April 19, 2008

IS THE PRESS LULLING OBAMA'S STAFFERS into a false sense of security?

Meanwhile, advice for Hillary: Don't get cocky! Good advice for everyone in this election. Including you, John McCain.

ANOTHER REVIEW OF MICHAEL YON'S NEW BOOK, at the Mudville Gazette.

I HAVEN'T SEEN BEN STEIN'S EXPELLED, and I regard "Intelligent Design" theory as pernicious twaddle. But it's interesting to see Stein clobbering Morgan Spurlock in box office. At any rate, according to the comments, at least, there's more to the film than I.D. twaddle.

UPDATE: Here's a review from Ed Morrissey.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's a less favorable take.

MORE: I hate writing about this stuff because -- pardon me while I speak plainly -- the people on both sides of this issue are assholes. I mean, even by the low standards of Internet discussion. I'm getting email calling me a "theocon shill" for mentioning Stein, and email telling me I'll burn in hell for calling Intelligent Design "pernicious twaddle." Frankly, the rabid atheists and the rabid creationists seem an awful lot alike, and no proper hell could be truly hellish without the both of them yammering away at each other. Feh.

A ROUGH WEEK in the Ivy League.

MAJOR JOHN TAMMES REPORTS from an Iraqi Army memorial service.

Related item here: "Despite the news media’s apparent insistence on clinging to their narrative of defeat and disaster in Basra, Nouri al-Maliki’s operation to restore control of the city to the elected government achieved its major goal today with the fall of the Mahdi militia’s stronghold in the city."

And reader C.J. Burch emails: "Look for media operation 'Save Sadr.' To begin any moment now."

TENNESSEE TAX TALK: "Sen. Lamar Alexander's proposal to give Americans the option of paying a federal 'flat tax' instead of an income tax has drawn criticism from two of his prospective Democratic opponents."

Meanwhile, there's this:

Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) voiced his continued support for middle class Americans by signing onto legislation earlier this week giving the wealthiest taxpayers the option of returning more of their incomes to the federal government.

The legislation, H.R. 5783, the “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” Act, amends the U.S. Tax Code to allow citizens to make voluntary donations above their normal tax liability to pay for federal government programs. The legislation was introduced on April 10 by Congressman John Campbell of California. . . . Wealthy liberals like Barbra Streisand and Warren Buffet have frequently complained that taxes are too low. This bill gives them the opportunity to voluntarily pay more taxes.

I'd rate prospects for passage as poor (and can't you already pay voluntarily?), but prospects for amusement as pretty good.

A.C. KLEINHEIDER'S new political blog for the Nashville Post is now up and running.

TOM MAGUIRE: "I am going to take a bold step in a brand new direction and offer the notion that working class Americans aren't idiots."

Plus this: "I will echo Michelle Obama by saying that in my adult lifetime I have never been proud of Europe's ability to create jobs or absorb immigrants. "

BIG, FAT, HAIRY DEAL: A new car that has gone 142 miles without a fuel purchase? Er, that would be pretty much any new car that's delivered with a full -- or even a half -- tank of gas, wouldn't it?

POLL: Britons Fear Racial Violence: "Almost two-thirds of people in Britain fear race relations are so poor tensions are likely to spill over into violence, a BBC poll has suggested. Of the 1,000 people asked, 60% said the UK had too many immigrants and half wanted foreigners encouraged to leave." The multi-cultural progress meets with its usual success.

A LOOK AT THE PROSPECT OF PETABYTE ELECTRONIC MEMORY using nanotechnology.

MUGABE GOONS set up torture camps.

"I THINK HE MEANT WHAT HE SAID:" OBAMA SUPPORTER JOHN MCWHORTER ON BLOGGINGHEADS TV:

LIBEL TOURISM and "soft jihad."

WHAT WILL KARL DO?

A LOOK AT JOHN YOO AND the politics of international law scholarship.

REMEMBERING THE OPEL MANTA: My high-school friend Jim Williams had one of these. He loved it, but I always thought my VW Rabbit blew it away.

MICHAEL YON NEEDS A BIGGER BOAT:

We have sold all 5,200 signed copies of my new book Moment of Truth in Iraq, but I am making a special trip very soon to the printer to sign 2,000 more. I apologize for the slight delay in shipping. Once I have signed the additional books they will be shipped immediately.

Also, Amazon.com has been sold out, but a couple of large shipments are on their way, and Amazon will have books again soon. Moment of Truth hit #6 on the Amazon Bestseller List and then went out of stock. Bad timing!

It's great to be back in America, but I got measured today for new body armor and helmet. Won't be long until I am back over there.

Amazingly, he's still in the top 50 at Amazon. And here's a review from J.D. Johannes, who knows a thing or two about independent journalism in Iraq himself. He calls it "the right book at the right time."

THE GREEN FLASH.

HUFFINGTON POST: Hillary slams Democratic activists. MoveOn is not her friend any more . . . .

UPDATE: A "reverse bitter" -- dissing the base in primary season.

MICHAEL BARONE: The Rules Change for Obama. Now he's being treated like a candidate, not a prodigy. He's not pleased with the shift . . . . "The normally poised candidate looked irritated and weary."

He needs to take the advice of Rocky Balboa: "If you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!"

Sorry, but the whole Baracky thing just put this in mind . . . .

UPDATE: Clinton pulls ahead of Obama in Gallup national poll.

EARLIER I LINKED to a photo of yesterday's inexpensive lunch-counter fare. Today, lunch was fancier:

From the Northshore Brasserie. It's braised short rib over truffled polenta. Nice place, and surprisingly reasonable for lunch (15 bucks), though still much more expensive than Long's Drug Store. [What, you're taking up Althouse-style cafe-blogging now? -- ed. Relax. It's just a phase.]

MARK STEYN: Guns and God? Hell, yes! "Take it from a foreigner: In my experience, Americans are the least 'bitter' people in the developed world."

MICHAEL YOUNG ON Barack Obama and the Iraqis:

That's why Obama's comments were so off-putting. He effectively told the Iraqis, once again, that they weren't worth anything to America. . . .

For as long as American leaders don't treat Iraqis as important in their own right, the Iraqis will have no incentive to tie their long-term interests to America's wagon. Should that matter? Both realists and idealists would probably answer in the affirmative. But where does Barack Obama stand? It's hard to imagine that Iraqis see in him change they can believe in.

Read the whole thing.

SWIMMING POOL SEGREGATION IN BRITAIN.

TYLER COWEN: Why are gun owners so happy?

UPDATE: Further thoughts from TigerHawk.

IN THE MAIL: Michael Klare's Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. Important topic, but judging by who blurbed this book I'm skeptical of the treatment . . . .

BILL ROGGIO has news from Iraq that somehow didn't get much play.

JULES CRITTENDEN: "Patriots Day may be the least known American holiday, and the day most deserving of our recognition."

FOR ALL YOU KNOXVILLE EXPATS OUT THERE, here's a picture of Long's Drug Store, still in business, and still serving old-fashioned lunchcounter meals. The Insta-Wife and I had lunch there yesterday; the total tab was $8.90. Here's what I had.

WELL, THIS IS EMBARRASSING:

CNN personality Richard Quest was busted in Central Park early yesterday with some drugs in his pocket, a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot, law-enforcement sources said.

Best line from the story: "It wasn't immediately clear what the rope was for." (Via JWF). Really, with this sort of arrest on his record, he might as well just run for Congress. He'll fit right in!

UPDATE: Ann Althouse suggests some outrage along with the snark, and she's right:

My first reaction was to laugh at the rope too. (And then to worry that kids might get the idea to experiment with rope and hurt themselves.) But now, I'm outraged that the public humiliation was out of proportion and unrelated to the offense.

It's not illegal to walk around with a rope tied around you like that. (It was under his clothes, I'm assuming, but even if it wasn't.) Being in a park after hours is a piddling offense. Don't police normally just tell you the park is closed and let you walk away? That happened to me and my then-husband once, and we just got in the car and drove away, laughing at the police and saying, mock hippie-style, "The park is closed? You can't close a park, man." I'd have been shocked if the police had arrested us and searched us for that.

Good point. On the other hand, according to this report, Quest violated a rule of good sense that most hippies knew -- don't tell the cops you've got drugs in your pocket:

The police noticed Mr. Quest at 64th Street and West Drive at about 3:40 a.m., the official said. As he was being escorted out, he volunteered, “I have meth in my pocket,” according to an official briefed on the case. The police searched him and recovered a small amount of methamphetamine in a Ziploc bag.

So had Quest not volunteered that he had methamphetamine on him, he might have gotten precisely the treatment Althouse suggests, simply being "escorted out" of the park. And -- assuming this NYT report is correct -- why did he do that? Beats me.

POLITICO: Obama's Secret Weapon: The Media:

The shower of indignation on Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos over the last few days is the clearest evidence yet that the Clintonites are fundamentally correct in their complaint that she has been flying throughout this campaign into a headwind of media favoritism for Obama.

Last fall, when NBC’s Tim Russert hazed Clinton with a bunch of similar questions—a mix of fair and impertinent—he got lots of gripes from Clinton supporters.

But there was nothing like the piling on from journalists rushing to validate the Obama criticisms and denouncing ABC’s performance as journalistically unsound. . . . The difference seems clear: Many journalists are not merely observers but participants in the Obama phenomenon.

It's that thrill going down their leg. Meanwhile, Jules Crittenden comments: "Correct me if I’m wrong, but 'gotcha' suggests there’s something to be got."

