The International House of Bacon

Just because there’s so much information about it and stuff to think of, so just a bunch of random thoughts about it.

1) How sad that a principle (referring to Heller specifically) that really isn’t that difficult to grasp, and is only hampered by a 18th century language quirk, can only be retained by a 5-4 ruling. This isn’t to say that every issue should be 9-0, but something like this realistically should have been, and probably more of them.

2) I’m ultimately glad to see FEC v. Davis ruled the way it was - while the Court ultimately punted poorly on some of the campaign finance provisions early, I feel like that ruling leaves a really good opening for eventual real reform involving an actual protection of our speech. Soon…

3) If I have one issue with Heller, it’s, ironically enough, Scalia’s dissent. I’ve mostly skimmed it and read the highlights elsewhere, but it’s not the Scalia Unleashed! I was hoping for. My money would be on his being restrained in order to protect what was probably a clearly frail majority to begin with. Which, again, is sad - compromising on what are supposed to be inalienable rights? Sigh. But considering the recent(?) habit of concurring opinions neutering otherwise sound rulings, I suppose we should take what we can get.

4) On a similar tack, a lot of hand-wringing appears to be happening regarding the narrow scope of the ruling. I again choose to credit that to the possible political realities, but I also wonder if it was a scope issue. Yeah, I’d love for the Court to wake up and say that one’s inalienable rights don’t disappear once you’ve served time for your crime, for example, but I also can’t be sure that it ever would have happened with this case. So yeah.

5) This can’t go without saying, and this has to be addressed: Obama is on record as stating that Breyer, Souter, and Ginsburg are “models” for his type of justice, as “sensible.” Not surprisingly, these three were on the wrong side - the anti-Constitution side - of the two most obvious Constitutional rulings of the day yesterday. These are his models. This is what he thinks is “sensible.” Breyer penned a dissent in Heller, specifically, and that should trouble anyone who cares about the Constitution one lick. I’m not saying Thomas and Scalia are perfect - far from it, in fact - however, in terms of basic caring about the Constitution and the rights enshrined therein, there’s no one on the Court who appears to care more. And Obama wants their opposites. That’s a problem, period.

Some highlights from my Google Reader about the cases:

* From the Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr on Heller’s limitations and Ilya Somin thinking in the context of Kelo, and Eugene Volokh offering his thoughts.

* Radley Balko is somewhat skeptical about Heller’s outcome.

* Jacob Sullum questions Scalia’s limits.

* RedState offers a general “quotes of the day” list regarding Davis

* Trevor Bothwell calls Heller a win/lose ruling.

* Ed Whelan at NRO highlights Stevens’s dissent (which was an embarassment) and Alito’s opinion, both regarding Davis.

Thoughts on Heller and Davis coming later on, scheduled to post around noon.

* Auto sales in China up big. More reason to remember that drilling is a necessity - there’s no way developing nations will be able to afford implementing the alternatives in the same time frame we will be able to.

* FiveThirtyEight highlights a recent Rasmussen poll showing similar favorables amongst identified party voters, but higher unfavorables for Obama. Combine this with 20% of Clinton voters not yet behind Obama, and there is a fairly interesting argument to be made about Obama having the base problem, and not so much McCain.

* Of course, if Obama keeps shifting positions with the blowing of the wind, he might have bigger problems than his base. His campaign, last, year, noted the Heller case and said that “Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional.” Obama himself never corrected the record, and it remained consistent with Obama’s state senate questionnaire and his work with the Joyce Foundation and the Violence Policy Center. Yesterday, hours before the ruling was released, it was reported that Obama’s campaign was running from that, now stating that the “statement was obviously an inartful attempt to explain the Senator’s consistent position.” Yes, Obama’s position appears to have been consistent - consistently against the Constitution, and consistently wrong.

* Dear John McCain, please keep Bobby Jindal out of your administration. I know he’s the most exciting Republican to come around in a while, but no one on the right needs him.

* Apparently, Hugo Chavez’s election scare not too long ago has resulted in a change for him. Instead of running campaigns now, he’ll just remove opposition candidates from the ballots.

* Lost in the shuffle? Another missile defense test success. The military is 35 of 43 since 2001, and has succeeded in 29 of the last 30 since 2005, with this being a successful test where the controllers had no clue where the missile was going. So much for this sort of thing “never working.” Remember, Barack Obama considers missile defense unproven and plans to cut spending on it. Maybe he’s right that we don’t necessarily need a missile defense program, but to claim that it’s unproven seems dumber by the day.

* Finally, a list of Hollywood’s top 10 worst kissers.

* Volokh on Kennedy v. Louisana is here. I’m not sure I disagree with the outcome on a Constitutional level, but I am a little tired of Anthony Kennedy right now. I shouldn’t be concerned about Heller today, right?

* As much as I love my newish home state, we still have some idiots running around.

* Jim Geraghy notes the dichotomy between Obama enjoying town hall meetings as a Senator, but not being in the mood for them against McCain. Again, 10 may be a bit much, but when he offers no reasonable alternative for negotiation…

* Radley Balko on mandatory menu labeling statutes. I’ve not been a fan of this sort of thing anyway, but he makes a series of great points that I hadn’t thought of.

* Some Obama supporters still don’t know where he stands on important issues. And by “supporters,” I mean “elected officials stumping for him who really have no excuse.”

* Obama’s rhetoric may result in less oil from Canada. Change we can believe in, repairing our diplomatic relationships.

* And finally, a fun parody of that silly MoveOn ad:

I’m nervous about DC v. Heller today - it should come down, and the common wisdom appears to be that Scalia is the guy for the opinion. For one, what should be a slam-dunk 9-0 obviously won’t be, and for two, if Kennedy’s the swing again, will he see something in Scalia’s opinion he doesn’t like and offer a concurrance, thus muddying the waters further? Today’s one of those days I wish I could stay home with CNN on all day.

