HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2006 was a good year for me, especially when compared to 2005. For the world it was a mixed year, with ups and downs and no clear theme. Will 2007 be more of the same? It could be worse. Or better.
UPDATE: Professor Bainbridge is taking your predictions for 2007.
TOM SMITH: “So what is the name for that feeling, that nothing could be more beautiful, and yet more sad, than these times we have with our kids and our parents? You want to slow it down, but you can’t. You realize 10 years is nothing, and 50 not much more. Your little brother is not so little, you’re not so little yourself, the kid who pounded on the pedal car with you died years ago, your baby is a teenager, your three year old is in a hurry, and New Canaan is busy becoming a New England version of Brentwood. Most of it is good, of course; that’s what life is. If it were frozen, it would be dead.”
THE BOSTON GLOBE REPORTS that Mitt Romney is connecting quickly with bloggers. He certainly seems far more active than, say, Rudy Giuliani.
PHOTO-FOODBLOGGING from Osaka.
I QUESTION THE TIMING OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT:
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has “accepted responsibility” for possibly violating House rules by requiring his official staff to perform campaign-related work, according to a statement quietly released by the House ethics committee late Friday evening.
“Late Friday evening” on New Year’s weekend? It’s like they’re trying to bury the story or something. (Via Bill Quick, who is also unimpressed).
UPDATE: Mark Tapscott:
Federal law makes it a crime for a Member of Congress to use official staff members to perform campaign or personal duties. Many official staff members participate in their bosses’ re-election campaigns every two years but they go off the official staff payroll when doing so.
So, isn’t it convenient that the House ethics panel made Conyers’ oddly phrased confession public on the Friday afternoon before the New Years weekend?
If the incoming Democrat majority in Congress is serious about cleaning up the mess left on Capitol Hill by the Republicans, they will end such transparent gambits to minimize the fall-out from a Member admitting to breaking the law.
Indeed.
NIFONG UPDATE: The Washington Post editorializes:
“THE PROSECUTOR has more control over life, liberty and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have citizens investigated, and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations.”
Robert H. Jackson, then the U.S. attorney general, spoke those words to a group of federal prosecutors in 1940. But they ring disturbingly true today about the conduct of Durham County, N.C., District Attorney Michael B. Nifong in prosecuting three Duke University lacrosse players. Just before Christmas, Mr. Nifong dropped rape charges after the accuser said she “could no longer testify with certainty that it occurred.” But the three men remain charged with kidnapping and first-degree sexual offense, which carry equally severe penalties. Mr. Nifong should drop those charges as well.
Read the whole thing.
HOME AGAIN, after fairly decent driving conditions. We overnighted in Valdosta, then drove through light rain and medium traffic today. Not too bad, even in the dreaded Atlanta section of the trip. It’s clear that higher gas prices still aren’t causing people to drive more slowly. It’s nice to be home, but looking at this picture and comparing it to the dreary, rainy weather in Knoxville makes me wish we’d stayed a few days longer . . . .
MORE FROM THOSE EVIL PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES: A universal flu vaccine? Bring it on!
MORE KIDNEY-BLOGGING, from Virginia Postrel.
A GOOGLE TIPPING POINT?
Taken in a vacuum, a fairly trivial thing happened a few days ago. The co-founder of Firefox, Blake Ross, wrote a post criticizing Google called “Tip: Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose“. He takes issue with a new Google search feature that promotes certain of their own products over organic search results. See Google searches for Calendar, Blogging, Photo Sharing and others and see Google pushing Google Calendar, Blogger and Picasa, respectively, above what is supposed to be the most relevant results – Google search. Even a search for Yahoo Calendar has these Google results above the obvious destination the user was searching for.
I say this is trivial incident taken in a vacuum because, quite frankly, Google has every right to promote their own products on their website. But I think Ross’ post may be a sign of a change in attitude towards Google that’s been percolating for the last year or so, and is beginning to manifest itself. The fact that a highly respected entrepreneur finally spoke out should be a wakeup call for Google.
I’ve noted declining trust in Google over the past year or so, and it seems that the problem is getting worse. Google should be a lot more worried about this than it seems to be — all you need to do to take your business elsewhere is type a different URL.
THE ROOT OF “HOMELAND” IS “HOME.”
HUNTING DOWN AL QAEDA MEN in Mogadishu.
CORY MAYE’S MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL has been denied. It’s an injustice worthy of Mike Nifong. Will Haley Barbour intervene? He should.
