REWRITING THE MALIKI QUOTE at Der Spiegel?

Now there are three versions. Is there audio?

OBAMA TO BE PRESIDENT FOR THE NEXT “EIGHT TO TEN YEARS?”

Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in Afghanistan, told the paparazzi-pursued correspondent Lara Logan that “the objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years. . . .

The notion that Obama will be dealing with world leaders for eighjt-to-ten years, possibly up through July 2018, suggests that either (a) he believes that not only will he be elected and re-elected, but the 22nd amendment will be repealed and he will be elected for a third term, OR (b) he was speaking casually and just meant two terms.

Casually and inartfully.

FIGHT HIGH GAS PRICES: Men’s clothes on sale at Amazon.

JENNIFER RUBIN: McCain Follows Obama Overseas: “I think the remarkable part of the first day of coverage wasn’t the Maliki muddle, but the degree to which McCain successfully inserted himself into the debate and, even from home, kept pushing and counterpunching Obama. . . . His foreign policy message did break through: his surge worked.” Did McCain really do that good a job? He’ll have to do more of that in coming months if he expects to win.

WHY PEOPLE have sex in public.

STRATEGYPAGE:

While the mass media continues to feature wars and terrorism, the overall trend continues away from such unpleasantness. Such stories are anathema to the mass media, because they do not attract eyeballs, and revenue. That’s the way people are, and the result is a distorted view of trends in global violence.

Worldwide, violence continues to decline, as it has for the last few years. Violence has also greatly diminished, or disappeared completely, in places like Iraq, Nepal, Chechnya, Congo, Indonesia and Burundi. Even Afghanistan, touted as the new war zone, is seeing less violence this year than last.

All this continues a trend that began when the Cold War ended, and the Soviet Union no longer subsidized terrorist and rebel groups everywhere.

Now if we can just get the Saudis and Iranians to stop. Read the whole thing.

MICKEY KAUS, automotive spy par excellence!

MICHAEL SILENCE: Did Obama Just Undercut Party Leaders?

HMM:

Despite all the hype over Obama’s religious outreach, a new Pew survey indicates Obama actually has slightly less support from evangelicals than John Kerry had at this point four years ago. Not that this translates into evangelical enthusiasm for McCain, but the survey is worth noting for no other reason than it challenges the prevailing media assumptions about how Obama’s overt religiosity is helping his campaign . . . It seems to me that this is a classic example of the media trying to force a campaign narrative, regardless of whether it is true.

Imagine that.

FASTER, PLEASE: Blood Vessels Made From Human Adult Stem Cells Grown in Mice.

RAND SIMBERG ON CALLS FOR an Apollo-like energy program. “It’s an understandable appeal, but it betrays a certain lack of understanding of the problem to think that we will solve it with a crash federal program, at least if it’s one modeled on Apollo. . . . Which is why John McCain’s idea of a prize for more efficient electric car batteries is a good step in the right direction. I would argue, though, that it is still too specific.”

JOHN NOLTE: Hollywood Loses the War in Iraq.

MORE ON green fuel from algae.

A NEW PLUTOID: “A dwarf planet orbiting beyond Neptune has been designated the third plutoid in the solar system and given the name Makemake, the International Astronomical Union said Saturday. The red methane-covered dwarf planet, formerly known as 2005 FY9 or ‘Easterbunny,’ is named after a Polynesian creator of humanity and god of fertility.”

SOME QUESTIONS ON ACADEMIA FROM JOHN TIERNEY:

1) Given the slow turnover of faculty and its bad effect on opportunities for young female (and male) scientists, should advocates for more women in science be trying to eliminate tenure? (Some Title Niners have advocated its abolition.)

2) Given the consequences of the law forbidding mandatory retirement of professors, should we think twice about imposing further federal restrictions? Could Title IX become another rigid, one-size-fits-all rule that makes it harder for universities to hire the best young scientists?

Good questions.

A LOOK AT the new science of fear. “I’m taking part in a study on how people handle acute stress, conducted by Lilianne Mujica-Parodi, director of the Laboratory for the Study of Emotion and Cognition at Stony Brook University. As I edge toward the door, I’m wearing a clutch of electrical sensors. Soon I’ll be a data point—or a big red splotch on the landscape.”

DOG BITES MAN: “Pope Criticizes Materialism.”

TROPICAL STORM CRISTOBAL, PLUS “HELLO, DOLLY!” All at Weather Nerd.

REVISITING past Camaro commercials at Autoblog.

