WHY DON’T WE hang pirates anymore?

DOG BITES MAN: Obama Chief of Staff Hopes to Exploit the Economic Crisis to Expand the Growth of Government.

HARD TIMES AT the L.A. Auto Show.

ONLY 30-DAY STOCKPILES OF COAL? “A new report from the University of Minnesota warns that an influenza pandemic could disrupt the coal industry, thereby endangering the nation’s significantly coal-dependent electric power system and everything that depends on it. . . . The authors, CIDRAP research assistant Nicholas Kelley, MSPH, and CIDRAP Director Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, recommend that power plants stockpile coal to last much longer than the average 30-day supply they have now and that the nation prepare now for disruptions in the coal-supply chain and electrical service. They also urge that coal industry workers be put in the highest priority group for pandemic vaccines and antivirals.”

As I’ve noted before, we need to devote more effort to hardening our systems against disaster.

ORIN KERR: “A lot of conservatives are wondering how the conservative political movement can be revived and strengthened in the Obama era. The best idea I have heard so far is having lectures on conservative thought and conservative perspectives at a bar with great beer.”

BEST HOLIDAY TOYS for under 20 dollars.

NEW 4D MICROSCOPE provides a revolutionary tool for nanotechnology.

QUICK CANCER TESTS with microfluidic chips.

DAMON ROOT ON mutual aid, private property, and armed self-defense.

JACK GOLDSMITH: DOES EUROPE BELIEVE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW? Based on the record, it has no grounds to criticize the U.S. “In fact, Europe’s commitment to international law is largely rhetorical. Like the Bush administration, Europeans obey international law when it advances their interests and discard it when it does not.”

RESEARCH ON moral values for fighting robots. I suggest a review of Keith Laumer’s works. And Fred Saberhagen’s.

A REPORT FROM DEAN KAMEN’S secluded island of geekery.

POLITICAL PREDICTIONS: Bettors beat pundits. Something to talk about at the prediction markets conference in January, anyway.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

INSTA-POLL:

THOMAS SOWELL ON “JOLTING” THE ECONOMY:

Amid all the political and media hysteria, national output has declined by less than one-half of one percent. In fact, it may not have declined even that much– or at all– when the statistics are revised later, as they very often are.

We are not talking about the Great Depression, when output dropped by one-third and unemployment soared to 25 percent.

What we are talking about is a golden political opportunity for politicians to use the current financial crisis to fundamentally change an economy that has been successful for more than two centuries.

Plus, they get to neutralize a rival power center.

WELL, GOOD: “Optimistic on Obama’s potential usefulness to black nerds.”

WILL THE REAL CHRIS MATTHEWS please shut up?

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Everything I’ve seen about Bush and the transition indicates that he has been entirely classy. But right now, classy is not enough. The more publicly he is seen to coordinate with the Obama team, the more reassuring it will be to markets. And it’s up to the Bush administration to push this–the Obama team can’t do so without looking panicky, and spreading that panic to others.”

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY establishes a new Institute For Nanotechnology.

THIS IS NEW TO ME: Do conservative Christians really believe that God will send Manna from Heaven again if the United States faces famine? I’ve never heard anything like that, but maybe I run in the wrong circles.

Personally, I’d say “Praise the Lord, but pass the big-ass cans of stored food.” But that’s just me, I guess . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Tina Parker emails: “Glenn, I have lived in the Bible Belt all my life and have always been active in a church. I have NEVER heard the manna thing. Mark it down as somebody looking for attention.” Well, you never know, but it was news to me. And reader Steve Schubart writes:

I believe I can describe myself as a conservative Christian- though as sort of an evangelical Presbyterian, I may or may not qualify. I can honestly say I have never heard of the “manna from heaven” theory, though I do not doubt you could find someone who thinks that and have them speak for “conservative Christianity.” I think Christians generally believe that God will be generous to people who seek Him in difficult times.

But I think it important to point out that while God will get blamed in the event there is a famine (“If there is a God…why does he let people suffer?”), most famines are man made and one following the collapse of our economy (God forbid) would be no different.

Big ass cans of dried food might be the miracle that people need to be seeking instead. And maybe some reform of the trading of credit default swaps.

Now that might count as a miracle . . . .

MORE ON THOSE CANADIAN KANGAROO COURTS: The scandal-plagued Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has had a rough year — and it just got rougher. More at Newsbeat 1.

MARK STEYN on “denormalizing” bureaucratic tyranny.

MORE RANGEL SCANDALS in The New York Times:

Congressional records and interviews show that Mr. Rangel was instrumental in preserving a lucrative tax loophole that benefited an oil-drilling company last year, while at the same time its chief executive was pledging $1 million to the project, the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at C.C.N.Y.

The company, Nabors Industries, was one of four corporations based in the United States that were widely criticized in 2002 and 2003 for opening offices in the Caribbean to reduce their federal tax payments. Mr. Rangel was among dozens of representatives from both parties who bitterly opposed those offshore moves and, in 2004, pushed unsuccessfully for legislation to make the companies pay more tax.

But in 2007, when the United States Senate tried to crack down on the companies, Mr. Rangel, who had recently been sworn in as House Ways and Means chairman, fought to protect them.

Charlie Rangel — setting an example for us all!

THIS SEEMS LIKE A GOOD, AND CHEAP, DISASTER-PREPAREDNESS IDEA: Distributing weather-warning radios to local schools, nursing homes, etc. By “cheap,” though, I mean comparatively so. There’s a $321,000 grant to distribute “over 300” of these radios. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve got one and it works fine, but it sells for under fifty bucks. Can the ones they’re distributing be that much better? Even with overhead, you’d think you could distribute a lot more of these for $321,000. Heck, if you use Amazon with free shipping, all you need is a list of addresses — no overhead for distribution, just pay a flunky to type them in. At that price you should be able to distribute over 6,000 even allowing for paying the flunky . . . .