ADVICE TO LAW STUDENTS: Orin Kerr writes on the exaggerated importance of first-year grades.

I DON’T KNOW WHY KAUS AND SULLIVAN ARE FIGHTING, or how I got dragged into it, but contrary to what Andrew suggests, I’m not sticking my fingers in my ears. I just think that the bad news is more-than-adequately aired in the rather hysterical Big Media — which often act as if they want us to lose — and feel that my time and effort is better spent on the things that I think are important. I also think that Sullivan’s gratuitous slap at The Belmont Club and Power Line is rather unjustified. The Belmont Club’s track record on Iraq, after all, has been rather good, as has Power Line’s. I used to rely on Andrew for this sort of analysis, but now I often have to go elsewhere. I don’t think that reflects badly on Power Line.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here. And here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Sullivan responds to me, but he fails on two levels. His notion that I should be providing comprehensive and balanced coverage, instead of blogging about what interests me, seems rather, um, old media — as if the only model is that of a newspaper. (Actually, I assume that my readers are getting the daily boom-and-bang news from CNN, the NYT, etc.) It also seems rather odd: Andrew certainly doesn’t seem to feel any obligation to provide “fair-and-balanced” coverage of what seems to be his key issue, gay rights and gay marriage. That’s okay with me, as I expect Andrew’s blog to reflect what he thinks is important, and deserves more attention. I’m mystified as to why he expects something different from me.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kaus continues after Andrew: “The point isn’t that his standards are going rapidly down, or up, or down and up at the same time. The point is he’s faking it.”

Ouch. I confess that I’ve been trying for a while to figure out what was going on with Andrew on the war, but I’m not sure that “faking it” is the right characterization. Because I can’t figure out what he would be faking. John Cole is confused, too. But I don’t think that Andrew is posting drunk, something that I’ve been accused of — though in this case, approvingly — myself. I’m not sure what’s going on.

MORE: More thoughts here and John Hinderaker of Power Line responds: “Maybe it’s a result of what I do for a living, but I’m hard to offend, and I don’t begrudge Andrew his opinion. I think it’s generally true that we have supported President Bush on Iraq, through thick and thin. But I don’t think this is because we are uncritical or blindly partisan. I think it is because steadiness is a key virtue in a leader, and Bush has been steady and resolute in his conduct of the war against Islamic terrorists.” Which is a virtue.

ANN ALTHOUSE IS CARBLOGGING: I still think she should have gotten the Corvette.

COURAGE at Dartmouth.

TOM MAGUIRE continues to blog on Social Security Reform.

JAY FOX WRITES on why longevity research should be a priority.

Eric Scheie thinks that Leon Kass may object, but doesn’t care.

HATE-FILLED STUPIDITY FROM LEFT-LEANING ACADEMICS ISN’T NEWS anymore, which is why I haven’t been paying much attention to the story of Colorado professor Ward Churchill’s comparison of 9/11 victims to Eichmann. But go here and look at the picture.

Isn’t he exactly what you imagined? Shoulder-length hair, grimly self-righteous expression, black turtleneck, Abbie Hoffman sunglasses. A man whose look, like his rhetoric, is frozen in the amber of 1969.

The same kind of guys, looking the same way, were saying the same kinds of things when I was younger than my daughter is now. When will the Left catch up with the times?

UPDATE: Heh. Check out this picture. Let’s do the time warp, again!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Various lefty readers email to say that Ward Churchill is not the authentic face of the Left.

I wish I agreed with that. But, sadly, he is its very image today.

When Ted Kennedy can make an absurd and borderline-traitorous speech on the war, when Michael Moore shares a VIP box with the last Democratic President but one, when Barbara Boxer endorses a Democratic consultant/blogger whose view of American casualties in Iraq is “screw ’em,” well, this is the authentic face of the Left. Or what remains of it.

There was a time when the Left opposed fascism and supported democracy, when it wasn’t a seething-yet-shrinking mass of self-hatred and idiocy. That day is long past, and the moral and intellectual decay of the Left is far gone.

Don’t believe me? Listen to Naomi Klein:

The great error made during the electoral campaign was that the anti-war movement allowed itself to turn into an anti-Bush movement. So as the logic of anyone-but-Bush set in — and there wasn’t a candidate speaking on these issues — the war itself disappeared. What I mean by that is that the reality of war itself disappeared. The truth is that we were talking about Iraq in the past tense — not about what was happening on the ground during the campaign. And indeed, I believe that continues to be true to a scandalous degree, especially what we’ve just seen in recent months in Iraq. I’m worried that we haven’t learned from that mistake yet.

We also need to more clearly focus on policy demands. I have been arguing for a long time that the anti-war movement should turn itself into a pro-democracy movement, i.e., support the demands for democracy in Iraq. . . .

