Yes, the Constitution is binding  —  This morning, I gave a quick interview to MSNBC where I made, I thought, some fairly banal points on the GOP's plan to honor the Constitution by having it read aloud on the House floor.  Asked if it was a gimmick, I replied that it was, because, well, it is.

The New Voodoo  —  Hypocrisy never goes out of style, but, even so, 2010 was something special.  For it was the year of budget doubletalk — the year of arsonists posing as firemen, of people railing against deficits while doing everything they could to make those deficits bigger.

Topics  —  Do the residents of NYS and NYC realize what has occurred?  —  The Public and Private sector Unions control NYS and NYC - they control almost the entire Democrat Party and even a few Republicans!  Both NYS and NYC!  —  Those politicians no longer represent the taxpayer, they represent the Union!

Gov. Bill Richardson: 'I've Decided Not To Pardon Billy the Kid'  —  Billy the Kid Was Promised a Pardon in 1879  —  It's been a year of pardons from two Mississippi sisters paroled in exchange for one donating a kidney to another to rock singer Jim Morrison to even a presidential turkey.

Eight Botched Environmental Forecasts  —  The Statue of Liberty, depicted frozen solid in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.”  Many weather forecasters and scientists wonder whether a coming period of “global cooling” may be on the way.  —  A new year is around the corner …

Climate PR effort heats up  —  Hey America!  Are you ready to get wonky on global warming?  —  After a year that started with fallout from the “Climategate” e-mail release, saw the cap-and-trade bill die in Congress, and ended with a gang of Republican climate skeptics winning House and Senate seats …

Judith Miller: From the Times to the nuts  —  Judith Miller used to be a superstar.  She was a major reporter at the New York Times for decades — at the DC bureau, in Cairo, in Paris, special correspondent to the Persian Gulf, embedded with a special unit in Iraq.  She had the best sources.

Academic Economists to Consider Ethics Code  —  WASHINGTON — When the Stanford business professor Darrell Duffie co-wrote a book on how to overhaul Wall Street regulations, he did not mention that he sits on the board of Moody's, the credit rating agency.  —  As a commentator on the economy …

University of Virginia reforms speech code  —  The University of Virginia has eliminated four controversial policies that restricted the free speech of students and faculty, becoming one of a minority of schools across the country to do so.  —  The recent decision to change the policies …

Time to Rethink Public Employee Unions  —  In New York, sanitation workers have reported that their union ordered them to sabotage the city's blizzard cleanup efforts.  If that claim is true, the union may be responsible for at least one death.  Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to investigate.

No good guys in the fight over for-profit colleges  —  For a case study in the tawdry and twisted world of Washington policymaking and lobbying, you can't do much better than the current fight over the subsidies and regulations for for-profit colleges.  Behind every argument is an ulterior motive …

Abortion Takes Flight  —  Irish law prohibits all abortions except those necessary to save a woman's life, and as a practical matter it imposes daunting obstacles to terminating life-threatening pregnancies as well.  In a secularized Europe, Ireland is noticeably out of step.

Christians Are Casualties of 10 Baghdad Attacks  —  BAGHDAD — One week after an Islamic extremist group vowed to kill Christians in Iraq, a cluster of 10 bomb attacks rattled Baghdad on Thursday night and sent additional tremors of fear through the country's already shaken Christian minority.

How Harry Reid And Mitch McConnell Could Upend Filibuster Reform  —  A handful of junior Democrats, including Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), have done an impressive job building momentum for a package of modest, but meaningful, changes to the Senate's filibuster rules.

Last Kodachrome Developer Stops Developing  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … Kodachrome film is truly dead.  —  Dwayne's Photo, a lab in Parsons, Kansas, was the last lab still processing popular film, which was created by Kodak in 1935.  Dec. 30 was the last day Dwayne's would still accept rolls …

Dems rip proposed rule giving new power to GOP Budget chairman  —  A proposed House rule granting new powers to the GOP chairman of the Budget Committee has sparked outrage from Democrats.  —  The proposed rule would allow the Budget Committee chairman to set spending ceilings for 2011 without a vote by the full House.

Big Gas Find Sparks a Frenzy in Israel  —  TEL AVIV—Two years ago, Ratio Oil Exploration LP, an energy firm here, employed five people and was worth about half a million dollars.  —  Today it sits at the center of a gas bonanza that has investors, international oil companies …

GOP presidential hopefuls paying attention to Nevada  —  Nevada was a political afterthought for Republicans in the 2008 presidential election.  —  Caucus votes were nonbinding, meaning delegates could change their minds about whom to support, so candidates focused on other more influential states rather …

WINTER MAY BE COLDEST IN 1000 YEARS  —  BRITAIN'S winter is the coldest since 1683 and close to being the chilliest in nearly 1,000 years.  —  Latest figures reveal that the average temperature since December 1 has been a perishing -1C.  —  That makes it the second coldest since records began in 1659.

Tricky Call for New Governors: Price of Their Inaugurals  —  MIAMI — To warm up the Florida crowds for his inauguration as governor, Rick Scott has been flying around the state this week on a seven-city “appreciation” tour.  For the main event on Tuesday, he will lead a parade featuring 26 marching bands …

Alaska certifies Sen. Murkowski's re-election  —  (CNN) — Alaska's top two elected officials on Thursday certified Sen. Lisa Murkowski's re-election in November as a write-in candidate, clearing the way for Murkowski to be sworn in on time for the new congressional session that starts next week.