THE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CAST ON LETTERMAN, giving the Top Ten Reasons to watch the next season. Video at the link.

COLOMBIA: How to beat an insurgency.

“YOU’RE FREE TO GO — No, wait!”

RAND SIMBERG: War Critics Decry Interminable And Unwinnable Conflict.

THE CARNIVAL OF CARS is up!

WHO’S ON THE DNC CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE? “The three co-chairs have old ties to Bill Clinton.”

BUT THEY SUPPORT THE TROOPS: Portland “peace” protesters call for fragging.

They’re not antiwar. They’re just on the other side.

UPDATE: In Berkeley, a pro-Marine protest.

TIGERHAWK: Actualizing religious freedom.

GUN RIGHTS and reconstruction.

Those unaware of the importance attached to ensuring that black freedmen could have guns for their own protection against revanchist Southern whites should read this article by Robert Cottrol and Ray Diamond. And those doubting the deliberate effort to disarm black people via gun control laws should read this one.

EASTER THOUGHTS, from InstaPunk.

UPDATE: Jeez, get a clue, Greenwald. I don’t know why you felt you had to bring me into this — well, actually, I think I do — but the post you’re bitching about is by a different blogger than the post linked above. I know it’s hard to get your mind around the idea that multiple pseudonymous writers might actually be different people, but . . . .

MORE: Dan Collins — one of several bloggers at Protein Wisdom, just in case Greenwald doesn’t know that — weighs in.

I hadn’t actually read the post in question until Greenwald started yammering about it — I thought I was just linking a nice Easter item — but Collins is right that it’s kind of “ugly.” However, I suspect that it accurately reflects how a lot of Pennsylvania Democratic primary voters are responding to the Obama/Wright scandal, which is probably what’s really got Greenwald upset.

STILL MORE: How many punks does it take to embarrass Glenn Greenwald? Heh. “Despite three Updates, Greenwald has yet to mention explicitly the little problem with this creative attack.”

And from the comments: “Apparently, in Greenwald’s world Reynold’s association (?) with this blog is important and must be noted but Obama’s association with a black radical nationalist church for 20 years is meaningless. In some world somewhere that makes sense; but not this one.”

I’m used to Greenwald misrepresenting me wholesale, but being savaged for a post I didn’t link to is a new one.

MORE STILL: In the comment section to the InstaPunk post that I actually did link to, someone else is posting comments under my name. Phony-name sockpuppetry — Say, you don’t think . . . ?

AND EVEN MORE: This is just the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Glenn! Reader Howard Deutsch emails:

In reference to the latest Greenwald stupidity, I love Andrew Sullivan’s characterization:

“Glenn Greenwald wonders why Barack Obama has been routinely forced to answer for extremist statements by people he has absolutely nothing to do with – solely because he’s, er, black. You think this would happen to white people? On those grounds alone?”

Given that you’re being called to answer for the statements of a blogger to whom you did not link, I can only assume that the photographs do indeed lie and that you are not actually white.

Bill Clinton was the first black President. And I, apparently, was the first black blogger! It’s just the photographs that make me look so extremely white.

FINALLY: Mark Kleiman comments:

But when Reynolds sends an item link to a posting of the Easter poem “Dulce lignem dulce clavo” by InstaPunk contributor “Chain Gang,” I don’t see where Glenn Greenwald is justified in tying Reynolds to the racist rant posted on the same site by a different contributor, “Old Punk.”

Neither do I. But my expectations are low where Greenwald is concerned. Plus, “Is it just me or does the Blogosphere just need a big fat group hug or something?”

Skippy seems to agree, but hey, who’s more huggable than a kangaroo?

And Dean Barnett emails: “I missed the part where you spent twenty years using that secondary Instapunk guy as your spiritual mentor. I must have also missed the part where you declared your candidacy for president. Good luck! but for the record, my standing as a member of the media means I don’t make contributions. Sorry.” If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve, and fortunately — for me, and even more for America — there’s no likelihood of either.

The “Old Punk” post was pretty bad. I wouldn’t have linked to it if I’d read it, but I didn’t read it — or, for that matter, link it. Meanwhile, I suppose I could start looking closely at the stuff Greenwald links to, but that would require me to slog through his posts. . . .

And, in an update, Tom Maguire asks: “Can we count on Dave Neiwert to just make stuff up that suits his narrative? Yes We Can!” Don’t these people even read each other’s posts? But then, bogus charges of racism are a Neiwert standby.

OKAY, REALLY FINALLY: “Old Punk” responds to his critics.

ARTHUR C. CLARKE, laid to rest.

HERE COMES Peter Cottontail.

HELP FOR PARENTS with badly-behaved children.

TIMOTHY SANDEFUR: Reason and Common Ground: A Response to the Creationists’ ‘Neutrality’ Argument.

