OOPS: “The day before a powerful blast sent his headless body flying out of his Gaza home on Thursday, senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted that the Islamist movement would defeat Israel.” Sorry, dude.

PORN STAR GOES DOWN on tax charges.

KNOX COUNTY’S first baby of 2009. She’s cute!

TIGERHAWK: “Unless you were short the S&P 500 and oil since July, 2008 was probably not a great year for you. A lot went wrong, and we will bear the consequences for a generation, at least. It was, however, hardly the worst that Americans have faced, even within the oral tradition of the Baby Boomers.”

THREATENING THE DISABLED, AT THE NEW SCHOOL:

A little after 11:30 p.m., Mr. Kerrey emerged from a university building on Fifth Avenue south of 14th Street to a sea of a few hundred protesters chanting for his resignation. As Mr. Kerrey walked down Fifth Avenue toward 12th Street, about 30 protesters began following him, some of them shouting insults.

As the crowd’s pace quickened, so did Mr. Kerrey’s. Then, Mr. Kerrey, who lost a part of his leg in Vietnam and wears a prosthesis, broke into a run. The protesters gave chase. Mr. Kerrey turned left on a cross street and ducked into a brownstone.

Hope and change! But this all seems somehow familiar.

DANNY GLOVER: “Dan Froomkin Should Be Ashamed.”

BOOZY BRITAIN’S bloody New Year.

TEN YEARS OF Steve Jobs at MacWorld.

PRESSING FOR CHILD SUPPORT REFORM in Massachusetts.

CHANGES GOES FLAT:

CALIFORNIA UPDATE: Tax Refunds Will Come As IOUs. Nice fiscal model for the rest of the country. (Via Doug Ross, who recommends paying taxes the same way.)

LOOKING BACK AT a year of the L.A. Times.

AN EMPTY SUIT FOR AN EMPTY SEAT: Steve Chapman on Roland Burris.

RADLEY BALKO: The Good News from 2008.

A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION I MIGHT BE ABLE TO KEEP: Shake Up Your Wine-Drinking Routine.

ROLAND BURRIS VS. CAROLINE KENNEDY: Suggestions of a double standard. Hmm. Not sure I agree with this.

CLARK LINDSEY on the year in commercial space. Plus, a look at the future from Leonard David.

WELL, MAYBE HAMAS WILL HAVE AN INCENTIVE TO LET DIPLOMACY WORK, NEXT TIME: Israel Assault on Gaza Kills Hamas Leader as Diplomacy Falters.

Plus, Sarkozy gets French criticism.

STRUGGLING AGAINST Blogger Mood Disorder.

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK: Let Detroit build cars that make money!

SOME SPACE-TOURISM GOOD NEWS: Governor Bill Richardson Announces Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic Sign Historic Lease Agreement.

POLITICO: Burris Sought Death for Innocent Man. I notice the article actually comes from “ProPublica,” though, about which more here.

AT THE FUTURIST, an I-told-you-so on Iraq. “One of the boldest predictions ever made on The Futurist was back in May 2006, when I made a detailed case for why victory in Iraq would arrive precisely in 2008, not sooner or later. There was also a half-time update in September 2007 to the initial May 2006 prediction over here. This was an unusually bold prediction to make, given the state of Iraq in May 2006, which was before the Surge was even discussed. “

WHY THE TENNESSEE G.O.P. Won Big in 2008.

DAMIEN CAVE on Castro’s miserable legacy.