PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Advice for Law Professor Hiring Candidates.

RENTING YOUR OWN PRIVATE ISLAND. A bit pricey for me, I’m afraid, but it sounds nice. . . .

MORE ON THAT OBAMA PHOTO FLAP FROM ANN ALTHOUSE: “There’s so much talk about about the photo, and my post is drawing so much traffic from various blogs — the kind that try to disqualify me as drunk/stupid — that I have to conclude this criticism — it’s hardly even a criticism, more of an observation — really hurt. . . . In fact, the White House Flickr page — which I check almost daily — gets — I would say — an average of one new photo a day — maybe 2 — and the photos are clearly chosen to flatter President Obama. I have zero doubt that if there is a photo there, the White House believes it presents the President in an excellent light.”

What’s funny is that the pro-Obama blogosphere seems more anxious to protect Obama from a bad image than, you know, the people who are actually in charge of the images. Which was kinda the point of the whole “Bad Optics” discussion.

Plus this on the reaction: “It’s political gold against Sullivan. And I don’t just mean because he played the race card with so little provocation. It’s damaging to Sullivan because the way he arrived at the racial interpretation was entirely by searching around in his own brain. He thought and he thought — he puzzled — and then he realized what looked bad to ‘some people.’ Some people? But that was you seeing that, Andrew! What you see is what you see. How much alienation from one’s own thoughts there must be that you would expose your own racism like that!”

For me, on the other hand, a rather mild photo post has produced comments on how yummy and seductive I am. Win/win!

A GALLERY OF TWILIGHT-THEMED TATTOOS. Wonder how these’ll seem in 20 years?

DISCOVERED: Five New Exoplanets.

40 MOST OBNOXIOUS QUOTES of 2009.

ELECTRIC CAR UPDATE: Aptera newsletter explains search for new manufacturing facility.

IN THE MAIL: From David Walker, Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility.

ACTION / REACTION: Obama Moving America To The Right? “Only a fourth of all Americans approve of the direction Obama and Congress are taking the country, according to a Gallup survey. A similarly dismal proportion approve of the job being done by Congress under the leadership of Reid and Pelosi. Nearly three-fourths of those surveyed prefer that Congress do nothing to reform health care rather than take final action on either the Senate or House versions of Obamacare. And 79 percent of Americans view government corruption as the most important issue facing the country.”

UPDATE: Wow, a racist majority in America! That’s change I wasn’t waiting for . . .

CANADIAN COVERUP? A new dispatch from Michael Yon.

UPDATE: More here and here.

HOW THEY FIGHT MRSA in Norwegian hospitals.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Don’t Blame Ben For The Meltdown. “Our crisis was not one of monetary policy but of misregulation of our financial and housing markets. Whether you think monetary policy was right or wrong, it did not cause the crisis.”

BLOGS AND public perception of a business.

ANDREW IAN DODGE: Tea Party 2010: Revolution Brewing? Or Is That Some Weak Tea? It all depends on what people do next. “The tea party movement may be best served by operating locally.” All politics is local.

MORE ON CLIMATEGATE: “You Should Be Steamed.” From a former director of the National Hurricane Center.

COMPLICATIONS: Chrysler sues multiple states over dealer laws.

GETTING IT RIGHT? U.S. Reaction to Swine Flu: Apt and Lucky.

ROGER SIMON: The Terror War and the Double-Euphemism.

WILLIE BROWN ON CALIFORNIA’S PROBLEMS: “If we as a state want to make a New Year’s resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it’s time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we’ve become. . . . Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.”

THE DECADE’S most dastardly cybercrimes.

HMM: Ex-Spy Chief Says Iran Government About To Collapse. I certainly hope that’s the case! They’ve stayed too long, gotten too corrupt, and their only response to criticism is thuggery. It’s time for them to go, and past time.

YEAH, BUT IT HELPED TO EASE THE CRUSHING BURDEN OF NONEXISTENT UNEMPLOYMENT THERE: Stimulus Money Went to Nonexistent Zip Codes.

OUCH: “RIN TIN TIN COULD BEAT PATERSON.” Obama was right to try to persuade him not to run. On the other hand, now that I think about it, I’d vote for Rin Tin Tin over a lot of incumbent politicians . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Matt Olson writes: “Paterson is neither a great candidate or an ideal governor but as a conservative I will say this: he is the only governor I’ve ever experienced in NY (I’m looking at you, Pataki) who was willing to say we are in the midst of a fiscal crisis and ACT like it, suggesting and following through on actual cuts in state expenditures even when it angers unions.” Well, no wonder they don’t want him to run.

LOTS OF WAR ON TERROR NEWS at Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg.

MICAH SIFRY: The Obama Disconnect: What Could Have Been? A followup to his earlier item on the top-down nature of Obama’s grassroots campaign. “Politics is not only about what leaders say and do in Washington and on TV. Political organizing is the basis for political movements, which in turn alter the climate for politics inside Washington.”