July 05, 2008

A RECIPE FOR WATERMELON LEMONADE. Just beware -- watermelon can reportedly have "Viagra-like effects!"

SOME EXPERT grilling tips.

WHY FLY WHEN YOU CAN FLOAT? New interest in Zeppelins.

MUDVILLE GAZETTE: Some things about Bud Day that don't make CNN.

UPDATE: Bill Ardolino emails:

Saw your post on Bud Day. I just happened to finish his biography written by Robert Coram, and all I can say is "wow" and "highly recommended:"

The man was beaten with a rubber strip hours at a time for months during the summer of 1969, and he never gave up any info about his unit to the North Vietnamese. He once ejected from an exploding jet, his parachute failed to deploy, and he lived. And that's the tip of the iceberg; the story of his life is so incredible, it's almost hard to believe.

Anyway, highly recommended. Maybe someone should mail a copy to CNN.

Or several.

MEGAN MCARDLE: "Indeed, it's possible that consumer driven care would improve preventative care for some conditions--if you have to pay $1,000 for an emergency room visit when you get slack on your asthma management, you might get a lot more motivated."

Plus, Austan Goolsbee's unconvincing anti-NAFTA spin.

THE HIGH COST OF fighting malaria.

CANADIAN KANGAROO COURT UPDATE:

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed the complaint against Catholic Insight Magazine. . . .

This is good news. It means that the political campaign for freedom of speech and freedom of religion is working. It means the CHRC does not want to be seen to treat big fish differently from little fish. It does not want to be seen as operating outside the rule of law. That is a good thing. It means the CHRC wants the scrutiny to go away and fast.

Free Speech for everyone. What a concept. Keep the pressure on. Plus more here:

While the Canadian Human Rights Commission has bowed to widespread public opposition to proceeding with a complaint against Maclean's magazine brought by the Canadian Islamic Congress, less powerful and prominent Canadians should beware: For them, the threat of censorship remains. . . . Ironically, it is not I, Mansur, Steyn or the editors of Maclean's who are ill-serving Canadian Muslims. It is Muslim leaders like Elmasry. By using rights tribunals to intimidate and silence critics, these authoritarian Muslims are undermining the fundamental freedoms of all Canadians, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

Of course, more than a few non-Muslims also betray scant regard for the historic rights of Canadians to freedom of expression.

Read the whole thing. It's as if the whole "human rights" thing is really just a weapon for silencing political opposition.

IN THE MAIL: Computer Theology: Intelligent Design of the World Wide Web.

Farragut, Tennessee.

DALE AMON: "I have long said we should change the name of the DOD back to the Department of War. If you are going to make war, then you should damn well be a man and say so."

TALKLEFT: Church vs. Obama.

BRITAIN, BIRTHPLACE OF FREEDOM: Home Secretary green lights restrictions on photography.

The letter dated 26 June, which BJP has seen a copy of, is in response to correspondence sent by the Union secretary general, Jeremy Dear, who expressed concern at police surveillance of journalists, in particular photographers.

'First of all, may I take this opportunity to state that the Government greatly values the importance of the freedom of the press, and as such there is no legal restriction on photography in public places,' Smith writes. 'Also, as you will be aware, there is no presumption of privacy for individuals in a public place.'

However, the Home Secretary adds that local restrictions might be enforced. 'Decisions may be made locally to restrict or monitor photography in reasonable circumstances. That is an operational decision for the officers involved based on the individual circumstances of each situation.

They can photograph you, but they get to decide when you can take photographs.

LEE SMITH: Iran Wielding ‘Soft Power’ Against America.

BOB OWENS: Don’t Hammer Obama for 'Refining' Iraq Stance. "Republicans should welcome any change of heart from Obama, as recognizing American progress in Iraq could only benefit both countries."

I don't think it's Republicans who are hammering him the hardest, though; I think it's disappointed Netroots types.

FABIUS MAXIMUS on why you should support the USO. I've donated to them on several occasions. They do good work.

UH-OH: Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis.

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body. . . .

"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam.

Perhaps they just fear being tried for crimes against humanity.

CNN: "A growing number of Clinton supporters polled say they may stay home in November instead of casting their ballot for Obama, an indication the party has yet to coalesce around the Illinois senator four weeks after the most prolonged and at times divisive primary race in modern American history came to a close. . . . Obama won 59 percent of support from registered Democrats polled in June; now he garners 54 percent."

