MARKDOWNS ON tools and home improvement gear.

HMM: Coddled Male Wolf Cubs Father Fewer Pups.

NOW IT’S A “WAR ON GOLD?”

They told me if I voted for John McCain we’d see endless war against imagined enemies. And they were right!

HEH: “Harvard has a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on explaining why it bans the ROTC.”

FASTER, PLEASE: Cheap, Diesel-Powered Fuel Cells.

WILL SOCIAL MEDIA produce more entrepreneurs?

MISTUH CUNNINGHAM, HE DEAD: Remembering Tom Bosley.

BILL WHITTLE ON WEALTH CREATION.

THE WORLD’S LONGEST CAT.

COMING: The 70 mpg Mazda2? “Mazda, which has no hybrid engine systems of its own, has taken to vastly improving its line of gas and diesel engines to compete with hybrids. If these rumors are true, not only are they competing, but completely blowing the competition out of the water. A 70 mpg gas-only car would outdo every hybrid on the planet. Of course, it depends on what continent the mpg is calculated, as Japan, America, and Europe all have different standards.”

AUTOBLOG GREEN: First Drive: Chevrolet Volt.

TED OLSON: Obama doesn’t have to defend Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

ED DRISCOLL: Juan Williams Commits the Ultimate Kinsleyesque Gaffe.

AVOIDING the Stalemate State.

HORMONES: “A study claims sex hormones in the contraceptive Pill bring out the green-eyed monster, making a woman more possessive and more likely to fret about her husband or boyfriend’s fidelity.” “It seems that women, and perhaps pharmaceutical providers, are not fully aware of the range of potential psychological side-effects associated with pill use and more specifically brand choice.” Well, the Pill mimics pregnancy, and there’s solid evolutionary reason for a pregnant women to be more possessive.

JOE PAPPALARDO: Is NATO Crumbling? How budget woes, lagging technology, a resurgent Russia and domestic politics are dissolving the power of a legacy military alliance.

PAXTON QUIGLEY: Women With Guns.

IN THE MAIL: Freedom of Assembly and Petition: The First Amendment, Its Constitutional History and the Contemporary Debate.

KLAVAN ON THE CULTURE: The Extremists Are Coming!

CHANGE: Juan Williams, NPR and the Death of Liberalism. It’s just sad to see racism has taken over so many of America’s top institutions. First the Tea Party, now this. . . .

UPDATE: A call to defund NPR.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Dale Beihoffer writes: “According to the NYT story on Juan Williams, ombudswoman Alicia C. Shepard said that Juan was a ‘lightning rod’ for NPR, noting that ’she had received 378 listener e-mails in 2008 listing complaints and frustrations about Mr. Williams.’ Your readers should be able to do much better than 378 emails to her!”

Well, I don’t see the point emailing ‘em, really, but what wimps. Is that all it takes to get someone fired at NPR? 378 people with five minutes and an Internet connection? Point noted. . . .

Related: NPR: Where “Teabag” Videos Are Defended But Blaming 9-11 on Muslims Will Get You Fired.

MORE: L.A. Times: A majority of Americans sees too much political correctness; even more say it’s a problem.

SISSY WILLIS: Everyone’s disintermediating the gateway media now.

HUBRIS, NEMESIS, AND PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1773: The Hunters Get Captured By The Game. “Was it actually a deliberate lure? There’s been a bit of speculation in the blogosphere that Palin may have made the reference as bait, knowing that it would be irresistible to some. And maybe she did; after all, she’s a wily hunter.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Geithner The Next To Leave Obamaland?

Well, once you’ve been immortalized in song, why stick around?

INSIDE SCIENCE FICTION BASEBALL: Former Marine Elizabeth Moon, author of books like Oath of Fealty, The Deed of Paksennarion, and Marque and Reprisal, among others, is reportedly being “shunned” by some women in science fiction because of comments about the NYC Mosque. A reader emails:

I’m emailing you because I know you’re a SF fan, and I haven’t seen you cover this topic yet. (If you have, my apologies.)

