March 08, 2008

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, lawyers who challenged the powers-that-be would be subjected to secret disbarment proceedings.

And they were right! (Via Michael Silence, who has much more). The lawyer in question, Herb Moncier, has been instrumental in exposing a lot of political corruption in the area. Whether or not there's a basis -- and the secrecy will encourage some people to think the worst -- a lot of people are going to see this as a payback, one implicating the federal judiciary. It seems as if this would have been better handled in the open. I don't know if the rules permitted that, though it's hard to see why they shouldn't.

TAEGAN GODDARD: Could Gore be the nominee?

MORE ON REBECCA AGUILAR'S FIRING.

JEROME ARMSTRONG: Follies in the blogosphere.

YALE UNIVERSITY TARGETS JUICYCAMPUS.COM:

Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry has consulted the University’s general counsel about the possibility of blocking the site from Yale’s network or punishing users who log onto it. Yale’s lawyers have contacted JuicyCampus about University concerns, Gentry said.

Choices currently on the table, administrators said, include asking JuicyCampus to remove offensive posts, trying to identify and discipline posters of allegedly defamatory or harassing comments, or banning access to the site from on-campus Internet access.

“When you have a forum that’s on the computer, that’s anonymous, that’s the only place where you can say those things without getting punished — it’s a problem,” Gentry said.

When you have a university whose first response to unwanted speech is to try to ban it and punish students who take part, it's a bigger problem.

A USEFUL LESSON from Josh Marshall.

MORE ON MCCAIN and his dumb endorsement of a vaccine/autism link, for which there's not any real evidence.

WOULD PLUG-IN CARS USE too much water? Some skepticism in the comments. I can attest locally, though, that nuclear plants sometimes have to shut down when streams get too low, because of a shortage of cooling water.

THE GIRL IN HILLARY'S 3 A.M. AD is actually an Obama supporter.

SO I TRIED TO WATCH this video from MSNBC on the Obama/Rezko land deal, and instead it says that the video is no longer available due to "usage restrictions."

UPDATE: I'm still getting the "usage restrictions" message, but several readers report that it's working for them. Go figure.

CHALK UP ANOTHER CAUCUS FOR OBAMA: Obama takes Wyoming.

YESTERDAY'S POST ON THE ROBOT LAWN MOWER inspired this email from reader Reid Reynolds (no relation) who owns one:

It's been almost 3 years since you posted my review, and 5 years since I bought the gadget. Perusing the Amazon site, I see people have had mixed experiences, but positive overall. My RL800 is still going strong. I've had to replace the battery a couple of times and the blades, but it was still gettin' 'er done at the end of last season. We'll see how "Herbie" made it through the most winter in the next few weeks.

I can't believe how expensive these things have become. I bought mine for $699 in 2003, but the newer model is about 3 times that. I guess demand grew as word got out. Amazon also links to what appears to me to be a new competitor at http://www.lawnbotts.com/lawnbott.html which has both cheaper and more expensive models.

I just wish they could make it more convenient. Laying down perimeter wire is hard work and, as it sinks into the ground over time, it becomes virtually impossible to find a break if it occurs and you just have to lay new line. Additionally, the random mowing pattern makes it take a long time to finish, and even then it can miss some spots, especially if you let it out after dark and you can't see what it missed when you think it's done - though being able to let it out in the dark is one of the greatest advantages to it.

I wish someone would create a system that utilzed a set of beacons that you could locate in the corners of the plot you want to mow. The mower would sense its distance to the beacons like your standard GPS receiver and triangulate its position. It would then know precisely where it was and could mow a specific pattern to finish the job as quickly as possible. If you post any of this, and assuming nobody else has already filed for intellectual property rights on the idea, let me state to any party interested in pursuing it that I freely relinquish all rights and privileges to it. But, it would be gracious of that party to provide me with a free model when they start production.

Take it away, inventors. And I'd forgotten this robot roundup post.

UH OH: "While Russia has, over the past nine years, eliminated separatist and Islamic terrorists from Chechnya, they now find themselves with a potentially worse situation in neighboring Ingushetia."

THE THUNDERBIRDS OVER LAS VEGAS: A pretty cool picture.

QUESTIONS ABOUT NEWS PRIORITIES, from Roger Kimball.

OKAY, this article on newly predatory French women got a lot of play, but the underlying stats seem kind of . . . unimpressive:

The proportion of French women who claim to have had only one partner has dropped from 68 per cent in 1970, to 43 per cent in 1992 and 34 per cent in 2006. A woman's average number of partners has risen from under two in 1970 to over five today, while a man's has remained the same for four decades, almost 13.

French women's first experience of sex is now almost as early as that of the opposite sex: in 1950 there was a two-year difference, but the gap has narrowed to four months, to around 17 and a half.

I mean, it's not exactly the Playboy Mansion over there.

JOHN TIERNEY: Global Warming Payola.

ADDRESSING NANO-FEARS at Oak Ridge National Lab.

AN INDIANA JONES TRAILER. Er, a Lego Indiana Jones trailer.

OOPS: "Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to backpedal Friday from comments she made in October suggesting Mississippi was a backward place for women's progress. . . . Clinton was on a campaign swing through Mississippi before Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary."

SALIM MANSUR: Multiculturalism Cannot Survive.

WYOMING CAUCUS COVERAGE from Bill Bradley.

THOUGHTS ON BARACK OBAMA AND SAMANTHA POWER, from Michael Totten.

LOADS OF REZKO NEWS ON Rezkorama. It's constantly updated! And some related thoughts here.

THOUGHTS ON gloom, doom, and campus killers.

RETURN OF the muster.

The Glenn and Helen Show: Austin Bay and Jim Dunnigan on Iraq, Venezuela, and America

We talk to Jim Dunnigan, publisher of StrategyPage.com and author of numerous books on war, intelligence and security, and Austin Bay, who blogs at AustinBay.net, and who is the author of both novels and nonfiction works on war and military matters. They fill us in on the latest developments in Iran, Iraq, and Venezuela, and talk about why the Obama Campaign is good for America. (An Obama Presidency is a different story . . . .)

You can listen directly -- no downloading needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here. And you can get a lo-fi version suitable for cellphones, dialup, etc. by going here and selecting lo-fi. And you can always get a free subscription via iTunes absolutely free. Never miss another episode!

Music is by Mobius Dick. Show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com.

Comments and discussion here.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM UPDATE: Eco-terrorism on trial out West. "Kolar testified against Briana Waters, telling jurors that her former friend helped her and three others set a massive fire at the University of Washington. Kolar also admitted to trying in 1998 to burn down the Wray Gun Club in Wray, one of four arsons she confessed to in her deal with prosecutors." (Via And Still I Persist).

HILLARY CLINTON, peacemaker.

UPDATE: More here.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Can McCain win if there's a recession?

PATTERICO RESPONDS to Radley Balko on jury nullification. As I mentioned earlier, my thoughts are here.

HEH. My favorite Allan Sherman song was You Went the Wrong Way Old King Louis.

A ROUNDUP ON THE Wyoming Democratic Caucuses.

NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR ENGINEERS in Syria.

NOT VERY JUDICIOUS:

Shawn Sage long dreamed of joining the military, and watching "Full Metal Jacket" last year really sold him on becoming a Marine.

But last fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed the foster teen's hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus.

In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children's Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn't approve of the Iraq war, didn't trust recruiters and didn't support the military. . . . His foster parents, as well as his social worker, supported his decision to enlist early. Despite being denied, he still shows up for USMC physical training.

Read the whole thing.

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS: Women earn most of America’s Ph.D.’s but lag in the physical sciences. Beware of plans to fix the ‘problem.’ Quotas in the physical sciences. Sure -- if it's a successful American institution, fairness requires that it must be crippled . . . .

(Via the Insta-Wife).

TRUER FOR MORE AND MORE, I EXPECT: "I find myself watching YouTube more than TV these days."

March 07, 2008

FOLLOWING UP ON TODAY'S EARLIER POSTS, could you have the beer robot bring you a beer while you sit and watch the RoboMower mow your lawn? The picture certainly brings that to mind. And then, I guess, the paintball robot could keep neighborhood dogs from despoiling your perfectly-tended grass. . . .