Quite frankly, there’s a lot of skepticism in Iraq — from what I saw — about the international anti-war movement. In part, it’s because anti-war forces were not critical enough of Saddam. But it’s also because we haven’t proposed this kind of practical solidarity that has to do with improving people’s lives, and not just absolving our conscience. Or saying “Not in our name,” and then going home. . . .

It’s very, very frustrating. What I keep coming across in the U.S. anti-war movement is the acceptance of this idea that Americans are incapable of caring about anyone but themselves. The progressives in the U.S. are fairly self-loathing

And in this, at least, they’re right. Greg Djerejian has more on Churchill:

The relativistic mish-mash and garbage contained above, the laughably simplistic narrative underpinning talk of some nefarious “global financial empire,”–all are shibboleths of 60’s group-think, prevalent among a significant number of baby boomer generation academics, taken to parodic extremes (American capitalism bad, the nefarious “military-industrial” complex a product thereto, anyone working in lower Manhattan near evil Wall Street therefore complicit (part of a nefarious “technocratic corps” with blood on their hands), and thus getting their just deserts (does Ward Churchill even know that the WTC was a ‘back-office’, of sorts, servicing the Gordon Gekko “Master of the Universe” players more likely to work on the 30th floor of 85 Broad or in office buildings lining Park in the high 40s and low 50s?)

But let’s put all this aside. The reason I blogged this tonight, is because, truth be told, these views (if somewhat less extreme manifestations) are much more widespread than we might think. In New York, just a month after 9/11, a leftist female acquaintance of mine (an American!) admitted (with some shame, it should be said) that she felt a tinge of joy in her stomach when she digested the news. America had humiliated so many societies, her thinking went, here’s a comeuppance, of sorts.

Read the whole thing. And read this, from The Belmont Club, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Martin Shoemaker emails:

I keep hearing people saying “X is not the authentic face of the left.” Yet I don’t hear them repudiate all of the X’s out there. I don’t hear them stand up and announce that X is wrong. I don’t hear them explaining how they’re going to take the Democrat Party back from the X’s. And I DO hear them defending or excusing all of the X behavior.

If the left/Democrats mean what they say, they have it in their power to stop the decay of the Democrat power. Stand up, speak out, and take the Party back from all the X’s. If they do that, they might win back folks like me. I only reluctantly started calling myself a Republican in the 2004 election, and only then because I didn’t see any Democrats standing up against terror and the divisive folks who abet terror.

Yeah. There’s an endless supply of guys like Churchill. And I’d love to believe that they’re marginal figures. But then I see the embrace of Moore, and the behavior of major Democrats like Boxer and Kennedy, and it’s just hard to believe. There certainly are some well-meaning people on the Left who don’t like that, but I”m afraid that they are the marginal figures nowadays.

Ed Driscoll has further thoughts:

This is a crucial period for the left: they’ve lost two consecutive presidential elections, Congress for a decade, and the Senate for almost as long. They’ve also acted increasingly shabbily in reaction to 9/11, of which Churchill’s (what a paradoxical name for the guy) 3000 “little Eichmanns” quote is merely the latest manifestation. Is there room for a comeback? Only if Hillary runs a brilliant campaign (and even then, she’ll probably have to deal with a Republican Congress and Senate, unless she has very, very long coattails).

Or leftwing elites could try tacking closer to the center.

In the 1950s, Bill Buckley was able to create a new conservatism by casting out the John Birchers and their anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories. Now it’s the left’s turn to try to do much the same.

I wish I saw more evidence of that. On the other hand, this is pretty funny.

On the other hand, Dave Schuler thinks I’m wrong about the Left. I don’t think so, but you can read his post and make up your own mind.

But I suspect that it didn’t even occur to any of the lefties writing to complain about my post to write Prof. Churchill and complain about his remarks. But lefty reader Josh Kinniard writes:

Your largely right on the state of many Americans that supported the Left Wing in the last elections. A large majority of Americans are, simply put, shallow and uninformed. Many people see the faults in George W. Bush, such as his sometimes inability to–as he himself will admit–think on his feet in front of a crowd. They mix these personal attributes they have observed and mix them with unrationally drawn conclusions that are presented to them from other sources without using proper methods of reason–largely because they do not have the resources easily at hand to do anything else.

I voted for John Kerry after proper rationalization. Those of us who did got caught in an election storm where we saw these shallow uninformed joining the
Kerry bandwagon, and we knew their rationalization was wrong, but we were limited to what we could do to stop the tide and educate them. That tide may have cost Kerry the election.

My point: please dont forget those of us that are still active citizens who truly want to participate in the betterment of society.

I haven’t forgotten. But I’m waiting for you to take a more active role in confronting the Ward Churchills — and Michael Moores, and Barbara Boxers — who are doing harm to the country, and even more harm to the Left.

