April 26, 2008

THIS ISN'T PARTICULARLY REASSURING: An airbase inside a mountain is the latest sign that North Korea, whose links to Syria’s nuclear programme came to light last week, is cranking up its military machine.

YES, THIS IS REALLY A STORY FROM THE BBC: "Despite the fact there are more than 200 million guns in circulation, there is a certain tranquility and civility about American life. . . . I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns. . . . It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream."

An armed society is a polite society.

LACK OF SEASONING SHOWS AGAIN: Obama Calls Bloggers Liars for Accurately Reporting His Words.

ALASDAIR PALMER: Destroy Iran's Nukes to Save Our Cities.

James Joyner doesn't see that happening.

GUY HERBERT:

The distinction between the legal order in Western democracies and the tyrannies of Stalinist Russia or modern China or the Arab gulf states, is often thought to be stark. In Britain in particular, we are complacent that 800 years of the common law will protect us against the overreaching power of state functionaries.

Today comes a case that shows this conceit to be ill-founded.

Read the whole thing.

I THINK THIS WOULD BE A BIGGER STORY if he were a Republican:

Struggling to confront a worsening homicide rate, the mayor asked pastors and citizens Friday to don burlap sacks and ashes Friday in an Old Testament-style sign of biblical repentance.

Mayor Larry Langford said his "sackcloth and ashes" rally at Boutwell Auditorium was inspired by the Book of Jonah, where residents of the ancient city of Ninevah wore rough fabric and ashes as a sign of turning away from sin.

A pastor who helped organize the rally said Langford purchased 2,000 burlap bags that will be handed out at the event. . . . Since he took office last year, Langford has held three prayer rallies as a way of addressing crime and violence. Bibles were handed out at one of the events.

"This city needs to humble itself," said Langford, a professing Christian.

Instead, his party isn't mentioned. You have to go to Wikipedia to find out that he's a Democrat.

At any rate, this is the worst sort of politico-religious pap. The problem isn't that Birmingham isn't humble enough. The problem is that it's got thugs on the streets that it's not controlling. That doesn't call for self-abasement by the community, though the Mayor and the Chief of Police might consider dropping to their knees and begging forgiveness -- from the community, not God -- for failing to do their jobs.

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Schultz emails:

I am a pretty conservative, evangelical Christian (and a pastor). Thanks for your words on the "sackcloth and ashes" stunt by Birmingham's mayor.

Repentance might be appropriate for a community-wide spiritual response to the community's injustice and oppression, but not for a crime wave. The people who repent are supposed to abase themselves. Are the burlap sacks for the thugs? And who in our culture even understands the imagery of sackcloth and ashes? And even if there was wholesale revival in Birmingham, why is it the Mayor and not the religious leaders calling for this?

As you rightly point out, "...this is the worst sort of politico-religious pap. The problem isn't that Birmingham isn't humble enough. The problem is that it's got thugs on the streets that it's not controlling."

As I said, I'm an evangelical Christian, and I find this embarrassing, stupid, and pointless.

No argument here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hmm. Seems like Langford has a lot more sin on his soul than just other people's crimes:

Two private charities controlled by Larry Langford collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from businessmen and companies he approved for government work as Fairfield mayor and Jefferson County Commission president, records show. . . . Langford's financial arrangements with bankers, lobbyists and others who received government business with his help have come under scrutiny from federal investigators. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers began digging in 2004 into bond deals, many championed by Langford, that since have led the county to the brink of bankruptcy.

SEC investigators asked Langford last year about charitable contributions he solicited from county vendors, including those involved in the bond deals.

It's like all this God stuff is just a smokescreen to cover up his own sins. Do you think it's possible?

CINDY SHEEHAN FILES to run against Nancy Pelosi. "I'll represent everyone in San Francisco, not just the corporate elite."

AL SHARPTON VOWS TO close New York City.

UPDATE: Reader Edward Friedman emails: "This cannot help Obama or Hillary. The more anti-police, anti-white rhetoric, the more the unwashed bitter people flock to McCain in November." That's probably right. As with Jeremiah Wright, it's almost as if Sharpton is trying to hurt Obama.

ANOTHER UPDATE: TigerHawk: "The elevation of Barack Obama to the presidency would vastly diminish the influence of leaders who have built up their power by stoking, rather than alleviating, the grievances of African-Americans. The era of the 'civil rights' leader would be over, perhaps sooner by decades than if Barack Obama loses. Even if Al Sharpton believes that would be a good thing -- and that is surely looking on the bright side of Sharpton -- it has to be unnerving for him. It is not a great stretch to suppose that Sharpton is rationalizing his way to public eruptions that frustrate Barack Obama's need to win votes from the vast American center."

MORE: A reader who (understandably) prefers anonymity emails: "I agree with Edward Friedman. Same with Bill Ayers, come to think of it. Don't these people have the sense to stop digging?" Apparently not. Or they've got an agenda that makes digging the sensible thing.

CAR LUST: Driving very fast in the Ariel Atom. "It is one of the very few cars that can make the Caterham Super Seven look like a safe, sedate, practical family car. . . . You can even carry a passenger--great for those first dates if your date is the type of person who prefers roller coasters to fine French dining." Video at the link.

UPDATE: Reader James Fuerstenberg writes: "A friend gave me a ride in one at Blackhawk Farms race track...holy crap!...an amazing car. I own two race cars...neither is as fast as the Atom. The cornering and braking are more impressive than the acceleration. You need a neck brace due to the g forces."

RON ROSENBAUM on the Bell verdict and the tragic folly of vice squads.

TAXPROF: Tax Problems Threaten Al Franken's Senate Candidacy.

WASHINGTON POST: "The Democratic presidential candidates have some big plans -- with big price tags attached. By our calculations, using figures supplied by the campaigns, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has proposed new spending and tax breaks that would amount to almost $265 billion a year when fully implemented, while the initiatives proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) total nearly $333 billion."

How about a 10% across-the-board cut in discretionary spending and a freeze on entitlements, instead?

FIGHTING BLEEDING with nanoparticles.

PAYBACK TIME: Eleanor Clift observes: "I'm beginning to think Hillary Clinton might pull this off and wrestle the nomination away from Barack Obama. If she does, a lot of folks—including a huge chunk of the media—will join Bill Richardson (a.k.a. Judas) in the Deep Freeze. If the Clintons get back into the White House, it will be retribution time, like the Corleone family consolidating power in 'The Godfather,' where the watchword is, 'It's business, not personal.'"

MICHAEL WEISS ISN'T BUYING Obama's new strategy.

FOR THE GUY WHO HAS EVERYTHING: Tool-o-rama.

AMY ALKON ON "Deadbeat Dads" who are actually moms. But that doesn't alliterate!

THE NEW YORK TIMES says that the Jeremiah Wright ad in North Carolina is "race-baiting." But Ann Althouse disagrees:

But look at the ad! It's about left-wing politics and anti-Americanism. . . . Is it racism simply because Jeremiah Wright and Obama are black? It would make more sense to accuse the NYT of racism for thinking that that anything that black people say or do is about their race.

Watch it for yourself. Note that the impact of these denunciations is to discredit those who reflexively play the race card on Obama's behalf, and to ensure wide circulation of the ad beyond North Carolina.

RADLEY BALKO: Should prosecutors be immune from civil lawsuits?

I'll just note that such immunity is a judicial invention, as much the product of judicial activism as any other doctrine that gets more complaint. Judges have been similarly generous with absolute immunity for judges, something also not found in the Constitution. In my opinion, such immunities should exist by statute, if at all.

HUGO CHAVEZ: Hunger, misery, and violence have overtaken the United States.

No, actually that's just Chicago.

UPDATE: Stephen Green on dubious reports of famine.

ANDY MCCARTHY WONDERS what the State Department is thinking. People seem to wonder that a lot.

NEW IDEAS ON THE NEW ORIGINALISM: Some thoughts from Larry Solum.

MORE ON THE TEXAS POLYGAMY CASE: "Instead of being judged on an individual basis - each parent considered separately from the rest of his or her community - the state is treating the sect as a whole. Kids are being removed on the basis of their cultural background, not because they are in immediate danger. . . . I’m sympathetic to what a sudden influx of more than 400 kids must do to an overburdened system but I’m more sympathetic to the children especially given that the kids shouldn’t have been removed in the first place, not without proof of immediate harm."

As I noted before, this is looking more and more like a screw-up of the first order.

BEWARE THE Detroit zombies.

IN THE MAIL: Daniel Flynn's new book, A Conservative History of the American Left.

A FRIEND I MADE, while taking pictures down at Cherokee Park.

THOUGHTS ON the professionalization of blogging.

THE FORGOTTEN X-PRIZE: The one that can save your life.

ARTHUR CAPLAN ON LIFE EXTENSION: "Despite a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing, it is not obvious that wanting to live a lot longer is evil or immoral. The case against trying is not convincing." Indeed.

CHRIS WILSON: It is time for Barack Obama to drop out.

HEH: "It seems to me that based on their low-class behavior, the protesting UGA faculty deserves to have Jerry Springer as their Commencement speaker."

MORE ON PROBLEMS IN AFGHANISTAN, at Abu Muquwama:

Doctrine, as Colin Gray once wrote, is the skeleton upon which the sinew and flesh of armies are built. Perhaps then, with no NATO doctrine for the conduct of a war among the people, it should be no surprise that the NATO-led ISAF in Afghanistan has often appeared spineless.

Read the whole thing.

WATERLESS URINALS, banned in Minnesota: "Plumbers have not been supportive of waterless urinals and have fought against them in other states arguing they will impact jobs." (Via Buzz.mn).

I'd say it's the reverse. The Men's Room in my local mall has 'em, and one or two are always covered with big plastic bags. The old, flush-type urinals seemed to have a lot less downtime.

A REPORT ON sports in outer space. No, really.

KILLING RESISTANT CANCER CELLS with nanotechnology.

April 25, 2008

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT BERNARDINE DOHRN.

TODAY IS ANZAC DAY!

JERRY POURNELLE:

Democrats seem to be drifting toward the concept of prosecution of former office holders by criminalizing policy differences. That's a certain formula for civil war; perhaps not immediate, but inevitable. The absolute minimum requirement for democratic government is that the loser be willing to lose the election: that losing an election is not the loss of everything that matters. As soon as that assurance is gone, playing by the rules makes no sense at all.

