HAD DINNER with my grandmother tonight. My daughter has a cold — not a terrible one, but a coughing-and-sneezing-a-lot one, which seemed like a bad thing to take to a place full of sick old people. So I went on my own, and picked up dinner for us both at Aubrey’s, so as to give her a break from institutional food.

As the sign to the right — reminding people of what day and year it is — indicates, it’s not an especially happy place by nature. But my grandmother manages to stay cheerful. She and one of her friends were laughing themselves silly making fun of the food, like freshman girls in a dorm. Her arm is healing and she can eat and write with it now, though she still can’t support her weight.

The people there are actually quite nice, and seem to really care about the people they’re taking care of. I don’t think that I could do their jobs, but I’m glad that they can.

UPDATE: Several readers sent emails like this one from Carey Cline:

I agree with you about the staff at rehab centers/nursing facilities. Early last summer my mother was in a rehab center in my home town (Dalton, GA) following knee replacement surgery. She stayed about a month and while she was not exactly thrilled about being there I couldn’t have been more pleased by the facility and staff. The were attentive and cheerful, the place was immaculate and her care was top notch. All this knowing that they are paid very little for very difficult work

Many times during the 4 weeks she was there I thought that the staff was doing God’s work, and knew that I couldn’t do it. When some nursing home horror story is publicized the people that care for the old and ill in this country are sometimes painted with a broad brush that is undeserved. As we all age, I can only hope there will be people and facilities as good as Momma’s was if I am in need of their services.

I was watching a woman there feed an old man who was unable to feed himself, and it was quite touching. These people really don’t get enough credit.

CHARLES STROSS UPDATE: Reader Dave Price likes Singularity Sky:

Thanks so much for recommending Singularity Sky. Read it this weekend. Of course, being a huge fan of physicist Brian Greene’s Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe, I was hooked by the first mention of quantum entanglement and causality violations. I also read the suthor described as a “leftist,” which gives me great hope for the future as it seemed to endorse a lot free-market libertarianism ideals. If this is the kernel of a someday-to-emerge neoleftism, who knows: I might even vote Democrat some day.

I’d like to see more forward-looking, free-market Democrats. I have, by the way, just received a copy of his forthcoming book Accelerando. It’s set in the near-future, and looks pretty interesting, but I haven’t actually read it yet.

MILITARY BLOGGER NEIL PRAKASH has been awarded the Silver Star. Here is his blog.

ANOTHER REPORT OF SLEAZY BEHAVIOR from Jack Kemp:

TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, some American elites are actively shilling for the Chavez regime even as the media crackdown proceeds. Jack Kemp, notably, has been busy opening doors for the Chavez government. Recently Kemp and the Venezuelan ambassador visited the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board in an unsuccessful attempt to charm the paper away from its anti-Chavez stance. Since that visit, the Journal reported that Kemp has been trying to broker a complicated deal to fill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve with Venezuelan oil via an intermediary company–Free Market Petroleum LLC–on whose board Kemp sits. Since hooking up with Free Market Petroleum, Kemp has visited with Chavez and his ministers in Caracas. Surely he must have noticed Chavez’s brutality here.

American elites should be helping pressure the Chavez regime and publicizing its anti-democratic doings in Venezuela, not seeking to profit from collaboration with it.

First oil-for-food, and now this. Kemp was always into gold, but . . . .

ED CONE NOTES another lame story about the Internet, from the New York Times Magazine:

For its cover article The Making of a Molester, the magazine asks if the Internet “allowed Roy to go from being a seemingly normal man to a man who could solicit sex from a 12-year-old?”

Um, no?

I read the article. I was duly horrified. But when I got to the part where Roy goes all pervy, there was nothing to suggest that the Internet had ANYTHING AT ALL to do with his sickness.

Nope. But the Times is scared of the Internet.

UPDATE: A Slashdot reader looks at previous NYT coverage: “Dr. Bob Hamburger, associate shaman at Ye Olde Schoole Of Medickal Arts and Alckemy, considers the automobile to be a new horse for child molestation: ‘There are three areas of concern. First, the molesters can use these ‘cars’ to travel to children, getting to them much faster than they could using just a horse or even a team of horses. Second, the automobile’s interior can be used as an area for molestation. Third, the easy accessibility can facilitate moving over boundaries.’”

AUSTIN BAY WRITES THAT ZARQAWI HAS BEEN SUCKERED:

Z-Man’s been suckered. Z-Man is the troops’ nickname for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda’s jefe in Iraq. Z-MAN has declared a “fierce war” on democracy. Z’s taken Bush’s bait– except the Presiden’ts “bait” of promoting democracy and declaring war on tyranny and 0ppression isn’t mere bait, it’s essential American values. The ideological dimensions of the War on Terror (The Millennium War) were there from the get-go, but the Presiden’t inaugural address has focused them. That’s a huge step, I think, to obtaining the kind of resilient victory and secure peace the American people deserve. . . .

Yup– a week before the Iraqi election Zarqawi has come out in public for imperialism, in his case Islamo-fascist imperialism.

Read the whole thing. It’s like somebody planned it or something.

UPDATE: Zarqawi isn’t getting much geek-respect, either, as a reader emails: “Someone should tell that Zarqawi guy that until he puts his tapes up as podcasts, we aren’t listening.”

BLIZZARD-BLOGGING: Lots of people are doing it. Links here, here, here, here, and here.

And Ann Althouse remains the blogosphere’s champion photodinnerblogger.

UPDATE: More blizzardblogging, with photos, here.

IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN READING THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE LATELY, well, you should be.

FRIENDS OF DEMOCRACY is an Iraqi NGO bringing “Ground-level election news from the people of Iraq.”

ED MORRISSEY offers a Ukrainian perspective on Bush’s inauguration speech. Seems like it’s playing pretty well there . . . .

JEFF JARVIS has much more to say about the Tim Blair item linked below.

UPDATE: Roger Simon has more on the myth of the foreign correspondent.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ouch: “Let me get this straight, MSM whine about the expense of sending reporters to Iraq, then they use that money to file a story about a guy who was embarrassed when his mother saw his girlie mags. What’s next, wasting a fortune on ‘Local Man Falls Asleep After Heavy Meal’?”

I’m guessing that Michael Moore would figure in that one . . . .

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: More here, plus a unique perspective from Iowahawk.

HUGH HEWITT offers advice to the news media in today’s Los Angeles Times: “Cover the Terror War as a War.”

MORE VIDEOBLOGGING: The Insta-Daughter spent the night with a friend last night, which let me and the Insta-Wife spend some quality time together. Among other things, we watched Sex, Lies and Videotape, which neither of us had seen since it was in theaters. If anything, we liked it better than we remembered. And I bought the DVD at Target for a bargain price of $5.50, too. If that sort of thing becomes common, it’s going to be hell on video-rental stores.

And I’ll always be grateful to Steven Soderbergh for providing me with an excellent title.

IN CALIFORNIA, they’re digging their heels in against education reform. Does Arnold know about this?

PARVEEN BABI has died.

IN SOMALIA, even the dead are not safe, apparently.

TIM BLAIR: “It’s another My Lai! Congratulations for exposing this, Washington Post.”

AMIT VARMA visits the bad side of Bloggerville and discovers plagiarism and worse.

WHITE HOUSE BACKPEDALING on Bush’s inaugural address? That’s not good.

IN LIGHT OF MY EARLIER MENTIONS, I should note that I just ordered this William Gibson video, which sounds pretty cool. Heck, any documentary by/with William Gibson sounds pretty cool.

This one sounds like a cyberpunk version of the film I’d like to make, in which James Lileks and I are filmed in a 1959 Eldorado convertible, as we visit malls, breweries, and flea markets across America.

JIM DUNNIGAN HAS AN INSIGHTFUL-AS-USUAL LOOK at the war. Here’s an excerpt:

Many of the plans of Islamic terrorists get pretty murky if you try and look too far ahead. Taking on the West appears more as an act of despair. After all, Islamic radicals took control of Iran and Afghanistan, and brought nothing but misery. In actual fact, most Islamic terrorists are still trying to overthrow the existing governments in Islamic nations. International terrorism, against Western targets, was always a lot more difficult, and thus rather rare. But the September 11, 2001 attacks gave many Islamic terrorists the idea that they could actually bring down the West. The fact that there has not been another attack in the United States since 911, and only one in Western Europe, is often overlooked. Symbolism is powerful. If you can’t deal with reality, call in al Jazeera and show them your best symbolism. This approach made al Qaeda stand out, even though it was but one of many Islamic radical organizations.

The battle against Moslem governments has not been going so well either. But this really doesn’t matter, because Islamic terrorists have their hands full carrying out any attacks at all anywhere. The American invasion of Iraqi in 2003 enraged many Islamic radicals, and caused them to launch more attacks inside Islamic countries. The main result of this was to reveal how weak the Islamic terrorists actually were, how shallow their support was among Moslem populations, and how effective the governments in Moslem nations were in fighting back.

As I said, it’s just an excerpt. Read the whole thing.

TOM MAGUIRE DOES THE MATH that Paul Krugman, er, didn’t.

MERYL YOURISH notes that something seems to be happening in Israel, and it seems to be something good.

LT. SMASH REPORTS from a counter-counter-inaugural. Good work.

HAVE I BEEN UNFAIR TO JAMES DOBSON over the SpongeBob affair? According to this editorial from ToonZone, the cartoon website, yes, I have, by falling for the New York Times’ spin:

As Reuters describes it, Christian groups are attacking a video; the various cartoon characters and entertainers who appear in it are being criticized indirectly (if at all) for lending themselves to an agenda that these critics deplore. As the Times describes it, though, these groups are specifically attacking SpongeBob. And by sticking in an early and gratuitous reference to SpongeBob’s popularity with gay men (a point utterly irrelevant to a story about the video), the Times creates the impression that Dobson is attacking SpongeBob for being a gay icon. No wonder a casual reader comes away with the impression that Dobson is attacking SpongeBob for being gay. . . .

And in making SpongeBob sound like a martyr, it appears to be trying to piggyback a rival agenda onto his very thin shoulders: Save SpongeBob from the bluenoses!

Cartoons don’t deserve this. SpongeBob doesn’t deserve this. And SpongeBob’s creator, Stephen Hillenburg, certainly doesn’t deserve to have his creation kidnapped and turned into a giant puppet in some freak protest parade, no matter what its cause.

To Dobson and the Times I’ve a simple message: Get your hands out of SpongeBob’s square pants.

And here’s Dobson’s statement. I disagree with Dobson, of course, on all sorts of issues, but it’s still important to be clear what’s he’s actually doing, and not to let other people put words in his mouth. I should have been more skeptical of the Times, which has apparently gotten so unreliable that you need to turn to Reuters for more accurate reporting . . . .

TOUR THE INDIAN BLOGOSPHERE: The latest Blog Mela is up!

SISSY WILLIS notes some serious math problems.

