WE ARE DEVO: England To Scotland: Hurry Up And Leave. “The English, the polls seem to be saying, want the Scots out of the United Kingdom, while the Scots want to stay in.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Why are Western human-rights groups so silent on Zimbabwe?

I don’t know how long I’ll keep this series going, but I’m encouraged by this email from a journalist (you’d recognize his name) who asks anonymity: “Very much enjoying these glances back. Strangely, though post-9/11, it was a much more innocent time. Pre-Iraq, and everything that went with that. Pre-Obama, too, though that’s not as relevant to the quaintness as the running references to Cornel West, another black American race-baiting fraud out of Harvard, make clear. What a wonder to see people like Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall and David Brooks taken seriously. Also fun to see references to ‘reader Eugene Volokh’ and ‘reader Stephen Green.’” Yes, there’s been a lot of water under that bridge.

UPDATE: Reader Linda White writes: “Professor, a couple of years ago, I read P J O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores, printed 20 or so years previous. It was just as fresh and relevant when I read it as when P J wrote it. Your Ten Years Ago series is just like that.” Well, thanks. All P.J. O’Rourke comparisons are appreciated.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Men’s Dress Shirts.

LOSING IT ALL in the post-coital Depression.

IN WALKS THE VILLAGE IDIOT, AND HIS FACE IS ALL AGLOW. He’s been up all night listening to Obama’s radio.

But the Obama photo on Newsweek’s cover will do him more harm than all the desparate sycophancy in the text. He looks terrible, and surprisingly like Jimmy Carter, even down to the downturned liverish lips and incipient jowls. I’m amazed they went with that one. Perhaps the staff is of two minds. Andrew Sullivan, of course, has reason for gratitude.

UPDATE: Yes, it’s the Zevon thing again. “Just as an aside, while the song has some references that may seem contemporary, it was written in the 70′s.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: We Must Be Really, Really Stupid. “We who who are unhappy that unemployment has increased on Obama’s watch, that over-regulation has stymied economic growth, that our children now owe a $15 trillion debt that we can’t pay–hey, we’re just dumb! We obviously aren’t smart enough to understand how devastating our economy, unemploying millions of Americans and burdening our children with trillions of dollars in debt is really a great idea.”

MORE: Scheisse glanz nicht, wenn man sie poliert.

AT THE TOP OF THE HOUR, Amy Alkon will be talking with the Drs. Eades about low-carb diets.

JERRY POURNELLE ON PISSGATE: “The Marines acted without thinking of the consequences and must be made to realize that; but I have always believed that far more serious acts take place in every combat action. War is Hell. A rational army would run away. Those men did not run away, and I’d far rather have troops who urinate on the enemy than troops who surrender to get their throats cut while in captivity. And I hope they had bacon for breakfast that morning. I’m told they did. I don’t appall as easily as many, I suppose.”

There’s a moral-poseur bubble going on at the moment. It’ll be interesting when it pops.

JON HUNTSMAN SAYS HE’S OUT OF THE RACE. He’ll endorse Romney, reportedly.

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

HEH: Froma Harrop And Procul Harum: Both Progressive Rock, But Only One A Band. And only one is tone-deaf to “nearly creepy levels.” Nearly?

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Computers & Accessories.

INSTAPUNDIT READERS WILL BE LESS SURPRISED THAN SOME: Ten Surprising Health Benefits Of Beer. But here’s a reason to mix up your beverages: “Scientists also have found that beer and wine contain about the same levels of antioxidants, but the antioxidants are different because the flavonoids found in hops and grapes are different.” So celebrate diversity!

MARGARET THATCHER ON SOCIALISM AND SOCIALISTS.

MICHAEL BARONE: Obama Thumbs Nose At Founders. Well, they’re just a bunch of dead white men.