MURTHA DOES IT AGAIN.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, we'd see schoolboys punished for refusing to kneel and pray in class. And they were right!

Two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and 'pray to Allah' during a religious education lesson.

Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.

They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent - which included wearing Muslim headgear - was a breach of their human rights.

You can't make this stuff up. And, sadly, you don't have to.

UPDATE: Clark Stooksbury is surprised to learn that Stoke-on-Trent is in England. I guess he wasn't lucky enough to have Mr. Wolfenbarger for geography like I did. He also seems a bit unclear on the point of this "They Told Me" series, which highlights the way in which apocalyptic things said about the Bush Administration tend to come true in rather different settings. I'm pointing that out here, just in case anyone else hasn't been paying attention.

MORE: Stooksbury's update just demonstrates that the Andrea See quote over in the right sidebar here is right. Sorry, Clark, you're just missing the joke here.

July 04, 2008

SOME INDEPENDENCE DAY THOUGHTS from Roger Kimball.

"BUT WE DON'T have any more!"

A COOL PHOTO BLOG, discovered via the comments at Ann Althouse's.

NOTHING LEFT TO PIVOT ON? Don't be so sure.

UPDATE: Related item here.

ROGER SIMON: The Good News and the Bad News on the Fourth of July.

BE A PATRIOT! GET A JOB!

SO THESE SUUNTO Heart Rate Monitors are on sale. I used to use a Polar until I lost the sensor and it was pretty good. I've got a Suunto dive computer and I like it. But the reader reviews on these are kinda lukewarm. Any recommendations from folks who've used 'em, or used others?

A SECOND TERM FOR JIMMY CARTER? Courtesy of a Republican? "Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit."

The 55-mile-per-hour speed limit is a bit of idiocy I hoped we'd left behind. I'm not suprised to see Mr. Private Jets supporting it, though. Meanwhile, here are some better ideas for energy savings.

TAYLOR MARSH: Why Barack Needs Hillary.

THE CLIMATE-CHANGE Juggernaut.

THE TOP 100 law and lawyer blogs.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE Fourth of July Movie?

FROM JENNIFER RUBIN, a Hollywood Pledge.

BRIAN BEUTLER, SHOT IN A MUGGING IN D.C., is going to be fine. They took out his spleen. Don't worry, Brian -- I haven't had a spleen since an unfortunate incident in my youth, and it's caused me no problems whatsoever.

WHO NEEDS WATERBOARDING, when there's Nutraloaf? It's gotta be better than some dorm food I've eaten.

NEXT STOP, serfdom!

SOME JULY FOURTH THOUGHTS from James Lileks.

MEGAN MCARDLE:

There's also this dodgy belief, fervently embraced by many liberals advocating regulations--"Look, even a big business head who would be regulated believes it's a good idea! It must be!" Au contraire, mon frere. The heads of big businesses often love big new regulatory bodies, because they have the resources to best negotiate a complex regime. The end result of this kind of radical regulation is usually that the big companies capture the regulator and use it to shut out competition.

Really big companies are more like bureaucracies than capitalist enterprises. See, e.g., Dilbert.

THE LONDON TIMES: Barack Obama's policy switches are giving the Left whiplash. "Change, it turns out, wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Having campaigned for the past year as the agent of transformation, the man who would lead an historic shift in America's political direction, Barack Obama is discovering that there is quite a lot he likes about the way things are. . . . If next week he named Dick Cheney as his running-mate and revealed that he spends his spare time drilling for oil in wildlife habitats, the only surprise would be that it took him so long."

This is not the Barack Obama that I knew. Well, that might nail down the InstaPundit endorsement . . . .

THIS is a very nice photo. So's this.

A LOOK AT race, politics, and the American labor movement.

IN THE MAIL: Christopher Jones' The Intelligent Portfolio: Practical Wisdom on Personal Investing from Financial Engines.

Farragut, Tennessee. Happy Independence Day! I'm on the road today, but will be checking in from time to time thanks to EVDO. And I've got a few scheduled posts, too.

THIS WEEK'S CARNIVAL OF SPACE is up!