SUSAN ESTRICH: Nasty Twists in Democratic Race.

WOMEN'S HISTORY, with porn stars. But what point are they trying to make by pairing Hillary Clinton with Jenna Jameson?

A MCCAIN WRIGGLE on taxes?

JAMES LILEKS: "Sign of the times: you hear about a bombing of a Times Square recruitment office, and you assume it’s nutjob antiwar folks, not Al Qaeda." I guess that's proof that we're winning . . .

UPDATE: Worries at Berkeley: "After a bombing at a Marine recruiting center at Times Square in New York City, Bay Area military supporters came to Berkeley City Hall Thursday to express concerns that the city's Marine recruiting center could suffer a similar attack." Given the extensive incitement of anti-military hatred by the Berkeley city government, that's a reasonable fear.

JONATHAN CHAIT: Hillary Clinton, fratricidal maniac. I hope he's not calling her some kind of . . . monster.

But there's some criticism here.

AMAZON IS OFFERING $50 TO $150 REBATES on new MacBook computers. (Via Backpack Computing).

TOM MAGUIRE has more thoughts on Obama's Samantha Power flipflop problem.

UPDATE: More Obama national-security disarray: Intel Adviser Breaks with Obama over FISA, Telecoms.

"I do believe strongly that [telecoms] should be granted that immunity," former CIA official John Brennan told National Journal reporter Shane Harris in the interview. "They were told to [cooperate] by the appropriate authorities that were operating in a legal context."

Read the whole thing.

MORE: No we can't!

ED MORRISSEY: STRIKE TWO FOR THE TIMES:

He’s annoyed, sure, but hardly spitting and cursing. By the time she asks “Why are you so angry?”, the question is so inappropriate that he asks her to repeat it — and she declines, hopefully out of embarrassment.

Interestingly, the Times now has tried twice to get his goat, and for the second time, they’ve wound up with egg on their face.

Perhaps they'll hire Rebecca Aguilar for attempt number three. Hey, she's available!

UPDATE: McCain experiences the media shift: "When you're the darling of the press, you're feisty. When you're the Republican nominee for President, you're dangerously unstable."

MORE: Physics Geek: "This is like that line from Jerry Maguire: 'You've never seen me very upset.' He's visibly irritated, but he hardly raises his voice. Total non-story."

ANN ALTHOUSE UNDERSTANDS CONSERVATISM, with help from John McCain.

Plus, unimpressed with claims of a McCain flip-out: "Maybe a better question is what sort of person views that as 'flipping out'?"

The press hates it when pols get mad at reporters. I'm not convinced that anyone else does.

UPDATE: Ken Wheaton of Advertising Age isn't a fan of the new McCain ad. "Did someone have some spare Star Trek B-roll hanging around?"

DOES HUGO CHAVEZ HELP THE POOR? Not so much.

But he talks about it. Isn't that enough?

GOOD NEWS: Another FARC leader killed.

JIM GERAGHTY: "You realize the two advisers who have gotten Obama in trouble are named 'Austan' and 'Power'. If there's another adviser named 'Danger' on the campaign, they might as well let him go, too."

A REMOTE-CONTROL PAINTBALL-FIRING ROBOT. I prefer the BeerBot myself, but they both have their uses. Perhaps they could be combined, or -- no, that way lies madness.

LOVE FOR THE Ferrari Testarossa. With video.

RON BAILEY: For the Record, U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Down.

We are the change we've been waiting for!

WELL, AT LEAST GEORGE MCGOVERN KNOWS that it's not 1968 any more:

Since leaving office I've written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.

Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.

The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.

It's not too late for him to jump into the Democratic race is it? This is better than anything I've heard from Clinton and Obama . . . .

HMM: Pelosi's Bill Could Benefit Husband's Stock Holding.

UPDATE: Sorry, my "hmm" was unclear. I don't see this story adding up to much of anything, unless there's something more out there.

IS OBAMA SOFT? Yes, says David Brooks, but not how you think:

The real softness of the campaign is not that Obama is a wimp. It’s that he has never explained how this new politics would actually produce bread-and-butter benefits to people in places like Youngstown and Altoona.

On the other hand, there's this: "If anyone doubts that Obama's supporters engage in cult-like behavior, try pointing out that they engage in cult-like behavior." Yeah, there's a certain Ron-Paulish vibe there.

UPDATE: What cult of Obama? Nothing to see here, move along.

MORE FOREIGN-POLICY EMBARRASSMENT FOR OBAMA: "For all the chatter about Obama adviser Samantha Power's calling Clinton a 'monster,' another set of remarks made on her book tour in the United Kingdom may be equally threatening to the Obama campaign: Comments in a BBC interview that express a lack of confidence that Obama will be able to carry through his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. . . . Power downplayed Obama's commitment to quick withdrawal from Iraq on Hard Talk, a program that often exceeds any of the U.S. talk shows in the rigor of its grillings." Like Obama's NAFTA doubletalk, I actually find this reassuring, but it's still a problem for the campaign. Is it free-fall yet?

UPDATE: Retreat, at any cost. Well, so much for the reassurance.

BOB KRUMM TO RUSH LIMBAUGH: Be careful what you wish for. I have to say, I question the idea that Hillary would be easier to beat than Obama. Obama's inexperience -- and considerably farther-left views -- will be a problem for him, as is becoming increasingly apparent. And his staffing isn't looking so great these days, either.

BEER ROBOTS: Man's new best friend?

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY, OR WHAT? A jet-powered Dodge Caravan. At the link, video of this "unholy amalgam of military might and mom-approved mobility."

SAMANTHA POWER RESIGNS as Obama adviser after the Hillary-as-Monster comment.

Meanwhile, Hillary gets another break: Archivists block release of Clinton papers. Including the background on the Marc Rich pardon.

WELL, THIS GADGET looks cool, but I'm afraid that -- as with the Kegerator -- it would translate into a quick 20-pound weight gain.

IN THE MAIL: When the Tide Rises, by David Drake.

WHY HEALTH INSURANCE isn't insurance.

Plus, related thoughts from Megan McArdle: "We force everyone to pay into fire departments because fires have very bad negative externalities: if your house catches on fire, unless you live on a rural farm, there's a good chance that your neighbor's house will burn down too. Fire prevention is a genuine public good; most health care, with the exception of things meant to stop the spread of infectious disease, simply isn't."

A CLASSIC ETHICAL BIND for lawyers.

NAME THAT PARTY: Special DWI Edition!

THOUGHTS ON JURY NULLIFICATION from Radley Balko. My own thoughts can be found here.

HERSCHEL SMITH ON Iran and Iraq.

MICKEY KAUS: Dial "P" for Pander!

HILLARY VS. OBAMA: Will Puerto Rico decide everything?

THE OIL BUBBLE: About to pop? I certainly hope so.

SHADES OF BILL LOCKYER: Having fun with prison rape.

SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A MONSTER: Hillary Clinton is not.

UPDATE: Voyage to the Bottom of the Barrel.

ANOTHER UPDATE: An Obama apology. More here.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Earmark Nation:

With all the talk about how Mr. McCain needs to unify his party, lost has been the question of whether some people will let him. Washington Republicans know he's their best shot at retaining the White House. Yet many remain ambivalent about him -- not because they question his conservatism, but out of resentment that he may get in the way of their earmarks.

This has resulted in a behind-the-scenes brawl, as spend-happy Republicans resist efforts by wiser heads to fall in behind Mr. McCain's anti-earmark message. At best, the spenders risk an embarrassing pummeling by their own nominee that could hurt them in their own re-election campaigns. At worst, they could undercut one of Mr. McCain's more persuasive messages. . . . Republicans have a choice. They can unite behind the feisty Mr. McCain, and take a position that is true to their small-government principles, popular with the public and a smart political move. Or they can hurt themselves, and possibly their nominee, by sticking with the lard.

The GOP delegation has shown that it would rather stuff its pockets than retain the majority in Congress. It's quite likely that it would rather stuff its pockets than see the GOP take the Presidency, too.

THE ESCALATING WAR against military recruiters. But don't question their patriotism!

I don't know why some people seem so anxious to reenact 1968. It wasn't a good year for anybody, except maybe Richard Nixon. And even that worked out badly in the end . . . .