WHAT KIND OF A GEEK AM I? First class, as shown by what showed up yesterday: The second season of Gilligan’s Island on DVD, and part of the second season of Lost in Space — though only part, because — inspired by the excellent sales of the first season, I guess — they’ve broken the second season into two pieces and I didn’t notice when I ordered it. That’s kind of cheesy.

My big question, though, is why The Addams Family isn’t out on DVD yet. America’s youth need role models, and who better than Gomez Addams?

UPDATE: Fritz Schranck notes another stunning omission from the video revival. Meanwhile, on the “how big a geek?” front, reader John McGuire emails: “I ordered the Lost in Space soundtrack. And I play it in my car. Top that!”

I can’t. I said first class, not world-class . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Peter Taylor emails:

You blogged:

“My big question, though, is why The Addams Family isn’t out on DVD yet. America’s youth need role models, and who better than Gomez Addams?”

I don’t know if you meant this as a joke, but The Addams Family was the *only* show I remember on TV when I was growing up in which there was much in the way of open display of affection between a married couple. Great show!

Hmm. I hadn’t really thought of that. But Gomez — a lawyer married to a striking brunette with morbid interests — was one of my role models, along with the Professor from Gilligan’s Island. And here I am, a law professor married to a striking brunette with morbid interests . . . .

EARLIER, I LINKED to a New York Times story on how the Ukrainian secret services helped the Orange Revolution. Veronica Khokhlova, however, suggests that this is a somewhat skewed portrayal.

UPDATE: More on that subject, here.

COLBY COSH IS EXCITED about the new Airbus superjumbo:

One feels a little embarrassed at the “See? Europeans aren’t entirely pathetic” part. And, after all, the A380 still does need to get off the ground. But in an age of exaggerated environmental and geopolitical anxieties, it is encouraging to see a feat of engineering and business flair celebrated without apology. . . .

For much of my own life, the aviation world seems to have been focused on finding new marginal vistas for air travel rather than devising grandiose new signature aircraft. Environmentalism and OPEC wiped out the dreams of supersonic air travel in the 1970s, and we have watched that glorious bird of prey, the Concorde, live out its entire life cycle as a frou-frou oddity. Now, at last, credible contenders to supplant the 747 are emerging.

Brian Micklethwait, on the other hand, is skeptical: ” I suspect that the A380 is costing Europe a whole lot more than is being officially suggested, and that Boeing decided not to build a similar aircraft for good, loss-avoiding reasons.”

I’ll be interested to see if they can really get 800-900 passengers boarded and seated in less time than it takes to fly across the Atlantic . . . .

UPDATE: More thoughts here.

I have to admit that I find James Fallows’ rather different vision of the future of air travel more compelling, though to be fair he’s really talking about domestic travel here, not long-haul international flights.

THE ROAD TO FIEFDOM. Great title; good post.

PREMATURE LAPHAMIZATION at The Nation. [Premature Laphamization? Isn't that redundant? -- Ed. Not this time]

AT LEGAL AFFAIRS, Eric Posner and Oona Hathaway debate the importance of international law. Key question: “Why do you think that states keep creating international tribunals after decades of failure?” (Via Opinio Juris).

PIECES ON BLOGS AND JOURNALISTIC ETHICS from AP and The Wall Street Journal.

SayUncle suggests that it might be ethical for journalists writing about blogs to link them. Then he codifies this as an ethical rule.

That’s reminiscent of something that James Lileks observed (and the link here is to a quote because his archives don’t seem to be working properly, which is kind of ironic):

A wire story consists of one voice pitched low and calm and full of institutional gravitas, blissfully unaware of its own biases or the gaping lacunae in its knowledge. Whereas blogs have a different format: Clever teaser headline that has little to do with the actual story, but sets the tone for this blog post. Breezy ad hominem slur containing the link to the entire story. Excerpt of said story, demonstrating its idiocy (or brilliance) Blogauthor’s remarks, varying from dismissive sniffs to a Tolstoi- length rebuttal. Seven comments from people piling on, disagreeing, adding a link, acting stupid, preaching to the choir, accusing choir of being Nazis, etc.

I’d say it’s a throwback to the old newspapers, the days when partisan slants covered everything from the play story to the radio listings, but this is different. The link changes everything. When someone derides or exalts a piece, the link lets you examine the thing itself without interference. TV can’t do that. Radio can’t do that. Newspapers and magazines don’t have the space. My time on the internet resembles eight hours at a coffeeshop stocked with every periodical in the world – if someone says “I read something stupid” or “there was this wonderful piece in the Atlantic” then conversation stops while you read the piece and make up your own mind.

Read the piece and make up your own mind. That’s what the link does, and it’s a big deal, something that journalistic accounts of blog ethics tend to ignore, and that journalistic practice tends to ignore, too.

UPDATE: Here’s the Lileks link in archival form, thanks to the Wayback Machine.

HEH: “**WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE IN PHOTO BELOW** Heh. I suppose that will just *encourage* some people to scroll down.”

But at least they were warned.

A MORE NAPOLEONIC BRITAIN: Seems inappropriate to me.

UPDATE: Well, why not — they’ve clearly forgotten English history.

WHAT YOU’LL WISH YOU’D KNOWN: Paul Graham offers advice to high-schoolers.

Slashdot readers respond.

MICHAEL POWELL IS RESIGNING: BlogCritics has a roundup.