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* In the “nothing more important happening” department, a bill has been introduced to “bar commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany.” At least it ain’t monkeys?

* McCain announced a $300m prize for alternative energy. This editorial in the Denver Post pretty much nails it.

* Governor Palin of Alaska wants the 2000 acres in ANWR opened to drilling. That McCain is where he is on ANWR is frustrating.

* RedState breaks down Obama’s energy plan. Requisite snark alert.

* Cato lists off some of Gov. Pawlenty’s resume, given that he’s an apparent frontrunner for McCain’s VP slot. If McCain’s looking to shore up his conservative credentials, he’ll likely have to look elsewhere.

* Wizbang promotes a comment addressing the oft-heard “we’re in the worst mess ever” meme. Fairly good points.

Slow day, I suppose. I finished Matt Welch’s McCain: The Myth of a Maverick last night, so hopefully I can crank out some posts for the remainder of the week tonight. Hopefully.

Meant to write a ton last night. Whoops.

* Comparing Argentina to Obama. Change we can believe in?

* RedState on Obama’s new political director, Patrick Gaspard. To say he’s a tad problematic would be an understatement.

* The reality of the inactive oil leases some Democrats in Congress are harping about. Stuff like this ultimately makes me wonder what color the sky is for some of our Congresspeople, because this is absolutely ridiculous.

* Good luck to Forvik, the small island off the coast of Ireland that declared independence this week.

* More on the Iraq journalism drain. You’ll note that violence doesn’t factor into a reason why news organizations are leaving, and the New York Times fails to note the smaller embedding expenses.

* From the Friendly Atheist, the religious landscape survey. Tons of interesting stuff here.

* A fairly surprising poll from California: a majority of Californians support expanded drilling off the coast.

* An interesting observation from Ann Althouse on Scalia and Thomas’s positions on the rights of the accused in the context of the recently-decided Indiana v. Edwards.

* Finally, from Oddee, the twelve funniest wedding announcements.

That’s all.

Still recovering from a whirlwind weekend.

* RIP George Carlin. I’m of an age where Carlin only exists in Kevin Smith movies and funny book titles, missing out on all the fun from the 1970s. Still, this one hurts a bit. Definitely lost a great.

* George Will had a pretty decent article on crime this weekend, arguing in part about how the rising incarceration rate isn’t telling the whole story. There’s a few realities here Barack Obama should take notice on.

* Also, our image in Asia: not too shabby. While some of the results may need some more investigation, it still further calls into question the idea that the last few years have wrecked our overseas relationships. It seems to be one of those truisms that doesn’t hold up to closer scrutiny.

* Some catch-up from Friday: Obama not taking public financing for the general contest. My question is this - why did he have to lie about it? We all know that Obama’s essentially printing money at this point, so why does he have to lie about where the Republican funding is coming from? What benefit does this provide, especially when he’s going back on his original promise of taking the funding. I’m no fan of public financing of elections, but this is just an utterly fascinating turnaround.

* The other big news between posts was the FISA deal, which pushes the FISA “update” through while allowing for immunity for participating telecommunication companies if the federal government provides a certain type of evidence. This is being touted as a “compromise,” although it reads more like the Democrats knowing that they can’t win on this issue and trying to save face. I’m not against immunity - this whole issue was a giant bowl of idiocy on all sides - but there’s no reason to expand FISA at this point.

* Power Line dissects Obama’s statements about his comparisons between terrorists on trial, Nuremburg, and the reality of the 1993 bombings. I’m starting to wonder who Obama’s history adviser is.

* Did you know that Barack Obama outraised John McCain in May? Seems like a given, right? Barack Obama only beat him by $200k. It’s unlikely, but it’ll be interesting if that holds up.

* Oh, that whole thing about Obama and NAFTA, how things got “overheated?” His campaign still thinks that Obama’s committed to renegotiation/withdrawal. Anyone want to take bets on the campaign position this week?

* QandO asks “Where’s the outrage” in response to health care providers denying care to those who won’t benefit long term from it. Specifically, why it’s outrageous when a private company does it, but ignored when it’s the government.

* Speaking of international distaste with American foriegn policy, Europe is concerned about Obama’s Iran policy, which they fear would undercut the progress they feel they’ve been making. Change we can believe in, right?

* A great interview with Amity Shlaes with notes about the Presidential candidates. Her book, The Forgotten Man, is one of the better recent books about the Great Depression’s true economic impact, and when she says that Obama appears “unaware of the economic consequences of government expansion that happens under the New Deal name,” it’s worth listening to. The book is worth your time, too.

* This all brings us to a pretty interesting editorial from Michael Barone, about Obama’s refusal to allow the facts to dictate his policy slate. Considering that was/is a chief criticism of the Bush administration over the years…

* The Enumerated Powers Act is such a common sense law, it’s a shocker it’s not always in play, and it’s not the least bit surprising that it won’t get off the ground.

* Finally, baseball fun: What happens when a switch pitcher needs to pitch to a switch hitter? A great minor league baseball clip.

End of the week for me.

* Same old Washington politics as usual:

In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine’s upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee backed off his harshest attacks on the free trade agreement and indicated he didn’t want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA.

“Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA “devastating” and “a big mistake,” despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? “Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself,” he answered.

So let’s count the problems here:

a) Apparently, everything he said about NAFTA was, at worst, a lie and at best, “overheated and amplified.”
b) This “different politician” who’s not interested in the “same Washington politics” did the same pandering handwave to grab voters in the primary.
c) Getting votes is more important than trade diplomacy.

The last one is especially egregious, given the continued unsupported allegation that Bush has wrecked our diplomatic relationships. At what point can/should foriegn nations trust a President Obama on this issue? At what point should the voting public on any issue at this point, given that such a tenuous issue appears to have just been a stage play?

I’m sure this will get waved off as “just part of a campaign” or whatever. Unfortunately, even if you can wave it off internally, Obama has set a standard for himself. A standard he has failed to meet time and time again, and this is just the latest example.