Elizabeth Moon, award winning mil-sf author and former Marine, was invited to speak as guest of honor at the 2011 WISCON, a feminist SF con. However, ever since she posted comments on the NYC 9/11 Mosque (http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/335480.html) she has been branded a racist and there is an active movement afoot among some on-line sf feminists (male and female, mostly current and past WISCON attendees) to get her dis-invited to WISCON, and failing that, for her to be actively shunned during her speech. (Word has it that ‘fans of color’ and ‘non-Christian fans’ will feel “unsafe” attending the con if Ms. Moon is there.)

One of the posts covering the fan reaction:
http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/elizabeth-moon-on-islam/

Another reaction: http://nojojojo.livejournal.com/221241.html

A round-up of reaction: http://elf.dreamwidth.org/2010/09/16/?style=site

Battleswarm covered it here: http://www.battleswarmblog.com/?tag=elizabeth-moon

A note: A SF feminist of my acquaintance asks me to emphasize the NON-universality of these sentiments among SF fans, feminist, female, or otherwise. People can disagree without being disagreeable.

So we were once told. You can read Moon’s 9/11 post and see what you think. To me, it reads kind of like something Robert Heinlein might have written and I suspect it’s the first few paragraphs — which don’t discuss Islam at all — that really rankled, with Islam just being the excuse. Heinlein found that it was tolerable to be called a fascist by the ignorant, so long as people bought plenty of his books. I suspect that Ms. Moon will feel the same way. I should add that I’ve read quite of few of Moon’s books myself and found them very enjoyable.

And perhaps some Moon fans will attend WisCon so she doesn’t feel too alone.

UPDATE: Oops. Too late. She’s been booted. They told me if I voted for McCain, bitter theocrats would ban people who spoke ill of religion — and they were right! Moe Lane has a lesson.

And I went ahead and ordered Oath of Fealty in the Kindle edition. I haven’t read it yet, and I’m sure it’s good.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A science-fiction writer reader emails:

They should remember their Heinlein (if they weren’t so busy shunning him!):

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, ‘This you may not read, this you may not see, this you are forbidden to know,’ the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives.

Add to that “any group of professionals, particularly those supposed to be informed and open minded about the future.”

Well, that’s just the kind of thing those fascists say. You go around letting people read and say what they want, next you’ll be letting people do what they want. And that’s the very definition of fascism these days!

MORE: A reader emails: “For what its worth, I will give credibility to Mr. Heinlein’s book book buying theory by virtue of the fact that I just went on Amazon and ordered all three of the books you list.” Well, that’s the kind of support an author appreciates. Take it from me!

STILL MORE: Reader Christopher Fox writes:

I don’t expect I’m alone, but I just bought 8 of her books, some hardcover, some not. I clicked on book covers I liked and tried to make sure I bought all the books in a series, but really I’m just voting with my checkbook these days. I rarely make political contributions (except this year, where I’ve pumped out a couple hundred to some of the Senate campaigns) but I consider this to be a SOCIAL contribution. It works out, too, because Marvel comics is in the 8th month of my personal “no purchases for you!” penalty period that they earned with the Tea Party slur they threw into a Captain America comic back in February. My nerd budget is balancing out, along political lines, it seems, or perhaps just common sense/decency lines.

Well, I’m certainly happy to read authors whose politics I disagree with — Stross, MacLeod, or Scalzi, for example — but that’s a nice gesture. And to steal a bit from the Friedman quote below, “The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.” Or, you know, just profitable.

MORE STILL: Reader Rosslyn Smith really knows how to bring the pain: “Tell authors who inject politically correct politics into their works that you buy all their works from second hand bookstores. I do that with a handful or writers I otherwise like to deprive them of the royalty.” Ouch. “I bought it used” is surely one of the most dreaded phrases an author can hear . . . .

OUTREACH: Jihadi all-star Anwar al-Awlaki had lunch at Pentagon shortly after 9/11.

Related report at PJM.

TALKING CARS with the Car Lust guys.

