MICHAEL YOUNG has more on the crushing of dissent in France.

MICHAEL KNOX BERAN writes on efforts to discredit the Framers.

I suspect that those efforts will have more impact on the reputation of academics (already falling) than on the reputation of the Framers.

UPDATE: Jacob Levy is unimpressed with Beran’s article.

SOME INTERESTING POLL RESULTS FROM IRAQ, along with other reports.

THIS SOUNDS GOOD:

NEW YORK – The US economy is poised for its best performance in five years. Economists describe an economy that will be “solid,” “sustainable,” and “entering the new year with a wonderful head of steam.”

I hope it turns out that way. Though I suppose that not everyone will be happy.

MORE THOUGHTS ON OUTSOURCING over at GlennReynolds.com.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT, this time in California:

The 17-year-old junior says that stance inspired threats from which teachers have refused to protect him. Some faculty members even started a public campaign against his group. . . In a telephone interview, Tim said he’s been threatened at least three times . . . . One boy said he was going to “find someone” to beat up Tim. In two of those instances, Tim said two faculty members stood by and did nothing to help him.

All because he had an unpopular opinion. I hope the Justice Department will look into this breach of civil rights, and the apparent complicity of state employees in the suppression of speech they find disagreeable.

PAUL KRUGMAN’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE PRESS have drawn this response from Jay Rosen.

Personally, I think that Krugman should read these New Year’s resolutions from James Lileks!

“E-VOTING FIRM ACKNOWLEDGES HACKER BREAK-IN:” Sorry, this technology isn’t ready for prime time.

DAVID AARONOVITCH IN THE GUARDIAN:

Some will see this as simply a natural disaster of the kind to which Iran, according to Khatami, is “prone”. Four days earlier, however, there had been another earthquake of about the same intensity, this time in California. In which about 0.000001% of the buildings suffered serious structural damage and two people were killed when an old clocktower collapsed. So why the polar disparity between Bam and Paso Robles?

This is not a silly question. True, the Californians are much richer than the Iranians. But if you believed everything you read in the works of M Moore and others, you would anticipate a culture of corporate greed in which safety and regulation came way behind the desire to turn the quick buck. Instead you discover a society in which the protection of citizens from falling masonry seems to be regarded as enormously important.

Whereas in Iran – for all its spiritual solidarity – the authorities don’t appear to give a toss. The report in this paper from Teheran yesterday was revealing. It was one thing for the old, mud-walled citadel to fall down, but why the new hospitals? An accountant waiting to give blood at a clinic in the capital told our correspondent that it was a “disgrace that a rich country like ours with all the revenue from oil and other natural resources is not prepared to deal with an earthquake”.

Spent on nukes and clerics’ limousines.

Read the whole thing. He’s pretty hard on non-Iranian intellectuals, too — especially in this bit:

What, I wonder, has Arundhati Roy to say now about the superiority of traditional building methods over globalised ones? Some Iranians might think that it’s a shame there wasn’t a McDonald’s in Bam. It would have been the safest place in town.

Indeed.

UPDATE: It’s interesting to read the above together with this from Iranian blogger Hossein Derakshan:

Nothing could ever show the real sense of diconnectivity and distrust between Iranian people and the Islamic regime, and its deeply dysfunctionality better than a devastating quake. Everywhere you go and every blog you read, there is talk about the political implications of such tragedy going on.

People inside and outside Iran are desperately trying to gather donations, but they don’t want to give the money to the government.

It’s even more interesting when you read these two together with the Hanson article, linked below.

WHEN BLOGS ARE GOOD: John Perry Barlow gets a little overheated on the subject of Bush:

We can’t afford to lose this one, folks. If we do, we’ll have to set our watches back 60 years. If they even let us have watches in the camps, that is.

Don McArthur (“Misanthropyst”) then politely takes him to task in the comments, Barlow politely replies, and a useful discussion ensues.

THIS PIECE from the Washington Post on the new Iraqi police gets a rather tart response from AMCGLTD:

Personally, I’m amazed it’s going as well as it seems to be. All the Iraqi bloggers, even Riverbend (who hates everything), say nothing but good things about the new Iraqi police force*. Can you imagine the chaos if, say, New York City had to rebuild its entire police force from scratch in just six months? It’d probably look a lot like, well, a lot like Baghdad actually.

Read the whole thing.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:

After watching a string of editorial attacks on America both at home and from abroad in the aftermath of Saddam’s capture, I thought back to the actual record of the last two years. In 24 months the United States defeated two of the most hideous regimes in modern memory. For all the sorrow involved, it has already made progress in the unthinkable: bringing consensual government into the heart of Middle Eastern autocracy, where there has been no political heritage other than tyranny, theocracy, and dictatorship.