* More change we can believe in: Obama apparently had a phone conversation with Iraq’s foriegn minister. Obama seemed pleased, pushing his troop withdrawal plan and saying no issues were raised in Iraqi quarters about it. Too bad Iraqi Foriegn Minister Hoshyar Zebari disagrees. According to the Washington Post Zebrari “told Mr. Obama that ‘Iraq is not an island.’ In other words, an American withdrawal that destabilized the country would also roil the region around it and embolden U.S. adversaries such as al-Qaeda and Iran. ‘We have a deadly enemy,’ Mr. Zebari said. ‘When he sees that you commit yourself to a certain timetable, he will use this to increase pressure and attacks, to make it look as though he is forcing you out. We have many actors who would love to take advantage of that opportunity.’”

Zebari is not against a gradual withdrawal - a policy currently in place by the current President, tenuously supported by the generals on the ground (who Obama claims he’d listen to), and likely to continue if McCain is elected. Which makes more sense, truly?

* Now, for actual change: McCain’s energy policy is calling for an end to the ban on offshore drilling, 45 new nuclear power plants, and more clean coal technology, among others. What makes this good? These are real changes from the current priorities, these are proven energy sources, and it’s a good, if imperfect, combination of working for the near future while sustainably preparing for the long term. Compare this with Obama’s push toward the “green” fad, with nameless “green energy sectors” and a significant amount of money being poured into unproven and often detrimental technologies. Even better, Obama is floatinf $150b toward those technologies, minimum - McCain’s plan does not need to spend much, if any, extra taxpayer money to get rolling. Go figure.

* On a sad energy note, apparently, the Bakken formation is a bit of a myth in terms of how much it holds. It still holds a very substantial amount of oil, which is somewhat being retrieved, but not as much as has been rumored.

* Meanwhile, while we discuss issues of energy and war, the House felt the need to ban interstate transport of monkeys. Thanks, guys. It’s not like our taxes are slated to go up in a couple years or anything.

* Oh, I shouldn’t say that’s the only stupid thing to occur yesterday: Maurice Hinkley, Massachusetts Democrat in the House, thinks the oil refineries should be nationalized. I’m not really interested in Hugo Chavez, buddy.

* Patrick Ruffini writes about the effect of the internet on the campaign for The Next Right. A pretty interesting writeup about the approaches of both campaigns.

* William Perry is part of Barack Obama’s National Security Group. This was his position on dealing with North Korea in 2006. Again, if Obama actually listened to the advisers he brought on, he might actually be a worthwhile candidate.

* What Obama’s tax policies mean for revenues. This doesn’t talk about the spending outlays, and kind of puts the lie to Obama’s desires to curb deficits.

* Conspiracy of the day: Obama’s positions on Iraq and his relationship with Tony rezko. Presented more out of amusement than importance.

* Finally, Cheetos porn. Not specifically unsafe for work, but unsafe enough given that it’s a man in his underwear simulating sexual acts with a giant Cheeto.

Congrats to the Celtics - I’ve not watched the NBA in any significant way since Reggie Lewis died, but if every NBA game was as fun and fast-paced as last night’s rout was, I’d watch more often. Absolutely dominating performance, quite fun.

* Another good point of evidence as to why Obama’s brand of “change” doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny: the big swarm of the day is the tail end of Washington DC’s “Opportunity Scholarship” program, which is essentially a voucher program allowing a $7500 credit to follow a student into a private school. Now, as a matter of policy, you might be against the concept from the beginning - that’s all well and good. The evidence suggests, however, that the vouchers are working. The costs are down, and achievements on both ends in the DC schools are up. Now, would this trend across the nation? That I don’t know, and I’d be inclined to say “no,” given that I don’t think one size fits all education policies work within the United States demographics. However, this is where Obama fails at his “change” mantra - here’s a change a number of people believe in, that the evidence appears to believe in, and could act as a solid attempt at a change where things like No Child Left Behind has failed. Obama also sends his kids to private schools - he obviously perceives a benefit for himself on the matter (although he should not be held to any more scrutiny based on his personal decisions on the matter, and he’s not using vouchers to send his kids there). So why is he against this change? This would seem like a simple way to walk the walk, and actually do some good to boot.

* Another Haditha Marine case thrown out. This now makes 7 of 8 either thrown out or acquitted. Still no word from John Murtha or from Barack Obama that I know of.

* This is what’s hanging up the XM/Sirius merger. I’m not against any merger in principle, but there are some much more important mergers that go through quicker than this relatively unimportant one. Sheesh.

* A supermajority support offshore drilling for oil. Again - stonewalling on this issue 10 years ago is a contributor to the situation today. Imagine if we actually had extra production coming in right now. McCain smartly supports it.

* Perdue pays $800k for discriminatory hiring practices. What were the practices? Discrimination against non-Hispanic hirings.

* Real-world application of Barack Obama’s tax plan.

* Finally, enjoy this idiotic MoveOn ad:

It makes two political points, neither of which make any logical sense: McCain isn’t pushing for 100 year war, and no one’s calling for anything resembling a situation where the kid being pimped out would be forced into service. Has MoveOn become this irrelevant, and are you folks who are against McCain proud of this? I sure hope not.

‘Tis all.

Plowing through as much as possible, corrections post later on…

* From the comments yesterday, Justice Kennedy essentially said the Constitution is unconstitutional in his opinion. This was a rather shocking read to me, and, more to the point - it seems to make sense.

* England to family: your 2 foot paddling pool needs a lifeguard.

* Surprise surprise, The Los Angeles Times appears to have distorted what was on Alex Kosinski’s website. One can only hope it was sloppy and inadvertent. Still doesn’t excuse Kosinski’s somewhat poor judgment or equal sloppiness.

* Barack Obama: “Sure, I’ll do a town hall meeting with John McCain. Let’s simply do it on the 4th of July weekend, when no one will be watching and the news cycle will be over before everyone’s vacation.” What is he afraid of, exactly?