BOSTON HERALD: Tea Party Revels In Barney Frank’s Money Woes. “Frank — widely viewed as a poster boy for the nation’s economic meltdown — is running for his political life in a district that was carried narrowly by Brown, who shocked the nation by defeating the heavily favored Coakley. Like the attorney general, the 15-term Democratic congressman is facing an increasingly well-financed upstart hoping to ride a throw-the-bums-out wave to victory Nov. 2.” His challenger is Sean Bielat.

MICKEY KAUS: Rebooting The Election. “Should the winner of the above contest assume office, or should we hold a new election with new candidates?”

Plus, dealing with “bloated blog bureaucracy.” So far, the problem is limited in scope. . . .

MEGAN MCARDLE: THE GENTRIFIER’S LAMENT. Read the whole thing, and remember — no condition is permanent.

UNDER PRESSURE: Coons Shifts on Tax Cuts for Wealthy: Extend Them All. “Chris Coons changed his previous position on the Bush era tax cuts this morning telling me that he would support extending all of the Bush era tax cuts for everyone for ’several years.’”

UPDATE: Reader M.L. Johnson writes: “If nothing else, O’Donnell has pulled Coons to the right on this issue. Maybe any generic Tea Partier could have done the same. The weight of the electorate is tilting the playing field, just like it’s supposed to. I just hope it stays tilted.”

And reader Chris Woods writes: “Do you suppose that all the folks bellyaching about the O’Donnell primary win can see it as something other than Quixotic now? Had the Tea Party gone along with the Republican establishment whichever candidate that won would have been a ‘no’ vote for extending the Bush tax cuts. By standing in O’Donnell for Castle the Democrat has been forced to flip. No such flip would have occurred with Castle as the opposition. Castle and Coons would more likely have found themselves in substantial agreement on the matter. As I see it the O’Donnell candidacy — even if it be doomed — has had more policy import than Castle’s ever would have.”

Plus, DaTechGuy wonders: If O’Donnell is such a sure loser, why is Coons flip-flopping all of a sudden? “The MSM has been making fun of Christine O’Donnell’s debate performances for the last three days. Yet this morning, after Delaware voters saw those same debates that the MSM laughed at it is Chris Coons NOT Christine O’Donnell who feels compelled to change positions.” It’s after voters saw the debates. It’s also after Coons saw his tracking polls . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Dean Gay quotes Milton Friedman: “It’s nice to elect the right people, but that isn’t the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.” Heh. Indeed.

LOOKING FOR WAR ON TERROR NEWS? Check out Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg.

PAUL BUTLER AND JEFF SHEESOL have weighed in on the New York Times “Room for Debate” discussion about the Supreme Court, politics, and decorum. My own, rather modest, contribution is right here.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Obama’s Turban Anxiety. “That the president would cancel a Sikh temple visit over a knotted handkerchief shows the old, bold Obama is gone—he now governs in fear.”

Plus, the pun of the day: “Barack Obama has become a Sikh joke.”

UPDATE: Der Spiegel: Obama’s Lost Magic.

JUAN WILLIAMS FIRED BY NPR? Racists.

UPDATE: “Juan Williams was fired because he’s black.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: “National Politically-correct Radio.”

PETER SUDERMAN: “The Obama administration is playing a game of opposite limbo with the federal budget: When it comes to deficit spending, its operative question seems to be ‘How high can you go?’”

Well, you can go pretty far, until you become Britain. “Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled the biggest UK spending cuts for decades, with welfare, councils and police budgets all hit. The pension age will rise sooner than expected, some incapacity benefits will be time limited and other money clawed back through changes to tax credits and housing benefit.”

Why? Because socialism has left them broke. Ace’s econ-blogger Monty says that this is our future, unless we wind up with riots like France, too. Well, it certainly is if greedy pols continue their loot-the-treasury policies. We’ll see if November’s elections put the brakes on that.

As Tea-Partier Moe Tucker says: “No country can provide all things for all citizens. There comes a point where it just isn’t possible, and it’s proven to be a failure everywhere it’s been tried.”

Right on, Moe.

UPDATE: Co-blogger confusion at Ace corrected. Sorry!

L.A. TIMES: How low will he go? Obama approval hits yet another bottom and 54% now say, ‘No second term.’ Plus, twisting the knife: “At this point in the second year of George W. Bush’s presidency, 62% thought he deserved a second term after only 48% voted for him in 2000.”

