Cross posted at The Smoking Room If this won’t make you a libertarian, nothing will. The city of New London, Connecticut, whose successful attempt to confiscate private land for private use was confirmed in the Kelo case, is trying to collect rent going back 5 years from the property owners they molested. C’mon, Congress, you know you want to act rashly and pass a feel-good law for your constituents. Get it out of your system (for about 5 minutes) with this case!

If you’re jonesin’ for some snarky blogging on the Teen Choice Awards, you may want to see a therapist – or read my live-blogging as a mid-20s professional trying to reclaim his adolescence.

Cross posted at The Smoking Room Wesley J. Smith points to some very interesting results from the latest Pew poll on attitudes toward life issues: assisted suicide, stem cell research, and for some, the raison d’etre for the Supreme Court, abortion. Smith notes that support for assisted suicide is far below estimates from its leading proponents – 44% with the neutral poll question, 51% with the the personal-empowerment wording. He points out there’s no breakout on stem cells...

After more than a decade of strategizing how to fight the next Supreme Court justice, NARAL seems to have blown its wad prematurely (an analogy its activists can surely understand). The group’s savage ad against John Roberts – saying his views excused violence against abortion clinics – left a bad taste in the mouths of many Democrats, who are wondering if anything can stop this genial but principled nominee: The committee’s senior Democrat, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont,...

I thought she was doing that VH1 reality show, but I guess her network-hopping matches her boudoir activities. (For confused link-clickers: It shouldn’t be a thinker’s joke.)

Cross posted at The Smoking Room It had all the makings of a great movie – a young graduate travels to Namibia on a journalism internship, hoping to reconnect with her father in his native land. She anchors the evening news several times and retraces the exile of the country’s first president through the countryside – where, unlike the city, malaria-infected mosquitos are plentiful. The nets don’t keep them all out, and she dies weeks later attending a journalism convention...

Guess who’s near the top of the request list for books among prisoners at Guantanamo: Lori, who for two years has overseen the detention center’s library, said J.K. Rowling’s tales about the boy wizard are on top of the request list for the camp’s 520 al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, followed by Agatha Christie whodunits. “We’ve got a few who are kind of hooked on it. A couple have asked if they can see the movie,” said Lori, a civilian contractor who asked...

Cross posted at The Smoking Room Hollywood’s use of marijuana in plot lines seems to be increasing, used regularly in several shows on basic and premium cable, and less so on Fox. There’s a groundswell of opposition from middle America on this issue…er, kinda: Hollywood’s embellishment of marijuana use is “irresponsible,” says Tom Riley of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy. Shows that tacitly approve of pot-smoking, particularly...

After reading some of John Roberts’ memos from the White House counsel’s office in the early 1980s, I have thoughts on him beyond his heartthrob status: I like him. Forget that he’s generally conservative, but apparently not a rigid ideologue, or particularly polarizing. He blames the Supreme Court for its own bitchiness in the 1980s: In early 1983, Mr. Roberts was asked to analyze a proposal pushed by Warren E. Burger, then the chief justice, to create a new, national-level...

Michael Totten looks at the largely ignored war against tourism in the Middle East, and the devastating economic effects it causes: Because of the region’s reputation in the West, it takes precious little. My hotel in Beirut was almost completely empty. My four-star hotel room was discounted by 75 percent in a desperate attempt to lure tourists back to the country. I don’t know how much money Lebanon’s tourism industry has lost since Rafik Hariri was killed, but it must be incredible....

Cross posted at The Smoking Room The opening of this story on a renewed federal push for a reporters’ shield law – protecting them under most circumstances from divulging anonymous sources – has one of the most inappropriate and sycophantic leads in a mainstream outlet I’ve ever seen: Watergate, the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail, tobacco companies making cigarettes more addictive, and the Enron debacle – each of these instances of wrongdoing...

John Roberts, Supreme Court nominee! A “conservative non-ideologue”! I have no substantial thoughts on this guy – he’s been a government flack most of his career. But you can’t beat that name – what says America more than “John Roberts”? He could’ve been a pilgrim. I’ll also welcome his nomination because…he’s attractive. It’s been decades since someone really good-looking served on the High Court. Rehnquist –...

I don’t share this blogger’s contempt for the “MSM” (considering I’m part of it), and he’s quite partisan about it, but he gives a pretty good — and link-rich — history of the Plame/Novak/Rove matter, and what we know up to this point. It needs to be reiterated that until Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation is over, or someone involved leaks the direction he’s going, we have no idea what line of inquiry he’s pursuing. I think it’s...