A “CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE” — already provided for in the Constitution?

TURNING SAWDUST INTO BIOFUEL: “A wider of range of plant material could be turned into biofuels thanks to a breakthrough that converts plant molecules called lignin into liquid hydrocarbons. The reaction reliably and efficiently turns the lignin in waste products such as sawdust into the chemical precursors of ethanol and biodiesel.”

Faster, please. It’s gotta beat turning corn into fuel.

MORE ON THE MOUNTAIN CITY POLICE PHOTO-BULLYING INCIDENT, from Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Michael Silence.

BRIAN WANG ROUNDS UP NEWS on life extension and Alzheimer’s treatment.

“RELEASE THE HOUNDS!” Canadian civil liberties crusader Ezra Levant gets a death threat, posts reward for identity of threatener.

IN THE MAIL: The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The view from the dentist’s chair. Not my most artistic work, but it captures the feeling of the moment . . . .

CARBON SEQUESTRATION with Calera cement.

PROF. KENNETH ANDERSON on the U.N. and international gun control efforts.

REPORTS THAT MALIKI ENDORSED THE OBAMA TROOP-WITHDRAWAL TIMELINE turn out to be in error, which should come as no great surprise to those who have been paying attention.

UPDATE: Does this mean that Maliki wants us to stay? Not necessarily. This StrategyPage item that I linked the other day explains. Too much U.S. presence might interfere with corruption! “As long as the American troops are in the country, auditors have armed protection and can be very effective at revealing the thefts and getting the thieves punished. This makes thieving government officials very uncomfortable. Corruption in general remains a major problem (as it is in all Middle Eastern countries). While many Iraqis would like to see clean government, they are usually not the ones who get elected (elections involve a lot of bribery and trading of favors.)”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails:

“While many Iraqis would like to see clean government, they are usually not the ones who get elected.” Just like it is here!

My own sense is that politicians are the same everywhere. To the extent their behavior differs, it’s because of social and political constraints on what they can get away with.

TECHCRUNCH: Tesla Motors Unveils Jaw-Dropping Menlo Park Showroom. “It’s hard to put into words how ridiculously sexy the Tesla Roadster is in person, so we’ve grabbed a lot of pictures. Suffice to say, as soon as you walk in the store, you’re going to want one. Unfortunately, actually buying a Tesla Roadster is an involved and lengthy process.”

FOLLOWUPS: Regarding yesterday’s post on the Universal Package Opener, reader Jamie (“No relation to Megan”) McCardle writes:

My mother-in-law got me this for Christmas last year – EASILY my best Christmas gift of the year! It comes out once a week at least, and I wish I had one at work too. Nothing gets through those accursed plastic bubble packs better or with less pain. I use it even when the package says it’s “easy-open” and has directions for alternative opening methods. Hey… maybe I should actually order another!

I don’t think that two would double your pleasure — but I guess you could open packages in stereo? Meanwhile, in response to the post on gas prices and online shopping, reader Dale Britton emails:

Your site got me turned on to Amazon Prime a couple of years ago, and I’ve never looked back. I’m at the point now where I don’t buy things online that aren’t from Amazon – or don’t have free shipping for other reasons – because I figure if Amazon can do it for me, so can everyone else. And they will. Matter of time.

Hell, I very rarely buy in a brick & mortar store any more. When you figure taxes (7.75% in San Diego), gas ($4.50/gallon in San Diego), the intrinsically limited selection you can have in a physical store, the lack of knowledgeable salespeople, and the inability to instantly compare prices, it’s a no-brainer.

Plus the “experience” of actually shopping just blows these days. Case in point – just got back from a quick trip to Barnes and Noble with my friend. Loud kids, inadequate selection of what I was looking for, and obnoxious music blaring in the entry area of the store. After my friend mentioned how annoying their “thank you for shoppping” music was, I told her this is why people prefer online shopping, and why B&N is going in the tank.

P.S. Only reason I went? The item I ordered from Amazon is back ordered due to supplier issues, so I thought I’d see if B&N had it in stock. They didn’t.

Online shopping can save you a lot of trouble. On the other hand, I do like visiting real stores from time to time. I wish my local grocery stores would let me shop for groceries online and then get home delivery, though. You can buy nonperishables via Amazon, and sometimes I do, but you can’t really cut out your grocery store visits.