FASTER, PLEASE: Discovery Could Lead To An Exercise Pill. “Researchers have discovered a natural hormone that acts like exercise on muscle tissue—burning calories, improving insulin processing, and perhaps boosting strength. The scientists hope it could eventually be used as a treatment for obesity, diabetes, and, potentially, neuromuscular diseases like muscular dystrophy.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Mother/Daughter Lingerie Modeling. Sweet or Incestuous? Actually, from looking at the pics I’d say just kinda boring.

THAT WOULD BE GOOD: Universal Flu Vaccine Could Be Available by 2013. “Annual flu shots might soon become a thing of the past, and threats such as avian and swine flu might disappear with them as a vaccine touted as the ‘holy grail’ of flu treatment could be ready for human trials next year. That’s earlier than the National Institutes of Health estimated in 2010, when they said a universal vaccine could be five years off. By targeting the parts of the virus that rarely mutate, researchers believe they can develop a vaccine similar to the mumps or measles shot—people will be vaccinated as children and then receive boosters later.” The story doesn’t explain why it’s going to be ready so much sooner than predicted, though.

SEX TIPS FROM FRENCH WOMEN, including, inevitably drink more wine. Hey, it works!

NOT SO RARE: Born With Two Vaginas. “It’s definitely an ice-breaker at parties.”

SOME THOUGHTS FROM WILLIAM SHAWCROSS, on his new book, Justice and the Enemy: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. “I agree with Obama that Nuremberg was a success and should not be dismissed as ‘victors’ justice.’ But what he failed to acknowledge was that the defendants at Nuremberg had far fewer rights than those at Guantanamo under the Military Commissions created by President Bush. Indeed, were a Nazi transported by time machine from Nuremberg to Guantanamo he would be astonished by the privileges and safeguards which were suddenly available to him.”

ALMOST NOME: U.S. Icebreaker About to Reach Cut-Off Alaska Town.

NEW IRAN STRATEGY: Appeasement?

UPDATE: More here.

IN THE MAIL: Lightspeed: Year One.

“UNCONSCIONABLE POWER GRABS:” SOPA and PROTECT-IP: A Line-By-Line Analysis of the Bills We Must Kill. As I noted last night, they seem to be backpedaling on this one, which is a good reason to keep after them.

DAVID HARDY rounds up some good news.

DEBTORS’ PRISON not entirely extinct.

AT AMAZON, it’s the DVD Outlet Sale.

Plus, the DVD Deal of the Week: Gods And Generals.

JOHN HINDERAKER spots some encouraging poll data.

THIS DOESN’T INSPIRE CONFIDENCE: Germany Considers Ban On Sovereign Bond Sales? “Ms Merkel said she would consider calls from her party colleagues for legislation to bar institutional investors such as insurance companies from selling bonds when ratings were downgraded, or fell below investment grade.” One hopes this never passes, because it’s idiotic — but I suspect rational bondholders will begin dumping bonds now just in case, which makes the statement itself idiotic.

On the other hand, perhaps she simply meant changing the rules so that they won’t have to sell bonds when they’re downgraded below investment grade. That might actually make sense, but it’s not what the report says.

UPDATE: This report suggests the latter:

Meanwhile, in a move to circumvent their influence, Germany’s Merkel backed a proposal to reduce the reliance of institutional investors on ratings agencies, which some of her allies say are politically driven.

The idea would be to introduce legislation to allow institutional investors to evaluate risk themselves and make decisions independent from the U.S.-based agencies.

So it sounds like they’re trying to arrange things so a downgrade doesn’t immediately force massive sell-offs, rather than actually banning such sales.

FROM PEDAGOGY to “Peeragogy?”

MARGARET THATCHER ON SOCIALISM.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Advanced nanofactories in twenty years?

NITA GHEI: The Class Warfare Toxin.

HE’S JUST AFRAID OF GLENN GREENWALD’S WRATH: Leon Panetta Denies U.S. Involvment In Iran Nuclear Assassinations.

DAVID BERNSTEIN outperforms Tim Geithner. Yeah, that’s setting the bar low.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: While Law Schools Dither Over Reform, the Legal Profession May be Passing Them By.

WHEN TOO MUCH VITAMIN D is counterproductive.