UPDATE: The press considers the left-wing noise machine much more powerful than the one on the right -- but, of course, the press wants to be bulldozed by the left, really, so that's a considerable advantage . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tom Maguire has some related thoughts.

A NOTE TO PRESS FOLKS RUNNING INTERFERENCE FOR OBAMA: Character Issues Weren't "Tangential" When the Story Was Bush's ANG Service. Even when they had to make things up.

And read this piece from Jay Rosen on the anniversary of RatherGate.

MEGAN MCARDLE CRACKS, and shells out for an Amazon Kindle. I saw one at CES, and the screen was quite readable even in a semi-dark bar. I thought of ordering one, but for a while Amazon was so swamped by the demand that the wait for delivery was measured in weeks-to-months. They seem to have caught up now, so I eagerly await her review.

Jim Treacher got one a while back and emailed that he was reading InstaPundit: "It's kind of an interesting experience. The hyperlinks work, as long as the wireless is turned on and there's a signal. It's kind of awkward to navigate, though, since you're 'turning pages' instead of scrolling. There might only be 3 short entries per page. But that's not so bad. At least I know there'll always be something to read on it!"

The Kindle could be turned into a wireless web-browser without much trouble, it would seem, if you could get to the right pages. Maybe I should set up a page of links to gmail, hotmail, etc., just for Kindle users!

UPDATE: Treacher emails that the Kindle has a built-in browser: 'You can navigate text-heavy sites like most blogs pretty well, and G-Mail is doable but a pain in the ass. You have to go to the 'Experimental' menu to use it, which is appropriate."

MICKEY KAUS reports on Jerry Brown's war on suburbs: "How many thousands in campaign contributions is Brown going to accept from apartment-house developers who are dumbfoundedly ecstatic to find left-wing greenies suddenly on their side. ... It's win-win! "

MISREPRESENTATION AT THE MIAMI HERALD:

The Miami Herald story ("Pentagon Study: War is a 'Debacle' ") distorts the nature of and intent of my personal research project. It was not an NDU study, nor was it a Pentagon study. Indeed, the implication of the Herald story was that this study was mostly about current events. Such is not the case. It was mainly about the period 2002-04. The story also hypes a number of paragraphs, many of which are quoted out of context. The study does not "lay much of the blame" on Secretary Rumsfeld for problems in the conduct of the war, nor does it say that he "bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff." It does not single out "Condoleeza Rice and Stephen Hadley" for criticism.

Other than that, I guess, they got some of it right. (Via Protein Wisdom, which notes that "the usual suspects of the Leftosphere" were taken in.)

April 18, 2008

BARACKY: The Movie. It could put Obama over the top!

UPDATE: Reader Nora Armstrong emails: "I clicked over and watched that clever Youtube video - it *is* well done - but I get the feeling, reading comments left by others, that they forget how the movie ends. Sure, Rocky goes the distance, but Apollo wins in a split decision! :-)"

IOWAHAWK:

MORE PROBLEMS FOR OBAMA, FROM OBAMA:

He's not used to being challenged on his statements. That will change.

MOTOR TREND: Is the Earth still producing oil? I'd like for that to be true.

KARL ROVE VS. C.B.S.: Well, we know how that turned out last time.

THOUGHTS -- and some conflicting reports -- on Basra, at Abu Muqawama.

SEVEN STATES THINKING OF LOWERING THE DRINKING AGE: They should. And the Federal government should get out of the business of trying to regulate state drinking ages, a subject of no legitimate federal concern whatsoever. it's also telling that MADD wouldn't even appear on camera to argue the other side.

A LINK BETWEEN HIRING LAW CLERKS FROM YALE and having your opinions reversed?

Stuart Benjamin observes: "As a Yale Law alum, I wish I could say that the paper's findings don't ring true. Alas, I cannot." Hmm. It's been a bad week for Yale, hasn't it?

MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION with a heart. Haven't read this one.

FROM THE GLOBE-GIRDLING NETWORK of sometime InstaPundit correspondents who are also ex-girlfriends comes this mideast report:

Hey Glenn! My husband and I have just returned from 3 weeks in Egypt and Israel. We rode camels, cruised the Nile, climbed Mt. Sinai, floated in the Dead Sea, sailed the Sea of Galilee, AND I got a cool roman necklace at Har Megiddo. Anyway, it was fascinating to see how most of the Arab world is supporting Obama, while the Israelis that we talked to hoped that McCain wins. Here are a couple of photos from Old Jerusalem, showing Obama posters on the door of an antique shop.

When we arrived in Jerusalem, we were staying at the Ambassador Hotel in the Palestinian section. I ran out of hairspray, so I went down to the front desk to inquire as to where I might find a pharmacy. They gave us directions, and Steve and I walked about a mile. We found the pharmacy closed, but there was a Beauty Salon right next door, so we went in. Eight women leaped up and started yelling that "lalalalalala" sound, and screaming that Steve couldn't be in there! They were Muslim women, with their headcoverings off because they were having their hair done. Poor Steve RAN out into the street, and the women invited me for coffee and sold me a can of the best hairspray I've ever used. It was one of the high points of my trip, but not one of Steve's.

Oops. Cool photo. And who knew that when I was dating back in college I was actually, even then, helping to build the blog?

WIRED: Cars get more blame than they deserve for carbon dioxide emissions.

MICHAEL MOYNIHAN: "It is a constant source of wonderment that seemingly intelligent people persist in mythologizing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro." Well, they pretty much stop seeming intelligent once they do.

NOT A CRIME TO photograph undercover police officers. Good.

GETTING LIBERTARIANS OVER THE HUMP:

As suggested by a Samizdata reader called Hugo, I am going to kick off a Friday discussion which takes the following line: "A barrier to people accepting libertarianism is the notion that we'd let people starve in the streets." . . .

The one place where starvation of the poor is a likely occurrence, of course, is under collectivism. Just look at the great socialist disasters of the 20th Century.

Indeed.

CAR LUST: AMG Mercedes-Benz CLK63 Black Series. It's gotta beat the Gremlin from yesterday.

ANTI-WAR FOLKS ARE CALLING FOR A DRAFT: Jules Crittenden says let them have it. And he has some thoughts on just how. I think he's been reading Robert Heinlein again. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

"VISUAL SEXUAL AGGRESSION:" Earlier reports of an intrusive Maine statute seem to have been false. The InstaWife got in touch with the Maine Legislative folks and found out their side of the story.

TIBETAN GROUPS FACE SUSPICIOUS CYBER-ATTACKS. A precursor of Chinese tactics against enemy nations? "Security consultants say that some of the attacks involve computer servers in China that were previously used to target several United States military contractors."

SLATE IMAGINES this Hillary / Obama attack ad:

It's probably better than the ones she's actually been running . . . .

GIVING HILLARY the finger?

CANADA'S "HUMAN RIGHTS" COMMISSIONS: Turning enemies into friends!

THIS JUST SEEMS UNFAIR: The fatter you are, the hungrier you get?

LONGEVITY SCIENCE UPDATE:

University of Washington scientists have uncovered details about the mechanisms through which dietary restriction slows the aging process. Working in yeast cells, the researchers have linked ribosomes, the protein-making factories in living cells, and Gcn4, a specialized protein that aids in the expression of genetic information, to the pathways related to dietary response and aging. The study, which was led by UW faculty members Brian Kennedy and Matt Kaeberlein, appears in the April 18 issue of the journal Cell.

Previous research has shown that the lifespan-extending properties of dietary restriction are mediated in part by reduced signaling through TOR, an enzyme involved in many vital operations in a cell. When an organism has less TOR signaling in response to dietary restriction, one side effect is that the organism also decreases the rate at which it makes new proteins, a process called translation. . . .

The researchers also tested a drug called diazaborine, which specifically interferes with synthesis of the ribosomes' large subunits, but not small subunits, and found that treating cells with the drug made them live about 50 percent longer than untreated cells.

Faster, please.

RANKING LAW SCHOOLS BY 1L attrition rates. This is a tough call. If you admit people with high LSATs and grades, not many will flunk. If you admit people with bad predictors, many, many more will flunk -- but some will do well and become great lawyers, because the predictors aren't perfect. But some will survive with scars. Until some time in the late 1970s, the UT law school followed the traditional pattern -- near-open admission followed by flunking out about a third of the first-year class -- and some of the alumni I've met from that era still have resentments and anger, even though they're not the ones who failed. Our students today, now that we're much, much more selective, are a lot happier. But what about the people who didn't get in, but who might have made it?

YOU CAN ORDER YOUR ALL-ELECTRIC SHELBY COBRA if you want! And it's cheap! Er, well, for certain values of the word "cheap," values that don't pertain to impecunious law professors. . . .

IN THE MAIL: The new paperback edition of Mark Steyn's America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It. With a new introduction. Send one to your favorite Canadian censor!

MORE ON THE ITALIAN ELECTION: "Berlusconi spoke of discipline, family values, hard work and individual generosity. Veltroni countered with his talk of solidarity, sharing and collective compassion." Berlusconi won in a landslide. Is this a lesson for the U.S. candidates?

JULES CRITTENDEN: DARK FORCES abroad in the land.

ANN ALTHOUSE: "So that's what passes as insight at Yale these days? If I was going to get livid and horrified about something it would be that a great university sucks so many young women into the into the intellectual graveyard of Women's Studies. Think what these women could be studying instead of this endlessly recycled drivel."

CHINA UNREST makes Vietnam nervous.

FORTUNATELY, they've ruled out terrorism.

