“TEACHING THE PIG TO DANCE:” An evocative title for Fred Thompson’s new memoir.

IN THE MAIL: The book you’ve been waiting for: Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH fights a civil war over Israel. And some dirt appears that may surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE:

Maybe Goldman sold investors some rotten eggs. Maybe not. So what? Goldman argues that it is being “railroaded by Congress for performing a normal market function—pricing risk and providing investment opportunities for grown-up investors,” which strikes me as precisely right. It is a central tenet of the federal securities laws that you’re allowed to sell rotten eggs, so long as you disclose that they’re rotten. So long as Goldman fully disclosed all material facts, the fact that Goldman thought the securities being sold were “shitty,” as one scatological email reference by an unwise trader put it, is not a breach of the securities laws. . . . It would behoove the US Senate to learn this history before they conduct their next perp walk.

I say hold Congress to the same kinds of standards they want to hold business to. They’d all be in jail — which, likely as not, would work no substantial unfairness . . . .

MY BELLSOUTH / AT&T INTERNET SERVICE has been particularly bad lately — slowdowns, dropouts, and general funky behavior. Kinda disappointed, as it’s been pretty good until recently.

UPDATE: Judging from my email, a lot of folks seem to be having this problem with AT&T lately. Anybody from AT&T want to weigh in?

MY FORTHCOMING HOFSTRA LAW REVIEW PIECE on law firm size is sparking discussion in the Real Estate community. Huh. I didn’t expect that.

CYBERDISSIDENCE: The medium is not the message.

A JAPAN THAT CAN SAY NO: Japan Forces Bureaucrats to Defend Spending. “Seeking to bring its spiraling debt under control, Japan has undertaken an unlikely exercise: lawmakers are forcing bureaucrats to defend their budgets at public hearings and are slashing wanton spending. The hearings, streamed live on the Internet, are part of an effort by the eight-month-old government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to tackle the country’s public debt, which has mushroomed to twice the size of Japan’s $5 trillion economy after years of profligate spending.”

BRIAN MICKLETHWAIT: “Hardly a day seems to go by nowadays without somebody with approximately the same kind of political attitude as me scratching his head, publicly, in writing, about President Obama’s bafflingly sensible space policy, which sticks out like a healthy thumb in an otherwise horribly mutilated hand of policies.”

ROGER SIMON: “The real reason liberals accuse Tea Partiers of racism is that contemporary American-style liberalism is in rigor mortis. Liberals have nothing else to say or do. Accusations of racism are their last resort.”

UPDATE: A related experience from Michael Graham.

REMEMBERING THE “BLACK GOLD” 280 ZX. I had a girlfriend in college who drove a 280ZX, though it was just plain gold. When I picked her up for our first date, she was in the middle of replacing the valves. It was a good start.

INSTAVISION: VAT’s The Buzz: I talk with Mark Tapscott about taxes, immigration, and GM’s auto-bailout story.

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES’ Room For Debate blog, I talk about Supreme Court appointments along with Lani Guinier, Ed Meese, Dick Thornburgh, Vik Amar, et al.

RANDY BARNETT: The Insurance Mandate In Peril: “First Congress said it was a regulation of commerce. Now it’s supposed to be a tax. Neither claim will survive Supreme Court scrutiny.”

CARRYING EXTRA WEIGHT might be good for you. “A body of research is emerging that suggests that there’s little risk to carrying a few extra pounds. And there may even be some benefit. Indeed, people who are 10-to-15 pounds overweight appear to have no greater risk of dying than those of so-called ‘normal’ weight. Other studies have shown that those who are overweight are no more likely to die from cancer or cardiovascular disease. Also, being a little overweight may help stave off osteoporosis. And it can make you look younger, too.”

Related: Brazilian Health Minister Recommends Sex Five Times A Week to Reduce Blood Pressure.

FAA SETTING UP commercial spaceflight centers.

FASTER, PLEASE: In Tennessee, a law to regulate traffic cameras.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: Recession Brings Long-Term Unemployment.

IMF WARNING: Britain could follow Greece?

SO MUCH FOR BILL CLINTON’S CALLS FOR CIVILITY: Violent NY Senator Calls Republicans White Supremacists.

HEH: “Calling all cars: Be on the lookout for an insurrectionist with blue hair…”

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene emails: “Can you imagine the howls this would have generated from the left had George W. Bush ever called out the SWAT team on a bunch of blue-haired retirees? But then again, George W. Bush would never have attempted this. Because George W. Bush has never been afraid of the American people.”

CHARLIE CRIST tries to call Rahm Emanuel?

MARKDOWNS ON DVD and Blu-Ray.

LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: At least they’re not in Arizona! “Amnesty International called the abuse of migrants in Mexico a major human rights crisis Wednesday, and accused some officials of turning a blind eye or even participating in the kidnapping, rape and murder of migrants. . . . Central American migrants are frequently pulled off trains, kidnapped en masse, held at gang hideouts and forced to call relatives in the U.S. to pay off the kidnappers. Such kidnappings affect thousands of migrants each year in Mexico, the report says. Many are beaten, raped or killed in the process.”

THE PEOPLE VS. THE POWERFUL: Cape Wind approved. This wouldn’t have happened if Ted Kennedy were still alive.

Well, it wouldn’t have.

UPDATE: Ron Bailey: Ted Kennedy Spinning In His Grave.