BOB KRUMM has had a lot of traffic in the past year, and asks for advice on what to do with it.

IN CALIFORNIA: A pension tsunami? “Essentially, CalPERS officials rolled the dice and lost, but the burden will ultimately fall on the taxpayers.”

HMM: Poll: 77% of Americans Blame Media for Making Economic Crisis Worse. Talk in the article of criminal liability for the press seems rather farfetched, and it’s not as if there are no real economic problems — but if we’re in a “panic” then the tone of press coverage certainly could be expected to make a difference, and the press doesn’t seem to be trying to moderate its tone, something it does in other areas. After all, the press is exquisitely sensitive to the impact of its reporting when matters of race, gender, or sexual preference are concerned. But hey, go-go reporting a few years ago probably pushed the bubble up, too, so it evens out . . .

Meanwhile, Michael Silence comments: It would be 100 percent if they all watched NBC News. “Screw the economy. It’s all about ratings.”

UPDATE: Hmm: “Compare the last 6 years (or so) of unremitting (and largely unwarranted- until recently) doom-and-gloom economic coverage, against the press’ bend-over-backward efforts to avoid riling the American public after 9/11.” Like I say, they know how to be exquisitely sensitive, when they’re protecting something they care about.

GEE, DO YOU THINK? U.S. could be facing debt ‘time bomb’ this year.

Plus, are we finally starting to see “bailout fatigue?” I certainly hope so. Plus this: “If Republicans are looking to play a constructive role and join forces with Democrats to help revive the economy, they might suggest a serious bipartisan effort to examine how the bailout money has been spent and what it’s given us. That might be the basis for a fruitful discussion — one that both ends of the political spectrum might embrace — about whether, now that the immediate panic of the financial crisis has passed, we have had quite enough of bailout-mania.”

LES JONES DISCOVERS the steampunk version of Peak Oil.

ISRAEL ALONE. Except for America, and their “secret friends” in Egypt.

SOME REPORTING ON AFGHANISTAN.

ERIC POSNER on the Gaza conflict and the limits of international law.

BRUCE BARTLETT: Who saw the housing bubble coming?

WELL, HE DOES LIKE THE JFK MODEL: “President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China.” He’s also reviving the old Space Council, which is a good idea. I wonder, however, how this barrier-tearing-down will play with his supporters from the antiwar left.

UPDATE: Reader Corey Appleby writes: “I predict what just last year would have been called ‘unprecedented militarization of space’ will suddenly be hailed as a brilliant move towards furthering science in this country.” Heh. Well, another advantage of having a Democrat in the White House, I guess . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: But see this piece by Rand Simberg.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Connecticut Post:

Thumbs down to U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd for his continued obfuscation over the particulars of his alleged special mortgage rate treatment. This needn’t be an issue, but if Dodd won’t answer questions, people are going to keep asking. He says there was nothing untoward about the mortgage rate he received from Countrywide Financial, a company that was heavily involved in the nationwide mortgage collapse. He feigns indignance each time the issue is raised. But he can make the questions stop easily. All he has to do is release documents on two mortgages from Countrywide, each of which seemingly came in with interest figures below the going rate. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he should have long ago put this issue to rest.

Yes, he should have, and his failure to do so suggests to many that he’s got something to hide.

TWO KINDS of careers.

JEFF JARVIS: Bad News, Good News.

BOMB THREATS, VANDALISM, AND MORE: Antisemitism across America. It’s happened in Knoxville, too.

A TOUGH JOB MARKET FOR PHILOSOPHERS: “Philosophers should be people who think especially well, but to have decided upon a career in philosophy marks you as irrational. How do you deal with that raging incoherence?” Is that really fair? You might rationally decide you want to be a philosopher even if the job prospects are poor. But if you do so decide, then it’s irrational to complain about a poor job market, I guess.

WILL BLAGO meet RICO?

BIOTECH OPPONENTS: Playing with human lives?

IN THE MAIL: From Charles Glasser, who’s Global Media Counsel at Bloomberg News, the new edition of the International Libel & Privacy Handbook: A Global Reference for Journalists, Publishers, Webmasters, and Lawyers. Looks quite useful.

JOHN ROSENBERG: “It’s almost as much fun watching the law professors disagree over whether the Senate has the right to refuse to seat Roland Burris (it does; it doesn’t; etc.) as it is to watch Senate Democrats try to balance appearing to oppose corruption with not appearing to exclude a black appointee.”

TAXPROF on Judicial salaries vs. those of law professors and deans.

UPDATE: No, they don’t pay me $330K/year, and — judging from this — not many other “senior law professors” are making that kind of salary either. In fact, I got called the other day by a school looking to fill a big-deal endowed chair and the compensation they were offering was nothing close to 330K.

JEFF TAYLOR THINKS THAT 2009 will be worse than 2008.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news regarding the Apple empire. A new Mac Mini, an iPhone Nano, and more.

MORE CHARLES RANGEL SCANDAL? New York Times: Rangel Pushed for a Donation; Insurer Pushed for a Tax Cut. Now it’s an A.I.G. connection:

On April 21, 2008, Representative Charles B. Rangel met with officials of the American International Group, the now-troubled insurance giant, to ask for a donation to a school of public service that City College of New York was building in his honor. . . . Mr. Rangel’s exchange with A.I.G. last spring appears to be at odds with the public statements he has made since his fund-raising for the school became an issue. When his approach to A.I.G. was first reported in The Washington Post in July, Mr. Rangel said that he could not recall any issues his committee might have considered in which A.I.G. had an interest.

(Via Lawhawk, who observes: “Rep. Charles Rangel keeps finding himself in this situation.”).

UPDATE: A reader complains that Rangel’s party affiliation is omitted, but in fact, down in paragraph 6, there’s a reference to Rangel’s “fellow Democrats.” Whether party affiliation would be featured more prominently if Rangel were a Republican is a question I’ll leave to readers.

Meanwhile, here’s a big Rangel roundup.

JULIAN SANCHEZ on conservatism and technology.

EVOLUTION IN BLOGGING: THE BITCH GIRLS is now mostly a foodblog.