Good point.

UPDATE: Mark Lardas emails:

The best example of what happens when you criminalize political opposition is the Roman Civil War.

Gauis Julius Caesar was a republican to the core. He believed in the Roman Republic, and its unwritten constitution. When his political opponents, the Optimates, made it clear that they were going to prosecute him and either exile or execute him, the moment Caesar set down his military command they made war inevitable. Especially since it was clear that they were not interested in following the law, except at their convenience.

Caesar was not given a choice between going to war and destroying the republic or preserving it by going quietly to his doom. He could see that the republic was doomed no matter what his choice was. He could either start a civil war or let Rome slide into a tyranny run by the Optimates. Given that choice, let the dice fly and hope you can put the pieces back together after you win. At least, you can die trying.

The Democrats remind me of the Optimates in many ways. William Clinton seems like a 21st century version of Pompey Magnus. That Bush has not played Caesar is a tribute to two things: George W.'s fundamental decency, and the fact that the United States is yet not in as bad a shape politically as the late Roman Republic.

The ability of Presidents to pardon themselves, and others in their administrations, before leaving office is more evidence of the Framers' wisdom. They were not unaware of classical politics.

AIRBRUSHING AT THE OBAMA WEBSITE.

UPDATE: Wrong crowd. "It is difficult to imagine any other candidate hanging out with such a diverse group of weirdoes and still be[ing] the front-runner for dogcatcher, let alone president."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Airbrushing is a habit.

TALKLEFT HAS MORE on Obama's "all-over-the-place" gun stance. Though there's one place he won't go, which is to offer an opinion on whether the DC gun ban is unconstitutional.

JOSH MARSHALL: What Did Hillary Know, And When Did She Know It?

UPDATE: What did Obama know about Jeremiah Wright and when did he know it?

CLINTON/OBAMA IN ONE SENTENCE: "It always amazes me how swiftly the narrative can change."

SO WHEN DOES THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT GET INVOLVED? We've already heard that pro-biofuels policies in Europe are a "crime against humanity" according to UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler.

Now Al Gore's acting nervous:

Mr. Senauer said climate change advocates, such as Vice President Gore, need to distance themselves from ethanol to avoid tarnishing the effort against global warming. “Crop-based biofuels are not part of the solution. They, in fact, add to the problem. Whether Al Gore has caught up with that, somebody ought to ask him,” the professor said. “There are lots of solutions, real solutions to climate change. We need to get to those.”

Mr. Gore was not available for an interview yesterday on the food crisis, according to his spokeswoman. A spokesman for Mr. Gore’s public campaign to address climate change, the Alliance for Climate Protection, declined to comment for this article.

First they came for John Yoo, but Al Gore said nothing because Al Gore was not a law professor. Then they came for Al Gore . . . .

Regardless, Al can't escape his past.

UPDATE: Calling for a posse!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Heightening the contradictions.

MORE: Reader Scott Cram sends this original limerick:

There once was a man named Gore,
who thought he had a climate change cure,
then things like grain and rice,
went far up in price,
now he's to blame for starving the poor!

Happily, this is one limerick in which the island of Nantucket does not appear.

STILL MORE: In response to an irate email from Clark Stooksbury, let me be clear (or maybe I should say clearer since I thought it was pretty obvious) that the above is tongue-in-cheek, a mockery of certain lefties' overuse of terms like "crimes against humanity" and their eagerness to resort to international law against people they dislike for political reasons.

It's also worth noting that Al Gore -- now that he's no longer running for anything -- has in fact distinguished between food-based ethanol and ethanol from more practical sources like waste biomass.

STILL MORE ON CONGRESSIONAL BLUENOSE STUPIDITY, from The Mudville Gazette. So Maxim is too dirty for our troops?

I'M WATCHING A KUDLOW DISCUSSION OF ETHANOL and I think that most of the panelists -- except for Frank Gaffney -- are bashing ethanol rather uncritically. The problem with ethanol is a government-subsidy problem, and a trade-barrier problem. It's not a problem with ethanol itself. Make it out of something other than food, and lower the barrier to Brazilian ethanol imports, and it would help our current situation a lot. We're not doing that because of farm-subsidy politics. The problem is, basically, the Iowa caucuses and the pandering that results. But simply bashing all biofuels uncritically is dumb.

UPDATE: On the other hand, the new farm bill demonstrates that Congress is dumber:

We have a program that makes us overpay for sugar, and now we're going to start a new program to subsidize the ethanol we create from it — because without the subsidy, the inflated sugar price we've created will make the ethanol unprofitable.

Upside: Everybody involved has an incentive to pay off some Senators.

ROGER SIMON: On the phone with John McCain. But as for Roger's suggestion -- perish the thought!

RATEMYPROFESSORS.COM -- better at rating professors than professors think? Well, possibly. Some say that professors' looks play a big role. But what happens when "Professor McDreamy" becomes Professor McMohawk?

MARKETS WORK. GO FIGURE: "Businessweek reports that Americans appear to be burning less gasoline as a result of driving less."

CRIMES AGAINST NATURE: A Unicycle-Motorbike-Segway Hybrid.

ADVICE TO HILLARY AND BARACK ON How to win Indiana.

RACHEL LUCAS WEIGHS IN on prissy bluenose Congressman Paul Broun. "Wanna know what I think, as a bona fide military girlfriend? I think they should have porn in the PX, especially if all we’re talking about is Playboy and Penthouse. Men need to see naked women, and these men happen to be spending months at a time in forced celibacy, and if they want to look at a pretty girl’s boobies and release some of that, uhhh, energy, more power to ‘em."

DON'T DAMAGE ITS fragile metal ego: "If you are a piece of steel, I implore you not to watch the YouTube clip. If you are in the room with a piece of steel, divert its attention, send it out of the room for ice cream, do what you can to insure it doesn't see this. The clip shows a steel bar being turned down like it was soft butter being cut by a hot knife. It is humilating if you're a piece of steel. It makes you look like a piece of free-machining aluminum."

MORE ON ASTROTURF GUN GROUPS and where the money comes from. Plus, an Obama flipflop on guns? Surely not!

KEITH OLBERMANN: The first thing we do, let's kill all the Hillarys. Er, or something like that.

FRED THOMPSON'S not interested in being Vice President. Hell, I don't think he was that interested in the number-one job.

A REPORT FROM THE LONDON TIMES: The men in black vanish and Basra comes to life.

Plus this: Iraqi forces see victory in Basra. And yet it was spun by the U.S. media as a huge defeat.

BLUENOSES IN CONGRESS are taken to task by Patrick Lasswell. But if the availability of Playboy and Penthouse on base is our biggest military worry, then Congress can just go home. Things are going well.

"MOCKING HILLARY IS NOT SEXIST." Sure it is. Just ask Media Matters. And mocking Obama is always racist, no matter how mockable he may be. Just ask his campaign.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Rick Moran.

JARED DIAMOND ON war and vengeance in the state of nature. (Via Megan McArdle).

THE FIRST LITHIUM CHEVY VOLT is now running.

DREW CAREY TAKES ON THE FOOD POLICE: The battle of the bacon dogs!

INTRODUCING A "PLUGLESS" PLUG-IN HYBRID. No, really.

"I WILL BE HAMAS' WORST NIGHTMARE:" Sean Hackbarth reports from the McCain blogger conference call.

"IT WAS AL GORE who made it a judicial question . . . What are we supposed to say — 'Not important enough?'"

STAFF SERGEANT DAVID BELLAVIA, author of the excellent House to House, is now running for Congress.

Here's his website.

UPDATE: Reader John MacDonald notes another veteran running, Lt. Col. Allen West.

BARNES & NOBLE RANKINGS don't get as much attention as the ones on Amazon, but it's good news that Michael Yon is up to #3 there.

KATHLEEN PARKER ON racism, sexism, and the Democratic primaries.

IN THE MAIL: Phillip London's Our Good Name: A Company's Fight to Defend Its Honor and Get the Truth Told About Abu Ghraib. Can't see the press being too receptive to this effort until at least November.

THE OTHER DAY, I PROMISED AN INTERIOR FROM KAY'S ICE CREAM. So here it is. Thanks to all the Knoxville expats who wrote with Kay's memories.

WANT TO HELP NEW ORLEANS? Support free trade!

Is there any city for which congressional Democrats claim more concern than New Orleans? So why are they denying the Katrina-ravaged city a major opportunity for recovery by shutting out Colombian free trade? . . . The mayor of the hurricane-hit city made an impassioned plea to Congress to pass the Colombia free trade agreement for New Orleans' sake. He knows how badly his city needs every break it can get, three years after the biggest disaster to ever hit a U.S. metropolitan area. . . .

"New Orleans is becoming an even greater international city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," Nagin wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last November, "and we are making every effort to capitalize on trade liberalization that will flow from these FTAs (free trade agreements). Our port system is ideally situated to take advantage of the Latin American FTAs."

Congress is unmoved because free trade produces less graft than massive aid projects. But it's funny that this hasn't gotten much attention from the press.

COMMAND STRUCTURE CHANGES IN AFGHANISTAN? The Captain's Journal thinks it's good news.

HEH: "After 30 years of railing for separation of church and state, Bill Moyers comes to the aid of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright."

FABIUS MAXIMUS says we're seeing political peak oil. Regardless of what this means globally -- to the extent you can distinguish Saudi reserves from global reserves, I guess -- this offers some support to the notion that the Saudis have been overstating their reserves for a while. Or maybe they've caught on to the Malcom S. Forbes strategy. I guess it was a mistake for me to have mentioned it a couple of weeks ago . . . .

NBC IS GOING GREEN FOR G.E.: "Amid its calls for individual sacrifices in the name of the environment and paeans to 'green' legislation, the network once again failed to disclose prominently that its parent company stands to get rich off of 'environmentalist' laws."

PHOTOBLOGGING THE INDIANA BRANCH OF THE GLOBAL RICE PANIC. The horror!

FLYING IN THE FACE OF THE CONVENTIONAL NARRATIVE: Esteem for US rises in Asia, thanks to Iraq war:

THE US war in Iraq has strengthened its strategic position, especially in terms of key alliances, and the only way this could be reversed would be if it lost the will to continue the struggle and abandoned Iraq in defeat and disarray.