THE HUGO AWARD FINALISTS have been announced. Among them is John Scalzi’s The Last Colony, part of the Old Man’s War trilogy that has been so well received in the blogosphere.

Our podcast interview with Scalzi is here. (Bumped, because it’s cool.)

OBAMA’S UNFAVORABLES HIT 51% — a new high, reportedly.

WRIGHT AND WRONG: Jeff Jacoby on Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright.

MORE ON THE FLIP VIDEO CAMERA, mentioned below, as Jack Lail weighs in on its utility for professional media. “We’ve been using the PureDigital’s cameras for reporter shot video since before the company came up with the Flip name. The newer, “Ultra” models are as excellent for shooting short news clips as they are for that unforgettable family moment. Put the HD Canon in its case and try one!” I guess I’m going to have to try one of these out myself.

TOM MAGUIRE on affirmative-action campaigning. “Do not scoff at me. If Bill were to praise Hillary’s marital and parenting skills while overlooking Barack’s that would be the worst sort of racial pandering, playing on unspoken prejudices of black abandonment.”

WELL, GOOD: “The inhabitants of the Falkland Islands are preparing for a South Atlantic oil rush which they hope will make them among the richest people in the world. After 10 years of frustrating delays since oil fields containing up to 60 billion barrels of ‘black gold’ were discovered off the islands, oil companies are planning to start drilling within the next 12 months.”

JACK BALKIN TO DAHLIA LITHWICK:

Dahlia, you seem to think that there is some important difference between the way that political and social movements influenced and interacted with John Roberts and his conservative brethren and the way that they influenced and interacted with Earl Warren and his liberal allies. I’m here to tell you that there are not that many differences, if you put aside who you happen to be rooting for. . . .

The notion that “the individual right to bear arms `ar[o]se full blown’ from the head of Chief Justice John Roberts” and not out of the text of the Bill of Rights is news to me. I guess you could also say that the right against sex discrimination sprang full blown out of the head of William Brennan or that the right against segregated schools sprang full blown out of the head of Earl Warren. This is not historically accurate in either of those cases, and it’s not historically accurate in the case of Roberts. Believe me, I’m not generally in the business of carrying water for our current Chief Justice. But let’s give credit where credit is due.

Indeed.

HEDGING BETS in Iraq.

WELL, THIS WILL IRRITATE THE RIGHT PEOPLE: Pope Baptizes Prominent Italian Muslim. The Pope’s action is an interesting response to Osama’s words from earlier this week.

MOVIE FOOD. Er, the name pretty much explains it.

IS BEACHFRONT PROPERTY WORTH HAVING? Yes. But is it worth buying? Maybe not. When we were in Hilton Head we looked at the market and there seemed to be a lot of places for sale — on one street, we saw eight for-sale signs in a single block; when we rented a house on that street a few years ago there were none that I remember — certainly nothing like the forest that we saw this time. Although the realtors in the area are talking happy, as they tend to do, I wonder if things are really moving. Reportedly, however, the low dollar is bringing in foreign buyers.

UPDATE: Fritz Schranck emails:

Your point about beach property is well-taken, although even in these areas, there are lots of variables, with absolute proximity to the sand providing the most protection against deflationary effects.

Where I live in Rehoboth Beach, for example, the properties within a few blocks of the Atlantic are essentially stable in pricing, and moving at a reasonable clip. Further back, say within a mile or two of the ocean, properties are definitely cheaper, and slow to sell. Local agents say there’s a one year inventory, which is a huge change from the go-go times of 2-3 years ago.

Charleston reader John Marcoux writes:

While Hilton Head is about 60 miles south of here, I’m guessing the kind of seller you have there is like the sellers around here, on Kiawah Island, Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms. They tend to be financially secure and not in any hurry to sell. Places tend to remain on the market for a long time, without much lowering of price, and so for sale signs will accumulate in a slow market.

The place next to us, on the marsh, was for sale for 18 months after the owners moved back to Connecticut, leaving the house vacant. It finally sold this past January for $1.1 million, about 12% below the asking price. That’ a somewhat atypical bargain. I was in a $4.3 million place in the historic district in downtown Charleston that has been on the market for over a year, and still is, because the seller refused to close the difference of $100,000 with a motivated buyer.

And reader Ron Stack emails:

I am a big believer in waterfront property. It is the most desirable and scarcest property in any given community (Manhattan and LA possibly excepted) and will always command a premium relative to the market. When the market as a whole is overpriced, as in South Florida, waterfront takes a hit, too. But it should drop less and recover faster than the equivalent inland property. For a vulture investor like me, the best set of facts is an overpriced waterfront property owned by a speculator who is under water (so to speak) as soon as the market drops. In other words, a good property held by a very highly motivated seller (or the bank). The trick is finding a community where the owners aren’t in it for the long term. If they are, and if they have bought intelligently, they just ride out the recession like any sensible person
should.

So look for a place where people are shortsighted and gullible!