INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Obama’s white flag on national security: ‘Yes, our military will be leaner.’

JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Was Santorum ‘Weird’ For Bringing Home His Stillborn Baby? “There is much I don’t like about Rick Santorum’s ideas, but the story of how he and his wife dealt with the tragic death of their baby is not something that bothers me. Pete Wehner has an appropriately indignant post, quoted below, about the attacks on Santorum over this issue (and he summarizes the sad story as well), but it strikes me as indecent to criticize the loving, if discomfiting, behavior of people who have just suffered the worst possible tragedy known to humankind.” Like I said, after the Trig Palin assaults nothing surprises me.

Related: Patterico: In Mocking Santorum, Eugene Robinson Reveals A Sickness in Our Society. “The problem is not just that some leftists can’t understand the love that some people feel for their unborn children — or for their children who (like Sarah Palin’s son Trig) were born with disabilities. What really infuriates is the contempt they show for parents who make different choices than they would . . . and the smug arrogance with which they pronounce judgment on the most intimate aspects of others’ private lives.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Why not apply “loser pays” to the government?

I think that in a criminal case it should be mandatory. As the criminal justice system works now, it’s really a species of “taking.” Consider: if the government chooses to prosecute me, I can (1) spend a lot of money to prove myself innocent; or (2) go to jail. (They won’t provide me a lawyer unless I’m poor, which I’m not). My paying for my lawyer is an integral part of the process of justice, which benefits society as a whole, and I’m essentially forced to do it. (When the alternative is going to jail, “forced” isn’t too strong a word.)

Perhaps, if I’m guilty, then the legal fees should be considered part of the punishment. But if I’m innocent? The government has just forced me to spend a lot of money to ensure the efficient function of the justice system. (Prosecutors, remember, aren’t supposed to want to see the innocent convicted, so they’re as much beneficiaries of my defense as I am.) The efficient functioning of the justice system is a public good. We’re not supposed to take private property for the public good unless we provide “just compensation” to the owner.

But if I’m an innocent defendant, where’s my “just compensation?” Oh, the McDade Amendment (which the Justice Department absolutely hates) lets me recover my legal fees if I can show that the prosecution was harassing, malicious, etc. But that’s only part of the problem (and recoveries here are hard to come by anyway). What if I’m just a poor schlub? I can be — probably will be, unless I’m loaded — financially ruined, only to get a “sorry, sucker, but at least you don’t have to go to jail” at the end.

When you add to this the enormous financial resources of the government, and the absence of any market discipline — or, usually, any political discipline except in high profile cases — then a “loser pays” rule in criminal prosecutions seems fair to me. Any thoughts?

Still seems that way to me.

MARKDOWNS ON Home Improvement Bestsellers.

AN “ACADEMIC LYNCHING” AT HAMLINE?

ILLINOIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Suit: Boy falls, teacher says crawl back to Skokie school. “Teachers at a Skokie school forced a 6-year-old with a broken leg and a concussion to crawl back to his classroom across an icy playground, then failed to call for an ambulance, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Kindergartner Rahul Chandani slipped on a mound of snow and hit his head in the playground at Devonshire Elementary School on Jan. 3 last year, but didn’t get any medical help until his mom came to get him, the lawsuit filed in Cook County circuit court by Chandani’s parents Pritam and Priya alleges.”

Let’s hope things weren’t as bad as this sounds.

TRUTH TO POWER: Obama’s traveling show encounters an unexpected moment in Ohio.

Obama said, “You inspire me.”

And you know how the members of that crowd in the most Democratic district of Ohio responded to that campaigning Democratic president’s professed sincerity this time?

They laughed at him.

“Okay,” Obama insisted, “you do.”

And the president, like a pro pol, continued with his speech, as if nothing had happened.

More people will be laughing at him before it’s over.

UPDATE: “Hey, those students inspire me! They know how to detect bullshit.” Indeed.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Why Anti-Semitism Is Moving Toward The Mainstream. “To understand why these absurd and reprehensible views, once reserved for the racist fringes of academia and politics, are moving closer to the mainstream, consider the attitudes of two men, one an academic, the other a politician, toward those who express or endorse such bigotry. The academic is Prof. Brian Leiter. The politician is Ron Paul.” Leiter might get over being called an anti-semite, but he’ll never forgive Dershowitz for calling him “obscure.”

JUST WHAT AMERICA NEEDS: ANOTHER KENNEDY! Joe K III to run for Barney Frank’s seat. “Joseph P. Kennedy III, the son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy, is launching an exploratory committee in preparation for a likely run for the seat recently vacated by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.”

Really? This is the best Massachusetts can do?

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Is it the best Massachusetts can do? Perhaps the question relates to yesterday’s post about Boston being the drunkest city in the country. I am uncertain about which is cause and which is effect.” Heh.

Meanwhile, reader Bill Dyer emails: “Wikipedia deleted Joseph P. Kennedy III’s page in 2010 because he was ‘insufficiently notable.'”

FASTFORWARD RADIO: 10 Things To Look Forward To In 2012 — And Beyond.

AT AMAZON, big-screen HDTVs for $999 or less.

VINT CERF: Internet Access Is Not A Human Right. “Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it. . . . Improving the Internet is just one means, albeit an important one, by which to improve the human condition. It must be done with an appreciation for the civil and human rights that deserve protection — without pretending that access itself is such a right.”

CHANGE: #Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked Revolts—Coming to a City Near You.

