IRAN AND ISRAEL: “This Holocaust will be different.”

THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE WANTS TO RAISE YOUR CHILDREN:

A Democratic assemblywoman from Mountain View says she will submit a bill next week — once it is officially drafted — proposing that California become the first state in the nation to make spanking of children 3 years old and under a misdemeanor. Penalties could include child-rearing classes for offenders to one year in jail.

Just the mention of the bill has become a minor statewide perturbation, sparking denouncements from many Republican lawmakers (the State Senate minority leader, Dick Ackerman, declared, “I’m trying to pick a word other than crazy, let me see, not well thought out.”), heated debates among parents (“A bill should be passed to allow other parents to smack the parents of undisciplined children,” wrote one Internet poster) and some self-reflection on behalf of the governor, whose proclivity for calling others girly men has been replaced of late with dialoguing about his feelings.

I liked Arnold better before he became a girly-man himself. And I’d have more confidence in the California legislature’s ability to run people’s lives if it were better at running California.

COLD BLOODED, but “refreshingly free of emotional baggage.”

BEN CARDOZO VS. BAT MASTERSON: An amusing legal story.

GETTING AWAY with murder.

ANDREW SULLIVAN leaves Time for The Atlantic.

CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE: Moving the California primary ahead to February?

WHO KNEW? Hillary is running for President.

UPDATE: Hillary’s announcement analyzed here.

ERIC SCHEIE: “If Jimmy Carter is any indication of what’s going on with the Democrats, and Dinesh D’Souza is any indication of what’s going on with the Republicans, not only is the war on terrorism lost, I’d say so are the two parties.”

We’ve had a highly dysfunctional political class for decades, something that’s been mostly masked by how well the rest of the country has been doing. But such dysfunction isn’t costless.

APPARENTLY THE OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL was just business as usual at the United Nations: “Has North Korean leader Kim Jong Il subverted the United Nations Development Program, the $4 billion agency that is the U.N.’s main development arm, and possibly stolen tens of millions of dollars of hard currency in the process? According to a top official of the U.S. State Department — using findings made by the U.N.’s own auditors — the answer appears to be a disturbing yes, so far as UNDP programs in North Korea itself are concerned. And just as disturbingly, the U.N. aid agency bureaucracy has kept the scamming a secret since at least 1999 — while the North Korean dictator and his regime were ramping up their illegal nuclear weapons program and making highly publicized tests of intermediate range ballistic missiles.”

DAVE KOPEL’S CHINESE WEBSITE is now operational. Among other things, you can find a Chinese translation of an article I wrote with him on nanotechnology.

WELL, THIS SUCKS:

The wizardry of contextual advertising and blog publishing platforms will allow internet publications to flourish in a thousand niches. Well, that was the theory. The practice? AOL is closing down a slew of smaller blogs it bought from entrepreneur-provocateur and Valleywag staple, Jason Calacanis, in 2005. The bulk of AOL’s ad revenues from its blog network, running at more than $1m a month according to Calacanis, come from a few star brands such as Engadget, Autoblog and Joystiq. They’re in traditional broad categories: consumer electronics, autos and video games. The Time Warner internet unit has told editors of smaller and unprofitable sites that they will be shuttered at the end of the month. So far, we’re hearing lesser-known titles such as BBHub, Divester, DV Guru and PVR Wire; do let us know about others, so we can establish a count.

I like Divester, and I’ve linked to it a number of times. On the other hand, it seemed to mostly push dive gadgets — it’s always seemed to me that there’s more dive-niche money in travel ads.

GET YOUR SURGE ON, at The Mudville Gazette.

AT JEFF JARVIS’S PLACE: Questions for Davos.

A WHILE BACK, when the Insta-Mom posted some kids’ book recommendations here, a lot of readers suggested that she start her own blog devoted to kids’ books. Now she has — it’s here.

JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG has started a new blog. Not surprisingly, she’s also got a new book coming out.

WHAT ELITE PROFESSORS THINK: Does it matter?

BILL HOBBS: “For a guy who says he’s not running for political office, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson sure is raising his public political profile lately.”

IRAQIS SPEAK TO AMERICA: At Hot Air.

TV WEATHER PERSONALITIES square off over global warming.

THE USS ARIZONA IS WASTING AWAY: “If you’ve been thinking of visiting the memorial at Pearl Harbor, consider booking the trip sooner than later.”

DON SURBER on the new Senate ethics bill: “If it is such a good bill, why did it get such widespread support? I do not recall a single one of these senators saying he or she is giving up a damned thing in this bill.”

HUGO CHAVEZ VS. HARRY REID.

WORRIES ABOUT AL QAEDA TRYING TO COME BACK: And note the Algerian angle.

NO CHARGES for Paul Hackett. (Via Volokh).