DONALD SENSING: Is Obama A Lame Duck Already?

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

CHARLIE MARTIN: BREAKING: Senator Barbara Boxer and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Throw IPCC Under the Bus.

TRANSPARENCY: Treasury to TARP Inspector General: Drop Dead.

IT’S DUMB TO PICK ON BLOGGERS (CONT’D): MagicJack dials wrong number in legal attack on Boing Boing.

Gadget maker MagicJack recently lost a defamation lawsuit that it filed against Boing Boing. The judge dismissed its case and ordered it to pay us more than $50,000 in legal costs.

The Florida-based VOIP company promotes a USB dongle that allows subscribers to make free or inexpensive phone calls over the internet. I posted in April 2008 about its terms of service—which include the right to analyze customers’ calls—and various iffy characteristics of its website.

We had no idea that it would file a baseless lawsuit to try and shut me up, that CEO Dan Borislow would offer to buy our silence after disparaging his own lawyers, or that MagicJack would ultimately face legal consequences for trying to intimidate critics.

At several points in the process, we could have taken a check and walked away: as it is, the award doesn’t quite cover our costs. But we don’t like being bullied, and we wanted the chance to tell anyone else threatened by this company what to expect.

And now the legal documents are online, to add . . . well, injury to injury, I guess. Really, legal attacks on bloggers are almost always stupid. I’ve written about this before, more than once.

I, TOO, HAVE NEVER MADE “the standing mixer commitment.” Does that make me a bad person?

UPDATE: Russ Emerson writes: ‘Yes. Yes it does.” Well, okay then.

MORE: From the comments: “If you don’t have a Kitchen-Aid your kitchen is built of suck and fail.” Now that kinda hurts.

NEW CONDOM SIZES: “Huge,” “Colossal,” and “Super Gigantic.”

UPDATE: A reader emails: “And, coming soon, the new Hindenburg line.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: “You didn’t mention the largest size available, the ‘Stimulus Package’.” That’s the one where the label reads Bend over!

GOOD NEWS: We can easily prevent ice ages.

WELL, I DO: Who wants ultrafast broadband?

ONE-DAY MARKDOWNS on cordless drills.

CHANGE: State Tax Revenues Fall For Fifth Consecutive Quarter.

FROM JEFF HIRSCH: Employee collective action with a Led Zeppelin reference.

THE VIEW FROM THE International Space Station is superb.

MARC DANZIGER: Where Tone Torpedoes Credibility. “Newsweek science editor Sharon Begley torpedoes her own credibility and undermines the credibility of the review in her lede . . . Why is fact-checking Lomborg awful? Because you …ewww … have to read him? Sorry, Sharon, but that’s just unworthy of anyone who would claim to be ‘NEWSWEEK’s science editor.’ Or if not, it tells me something about Newsweek.” This is what passes for mainstream journalism today — telling the Kewl Kidz what they want to hear.

Meanwhile, BoingBoing ran with it, but is getting pushback in the comments.

TRYING TO CREATE a nonprofit cartel?

I DON’T THINK THIS COUNTS AS PROGRESS: The rise of the point-and-click botnet. “In 2005, a Russian hacker group known as UpLevel developed Zeus, a point-and-click program for creating and controlling a network of compromised computer systems, also known as a botnet. Five years of development later, the latest version of this software, which can be downloaded for free and requires very little technical skill to operate, is one of the most popular botnet platforms for spammers, fraudsters, and people who deal in stolen personal information.”

Personally, I’d be skeptical of a hacker site offering “free downloads.” But that’s just me . . . .

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACTIVISTS: Senator Reid: Apologize for sexist remarks! He really is going for the Joe Biden medal, isn’t he?

HEH: Tea party snowmen protest lawmakers in Lansing, MI.

MARY KATHARINE HAM: The Sad Tale of Juan Diego Castro: How the federal government turns givers into takers. Like the song says: They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN ON the benefits of partisan bickering.

REASON TV: Pot Wars: Battleground California. Will medical marijuana stay legal in the golden state?

THIS STRIKES ME AS POOR SALESMANSHIP: “So, we need health-care reform because it will make going to the doctor more like sitting around waiting to be picked for jury duty!”

KEITH HENNESSEY: What Can President Obama Learn From President Bush’s Bipartisan Successes?

A “HOMOCON TIPPING POINT?” Bruce Carroll: Why CPAC Was a Milestone Weekend for Gays.

WILL THE NISSAN LEAF BE A “FLOP?” Not necessarily.