oh noes.

Quoted: When Richard Posner writes (which he does a bit more often than most federal appellate judges), people tend to sit up and listen. Which is why a recent post he did on the Becker-Posner Blog sent shudders down the Law Blog's spine.

Quoted: Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.

Once again we see the medical profession involved in gross impositions and horrible acts against the population. Kudos to Sen. Grassley for outing these charlatans. The specific instances of on-air favors in this case are ridiculous.

Quoted: An influential psychiatrist who served as the host of public radio’s popular “The Infinite Mind” program earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers, income not mentioned on the program.

All that Teflon Sarah talk was annoying. She was a great story like Obama was a great story. But the pendulum swings back on those.

Quoted: A tight race? It certainly is a tight race, and has been all year. But this, of course, is not really the lead story. The story is that there has been a rather dramatic shift in the national polling toward Barack Obama in the past 2-4 days, coinciding with the Wall Street financial crisis. Some pundits will love this, since it gives them something fresh to talk about. But others, like those cynical beat writers in the Wrigley Field press box, will be annoyed, because it means that the the story they were telling us just a few days ago -- that the Obama campaign was in trouble, that Sarah Palin was the greatest thing since sliced bread -- has now been more or less invalidated.

Chelsea: The Clinton Everyone at Work Can Agree On.

Quoted: In the past few weeks, Chelsea has become perhaps her mother’s most effective and mistake-free surrogate, sometimes even drawing bigger crowds than her father, whose ability to attract attention, sometimes for the wrong reasons, is decidedly a mixed blessing for his wife.

Quoted: “Another person might have gone through the same things and come out extraordinarily bitter,” says Clinton loyalist Paul Begala. “Does she strike you as a woman who got bitter or got better?”

I really liked this story. It's hard to know whether all the happy childhood stories are true, but her dedication to her parents is obvious.

Interesting story on the Gawker empire and its culture. Two of the main sources for this story quit Gawker since the story was published.

Quoted: The Gawker.com editors stand mostly to the side, in a cool-kid clique. Although they may in some sense be outsiders with their noses pressed to the glass, horrified by a world of New York that doesn’t quite want to have them as members, in the bubble of blogs, they’re the elite...

I read this a few weeks ago and thought I'd dot it since Huckabee's momentum seems to be growing. Very interesting. Makes one wonder if he could survive the scrutiny that would come with early success.

Quoted: The national media seems to have a crush on our
ex-governor, but here in Arkansas, we know better.

Quoted: Before we begin, though, a word of warning to any reporters who might want to repeat, on air or in print, any of the facts recounted below. Huckabee does not take kindly to journalists who practice journalism.

Quoted: Huckabee revealed an enduring weakness as glaring as that other Arkansas governor's fondness for women. Huckabee seems to love loot and has a dismissive attitude toward ethics, campaign finance rules and propriety in general. Since that first, failed campaign, the ethical questions have multiplied.

(Just a heads up, you might have to endure an ad for "Iconoclasts" to read the whole article. Worst show ever...)

click to play

Pretty cool story about John Smeaton's heroics and burgeoning popularity.

Quoted: A tribute to the big man and other heroes who "set about" the terrorists during the July 07 attack at Glasgow Airport.