* RedState compares and contrasts 2000 and 2008 coverage.

* Stupid meter laws in Arizona.

* Volokh reports on the removal of children from the home of an alleged Neo-Nazi. While we all can agree that it’s an intolerable belief, what line constitutes a belief that’s okay to hold while being a parent?

* From Strange Maps, an interesting look at federal land ownership.

* Finally, Don Luskin on Obama’s fuzzy math.

* The big news since Wednesday/Thursday was the Guantanamo decision. I was actually fairly pleased with the ruling until I read Scalia’s dissent, which really brought home a few thoughts regarding Kennedy’s overreliance on internationalism and the basic points about how we’ve essentially always done things in regards to foriegn fighters. While Scalia’s dissent isn’t quite as biting to me given his appeals to emotion on this issue, the point remains that we’re again faced with a decision that is proper as a matter of policy, but maybe not as much in terms of Constitutionalism - that yes, as a matter of policy and logic, we should treat foriegn fighters the way we’d want to be treated, but finding that in the Constitution in a situation like this is less clear, and notably wasn’t 2 years ago when the Court essentially instructed the Congress as to how to proceed. Of course, now an amendment is being floated, which is also the wrong idea, but that’s the kind of messes you get into when it comes to a poor judiciary. Ah well.

* Part 3 of Cato’s series on the relative importance of climate change is up.

* Ireland says no to the latest European Union treaty. I still can’t quite convince myself that the EU can work long term.

* Power Line goes to town on Obama’s Social Security plan. A must read for today.

* Another fun Obama story: Obama blames the government for high gas prices, repeating the allegation that the energy policy was “written by and for the big oil and gas companies.” This didn’t stop Obama from voting in favor of it. Also of note - McCain voted against it. I’m sure the bill wasn’t what he thought it was, or perhaps he was actually referencing a different bill, right?

* FivethirtyEight notes historically recent polling trends. Interestingly, the polling front-runner in June usually loses some significant support by the time the actual vote comes around.

* Take the windfall profits quiz.

* Introducing the new genetically-modified bug that poops oil.

* The MPAA? Still doesn’t get it. I’m a pretty big copyright booster, I could actually stand for broader expansion of it, but that doesn’t mean that the copyright holders shouldn’t embrace reality, either.

* Finally, two fun movie-related links: popcorn economics and Norton and The Incredible Hulk.

Interestingly enough, that’s all I’ve got.

Last night was possibly my most anticipated concert in years - R.E.M. in Mansfield. My expectations had been running a little higher than I usually allow myself, having kept up with setlists like crazy and getting ridiculously excited at some of the songs that have been showing up in the sets as to this point.

First, an interesting side note - The Tweeter Center, which is formerly Great Woods, is now the Comcast Center. Makes sense on one level, since I think Tweeter is dying out, but this change happened very quickly, and I’m rather surprised to have seen it happen so fast where the tickets and merchandise didn’t even reflect the new venue name. Then again, if I were ever a touring musician, I’d likely put “Great Woods” on my shirts just to be a pain, so who am I to talk?

It’s good to know that after all these years, nothing has changed about the venue - if you get there early enough, you get to park up front and leave within 5 minutes of getting to your car, or you’re stuck there until 12:30. The end result made me very happy that we got there around 5, as we were in one of the first lots to leave, but it also gave us time to settle in a bit. Out seats were much closer than I anticipated, although still pretty far off - second covered section, roughly 40 rows back. Close enough to see everything without needing monitors (not that they would have been especially helpful) but far enough where if you just watched the stage, you could see everything.

First band was The National. I feel like the only indie nerd who isn’t into the National at this point, but they were good as long as they were rocking. I think I knew 3 songs going in, only half-recognizing one they played, but the ones I didn’t know where harder, faster songs and thus better. They have a pretty dedicated core group of fans, a number who were VERY into it. Not too shabby, although 45 minutes was a bit much.

Second up, Modest Mouse. I’ve seen them once before, back in 2002 or 2003, and they were one of the bigger disappointments, with the not playing anything I knew and generally sounding kind of crappy. This is a radically different Modest Mouse, who sound much tighter and play a wider range of material. They use two percussionists live, which is a quirk I’ve never completely understood, and I don’t feel it added anything, but regardless, it was a decent set with a lot of good stuff going on. Johnny Marr mixes right in with the rest of the group, which I suppose is a good thing even though you’d probably expect otherwise, and yeah. Interestingly, no “Gravity Rides Everything” or “Float On,” which I figured were givens considering the opening slot and all.

Finally, R.E.M. Went on around 9, played two straight hours, were at possibly the best musical form I’ve seen them in. Stipe was rather subdued in comparison to his usual antics, although his deciding to do the robot during “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth” was a new one. The new songs from Accelerate all sound awesome live, and mixed in with older songs like “Get Up” and “Begin the Begin,” they completely fit in with the back catalog rather nicely in a way I didn’t notice from the album versions. The single best part, however, was the setlist. For those not following along with every single setlist coming down the pike, they’ve been mixing it up considerably this tour, with more older, rarely-played-in-the-last-20-years songs than I think any R.E.M. fan could expect. It seems as if they pulled out the stops quite a bit for the Boston-area crowd - they ditched general Accelerate staples like “Mr. Richards” and “Until the Day is Done,” and just piled on the old stuff: “Circus Envy” four songs in (and, one of four songs I was dying to hear live), “West of the Fields,” “Cuyahoga,” “Driver 8,” “Maps and Legends” (a first for this tour), “Get Up,” “Departure,” “I’ve Been High,” and, as an added bonus after people booed when Stipe said “last song,” they pulled out “Pretty Persuasion,” another song I’ve been waiting on for a very, very long time. I’m still a little wired from the show, but I really think this rivals the 1999 setlist (which had “Wolves, Lower,” “Radio Free Europe,” and “Crush With Eyeliner” among others) in terms of the quality of stuff played. I mean, of 28 songs played, 11 of them came out of the 1980s, which is pretty awesome. A quick, quick two hours without a single poor song choice among them, IMO. Absolutely incredible.

