BLAWG REVIEW is up! So is the Carnival of the Capitalists, and a special chicken-themed Carnival of the Recipes.

That last gives me an excuse to tout my Insta-Chicken recipe. People who have tried it seem to like it.

DEFAMATION ON THE INTERNET: Julie Hilden says that courts tend to side with Internet publishers, and looks at some non-legal avenues of relief. (Via Howard Bashman).

My article on the topic, forthcoming in the Washington University Law Quarterly, can be read online here.

EUGENE VOLOKH has an article on state constitutional rights to bear arms.

A somewhat lengthier effort of mine can be found here.

ANOTHER BATTLE IN THE WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS: Is it just me, or are we hearing a lot less of this stuff this year?

AT FIGHTAGING.ORG, a look at mitochondrial DNA repair, plus how your immune system declines with age.

EMINENT FORMER JUDGE LEE SAROKIN is now blogging.

(Via The Right Coast).

SO I FINISHED THE JOEL ROSENBERG NOVEL that I mentioned last week, and it’s very good. I’m reading the sequel now, in my copious spare time, and it’s good too.

UPDATE: In an interesting confluence of reactions, some readers are turned off by the garish cover, while others who have read it say the book’s got too much talk and internal dialogue.

As to the first — dumb, garish covers are for some reason de rigeur in fantasy and science fiction. They seldom have anything to do with the story; I don’t know why this is.

As to the second: These books are a departure from Rosenberg’s traditional light fantasy. The “paladins” carry magic swords believed to damn the souls of those who use them, but do so anyway out of loyalty to King and country. They are not untroubled by this situation, and Rosenberg uses it to explore the moral dimensions of duty, patriotism, and religion. I think it’s interesting and well-done; those expecting something more like his earlier work will be disappointed.

ED MORRISSEY: “Kofi Annan has an op-ed column in today’s Washington Post that must be read to be believed. The column, which serves as a valediction of sorts, talks about what Annan has learned from his time at the United Nations. If his rule hadn’t resulted in such worldwide misery and despair, it would be one of the funniest pieces of opinion journalism so far this year.”

Kofi’s tenure has certainly represented a high-water mark in corruption and dictator-toadying, which is saying a lot, considering the U.N.’s history.

UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

PROTESTING AHMADINEJAD in Iran.

THE ARMY LIKES ITS OLDER RECRUITS: I’m not surprised. I seem to recall that the Roman legions preferred older soldiers — not as quick as the younger ones, perhaps, but steadier.

KOFI ANNAN plans to blast the United States in his farewell speech. Follow the link for an online poll on the topic.

TIE-BUYING ADVICE, over at Crescat Sententia. I get some of my ties from Brooks Brothers, but I like to order them from museum shops like the Guggenheim or the Metropolitan Museum. The quality’s usually pretty good, and the designs are usually more interesting.

But maybe I should be burning my ties as a protest against the matriarchy.

SO THE DENTIST GAVE ME A PAIR OF SHOP GOGGLES TO PUT ON, and then said “there may be some vibration, and some pieces, but don’t worry.” Done now, and at the office. Back later.

IN THE MAIL: The Lucky Shopping Manual: Building and Improving Your Wardrobe Piece by Piece. Is this some kind of a hint?

IRANIAN URANIUM PROSPECTORS in Somalia.

MICKEY KAUS: “I am so not excited about Windows Vista!”

JAILED FOR A BLOG POST: “If the Alexandria prosecutors’ standards of censorship were applied in the US, thousands of Americans would be behind bars. The Egyptian authorities’ decision to jail an obscure student for his blogposts reveals a larger struggle for free speech playing out between dissident bloggers and state prosecutors across the Middle East.”

A GUY WHO WORKS AT PFIZER wrote me about my book — nothing really relevant here — but in my reply to him I wrote:

BTW, we love Pfizer in my house because your exotic anti-arrhythmic drug Tikosyn has changed my wife’s life. It’s genuinely a miracle drug for her.

He emailed back:

I will pass your thanks along to the guys in the lab. You have no idea how much this kind of message matters to them –and to all of us. We KNOW there’s a pony in there somewhere but some days it’s not easy to remember that.

It’s kind of sad that such a small email means so much, but I suppose that these guys get a lot more criticism than praise, despite the miracles they produce. But it occurs to me that — while so-called “Big Pharma” may not be perfect — drug companies have done a lot more to make my life better than their critics have. Maybe someone should point that out more often.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from TigerHawk.

LARRY SOLUM explains the Rule of Law.

SMASH meets Rumsfeld.

SKEPTICISM ABOUT THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP DIPLOMATIC PROPOSALS, from the editorial board of The Washington Post.

MORE ON THE FLYING IMAMS, in the Star Tribune.

KEN LIVINGSTONE: Zionist?

It’s a sad day when Livingstone’s sounding better than Jimmy Carter . . . .

MORE PRAGER FALLOUT: “Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch has called for Dennis Prager to resign or be removed from United States Holocaust Memorial Council, in response to the pundit’s recent insistence that a Muslim congressman should not be sworn in using a Quran.” Prager, says Koch, is a schmuck.