THOUGHTS ON specific performance and the Thirteenth Amendment.

A SUSPICIOUS DEATH in Texas?

A PINCH OF SALT IN THE WOUNDS: The decline in first-quarter revenue was 10.6 percent, 'the sharpest drop in memory.' That's saying something: Pinch has already reduced the value of his media company by more than two-thirds since becoming prime minister of Times Square. Berlusconi's media company actually makes money. In Italy, no less."

"RESTAURANT QUALITY:" Because it's from a restaurant! Just in case you thought the kind of ads that James Lileks makes fun of died out in the 1970s.

MICKEY KAUS: "How guilty does the pro-O HuffPo feel about breaking the news that made Obama's week miserable? Very, to judge by the compensatory pile-on of ABC-bashing on her home page after Gibson and Stephanopoulos' persistent questioning of Obama."

NORAD RELEASES 9/11 tapes.

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE are rallying to Mark Steyn's support.

A NEW TYPE OF COMPUTER MEMORY, using nanotechnology.

A DOUBLE STANDARD ON POLYGAMY?

WELL, THIS IS NEWS: "Today, Rep. Sue Myrick (NC-9) called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to revoke former President Jimmy Carter’s passport. This is in response to the former President traveling to Syria to meet with Hamas, an organization officially designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization."

HOW OBAMA fell to earth. "When Obama began this ride, he seemed like a transcendent figure who could understand a wide variety of life experiences. But over the past months, things have happened that make him seem more like my old neighbors in Hyde Park in Chicago."

UPDATE: Debategate! "Obama seems to think he’s running against Stephanopoulos now."

5.4 EARTHQUAKE hits Illinois / Indiana. Bob McCarty felt it and blogged it. Here's the USGS page.

UPDATE: A reader emails to ask if I felt it -- apparently it was felt further away than Knoxville. I don't know. I remember hearing what I thought was thunder last night, but I didn't note the time. It was probably just thunder.

ANOTHER UPDATE: USGS link above is no good now. Try this one instead. And Gateway Pundit reports a partial bridge closure due to earthquake damage in St. Louis.

MORE: Ann Althouse felt it.

GROWING PLANTS in lunar soil: "An Esa-linked team has shown that marigolds can grow in crushed rock very like the lunar surface, with no need for plant food." Good. Plus this: "The last decade has seen a revival of interest in Moon exploration after years of neglect." Also good.

April 17, 2008

DANIEL HENNINGER: "Remember the culture wars? This week the Democrats sued for peace."

BARACK AND the bomber.

If we’re judged by those with whom we associate, here’s a question:

Would you rather be associated with a ’60s radical who plotted to bomb the Pentagon and to this day believes, as he said a few years ago, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough,” or would you rather be associated with — slight pause, please — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)?

That was the rather bizarre scenario raised by Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) at Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. . . . But wouldn’t Coburn be more comparable to Ayers if he, Coburn, had bombed abortion clinics in the past — and then said that he not only did not regret bombing the clinics but wished that he had done more? And then, after bombing abortion clinics and refusing to express regret, he held a political event in his home for Barack Obama, which Obama attended?

And if all that had happened, would Obama say it wasn’t a problem because Coburn had bombed those clinics a long time ago, when Obama was just 8 years old?

Read the whole thing. Interestingly, I don't think Coburn has weighed in. But Tom Maguire has!

UPDATE: Obama, Bill Ayers, and Bernadine Dohrn.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Meanwhile, some background on Bill Clinton's Weather Underground pardons.

TWO WARS IN IRAQ?

PRESS SECRETARY TO THE RESCUE: "At 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, Lee Pitts, the spokesman for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), saw an unusual e-mail message pop up on the corner of his computer screen: 'Please call 911 for me,' the subject line said." (Via Michael Silence).

ED CONE IS TALKING ABOUT PROSTATE CANCER, and he's discovered that a lot of other people want to talk about it, too.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO EARLIER TONIGHT, you can hear PJM Political online for free at the link.

PAUL CAMPOS BECLOWNS HIMSELF YET AGAIN, and Brian Leiter pinches the red rubber nose. And it squeaks! "Paul Campos is obviously upset that every member of the legal academy knows him as the poster boy for contempt for the First Amendment rights of state university professors, and so he does what any reputable academic would do under the circumstances: lies through his teeth." That's been my experience with Campos as well. Plus, the last time he savaged me he managed to misspell my name, which seems consistent with his usual floppy-shoed degree of thoroughness. . . .

INDEED:

Small-town people of modest means and limited education are not fixated on cultural issues. Rather, it is affluent, college-educated people living in cities and suburbs who are most exercised by guns and religion. In contemporary American politics, social issues are the opiate of the elites.

Heh.

I'VE MENTIONED DAVID BARON'S EXCELLENT BOOK, The Beast in the Garden, on several occasions. Over at ChicagoBoyz, there are lengthy posts on it here and here, along with some thoughts on the recent cougar shooting in Chicago and the rather silly, if predictable, public reaction thereto.

CINDY MCCAIN'S SECRET SHAME: Megan McArdle on recipegate.

CAR LUST: The deep pleasures of the AMC Gremlin.

REMEMBERING THE SNAIL DARTER: A TVA v. Hill retrospective tomorrow, at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Plus, a reminiscence from Sam Venable.

RACHEL LUCAS EXPLAINS THE BLOGOSPHERE to Glamour magazine. (Via Dr. Helen).

IN TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL, Dave Kopel compares Hillary and Obama on gun control. "Imagine an election race of Pat Robertson versus James Dobson, each of them appearing at organic grocery stores and Starbucks throughout Massachusetts, with each candidate insisting that he alone deserves the vote of gay-marriage advocates. . . . A presidential candidate could of course swear devotion to the First Amendment, while declaring that the amendment's purpose is to protect sports reporting and book collecting. And that candidate could still support government lawsuits against publishers, local bans on newspapers, and draconian restrictions on political commentary."

HERE'S A COPY OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BRIEF in the Vermont greenhouse gas case.

AT YALE: Standing up against "patriarchal heteronormative trappings of a right to speak." I have to agree with this part: "It's not enough to have the right to say it if you don't know what you want to say." Indeed, the video is self-validating on that point.

UPDATE: Apparently, I'm not the only one to think so: "Like cockroaches running for the den when the lights go on: Shvarts' advisor Pia Lindman chickens out by removing the You Tube video above originally at Lindman's Soapbox Event. Ah, the courage of our 'artists!'"

Yes, in honor of their bravery, here's a much better video from YouTube:

Now that's art!

BIOFUELS VS. FOOD SUPPLIES: The debate continues: "More to the point, though, is the mistaken notion that we have to use food crops for fuel production. In test fields in Minnesota, Tilman and his colleagues have found that the best energy yields actually come from native prairie grasses, not corn or soy."

Yes. Nonfood biofuels are a whole different kettle of fish heap of kudzu.

ALAN KEYES IS GETTING NASTY.

Who?

I MISS UGLY MOMMY. "What's next - 'New Daddy's Money Is Better Than Old Daddy'?"

DOG BITES MAN: U.N. ineffective against armed bandits in Darfur.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS RESPONDS TO OBAMA: He doesn't actually use the words stop whining, but the message is clear.

UPDATE: "Welcome to the big leagues, rookie."

ARE TEENAGERS RATIONAL ABOUT SEX? It depends on what the meaning of rational is.

IT'S NOT ABORTION, IT'S ART: "Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself 'as often as possible' while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process." Hmm. I'm pretty sure the folks at my University would have required this to be run by Human Subjects for approval. Maybe it's different at Yale, or maybe Yuval Levin's skepticism is merited.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Yale says it's a hoax:

Statement by Helaine S. Klasky — Yale University, Spokesperson

New Haven, Conn. — April 17, 2008

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

Hoax, performance art, whatever.

THOUGHTS ON HILLARY: "She can reel out the policy when that's what's required. But cruel political fighting unleashes her super powers."

UP! Volkswagen attempts a beetle for the 21st Century.

BROOKS TO DEMOCRATS: No whining about the media. That's Republicans' job!

Meanwhile Jennifer Rubin says please, keep whining!

NOAH POLLAK -- not buying J Street. "And as far as Israel is concerned, yes, hawkishness over the last five years has indeed worked out 'so great.' The Dean of the Credulosphere doesn’t appear to have a historic memory longer than three or four blog posts, but if he did he would remember that five years ago buses and restaurants were being detonated by suicide bombers on a weekly basis in Israel. In March of 2002 alone, 134 Israelis were murdered in such attacks."

FREE BRIGITTE BARDOT!

DON SURBER: Enough with the apologies already. "I am tired of the politicization of the apology. Phony apologies water down not only the meaning of an apology, but also the political discourse."

A LOOK AT THE PLANET'S largest, most powerful laser.

BILL ARDOLINO: "I'm going to Baghdad next week to embed with the 2/1 Stryker Cavalry Regiment operating in and around Sadr City." If you want to help, follow the link and hit the tipjar. I did.

LITTLE TYRANTS. I would add that "they're so cute when they're little" -- but, really, they're not.

COMPARING TOM COBURN TO BILL AYERS: Not so fast.

UPDATE: Reportedly, Obama misquoted Coburn.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Coburn Silent on Obama's Ayers Comparison.

And Tom Maguire has fun with Obama's ideas of moral equivalence: "Following his linkage of the Reverend Wright to his own grandmother and Geraldine Ferraro in his Philadelphia race speech, in last night's debate Obama decided to pair off an unrepentant Weatherman bomber with a US Senator; evidently he has run of of relatives and is reduced to pitching friends under the bus."