UPDATE: Some fairly rare blogospheric praise for Powell, for some of his less-famous stances: “Over the last four years, Powell by his public statements and, ostensibly, private actions has managed to open more spectrum, consider innovative secondary uses of licensed spectrum, and build a framework for cleaning up the messier and least used bands that are needed for 3G and beyond and WiMax and beyond. In these areas, Powell’s leadership encouraged technologies that aren’t centrally owned or controlled and that may, in fact, dislodge primacy of wireline incumbents.”

CHARITY, SCHMARITY: Heh.

JOURNALISM STUDENT JUEMAN ZHANG from the University of Missouri is asking InstaPundit readers to fill out this online survey.

I STARTED SAYING THIS YEARS AGO, but now The New Republic is chiming in in support of the notion that national Democrats could learn a lot about winning elections from Phil Bredesen. And, as I’ve also said, the Democrats could do a lot worse than running him in 2008.

UPDATE: One of the things that’s interesting about Bredesen, by the way, is that he’s good on conservative talk radio. He goes on the shows, he answers questions rather than ducking them or retreating into slogans and sound bites, and as a result the hosts (and listeners) respect him even when they disagree. When he ran for governor I had real doubts; it was hearing him on Hallerin Hill’s talk show that made me think he had a chance to win. If you can imagine a Democratic Presidential nominee who could go on Hugh Hewitt’s show and hold his own, you’re imagining a Democratic nominee who can win.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More on Bredesen’s talk-radio presence and political prospects, here, and here. As I’ve said before, the Democrats could do worse. And probably will!

JEFFERSON’S “REIGN OF WITCHES” QUOTE in context.

UNSCAM UPDATE:

WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter was a target of the clandestine lobby campaign launched by an Iraqi-American businessman who admitted he was paid millions of dollars to undermine U.S. policy toward Iraq, it was revealed yesterday. . . .

Among Vincent’s American contacts was former GOP vice-presidential nominee and ex-New York Rep. Jack Kemp, who acknowledged working with him on a proposal to ease the economic sanctions if Iraq would readmit U.N. weapons inspectors.

In 1999, Kemp took those proposals to then-Defense Secretary William Cohen — and again in 2001, to Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell, said Washington lawyer Lanny Davis, who was speaking for Kemp.

In his discussions with Powell and Cheney, Kemp said he wanted to go to Baghdad to pitch his plan with the younger Graham, who is an associate of Carter, Davis said.

Kemp was rebuffed.

Call me crazy, but a lobbying plan that revolves around Jimmy Carter and Jack Kemp isn’t exactly top-drawer. No wonder it was rebuffed.

More on Samir Vincent here.

WHY YOU STILL NEED A PRINTER:

There’s one in almost every American household: a shoebox stuffed with faded snapshots of days gone by, the kids’ baby pictures, the ugly dress you wore to the prom, innumerable views of the Grand Canyon, the college roommate passed out drunk. Americans have been filling such shoeboxes for generations, and now, thanks to the delete button on digital cameras, this widespread custom is coming to an end.

I think that this story makes too much of the loss of bad photos, but the loss of hardcopy is a big deal. As Neal Stephenson said a while back:

Paper’s a really advanced technology. That was brought home to me by working on this, when I read a lot of documents from that era, which were put down on really good, acid-free paper. They’re all pretty much as good as they were the day they were made 300 or 350 years ago. This is not going to be true of today’s electronic media in 300 years. There’s a lesson there.

Yes, there is. Home prints are potentially longer-lived than commercial prints, actually (there’s a lengthy discussion from a knowledgeable reader at the end of this post on what technologies are better) but you have to make them. Digital images are potentially immortal, so long as they get recopied from time to time onto fresh media, but reality being what it is, hardcopy in a shoebox is probably likely to outlast things that require actual human effort.

And this point, of course, goes way beyond family photos.

I MEANT TO MENTION THIS EARLIER, but the Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach has a blog.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY UPDATE: Regular readers know that I’m very happy with my Nikon D70 digital SLR — but I’ve had one annoying issue, which is its occasional refusal to take a photo in a particular exposure mode. It’s not an autofocus issue, and it’s always fixed by switching to a different exposure mode. I emailed Nikon for help and got a response almost immediately (a real one, from a real person, not an autoresponse) suggesting that I reset the camera. I haven’t tried it yet, but I was just impressed with the speed of the response. I’ve heard that the support is good, but that was my first experience with it, and since I tend to complain about bad support, I thought I should note the good experience I’ve had.

And, BTW, those of you out there who own D70s should know that there’s a firmware upgrade available.

TOMASZ TELUK and Shanti Mangala are both skeptical of the EU’s planned war on obesity.

MORE ON THE NEW JERSEY KILLINGS, suggesting a possible link to Islamic extremism.

EVAN COYNE MALONEY is profiled in the New York Sun.

THIS seems promising:

An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey.

The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months.

(Via Captain Ed).

TIM WORSTALL thinks about the impact of blogs on the coming British elections.

AND WITH PLENTY OF TIME BEFORE DINNER: This week’s Carnival of the Recipes is up, hosted by CalTechGirl this week.

JOHN POWERS thinks that Democrats should rethink:

Whether it’s rewriting the tax code or privatizing Social Security to solve an imaginary “crisis,” the right has become the agent of change.

In contrast, the left has become — there’s no other word for it — reactionary.

Still unable to accept that the right has dominated our national life for the last quarter-century, the left hasn’t done the hard, slow work of thinking through what it means to be progressive during an era of ultraglobalized capitalism in which the only successful Democratic president in the last 35 years, Bill Clinton, followed policies that even he compared to Dwight Eisenhower’s. Far from proposing bold new ideas that might seize the popular imagination, the left now plays the kind of small-ball that Dubya disdains. Even worse, it’s become the side that’s forever saying “No.”

