VACATION: I may post a few items later tonight, but then I’m outta here. I’m scuba diving this week, and — unless there’s a U.S. invasion or a major terrorist attack sufficient to encourage me to find an Internet cafe on a tropical island — I have no plans to post or check email before next weekend. If you send me email, it’ll probably become part of a huge heap that won’t be read when I return, so you probably shouldn’t bother unless it’s something really important. In fact, you definitely shouldn’t bother unless it’s something really important.

I thought about getting someone to serve as a Special Guest Blogger while I was gone or something, but I thought that would make InstaPundit seem too much like, you know, a job. Have a great week, celebrate the Fourth of July (er, and Canada Day for you hosers up North) appropriately, and I’ll see you next weekend. In the meantime, check out the fine bloggers to the left — and my TechCentralStation column should be up on Wednesday as usual.

UPDATE: Oh, and don’t miss the new NZ Bear site and reset your bookmarks accordingly. Yet another Sekimori effort to beautify the Blogosphere.

THE GUY who runs the Eleven Day Empire website (focusing on media criticism) has a pretty cool CafePress shop featuring Project Echelon merchandise (Motto: “We’re listening.”).

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY HAS MADE A BELIEVER OUT OF THE INDEPUNDIT!

FLIT SAYS that the U.S. Air Force is trying to whitewash the actions of Major Harry Schmidt, who accidentally bombed allied forces, killing several Canadian soldiers. I haven’t followed this as closely as Bruce, but the story that he makes out is pretty damning. I hope that some American media will look into this. Finding out what happened, and ensuring that people are held accountable, isn’t bad for the war. It’s good for the war. Bureaucratic ass-covering is bad for the war, and there seems to be plenty of it.

MORE ON BRAZIL: Nelson Ascher (who’s Brazilian, even though he’s in Paris at the moment) writes:

As a Brazilian it may be somewhat suspect for me to say this, but it is time for the Americans to think harder about Brazil. Among all Latin American countries it is the one where nostalgia for the old world is weaker, and it is doubtlessly difficult to miss Portugal’s grandeur. While most Spanish Americans feel envy for and kind of admire Spain, we made of Portugal the target of our jokes, and they, the Portuguese, resent it deeply. If Brazil ever had a role model, after having been an operetta monarchy in the 19th century, it has been the USA, and up to some time ago the country’s official name was Estados Unidos do Brasil/ United States of Brazil. Now it is called the Federative Republic of Brazil, though it is still far from being a true fedeation in American terms. The overwhelming majority of Brazil’s population feel pretty close to the US, be it in its way of life, its aspirations or thoughts. There is, it is true, an intellectual elite that remains closer to Europe, but Americans have to take into consideration that for many years the Europeans have been doing their best to invite them over to their continent, publish their works, cover them with prizes etc. That is a job the US has not been doing well or at all, and consequently it has been losing points on the propaganda front. The battle for the hearts and souls of the Arabs and the Muslims in general is lost, and it is a waste of time to dwell on it. But I see no reason for the US to lose Latin America to the EU.

A lot of Americans seem to feel the same way.

PUNDITWATCH IS BACK! Woohoo!

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR REPORTS that Jordan has foiled an Al Qaeda embassy-attack plot:

US diplomats in Amman were unavailable for comment. But informed sources said four of the men were understood to be planning attacks on the American and Israeli Embassies, and on leisure centers believed to be frequented by Americans recuperating during military exercises in the kingdom. A second six-man cell, says Duwaik, was supposedly planning to hit unnamed Israeli targets across the Jordanian border in the West Bank. He says the men are accused of belonging to a hitherto unknown group known as Al Ashara, or “The 10,” and are now being held in Al-Juwaydah Prison, south of Amman.

And there’s even more good news:

Jordanian officials say popular anger at perceived US support for Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinians and America’s active role in isolating Iraq has turned to helpless resignation.

The Den Beste Plan appears to be working.

UPDATE: And check this out: the EU President endorses Arafat’s ouster.

MINE’S 187.5.

GRAY DAVIS UPDATE: Matthew Hoy offers a cautionary tale about the corruption generated by “emergency” powers that may have relevance beyond California.

THIS IS AN AMUSING STORY about a legal battle over ownership of a moon rock. But what’s upsetting is that they’re still so valuable. By now, it once seemed, they’d be about as valuable as pieces of the Berlin Wall: sentimentally important, but not rare.

ANDREA HARRIS WEIGHS IN on Stanley Hauerwas, in her usual circumspect way. Play nice, Andrea!

For some more, er, respectful responses, go here and here and here and follow the links.