MORE: Dr. Evil is quoted here.

And this review of Steve Earle’s concert in Knoxville — in which he performed before a hammer and sickle — observes:

The Soviet imagery might have seemed corny five years ago, but in the current right-leaning climate, a left-wing backlash is inevitable. Expect to see more of it.

If Kerry had won, would it be understandable for Republican artists to perform in front of swastikas? And how seriously should we take people who wish we had lost the Cold War, and who want us to lose this one?

Still more on Churchill here. And perhaps the best take comes from reader Harvey Schneider:

The irony of the Churchill episode is that Colorado University gets federal money. You would think with his radical Anti-American outlook, The money he makes as an instructor would burn in his hands like Holy Water in a demons hands. He seems to be guilty of the same crime as many in the WTC that day. Being a part of the system.

Heh. And for those who email saying “what about Falwell on the right,” well, it’s worth remembering that the term “idiotarian” was coined with Falwell in mind. It’s just that the right has done a better job of muzzling and marginalizing its idiots, while the Left has embraced them. And if the “backlash” theory set out above is true, it will only get worse, which is bad for the Left, and bad for America.

Oliver Willis emails that my pointing this out is “vitriol.” But in fact, following my advice would be likely to help the Left, and the Democrats, do better in elections. Baby-boomer posturing didn’t even help the Democrats 30 years ago (remember who won by a landslide in 1972). It’s not likely to help much now.

I keep hearing that there’s a silent majority on the Left that doesn’t agree with these things. I keep waiting for it to stop being silent. Perhaps they should listen to this Iraqi reaction to Ted Kennedy’s speech:

I think that AlZarqawy could not have rallied his troops with a better speech. What is he doing giving speeches like this so close to the elections in Iraq? Iraqis will brave threats to their lives to vote in hope that we will stay with them till they are ready. Now a U.S. senator tells them we must pull out quickly and leave the Iraqis with no help.

Shameful.

JAMES TARANTO:

Ted Kennedy’s latest rant got us to thinking about the contrast between the two greatest American political dynasties of the past half century, the Bushes and the Kennedys. Look at the two most prominent members of each dynasty, and in both cases you will see a study in contrasts.

Somewhat related post, here.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT, GLENN FLEISHMAN: Reader Geoff Osler emails:

Thought you’d appreciate this: I’m on an SAS flight from Copenhagen to Seattle right now, just crossing over Reykjavik. I’m sending this to you via in-flight wi-fi (Connexion by Boeing).

The flight crew are all proud they’ve beat Lufthansa to the punch: they tell me this is the first-ever commercial flight with in-flight wi-fi!

Also, as I was the first to log in on this flight, that makes this the first-ever email sent from a regularly-scheduled commercial flight.

Cool. Though I actually thought that Lufthansa was already doing this on some flights.

THE MISSING 727 that inspired so much interest in the blogosphere a while back seems to have served as the inspiration for this novel by W.E.B. Griffin.

ELECTION UPDATE:

SOUTHGATE, Mich. — Joyful tears and frequent applause marked the start of U.S. voting Friday in Iraq’s first independent elections in more than 50 years.

Security was tight at the abandoned store-turned-polling place in this Detroit suburb, with guards checking IDs at the parking lot entrance and using metal detectors at the doors. Inside, an oversized, homemade Iraqi flag hung from the ceiling. One poll worker could be seen weeping.

“We feel happy now. This is like America, this voting,” said Zoha Yess, 64. “We want fair, good government.”

Sounds good to me. And read this piece by William Shawcross, too.

HEH:

(January 27, 2005) — If you don’t believe that bloggers are giving newspapers a headache, talk to Nick Coleman. A veteran newspaper columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Coleman is in the middle of an old-fashioned feud with one of the leading conservative Web logs in the country.

So far, his battle with Powerlineblog.com — Time magazine’s “blog of the year” — has sparked an anger-spewing column by Coleman, an ombudsman’s clarification, and a threat by a leading bank to pull advertising from the newspaper.

Moreover, it has confirmed the growing ability of blogs to get under the skin of the mainstream media. “This is just the beginning,” an exasperated Coleman warns. “People need to pay attention to [bloggers]. To watch out.”

Indeed.

JAMES LILEKS FOR FCC CHAIRMAN: There’s even a petition.

THERE WILL BE LOTS MORE on the Iraqi elections all weekend at the Friends of Democracy website.

UPDATE: Heck, even Ed Cone is pointing out good news from Iraq. Maybe he’s a CIA plant! Someone tell Alterman!

DONALD SENSING: “As it turns out, the European Union seems not to have put the screws to Thailand over its purchase of the new A380 airliner.”