In liberating 50 million people from both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein it has lost so far less than 500 soldiers — some of whom were killed precisely because they waged a war that sought to minimalize not just civilian casualties but even the killing of their enemies.

Yep. And people who ignore or minimize this achievement also minimize their own credibility. (I haven’t read Hanson’s new book, yet, but Randy Barnett recommends it.)

MILITARY BLOGGER SGT. HOOK is going to Afghanistan shortly and he’d like to break the 50,000-hit mark before he leaves. Drop by and help him out. And encourage him to keep blogging from Afghanistan! Hey Sarge — do you have a digital camera?

UPDATE: Well, that didn’t take long — he’s over 50K now. But don’t let that stop you from visiting.

MICHAEL WOLFF emails John Tabin’s father. Result: Wolff looks stupid.

That’s not really much of a surprise.

I DON’T ANTICIPATE A LOT OF FOOD-BLOGGING HERE, despite the Great Pot Debate of yesterday. But here’s a food blog with links to more, if that sort of thing interests you.

Last night, by the way, it was pan-seared lamb chops marinated in garlic, rosemary and olive oil, with asparagus. The lamb — bought from the small farm next door to my sister’s — was great. With a short cooking time on fairly high heat, the lamb stays rare inside (as it should be!) but it’s very flavorful on the outside.

Some people find it hard to believe that I have time to cook, but it didn’t take long at all to prepare. There are lots of good things that don’t. And those, not surprisingly, are the things I tend to cook. . . .

JEFF JARVIS: “Howard Dean is flailing like a loser.”

The most dangerous guy to Howard Dean is, well, Howard Dean.

UPDATE: Roger Simon isn’t impressed, either. There are some interesting comments on Dean, the media, and the polls, too. Just keep scrolling.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Is Dean flailing because of Hillary Terror?

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: This transcript of the Howard Dean / Al Gore skit from SNL referencing Paul Krugman is pretty funny. (Thanks to Henry Hanks for the link.)

MORE: Hey, here’s another Al Gore connection:

All candidates develop a reputation with the media. In 2000 the story line on Al Gore was his wildly exaggerated claims. Mr. Gore may not have said precisely that he “invented the Internet,” but his propensity to tell “whoppers” got him tagged with the line nonetheless. Unfortunately for Mr. Dean, that’s the kind of story line that’s now emerging about him.

As I say, Dean’s worst enemy is Dean. Heck, he’s already lost Julian Sanchez.

IN LIGHT OF MY earlier post on the Ford Foundation, inspired by a Wall Street Journal article, some readers might be interested in this much longer article on the Ford Foundation’s rather dubious behavior.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh calls the criticism of the Ford Foundation in the above article unsound.

HERE’S A LINK to the L.A. Times article on the Iraq / Syria WMD connection that I mentioned earlier. It’s interesting, but Captain Ed accuses the LAT of spinning a bit:

Note that the Times is careful to inject the issues of nuclear and biological weapon searches, in order to protect the UN inspection process, but the inspectors were supposed to be looking for all violations of UN resolutions. Iraq was not supposed to be purchasing any of these items, and Syria was not supposed to be shipping them across the border. Why didn’t the inspectors find these documents? Because the inspections process was useless, and this episode proves it.

Interesting. It’s certainly true that WMDs are only part of the “material breach” picture.

UPDATE: Several readers note that among the things Iraq was looking for were “nerve agent antidotes.” As Jonathan Adler observes, that’s a funny thing to want if you don’t have nerve gas.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Drezner has more, including this observation:

What is mildly shocking — from someone who knows a thing or two about economic sanctions — is that companies from stalwart U.S. allies — Poland and South Korea — were also complicit in the sanctions-busting.

Read it all.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A summary, and a lot of interesting observations, on the LAT story, from American Thinker.

“IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY THAT’S INTERESTING, you will eventually be heard.” Here’s a lengthy and interesting roundup of the political blog world by USA Today’s Kathy Kiely.

UPDATE: Hey, it’s on the front page of the print edition. (Via Jeff Jarvis, with a reference to the Velvet Underground). And Kos is quoted in a breakout box right up front!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Several readers, like Rich Whitten, question the article’s characterization of InstaPundit as “right leaning:”

The article in USA Today that you just linked says:

Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor whose Instapundit.com is one of the more popular right-leaning Web sites, says the blogosphere has become an “idea farm” for the established media.

Right-leaner? I guess supporting the war makes you a right-leaner despite your stances on ANYTHING else. Sigh.

Some folks just have to push everyone into right or left labels. Man, I hate it when that happens…

Sadly, I’ve gotten so used to it that I’ve about quit noticing.

By the way, here’s a guide to econoblogs, from Bruce Bartlett.

MORE: Ed Cone emails:

When I needed a quick id for your blog in my Baseline article, I thought rightwing and the like were way too limiting – I went with “who supports George Bush on Iraq” – still limited, but at least it defines the blog by a key issue, not a broad brush.

