NORTHWESTERN LAW SCHOOL: Unapologetically poaching 1Ls from other schools.

ONLINE SALES sucked less than other sales, but . . . . “Online sales held up better than the rest of the retail market during the dismal holiday period, but the season is still likely to go down as one of the worst on record for the traditionally booming e-commerce sector.” At least it’s producing good after-Christmas markdowns.

UPDATE: Zegna at Costco.

HEH: “Another memoir hoax, and once again, Oprah fell for it.” She’s a sucker for a good life story, true or not.

FROM AUBREY DE GREY, a Google Tech Talk on the Defeat of Aging.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Caroline Kennedy for Senate: “We Need More Elite in Washington.”

IN THE MAIL: Harry Turtledove’s The Breath of God.

VIDEO: Political correctness vs. freedom of thought. (Bumped).

HMM: Another senior Iranian military official defects.

JOHAN NORBERG vs. Naomi Klein.

“QUITE SIMPLY, the best commercial ever made.”

THE BEST AND THE NOT-SO-BRIGHT: Scientific illiteracy all the rage among the glitterati.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: TV News Winds Down Operations on Iraq War. Hey, they got Obama elected. Why stick around and maybe report stuff that doesn’t fit the narrative?

ELIOT SPITZER: not forgotten.

DAVID SATTER: “As the murders of Russian journalists go unsolved, there are increasing signs that the impunity of Russia’s contract killers is not accidental. One reason for the lack of progress may be that the law enforcement organs that are responsible for investigating the murders of Russian journalists are actually involved in carrying them out.”

YOU DON’T SAY: NBA Player Charities: “Pattern of Mismanagement.”

AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW: ‘Stimulus’ Doesn’t Have to Mean Pork. It doesn’t have to, but with this Congress, it’s pretty likely to. . . .

NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHING “INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM” spoon-fed from a leftist advocacy group. Hey, times are tough and they get it for free!

AN EMINENT DOMAIN SCANDAL IN HOUSTON.

OBAMA AS BUSH: Axelrod says Obama admin will push forward tax cuts despite economic crisis. Nobody tell Frank Rich. Plus this: “Asked by Gregory about televangelist Pat Robertson’s praise for Obama’s cabinet selections, Axelrod said Americans needed to begin working together.”

CHARLES RANGEL: Powerful – and Under Scrutiny.

IT’S AS IF IT’S ALL ABOUT PROTECTING INCUMBENTS: “Eat at Joe’s” is protected speech. “Vote for Joe,” not so much.

SHERMAN VS. GREENWALD. “Understand that I am a native of Atlanta, taught from the cradle to hate Sherman as a wicked instrument of the War of Northern Aggression. Nevertheless, he had a point: Those who inaugurate war must be prepared to accept the consequences. Hamas decided to begin bombarding Israel, and continued that bombardment despite warnings. Surely Hamas has no right to complain of the predictable consequences. . . . I would remind Glenn Greenwald of the words of Barack Obama’s spiritual mentor, who declared that the 9/11 attacks represented ‘chickens coming home to roost’ for America. Is it not possible, by the same standard, to see the Israeli attacks on Gaza as ‘chickens coming home to roost’ for the Palestinians?”

Meanwhile, what about the Obama Doctrine?

JENNIFER RUBIN: How Do You Fight Obama’s New New Deal? “A trillion dollar stimulus is going to ‘create’ jobs, and the government will ‘bailout’ failing industries (with additional debt funded by the Chinese, so long as they have an appetite for quickly depreciating dollars). If you think this sounds half-baked and suffers from historical amnesia, you are right. Despite the obvious shortcomings with this approach (e.g., it’s never worked before), the Republican Party so far isn’t doing a very good job of coming up with alternatives. Plainly, they don’t like the mounds of debt. And they are skeptical of a gigantic public works projects. But what could be done instead? There are some viable ideas.”