Read the whole thing. (Via Don Surber). Plus this: "More generally, in a world supposedly awash in anti-US sentiment, pro-American leaders keep winning elections."

GRILL RECOMMENDATIONS FROM READERS: They're coming. I was overwhelmed with the response volume and just haven't had time to go through it all. I should have known . . . .

DON'T COUNT YOUR BARRELS BEFORE THEY'RE PUMPED, but here's promising oil news from Brazil.

TAKE YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS TO WORK? How about putting them to work instead?

BICYCLING 758 MILES for equal parenting.

MICKEY KAUS: "What exactly is so terrible about that North Carolina GOP ad?" Seems like a pretty typical political ad to me, too. Watch it yourself and see what you think.

UPDATE: David Fleeger emails: "It seem that this is just a continuation of the Democrats' hysterical "Don't question our patriotism" nonsense of the past few years. Don't question their patriotism, don't question their economic policies, don't question their tax policies, don't question their record in office, don't question their character, don't question their shady business and political deaings, don't question, period. Will the GOP be chicken enough to obey? Probably." Luckily for McCain, McCain-Feingold allows this stuff . . . .

HEH: "In point of fact, we have not had unrestrained capitalism in the United States for at least a century - as Reich, as a chief constrainer, should damned well know."

IN TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL, a call to arm Zimbabwe's opposition.

BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH: "Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday."

HMM: "I think it is obvious that the superdelegates will pick Obama. They have their own self-interest to consider, not to mention the long-term interest of the party. The choice for Obama is clear — and it would be clear even if they knew Clinton would win and Obama will lose."

HEH:

Colombia Tariff Ticker

April 24, 2008

WESLEY SNIPES and a look at the government's real priorities.

ROBERT COX: The First Amendment and Blogs.

Related thoughts from James Joyner.

DEMOCRATS' "Nightmare scenario."

JERRY POURNELLE: "Apparently Newt has stopped reading me. I'll have to see if I can fix that."

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO EARLIER TONIGHT, you can listen to PJM Political online.

DO YOU NEED A NIKON D300? No. I love the camera, as I said. But, as I also said, the other digital SLRs are great cameras, too. To prove it, here's a picture from reader Patrick Wilson, taken with a Nikon D70 and the same 18-200 VR lens that I use a lot. (Click the image for a bigger version).

NEWS OUTLETS CONFRONT "The awful truth of victory."

SWEET CAMPAIGN CASH: "So the $10M figure, according to the Clinton campaign, is not a goal. It is, indeed, cash in the bank."

RUSSIA: More babies, less oil. This is actually good news.

ORIN KERR HAS an interesting post on Virginia v. Moore, and I'm also pleased to note that my colleague Tom Davies' work on the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment was repeatedly mentioned by the Court.

ARTHUR ST. ANTOINE: It's the end of the car as we know it. And I feel fine.

ESPIONAGE OR PETTY THEFT? Which is more embarrassing for Mexico? "Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans."

TALKLEFT: "I also understand why Obama is dissing the Netroots now. They will never criticize him anyway. Why should he pander to them then?"

AFFLUENT AMERICANS: Overrepresented at InstaPundit? Advertisers, take note!

RESVERATROL UPDATE: Glaxo has bought Sirtris, the company with an arsenal of SIRT-1 drugs that do what resveratrol does only more so.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Derek Lowe on what it means. "It’s still a long shot, but it’s one of the most intriguing ones in the history of medicine. Actually, from one perspective, you wonder how long a shot it is: a biochemical pathway that seems to extend healthy life in yeast, roundworms, flies, and mice would seem to have some odds of doing the same thing in man. A lot of drug programs have been started with a lot less backing them up, albeit for rather less earth-shattering indications. . . . a drug for aging is a perfect example of something the FDA has absolutely no idea of how to approach. Well, it’s not just the FDA, come to think of it: how on earth would you design a Phase II trial for life extension? How long would it take?"

Plus, Leon Kass will be unhappy.

UPDATE: Reader John Coleman emails:

The founders of Sirtris spoke to my class at Harvard Business School last week. They were extremely impressive, and, from a business standpoint, I would say this series of drugs is not as long a shot as
some people think. I'm not a scientist, so I don't know the extent to which the drugs effects will transfer from mice to humans; but the firm is well run and the people in it have a great deal of faith in the power of resveratrol across a number of condititions.

There is a brand new Harvard Business School case available on Sirtris (we read it last week), but its not up on the HBS Press website yet. When it's made available, I'd recommend you read it -- it's probably
the best layman's guide to the company and the science around.

I look forward to its publication.

ANN ALTHOUSE: How can the state of Texas possibly take proper care of the 437 children it has removed from the polygamist sect?

I don't know. But if it doesn't, it won't be charged with child abuse.

WHAT AMERICA NEEDS IS A GOOD 1 cent cell phone.

Well, possibly.

DEMOCRATS BACKING OFF HEALTHCARE REFORM? "The trouble of course is that lots of people are satisfied with their healthcare."

VICTIMS OF ALLITERATION. A new Fox show going after "deadbeat dads."

"And what about deadbeat moms? Is anyone going after them?" They're too close to the audience demographic, I'd guess.

ROBERT MAYER OFFERS TIPS ON SURVIVING HIGH FOOD PRICES.

THOUGHTS ON PHIL BREDESEN as a potential Obama running mate. This relates to some earlier thoughts of mine, though I don't think Bredesen's last couple of years have been as good as the ones that preceded them.

WATCHING THE DEMOCRATS' preliminary walkback from the antiwar movement.

Plus, the demise of the chickenhawk argument.

ED DRISCOLL: I hate Illinois Nazis. Yeah, me too, when I'm not too busy laughing at them. It's a fine line . . .

UPDATE: Reader Fred Bartlett says I'm unfair:

Tony Zirkle does not exchange ideas with the National Socialists on a regular basis. Besides, he wasn't at the meetings where the inflammatory and appalling remarks were made.

You are promulgating a distraction from the real issues. You should be ashamed of yourself!

I stand corrected.

ROGER COHEN offers a nuanced view of biofuels, something that's been in short supply lately: "I’ll grant that the fashion for biofuels led to excess, and that some farm-to-fuel-plant conversion, particularly in subsidized U.S. and European markets, makes no economic or environmental sense. But biofuels remain very much part of the solution. It just depends which biofuels."

And this is clearly right: "Right now, the biofuel market is being grossly distorted by subsidies and trade barriers in the United States and the European Union. . . . What sense does it make to have a surplus of environmentally friendly Brazilian sugar-based ethanol with a yield eight times higher than U.S. corn ethanol and zero impact on food prices being kept from an American market by a tariff of 54 cents on a gallon while Iowan corn ethanol gets a subsidy?"

Drop the tariff, drop the subsidies, let the market do it. (Via The Drawn Cutlass).

MORE ON BILL AYERS.

JOHN PODHORETZ: "James Glanz, you got some ’splainin’ to do…"

HE'S BAAACK! Wright offering fresh fodder to Obama critics. If I didn't know better, I'd think Rev. Wright was trying to sabotage the Obama campaign.

UPDATE: Reader Kyle Bennett emails: "Why do you think you know better? What do you think would happen to Wright's raison d'etre should this country actually elect a black man as President?"

That comment, I'm sorry to say, reveals a shocking depth of cynicism. Which is not to say he's wrong . . . .

LAST WEEK, I MENTIONED DOUG FEITH'S NEW BOOK, War and Decision. I haven't had time to read it yet, but here's a very positive review from National Review, noting the important role that public documents play in Feith's memoir. Here's another review from the Wall Street Journal, and here's a story on the book from NPR's Morning Edition.

Feith has also put copies of the documents online at his website. This is a degree of disclosure that I don't think other recent memoirs have matched.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt interviewed Feith last night. Here's the transcript.

ANOTHER UPDATE: At ClioPolitical: "Now, I know that--especially among academics--Feith is considered one of the neocon Sith Lords, but I think he's done something with his book that is, well, pretty neat. He's created a companion website to the book on which he provides links to the 600 documents he's cited in his work. How cool is that? Could this be a way for academics to publish serious and scholarly history and save money by putting their citations on the web?"

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS: "Women have surpassed men in most areas of education, but men continue to be more numerous in fields like math, physics and engineering. For more than a decade, feminist groups have been lobbying Congress to address the problem of gender “injustice” in the laboratory. Their efforts are finally bearing fruit. Federal agencies are now poised to begin aggressive gender-equity reviews of math, science, and engineering programs. Groups like the National Organization for Women must be celebrating — but American scientists should brace themselves for the destructive tsunami headed their way."

I want to see aggressive investigation into the shortage of male elementary school teachers. The absence of male role models damages children, especially those from impoverished female-headed homes. The usual excuses: "Men aren't interested," "People don't feel comfortable having their kids around men," etc., are just prejudice. We need to break down those walls of exclusion.

LOTS OF TRICKS FOR saving electricity at home.

MICHAEL YON'S BOOK is showing as back in stock at Amazon, in case you were waiting.

JUSTICE IN the European Union.

FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, TO THE MIDDLE EAST OF EUROPE! Michael Totten is heading to Kosovo. If you like his work, consider hitting his tipjar.

Yeah, I know, I'm saying that about a lot of folks lately. But that's because there are a lot of folks doing good independent journalism now. That's what you want, right?

NOT SURE WHO THIS HELPS in the Presidential Race, but it looks like California will have an anti-gay-marriage amendment on the ballot in November.

DELTA ROLLS OUT fancy seats for economy class.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse says they're not luxury seats, they're anti-fat-people seats.

ROGER KIMBALL: "What is it about Dartmouth College that arouses the acquisitive instinct of bureaucrats?"

ERIC SCHEIE: "Does it matter that the old smoke-filled rooms brought us some of the greatest presidents the country has ever had?"

ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH: "We appreciate the exposure, but can not take credit for it. So, thanks to the Obama campaign for this great product placement. We wish we had thought of it."

UPDATE: Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!

PHOTO CONTEST: WHO'S LONELIER? Nonsmoking bingo players, or New York Times subscription salesmen?

