BONG HITS FOR JESUS: Ann Althouse has a big post on this case. I don’t think that schools have any business regulating student speech outside of school. The notion that schools can punish out-of-school speech that “undermines” (that is, disagrees with) the school’s message is creepily totalitarian, and in my opinion any principal who thinks this way is unfit to hold the job.

HOW BEIRUT POLICE FINGERED SYRIA in the Hariri assassination.

JONAH GOLDBERG ON BETRAYING THE BASE:

The GOP grew sweaty and bloated like a fat man at an all-you-can-eat pasta bar, and the voters were right to pry the Republicans’ white-knuckled grip from the hot table’s sneeze guard.

So here’s the ironic part. Suddenly, it looks as if the Democrats are the Republicans on fast-forward.

Read the whole thing. And is it just me, or is the pasta-bar analogy reminiscent of an old episode of Hill Street Blues . . . .

MOHAMMED FADHIL reports from Baghdad.

LIBERTARIANISM — ITS PAST AND PROSPECTS: An interesting discussion over at Cato Unbound.

FIGHTING MALARIA with malaria-resistant mosquitoes.

DELTA AND ME: Okay, my various cryptic references to Delta have people wanting the whole story. It is, sadly, typical.

I left Knoxville headed for Grand Cayman on Sunday morning a week ago. I was connecting in Atlanta to a flight scheduled to depart at 10:20 a.m. Just before boarding, the counter folks announced that the flight was overbooked (by 22 seats!) and started bumping people. I was one of them. There were no other available flights, and I wound up spending the night in Atlanta and taking the next day’s flight at 10:20 a.m. That cost me a full day of time in Grand Cayman. Delta gave me $400 and three meal vouchers for $7 each. I did not feel adequately compensated for losing, effectively, one fourth of my stay.

Well, airlines overbook, and people get bumped. But this degree of overbooking on a flight at the crowded spring break season seems way excessive to me. And worst of all was the attitude of the Delta employees at the counter that morning. They gave the impression of actually enjoying the process of delivering the bad news — including the supervisor whom I asked to speak with. I’ve been flying Delta since I was three years old, and my experiences with them have generally been good, but this experience makes me understand why they’re doing so badly, and not care very much what happens to them. Airlines have a lot of problems to deal with that make flights late sometimes, like this past weekend’s blizzards, and I have considerable sympathy with them when those come up. But after this I don’t trust Delta to do its best, and I think it’s important to trust people you’re hiring to get you somewhere on time and in one piece.

EXTREMIST STUDENTS TAKE OVER MOSQUE: And I’ll bet there’s Saudi money behind this stuff.

OOPS: Magazine publishers see future, but no profit, in shift to Internet.

ALBERTO GONZALES appears to have accomplished what once seemed impossible — making people nostalgic for John Ashcroft. Now The Politico reports that the White House is looking for replacements.

Should’ve listened to me when I was recommending Randy Barnett!

IT’S AN IRAQ Q & A over at Tim Blair’s.

ANOTHER BUSH LIE? But I thought “more troops” were what we needed! (Via Kaus).

AIRBUS LANDING COVERAGE, with video. Plus this: “The plane has cost the European aircraft manufacturer $16 billion to build and each plane carries a list price of around $300 million, although current customers are reportedly getting steep discounts to compensate them for the production problems, brought on mainly by wiring woes.”

EUGENE VOLOKH: “So the question is: Should the university let the thugs drive debate on important and controversial issues off the university campus? I think the answer is that it should not.”

If it does, of course, it’s sending a signal: Be a thug, and we’ll reward you. It shouldn’t be surprised if people it dislikes seize the opportunity to control speech on its campus.

FRED THOMPSON ON the Iranian reaction to 300.

PRIORITIES IN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY: It kind of reminds me of that pointy-haired boss in Dilbert, saying “can’t we just concentrate our resources across the board?”

KENNETH ANDERSON ON neoconservatism and its critics. “The End of History and the Last Man, in other words, is indeed a splendid disquisition on the end of alternatives to liberal democratic capitalism within modernity—Communism, Nazism, Fascism. But what does it offer if the alternative is not genuinely modern?”

BAD INFLATION IN VENEZUELA. Worse inflation in Zimbabwe. Airbus debacles. Unhappiness in the EU. What could these stories have in common? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

UPDATE: By Jove, I think he’s got it!

ELIZABETH WURTZEL COMMENTS ON AUTOADMIT, something we’ve all been waiting for. I think her attitude is colored by this savage Jim Treacher parody on her narcissistic reaction to the 9/11 attacks.

MICHAEL YOUNG: Is Iran hemorrhaging top-level officials?

I MENTIONED NEAL STEPHENSON’S THE DIAMOND AGE YESTERDAY, and Jim Bennett emails this link to further discussion on the topic. I will note that reviewers seem to think that the book is about technology, when it’s really about sociology.

CHANNELING RICHARD HOFSTADTER: It’s evergreen.

MORE FRED THOMPSON TALK.

A NEW POWER RISES IN IRAQ: Michael Totten reports.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS, MY FRIEND: A look at protest nostalgia.