It does seem that way.

UPDATE: Something similar from The Economist:

The biggest problem with the current Democratic leadership is not that it has lost the will to fight but that it has lost the power to think. When was the last intellectually innovative idea you heard from Nancy Pelosi, the current minority leader, or, for that matter, from Dick Gephardt, her predecessor? Heaven knows, Mr Gingrich’s musings have caused his party problems. But the Democrats are in danger of turning into that most pathetic of all political organisations—a minority party that devotes all its energies to the blind defence of the status quo. By all means let the Democrats learn from Newt the fighter; but if they want to recapture power they need to learn from Newt the thinker, too.

Indeed.

JOHN TABIN looks at the exit-poll after-action report: “The pollsters have good reason to be embarrassed; their post-election spin, always dubious, is fully derailed. For months, their line has been that their data was just fine, and it was misinterpreted by the nefarious bloggers who broke the embargo by posting leaked data that was incomplete. . . . But Edison/Mitofsky’s data was flawed long after half time.”

UNSCAM UPDATE: I missed this yesterday, but better late than never:

January 20, 2005 — WASHINGTON — Former Republican vice-presidential candidate and New York Congressman Jack Kemp has been questioned by the FBI in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, it was revealed last night. Newsweek magazine reported on its Web site that the ex-Buffalo Bills quarterback faces scrutiny about his dealings with Virginia-based oil trader Samir Vincent, who earlier this week became the first figure to be formally charged with criminal wrongdoing in the $21.3 billion global scandal.

What’s sadder — that Jack Kemp would be involved in something like this, or that someone would think that Jack Kemp could help them?

THE BELMONT CLUB: “It is perhaps the subconscious realization that it has awakened to a nightmare new world that drives the the Left’s incredulous reaction to George Bush. . . . The European ideologies of the last century have left the stream of history and will not, cannot acknowledge it. . . . Personally I find it difficult to conceive of an enmity with Muslims in general when it is Muslims doing the most dying on the side of freedom in Iraq.”

HOW NEGATIVE is media coverage of Iraq? Arthur Chrenkoff does the math.

SOME ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES for the second term: “Federal Agencies Filled With Holders of Store Bought Diplomas.”

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT, in John Ashkkkroft’s Christine Gregoire’s America.

BAD SCARY NUMBERS IN bogus stories on Internet threats? Shocking but true:

It’s an alarming statistic: One in five children has been sexually solicited online.

That stat is turning up on billboards and television commercials around the country, driven by an aggressive push from child-protection advocates. In the TV version, eerie music plays as a camera pans over a school playground and then shows a park. A female narrator intones: “To the list of places you might find sexual predators, add this one” — as the image changes to a girl using a computer in her bedroom. The spot ends with the one-in-five stat. It’s all part of an ad blitz that has gotten millions of dollars of free media time since its launch last year and is set to continue through 2007.

But while the motivation behind the campaign appears to be sound, the crucial statistic is misleading and could scare parents into thinking the danger is greater than it really is. . . .

The upshot of all of this is a dated stat — five years is an eon in Internet time — that makes once-valid research seem scarier than it is.

It is no great surprise that advertising can present statistics in misleading or slanted ways. But when this happens in commercial ads, competitors can fire back. For noncontroversial issue advertising, no one has great motivation to challenge advocates’ claims — who would argue that parents don’t need to be vigilant about their children’s online activities?

I think that nonprofits and advocacy groups should be held to the same standard as businesses on this sort of thing — especially since it’s often part of a pitch to raise money. And, as I’ve written before (here, here, here, here, and here, among other places), nonprofits need to be getting the kind of financial-accounting scrutiny that businesses get, too.

IMPORTANT THOUGHTS ON BLOG ETHICS, from IowaHawk and Skippy. Though in Skippy’s case, the phrase “too much information” applies.

I PICKED ON THE E.U. EARLIER, but the United States is not without sin on the shrimp-quota front:

Less than two weeks after a 40-foot wave flattened massive swaths of Southeast Asia, the United States slapped a tariff on millions of dollars worth of seafood imports from India and Thailand. As the federal government promised $350 million, and private citizens pledged even more, the message to surviving shrimp farmers was clear: Have our marines, our pity, and our cash, but for the love of God, do not send us your cheap shrimp.

Unlike Europe, we did send aircraft carriers and such. But as I’ve said here before, trade is better than aid. And, sympathies for Bubba Gump notwithstanding, so are cheap shrimp.

JAMES DOBSON IS BLOWING IT with his attacks on SpongeBob.

Not many people, forced to choose between SpongeBob Squarepants and James Dobson, are going to pick Dobson.

UPDATE: More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I had forgotten, until Rand Simberg emailed to remind me, that the question of SpongeBob’s sexuality has already been settled.

AUSTIN BAY: “The President’s inaugural speech said in spades what I wish he would say every day.”

UPDATE: GayPatriot: “I’m sorry, I thought the entire speech was about Iraq…and Afghanistan…and Iran…and Palestine. All Bush talked about was Freedom vs. Oppression, Democracy vs. Tyranny.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tom Perry is drawing JFK / GWB parallels.

MORE: Was Bush channeling Natan Sharansky?

MOOREWATCH IS DEFENDING MICHAEL MOORE with a post indicating that the story about Moore’s bodyguard being arrested on a gun charge isn’t true.