AIRLINES VS. DHS on border security.

IN THE MAIL: Sheldon S. Wolin's Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.

Wouldn't "inverted totalitarianism" be sort of like the "dictatorship of the proletariat?" Apparently not.

'TIS THE SEASON FOR SPREADING POLLEN:

Shot in my front yard, using the Nikon D300 and the Nikon 18-200 DX VR lens. I think the D300 is as far beyond my old D70 as the D70 was beyond what I had before. Which isn't to dis the D70: I made a 20x30 print of this picture, taken with the D70, and it looks great.

UPDATE: Various readers object that this is a wasp, and wasps don't pollinate. Yes, it is a wasp, but in fact it was pollinating up a storm, going from flower to flower. Not surprising, as wasps are actually very important pollinators.

MICKEY KAUS: "Hispanic Caucus members denounce Dem Congressional leaders as 'spineless' for failing to move on 'comprehensive immigration reform.' Spineless? Why would they need spine? I thought we'd been told that illegal-immigrant-legalization was a surefire political winner for the Dems. ..."

GOOD THING IT WAS BOMBED, THEN: North Koreans taped at Syrian reactor.

BOGUS BIBLICAL ECO-QUOTES. They were probably written by Chief Seattle.

OBAMA AND MCCAIN SPLIT over the idea of a gas-tax holiday. I regard it as a campaign gimmick, pretty much, which puts me in line with Obama's current position.

FRANK CAGLE: Beware of journalists asking the government for special privileges.

THE NEW YORK SUN: "A funny thing happened on the way to Senator Clinton’s primary win Tuesday night in Pennsylvania: her party started moving back toward reality on the war."

More on that here.

ASK NOT WHAT YOUR CHARITY CAN DO FOR YOU: A look at the lawsuit between the Robertson family and Princeton University, which the Robertsons charge broken promises about how it would spend their large donation. "Now valued at almost $800 million, the gift represents 6% of Princeton's endowment. The Robertsons' gift was made in response to President Kennedy's challenge to Ask not what your country �. . . The Robertsons claim that, consistent with the patriotic impulse that motivated the grant, funds were to be used to establish a graduate program to educate students for careers in the U.S. government." It didn't work out that way. Background here, though in a somewhat Princeton-sympathetic form.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF ON COLOMBIA AND FREE TRADE: "For seven years, Democrats have rightfully complained that President Bush has gratuitously antagonized the world, exasperating our allies and eroding America’s standing and influence. But now the Democrats are doing the same thing on trade. In Latin America, it is Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who are seen as the go-it-alone cowboys, by opposing the United States’ free-trade agreement with Colombia."

WELL, THAT'S GOOD: We still have Eliot Spitzer to kick around.

10 COOL ROBOTS hand-built by high-schoolers.

I'M GUESSING IT'S NOT A RESPECT FOR DEMOCRACY AND LIBERTY: "What do Libya, Iran, Cuba, Russia and Pakistan All Have in Common?"

MAJOR JOHN TAMMES: Nothing improves morale like victory.

FRANK J.: People Expect Too Much Out of White Men.

STEVE CHAPMAN: Murder and reactions in Chicago:

When a rash of gun murders takes place, it makes sense for the police to do one of two things: renew tactics that have been effective in the past at curbing homicides, or embrace ideas that have not been tried before. But those options don't appeal to Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis. What he proposes instead is a crackdown on assault weapons.

I'm tempted to say this is the moral equivalent of a placebo—a sugar pill that is irrelevant to the malady at hand. But that would be unfair. Placebos, after all, sometimes have a positive effect. Assault weapons bans, not so much.

Indeed. Gun control proposals are, however, a useful marker for politicians who aren't serious about crime. Chapman asks: 'Gun control hasn't worked as a remedy for crime. So what makes anyone think the answer is more gun control?"

I don't think they do think that. I think they just want to disarm people, and hope you'll buy the excuse that it's for crime fighting.

UPDATE: Or there's always sackcloth and ashes. I double-checked the date on this story to make sure it wasn't an April Fool. Alas, no.

A REPORT ON THE EMPTY-HOLSTER PROTESTS at the University of North Carolina.

LATE FROST DAMAGES CALIFORNIA VINEYARDS: As reader Jim May notes, this is "the sort of short-term weather news that would be front-page news if global *cooling* were the Left's cause-du-jour." Yes, they never seem to let natural variability get in the way of a good things-are-really-hot story.

Meanwhile, there's pushback on the whole Ice-Age-Is-Coming story.

April 23, 2008

TIPPING OFF A TERROR SUSPECT -- and checking license plates for him?

A Fairfax County police sergeant was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Alexandria to two years' probation for his admission that he checked police databases for someone who was the target of a federal terrorism case.

Sgt. Weiss Rasool, 31, initially faced up to six months in jail, but federal prosecutors urged U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry R. Poretz to consider as much as a year of jail time after Rasool took a lie-detector test last week and "was not fully compliant" with the test procedures. Prosecutors also said in a motion filed with the court that FBI agents "do not believe that he has been truthful." . . . In June 2005, when federal agents had a Fairfax man under surveillance, the man apparently asked Rasool to check the license plates of three vehicles he thought were following him. Rasool's lawyer described the man as a member of Rasool's mosque.

Seems to me that Sgt. Rasool got off light.

RAGE BOY: "While I personally have nothing against torching buildings and brawling under appropriate circumstances, I can't understand why Paul Auster simply can't say, 'I ripped out the fence because I wanted to. I rioted because I decided to.' The idea that a 61 year old man might act irrationally because the mere thought of US policy in Iraq deprives him of reason is a pretty disturbing. It suggests there's a whole population of people of seemingly normal people out there just waiting to go berserk at the mere mention of politics they disapprove of."

THE G.O.P. AD THAT John McCain doesn't want you to see.

GOVERNMENT WORK! "Drought strikes. People, exhorted by the politicians and functionaries of municipal utilities exert themselves and conserve water. Then comes the reward for all their scrimping on water: Massive fee increases because the water authorities didn't make enough money what with people saving water and all."

VICTORY IS THE BEST MORALE BOOSTER: Clinton's donations surge after Pennsylvania victory.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: There's no such thing as a free carbon cap.

BILL ROGGIO REPORTS: "The senior-most Iraqi general in charge of the security operation in Basrah has issued an ultimatum for wanted Mahdi Army leaders and fighters to surrender in the next 24 hours as the Iraqi and US military ignore Muqtada al Sadr's threat to conduct a third uprising. US troops killed 15 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad yesterday and have killed 56 fighters since Sadr issued his threat last weekend."

MOST PEOPLE WOULD PREFER CHOCOLATE: VD Valentines.

TEACHING KIDS ABOUT the age of exploration.

MESSAGE TO GEORGE SOROS: InstaPundit would have been a better investment. Well, traffic-wise, anyhow.

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HANDLING OF THE Texas polygamy case. This thing seems to be turning into a major disaster for the authorities.

ROBERT ZUBRIN EMAILS this audio link and writes:

I recently debated Robert Bryce, the author of "Gusher of Lies," a book that says we don't need an energy security policy because the Saudis are our friends, on the Mike Medved show. It was broadcast nationwide April 21.

I think people might find it very interesting.

They just might. Zubrin's own book is Energy Victory. Our interview with Zubrin is here.

When we spoke, he was pretty clear on the difference between today's porky food-based biofuels and the kind of thing Zubrin is planning. My own sense is that "energy independence" is nice, but simply ensuring that we don't have the current degree of energy dependence would be a good thing.

BUSTING BOGUS GUN REPORTING from Brian Ross and ABC News.

ACCURACY IS QUESTIONED, BUT IT'S EASY! A look at electronic voting in Pennsylvania.

SAYUNCLE: No more Pizza Hut for me.

OBAMA-INSPIRED street art.

A LOOK AT WHAT'S amazingly cheap.

ARNOLD KLING on separating tribe and state.

WHEN MEDIA MATTERS ATTACKS: They should be glad that somebody noticed. And the most damning bit: "Since this smear piece was posted at Media Matters, we’ve gotten all of 14 ... yes, 14 ... hits from their page."

UPDATE: More Boehlert-busting.

AT POWERLINE, still more on the weathermen issue.

UPDATE: Related roundup here.

DAVID ADESNIK IS BACK AT OXBLOG, and he's got some interesting things to report: "I've mentioned in passing that I've been travelling abroad for the past few months. Well, that was a euphemism. I was in Iraq, working as an analyst for the Coalition's counter-IED task force."

VIDEO: The Living Sea, free from Amazon this week. "It's like the video equivalent of blood pressure medication -- very, very mellow. And gorgeous."

GERARD VAN DER LEUN ON FOOD-SHORTAGE TALK: "There will never be a shortage of bullshit."

UPDATE: Jim Herd: Stop hoarding giant bags of rice!

MICHAEL YON WILL BE ON MARK LEVIN'S SHOW at 7:30 Eastern tonight, talking about his book and the situation in Iraq. You can go here and click "station finder" if you want to listen, or listen live through the site.

ETHANOL AND ETHICS: Professor Bainbridge has thoughts on growing food-shortage reports.

GOOD NEWS: "Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) will have an opponent this year after all. " And one who already has some significant support. Where do I donate?

UPDATE: And the answer is . . . right here! Thanks to reader Diane Martin.

TOM MAGUIRE checks the math.

TYLER COWEN ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: "It's worth noting that if we had to build today's energy infrastructure working under the current regulatory and NIMBY burden, it probably could not be done. So it shouldn't be surprising that building a new energy infrastructure is proving so hard. There's a reason why many of us think deregulation is a big issue and it's not because we want to see people poisoned by Chinese botchagaloop."

A LOOK AT CLINTON, OBAMA, MCCAIN, and the future of space policy.

ROGER KIMBALL: Why do politicians love a crisis?

It's job security, plus opportunities for graft.

UPDATE: Charles Austin emails:

If I may, I will embellish your answer to Roger Kimball’s question by quoting Governor William J. LePetomaine:

"We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Hurumph! Hurumph! Hurumph!"

Ah, Mel Brooks' best role. Once he seemed like a comic figure, but not so much anymore.

