JUSTICE GINSBURG: Passionate? or Political?

IN THE MAIL: Jim LIndberg’s Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life. The Amazon reviews are mixed — I’m not a particular fan of Pennywise, but this comment is kind of harsh: “This clown seems to think he’s somehow different than other suburban dads, just because he’s in a marginally successful ‘punk’ band. Sorry schmuck, you’re just another whitebread neocon who wears Vans.” Those punkers are a tough crowd!

IT’S EVERYWHERE: The Dangerous Book for Boys inspires this column by Christina Hoff Summers in the New York Post. Excerpt:

In a radical departure from modern schoolroom readings, the book has almost nothing to say about feelings, relationships or how boys can learn to cry. It valorizes risk, adventure and manliness.

Today’s boys inhabit a danger-averse world where even old favorites like tag and dodge ball are under a cloud – Too competitive! Someone might get hurt! The National Parent Teacher Association recommends a cooperative alternative to the fiercely competitive “tug of war” called “tug of peace.”

By contrast, “The Dangerous Book for Boys” has detailed instructions on how to hunt, kill, skin and cook a rabbit. . . .

The sad lesson of this book’s success is how far our current education culture has drifted from the world of boys. The special art of teaching boys – once so well understood by educators everywhere – is at risk of being lost forever.

One literacy expert reviewed several junior-high social studies texts and concluded: “Many students may well end up thinking that the West was settled chiefly by females, most often accompanied by their parents.”

Read the whole thing. As Dangerous Book author Conn Iggulden noted in our podcast interview, things seem to be changing. It’s about time.

THE EXAMINER WONDERS WHY BUSH IS insulting his most loyal supporters? As I’ve noted before, there seems to be some sort of bizarre Republican death wish at work. There’s a difference between disagreeing with your base and disrespecting it. And they’ve been very disrespectful to everyone who disagrees with them on this. Heck, I’m basically pro-immigration and I find the Administration’s arguments for the bill sufficiently unpersuasive and insulting that I’m leaning against it on that basis alone.

UPDATE: Uh oh.

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of self-described “deviant” thinkers: science-fiction writers.

“We spend our entire careers living in the future,” says author Arlan Andrews, one of a handful of writers the government brought to Washington this month to attend a Homeland Security conference on science and technology.

Those responsible for keeping the nation safe from devastating attacks realize that in addition to border agents, police and airport screeners, they “need people to think of crazy ideas,” Andrews says.

The writers make up a group called Sigma, which Andrews put together 15 years ago to advise government officials. The last time the group gathered was in the late 1990s, when members met with government scientists to discuss what a post-nuclear age might look like, says group member Greg Bear. He has written 30 sci-fi books, including the best seller Darwin’s Radio.

Now, the Homeland Security Department is calling on the group to help with the government’s latest top mission of combating terrorism. . . . Why offer their ideas to the government instead of private companies that pay big bucks?

“To save civilization,” Ringworld author Larry Niven says. “We do it in fiction. Why wouldn’t we want to do it in fact?”

Not a bad idea.

UPDATE: N.Z. Bear emails that it’s about time!

I FOUND THE NOKIA N800 a bit underpowered. But I have to say this new quasi-mini-laptop from Palm, the Foleo, looks pretty cool. All it needs is EVDO to be a terrific blogging tool.

LOVE THE SINNER, hate the sinner’s sex toy business.

A PORNOGRAPHY-BASED STRATEGY for the War on Terror: “Whatever military action we take is just a holding action while our culture does a number on them.”

THE NRO EDITORS CHALLENGE THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORS to a debate on immigration.

A BLOG DUSTUP IN NASHVILLE: Bob Krumm has more background.

Here’s the post that started it all. I don’t agree with it, but it seems relatively tame to me. It’s no “screw ’em,” that’s for sure.

UPDATE: Michael Silence: “The bottom line: The intent to drive traffic is working.”

We’ve been had. D’oh!

HUMAN SHIELDS in Iraq.