IN THE MAIL: The Breakthrough Imperative: How the Best Managers Get Outstanding Results, by Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: When earmarks turn criminal:

The Senate moved yesterday toward asking the Justice Department for a criminal investigation of a $10 million legislative earmark whose provisions were mysteriously altered after Congress gave final approval to a huge 2005 highway funding bill.

In what may become the first formal request from Congress for a criminal inquiry into one of its own special projects, top Senate Democrats and Republicans have endorsed taking action in connection with the earmark that Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), former chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, inserted into the legislation. . . .

Young's staff acknowledged yesterday that aides "corrected" the earmark just before it went to the White House for President Bush's signature, specifying that the money would go to a proposed highway interchange project on Interstate 75 near Naples, Fla. Young says the project was entirely worthy of an earmark and he welcomes any inquiry, a spokeswoman said.

This is bad enough in itself, but I think it's probably the tip of the iceberg. The entitlement mentality widespread on the Hill, combined with decades of no real accountability, makes this kind of thing seem perfectly reasonable, I suspect.

EVAN COYNE MALONEY'S FILM, Indoctrinate U., is now out on DVD. You can also get it via download, and even downloadable "virtual DVD."

TAPPING THE Great Plains oil bonanza.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Working with the tribes in Iraq: An interview with Marine Capt. Quintin Jones.

OLLIE JOHNSTON, the last of the classic Disney animation team known as the Nine Old Men has died. He was 95. "It was difficult to see all that Ollie was doing when you flipped his original drawings, because he didn't push his key poses as far as Milt [Kahl] did graphically, or as far as Frank did performance-wise... but when you saw Ollie's scenes the way they were intended to be seen– at 24 frames a second– all the beautiful nuances became crystal clear; and his characters were as sympathetic and as full of life as anything seen on screen."

MORE Wikipedia shenanigans.

HE SEEMS TO BE DOING PRETTY WELL: Obama releases 2007 tax returns. Adjusted Gross income: $4.1 million.

GERAGHTY VS. SULLIVAN on Clinton and Obama.

UPDATE: And here's Marc Ambinder's scorecard.

SHOULD LAW SCHOOLS block Internet access in classrooms? Another round of discussion.

PROTESTERS MARCH AHEAD OF OLYMPIC TORCH IN INDIA: "Hundreds of Tibetan protesters marched through central Delhi on Thursday morning shouting 'Die for Freedom' hours before the Olympic torch was due to be carried through the Indian capital."

The sentiment's admirable, but I'd prefer to adapt Patton's dictum.

AIRLINE MERGERS: Less a threat to travel costs than hub monopolies.

"IT'S INEVITABLE:" A nuclear attack on Washington.

April 16, 2008

20 COUPLES, 20 COUCHES: Via Sarah Pullman.

"GOAT RODEO?"

SOME COOL iPhone photos from New York, by Missy Schwartz.

DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Police Shoot Wild Cougar in Chicago.

Related item here. And there may be more.

UPDATE: No, it wasn't a Canadian Cougar.

FROM BAGHDAD WITH LOVE: It's sort of a military version of Rescuing Sprite.

A REVIEW OF THE NEW 9" Asus Eee PC.

IS YOUR CELLPHONE CARRIER tracking your location?

LIVEBLOGGING the Clinton / Obama debate.

UPDATE: More liveblogging here and here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Josh Marshall liveblogged most of it, but wasn't impressed: "It's been genuinely awful."

MORE: John Podhoretz: "It’s clear this is Obama’s worst performance of the entire campaign, and judging from the pained expression on his face, he knows it." Plus this: "Early pulse-taking from Obama-centric blogs and bloggers indicates that Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos are in for a world of hurt over the next couple of days."

Video here and here.

And here's a postdebate discussion thread at TalkLeft.

And Freeman Hunt invokes Atlas Shrugged.

Best catch from Salena Zito: Obama considers Dick Cheney "wise?"

Finally, an endorsement Obama could live without. And a big roundup of reactions.

IAIN MURRAY ON BUSH ON GLOBAL WARMING: "The President, as I mentioned below, stepped back from calling for a ruinous cap and trade scheme, but his speech still lays out a blueprint for slow motion economic decline. . . . President Bush has unfortunately moved the debate toward energy rationing policies that will raise the electricity and gasoline prices paid by consumers."

What we need are nice, clean, environmentally-friendly nuclear plants. But hell, we can't even get wind power.

BUT OF COURSE: BitterAmericans.com.

AN XP VERSION OF HP's Mini-Note subnotebook. Sounds nice.

ROBOTS TAKING CARE OF THE ELDERLY: Not that the haters will give them any credit for their selfless actions. Robophobes don't care about the facts.

NEW DVD RELEASES: I can't believe Juno is aready out on DVD. Seems like it was just in theaters.

HUFFINGTON POST: Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: "Screw 'Em".

Well, that language should win over the Kos Krowd!

OOPS: "Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken’s personal corporation didn’t file corporate income tax returns in California from 2003 to 2007."

A BOGUS GUN RIGHTS GROUP endorses Obama. Well, he's all for bogus gun rights, so . . . .

FROM IRONY TO FARCE:

I'm a big fan of The Innocence Project, which assists individuals unjustly convicted of crimes. But I did a massive double-take when I saw that Janet Reno is on its board of directors. Janet Reno! She bears as much responsibilty as anyone for the child abuse witch hunt trials of the late 80s that claimed many innocent victims, including several prosecuted by her office, via the "Miami method" she pioneered. To my knowledge, Reno has never apologized for what we might euphemistically call the "excesses" of her prosecutorial tactics.

Janet Reno has much to apologize for, but she's unlikely either to apologize or to be asked for such by the media.

MICHAEL SILENCE: A newspaper betrays its readers. May all their luggage be lost, and all their seats non-reclining.

MAC VS. P.C. -- the ultimate lab test.

HMM: Automakers facing a 75mpg CAFE rating by 2030?

DAVE PRICE: How the media lost in Basra.

LUSTING AFTER THE Toyota Sera.

SEAN HACKBARTH interviews Carly Fiorina.

IDENTITY POLITICS, or post-identity politics?

AUSTIN BAY: "This week the 'food crisis' rates scare headlines — but the problem is an old one and no surprise."

ERIC MULLER UNCOVERS a truly unforgivable act by John Yoo. A Dukakis endorsement! Hell, I voted for Dukakis myself. Remember that if you find yourself starting to repose much trust in my political judgment.

YOU WON'T SEE A WHOLE LOT OF BENEDICT-BLOGGING HERE, but The Anchoress is going all Pope, all the time.

EXPECTING NEWSROOM LAYOFFS at the New York Times. We often hear candidates asking if managers of underperforming companies should earn big salaries, but never in this particular context . . . .

ROGER VON OECH is better known to InstaPundit readers as the creator of the highly popular Ball of Whacks, but in the mail today comes the 25th Anniversary edition of his real claim to fame, A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative.

DID MONSTER CABLE BITE OFF MORE THAN IT COULD CHEW? Of course, Monster should be even more afraid of the "buy the cheap cables" guy.

AUTOMATED MOLECULAR EVOLUTION as a tool for nanotechnology.

EIGHT-YEAR-OLD GIRL: "I am happy that I am divorced now. I will be able to go back to school."

IN CONGRESS, a move to allow states to tax the Internet.

BIG NIKON VS. LITTLE KODAK: My review comparing the Nikon D300 and the (much, much cheaper) Kodak Z1085IS is up over at the PopularMechanics.com website. And I've got a gallery of sample pictures from both.

IN FLORIDA: Governor signs Bring Your Gun to Work Bill: "Employers and business owners can no longer bar workers and shoppers from bringing guns onto their property and leaving the weapons locked inside their vehicles under a bill signed into law today by Gov. Charlie Crist. The new law allows employees and visitors who have concealed weapons licenses to leave their weapons locked in or to vehicles." Seems reasonable to me.

IN THE SUN-TIMES, Obama-Auchi questions: "Dem presidential contender Barack Obama's handlers may be telling the press Obama has NO 'recollection' of a 2004 party at influence peddler Tony Rezko's Wilmette house, but a top Sneed source claims Obama not only gave Rezko's guest of honor, Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, a big welcome . . . but he made a few toasts!"

THE CONSEQUENCES OF A TOO-RAPID WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ: A must-watch video from Austin Bay. (Bumped).

DEAN BARNETT reviews Glenn Greenwald's new book.

MARY KATHARINE HAM: "Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned by Democrats from this week’s 'bitter' brouhaha is that when you get advice about how to hook rural, white, blue-collar voters from a guy named Mudcat, you’d best listen."

REPORTS OF A ROBOT REBELLION ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED: But, you know, the haters will seize on anything to stoke the fires of robophobia among the impressionable.

OOPS:

A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, after spotting the boffins had miscalculated.

Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.

What's a few decimal places among friends?

UPDATE: According to this report, however, the boy's math is wrong. Well, that's not much of a story: NASA better at math than 13-year-old! But, you know, sometimes dogs really do bite men . . . .

STOP THE PRESSES: Poll shows erosion of trust in Clinton.

BOB KRUMM, EN ROUTE TO THE WAR, reports from Fort Benning.