NEW YORK TIMES HEADLINE: U.S. Troops, Exhausted and Overwhelmed: "Hi all. I am tired. I guess that about sums it up. I am about to start another day helping the totally defeated Iraqi 14th Division figure out what to do with all the captured JAM personnel and equipment…heh."

PAIRINGS: Thoughts on which beers go best with which books.

MAKING FUEL FROM OLD TIRES? Then I may have just found the next Saudi Arabia!

HENRY KISSINGER on China, India, and us. "“It would be a tragedy, if Chinese nationalism, and maybe some provincialism on our part, produced a situation in which we clashed. It might be like World War One in Europe. The two antagonists would drain each other and only third parties would benefit.”

TENNESSEE SUPERDELEGATE JOHN TANNER commits to Hillary.

PETRAEUS WILL BE CentCom commander. Ray Odierno will take his current position. This is likely good.

BUT I HATE COLD WEATHER: Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh. And I wish people would make up their minds. I don't know what to wear.

Anyway, the Fallen Angels scenario is making a comeback.

UPDATE: Related item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gaia is trying to warn us.

Plus, record mountain snowpack in the West.

ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH product placement?

THE SCIENCE OF PROTECTING YOUR TESTICLES: Some of it's kind of obvious: "The main thing is just to avoid the direct blow. If you get any sort of high speed impact, that’s going to cause trouble.” Do tell.

DOG BITES MAN: Microsoft turns the DRM screw on MSN Music owners.

MICHAEL SILENCE is unimpressed with the state of academic tolerance today.

UPDATE: A different take from TigerHawk:

Now, I do think that the common lefty idea that Tom Friedman is some sort of right-wing stooge reveals far more about common lefties than it does about Friedman, who -- thoughtful as he is -- is himself well to the left of the American center. But, the throwing of pies at speakers on college campuses has a long and storied history going back generations. Not only is it funny in a "Three Stooges" way, but it has the advantage of being fundamentally not serious. Far better to toss a pie with a smile than to work oneself up into an indignant rage over some theoretical affront, which is the usual tactic of both left and right in what passes for civil society these days.

I agree, unless I'm wearing Canali or Brioni. Then it 's war.

A ROUNDUP OF THE TEN MOST WANTED green car technologies.

ROGER SIMON: Wright, Ayers, and Obama: An Agnostic Quotes the Bible.

A LOOK AT THE FUTURE OF GREEN GASOLINE, made from waste biomass, plastic, etc.: “If we can get 100 percent yield, we estimate the cost to be about a dollar per gallon. . . . Right now we're at 50 percent."

IN THE MAIL: Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out.

A DIRECTION, BUT NO LOCATION.

HAROLD FORD, JR.: Obama must win Indiana.

MORE PEACE DEALS IN PAKISTAN.

MICKEY KAUS: "How Crappy Were the Exit Polls? Pretty crappy! They certainly didn't capture the 10 point Clinton win. . . . If the exit polls are this unreliable for press' result-predicting purposes, why aren't they also unreliable for all the scholarly purposes they are supposedly put to? Garbage is garbage, no?"

TAXING THE INTERNET IN TENNESSEE? I got an email from the folks at Waller, Lansden, Dortch & Davis on the "technical corrections" tax bill in the state legislature, and it included this bit:

The Bill contains sweeping legislation that would subject downloaded sales of digital media, including music videos, motion pictures, news and entertainment programs, music, ringtones, electronic books, etc. to the retail sales tax. Under current law digitally delivered goods are not taxable unless delivered in a tangible form.

Hmm. That seems significant.

MORE WEATHERMAN STUFF FROM POWER LINE, plus the beginning of an exculpatory spin in this New York Times oped: It was the poison of Vietnam that made people crazy. And, apparently, has kept them that way ever since.

IT'S A FREE SPEECH FUNDRAISER at SteynOnline! Mark Steyn writes: "Until midnight Eastern tonight, for every copy of America Alone sold at the Steyn store, we'll give 50 per cent of the cover price - ie, our entire profit - to the legal defense funds for the five beleaguered bloggers fighting for free speech in Canada. That's 50 per cent of the cover price of the paperback, hardback, audio book (in CD, tape or MP3 format) and our America Alone Anniversary Special. And we'll also put 50 per cent of every other book, T-shirt, mug or anything else we sell today to the Freedom Five."

Plus, he'll autograph 'em. Go for it!

ED TV: This Year's Model.

KATIE GRANJU looks at the raids on Texas polygamists and asks where is the ACLU?

HILLARY'S VICTORY:"Did we not all agree that the game would be transformed if she hit that mark?" Yet some are trying to minimize it.

The New York Times is unhappy. Meanwhile, is Hillary emasculating? And is Obama McGovern?

UPDATE: Team Obama's spin: "a slimmer margin than most thought possible."

P.J. O'ROURKE: What you can learn about America on the deck of the USS 'Theodore Roosevelt.'

SUPERDELEGATE SUCK-UP: "A thousand or so people are going to decide this primary. It behooves those people to have this go on as long as possible, because that is how they are going to get the most goodies. Maybe this is what Hillary truly understands."

A LOSS FOR the media army. "We are at the beginning of a contest likely to repeat itself through November: between that part of the press prepared to put hard questions equally, and all the rest, including those who'll mount the barricades when their candidate is threatened with discomfiture. Let the wars begin."

ED RENDELL: Hillary's win is a game-changer. "Superdelegates have to re-evaluate. Everyone of them has to. And if she keeps winning in the face of being out-spent like this, well, that is stunning, just stunning."

A BIG WIN FOR HILLARY: Here's her spin: "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton celebrated another must-win victory Tuesday night in Pennsylvania, with a convincing win over Sen. Barack Obama that she sought to frame not just as a sign of her strength but of Obama’s abiding weakness. . . . In her victory speech, Clinton cast her 10-point margin — larger than late polls suggested — as a pivot. "

Plus, this:

Barack Obama could not “close the deal” in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night. Hillary Clinton said so, and just about every talking head on TV used that phrase.

Though Obama has won twice as many contests as Clinton, this man clearly suffers from a failure to close. . . .

While Clinton did not actually call Obama a wimp in Pennsylvania, she did say he was “elitist and out of touch” and “demeaning.” She can also drink him under the table. (And he stinks at bowling.)

Clinton continues to do well in big states, having previously won primaries in California, Massachusetts and Ohio.

The good news for Obama, however, is that in the contest that actually counts — who wins the most pledged delegates to the Democratic Convention -— his lead appears to be unassailable.

In other words, he probably “closed the deal” when, after Super Tuesday, he won 10 contests in a row, running up his pledged delegate lead while Clinton’s chief strategist, Mark Penn, was still trying to figure out what was happening. (Clinton, who fired Penn, still owes him $4.5 million. I could have come up with a losing strategy for half that.)

Ouch.

UPDATE: Hmm: "Exit polls showed that only slightly more half of those who voted today consider Hillary Clinton trustworthy. Yet Clinton has won a decisive victory. Obama must be fairly unpopular in Pennsylvania." That's likely to be the HIllary spin with superdelegates, since Pennsylvania is a must-win state for the Dems.

TOP 100 WEBWARE APPS, according to Webware.com.

April 22, 2008

THE BIG QUESTION: "With the race now moving on to Indiana and North Carolina on May 6 -- and probably West Virginia (May 13) and Oregon and Kentucky (May 20) -- here's my question: will Clinton and/or Obama attend the Kentucky Derby? It's on May 3." Mint Juleps beat boilermakers, anyway.

TIGERHAWK:

Hillary's victory speech was pretty good, at least by her standards. She is no Obama, but certainly made it seem as though she were in for the long haul. Frank Luntz, by the way, agreed, calling it "fantastic, absolutely the best speech I've heard her give."

I cannot recall her giving a better one, but that doesn't make it "fantastic." But here is the key point: Hillary Clinton will not quit at anything she truly dedicates herself to do. In that regard, she reminds me of none other than George W. Bush. . . . I noted, by the way, that New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine was in the background behind Hillary, clapping away for the cameras to record. He has apparently recovered from his bout of superdelegate vapors.

Watch those weathervanes over the next few days.

UPDATE: Now Obama's on, and he's declaring victory because, well, he just is. Also, Bush is evil. TalkLeft has more.

MORE: Jennifer Rubin thinks Obama sounds bitter. More here.

STILL MORE: Marc Ambinder: Clinton Internet Fundraising: 100K in 20 minutes?

FINALLY: A foolproof prediction: Six more weeks of pandering!

CARLY FIORINA FOR VICE PRESIDENT? I don't see it. She certainly doesn't come off very well as a manager in Michael Malone's book on HP.

Here's our interview with Malone, by the way.

RACE AND GENDER in the Pennsylvania exit polls.

MCCLATCHY: Clinton's win in Pa. leaves Obama battered, party reeling.

FOOD SHORTAGES in Japan? This is getting a lot of (probably exaggerated) attention in the survivalosphere. Those folks are like Paul Krugman, having predicted 9 of the last 0 food crises, but the news story, at least, is real.

I wonder, though, if this isn't something like a bank run: "Costco Wholesale Corp. is seeing higher-than-usual demand for staple foods such as rice and flour as consumers worry about a global food shortage, according to a Tuesday report by the Reuters news service." Of course, the solution to a bank run is to pass out the cash until people get tired. But it's easier to create cash on demand than food. Today's supply-chain practices tend to produce skimpy inventories, too, which makes it easier for stores to sell out, and thus for consumers to panic.

UPDATE: Stephen Clark sends along Spengler's take on the global food shortage. "The global food crisis is a monetary phenomenon, an unintended consequence of America's attempt to inflate its way out of a market failure."

ANOTHER UPDATE: What food shortages in Japan? asks a blogger . . . in Japan. What, press reports unreliable?

MORE: And here's a blogger in Thailand who says that news reports of food riots there are bogus. More here.

STILL MORE: M. Simon thinks Spengler is wrong.

BILAL HUSSEIN GOT RELEASED UNDER A GENERAL AMNESTY, but Michael Totten observes: "I don’t know if he’s guilty or not, and he deserves the presumption of innocence. Either way, his case brings attention to an issue most consumers of news from Iraq rarely consider: the fact that large media companies--the Associated Press and other news wire agencies and newspapers--work with some sketchy characters in Iraq."