UPDATE: Reader John Walker writes:

It’s worth noting that the research cited in the New York Times piece studied only a single aspect of the effects of vitamin D: the level of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood. But vitamin D has a long list of other well-documented effects, in particular upon the metabolism of calcium: insufficient levels of vitamin D can lead to low bone mineral density, risk of fractures in older people, and in extreme cases, rickets. There is evidence that calcium supplementation in the absence of adequate 25OHD levels in the blood may deposit calcium in soft tissues, including calcification of the arteries. Vitamin D is also linked to immune system performance.

It may be the case, as this research reports, that a serum 25OHD level of 21 ng/mL is optimal for CRP levels, but that says nothing about whether that level is optimal or even sufficient for its other functions. There are certainly indications that higher levels are beneficial in calcium metabolism. Hence choosing an optimum level for its overall effect on health and reducing mortality requires striking a balance among all of the effects of vitamin D, not just one.

As always, the authoritative reference for such matters is the indispensable “PDR for Nutritional Supplements.”

Excellent points.

JON HUNTSMAN’S MANDARIN MOMENTS FAIL TO IMPRESS: “And frankly, I think Huntsman’s stance toward China is — it’s almost like he’s an Obama plant.”

JIM TREACHER ON PISSGATE: Uh-oh… if we don’t watch out, the Taliban won’t like us anymore!

GERARD VAN DER LEUN: This is not a “Vote-For” election. This is a “Vote-Against” election. This is not a “Sit-It-Out-And-Pout” election. This is a “Get-Obama-Out” election. That is what it is about and that is all it is about.

UPDATE: Republican Primary Voters seem to get it: SC Republicans Boo Newt Gingrich Over Romney Attacks. 11th-commandment violations haven’t helped anyone this election cycle. Just ask Tim Pawlenty. (Bumped).

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jody Green writes:

I am as disgusted as anyone at Newt going after Romney’s Bain record but I wanted to point to another made up press narrative. The only news was SC voters booed Newt but if you watch the whole question and answer, they only booed because of a process issue (Not allowed to mentioned other candidates) and not because of the answer. They actually clapped enthusiastically when he finished answering the question. You can see the whole thing starting at about the 4:14 mark of this video.

Noted.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: The Democrats’ Confused Response To Enron:

Democrats are divided on what to do. Jon Corzine (D -NJ) who got money from Enron, is taking a cautionary line. Henry Waxman, on the other hand (whom the Post describes accurately as “camera-hungry”) is raring to go (I’m still trying to find out if the “Lighthouse Energy Group” who donated to Waxman is connected to Enron, or one of its competitors, though either way it seems like a conflict of interest — but Waxman obviously isn’t concerned.) And Charles “was that a TV camera?” Schumer, who got the most money from Enron of any Democratic Senator is being most uncharacteristically silent.

Uncharacteristically, indeed. And now, 10 years later, Corzine is in the middle of an even bigger financial scandal.

AT AMAZON, up to 50% off on bestselling knives.

SOPA UPDATE: SOPA shelved until ‘consensus’ is found. “House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said early Saturday morning that Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised him the House will not vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) unless there is consensus on the bill.”

The White House is looking wobbly, too. But Lamar Smith remains bought-and-paid-for.

UPDATE: Reader Thad Puckett says that former Sheriff Richard Mack is running against Smith in the primary, though the report he links — which is mostly about other stuff — only mentions in passing that Mack is planning to file. I couldn’t find any more recent reports. Anybody know anything? Puckett writes: “I’ll vote for Mack in the primary…Smith has not handled SOPA well at all.” No, he hasn’t.

EUROPE: Q4 Spanish Unemployment Soars By Most Since Lehman, Hits “Astronomical” 23.3%.