Good for them, as they demonstrate a commitment to accuracy that Moore himself should envy.

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH is fact-checking Harry Reid, who really should be more careful whose press releases he relies on.

UPDATE: Okay, Pejman is relying on James Taranto — which is much wiser.

STEVE STURM ISN’T EXCITED about the inauguration. I’m not either, really. I’m kind of relieved that there weren’t any explosions, though.

SOME THOUGHTS on the Democrats’ great hope, over at GlennReynolds.com.

ABBAS UPDATE: Meryl Yourish is looking thoughtful and going “Hmmm.”

MEDIENKRITIK:

This is what journalism has devolved to in Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung: Translating a cynical fantasy obituary of George W. Bush written by Griel Marcus and combining it with a picture of Bush and Rumsfeld in Mickey Mouse Ears.

I think they’ve got the wrong Disney character. And Germans should know better.

I WROTE A WHILE BACK in The Guardian that Hillary Clinton is a member of the Religious Left. There’s further support for that here from Hillary herself:

Addressing a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston’s Fairmont Copley Plaza, Clinton invoked God more than half a dozen times, at one point declaring, “I’ve always been a praying person.”

She said there must be room for religious people to “live out their faith in the public square.”

I think that she’s serious about that, and not faking it as some on the right are suggesting.

UPDATE: Michael Novak emails:

Yes, she is serious about praying often. Yes, she is a serious Christian, and has been for some time (not deep, I think, but serious). And, yes, she is a person of the left. So you are right to identify her as part of the religious left. But I interpret her talk in Boston as an effort to bring religious left and religious right into some common work together, and precisely in supporting faith-based workers who sacrifice to help the poor and needy. I am sure you applaud, too, when religious right and religious left join hands for good purposes, especially in serving others. And it seems to me a generous move for Senator Clinton to do so by supporting a program with which President Bush has been so personally identified. She makes clear that such a program is not in itself ideological, but a place where right and left can come together in helping others. I am glad you stressed her sincerity. She could have interpreted her own self-interest as in being anti-Bush at all costs, and she did not.

Good point.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT:

Hundreds of people gathered at both ends of Meridian Hill Park in Northwest Washington for a peace rally sponsored by the D.C Antiwar Network.

But there were interlopers: Thirteen members of ProtestWarror, supporting the Bush administration and its policies in Iraq. When the Bush supporters arrived, about 20 black-clad, self-described anarchists emerged from the crowd, shouting profanity and epithets and demanding that they leave the peace rally.

When the Bush supporters refused to leave, the anarchists tore the sign out of the Bush supporters’ hands and stomped on them. When ProtestWarrior leader Gil Kobrin objected, several male anarchists knocked him to the ground, kicking him in the back and punching him. Other anarchists punched and shoved Kobrin’s 12 colleagues.

Those “peace” protesters are vicious.

OPINIO JURIS is a new law professor blog dedicated to international law.

TERM TWO BEGINS: Lets hope it goes well for everyone.

UPDATE: Here’s the text of Bush’s inaugural address. He’s not thinking small: “Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.” He plugs the Koran, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Funny, I switched about halfway through from NPR to an AM station running Fox, and on the AM station the applause sounded much louder.

MORE: Victor Davis Hanson comments. Ed Morrissey writes: “in its own way, this might be one of the most radically classical-liberal American speeches in a generation.”

And Joe Gandelman has some thoughts, and is rounding up reactions. But some people are very upset at the lack of giant puppets.

HAS “REALIGNMENT” STOPPED? I hope that the Democrats manage to stay competitive. Karl Rove may want to marginalize them, but I’d rather see a two-party system, albeit not one in which Barbara Boxer is the authentic voice of one of those parties.

UGLY IS AS UGLY WAS: That’s the title of an article on James Lileks, in the Washington Post.

BOWLING FOR HYPOCRISY:

NEW YORK — Filmmaker Michael Moore’s (search) bodyguard was arrested for carrying an unlicensed weapon in New York’s JFK airport Wednesday night. . . .

Burke is licensed to carry a firearm in Florida and California, but not in New York. Burke was taken to Queens central booking and could potentially be charged with a felony for the incident.

Moore’s 2003 Oscar-winning film “Bowling for Columbine” criticizes what Moore calls America’s “culture of fear” and its obsession with guns.

Shades of Rosie O’Donnell.

UPDATE: And not just Rosie. Here’s a roundup of gun-control fans busted for gun violations on the part of their bodyguards.

ANOTHER UPDATE: MooreWatch reports that the story quoted above is wrong.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: I’m not a comics geek at all, but to bring an Amazon order up to the “free shipping” level I added these Uncle Scrooge comics, which I remember from when I was a kid. (For some reason, they, along with Mad magazine, were easy to come by when we lived in Germany, while most others were not). There are probably interesting sociological points to be made regarding Scrooge’s portrayal, but I’ll have to make them another time, as the Insta-Daughter (who is normally indifferent to comics) grabbed them immediately.

UPDATE: Reader Robert McNair emails:

Hosanna!! Another Uncle Scrooge fan. The finest character in the history of comics. My mind still reels at the genius of the diving board over the pool filled with money. If only.

Yes, the “money bin” was always amusing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rand Simberg emails a link to this essay explaining why Scrooge McDuck offers valuable lessons in capitalism to America’s youth. Perhaps it’s time for a revival.

MORE: Dave Kopel emails:

The reason that Uncle Scrooge comics were so easy to get in Germany in your childhood is that Scrooge benefits as an auxilliary of Donald Duck. DD comics were, and are, very big in Germany. I read them to brush up on the small amount of German I know. When I was in Germany last September, I could buy Donald Duck anthologies, in German, at a gas station.