GARDEN & GUN MAGAZINE, which I’ve mentioned here on numerous occasions, is listed as one of the most popular magazines you’ve never heard of. “Garden & Gun is one of the most beautiful magazines out there, covering Southern culture. Its 236,097 circulation is bigger than Mother Jones.” Better dressed, too, I’d imagine. (Thanks to reader Norv Clontz for pointing this out).

UPDATE: Reader Steve Watkins writes: “I saw my first copy of Garden and Guns in the rack at my cardiologists office a few weeks ago. After flipping through I was a little puzzled by the title as there was zero gun stuff. The title did make me look though.” Sometimes they’re better, though the gun stuff tends toward Purdy shotguns and the like.

JIM TREACHER: Olby Lawyers Up. “He’s been on the job six months, and already they’re publicly reminding him that he can be replaced. Do you suppose that got under his skin?”

EUROPE: What Happened To The ECB’s Heroic Intervention? “Well that was fast. The Wall Street Journal reports that Italian bond yields are back up above the critical 7% threshhold where interest rates threaten the country’s fiscal stability. But that’s not even the worst news. The same blog post suggests that Spain may be the real problem. . . . So there’s reason to worry that things are still shaky. Moreover, they’re kind of running out of things to try. I suspect that if there’s another really big convulsion, it may well be the Euro’s last gasp.”

Meanwhile, here at home: Economy Now Nearly Numb to Monetary and Fiscal Stimulus.

STUDYING GRECIAN URNS to make better spacecraft.

WELL, AFTER THE TRIG PALIN ASSAULTS, GOING AFTER A STILLBORN BABY ISN’T MUCH OF A STRETCH: The Casual Cruelty of Eugene Robinson. Remember this the next time they launch one of their bogus “new civility” campaigns.

UPDATE: Reader Paul Jackson writes: “5th day of the year and we’ve already heard the stupidest comment of 2012? Statistically highly unlikely. What does that say for what the rest of 2012 holds? I shudder at the thought.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kenneth Lightcap writes: “As a pastor I have been called to bring comfort to families that have lost children to stillbirth. The ‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep’ organization has a national network of local photographers who are comfortable in taking photographs of stillborn babies. I checked their website for my mid western city and found fifteen photographers listed. I will tell you from pastoral experience that those photographs and the time spent with the deceased child bring enormous comfort to the grieving families. It is such an improvement over the way such things were handled in the past. Gene Robinson, meh.”

Meanwhile, reader Tracy Morris writes: “The Santorum’s child lived for 2 hours, he wasn’t stillborn. A stillborn is a child who is born after 20 weeks gestation with no heartbeat. It’s a small thing, but it does matter to the parents.” I stand corrected.

I HOPE IT PANS OUT: Startup Promises Revolutionary Grid Battery.

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YOU’D THINK GOP LEGISLATORS WOULD KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN VOTING ON I.P. LEGISLATION: “Musicians are part of the entertainment industry which is mostly anti-Republican. So lefty performers hate having conservatives use their music.”

But too many Republicans reflexively side with big business, even when it’s an industry that hates them.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Shock News: Arab League as Ineffective In Syria As It Is Everywhere Else.

Next time you want to stop a bloodbath, don’t send a war criminal to report on human rights abuses. In a bizarre turn of events, the head of the Sudanese military intelligence has been tasked with ending the crackdown on protesters in Syria as the leader of Arab League observers.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter; the Arab League has a long tradition of irrelevance and, so far, its observer mission in Syria is keeping tradition alive. The impact of the observers has been negligible. At least 49 people have been killed by the regime in the past 5 days, according to Bloomberg. The Arab Parliament, an advisory body to a talking shop, announced on January 1 that the “fact-finding” mission of Arab League monitors has failed.

Lieutenant General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, the head of Sudan’s military intelligence since 1989, has for decades, it is widely believed, personally overseen what most now recognize as genocide in Darfur. And now he is expected to help end the bloodshed in Syria? Tellingly, he declared to Reuters after visiting Homs: “some places looked a bit of a mess but there was nothing frightening.”

Klaus Barbie was unavailable for comment. On the other hand, it’s not just the Arab League: The U.N. wound up putting genocidaires on the Rwanda investigative panels, too. I’ve discussed a more productive human-rights approach elsewhere.

IN 2011, RECORD SHORTAGES OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: Because of federal regulations. “The number of prescription drug shortages shot up to a record 267 in 2011, nearly four times the level of just seven years ago, a new report says. It’s a shortage made in Washington. . . . As is often the case, government price and output controls are largely to blame for shortages, which have killed at least 15 people since 2010.”

THE SECRET FORMULA for silly science. “If there’s a formula for silly science, Ig Nobel founder Marc Abrahams surely has it figured out. For 21 years, he and his friends at the Annals of Improbable Research have made international headlines by honoring breakthroughs like the first study of homosexual necrophiliac ducks, and the invention of the bra that turns into a gas mask. But here’s a clue or two for future laureates: Make sure there’s a dash of seriousness to go with the silliness. One sure way not to win an Ig Nobel is to try too hard to be funny.”

Trying too hard is often a mistake.

IT’S NOT A “RECALL,” IT’S A “CALL BACK:” GM to call back 8,000 Chevy Volts. “General Motors will strengthen the structure around the batteries in its Volt electric cars to keep them safe during crashes, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday. GM will ask Volt owners to return the cars to dealers for structural modifications, said the person, who did not want to be identified because GM executives plan to announce the repairs later Thursday.”