Other odd/interesting notes:

* The drunk guy behind me who apparently had an intense personal sexual experience during at least 3 songs, including his orgasmic reaction to, of all things, “I’ve Been High.”
* The angry lady to Ann’s left who was angry that everyone was standing during R.E.M., and they left after maybe 6 or 7 songs. Ann claims she can’t possibly quantify how angry she was about the standing.
* The number of kids with their parents, which was fun. We had a father/son combo in front - the kid said Modest Mouse was his favorite band, and the dad was clearly into R.E.M., and I’d be pretty convinced that there was a lot of that going on.
* In one of those “what the hell were they thinking” moments, the Comcast Center now has a “send a text message to get it displayed on the monitors” feature. Unmonitored/unmoderated, of course, so there was a battle between the “Hail Satan” types, the “I’m going to pimp my Myspace” people, the “4 chan is here” group (who, not surprisingly, had some of the best lines) and the general “Derek likes it in the bum” and other racist/sexist/X-ist vulgarities. The best text of the night, though? Paraphrasing, “Isaac Brock eats babies in a dark ritual before every show.” Funny ’cause it’s entirely believable.
* Ann came with me. It was her first R.E.M. show, and quite possibly the largest concert she’s been to. I’m glad I was able to bring my wife to an R.E.M. show considering what the band has meant to me over the years, and she really enjoyed herself and saw an absolutely incredible performance. So I must say, a very good time.

They have 4 more shows on this tour. There are great seats available at Jones Beach this weekend if you’re in New York/New Jersey. Go. Do it.

Falling behind, as usual, and it’s only going to get worse - I have Red Sox tickets tonight, R.E.M. tickets tomorrow, and we go to a graduation party on Saturday, so I’m looking at being largely out of contact. Such is life when a car goes out of commission.

* Want a great example of how the media coverage is likely to be in the general election: Here’s Newsweek’s take on the official campaign blogs. Obama’s is boring, McCain’s is enjoyable - this is bad news for McCain. Uh, wha?

* Some great words about actual change from The Wall Street Journal.

* Windfall profit taxes = less revenue and higher prices.

* Jim Webb is often named as a possible/probable Obama VP candidate. Do his views on the Confederacy make him a poor choice for Democrats? I wonder how a number of readers feel, given past discussions on the topic. More detail at RedState.

* Why do I get the feeling that Thomas Sowell is absolutely at his wit’s end in regards to Obama. I found this piece very angry and devastating all at once.

* Obama brings on pro-Wal-Mart activist Jason Furman onto the campaign. My question is when he plans on listening to these people.

* A poll from CBS shows McCain doing quite well with independents against Obama. To head off the charge I often get, it also shows Obama by 6 amongst registered voters, which could mean something.

* The Weekly Standard (sigh, I know) notes details about Obama’s campaign spending. Yeah, he has more money, but also runs a much larger staff and has been shown to burn through money very quickly. Also, interestingly, it appears McCain and the RNC combined outraised Obama and the DNC combined in April. I still believe money doesn’t make a significant difference in elections once you get to a certain point, a point both Obama and McCain passed ages ago. If you do care about money, though, this is worth noting.

* Cato@Liberty notes a number of economic whoppers Obama put out there during a recent speech. Where are his advisers on this?

* Also from Cato, an essay on the future of copyright. A pretty interesting piece regardless of your opinion.

* For the record, I failed this test.

* More on Obama and taxes. I honestly don’t get the appeal of an economic platform that failed 70 years ago.

* I’ve always salivated over the thought of Alex Kozinski getting on the Supreme Court. Sadly, having a stash of porn on your personal website isn’t the best road to DC. Questionably not work safe if you follow links.

* Finally, the 50 worst cinematic sex scenes. Obviously not safe for work, folks - today must be R-rated Thursday at the IHOB. For more G-rated fare, try this great campaign memorabilia.

There might be enough for two today, we’ll see…

* Reason provides a link dump of sorts regarding the minimum wage hike and its effects on things like summer jobs. It’s not entirely surprising, really.

* John Tierney at the New York Times discusses alternative options after the Republicans in Congress finally grew a backbone and stopped the cap-and-trade lunacy from becoming law. I’m not sure how palatable this can be to a wide range of points of view, but it’s worth noting if only to credit the outside-the-boxness of it all.

* Happy anniversary, proposition 13. I’m actually curious about what a lot of readers think of this sort of thing.

* Willisms on economic growth in “right to work” versus union states. Interesting, if not entirely predictable, results. As an aside, as much as I’m against forced unionization and such, “right to work” isn’t a term that really works well with me, and I only use it because I can’t figure out a better description.

* The sun rises, and the population doesn’t see the media as objective. Naw, really? Lots of interesting perception topics there.

* All over the place yesterday was Fred Hiatt’s piece on the investigation of statements made by the Bush administration in the run-up to Iraq. As most of us knew, “Bush lied” was nothing more than unsubstantiated hyperbole at best, and this essentially confirms it. I can’t wait to read the whole report.

* Kudos to both Obama and McCain for wanting to reach the most people possible with their eventual debates.

* An interesting piece on the rise of charter schools in post-Katrina New Orleans.

* Also at reason, a libertarian roundtable on global warming and what to do. I have a largish global warming post in my head that I’ll get out at some point in life.

* A very valid parallel between 2000 and 2008.

* This person wants to replace Sununu. And now you know why I want to volunteer for him.

That’s all for now. Depending on what comes around overnight, maybe another one in the afternoon will swing around.

It is too hot right now. I’m not going to do well this summer if I can’t handle heat in early June.