CHANGE: Obama economic report focuses on women, ignores ‘Great Mancession.’ “While the recession has hit men far harder than women — so much so that some pundits have dubbed this economic downturn a ‘mancession’ — the Obama administration is focusing on the struggles women are facing during these tough economic times.” Of course they are. “Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, believes that the current focus on women is tied to the election and the administration’s ‘get out the vote’ efforts.”

CLEARING UP CONFUSION: Sen. Bob Corker Denies Obamacare Reports. I emailed his office last night and got a direct denial — Corker absolutely intends to seek the repeal of ObamaCare, they say.

More here: Senator Corker denies allegations he told group of donors Senate Republicans would not repeal Obamacare.

It seems like a no-brainer to me. Yeah, Obama would probably veto a repeal — but forcing Obama to veto a repeal of his highly unpopular initiative would be good 2012 politics, carrying the issue past the 2010 elections.

ROGER SIMON: Why I Won’t Be Reading the NAACP’s Report on Tea Party Racism.

Nothing is more reactionary in America today than identity politics, and there is no better example of this than the NAACP. The organization was of great importance in its day, but there is a strong argument to be made it should no longer exist.

Do I have a right to say such a thing? Well, I was a civil rights worker in the South in the sixties, lost the full use of my finger there, went on to be a significant financial supporter of the Black Panther breakfast program in the seventies…. Is that enough?

Maybe, maybe not, but whatever you think of me, the NAACP has become a creator, not a fighter, of racism. They are in the racism business, fanning the flames in order to survive, and I won’t be reading their shameful, phony propagandistic report on the supposed bigotry in the Tea Party movement just being issued today in time for the election. Life is too short. If it were centuries long, it would be too short.

But am I attacking this report without reading it? Indeed I am. If Nancy Pelosi can shove through Congress sweeping health care legislation that changes the economy of our country without reading it, I certainly can attack some trivial report on my little Internet blog after only glancing at the first paragraph and the names of the authors.

There is, however, a serious issue represented by this report. We have come to a moment in our national development when identity based organizations like the NAACP have a strong vested interest in impeding progress, especially for the groups they purport to represent. If things get better for black people, the NAACP has no reason for being — or must devolve into some kind of social club.

The NAACP hasn’t helped its situation by being so willingly used as a political tool.

DAN RIEHL joins Team Breitbart.

CURTAINS.

RON KLEIN HYPOCRISY FAIL:

Two weeks before the midterm elections, the heated Florida Congressional race in the 22nd district between Allen West and Democrat incumbent Ron Klein just got a little nastier.

In a press release sent out Wednesday afternoon, the West campaign responded to the Florida Democratic Party and the Klein campaign for labeling some of West’s supporter as “thuggish”. The release also included pictures obtained by West’s campaign of Rep. Klein with those very same supporters – a group of veteran bikers.

“The hypocrisy is astounding, as Ron Klein appeared with, and courted for support, the same Vietnam veterans he now refers to as criminals and thugs,” said West’s campaign manager Josh Grodin.

The “D” stands for “Desperate.”

BE VERY AFRAID: Also, vewy, vewy quiet.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on DVD and Blu-Ray.

FIRST RUSH LIMBAUGH, THEN SARAH PALIN, NOW THIS: Senator Jim DeMint Threatens To Leave Current Republican Party. I’m not sure what the Republican leadership has been up to lately, but it looks very much as if they’re engaged in some idiocy that is likely to lead to disaster. What is wrong with you people?

PATHETIC: Rioters rampage, protesters block French airports. “Workers opposed to a higher retirement age blocked roads to airports around France on Wednesday, leaving passengers in Paris dragging suitcases on foot along an emergency breakdown lane.”

WELL, HARVARD’S OFF THE HOOK ON THAT ROTC THING FOR THE MOMENT: “At the request of President Obama’s Justice Department, the Ninth Circuit has stayed, at least for now, an order from California District Judge Virginia Phillips halting enforcement of DADT.”