Cross posted at The Smoking Room If you’re a fan of the Middle East Media Research Institute and the translations of Middle Eastern press they do, you might appreciate a relatively new site that translates media all over the world into English: The headline reads, “Columbus’ Discovery of America: History’s ‘Biggest Mistake.’ ” That might sound harsh to an American audience, but it’s less likely to ruffle Iraqis reading it in Arabic. Another zinger,...

Former Ambassador Joe Wilson’s little-read book from last year is finally getting some attention from journalists, but not the kind that bolsters his case against the Bush administration for supposedly leaking his wife’s identity: In The Politics of Truth, former ambassador Joseph Wilson writes that he and his future wife both returned from overseas assignments in June 1997. Neither spouse, a reading of the book indicates, was again stationed overseas. They appear to have remained in...

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm came into office as a rising star in the Democratic Party that, it was said, could sway independents and even Republicans with her tough-on-crime approach and gun enthusiasm. But she had an embarrassing reaction to an op-ed from a Michigan legislator and professor criticizing her new tax plan: Ms. Granholm was not pleased, going so far as to denounce the op-ed as “treasonous for the state of Michigan.” The authors’ high crime? Exposing Michigan...

Cross posted at The Smoking Room Yet another reason why cable news is the sewer of media, as the editor of a gamers website gets lured into a supposed fluff interview on bottom-rated CNBC’s “Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” and then gets skewered: It kicked off with Donny holding up a copy of Computer Games magazine declaring that there wasn’t a single game in there that wasn’t violent, and they then immediately cut to scenes of CJ stamping on a girl until she bled over...

I’m not sure many people outside the Beltway and polarized activists gives a damn about this entire scandal that somehow involves Karl Rove, Joe Wilson (a very lazy former ambassador) and his wife. But since it’s drawing so much attention, and I’ve been sick of what seems to be a poorly executed but thoroughly “non” scandal for the past 2 years, I’d like to hightlight Joe Wilson’s admission from his little-read book last year: It was Saddam Hussein’s...

…and not a moment too soon. But I’d say they’re utterly wrong about the so-called Wall of Shame, whose construction they refuse to acknowledge coincided with the end (for the most part) of the intifada against Israel. In a great irony, a wall often condemned as a blatant violation of human rights and territorial integrity might have helped usher in a nonviolence movement in Palestine that seeks its removal. I’d hate to see regular bombings in Jerusalem return as a result...

Portland blogger Michael Totten has been checking the online forums at Portland’s Indymedia site and finds, well, what you’d expect from a group of people who still haven’t managed to blame 9/11 on terrorists. One insinuates Western governments did the attack to distract from the G8 discussions on African poverty. Various culprits – or alternately, profiteers – so far include Jews, Tony Blair, Halliburton, Bechtel, Coke, and even the media. Lou Dobbs’ seemingly...

Who is the latest celebrity activist to earn a “watch” blog from the opposition? Find out here.

Portland blogger Michael Totten – also the editor of Iraq’s Friends of Democracy group blog – has an amusing but provocative post on humanity’s difficulty in accepting social tranquility. He’s heard that cats often hallucinate their natural environment because their minds can’t handle suburban living rooms, and wonders if humans are fundamentally the same: I’ve long suspected that activistas (meaning those who protest everything for the sake of protesting)...

Who cares that London got the 2012 Olympics? Not some media-savvy New Yorkers, at any rate. New-media maven Jeff Jarvis goes off: We did not need another security threat; an expensive stadium; drug-crazed athletes; an overdose of reporters; endless gushing features on the 6 pm news; candy-colored banners festooning our city, trying to put us in a good mood; and yet more touurists. New York never needed the Olympics and as they pointed out on the radio this morning — comparing the crowd of...

Puritannical geeks of the world, rejoice! You can engage in your love of gadgets past without polluting your mind – too much – by reading about the strange and wonderful history of vibrators. I do have to say, what kind of rational person – male or female – would have used these early contraptions unless ordered by a physician?

OxBlog’s David Adesnik has been watching the first 2 seasons of the Fox action drama “24,” and as much as he loves it, thought the writers had a skewed perspective of the real enemies America faces in the 21st century. He got plenty of response, and posted some (including mine) here with his own fleshed-out thoughts. I have longer thoughts here.