Instapundit

IN THE MAIL: The War on Terror and the Laws of War: A Military Perspective. …

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:00:37 +0000

IN THE MAIL: The War on Terror and the Laws of War: A Military Perspective.

REASON TV: UPS vs. FedEx. …

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:59:13 +0000

REASON TV: UPS vs. FedEx.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON THE GLOBAL COST OF CORRUPTION: How much do crooked politicians and others …

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:58:59 +0000

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON THE GLOBAL COST OF CORRUPTION:

How much do crooked politicians and others steal every year?

Nobody really knows, of course, but as the BBC reports today, the UN estimates that $1.6 trillion each year is stolen each year and moved across national borders. Tragically, much of this money is stolen from poor countries. It is bread taken out of the mouths of the poor.

Don’t expect this figure to drop any time soon. Led by Russia, China and Iran, a large group of countries are fighting efforts to crack down.

This money is significantly greater than the value of all foreign development aid. It is more than the ten year cost of the health care bill that just passed the House. It would be enough to fund a worldwide basic health system and provide basic primary education to every child on earth. Over the next fifty years it will cost the world much more than climate change.

More than that, the level of criminality and incompetence demonstrated by the existence of so much theft is the most serious obstacle to economic and social development around the world. It is not just that governments administered by thieves are both indifferent to the plight of the poor and unable to run programs that will help them; it is also that voters in rich countries aren’t stupid. If foreign aid were perceived as being more effective, political support for it would rise.

Instead, voters suspect — rightly — that support for things like carbon regulation stems mostly from politicians’ expectation that it will yield even more graft.

BYRON YORK: No Matter What Happens, The Top Issue Is Jobs. And the lack thereof….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:49:52 +0000

BYRON YORK: No Matter What Happens, The Top Issue Is Jobs. And the lack thereof.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WANTS VISITOR INFORMATION FROM NEWS SITE: “In a case that raises questions about…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:34:20 +0000

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WANTS VISITOR INFORMATION FROM NEWS SITE: “In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day. The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site ‘not to disclose the existence of this request’ unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.” Pushback from the EFF led to the subpoena being withdrawn.

CORY DOCTOROW: When “random” searches aren’t actually random….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:29:42 +0000

CORY DOCTOROW: When “random” searches aren’t actually random.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Teenager? Is TMZ threatening to post child pornography?”…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:25:46 +0000

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Teenager? Is TMZ threatening to post child pornography?”

DOROTHY RABINOWITZ: Dr. Phil and the Fort Hood Killer: His terrorist motive is obvious to everyone…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:03:28 +0000

DOROTHY RABINOWITZ: Dr. Phil and the Fort Hood Killer: His terrorist motive is obvious to everyone but the press and the Army brass. “What a puzzle this piece of vacuity must be to audiences hearing it, some, no doubt, with outrage. To those not terrorized by fear of offending Muslim sensitivities, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s motive was instantly clear: It was an act of terrorism by a man with a record of expressing virulent, anti-American, pro-jihadist sentiments. All were conspicuous signs of danger his Army superiors chose to ignore.”

COLUMBIA PROFESSOR PUNCHES WOMAN IN ARGUMENT OVER “WHITE PRIVILEGE:” A prominent Columbia archite…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:56:17 +0000

COLUMBIA PROFESSOR PUNCHES WOMAN IN ARGUMENT OVER “WHITE PRIVILEGE:”

A prominent Columbia architecture professor punched a female university employee in the face at a Harlem bar during a heated argument about race relations, cops said yesterday.

Police busted Lionel McIntyre, 59, for assault yesterday after his bruised victim, Camille Davis, filed charges.

McIntyre and Davis, who works as a production manager in the school’s theater department, are both regulars at Toast, a popular university bar on Broadway and 125th Street, sources said.

The professor, who is black, had been engaged in a fiery discussion about “white privilege” with Davis, who is white, and another male regular, who is also white, Friday night at 10:30 when fists started flying, patrons said.

You can’t make this stuff up. (Via JWF, who wonders if it would be treated differently were the races of the parties reversed).

UPDATE: Related: Gallup: U.S. Waiting for Race Relations to Improve Under Obama. Sounds like Columbia has a ways to go yet . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chuck Allen writes: “I would say that it is time for another ‘beer summit’, but it seems that was what they were having, and it all went horribly wrong!” Yeah, Ivy League profs who can’t hold their liquor? This country really has gone to the dogs. . . .

