The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

Other Than That, the Story Was Accurate
“CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin had signed on as a contributor to the Al Jazeera America news network. The blogger cited a report on the Daily Currant Web site as the basis for that information without realizing that the piece was satirical.”–Washington Post website, Feb. 12

Out on a Limb

  • “Krauthammer: ‘State of the Union Will Be Extremely Aggressive and Partisan'”–headline, National Review Online, Feb. 12
  • “Trump May Have Trouble Collecting on $5 Million Orangutan Bet”–headline, Reuters, Feb. 11

Mission Accomplished
“Obama: Job of Debt Reduction Nearly Done”–headline, Washington Post, Feb. 12

News of the Tautological

  • “Rising Premiums to Blame for Insurance Cost Jumps”–headline, BenefitsPro.com, Feb. 8
  • “Mice are poor stand-ins for people in experiments on some types of inflammation, a new study concludes. But some scientists say that critique discounts the value of mouse studies, many of which simply couldn’t be done without the animals.”–ScienceNews.com, Feb. 11

Bottom Story of the Day 
“Alec Baldwin, Morgan Freeman press Obama to fight climate change”–headline, TheHill.com, Feb. 11

My Pet Conservative
The University of Colorado’s Boulder campus is trying a bold experiment, the local paper, the Daily Camera, reports. It’s going to hire a conservative:

CU originally unveiled grand plans in 2007 to establish a visiting chair in conservative thought and policy, which would have required $7 million to $9 million to fund. But school officials have said the sluggish economy caused them to scale back plans and instead run a pilot program to bring visiting scholars to Boulder.

CU has raised $1 million in donations for its visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy, a position that is funded for at least three years.

As part of the selection process, each finalist will visit the campus for a day and meet privately with the search committee, chancellor, provost and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Each will also teach a class.

Since last summer, an advisory committee made up of faculty and community members has been searching for candidates. The committee has sought a “highly visible” scholar who is “deeply engaged in either the analytical scholarship or practice of conservative thinking and policymaking or both.”

The three finalists, Steven Hayward, Ron Haskins and Linda Chavez, all sound worthy, but the whole enterprise is an excellent example of the exception proving the rule. Such brazen tokenism wouldn’t be necessary if CU–and higher education in general–weren’t such a leftist monoculture. …

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”