SO I WAS AT THE GYM THE OTHER DAY, WEARING MY BLACKFIVE Don't Be A DouChe' T-Shirt and one of the trainers came up and said it was the coolest t-shirt she'd ever seen. I've gotten a lot of favorable remarks on it, maybe even more than the Enjoy Capitalism! shirt from Bureaucrash. But sometimes real life is even better than parody: Colombian army duped FARC by wearing … Che t-shirts.

INTERESTED IN A SPACE CAREER? Blue Origin is hiring.

SOME INDEPENDENCE DAY THOUGHTS from Don Surber.

A MAN OF SEASONAL PRINCIPLES? I believe you mean "pragmatic and flexible," Charles. We need that in a leader. Otherwise, he might lead us somewhere we don't already want to go!

IN BAGHDAD, CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY WITH the largest re-enlistment ceremony in history:

While most Americans probably slept, 1,215 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines raised their right hands and committed to a combined 5,500 years of additional service during the largest reenlistment ceremony in the history of the American military. Beneath a large American flag which dwarfed even the enormous chandelier that Saddam Hussein had built for the Al Faw Palace, members of all services, representing all 50 states took the oath administered by Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of Multi-National Forces Iraq.

Read the whole thing.

TIGERHAWK: "The editors of the New York Times are beginning to worry that they are the rubes."

FOR THE MEDIA, converging curves of diminution.

THEY'RE OBSERVING INDEPENDENCE DAY at Google.

UPDATE: Also at Ask.com, and Yahoo!

GOOD NEWS FOR SOME: A record-setting drop in student loan interest rates. I credit the Obama Presidency!

July 03, 2008

KATIE GRANJU looks at the race for First Lady. "I suspect that the 'Hillary Clinton factor' may be at play as part of the reason folks aren’t digging Michelle Obama."

A LOOK AT rejuvenation research.

REPUBLICANS SAY OBAMA VOTED TO RAISE TAXES 94 TIMES: FactCheck says they've overcounted and it's only 54. And some of those votes are iffy. "Most of those were measures to tax the rich or corporations; many aimed to fund government programs; and most didn't actually raise taxes in and of themselves."

OKAY, THIS OBAMA FLIPFLOP SHIFT IN NUANCE DOESN'T DO ANYTHING FOR ME: Obama: Mental distress can't justify late abortion: "Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says 'mental distress' should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions, a key distinction not embraced by many supporters of abortion rights." I'm pro-choice, after all.

Boy, they're sure pumping these things out for the Independence Day weekend, though.

UPDATE: TalkLeft: "NARAL leaders ought to feel like idiots. . . . As I've said all along about his religious outreach, you don't get something for nothing and if he wants the evangelical vote, he's going to have to offer them something. Is this it?"

MICKEY KAUS:

Instapundit does a much more effective job clearing Obama on the issue of home mortgage favoritism than Obama's own clumsy web site. ...

I do try. Especially as I ponder an Obama endorsement, in anticipation of his refined position on the war . . . .

DOG BITES MAN: "Wire services cozy with terrorists."

HERE COMES THE PIVOT!

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) promised primary voters a swift withdrawal from Iraq, in clear language still on his website: “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”

Not anymore. Heading into the holiday weekend, Obama and his advisers repudiated that pledge, saying he is reevaluating his plan and will incorporate advice from commanders on the ground when he visits Iraq later this month.

A top Obama adviser said he is not “wedded” to a specific timeline, and Obama said Thursday he plans to “refine” his plan.

You could see this one coming. Hmm. With all these changes, Obama's morphing into a candidate I could support!

UPDATE: Obama denies altering proposed Iraq withdrawal timeline.

But, at ABC, Obama’s Iraq Quagmire.

And John McGinnis emails: "You can wait for the Obama Pivot. I want to watch the Olbermann Squirm!"

Olbermann will praise Obama's "manly firmness" in deciding to keep troops in Iraq.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ann Althouse: "This is what I was expecting. Weren't you?"

MORE: A clarification. This should resolve all doubt.

And TigerHawk asks the eternal question.

STILL MORE: Remembering Samantha Power.

NEWS FROM IRAQ: Analysis: Sadr movement, Mahdi Army shrink under pressure.

QUESTION: "Do you think that the netroots support the Democratic Party in the same way that I was a New York Mets fan, growing up? Because damned if I can see how they're getting any practical return on their money, particularly when it comes to foreign policy."

LONGEVITY UPDATE: SIRT-1 activators may have a downside.

