IS IT RE-EDUCATION TIME at the University of Wisconsin?

UPDATE: Check out the comment from a student at 1:10 pm.

MICHAEL YOUNG: “Does the New Yorker actually edit Seymour Hersh?”

ANBAR UPDATE: “Iraqi security forces killed dozens of al Qaeda militants who attacked a village in western Anbar province on Wednesday, during fierce clashes that lasted much of the day, police officials said on Thursday.”

MAJOR JOHN TAMMES offers his usual Friday roundup of news from Afghanistan. And don’t miss last night’s Afghanistan podcast.

JULES CRITTENDEN ROUNDS UP SOME GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS that you may have missed.

XENI JARDIN on the RIAA’s latest.

EMAIL AND THE FOURTH AMENDMENT: Interesting discussion in the post and comments here.

I think that there’s not nearly enough attention paid to chain-of-evidence issues in these cases. It’s easy enough to plant evidence in the physical world, but when we’re talking about what email people have received, well . . . .

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus flaunts his drug use.

GLOBAL WARMING — on Mars? National Geographic reports:

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet’s recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human- induced—cause, according to one scientist’s controversial theory.

Earth is currently experiencing rapid warming, which the vast majority of climate scientists says is due to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.

In 2005 data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide “ice caps” near Mars’s south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

“The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars,” he said. Abdussamatov believes that changes in the sun’s heat output can account for almost all the climate changes we see on both planets.

Right or not, this doesn’t matter to me — as I’ve noted before, I think we should be trying to minimize our burning of fossil fuels for lots of other reasons. But it does suggest that people should be wary of getting too far ahead of the science. And if this explanation turns out to be correct, overselling global warming could lead to a backlash in which efforts to reduce pollution lose credibility, which would be bad as we should be reducing pollution regardless of global warming.

UPDATE: Martian warming explained.

MORE ENTHUSIASM FOR Fred Thompson.

HEH: “Bob Brown uses frequent flyer points to go to Earth Summit.”

A REAL American Idol.

A REPORT FROM BAGHDAD:

Aside from security concerns, the order also reduces the huge traffic jams caused by the numerous checkpoints. The downside, if any, is being felt mostly by one particular class of Baghdadis: taxi drivers. They can now work only every other day and still have to live with sluggish traffic and expensive fuel.

Still, things are a long way from perfectly peaceful. Bombs continue to disrupt the calm of Baghdad. The suicide bombings carried out by al-Qaeda constitute the largest number of incidents. At the same time there has been a sharp decline in the number of bombings set off by remote control on the part of the regular insurgents.

As we noted in earlier reports, we feel safer about moving around in the city now than we did a month before. I have recently been to districts in Baghdad where a month or two ago I wouldn’t have thought of going to. In the last week or two I’ve showed my ID to soldiers and policemen in checkpoints dozens of times. A few months ago this was considered an extremely risky thing to do — especially for someone whose ID shows a name and profession such as mine. “Omar” is a pure Sunni name and everyone here knows that scores of young Baghdadi men were killed by death squads just because they had the name.

Read the whole thing.

METHANE OFFSETS?

Plus, a plan for quick Kyoto compliance. I’m skeptical — but I want to believe!

ANNALEE NEWITZ: “I can tell you exactly how a pointless blog full of poorly written, incoherent commentary made it to the front page on Digg. I paid people to do it.”

UPDATE: Michael Arrington thinks this piece is unfair to Digg.

MEGAN MCARDLE:

And can I just say that the ritual humiliation of obtaining Sudafed from a drugstore sets every liberty-loving fibre of my patriotic American soul quivering for Revolution? I mean, sure, that would mean even more if I weren’t already reflexively against our nation’s drug laws. But still. Since I bought the stuff three weeks, ago, they’ve introduced another new wrinkle: now you have to go to the pharmacy counter to show your ID and sign for your frigging decongestant. Next time I get a cold, I fully expect a cavity search and several hours in the interrogation room with Vincent D’onofrio getting all crazy and refusing to let me go to the bathroom.

But it’s a full-employment act for Mexican meth labs. And guess who was behind it!