PENNSYLVANIA POLLS have been closed for 20 minutes, but no numbers or projections. Plenty of TV blather, though!

UPDATE: Clinton 67, Obama 33 -- with a big, big, less than one percent of the vote in. Expect this to change. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Liveblogging of the results from TalkLeft, and, from Stephen Green, drunkblogging. Green's still sober enough to make this excellent point about the Democrats' nominating rules: "If the Democrats ran a winner-take-all system like the Republicans and the Electoral College do, she’d have this thing clinched — and Obama would look like a regional candidate who can’t win much outside the South and his home state of Illinois."

MORE: Fox is projecting a Clinton win, but no margin yet.

STILL MORE: CNN calls it for Clinton, too.

MORE STILL: Mighty Casey has struck out.

IS THIS MCCAIN'S PEAK?

UPDATE: Or not.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Atlantic's photo editors show their feelings - the McCain Photo above the story has this name: http://thecurrent.theatlantic.com/McCain%20loser.jpg.

GOOD: Mugabe Isolated In Southern Africa As Arms Ship Barred From Ports.

HEH: Al Qaeda chief slams Muslims for lack of support.

FIRST MCCAIN, NOW THIS: Obama joins the autism panderers.

HMM: Despite Climate Worry, Europe Turns to Coal:

Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 percent from 14 percent. Power generated by Enel from coal will rise to 50 percent.

And Italy is not alone in its return to coal. Driven by rising demand, record high oil and natural gas prices, concerns over energy security and an aversion to nuclear energy, European countries are slated to build about 50 coal-fired plants over the next five years, plants that will be in use for the next five decades.

In the United States, fewer new coal plants are slated to go on line, in part because it is becoming hard to get regulatory permits and in part because nuclear power remains an alternative.

Coal is better than oil from dictators who hate us. Nuclear is better than coal. Nano-solar is better than either, of course, once it's feasible.

GOOD: FCC chief says no need for new regulation of the Internet.

FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING, one clothespin at a time: "Ontario will outlaw clothesline bans by this summer to encourage citizens to use the environmentally friendly option when doing laundry. . . . Homeowners would no longer be subject to municipal bylaws or homebuilder agreements that ban the lines."

Makes sense. But if I were in Ontario, I might feel more favorable toward global warming . . . .

ED MORRISSEY: Strike Two!

JAMES LILEKS ON THE BILL AYERS SCANDAL: "There’s a touching naïvete about the description of Ayers as a college professor, as if that means he has entered a realm of pipe-smoking rumination about Truth and Beauty. Doesn’t that make him an Authority? Aren’t we supposed to question Authority? Note to Dick Cheney: get yourself to the Department of Political Science at the U of Wyoming, and watch those calls for war-crime prosecutions melt away. . . . It was a difficult time. What a wonderful absolution. Oh, we all went a little mad. Some of us listened to Steppenwolf, some of us bombed government buildings and plotted robberies that killed people, some of us were rotting in Vietnamese prisons having our teeth bashed out by torture experts. Those days are behind us now, best forgotten. (Unlike the McCarthy era, which will be the subject of 163 movies about the blacklist next year, bringing the total to 45,203.)"

"EXPERTS" SKEPTICAL about the Chevy Volt.

POLARIZED POLITICS: "When the University of Pennsylvania’s student newspaper did the unthinkable and — gasp! — endorsed Clinton to its readership, most of which, like that at many elite colleges, overwhelmingly backs Obama."

3G IPHONES, and how to make an iPhone out of an iPod Touch, all in the latest roundup of Apple news.

GOOD: McCain stresses free trade.

UNCLE EASY IS KIND OF LIKE UNCLE SAM, except that he wears green instead of red, white and blue, and plays a saxophone while standing atop giant bags of cash.

Is it just me, or is this an image with disturbing political overtones? Probably just me.

Anyway, I think this is the place where (when it was under a different name) my brother got a hot-rodded Fender Super Reverb for 30 bucks. Needed a little work, but it's the single best-sounding amp I've ever heard.

Keen observers will note that this place is next door to the El Quetzal Taqueria featured yesterday.

SHOCKINGLY, THIS IS ACTUALLY A GOOD IDEA: P.E.T.A. offers a $1 million prize for fake meat: That is, "real" meat grown In vitro instead of from animals.

A READER EMAILS: "I noticed the NY Post review of Mike Yon's book is currently their 'most emailed' review. It occurred to me that folks who wanted to spread Mike's message were a simple click away from doing so - it's a matter of hitting the 'email to a friend' link on the page" Good idea. I should note that newspapers notice these things, as a rule.

MORE SIGNS OF reconciliation in Iraq.

PROGRESS ON inexpensive nanotech solar cells?

BILL CLINTON: “I think that they played the race card on me. We now know, from memos from the campaign that they planned to do it along.”

HERE'S A PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARY COVERAGE ROUNDUP. And here's more continuously-updated coverage from Bill Bradley.

EVERYBODY'S TALKING ABOUT 2008, but in Tennessee people are already working on 2010.

IN THE MAIL: Lawrence Solomon's The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud**And those who are too fearful to do so.

Plus, Paul Slansky's Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots: Not-So-Great Moments in Modern American Politics.

The Glenn and Helen Show: Cass Sunstein on Libertarian Paternalism

Cass Sunstein is the Karl Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago, and the coauthor, with Chicago colleague Richard Thaler, of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

Sunstein and Thaler espouse a theory of "Libertarian Paternalism," in which people have more choice than they do now, but in which ignorance and sloth are exploited to encourage them to make good choices even when they're lazy. We talk about libertarian paternalism, the virtues and vices of technocracy, and which Presidential candidates favor Sunstein and Thaler's approach.

You can listen directly -- no downloads needed -- by going 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." You can also get a free subscription via iTunes -- never miss another episode!

Music is "Time's Right" by 46 Long. Show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What's wrong with Hollywood?

FUTUREPUNDIT: "With oil hitting $117 per barrel major media organizations are paying more attention to the future availability of oil. On the one hand, a New York Times discusses worries about future energy availability. On the other hand, the analysis still lends considerable credence to the idea that large increases in oil production are possible." Bring it on.

EARTH-SAVING DONE RIGHT: I've got a column in the New York Post today on global warming, the environment, and what to do.

UPDATE: Dan Collins writes: "Geez, Glenn, you're starting to look like Ray Kurzweil. I think you ought to get away from the screen more." It's the life-extension treatments. Soon everyone will look like Ray Kurzweil. It's worth it to live 1000 years, though. I think.

ANDREW IAN DODGE reviews J.D. Johannes' Iraq documentary trilogy, Outside the Wire. "The DVD should be seen by as many people as possible; whether they are for the war, against it or merely indifferent. This is documentary making at its rawest and best."

(OTW is also available via Amazon.) The trailer is here.

READER KALIPH EMAILS:

My wife & I have been looking to get a new gas grill & I've been having a hard time figuring out which one to purchase. Sadly, my first thought was to search your archives & amazingly I came up with no hits on this. Grilling comes up from time to time, so I was a little surprised.

So if you've been meaning to put up a post with the collected knowledge of your audience with regards to gas grill recommendations, I'd be all for it.

Or failing that, if you know of a good place to get some good reviews/advice on a grill, that'd work too I guess.

Obviously, I'm a big fan of the site. Keep up the good work.

You know, it's been years since I bought a gas grill. Any reader recommendations?

SOME DISTURBING FACTS ABOUT EDUCATION, from Greg Mankiw.

ANOTHER ANTIWAR SUICIDE BOMB: "British cinema verite director Nick Broomfield’s film 'Battle For Haditha' is joining the rest of the wannabe Iraq-exploitation movie failures at reaching audiences with anything resembling truth or interest.."

Pick up a copy of Outside the Wire instead. Amazon's even offering it bundled with Michael Yon's book. Call it the Iraq War honesty-pack.

WAFFLEGATE! How does a candidate avoid the press for 10 days, and get away with it?

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

RANDY NEAL: Democratic Convention 101.

"CHICAGO SOUNDS LIKE MOSUL:" That's an email from . . . Michael Yon, who knows his Mosul. Here's the story on last weekend's violence. Still, they're different: One has crooked officials, violent gangs with their hooks into government and law enforcement, and a culture of corruption that has resisted the central government's effects to clean it up, and the other is a city in Iraq.

UPDATE: Fred Butzen emails: "I'm surprised you overlooked this difference: One has crazy preachers, and the other is in the Middle East."

MORE: Another reader emails:

It really should be no surprise, since Chicago and Illinois itself have been failing to reach their political benchmarks for years now.

It is too bad there is not some powerful politician who might have served the Chicago area and brought them Change and Hope. If there was, we could blame him for the "complete failure" to achieve those political benchmarks and reduce sectarian strife.

Heh.

A LOOK AT WINDOWS XP Service Pack 3.

WE'RE NUMBER ONE: Knoxville gets rated worst for asthma. Plausible, maybe, given the immense variety of pollen here -- though the WebMD ratings list "the lack of a smoking ban in public places" as a reason, and we've had one of those since last year. This calls their research into question.

April 21, 2008

ADVICE FROM BRENDAN LOY: "One cautionary note to those who, like me, are hoping for a strong Obama showing. Don't put any stock in the leaked exit poll numbers. I'll publish the details tomorrow, but bottom line, when you look at New Hampshire, Super Tuesday and March 4, Obama does, on average, roughly 7 to 8 points worse in the actual, final results than in the leaked, unweighted exit polls."

OVER AT JERRY POURNELLE'S PLACE, some thoughts about evolution and creationism:

The ID/fundamentalists only posit a Creator who acts in ways that make sense to people, with human motivations (and yes, some folks like Hoyle---RIP, a great man---did not fit into this category). I'm back with Greg Benford about that: "The thing about aliens is, they're alien." The same thing holds true for deities. We *cannot* understand the universe from quanta to quasars, genes to galaxies. At least not now.

The AAs fit the same mold. I know better than Dawkins about the limitations of evolutionary thought on a molecular level (he is not a molecular biologist, as I am). Yet his pride shows in every syllable. The Greeks had a word for this: hubris.

None of this is new, and you have a great deal to contend with at present. All I am saying is that both "sides" miss the point: we should be humble about ourselves and our place in the universe. We cannot *know* if a Creator exists. We can only *believe* if one exists, or does not. And we should definitely be humble about our own tools to probe the universe---they are sparse and primitive.