ARMED HOMEOWNER foils home invasion in Knoxville.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Detroit just looking worse and worse. “Rampant incompetence, administrative chaos and clueless mismanagement have so disrupted the ruined city’s faltering attempts to maintain some kind of early childhood education program that the Obama administration is threatening to close down all federal funding for early education in the once-bustling metropolis. The city is too incompetent to spend money. . . . It is hard to see how a city recovers when things have fallen this far. Detroit’s voters do not seem interested in good governance, either unwilling or unable to penalize incompetence at the polls; the political class spouts blue liberal slogans but appears to have the compassion and generosity of a pack of velociraptors; the city’s core institutions have been so corroded and degraded after decades of decline that there is little hope for improvement anytime soon. The status quo cannot stand.”

UPDATE: Reader Lloyd Daub writes: “Detroit is North Korea … with the Unions holding the same pride of place as the North Korean Army—keep them happy and they keep the kleptocracy in power. No matter who else starves.”

AT AMAZON, it’s the Jewelry Clearance Event. Which is like a sale, I guess, only more . . . eventful.

FASTER, PLEASE: A Doctor in Your Pocket: What does the future of medicine hold? Tiny health monitors, tailored therapies—and the end of illness.

I had some thoughts on this a while back.

BEDBUG UPDATE: How to get rid of bloodsucking insects.

FEW things destroy the reputation of a high-class hotel faster than bed bugs. These vampiric arthropods, which almost disappeared from human dwellings with the introduction of synthetic insecticides after the second world war, are making a comeback. They can drink seven times their own weight in blood in a night, leaving itchy welts on the victim’s skin and blood spots on his sheets as they do so. That is enough to send anyone scurrying to hotel-rating internet sites—and even, possibly, to lawyers.

New York is worst-hit at the moment: neither five-star hotels nor top-notch apartments have been spared. But other places, too, are starting to panic. Hotel staff from Los Angeles to London are scrutinising the seams of mattresses and the backs of skirting boards, where the bugs often hide during the day, with more than usual zeal. But frequently this is to no avail. Bed bugs are hard to spot. Even trained pest-control inspectors can miss them. What is needed is a way to flush them into the open. And James Logan, Emma Weeks and their colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Rothamsted Research think they have one: a bed-bug trap baited with something the bugs find irresistible—the smell of their own droppings.

They sound kind of like politicians.

THE TOP 20 sexually suggestive auto ads.

OVERHEARD ON THE GOLDMAN, SACHS ELEVATOR: “I heard the Euro was spotted at Disney World wearing a Make-A-Wish t-shirt.” Thanks to reader John Tucich for the tip.

I’VE HEARD OF CONCEALED CARRY, BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS: Cops Believe North Carolina Inmate Hid 10-Inch Revolver In His Rectum.

DISRUPTING THE OBESITY NARRATIVE: A review of Michael Schatzki’s The Great Fat Fraud. Some skepticism in the comments.

THIS ISN’T GOOD: Totally drug-resistant TB emerges in India. It’s the result of mismanagement. “Resistance is man-made, caused by exposure to the wrong treatment, the wrong regimen, the wrong treatment duration.”

Plus this: “The fact that no new first-line TB drugs have been developed for half a century has probably contributed to the emergence of strains that are unresponsive to treatment.”

TEN 100-YEAR PREDICTIONS that came true.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Single Moms like Sex, Too. “That how we got our babies in the first place, am I right, ladies???”

HERE’S A ROUNDUP on that Italian cruise ship disaster, which is sounding almost like a real-life Poseidon Adventure, sans Gene Hackman. “We were crawling up a hallway, in the dark, with only the light from the life vest strobe flashing . . . . We could hear plates and dishes crashing, people slamming against walls.”

UPDATE: So the ship looks to have been awfully close to land. Was there a GPS failure? Could that have been induced? We know that GPS spoofing is a technology that’s become more common.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Iron Lady Falls to the Anna Quindlen Doctrine. “In the days of the old Hollywood Code, female characters were inevitably punished if they strayed from traditional sexual mores. Today, female characters (and many men as well) must suffer if they violate a different, unwritten code. This new code declares that one’s worth depends on personal relationships, not public actions, and that sacrificing family time for the sake of achievement is nothing but short-sighted selfishness. Hollywood enforces the Gospel According to Anna Quindlen. . . . These supposedly feminist filmmakers could have portrayed Thatcher as an ambitious woman who had nothing to feel guilty about. Instead they chose to inject guilt where it did not belong. They obscured Thatcher’s public accomplishments in a fog of private angst. The portrait of dementia isn’t the problem. The way the film uses old age to punish a lifetime of accomplishment is.”