March 06, 2008

RUBY TUESDAY'S IS IN FINANCIAL TROUBLE, and if you'll read the comments you'll see a lot of people saying it's because of their menu changes, complained about on InstaPundit here and here. And I agree with the guy who says that the decline began when they ditched the french onion soup.

FRIENDS OF THE COMMON MAN.

CBS: Obama's Rezko Ties Escape National Radar.

PROBLEMS IN PENNSYLVANIA: "The way I see it, Hillary is going to win this state, and the forces of Rush Limbaugh are going to do their damnedest to increase her margin of victory. This, it is believed, will help John McCain. Not only do I disagree with this approach, but I distrust it. Almost without exception, Limbaugh and the other major Hillary promoters hate John McCain and make no secret of it. So I am deeply suspicious of their claim that they are 'helping' John McCain by helping Hillary at the polls."

DOUG WEINSTEIN TAKES ON "the forces of darkness."

SOME THOUGHTS on the Rebecca Aguilar firing.

FONDLY REMEMBERING THE ORIGINAL S.U.V. -- the Jeep Grand Wagoneer. "It was so tough that my parents skipped out of their high school homecoming dance to go snowdrift-busting during a blizzard in one of my grandfather's early Wagoneers. Evidently this is what passed for fun in 1968 South Dakota."

IS OBAMA THE MESSIAH? Heck, some people say he's the Kwisatz Haderach.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO TONIGHT, you can listen to the latest edition of PJM Political online now.

PROBLEMS with the Texas caucus procedures.

THE MEDIA'S BUNKER MENTALITY: Amusingly, All in the Family is older now than the square acts that Archie and Edith Bunker sang about in the theme song were when the show was new.

REZKORAMA: It's Rezkorriffic!

IT'S ALWAYS COMFORTING WHEN CRITICS can't even spell your name correctly.

HMM: "Eight House Democrats were mailed a letter and photo of a Times Square recruiting station in Manhattan before it was bombed this morning, according to House insiders. The letter did not contain any specific threats against the lawmakers or the site, but the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI are now investigating the matter." If I had to guess, I'd say this means we'll probably see more of these bombings until they catch whoever's behind it.

UPDATE: Much more here. "The content of the letters is now known, and it is an anti-war rant."

JACOB SULLUM ON guns on campus. "Instead of an increase in violence, adoption of Florida-style concealed carry policies has been followed by a decline in violence. The extent to which that decline can be attributed to more guns in the hands of law-abiding people in public places remains a matter of much controversy. But one thing seems pretty clear: The fears stoked by opponents of concealed carry liberalization were unjustified. Are there good reasons to think their dark predictions about guns on campus will be any more accurate? "

WILL THE REAL FREE TRADERS please stand up?

A U.S. CITIZEN we should be proud to have. He's in favor of peace!

AN ARMY OF EXPERTS? Well, perhaps a bit.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT in Canada.

RICK MORAN on Obama-Rezko and media ignorance of "the Chicago Way."

ALI ETERAZ on Harvard's gym-closing mistake. Meanwhile, some readers wonder if Harvard will close its gyms to openly gay men at certain hours, so that straight men who are made uncomfortable by gays can work out without being uncomfortable. It appears that they're in sync with Islamic thought . . . .

TOM MAGUIRE:

By way of Ace I am watching this video in which Obama calls for the day that a young girl traveling abroad can say with pride that she is an American - that, we are informed, is the change he is working for.

I know that message lights Democratic fires, but my goodness - is that what he wants to present to the general public?

I would have expected Obama to tack to the center now, especially in light of the exit polls.

UPDATE: From the comments: "Maybe we can send him a copy of Barcelona and he'll wise up."

MAKING CHEAP SOLAR CELLS with an inkjet printer. Cool.

INDEED: "If you sue me, I'm going to do my best to figure out how I can sue you. You want to think about that dynamic before you sue somebody."

OBAMA AIDE: Neither Obama nor Clinton ready for that 3 a.m. call.

SECRET U.S. NEWS LAW-SCHOOL RANKING METHODOLOGY -- revealed!

REACHING THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL? Clinton aide compares Obama to Ken Starr. Well, they're both lawyers from Chicago, but . . . .

JOHN SIDNEY MCCAIN: The Unity Candidate!

REBECCA AGUILAR UPDATE: After a lengthy suspension, she's been fired. Background here.

ACCORDING TO THIS REPORT, the we-don't-mean-it assurances on NAFTA started with Clinton's campaign, not Obama's. Go figure.

UPDATE: Or was it an Obama/Clinton mixup?

THOUGHTS ON THAT TIMES SQUARE BOMB ATTACK, from Bob Owens. "This was an act of domestic terrorism."

UPDATE: Rand Simberg emails: "Does Bill Ayers have an alibi? Was he having breakfast with Obama at the time?" It is feeling a bit like 1968. But where was our Summer Of Love? Britney's flings don't count . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh, jeez. I was just kidding, but . . . .

FIVE COOL WEB APPLICATIONS -- and I hadn't heard of any of them.

THAT WHOLE "SOCIOPATH" THING is generating some pushback.

THAI POLICE BUST fugitive Russian arms dealer.

A NEW, MORE USER-FRIENDLY rebreather rig for divers.

My rebreather test-dive piece, with video, from a couple of years ago is here. Nice to see the tech advancing.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg emails: "That's not all Bill Stone is doing. Scroll to the bottom."

TOO BIG TO HIDE: Student protests in Iran.

FLIGHT SCHOOL FIASCO: Homeland Security remains a mess.

MEGAN MCARDLE: To Hell with the peacemakers.

PRACTICAL HYDROGEN STORAGE using nanotechnology.

FREE TRADE AND COLOMBIA:

Fresh off a tour of Colombia, Rep. Jim Matheson says a free trade agreement with that South American country could boost its strength as a U.S. ally, a point President Bush also stressed Tuesday.

Matheson, a Utah Democrat, spent three days in Colombia this weekend with several other members of Congress, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. They met with President Alvaro Uribe and toured parts of the nation that Matheson says even police would not dare to visit just a few years ago. . . . Matheson says a fair trade agreement with Colombia - the U.S. already has an agreement with Central American countries as well as Mexico and Canada - would help augment the relationship between the U.S. and Colombia and boost the economics of both as well.

It's hard to believe that anyone would oppose that, but some people do. Here's more on Colombia and free trade, from Investor's Business Daily.

HAS ANYBODY SEEN BILL AYERS LATELY? Military recruiting office bombed. Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

More sixties rerunning. But they support the troops!

FREE SONGS FROM Kate Voegele and Pete Rock.

IT'S ALL PART OF THE PROCESS: The DNC looks at a do-over in Florida and Michigan.

March 05, 2008

CANADIANS ON A mole hunt. For the benefit of Barack Obama.

UH OH: Rezko In Debt $50 Million; How Did He Afford Obama Lot? "Obama says Mrs. Rezko bought it for $625,000, and then later sold a strip of the lot back to Obama so he would have a larger yard. Obama says he paid Mrs. Rezko a fair market price. According to the court transcript, Mrs. Rezko makes $37,500 a year."

"I LOVE BARBECUE." Well, yeah. Plus, thoughts on portion size: "Restaurateurs don’t necessarily want you to eat the whole thing; they are giving us what we’ve asked for. Americans don’t like restaurants that serve small portions. Whether they eat it all or should eat it all is another matter; consumers vote with their dollars and like it or not, American consumers love and buy big portions."

UPDATE: Rand Simberg finds an interesting angle.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN: What's Hillary Clinton hiding?

UPDATE: Hmm. That story seems to have disappeared from CNN's Political Ticker. Here's the Memeorandum link. And here's a Greg Sargent story.

COL. JEFF COOPER vs. the mindset of "the new feminized majority." I'm betting on Cooper, even though he's dead. Am I too optimistic?

LIKE MOST JOURNALISTS, the folks at The Atlantic wouldn't stereotype black people or gays the way they stereotype members of the military.

HMM: Rep. Ellison: Clinton Trying To Reap Benefit Of Obama-Muslim Smear. "I think that Barack Obama' s Democratic opponents will say and do anything to try and win." Well, yes.

