A BUNCH OF snow toys.

THOUGHTS ON Bernard Madoff, human networks, and single points of failure. Never trust any one person with all your money, no matter how much you trust him or her.

REPORT: Americans are driving less. Well, not me — I’m on the road today. But I think it’s premature to say that America’s love affair with cars is ending. Maybe we just need a little “me time.”

MAPPING YOUR LIKELIHOOD of dying in a natural disaster.

UNVEILING THE NAVY’S fighter-plane-sized unmanned aircraft.

A ONE-DAY-ONLY Friday sale at Amazon.

THE OBAMA CABINET: A middle-of-the-roader’s dream?

JEFF JARVIS: Try living without Google, France.

FROM “ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH” TO CHIEF SWITCHMAN! “You might appreciate the irony that Citigroup’s primary federal regulator is Timothy Geithner.”

HURRAY FOR ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING! Our ancestors intervened and prevented a natural ice age from happening thousands of years ago.

DEPLOYING NUCLEAR POWER in a way that resists proliferation of nuclear weapons.

THE TEN WORST CARS of 2008.

BUSH ANNOUNCES auto bailout loan program.

ETHANOL FACES MONEY PROBLEMS: “North Dakota’s fund for helping ethanol producers hedge against fluctuating corn prices is about to run out, and the producers are getting worried.”

A BUNCH OF DVDs marked at least 50% off.

INSTA-POLL: Via email, I told Tom Maguire that if I’d known how entertaining the Obama transition would be, I probably would have gone out and campaigned for him. But my view is, like my sense of humor, probably skewed. Here’s a chance to express yours!

TIMES HAVE CHANGED in the newspaper business.

HEH: Still Waiting for Law Professors to Boycott the Inauguration:

As previously reported, the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) came under intense pressure to move its annual convention, scheduled to start January 6, 2009, away from the San Diego Grand Hyatt because the hotel is owned by a contributor to the pro-Proposition 8 campaign in California. Proposition 8 amended the California Constitution to recognize only the traditional definition of marriage (one man, one woman, no exceptions).

In response to this hotel boycott, I asked if these boycotting law professors also were going boycott Barack Obama’s inauguration, since Obama did not support gay marriage. While I received many comments, none were from law professors (although Instapundit warned: “Don’t hold your breath on that one”).

One month later, Obama has selected Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration. Warren is the pastor of the Saddleback Church in California, and was an active supporter of Proposition 8. Gay marriage supporters have held protests outside the Saddleback Church to protest Warren’s role in denying gays the right to marry in California.

So now the question remains unanswered. Will the law professors boycotting the San Diego Grand Hyatt also boycott the inauguration?

Oh, I think the question has been answered — it was all grandstanding. I, on the other hand, will attend neither the AALS conference nor the Inauguration, so my gay-rights credentials are spotless.

BATTLE LINES BEING DRAWN over the Fairness Doctrine. Just one more thing that will wind up driving audiences to the Internet . . . .

MICHAEL YON WRITES in praise of Lithuanian Special Forces. “American soldiers have only one complaint about Lithuanian soldiers: There are not enough of them!” Hard to see how anyone could have interpreted his earlier writing as anything but positive, but those cross-cultural misunderstandings will happen.

SETTING AN EXAMPLE: UT administrators take pay cuts with $100M state shortfall looming. “University of Tennessee President John Petersen and all members of his executive staff will take 5-percent pay cuts and relinquish their vehicles as UT faces up to $100 million in state funding cuts.” How come members of Congress don’t do the same thing, as the budget deficit mushrooms?

STILL MORE jewelry markdowns.

CHICAGO TO ADOPT DC GUN LAWS?

TENNESSEE SAFETY DEPARTMENT denies registering guns.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Democrats Are The New Ethics Story: “Democrats now have an image problem. The real issue isn’t so much Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s Senate-seat auction, as it is the focus that his scandal has directed toward a wider assortment of Democratic troubles. . . . The Chicago Tribune published a new story about Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who racked up $420,000 through a series of suspicious real-estate deals. Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, came under scrutiny this fall for questionable earmarking. West Virginia Rep. Alan Mollohan has been under investigation for a separate earmarking mess. And then there’s Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, who has yet to answer questions about the sweetheart mortgage deal he received from Countrywide.” And Charles Rangel, who’s a one-man ethics problem!