I MENTIONED POLITIFACT TENNESSEE EARLIER, and reader Tony Lynch isn’t impressed:

Jeez- Tennessee Politifact agrees the light bulb most Americans currently use will not be available after existing supplies are sold out. Yet it rates Marsha Blackburn’s claim that the law reduces our choices “mostly false”!! Are they trying to compete with The Onion?

Yeah, they blew it on that one. The fact that you remain free to choose the bulbs the government approves of doesn’t make Blackburn’s statement that the government is taking away consumer choice by banning incandescent bulbs even a little bit false.

Meanwhile, you can still get ‘em on Amazon, until they run out.

SOLYNDRA UPDATE: Friday night document dump: WH knew before Solyndra workers flew.

ANN ALTHOUSE CELEBRATES HER eight-year bloggiversary. Congratulatons!

FROM SAYUNCLE, a holster review.

ME NEITHER: Bill Maher ‘not that upset’ if people urinate on Taliban fighters, ‘dead or alive.’ “If they were people who burn down girls’ schools you know, and do honor rapes, threw acid in people’s faces, I’m not that upset about pissing on them, dead or alive.”

GAS PRICES: Most Painful Year At The Pump Ever.

ANCIENT REFRIGERATORS: “By 400 BC, Persian engineers had mastered the technique of storing ice in the middle of summer in the desert. The ice was brought in during the winters from nearby mountains in bulk amounts, and stored in a Yakhchal, or ice-pit. These ancient refrigerators were used primarily to store ice for use in the summer, as well as for food storage, in the hot, dry desert climate of Iran. The ice was also used to chill treats for royalty during hot summer days and to make faloodeh, the traditional Persian frozen dessert.”

IT’S ALL FUN AND GAMES until a fake penis gets you fired.

IN THE MAIL: Jane Carver of Waar.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: CBS News: 11 More Solyndras In Obama Energy Program.

NEW AFP AD: You want to talk about layoffs? Let’s talk about Solyndra, then.

SHELDON RICHMAN ON the lame campaign to discredit Austrian economics.

Meanwhile, ten years ago I was noting that Keynes wasn’t as much of a Keynesian as some today might suggest.

And no post on these lines would be complete without a link to this rap video.

AT AMAZON, up to 50% off in Patio & Garden. Hey, spring and summer will be here soon.

Plus, today only: Canon Rebel XS 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera, $399.99. That looks like an excellent deal.

UPDATE: Various readers and commenters at the Amazon page say it’s not such a great deal because it’s an older model. Sadly, I’ve been out of the digital-SLR buying business long enough that I’d lost touch with how much prices have fallen.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DNC:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday morning that he feels “sorry” for Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for having to defend President Obama’s economic record.

“She’s got to stand up for the president’s record, and it’s pretty bad,” Romney said Wednesday morning on CNN. “You’ve got almost 2 million people that have lost their jobs under this president. You have median income that’s dropped by 10 percent over the last four years. You’ve got 24 million people out of work or [who] have stopped looking for work.

“This is a failed presidency. People know that.”

Ouch.

WELL, GOOD: Under voter pressure, members of Congress backpedal (hard) on SOPA. Keep up the pressure. If you’d like to contact your member of Congress, you can do so here.

EUROPE: France credit rating cut puts eurozone bail-out fund at risk.

METAPHOR ALERT: Italian Ship Runs Aground, With Germans On Board.

JUST OUT: PolitiFact Tennessee.

PISSGATE: Rep. Allen West on the reaction to the Marines incident: “Shut your mouth; war is hell.”