But why does Ellison think calling someone a Muslim is a "smear"? If somebody called me a Muslim, I wouldn't feel smeared, any more than if someone called me Jewish.

UPDATE: Running with the story at Protein Wisdom.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ali Eteraz: "Muslim is not a smear."

IRISH TERRORISM goes Islamic.

A SUCCESSFUL SURGE: "Hillary was eight points behind Obama in the March 1 Gallup national daily tracking poll. In the March 4 poll she is four points ahead." It wasn't so much additional resources as a change in tactics that made the difference . . . .

BLOGGING THE REZKO TRIAL, at the Chicago Tribune.

EXTREME MORTMAN: Hillary's right.

DAVID WEIGEL: "Clinton truly might have won the Texas primary on the backs of Rush Limbaugh listeners."

STENY HOYER didn't get the memo.

IN PRAISE OF TAX HAVENS: "Tax havens rile communitarians precisely because they are a standing reproach to the looters who use democratic mandates to justify their depredations. They act as a brake on the power of governments with a temporary majority in a democratic assembly every bit as powerful as other checks and balances such as independent courts and upper chambers."

DAN RIEHL: "Where has the Audacity of Hope gone?"

Plus, How Obama blew it.

FIGHTING THE NANNY STATE A BIT AT A TIME: The Picador Project.

UH OH: Did Rezko pay big-bucks bribe for Iraqi contract? (Via NewsAlert).

UPDATE: "Hide the bone"? That sounds kinda . . . dirty.

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL AT HARVARD: "In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged 'girls-only' campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed."

The Saudis think they're buying Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, etc. Actually they're just accelerating their marginalization. Meanwhile, GWU Prof. John Banzhaf emails that this is almost certainly illegal:

In 1998 a female weight lifter in Boston was awarded $5000 when she was denied admission to a male-only section of a gym which had a separate gym area for women. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination made the ruling despite arguments that separate weight-lifting areas were necessary to prevent "sexual harassment," and a finding that it did in fact tend to reduce sexual harassment. [Hassan and DiCenso v. City of Boston, et al., 20 MDLR 83]

Just a year earlier Superior Court Judge Burnes ruled that a "women only" health club violates Massachusetts' public accommodation statute by refusing to admit men, and could not justify its policy on privacy grounds. [Foster v. Back Bay Spas, d/b/a/ Healthworks Fitness Center, Suffolk Superior Court No. 96-7060 (1997).]

Although the legislature responded by exempting some health clubs which are established solely for use by one gender, that exemption does not appear to apply here because the gym is used by both genders together during most times of the day, and because Harvard receives public funds.

I had wondered about that very thing myself. "Given Harvard's stellar law school, it's surprising that it would take this action in the face of such clear precedent," says Banzhaf. "It would be even more surprising if one or more male students didn't take them to court over such a clear violation as my law students have so often."

UPDATE: Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and The University of Texas.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Eugene Volokh thinks that Banzhaf may be wrong.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Amy Winehouse is suffering from impetigo.

MORE TINY, CHEAP COMPUTERS: The Fit PC and the MicroClient Jr. I think we're seeing a trend.

BEN SMITH: Attacking Obama works.

UPDATE: Exit Poll: Clinton Holds Whites in Ohio.

MICKEY KAUS: "If the superdelegates all voted with the winner of their state, would Hillary get the nomination? I think maybe. That would be one way she might colorably claim a superdelegate decision in her favor would vindicate democracy."

PLAYING HUMAN TETRIS, with people as pieces. Hey, at least it's not "Minesweeper."

WALL STREET JOURNAL: "The perception that the U.S. troop surge in Iraq has succeeded is changing some public views of the war, potentially blunting Democrats' political edge on the issue."

YEAH, I SAW McCain's speech last night. It was good.

MORE ON Berkeley, Stanford, and Saudi Arabia.

IN THE MAIL: Parag Khanna's The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order. The blurb says it's "in the tradition of Thomas Friedman and Samuel Huntington." The book's claim that "globalization is the main battlefield of geopolitics" certainly raises more questions about Obama and Hillary's descent into protectionism.

A CALL FOR OBAMA to bow out.

THE LIMBAUGH EFFECT?

RAND SIMBERG posts an instant review of New Amsterdam.

INSTAPUNDIT'S IRAQ CORRESPONDENT, Major John Tammes, sends this report and photo:

Am now at Tallil, Iraq. I will be working, along with several others, to coach, teach, mentor and advise the Iraqi Army on what they need to do to sustain the fight by themselves.

Before I got to Tallil, I went through an Iraqi Army Basic Combat Training site. The jinood (soldiers) you see seated around the various instructors [you really CAN spot a drill instructor a mile away, no matter what army!] are the ones who will be carrying on the defense of Iraq, when we are all home someday. The Iraqis are starting to find their own way, and with help for a little longer, they will build a capable and formidable regional military.

SOME INTERESTING PATERNITY FRAUD NEWS:

Justice was also shortchanged, the judge said, because Mr. Samuels had been paying child support all of those years.

Last month, Judge Roper ruled that Jamie Hope, the child's mother, and Oba Wallace, the child's biological father, would have to repay Mr. Samuels $14,460 in child support he had paid since 1997.

Such an order is unusual, but not unique.

Or maybe it's non-paternity news.

FAST TIMES at Robot High.

I SEE THEIR LEGAL POINT, but this is a bad PR move:

A federal appeals court today will hear arguments on whether New York State can force airlines to provide passengers with cups of water, air-conditioning, and working restrooms during long delays on the tarmac.

I mean, who wants to be known as the airline that doesn't provide working restrooms?

OBAMA: A coming press pile-on?

Meanwhile, there's this: Press to Obama: Call us!

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, university employees would be punished for reading the wrong books. And they were right!

THOUGHTS FROM JOE GANDELMAN on Hillary's comeback narrative. "Clinton, her campaign, and her followers will tout her victory today. And Obama, his campaign and his followers will try to downplay it. But the fact that Obama only won Vermont mean the net result is clear." It also underscores the class-conflict in this primary, which somebody -- I forget who -- was characterizing as Starbucks vs. Dunkin Donuts. Or in this case, maybe Ben & Jerry's vs. Baskin-Robbins . . . .

HILLARY: The comeback kid!

UPDATE: A big wrapup from James Joyner. Excerpt:

Yes, Clinton won. But she didn’t make up much ground in the delegate race. Then again, it’s not as if Obama had a commanding lead.

While winning 50 percent plus one of the delegates is the endgame, the bottom line at this stage of the race is perception. While he’s right on the delegate math, Obama has gone from the all-but-inevitable nominee into merely the frontrunner. And, if Clinton plays her cards right, she’ll convince people that the race is simply tied. Which, for all practical purposes, it is.

Read the whole thing.

AUSTIN BAY LOOKS BEHIND THE Colombia/Venezuela/Ecuador border fracas: "The real news behind South America's latest border fracas is Colombia's looming victory in its own narcotics-powered civil war. This is a victory Colombia's chief international antagonist, Venezuelan caudillo Hugo Chavez, fears -- for several calculating reasons."

MICKEY KAUS: "Have the Obamans blamed their Texas loss on Limbaugh-directed Republican spoilers? Maybe they should."

UPDATE: On the other hand, Bob Krumm says Obama should blame Canada.

ANOTHER TINY, CHEAP LAPTOP: The Everex Cloudbook. According to this review, though, the Asus Eee PC is a better buy.

A NEAR-SWEEP FOR HILLARY, with Obama taking only Vermont, and her wins in Ohio and Texas were by significant margins. I guess I was right when I suggested this weekend that the Obama wave had broken. Now he's going to have to campaign like an ordinary candidate, not a messiah.

This is good news for Hillary, for political pundits, and -- probably -- for John McCain and the Republicans. It's bad news for Obama, though it gives us an opportunity to see how he performs when things aren't going his way.

March 04, 2008

FOX CALLS OHIO FOR HILLARY. At the moment she has a modest lead in Texas, too, but lots of votes are still out.

STEPHEN GREEN IS DRUNKBLOGGING the primary returns.