WORLD CUP INSIGHT: Reader Jonathan Singer writes:

As the World Cup draws to a close, so does the latest round of pundits hectoring Americans to care more about soccer and insisting that we are missing all sorts of crucial information about the world by ignoring the sport. In that spirit, I’d like to share the insight the tournament gave me today.

As I was heading to work in Boston (having gotten up early to watch the game and cheer on Brazil), I got stuck in a traffic jam caused by dozens of Brazilians waving flags and Ronaldo jerseys, honking and cheering. Without exception, all the Americans were honking and cheering along with them. It occurred to me that everyone I’d spoken to who knew about the game was rooting for Brazil. It’s pretty clear who we consider to be “us”.

Admittedly, Brazil is one of the hemisphere’s more likable and attractive countries. But it seems to me the EU would be a little concerned to know how much more our attention is focused south (and west) instead of east. It’s a new millennium, and there’s nobody Belgium can indict that will change that.

Yeah, I was rooting for Brazil, too, but I hadn’t really thought about it that way. I think he’s right.

DO YOU THINK GARY COLEMAN KNOWS that they’re using his name for a gruesome antiabortion site?

YET ANOTHER FIRE started by a government employee who’s supposed to be stopping them. This is getting ridiculous. I think an investigation is in order.

As The Talking Dog puts it: “Throw this in with the arrest in Colorado, and you begin to think that the West would be perfectly safe from these massive fires if it weren’t for these damned firefighters!”

HERE, QUEER AND ARMED: Deroy Murdock reports on the Pink Pistols: apparently, they’re in the Gay Pride Parade!

DR. MICHAEL S. BROWN SAYS the Violence Policy Center is suffering a major decline.

UPDATE: Susanna Cornett says their numbers are dishonest.

AL QAEDA MAY BE DOWN, but this report says that other Islamic terror groups are still turning up in America.

JIM BENNETT has some observations on current business scandals:

One of the principal critiques of alternative theories of the state is that by trying to do many things for which it is not suited, government inevitably neglects the basic tasks for which it is suited.

Indeed, it is worth noting that Enron, WorldCom, and a number of the other firms most noted for massive fraud operated in highly regulated market areas. Regulation, as opposed to enforcement of laws against fraud and misrepresentation, increases the hazard of fraud and misrepresentation, by raising the stakes for political manipulation. Increased disclosure requirements, beyond a reasonable level, actually aid fraud by hiding the significant data in a sea of irrelevant information.

The entrepreneurial market economy is a remarkably self-correcting system, provided that the system is protected against simple fraud. The problem has not been the concept of the watchman state, but the distraction of the watchman.

LOTS OF VENEZUELA NEWS, MOST OF IT DEPRESSING, AT EL SUR. It should be a regular stop if you’re interested in South American news.

CHRISTIAN BLOGGER DAVID ROSS has a long post on Stanley Hauerwas’s antiwar sentiments. And scroll up and follow links for an ongoing discussion he’s having with Telford Work. For that matter, go to Telford Work’s page and scroll down for lots of interesting stuff.

Why am I paying so much attention to this? It’s not as if theology is my usual schtick — in fact, I tend to avoid it as my father’s bailiwick. But the previous antiwar movement came out of this kind of Christianity — and much of America’s antiwar left, even the anti-Christian part, is still motivated by these memes even if it doesn’t understand the source. I think it’s important to challenge and discuss these ideas early on; I’m happy that those more qualified, and interested, than I am are now deep in discussion.

RECORD COMPANIES FOUND GUILTY OF ILLEGAL PRICE-FIXING! Who’d have thought that these companies, who have been so morally rigorous with regard to copying, would engage in illegal activities for their own profit at the same time? Er, besides everyone, that is.

VERY INTERESTING STORY on Afghan prisoner interrogations, via Gary Farber.

FRANCE’S AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES is taking a pounding in the Washington Post’s Letters to the Editor column today. He’s been alienating people a lot lately. I thought it was Americans who were supposed to be alienating everyone with their insensitivity.

OKAY, THIS IS PRETTY LAME even by Maureen Dowd’s recent standards.

I LIKE THIS BIT from the New York Times story on Bush’s colonoscopy:

In Mr. Bush’s case, Dr. Tubb performed a neurological examination, including testing his knowledge of the day and time. In such an examination, doctors also typically ask patients who is the president of the United States, but White House physicians leave that one out.

And I don’t want to go all Katie Couric on you, but if you’ve been putting this off, you should go ahead and get it done. It’s not just diagnostic: it’s preventive, as removing the polyps prevents cancer. Having seen more than one person close to me die of cancer, I promise you — having somebody look up your butt is a small price to pay for avoiding it.