LOTS OF INTERESTING STUFF on the Iraqi blog Hammorabi, including the observation that the Iraqi example is already putting democratic pressure on its neighbors.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE offers a roundup of military bloggers in Iraq.

JAMES LILEKS OFFERS A PREVIEW of Iraq election coverage:

However the election goes will be one thing; how it’s reported is another. The thing to watch is the position of the Damning But, the old DB. The DB will probably bob up in the first or second paragraphs of most dispatches. “The election went as planned in 95 percent of the country, but violence marred polling in the disputed Sunny D Triangle, where insurgents opposed to Tropicana Juice fired automatic weapons into an juice concentrate factory.” That’s one spin. “The election, long anticipated as a flashpoint for insurgent activity, went off with few delays. Despite sporadic gunfire marring the overall mood of success in several provinces, observers said that the process was ‘smooth as a Sade groove,’ adding that they were annoyed Sade had simply faded away instead of letting her career end with a tasteful layout in Playboy.” See? No DB there. We’ll see.

The Sade point is a good one, too.

VIRGINIA POSTREL looks at the surprisingly high benefits of free trade.

LAWRENCE KAPLAN comes in for some criticism. And both Mickey Kaus and M. Simon are scourging the fainthearted.

All I can say is: “Courage.”

JEFF JARVIS GIVES ERIC ALTERMAN BOTH BARRELS for speculating that pro-American Iraqi bloggers must be CIA plants.

Of course, Jeff’s double-barrel assault is figurative; if Eric’s irresponsible comments inspire one, it will be literal.

SGT. THOMAS FOREMAN is a Pennsylvania National Guardsman serving in Iraq. Here’ is his newspaper column on the elections.

UPDATE: Related thoughts, here.

SO WHILE THE INSTA-WIFE AND INSTA-DAUGHTER watched Joey and The Apprentice, I plugged the headphones into the laptop and watched this William Gibson documentary. It’s quite good, in a low-key way — mostly Gibson riding around in the backseat of a limo, talking to the camera about stuff he thinks is important. I didn’t realize that he was from around here — his family is from Wytheville, just across the Virginia line, and he lived in Oak Ridge for a while.

Sadly, no offers have come in to make the Lileks documentary I envisioned, though.

UPDATE: Well, somebody’s interested.

KURDS IN NASHVILLE:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) For years, the thousands of Kurds living in Nashville have blended into the city’s immigrant community in relative anonymity.

But now they are in the spotlight with Iraq’s national elections that begin Friday and run through Sunday. Nashville is one of five American cities where Iraqi expatriates can vote, and nearly 4,000 of them are registered here more than Los Angeles and Washington. Detroit and Chicago have more. . . .

Many are thrilled to have a chance to vote in a real election without fear of reprisal.

”The ballot before had Saddam Hussein yes or no and if you put no, the bodyguard took you to the jail,” said Ali Almoumineen, 38, who left Iraq with his wife and two children in 1999. He isn’t Kurdish, but found a home in the community nonetheless.

Kurdish expert Michael Gunter, a professor at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville and author of six books on the people of Northern Iraq, said the Kurds who moved to Nashville were comforted by the anonymity of the Music City.

”You can sort of go about the business of becoming an American in Nashville easier than Washington, New York or California, where things are more politicized,” Gunter said. ”Many Kurds just wanted to start a new life and emphasize the private things not keep fighting the public battles.”

I’ve known a few Kurds in Knoxville whose families were in Nashville.

UPDATE: Here’s a report on Iraqis voting in Australia — and on who showed up to protest.

JONATHAN ADLER:

The Gallagher kerfuffle conceals one of the Beltway’s tidy little secrets: Hundreds, if not thousands, of policy experts and advocates receive federal grants and contracts. Federal funding of experts, advocacy groups, and other nonprofits is so widespread that it scarcely ever warrants attention. The real scandal is not that a federal agency paid Maggie Gallagher for her expertise, but that federal agencies dole out millions in taxpayer dollars each and every year to activist organizations that turn around and call for Congress to grant these agencies even greater power. This is the real “political payola” in Washington, and it is about time it received some attention.

And there’s more here:

In furtherance of Jonathan Adler’s point, if you go to Landmark Legal Foundation’s website you will find thousands of environmental groups that receive government grants. The Washington Post has used scores of these groups in its news stories. Does the Washington Post have a policy of disclosing the groups’ government connections in its news pages? Not that I can discern. When the groups’ representatives are on radio and TV shows, do they disclose that they’ve received money from the government? Not that I can discern.

Hey, I’m starting to like the new rules. Disclosure for all!

UPDATE: Bill Quick notes the people who got Enron money and observes: “Want a journalist? Go buy one. They’re cheap. Really cheap. Oh, and relatively inexpensive, too.”