Pun Salad

Unaccountably, the Major State University for which I work has closed its doors today due to inclement weather. This almost never happens. What this means: I have to get in to work anyway to change tapes, since the guys that usually do it won't be there. So this might be my last post ever. If so, watch the news in March for when they dig out my frozen body out of a melting snowdrift somewhere between Rollinsford and Durham.

• As previously noted, New Hampshire's own Senator Sununu is being raked over the coals by some conservatives who don't like his membership in an alliance that's working to obstruct the Patriot Act renewal. Glenn Reynolds has a fine summary of why I'm pretty happy with the senator.
• Jacob Sullum has a nice holiday-related column about Sam Alito and his jurisprudence vis-a-vis government-sponsored Christmas displays.

  While I oppose government-sponsored religious displays as a matter of policy, I've concluded that constitutional challenges to them are not only unsatisfying in their results but intellectually suspect in their premises. All these displays constitute official endorsements of religion to some extent, but that does not mean they represent an "establishment of religion," which is what the First Amendment actually prohibits.

  I think I'd prefer an anything-goes policy on the government's right to erect religious displays on public property. Not that that's a good idea, but it's a better result than the endless judicial quibbling in the Federal courts over whether a manger scene is balanced by two menorahs, a Kwanzaa bush, and a bunch of Santas. ("No! It needs more menorahs!") A bright line is impossible to draw. If the citizenry doesn't like a particular display, let them vote out the perpetrators. And they should feel equally free to toss the Chula Vista bozos discussed here at Hoy Story.
• Another reminder of those old cartoons that would morph a character's head into a lollipop (helpfully labelled "Sucker") when he was flimflammed: Via Dartblog, a news story from the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger:

  After vowing during his campaign that he would not raise the gas tax, Gov.-elect Jon Corzine said yesterday he will reconsider the idea now that gasoline prices have eased and the state's budget gap has ballooned to more than $5 billion.

• Constrained Katie points out that Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions has been named as one of National Review's "ten important books of the last 50 years." She points to Charles Murray's reprinted review. This blog extends its wholehearted agreement to all involved. Strong suggestion: read the review, buy and read the book. (Note, the link above will take you to Amazon, but if you're feeling in the Christmas spirit, instead use a blog link where Amazon will kick back a commission to a blogger. If you're at a loss, I suggest The Smartest Woman in the World.)
• And Jay Tea at Wizbang! reminds me why I dropped my subscription to the Boston Globe. Matthew Hoy, bless him, also comments.