RACISM AT WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY:

First, the report tells us that Prof. Streamas “insists that he did not utter the phrase as an expression of racism, in part, because he argues that a person of color cannot be racist, by definition, because racism also defines a power differential that is not usually present when a person or color is speaking.” Yeah, right. He and others are redefining the term “racism” in a way that’s pretty far removed from its normal meaning — which is racial hostility — so as to give themselves a rhetorical break from the rules they’re imposing on others. And on top of that, he’s applying even his revised definition in a disingenuous way: Whatever may be “usually” so, there surely is a “power differential” between a professor of whatever race and a student of whatever race.

Read the whole thing.

HERE’S MORE, on the handover of Najaf to Iraqi forces.

THE NEW NIKON D40 gets a favorable review from Phil Askey at DPReview.com. And you certainly can’t complain about the price, which makes a digital SLR with a decent kit lens not all that much more expensive than a lot of pocket cameras. (Thanks to reader Jim Herd for the link).

DUKE RAPE UPDATE:

For the past several months, even as its reporters have broken story after story about Mike Nifong’s misconduct, the editorial page of the N&O has remained silent, except for an unfortunate op-ed by editorial page director Steve Ford.

This morning, however, the board published an editorial criticizing Nifong. The closing sentence summed up the editorial’s message: “But the more information that comes to light, the more questionable [Nifong’s] conduct and judgment appear.”

Also, UNC law professor Joe Kennedy spoke out forcefully against Nifong to WRAL, saying that Nifong should be removed from the case and that “his actions with respect to nondisclosure of this DNA information needs to be investigated.”

Kennedy’s background is that of a strong civil libertarian: he’s a former public defender and homeless center advocate who has published on racially disparate sentencing in drug crimes.

Lots more on this topic at K.C. Johnson’s blog — just keep scrolling. And LaShawn Barber is all over the case, too.

ROMNEY HAS HIRED BILL FRIST’S ONLINE GUY, Stephen Smith, as his online director. I’ve dealt with Smith a fair amount in conjunction with Frist’s appearances on The Glenn & Helen Show, etc., and found him smart and easy to work with. It’s a good hire for the Romney campaign.

I THOUGHT I HAD LINKED THIS BEFORE, but I can’t find it if I did: The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook.

TIGERHAWK IS ROUNDING UP COLLEGE PROPAGANDA FILMS — I think that “promotional films” would really be more accurate, but maybe not — and invites you to submit your favorites.

SONY GETS OFF CHEAP for its rootkit/malware exploit.

THE NEXT BIG THING: ICBMs with non-nuclear warheads?

IN THE (E)MAIL: A link to the perfect get-well-soon present for Stephen Green. Hey Stephen, send me your address and I’ll send you one!

IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION to the Fannie Mae scandals, the Affordable Housing Blog has. Here’s an introduction, and here’s the latest post.

And reader Robert Schwartz emails about the news coverage: “The stories were on the business page. Would they have been on the front page, if the principals had been Republicans?”

Yes. Especially if there had been a Republican counterpart to this: “former vice-chair Jamie Gorelick had pay tied to flawed earnings and accounting.”

DAVE WEIGEL: “David Sirota is writing a book about anger? Uhn… isn’t that called an ‘autobiography’?”

NAJAF PROVINCE has been handed over to Iraqi control.

MORE ON THE ARMY SIZE / MORE TROOPS ISSUE, from Lawhawk.

BEWARE THE LOOMING ICE AGE!

What if Niven, et al., were right?

OVER AT POLLSTER.COM: A look at the GOP in 2008, plus a finding that race wasn’t a factor in Harold Ford, Jr.’s defeat. Yeah, Ford’s biggest problem was his famly baggage, the latest example of which can be found here.

MARY EBERSTADT: “As it turns out, a flight from political reality has indeed been underway on both the left and the right in America in the years since that event, as well as accelerating into more advanced forms in much of Europe. To switch metaphors, in the wake of the 9/11 attack — and later, related Islamist attacks on civilians, most notably in Spain and Britain — many Western observers have responded not by absorbing what we now know to be true about our world, but rather by transposing those brute facts into other, safer, more familiar keys.” (Via Austin Bay).

MICKEY KAUS: “Maybe I’m an old-fashioned Joe Kleinish Clintonian self-hating Dem. But I’m not swooning until I hear Obama to tell Democrats something they maybe don’t want to hear. Did I miss it?”

Plus: What The New York Sun missed about the Fannie Mae scandals.

LATIN AMERICA’S wrong turn. There’s pretty much nothing that a bad political system can’t ruin.

SERIOUSNESS. Heh.

A LIBYAN DEATH SENTENCE FOR THE “TRIPOLI SIX” in a bogus AIDS case. It’s an international travesty, and it deserves more attention. I’ve mentioned this before.

THE SUBJECT IS RIVETING: it’s not just me blogging about Swiss Army Knives.

UPDATE: Some people would rather hear about my Macbook Pro instead.

I’m pretty happy with it. Pluses: Slim, elegant design. Nice screen. Starts up — whether from cold or from sleep mode — a lot faster than my Dell notebook. Switching to the OSX operating system is easy — but then, I never needed any lessons to learn Windows either. Both are pretty self-explanatory. The builtin speakers aren’t bad for a laptop. Stable. Pretty icons. The iChat is cool, especially the video ichat, which is very well implemented. I like the way the keyboard lights up automatically in the dark.

Minuses: Battery life is way inferior to my Dell — less than half as long. Form factor is a bit large for actual laptop use. (I’d prefer something more like a 12″ Powerbook, really, but Apple doesn’t make anything like that). Not as crashproof as advertised — I’ve had to reboot once or twice, because of Firefox crashes. Gets hot. No right mouse-button. (Yeah, you hit CTRL instead but it’s not the same). No real delete key.

Overall an excellent computer, if not quite the transcendent experience that some Macheads suggest.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gerard van der Leun recommends this gadget from Logitech to solve the right-click problem.

And a reader asks what I think about the “mag-safe” power cord. Actually, I hate that — it’s constantly coming disconnected. Nice idea, but the magnet’s not strong enough.

ANOTHER WORRISOME QUESTION ON THE WAR: “What if we are winning?”

I’VE HEARD ABOUT FANNIE MAE SCANDALS FOR A WHILE: Now they’re getting some attention: “Federal regulators Monday filed civil charges against former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines and two other former executives, accusing them of manipulating Fannie Mae’s earnings to jack up their bonuses.” Is this the whole thing, or just the beginning?

UPDATE: Joel Mackey emails: “Enron, Worldcom, et al are blared as indictments of capitalism, but let a government agency bilk millions from the public and nary a peep.” If it’s only bilking millions, it’s not news. Usually, they milk billions!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Steven Jens emails: “Fannie Mae isn’t a government agency. It was spun off into an
investor-owned corporation. The government just co-signs its loans. Why they should be doing that is a damn good question. And I think it means the government should be expected to be exercising extra oversight, and can therefore be blamed more than when officers of non-government-endorsed companies break the law. But it’s more like Enron or Global Crossing than it is like the CIA.” Well, sort of, maybe. Fannie Mae is also an employment agency for apparatchiks.

KOFI ANNAN fields the tough questions from the U.N. press corps.