I WISH that I had the money and leisure to travel around the country attending Blogger Bashes. Here’s Asparagirl’s description of last night’s in New York, with links to lots of other people’s posts.

HMM. This scenario, in which Jordan (good cop) winds up taking over the West Bank after Israel (bad cop) devastates the terrorist infrastructure that might be used to resist Jordan, continues to look plausible. Jordan’s security services were quite capable of shutting down the Abu Nidal organization, but might have trouble with the large military structure that exists, er, existed, in the West Bank. The way is now pretty much clear — and the United States and Israel could make sure (over likely, but impotent, objections from the EU) that all aid money directed to the West Bank must go through Jordan, not Arafat. Stay tuned. And keep an eye on what King Abdullah is doing, and who he’s talking to.

ATLEE PARKS says that I’m wrong about Le Pen. She says that (1) he’s much worse than Pat Buchanan; and (2) he has a better chance of winning than I suggest below.

TO MARK THE DEMONSTRATIONS IN WASHINGTON, I’ve gotten breakfast from McDonald’s two days in a row.

THE U.N. COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS won’t be investigating Zimbabwe. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

UPDATE: Dan Hanson has gotten word of a major shakeup at the UNHRC that will let it live up to its full potential.

ANDREW STUTTAFORD blames the European Commission for the strong Le Pen showing. Meanwhile reader Thomas Lynn writes:

Mightn’t the votes for Le Pen–a law and order and anti(Muslim)immigration candidate–be seen as a repudiation of the recent events there? I know the French right has strong antiSemitic and antiAmerican tendencies, but isn’t it possible that in this case, that’s not what we’re seeing? I mean, if I were French, I might consider a vote for a law-and-order anti(Muslim)immigration candidate after the events of the last few weeks.

Hard to say. While Le Pen has something of a record of a holocaust-denier, he is more prominently anti-Arab (especially anti-Algerian) and anti-Muslim, so it may be driving that. His strong showing may also be a repudiation of Jospin’s rather, er, accomodationist rhetoric regarding the Arabs. Or it may just be the result of Chirac having aimed most of his attacks at Jospin, rather than Le Pen.

UPDATE: Reader Don McGregor offers this comment:

The situation in France should be a lesson about what happens when certain ideas are shouted out of the public arena. France has a problem with unassimilated Arabs living in industrialized public housing on welfare (hi Mickey Kaus). The “polite” parties and the chattering classes forbid a realistic discussion of the problem, substituting instead a lot of happy talk. But the rest of the polity noticed that there was indeed a real problem, despite the happy talk; lacking any good political alternatives, they opted for the only alternatives that were offered them, which happened to be bad.

Well, I think it’s certainly gotten some attention.

MATTHEW HOY doesn’t much like Jimmy Carter’s oped in the New York Times. He doesn’t like Al Gore’s much, either. His refutations, it appears, may be longer than the pieces he’s attacking!

BELLESILES UPDATE: Linda Gorman writes in the Denver Post that books like Bellesiles’ Arming America pose problems for librarians. Should they be labelled as untrue so as to avoid deceiving readers?

READER ANDREW THOMAS wonders what will happen if Le Pen is elected:

What I wonder is, will the EU-nuchs sanction France for its voters’ temerity the way they did the Austrians for electing Joerg Haider some years ago? Le Pen is at least as objectionable to the EU-nuchs’ delicate sensibilities.

Furthermore, does this event also portend other rightist victories in upcoming elections in Europe? Will Anzar, Berlusconi, and Orban finally get some company?

I think it’s rather unlikely that Le Pen will be elected. But this is an excellent point — I think it’s hard to imagine the EU trying to erect a cordon sanitaire around France as it did with Austria. I do expect that European elections will shift to the right. What worries me — as Howard Anglin puts it — is “the ease with which many Frenchmen (not all, mind you) seem to swing from near-communism to near-nazism.” But the Left’s willingness to adhere to the enemies of the West is bound to cost it.

BRITISH SOLICITOR MARTIN PRATT sends these comments on what is happening in France:

I am living next door to a society in crisis. We have our problems in Britain, but these now seem to be paling into insignificance compared to what is going on over the Channel.

Link

Another link.

The problem is not political in isolation, it is societal and cultural too. Synagogue burnings are not a European problem, they are a French problem. We in the UK have a large militant Muslim population, but only France seems to be suffering these attacks. While Britain is turning out frothy comedies like “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and “About a Boy” the biggest French films of the moment are the charmingly titled “Fuck Me” and “The Pornographer”. The best selling hardcover book in the UK last week was Last Man Down by New York firefighter Richard Picciotto, in France it was that idiotic Pentagon conspiracy theory. Where is the British Le Pen, the German Le Pen, the Spanish Le Pen? Only France seems hell for leather sprinting towards the right while prostituting its rich cultural life.

Sure racial tensions certainly do exist in Britain and in Germany, there were race riots in the Oldham and Burnley last summer, but such things happen many countries, including the US. But despite our (the UK’s) large Muslim population and well documented radical mosques, Anti-Semitic attacks, if they have increased (and I have heard of no increase either statistically or anecdotally) are nowhere near France’s league. Nor has there been a lurch by Germany to the far right, even in the deprived eastern Lander of Saxony.

Link

In the meantime refugees are queuing up to get out of France and into Britain.

Link.

France is the sick man of Europe, there are no two ways about it. Having created the deeply structurally flawed EU in their image, they have the worst record in the Community for adherence to EU legislation. I agree with you Glenn that Europe does have a problem on its hands, but I don’t think that problem is the EU, it is in fact France.

