"France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and those glorifying terrorism...."

Authorities said 54 people had been arrested for hate speech and defending terrorism since terror attacks killed 20 people in Paris last week, including three gunmen. The crackdown came as Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical weekly that fronted the Prophet Muhammad anew on its cover....

Among those detained for a Facebook posting was Dieudonne, a popular and controversial comic who has repeated convictions for racism and anti-Semitism. He was later released and will be put on trial next month for justifying terrorism, a judicial official said on condition of anonymity in keeping with French custom.

Like many European countries, France has strong laws against hate speech, especially anti-Semitism in the wake of the Holocaust.

As I said earlier this morning, noting the Dieudonne arrest, this is no way to to sell free speech values to those who haven't accepted them yet. How do you explain these arrests to people who don't understand why there shouldn't also be censorship of images of Muhammad?

One of the saddest photographs I've ever seen. It's a still from an ISIS video, via "ISIS Films Child Soldier Purportedly Executing Russians."

"The 14th annual Subway Ride became a huge hit when people braved the cold weather and went pantsless. Part of an yearly tradition started by a group of seven boys, the event has grown into a global tradition.... According to the rules, underpants must be worn. Uniforms and business suits are encouraged to amplify the lower-half effect as are props - bicycles, prams, shopping bags or a briefcase. Participants are also forbidden from speaking to one another. They are instructed to bring to behave in a normal manner- read a newspaper, book."



That reminds me — and this is only slightly related — Jay Leno was on the Bill Maher show last Friday. You might have read about it in the context of his saying that Hillary Clinton "seems to be sort of very slow." But the part that got me was that he said that he never wears shorts — doesn't own a single pair.

"I remained in my hiding place until Tuesday evening. Every night when it was dark, I would furtively scale the fence into my house to quickly eat garri and drink water and go back to my hideout.... Some of the Boko Haram gunmen camped outside the Baga main market just 700 metres from my hideout... At night I could see lights from the power generator they ran. I could also hear their cheering and laughter.... "

The survivor Yanaye Grema tells his story.

(What is garri? "To make garri, cassava tubers are peeled, washed and grated or crushed to produce a mash. The mash is placed in a porous bag and allowed to ferment for one or two days, while weights are placed on the bag to press the water out. It is then sieved (or sifted) and roasted by heating in a bowl. The resulting dry granular garri can be stored for long periods.")

A Politico article topped with a photo of Scott Walker, who also gets the most flattering treatment in the text. I'll just give you the part that's about football:

"I had plenty of fun hugging 'owners' in the stands at Lambeau Field," Walker said Tuesday....

This is a reference to fellow presidential hopeful Chris Christie, who famously hugged the rich-guy owner of the Dallas Cowboys, the team our fan-owned team just beat.
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Writes Gérard Biard in the lead editorial in the new issue of Charlie Hebdo. He adds: "The first victims of Islamic extremism are the Muslims."

Among the cartoons:

One cartoon shows jihadists talking with one saying: "We must not touch people from Charlie Hebdo." The other jihadist responds: "Otherwise, they will pass for martyrs, and once in heaven, they are going to steal all our virgins!"

Another shows Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders huddled around a globe at the Vatican. "I keep the western sector, you keep the eastern sector," the caption says.

Meanwhile: 

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility Wednesday for last week's deadly rampage at France's Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper -- and said the attack was years in the making.

AQAP commander Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi...  praised that attack, saying it was revenge for Charlie Hebdo's depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. And according to the video, the late Anwar al-Awlaki masterminded the attack before his death in 2011. If true, that means the planning for the massacre started at least three years ago....

And — to be filed under: how not to sell free speech values to those who haven't bought them yet:

Controversial French humorist and actor Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, better known as simply Dieudonne, was arrested in Paris, accused of publicly supporting terrorism, multiple French media reported. One Facebook post read: "You should know tonight that as far as I am concerned I am Charlie Coulibaly" — an apparent reference to Amedy Coulibaly, the man who killed four hostages at a Parisian kosher grocery store Friday.

What idiocy!

ADDED: As the lead-in to that last quote should cue you, my "What idiocy!" refers to the arrest.

