.

HERE’S ANOTHER CHEERFUL STORY:

His team had rolled around the green and mugged for pictures with the state championship trophy in hand. The disappointed runner-ups were on their bus heading home. And then Westborough golf coach Greg Rota noticed that something looked wrong on one of the scorecards.

He could have let it go. He could have just gotten into the van with his team and brought the Division 2 state championship golf trophy home to Westborough. Probably no one would ever know.

But he’d always wonder whether that trophy was really made of fool’s gold. So he went over and asked one of his players about a score on the 18th hole. Rota had seen some of the competition on that hole and the scorecard didn’t look right.

The coach’s instincts were correct. A 9 had been recorded as a 7. An incorrect scorecard had been signed. Rota went directly to the tournament director with the information. The small change meant that the final result was reversed. Woburn won the state championship. Westborough finished second. . . .

”[Rota] disqualified his own player and showed great integrity to do that,” said Doran. ”No one would have ever known. This is part and parcel to what golf is all about. You don’t see many things like this in society today.”

But bravo when you do.

IN RESPONSE TO MY REQUEST FOR A CHEERFUL STORY, reader Ken Coltrane sends this one:

Northwest football coach Dave Frantz and Tigers’ coach Derek DeWitt shared a conversation the week leading up to the game.

But the two coaches weren’t discussing strategy, instead they were talking about a mentally-handicapped Northwest player by the name of Jake Porter.

Porter, a senior, has a disorder called “Chromosomal Fragile-X,” which is the most common cause of inherited mental retardation.

Porter still shows up on time for practice every day and dresses in full gear during games, but he has yet to take an official snap in a football game.

Frantz wanted that streak to end last Friday. . . .

At Waverly’s 49-yard line, Porter entered the game at tailback, had his play, “84-iso,” called in the huddle, and when the ball was snapped all 21 players parted ways.

Porter was somewhat surprised when he slowly walked through the huge hole. He initially turned back around to the original line of scrimmage, but everyone on the field — including defensive players from Waverly — pointed and guided Porter toward the Tigers’ end zone.

“When we practiced it, he was supposed to down it, so I think he was a little confused at first,” Northwest tailback Zach Smith said. “But once he figured it out, he took off.”

The 49-yard trek to glory took about 10-12 seconds in all, and was culminated by players from both sidelines cheering and running step-for-step with Porter to the end zone. . . .

“At Waverly, we didn’t do anything special. We were just happy to be a part of that,” a humbled DeWitt said. “That young man was just excited to get the ball. Our guys didn’t care about the shutout, those stats went out the window.

“When you’re involved in a moment like that, you want to make sure you end the game with class, decency and respect.”

Indeed.

BOMBINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA: I’m not sure what this is about.

ANDREW SULLIVAN takes on the Wellstone conspiracy theorists, in Salon.

AUSTRALIAN POLICE are going after Jemaah Islamiyah cells:

Sydney – Australian police Wednesday swooped on the homes of Moslems thought to be linked to the radical Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiah (JI) movement that is suspected of having a hand in the deadly bombings in Bali.

The raids on two houses in Sydney and two in Perth followed swiftly on the listing of JI as a proscribed organization over the weekend. . . .

The banning of JI over the weekend means anyone belonging to it, recruiting for it, training or offering training, financing it or receiving money from it is breaking the law and could be jailed for up to 25 years, regardless of nationality.

Note that this is tougher than anything under the USA Patriot Act.

DAVE KOPEL DEBUNKS a news story suggesting that you can buy “sniper rifles” via the Web.

Doesn’t Amazon carry those yet?

UPDATE: The Comedian points out that you can, in fact, buy muzzle-loading black powder weapons over the Web. True enough, though I don’t think that’s really what the story was about.

SOME INTERESTING RESEARCH on antimatter. I want my antimatter-powered spaceships!

ANOTHER MARGINALIZED GROUP VINDICATED:

In a book to be published in January, historians Andrew Gow and Lara Apps say male witches have been marginalized as researchers focus almost exclusively on the persecution of women accused in Europe’s notorious witch trials.

Fully 25% of the estimated 60,000 witches executed between 1450 and 1750 were men, they say in Male Witches in Early Modern Europe, a 220-page text to be published by Manchester University Press.