UPDATE: Brian Dunn writes:

I think West has it right. What the Marines did was wrong–and possibly a symptom of problems in unit leadership–but let’s keep some perspective as punishment is weighed.

But a bigger question is how do we handle all the video footage we have of the battlefields when what is normal in war can be scrutinized by someone far away in space and time who is looking for crimes to punish? I asked this question 7 years ago and still have no answer. The Greatest Generation’s reputation wouldn’t have withstood this level of scrutiny for their conduct on the battlefields of Good War II.

Certainly not.

ANTI-SEMITISM AT THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: “The ‘Israel-firster’ slur was not used in ‘mainstream’ discourse until the last few years.”

UPDATE: Look who else is on board. Natch.

PETER WEHNER: The Role Of Sympathy and Trust In American Politics. “Barack Obama ran for office promising to heal the breach that divides Americans. It was at the core of his candidacy. What we have gotten instead is, according to polling data, the most polarizing president in our lifetime.” At least, he’s trying to be.

JAMES TARANTO: The Phony Class War: Is “conflict between rich and poor” really on the rise?

In fact, Pew does not claim to have found, as the AP falsely asserts, that “tensions between rich and poor are increasing.” It finds, rather, that “perceptions of class conflict” and “the belief that these disputes are intense” have become more prevalent, especially since 2009.

It isn’t hard to understand why that might be the case. After all, what have Americans seen when they turned on the news over the past few years? In the White House, a president who, for want of political or managerial competence, has nothing to offer but bitter partisanship and ideologically driven class resentment. In public parks around the country, professional protesters and ignorant college kids ranting about their grievances against “the 1%.” Now, in New Hampshire and South Carolina, even Republicans, led by nonsensical old Newt Gingrich, are getting in on the act.

The perception of “class conflict” has grown because the media have paid the putative conflict so much attention. They have done so in part for ideological reasons–lefty journalists have had a weird preoccupation with “income inequality” for as long as we can remember–but also in part because it’s newsworthy, especially when the president of the United States is trying to foment class war.

It would also be newsworthy if he succeeded–and that is the story the AP is trying to peddle. But Pew’s findings show it is a phony war. If underlying “tensions between rich and poor” were really rising, the survey would have found some evidence of actual hardening of attitudes across socioeconomic lines.

As usual, Obama is mostly convincing to the press.

GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: Woman, 23, died of cervical cancer ‘because doctors said she was too young for a smear test.’ “Government legislation was changed in 2003 to mean regular smear tests are only given to women aged over 25, where previously all women over 20 were given the tests.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): As Streetlights Vanish, A Return To A Darker Age.

IN the wake of widespread violence during the New York City blackout of 1977, a newspaper columnist quipped that just one flick of a light switch separated civilization from primordial chaos.

Leaving the hyperbole aside, artificial illumination has arguably been the greatest symbol of modern progress. By making nighttime infinitely more inviting, street lighting — gas lamps beginning in the early 1800s followed by electric lights toward the end of the century — drastically expanded the boundaries of everyday life to include hours once shrouded in darkness. Today, any number of metropolitan areas in the United States and abroad, bathed in the glare of neon and mercury vapor, bill themselves as 24-hour cities, open both for business and pleasure.

So it is all the more remarkable that, in what appears to be a spreading trend, dozens of cities and towns across America — from California and Oregon to Maine — are contemplating significantly reducing the number of street lamps to lower their hefty electric bills.

Well, it’s either that or lay off some drones working in City Hall. Guess which one they pick . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Jay Langan writes: “I seem to recall a president who told us that our electric bills would necessarily rise. This is just another consequence, though I’m not sure it was unintended.”

LIFE AMONG THE BARBARIANS (CONT’D): Bloomberg’s Law:

One of the most disturbing features of the US justice system is its ever more grotesque loss of proportion, at the federal level and in far too many states and municipalities. On his radio show this week, Derb discusses the case of Meredith Graves, the Tennessee nurse who, upon visiting the 9/11 memorial in New York and seeing the signs forbidding firearms, asked the staff if she could check her pistol (lawful and licensed in her home state). She was handcuffed, arrested, and now faces three and a half years in jail for firearms possession – for the crime of being unaware that the Second Amendment does not apply in New York City.