Yeah. To a lot of people, I think the two are the same, now. That seems like a poor definitional strategy to folks who don’t want “right wing” to be the same as “majority,” though.

SPEAKING OF FREE, my TechCentralStation column is up.

THE POWER OF FREE: I mentioned earlier that the InstaWife had mixed feelings about seeing her out-of-print book for sale used on Amazon at $99.95. Rather than revising it for a second edition (she’s already working on another book anyway) she’s just put it up on her website for free downloads in PDF format, along with a couple of donation buttons. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out.

She ought to make more money from the donations than she’s making now from the book (not hard, since the used sales net her zilch), and the people who are constantly emailing her to ask where they can get copies will now have a place to go. The only losers are the people selling used copies for $99.95. Sorry, guys!

ANGLICAN RISIBILITY WATCH:

Tony Blair came under attack from two of the Church of England’s most senior figures yesterday for acting “like a white vigilante” and for lacking humility in forging ahead with the war on Iraq.

As someone who is part white, I resent this racial slur and demand an apology. I’m considering filing a complaint with the British authorities for racial hate speech. I guess it’s insult Glenn’s various ethnicities day or something. Quick, say something bad about the Irish!

Oh, wait, they do that all the time. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Bart Hall notes that I’m not the only one who finds the Anglican hierarchy risible:

Interestingly enough, African Anglicans in particular have accused both the CofE and the Episcopal Church USA of an arrogant cultural imperialism worse than colonialism in their attempts to force left-wing revisionist theology on the world wide church.

This is one reason why most of the African Anglican churches are severing relations with the Episcopal church in the US and (often) the Church of England. Most recently the Anglicans in Zambia cut relationships with both churches. Not only have Anglicans in Nigeria and Uganda broken relations with revisionist Episcopalians, they have informed the head honcho of the US church that he will not be welcome at the installation of the new head of the Ugandan church (Henry Orombi, who happens to be a fairly close personal friend).

The simple fact is that the Church of England no longer matters, except to itself. There are vastly more Anglicans worshipping on a given Sunday in either Nigeria or Uganda than there are in the US, the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand — combined. The Episcopal Church has lost a third of its membership in the last decade or so because its leaders keep saying stuff like this: “the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to reveal the sacred Quran to the prophet Muhammad” in his Christmas sermon this year at the National Cathedral in Washington (quoting Bishop Chane of DC).

Stepping back to the big picture, I think we’re seeing pieces of an historically important shift. For many centuries stewardship of the Christian faith has rested with the Catholics and mainline Protestants of “the West.” In the last two or three generations that stewardship has first faltered and subsequently almost disappeared. The Episcopal Church and the Church of England have been tragically consistent leaders in this trend. As in the parable of the talents, leadership of the church is now being removed from weak hands in the ‘west’ and transferred to our brothers and sisters in the south–and China–who /will/ take care of it.

My Nigerian relatives, who are Anglican, are proud that there are more Anglicans in Nigeria than in England. It’s easy to see why.

And as we’ve already learned, the pews in China are “packed” at Christmas. Here’s an interesting article on the spread of Christianity from The Atlantic Monthly that quotes my University of Tennessee colleague and friend Rosalind Hackett, who studies this sort of thing. Here’s an interesting bit:

The emphasis on global evangelism has helped to spur the development of what Hackett has called the “South-South” religious connection. No longer does Christian missionary activity flow primarily from the developed countries of the North to the developing countries of the South. Brazilian Pentecostal movements are evangelizing heavily in Africa. New African movements are setting up shop in Asia. Korean evangelists now outnumber American ones around the world. And so on.

The course of missionary activity is also beginning to flow from South to North. Many new African movements have for some time been establishing themselves in Europe and North America. Some of this can be attributed to immigration, but there’s more to the process than that. “Many people just aren’t aware of how active African Christian missionaries are in North America,” Hackett says. “The Africans hear about secularization and empty churches and they feel sorry for us. So they come and evangelize. The late Archbishop Idahosa [a renowned Nigerian evangelist and the founder of the Church of God Mission, International] once put it to me this way: ‘Africa doesn’t need God, it needs money. America doesn’t need money, it needs God.’ That’s an oversimplification, but it gets at something important.”

This is definitely going on.

DRUDGE is reporting that Syria “smuggled weapons and military hardware to Saddam Hussein between 2000 and 2003, establishing Syria as the main channel for illegal transfers to Baghdad during the U.N. embargo.” There’s supposed to be an L.A. Times story tomorrow.

ARE BLOGS LIKE SAUSAGES? Read this and decide for yourself.

Mmm. Sausage.

I ALWAYS SAID THAT OLIVER WILLIS WAS MADE FOR TV: Now he’s experimenting with the idea.