IS LIVING OFF THE GRID now a crime?

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? This slump won’t end until 2031. On the upside, that’s about when I’ll probably retire. So hold on to some equities when I do, I guess. . . .

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Celebrating the One-Millionth Visitor. Now I get that many every couple of days, but it was still a special moment.

SAFETY NAZIS: F.A.A. Approves iPads in Cockpits, but Not for Passengers. “The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that pilots on American Airlines flights would be allowed to use iPads instead of paper flight manuals in the cockpit starting Friday, as reported by ZDNet, even during takeoff and landing. But passengers are still required to shut down anything with the slightest electronic pulse from the moment a plane leaves the gate until it reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet.”

STEWART BAKER: SOPA Rope-A-Dope.

Related: “Anyone who values American freedom of speech, and anyone who values American economic vitality, should be worried about the so-called ‘Stop Internet Piracy Act’ which is now being considered by Congress.”

SO WHO’S really blowing up Iran? “It’s obvious that whoever’s blowing up Iran, they’ve got a lot of help from some very important insiders.”

AT AMAZON, top Holiday Deals on Toys & Games.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Islam (and Conflict) in Class. “Two Muslim students at a Texas college disrupt a world religions class to challenge an adjunct professor’s interpretations. He then quits to protest what he calls college’s failure to back him up.”

OVER IN POPULAR MECHANICS, I explain why the NTSB’s effort to ban even hands-free cellphones in cars is wrong.

UPDATE: Reader Bill Rickords emails:

Glenn, I have been a safety and health engineer for 25 yrs. The stuff they are putting out is conflating all these “distractions” onto the cell phone. Its nonsense.

The number one distraction noted in incidents is the mere fact of there being a second person in the car. Talking, fighting, loving etc.

The phone issue used to rank not even in the top 5 things being done. Eating, talking to 2nd person, looking in mirror, putting on make-up, reading etc. were all higher.

They don’t talk of the lives saved with cell phones in helping people. Also they try to teach you to PULL OVER on the side of the road…NO, NO, do not do that…that is even more dangerous. Can you imagine all these old folks and young kids pulling on and off an interstate in front of 80 mph trucks etc….complete incompetence to do that or even recommend it.

My sister was hit head-on by a teenage girl who was applying makeup while driving. My sister was in a Suburban, and pretty much unhurt. (The girl, alas, was hurt pretty badly though I think she recovered fully). It’s about common sense, which seems to be lacking in the NTSB report.

UPDATE: Reader John Rhoades emails:

If I can operate a 250-million dollar Boeing 777 and talk to ATC (air traffic control)…or my Captain…or the FedEx Global Operations Center…or the station we’re about to arrive at…at the same time, without catastrophic consequences, I think driving and talking, or chewing gum and walking or whatever, is something the NTSB can relax about. I swear, I think Mayor Bloomberg’s nannyism has infected the entire government. Sheesh.

P.S. I could fly an A-10, talk to my wingmen, talk to the ground commander, talk to the FAC on the ground, plan an attack, execute it and survive all while blabbing on the radio with a “hands-off” mic (commonly known as a flight helmet) and never, even once, turn into a helpless lump. Feh.

Amazing. (Bumped).

MORE: Reader Penny Bonnar writes:

If the NTSB wants to ban something, they can prohibit semis from passing cars on interstates when it’s snowing or during heavy rainstorm. It’s pretty terrifying to have those big trucks go barreling by, blinding the drivers they pass. I am talking complete white-out when it’s snowing. Rainstorms are just as bad.

And another thing, the radio in my car is not very good, so I use my phone to stream the stations I want to listen to. Can’t do that with it stuck in the glovebox.

The idiots are in charge.

Indeed.

CLIMATEGATE UPDATE: UK police seize computers of skeptic blogger in England. Hmm. Could it be politically motivated? Some think so.

UPDATE: The U.S. DOJ is going after blogs too, reportedly. None of this is increasing my confidence in the disputed climate science . . . .

TOM FRIEDMAN HITS ROCK BOTTOM: “You see, in Friedman’s eyes, the entire U.S. Congress is bought and paid for by a cabal of Jews.”

REPORT: My Time at Walmart: Why We Need Serious Welfare Reform. “During the 2010 and 2011 summers, I was a cashier at Wal-Mart #1788 in Scarborough, Maine. I spent hours upon hours toiling away at a register, scanning, bagging, and dealing with questionable clientele. These were all expected parts of the job, and I was okay with it. What I didn’t expect to be part of my job at Wal-Mart was to witness massive amounts of welfare fraud and abuse. . . . The thing that disturbed me more than simple cases of fraud/abuse was the entitled nature of many of my customers.”

SHOULD WE FIRE THE FIRST SHOT IN A CYBERWAR? “Defending against an attack is so hard that some think a stronger offense is required.”

OWEN BRENNAN: The Improbable Tea Party Candidate: Gingrich gets a Tea Party boost, but can it last? “Months later, the Romney campaign still hasn’t learned the lesson. ‘Mitt Romney will not give us the time of day,’ explains Billie Tucker, co-founder of First Coast Tea Party in Florida.” That’s not smart.

Plus, from Stephen Kruiser: “I think most people in the Tea Party movement can embrace Newt solely because he’s not Mitt.”

JAMES TARANTO: Commander In Creep: Got a friend who backs Obama? They have a list of people like you. “Probably this is just what the campaign presents it to be–a juvenile prank that is harmless beyond the nuisance of receiving campaign spam. Then again, remember AttackWatch.com? The Obama campaign has a history of clumsy appeals with vaguely totalitarian overtones.” Yeah, it’s either a window into how they really think, or evidence that they don’t.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Dems Running Away. “A planned meeting today between the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Occupy Wall Street activists was scuttled late Tuesday after Roll Call inquired about it, highlighting increasing tensions between Democrats and the movement.”

FALKLANDS OIL STRIKE infuriates Argentina. “Last week it emerged the Argentinian navy is boarding European fishing boats it accuses of breaching its ‘blockade’ of sea channels to and from the islands.”

WELL, IT IS THE 21ST CENTURY: NASA Developing Comet Harpoon for Sample Return.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Hairy Limbs Keep Bed Bugs At Bay.

THE TEA IS BREWED: In St. Louis, the Gateway Grassroots Initiative. Dana Loesch is involved, so you know the tea is not only brewed, but hot.

A PIECE ON JOSEPH BOTTUM’S DAKOTA CHRISTMAS in the Washington Times: Surprise Kindle Single best-seller a ‘Dakota Christmas’ present for conservative writer.

FROM THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOLARS: What’s Going on Behind the Curtain? Climategate 2.0 and Scientific Integrity.

And I might as well put in another plug for my paper on science fraud.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “it’s all too common for well-meaning middle class people to think that if the poor just had the same stuff we do, they wouldn’t be poor any more (where ‘stuff’ includes anything from a college education to a marriage license to a home). But this is not true. . . . If poor people did the stuff that middle class people do, it’s possible–maybe probable–that they wouldn’t be poor. But this is much harder than it sounds.”

Sounds a bit like Reynolds’ Law: “The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”

And those interested in this stuff should read James Scott’s Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes To Improve The Human Condition Have Failed.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: LightSquared lobbyists pushing MN legislators to demand action from Klobuchar, Franken.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: The University of Chicago Law School Offers Detailed Employment Data; Will Other Schools Follow Suit? Note that Yale has also done so.

More here. And the Law School Transparency folks are asking other law schools to do the same.