I hope this is true. One interesting question is whether the rest of Europe will follow France’s lead, as they did with the EU for so long. I’m hoping not, but. . . .

WHO’S REALLY A WAR PROFITEER?

LE PEN beats Jospin, nudges Chirac. I think it’s easy to make too much of this, but imagine if, say, David Duke — or maybe Pat Buchanan is a better analogy — were polling this well in the United States.

ACCORDING TO THE MONTY PYTHON SURVEY, I AM ARTHUR, KING OF THE BRITONS!

which “monty python and the holy grail” character are you?

this quiz was made by colleen

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED that I’ve been kinda busy this weekend, or at least you may have inferred that from my posting less than usual. My wife is out of town at a conference, so I’ve been single-parenting it the last few days. But you can go read TV Punditwatch for all your punditry needs this afternoon.

MICKEY KAUS, who has been on something of a roll lately, says that the Robert Blake case ties in surprisingly with the Gary Condit case. Interesting.

MATT WELCH gets mentioned in this Omaha World-Herald editorial.

CORNEL WEST UPDATE: John McWhorter examines Cornel West’s behavior and concludes that it reflects badly on black academics.

Prof. West is known for his lucrative career as a public speaker, and has recently recorded a rap CD and supported Al Sharpton’s bid for the U.S. presidency. His decision to decamp to Princeton betrays tragic assumptions, of the sort that lead too many African-American leaders and thinkers to reinforce the very stereotypes they seek to exterminate. . . .

The simple fact is that serious academics are expected to produce a steady stream of academic work. Of course, Prof. West proudly identifies with the class of “activist scholars.” As such, he likely sees it as morally urgent that he communicate with the general public. And there is not a thing wrong with this. But he attempts to maintain a foothold in the academic realm.

As McWhorter says, it’s a “delicate balance.” And it is. That’s why I see Cornel West as a cautionary example for a lot of us.

To some degree, public opining is part of an academic’s job. My Dean thinks I’m doing something worthwhile when I speak to the Maryville, Tennessee Kiwanis Club about constitutional law, or go talk about the Patriot Act before a bunch of alumni, because “public service” and “public education” are supposed to be part of our jobs. And to me, weblogs and op-eds are just the same thing writ large.

But of course, while doing that sort of thing is part of my job, it’s not my whole job. I still teach my classes (without the aid of teaching assistants, which we don’t use much in the law world) grade my exams (ditto on the absence of teaching assistants, and as Eugene Volokh says, that part sucks) and do actual scholarship. Producing one law-review article a year is considered quite productive in my field; I’ll have two this year plus a short “Essay” piece that I wouldn’t count as a full-scale publication, though some people do. I also put out the occasional CD (techno, not rap) but although I list it in the “other creative activity” section of my annual “Faculty Activities Report,” I don’t kid myself that it carries (or ought to carry) much weight in assessing what kind of a year I’ve had in terms of scholarship. And if I felt otherwise, I imagine that someone would point out the error to me.

The problem is that when you’re a University Professor at Harvard, there’s apparently nobody to do that pointing-out except the President of the University. And when Larry Summers did point out that West wasn’t carrying his weight, West responded that he had been “disrespected,” — though, really, telling someone that they’re capable of better and more substantive work than they’re doing, and trying to halt their descent into self-parody, is respect, not disrespect.

GEOFFREY NUNBERG responds to critics of his media bias survey from The American Prospect. Edward Boyd responds to the response and adds: “I don’t want to make too much out of this, but I think that this incident is proof that blogging is having some impact on the debate. Nunberg specifically mentions four people in his response and two of us are bloggers. It’s interesting that Nunberg devotes much more space responding to my blog than he does to Bernard Goldberg’s columnn in the Miami Herald or Brent Bozell’s Media Research Center.”

HUH. I’m an open-source blogger, while “Max Power” sounds like a porn star. So which of us comes off better in that comparison?

YOU CAN STREAM AUDIO of the Glenn Reynolds / Mickey Kaus presentation on weblogs at UCLA by clicking here.

ANOTHER REPORT ON VENEZUELA and environs, from Jorge “scoopmaster” Schmidt:

1. Public confirmation of organized labor-led march on May 1st: The parallel “Bolivarian” Labor Organization announced plans for a counter-demonstration the same day.

2. Excellent piece by T. Varadarajan on Venezuela generally: He’s right, by the way, Venezuela has been esentially socialist for the past 30 years.

3. A helicopter crash killed most of the Venezuelan Air Force’s high command. These were the post-coup guys. It is being blamed on bad weather.

4. The Colombian paramilitary forces have declared Chavez “persona non grata” and “highly dangerous to the intergity of our nation.”

InstaPundit: Must-reading for Latin American experts everywhere!

BILL HERBERT doesn’t like Ted Rall’s latest cartoon much.

JOSH MARSHALL reports that he heard from an unnamed “Latin American expert” on Thursday,

an intriguing development which few or no US media sources have reported: despite the apparent calming of the situation in the country, the State Department is asking family members of embassy officials in Caracas and other non-essential employees to leave the country.

That would be “few,” not “no” U.S. media sources, since InstaPundit (via a communication from Jorge Schmidt) reported it on Wednesday!

MICKEY KAUS clarifies his position (yeah, that’s it, clarifies it) on an independent McCain candidacy.

GROANNN. Reader Don Burton writes: “I saw the item about the bicycle protest that became raucous. Will the media now call for an end to the ‘cycles of violence?'”