A HOWARD DEAN / HALLIBURTON CONNECTION? Robert Tagorda raises some interesting questions. I’ll be interested to see if this pans out.

ARNOLD KLING has some interesting thoughts on polarization and groupthink.

UPDATE: Why is the Left so angry? Maybe it’s because it’s losing its grip on “legitimate” opinion.

AWARD WINNING JOURNALIST ROGER AILES offers comments on The New York Times’ lapses in professionalism.

DONALD TRUMP IS A SMART MAN, because he hates to shake hands, regarding it as filthy and unsanitary. I think he’s onto something.

I’m coming down with a cold, as I almost always do after going to the faculty recruitment conference. It’s contagion central, as candidates from all over the country come into a room, shake hands with every member of the committee, talk for a while, shake hands again, and leave. By the time candidates from all over the country have met with committees from all over the country, it’s a veritable microbe-fest, and it always takes place at the beginning of cold-and-flu season. Ugh. Remember, when you shake hands with people, you’re shaking hands with everyone they’ve shaken hands with. . . .

JIMMY CARTER UPDATE: Seems I wasn’t quite as wrong as I thought. Scroll down, or click here.

ALPHECCA’S MEDIA GUN-BIAS SURVEY IS UP: And Clayton Cramer identifies a worthy drive-by shooting.

JOSH MARSHALL is asking his readers to fund blog coverage of the New Hampshire primary. I’ll bet that he’s successful. I even donated myself, because I’m more interested in reading what he has to say than in, well, what a lot of other people have to say.

UPDATE: Josh says he’s raised enough money — nearly $5000 — and doesn’t need any more. “The point here was never to hit the Granite State in, you know, princely Howard Fineman-fashion — you know, gold-plated quill pen, vellum notebook, personal food-taster, etc.”

Well, okay — although I kind of like the idea of having someone point at a stretch limo or a Gulfstream and say “must be a blogger.” . . . .

LT SMASH is blogging the San Diego fires. He’s even got photos.

DAVID BERNSTEIN is Fisking a New York Times editorial on judicial nominee Janice Rogers Brown. I don’t pay close attention to these nomination battles, which tend to be devoid of substance. But if Bush really wants to get some motion here, he should offer recess appointments to people like, say, David Bernstein. . . .

UPDATE: Larry Solum has more on Janice Brown, though he doesn’t mention the Bernstein-appointment angle. But Jonah Goldberg seems to be on board. The momentum is building!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s still more on Brown, from Reason.

ANDREW SULLIVAN has a lot of interesting observations on the war, the antiwar protests, and the media.

He’s right about the scarcity of protesters this weekend. I didn’t see any. The InstaWife saw a few, but they didn’t interfere with getting around the Mall. According to the New York Times there were “more than 10,000.” Not much of a crowd, even if you assume the Times estimate is on the low side, and each protest seems smaller.

But it’s not just their numbers that are hollow — it’s their ideas. Having failed miserably to prevent the war, they’re now calling for an “immediate withdrawal” from Iraq. That’s a course of action that (as even antiwar folks like Howard Dean have noted) would surely be disastrous for the Iraqi people, and for America.

Whose side are these people on?

UPDATE: C.D. Harris thinks he knows what side they’re on.