PRAISE FOR PRINCE CHARLES: Well, not really:

You have to hand it to the Prince. There aren’t many people who can manage to be a loudmouth, a danger to the constitution and a buffoon all at the same time. Most of us can manage two of the three. Prince Charles is unique in getting the hat-trick.

That he is wrong, or at the very least a hypocrite, about Big Macs is, however, the least of it. Even if he was right — and by the law of averages he will surely be right about something, one day — his behaviour is an outrage against the constitution and undermines what little credibility the institution of the monarchy has left.

The Prince of Wales has shown over the years that he is simply a loudmouth who cannot resist shooting his mouth off when an opportunity arises. And as he is the heir to throne, such opportunities arise at will.

Please, can’t they skip Charles and go straight to Harry?

UPDATE: Reader Christopher Green emails: “You meant William, right?” No, really I meant Harry . . . .

RECONSIDERING NO-KNOCK RAIDS, IN GEORGIA:

A group of lawmakers wants to make it harder for police to use “no-knock” warrants in the wake of a shootout that left an elderly woman dead after plainclothes officers stormed her home unannounced in a search for drugs.

The measure would allow judges to grant the warrants only if officers can prove a “significant and imminent danger to human life.”

The measure was prompted by the Nov. 21 shootout between Kathryn Johnston and three police officers during a no-knock search of her Atlanta home. When the officers entered without warning, police say that Johnston, 92, fired a handgun at them and that the officers returned fire, killing her. An autopsy concluded she was shot five or six times.

Narcotics officers said an informant had claimed there was cocaine in the home, but none was found.

Democratic Sen. Vincent Fort, a sponsor of the bill, said the case was a warning that it has become too easy to obtain “no-knock” warrants.

“Every citizen ought to be safe and secure in their homes,” Fort said. “A no-knock warrant should be a special warrant, not a standard. And that’s what it’s evolved into.”

As InstaPundit readers know, I agree. I’d like to see federal legislation along these lines, too.

WANT TO PUT THE PAJAMAS MEDIA STRAW POLL WIDGET ON YOUR BLOG? Get it here. You’ll get results for all the participating blogs, and for the readers of your own blog.

AN EARMARK LAWSUIT in West Virginia.

PULLING AN OBAMA: McCain puts his foot in it.

Is it my imagination, or is his campaign unravelling all of a sudden?

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION UPDATE:

When the Democratic Congress passed lobbying- and ethics-reform measures last month, it barred lawmakers and their aides from accepting almost all meals from lobbyists. But, as the Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] recently, hors d’oeuvres—including any food eaten standing up and using a toothpick or one’s fingers—remain kosher. The result, say some observers, has been nothing more consequential than a change in the menu. Out: pasta and steak dinners. In: risotto balls, and blinis with smoked salmon and crème fraiche. Congress feels cleaner already.

Switching from entrees to appetizers isn’t the only way that lobbyists are getting around the new rules. According to another recent report [subscription required], this one in the New York Times, in the last two months lawmakers have invited lobbyists to pay for a California wine-tasting tour, a trip to Disney World, weekend golf tournaments, concerts by the Who and Bob Seeger, and a range of other fun-filled (if golf and Bob Seeger are your bag) outings. The arrangements are legal because the new rules don’t restrict political contributions, meaning lobbyists can still pay to attend a fund-raiser. So rather than paying for the lawmaker directly on these trips, the lobbyist will instead contribute to a political fund-raising committee set up by the lawmaker—which then picks up the tab.

Read the whole thing, and ask yourself if public financing of campaigns — which is presented as the solution — will make any more difference, or just result in cash being handed over . . . on toothpicks.

NEWT GINGRICH AT COOPER UNION: “scathing and often hilarious.”

Scathing and hilarious are two things he does well.

SO IS THIS A SIGN OF OPTIMISM ABOUT IRAQ? Soros buys 1.9 million shares in Halliburton.

UPDATE: Iraq: The new safe haven for your money! Er, well, sort of . . . .

A DISAPPOINTING “Ass-kicking.” Plus questions.