I’ve observed one thing about this group which may surprise some. During the entire week I heard not one complaint. In our seventh year of war, after multiple separations from family, even in wake of the recent Sadr uprisings, no one ever said “woe is me.” Just five out of every ten-thousand Americans are now serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Out of every thousand soldiers deployed there, about four of them will die during the year. This is a war with a better than 99.5% chance of survival. Still, it’s a different kind of war, one where there are no “safe” jobs. Yet not once did I hear that fear voiced. I couldn’t help but to contrast the lack of complaint from those actually willing to sacrifice in this war with what I’ve heard from so many of whom nothing is asked.

Actually, I have heard several people complain about one thing: the food in the mess hall. Even with new Soldiers some things never change.

Glad to hear that -- I was starting to worry.

PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW WHAT I THINK ABOUT BEN STEIN'S EXPELLED: I haven't seen it, but I expect it will be like a Michael Moore film, and at least as funny, and at least as honest. And yes, that's faint praise. Anyway, if I did go see it, I might be . . . expelled. It wouldn't be the first time.

LIFE IN BASRA IMPROVED BY MALIKI CRACKDOWN. Ed Morrissey observes: "Once again, the American media got caught with its pants down and their, er, aspirations showing. They wanted the military operation to represent a breakdown of the government so badly that they reported it as a defeat even as the Iraqi Army adapted and prevailed against the militia members. They still have yet to acknowledge that the Basra and Umm Qasr operations have largely met their goals, and have driven Moqtada al-Sadr even further outside the political arena."

JAMES KIRCHICK: Who has Obama's ear? I dunno, but it's a lot of real estate.

MORE ON THE NEW MEXICO "HUMAN RIGHTS" COMMISSION, from Eugene Volokh.

How come "human rights" are suddenly trumping Constitutional rights?

April 15, 2008

USA TODAY: Obama's claim of independence questioned.

SEAN HACKBARTH: The Spirit of Fred Thompson Lives On in John McCain: "Last fall, Fred Thompson issued a tax plan that included an optional flat tax with two tax rates and a generous standard deduction. Another element of the Thompson plan was reducing corporate tax rates. I don’t know if Thompson and McCain have spent any time together since McCain became the GOP nominee. Like I wrote above McCain for some time has been talking about cutting the corporate tax rate. The optional alternative tax came out of the blue. I wonder how much influence Thompson had?"

LEFTY BLOGGERS pile on Hillary.

DAVE BARRY: How your taxes turn into manure.

DUI ENFORCEMENT IN OUR TIME: "Police arrested, cuffed, and hauled her away in front of her kid–all because a man in a restaurant mistook the glasses of water she was drinking for wine, then called the police. . . . The reporter finds another case in which a woman was charged with DUI after blowing .03 on a breath test, because the cops were convinced she was on drugs. When lab tests proved them wrong, prosecutors pushed ahead with the charges anyway." In my area, the prosecutors seem to be under considerable pressure to generate court costs, even when they don't have a strong case. Those who criticize the city or county government also seem to face DUI charges at a statistically questionable rate.

RECIPEGATE!

See, she should have stuck with the Insta-Chicken and the Lamb and Guinness Stew.

UPDATE: Here's my leg of lamb recipe. And here's one for Pasta with Tomato, Basil and Chevre sauce.

TAKING THE FIGHT TO APPLE with a new lineup of Microsoft Stores? The Ned Flanders angle is genius . . . .

MICHAEL YON'S BOOK is now up to #29 #17 #15 #13 #12 #11 #10 #8 on Amazon. And if you missed it last night, be sure to check out our podcast interview with him. (Bumped). (And bumped again!)

UPDATE: Michael Yon emails: "That's just wild. Folks really did want that book after all. I was wondering how many people even cared. It's great to know that people want to really know what's going on."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Robert Mayer: "I don't know if this has been said, but given Michael Yon's volcanic rise through the book rankings, I think it is significant that such a bold book is being published when it is. As the Democratic politicians have already been ignoring Iraq for months, Michael's book -- hopefully becoming as widely read as possible -- could be the last nail in the coffin of this dead mantra that we are losing in Iraq. Let's hope so. Whoever the Democratic nominee is, s/he'll have a hard time pushing for immediate withdrawal not only as victory comes within this nation's clutches, but also as people come to understand this fact."

If you listen to the podcast, you'll see that Michael Yon doesn't think the war in Iraq is over. But he does think we're winning, and have a good prospect at winning big if we don't drop the ball.

MORE: Breaking the top 10 on Amazon is pretty cool, but now they're out of stock for the moment. You can still buy through his site, though.

OUCH: "Canada may no longer believe in old-fashioned human rights like free speech and the presumption of innocence, but it's discovering exciting new 'human rights' every day. Hard on the heels of the human right to a labiaplasty comes the human right of restaurant employees not to wash their hands."

MY DEEPEST SECRETS, revealed.

ROSS DOUTHAT: "Voting on issues like 'God, guns and gays' is an artifact of (relative) prosperity, not immiseration."

FUNNY NUMBERS IN THE SENATE: If you're gonna stage those photo-ops, you need to agree on the math.

THE END OF China's surreptitious rise?

OUT OF TOUCH, according to Tom Maguire.

HMM: Associated Press Documents Gun Control’s Irrelevance.

"PEAK OIL" IS TRUE: At least, in Russia. "Russian oil production has peaked and may never return to current levels, one of the country’s top energy executives has warned, fuelling concerns that the world’s biggest oil producers cannot keep up with rampant Asian demand." Or they're just playing games with the markets.

B.E.T. FOUNDER BOB JOHNSON: Ferraro was right. "Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial ... it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything." Which makes an Obama presidency something to look forward to . . . .

CAN TESTOSTERONE MAKE YOU RICH?

Er, aside from Arnold, who's an obvious case . . . .

FROM LES JONES: More flashlight-blogging.

THE SCANDAL ISN'T DEAD YET: "For three days in a row now, Barack Obama's remarks about bitter churchgoing gun-clingers have been on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer."

Advice to Obama -- when you're trying to counter charges of elitism, don't use the word "conflate." It's a perfectly good word, but . . . .

RAND SIMBERG NOTES the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

And here's a piece that Dave Kopel and I wrote on the surprisingly good miniseries on that topic a few years back. And here's an interview that's worth your time. So is this.

TECHNOLOGY SMOOTHS THE WAY for home wind-power turbines. I'm guessing that my neighborhood association might object. But maybe not.

OOPS: "The worst moment in history to demand biofuels."

HILLARY FACES "malignant misogyny." But something's missing.

JAMES JOYNER: Barack Obama is a socialist. Well, not really, after that attention-getting opener: "He’s as close to a socialist as it gets in serious contenders for the presidency; but that’s not very close. He’s part of a long movement that has adopted some of the tools of socialism in an effort to make society better, with decidedly mixed results."

Plus, Bredesen on Obama. "Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen says he disagrees with remarks by Barack Obama that some small-town voters are bitter over their economic circumstances and 'cling to guns and religion' as a result." And, thoughts on Obama and culture:

I found "Dreams From My Father" a perplexing read. For me, the most moving part is the introduction to the new edition, in which he says that he really ought to have written about his mother — as if her "dreams" have more to do with what he is. Certainly, they should. He lived with her (and her parents), and the father abandoned him. Why does his book consign her to the background? His narrative is based on the idea that his absent father represents his true identity, and I had the sense that, for some reason, he decided that the story of embracing his patrilineal racial identity would make the best story. After all, he sold the book proposal based on the excitement created by his distinction as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. The story he tells culminates with a trip to Africa as an adult to meet the many relatives who had nothing to do with his upbringing. This he presents as the ultimate homecoming. From a feminist perspective, this troubled me.

There's talk of socialism there, too.

Also, a Bittergate roundup.

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS: More Rezko real-estate questions for Obama.

SLOWING TUMOR GROWTH, with nanotechnology.

JAY SOLO is having a rough time. I hit the tipjar; if you've enjoyed his blogging ("Carnival of the Capitalists," etc.) you may want to do so too.

CABLE-CUTTING SHIPS nabbed via satellite.

RASMUSSEN: Pennsylvania: Clinton 50% Obama 41%. They had her lead at 5% a week ago.

SOME NEWS FROM BASRA: "Three weeks after Iraqi troops swarmed into the southern city of Basra to take on armed militiamen who had overrun the streets, many residents say they feel safer and that their lives have improved. . . . Residents say the streets have been cleared of gunmen, markets have reopened, basic services have been resumed and a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city. An AFP correspondent said three northwestern neighbourhoods once under the firm control of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- Al-Hayaniyah, Khamsamile and Garma -- are now encircled by Iraqi troops who are carrying out door-to-door searches. Two other neighbourhoods once dominated by the Mahdi Army, Al-Qiblah in the southwest and Al-Taymiyyah in the centre, have been cleared of weaponry and many people have been arrested, military officials say." Not perfect, so far, but not the disaster we were hearing about from the media coverage of a couple of weeks ago.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: McCain's Speech Shows He's a Pro-growth Populist, Like Reagan. I'd certainly like that to be true.

TEST DRIVING THE NEW HONDA PILOT: But why isn't there a hybrid version?

CLUELESS: "Barack Obama's San Francisco-Democrat comment last week – about how alienated working-class voters 'cling to guns or religion' – is already famous. But the fact that his aides tell reporters he is privately bewildered that anybody took offense is even more remarkable."

NOT AS DUMB AS THE VACCINE THING, BUT STILL DUMB: McCain backs shield law for journalists. Funny how the "Free Flow of Information Act" is about letting people keep secrets.

My thoughts on the general subject are here.

THIS WEEK'S GRAND ROUNDS IS UP! And so is the latest Blawg Review!