There’s a famous book by a Chilean author which explains Donald Duck’s popularity in Latin America as an example of imperialism, with all sorts of embedded capitalist messsages.

Link

If you were unfortunate enough to be a Cultural Studies professor, you would almost certainly have read the book.

Let’s toast my good fortune, I guess. After all, all sorts of other academics are jealous of law professors and our perquisites.

And from the article that Kopel links, this bit: “Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck have morphed into Peter Jennings and Ted Koppel.” And which Disney character would have best fit Dan Rather, I wonder . . .?

STILL MORE: I guess I’ve got better taste than I realized. Reader Garnet Fraser emails:

I’m just a regular reader and comics fan, but you may want to know that the Scrooge comics (created by Carl Barks) are among the best-regarded stuff in the whole history of the medium. If your French is up to it, check out this comics exposition devoted to them this month at Angouleme, amid Europe’s biggest art-comics convention:

Link

My French isn’t good (I never studied it except briefly in preparation for visiting, and at best it’s on a par with the Google translation) but it’s nice to see that the richest duck in the world is getting attention. And the French need him, I think.

MORE STILL: Wyatt’s Torch: “I grew up on Scrooge Mcduck—in his later incantation as the afterschool show Ducktales. I have trouble finding words to describe the influence this show had on me growing up.”

WI-FI SIDE-BY-SIDE: My TechCentralStation column argues that Wi-Fi and EVDO are complementary, not competitive.

SOMEBODY ASK JAN EGELAND WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT THIS:

TSUNAMI-struck Thailand has been told by the European Commission that it must buy six A380 Airbus aircraft if it wants to escape the tariffs against its fishing industry.

While millions of Europeans are sending aid to Thailand to help its recovery, trade authorities in Brussels are demanding that Thai Airlines, its national carrier, pays £1.3 billion to buy its double-decker aircraft.

The demand will come as a deep embarrassment to Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, whose officials started the negotiation before the disaster struck Thailand – killing tens of thousands of people and damaging its economy.

While aid workers from across Europe are helping to rebuild Thai livelihoods, trade officials in Brussels are concluding a jets-for-prawns deal, which they had hoped to announce next month.

As the world’s largest producer of prawns, Thailand has become so efficient that its wares are half the price of those caught by Norway, the main producer of prawns for the EU.

Norway. Home of Jan Egeland. If you ask me, this sounds rather . . . stingy.

UPDATE: A reader says that there are many errors in the Scotsman piece. Click “read more” to read his response.

Continue reading ‘SOMEBODY ASK JAN EGELAND WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT THIS:

TSUNAMI-struck Thailand has been told by the Eu…’ »

CIA PREDICTS COLLAPSE:

THE CIA has predicted that the European Union will break-up within 15 years unless it radically reforms its ailing welfare systems.

The report by the intelligence agency, which forecasts how the world will look in 2020, warns that Europe could be dragged into economic decline by its ageing population. It also predicts the end of Nato and post-1945 military alliances.

In a devastating indictment of EU economic prospects, the report warns: “The current EU welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalisation could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the EU, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role.”

It adds that the EU’s economic growth rate is dragged down by Germany and its restrictive labour laws. Reforms there – and in France and Italy to lesser extents – remain key to whether the EU as a whole can break out of its “slow-growth pattern”. . . .

The report says: “Either European countries adapt their workforces, reform their social welfare, education and tax systems, and accommodate growing immigrant populations [chiefly from Muslim countries] or they face a period of protracted economic stasis.”

As a result of the increased immigration needed, the report predicts that Europe’s Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025, potentially triggering tensions.

Via Aaron at Freewillblog, who observes that CIA reports predicting problems in Iraq get a lot of attention, but that this one seems to be getting rather little.

GREG DJEREJIAN reviews the Condi hearings.

HERE’S A UKRAINE UPDATE from Le Sabot Post-Moderne.

MESSAGE FROM MY SECRETARY, currently serving in Iraq: “I hear Damascus is nice in the Spring!” More details later.

KAUS HAS LOTS OF NEW STUFF at Gearbox.

Message to the new Slate management: Carblogging will sell more ads than politics. Give Kaus a Bugatti, or a Chrysler 300, or a 1968 hemi-Barracuda, and have him drive across America, blogging as he goes. [Cross-promotion with those Verizon Wireless people? -- Ed. Brilliant!]

And Mickey should pick me up along the way. We’ve done it before!

HEH.

HOW TO BLOG LIKE A ROCK STAR: Advice from Ambra Nykol.

LANCE FRIZZELL:

Back in January ’03, you may remember a group of Western liberals who volunteered to go to Iraq as human shields in case the US enforced UN resolutions that Saddam violated. Key graf:

“…they are willing to put themselves in the firing line should US and British forces bomb Iraq. They plan to identify potential bombing targets such as power stations and bridges and act as human shields to protect them.”

Well, I think I have just the job for these globe-travelers: Iraq Election Poll Worker. They are familiar with the terrain and people, they have a self-professed desire to help and they seem very articulate. However, their biggest asset is bravery. If they are willing to hunker down between Coalition Forces and a bridge, standing between a foreign terrorist and a polling precinct should be no big deal. Any takers?

Heh. (Via GayPatriot).

DIRTY BOMBS IN BOSTON? Winds of Change has a roundup and tips.

ABC NEWS: Desperately searching for a military funeral on inauguration day.