UPDATE: Megan McArdle is liveblogging too, but she seems to be sober. Soberblogging?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ann Althouse is liveblogging, too. (Bumped).

A SECOND AMENDMENT FLIP-FLOP from Larry Tribe: "Professor Tribe has the right to change his mind, but the air of forceful certainty with which he today argues for reversal seems inconsistent with his unrequited offer from ten months ago to play a 'more central role' in securing affirmance."

BIG LOSER TONIGHT? Iowa.

OBAMA'S FRIEND -- EARLY VOTING: "The Texas exit polls show Obama leading Clinton 52-48 among voters who decided a while back, but Clinton leading Obama by a whopping 61-38 among those deciding in the last three days. Insert your favorite Obama-bruising news story from the past 72 hours here." More ammunition for Hillary as she stays in the race.

FOX CALLS RHODE ISLAND FOR CLINTON.

UPDATE: "Hope." Heh.

TEXAS AND RHODE ISLAND called for McCain. Fox reports that Huckabee will be dropping out tonight, as McCain has clinched the nomination.

FOX NEWS CALLS OHIO FOR MCCAIN. The Democratic Primary remains deadlocked at this point.

UPDATE: Indeed: "The exit polls clearly have Clinton winning Ohio, but of course the exits have proven to be wrong in the past. Best to wait for actual vote totals."

CONGRATULATIONS: Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism is not only #1 on the bestseller list, it's also in its 11th printing.

FOX CALLS VERMONT FOR OBAMA, AND MCCAIN.

UH OH: "Don't Intrade's numbers suggest a winning strategy for McCain and Clinton is to do a unity ticket together?"

I'm pretty sure the whole would be less than the sum of the parts . . . .

AFTER WORLD WAR TWO, PEOPLE WORRIED ABOUT TAMING THE GERMANS, but apparently we succeeded: German soldiers too fat, smoke too much.

HERE'S A LIST OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO HAVE SWORN OFF EARMARKS. Call your Rep. -- congratulate 'em if they're on it, and if they're not, ask why not.

A LIST OF THE SEVEN most significant DVD releases for March.

TEXAS AND OHIO PRIMARY PREDICTIONS, from James Joyner.

MEGAN MCARDLE:

Perhaps I am too jaded by excess air travel, but most of our homeland security seems designed to

A) Increase the power of congressmen and agency heads or
B) Put on a show for the yokels

rather than

C) Make us safer

Homeland security is the conservative version of the national healthcare plans I keep reading. Sure, in theory this new agency is going to make us all safer. But the plans all seem to rely on the interest group politics, bureaucratic dysfunction, and congressional power games that have produced the immense problems in our current system somehow magically disappearing. Instead, the thing gets more expensive, and less efficient.

All I can say is I told you so.

A JOHN EDWARDS REVIVAL? I'll believe that when I see it. Well, maybe.

MEASURING MUGABE: "In the years following independence, Zimbabwe had the second largest economy south of the Sahara and the third highest per capita gross domestic product. In the first two years after independence, the economy grew by 24 per cent. This was followed by 5 per cent annualised growth in the next 15 years. The highest inflation rate was 12 per cent. Today, 70 per cent of the country’s commercial agriculture has been destroyed by government mismanagement. Only 10 per cent of the winter food crop was planted due to lack of fuel and fertilisers. More than four million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid, 45 per cent of the population is malnourished and unemployment is over 85 per cent." Read the whole thing.

SOMETIMES, hindsight is 20/400.

BOYCOTTS DON'T USUALLY ACCOMPLISH MUCH, but maybe Citgo is an exception:

The Bush administration may be trying to ignore Hugo Chavez, but some local gas station owners are moving to protect themselves from the backlash against the Venezuelan president's anti-American rhetoric.

Calls by some across the country to boycott gasoline sold by Venezuelan-owned Citgo are cutting into sales, prompting some station owners to move to other suppliers. . . . "My gas sales were down 30 percent last year," Vazquez said. "People will come into the store and buy groceries, but they tell me they won't buy gas from Citgo."

Hmm. Read the whole thing.

THE EARTH AND MOON, photographed from Mars.

CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED Super Tuesday II coverage from Bill Bradley.

WHO LOST JAMES FALLOWS?

WHERE'S THE BEEF? It's well-aged.

HOWARD DEAN: It now looks as though Pennsylvania will be the deciding state.

SECULARISM IS returning to Iraq, not least because of the lousy behavior of religious extremists.

HERE'S MORE on the 9" ASUS Eee PC that I mentioned yesterday. I'm pretty happy with the 7" model I've got but for those who'd like something a bit larger this may be nice.

TAKING A VIRTUAL BREAK: A bit overwrought, but a good idea. That's why I stay offline on my dive trips. It helps clear the head.

IN THE MAIL: A publication copy of John McCain's new book: Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them.

It's already acquired quite a few reader reviews, with a surprising lack of trolling.

WHY DID THE PRESS TAKE SO LONG to ask Obama any tough questions?

DOUBTS ABOUT MALARIA ERADICATION EFFORTS: It's hard. But we came surprisingly close once, until -- as even the New York Times report notes -- Rachel Carson put an end to that.

I SAW HOWARD DEAN, I ADMIRED HOWARD DEAN, and Barack Obama is no Howard Dean.

REPORTS OF eco-terror in Washington. If somebody were burning down environmentalists' headquarters, this would get more attention.

HERE'S A BIG ROUNDUP on today's Super Tuesday II primaries.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: "All utterly predictable."

SMALL POTATOES COMPARED TO WASHINGTON: "A review of 2007 legislative expense payments by the News Sentinel shows that 22 legislators received more in per diem than the base salary for a lawmaker, $18,123."

A LOOK AT TERRORISTS, THE LAWS OF WAR, AND voluntary human shields.

IN THE SLUMS OF FALLUJAH: Another report from Michael Totten.

WORSHIPPERS OF DEATH: "Zahra Maladan is an educated woman who edits a women's magazine in Lebanon. She is also a mother, who undoubtedly loves her son. She has ambitions for him, but they are different from those of most mothers in the West. She wants her son to become a suicide bomber."

INDEED: Troop Surge Belies Deeper Success of New Tactics in Iraq, Ex-Marine Turned Filmmaker Says.

SKI-JUMPING WOMEN IN VANCOUVER. Including my cousin Karla Keck. Taking on the International Olympic Committee for banning women.

SARAH PULLMAN: "I have to say that the so-called 'privacy' situation over at Facebook has me utterly enraged right now."

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

Plus, what Barack Obama's book sales tell you about his base of support. And this: "Jodi Picoult and Valerie Bertinelli are popular in the East; Jonah Goldberg is not."

ASK OBAMA TOUGH QUESTIONS? YES THEY CAN!

Obama responded with the classic phrases of a politician in trouble. "That was the information that I had at the time. . . . Those charges are completely unrelated to me. . . . I have said that that was a mistake. . . . The fact pattern remains unchanged."

When those failed, Obama tried another approach. "We're running late," the candidate said, and then he disappeared behind a curtain.

Of course, they waited until the night before the Texas and Ohio primaries.

UPDATE: Is Obama lying about NAFTAGate? "He certainly doesn't seem to be telling the whole truth. . . . Obama appears to be in a difficult position. At first, his campaign denied that there was any contact with the Canadian government. Then, when it was forced to concede that there had been contact, it insisted that it had nothing to do with softening Obama’s position on NAFTA. And then, when the newly-released memo suggested that it had been about just that, Team Obama simply stuck with its story."

PHOTOS: Avalanches on Mars.

HERE'S THE FINAL Nebula Award ballot.

Plus, science fiction thoughts from Bill Quick.

PROTECTING the powerful.

March 03, 2008

SO I WATCHED THE FINAL EPISODE of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and I have to say that the first season was excellent. Reportedly, it will be back in the Fall. That's a good thing.

DAN RIEHL: Hillary, The Netroots, Florida And Michigan.

RIGOBERTA MENCHU LIVES! Another fake autobiography.

ANGELINA JOLIE ON IRAQ: I think Dave Weigel just posted this so he could use the picture.

