HMM: SideCar puts car sharing, hitchhiking, personal taxis into new app.

IN FOREIGN POLICY, A SUGGESTION THAT THE “SMART DIPLOMACY” ISN’T DOING SO WELL: Putin’s Got America Right Where He Wants It: And that’s bad news for Obama.

Last week’s G-20 summit was the first time U.S. President Barack Obama had seen his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, since 2009. An account of their long, loveless meeting on the sidelines of the conference, along with photographs of their unhappy tête-a-tête, was splashed on the front page of the New York Times. The real story belonged in the obituary section: The “reset,” Obama’s attempt to mend relations with Putin’s Russia, is dead. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed it.

But the two countries’ fundamental disagreement about what to do about Assad, the dictator whose bloody attempts to suppress a popular revolt has resulted in the deaths of 14,000 Syrians, was only the last straw for a policy that has been on life support since its inception. On a vast array of issues — ranging from human rights to Iran to the territorial integrity of the post-Soviet states — Russian behavior has consistently been a thorn in the side of the United States and its allies. The reset only provided Obama with a justification to cover his retreat in the face of Russia’s advance.

Can you say “Carterized?”

CHANGE: Next Gen Terror-Watchers Go Deep Into Al-Qaida, Tweet a Lot.

HMM: Science Says: Don’t Date The Muscular Guy. I’m skeptical, and the Jersey Shore references don’t help.

POLL: VOTERS DISLIKE SUPREME COURT’S OBAMACARE RULING. “Voters are reacting in broadly negative ways to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the legislation known as Obamacare, a new Newsweek/Daily Beast poll finds, with a majority disapproving of the ruling, fearing health-care costs and taxes will rise, and preferring Mitt Romney to President Obama on the issue. . . . Only 24 percent of those polled said that they believe the ruling will make the country better off.”

I wonder if this will hurt the Supreme Court’s legitimacy . . . .

WHAT COULD BE YUMMIER? Python for dinner? 3 top local chefs to cook invasive species.

I approve of this approach.

HEH: Just What The Doctor Ordered.

SECURITY: Texas Students Hijack a U.S. Government Drone in Midair. “The U.S. government, understandably, doesn’t want its drone technology to fall out of the sky and into other peoples’ laps. But being able to hijack a drone and control it? That’s even worse. And a team of researchers has done it for 1,000 bucks. The University of Texas at Austin team successfully nabbed the drone on a dare from the Department of Homeland Security. They managed to do it through spoofing, a technique where a signal from hackers pretends to be the same as one sent to the drone’s GPS.”

GOOD QUESTION: How Do We Know Smartphones Endanger Planes? “A curt reminder to power down your portable electronics has been a part of every commercial flight for years. But why do we have those rules in the first place, and should we expect them to change now that pilots have iPads in the cockpit and many airlines offer in-flight wireless Internet?”

READER BOOK PLUG: Reader James DeLong’s Ending ‘Big SIS’ (The Special Interest State) and Renewing the American Republic.

DISCUSSION: How To Live Like A King In A World Full Of Princesses.

ANOTHER BLOGGER MUZZLED BY A JUDGE. “This week, Nilan sought and obtained a ‘harassment prevention order’ from Central Berkshire District Court Bethzaida Sanabria-Vega — that is to say, from a judge in the same court where Nilan’s father is a senior official, the same court that lost the paperwork in her case previously. Judge Sanabria-Vega not only ordered Dan Valenti to stay away from Nilan — she ordered him to take down his blog posts about her case.”

Such an order is, of course, unconstitutional, but as we’ve seen many judges don’t care about that. But why should they? They enjoy absolute immunity — a doctrine created, conveniently enough, by judges.

SCIENCE: Ancient text gives clue to mysterious radiation spike. “I just did a quick Google search.”

IF BUSH DID THIS, IT WOULD BE PROOF THAT HE WAS A DUMB COWBOY: White House Tweets About Girl With “Congenial Disease,” Tries To Delete It, But Too Late.

BREAKING THE CHAINS of ignorance and despotism.

MAURICE STUCKE: Looking At The Monopsony In The Mirror.

“SHAME ON YOU, BARACK OBAMA:” Romney Ad Uses Footage of Hillary Accusing Obama of Running Deceptive Ads.

GREEN POLITICS: Fisker Loan Spurs More Questions From Senators. “Fisker Automotive and its pending federal government loan has spurred a letter from two U.S. senators to Energy Secretary Steven Chu questioning the appropriateness of the loan, The Detroit News reports. In their letter to Chu, senators John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reportedly question the $529 million loan in part because of Qatar’s ownership stake in the plug-in hybrid automaker. The senators also inquired about the loan earmarked for Fisker partner A123 Systems, the company whose batteries have been subject to a recall.”

DOES THE TAX CLAUSE GIVE CONGRESS unlimited power?

THE HILL: High Court Gives GOP New Weapon On Taxes. “Republicans have seized on the Supreme Court’s decision that the health insurance mandate is a tax, believing it will help them argue a second term for President Obama would be devastating for the economy.”

UPDATE: IowaHawk: “The last time Democrats gloated this hard after a health care victory, they lost 60 House seats.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: “Hi Glenn. Just wanted to let you that I just went on the Romney site to donate money and it is going reaaalll slow. I’m at work and we have a huge, superfast connection so it’s not on my end. Is it possible his donation website is getting swamped with too many people trying to give donations?”

It’s possible.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Biggest Winner in Healthcare Decision: The Founders. “I don’t think the health care policy we’ve adopted is a particularly good one, but at least our institutions more or less worked. . . . Compare all this with Europe, where there are no institutions that are capable of coming to grips with the currency question. Meeting after meeting is held, no real agreement is reached. Neither the EU Parliament nor the Commission nor the heads of government meeting in summits has the power or a method to decide. Europe is trying to write a constitution even as it works desperately to stave off an economic collapse.”

AT AMAZON, Summer Grilling Essentials.

Also, today only: Save up to 25% on InStep Safari Jogging Strollers.

HERE’S A COOL VIDEO BY BILL WHITTLE about my The Higher Education Bubble.

MICKEY KAUS: Who Says Romney Won’t Be Able To Repeal ObamaCare?