BENAZIR BHUTTO apotheosis.

WHEN THE CORPSE TWITCHES, the jaws snap: “Record Industry Goes After Personal Use . . . the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.” The brain’s been dead for a while, though.

UPDATE: “I guess I won’t be buying that iPod, then.”

TIM BLAIR: “If you can’t laugh at murderous fanatics, what can you laugh at?” Those who run PC-interference for murderous fanatics?

MIKE HUCKABEE and the wages of sin.

WHY LAW PROFESSORS ARE HAPPY: “It is striking that job satisfaction among academics is high not only relative to those in private practice, but also relative to graduates employed in ‘public service,’ which is often viewed as a career path chosen in large part to maximize personal happiness rather than income.” Of course, the data involve Yalies, who are presumptively weird, so . . . .

MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO MYSELF: A copy of Propellerhead’s Reason 4 software. I’ve been happily producing podcast music — “stingers” and “bleebles” as they’re known in the trade. It’s very intuitive and easy to use. By the way, you can get a free copy of the software synth I’ve loved for years — the ReBirth RB-338 — here. All you have to do is register on the site.

UPDATE: Reader John Marcoux emails:

From a long ago email to you, I related how, in a conversation with Paul Van Dyk at a club in Chicago, I learned that many of the great European DJs, including Paul, run Reason on Apple notebooks (see pic below).

I fooled around with it but found it harder to master than you apparently have. Maybe it works better on an Apple. For dabblers (at 67, that’s me) this Amazon item is pretty good and only $30. Won’t run on Vista.

Yeah, there’s a lot of good cheap software out there. Meanwhile, I certainly haven’t “mastered” Reason; I’ve just figured out how to get some sounds out of it that I like. That’s step one . . . . I didn’t realize so many DJ’s were using Reason, though — I thought it was more Ableton Live or Final Scratch, but I’ve been out of touch with the DJ scene for a few years. I blame blogging.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader David Preiser emails:

You’re right about Reason. It’s a great studio tool, and a lot of pros on the creative end use it (as opposed to editors and sound guys, and studio mavens, I mean). If you ever do composing or create midi files elsewhere, Reason is great for making them come alive. And it is very intuitive, but only if you’ve ever worked with real equipment, even a little bit, which I know you have. The key feature that got me making noise within minutes was the Tab button. If you’ve already discovered that, you’ll know what I mean when I say that anyone over 25 who has ever handled real equipment will be forever grateful to the folks at Propellerheads for that one.

Yeah. Reason simulates a rack of hardware, and when you hit “Tab” it rotates to let you look at the back. You can see cables connecting the different pieces of virtual equipment, and repatch them by clicking and dragging. (And when the rack flips around, the “cables” jiggle, which is a nice touch that Reason has had since earlier versions.)

MORE: Here’s a short Reason video.

HOW CLEAN IS YOUR ELECTRICITY?

BILL KRISTOL’S NEW YORK TIMES COLUMN GIG IS CONFIRMED, and Jonah Goldberg has some thoughts. Plus, a response to the NYT review of his book.

FRED THOMPSON corrects the media. “Today I had this story written about me regarding what I said at a Town Hall event in Burlington, Iowa by a reporter who wasn’t even at the event.”

THE GREAT FALL OF CHINA: They’re still big, just not nearly as big as we thought. Walter Russell Mead looks at the implications.

UPDATE: Sam Dinkin has further thoughts.

WARNER BROTHERS goes copy-protection free with DRM-less MP3 downloads at Amazon. This is a good trend.

HORTON HEARS A WHO?

THOUGHTS ON evolution vs. creationism.

WE HAD FUN HANGING OUT WITH GUN-BLOGGERS LAST NIGHT: Helen posts a report. Just don’t tell the folks at WATE-TV about the picture! It shows her shooting one of those dangerous full-capacity firearms. . . .

MARC COOPER REPORTS on Hillary’s Iowa finale. Mama’s gonna make everything all right.

Meanwhile Mickey Kaus notes some Learjet liberalism: “It looks like that pro-Edwards ‘527’ group defended by Paul Krugman as a ‘labor 527’ and a ‘527 run by labor unions’ actually got about a third of its money ‘in a single check from an entity linked to Rachel Mellon, the widow of Paul Mellon, who inherited his share of the great American fortunes.'”

CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER: Signs of moderation at the Modern Language Association? Well, by MLA standards, anyway. Best line: “‘I support speaking truth to power,’ said Rzepka, but that requires truth, he added.”

MARK STEYN channels Edward Gibbon.

Plus, is England ripe for revolution? Overripe, I’d say . . . .

THE BHUTTO ASSASSINATION: A sort of honor killing?

Meanwhile, Claudia Rosett looks at North Korea.

WHAT TIME SHOULD HAVE DONE: General Petraeus as Man of the Year at The Telegraph.

SAY UNCLE CORRECTS WATE-TV on assault weapons hysteria. Somebody needs to have a talk with Knoxville’s police chief Sterling Owen, too. Lots of law-abiding citizens — and voters — own highfull-capacity weapons. And given the miserable record of my local government lately in handling credit cards, legal obligations of openness, etc., they should show a bit more respect for law-abiding citizens. . . .

UPDATE: Reader John Steakley emails with a correction: “They aren’t ‘high’ capacity. They are ‘full’ capacity.” Excellent point. Correction made.

USA TODAY Dowdifies Fred Thompson?

A VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH in Egypt.

HEH. I never noticed the resemblance to PeeWee Herman before.

MICHAEL YON: “Unfortunately my concerns for Afghanistan are proving well-placed. Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked. Together they might be called ‘Troublestan.'”

THOUGHTS ON LAW PROFESSORS, HAPPINESS, and distribution curves, from Tom Smith.

Some other thoughts here.