JIM DUNNIGAN ON IRAN:

Meanwhile, police continue to expend a lot of effort on terrorizing the middle and upper class neighborhoods in the cities. Merchants, professionals and corrupt government officials still live pretty well, and their kids like to dress up. The Islamic lifestyle police are running into public resistance while enforcing conservative dress codes. Women, in particular, are getting more vocal in protesting the chador clad female police trying to haul them away for some clothing infraction [VIDEO] [PHOTO]. Now the police find themselves facing instant mobs of angry people intent on freeing well dressed, but religiously incorrect, prisoners. Soon enough, one of these incidents will escalate to rock throwing, tear gas and gunfire. Blood in the streets over a naked ankle.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. And Iran may try to shut down Internet access before the elections. Were those cable-cuts practice? Or a threat?

MORE ASUS-BLOGGING from Professor Bainbridge.

UPDATE: Still more here. Any blogging from people who hate it? I haven't seen anything yet.

"LET'S ALL APOLOGIZE TO OBAMA FOR MISUNDERSTANDING HIM."

I.M.F. CHIEF: The Euro is overvalued.

REZKO UPDATE: Obama's hostile press conference. The first, but probably not the last. (Via NewsAlert).

UPDATE: NAFTA, Obama, and The Politics of Disingenuousness.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A press relations nightmare.

THOUGHTS ON teaching social justice.

SOUTH AMERICA on the brink of war? Much more background from Fausta.

WELL, IT'S BEEN A WEIRD ELECTION ALL AROUND, SO FAR: "To recap: Ron Paul might be re-elected to Congress because Republican voters are voting for Hillary Clinton to increase the chance of John McCain being elected president. Here, have some aspirin."

UPDATE: John Scalzi: "Does anyone really think Hillary Clinton is going to leave the race if she blows it in both Ohio and Texas tomorrow? Really? How can she possibly usurp at the convention if she’s not still in the race? That would be madness!"

MORE: Reader Darryl Miyahira emails:

If John McCain were to end up running against Obama, he should run a Dwight Eisenhower 1952 style campaign. Washington outsider/insider maverick, military background, the older wiser man, the symbol of sacrifice, patriotism, common sense, and morality, against the young, inexperienced, selfish yuppie narcissist.

The intellectual main stream media elites did not like Eisenhower in 1952, and the MSM and academics derided Ike for the next 40 years or more. McCain cannot try to be as cool or hip as Obama, but he could go with his strengths, and like Eisenhower be the anti-cool candidate, the candidate of the silent majority.

Hmm.

READER SPENCER OGDEN EMAILS: "Loading up on the Morcheeba references today?" Yeah, I was waiting to see if anyone would comment.

I got their new album, Dive Deep, today. I'll let you know what I think after -- unlike some reviewers -- I listen to all the tracks. Meanwhile, you can follow the link for customer reviews and samples.

FRAGMENTS OF FREEDOM: IF YOU HAVEN'T CHECKED IT OUT BEFORE, check out Bureaucrash TV, from the folks at Bureaucrash.

I liked this one:

BOB TUKE gets Joe Trippi.

GINA BARRECA: Fear is a matriarchy; fear is passed down through mothers.

Like they say: Fear can stop you lovin'. But love can stop your fear. . . . But it ain't always that clear.

ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY: Baghdad's new normal.

DANIEL DREZNER: Three rules for understanding Canadian-American relations.

YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD GIRL DOWN: "In a weekend dash of campaigning in Texas and Ohio before those states vote on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton was in happy-warrior mode — and seemed to have found a stride. Her attack lines were punchier, her audiences were reacting more enthusiastically than usual, and she clearly liked her latest line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, on his lack of experience with a crisis."

With the polls conflicting, it's in the hands of the gods now.

BE VERY AFRAID: The return of Dr. Manhattan.

A SINGULARITY SIGHTING in the real world.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Rand Simberg.

IS CAPITALISM IMMORAL?

No. Next question, please.

MCCAIN ON MERCURY: "Nonsense on stilts." Nah, it's not even up to stilt levels. Meanwhile, blame Don Imus!

I CERTAINLY HOPE HE'S RIGHT:

He predicted the fall of the Soviet Union. He predicted the explosive spread of the Internet and wireless access.

Now futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil is part of distinguished panel of engineers that says solar power will scale up to produce all the energy needs of Earth's people in 20 years.

Nanotechnology will help, if Luddites don't block it.

TRIGGER HIPPIE: "An approving nod to the Sun-Times for finding it no big deal that Barack Obama is on friendly terms with Bill Ayers, even though, back in the day, Ayers was a Weatherman who 'bombed the U.S. Capitol, a bathroom in the Pentagon, and even cased out the White House.'"

LARRY KUDLOW: McCain needs to back a strong dollar.

APPLESEED THE THIRD: Video and more at the link.

NAFTAQUIDDICK UPDATE: "In a conference call going on now, the Obama campaign is continuing to flatly deny that adviser Austan Goolsbee told Canadian officials not to worry about Obama's anti-NAFTA stance. . . . He concedes that Goolsbee did talk to someone in the Canadian government, but insists the two were 'essentially having some casual conversation, and the reports of the conversation are simply not accurate.' Plouffe says Goolsbee was not speaking as a representative of the Obama campaign and that allegations that 'somehow this was an official meeting' are not true."

UPDATE: Two Pinocchios: "The bottom line is that it has taken four days to drag something approaching the full story out of the Canadian embassy and the Obama campaign. . . . This is a case where the technical parsing of the truth by the Obama campaign falls well short of the whole truth." Plus, there's a memo. (Thanks to reader Paul Collacchi for these links.)

ANOTHER UPDATE: Noam Scheiber: "Two things make it problematic for the Obama campaign: 1.) The sudden appearance of this lurid-sounding memo written by a Canadian consular official. . . . 2.) Certain Obama officials denied last week that there was any contact between the Obama campaign and the Canadian government about NAFTA. That's clearly no longer 'operative,' as Howard Wolfson pointed out on the call. "

MORE: In a P.S., Scheiber plaintively asks: "What is it with these Canadians? Are they running some sort of entrapment operation up there? Why do they keep trying to torpedo Democratic candidates?"

And reader Matt Szekely observes: "If Obama can't handle a goody two shoes country like Canada how the heck is he going to deal with Iran, Syria, China, Russia, France and other countries that have a somewhat higher level of difficulty? . . . This is like watching someone get bucked off one of the coin op kiddies horses they have at the supermarket."

And reader Mike Riger comments: "The interesting thing to me about this whole episode seems to be that both the Obama and Clinton comments are, in essence, saying that they absolutely DO intend to be protectionist, anti-trade presidents if elected. And both seem to be more stridently painting themselves into this corner as the charges and counter-charges are thrown around."

BOB ZUBRIN responds to biofuel critics.

A GOVERNANCE CRISIS in the University of California system.

Plus, loyalty oaths at Cal. State.

UPDATE: Reader Bob Pipkin emails: "Interesting how InsideHigherEd could write such a lengthy story without mentioning that Richard C. Blum is the spouse of the senior senator from California" Apparently he hasn't been thrust into the public eye to the extent some had thought.

SEVEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE REZKO TRIAL. (Via The New Editor).

UPDATE: An email from the Clinton campaign, with questions they'd like the press to ask Obama. Good luck with that . . . .

FOLLOWING UP ON MY EARLIER post about the Asus Eee PC, here's an Engadget review of the new, slightly-larger 9" version.

Meanwhile, reader Ed Adams likes his 7" Asus:

I bought an Asus after reading your review while in Puerto Vallarta - couldn't get on the resort's PCs, and was looking for such an "appliance". It is a lot more substantial than I was expected, and everything works just fine. Love the size and portability....

Yeah. They cut corners, but they did a very good job of figuring out where to cut corners without it seeming cheap.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Billy Beck emails:

I've had mine in hand about a week, now. I went for a 1gb RAM stick before I'd decided to install XP. Might've thought that through a bit better (XP will see 2gb on this thing), but I'm still very happy, nonetheless. On a lark, I installed AutoCAD (2002). This machine is throwing around shaded 3D models of arena-scale touring lights rigs (300-500 instruments with all trussing, etc.), with authority. I also installed Sony's Vegas video editor for processing files straight out of my Sanyo C40 Xacti for upload to YouTube.