IN THE MAIL: Doug Feith's War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism. Apparently the war is being refought with even greater ferocity in the reader-review section . . . .

BILL BRADLEY GOES DEEP INSIDE "BITTERGATE:"

It’s one of the great ironies of the campaign. The resolutely pro-Obama Huffington Post, the site Barack Obama chose last month to put out his statement on Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s outrageous comments, this month is the source of one of his biggest campaign crises. Its namesake co-owner, the conservative-turned-liberal commentator profiled recently in the New York Times as “Citizen Huff,” Arianna Huffington, was on David Geffen’s yacht in Tahiti when the deal went down.

Read the whole thing.

YEAH, THIS'LL HELP THEIR P.R. PROBLEM: "Bristling at criticism in the run-up to the Summer Olympics, China is lashing back at its foreign critics -- by name." Personally, I think Nancy Pelosi's criticism was dead-on.

HOW TO GET enough Vitamin D.

RENT-TO-OWN UNIONISM.

IS IT WRONG TO TAKE A NAP AT WORK? I hope not.

BLAME AMERICA FIRST SECOND: China 'now top carbon polluter'.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from the weekend's newspapers.

BARACK OBAMA among friends.

On the other hand, there's this: AP Asks Democratic Frontrunner About “Obama bin Laden.” Hey, even Ted Kennedy can't keep things straight.

OBAMA'S TRADE PRIORITIES, explained.

A CALL TO CENSURE JIMMY CARTER. Plus, from Jerry Pournelle, this troubling prediction: "Jimmy Carter, you have much to answer for. Alas, I suspect you will rack up even more reasons to deserve obloquy before you go to your reward."

MORE FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS on censorship in the name of "human rights." Plus, more from Mark Steyn.

E.J. DIONNE: "The Democratic presidential candidates are doing a splendid job of helping John McCain get to the White House."

HESITATING TO SAY that Obama's a Marxist. Well, that's a comfort. The hesitating, I mean. Plus, thoughts on the Overclass.

INSTAPUNDIT IRAQ CORRESPONDENT MAJOR JOHN TAMMES EMAILS:

The sweeps through Basrah continue. I am often at locations where Iraqi Army troops are returning, or heading out to the city. I have attached a couple of photos of them.

During my work, I watch them to gauge their mood/morale and the state of their equipment and can say that it is "so far, so good". The next days and weeks will be a good measure of the progress the IA has made - can they sustain operations, not just conduct them. We will learn an awful lot about where our Iraqi allies are in terms of their logistical progress. They seem to have the political will, and I hope they have the physical means to continue forward.

Stay tuned.

REAL INFLATION: Education costs vs. gas prices.

April 14, 2008

DALE CARPENTER DEFENDS JOHN YOO from something that looks very much like a witch hunt. (Funny how those are increasingly carried out in the name of "human rights.") So does Brian Leiter. ("Are we really to believe--fifty years after the McCarthyist witch hunts!--that academics should be punished because their bad ideas are then used by bad people to do bad things?") Who can stand against the wind that will blow if that becomes the rule . . . .?

At any rate, the likely consequence of such witch hunts is to discourage law professors from taking jobs in the government, thus increasing the legal academy's already considerable self-marginalization. Some, I suppose, will say that's not a bug, but a feature. Rest assured, however, that members of any future Democratic administration will not escape, now that this precedent has been established. Who knows who else might someday be persecuted for proposing theories of aggrandized executive power?

USERS FIGHT TO SAVE WINDOWS XP.

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's bid to stall the Colombia free-trade pact into oblivion is a card she has played before. This time it won't fool anyone. In fact, it may backfire."

She's just clinging bitterly to her anti-trade stance because she resents . . . well, not having more power, mostly, I guess.

BITTER RELIGIONISM: "Well, I do go a-churchin’ every Sunday with a bunch of bitter folks who complain about how the government is evil and screws them over, and we yell an’ whoop it up when the preacher rails against them Italians and Jews, an’ then we …

"Oops, wait a minute, that’s not me, that’s Barack Obama. "

GUILTY BEFORE PROVEN INNOCENT: "How police harassment, jailhouse snitches, and a runaway war on drugs imprisoned an innocent family."

BERLUSCONI'S WIN IN ITALY IS NEWS, but it's not really big news. On the other hand, I didn't know this:

The big news is that the Communists are gone, for the first time since the end of the Second World War. Really gone. They didn't win a single seat in either chamber.

That's big news. And good news.

THOUGHTS ON POLICING IN BRITAIN, and the policies of New Labour. British police as the "paramilitary wing of the Guardian newspaper"?

SOME HISTORY ON THE Olympic Torch.

I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT THAT MYSELF: How the Asians became "White."

MORE BAD NEWS FOR ALL THOSE ROBOPHOBES OUT THERE:

This week, engineers, psychologists and computer scientists from across Europe will begin a major project that aims to develop the first robot personalities.

"What we're looking at here is long-term interactions between people and robots in real situations," said Peter McOwan of Queen Mary, University of London, coordinator of the £6.6m, EU-funded Lirec project. "The big question is: what sort of properties does a synthetic companion need to have so that you feel you want to engage in a relationship with it over an extended period of time?"

Nobody tell Matt Yglesias.

SALON ON THE GENDER DIVIDE: Young women are growing increasingly frustrated with the fanatical support of Barack and gleeful bashing of Hillary.

Best quote: "Have you seen their eyes? It's this faraway look. It's scary"

Second best: "I pinpoint sexism for a living. You'd think I'd be able to find an example. And I hate to rely on this hokey notion that there's some woman's way of knowing, and that I just f*cking know. But I do. I just know."

Honorable mention: "That does not mean that all privileged white male Democrats are sexist, anymore than it would be true to suggest that all working-class white Democrats (the segment of the party that is breaking for Clinton) are racist."

UPDATE: Matt Sherman emails:

Glenn, that Salon article to which you linked has plenty of interesting things about it -- the sheer cut-it-with-a-knife density of identity politics was extraordinary -- but what I found most notable was this: It appears that, to a person, none of the people the author quoted is in a wealth-creating job.

This may simply have been a choice of the author as to what constitutes a typical voice in on this topic. But doesn't that say something?

What, "pinpointing sexism for a living" doesn't count as wealth-producing?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Matt Carden emails: "Would you say lawyers are 'wealth producing'?" Sometimes.

MORE: "I love this primary."

JUST BECAUSE: Webb Wilder's video of Too Much to Dream Last Night.

JAMES TARANTO: What do Barack Obama and Ayn Rand have in common? . . . "Workers of the world, unite!" meets "The Virtue of Selfishness."

The Glenn and Helen Show: Michael Yon on the Moment of Truth in Iraq

Michael Yon is a blogger, and independent journalist, and he's actually the longest serving embedded journalist in Iraq. He's also got a new book out, Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope. It's a terrific book, and a must-read for anyone interested in the war on terror.

We talk to Michael about independent blogging, the situation in Iraq and how it's changed since he started reporting in 2004, and his new book. Plus, advice for the Presidential candidates on what to say, and do, about Iraq over the coming year.

You can listen directly -- no downloads needed -- by going right here and clicking on the gray Flash player. You can download the file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here. And you can get a lo-fi version suitable for dialup, etc., by going here and selecting "lo fi." As always, you can get a free subscription via iTunes, and never miss another episode.

Show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com, and music is by Mobius Dick.

THE GOOD NEWS FOR OBAMA: Maybe this bit from the Rezko trial will distract people from his remarks about gun-loving, churchgoing bitter Americans.

I THINK WE'LL SEE MORE OF THIS: Complaint filed at the Canadian Human Rights Commission against a Montreal imam.

A LOOK AT the eligible bachelor paradox. Hey, all the good ones are married. That's news?

MULTITASKING IS OUT: Omnitasking is in.

JOHN MCCAIN: "President Carter is wrong to meet with Hamas, a terrorist group that has also killed innocent Americans."

"VISUAL SEXUAL AGGRESSION:" Perhaps we should cover women in large, tentlike garments to prevent this. It's popular some places, I hear.

UPDATE: Then there's the dreaded problem of excessive male loquaciousness.

OBAMA'S PROBLEM:

As for small-town Americans’ alleged “antipathy to people who aren’t like them”: During what Obama considers the terrible Clinton-Bush years of economic frustration, by any measurement of public opinion polling or observed behavior, Americans have become far more tolerant and respectful of minorities who are not “like them.” Surely Obama knows this. Was he simply flattering his wealthy San Francisco donors by casting aspersions on the idiocy of small-town life? . . .

What does this mean for Obama’s presidential prospects? He’s disdainful of small-town America — one might say, of bourgeois America. He’s usually good at disguising this. But in San Francisco the mask slipped. And it’s not so easy to get elected by a citizenry you patronize.

And what are the grounds for his supercilious disdain? If he were a war hero, if he had a career of remarkable civic achievement or public service — then he could perhaps be excused an unattractive but in a sense understandable hauteur. But what has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans?

He's been a unifier!

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Hope for Iraq's Meanest City: How the Surge Brought Order to Fallujah.

IN ADVERTISING AGE, a shocking message to advertisers: "Bashing Fathers and Husbands Isn't the Right Way for Marketers to Sell Products." Go figure.

UPDATE: Reader Rick Maxey emails that advertisers might want to listen: "I've stopped using several products and changed my phone company because of insulting commercials. It's like the whole world became the Lifetime channel!" Now there's a frightening thought.

