PERRY DE HAVILLAND: “Yes, it is true. I am going to go and sign the treaty for the European Constitution on behalf of Belgium. . . . If the people who were voted out of office in Belgium months ago can sign the treaty, then why not me too?” Plus, Perry will look far more dashing while he does it.

WHEN I WATCH BRINKS HOME SECURITY COMMERCIALS LIKE THIS ONE, I think that the nice lady might be safer from the evil intruder if she had a gun, instead of a telephone and a siren. Of course if Brinks home security offered this degree of service, it might be different . . . .

UPDATE: An alternate commercial, from reader Peter Gookins:

Alarm going off.
Other sounds.
Phone rings.
Customer: Hello
Brinks: Ma’am, this is Brink’s. Is everything all right?
Customer: Well, there’s a dead guy on the porch and empty brass all over
my family room. Can you send help?
Brinks: We’ll dispatch the maid service right away.

Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kind of like this one.

BEST BUY threatens blogger. For reporting on someone else’s parody.

They’re not very smart at Best Buy. If I owned stock, I’d sell it. And threatening bloggers, especially when you’re not very smart, is . . . even more not very smart. At least they apologized. I hope that those responsible have been sacked. And replaced by Llamas.

IT’S NOT JUST HYBRIDS — clean diesels are coming on strong.

HEH: From the comments to this post: “The MSM interprets truth as damage, and routes around it.”

SEPARATED AT BIRTH? Reader C.R. Scott sees something familiar about Mike Huckabee. “My wife pointed out to me that Huckabee is the spitting image of Gomer Pyle. No wonder the Dems are angling him to win!”

Hey, Gomer was pretty popular. And gay-friendly!

STILL MORE human rights violations in Canada.

I MENTIONED THE ASUS MINI-LAPTOP EARLIER, and here’s a video review.

STEPHEN BAINBRIDGE: Why I’m not voting for Huckabee.

AN INTERVIEW WITH HUCKABEE’S CAMPAIGN MANAGER, Chip Saltsman.

DECLAN MCCULLAGH: “A top Republican in the House of Representatives is demanding that Google answer a barrage of questions about privacy, some of which are related to the company’s proposed purchase of the DoubleClick advertising firm.” Plus, a handy chart of various search engines’ privacy policies.

CHILDREN OF THE KORNHEISER.

CLINTON GOES AFTER OBAMA on drug use.

UPDATE: Ace wonders if anyone has asked Hillary about drug use?

BILL CLINTON: Bye, bye Burkle! I eagerly await Mickey Kaus’s take.

AT THE NEW REPUBLIC, a circular firing squad forms.

RON BAILEY FILES another report from Bali. John Kerry is there! “The venue at the Grand Hyatt was packed with people eager to get a look at the anti-George W. Bush, or at least the best stand-in until newly minted Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore arrives later this week.” Excitement abounds.

UPDATE: Kerry was against Kyoto before he was for it?

A LOOK AT four basement studios.

ONE MILLION WITHOUT POWER after ice storm: They can’t read it, but here’s a blackout survival guide, and here are some home generator safety guidelines. Others may find it useful in preparing for their own inevitable power loss.

Or you can get a big honking battery. (Some useful backup power advice in general at the link, too.) Or you can always power your house with a Prius!

UPDATE: Some generator advice from Bart Hall: “Yesterday we toasted a couple of transformers (router and furnace) because the generator was cranking out 160 volts instead of 120V. We’ve used this generator without problem for years, but evidently there was either a short in the field or the voltage regulator failed, and it’ll cost us well over a hundred bucks, not counting repairs to the generator itself. Henceforth I’ll meter the output before backfeeding the house, and recommend you do the same.”

WHY POLICE DON’T WANT YOU TO RECORD THEM: “A teenage suspect who secretly recorded his interrogation on an MP3 player has landed a veteran detective in the middle of perjury charges, authorities said Thursday.” (Via Volokh.)

HEH: “Well, it’s a pleasure to welcome Mrs. Clinton to the Second Amendment side of the debate. ”

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: ‘Earmark’ cash aids Dem freshmen:

A year ago, Democrats won control of Congress in part by criticizing billions of dollars spent on pet projects. Now, freshmen Democrats are benefiting from the same kind of spending, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

All 49 of the new Democratic lawmakers sponsored or co-sponsored at least one project — known as an “earmark” — inserted into the House and Senate spending bills, the analysis found. Freshmen Democrats were the sole sponsors on projects worth $351 million, an average of $7.6 million. Republicans got approval for projects worth $65 million, or $5 million each.

The analysis found that some of the most vulnerable freshmen Democrats in next year’s election were among those who got the most money. . . . Democratic candidates criticized Republican incumbents last year for abusing earmarks. Patrick Murphy attacked then-representative Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., during a debate for failing to make the “tough decisions” on a transportation bill heavy with earmarks, the Bucks County Courier Times reported. Now a representative, Murphy sponsored $11.8 million for local projects and businesses — fourth-highest among House and Senate freshmen.

I guess Boehner is right.

THOUGHTS ON RON PAUL: “I haven’t seen anything to suggest to me that Paul is a pacifist who wants to ‘dismantle the military.’ He strikes me, in fact, as a ‘rubble doesn’t make trouble’ guy.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: “As the Supreme Court ponders what the Constitution means, a volunteer security guard in Colorado shows that the problem with society may not be who has guns, but who doesn’t.”

SARKOZY: A “danger of war” with Iran. Somebody tell the CIA!

A LOOK AT THE NEW CROP OF TINY PCs. I was supposed to review an Asus for Popular Mechanics, but apparently demo models are too hard to come by right now.