HMM: New Theory Links Depression to Chronic Brain Inflammation.

OVER AT THE NEW YORK TIMES’ “ROOM FOR DEBATE” BLOG, Stephen Wermiel, Scot Powe, and I talk about the Supreme Court, politics, and civility.

Here’s a direct link to my piece, though it’s probably the least important of the three.

VIDEO: So, you want to go to law school? Kinda harsh, but it’s gone viral among law students . . . .

AUSTIN BAY: Stopping The Next Stuxnet.

“ALTERNATIVE” MEDICINE IS NOT WITHOUT RISKS: Dozens killed by incorrectly placed acupuncture needles.

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE SPREADSHEET.

EMBARRASSING WIDENER:

A word needs to be said about the mocking laughter that instantly erupted from the law students in the audience. Presumably, that sound meant we are smart and you are dumb. Where did they learn to treat a guest at their law school — Widener Law School — with such disrespect? They hooted O’Donnell down, and she never got a chance to explain her point. What does that say about the climate for debate in law schools? Not only did they feel energized to squelch the guest they politically opposed, but they felt sure of their own understanding of the law.

I’ve been studying law myself since 1978, and I still puzzle over things and try to work my way through problems. If a speaker at my school makes a statement that sounds outlandish to me — me with 32 years of studying law — I may display a puzzled expression or a smile, but I hear the person out and entertain the possibility that he has a point and that even if the point is wrong, I will have learned some new perspective on the ways of being wrong or how another human being’s mind works. I try to create that atmosphere in the classroom.

What is the atmosphere at Widener? Is there no intellectual curiosity? No love of debate? No grasp of how complex constitutional law problems can be?

Well, we can only judge by what we’ve seen. Meanwhile, Cornell lawprof William Jacobson comments: “A literal reading of O’Donnell’s comments reflects that she was correct, but of course, the press and the blogosphere don’t want a literal reading, they want a living, breathing reading which comports with their preconceived notions.”

The Constitution stands for things that are good. The things that we want are good. Therefore, the Constitution stands for what we want. QED. How can those dumb wingnuts not understand this simple logic?

Meanwhile, I agree that the O’Donnell focus is a deliberate distraction. But I also think it’s important to use this opportunity — like the Sarah Palin “1773″ brouhaha — to point out that the credentialed gentry class isn’t nearly as smart, and certainly isn’t as well-educated, as it thinks it is. Because, you know, it isn’t.

Perhaps Widener law students can’t be expected to understand constitutional doctrine like Wisconsin or Cornell law professors. But they can be expected to avoid showing their ignorance through ill-mannered displays. One of the underappreciated virtues of good manners is that they help you to avoid making an ass of yourself when you are not as smart as you think you are.

UPDATE: Not so smart: WaPo/AP Caught Revising the O’Donnell Story Without Issuing a Correction. “I ran a document comparison in word between the original text and every paragraph is completely rewritten.”

LOW TESTOSTERONE increases heart death risk? But does this mean that hormone replacement would help? Not necessarily.

FASTER, PLEASE: Experimental Drug Preserves Memory in Rodents.

An experimental drug developed by researchers at the University of Edinburgh reverses age-related memory decline in mice, returning their brains to a more youthful state of cognitive function. The compound is designed to dampen the production of glucocorticoids, stress hormones that are thought to damage the brain’s learning and memory centers over time.

“What’s most surprising is that even short-term inhibition was able to reverse memory loss in old mice,” says Jonathan Seckl, a professor of molecular medicine who was involved in the research. “I don’t think people had realized this was so reversible. It takes [the animals] back to being relatively young.”

The researchers hope to develop equivalent human therapies and are now more extensively studying the safety of a closely related compound in animals. They aim to begin human testing within a year.

Did I say “faster, please?” I believe that I did.

MORE ON-THE-GROUND ELECTION COVERAGE From DaTechGuy. From the video:

Me: What would you like to say to those people not only in this country but all across the country republicans and conservatives who are thinking: “It’s looking good and we can ease off a little?

Hughey Woodring: Get out and volunteer and get the word out!