MORE: Reader Grayson Hill writes: “What’s the matter with these people? Grade school boys know better than to punch women.” Grade school boys know a lot of things they forget by the time they have Ph. D’s.

JOHN LOUDON: St. Louis Protects Its Own: A DA Turns a Blind-Eye on the Gladney Beating….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:50:26 +0000

JOHN LOUDON: St. Louis Protects Its Own: A DA Turns a Blind-Eye on the Gladney Beating.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: THE STATE OF THE STIMULUS. “One reason unemployment continues to rise may be th…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:47:19 +0000

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: THE STATE OF THE STIMULUS. “One reason unemployment continues to rise may be that stimulus funds did not target high-unemployment states.” From each according to his abilities, to each according to his political clout. . . .

WELL, SHE CERTAINLY IS AHEAD OF HIM ON THAT COUNT: Huckabee: Palin’s getting more media buzz than…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:46:52 +0000

WELL, SHE CERTAINLY IS AHEAD OF HIM ON THAT COUNT: Huckabee: Palin’s getting more media buzz than me because she’s attractive. More important, from my perspective, is the fact that — although people have tried to paint her as some sort of “Christianist” theocrat wannabe — she actually governed more as a libertarian than a conservative. And when Helen and I talked with Huckabee he didn’t sound quite so sympathetic to libertarians. But hey, maybe I’m wrong.

JOEL KOTKIN: Obama Can Still Save His Presidency….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:43:56 +0000

JOEL KOTKIN: Obama Can Still Save His Presidency.

WHEN RACIST GRAFFITI doesn’t matter….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:37:05 +0000

WHEN RACIST GRAFFITI doesn’t matter.

FROM CANADA: The Human Cost of Government-Controlled Health Care. …

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:47:55 +0000

FROM CANADA: The Human Cost of Government-Controlled Health Care.

MICKEY KAUS: “The problem facing health care reform, as Dick Morris and others have been arguing fo…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:17:48 +0000

MICKEY KAUS: “The problem facing health care reform, as Dick Morris and others have been arguing for months, isn’t these tediously subtle legislative complications. They’re what we see on the surface. The problem is the crude, primal politics underneath them–the legislature’s’ ‘id.’ It’s the fear, among power-lusting Democratic Congresspersons, that if they vote for health care they won’t be Congresspersons much past November, 2010 (or that even if they win, they will no longer be in the majority party). They’re not worried about Cadillac plans. They’re worried about castration.”

Plus this: “‘[Y]ou should get behind his plan and benefit from the from the political cover he’ll work to give those who support him,’ Dickerson has Obama saying. You mean like the cover he gave Jon Corzine in New Jersey? …”

DON SURBER: Lefties complain that conservatives sell too many books. It wasn’t too long ago — j…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:47:24 +0000

DON SURBER: Lefties complain that conservatives sell too many books.

It wasn’t too long ago — just before Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism came out, if I recall correctly — that the same people were happily pronouncing the death of right-leaning publishing. Oops!

JERRY POURNELLE: “There were plenty of indications that Major Hassan was behaving in an odd manner….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:45:01 +0000

JERRY POURNELLE: “There were plenty of indications that Major Hassan was behaving in an odd manner. Nothing was done about that. In my judgment it is not stupid to ask why nothing was done.”

WANT TO HELP WOUNDED WARRIORS? Support Project Valour-IT….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:28:29 +0000

WANT TO HELP WOUNDED WARRIORS? Support Project Valour-IT.

BIG GOVERNMENT HAS the police report on Ken Gladney’s beating by SEIU people. “The police report is…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:21:36 +0000

BIG GOVERNMENT HAS the police report on Ken Gladney’s beating by SEIU people. “The police report is unambiguous about what happened on August 6th in St. Louis. The White House, through SEIU, did indeed ‘punch back twice as hard.’ What is ambiguous, however, is why prosecutors haven’t pursued the charges against SEIU. As you will learn, there is a lot to suggest that Bob McCulloch, the St. Louis DA, is trying to cover-up SEIU’s crime. Stay tuned as the truth comes out.”

