Freedom of Speech: A South Carolina state senator proposes to make the use of vulgar language in public a felony. Meanwhile, presidents at 266 public colleges and universities in the United States have been put on notice that they may be personally liable for unconstitutional speech codes on their campuses.

A Ministry of Culture: Look for more discussion of the direction of cultural affairs in the Obama administration in the coming weeks. UNC, Chapel Hill's William Ferris, NEH Chairman in the Clinton administration, argues for an overarching cabinet level position. Goodness knows, the Smithsonian was in need of supervisory authority that was paying attention in recent years. Princeton's Stan Katz thinks a ministry of culture is a non-starter.

AHA & the Market: The best roundups of reports and commentary on the AHA convention are at AHA Today and HNN. Historians TV now has some non-commercial content: interviews with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Felice Lifshitz, with more promised to come. Elsewhere, Sterling Fluharty and Claire Potter discuss the history job market.

South Asia: Manan Ahmed,"Strangers in the Night," Chapati Mystery, 15 January, is his contribution about Pakistan's recent history at Chicago's panel,"Terror in Mumbai: Reflections on the Aftermath," on Wednesday.

Weblog Awards: Finally, the winners of The 2008 Weblog Awards have been announced. Next year, there should be a category for Best History Blog. With 1200 potential nominees, there's more than enough to choose among.