Me: Is there any other way to win an election without working just right till the end?

Hughey: No!

He’s right. Don’t get cocky. Much more at the link.

CHANGE: Bill Haslam now favors gun rights. “Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Haslam told a Nashville meeting of the Tennessee Firearms Association that if lawmakers abolished the handgun-carry permit system and allowed people to go armed without permits, he would sign it into law.”

SayUncle comments: “And to think, just a few years ago, he was a member of the most powerful anti-gun lobby in the country. They grow up so fast.”

PROFILE: The Underemployed College Graduate.

CARDIOLOGY NEWS: Dabigatran – A New Oral Anticoagulant is Approved by the FDA. “A new era of non-valvular atrial fibrillation management has arrived.”

WILL GM SELL 60,000 Chevy Volts built in 2012? Maybe their partner the feds can contrive to raise gas prices and help out. Then again, it’s an election year . . . .

A PLUG-IN EV CONVERSION KIT for the Chevy Equinox. “Amp’s methodology is to stand on the shoulder of giants: take vehicles designed by other companies and make them electric.”

RAND SIMBERG: What NASA Can Learn From The Rescued Chilean Miners.

IN THE MAIL: The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin.

FRANK J. FLEMING: Republicans Kind of Suck … Which Is Why They Will Win Huge in November. As always, Frank J. explains things in a way no one else can. Or, at least, does.

RICK BOUCHER’S DONOR-FUNDED SUVS AND WHY IT’S GOOD TO BE IN CONGRESS: “In what other job can you get lobbyists, industry groups and special interests to help you buy a top-of-the line automobile? Or fly you to Vail during ski season?” Boucher’s defending his seat from a challenge by Morgan Griffith. I don’t know much about him, but he probably doesn’t have a donor-bought SUV.

VELVET UNDERGROUND DRUMMER MOE TUCKER ON why she is a Tea Partier:

My family was damn poor when I was growing up on Long Island. There were no food stamps, no Medicaid, no welfare. If you were poor, you were poor. You didn’t have a TV, you didn’t have five pairs of shoes, you didn’t have Levi’s, you didn’t have a phone; you ate Spam, hot dogs and spaghetti. We all survived! I am not against food stamps, welfare or Medicaid, if only they would oversee these programs properly!

I am also against the government taking over the student loan program, car companies, bailouts and the White House taking control of the census (what the hell is that all about?); [about] any First Lady telling (I know, I know, “suggesting to”) us what to eat, the mayor of New York City declaring “no salt” (screw you, pal!), the mayor/city commissioners of Anytown, U.S.A. declaring you can’t fly a flag, can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance and can’t sing the National Anthem. I’m against a President dismissing any and all who dare to disagree. . . .

I am against the government now thinking about bailing out unions. The unions made the contracts which include insane pensions; the U.S. government didn’t. I’m against the government closing down offshore drilling in the Gulf with one hand and with the other giving (lending?) Brazil money to help them do way deeper offshore drilling — rather curious. I’m against a government that will not defend our borders; and on and on and on.

Read the whole thing. And “Screw you, pal!” is the perfect response to a lot of nanny-state bossiness.

UPDATE: Reader Don Zeiter writes:

I think you should have pointed out the most important point she made.

“No country can provide all things for all citizens. There comes a point where it just isn’t possible, and it’s proven to be a failure everywhere it’s been tried.”

Those two sentences encapsulate why the Tea Party took off and the difference in thinking between the people in D.C. and us rubes in the rest of the country. It’s the difference between those supporting Christine O’Donnell and those supporting Chris Coons. Heck, it’s a concept that escaped George W. Bush and every president back to Calvin Coolidge.

Indeed.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Blogging Through Georgia.

NOEMIE EMERY: They’re Not Elites, They’re Just Wrong. “There are words to describe this, but ‘bright’ is not one of them. This meritocracy has created an ‘elite’ without merit. In everyone’s eyes but its own.” Our gentry class is more credentialed than educated.

POLITICO: Early vote a bad omen for Harry Reid. “In Reno’s Washoe County and Las Vegas’s Clark County, Republican turnout was disproportionately high over the first three voting days, according to local election officials. The two counties together make up 86 percent of the state’s voter population.”

