Carlos the Jackal goes on trial tomorrow in France on decades-old terror charges.

Once among the world's most feared masterminds of terror, the man known as Carlos the Jackal is now a graying convict who has been behind bars for 17 years. On Monday, he goes on trial for four deadly attacks that occurred nearly three decades ago, and the verdict could determine his chances of ever being freed.

Lots of TV on tonight: Homeland, The Good Wife, Pan Am and The Next Iron Chef are what I'll be watching. Is anyone going to check out AMC's new Hell on Wheels?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's the one night of the year we get to turn back time. Hope you make the most of your extra hour.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I have a little time before I have to start working again so I thought I would share my thoughts on today's college football slate.

Miami (Florida) -15½ over Duke (2 units); Oklahoma State -21 over Kansas State (4 units); Oklahoma -14 over Texas A&M (5 units); Mississippi -2 Kentucky (3 units); Cincinnati -3½ over Pittsburgh (2 units); Notre Dame -14 over Wake Forest (3 units); Iowa +4 over Michigan (2 units); Army +17 over Air Force (2 units); Texas Tech +14 over Texas (2 units); Nebraska -17½ over Northwestern (4 units); Connecticut -2 over Syracuse (2 units).

In this year's Game of the Century, I like LSU +5 over Alabama (3 units.) I also expect a fair amount of points to be scored and am taking Over 42 (3 units.)

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

Who knew Anonymous' Barrett Brown had a sense of humor? His latest tweet:

Now my weed dealer won't come by because he's afraid of the damned Zetas. #OpCartel

Maybe he read my post calling him the latest drug war recruit and wants to assure people it's not true.

Congrats to Glenn Greenwald, whose new book, Liberty and Justice for Some, is now at #25 of the NY Times Bestseller List for Hardocover NonFiction.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Who's going home on The X-Factor? Last night I thought the judges were done voting and it was just the viewers vote that count. Not so. The 10 contestants with the highest viewer votes are safe. The bottom 2 will sing again and the judges will decide which one stays and which one goes home. Kind of odd -- would any one of these judges vote off a contestant in his or her group? I think Leroy Bell will be in the bottom two. He's got a great voice, but he's 59 and I doubt his fans voted 50 times each for him.

Update: So glad I was wrong about the bottom two. I totally agree with the viewers' votes. I'll be back after the show has aired on the west coast (to not spoil it) as to why I think the bottom two got the lowest votes. I'm surprised I didn't think of it before, but I didn't. [More...]

Busy day at work today. BTD - me too.

Closing arguments are today in the Dr. Conrad Murray manslaughter trial.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm swamped still. But read this:

I don't think it's too strident to demand at this point that David Brooks be hauled up before a jury consisting of everyone else in America and forced to defend himself against several million counts of being an insufferable twat in a public place. In today's episode of Missing the Point So I Don't Miss a Meal, Our Mr. Brooks informs us that he once again has placed us all under close inspection beneath his monocle and discovered that some of us are very angry, not because some thieves in nice suits pillaged the national economy and then held the scraps for ransom. Oh, no, that isn't it at all, and he's got some wholly arbitrary ad hoc sociological categories to prove it.

Yep. Charles Pierce.

Open Thread.

Our earlier open thread is just about full.

We've got a blizzard starting. Frontier Airlines has already canceled flights for the morning.

I'm reading the U.S. Sentencing Commission's new report on mandatory minimum sentences and its recommendations to Congress. It doesn't recommend they be abolished, but it does point out they are too severe and applied inconsistently. One really good recommendation it makes is for Congress to expand the Safety Valve to apply to non-violent offenders with 2 or even 3 criminal history points. Overall, it says: [More....]

I've got court this afternoon. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Who dressed up? Who went trick or treating? Who turned off the lights and pretended not to be home?

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Got caught by the weather yesterday. Traveling today, though on a delayed basis. Still busy too.

Open Thread.

It's the finale of Project Runway. The guest judge is L'Wren Scott (who is also the long-time girlfriend of Mick Jagger.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.