To be able to do all this in a sub-2 lb. machine at this price is amazing to me. Yes; we could pick nits about it. However, I think that to do that really misses the whole point.

This is what I've been waiting for in order to travel with a laptop again, for about seven years now, since my Vaio 505TS... at over two thousand dollars, over three times the weight (fully complimented), and a fraction of the computing power. I think it's a really good job.

Yeah, I'm impressed that you can run Vegas on it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails:

I see you keep mentioning the EEE, but haven't seen if you're readers have mentioned how great it is for kids.

We ordered one for our kindergartener after the OLPC we ordered (on Day One by the way) didn't show up for three months.

We got the Asus EEE PC from Newegg.com in something incredible like nearly 24 hours for $433 including FedEx charges. I couldn't even begin to heap enough praise on Newegg.

It's been perfect for the kid. When the OLPC finally showed up we just shelved it without even opening the box.

Hurrah for capitalism. And yeah, the Eee PC is good for kids. Plus, Billy Beck sends this followup:

Between the ASUS and the Sanyo Xacti, think about it: throw in the Vegas installation, and you've got a 'Web 2.0' multimedia rig easier to travel with than von Mises' "Human Action" (ask me how I know this), for about six to seven hundred dollars.

On my last trip to Tokyo, all my viddies awaited processing until I got home. Them days is gone. I'll tell you who else should be worried about this: the bloody New York Times.

Yep. The cost of competing with Big Media just keeps dropping.

FUN WITH CHEMISTRY: Derek Lowe on the joys of chlorine trifluoride. "There’s a report from the early 1950s (in this PDF) of a one-ton spill of the stuff. It burned its way through a foot of concrete floor and chewed up another meter of sand and gravel beneath, completing a day that I'm sure no one involved ever forgot. That process, I should add, would necessarily have been accompanied by copious amounts of horribly toxic and corrosive by-products: it’s bad enough when your reagent ignites wet sand, but the clouds of hot hydrofluoric acid are your special door prize if you’re foolhardy enough to hang around and watch the fireworks."

"MINDCRUSHINGLY STUPID?" OR JUST "an old feminist rhetorical device?" I link, you decide.

WHO ARE THE RUBES this time?

AHMADINEJAD WANTS US OUT OF IRAQ: "Well, of course he does."

IN THE MAIL: Doreen Orion's I Know You Really Love Me: A Psychiatrist's Journal of Erotomania, Stalking, and Obsessive Love. The author sent it to the InstaWife, who found the story a bit too familiar.

THE CLINTON/OBAMA class struggle. "It could just be that women with more education (and more money) relate on a subconscious level to the young and handsome Barack and Michelle Obama, with their white-porticoed mansion in one of the cooler Chicago neighborhoods and her Jimmy Choo shoes."

A NINE POINT LEAD FOR HILLARY IN OHIO? If this is true, she's doing a lot better than the press coverage suggests.

THE CURE FOR EXHAUSTION: More exercise.

TOM MAGUIRE: "Kevin Drum either has a huge story in which Evil BushCo has misled Congress for months, or he has nothing."

WAS HILLARY SET UP on the Obama/Muslim thing? "Clinton's initial response is completely appropriate, and, to my ear, it seemed as if the backing off in the end was a lawyerly precision about her lack of personal knowledge of the subject rather than a sly attempt to stimulate doubts. . . . Instead, the Obama interview is edited to allow him the chance to profess his longstanding belief in Christianity and to say some magnanimous things about Muslims. Obama seems delightfully warm and flashes a beautiful smile. Hasn't he — with the help of '60 Minutes' — just slyly facilitated the rumor that the Clinton campaign is the source of the email?"

SONY IS SCARED of the Asus Eee PC, for fear that it will cause consumers to realize that -- given how powerful even cheap computers are now, and given that most computers are mostly used for websurfing and email - it may cause a race to the bottom in prices, instead of a race for expensive new features of the sort Sony prefers.

They've got a point. I wouldn't want the Asus to be my main computer, or maybe even my main laptop. But though I usually go laptopless on diving trips, I needed something for photos and videos so I took the Asus along. It's so small that it fit in the zipper pocket on the back of my backpack, it's so light that you couldn't tell it was there, and it's so cheap that I didn't worry about leaving it in the hotel room, etc. That's a real market niche. Here's my Popular Mechanics review of the Asus. And Charles Stross has some similar thoughts about the Asus.

HMM: "I suggest that any GOP voter in TX or OH take a Democrat ballot and vote for Hillary."

DAVID ADESNIK: Can a Republican be open-minded?

JOHN FUND ON the Rezko trial. "John McCain's dealings with lobbyists have properly come under a microscope; why not Mr. Obama's? Partly, says Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, because the national media establishment has decided that Chicago's grubby politics interferes with the story line of hope they've set out for Mr. Obama."

And here's more from Robert Novak.

HMM:

Sen. Hillary Clinton's advisory panels are mostly old retreads from her husband's administration who retain the belief that she will return to the White House. These are not team members of a Clinton administration but those seeking to regain their power base and over-remembered youth. . . .

Obama is surrounded by failed policymakers, including unreformed Students for Democratic Society leader Bill Ayers, now an education professor; Susan Rice, who, while at the State Department alienated the Eritrean Americans so that all 270,000-plus voted in bloc against Al Gore and was so slow that Osama bin Laden escaped the Sudanese police; and Tony Lake, who changed his mind at his nomination hearing as Bill Clinton's CIA director.

We're not hearing as much about McCain's advisers, for some reason.

HILLARY'S 3 A.M. AD, explained: "Hillary knows she's going down. They issued that ad because they want McCain to win. She thinks she can be a star in the Senate, leader of the Democratic party when [Obama] loses. So the commercial is her gift to John McCain." Are the Clintons capable of such breathtaking cynicism and selfishness?

UPDATE: Related item: "Hillary will probably become the new Teddy K. --a lioness of the Senate, serving there until the end of days for most of us. She will even enjoy and perhaps earn a unique sort of authority, an uber 'been-there-done-that' wisdom. If she ever writes a candid book, it will be riveting." [LATER: Sorry -- this link was wrong before. Fixed now.]

MORE: Drudge: "Hillary: Obama Not Muslim 'As Far As I Know'..."

HOW THE SAUSAGE GETS MADE: "The heated interaction between Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign and Politico's national political editor Saturday afternoon and evening was in many ways routine. But it was also a window into aspects of the political process outsiders do not usually see or understand."

MCCAIN CAMPAIGN stumbles early.

UPDATE: More stumbling: John McCain's junk science.

A MEDIA SALUTE TO THE MEDIA.

March 02, 2008

CAYMAN DIVE STUFF: Various readers have emailed asking for scuba video and reports, so here's a bit. I did a test of the Spare Air emergency ascent system for Popular Mechanics, and that video (with considerably higher production values than the one below) will be up on the PM website later. But here's some video shot in a tarpon cave on Cheeseburger Reef (formerly known as Soto's Reef) in Grand Cayman. Because this is one of the first reefs to be regularly dived in Grand Cayman, and because it's right next -- and I mean right next -- to the main harbor where all the cruise ships and freighters dock, I thought it was in surprisingly good shape. There's some evidence of overdiving, but the reef was really pretty good and there were lots of fish, including the tarpon you see swimming here.

This trip we did a lot of diving on the West side -- the most heavily trafficked -- instead of the usual North and East, and we all agreed that the reef looked better than it has in several years. There's more new growth, more soft coral, and things just generally look quite healthy. I've written before about Cayman's overdevelopment, and there's no question in my mind that they're overbuilding on land. Thanks to the rush of post-Hurricane Ivan insurance money, and the destruction of a lot of old businesses whose owners chose to sell out rather than rebuild, there's massive new construction everywhere. A lot of the locals (at least, those not personally profiting) seem unhappy about it. Doug Weinstein and I wound up accidentally crashing a private party for a bunch of Caymanian police at My Bar and a number of them complained about the change in atmosphere that all the development is bringing. I think they're probably right. I'm not one to demand that places stay quaintly poor for the delectation of tourists, but that's not the question here. Cayman is already rich, but this is a case of too much, too fast. There's also considerable worry among the locals that Cayman is pricing itself out of the tourist market, and it has become considerably more expensive than many other Caribbean destinations. Cozumel, for example, seems to cost about 2/3 as much as Cayman for comparable diving trips.