JONAH GOLDBERG: “It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building; four years to erect the Golden Gate Bridge. The Pentagon took two years; the Alaska Highway just nine months. These days it takes longer to build an overpass.”

CHANGE: Bedbugs Thwart School Field Trip.

A ROUNDUP FROM the kid-lit blogosphere.

CHANGE: More than a dozen House Democrats now want Pelosi out as Speaker. Well, instead of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, they’re talking about switching captains. But, post-iceberg, they’d be better off thinking about lifeboats. Meanwhile, Steny Hoyer has his own problems.

PJTV: Trifecta: The Presidential Candidate Of Your Dreams?

CREDENTIALED, NOT EDUCATED: More on the left’s Tea Party ignorance. The Boston Tea Party, that is.

PHIL “WHO CARES ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION?” HARE is now trailing by 7 points in Illinois. “The Schilling-Hare poll’s sample of 417 likely voters backed Barack Obama in 2008, 47 to 40 percent. But this year, they disapprove of his job performance, 52 to 45 percent.That’s reason for Hare to worry.” Here’s Schilling’s website.

ANN ALTHOUSE ON Coons, O’Donnell, and the Separation of Church and State.

Suffice it to say that it was not stupid for O’Donnell to say “That’s in the First Amendment?” — because it’s not. Coons was presenting a version of what’s in the cases interpreting the text, not the text itself.

The 2 were talking past each other, trying to look good and make the other look bad. It is a disagreement about law between 2 individuals who are not running for judge. It’s not detailed legal analysis. It’s a political debate and this is a political disagreement. An important one, no doubt. But it can’t be resolved by laughing at one person and calling her an idiot, something I find quite repellent.

Bah. O’Donnell is so stupid, she probably thinks the Boston Tea Party took place in 1773. Dumb wingnut.

Plus, from the comments:

I don’t think they were talking past each other so much as O’Donnell was trying to get Coons to speak precisely whereas Coons wanted to speak in more general colloquial terms.

The real problem is the ignorance of the reporters and the people in the audience who couldn’t understand the point O’Donnell was trying to make and so just assumed she was being stupid. The irony being that she was right (and, on this point at least, smarter than them).

Once you understand that to the credentialed-instead-of-educated, the Constitution is a wish-fulfillment device rather than, you know, an authoritative text, it all makes sense. And there’s no real need to know or care about the words in the text, since it means whatever you want it to mean at the moment.

Meanwhile, here’s the video.

SMART DIPLOMACY: For fear of looking Muslim, Obama Won’t Visit Sikh Shrine.

H. S. Phoolka, a prominent Sikh lawyer in New Delhi, said he was disappointed that Mr. Obama would not visit the temple.

“We have worked so hard to establish in America that Sikhs have a very different identity than Muslims,” Mr. Phoolka said. “It is very unfortunate that even the White House is conveying the message that there is no difference between Muslims and Sikhs.”

The country’s in the very best of hands.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI: Hume, the Ash’arites, Causality and Islamism.

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT: Boston Globe Columnist Dares to Question Barney Frank’s Credibility.

GOOD QUESTION: Reader J.R. Salisbury writes: “Since, DADT is suspended while being appealed and the military is accepting openly gay candidates, will Harvard now allow ROTC on their campus?”

CORY DOCTOROW: The Legal Sleaze Behind The New Bulk-Copyright Lawsuits.

JAMES TARANTO: It’s more important to avoid 2010’s mistakes than 1994’s.

BYRON YORK: Report: In Obama’s Chicago, stimulus weatherization money buys shoddy work, widespread fraud.

The study, by the Department’s inspector general, examined the work of what’s called the Weatherization Assistance Program, or WAP, in Illinois. Last year, the Department awarded Illinois $242 million, which was expected to pay for the weatherization of 27,000 homes. Specifically, Energy Department inspectors took a close look at the troubled operations of the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, known as CEDA, which is the largest recipient of weatherization money in Illinois with $91 million to weatherize 12,500 homes. (Cook County is, of course, home to Chicago.)

