A MCCAIN VICTORY? Just remember when the turnaround started . . . .

CAN FRED THOMPSON turn it around?

DUCT TAPE, “SAFE ROOMS,” and Oak Ridge.

MR. CLEAN? A well-timed raise, a trip, and a rather lackadaisical approach to investigating Gov. Spitzer. (Via JWF).

TURKMENISTAN stops gas exports to Iran.

BAGHDAD ZOO is a draw again. “‘I feel safe here. I feel relaxed,’ said Hussein, 51, a taxi driver.” Sounds safer than the San Francisco Zoo.

NEW AIR-SAFETY RESTRICTIONS on traveling with lithium-ion batteries.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: “A multidisciplinary team of UCLA scientists were able to differentiate metastatic cancer cells from normal cells in patient samples using leading-edge nanotechnology that measures the softness of the cells.”

MAJOR JOHN TAMMES: The training I felt uncomfortable about – and shouldn’t have. “I did take advantage of what the Army has taught me. Oddly enough, it was at home and not on a battlefield.”

THEY TOLD ME IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, campus student groups would be banned because of their unacceptable views on premarital sex. And they were right!

NEW FATALITY NUMBERS FROM IRAQ: Some people will be unhappy. But they’ll be the people who should be unhappy.

A NANNY ON HORSEBACK: “Buoyed by the still unsettled field, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is growing increasingly enchanted with the idea of an independent presidential bid, and his aides are aggressively laying the groundwork for him to run.”

ISN’T IT ILLEGAL TO THREATEN VOTERS? Caucus for Biden, or he may kiss you!

THOUGHTS ON Kipling.

ABOUT A GAZILLION READERS have sent me this link to a report of an anti-military lawyer trashing a Marine’s car. All I can say is, it’s gobsmackingly vile, if true.

DANIEL DREZNER: Should celebrities set the global agenda?

I’ve got a one-word answer.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: Tennessean Sid Evans is moving south to take over Garden & Gun magazine. We get that; it’s not bad — somewhere between Town & Country and Sports Afield, with a touch of not-so-politicized Vanity Fair added in. And where else can you find out about Winston Groom’s favorite shotgun? (Via Michael Silence).

JOHN TIERNEY on the proposed Science Debate 2008: “I can’t imagine the candidates’ handlers are happy with this prospect, given how much extra work it would mean for them in bringing the candidates up to speed. Politics attracts lawyers and liberal-arts majors, not science whizzes.”

OF HILLARY AND P.G. Wodehouse.

FRED THOMPSON’S CLOSING ARGUMENT TO IOWA VOTERS:

(Via The Corner.)

UPDATE: Peter Robinson likes it: “Thompson has sat himself down, looked into a camera, and spoken for a quarter of an hour, calmly and straightforwardly making his case. I myself find this impressive—in a way, moving. Thompson seems to have stepped out of the eighteenth century. He trusts voters to think. And if the comments on YouTube are at all representative, plenty of people agree.” But enough?