BILL ARDOLINO IS BLOGGING FROM BAGHDAD in the wake of Saddam’s execution.
And interestingly, David Kaspar reports that a majority of German, French, and Spanish citizens favor Saddam’s execution. He also notes that European media seem to have missed this. And here’s a roundup from Josh Trevino.
UPDATE: Nidra Poller looks at how it’s playing in the French media. “No one dared to pretend that Libya, Saudia Arabia, and Hamastan are against capital punishment, but their indignation was not any the less righteous for it. . . . All the torture stories had been used up…for Pinochet.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Some historical perspective: “Most of the great butchers of the 20th century died of old age, in their own beds, some of them honored by millions. Not a single one met justice in the sense accepted in free states across the world. The handful who died otherwise are aberrations, victims of strange events that act as models for nothing. There is one single exception – the hanging of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006 after a careful, lengthy trial carried out under extremely difficult circumstances according to internationally recognized judicial norms. The state of Iraq has succeeded where the rest of the civilized world has failed. It is a singular achievement, and it will stand.”
MORE: Some rather muted “outrage” in Mecca.
AUSTIN BAY AND CLAUDIA ROSETT look back on Kofi Annan’s career and look ahead to the future of the UN in this week’s Blog Week in Review.
A LOOK AT China’s cold war against India. And why the United States has an interest in helping India resist.
I think that India may well turn out to be our most important ally of the 21st Century. I hope we don’t blow it.
I HAVEN’T GOTTEN A COPY YET, but Clayton Cramer’s new book, Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie,
A CAR BOMB IN THE MADRID AIRPORT: Basque terrorist group ETA is blamed.
BARBARA BOXER slams CAIR.
UPDATE: Boxer gets praise from Little Green Footballs.
AN EDITORIAL ON SADDAM’S EXECUTION, from NRO.
And here’s a big roundup of reactions from Pajamas Media.
Plus further thoughts from Austin Bay:
The Strong Man expects to die in one of two ways — with a nine millimeter ballot (ie, assassination) — or old age. That has certainly been the case in the Middle East. A public, legal trial followed by court-sentenced execution? That isn’t going to happen unless…unless a democracy replaces a tyranny. This is astonishing news — history altering news. For centuries the terrible yin-yang of tyrant and terrorist has trapped the Middle East.In 2003 the US-led coalition began the difficult but worthy effort of breaking that tyrant’s and terrorist’s trap, and offering another choice in the politically dysfunctional Arab Muslim Middle East.
Saddam’s demise serves as object lesson and example. In late 2003 every Middle Eastern autocrat saw the haggard Saddam pulled from the hole; now they’ve seen him hung. The larger message: To avoid Saddams fate means political liberalization. The message extends beyond the Arab Muslim Middle East. Iran’s mullahs see it. At some reptilian level, destructive despots like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe also understand it.
I worry, though, that we haven’t done enough of what Civil War generals called “keeping up the scare.” Momentum matters. Austin, however, thinks it was better done this way, and he’s smarter than me.
UPDATE: I see that Austin has updated his thoughts to respond to my comments on momentum.
FROM THE “HEADLINES THAT WOULD HAVE MADE NO SENSE FIFTY YEARS AGO” DEPARTMENT: “Obesity battle starts young for urban poor.”
IN THE BOONIES OF MID-FLORIDA, I’ve still got Verizon broadband EVDO. (Don’t worry, the InstaWife is driving.)
I POSTED A SOMEWHAT GOOFY PICTURE of me (yeah, I know, that describes nearly all of ’em) last week, so as vacation ends here’s a non-goofy picture of the Insta-Wife. And, alas, vacation is ending and we’re heading home.
It’s been nice, but duty and life calls. We had a good time in the Keys, and the weather was decent, if a bit windy. The local folks were nice, and the house and boat we rented were fun.
I hope you had a good week too, and I wish you a happy new year.
Blogging will continue enroute, thanks to the magic of EVDO.
MICKEY KAUS has more thoughts on gay marriage:
Even in a highly Republican town like Plano, in other words, the religious objection to gay marriage isn’t the crucial objection. Fear that moral entropy will envelop your family’s children is the crucial objection. I don’t see how that fear is addressed theologically. I would think it has to be addressed practically, over time, by repeat demonstration . But time is one thing a rights-oriented, judicial route to gay marriage doesn’t allow.
As I’ve said before, I support gay marriage, but I think the move to accomplish gay marriage via judicial action is politically unwise and likely to be counterproductive.
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