MORE ON THE PRESS’S INEXPLICABLE “Depression Lust.”

MORE ON HORMONES from Michael Greenspan.

GAS PAINS for Hugo Chavez.

ROGER SIMON: For once I agree with Chris Dodd. Yeah, but if only Dodd would take responsibility for his own misdeeds as eagerly as he doles it out to others . . . .

UPDATE: Steve Sturm wonders what politicians know about making cars. Yeah, if GM ran like the federal government it would be in even worse shape . . . .

SOME FEMINISTS aren’t giving a pass to Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau.

UPDATE: Reader Brian Hancock writes: “Waiting for the bumper sticker: ‘Have you groped your cardboard Hillary today?'”

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here. “If this is supposed to be excused as a ‘youthful indiscretion’ because Favreau is ‘so young’ then I think Obama’s judgment in continuing to rely professionally on someone so ‘young’ and irresponsible and offensively sexist can reasonably be questioned.”

MORE ON VACCINATION FEARS. I had a column on this subject a while ago.

MICHAEL YON REPORTS from the front lines in Afghanistan.

THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of Stalin’s terror famine. And Walter Duranty’s betrayal. Some related thoughts from Ilya Somin.

IN THE MAIL: Harry Turtledove’s The United States of Atlantis. The Insta-Daughter, meanwhile, recently finished The Household Gods, which is a good book, and perhaps especially good for teenage girls.

PROPOSITION 8: The Backlash.

ANOTHER EXCITING INSTA-POLL!

AT HOMELAND SECURITY, ALL AMERICANS ARE EQUAL, BUT MICHAEL BOLTON IS MORE EQUAL: So I was flying home Saturday, on the plane with Michael Bolton and his band — he’d played at Cayman Jazzfest, which we skipped, but Doug Weinstein (a horn arranger of some ability) sat next to Bolton’s trumpeter on the plane and had a nice conversation, which was probably enhanced by the fact that she’s cute.

But when we were waiting in line for immigration, a fellow with a blue blazer and a badge came and took Bolton (who was wearing a black pullover that said “royalty” on the back) and two sidekicks (a personal assistant and a bodyguard, by appearances) out of the line and whisked them ahead of a lot of other patiently-waiting folks. This was repeated at the customs station. I’d be curious to know what policy permits such special treatment; it was poorly received by those waiting in line.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news from the Apple Empire.

A LOOK AT WAL-MART VS. FEMA in response to Katrina. So which approach will the Obama Administration emulate?

AMERICA’S CHICKENS, comin’ home to cross the road.

FORGET DAVID GREGORY: Let Greg Packer host Meet The Press. “I mean, he’s got Gregory’s unerring CW-spouting capacity, plus he’s got Tim Russert-style blue collar street cred. He’s a ‘highway maintenance worker,’ for Chrissakes! I think NBC missed a bet here.”

TIM BLAIR: LICENSE ALL WRITERS? In which Timothy Egan is invited to fix a leaky toilet, and otherwise subjected to a delightful old-fashioned Fisking.

ANONYMITY AND THE LAW in the United States.

RADLEY BALKO ON S.W.A.T. RAIDS AND COLLATERAL DAMAGE.

IN THE LONDON TIMES, Richard Munday on combatting terrorism: If each of us carried a gun . . .
. . . we could help to combat terrorism.

The Mumbai massacre could happen in London tomorrow; but probably it could not have happened to Londoners 100 years ago.

In January 1909 two such anarchists, lately come from an attempt to blow up the president of France, tried to commit a robbery in north London, armed with automatic pistols. Edwardian Londoners, however, shot back – and the anarchists were pursued through the streets by a spontaneous hue-and-cry. The police, who could not find the key to their own gun cupboard, borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by, while other citizens armed with revolvers and shotguns preferred to use their weapons themselves to bring the assailants down.

Today we are probably more shocked at the idea of so many ordinary Londoners carrying guns in the street than we are at the idea of an armed robbery. But the world of Conan Doyle’s Dr Watson, pocketing his revolver before he walked the London streets, was real. The arming of the populace guaranteed rather than disturbed the peace.

Nice to see such thinking across the Atlantic. Edwardian London was a place better-adapted to the threats we see today than today’s London is. How long can that situation continue?

ANDREW BREITBART: I Believe Hillary’s Cardboard Cutout. “The aggressive iconography of two young drunk men taking advantage of a life-size cutout of a woman – especially a powerful one – would bring an elite college campus to a standstill, force a housecleaning of a Fortune 500 company, ground the Air Force Academy and would, in most cases, ruin the career of a Republican staffer or elected official. . . . However, the Democratic double standard on political correctness kicked in immediately as the feminist establishment, the media and even Mrs. Clinton herself came forth to save the fast-rising Obama wordsmith.”

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: A case of a government bubble bursting?

POLITICO: Liberals Voice Concerns About Obama: “Liberals are growing increasingly nervous – and some just flat-out angry – that President-elect Barack Obama seems to be stiffing them on Cabinet jobs and policy choices. Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left. Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss.” They told me that if I voted for John McCain, we’d get a third Bush term. And they were right!

D-DAY FOR THE OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE CASES: “Despite the Obama opponents’ obvious passion, which has been burning for many months often under the political radar, few legal observers believe that the required four justices will vote to hear arguments on the cases.”

HOW SUPERSIZING seduces.