On the other hand, the number of cruise ships -- which I've noted before as skyrocketing -- was way down this time. I don't know if it's a seasonal thing, a recession indicator, the result of government policy or what, but there were far fewer ships in port, and none at all on several days. The schedule for March looks slower than last year, and much slower than the year before.

The big news story while I was there involved investigators from the Government Accounting Office coming to look into tax evasion by Americans using Cayman financial institutions and corporations. This is a recurring theme -- on my very first trip there in 1986 they were debating an agreement with the United States to limit this sort of thing, and the U.S. periodically asks them for more, causing them to grumble and, usually, to give in. I'm actually surprised that there's so little Cayman coverage in U.S. media, as there's a lot of important stuff going on there despite its small size. With little press coverage and misleading movie portrayals like the Orlando Bloom vehicle Haven, which rather drastically overstates the amount of gangsterish crime (to the disgust of many Caymanians, who have told me that they were very unhappy with the portrayal), very few people get a realistic idea of what the place is like.

But the diving remains great; this brief video clip below gives you just the barest hint. Here's an older video with more.

UPDATE: Oh, and here's another video from a while back.

IN CHICAGO: The highest sales tax in America, according to TaxProf.

DON SURBER: Hillary must apologize for Gloria Steinem’s remarks.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Jules Crittenden. "It would be cruelly ironic if the iconic feminist put the last nail in the coffin of the first viable woman’s candidacy."

TAX RATES BY INCOME QUINTILE, since 1979. "As repeatedly noted, the [Bush tax] cuts cut a greater percentage for the bottom quintile than for the top. (32.8% vs. 8.9%) Even more interesting is the total effective federal tax rate for households with children." (Via Greg Mankiw).

I'M SO GLAD TO HAVE YOU, and it's getting worse.

PRAISE FOR OBAMA from Professor Bainbridge. But is the Robert McNamara analogy a positive?

JOHN MCCAIN'S CATCH-22.

ERIC MULLER'S MOTHER HAS DIED, and he posts a musical tribute. Please send him your condolences.

A LITTLE RESPECT FOR Lamar Alexander, please.

SEBASTIAN MALLABY, Democrats, Off Course On Trade. "It's one thing for Democrats to call for a timeout on negotiating new trade treaties and another to threaten violence to existing ones. . . . The pity is that the Democrats didn't have to go this way."

A DAWNING REALIZATION regarding the impact of the trollosphere.

CHARLES MARTIN ON THE SEDUCTIONS OF FASCISM.

Jonah Goldberg's book -- the subject of Martin's piece -- must be seductive, too, as it's currently number one.

OBAMA AND THE JEWS.

NO CLEAR ANSWERS ON PROSTATE CANCER TREATMENT, and a serious imbalance in research:

Prostate cancer is the single most common cancer in the United States and the second most lethal among men after lung cancer. In 2008, the American Cancer Society estimates, 186,320 men will learn that they have it and 28,660 will die from it. The estimates for breast cancer are 182,460 and 40,480. . . .

The dismal state of prostate cancer research and advocacy pales in comparison to the campaign against breast cancer.

“We’re at least a decade behind where breast cancer awareness is,” Thomas Kirk, president of Us Too, said. “We need to catch up. The lessons learned by breast cancer are the ones we’re trying to apply to prostate cancer.”

Prostate cancer groups have tried to replicate the success of the pink ribbon campaign with their own blue ribbon, but it has yet to gain widespread acceptance. A group advocating the development of imaging technology for prostate screening created a mascot, Prosty the Spokesgland, complete with a theme song, to the tune of “Frosty the Snowman.” Not surprisingly, it has not caught on, either.

No, not surprising. But government funding lags, too. I suspect there's a bit of gender politics involved in this differential.

DAVID HARSANYI: Where have all the superheroes gone? Away, along with the patriotism of the commercial creative classes.

ASSOCIATED PRESS SENDS THE LAWYERS after a blogger who's criticized them for photo-fakery. (Bumped).

WHY ARE U.S. TROOPS so hard to kill?

HERE'S LOTS OF GOOD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY ADVICE: Just keep scrolling.

CHARLOTTE ALLEN on the politics of swooning women. Seems a bit harsh.

TAKE MY WIVES, PLEASE.

PHOTO GALLERY: Earth as you've never seen it.

VIDEO: Hillary on Saturday Night Live.

IN THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Lynn Sweet looks at Obama's hometown vulnerabilities.

HMM: Clinton Campaign Calls on Sen. Obama to Release Records and Correspondence Relating to Tony Rezko. Yep. Wouldn't want a nominee with a shady financial history.

HOW TO GROW YOUR OWN VEGETABLES despite limited space.

This is cool for apartment-dwellers, people with small yards, and the disaster-preparedness crowd.

THE INSTAWIFE'S SHOW ON FUSE TV airs today at 2 p.m. Eastern. Check it out if you're around. Or set your TiVo. Video clips at the link, or here.

DON SURBER COMPARES Barack Obama and JFK.

UPDATE: Comparing Michelle Obama and Jackie.

JOHN TIERNEY:

If only the masses could understand the science of global warming, they’d be alarmed, right? Wrong, according to the surprising results of a survey of Americans published in the journal Risk Analysis by researchers at Texas A&M University.

After asking a national sample of more than 1,000 Americans how much they knew about global warming and how they felt about it, the researchers report that respondents who are better-informed about global warming “both feel less personally responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming.” Another unexpected result: “Respondents who showed a great deal of confidence that scientists understand global warming and climate change showed significantly less concern for the risks of global warming than did those who have lower trust in scientists.”

Go figure. Plus, the current cold spell is just weather, not climate. Sure, but will they remember that distinction in July? . . . .

FRIDAY WITH Ambassador Crocker.

U.C. BERKELEY CUTS A DEAL WITH THE SAUDIS: "Some faculty members at Berkeley are upset about the pending deal, concerned that the $10-billion university will discriminate against women and others and limit academic freedom." Gee, do you think?

JACOB SULLUM ON OBAMA AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT:

The D.C. gun law, passed in 1975, isn't really about gangbangers, which it has not exactly disarmed, or random shootings on the street, which it has not noticeably curbed. In effect if not intent, it is about disarming law-abiding residents who might want to protect themselves from gangbangers and other violent criminals.

It's not surprising that Obama sees nothing unconstitutional about this situation, since he does not acknowledge that the Second Amendment has anything to do with self-defense. "As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama understands and believes in the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms," his website claims. "He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting" (emphasis added).

This is the only substantive discussion of the Second Amendment on Obama's website. It's part of a document that lists "Protecting Gun Rights" as a subcategory of "Supporting the Rights and Traditions of Sportsmen," which is like listing "Protecting Freedom of Speech" as a subcategory of "Supporting the Rights and Traditions of Auctioneers."

On the other hand, Tim Cavanaugh thinks that Obama is better on guns than Hillary -- though that's damning with faint praise, I suppose. . . .

LIVEBLOGGING THE RUSSIAN ELECTION at Siberian Light. Not that the outcome is much in doubt.

GOING DAFTA OVER NAFTA: "Yeah, yeah...we know. But sometimes you just hafta." And a Canadian take, from Kalim Kassam.

GOOD NEWS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: "Thirty-one reactors, representing 17 power companies and consortia, are somewhere in the application process—though NEI predicts only four to eight of those will be in commercial operation by 2016. By that time, pressure for an affordable, clean source of energy could inspire a second wave of applications. . . . The latest designs for proposed plants are smaller, cheaper and more efficient than reactors of the past." Read the whole thing.

SLEEPLESS IN SDEROT: "As rockets from Gaza rain down on her neighborhood, Laura Bialis wonders how the western media still manages to portray Israel as the aggressors in this weekend’s bloody conflict."

RETURN OF THE LIZARD MAN.

THE AUDI Q7 SUV with a V12 TDI engine. "Even in this large, high-riding SUV, that should be enough to reach 62 mph in 5.5 seconds while going nearly 20 miles on each U.S.-sized gallon of diesel."