Hey, if they want to show a casualty of the Bush Administration, they could always put on Dan Rather’s reputation. Shortly to be followed by their own, at this rate . . . . (Via Capt. Ed, who has further comments).

UPDATE: Major John Tammes emails from Bagram:

Perhaps all of us serving in the armed forces should send a statement to ABC saying something along the lines of “in case I should be killed in action, you are hereby requested to come nowhere near my funeral, and also requested to not make political hay out of it either.” I guess I am not at risk, since getting killed in Afghanistan is not quite the “balance” they are looking for.

Indeed.

THIS IS TROUBLING:

As the nation’s capital prepares itself for the presidential inauguration by going into lockdown mode and placing portable Stinger missile launchers throughout the city, Americans may be stunned to learn that the District of Columbia has been forced by a federal judge to hand over intelligence data on police tactics, training, and strategies from the last inauguration to an organization with documented ties to terrorist groups and Saddam Hussein.

Perhaps this report is in error, as I don’t believe that this sort of thing should be discoverable.

RATHERGATE: The first time as farce, the second time as really absurd farce:

Mr. Moonves again defended retaining the president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward, saying that he was satisfied that Mr. Heyward had asked the right questions before the broadcast, though he was “denied the right answers” by the executives under him.

The report’s producer, Mary Mapes, was fired as a result of the panel’s report. Three others were asked to resign. Mr. Moonves revealed today that none of the three have done so. Asked what CBS will do if they refuse to resign, Mr. Moonves said he could not talk about that situation. “It’s a legal issue,” he said.

Tom Maguire observes: “It must be like herding cats over there.”

HOW THE DEMOCRATS CAN WIN: Who knew it was so easy?

IRAQI BLOGGER ALI responds to Sarah Boxer and to Juan Cole.

BOIFROMTROY: “Barbara, Condi, Dianne and Bill Walk into a Bar…”

This is funny, too.

UPDATE: More comments from Austin Bay.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Still more here.

And here, too.

IN THE MAIL: A copy of F.I.R.E.’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus (timed, I guess, to coincide with the blogad). And a copy of Mark Levin’s Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America. I haven’t read Levin’s book, whose title seems a bit hyperbolic, but I’m guessing that the market for conservative books attacking liberal courts will head downward soon, as Bush appoints a lot more judges.

STEFAN SHARKANSKY says there’s an explosion of people power in politics and the media. But he wants more.

SAM HELDMAN has reentered the blogosphere.

KEVIN DRUM:

I myself would not argue that Darwinism in biology classes is protected by the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. Rather, I would argue more narrowly that everything else is forbidden. If a school district decides not to teach biology at all, that’s fine. But if they do teach it, they aren’t allowed to include religious proselytizing in the curriculum.

The distinction here is this: creationism is Christian proselytizing, a no-no for government bureaucrats. Intelligent Design is so clearly a thinly veiled version of creationism that it’s forbidden too. Darwinism, however, is simply science. School districts are free to stop teaching science if they want, but if they do teach it, they have to teach Darwinism just as much as they have to teach Newtonian mechanics, Boyle’s law, and the theory of relativity.

Yes. I suppose there are atheistic Intelligent Design fans out there somewhere, but I don’t think I’ve met one. And I doubt that they really fit into the ID community.

UPDATE: Michael Barone emails:

You say you know of no atheist Intelligent Design believers. Well, I’m an agnostic, and I think (though I haven’t given much thought to it) that there might
be something to Intelligent Design. You could say I’m agnostic about it. Of course that’s not the same thing as an atheist believing in Intelligent
Design . . . .

Just thought I’d share that. There’s snow on the ground here in DC; I’m going to page back and look at some of your Knoxville photoblogging.

There’s no snow here, but it was 14 degrees when I took my daughter to school yesterday, and it’s not a whole lot more pleasant today. It is, indeed, a change from last week. Then there’s this scene, from last summer. . . . Sigh.

GREG DJEREJIAN takes a critical look at Bush’s war leadership. Excerpt:

Bush must more effectively communicate to the world audience the nature of his global war on terror. Between a widely (though, it should be noted, not quite as widely as sometimes suggested) supported Afghanistan campaign and the so controversial war in Iraq–America’s war on terror lost much support in the court of international opinion. I’m not talking here of the cheap Euro-Gaullist broadsides about Iraq simply consituting a bid for hegemony in the Middle East, or for access to cheap oil (that worked out well, eh?), or simply a dynastic clean up of Poppy’s unfinished business. But the reality is, of course, that there exists much misapprehension and confusion about why, for Bush, the war in Iraq has been conflated with the war on terror. Bush must now, as his second term begins, communicate better what he means when he says Iraq is now the “central front” in the war on terror. This is particularly critical in the conspiracy-ridden Middle East.

Read the whole thing, which as always is thoughtful and measured. It’s also worth revisiting this critique, written by Austin Bay just after his return from Iraq:

If there is one mistake I think we’ve made in fighting this war, it’s been the way we’ve soft-pedaled the ideological dimensions. This really is a fight for the future, between our free, open political system and the unholy alliance of despots and Islamo-fascists whose very existence depends on denying liberty.

Iraq — long plundered by despotism — should be a wealthy country. It has water, an agricultural base, a source of capital (oil) and people willing to work. It is the best place to begin to reform the dysfunctional political systems that shackle and rob the vast the majority of Middle Easterners. The lesson of 9-11, three years on, is that liberty must sustain a focused offensive if it is to survive.

We should be hearing more like this from the Bush Administration.