The International House of Bacon

* R.E.M. - Accelerate: Short answer - imperfect, but probably the best R.E.M. album they’ve put out since New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Longer answer - “Houston” and “Until the Day is Done” are both downers on a more energetic, exciting album, and keep it from being a real true classic. They don’t fit in the lineup, they lack the subtlety we’re used to, and if the songs weren’t so short, it’d be easier to fast forward through them. Those downsides, however, really don’t hurt the total package that much: the first four songs (especially my current favorite, “Man-Sized Wreath”) are among the best that they’ve lined up on an album back-to-back-to-back-to-back since the IRS days, and I still catch myself singing songs like “Horse to Water” when I’m not playing the CD. I liked Around the Sun a lot, Up remains a favorite album, and Reveal is ultimately only crappy by R.E.M.’s standards, but this is quite the album. Definitely worth your time.

* She and Him - “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here”: Singling this song out doesn’t really do justice to the entire album, which is actually very enjoyable and is similar in tone and effort to Jenny Lewis’s solo album, but I haven’t quite loved a song the way I love this one in a little while. It’s perky, fun, a little goofy, but has great harmonies and gets right to the point. You can’t ask for much more from a single. The best part, for those who don’t know, is that She and Him is the project of indie rocker M. Ward and movie star Zooey Deschanel. If you’ve seen Elf, you know she can sing, but that she can write really great songs is a plus as well.

* What Made Milwaukee Famous - “Sultan”: Lost in the rise of Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, the Shins, etc, is good, happy power pop. I don’t know a thing about What Made Milwaukee Famous except that this song is the type of power pop that I feel has been missing the last few years.

* Death Cab for Cutie - “I Will Posess Your Heart”: Dumb title, stupid lyrics, pretentious intro. Why can’t I stop singing it in my head, then?

* Hot Chip - “Ready for the Floor”: I apparently missed the Hot Chip train the first time it rolled through town, and the first listen of this song did nothing for me, but I’ll be damned if this song isn’t strangely addictive. Goofy indie electronica-esque music FTW!

Still battling a head cold, still wondering why the Red Sox are so high on Jon Lester…

* High school seniors dumb on basic financial information. On one hand, I probably wouldn’t have known the answers to a lot of those questions ten years ago. On the other, why couldn’t I?

* McCain on pre-emptive war: “I don’t think you can make a blanket statement about preemptive war because obviously it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces.” On the face of it, it’s an obvious, “duh” statement. But then you think about how the “100 years in Iraq” comment has been completely twisted out of context, and I fear for how this comment will play, even though it’s the most realistic foriegn policy statement any current Presidential candidate has made. McCain doesn’t consistently deserve the straight talk moniker, but it’s statements like this that keep that concept alive - brutally honest, an answer even he probably doesn’t like, and one that’s certain to get twisted by his opponents, who are really only interested in straight talk when it fits the percieved narrative.

* Time on the shifting gender gap in colleges in favor of women.

* More corruption via red light cameras. It appears that one locality has seven of its ten red light cameras at intersections where the yellow light is quicker than mandated by law.

* Obama, “Constitutional scholar,” supports the Washington, DC gun ban.

* The Volokh Conspiracy had an interesting post about genocide and international law.

* Thomas Sowell nails it: “Nothing is more fraudulent than calls for a ‘dialogue on race.’ Those who issue such calls are usually quick to cry ‘racism’ at any frank criticism. They are almost invariably seeking a monologue on race, to which others are supposed to listen.”

* Also via Volokh, religious accomodations and business collide. A company is reprimanded by the government of New Mexico for refusing to photograph a same-sex union.

* Power Line reports on Pelosi having the rules changed to allow Congress to table the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. So many snarky comments I could make, but perhaps this playing of politics merely speaks for itself.

* Boy, does Michelle Obama sound familiar or what?

* Finally, a good move in a follow up from yesterday: The woman dismissed from Obama’s delegate camp for referring to children in trees as “monkeys” has been reinstated.