UPDATE: Reader Russ Emerson emails:

I’ve been doing my grocery shopping online for a couple of years, via Lowe’s Foods (http://www.lowesfoodstogo.com) – it’s a terrific convenience, particularly as I’ve become disabled and have tremendous difficulty strolling the aisles of the grocery store.

You can shop the website and choose next-day delivery (not cheap – $20, I think) or you can order for same-day pickup, with a three hour lead time, for a fee of about $5. If, like me, one has a hard time doing the shopping due to physical or time constraints, the service is well worth the expense. They even bring the goods out to your car for you.

I don’t know of other chains offering the same service, but I can’t see how they can avoid doing so in the future, if they want to remain competitive.

I agree. Meanwhile, I note that Sam’s Club offers “Click ‘n’ Pull for groceries, where you order online, they pull it, and you drive up. I’ve never used that, though.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader shares her experience with “click ‘n’ pull:”

Sam’s is not fun with four kids in tow. So Click-n-Pull, in theory, is a good idea. In reality, you still have to enter the store, whip out your card to prove you’re a member, and then maneuver said cart to the tobacco area, where you stand in line to pay for the items you shopped for online the day before. If any of those items are refrigerated, they have to be delivered separately, and thus you are dependent on whether or not the refrigeration/freezer department is fully staffed on the day you pick up your order and can respond to the intercom call put out by the tobacco cashier.

All that is after you stand in line behind every convenience store operator in a three state area as they buy cigs, candy bars, and Powerade by the case to stock their shelves. As you might guess, it’s not the time saver it could be if Sam’s would figure out a way to load orders of, say, ten items or less into the car at curbside and let me pay online when I place my order.

In theory, Sam’s could be a weekly shopping destination for me if Click-n-Pull revamped and made itself convenient. As it stands now, it’s a once a month hassle that I endure for cheap cheese and diapers.

I’m going to look into Amazon, though, for the diapers. Thanks for the tip!

Sounds like it’s not ready for primetime yet.

MICKEY KAUS ON CHUCK HAGEL: “What is it about Hagel that has the power to fog not just his own mind but the minds of others? Does he tell great dirty stories? Is he so gloomy that his friends worry that dissing him will send him over the edge?”

LET’S HOPE: As the price of oil drops dramatically, some analysts wonder if the bubble is bursting. But it’s a bit early to get too excited.

RON BAILEY ON DEATH FROM OUTER SPACE. Asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts, and crashing comets.

HEH.

THE WIKI-HACKER strikes again.

MORE ON THE ORION NUCLEAR SPACECRAFT, from Rand Simberg.

EYES OFF THE PRIZE:

Looking back at my family’s expenses over the past few years, I see big increases in our health care costs and in how much we pay for food. The rise in what we spend on gas is not nearly as extreme as our increases in categories like electricity and telephone. So why does the amount we spend on gasoline feel so enormous? I think it is because of the way we buy gas.

For the several minutes that I stand at the pump, all I do is stare at the growing total on the meter — there is nothing else to do. And I have time to remember how much it cost a year ago, two years ago and even six years ago.

Yet I have no such memory about the prices of items in any other category. I have no idea how much milk was six years ago, how much bread was three years ago or how much yogurt was a week ago. But I suspect that if I stood next to the yogurt case in the supermarket for five minutes every week with nothing to do but stare at the price, I would also know how much it has gone up — and I might become outraged when yogurt passed the $2 mark.

If only people were this aware of taxes. . . .

A BASIC RULE OF POLITICS has always been that you tax other people’s constituents to provide goodies for your people. So Barack Obama deserves credit for breaking from this with a tax plan that will hit well-off blue-staters — his core constituency — the hardest:

New York tax filers reporting more than $375,000 a year in earned income may end up paying nearly 60% of their wages in taxes to the government under a Barack Obama presidency, economists who have analyzed his plan said. The Democratic presidential candidate is proposing not only raising the federal income tax, but also adding a Social Security tax for those Americans earning more than $250,000 a year. For New Yorkers, that could mean that if the current Social Security rate is applied, the marginal tax rate, or rate on every extra dollar earned, could rise to 58%.

Well, good for him. More on Obama’s tax plans and blue-staters at TaxProf.

JOEL STEIN ON HOW TO MAKE FUN OF OBAMA: He’s “manorexic?” “No one loses weight on the campaign trail, when you’re grabbing fast food and eating whatever is offered out of politeness, but this guy is always turning down doughnuts.”

