IS EUROPE GIVING UP ON KYOTO? “Italy and Germany agree that measures to cut greenhouse gases shouldn’t weigh on the economy, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference Tuesday, indicating government support for tough new measures in Europe is waning.”

HOW MUCH was your vote worth?

ROBERT FARAGO:  Bailout Watch 220:  “We’ll Be Back,” Chrysler’s Dead, Where’s Barack?

PIRATES, PIRATES EVERYWHERE: Is one of them named Ragnar Danneskjold?

Doubtful.  It’s certainly exposing the way the current legal system renders governments powerless against barbarians. There are traditional remedies for this problem.  Sooner or later they will be invoked.

JERRY POURNELLE: “The Governor of California has just said that the US is the greatest polluter in the world, which is manifestly untrue on any level. Meanwhile he is acting as if there is some reason to curb CO2 emissions in the midst of a depression. This is madness. He is also acting as if he is the new Minister of the Environment.” Beats trying to deal with California’s fiscal problems.

UPDATE:  Maybe he should start focusing on bureaucratic problems in responding to the Los Angeles fires before he branches out to global issues. . . .

ANIMATED NEWS is a blog about animation.

HEH:  Texas Grand Jury ‘Indicts’ Cheney, Gonzales, Ham Sandwich and Side of Pasta Salad.

DEWEY THE LIBRARY CAT becomes a New York Times bestseller.

HOW OBAMA GOT ELECTED: Thanks to our press for a job well-done.  “It’s worth noting that the Obama voters in Zogby’s sample were 97 percent high school graduates and–rather shockingly–55 percent college graduates. It’s almost enough to make you wonder about the future of democracy.”

OH NO:  Aruba Police Find New Evidence in Holloway Case. That’s the end of cable news for at least a week . . . .

A BIG ECONOMIC-NEWS ROUNDUP from Jules Crittenden.

ANOTHER ISSUE of New Global Studies.

I’M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THE DEMS BECOMING MORE FILIBUSTER-PROOF, BUT I CAN’T REALLY MIND THIS TOO MUCH: Ted Stevens loses re-election bid. I said last year that the GOP shouldn’t have let him run, and, well, they should’ve listened.

HARVARD STUDENTS, smarter than the faculty?

PROFESSOR FIRED FOR publicly charging students with plagiarism. He seems unrepentant.

Young, a former adjunct professor of management information systems, said he believes he made the right move. He said trials are public for a reason, and plagiarism should be treated the same way. He added that exposing cheaters is an effective deterrent. “They were told the consequences in the syllabus,” he said. “They didn’t believe it.” . . .

“You have to hold them accountable,” he said. “If you don’t, you hold a grave danger of having an illiterate society.”

Roundup at TaxProf.

Meanwhile, Eugene Volokh thinks the University may be in the wrong here.

UPDATE:  Eugene Volokh emails a clarification

Thanks very much for the link to my post, but I should note that I don’t think the university is in the wrong for firing him:

I can’t speak to whether FERPA indeed applies here. But I’m inclined to say that a university wouldn’t be violating academic freedom — or, as to public universities, the First Amendment — if it provided that a faculty member generally may not publicize embarrassing things he learns about specific named students as a result of his teaching, even including dishonest conduct by those students.

I do think the university might not be doing enough about plagiarists, based on its own statement that it’s not clear that a professor could even give an F to a student for plagiarism.  But as to the firing, I think the university’s action is at least permissible.

NEW YORK TIMES: “We don’t say it all that often, but President Bush is right: Congress should pass the Colombian free-trade agreement now.”

A RECIPE FOR 45-minute Roast Turkey. Sounds good.  And fast!

THOUGHTS ON diversity in higher education.

TED NUGENT SAYS, speak up!

THAT’S OKAY — I’M WILLING TO BE SECOND: “Look, I’ve said for years that I’ll fight Glenn Reynolds be the first in line to upload my consciousness, and if two academic geeks want to Xerox my brain, I’m down for that too.”

SO IS THIS GOOD NEWS, OR BAD NEWS? “The Labor Department reported Tuesday that wholesale prices dropped by 2.8 percent in October, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back more than 60 years.”  Since it seems to be driven by energy price declines, and not general deflation, I’d say good news.

ERIC HOLDER to be Attorney General? Orin Kerr thinks that’s okay.

UPDATE: Some may feel otherwise.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here: “Eric Holder played an important role in the much-maligned pardon of fugitive Marc Rich. Should he really be the next attorney general?”

MORE: “He actually seems like a candidate Hillary Clinton would have picked had she won this year — which makes us ask just how much ‘change’ Obama intends to bring if most of his Cabinet picks are all Clinton Administration people.”

STILL MORE:  Thoughts from Professor Bainbridge.

CELEBRATE YOUR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS: Tomorrow is National Ammo Day.

STAN LEE WINS the Medal of Arts.

SORRY FOR THAT WHOLE RUINING-YOUR-CAREER THING: Student-sex charges dropped against Halls High teacher.

Prosecutors today dropped charges against a Halls High School teacher accused of having sex with a student.

Corey DeHart, who had been suspended from his post as a math teacher after a student filed a complaint against him in September 2007, had faced six counts of multiple sex acts ranging from statutory rape to sexual battery by an authority figure.

However, those charges were dropped at a brief hearing this morning before Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner.  “Basically our case evaporated,” said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols.

Unpaid leave for over a year before an Emily Litella “never mind” in court. No wonder people — especially men, who have more reason to worry about unfounded charges — are increasingly reluctant to go into teaching.