MORE ON THAT CASE WHERE COOK COUNTY PROSECUTORS ARE HARASSING NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM STU…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:08:21 +0000

MORE ON THAT CASE WHERE COOK COUNTY PROSECUTORS ARE HARASSING NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM STUDENTS:

A Cook County judge is expected to hear arguments Tuesday in the case of a Northwestern University professor and journalism students who are being asked by prosecutors to turn over grades, emails and other notes from their investigation of a 1978 murder.

The students spent three years investigating the case of a man convicted in the 1978 killing of a security guard, and they believe they have evidence that shows prosecutors put the wrong man behind bars.

Cook County prosecutors have outraged the university and the journalism community by issuing subpoenas to professor David Protess seeking his students’ grades, his syllabus and their private e-mails. Prosecutors claim that, since the team was made up of students, they may have been under pressure to prove the case to get a good grade.
I wrote about this in the Wall Street Journal last week.

DAVID WARREN: “For a person with old-fashioned values, and an old-fashioned sense of English word m…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:03:50 +0000

DAVID WARREN: “For a person with old-fashioned values, and an old-fashioned sense of English word meanings, the reports of the Fort Hood massacre were almost as provoking as what happened there. In the larger view of things, they may be more consequential.”

INSTAPUNDIT READER DR. ARIE FRIEDMAN is running for Congress. In the primary for Illinois Republica…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:37:30 +0000

INSTAPUNDIT READER DR. ARIE FRIEDMAN is running for Congress. In the primary for Illinois Republican Mark Kirk’s seat.

UPDATE: I misunderstood the email — he’s running for Kirk’s seat, but not against Kirk, who’s running for Senate. But anyway, good for him!

BAD NEWS FOR BRICK-AND-MORTAR: Amazon opens a new denim shop, with free shipping and returns….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:00:06 +0000

BAD NEWS FOR BRICK-AND-MORTAR: Amazon opens a new denim shop, with free shipping and returns.

JOE WHO? …

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:45:51 +0000

JOE WHO?

HALF WORKS FOR A LIVING, HALF VOTES FOR A LIVING. …

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:28:36 +0000

HALF WORKS FOR A LIVING, HALF VOTES FOR A LIVING.

STATE DEPARTMENT comes out against the assault on Cuban bloggers by that country’s government….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:18:44 +0000

STATE DEPARTMENT comes out against the assault on Cuban bloggers by that country’s government.

MORE UNSURPRISING NEWS: The Army psychiatrist believed to have killed 13 people at Fort Hood warn…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:16:41 +0000

MORE UNSURPRISING NEWS:

The Army psychiatrist believed to have killed 13 people at Fort Hood warned a roomful of senior Army physicians a year and a half ago that to avoid “adverse events,” the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims. . . . In late June 2007, he stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members and lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, both Muslim countries, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

“It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims,” he said in the presentation.

“It was really strange,” said one staff member who attended the presentation and requested anonymity because of the investigation of Hasan. “The senior doctors looked really upset” at the end. These medical presentations occurred each Wednesday afternoon, and other students had lectured on new medications and treatment of specific mental illnesses. . . . The last bullet point on that page reads simply: “We love death more then (sic) you love life!”

But, you know, if you’d complained someone might have called you a racist.

ALLAHU AKHBAR! CNN REVISES ITSELF, to preserve the preferred narrative….

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:47:44 +0000

ALLAHU AKHBAR! CNN REVISES ITSELF, to preserve the preferred narrative.

BERLIN WALL FREEDOM MEMORIAL shut down by Washington University as too offensive? Good grief. (Via…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:21:23 +0000

BERLIN WALL FREEDOM MEMORIAL shut down by Washington University as too offensive? Good grief. (Via Divas For Geeks).

UPDATE: From the comments: “So basically, the university got into the spirit of the thing and helped make it more real.” Heh.

POLIWOOD: Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works” Doesn’t Work. …

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:44:44 +0000

POLIWOOD: Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works” Doesn’t Work.

MANGY DOG BITES MAN: Media Matters Charged With “Cheap Shot.”…

Glenn Reynolds — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:02:26 +0000

MANGY DOG BITES MAN: Media Matters Charged With “Cheap Shot.”

50 GREAT BLOGS by and for law professors….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:39:46 +0000

50 GREAT BLOGS by and for law professors.

TOO MUCH TIME INDOORS causes myopia? This would explain our political class . . . ….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:27:14 +0000

TOO MUCH TIME INDOORS causes myopia? This would explain our political class . . . .