* I was amused by this: Kay Barnes is running for a Congressional seat in Missouri. One of her main platform pieces, as linked, is the price of gas. Why doesn’t she know the price of gas in her own district?

* Speaking of oil prices, George Will maps out how Congress has affected the prices. The ANWR point (where, if we drilled in 1995 like proposed, the oil would be flowing by now) is an especially good one. More on the basic voting records of the parties in Congress on energy issues, although the lack of nuclear discussion is disappointing.

* Part two of Cato’s series questioning the importance of global warming.

* Patterico on the unemployment hike and real-world application. I had to chuckle a little bit at the surprising jump in unemployment in May following the discussions last week - I’m interested in the longer-term trends on that one.

* There’s only one word for this sort of mentality: stunning.

* Finally, I really think the Malkin/Little Green Footballs area of the internet could disappear and no one would be worse for the wear. Patrick Ruffini discusses the anti-Jewish sentiment posted on one of the my.barackobama user sites that the campaign has since removed and scrubbed. That the campaign decided that a pseudo-networking site within its own website was a good idea is a fine discussion, but I also think it’s unfair to expect them to see everything that’s posted. Thus, when they’re given the heads-up about inappropriate content and they remove it, that’s a good thing. S’not hard, folks. Of all the things wrong with Barack Obama - and there are many - the exploitation of an otherwise apparently useful campaign feature shouldn’t be one of them.

Stay cool, or something.

An ongoing series.

Coconut Records - “West Coast”: A song I heard on Sirius that had to take some time to grow on me. By the time I loved it, I learned that it’s actually Jason Schwartzman’s post-Phantom Planet project, where he plays and sings everything. It’s…interesting. I’m always a little shady about famous people doing music (even if I guess you could say Shwartzman was doing the Phantom Planet thing before he hit it “big”), but this really does it for me. This song in particular is great - fun melody, goofy lyrics, great chorus. Definitely worth looking up.

Weezer - “Pork and Beans”: Ken made the observation that they need a support group to help people break up with Weezer. I haven’t heard more than 3 songs of the new album yet, but even while I think “Pork and Beans” is a fun, goofy rock song, this is all too true. Accepting that a band is a shell of its former self is hard - I still can’t quite believe it with R.E.M., the awesomeness of Accelerate aside - but when you figure that Rivers Cuomo knows how to write a great pop/rock song better than most in the business, how is the mediocrity that we’ve largely seen from Weezer recently forgivable? It’s not like Deep Blue Something, who somehow made one - and only one - good song, after all.

The Watson Twins - “Just Like Heaven”: I fear that the Watson Twins will never gain any significant traction as a music act, because they a) sound like everything that has come before them, and b) don’t especially do anything new with it. Yet, even with those two truisms, everything they produce seems to have a quality to it that feels significant and weighty. Even when they’re doing a cover song in their style like this, it just sounds right coming from them. As does everything, I think. Really crazy.

Paramore - “crushcrushcrush”: Shut. Up. Yes, I’m a teen girl right now, but there’s something strangely addicting about this song. I know it’s not evidence of a trend - I’ve heard three other songs from them and they’re quite bad - but this song, even when it’s so shiny and polished and soulless, I dunno. I’m an addict.

Gotta be fast:

* Hamas might not like Obama anymore following his AIPAC speech (and then possibly shifted again). What’s stunning to me is Obama’s complete incoherence on Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East. At this stage of the game, I don’t think he has a clear policy to it - from having people like Samantha Power and Zbignew Brzezinski on his campaign staff to this most recent speech, I feel as if he’s taken every position possible on the area. Any explanation for this?

* The Washington, DC violence plan is to block off entire neighborhoods, do card checks, and send people away if they don’t have “legitimate business” in some areas. Say WHAT? Orin Kerr at Volokh discusses its legality.

* One of the Marines from the so-called Hathida Massacre in Iraq was acquitted on all charges yesterday. Of the eight marines originally put in the crosshairs for this, five of the cases were dropped and this one failed. There are two remaining, and the most serious one has been postponed indefinitely. Puts a bit of something against John Murtha’s allegation that the marines “killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” Interesting campaign note: Obama was questioned regarding Murtha’s statement back when he made it, and Obama’s response was that he “would never second guess John Murtha… I think he’s somebody who knows of which he speaks.” I wonder if he’ll be backtracking on that at all.

* The Next Right on demographic realities regarding Ohio for November.

* I don’t doubt that this has the best intentions for Alzheimer’s patients, but this still makes me very, very uncomfortable. I fully realize I’m way too close to this issue to even be remotely objective on it, though.

* Finally, a Facebook app to act as a clearinghouse for Wii friend codes. Yikes, did Nintendo screw the pooch on that one.

No real significant relevance to anything currently, other than all the time.

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” —James Madison

“With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the details of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”

Cheating a bit, because I’ve only been to five, but still.

5) United Center, Chicago IL, 23 September 2003 (initial reaction): In terms of an experience - meeting a ton of people for the first time, seeing my favorite band in a completely different region, the circumstances that got me there, this is one of the best concerts ever for me. As a set, though, looking back, it was a little weak. Rescued in part by the first playing of “Shaking Through” since 1989, we still had to sit through “Everybody Hurts,” “Drive,” and “All the Way to Reno,” three songs that just don’t do it in a live set like this, and especially in the same set. Still a great show, but yeah.

4) Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT, 5 November 2004 (initial reaction): It was a casino crowd and “These Days” was ultimately the only curveball thrown the entire evening. I do remember this show being roughly four days after the election, and Stipe not being all that pleased about it and it came across on stage quite obviously. Joseph Arthur was the opener, and the crowd was so amazingly rude about it that it was really disappointing. Not a great experience on the crowd end, but still a strong, if careful, set.

3) FleetCenter, Boston, MA, 29 October 2004 (initial reaction): My memory of this concert is more enveloped by the entire day (Joey visiting, a day in Boston post-World Series win with him and Georgy, etc) than the setlist, which was even more standard than the Mohegan one a week later.