HOW TO PREVENT A digital 9/11.

MARK FELT, aka “Deep Throat,” has died.

So has Majel Barrett Rodenberry, whom I knew a bit as we overlapped on the National Space Society board. She was very nice, and very committed.

OBAMA’S SCIENCE ADVISER: This isn’t encouraging: “In his salad days, Holdren was a paid-up member of The Limits to Growth club. . . . Near the beginning of his career, Holdren introduced with his colleague, perennial population alarmist Paul Ehriich, the concept of the I=PAT equation. Human Impact on the environment is equal to Population x Affluence/consumption x Technology. All of which are supposed to intensify and worsen humanity’s impact on the natural world. In the past Holdren has adhered to the common ecologist’s disdain for insights from economics in helping solve environmental problems.” There’s some hope that he’s wised up since: “Holdren now apparently sees technology as a solution to environmental problems and human poverty.” Say a little prayer that that’s right. More here.

NEW HOPES for organ transplants?

MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVERGENEROUS PUBLIC PENSIONS: “Proposals to cheapen pensions for future New York City uniformed employees — pushed this week by Gov. David A. Paterson at Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s urging — are gaining their share of buzz on Long Island. . . . Proposals to shave pension entitlements for new employees emerge in every fiscal crisis, prompting resistance from public-service unions and from the lawmakers responsive to them. Each pension tier marks an effort at what policy-makers call fiscal reform. Over the years the state has had four such tiers. The constitution bars cutting pensions to those already on the job or retired.” The problem is, it’s not the new employees who are causing the financial pain.

MORE CALIFORNIA TOWNS face bankruptcy. “‘California’s fiscal house is burning down,’ State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said in a statement.” If it goes broke, and someone finds accounting problems, will Lockyer be sent to share a cell with Spike?

WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN: L.A. Gay Center criticizes Obama, evangelical preacher defends him.

AND SO the war came. “Screw Lind, and screw his Mussolinian Reconstruction. I may just vote on his idea with my wallet, and buy myself a Bubba Benz for Christmas.”

SOME MORE RECOMMENDED World War II books for kids. And lots more recommendations over at the Books For Kids Blog.

SUN-TIMES: Deeper involvement for Emanuel. “President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had a deeper involvement in pressing for a U.S. Senate seat appointment than previously reported, the Sun-Times has learned.”

I’M A Midnight Toker.

Actually, I’m a space lawyer. Bet you weren’t ready for that.

PERHAPS BARACK OBAMA AND RICK WARREN CAN bring everyone together: “The U.N. General Assembly split over the issue of gay rights on Thursday after a European-drafted statement calling for decriminalization of homosexuality prompted an Arab-backed one opposing it.”

HEH: Doing to Glenn Greenwald what he usually does to others. Only not as wordy.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Bet Ron Gettelfinger is kicking himself.

HMM: Sales of Flat-Panel TVs Weaken. I wonder if this has anything to do with people giving up their cable? Speaking of which, reader Tim Boppre writes:

We canceled our satellite two years ago and have never looked back. The cost kept slowly creeping up while the quality of the content was plummeting. At first the kids weren’t real happy but they got over it in time when they found all the useful things that you can do with your time (and brain cells) if you aren’t in front of a TV. So after two years I got the big payback this past August. We were on vacation and the first night in the hotel room one of the kids turned on the TV. Within three minutes of turning it on and finding nothing interesting to watch our fifteen year old daughter turned to my wife and I and said “You guys were right. TV is really lame.” It’s not too often you get a return on your parenting investment so quickly. We figured we’d have to wait until the kids were at least thirty to have them tell us that we weren’t full of beans. Postman was right.

So there you are. Plus, young people watch less TV. But you can sure get a lot more for your money than you could a year ago. Meanwhile, I’m looking for a laptop with HDMI out, so I can put Internet TV programming on the big screen.

HEH: Bad News for Trig Troofers. “As I can safely assume no human being has ever given birth eight months apart, Sullivan has some explaining to do.”