The findings are grim. “Our testing revealed substandard performance in weatherization workmanship, initial assessments, and contractor billing,” the inspector general report says. “These problems were of such significance that they put the integrity of the entire program at risk.”

Department inspectors visited 15 homes that were being weatherized by CEDA and paid for by stimulus funds. “We found that 14 of the 15 homes…failed final inspection because of poor workmanship and/or inadequate initial assessments,” the report says. In eight of the homes, CEDA had come up with unworkable and ineffective plans — like putting attic insulation in a house with a leaky roof. . . . The work was not just wasteful; it was dangerous.

Kind of a metaphor, isn’t it?

UPDATE: A reader emails:

This is why the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block had such awful infrastructure. The focus is on redistribution, not the actual job at hand. There is no customer to please, just another check to glean from the government.

This is less of a metaphor and more like the first tangible evidence of the change that is coming.

I going to learn how to distill my own vodka now.

That’s a skill that will serve you well after the economic collapse . . . .

SO IS THIS HOPE, OR CHANGE? Only 1-in-4 see American Dream as still there for all.

BRAVE, BRAVE, BRAVE, BRAVE SIR ROBIN: Obama to leave town after election. But there’s precedent: “Former President Clinton took a page from a Southwest Airlines ‘Want to get away?’ commercial and left Washington for a summit in Asia immediately after Republicans won House and Senate majorities in a 54-seat tsunami in 1994. Clinton was eviscerated by the press for leaving the country after his party was left in shambles and the future of his presidency was in doubt.”

MICKEY KAUS: WHAT IS JACOB WEISBERG THINKING? “When I saw the subhed of Weisberg’s piece, I figured Thiel must be promoting some vicious Darwinian scheme to get thousands of theoretically unqualified people to drop out of college. It turns out it’s a scholarship program that offers 20 awards to people under 20 so they can ’stop out’ of school to start businesses. Twenty. A number Weisberg conveniently omits! It’s hard to see how a program that only affects a maximum of 80 people (teams of 4 can apply) is going to undermine our humanistic system of higher education.”

Plus this: “Why be so certain about the wisdom of our current assembly-line meritocratic protocol where we load you up with a lifetime of learning at the beginning like a tank of gas?”

A MICHAEL KINSLEY grammar fail.

Plus, from the comments: “Mankiw’s observation about incentives is simply a fact. Kinsley’s dismissals of the facts are liberals’ stock in trade.”

M. SIMON: “The people who brought you the Internet Revolution seem poised to bring you the TEA Party Revolution. Oh. Yeah. We have better music too. Suck it up.”

STAFF FORCED TO UNDERGO HANDWRITING ANALYSIS over bathroom graffiti. Good grief.

PROF. JACOBSON: Day 5 Of NY Times Cone of Silence On Maurice Hinchey Assault.

FREE MARKETS VS. COMMUNISM: In Chile, 33 miners rescued; in China, 37 dead.

GADSDEN FLAG VERBOTEN: A Texas woman was denied the right to vote on Monday because she was wearing a button bearing a Gadsden flag — the rattlesnake under the words “Don’t Tread on Me” that has become the unofficial image of the Tea Party. Katrina Pierson responds: “It’s not electioneering, it’s not a candidate, it’s not a party affiliation.”

MEDICAL JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIA: A food “lifeboat”: food and nutrition considerations in the event of a pandemic or other catastrophe. That photo really doesn’t look like enough food to me.

CATCH DRILLING DUST with a folded Post-It. Is there anything they can’t do?

AMID TALK OF A THIRD-PARTY CHALLENGE, a reader suggests I mention The Precinct Project.

DESPERATION? Barney Frank lent campaign $200,000 in third quarter. “As much as I like Bielat, not until this very moment did I think this seat might really be in play. Frank isn’t a tremendously wealthy guy. What on earth are his internal polls showing him to make him cough up 200 grand?”

BILL QUICK ISN’T OPTIMISTIC. I mean, even less than usual . . . .

HMM: Poll Watchers Claim Harassment And Intimidation At Houston, Texas Voting Places.