Plus this:

“We are the people we’ve been waiting for”? Actually, I’m pretty sure we’re the people who put all our money in Yahoo and then bought a house to flip and now are hocking everything we have. We’re the people China has been waiting for.

Read the whole thing.

SOMETHING CALIFORNIA PROBABLY COULDN’T DO: Texas Approves a $4.93 Billion Wind-Power Project.

ADVICE TO MCCAIN, from Michael Barone.

THE STRANGELOVE SOLUTION to preventing human extinction.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: How a Young Lawyer Saved The Second Amendment.

THE ONION: ‘Time’ Publishes Definitive Obama Puff Piece: “Hailed by media critics as the fluffiest, most toothless, and softest-hitting coverage of the presidential candidate to date, a story in this week’s Time magazine is being called the definitive Barack Obama puff piece. ‘No news publication has dared to barely scratch the surface like this before,’ columnist and campaign reporter Michael King wrote in The Washington Post Tuesday. ‘This profile sets a benchmark for mindless filler by which all other features about Sen. Obama will now be judged. Just impressive puff-journalism all around.’” (Via Protein Wisdom).

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY PICKED ON THE WRONG MOM: They made her take down a 30-second YouTube video of her kid dancing to a Prince song. She fought it and won. Now she’s out for blood:

Now Lenz is out to teach the music industry a lesson.

What Lenz and her attorneys at the Electronic Frontier Foundation want are for media companies to stop sending take-down notices in a “willy nilly” fashion and to make sure that they have a legitimate claim of copyright violation before acting. They failed do this with Lenz’s video, according to Corynne McSherry, an EFF attorney.

“This video is so clearly noninfringing,” McSherry said. “What we’ve seen is that Universal Music had the view that they could take down Prince content as a matter of principle. But what they were obligated to do was form a good-faith belief that the video was infringing…They may not have formed a good-faith belief at all.”

I’ve noted the vulnerability of these takedown procedures in the past. Glad to see that someone is going after them. Read this, too.

INDYMAC: Not such a “wonderful life.”

BETTER THAN CANOEING AND MAKING LANYARDS: Culinary Summer Camp.

FROM JIM LINDGREN: Thoughts on Barack Obama’s proposed “Civilian National Security Force.”

WITH RON BAILEY COVERING THE CATASTROPHES CONFERENCE AT OXFORD, here’s a blast from the past on that topic. Plus, some related thoughts here.

TO SAVE GAS, SHOPPERS STAY HOME AND CLICK: “Online shopping is gaining at a time when simply filling up a gas tank to head to the mall can seem like a spending spree. A number of retailers — including Gap, Victoria’s Secret and J. C. Penney — are experiencing double-digit sales growth at their shopping Web sites, creating a surprising bright spot during an otherwise gloomy time for sales in brick-and-mortar stores. . . . Lately Nichelle Hines, an actress in Los Angeles, has been shopping online for everything but gas itself — pet supplies, books, DVDs, water filters, kitchen appliances, a dress, her favorite health drink and materials to build a voiceover booth so she does not have to drive to a recording studio.”

I do a lot of my shopping online now — especially what with the free shipping — and it not only saves me hassle, and money on gas, it also saves me money because it reduces impulse purchases. Go to Target to buy something and I inevitably seem to buy a bunch of other stuff. Go to Amazon and order it and I usually don’t order anything else. Judging by the email I got on this earlier post, I’m far from alone. And here are some related thoughts on why telecommuting and online shopping are good for the environment.

CATERINA FAKE: Some charming things about my father.

BRENDAN LOY WILL BE HURRICANE-BLOGGING AT PAJAMAS MEDIA as the Weather Nerd. Here’s his first post.

CANADIAN KANGAROO COURT UPDATE: Rex Murphy goes after them. “The really funny joke in all of this, however, is not going to come of out the mouth of any comedian. It is the dreary fact that comedians are the latest targets of Canada’s human-rights commissions. Did you ever in your wildest dreams see heckling as the subject of a human-rights inquiry?”

Tar. Feathers.

YESTERDAY I MENTIONED PROBLEMS WITH NASA’S ORION SPACECRAFT, and I have to say I agree with this guy, who wants to see NASA working on the original Orion design instead. Bring it on! (Some earlier thoughts of mine on that subject are here and here).

IN THE MAIL: This Universal Package Opener, which promises “no more ‘Wrap Rage’ when trying to open your items.” I immediately put it to work on some clamshell packages (I hate those) and it opened them easily. Not bad.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Central Ave.

