ANN ALTHOUSE DOES WHAT I HAVE NEVER DARED: And blogs during a faculty meeting.

GRANDMOTHERBLOGGING: We went to have dinner with my grandmother in the nursing home Skilled Nursing Facility tonight. (We took barbecue, from Sonny’s). It was the first time I’d seen her in 3 weeks, because of the Insta-Wife’s surgery. Helen felt well enough to come along, and my grandmother was glad to see her up and around. She gets out in a few weeks, though she’ll still need some transitional help in getting around, and continuing her physical therapy. It amazes me how well she’s managed to keep her positive attitude, in a place that I find rather depressing.

CREATIVITY FROM THE CULT: Recharging your iPod Shuffle with a hand crank.

UNREST IN KYRGYZYSTAN: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

BUSH TALKS SOCIAL SECURITY IN SOUTH BEND: You can read the New York Times account, and you can read Tom Maguire’s commentary on the New York Times account, or you can visit Brendan Loy’s blog for firsthand reporting, photos, and audio. Not long ago, of course, you would have pretty much been stuck with option one.

AN INDICATOR? “According to the AP, all the Baathists could muster up for their ‘Go Bashar!’ demonstration in Damascus today was three thousand people… not an especially impressive number for a fascist state.”

I actually almost feel sorry for Bashar. I don’t think he really wanted to play the role he’s in now. I hope that he manages a soft landing for the Ba’athist regime, transitioning to a free country without bloodshed, but I doubt his father’s cronies, who remain very much a force, will make that easy.

And speaking of unimpressive fascism, Hugo Chavez’s regime has been busted for photoshop-crowd-enhancement with Venezuelan newspapers picking up a story that started on Miguel Octavio’s blog. Heh.

UPDATE: Jim Lindgren notes that the Syrian pullback winds up concentrating Syrian troops in the perenially suspicious Bekaa valley, rumored to be home to all sorts of interesting things they’d probably rather we didn’t see.

Meanwhile, John Hinderaker notes a contrast that has been pointed out here, as well.

ANOTHER UPDATE: This post on the big picture is kind of interesting, though I’m not a huge fan of Stratfor.

HEH.

TO BOLDLY GO: Ed Cone is defending legacy admissions.

TECH-ADVICE BLEG: I’m thinking of buying a flat-panel TV for the bedroom. I’ve been looking at this one, though the Insta-Wife, somewhat more ambitiously, wants this one, instead. (I stayed in a hotel that had the first TV on the wall recently, and it was quite nice).

I want to mount it on the wall, too. Is a wall bracket like this one a good idea?

But my main sense is that this is a purchase where waiting a few months is probably likely to lead to big improvements on the price-performance curve. Or are we past that phase now? Any advice?

UPDATE: TV Repairman reader Joe Reynolds (no relation) emails:

Both of the models that you linked in your weblog do not contain an HDTV tuner/receiver. These can be purchased as a seperate unit and run generally $250-500. Until June of this year they are legal to be sold w/o the broadcast flag function that controls DRM and may be used legally as long as you own them. I mention this not to encourage piracy, but to let you know the feature will make it really inconvienient to tivo and transfer to any other equipment you may want to use. These units are also available as PCI cards and External USB devices. The bottom line is if you want HDTV with the TV’s you are considering you will need another device. Also LCD-TV prices are plummeting in the current market, you may see even larger discounts soon.

Yeah, you can surf the price-performance curve forever, but I don’t want to move too soon. This has inspired LOTS of email, which I don’t have time to digest now, but I’ll update with it later. Meanwhile, Will Collier weighs in on the side of waiting longer, and reader Tom Westberg sends this link to a review of the Insta-Wife’s fave. Finally, Roger Simon shares his own experience but adds this caveat: “Of course all this advice is already outdated. We did this two months ago!” Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Wow, lots of people care about this. And Jonah Goldberg emails: “Please! Let me know what you hear about the flat-screen TV thing. I’m researching it too and I can’t make heads or tails of all this. My understanding though is that CRT tvs still have better pictures, which surprised me considering all the hullabaloo.” Yeah, CRTs still have the best picture — and the best price-performance — but they get HUGE as screensizes get bigger. For a big room I’d still get a CRT, or a DLP, but for the bedroom I wanted to save some space.

MORE: Updated below — hit “read more” for more. And here’s a big article by Ed Driscoll from PC World, found via NewDave, who observes: “It looks as though the market is about to reach that critical point where demand gets in line with supply. Once that sweet spot hits (somewhere under $750 for 30 inches), things will slide down with a vengeance.” Let’s hope.

(more…)

PUBLIUS HAS POSTED another roundup of developments in Lebanon.

UPDATE: More interesting stuff here.

ED MORRISSEY has more on the whole F.E.C. vs. the Blogosphere issue. So does Prof. Bainbridge: “Friends of freedom clearly need to remember this incident if and when John McCain (or Russ Feingold, for that matter) runs again for President. And we need to roast President George Bush one more time for spinelessly signing the excrescence that is McCain-Feingold.”

CHESTER LOOKS AT OUR SCHEMES, and theirs. “Some folks have rightly warned Americans not to become cocky with all of the good news out of the Middle East recently. Others have warned of spoiling attacks. The timing is perfect for one of these.”

