LETTERS TO Harry Reid.

A ROUNDUP ON YESTERDAY’S GONZALES TESTIMONY: It was mostly buried by the other news, but having heard a bit of it on the radio I have to say I was unimpressed.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “That’s because Gonzales is unimpressive.” Yes, he is — not only were his responses unimpressive, but his manner. He came across as a mediocrity entirely out of his depth.

And there’s this: “Yes, the AG has the right to fire these people for pretty much any reason, but he, at least, should know why he’s firing them.” The only winner in this deal is John Ashcroft, who’s looking better in retrospect — even to Democrats, I suspect.

MASS SHOOTINGS: “ONLY IN AMERICA” — It only seems that way if you’re uninformed.

Plus, questionable numbers in the gun-control debate.

HOWARD KURTZ: “In all the years I’ve been chronicling the media, I have rarely seen the tidal wave of resentment that has washed over television organizations that showed the now-infamous Cho video. In the minds of many Americans, this was a horribly offensive act, and no amount of explanation about the obligations of journalism is going to change that view.”

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “The media used up its reserve of good will when it refused to show all of the 9/11 images and when it went to court to show the most offensive Katrina images. The rest of the nation has figured out that all of their claims of journalistic integrity and ehtics are simply nonsense. Journalism is about protecting media organization profits and advancing a political point of view, period.”

A LOOK AT MODERN CANCER RESEARCH: Faster, please.

PATRICK LASSWELL, with the Peshmerga in Kirkuk.

CHO OVERLOAD: “Whenever anything really bad happens, you can be sure that ‘the media’ will instantly become more emetic than ever, bombarding you round-the-clock with pseudo stories that endlessly repeat the some two-and-one-half facts and skein of groundless conjecture they first broadcast 36 hours ago. The banner ‘New Developments’ regularly flits across the bottom of the television screen, but there are almost never any new developments, only those nauseating talking heads emanating concern and sincerity while milking the story of every last drop of sentimental indulgence.”

This produces higher ratings in the short run, but I think it costs them over the long run.

ORWELL’S TELESCREENS come to Britain.

CANADA JOINS ANTI-KYOTO BLOC:

This week’s announcement by the Canadian government — that it may join a U.S.-led coalition focused on voluntary emissions cuts — could be part of a global shift away from Kyoto’s binding targets.

In a somewhat surprising development, Canada, a long-time supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, announced that it may want to join the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6), a six-nation coalition focusing on voluntary emission-reduction steps and technology transfers. Many environmentalists oppose AP6 out of a fear that it may undermine political support for the legally binding Kyoto treaty.

Expect more of this kind of thing. It was a fine agreement, until it came time to live up to it!

BAD NEWS FROM NIGERIA:

The government is using the police and army to assist political gangs that are attacking opposition campaigning efforts. Last weekends local elections were often invalid because of the intervention of the more powerful government backed gangs. This weekends presidential elections appear to be headed in the same direction. If that is the case, the country will have un-elected government at the state and national level. That, plus the usual corruption, could be enough to trigger the long feared civil war.

I hope not, but that’s becoming not-quite-unthinkable.

WHEN MOVIE STARS ATTACK — their own children.

A LOOK AT Iran in Bosnia.

MARCHING AGAINST ISLAMIC EXTREMISM in Pakistan.

And in Iran.

JOE TRIPPI signs on with John Edwards. I think this is Edwards’ best hire so far.

NEW GOOGLE CONTENT-REMOVAL TOOLS.

A DRAFT ARTICLE ON PREVENTING VIOLENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION that may prove of interest. The Insta-Wife is one of the coauthors.

A POLL ON GUNS IN PUBLIC PLACES.

PLAYING “NAME THAT PARTY” at the Associated Press.

RUSSIA PUTS $1BILLION IN OIL REVENUES into nanotechnology research.

MICKEY KAUS: “NBC shouldn’t have shown that video. It seems less like an ‘ethical challenge’ than a no-brainer. Why encourage other potential Cho’s to try for a similar publicity bonanza? This isn’t a Unabomber like case where publicizing a killer’s electronic media kit might help identify him. We already know who did it. . . . NBC’s responsibility seems especially heavy since, as the sole recipient of Cho’s posthumous publicity kit, they had the power to keep it bottled up and deny him the reward he sought, no? That’s not usually the case–i.e., when a killer is still at large or communicates through multiple media outlets.”

FACT-CHECKING THE BRADY CAMPAIGN, at Reason. “In any case, note that the ‘children’ killed by firearms include older teenagers, among them 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds, a.k.a. ‘adults.’ Judging from the breakdown in 1998 (I can’t find comparable data for 1997), more than 80 percent of gun deaths for the under-20 group involve teenagers 15 or older. About 58 percent of the gun deaths that year were homicides, and these included drug dealers shot by other drug dealers, violent criminals shot by police, and other noninnocent nonchildren. About 33 percent of the gun deaths were suicides; 7 percent were accidents.”

Follow the link for more (Brady) errors and misrepresentations.

AUSTIN BAY SLAMS HARRY REID FOR WAFFLING DEFEATISM: “It would be refreshing if Reid even had the courage of his defeatist convictions. Thing is, his ‘convictions’ aren’t convictions. They are the political postures, and this statement is an example of his political game. He tosses a line to the Dems’ defeatist nuts then edges toward reality with an oily pirouette.”

Ouch.

UPDATE: More here: “Those Democrats sure know how to support the troops!”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Heh.

AN OCTOPUS’S GARDEN at Arms and the Law. (POST UPDATED: See the update about the VPC, which doesn’t appear to have been behind this story after all, as initially reported.)

CAN AMERICA TRUST THE BBC?

EUGENE VOLOKH: “What exactly is the reason for not allowing professors to carry guns?”

UPDATE: Heh.