OBAMA TRAVELS TO AFGHANISTAN. “Details of his itinerary in the war zone were kept closely guarded for security reasons, but the Illinois senator told reporters before leaving Washington on Thursday that he hoped to spend much of his time listening to military commanders and Afghan and Iraqi leaders, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to gauge conditions in both countries.”

That’s a good idea. Related item here.

UPDATE: Obama arrives in Afghanistan.

A SIGN OF RECESSION? In Hamptons, Slump Means Less Glitz Per Gala. “All along the East End of Long Island, a string of beach towns that represent a sort of New York version of the French Riviera, fund-raisers and their topiarists are suffering through a limp summer.” Still, “it might be too early to call this the East End’s summer of austerity.” Cool photo, though.

WILL HUMANITY SURVIVE THE 21ST CENTURY? Ron Bailey posts a second report from the Oxford Global Catastrophic Risks conference. “All of the biggest risks, the existential risks are seen to be anthropogenic, that is, they originate from human beings.” This analysis may, of course, stem from a lack of data, imagination, or both.

HOW GREEN WAS MY CONSENSUS? Tom Maguire notes that the APS “consensus” on global warming was always weaker than generally appreciated. “If the sacrifices demanded by environmentalists will reduce global warming by 8% rather than 80% will people still support them? The APS position remains unchanged and uninformative.” Plus, why this is good for Obama.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of Apple news from all over, with, this week, an emphasis on the 3G iPhone’s teething problems.

My question: Is it — unlike the original iPhone — a workable blogging tool? Can you cut-and-paste?

THE FACE OF poverty in America. It’s a face that’s made for radio . . . .

THE PUNCHLINE IS, “BECAUSE I’M A SCORPION:” Democratic Party Unity Proves Elusive at Netroots Gathering.

SO WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL? I fall asleep during Conan O’Brien all the time.

LAST NIGHT I CAUGHT A FEW MINUTES OF From Gs to Gents, and while I admire the sentiment, I don’t think the material is up to the goal. Good grief. On the other hand, that Fonzworth Bentley can be presented as “the ultimate gentleman” is — well, maybe — a tribute to American progress.

WITH ALL THE TALK FROM PELOSI ET AL. THIS WEEK, IT’S WORTH REMEMBERING JAY LENO ON ANWR DRILLING: “Leno’s punchline: Democrats say drilling in ANWR wouldn’t produce any oil for 10 years — the same point they’ve been making for more than 10 years now. President Bill Clinton vetoed legislation in 1995 that would have opened ANWR to oil exploration.” It would be nice to have some extra oil coming on line about now.

A DEPRESSING CHART from Peter Robinson.

JIM LINDGREN: “Personally, I would prefer that, should Obama clearly pivot on what to do in Iraq, he not be attacked by either the left or the right for flip-flopping, but rather commended for responding to new realities. After all, he is likely to be President, and the earlier he takes a more mature position on the war, the likelier he is to stick with it. Indeed, that Obama has been so slow even to begin changing his position is a worrisome sign.” So the biggest problem for Obama is that he hasn’t flip-flopped soon enough!

Thank God I’m not running for President.

WELL, GOOD: Oil prices slide for a fourth straight session.

MCCAIN CLAIMS VICTORY IN IRAQ.

JERRY POURNELLE EXPLAINS THE WORLD:

The purpose of modern government is to take money from the folks who save and pay their bills and live within their means, and use that to hire government workers; and to keep their power by using the money to buy votes from those who do not save and pay their bills and live within their means. And of course the money comes from those who work and save and pay their bills and live within their means — who else will have any money for the government to take?

Or am I unduly cynical? But you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Stay tuned.

MY EARLIER LINK TO STEVEN DEN BESTE ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY reminds me of this column on silver bullets.

THOUGHTS ON seasteading and constructed sovereignty.

GENES AND DIET: “If you have the right version of GSTM1 there is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that you can reduce your risk of prostate cancer and other diseases by eating broccoli. The bad news is that you really ought to be eating broccoli.”

THOUGHTS FROM A VETERINARIAN on Why you should consider pet insurance. Thanks to the Insta-Wife and Insta-Daughter’s allergies, that’s no longer an issue for us, alas.

RON BAILEY REPORTS from the Global Catastrophic Risks Conference. He’ll continue reporting all weekend.

THROWING THE BUMS OUT in Knox County: “‘If they can’t steal enough in one term, then it’s someone else’s turn,’ Anderson said.”

