MORE EDWARDS/MURDOCH money hypocrisy.

ROBERT SAMUELSON:

We in the news business often enlist in moral crusades. Global warming is among the latest. Unfortunately, self-righteous indignation can undermine good journalism. Last week’s NEWSWEEK cover story on global warming is a sobering reminder. It’s an object lesson of how viewing the world as “good guys vs. bad guys” can lead to a vast oversimplification of a messy story. . . . But the overriding reality seems almost un-American: we simply don’t have a solution for this problem. As we debate it, journalists should resist the temptation to portray global warming as a morality tale—as NEWSWEEK did—in which anyone who questions its gravity or proposed solutions may be ridiculed as a fool, a crank or an industry stooge. Dissent is, or should be, the lifeblood of a free society.

I thought dissent was supposed to be the highest form of patriotism. . . . But read the whole thing. Personally, as I’ve noted before, the whole debate seems to me to be a religious sideshow. Regardless of what you think about global warming, there are lots of good reasons to avoid burning fossil fuels. But the global-warming discussion in the media is a consensus identity narrative designed to achieve political ends, not an effort to find facts or protect the environment. And this also accounts for the backlash.

UPDATE: More efforts to crush dissent, with threats of jail. They told me that if George W. Bush were reelected, those who failed to toe the line would be ostracized and threatened with prison. And they were right!

MICKEY KAUS: GM has the technology, but Toyota has the advantage.

AU REVOIR, Freedom Fries.

SURRENDER IS AS SURRENDER DOES: Jules Crittenden looks at some fancy political footwork on the surge and Iraq.

Some related thoughts from James Taranto: “Actually, when you think about it, it’s amazing how similar the 2008 race is to the 2004 race. We have a formidable establishment candidate who originally backed the war, then changed his mind (John Kerry then, Hillary Clinton now); a challenger who has opposed the war all along, and who is clearly out of his depth (Howard Dean, Barack Obama); and a third guy who stands around looking pretty (John Edwards, John Edwards).”

TOM SMITH BEATS ME in the tire-pressure geek arms race.

IN THE LONDON TIMES, questions about BBC bias:

The growing general agreement that the culture of the BBC (and not just the BBC) is the culture of the chattering classes provokes a question that has puzzled me for 40 years. The question itself is simple – much simpler than the answer: what is behind the opinions and attitudes of this social group? . . .

We in the BBC were acutely detribalised; we were in a tribal institution, but we were not of it. Nor did we have any geographical tribe; we lived in commuter suburbs, we knew very few of our neighbours and took not the slightest interest in local government. In fact we looked down on it. Councillors were self-important nobodies and mayors were a pompous joke.

We belonged instead to a dispersed “metropolitan media arts graduate” tribe. We met over coffee, lunch, drinks and dinner to reinforce our views on the evils of apartheid, nuclear deterrence, capital punishment, the British Empire, big business, advertising, public relations, the royal family, the defence budget – it’s a wonder we ever got home.

The second factor that shaped our media liberal attitudes was a sense of exclusion. We saw ourselves as part of the intellectual elite, full of ideas about how the country should be run. Being naive in the way institutions actually work, we were convinced that Britain’s problems were the result of the stupidity of the people in charge of the country.

This ignorance of the realities of government and management enabled us to occupy the moral high ground.

Read the whole thing, which is probably applicable beyond the BBC’s confines.

A ROMNEY VICTORY in the Iowa Straw Poll, according to Romney HQ.

UPDATE: Full report from Marc Ambinder. A surprise second-place showing by Huckabee.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Lots of candidate and pundit reactions at The Corner.

BRENDAN LOY: The 2007 hurricane season is right on schedule.

HEH: “Oh, don’t you just know the linked-to article is a lifestyles piece in the NYT? Where do they find these people?”

THE ARMY ISN’T STONEWALLING — BEAUCHAMP IS: An Army response to TNR.

THANKS, Skippy!

DOES A REPORTER HAVE A DUTY TO APPEAR ON C-SPAN?

Nope. Just as nobody has a duty to talk to reporters.

A LIST OF terror websites based in the West.

OKAY, this is just disturbing:

Thomas Martel, 28, of Bonnie Brae is a big guy. So he has a hard time using the features on ever-shrinking user interfaces on devices like his new iPhone. At least, he did, until he had his thumbs surgically altered in a revolutionary new surgical technique known as “whittling.” . . .

The procedure involved making a small incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails. While Martel’s new thumbs now appear small and effeminate in comparison to his otherwise very large hands, he says he can still lift “pretty much anything I could lift before the surgery – though opening spaghetti sauce jars has been a problem. That was a big surprise.”

(Via Physics Geek. And it’s inspired a contest.)

UPDATE: Apparently, it’s also a hoax, which I actually find a relief.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here.

KIND OF A COUP: The Amazon page for Bjorn Lomborg’s new book on global warming features a review by Michael Crichton.

SHIP OF FOOLS. Reader C.J. Burch emails: “How come the bloggers are the first to notice and the reporters are the last to notice?”

It’s all about the narrative.

MICKEY KAUS:

I thought Wall Streeters were paid big money because they took big risks. Capitalism, etc. But when those risks actually materialize, and the Wall Streeters are actually threatened with large losses that might change their lifestyles, Jim Cramer shows up to demand that the government bail out his friends.

Plus: “Should the campaign of John Edwards be accusing other candidates of exploiting tragedy?”

UPDATE: A Cramer defense.

MILITARY VETERANS SPEAK OUT at Yale Law School.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT The New York Times’ Lebanon coverage. And an earlier complaint here.

A “DIRTY BOMB” THREAT in New York.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has a roundup. Plus, helpful background from Dan Riehl.

TAKING THE WSJ WEBSITE from subscription to free?

News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch has said he might make the Wall Street Journal’s Web site free, a shift that could compel Pearson to do the same with the online version of its Financial Times. . . .

“It would be an expensive thing to do in the short term. In the long term, it may be a great thing to do,” Murdoch said this week as he sketched his plan for the future of Dow Jones.

Hmm. I think the WSJ is one of the few publications of its type that can make a subscription model work.

U.N. TROOPS “HELPED TO SMUGGLE GOLD:”

The BBC has obtained an internal UN report examining allegations of gold smuggling by Pakistani peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It concluded that Pakistani officers provided armed escorts, hospitality and food to gold smugglers in east Congo.

The confidential report recommended the case be referred to Islamabad for appropriate action against the troops.

I wonder what will happen.

THE CLINTONS AND THE GAY COMMUNITY: “Hillary Clinton has gone about as far as Hillary Clinton will go in disavowing her earlier positions on major gay issues.”

NEWTROOTS vs NetRoots.