THOUGHTS ON OSIRAK AND IDIOM, from TigerHawk.

ASK FRED: Fred Thompson answers a blog question on tax policy.

UPDATE: The questioner is happy.

IN THE MAIL: Douglas Mizner’s novel, Hartsburg, USA.

JEFF EMANUEL reports from Samarra.

NEVER FORGET!

ERIC SCHEIE: Will blog for oil.

POST-CHEMERINSKY, more political silencing at the University of California.

UPDATE: More on Chemerinsky here.

DROPPING IN on Code Pink.

HSUT FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER: That seems to have been the approach of Hillary’s fundraising staff:

To raise $850,000 for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign in just eight months, Norman Hsu tapped an eclectic group of donors that included wealthy investors in his apparel ventures, hotel shopkeepers, a 96-year-old in a Florida retirement home and an auto-body worker who mistakenly thought he would get a tax break for his political generosity.

The Clinton campaign has not yet released any information about the 260 donors whose contributions it is now refunding because they were credited to the prodigious fundraising of the former fugitive, but a detailed analysis of donors Hsu brought to Clinton shows that he tapped many Asian American donors in California and New York, including complete strangers as well as his relatives. He also raised political funds from people who had already invested large sums in his private business ventures.

As a fundraising bundler for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, Norman Hsu collected donations from others. Some of the donors whose checks were credited under Hsu’s name said they had never met him.

Some donors among the nearly 100 identified this week said they never met Hsu and did not know that their donations had been credited to his fundraising. Others had trouble explaining why they gave the funds to Clinton or could not recall the circumstances in which they met Hsu. . . . The case of the mysterious bundler has become a major embarrassment for Clinton and an echo of the campaign finance scandals that surrounded her husband’s presidency in the 1990s. The campaign’s decision to return the money associated with Hsu followed his recent arrest on charges of trying to outrun a 15-year-old warrant, but many questions remain about Hsu’s fundraising tactics, the origin of the funds and whether they were all given legally.

It’s as if the whole thing was a Hsam.

UPDATE: Reader William Casey asks: “Is it possible there is a Hsu-Trie connection?”

DOKTOR FRANK is living the East Bay dream.

JAMES LILEKS: Welcome to Mordor!

INTERESTING, AND GRATIFYING, IF TRUE: “Israelis ‘blew apart Syrian nuclear cache’.”

UPDATE: Much more here.

ADVICE ON FEDERALISM for Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani: “Giuliani and Thompson claim they want to reinvigorate discussion of the virtues of federalism. Terrific. But you can’t argue that states should be free to make their own policies without federal interference — except when you happen to disagree with them. You can be a federalist, or you can be an ardent drug warrior. But you can’t be both.” Indeed.

SERVING LEFTOVERS at the antiwar protests. But there’s a twist.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, in Iraq. Though to be honest, a lot of the protesters in DC look to be about triple the age of those “18 to 22 year olds.”

MATTHEW HOY LOOKS AT the news industry’s diversity problem and how it affects coverage.

I’VE WRITTEN BEFORE about Jeff Zaslow’s reports of anti-male bigotry, but I have to say that this item in Slate’s “Dear Prudence” column takes the cake:

My younger, 13-year-old sister is having a slumber party for her birthday, and invited three or so of her 13- to 14-year-old girlfriends to our house. Shortly after, “Sara’s” mother suggested that my sister’s party should be held at “Tammy’s” house. Why? Because Tammy has a single mother. Sara’s mother is concerned that my father will be in his house during the festivities. There is no reason to be concerned about my father doing anything inappropriate to any of the girls (all the parents have met each other), but she is just uncomfortable about the idea of her daughter sleeping in the same house with another nonfamily man. She has also convinced the other parents that a change of venue would be a good idea. Although Tammy’s mother is willing to host the event, my family is offended that the situation has come to this. Since when is it a crime to have a happy two-parent household?

Only when one of the parents is a man. Prudence’s response is excellent, though I’m not sure that anyone should even explain that they’re “sensitive to such concerns.” If this were a matter of race — or of gender prejudice against women — no one would be advising sensitivity.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing emails:

Glenn, regarding your post about the woman who objected to sending her daughter to a friend’s home for a sleepover because the friend’s father would be present, it’s worth considering that at least 20 percent of child sexual abuse is committed by children against other children. In fact, reports StopItNow.com, “As much as half of all child sexual abuse is committed by children under the age of 18 (Hunter, J.A., Figueredo, A., Malamuth, N.M., & Becker, J.V. (2003). Juvenile sex offenders: Toward the Development of a Typology. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, (2003) Volume 15, No. 1.).”

I think an appropriate response by the original hosting parents to that mother would be to say, “I am uncomfortable with the idea of sending my daughter to spend the night in another house where only one adult is present,” and put the shoe back on her foot.

Meanwhile, reader Richard Aubrey posits a PC meme-clash: “Suppose the husband/father in question were black. The SPIW (Self-Professed Incredibly Wonderful) would have a stroke trying to figure out which meme was stronger.”

A HUGE CHEMERINSKY ROUNDUP at the L.A. Times.

DAVID GELERNTER: Defeat at any price.

P.B.S. makes a correction.

ALAN KEYES to the rescue!

A RUN ON THE BANK in Britain. They’re doing the right thing in response: Shoveling out the cash. People will relax soon enough if that keeps up.

HSU THINK? “I’ve already seen this movie.”

UPDATE: Strange Brew Hsu.

A ROUNDUP OF NORMAN HSU PUNS at Beltway Blogroll. Plus a poll!

My favorite: “Hsu-per California Donors Extradition Opus.” If you say it loud enough you’ll always sound precocious!

UPDATE: Reader Steve Galbraith emails:

I’ve seen this posted by several lefty posters – not bloggers – but posters. Apparently, your citation of puns on Hsu’s name is racist.

Oy.

Because if he was a white American with the name of, let’s say, Gene Shue, apparently you wouldn’t have engaged in this wordplay. It’s only because he’s an Asian.

Doubly oy.

Methinks the real issue with these posters has nothing to do with the name but involves, let us say, other issues you and the Left have?

Just when you think you’ve seen everything on the internet…..

In Internet discourse “racist” — like “fascist” — is often a synonym for “someone who is winning an argument with a lefty.” It’s a term used with such abandon, and so little foundation, that it’s largely lost its original meaning.

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: Global warming is Jane Fonda’s fault. Well, yeah.

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll notes Pete Townshend’s perspicacity — and, in the process, may explain why the anti-nuclear movement isn’t doing as well as it was in the 1970s.

THERE’S NOW A TRANSCRIPT UP, of our podcast interview with Jack Goldsmith.