And Tom Kazazes emails: "I have said for some time that I am tired of the way men are depicted in ad campaigns – clearly, I am not alone. While any single commercial with goofy guys or clueless dads may get a laugh or two, there is a long-term cost at the subconscious level. Personally, given a choice, I would steer my purchasing to advertisers who present a depiction of men/fathers that I can relate to rather than those who see us as future candidates for the Darwin Awards or ridicule on America’s Funniest Videos."

MICHAEL YON'S BOOK IS STILL flying high at #58 #48 on Amazon, which is a tribute to his Internet power since the big-media PR campaign is just getting under way. We'll have a podcast interview with him later on.

AFF AWARDS COLLEGE BLOG PRIZE:

Today, AFF judges awarded $10,000 to Dartmouth University senior Joe Malchow as the winner of AFF's College Blogger Contest. Malchow founded Dartblog. Judges awarded a second-place prize of $1,000 to the staff blog of the Oregon Commentator and third-place to Surveillance State.

And via Joe Malchow, the other finalists:

GOP3.com (Marquette University), California Patriot Blog (University of California, Berkeley), The Irish Rover (University of Notre Dame), The Critical Badger (University of Wisconsin-Madison), The Claremont Conservative (Claremont McKenna College), Panther Talk Live (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee), Surveillance State (Indiana University Bloomington), and On Life and Lybberty (Brigham Young University & University College London).

They're all good blogs -- check 'em out.

HMM: Harvard professor predicts railroads will return to prominence in the U.S. That's not much of a prediction, since it's already happening, and has been for a few years.

DANIEL WILSON: 10 inventions we're still waiting for.

POLL: 56% disagree with Obama's comments on small-town America. Plus, this email from reader Madhu Dahiya:

So I listened to that Trace Adkins song and I can see how it's perfect rebuttal to Obama's 'so bitter about jobs (or lack of) they turn to God and Guns' comment.

But, you know what? You don't need to be a small town person to find Obama's comments annoying. I'm a city person and I find them incredibly irritating. He sounded like a know-it-all. "I know more about your motivations than you, little person, know about your own motivations.' Oh, really, Senator?

That's the real problem with his comments. It's a glimpse into his mindset and that mindset is: I know better than you. I can just imagine the type of government coming out of that mindset. Four years of talking down to me and asking me to pay for it.

"Four years of talking down to me and asking me to pay for it." That sounds about right.

UPDATE: Related item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Juliette Ochieng: It's the "White" Church that Obama's Talking About.

If you think about it, the fact that Obama lumped the perceived religion of the white, rural Pennsylvanian with “antipathy toward those not like them”--that is, racism, bigotry and anti-immigration (sic)--makes perfect sense.* The latter is bad and so is the former—if one is observing from the perspective of Black Liberation Theology.

In Obama’s mind, the religion clung to by the “average poor white Pennsylvanian” is BLT’s demonic “white” Church. The "white" Church the tool of oppression for all—including poor whites—and should be shaken off just like other social maladies. . . . Never forget where this guy is coming from.

Hadn't looked at it that way.

ANOTHER UPDATE: In Slate: "When I went back there, and visited similar small towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, one thing I heard over and over—from registered Democrats!—was that their national party leaders were elitists who couldn't seem to relate to their struggles. . . . Now, if Obama is sticking by the essence of what he said out of stubbornness or arrogance, that's one kind of problem. But if he really doesn't see why this could be a game-changer, that's worse."

WELL, YES: Regional law schools may be better deals than elite law schools.

IN THE MAIL: David Levy's Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships, No doubt this will set off a storm among the narrow-minded robophobes out there. Stand up to the haters!

RED-LIGHT CAMERA UPDATE: More on cities being busted for shortening the yellow light to boost traffic revenue. But it's all about safety, really!

HILLARY GETS A 20-POINT LEAD IN PENNSYLVANIA according to this poll being touted by Drudge. Make of it what you will, but I don't see how it could possibly be good news for Obama.

EUGENE VOLOKH ON THE NEW YORK TIMES and respect for precedents. Plus, related thoughts on opinion vs. reporting from the Supreme Court press corps.

MR AND MS. SPOKEN: And the difference between misspeaking and lying.

ED MORRISSEY: Iraqis aren't stupid -- and they're watching us.

THERE REALLY ARE TWO AMERICAS: Taxpayers and Tax Consumers. Guess who's on top?

THE MOTHER OF ALL GAFFES: "Barack Obama broke the first rule of Democratic presidential politics: never let on that you believe rural American voters are hicks straight out of Deliverance. . . . he could not have picked a worse time to reveal his contempt for average Americans."

A PROGRESS REPORT ON The Rocket Racing League. Competition starts next year. Cool!

SMART GUNS, DUMB LEGISLATORS: "Mark DeSaulnier, a Democratic California state legislator, wants to require guns to have biometric technology that doesn’t exist before the guns can fire."

PORK, New York style. Oink. [Link was bad earlier. Fixed now. Sorry!]

"YOU WILL BE PUNISHED."

MICHAEL YON'S BOOK IS STILL the number one military book on Amazon.com. And if you'd like to support him -- the real PR campaign starts this week -- here's a page with things you can do to encourage stores and libraries to stock his book, etc. including a PDF brochure on the book.

As I noted, I've read the book and it's terrific. I think it deserves the widest possible audience.

"WHITE-HAIRED WOMEN" for Obama.

The video – available at this link – was the brainchild of Belle Meade resident Patricia Burton, who wrote the script and tapped local filmmaker Travis Nicholson to direct. The video was produced as an entry in Moveon.org's "Obama in Thirty Seconds" contest. The winner, selected by a panel of celebrity judges, will see their ad aired nationally courtesy of Moveon.org and will receive a $20,000 gift certificate for video equipment. The deadline for entries is Tuesday.

Okay, so they're rich white-haired women for Obama. Still, that ought to make them part of Hillary's base, shouldn't it?

TENNESSEE'S GUN-RIGHTS BATTLE HEATS UP: I'm kind of surprised the Democrats in the legislature wanted to pick this fight in an election year. If Al Gore had carried Tennessee in 2000 he'd have been President, and gun issues were one of the main reasons he didn't.

RIGHTEOUS CRUSADER OR CIVIL RIGHTS MENACE? "Richard Warman says he's fighting hate. Critics say free speech is the real victim."

ABC NEWS: Obama Allies Avoid Trying to Explain Most Controversial Part of His Remarks.

DUBIOUS BOOK ADVANCES FOR POLITICIANS. As far as I can recall, the only time this was regarded as an ethical problem was when Newt Gingrich was involved.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, BEWARE: "Notwithstanding Tuzla-gate and all the other problems that the Hillary Clinton campaign has faced, I think that the extended primary campaign is making Senator Clinton into a stronger, more appealing candidate."

THE "LONELY PLANET" just got lonelier.

RUSSIA PLANS AN orbital construction plant.

MICKEY KAUS: "There would seem to be four distinct, major problems with Obama's 'cling' gaffe. . . . Please note that Obama's characterization of Pennsylvanians as 'bitter' doesn't even make the top four."

HILLARY AND OBAMA AND THE "COMPASSION FORUM:" Ann Althouse blogged it. And, from the comments: "Hey, let's not blame Obama. His most substantial, direct exposure to religion has been Trinity United, so it's perfectly natural for him to believe that religious belief is motivated by being bitter."

ABE GREENWALD: The Arab Spring is happening now.

April 13, 2008

JASON DAVIS EMAILS: "McCain has a ready made commercial from Hank Williams Jr. He could simply run this unedited against Obama and watch the votes roll in from the key battleground states." Well, possibly.

UPDATE: Reader Matt Johnson recommends this song: "I admit Hanks song is perfect commentary on Obama's gaffe. A little more contemporary is Trace Adkins's 'Songs about me' -- while I would bet a million dollars that nearly everyone one of Obama's bitter constituents would say hell yeah that song is about me, I can imagine Obama wouldn't have the first idea what in the world Trace is talking about."

ROBOPHOBIA, the song.

Just don't tell . . . oh, you know.

THOUGHTS ON OBAMA AND GAY MARRIAGE. Can't say I'm surprised.

MIKE ALLEN: 12 reasons 'bitter' is bad for Obama.

OBAMA ON HILLARY: "She's talking like she's Annie Oakley! Hillary Clinton's out there like she's on the duck blind every Sunday, she's packin' a six shooter! C'mon! She knows better. . . . I want to see that picture of her out there in the duck blinds."

MICKEY KAUS: "Hillary Clinton had apparently stopped losing ground in PA polls before Obama's 'cling' fling in Frisco. It's a bit unfair to say that 'Obama had been gaining ground until ...,' though I think I've heard that nascent myth being spread at least three times today. ... P.S.: Obama's lead on Rasmussen (11 points a week ago) has gone and disappeared. Note that the slide began pre-gaffe."

IRAQI GOVERNMENT: "We will continue until we secure Sadr City."

UPDATE: More pressure on Sadr.

A VERY NICE DENVER PHOTOBLOG.

And here's one from rural Pennsylvania. Funny, they don't look bitter.

ROGER KIMBALL: In Praise of Elitism: Obama Studies 101.

UPDATE: Plus, some history.

WHAT HILLARY WISHES SHE COULD SAY: "She and Bill Clinton both devoutly believe that Obama’s likely victory is a disaster-in-waiting. Naïve Democrats just don’t see it. And a timid, pro-Obama press corps won’t tell the story. . . . Obama has serious problems with Jewish voters (goodbye Florida), working class whites (goodbye Ohio) and Hispanics (goodbye, New Mexico.) Republicans will also ruthlessly exploit openings that Clinton—in the genteel confines of an intra-party contest—never could. Top targets: Obama’s radioactive personal associations, his liberal ideology, his exotic life story, his coolly academic and elitist style."