The Fundamentalists who say the most ignorant things about evolution are wrong on their side. And Dawkins and Myers and their ilk, who dare to call people of faith "stupid" (while their own atheism requires as much faith as any snake handling fundamentalist), revolt me.

Mark Twain once wrote that we didn't know whether or not there was life after death. But soon enough we would know, so why fret about it?

Indeed. Robert Heinlein said something similar.

BRITAIN CANCELS ST. GEORGE DAY PARADE over fear of Muslim riots. Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

OBAMA REFUSES TO DEBATE CLINTON in North Carolina.

Allah is disappointed: "I wonder, are the creme de la nutroots creme who signed this letter also cool with this last debate being canceled? How else are we going to reclaim the opportunity denied us by ABC to learn about their policy proposals, aside from visiting their websites or googling the transcripts of their previous 21 debates?"

THREATS OF FOOD RATIONING? But I filled my tank with 10% ethanol!

And having just been to the mall, I'll say that some people are well-positioned to get through any coming famine . . . .

I'VE OFTEN ECHOED THE PREDICTION that Hillary Clinton would make the most uncompromising wartime President in United States history, but here's some evidence that it just might be true:

Hillary: If Iran Attacked Israel With Nukes 'We Would Be Able to Totally Obliterate Them'

If the Iranians are smart, they'll believe her. I think she'd kinda like obliterating somebody.

UPDATE: "I like Hillary best when she shows her hawkishness."

ANOTHER UPDATE: Alex Knapp disagrees.

KNOXVILLE EXPATRIATES MAY LIKE THIS, a picture from the last Kay's Ice Cream still in existence. Once these were ubiquitous, but they began a gradual slide toward extinction in the 1970s and now there's only this one, on Chapman Highway, still in business. It's a full-service place, still featuring lots of different ice creams and a "Kay Burger" from the grill. But it's a bit the worse for wear -- the giant ice cream cone is supposed to have a kid on the ladder, licking the ice cream, but he's disappeared.

And no, I've never tried the "Frozen Tamale."

It was closed on Sunday when I drove by, but I took a picture. I'll try to post some inside pictures from when it's open some time.

Baskin-Robbins just isn't the same, to say nothing of Maggie Moo's, Cold Mountain Creamery, and the like.

James Lileks could no doubt do a more poetic job. I'll just say that I'm glad there's still one of these in business, somewhere.

SCOTT WILSON'S war.

THE YALE "ABORTION ART" STORY JUST GETS WEIRDER: Eugene Volokh has thoughts on the latest developments.

OKAY, I WAS BASHING BUSH YESTERDAY for not doing enough, so I should note this report: "The Bush administration is intervening with governments in southern Africa to prevent a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe's security forces from unloading its cargo, The Associated Press has learned." Any guns going to Zimbabwe should be going to the opposition.

ERIK SOFGE: Are Hollywood science fiction movies going down the tubes?

A quick comparison: In 1982, the year’s major sci-fi releases included Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing and Tron. In 2007, we saw Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, 28 Weeks Later, I Am Legend, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, The Invasion, Resident Evil: Extinction, Spider-Man 3 and Transformers. In this glut of sequels, remakes and comic, cartoon and video-game adaptations, the closest thing to an original production was I Am Legend, based on a classic novel that had already been made into multiple movies. Unfortunately, the science in that movie is on par with Optimus Prime’s magic, robot-killing heart, or the completely brushed-aside explanation of the Silver Surfer’s cosmic abilities. In all of these movies—particularly the ones based on comics—technology is used to leap sudden chasms in the plot, then shoved quickly out of sight. They get away with this because we no longer expect it to make sense. After all, it’s a comic ... or a video game, or a cartoon, or a live-action movie that feels like a cartoon. So it’s supposed to be stupid, right? . . .

What’s missing from Hollywood sci-fi, and what the comic adaptations continue to smother, is a celebration of smarts. The smaller movies have them—films like Sunshine and Primer. In fiction, writers like Charles Stross are pushing the limits of the genre. Maybe next year’s Star Trek reboot will make quantum physics look cool again. And if anyone can return some credibility to science-fiction movies, it’s James Cameron, whose long-gestating Avatar (about a human remote-operating a robot on a distant, alien planet) also shows up next year.

Let's hope. They can't all be Destination Moon, but, yeah.

PATERNITY FRAUD LEGISLATION killed in Tennessee: I don't see why this bill counts as "anti-family." I thought we banned involuntary servitude.

UPDATE: More on this story here. A lot of commenters were laboring under the same misapprehension I was.

LOADS OF STUFF on tomorrow's Pennsylvania primary, at TalkLeft.

DIRTY WEB POLITICS: Obama's site hacked.

A REPORT ON SWITCHGRASS ETHANOL RESEARCH at the University of Tennessee. If biofuels are ever going to amount to anything, it'll be using this kind of waste biomass, not by turning food into fuel.

THE INSTAWIFE SUGGESTS THAT "RELATIONSHIP" COLUMNIST LESLIE BENNETTS is a poor role model for wives. Rachel Lucas agrees.

HOW OLD IS JOHN MCCAIN? "When John McCain was born, any first ladies visiting Bosnia would have been dodging sniper fire in the 'Kingdom of Yugoslavia.'"

JOURNALISTS: The herd of independent minds!

Plus, unhinged!

MORE CANADIAN "HUMAN RIGHTS" FUN: Under oath.

UPDATE: Much more here.

WHERE NEWS BREAKS: This map suggests that it has a lot to do with where reporters are already hanging out.

WHICH IS BETTER? An inflatable Bucky Badger? Or an inflatable Uncle Sam?

SHOCKINGLY, RIGOBERTA MENCHU IS NOT INVOLVED: Fake covers for fake books by a fake writer.

WALTER SHAPIRO: Bill Clinton's Golden Oldies Act. "At 61, Bill Clinton -- even though he is a decade younger than John McCain -- makes more self-deprecating comments about age than anyone this side of Phyllis Diller." It's not the years, it's the mileage.

BANNING CELLPHONES DOESN'T STOP THE VIOLENCE: It just keeps it off of YouTube and makes life easier for school administrators. A perfectly rational bureaucratic response!

AN IMPORTANT POINT: Aging Doesn't Just Kill People, It Kills Them Horribly.

"I KNEW NOBODY WHO OWNED A GUN:" Eugene Volokh on preference falsification, with a gay-rights analogy.

MOTHER JONES: A Tale of Clintonian Spin: Trying to Blow Past the Weathermen Question.

GM SENDING THE HYBRID ESCALADE to China.

IRAQ: After the bombs, the tomatoes.

WHERE NO ONE LOOKS AT THE PROFESSOR: Still more on the classroom laptop debate.

IN THE MAIL: Andrew McCarthy's Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad.

JOHN FUND ON the press's favorite candidate.

UPDATE: This isn't kindergarten.

ANOTHER fine Knoxville dining establishment, though alas I didn't lunch there yesterday. It was closed.

IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Steve Chapman on Obama's terrorist associates:

It's not as though Ayers and Dohrn have denied or repudiated their crimes. After emerging from years in hiding, they escaped federal prosecution because of government misconduct in gathering evidence, but they don't pretend they were innocent. In 2001, Ayers said, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

Dohrn has likewise rationalized the explosions, claiming that "our acts of resistance were tiny and symbolic." She even went to prison for refusing to testify about an armored-car robbery involving her confederates. That crime was not tiny or symbolic to the two police officers or the security guard who were shot to death in the process.

All this is public record, and Barack Obama would have to be in a coma not to know it. Yet he showed no qualms about consorting with Ayers and Dohrn.

It's hard to imagine he would be so indulgent if we learned that John McCain had a long association with a former Klansman who used to terrorize African-Americans.

Indeed.

UPDATE: Reader Darin S. Morley echoes the thoughts of a lot of other emailers: "Hasn't McCain had a long association with former Klansman and fellow Senator Robert Byrd?"

Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Dem reader Nick Foresta emails:

I think this Ayers thing is pretty thin rope to hang Obama with. They just served on a community board together. Obama didn't put him there. He was already there when Obama joined. And I'm no fan of Obama's. I ain't voting for him but who happened to be seated next to him on some community board a couple of decades ago isn't the reason.

I think the connection was a bit closer than that makes it sound, but this is a fair point -- except that, as pointed out above, it seems highly likely that the press wouldn't cut a Republican that sort of slack. In fact, I think that a lot of anti-Obama sentiment stems not so much from Obama himself, as from the press's over-the-top support of his candidacy. I wonder if, in the long run, that will hurt him more than it helps?

MORE: Why Bill Ayers matters.

THOUGHTS ON ART, P.R., AND YALE, from Roger Kimball. And I'm somehow reminded of this piece from Reason. Does the Yale story refute its theme, or reinforce it?

DETERMINED BUT DESPERATE: Omar Fadhil on Al Qaeda in Iraq. Sounds like we'll see another attempt at a "terrorist Tet," perhaps in conjunction with the remaining Sadrists. I doubt it will succeed.

MICHAEL YON'S AGENT EMAILS that they've fixed the Amazon problem and that Michael's new book will be shipping again shortly.

IT'S AN IVY LEAGUE UPDATE, from Tom Smith.

ARTHUR BROOKS: Free People Are Happy People.

Yeah, go figure.

A REPORT ON THE MEXICAN DRUG WAR, which is getting pretty warlike.

NORM GERAS: Seven types of defection from the Left.

STUDENTS FOR CONCEALED CARRY come to Knoxville: "If you notice students sporting empty holsters on the University of Tennessee campus today, it's likely the sign of a protest, not a lost handgun. The students wearing the empty holsters are protesting state laws and campus policies that prohibit concealed handgun carry license holders from carrying on campus, said Nathan Robinson, a UT senior."

BILL BRADLEY on the Pennsylvania Push.

SOME OBAMA FANS ARE CROWING that they caught McCain without a flag pin. Perhaps he should oblige them by wearing one of these.

MICKEY KAUS: Help! I'm A Snob Like Obama!

