MICKEY KAUS: “Are you impressed with a drop in home values of 6.6% over a year? It doesn’t seem like such a big correction, given the dramatic run-up in prices over the last decade or so. … And don’t declining prices make housing more… what’s the word? … affordable?”

LOOKING FOR WRONGED GUN OWNERS:

The National Rifle Association has hired private investigators to find hundreds of people whose firearms were seized by city police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to court papers filed this week.

The NRA is trying to locate gun owners for a federal lawsuit that the lobbying group filed against Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city’s seizure of firearms after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

In the lawsuit, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation claim the city violated gun owners’ constitutional right to bear arms and left them “at the mercy of roving gangs, home invaders, and other criminals” after Katrina.

Read the whole thing.

DOG BITES MAN.

MARK STEYN: “I don’t accept that free-born Canadian citizens need the permission of the Canadian state to read my columns. What’s offensive is not the accusations of Dr Elmasry and his pals, but the willingness of Canada’s pseudo-courts to take them seriously. . . . This morning I spent 20 minutes mulling over a couple of offers for overseas rights to America Alone from the Islamic world. It seems that Muslim publishers from Turkey to Indonesia are more robust than Osgoode Hall law students. What a sad comment on the decayed Dominion.” And on Osgoode Hall law students.

UPDATE: I’ve mentioned it before, but if you want to support Steyn you might buy a copy of his book and send it to:

Canadian Human Rights Commission
344 Slater Street, 8th Floor, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1E1, Canada
Telephone: (613) 995-1151
Toll Free: 1-888-214-1090
TTY: 1-888-643-3304
Fax: (613) 996-9661

A LOOK AT blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.

FRESHMEN keeping their distance.

A FRED THOMPSON blogburst.

UPDATE: More here.

CHINA VS. THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: This isn’t comforting.

FREE BUGS BUNNY cartoon downloads.

BILL CLINTON: “We Need To Stay in Iraq to Protect the Kurds From The Turks.” At HuffPo.

RISKY BUSINESS? Japan drills for methane hydrate.

ADVICE TO HUCKABEE from two-time Iowa Caucus winner Bob Dole.

MICKEY KAUS: “How grudging and testy is Bob Wright’s acceptance of the surge’s relative success?” Not as grudging and testy as it might be . . . .

And the “Anbar Awakening” wasn’t something that happened in spite of U.S. activity. Read Michael Yon on the subject.

IN THE MAIL: When Duct Tape Just Isn’t Enough: Quick Fixes for Everyday Disasters. Looks quite handy.

JONATHAN ADLER: “The Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research is seeking state approval to train science teachers. This is one of those ideas that should be left on the shelf, right next to Lynne Spears’ book on parenting.”

Plus, debating creation vs. evolution in the comments. More support for creationism than I’d have expected there.

I LIKE THIS. Business people for Big Media outlets may feel otherwise. “For some casual bloggers, a bigger bite of the online advertising pie.”

Plus, this non-pecuniary upside: “Getting paid might even help validate what may otherwise seem like a silly or obscure obsession.”

HILLARY CLINTON blogs for Glamour magazine.

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CANDIDATES: People want to know who I endorse, or who I’d vote for. I don’t do endorsements — I think they’re presumptuous in newspapers, and I’d feel silly telling people how they should vote at this point. Most of my readers probably know more than me anyway. But since people keep asking, here are some thoughts. Since they’re kind of long, click “read more” to read them.

ARE CHRISTMAS SALES REALLY DISAPPOINTING? If so, it may be because women’s fashion has missed the boat. Rachel Lucas expresses this view in her own inimitable fashion:

The biggest issue is WHO IN THE HELL IS MAKING THESE CLOTHES? I mean for f*ck’s sake, people. I haven’t seen such ugliness in all my life, even the 1970s. Everything is orange and pink and bright red, covered in ridiculous patterns that make you have a migraine. Nobody wants this sh*t! You can tell because of every item, there are 50 each of the orange, pink, and bright red left, but maybe one green and one blue remaining, either in extra-small or extra-large. Get a clue, designers. A g*ddamn CLUE. . . . Who slept through design class the day it was explained that MOST women have what we call a FIGURE, which means their waist and their hips are not the exact same circumference? We’ve been over this before and I will spare you another rant about it. It’s enough to say that by the time I came out of the dressing room, I was almost in tears and ready to start killin’. . . . You want women to spend money, try making attractive clothes for normal human females. It can’t be that hard. GAH!

The rest of her post also offers other, er, clues to why people might have chosen to stay home. I’m glad I did nearly all of my shopping online! (Via Colborne 2016).

UPDATE: Another post on this theme from Peg Kaplan: “From Macy’s to Nordstrom’s to TJMaxx and points inbetween, I saw enormous quantities of clothing that I wouldn’t wear if someone paid me to do so. After over an hour of pawing through racks and racks and racks of sweaters, blouses, jackets and more that I couldn’t imagine putting in my closet, much less wearing on my body, I could only think to myself: ‘No wonder stores are complaining. Who, other than some 15 to 24 year olds, would buy this stuff?'”

DOES MANDATORY “DIVERSITY TRAINING” JUST LEAD TO MORE LAWSUITS? I certainly hope so . . .

UPDATE: “Not loving the chains.”