EDUCATION, then and now.

UPDATE: See Snopes, though their problem with the test seems to have more to do with interpretation than with veracity.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More, and deeper, debunking here.

CONFESSIONS OF A BIONIC MAN: "In 2005, I got new software that made music sound brighter and clearer. The software's improved frequency resolution enabled me to distinguish between tones that had sounded identical before. It was a simple upload; no surgery was necessary. . . . I've gotten used to the idea of having a quarter of a million transistors in my head -- now it's just part of my normal life. I boot myself up in the morning, and when my transmitter attaches itself magnetically to my implant, it takes only a second or two for it to begin sending data."

Just don't tell the Robophobes among us! It's best to "pass" whenever you can.

HMM: Hurricane Expert Reassesses Link to Warming. "The new study, in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, is hardly definitive in its own right, essentially raising more questions than it resolves. But it definitely rolls back his sense of confidence about a recent role for global warming." Of course, now that we know global temperatures are down from their 1998 peak, the relative paucity of hurricanes over the past couple of years makes sense . . . .

UPDATE: Brendan Loy has comments, and emphasizes this passage:

This should put to rest a lot of the nonsense about a global warming conspiracy among scientists. Emanuel, faced with new evidence, has moderated his viewpoint. That's what responsible scientists do, and most are responsible. The amount of scientist-bashing when it comes to global warming is generally quite deplorable.

The journalists, as usual, are less responsible than the scientists -- though in fact, some of the public spokescientists have gotten ahead of the science, and others at least have muted any criticism of, say, Al Gore's stretching of the truth. When you allow your work to be politicized, politics follow.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Eric Soskind emails:

I think you said: I'll treat it like a crisis when the people who keep telling me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis.

The latest example, in Maryland:

Feb. 19, 2008:
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley (expressing support for a bill requiring Maryland to reduce emissions by 90%):

"The climate crisis is real, and we must act now to reduce global climate change..."

Yesterday:

"Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced yesterday morning that he will bar commercial wind turbines from state-owned land."

Yeah. It's as if they only take the problem seriously when they want to raise taxes or something.

PUNGENT THOUGHTS ON TAXES, from Rachel Lucas. I think we should move Election Day to April 16. It would make a difference!

A BIG FAT BEER TAX IN CALIFORNIA. Reaction: "Do the Democrats want to throw Califreakinfornia to the Republicans?" 30 cents a bottle is nothing to sneeze at.

HE'S BAACK! Jeremiah Wright, that is. Just what Obama needed.

MICHAEL YON'S BOOK is now #1 among military books on Amazon.

CANADA'S "HUMAN RIGHTS" COMMISSIONS are getting more flak:

What would happen if a person charged with murder ended up before a tax court judge?

No doubt it would have many repercussions -- a review of how prisoners are handled in the court house, most likely, and certainly the accused would be sent back to await trial before a criminal court.

It is unlikely that the judge would issue a ruling saying: "I have not heard any evidence, but the accused sure looks guilty -- and there are a lot of other killers out there just like him."

But that is just what happened this week in Ontario.

Except that you have to be smart to be a Tax Court judge. And more here:

The Ontario Human Rights Commission seems to like it both ways.

It declines to prosecute columnist Mark Steyn for an allegedly Islamophobic piece published in Maclean's, as its legislative mandate doesn't cover publications.

Then, its chief commissioner Barbara Hall calls Steyn's article an example of how media portrayals of Muslims made "Islamophobic" attitudes more prevalent, "including an unwillingness to consider accommodating some of their religious beliefs and practices. . . . Explicit expression of Islamophobia further perpetuates and promotes prejudice towards Muslims . . ."

It's as though the witchfinder-general has identified the witch, but with no pyre upon which to burn him, is thereby aggrieved.

Poor old Steyn. If his case had gone to a tribunal, he wouldn't have had much of a defence: Human rights tribunals don't regard truth, or fair comment. But, he could have raged against the proceedings with his customary wit.

In this drive-by mugging, his response isn't even a matter of official record.

And here's more from The Toronto Sun: "We have a different suggestion for Premier Dalton McGuinty. Premier, isn't it time your government reined these folks in?"

I'm glad to see the Canadian media focusing on the thuggishness of these so-called "human rights" commissions. The witch-hunt analogy seems about right. In fact, I believe I've found the model for the "human rights" commissions.

Of course, according to Nicholas Kristof, it's all because of global warming: "Here’s a forecast for a particularly bizarre consequence of climate change: more executions of witches." Forecast? It's already starting!

SHIPS, ENVIRONMENTAL RULES, and the global economy.

VALUE FOR YOUR TAXES: Some thoughts from Obama supporter Marc Danziger. Interesting discussion in the comments. And read this, too.

MICHAEL YOUNG on guns and religion:

What Obama implicitly regards (in both his statements) as signs of disintegration, as reflections of popular frustration, are in fact examples of a thriving culture. . . . Yet Obama's approach betrays a very suffocating vision of the state as the be-all and end-all of political-cultural behavior. Outside the confines of the state there is no salvation, only resentment. This is nonsense, but it also partly explains why Obama is so admired among educated liberals, who still view the state as the main medium of American providence.

Indeed.

BEER: Is there anything it can't do?

MR. OBAMA, You're no Ronald Reagan.

SO I JUST FINISHED MICHAEL CHABON'S The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and it was, well, okay. Given all the great reviews it's gotten, I was a bit disappointed. The premise is interesting -- the founding of Israel failed in 1948, and the U.S. offered a chunk of the Alaska panhandle as a substitute homeland -- but Chabon doesn't really do much with that, considering. Has the Alaska setting changed the people who move there? Not a lot, it seems, or at least Chabon doesn't show us beyond relatively minor occasional references. Anyway, it's not bad, but I couldn't help but think that Harry Turtledove could have done a lot more with the setting. It was one of those books I picked up and put down over a couple of weeks, not one that sucked me into the story. But if you follow the link and look at the reviews you'll see that a lot of people liked it more than I did.

"SEIZING MOMENT, HILLARY TOTES BIBLE TO GUN RANGE:" Heh.

Her lower lip bulging from a dip of Skoal, Sen. Clinton put her Bible in her handbag, and drew out her own Para Ordnance Warthog .45 caliber pistol.

As reporters looked on, the Democrat presidential candidate emptied one 10-round magazine after another, with fair accuracy, at a human silhouette target.

It's actually easy to picture Hillary as a good shot, though I would expect something more like a Walther PPK/s.

JUST WORDS -- that are hard to find. "You know things are getting really bad when you have to go to the Free Republic to find the text of what's on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer!"

Plus, "it's not about the bitter!" "Over the last twenty-four hours though, Sen. Clinton has refocused her attacks on the faith angle, on which Sen. Obama is vastly more vulnerable."

WITH A BULLET: Michael Yon's book is now up to #258 #252 #167 #158 #139 #79 #75 #64 #43 #42 on Amazon.

UPDATE AND BUMP: I just finished the book. It's terrific, and if you care about the war you should buy it, and read it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Liz Eagan emails: "May I suggest that in your reviews that you should also suggest that readers should contact their local libraries to encourage them to buy it. In my library system (metro ,Oklahoma City), there is a 'suggest a title' page. You can include a web reference for the book. I just suggested Michael's book - hey it increases book sales....."

Good idea. Or just donate one.

MORE: Various librarian-readers suggest that you're better off requesting it than donating it, at least where public libraries are concerned.

FREE SPEECH in an age of Jihad. And here's video of Mark Steyn's speech.

PERRY DE HAVILLAND: "The western media are not demonising China because China's demons are generally home grown."

WELL, GOOD: African AIDS is Defeatable.

FAUX TIBETANS? Charges of Chinese provocateurs at protests.

BOB OWENS: For Obama, Not All Hateful Rhetoric Is Equal.

That's clearly true.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE REELECTED, we'd see people arrested for dancing in public.

And they were right!

SHAMING THE GRANNY-MUGGERS.

THE REACTION TO THIS WILL BE FUN TO WATCH: Pope will pray for terrorists at Ground Zero. "The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: 'Turn to Your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.'"

Not being as good a Christian as the Pope, my feelings are more along these lines. But this is funny: "The prayer is likely to further incense the Muslim world." There's no pleasing some people.

A REVIEW OF THE MARINES' NEW MRAP COMBAT VEHICLE, and it's kinda lukewarm: "On the good side, it is obviously better equipped to resist blast-type mines and IEDs than any other vehicle in the inventory. On top of the increased protection, the MRAP has a fantastic communications system installed, much better than what we had in our Humvee. . . . For a motorized infantry mission, however, the MRAP's shortcomings are many. . . . The MRAP is a vehicle that is well-suited for a particular niche, but due to pressure from people such as our lawmakers in Congress, it has been pressed into service in roles that it is not suited for."

HERE'S MORE ON THE DUMB Colorado College censorship affair. An obvious parody is a "threat." Feminist flyer on castration, okay. "The whole process was a punishment. I was subjected to an ideological witch hunt and interrogated about my political beliefs beyond what was in the satire."

F.I.R.E. is involved. Ace has a PDF of the offending flyer, and it looks tame enough.

CONTEXT: "The silliest thing I have read today comes from the Big Tent Democrat, who takes up otherwise useful space at Jeralyn Merritt's TalkLeft."