IN THE MAIL: Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer.

HERSCHEL SMITH: Should I Renew My NRA Membership? Well, it depends. On the one hand, if Reid had lost, we’d be looking at Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. . . .

HMM: WikiLeaks Completes Obama’s Transformation Into Jimmy Carter.

At this point, I have to say, Jimmy Carter looks like a best-case outcome, slowly fading from possibility.

WOW: Senator McCain Compares Palin to Reagan, Says He’s ‘Proud Of Her’.

BEST SONG ABOUT A JOURNALIST EVER? The Tumblin’ Sneakers’ The Secret World of Charles Kuralt. Background here.

The French Broads’ Tom Brokaw is pretty good, too. But they had less to work with.

DAVID BERNSTEIN ON WIKILEAKS: “The harm to U.S. diplomatic and military interests is said to be quite large. I’m glad Koh is sending Julian Assange of Wikileaks a stern letter of reprimand, that will show him! Who said the Obama Administration wasn’t tough enough to protect American interests?”

UPDATE: Reader David Shimm emails:

Why is it that Wikileaks has been able to publish all kinds of classified State Dept. documents, but Obama’s Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard Law transcripts still remain confidential? Maybe we should have a university registrar’s office consult with the US government to assure that secrets remain secret? I’m just wondering, that’s all.

In my experience, university registrars are formidable and competent. Apparently the same can’t be said for the folks entrusted with our national secrets.

HOW THE GREATNESS OF A NATION is measured.

HAPPY CYBER MONDAY: You’ll be shocked to hear that there’s a big sale at Amazon.

MERYL YOURISH on Lori Berenson.

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:

Barack Obama, President of Jesusland.

The Puritan/Progressive connection.

Look who’s calling Obama racist: “Cornel West is Professor of Religion and African American studies at Princeton University.”

Thoughts on state bankruptcy.

What does protecting Hollywood fatcats’ royalties have to do with Homeland Security?

Jim Dunnigan on airport security.

Iceland elects ordinary people to draft constitution.

SPLC fights poverty — among its staff.

Economic stab-in-the-back theories from the left.

UCLA Researcher stands up to terrorism.

11 Statistics That Reveal Just How Far The U.S. Economy Has Fallen Over The Past Four Years. Say, what happened in November four years ago?

My column on airport security for Popular Mechanics.

Bringing back blasphemy laws in Britain.

Remembering Bill Clinton’s threat to “erase North Korea from the map of the world.”

HMM: EXPLOSIONS IN TEHRAN – Nuclear Scientists Targeted, One Dead.

OMRI CEREN: Wikileaks – Anti-Israel Foreign Policy Experts Got Saudi Arabia, Other Arab Countries 100% Backward On Iran Attack.

LESLIE NIELSEN has died.

Everybody remembers The Naked Gun, but this was his first big role:

THREE GUYS NAMED MO.

ANN ALTHOUSE: Standardized testing has embarrassed teachers into facing the fact that they’ve been grading kids for compliance and pleasing. “Students need to be decently well-behaved, diligent, and organized, but it’s wrong to treat teacher’s-pet-type students as if they are the best. That drives many smart kids into rebellion. And, frankly, it’s likely to create unnecessary problems for lots of boys. And it doesn’t do girls any favors either, since real careers aren’t about handing in all the homework and pleasing the authority figure.” Well, with the arrival of socialism that’ll change. Socialism places a very high premium on the ability to suck up, which explains why it’s so popular with those who excel at giving or receiving that suckage.

SO DOES JOHN DANFORTH THINK THAT RICHARD LUGAR IS SOMEHOW ABOVE THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS?

Even after the midterm rout that will remove many long-serving members from Congress, the idea that Mr. Lugar would be vulnerable to a primary challenge is a chilling notion to many Republicans, a symbol of symbolism gone too far.