JERRY POURNELLE: “Obama says that if we drill we won’t have any new oil in the pipelines for ten years. Ten years from now someone will be saying the same thing, of course. The only way out of our energy dilemma is to pursue all fronts: domestic production, nuclear power, and some of the ‘alternate’ ’soft path’ alternatives even when they are not cost/effective as insurance. And research. But this means an integrated energy strategy that allows the market a fair amount of influence while guiding the nation toward, not energy independence in normal times, but a capability of survival when energy sources are interrupted, and ways to ease economic disaster when oil prices skyrocket. None of this is impossible or even all that difficult, but it does require attention to reality and priorities.” Uh oh.

UPDATE: Some similar thoughts from Jay Leno.

CAROLINE KENNEDY BADLY RECEIVED: Kennedy Takes A Beating From Upstate Media. “Her quick remarks fell flat. Reporters seemed to feel brushed off and they pursued her out.”

THINKING LONGER-TERM: Forget the economy: Killer asteroids could pose real danger. Indeed. Some related thoughts of mine are here.

A BUNCH OF kitchen product markdowns and bonus deals.

MORE ON RICK WARREN:

By giving Warren a platform, Obama is not endorsing his views–but he is saying that those views are a legitimate part of the national conversation.

That’s not a snub of liberals. But it is a swipe at one type of liberalism–the type that has been working to get people fired for making donations to the campaign for the initiative, that has attacked the Mormon Church for its support of it, and so forth.

Not many liberals have spoken up against these tactics. Liberals should not be surprised that Obama has refused to join an effort that implicitly brands a majority of the voters of California, of all places, as at best the dupes of bigots. But those liberals who are engaged in that effort should indeed feel snubbed–as they deserve to be.

Obama pretty much has to have a higher opinion of those California voters, since they voted for him! Plus, a Rickroll? Heh.

And, from Obama, “No backing down whatsoever.”

UPDATE: When “angry gasbags” attack.

IT’S A FAIR COP: A reader emails: “Just a reminder point that you (and many of us) were looking forward to less politics after the election. The quantity of posts regarding politics doesn’t seem to have decreased much. I really appreciate your work on your blog.”

Yeah, what with Blagojevich, Holder, etc., there’s just a lot more going on than I’d expected. I’ll try to post more non-political stuff!

ANN ALTHOUSE: Admit it! You’re jealous of Jon Favreau! “Or do you think Favreau also has some magical charisma that Obama saw and saw himself in?”

A BUNCH OF WATCHES ON SALE, with free one-day shipping.

RON RADOSH: George W. Bush And The Jews.

A BUNCH OF steep clothing markdowns at Amazon.

ROGER SIMON: Was McCain right on Chris Cox after all? Sure looks like it . . . .

HOW TO ENCOURAGE HAND-WASHING: The use of “gross messaging.”

TOP TEN action toys for boys.

UPDATE: Athena Runner emails: “Thanks for that link about the top ten action toys for boys. I just bought my six-year-old son the EyeClops Night Vision Infrared Stealth Goggles. He’s going to LOVE them!” I would have, at that age.

JOHN KASS: ‘Twas The Night Before Fitzmas.

AS SEEN ON TV: A review of the Pro Caulk.

ANOTHER REASON TO BUILD NUCLEAR PLANTS NOW: “A new calculation of the world’s coal reserves is much lower than previous estimates.” And work on Polywell fusion.

UNDERGROUND robot bike parking in Tokyo.

MAYBE HE CAN BE WANKER OF THE WEEK: Obama backpedals on Iraq withdrawal, leading Tom Maguire to observe:

After lefties have had a moment to absorb the Rick Warren news they can turn to the latest plot twist in the "Will he, won't he" drama of Obama's troop withdrawals. . . . Consider this - on issues such as FISA surveillance or the Bush tax cuts for the rich Obama has already back-pedaled. He is likely further to outrage a contingent of his supporters by declining to declare defeat in Iraq, blame Bush, and leave. There even seems to be a movement towards creating a bit of wiggle room on enhanced interrogation.

Read the whole thing.

A LOOK AT clean coal and nuclear power in China.

DON’T MISS THIS WEEK’S Carnival of Space!