AND: Why did CNN (at the second link) use the word "masterminded"? The 9/11 attacks can be said to have been "masterminded," but the Charlie Hebdo massacre was on the level of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Maybe CNN is just buying the hype in the terrorist's video.

"Just after 10:10 a.m., after the argument had been underway for four or five minutes, the center curtains stirred behind the Chief Justice, and Justice Scalia moved a short distance to the stage, or to his seat on the bench (which is often his stage, of course). A few minutes later, an aide brought his silver coffee go-cup and some case materials. At 10:21, Justice Scalia felt sufficiently up to speed to chime in. 'Can I ask something about this,' he said to the lawyer before him. The solicitous tone was uncharacteristic, and reminiscent of the courtly way that now-retired Justice John Paul Stevens would enter an argument before asking a razor-sharp question. Before too long, with a few sips of his coffee, Justice Scalia was back to himself, interrupting the lawyers to grill them without asking their permission."

That's the end of the (surprisingly long!) essay at SCOTUSblog about what Supreme Court observers experienced as the dramatic absence of Justice Scalia on a morning when 2 of his opinions were announced. Chief Justice Roberts took over the reading of the announcements, noting only that Justice Scalia had asked him to do so. What thoughts raced through the heads of the observers before they got the word that Justice Scalia was — how mundane! — stuck in traffic?

"That's the world of the Sixties, in which there were legal prohibitions of the work of Henry Miller and Allen Ginsberg and comedians such as Lenny Bruce. So this was pathbreaking."

 "This" = the legal work of Al Bendich, who "was the last living member of the defense team in the 'Howl' case" and" the sole defense lawyer in the first of Bruce's obscenity trials... the only one to end in an acquittal."

Well, of course, we can imagine a world like that. We live in such a world. Maybe not the United States — not right now anyway — but the world is more than the United States.
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"But he has won three contested elections in a blue state, even while running and governing as a conservative. He naturally speaks the language of cultural conservatives, frequently invoking faith and God, which is crucial in the Iowa caucuses. In 2012, evangelical Christians represented 57 percent of Iowa caucus-goers, according to entrance polls. It is not at all obvious that Mr. Walker's Midwestern persona, which may strike some as lacking sizzle, is a negative on the prairies of Iowa. In the end, Mr. Walker will have to capitalize on his opportunity, and prove as compelling on the campaign trail and in debates as he is on paper. If he does, he would be a far more serious contender for the presidential nomination than many of the candidates who have received substantially more news media attention over the last few years."

The New York Times takes Scott Walker seriously and treats him with respect.

This is is a significant breakthrough for Walker.

What can you say about 11? The 10th anniversary of this blog was marked last year:

So this is it. The big milestone of the blog. I've made it to the last time-related goal that matters. It was all, always, done for the sheer intrinsic pleasure of it — to live freely in writing, in real time, daily — even the time-related parts, like noticing the annual anniversary on January 14th, 2 days after my birthday, feeling like it's more important than the birthday.

I can say, once again, that I have blogged every single day of the past year. I have blogged for 11 years, every day, never ONE day without sitting down and seriously looking for some things to blog. Maybe there are a handful of days in the archive with only one post — none from the past year — but these were never posts written in advance and scheduled to make it look as though I'm blogging. I've been here every day, sometimes — like right now — before 5 a.m.

But last year was 10, the big one. Now, we are 11. But this is America, and in America, we think 11 is special too, because we like say "up to 11." There's a Wikipedia article for "Up to 11."

"Up to eleven" or "these go to eleven" is an idiom from popular culture, coined in the movie This Is Spinal Tap, where guitarist Nigel Tufnel proudly demonstrates an amplifier whose volume knob is marked from zero to eleven, instead of the usual zero to ten. The phrase has come to refer to anything being exploited to its utmost abilities, or apparently exceeding them. Similarly, the expression "turning it up to eleven" refers to the act of taking something to an extreme.

So... extreme blogging... nonstop for 11 years. The 11th bloggiversary, here on the Althouse blog.

This evening.. On Picnic Point.