VIRTUE, LOYALTY, and taboo.

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:24:58 +0000

VIRTUE, LOYALTY, and taboo.

JOHN LOUDON OFFERS an apology to Europe….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:24:36 +0000

JOHN LOUDON OFFERS an apology to Europe.

VIDEO: Spoofing Twilight on Saturday Night Live….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:00:06 +0000

VIDEO: Spoofing Twilight on Saturday Night Live.

REASON TV: Remembering the victims of Communism. …

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:56:39 +0000

REASON TV: Remembering the victims of Communism.

“DRUNK AND STUPID:” Shockingly, not a valid legal defense to arson charges….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:47:37 +0000

“DRUNK AND STUPID:” Shockingly, not a valid legal defense to arson charges.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on how things are going. And playing what if? UPDATE: Michael Nehring write…

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:27:01 +0000

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on how things are going. And playing what if?

UPDATE: Michael Nehring writes on Facebook: “What says more about America–that we always, ALWAYS manage to refrain from an anti-Muslim backlash, or that progressives are always, ALWAYS, convinced that one is on the way?”

THOUGHTS ON the fall of the Berlin Wall….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:06:15 +0000

THOUGHTS ON the fall of the Berlin Wall.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND home-charging issues….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:37:09 +0000

ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND home-charging issues.

ANNALS OF MARKETING, WEIRD EDITION: The Weezer / Snuggie Bundle: Alternative-rock band Weezer, k…

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:05:44 +0000

ANNALS OF MARKETING, WEIRD EDITION: The Weezer / Snuggie Bundle:

Alternative-rock band Weezer, known for its hipster coolness, is using possibly the uncoolest thing on the planet to promote its new album: a blanket with sleeves. If you buy a Weezer Snuggie (a Wuggie) for $30, you get their new album, “Ratitude,” for free. They also have a deluxe pack, where you get a ZEBRA Snuggie and a special edition of the CD that has four extra tracks.

Is it a sign of the times?

WANT TO HELP WOUNDED WARRIORS? It’s not too late to support Project Valour-IT….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:49:09 +0000

WANT TO HELP WOUNDED WARRIORS? It’s not too late to support Project Valour-IT.

MY APOLOGIES TO THE KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE BAR ASSOCIATION: They had invited me to speak, and I thoug…

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:48:20 +0000

MY APOLOGIES TO THE KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE BAR ASSOCIATION: They had invited me to speak, and I thought I’d sent my regrets, but I just got an email saying that they never heard from me. I try not to let things like that fall through the cracks, but I’m not terribly organized and I don’t have anyone else keeping my calendar or correspondence up for me. Sorry again, folks.

MORE ON BOGUS “COP KILLER” WEAPONS, from Bob Owens. “Ironically, more of the wounded soldiers are p…

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:23:33 +0000

MORE ON BOGUS “COP KILLER” WEAPONS, from Bob Owens. “Ironically, more of the wounded soldiers are possibly alive today because of Hasan’s media-hyped choice of weapons.”

IN THE MAIL: From Andre Agassi, Open: An Autobiography….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:00:54 +0000

IN THE MAIL: From Andre Agassi, Open: An Autobiography.

ROSS DOUTHAT: Life After The End of History. “Twenty years later, we still haven’t come to terms…

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:45:59 +0000

ROSS DOUTHAT: Life After The End of History. “Twenty years later, we still haven’t come to terms with the scope of our deliverance.” That’s because many of our opinion-leaders don’t regard it as deliverance at all.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN: “Going postal” is a piquant American phrase that describes the phenomenon of v…

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:32:13 +0000

TUNKU VARADARAJAN:

“Going postal” is a piquant American phrase that describes the phenomenon of violent rage in which a worker–archetypically a postal worker–”snaps” and guns down his colleagues.

As the enormity of the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sinks in, we must ask whether we are confronting a new phenomenon of violent rage, one we might dub–disconcertingly–”Going Muslim.” This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American–a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood–discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans. This would appear to be what happened in the case of Maj. Hasan.

Read the whole thing.

U.N. BUDGETS and follow the money….

Glenn Reynolds — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:52:06 +0000

U.N. BUDGETS and follow the money.