SORTING CARBON NANOTUBES for different nanotechnology applications.

FROM WORRYING ABOUT MPG to thinking about PMPG.

OBAMA’S BIGGEST FAN: “There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements? . . . His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.” The Gilderoy Lockhart of candidates?

UPDATE: Reader J.P. Hrutka emails: “You may be more correct than you think. Gilderoy used memory erasing spells and liberals use the memory-hole/current-truth incantation. What is the difference, eh?” This would explain the website-airbrushing . . . .

FOR WHEN A HUMMER ISN’T ENOUGH: The Lamborghini LM 002. “I have no idea why the exotic sports car manufacturer was interested in competing in this market in the first place–it’s not as if Ferrari was experimenting with, say, amphibious troop carriers, after all–but at least Lamborghini did it with style. . . . Despite its size and heft, the LM002 was also a screamer. The howling V-12 easily overcame the truck’s sneering disregard for aerodynamics, pushing the LM002 up to 130 mph–or 110 mph in sand.“

THOUGHTS ON IRAQ, from The Mudville Gazette.

COST OVERRUNS AND TECHNICAL PROBLEMS for NASA’s Orion spaceship.

JAMES FREEMAN: Who’s going to fund the next Steve Jobs? Some guy in China, probably, which is also where the next Steve Jobs will probably be, thanks to various regulatory schemes in the United States . . . .

DOCTORS, SCALES, and patients with weight problems.

FIXING THE WORLD, on two dollars a day. “From impoverished Peruvian villages to MIT’s D-Lab, professor Amy Smith and her spirited team of engineers are on a mission: Fight global poverty and improve living standards for developing countries—one low-cost, accessible invention at a time.”

CANADIAN KANGAROO COURT UPDATE: “Human Rights” investigators go after comedian.

“PSEUDO-MARTYRDOM FOR PROFIT.”

A GUILTY VERDICT IN THE FORD CORRUPTION TRIAL: “The U.S. Attorney’s office says a federal jury in the public corruption trial of former state Sen. John Ford has found him guilty on all charges.”

GUANTANAMO VS. NUREMBERG. “In short, the procedural protections afforded the Guantanamo detainees under the statute before the Supreme Court in Boumediene . . . substantially exceed those accorded the Nuremberg defendants. Obama’s unfavorable comparison of the legal treatment of the Guantanamo detainees with that of the Nuremberg defendants suggests either that he does not know what he’s talking about, or that he feels free to take great liberties with the truth.”

DEBATING HELLER AND ITS IMPLICATIONS, at Cato Unbound. And, of course, don’t forget the piece on Heller that Brannon Denning and I wrote.

UPDATE: More on Heller’s gun permit, here.

AN IMPLODING CONSENSUS: “The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming ‘incontrovertible.’”

On the other hand, Michelle Malkin has a “clarification” from the APS that seems to undercut the above.

DECONSTRUCTING HELEN REDDY.

THOSE INTERESTED IN INTERNATIONAL LAW will want to check out the new, improved Opinio Juris, now in partnership with Oxford University Press, and now featuring Prof. Kenneth Anderson. And these days, even if you aren’t interested in international law, international law is interested in you.

THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL SAFE: “Among their discoveries: Word auto-saves the contents of encrypted files to the unencrypted portions of your disk, and this problem should apply to all non-full disk encryption software.”

IN THE MAIL: Richard Clarke’s Your Government Failed You. He should know.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Behind the Dougherty Engineering Building at UT.

MUSLIM CHARITY FOUNDER GETS JAIL FOR LYING TO FBI: “The founder of a Muslim charity was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court to a year in prison and fined $10,000 for lying to an FBI agent when he denied traveling to Afghanistan in 1994-1995. In sentencing Emadeddin Z. Muntasser, former president of Care International Inc., a defunct Boston charity, Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV doubled the maximum amount of prison time and the fine called for under the federal advisory sentencing guidelines. . . . Islam had been brought into the trial numerous times, Judge Saylor noted, but there are millions of Muslims who do not support violence.”

ILYA SOMIN: “Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr is one of many people who confuse the theory of the ‘unitary executive’ with the claim that the executive has virtually unlimited power. Barr argues that ‘McCain has endorsed, in action if not rhetoric, the theory of the “unitary executive,” which leaves the president unconstrained by Congress or the courts.’ In reality, the unitary executive argument is a theory about the distribution of executive power, not its scope.” What’s sad is that so many longtime members of Congress don’t know the difference.