MY LITTLE CTHULHU? Who says evil can't be cuddly?

PLAYING BOTH SIDES AGAINST THE MIDDLE, on McCain's military record?

WHEN POLICE DON'T LIKE SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS:

Last year, New York police officers were seen dancing in the streets just before arresting four men in a city nightclub on charges of selling $100 worth of cocaine. It took six months and the men's life savings, but their names were finally cleared when prosecutors took the unusual step of announcing in court that the men had committed no crime.

That's because club surveillance video shows that the undercover cops had no contact with the accused men in the two hours they were in the club.

Now, club owner Eduardo Espinoza says the police are retaliating against him.

Jeez. They'd better get used to it -- surveillance is a two-way street now, and that phenomenon is only going to increase.

OMAR FADHIL: How Iran plans to drag the U.S. into war if Israel dares to attack its nuclear program. We should make sure they regret that, if it happens.

JACOB SULLUM: Obama's Toothless Second Amendment. "The senator defends the right to whatever arms the government decides to allow."

ADVICE FOR OBAMA: "Obama Should Embrace His Muslim Heritage." That hasn't been the strategy so far. In fact, that's the complaint: "He vociferously denies being a Muslim as if it were a slur."

UPDATE: Bill Bradley thinks this post suggests that Obama is a Muslim. I told him that anyone who's been paying attention -- which certainly includes InstaPundit readers -- knows that Obama has a Muslim heritage but isn't a Muslim now. Indeed, that's the point of the linked article. But the sensitivity on this question does suggest that Obama and his supporters think there's something wrong with being a Muslim, which was also the point of the linked article.

ANOTHER UPDATE: So thinking about this, is it just out-of-bounds to use the words "Obama" and "Muslim" in the same sentence? Does that join the ever-lengthening list of things we're not allowed to talk about?

DISNEY IS CLAIMING AN EXEMPTION from a new Florida gun-rights law. But only as to its employees, apparently.

CULTURAL SUICIDE: "If you see trouble, walk away." (Via Hot Air).

WHILE FEDERAL COURTS ARE SCRUTINIZING SURVEILLANCE OF ISLAMIC CHARITIES by the U.S. government, they're also opening the door to massive domestic surveillance by corporations:

Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.

The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a "set-back to privacy rights".

The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.

Who do you trust less? Viacom, or the NSA?

UPDATE: More on the Google story here.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM SATELLITE RADIO YESTERDAY, you can still hear the latest PJM Political online. Download it and listen in the car on your Fourth of July travels!

MORE ON OBAMA'S MORTGAGE DEAL: "What could Sen. Barack Obama do for a lender in exchange for more than $100,000? Plenty."

Remember when Democrats were all about ending the "culture of corruption?" Now that sounds so 2006.

UPDATE: A reader who asks anonymity -- but he's a guy who's written me before -- emails:

I'm hesitant to add to this story, but I obtained a mortgage from Northern Trust in Chicago for my client at roughly the same time as Obama. The mortgage terms I got for my client were materially better than Obama's--a 30 year fixed at almost a full percent less than Obama's mortgage with a much larger principal amount.

Northern is an unusual bank that specializes in cases that require more attention and analysis than a typical bank will provide. I don't find Obama's mortgage to be anything special or unusual in the context of Northern's very competent Chicago office, though I could see how his situation and unusual income stream would make Northern pretty attractive to him.

This mortgage story is not even remotely comparable to the congressmen like Dodd who solicited what can only be called "constructive bribes" from Countrywide's CEO. The Tony Rezko aspect of Obama's home purchase is sleazy enough without drawing hyperbolic conclusions about his mortgage.

Yeah, I agree it's different from Dodd et al., but these members of Congress always seem to be getting some kind of good deal. Still, it's good to get an inside opinion.

FRANK J.: It's up to me to save the world. Which is a pretty sure sign that the world is in big trouble.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION UPDATE:

She may have defaulted on mortgages and lost a home in foreclosure, but that hasn't stopped Long Beach Rep. Laura Richardson from driving in style and at great expense, courtesy of the taxpayer. The lease on Richardson's 2007 Lincoln Town Car costs about $1,300 a month -- the most expensive lease of any member of the House of Representatives, reports the Daily Breeze. Richardson's monthly lease, paid by the federal government, is much larger than the $400 to $800 a month that other House members pay, according to a taxpayer group.

