A RIGHT TO SPANK? This case is statutory, but in Tennessee there's a good argument that parents would have a right to spank under the state constitution.

PAUL KRUGMAN GETS A ROTTEN TOMATO. As usual, Krugman picks a political conclusion, and as usual, the data are otherwise.

MORE THOUGHTS ON INFRASTRUCTURE:

Even before today’s fires and power outages disrupted downtown D.C., it had been a rough week for transportation infrastructure in the area. Commuting by the Metro’s Orange line was a disaster because of a derailment — and Metro officials bungled the back-up plans for shuttle buses, completely mishandling communications — even as high fuel prices push riders onto mass transit. And the MARC trains were the usual unreliable selves.

Plus this:

But the planning and much of the construction took place before the Great Society, before Medicare, before Medicaid, before welfare, before Food Stamps, before the Conservation Reserve Program, before the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program, before the Community Development Block Grant Program, before the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, leafy spurge management grants, before HUD, the EPA, the Department of Education, etc., etc., etc….that is, before the explosion of federal spending and programs that now draw dollars that might have been spent on infrastructure.

Yep. It's not a money problem, it's a priority problem.

JEFF JARVIS: "We are only now — a bit late — beginning to face up to sexism as a factor in the Democratic race and as an ongoing problem in America."

BETTER DRUG DELIVERY, using nanotechnology.

SOMETIMES A PICTURE really is worth a thousand words.

UH OH: Poll: Fans Believe NBA Is Rigged.

SO I NOTICED THAT SLATE wasn't carrying its "Today's Blogs" feature this week, and emailed to find out what happened. Apparently, it's been canceled. Too bad -- I'll miss it.

IN TOLEDO, A TERROR CONVICTION: "A federal jury on Friday convicted three Toledo-area men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting attacks against U.S. troops overseas and other terror-related acts. Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum, all of whom are Muslim, were convicted on all counts of conspiring to kill or injure people outside the United States and face sentences of life in prison."

FRED THOMPSON IS UNHAPPY WITH THE SUPREME COURT: "Upon reading the opinion in Boumediene v Bush, one must conclude that the majority knew where they wanted to go and simply had to figure out how to get there. "

INSTAPUNDIT: At the center of all things.

Natch.

FACTS ON THE GROUND: "Senior Brookings fellows Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack gave a report today and entertained questions at a Brookings briefing on Iraq. It was the single most illuminating presentation I have witnessed on the status of Iraq and the potential way forward."

Read the whole thing.

IRISH VOTERS REJECTED THE E.U. TREATY: Richard North has some thoughts. "Already, the European Commission president has declared that the treaty is still 'alive,' even though it is technically dead. However, there will be no overt attempt to make the Irish vote again, although the project will sail on."

UPDATE: Dave Kopel: How the Irish saved civilization, again. "Treaty proponents lamented that Ireland, with only 1% of the EU population, could derail a 27-nation treaty. But the very fact that only 1% of the EU's population was allowed to vote on a treaty which would massively reduce national sovereignty and democratic accountability was itself an illustration of the enormous 'democratic deficit' of the EU in general, and the Lisbon Treaty in particular. According to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Lisbon Treaty would be defeated in every EU nation if referenda were allowed."