In some regions, men made up the majority of those prosecuted for crimes ranging from laying curses on crops to causing miscarriages, they note.

So, er, there!

MORE SQUASHING OF DISSENT on campus.

UPDATE: Eric Kolchinsky comments on the same event, and the reaction thereto. So does Asparagirl.

ANDREW YOUNG IS SUPPORTING BUSH on Iraq. No, really:

The former U.N. ambassador, Atlanta mayor and Democratic congressman says if he were still in Congress he would have voted to authorize the president to use force against Iraq.

“One reason is that the only way you can avoid a war is the possibility of being ready for one,” Young said in an interview at his downtown office.

Andrew Young, invoking Vegetius. How about that.

MY TECHCENTRALSTATION COLUMN, which was inspired by Jim Henley’s “pack not a herd” phrase, is up.

ANTOINE CLARK lays out the case for war on Chirac. Well, he is an irresponsible guy with an arsenal of nuclear weapons and a dubious human rights record. But since Houellebecq got off, I’m not sure that humanitarian intervention is called for yet.

PASSIVE VOICE SAID TO BE KEY WEAPON IN JOURNALISTIC SUPPORT FOR ANTIWAR MOVEMENT: Well, that’s my explanation for the headline over this puff piece in the New York Times, headlined “Rally in Washington Is Said to Invigorate the Antiwar Movement.”

As is typical for these pieces in the Times, the quotes are all from demonstrators who say their demonstration was a success. A more accurate headline would be “Rally in Washington is Said by Ralliers to be Success.” Coming soon: “Enron Accounting Said to Be Legitimate, Even Noble,” in a story interviewing only Enron accountants. Of course these people think their rally was a success. And of course the Times swallows it whole, because it wants the rally to look successful. Looks like another case of Creeping Rainesism to me.

Can you imagine the Times giving this treatment to, say, a rally by the Second Amendment Sisters? Of course not. They’d have lots of quotes from people with impressive-sounding credentials saying that the demonstration was a terrible thing for America.

Here, they might at least have quoted one of the pro-war Iraqi-Americans.

UPDATE: Jim Henley gives a better-supported and more objective report than the Times — and he was a participant in the march!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Henley emails:

This may make the march piece the first blog item to be favorably cited by Instapundit and Antiwar.com on the same day. I have the e-mail in to Guinness now.

Jim, you should take this as either a sign that you’re doing something right, or that you’re doing something very, very, very wrong. . . .

ERIN O’CONNOR REPORTS FROM U. PENN. that it is openly discriminating against men in the form of “disincentives . . . to hire and promote men,” disincentives whose existence was admitted by the Provost.

Nothing really new here — I think most people who have served on faculty hiring committees have been told not to come back with a white male on occasion — but it’s interesting to see it openly admitted. O’Connor tells this story of her own:

When I was up for tenure, for example, I was told by a Penn administrator that based on my vital statistics, my chances looked very good. He told me point blank that if I were black, he would be able to guarantee me promotion, but that as a woman, the odds were very much in my favor. Such comments are often classified as harassment, but I was not being harassed. I was being told the truth, as ugly as it was.

Well, there you are.

MICKEY KAUS HAS MORE on the Winona trial. You know, I should pay more attention to this, because it’s the least-depressing news story at the moment.

Plane crashes, deadly hostage rescues, looming war, etc. Plus the national jet-lag produced by the time change. It’s a bummer of a week so far. If you find any cheerful stories, send ’em my way.

BOY IS THE BLOGOSPHERE FAST: I just noticed Ted Rall’s column accusing George Bush of having Paul Wellstone killed — and Rand Simberg has already administered a righteous Fisking thereto.

Let’s hear it for that three-hour time difference! And by the time the West Coast Fiskers have gone to bed, the TransAtlantic Fisking Squad is up and on the job — actually Fisking Robert Fisk, in this case, though Fisk has reportedly become so nervous that he’s no longer allowing the text of his speeches to be released, or any recording to take place. I wonder how long before he takes the next logical step and stops allowing people to listen? Probably never. Excerpt: “I was disgusted, but never bored. If you are rich and want to pay for an entertaining clown, Fisk is your man.”

MIKE SILVERMAN is deconstructing some political commercials he’s seen lately.

TOMORROW’S MOXIE’S two-year bloggiversary. Drop by and tell her congratulations.