AT HARVARD, a glimpse of an alternate academia.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE LAID OFF. Of course, prudent planning starts when you’re not laid off yet, with building up savings, paying down debt, etc. I’m always amazed on these financial call-in shows when people have all kinds of credit lines but no actual money in the bank. Credit is not a substitute for cash.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING LAW SCHOOL?

I should note that nuts-and-bolts law is good, but when I was a law clerk (on the Sixth Circuit for Judge Merritt) there were three times when the judge asked me about an obscure legal point and I was able to give a correct black-letter answer off the top of my head, and those answers came from courses in International Human Rights Law, Law Science and Technology, and . . . Law And Sexuality. Thanks, Harlon Dalton! So you never know. But this bit is absolutely true: “Years into practice, I still found myself remembering something from law school and saying ‘so that’s what the professor was talking about.'”

I also think that one thing law professors do is model ways of looking at problems — modeling how a lawyer’s mind works. I still hear Burke Marshall’s voice in my head sometimes, and yet I don’t think I was especially dazzled by him at the time. In retrospect, though, I really learned a lot.

ROGER KIMBALL: Where are the Purple Hearts? Some truths about Fort Hood.

IN THE MAIL: From Frank Schaefer, Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism).

THE QOR: It’s Lileks-approved!

NO SURPRISE HERE: State Finance Directors Warn of More Trouble Ahead.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE:

Dodd’s lengthy record of ethical questions has clearly taken its toll.

Among his transgressions:

* In 2003, Dodd received two cut-rate mortgages totaling nearly $800,000 from subprime-mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial.

The special mortgages apparently came about because the senator was dubbed a “Friend of Angelo,” Countrywide co-founder Angelo Mozilo.

A Senate ethics committee determined last summer that Dodd violated no rules. But home-state voters appear unwilling to let Dodd off that easily.

* In 1994, Dodd purchased a one-third share of an Irish vacation home; the other two-thirds were bought by businessman William Kessinger, partner of one Edward Downe, who pleaded guilty to insider trading the same year.

In 2001, Dodd successfully lobbied the Clinton White House for a presidential pardon for Downe. A year later, Dodd took full ownership of the Irish property from Kessinger — at a mere fraction of its appraised value.

* In February, Dodd introduced an amendment to the stimulus package that guaranteed that executives from firms receiving government bailouts — including AIG — remained eligible for bonuses.

With such baggage, no wonder 53 percent of Connecticut residents say Dodd doesn’t deserve re-election.

Ouch.

AGNEW VS. THE MEDIA: 40 years later, Michael Socolow says that Agnew won.

FORT HOOD, PROXIMATE KNOWLEDGE, and when not to blog.

WHY IS THIS MAN BOWING?

UPDATE: Reader Thomas Hoyt writes:

I lived in Japan for seven years and have a BA and almost an MA (still working on the thesis – sigh) in East Asian Studies.

Obama’s bow to the Saudi king was a breach of etiquette and a horrible symbolic act, but bowing in Japan is like shaking hands in America. Anytime you introduce yourself to someone, you bow, regardless of whether it’s the plumber come to fix your sink, your new assistant in the office, or the emperor. It is a common courtesy that has none of the meaning of bowing to a monarch that we have in the West. Refusing to bow, whether to your new assistant or the emperor, has the same insulting connotation as refusing to shake hands does in the US.

The faux pas here, if there is one, is shaking hands while bowing. This is a somewhat common and humorous problem when an American meets a Japanese person in Japan. The American bows and the Japanese person reaches out to shake hands, each trying to anticipate the cultural expectations of the other.

While all humans are created equal, not all bows are. This one seems appropriate.

Several others sent similar observations, though quite a few also noted that after the Saudi-bow debacle, Obama’s protocol people should have worked something out here. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, here’s The New York Times criticizing Bill Clinton for bowing to Akihito in 1994. Plus, this delightfully Whoopi-Goldberg-esque defense from the Clinton White House:

Administration officials scurried to insist that the eager-to-please President had not really done the unthinkable.

“It was not a bow-bow, if you know what I mean,” said Ambassador Molly Raiser, the chief of protocol.

Well, okay then.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Why Amelia Bombed. “Glamour and charisma are two different things.”

SLATE TESTS BREADMAKERS, and likes this Panasonic the best. I’ve always sort of wanted a breadmaker, but the Insta-Wife has nixed it because . . . we’d eat more bread. Hard to argue.

TEA PARTIERS making a difference in Utah.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE: Morale Check.

MARK STEYN: Why newspapers are dying. “Wow. That’s ten ‘AP writers’ plus Calvin Woodward, the AP writer whose twinkling pen honed the above contributions into the turgid sludge of the actual report. That’s 11 writers for a 695-word report.”

TWO SUNKEN JAPANESE SUBS FOUND OFF HAWAII:

One of the Japanese craft, the I-201, was capable of speeds of about 20 knots while submerged, making it among the fastest diesel submarines ever made. Like other Japanese subs, it had a rubberized coating on the hull, an innovation intended to make it less apparent to sonar or radar.

The other, the I-14, was much larger and slower and designed to carry two small planes, Aichi M6A Seirans. The aircraft, which had folding wings and tails and could carry a torpedo or 1,800-pound bomb, were housed in watertight hangars inside the submarine. They could be brought onto the deck and launched by a catapult.

I had no idea that the Japanese had subs this advanced — though these didn’t manage to do any damage before being sunk. More background here. And this article says the planes were intended to launch germ warfare attacks. That’s a plausible role for small-plane attacks on big cities, and the Japanese, of course, had an extensive biowar research program. Another reason to be glad the war ended when it did. . . .

HEH: “A company is replacing 28 unionized workers in New York with cheaper, non-union workers in Florida. If anyone else did this it would be a cue for an editorial in the New York Times denouncing ‘greedy corporate interests,’ but in this case, the company doing it is the New York Times.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: “It seems that the more we talk about health care reform, the less popular it gets.”

OLD WAPO HEADLINE (VIA GOOGLE NEWS): Holder Steps Into Another Controversy. New WaPo headline: For Holder, much wrestling over decision. The original was better, I think. He’s certainly stepped into something . . .

UPDATE: WSJ: “Mr. Holder has honored mass murder by treating it like any other crime.” [Originally attributed to Charles Krauthammer because I misread the post. Sorry; fixed now.]

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

BOB BAUER’S JOB: Erasing ACORN tracks?

DOLLAR DECLINES AS TRADE GAP GROWS.

LOOKING FOR CHRISTMAS PRESENTS? What’s better than an InstaPundit t-shirt, or tote bag, or even thong panty — from the InstaPundit store? With a logo designed by none other than James Lileks himself.

DON’T-MISS VIDEO: Incredible Look at U.S. Airways Flight 1549.