2) Great Woods, Mansfield, MA, 11 September 1999: My first R.E.M. concert, up in the lawn, first tour in almost 5 years, last show of the Up tour. I can’t gush about this show enough - only time “Radio Free Europe” was played on the tour, “Wolves, Lower” made an appearance, “Crush With Eyeliner” in the encore…wow. Considering how absolutely nuts I was the entire show about this, it’s a shocker I remember as much as I do even today. Hard to believe it was 10 years ago…

1) Tweeter Center, Mansfield MA, 5 October 2003 (initial reaction): Not only was this a stellar setlist, but we had second row seats for this one, which was incredible in itself. Nothing bad about this concert at all, plus the added bonus of my catching Michael Stipe’s harmonica following his, uh, “solo” on “Bad Day.” Awesome, awesome experience all around.

Only one week until show #6! I could pee myself!

Now that I’m somewhat back in real-time:

* I’m sorry, but this speech is ridiculous, and I’m almost prone to beg for 4 more years of weird-cadence-no-emotion Bush “speeches” than this sort of nonsense. I can’t remember the last time a speech made me physically angry, simply in terms of the overwhelming platitudes and the outright lies he’s willing to peddle just to get people hopped up - and they drink it up. Yeah, here’s a reality check, folks: no matter what happens this November, the oceans are just as likely to rise or fall, people will still be able to get decent jobs, people will still have health care. If anything, Obama’s platform will do more to stand in the way of those things long term than McCain or anyone else. But don’t let the facts get in the way of a little hope. Redstate broke parts down fairly clearly for more.

* Sweden to parents: you cannot name your child Elvis. Uh, what?

* In what could be the best thing to happen to Presidential elections in decades, McCain has challenged Obama to a series of town hall-style debates. You’d think this would be a great move for Obama, having to match wits in front of an audience with a man who’s apparently “lost his bearings.” But no - Obama doesn’t want that, he’s more interested in a Lincoln-Douglas format, where the debaters generally do not address each other’s points, instead one speaks for a specified time, the second for a longer time, and the third plays catch-up at the end. Why, exactly, would Obama favor the latter except to allow him to rant on and on without being questioned?

* Also from Redstate, the Democrats on Obama. McCain would be VERY smart to exploit this.

* It’s from the National Taxpayers Union, so get your eyerolling out of the way first and then see their report on what the candidates will cost. They’re not kind to anyone, but if the debt is your issue…

* Between Jeb Bradley and now John Steven, this may be the first election in my lifetime I’ve felt I’ve had an embarrassment of riches in regard to my electoral choices.

* From Reason, an article on how we treated the dot com crash compared to the mortgage.

* Finally, the Liberty City Police are facing some strict scrutiny.

In the event that I don’t get to mess with this between now and Wednesday morning, keep in mind that much of this was written on Monday evening, and mostly concerns links from the weekend. We will continue with regular link posts tomorrow.

* So Obama is 99.99% the nominee, even though superdelegates can change and Clinton hasn’t dropped. The more things change…. I will say this much - Obama losing South Dakota should be considered a bigger deal than it will be. He was up quite a bit only a couple weeks ago - where’s his momentum?

* The Next Right posted a venn diagram of GOP archetypes. It’s a pretty decent breakdown - if I were Republican, I’d likely place myself in the overlap between neo-libertarian and paleo-libertarian.

* I love things like this: photos of some of Earth’s last remaining uncontacted tribes. I’m constantly amazed that stuff like this exists - to think that, even with all the exploring and advances we have in the world, there are people we’ve never met and cultures we may never know. If anyone knows any books on this sort of thing, I’d love to read one.

* McCain proposes Parliament-style question time for the Senate. I’d watch that - I used to always tune in when they played it on TV here, I wonder if they still do…

* Okay, now Obama is considering an Iraq trip. Someone please defend this. Someone please explain what Obama WON’T fold on. Someone still explain why he has any appeal to anyone beside the D next to his name.

* MADD is insane. To summarize, a cop goes into a classroom, says a classmate was killed by a drunk driver. They’re then brought into an assemly and told that, no, they weren’t really killed, but every 15 minutes someone is. I’m sorry, that’s sick. Why do people think this is okay?

* The Cato blog discusses global warming’s impact on mortality. Interesting stuff here, even if you’re not one to like Cato.

* More from The Next Right, this time on McCain’s strong grassroots presence. It’s amazing how many McCain memes are floating around that simply aren’t true.

* The Washington Post puts it out there: The surge worked, so will Obama be changing his tune? My answer is probably not - the only principles he appears to hold are wrong ones.

* $225k in earmarks to Rev. Phleger while Obama was in the Illinois legislature. Same old politics, etc.

* From RedState, McCain mulled a one-term pledge. I think this would have been a bad move overall, but I would be more likely to vote for him if he made it, I won’t lie.

* Finally, happy anniversary to the Berlin Wall and its wife. No, really.

‘Tis all!

Hey, Paft, I haven’t forgotten about you.

Books:

Ultimate Spider-Man: Irresponsible/Cats and Kings/Ultimate Six/Superstars/Hobgoblin/Warriors - Brian Michael Bendis: I don’t want to say I disliked the latest batch, but…well, some of this was weak. I can forgive the Ultimate Six diversion as an obvious crossover with a comic I don’t read, but I have to say that Black Cat is annoying as hell, and the whole Hobgoblin thing didn’t do it for me, either. Still soldiering on - I have library leads on all the available trades, shockingly, so I’ll be caught up at some point this summer - but a few of these were more than a little rough around the edges.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake - Sloane Crosley: When people close to my age get to do essay books, I worry. When the first essay tries to paint their life as something worth reading when your initial response is “like hell it is,” it gets worse. This book did both, but I stuck it near the potty and read an essay at a time, and it was a lot of fun in a lot of places. Felt a wee bit sanitary for what I expected, maybe, but still worth a read if you like realistic, nonfiction essays. I have little to go on outside of Chuck Klosterman, and while she’s no Klosterman, it was a pretty fun book.

