JOHN SCALZI on science fiction films that aren’t.

MEN WHO give too much.

I DIDN’T GO THIS YEAR, but here’s a bunch of Consumer Electronics Show coverage from the Popular Mechanics folks.

POLITICO: O-Bummer: Dems Spoil President-Elect’s D.C. Debut.

WELL, THIS SUCKS: “Virtually all the flu in the United States this season is resistant to the leading antiviral drug Tamiflu, and scientists and health officials are trying to figure out why. . . . Last winter, about 11 percent of the throat swabs from patients with the most common type of flu that were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genetic typing showed a Tamiflu-resistant strain. This season, 99 percent do.”

And it’s hard to argue with this: “The bottom line is that we should have more antiviral drugs.”

OBAMA AND HAMAS. I’d wait for more than one iffy Guardian story as evidence that he’s “pallin’ around with terrorists.”

MICHAEL SILENCE: Why is Erin Brockovich here? And what movie star does she resemble in the second photo?

STEVE CHAPMAN: The Madoff scandal shows why bigger government isn’t the answer.

Yes, more regulation just means more Meaghan Cheungs asleep at the switch.

GOOD QUESTION: What happened to the Rangel investigation?

POLITICO: Obama Snubs Howard Dean.

RICHARD EPSTEIN on proportionate force.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:

For just one week we should ban the verb “stimulate” and the noun “stimulus” — and substitute instead the more honest “borrow,” or “print,” or “debt”; as in “The government plans to borrow another $1 trillion for the economy,” or “The administration today decided to print another $300 billion in cash.” Or “Congress met to consider a $1 trillion debt program.” But as it is now, the euphemisms only take us ever more distant from reality, as trillions of dollars are bandied about as if they were mere five and tens in the government wallet.

Indeed. The Insta-Dad’s take on the initial bailout seems to have turned out right, alas: “The bad thing is that the federal government has figured out that it can borrow a lot more money than it previously thought.”

HOPE AND CHANGE! House Term Limits Repealed, Rangel to Retain Committee Chairmanship. Washington feels fresh and clean already!

NONIE DARWISH: “The non-Muslim World Must Have No Illusions.” In an interview with Phyllis Chesler, Darwish discusses her new book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.

MORE ON CNN AND THAT FAKE GAZA VIDEO: “Now, more 12 hours later, even the empty video page is gone. Now, the link takes you to a text-only story with no evidence that a video ever existed. So, the video was questionable enough that it had to be removed, but the story supporting the fradulent video stays? That’s not bad journalism, that’s out and out propaganda.”

UPDATE: David Bernstein writes:

I watched the video yesterday, and the guy who was allegedly filming his brother’s death made an absurd claim along the lines of “my cousin and brother were playing on the roof, and Israel sent a drone with a special, small missile just for them” (assumedly to explain why the building wasn’t demolished by the missile. So, the claim is not just that Israel purposely targeted children, but that it keeps a special reserve of tiny missiles just for that task. Anyone with an IQ of three could have seen that the whole story was bogus…

Or at least been suspicious. But repeating anti-Israel lies verbatim has become standard “journalistic” procedure.

WHY SO MANY LAW PROFESSORS ARE SUPPORTING THE SUNSTEIN PICK: “Cass currently writes about 120 law review articles a year, all of which place in top journals, amounting to about 30% of the total placed articles in those journals. With Cass working full-time in Washington, I’m betting that his scholarly productivity will plummet. He might write as few as 20 articles a year! That means that there will be 100 more non-Cass placements free every year for the next few years for the rest of us, which gives other scholars a great opportunity to place their articles while Cass is working in government.” Everything in politics is about self-interest!

ON THE ONE HAND, JOE THE PLUMBER. On the other, Joe The Veep.

CANADA’S FIRST EMBEDDED MILBLOGGER heads to Afghanistan.

WELL, DUH. Still, there’s a value to stating the obvious.

A LOOK AT UNCLE SAM’S CREDIT SCORE. Of course the FICO formula doesn’t have a section for “can take money at gunpoint whenever desired.” That might boost things a bit. (Via NewsAlert).

CNN reports: “Environmental activist Erin Brockovich was in Kingston, Tennessee, on Thursday to speak with residents affected by a massive spill of coal sludge from a nearby coal-fired plant. . . . Brockovich, who said she was invited to the community by residents, planned to meet with them Thursday night.”

On the other hand WBIR reported that she came “with a law firm she consults for.” Call me a cynic, but I’m going with the “drumming up lucrative litigation business” theory here . . . .

UPDATE: Brockovich isn’t getting a very warm reception from the commenters to this News-Sentinel report on her visit.

MICHAEL YON: Godspeed to Paula Lloyd.

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Gaza Bedfellows UNRWA and Hamas: How They Keep Each Other in Business. “Once upon a time, terrorists had to hide from the forces of the free world and filch their living on the sly. That’s changing, thanks to long-running efforts by the United Nations, bankrolled most prominently by the U.S. In the current violence of Gaza, we are seeing the fruition of one of the most bizarre creations of modern diplomacy: a UN-supported welfare enclave for terrorists. . . . For years, various U.S. lawmakers, including the late Congressman Tom Lantos, have tried introducing bills asking for genuine transparency and accountability from UNRWA–which has never been subject to a genuinely independent external audit. Such efforts have gained no traction, opposed by a UN that even under the most benign circumstances is hostile to opening its books, plus a U.S. State Department that prefers to close its eyes and shovel millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars into terrorist-controlled infrastructure.”

EVE FAIRBANKS ON WHY THE DEMOCRATIC SCANDALS DON’T MATTER YET.

Ann Althouse comments: “I think the emphasis needs to be on that ‘yet.'”

EARMARKS AND THE STIMULUS BILL: Not everyone is impressed with the no-earmarks promise, if the pork process is just moved down the line. “Remember, the theory behind the bill is that in current circumstances pretty much any spending is good spending. Earmarks are beside the point—this bill is bound to be massively wasteful.”

Hmm. Maybe it’s time to resurrect that podcast tax credit plan. I need to upgrade my studio — say, by relocating it to Palm Beach!