MICHAEL YOUNG has more on the crushing of dissent in France.

MICHAEL KNOX BERAN writes on efforts to discredit the Framers.

I suspect that those efforts will have more impact on the reputation of academics (already falling) than on the reputation of the Framers.

UPDATE: Jacob Levy is unimpressed with Beran’s article.

SOME INTERESTING POLL RESULTS FROM IRAQ, along with other reports.

THIS SOUNDS GOOD:

NEW YORK – The US economy is poised for its best performance in five years. Economists describe an economy that will be “solid,” “sustainable,” and “entering the new year with a wonderful head of steam.”

I hope it turns out that way. Though I suppose that not everyone will be happy.

MORE THOUGHTS ON OUTSOURCING over at GlennReynolds.com.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT, this time in California:

The 17-year-old junior says that stance inspired threats from which teachers have refused to protect him. Some faculty members even started a public campaign against his group. . . In a telephone interview, Tim said he’s been threatened at least three times . . . . One boy said he was going to “find someone” to beat up Tim. In two of those instances, Tim said two faculty members stood by and did nothing to help him.

All because he had an unpopular opinion. I hope the Justice Department will look into this breach of civil rights, and the apparent complicity of state employees in the suppression of speech they find disagreeable.

PAUL KRUGMAN’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE PRESS have drawn this response from Jay Rosen.

Personally, I think that Krugman should read these New Year’s resolutions from James Lileks!

“E-VOTING FIRM ACKNOWLEDGES HACKER BREAK-IN:” Sorry, this technology isn’t ready for prime time.

DAVID AARONOVITCH IN THE GUARDIAN:

Some will see this as simply a natural disaster of the kind to which Iran, according to Khatami, is “prone”. Four days earlier, however, there had been another earthquake of about the same intensity, this time in California. In which about 0.000001% of the buildings suffered serious structural damage and two people were killed when an old clocktower collapsed. So why the polar disparity between Bam and Paso Robles?

This is not a silly question. True, the Californians are much richer than the Iranians. But if you believed everything you read in the works of M Moore and others, you would anticipate a culture of corporate greed in which safety and regulation came way behind the desire to turn the quick buck. Instead you discover a society in which the protection of citizens from falling masonry seems to be regarded as enormously important.

Whereas in Iran – for all its spiritual solidarity – the authorities don’t appear to give a toss. The report in this paper from Teheran yesterday was revealing. It was one thing for the old, mud-walled citadel to fall down, but why the new hospitals? An accountant waiting to give blood at a clinic in the capital told our correspondent that it was a “disgrace that a rich country like ours with all the revenue from oil and other natural resources is not prepared to deal with an earthquake”.

Spent on nukes and clerics’ limousines.

Read the whole thing. He’s pretty hard on non-Iranian intellectuals, too — especially in this bit:

What, I wonder, has Arundhati Roy to say now about the superiority of traditional building methods over globalised ones? Some Iranians might think that it’s a shame there wasn’t a McDonald’s in Bam. It would have been the safest place in town.

Indeed.

UPDATE: It’s interesting to read the above together with this from Iranian blogger Hossein Derakshan:

Nothing could ever show the real sense of diconnectivity and distrust between Iranian people and the Islamic regime, and its deeply dysfunctionality better than a devastating quake. Everywhere you go and every blog you read, there is talk about the political implications of such tragedy going on.

People inside and outside Iran are desperately trying to gather donations, but they don’t want to give the money to the government.

It’s even more interesting when you read these two together with the Hanson article, linked below.

WHEN BLOGS ARE GOOD: John Perry Barlow gets a little overheated on the subject of Bush:

We can’t afford to lose this one, folks. If we do, we’ll have to set our watches back 60 years. If they even let us have watches in the camps, that is.

Don McArthur (“Misanthropyst”) then politely takes him to task in the comments, Barlow politely replies, and a useful discussion ensues.

THIS PIECE from the Washington Post on the new Iraqi police gets a rather tart response from AMCGLTD:

Personally, I’m amazed it’s going as well as it seems to be. All the Iraqi bloggers, even Riverbend (who hates everything), say nothing but good things about the new Iraqi police force*. Can you imagine the chaos if, say, New York City had to rebuild its entire police force from scratch in just six months? It’d probably look a lot like, well, a lot like Baghdad actually.