While Richardson has leased the vehicle only since last fall, it already been involved in one traffic accident while being driven by a staff member. In addition, Long Beach police ticketed the car in January for illegal parking, a ticket that has gone unpaid.

But that's not all. Read the whole thing. And try to guess her (unmentioned) political affiliation . . . .

PHILIP KLEIN: Obama vs. His Website on Iraq.

UPDATE: Is Google blocking The Spectator?

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE WANTS TO HAVE OBAMA OVER FOR BARBECUE: If Obama is smart, he'll take him up on it!

IN THE MAIL: Daniel Silva's Moscow Rules. It was immediately and eagerly borrowed by my colleague Dean Rivkin, who's a big Silva fan. I'll let you know what he thinks.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

FLASHBACK: Wesley Clark, Then and Now. Plus, dodging missiles.

NEWS I CAN USE! Phil Bowermaster on how to be marginally less dorky.

THOMAS MADDEN: America's Days Aren't Numbered.

Nonsense. America is doomed to go down any day now, and it has been ever since I was a kid. At least if you judge by bestselling books . . . . Some earlier thoughts on this subject here.

UPDATE: Of course, if you disagree with me, you could always be bringing your child up to survive the next World War.

But following one of his recommended links I get this customer review: "A 'MUST-READ' to prepare for Y2K Transition!" I wonder what that guy thinks now. Hey, just because all the earlier apocalyptic predictions have been wrong doesn't mean the new ones have to be. And I'm all for disaster preparedness. Just with, you know, a little perspective.

LIKE A STAR TREK CONVENTION for Dukes of Hazzard fans.

FULL TIME FRIDAY: In Class From 8 a.m. to 9:50 p.m.

A HEDGE-FUND READER EMAILS:

Does this (the Dow since early May)...

have anything to do with this (Obama/inTrade) ?

It's the correlation that no one in polite company is discussing.

Luckily, we're not so polite here. It's certainly suggestive.

UPDATE: Hey, maybe this is why Obama is talking so much economic nonsense. By doing so, he drives the stock market down, which makes life harder on the Republicans . . . .

POLLING ON IRAQ:

We also found, however, that more Americans — 57% — think we're winning in Iraq vs. 51% when we last asked the question in November. One of the biggest changes was among Democrats, 45% of whom now think we're winning vs. 34% last fall.

Which makes us wonder what the percentages would be if the coverage was just a little more balanced.

We'll never know. But this prepares the ground for the Obama pivot on Iraq.

COMMON SENSE PREVAILS: "Under increasing public pressure over its decision to temporarily halt all new solar development on public land, the Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday that it was lifting the freeze, barely a month after it was put into effect. The bureau had announced on May 29 that it was no longer processing new applications to build solar power plants on land it oversees in six Western states after federal officials said they needed first to study the environmental effects of solar energy, a process that would take two years."

Now how about dropping the barriers to developing other sources of energy, too, while we're at it?

WHO HAS MET MORE CONGRESSIONAL GOALS: Iraq, or the U.S. Congress?

HEH: "You can't please everybody, and if you want to be President, you really can't please Greenwald, Hamsher, and Kos."

CHINA AND THE INTERNET:

A recent analysis of web sites pushing malware (software that helps hackers steal data) revealed that half of them are connected with just ten ISPs (Internet Service Providers), and six of those ISPs are in China. This came as no surprise, as China has become the favorite hideout for Internet criminals.

There's just one catch. The Chinese Internet is highly policed by a special force of 30,000 secret police technicians. On the Chinese Internet, you don't do something the government does not want, at least not for long. So how do these criminals manage to survive on such a heavily policed portion of the Internet? It's no secret that a lot of Internet mischief comes out of China, with the tacit approval of the Chinese government.

Indeed.

FIVE VULNERABLE NODES in the global energy network. The logical response to such vulnerability, and a fear that disruption might be imminent, say because of something involving Iran, would be to build stockpiles. But if people started doing that, oil prices would rise to record levels. Probably even at a time when the economy was slowing.

Meanwhile, from the comments:

My two cents of logic.

1. As oil prices rise higher, more and more sustainable energy solutions become financially viable.

2. Sustainable energy helps cool the earth thus solving the problem of global warming and saving the planet.

3. Greenpeace supports saving the earth.

4.Any attack on Iran would cause the price of oil to spike.