Judas Unchained - Peter F. Hamilton: The problem with science fiction and fantasy is that the books are so long and the worlds created so vast that it’s nearly impossible to come up with a competent ending. Tad Williams does it well, Orson Scott Card generally does it well, but beyond that, well…. Judas Unchained is the 800+ finale to the 800+ page Pandora’s Star. The ending gets telegraphed 200 pages from the end, and everything gets tied together as neat and tidy as it can. This is a condemnation of the end, but not of the book series itself, which was nearly flawless in every other way. There was one other character set I would have loved to see more of, but where would it fit after 1700 pages?

The Willoughbys - Lois Lowry: Lowry tries to lampoon every recent kids book of note. Mostly succeeds. I didn’t want to like this, but I did. It was a quick, fun read, and there’s not much else to say about it.

Does My Head Look Big in This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah: I didn’t expect this - a book that tries to show life for a Muslim teen in Australia as normal as possible ultimately fails because it’s too normal. Take away the religion angle and this book ceases to even be a little interesting. The thing is, in these times, a book like this can help simply by existing, but only if it’s worth people’s time. Nothing this dull will catch anyone’s interest, and that’s a shame.

Little Brother - Cory Doctorow: Now, compare it with this, a book that is a wee bit hysterical in its “relation to reality” premise (Homeland Security and the government as a bunch of American-values-hatin’-thugs), but it is Cory Doctorow and we know his gig. The good point (and the cool thing is that you can download the book free and legally) is that the story is so strong and the storytelling voice so good that you can let go of the agenda for what’s otherwise a good time. He also lists off a lot of his favorite organizations at the end, which only helps in the educational process in terms of pushing access. It’s pretty win-win, and it’s a book I think everyone (literally) reading this would enjoy.

Racial Paranoia - John L. Jackson Jr: A surprisingly competent book on racial dynamics, political correctness, etc. Nothing crazy special, fairly academic, not partisan in any specific direction, but an interesting read in an area I don’t really read much in these days.

Airhead - Meg Cabot: New Meg Cabot YA! Squee! Okay, that’s out of the way - it’s the most absurd premise since the modern Arthurian Avalon High, and ends more abruptly than most of her serials, but still a fun read. I still can’t not recommend a Meg Cabot book.

Movies:

Iron Man: If every superhero movie was like Iron Man, I’d like more superhero movies. Perfectly paced, just enough of everything - absolutely wonderful movie. Robert Downey was perfect, I don’t think I can consider this to have any significant flaws. Maybe Gwyneth Paltrow, but I’m hard-pressed to find any female secondary character in a superhero movie who comes across well. No fault of theirs. But yes, if you haven’t seen it yet, do it. DO IT.

John Waters: This Filthy World: A taped version of his one man show/speaking engagement. A surprise 7 minutes or so about Kroger Babb mixed in with stories and anecdotes, a really good, fun thing to watch. It may still be on demand in some areas.

The Film Crew: Killers From Space: Yeah, not so good. Yikes.

Richard Pryor: Here and Now: What’s weird about Richard Pryor today is that he’s not shocking anymore. What was likely cutting edge even for 1983 (the time of this performance) is still great today, but is similar to a lot of things now - and only because of him. It reminded me of why I enjoy reading Robert Benchley, why I enjoy old movies, etc - it’s not necessarily that they’re better, but it opens up a new understanding for me, which is always great.

Billy Madison: Why did I find this funny when I first watched it? I saw this on on demand while laid up on Friday, and said “oh, I remember liking this.” The only thing that was even remotely funny was the “O’Doyle Rules” repetition, and only because of a college memory attached to it - I had otherwise forgotten that it was from this movie. Holy crap. With that said - still seeing Zohan this weekend if possible.

Spider-Man: Speaking of crap - okay, listen. I love the Spidey comics. Everyone tells me that this is the superhero flick to beat all superhero flicks. Someone has GOT to explain to me what makes this movie worth it. I somehow suffered through two hours of Tobey Maguire being annoying, Kirsten Dunst being Kirsten Dunst, Willem Defoe trying too hard, and just some of the absolute lamest stuff I’ve seen in a long time. I shouldn’t say that - I did see about 20 minutes of Rise of the Silver Surfer and THAT was absolute crap - but the only redeeming quality was JK Simmons, and he didn’t get much screen time. This was just…wow. Horrible. Simply horrible.

Okay. Very few links today, just musings on what I’ve heard in the crossfire of the last few days and other meta notes. I essentially didn’t check my Google Reader regularly again until Saturday morning, so I missed about 800 possible links, and didn’t follow up on others - I’ll start catching up on links as the week progresses, and I have some other things mostly prewritten that’ll post at some point later this week. That doesn’t mean I’m completely unaware of what’s been happening, though.

* First, the DNC meeting was actually rather riveting to watch. I love this sort of thing, which was fascinating, and most of my thoughts may be completely off-base if Clinton in fact drops out later this week, but I have to say: a) that the DNC made rules that they have no way of adequately being able to force compliance on (re: primary dates) is ridiculous, and to penalize voters for those issues when the voters have even less say in it makes even less sense, b) Florida getting half-seating makes sense given the bylaws as I understand them, c) Barack Obama absolutely, unquestionably, unfairly benefited from the Michigan resolution. I understand why you assume that he would have gotten the remaining delegates, but that ornery Ickes guy got it right - the Democrats have a rule for uncommitted delegates already, and there was no logical reason to suspend those, especially when it hurts a candidate that much as a result. There was no good answer for Michigan, but I really think they picked the dumbest one.

I don’t think the DNC will remain fractured long-term. People are angry, but this isn’t THAT dramatic in the grand scheme of things - if you’re so aligned to a party as is, you’re looking