DRINKING FROM A FIREHOSE:

One of America’s busiest guys these days is Mark Corallo of Corallo Comstock Inc. in Alexandria. He’s the media strategist and former Justice Department public affairs director who is the public voice of Fred Thompson’s prospective presidential campaign. A few hours after The Politico reported on Wednesday morning that the actor and former senator was moving swiftly toward declaring his candidacy, Corallo e-mailed: “The response is unreal. Total explosion. Can’t keep up with the incoming. Received over 300 e-mails from people who want to contribute and/or volunteer. Drinking from the fire hose.”

Hey, if Al Gore gets in the race, we might wind up with two Tennesseans facing off in the general election.

GOOGLE MAPS IS SPYING ON MY CAT!

HARIRI UPDATE:

The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to unilaterally establish an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the killing of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri whose supporters celebrated by dancing in the streets of Beirut.

The vote at U.N. headquarters in New York was 10-0 with five abstentions _ Russia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar. Nine votes were needed for passage.

South Africa hasn’t really lived up to its human-rights reputation. Still, that’s a bit of a surprise. The others, not so much.

Michael Totten observes: “What Assad fears most has come to pass.”

UPDATE: Reader Mike Hertz makes a good point:

I’m not quite sure what the Post means when it says that the Security Council “unilaterally” established a tribunal. I thought a decision taken by the Council was, by definition, collective. Does “unilateral” simply mean that the Post disapproves? Or that the U.S. was part of the group that took action (much like the Iraq coalition was referrred to as unilateral)?

Any group involving the U.S. is “unilateral,” I guess.

MASS DELETIONS PRODUCE A LIVEJOURNAL REVOLT.

JOURNALISTIC ETHICS: Paying for perverts?

VIRGINIA POSTREL: “Kidney patients need ACT-UP. Instead, they’ve got the way-too-complacent National Kidney Foundation, an organization more for doctors than patients. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Lisa Cunningham has died. She’s the woman Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center told it would refuse to transplant if she found a kidney donor through local press coverage.”

AN ARGUMENT FOR TERM LIMITS? “The authors study the make-up of Congress since 1789 with a view to tracking ‘the self-perpetuation of political elites’. They find that, the longer the tenure of a legislator, the more likely his relatives are to enter Congress later.”

A BLOGGER’S DREAMS, crushed by Michelle Malkin.

MORE SKEPTICISM about the FBI.

OKAY THIS IS STUPID:

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.

The dangers of false positives from mass testing are not trivial, as evidenced in discussions of mass-testing for HIV. Nonetheless, this is hardly the same thing. As I’ve noted before, food testing is something we’re not doing well, and we ought to do better. The meat industry people are just afraid of competition from “real food” producers and the like, and don’t want to give them an opening.

I mean, do we want China to be our model?

GREENHOUSE UPDATE:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that she followed all Senate rules when she accepted rides on a private jet from a longtime benefactor.

“Whatever I’ve done, I complied with Senate rules at the time. That’s the way every senator operates,” the Democratic presidential contender said in an interview with The Associated Press during a campaign stop in Las Vegas. . . .

Sen. Clinton, who complained about corporate America’s largesse and skyrocketing executive pay during campaign events Wednesday, said she did not believe her message was undermined by her acceptance of the private flights. In line with Senate rules then in effect, Clinton’s campaign has said she reimbursed Gupta at the cost of a first-class flight, typically a significant discount off the expense of a private jet.

“Those were the rules. You’ll have to ask somebody else whether that’s good policy,” she said.

Senate rules or not, it’s bad for the planet. Doesn’t anyone care?

ED MORRISSEY INTERVIEWS John McCain and Mitt Romney.

UPDATE: Social conservatives backing Rudy? Interesting discussion in the Powerline forum.

MISS UNIVERSE BOOS AND U.S. / MEXICAN RELATIONS: “For what it’s worth, I think this kind of episode has more impact on Americans’ attitudes toward other countries than is generally recognized. The fact that millions of Americans witnessed the rudeness in Mexico City will not make matters easier for those who are pushing immigration legislation in Congress.”

It’s not a big deal, but that’s right. “We hate you — let us in!” is a poor approach.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE EXPLAINS WHY HE LIKES FRED THOMPSON: “He bugs James Dobson, who bugs me.” I like that, too.