MARKDOWNS ON BIG-SCREEN TVs and the like.

MICHAEL BARONE: Late August Heat: No Letup For Obama.

JONATHAN ADLER: “Let’s see now. Deficit projections are once again on the rise as Obama’s approval rating falls. Health care reform is faltering, climate change legislation is stalled, and David Axlerod is under fire for his conflicts of interest. Seems like a good time to change the subject. Contents of the CIA inspector general’s report on harsh interrogation methods have already leaked, so it won’t do the trick. If I were a betting man, I’d expect something else to drop Monday or Tuesday.”

Hmm. Dick Cheney collaborated with extradimensional aliens, gave them nuclear weapons? No, that’s already been done.

UH OH: The Risk Of A Double-Dip Recession Is Rising.

COMPETENCE: Most of Obama’s Top Appointees Are Not in Place. “Of more than 500 senior policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation, just 43 percent have been filled so far — a reflection of a White House that grew more cautious after several nominations blew up last spring, a Senate that is intensively investigating nominees and a legislative agenda that has consumed both. The sluggish pace has kept Mr. Obama from having his own people enacting programs central to his mission. He is trying to fix the financial markets but does not have an assistant treasury secretary for financial markets. He is spending more money on transportation than anyone since Dwight D. Eisenhower but does not have his own inspector general watching how the dollars are used. He is fighting two wars but does not have an Army secretary.”

RUTH WEDGWOOD: Releasing Al-Megrahi Bodes Ill.

More from Kenneth Anderson.

SOONER OR LATER, EVERYONE COMES TO KNOXVILLE (CONT’D): Had a nice get-together with Mary Katharine Ham and her significant other, Jake Brewer, as they passed through Knoxville.

PEEVED OBAMA TRUMPS PATERSON’S RACE CARD: “President Obama’s aides were so furious that Gov. Paterson dragged him into a rant about racism that they sent a message sharply criticizing the governor’s comments just hours after he made them.”

ANNIE LIEBOVITZ, ICON FOR THE AGE? “Budget is not something that enters into her consciousness.” With predictable results.

A LOT OF new science fiction series coming out this fall.

TOWN HALLS: Steve Crowder: Beware the mouth-foaming anger!

MATT WELCH: The Real Reason Americans Are Angry: It’s The Big Government, Stupid:

It’s been a hilarious August, watching media supporters of President Obama’s health care package puzzle over the obscure motivations of the noncompliant Americans rallying against it.

“Racial anxiety,” guessed New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

“Nihilism,” theorized Time’s Joe Klein.

“The crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy,” historian Rick Perlstein proclaimed in the Washington Post.

While the commentariat’s condescension is almost comical, the whole evil-or-stupid explanation misses the elephant in Obama’s room: Americans of all stripes, it turns out, aren’t very keen about the government barging into their lives. . . . This isn’t about liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. A majority oppose Obama’s policies because they fly in the face of this country’s bedrock values of personal liberty and limited government. Robbing Peter to pay Goldman Sachs does violence to that fundamentally American ethos.

Read the whole thing.

RELIVING THE “HORROR” of Thirtysomething.

ERIC S. RAYMOND, please phone home.

INSIDE THE AIR FORCE’S unmanned revolution.

IN EUROPE, mainstreaming antisemitism with new blood libels.

HISTORICAL UNDERPINNINGS for the Tea Party movement. It worked, too — they haven’t tried to impose an income tax since.

YOU WANT TO MINGLE WITH THE PEOPLE, you can’t confiscate their cellphones. I had missed this story. There’s no legal basis for this demand, and I wouldn’t cooperate.

UPDATE: A downloadable flyer on photographers’ rights.

A BUNCH OF interesting food links.

OLD IS the new beautiful.

THE WORLD’S WEIRDEST HOTELS.

ANTIVIRUS PROTECTION gets social.

OUCH: PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL INDEX HITS NEW LOW: “The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 27% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14. These figures mark the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President.” (Via Gateway Pundit, who has some thoughts about why).

REPORT: GM Could Build 70,000 Chevy Volts a Year. Can they sell that many?

IDENTIFYING A BODY by the serial number on breast implants. They have serial numbers?