WARD CHURCHILL ON BILL MAHER: Jeff Jarvis was watching.

UPDATE: Democrat Tim Russo is unhappy. I wonder if the Hollywood / MoveOn wing of the Democrats is their version of Canada’s Quebec problem?

LEBANON UPDATE:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to announce a redeployment of Syrian troops in Lebanon when he addresses his parliament today, say Lebanese politicians.

Mr Assad’s speech, which the Syrian press agency said would deal with “current political developments” follows unprecedented international pressure on Damascus to withdraw its 15,000 troops and its secret services from Lebanon.

After talks with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, in Moscow yesterday, Walid al-Muallim, Syrian’s deputy foreign minister, said Damascus would soon reveal what he called “an agreement between Syria and Lebanon” which he said would meet the approval of the United Nations Security Council.

Mr Lavrov said he was “satisfied” that Syria would take steps to “correspond” with UN resolution 1559, which calls for all foreign troops to leave Lebanon.

Still too soon to gloat, but this sounds quite promising. Meanwhile, here’s an interesting overview of what’s going on.

JAY ROSEN WRITES ABOUT “DE-CERTIFYING THE PRESS:” But my question is, who “certified” them to begin with?

UPDATE: Jay Rosen responds (same post):

Certified” in this case does not mean legally so, as with a Certified Public Accountant. That would be unconstitutional. Rather, what the Bush team is doing is like de-certification (though not literally so) because it’s a sudden change in accepted status and a rejection of a commonly recognized role.
One answer to “who granted this status?” is “tradition did.” Previous Administrations, Republican and Democrat, established some common and accepted practices without codifying them. Glenn’s a law professor; he should understand why you don’t overthrow precedent lightly (and you don’t deny that you’re doing it when you are.) I have also used the term de-legitimize to describe what the Bush forces are doing. Prefer that? Fine.

Hmm. “Tradition” formed by whom? Not me, and not the large number of Americans who have shouted back at their televisions over the years. It’s just that now people can hear it . . . .

As for “precedent” — well, to be “precedent” in the legal sense a decision has to come from an authoritative body. And, again, which body legitimized the press? It seems to me that the press did. For a while, when it played ball with politicians (e.g., by not mentioning FDR’s polio or JFK’s infidelities) the politicians were happy to treat it as a quasi-government. I’m not sure that was an improvement, really, though I can see why journalists regard it as a golden age.

UPDATE: This observation seems relevant.

MEGAN MCARDLE:

Why is it that people only happen to benefit from sleep deprivation and enforced stays away from their family when they are still in the grip of a legalised cartel that can force them to work investment banking hours for a food service salary, on threat of withholding their medical license if they fail to comply?

I have an idea.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE is writing about Gunner Palace, the Iraq war documentary that’s hitting theaters now. He’s got an interview with filmmaker Michael Tucker.

SAUDI PROMOTION OF TERRORISM: And note Steven Den Beste’s criticism of the Bush Administration, in the comments.

KOS VS. GREENSPAN: I’m betting on Greenspan.

UPDATE: Greenspan has John Cole on his side! But any dirt they dig up on Greenspan will only make Bill Clinton, who also appointed him, look bad! Is this really just a way for Deaniacs to weaken Hillary? Could they be that subtle? . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Or maybe it’s just that tasty Jonestown Kool-Aid. When you take another sip, it covers up the bitterness from the one before. For a little while.

MORE: Tom Maguire offers good advice to the Kos crowd, in the serene confidence that it will be ignored:

Is there even a hint of a media strategy here, or do they just figure, the more enemies they make, the better they are doing? Do they really think the Daily (Kos) Show will have more impact after mainstream journalists rally to Andrea and abandon them? Do they really think that, after the Guckert fiasco, this is the best way forward?

Sadly, some do. Though there’s some evidence that sanity is beginning to assert itself.

TOM MAGUIRE REPORTS that Paul Krugman isn’t very good at predicting economic matters. But Tom Maguire is a good predictor where Paul Krugman is concerned!

MCCAIN AND HIS ALLIES are counterattacking against Brad Smith over the McCain-Feingold / blogosphere story.

You can hear what Smith has to say on Cam Edwards’ show at 4:40 Eastern, which is in just a few minutes from now.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Roger Simon is saying shame on Apple for its legal action against bloggers.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gizmodo has some choice words for Apple, and for companies that might be tempted to emulate Apple.

NEW JERSEY KILLINGS UPDATE:

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The upstairs neighbor of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in their home in January was charged along with another man Friday in the killings, and authorities said the motive was robbery, not religious fanaticism, as some had feared.

Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above Hossam Armanious and his family, pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder, as did Hamilton Sanchez, 30. Both men were ordered held on $10 million bail.

“I didn’t kill nobody, man,” Sanchez said as he was led from the courtroom.

This is actually a relief, in a way, assuming that Sanchez & McDonald turn out to be guilty.

ANTISEMITISM IN AUSTRALIA: Pathetic.

F.E.C. COMMISSIONER BRAD SMITH will be on Cam Edwards’ show about 4:40 p.m. Eastern today, talking about blogs, the Internet, and federal election law. (Via Jim Geraghty). Read this, too.

NOT ENOUGH, BASHAR: Bush rejects partial Syrian withdrawal.