BRINGING ON ANOTHER POST-HELLER TEST CASE? L.A. council tightens gun, ammunition law.

TARGETING HIGHLY METASTATIC MELANOMAS with nanotechnology.

MORE ON Al Sharpton’s opposition to Card Check.

Plus, thoughts from Mickey Kaus. Is Card Check really “teetering on the brink?” I hope so. If it’s too far left for Al Sharpton and George McGovern, then it’s even too far left for me!

MARC DANZIGER’S EXPOSUREMANAGER.COM IS COOL: I use it to host a lot of my photos. Now he’s unveiled BuyThisImage.com, a site designed to help you sell images. Very cool. And I’ve already ordered this T-Shirt.

DOG BITES MAN: California Democrats devise plan to hike taxes. “California’s Democratic leaders were planning a vote today on a brazen proposal to raise gas, sales and income taxes through a series of legal maneuvers that would bypass the Legislature’s minority Republicans.”

HE HAS NOT YET BEGUN TO WANK: Atrios makes Barack Obama “Wanker of the Day” over the Rick Warren decision. John Hawkins has a big roundup of reaction from the leftosphere. So, once again the “who are the rubes?” question raises itself. . . . (Via the InstaWife).

And Ann Althouse comments: “Who needs omens when Obama was always clear that he opposed same-sex marriage? He said so every time he was asked.” Yep, but Obamania was such that even those who pride themselves on seeing what is in front of their faces ignored it.

Also, Gay Obamaniacs Just Got Punk’d. More on that here.

THOUGHTS ON exotic women and intermarriage, from Jeffrey Goldberg and Ta-Nehisi Coates. I’m on record as being pro-miscegenation myself! Hybrid Vigor — it’s more than just a classic rock & roll album!

I MISSED THIS STORY YESTERDAY: Becerra Won’t Be Obama’s Trade Rep. “Saying that he has come to the realization that trade is not the highest priority for the incoming Obama administration, Rep. Xavier Becerra has decided not to accept Barack Obama’s offer to be United States Trade Representative.” I’m very worried about a descent into protectionism, which would turn the economic situation from problematic to disastrous all by itself. This isn’t making me feel better.

STEVE CHAPMAN on Caroline Kennedy and the lure of royalty.

JAMES RUMMEL on canceling his cable. “Yesterday I finally bowed to the inevitable and canceled my cable service. I kept the Internet connection, obviously. . . . Does anyone else out there remember when cable TV was the wave of the future? Most cities had three broadcast channels, and that was it. The first cable services would usually bring in an independent channel station or two from larger cities, TBS, CNN, and MTV. If you were lucky you got ten extra channels coming through the wire, which seemed to be pretty amazing at the time. The world turns, though. Now I am dissatisfied with close to 100 channels, all because they don’t provide the content I want when I want to watch. Instead of cable, I now look to free video-on-demand to entertain me for the four hours or so a week where I actually want to watch television.”

Other bad news for cable companies — every financial-advice guru I see advises folks strapped for cash to cancel their cable as one of their first money-saving moves. How many people who do so will go back later, when they have more money? Fewer than half, I’d guess.

MATT WELCH: “After two months of relentless scaremongering by the nation’s elite politicians and journalists, how’s that whole bailout thing doing at the polls?” Not so well. . . . Matt concludes: “Like Dick Cheney, I don’t believe in governing by poll. But that won’t prevent me from taking heart in the fact that, once again, Americans seem to have more instinctive faith in capitalism and less enthusiasm for government blank checks than their elected representatives.”

SOME GOOD COMMERCIAL SPACE NEWS: “The tone of excitement in the voices of some commercial space industry leaders was noticeable Tuesday as they talked about Spaceport America’s official designation as a fully licensed facility by the Federal Aviation Administration.”

GOOD: Ohio official in ‘Joe the Plumber’ flap resigns. “An Ohio agency director resigned Wednesday in the wake of a finding that she improperly used state computers to access personal information on the man who became known as ‘Joe the Plumber’ during the presidential campaign. Two other officials who were suspended from their positions for their role in the computer search will not be returning to their jobs, an agency spokeswoman said.” When we interviewed Joe for PJTV last night — video here, free w/no registration — he said he intends to sue everyone involved. I wish him luck, as this is the only way to discourage such things in the future.