“If Dick Lugar,” said John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, “having served five terms in the U.S. Senate and being the most respected person in the Senate and the leading authority on foreign policy, is seriously challenged by anybody in the Republican Party, we have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption.”

I’d say that if the GOP has started issuing seats like titles of nobility, without caring what the voters think, then that’s beyond redemption. Nobody should be immune to a primary challenge.

And “a symbol of symbolism gone too far?” Has the New York Times laid off all its ace copyeditors?

UPDATE: Reader David Gallagher emails:

I grew up in Monticello, Indiana and I can still remember Senator Richard Lugar giving our Senior Class a speech on the steps of the Capitol Building when we visited Washington for our Senior Trip.

I’ve got a very good memory, that was in 1978, and the members of that Senior class are 50 years old now. Since then I’ve become very politically active and I constantly discuss politics with other Hoosiers, particularly Conservatives and Tea partiers. I haven’t spoken to anyone here in Indiana who doesn’t loathe the fact that Lugar is still our Senator. Mark my words, he’s going down. In the last election we didn’t really have anything to fight for, Bayh had wisely retired, and in the third district where I live, liberals weren’t even showing their faces.

The next election will be different, Lugar is absolutely going to be primaried, that’s worth fighting for.

Last year there was a Senate bill concerning reciprocal honoring of concealed carry permits nationwide. It lost by one vote. Guess which of our Senators voted against it (hint: lame duck Bayh voted for the bill). Indiana already honors other states CCWs, so really Luger just voted against other States honoring Hoosier’s concealed carry permits. Who does the moron think he’s representing?

Indeed.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON CANCUN: Dead Green Treaty Stinks Up The Room.

SOEREN KERN: EUROPE’S FUTURE LIES, OMINOUSLY, WITH SPAIN: “The European Union is facing an existential crisis, and all eyes are now on Spain to see what happens next.”

SWISS VOTERS APPROVE HARSHER DEPORTATION PLAN. “Switzerland has approved a plan to automatically deport foreigners convicted of serious crimes. The proposal, put forth by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, has been criticized by human rights groups.” Having blown their credibility, the human rights groups don’t have much sway any more.

MICKEY KAUS: Did That Fake Taliban Leader Help Us Anyway? “If we did want to weaken Taliban resolve—and surely we do—and if individual Taliban leaders aren’t really sure what the others are doing, then even a fake Taliban talker might do the trick. Isn’t it possible the false Mansour served our interests–by putting the real Taliban leaders ‘on edge,’ worried that some of their colleagues might be cracking? If the fake Mansour didn’t exist it might be worth paying someone take the role, no?”

WHILE ROME BURNS, members of Congress get richer. Well, some of them are selling gasoline to the arsonists . . . .

TAXPROF: Tax Revenues = 19% of GDP, Regardless of Tax Rates. This makes Bob Corker’s proposal to cap spending at about the same level seem even more sensible.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN WE’D SEE “NATIONAL SECURITY” USED AS AN EXCUSE FOR ALL SORTS OF INTRUSION: And they were right! “Given President Obama’s plans to continue extraordinary rendition under a different name, you can see why he’d rather not delve into questions like these. But candidate Obama told us to be wary of presidents who use national security as a cover for violating people’s rights.”

Remember the fierce moral urgency of change?

TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Thoughts on WikiLeaks. One small correction: Assange isn’t a “nihilist,” as is made clear by what follows.

THE IRISH BAILOUT: A WORLD RECORD. “A bigger-than-expected bailout for Ireland — does anybody expect Portugal or Spain (or Italy) to do any better? And what if it’s not just the PIIGS? Years ago, a fellow calling himself Gekko wrote a column for National Review, called ‘Random Walk.’ He predicted that the euro would be inherently unstable, because the economies it covers are so different from one another. I suspect Gekko is starting to feel vindicated, and I hope he has invested accordingly.”

I was worried about the EU’s future back in 2001.

UPDATE: E.U. Rescue Costs Threaten Germany Itself.