CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR ON WHY CRIME IS DOWN: “There’s nothing left worth stealing.”

DUKE LACROSSE RAPE HOAXER convicted of child abuse.

The university took action against the team, all on the word of this woman. DA Mike Nifong took action, ignoring evidence that might exonerate the team members. The purported victim was black and female, so evidence was superfluous to the forces of PC.

It all fell apart, thank goodness, or otherwise innocent young men might have suffered even further merely because they were white, male, affluent, and jocks — and that alone is a crime in the minds of many on the left.

Now the woman who made the false accusations, Crystal Mangum (whose name was kept from the public while the lacrosse players were publicly identified and pilloried on campus and in the press), has been convicted of child abuse, injury of personal property, and resisting arrest in Durham, NC.

The Gang Of 88 was unavailable for comment.

FIGHT! Anti-Americans vs. feminists: The leftist meltdown over Assange.

TOM MAGUIRE: Hmm – are all racists violent? Sure, because all racists engage in sweeping, unjustified stereotypes — every one of them — and that’s the very essence of violence. Plus, David Halberstam corrects Matthew Yglesias. Given Yglesias’ tendency to call mild-mannered bloggers Nazis without reason, I think I’m siding with Halberstam.

Of course, now that everybody who’s ever disagreed with Obama has been called racist, the accusation doesn’t mean much. Just another currency inflated to worthlessness by our political class. . . .

JIM TREACHER: ASK, TELL, WHATEVER. “Just think how these 12th-Century dip$#!+s will react when they get their butts kicked by some gay dudes. It’ll just add to the humiliation.”

“THE NAVY’S TRUST WAS MISPLACED.” “Remember all the hubbub over FISA? Yeah, seems so long ago. That all stopped once The One became POTUS.”

IF NOT, RESTORING ROTC TO COLUMBIA WILL JUST BE THAT MUCH EASIER: “Does anyone know whether the Code of Military Justice prohibits incest?”

BIG NATURAL GAS FIND IN ISRAEL. “The natural gas reserves in the Leviathan structure total 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, based on preliminary results of the production tests received in the past few days. This was same amount estimated from a recent 3D seismic survey. The quantity found is double the gas reserves at Tamar.”

AT AMAZON, Top Christmas Deals.

CHILDREN PLAYING WITH DYNAMITE: FCC to Vote on Internet Regulation Plan Despite Economic Warnings.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: America must wake up to threat of Sharia. Nonsense. Only fundamentalist Christianists — you know, like Sarah Palin — are a threat to freedom and the rights of women.

NAMING AND SHAMING: “Look at this pig.” The pig’s name is Abul Azad. He beat his daughter for dating a non-Muslim.

ROGER SIMON: The Great Tea Party Express/CNN Alliance: Who’s Sorry Now?

PAUL RAHE LOOKS BACK 150 YEARS AT the secession of South Carolina.

CHRIS CHRISTIE frees Brian Aitken.

UPDATE: “Why commute his sentence instead of pardoning him outright?”

INSTAVISION: The Warrior Ethos of Steven Pressfield. I talk to Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire, Killing Rommel, The Afghan Campaign, and numerous other great novels, about writing and life.

This interview from last year is now on YouTube, so no PJTV registration is required.

MARK FITZGIBBONS: End Federal Regulators’ Bullying.

CHANGE: American Majority wants to infuse new Tea Party blood in system. “While other Tea Party-affiliated groups have zeroed in on specifically helping candidates win seats inside the U.S. Capitol, Drew and Ned Ryun are more focused on developing a farm team at the local and state level who one day could run for Congress.”

SOMETHIN’S LEAKIN’ I’M TWO QUARTS LOW: Video: The coming collapse in the state budgets.

CHANGE: “Sometime in the next few months, the number of mobile phones in use will exceed 3.3 billion, or half the world’s population. No technology has ever spread faster around the globe: the mobile phone took less than two decades to reach this degree of penetration.”