Read the whole thing.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:

After watching a string of editorial attacks on America both at home and from abroad in the aftermath of Saddam’s capture, I thought back to the actual record of the last two years. In 24 months the United States defeated two of the most hideous regimes in modern memory. For all the sorrow involved, it has already made progress in the unthinkable: bringing consensual government into the heart of Middle Eastern autocracy, where there has been no political heritage other than tyranny, theocracy, and dictatorship.

In liberating 50 million people from both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein it has lost so far less than 500 soldiers — some of whom were killed precisely because they waged a war that sought to minimalize not just civilian casualties but even the killing of their enemies.

Yep. And people who ignore or minimize this achievement also minimize their own credibility. (I haven’t read Hanson’s new book, yet, but Randy Barnett recommends it.)

MILITARY BLOGGER SGT. HOOK is going to Afghanistan shortly and he’d like to break the 50,000-hit mark before he leaves. Drop by and help him out. And encourage him to keep blogging from Afghanistan! Hey Sarge — do you have a digital camera?

UPDATE: Well, that didn’t take long — he’s over 50K now. But don’t let that stop you from visiting.

MICHAEL WOLFF emails John Tabin’s father. Result: Wolff looks stupid.

That’s not really much of a surprise.

I DON’T ANTICIPATE A LOT OF FOOD-BLOGGING HERE, despite the Great Pot Debate of yesterday. But here’s a food blog with links to more, if that sort of thing interests you.

Last night, by the way, it was pan-seared lamb chops marinated in garlic, rosemary and olive oil, with asparagus. The lamb — bought from the small farm next door to my sister’s — was great. With a short cooking time on fairly high heat, the lamb stays rare inside (as it should be!) but it’s very flavorful on the outside.

Some people find it hard to believe that I have time to cook, but it didn’t take long at all to prepare. There are lots of good things that don’t. And those, not surprisingly, are the things I tend to cook. . . .

JEFF JARVIS: “Howard Dean is flailing like a loser.”

The most dangerous guy to Howard Dean is, well, Howard Dean.

UPDATE: Roger Simon isn’t impressed, either. There are some interesting comments on Dean, the media, and the polls, too. Just keep scrolling.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Is Dean flailing because of Hillary Terror?

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: This transcript of the Howard Dean / Al Gore skit from SNL referencing Paul Krugman is pretty funny. (Thanks to Henry Hanks for the link.)

MORE: Hey, here’s another Al Gore connection:

All candidates develop a reputation with the media. In 2000 the story line on Al Gore was his wildly exaggerated claims. Mr. Gore may not have said precisely that he “invented the Internet,” but his propensity to tell “whoppers” got him tagged with the line nonetheless. Unfortunately for Mr. Dean, that’s the kind of story line that’s now emerging about him.

As I say, Dean’s worst enemy is Dean. Heck, he’s already lost Julian Sanchez.

IN LIGHT OF MY earlier post on the Ford Foundation, inspired by a Wall Street Journal article, some readers might be interested in this much longer article on the Ford Foundation’s rather dubious behavior.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh calls the criticism of the Ford Foundation in the above article unsound.

HERE’S A LINK to the L.A. Times article on the Iraq / Syria WMD connection that I mentioned earlier. It’s interesting, but Captain Ed accuses the LAT of spinning a bit:

Note that the Times is careful to inject the issues of nuclear and biological weapon searches, in order to protect the UN inspection process, but the inspectors were supposed to be looking for all violations of UN resolutions. Iraq was not supposed to be purchasing any of these items, and Syria was not supposed to be shipping them across the border. Why didn’t the inspectors find these documents? Because the inspections process was useless, and this episode proves it.

Interesting. It’s certainly true that WMDs are only part of the “material breach” picture.

UPDATE: Several readers note that among the things Iraq was looking for were “nerve agent antidotes.” As Jonathan Adler observes, that’s a funny thing to want if you don’t have nerve gas.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Drezner has more, including this observation:

What is mildly shocking — from someone who knows a thing or two about economic sanctions — is that companies from stalwart U.S. allies — Poland and South Korea — were also complicit in the sanctions-busting.

Read it all.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A summary, and a lot of interesting observations, on the LAT story, from American Thinker.

“IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY THAT’S INTERESTING, you will eventually be heard.” Here’s a lengthy and interesting roundup of the political blog world by USA Today’s Kathy Kiely.

UPDATE: Hey, it’s on the front page of the print edition. (Via Jeff Jarvis, with a reference to the Velvet Underground)