GORDON SMITH on the politics of faculty hiring.

THE KELO DISCUSSION over at SCOTUSblog continues, with the latest post coming from Bob Ellickson, who observes: “In short, the Institute for Justice should be delighted that popular opinion has moved so sharply its way. I actually worry that political opposition to eminent domain may go too far, as it has in Japan, where completion of the second runway at Tokyo’s Narita Airport has proved to be impossible.”

I think we’re a long way from that. Most everyone I’ve heard opine on Kelo thinks that takings for public works are fine; the opposition is to taking for the sort of “economic development” project that Ellickson agrees tends to be a boondoggle. The danger, however, is that the public may grow sufficiently disgusted with the boondoggles that it stops making that sort of distinction. I don’t think we’re close to that situation, either, but I don’t think this decision is helping.

UPDATE: Bill Hobbs has been asking candidates about Kelo and is posting their responses.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF CORDITE IS UP!

MORE KELO FOLLOWUP:

NEW LONDON, Conn. – When a divided Supreme Court broadened the government’s right to seize private property this past week, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor painted a grim portrait of what she saw coming.

She said wealthy investors and city leaders had been given the power to run people from their homes to make way for new development. The line between public and private property has been blurred, O’Connor said in her dissent, and no home is safe.

While municipal leaders say O’Connor’s view is unrealistic, people who have fought eminent domain say it’s already here.

Read the whole thing.

D.C. JOURNALISTS pick their favorite political blogs.

STRATEGYPAGE ON TROOP RETENTION:

The U.S. Army, scrambling to maintain strength, are now making it easier for reservists to move over to the regular army. This is partly the result of commanders noticing that a lot of reservists are quite enthusiastic about being on active duty, and many are eager to stay on active duty. But by law, unless Congress declares a general mobilization, most reservists cannot be kept on active duty much longer. The maximum time a reservist can be on active duty for the current “emergency” is 24 months. The army isn’t saying how many additional regular army troops it is going to pick up with this program, but it will probably be several thousand, and maybe much more. An important aspect of this is that these troops have a lot of experience, making them much more valuable than newly trained recruits.

It’s interesting that retention seems to be going much better than recruitment. Perhaps the view of what’s going on that the troops get in the field is more positive than the view that potential recruits get from the media.

GENOCIDE IN ZIMBABWE: Normblog has a report on what the Archbishop of Bulawayo is saying.

BRAD RUBENSTEIN is Roomba-blogging. I hope his experience is better than mine.

ACCORDING TO THE INSTA-DAUGHTER AND INSTA-NIECE, who watched it on DVD last night, this is the best movie ever made. I’m not so sure: I think that this is a stronger candidate.

UPDATE: Roger Simon offers alternate suggestions.

HEH:

Liberals woke up yesterday morning wondering what happened to their Democratic Party. Literally overnight, the Democrats had become the President’s staunchest supporters in the war on terror. As much as we welcome the party’s change of heart, we were surprised to see that it was precipitated by the architect himself, Karl Rove.

I told you he was smart. Or maybe he just got good academic advice!

UPDATE: “Karl does know his opponent.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Supporting the troops.

THIS IS SURE TO ENRICH SOME PLAINTIFFS’ LAWYERS: Major companies are using spyware.

UPDATE: Reader Rob Beile emails:

It seems to me the advertiser that doesn’t condone this practice has about ten minutes to incorporate appropriate language into the contracts they sign with their respective advertising firms. Otherwise they lose any credibility when it comes to a claiming they disapprove of the practice. The clock started in about 1998.

Indeed.

GENDER STEREOTYPING WORLDWIDE:

The Leo Burnett advertising agency, which created the iconic macho cowboy, said a new study it conducted found that half the men in most parts of the world don’t know what is expected of them in society and three-quarters of them think images of men in advertising are out of touch with reality.

Most ads have lumped men into one of two groups — the soft, caring type known as “metrosexuals,” who are comfortable with facial peels and pink shirts, or the stereotypical “retrosexuals,” who remain oafishly addicted to beer and sports. . . .

“Men are far more complex than advertisers give them credit for,” said Linda Kovarik, global planning director for beauty care at Leo Burnett, a unit of French ad group Publicis.

Do tell.

JOHN TIERNEY ON THE MILD, MILD WEST:

It was Hobbes’s prescription for “war of every man against every man,” and he was echoed by newspaper predictions of a “theater of tragic events” in which “brute force will reign triumphant.” But the miners peacefully worked out rules for delineating claims and resolving disputes so well that the system was adopted at later camps like Deadwood.

Roger McGrath, a historian who studied dozens of Western mining camps and towns, found a high rate of homicide in them mainly because it was socially acceptable for young, drunk single men to resolve points of honor by fighting to the death. But other violence wasn’t tolerated, he said.

“It was a rather polite and civil society enforced by armed men,” Dr. McGrath said. “The rate of burglary and robbery was lower than in American cities today. Claim-jumping was rare. Rape was extraordinarily rare – you can argue it wasn’t being reported, but I’ve never seen evidence hinting at that.”

An armed society is a polite society, as Robert Heinlein noted.

IRANIAN ELECTION UPDATE:

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says there were widespread complaints of security forces and other arms of the government improperly interfering in the first round of voting.

He said many candidates, including all women, were barred by Iran’s Guardian Council from running. Many more potential candidates were deterred from participating by the election procedures.

Media accounts seem to be parroting Iranian reports of large turnout, though Publius reports that turnout was very small.

AL-QAEDARRRIFIC? I confess, I’m less impressed with Google News than I used to be.

IRANIANS ARE MASSIVELY BOYCOTTING THE RUNOFF ELECTION, reports Publius, with lots more information.

I SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION to The Mudville Gazette’s series on media coverage of the war. But here’s the latest installment. (Sorry, link was bad before. Fixed now.)

I MENTIONED Sandeep Junnarkar’s grassroots journalism project on AIDS in India before. Here’s the blog.

LINKING TO THIS VIDEO should help me get some Google search action for “Michelle Malkin + Kinky.”

MORE ON NANOTECHNOLOGY, from the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.

HERE’S A ROUNDUP OF STORIES on government taking of private land.

RICH LOWRY: “White House reaction to the Rove controversy in case you’re wondering. One word: delighted.”

I figured.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES is up!

POSTWATCH NOTES the Durbin/Rove reporting-lag differential. Thing is, Rove was counting on that.

KELO AFTERMATH: They’ll sell a lot of these.