POLICE OFFICERS become unintentional YouTube stars. Some are okay with it, some seem to labor under the false impression that videotaping police is illegal.

VOLT ENGINE PLANT ON HOLD: “Word is that GM has shut down construction because it doesn’t have the cash to pay for steel structural members.” Ouch.

MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVERGENEROUS PUBLIC PENSIONS: Connecting CALPERS and Madoff. Is that too harsh? Never mind — when the government does it, it’s not a crime!

More here: “Calpers in recent weeks said it expects to report paper losses of 103% on its housing investments in the fiscal year ended June 30. That’s because Calpers invested not only its own money, but billions of dollars of borrowed money that must be repaid even if the investment fails. In some deals, as much as 80% of the money invested by Calpers was borrowed.”

JACK SHAFER: “The misery of a laid-off or bought-out journalist isn’t greater than that of a sacked bond trader, a RIF-ed clerk, or a fired autoworker. The only reason we’re so well-informed about journalists’ suffering is they have easy access to a megaphone.”

MORE ON THE NIGHTMARE THAT IS Zimbabwe.

THE RIGHT TO MARRY does not entitle me to a spouse.

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: Charles Martin says the United States isn’t bankrupt.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE:

Sen. Chris Dodd’s failed presidential campaign appears to have hurt him in Connecticut according to a new survey that showed the Democrat with his lowest poll numbers in 14 years.

The poll by Quinnipiac University shows the Senate Banking Committee chairman with a 47 percent approval rating. That’s down from 60 percent in May 2007 shortly after he declared his candidacy for president. Dodd faces re-election in 2010.

To know him is not to love him, so publicity isn’t his friend, as his Iowa performance demonstrated. But there’s also this:

Dodd also has undergone scrutiny in the local media about mortgage loans he received from Countrywide Financial, which included Dodd in a special program. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, questions have arisen about conflicts of interest in the arrangement, although Dodd has denied knowing he was given any special treatment.

Yeah, as I’ve mentioned the local media have covered this story better than national media, for some reason.

MORE QUESTIONS about Eric Holder: “The Republicans want to find out if Holder has a good explanation of his conduct in the Clinton-era pardons as well as in matters such as the Elian Gonzales case. . . . And then today we learn that Holder neglected to list on his confirmation questionnaire his work for Blago — yeah, the story that keeps on giving — on an Illinois gaming board. If it was an effort to conceal, it was dumb and counterproductive to his effort to convince the Senate that he is above reproach. And if it was sloppiness that doesn’t say much for his professional skills. More fodder for the hearing, no doubt.”

CAROLINE KENNEDY as Sarah Palin? Only without the moose angle.

UPDATE: Serious alterations at the NYT.

THEY SAID IF YOU VOTED MCCAIN-PALIN, WE’D SEE EVANGELICAL PREACHERS CLOSE TO THE WHITE HOUSE. And, well . . . Gay leaders furious with Obama: “Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to perform the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight. . . . Obama opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposed the California constitutional amendment Warren backed. In selecting Warren, he is choosing to reach out to conservatives on a hot-button social issue, at the cost of antagonizing gay voters who overwhelmingly supported him.”

Plus, Obama To Gay Rights Progressives: Drop Dead. You know, as I’ve noted before, the reason not to get too excited about elections is that the guy you like generally turns out to disappoint you, and the guy you don’t like generally turns out not to be as bad as you feared. A lot of Obama voters are encountering the downside of this phenomenon. . . .

More on the reactions from Dan Riehl (”A worn Sullivan just wrings his hands acknowledging the betrayal in Ugh! But then all his energies have been zapped, what with him off chasing maternity questions in the foreign and un-American land he seems to think Alaska represents . . . The rest of the Left is not quite so resigned.”) and JammieWearingFool (”The funny thing is, it was an overwhelming Obama vote in California that helped pass Prop 8. The angry gay left just cannot rationalize it yet that the guy they poured their gay marriage effort into also brought out the voters who reject gay marriage. When you’re a single-issue voter, you’re often going to be angry when you don’t get your way. . . . I almost feel sorry for Obama having to deal with these children.”)