HMM: "Soaring food prices and global grain shortages are bringing new pressures on governments, food companies and consumers to relax their longstanding resistance to genetically engineered crops." Good news, though it would have been better if they had adopted them sooner. Best line: “Their hearts may be on the left, but their pockets are on the right.”

ROBERT NOVAK: What's the matter with Obama?

April 20, 2008

A BLOODY WEEKEND: In Chicago.

UPDATE: Reader John Steakley emails, "Obviously an elaborate hoax, since Chicago has no guns." You do seem to get these 32 shootings this weekend headlines from places with strict gun controls, don't you? It's almost enough to make you lose faith in the whole enterprise.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Phil Manhard emails: "It's a quagmire! If elected president, I promise to bring all Americans home from Chicago by the end of the year..." These people have been killing each other for decades. There's nothing we can do to make things better. Our efforts will only strengthen the covert cross-border influence of the cheeseites from neighboring Wisconsin.

ANOTHER Anniversary. The U.S. did better than Powell expected on race, but it may be that we had more reserves to draw on than Britain possesses.

ROGER SIMON: The Washington Post in Desperation Mode.

UPDATE: A different kind of desperation at The New York Times? They're related, though . . . .

THOUGHTS ON EARTH DAY, from Eric Scheie: "May Mike Godwin forgive me for the post I am about to write."

Mike's a pretty forgiving guy. But then, he'd have to be.

JEFF GOLDSTEIN on blog grammar.

MORE REVISIONIST HISTORY from MoveOn.org. We are in favor of the war in Afghanistan. We have always been in favor of the war in Afghanistan! Pay no attention to that petition in the Google cache!

THE D300'S BIG BROTHER: A review of the new Nikon D3.

NICK GILLESPIE: If You Care About Free Speech, Come to This Press Conference on Monday, April 21.

BUT HE SUPPORTS THE SECOND AMENDMENT! Bob Casey: Obama Would Probably Find DC Handgun Bill Constitutional. "Why didn't Obama answer the question at the debate instead of weaving and bobbing? Was it because he didn't want to alienate PA voters, many of whom favor strong gun ownership rights? And, did he fail to tell the truth?"

Yes, he did. And here's another big roundup on the issue.

MORE ASUS NEWS: "Asus informed us this evening that the Eee PC 900 will hit the store shelves in the U.S. on May 12th. The Linux and Windows XP loaded version of this 8.9" version of the Eee PC will both cost $549." I'd like to do a comparison with HP's Mini-Note, which'll be out about the same time, and around the same price. It'll be available with XP, too, and I have to say it looks cooler for whatever that's worth.

FROM REFIGHTING THE 1960S TO REFIGHTING THE 1980S? Is that progress?

FEAR AND LOATHING at the Los Angeles Times.

PAM MEISTER SAYS that if the feds are going to investigate CEO pay they should investigate others, too.

I think, though, that she misses two fields ripe for investigation: Nonprofit pay, and the finances of elected officials, who seem to become a lot wealthier while in office than their government salaries can account for.

PRO-RIGHT-WING BIAS in the liberal media!

CONDI RICE MOCKS SADR AS A COWARD.

UPDATE: More interesting Iraq news rounded up here.

MARS VIDEO at Space.com.

A ROUNDUP OF AWARD-WINNING COOKBOOKS from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

RICK MORAN: And the band plays on.

CRUSHING OF DISSENT at Thesaurus.com?

REPURPOSING "ANTI-TERRORISM" GRANTS:

Even though Memphis hasn't suffered a terrorist attack, the city is using federal grants to fight crime, which might lead to the discovery of a terrorist suspect. Other cities are using federal money with similar programs.

Reading the whole story, it sure sounds like they're just spending the money on stuff they do anyway, and calling it anti-terrorism because it "might lead to the discovery of a terrorist suspect." Likewise, my posting of photos from Long's Drug Store constitutes an anti-terrorism effort, since if there's a terrorist eating lunch there, someone might recognize him. Where's my federal money?

JULIA GORIN: Can Hillary out-pander Obama? Gorin suggests she should get back to her roots.

IN THE TORONTO SUN, MORE CRITICISM OF CANADA'S kangaroo-court "human rights" commissions:

What are we to make of the Ontario Human Rights Commission's drive-by shooting of Mark Steyn and Maclean's?

The OHRC ruled it did not have jurisdiction to proceed with a complaint filed by the Canadian Islamic Congress and some law students over an excerpt from Steyn's book that appeared in Maclean's titled "The future belongs to Islam."

That would have been fine if that's all the OHRC did, but out of the other side of their mouth they condemned the article for being racist and Islamophobic. Unfortunately they made these findings without holding a trial or hearing legal arguments or evidence from Maclean's.

Silly me, I thought courts and tribunals were supposed to hear both sides before they ruled on the merits of a claim.

Not these tribunals. They're all about silencing inconvenient truths, apparently . . . .

OOPS: "As of today, we're taking bets to see how long it will take before people realize that "GPS" does not stand for 'Auto Pilot.' . . . Piloting a coach through the Washington Arboretum -- as the GPS instructed him -- the driver ignored, or didn't see, or didn't believe (take your pick) the flashing lights and sign warning him that his 11-foot-high bus was too tall for the looming 9-foot concrete overpass."

IN THE MAIL: Gerard DeGroot's The Sixties Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade. The "youthquake" was more of a "hypequake," he argues.

MEGAN MCARDLE: "I have to say, I don't like to hear that Barack Obama is going slow on supporting Georgia against Russia's land-grab. Russia not only attempts to exert economic and military hegemony over its neighbors; it has a distinct dislike for free elections."

MARK STEYN: "Is roping your genitals illegal in New York? Do you need a permit?"

PEOPLE STARVING IS ONE THING, E.U. POLITICS IS ANOTHER:

The EU Commission on Monday rejected claims that producing biofuels is a "crime against humanity" that threatens food supplies, and vowed to stick to its goals as part of a climate change package.

"There is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for biofuels," said Barbara Helfferich, spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

"You can't change a political objective without risking a debate on all the other objectives," which could see the EU landmark climate change and energy package disintegrate, an EU official said.

Their comments came amid growing unease over the planting of biofuel crops as food prices rocket and riots against poverty and hunger multiply worldwide.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told German radio Monday that the production of biofuels is "a crime against humanity" because of its impact on global food prices.

God forbid we should have a "debate on all the other objectives." Read the whole thing.

CHINA, MUGABE, WEAPONS, AND SOUTH AFRICAN LONGSHOREMEN:

On Friday, the An Yue Jiang, a Chinese ship carrying arms bound for Zimbabwe, left the port of Durban. Earlier, a high court refused to allow the weapons to be transported across South African soil.

The decision capped a surprising turn of events. On Thursday, Themba Maseko, a spokesman for Pretoria, said that his country would not stop the shipment as long as formalities had been completed. Dockers of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, however, refused to unload the cargo, fearing that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe might use the weapons against his opponents, who are locked in a post-election standoff with him. Mugabe appears to have lost his post in the March 29 presidential election but is unwilling to step aside. . . .

But let’s not call these South Africans “ordinary.” They have done more to stop Chinese autocrats from aiding Mugabe than their own leader, Thabo Mbeki–and than the most powerful individual on earth, President George W. Bush.

We should be sending guns to Zimbabwe, but not to Mugabe. On the other hand, the slam at Bush isn't completely fair:

More recently, police arrested an American, Peter Spitz, in Florida, for trying to sell ten Russian helicopters (apparently Mi-8s) to Zimbabwe. Spitz was caught in a sting, and he boasted of having 30 Russian made helicopters and warplanes in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan).

He'll stop weapons to Zimbabwe, so long as it doesn't mean standing up to China.

TIGERHAWK: "Even the New York Times, which has done its level best to promote the myth of Iraqi incompetence, acknowledges that the government has won the battle of Basra."

UPDATE: Related thoughts from T.M. Lutas: "This is progress. This is good. This is going to be recognized by the mainstream media (on their own schedule) sometime between November and January or, if McCain's smart, he'll force them to recognize it in the summer so by the fall, Iraq will be a net benefit for Republicans, not a drag."

OOPS:

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea’s first astronaut landed on Saturday in northern Kazakhstan 260 miles off its mark and 20 minutes late, Russian space officials said. . . .It was not the first landing of a Soyuz capsule that has gone awry. Last October, a technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Malaysia’s first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts on a steeper-than-normal path during its return to Earth.

But everyone's okay.

PHOTOBLOGGING A TIBET/CHINA PROTEST in Wisconsin.

TODAY'S NEW YORK POST FEATURES A REVIEW of Michael Yon's new book:

Those already familiar with Michael Yon's work might have one question regarding his book: Is it simply a printed version of his dispatches from Iraq published on his popular Web site (michaelyon-online.com)?

The answer: No.

The best of those stories are in the book, but they've been expanded with the passage of time and military details too sensitive to use immediately, and told in the same gripping style that can now truly be called page turning.

Indeed. Read the whole thing.

THOUGHTS ON HEART-RATE AND TRAINING: When I've trained with a heart-rate monitor, I think I've worked out harder and made more progress. Your results may differ, however, as it seems to be as much a matter of psychology as physiology.

THOUGHTS ON RETIREMENT, FROM JERRY POURNELLE:

I discovered to my horror just how much the Feds tax retirement including Social Security! Having collected taxes for my lifetime -- including to this day -- on self-employment to pay into the Social Security account, they hand me a miserable pittance compared to what I would have got had I simply put the money into a money market account; then they tax part of it away.

Same with retirement accounts. They tax Roberta's State Teacher's Retirement income. They tax my TIAA retirement income from my academic years. Incidentally, a few years of TIAA/CREF generated a very sizable fraction of the income I get from Social Security from paying into that all my life. I have taken the "minimum distribution" option from TIAA, so I could get a lot more; my theory is that Mr. Heinlein was right, we writers are professional gamblers, and it's well to have your house and car paid for and sock something away for a bad year, because you are likely to have one. Robert ran scared all his life.

Clearly the government wants us to spend ourselves broke and throw ourselves on welfare. Then they will stop fining us every year. They fine us for speeding, for spitting in the streets, for doing things they don't want us to do: they also fine us for improving our property, investing money to grow the economy, saving money; the implications are pretty clear?

As the Rainmakers sang, "They'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please."