My conclusion - Greenpeace supports an attack on Iran (at least in concept).

You can't argue with logic like that.

HELLER AND NEW YORK: "In a sign that federal courts here in New York will defend New York City's restrictive gun regulations, a judge is allowing the city to strip a disabled Vietnam War veteran of his gun license."

Some constitutional rights are less equal than others.

ERIC S. RAYMOND: "OK, I’ll admit it: six months ago I was very near buying into the whole Obama thing. That was when he was in his post-racial phase — before Jeremiah Wright, back when voting for Obama seemed like a way of putting an end to the unhealthy obsessiveness about race that disfigures liberal politics."

MICKEY KAUS: "The whole point of last week is that McCain's dropping the 'first' from 'security first.'"

July 02, 2008

CLIFFORD SHOEMAKER, THE LAWYER who subpoenaed blogger Kathy Seidel, got spanked by the judge for his efforts. "I find that Clifford Shoemaker violated Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b)(1) and Rule 45(c)(1).... The 11(b)(1) violation may also violate Virginia’s Rules of Professional Conduct .... Clifford J. Shoemaker’s action is an abuse of legal process, a waste of judicial resources and an unnecessary waste of the time and expense to the purported deponent." Read the whole thing. Worse yet, everyone who googles him will find out about this -- and that he lost a motion to quash to a blogger acting pro se. Ouch!

JONATHAN CARD is setting up a Space Law Wiki.

BECAUSE WHO NEEDS NEWS, ANYWAY: LA Times to cut 250 jobs, including 150 news jobs. Earlier discussion of newspapers' economic travails is here.

Meanwhile, reader Joseph Beaulieu writes:

If only AP was as skeptical of the L.A. Times as it is of the Bush Administration ...it wouldn't have left this uncommented upon:

"The number one reason that people cancel the L.A. Times is, they tell us, they don't have enough time to read the paper that we give them every day," Stanton said. "We're going to be more picky about the stories we choose to write long and a lot more picky about the ones we write shorter."

Yeah, that's it. People are complaining about too much news. They're doing too good a job! That's their problem!

UPDATE: The LAT's appeal isn't shrinking -- it's just becoming more selective!

ANOTHER GROSS FACTUAL ERROR AT THE SUPREME COURT. Following up on similar huge errors from Justice Stevens in Heller. Plus, another Stevens Heller error here. What gives?

TRAILER PARK: A whole bunch of new movie trailers.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE on how the press is reporting on improvements in Iraq. By talking about problems in Afghanistan!

IN COLOMBIA, A MAJOR HOSTAGE RESCUE and another embarrassment for the FARC terrorists: "Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos has confirmed that former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was held captive by the FARC, was rescued during a military operation on Wednesday. Santos said no one had been hurt in the rescue."

The Counterterrorism Blog says the operation was something right out of a spy thriller. More on the rescue here.

TOM MAGUIRE: "Larisa Alexandrovna tries her hand at rebutting Jonah Goldberg's essay on Obama's patriotism problem, and hilarity ensues."

CULTURAL SUICIDE.

WINNING OVER the Felon-American community.

COLLEGES PUSHING PHONY DIVERSITY:

In September of 2000, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Idaho were both embarrassed when they were forced to admit that they had doctored promotional photographs to make their campuses look diverse. In both cases, non-white faces were added to real student photographs of all-white groups.

At the universities involved, officials insisted that they meant well, but just about everyone agreed that Photoshop diversity isn’t the real thing. But what if photos, even real photos of real live students, convey a false impression? . . .

The findings: Black students made up an average of 7.9 percent of students at the colleges studied, but 12.4 percent of those in viewbooks. Asian students are also more likely to be found in viewbooks than on campus, making up 3.3 percent of real students on average and 5.1 percent of portrayed students. . . . Looked at another way, he found that more than 75 percent of colleges appeared to overrepresent black students in viewbooks.

So why are black students more prevalent in viewbooks than on campus?

“Black equals diversity for many people. If you show African American students, people think that means your institution is diverse,” said Timothy D. Pippert, an assistant professor of sociology at Augsburg, who led the study. “They are defining diversity as that face.”

Read the whole thing.

IT'S A COFFEE TABLE! IT'S A WEIGHT BENCH! It's both!