Asked about the case, New York’s thuggish mayor decided to add insult to injury:

Let’s assume that she didn’t get arrested for carrying a gun. She probably would have gotten arrested for the cocaine that was in her pocket.

There was no cocaine. The white stuff in her pocket was analyzed by Bloomberg’s cops and found to be, as the nurse had said it was, aspirin powder. So this loathsome slug of a man has slandered an ordinary American citizen on tape in front of the world. Why? Because he can.

Loathsome slug is right. New York should be ashamed of him, even before you get to his outrageous micromanagement of people’s lives, illegal out-of-jurisdiction investigations, and, of course, utter inability to get a handle on the bedbug problem.

UPDATE: Reader Dianna Shelton writes: “Sounds downright slanderous to me. With the shortage of work for lawyers these days, I bet there’s someone offering to try to make New Yorkers financially regret electing this big mouthed busybody.”

Hey, sue him personally. He’s a deep pocket!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Michael Schrage writes: “Don’t forget this was the mayor whose first impulse was to link an attempted times square bombing with opposition to Obamacare (!) This is his norm.” He’s a nasty little man, who gets a pass because he’s rich and liberal, despite his flag-of-convenience Republican affiliation.

HEH: “To paraphrase the great Glenn Reynolds, they told me that if I voted for John McCain that union-busting and right-to-work policies would become ascendant. And they were right!”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Discussing the chattering class’s hatred of fast food. Plus, memories of former Knoxvillian Dave Thomas.

Plus perhaps the first appearance by “Reader Matthew Yglesias.”

HOW CONVENIENT: Judge: John Edwards has serious heart condition. “Ex-presidential candidate John Edwards has a serious heart condition that will require a medical procedure next month and his illness limits his travel including for an upcoming court case over possible campaign violations, his doctor told a judge, who delayed the trial.”

UPDATE: Dr. Peter Grout writes: “I hear Scotland has already released him…….”

MAKE THE RUBBLE BOUNCE: Righthaven’s lawyers now targets of State Bar investigation.

HMM: Mitt Romney surges nationally, especially among conservatives. “So, the lesson in all this is that Romney maybe should chip in some of his own money to help broadcast Gingrich’s TV commercials accusing the front-runner of being a successful capitalist.” Yeah, that wasn’t one of Newt’s brighter ideas.

THE IMPORTANCE OF celebrating your partner’s gender traits.

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals in Grocery & Personal Care.

A NEW LAW BLOG: The Liberty Law Blog. By Mike Rappaport and Michael Greve. Worth looking at if you like liberty or law. Doubly so if you like both!

CANCEROUS WINDPIPE replaced with synthetic one.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Home Improvement value center.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Another ATF weapons operation comes under scrutiny. “Members of Congress want to see whether White Gun, like Fast and Furious, lost track of firearms that ended up with Mexican criminals.” Hmm. “White Gun.” That sounds kinda . . . racist.

MORE EVIDENCE THAT the legal job market is in terrible shape.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse deals on computers.

Plus, a today-only Kindle book sale: 90% Off on Ed McBain’s “87th Precinct Series,” $0.99 Each.

TOP GADGETS from the Consumer Electronics Show.

GOOD FOR THEM: Obama administration says Constitution protects cell phone recordings. “The Obama administration has told a federal judge that Baltimore police officers violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing a man’s cell phone and deleting its contents. The deletions were allegedly in retaliation for the man’s use of the phone to record the officers’ arrest of his friend. According to the Maryland ACLU, this is the first time the Obama Justice Department has weighed in on whether the Constitution protects citizens’ right to record the actions of police with their cell phones.”

That’s clearly right.

HOW TO CONCEAL A FULL-SIZED PISTOL while wearing a dress.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: How To Get Unstuck.