LIKE MYSTERIES? I’m kinda lukewarm on them, but for those who feel otherwise, here’s a roundup of the 2008 Edgar Award nominees.

I’LL BE ON HUGH HEWITT’S SHOW in about a half-hour from now, talking about the primaries and Fred Thompson’s withdrawal.

I MISSED THE LYSANDER SPOONER BICENTENNIAL. And there was cake. I like cake.

QUIBBLING OVER COMMAS, at the Supreme Court.

FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE to the “fatosphere.” What hath Bill Quick wrought? . . . .

UPDATE: A couple of readers wonder why I’m calling Bill Quick fat. I’m not, and he isn’t. But he coined the word “blogosphere,” from which “fatosphere” is derived.

VIA EMAIL FROM FRED THOMPSON: “Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.”

FORGET THE OSCARS: Nominations are out for the Golden Raspberry Awards. Lindsay Lohan had a good year . . . .

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Well, the Dow is of by hundreds of points, the Fed is announcing surprise inter-meeting rate cuts, Bank of America reported a 95% fall in its profits, and the outfits in the new spring catalogs have the shape and coloring of badly-decorated Easter eggs. All in all, not a good morning.”

THE USES OF “Strategic Emotion.”

MORE THOUGHTS ON friendly A.I.

MEMO FROM GULFISTAN: A look at Iran and the Arabs.

JOSE PADILLA gets 17 years.

“IF YOU CAN’T BE REAGAN, BE GOLDWATER:” That, reportedly, is Fred Thompson’s attitude.

UPDATE: A.C. Kleinheider says finish the game.

LARRY KUDLOW THINKS the Fed got it right. I hope so, because they can’t do this too many more times.

GOOD NEWS: Reader Richard McEnroe emails: “Tim Blair is out of surgery and doing fine. They think they got it all.” I don’t know how he’s heard, but I’m happy to hear it myself.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from the major papers — including a review of Benjamin Franklin’s The Way to Wealth, now in its 250th anniversary edition.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The hogs want to be slopped:

Despite Blog Support, Flake Bid a Long-shot

Every so often, the liberal or conservative blogospheres will get excited and mobilized to make something happen that probably never will. Such is the case with the growing movement to get Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake (R) onto the House Appropriations Committee.

Flake — the House’s best known scourge of spending earmarks and the Appropriations panel in general — is making a play to get onto the committee, hoping to take the slot vacated recently when Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was appointed to fill Trent Lott’s (R) Senate seat.

Flake’s bid has stirred up significant support on conservative blogs like Captain’s Quarters, Townhall.com and PoliPundit. There’s a Facebook page devoted to his candidacy, and this site hatched by the conservative group FreedomWorks specifically to promote his effort.

There’s just one problem: Flake’s chances are very, very slim, no matter how many bloggers he has in his corner.

Guess why. With even folks like Rush Limbaugh talking about sitting out the 2008 election, the GOP needs to do something to show people it’s serious about controlling pork. Of course, first it needs to be serious.

THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS ARE OUT. I know a lot of people care about this, but I have to say my interest in new movies has dropped considerably. Part of that’s because I’d rather watch movies at home, but part of it is that the new movies just aren’t that good any more, and neither is the experience of watching movies in theaters.

THE AFGHAN AIR FORCE flies again.

THE EXAMINER editorializes on stimulus packages: “The biggest fairy tale in Washington isn’t Barack Obama’s voting record on the war in Iraq, but the notion peddled by Republicans and Democrats alike that the government has a big pot of its own money that it generously gives to people by ‘injecting’ it into the economy as a stimulus.” Read the whole thing.

THOUGHTS ON Hillary and Hayek.

UPDATE: Greg Mankiw on Hillary’s tax plans. Plus, Megan McArdle comments:“I don’t want to hear any more about how the Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility; none of them are planning to close the current deficit, much less deal with the now-seriously-it-really-is-looming entitlement problem.”

Oh, and we discussed Hillary’s economic policies with Gene Sperling here.

FOLLOWING UP ON LAST MONTH’S SINUS POST, here’s some related news: “A nasal spray made from Atlantic Ocean seawater eased wintertime cold symptoms faster and slowed cough and cold symptoms from returning among children ages 6 to 10, researchers in Europe reported on Monday.”

AVIAN FLU UPDATE:

Last year, for the first time since avian flu emerged as a global threat, the number of human cases was down from the year before. As the illness receded, the scary headlines — with their warnings of a pandemic that could kill 150 million people — all but vanished.

But avian flu has not gone away. Nor has it become less lethal or less widespread in birds. Experts argue that preparations against it have to continue, even if the virus’s failure to mutate into a pandemic strain has given the world more breathing room.

As I’ve noted here repeatedly, regardless of what happens with this particular pathogen, we’re woefully underprepared for new outbreaks of deadly disease.

MICKEY KAUS: “The Reagan Coalition didn’t die of natural causes.” It’s not dead yet. It just smells a little funny.

Meanwhile, scroll down to see my thoughts on this topic, including a related bit on Fred Thompson.

LARRY KUDLOW: “There’s a global stock market tsunami gathering force. It may hit U.S. shores very hard this morning.”

UPDATE: The Fed must have listened to Larry, with a 75 basis point cut being announced already this morning.