UPDATE: “Obama just keeps disappointing supporters. Odd, but refreshing.” Particularly as the ones he’s disappointing are the ones who cast their disagreement with Bush on those same issues as a matter of ultimate good vs. evil.

RADLEY BALKO: Why the Democrats should nominate Republican Peter Fitzgerald to the U.S. Senate. “It’s not as crazy as it sounds. . . . It’s almost eerie just how relevant the stands Fitzgerald took during his six years in the Senate—positions that ended his political career—have become today.”

LOTS OF sports and outdoor stuff on sale.

EUGENE VOLOKH: “Some People Have Nightmares About Falling, or Drowning. Last night, I had a nightmare about becoming a dean.” Brrrr.

ON PJTV, Michelle Malkin and I interview RNC Chair candidate Michael Steele, and Joe the Plumber about what the Republican Party needs to do to get its mojo back. Both are free to everyone, with no registration. Joe has a website, too.

THE NEW LEGITIMACY: Solving social problems by redefining terms. Next, solving war by renaming it “peace!”

HYBRID DRIVETRAINS are now filtering down to boats. Not much luck on the regenerative-braking front, though, I’d imagine . . . .

IT’S ALWAYS ZOMBIES: What the U.S. can learn from Japan’s failed experiment with “zombie businesses.” “After Japan’s asset bubble burst in the late 1980s, their economy took a sharp downturn, prompting government officials to try bailing out banks and investing in infrastructure, much like the activity and proposals floating around America today. The results were terrible.”

AL SHARPTON comes out against Card Check. Transcript and audio at the link. So now it’s too far left for both Al Sharpton and George McGovern?

OIL PRICES TUMBLE below forty dollars. Just a few months ago, people were projecting high prices into the indefinite future. Remember that as you hear other projections today.

UPDATE: Reader Andrew De Villers writes:

Re your post on “projections” - in my case buying a home, and getting a great deal! I am buying a foreclosure property in Florida for my family. The lender, now dumping their REO properties, agreed to let it go for 52 cents on the dollar.

With good credit scores (over 800) and providing full documentation (no-doc or stated income loans are no longer around) I secured a 5.25% 30 year loan.

And just this morning my mortgage broker floated my rate to 4.875% as a result of the Fed’s meeting yesterday. I close in 6 days.

There are terrific deals out there for homebuyers. I am not a “herd” mentality person. I knew I’d find a deal while others remained static in the bad-news data cloud.

I hope your readers take advantage of the economy - I certainly did!

There are certainly good things out there for people with cash, or good credit.

GLORIA ALLRED’S MONEY isn’t where her mouth is. “I guess there weren’t enough TV cameras on the contribution site.” Ouch.

MEGAN MCARDLE on how to be a girly-girl. “Sorry to put you through that, but I’ve been wanting to gush about makeup for a long, long while.”

DEFEAT MALARIA? Yes we can.

Last week, two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported promising news about a malaria vaccine candidate that our company, GlaxoSmithKline, is developing in collaboration with the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a program of the nonprofit organization PATH, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and scientists from across Europe, North America and Africa.

The studies focused on the most vulnerable populations in Kenya and Tanzania. One study reported that the vaccine candidate was 53% effective in preventing episodes of clinical malaria in children five to 17 months old. The second study demonstrated that the vaccine candidate can be administered alongside the standard set of vaccines used in national immunization programs for young infants.

I mentioned this in passing earlier, but this is potentially huge. Most westerners have no idea what a burden malaria is on large parts of the world, but just imagine how economically productive you would be if you had the flu most of the time and you’ll get some sense. I hope it pans out.

IAIN MURRAY: “Not only would successful completion of the Doha round bring great benefit to the US, it would be the single best thing Obama could do for international development.”

I OFTEN LINK TO ALT-ENERGY SITE GAS2.ORG — if this kind of thing interests you, they’re looking for writers/bloggers.

ROGER KIMBALL: “Why aren’t people rioting in the streets?” The short answer is that, culturally, people now only riot over select ethnic grievances; matters of governance, civil rights, and taxes — once the main reason to riot and engage in “out of doors political activity” — are now left to shouting pundits on TV. Not clear how well that’s working out . . . .