Free kibbles

New Jersey makes it illegal for sex offenders to access the internet. This is overkill. It's easy to demagogue sex offenders, but the penalties often don't fit the crimes because government tries to apply one size fits all solutions to unique problems.

This is the flipside to that story. Police use topless seductress in a park to lure passing man into unzipping his pants, then arrest and convict him for indecent exposure. Why in the world would a jury convict this guy? Watch the video.

Pakistani President Musharraf cracks down on rioters. Reports claim police left their security posts right before the blast and subsequently sprayed away all the evidence with high pressure water hoses. It doesn't matter if any of this is true, it will feed the hostility and suspicion against Musharraf. Pakistan offers to exhume Bhutto. That will go against Islamic tradition and probably won't happen, but it will give the government cover. Pakistan rejects international aid for investigation. Al Qaeda in Pakistan is growing in power and focusing on destabilizing Pakistan. Washington continues to press for a Pakistani election. This is just another example of big government in action. A Pakistani election is none of our business. Sure, we should engage other leaders in Pakistan besides Musharraf, but trying to force something unnatural like pushing for Bhutto and Shakir to return from exile and have an election to share power with Musharraf is heavy-handed and now tragic. We should encourage the democrat process to occur naturally in Pakistan instead of trying to force it in such heavy-handed fashion.

Snake-like robot to aid heart surgery.

Since David Letterman owns his own production company, he settles with writers, giving them a piece of the online pie, and he's going to back to work. This will serious pressure on other production companies to settle.

This just shows how screwed up Democrats are on the Middle East. One wants to pull troops from Iraq and start a war with an ally by invading Pakistan. These people will say anything, no matter how stupid, to win political points. And this is a freshman, supposedly not corrupted yet.

Reason interviews author of a book with a great title, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill). Big-government always favors the rich, and bigger government favors them more.

Success in Iraq is hurting the left-wing blogosphere. Gen. Petraeus is winning on multiple fronts. More proof success in Iraq is bad for Democrats. Hopefully they'll be forced to abandon their loony left approach and come back toward the mainstream.

Warren Buffet to insure municipal bonds.

2007 is year of bizarre weather. Wisconsin and Boston may break record for snowiest December.

In looking for a reasonable candidate, Peggy Noonan states the obvious: Hillary is the most distrusted, polarizing political figure in her lifetime.

6 year old girl lies about her dad being killed in Iraq in order to win Hannah Montana tickets in an essay contest.

A nasal spray drug that would replace sleep seems way too good to be true. The brain uses sleep to reorganize itself and recover from the day's activity. The body also uses sleep to heal itself. I don't think a drug could replace that activity.

Scientist disputes dark energy, which has always been a kluggy construct.

Michael Barone lists 3 excellent lessons we should learn from the Iraqi surge. In fact, we should have learned these lessons long ago, but in the era of big government and hyper-partisanship, we keep forgetting them.

Gen. Petraeus' letter to the troops.

Examination of the letter of Adams and Jefferson provides insight into their religion. But the implication of the last sentence that Democrats are the party of Reason is laughable. Neither party is a party of reason.

WSJ op-ed finally acknowledges that Russia is waging a new Cold War. I think the US government will be the last to catch on.

Mercantilism is replacing free trade.

Bin Laden accuses the US of invading Iraq for oil. I wonder if he makes his speeches from Democrat talking points or vice-versa. Oil damn well better have been a consideration since it's the fuel that powers the modern world, and Iraq has the 2nd or 3rd largest reserves in the world, but we invaded Iraq for a number of well documented reasons. Bin Laden is only bringing up that talking point for the same reason Democrats did - to win political points.

Author details the intimidation techniques used by activists to thwart the democratic process of bringing an issue to popular vote. I remember when the issue to ban smoking in Ohio came up, the petitioners were disingenuous. JG could already smoke in some places, not in others. At that time it was determined by the owners. But the petitioners tried to convince us that the law was unclear, and that we should sign the petition so we vote and make it clear. There was nothing unclear at all at that time - private property rights ruled. But the flip side is activists have tried to suppress the petitions to repeal or amend the law. In some states, petitioners have been jailed to block the political process. It's out of control.