THE MINUTEMAN has an amusing roundup of goings-on around the blogosphere.

EMILY JONES IS RESPONDING TO CRITICS of, well, all sorts. Start here and scroll up.

IN LESS THAN A WEEK, it will be the 20th anniversary of the smiley-face emoticon by Scott Fahlman of Carnegie-Mellon University. Observe it appropriately. I wonder when the Homer Simpson emoticon was invented? ( 8(|)

IF MY BLOG WERE ENTITLED “NO WATERMELONS,” I probably wouldn’t have written about this particular subject.

ANOTHER SUPERHERO ADVENTURE ends badly.

HOW STEVEN DEN BESTE BECAME JASON KOTTKE. And his eventual plan for global domination.

THE COMEDIAN reports on his own personal role in blocking the spread of nuclear weapons technology.

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH wants to start a new charity. He calls it “Adopt-a-Bomb.”

DAVE WEIGEL writes that Robert Scheer can’t. Or doesn’t. At least, not well.

JIM CHRISTIANSEN emails this response to Nick Kristof’s column (mentioned earlier today):

Nicholas Kristof’s what’s-the-urgency? column reminds me of these lines from Tom Lehrer’s 1960s song on nuclear proliferation, “Who’s Next?”:

“Then China got the bomb, but have no fears, They can’t wipe us out for at least five years.”

For Lehrer, this was satire. For Kristof, it’s a policy argument.

As for the analogy to the Cuban missile crisis: The difference between Saddam now and Khrushchev in 1962? Khrushchev remembered the twenty-five million dead from World War II. Saddam models himself on the guy who inflicted them.

Well said.

NEWSWEEK displays just how conventional its conventional wisdom is, says Sam Welden.

SCIENCE HAS ENSURED that there will be no more Osamas in future generations.

THE MIND OF A TERRORIST: Some deep insight here.

Hmm. I’m a Presbyterian, and I do own a machete. . . .

A SHOCKING REPORT FROM DAVE HILL. Can this be true?

OH, CANADA: Reader James McKenzie-Smith sends this quote from a Canadian sniper in Afghanistan about his record long-distance kill as proof that not all Canadians are like Chretien:

When he hit his first target, an enemy gunman at a distance of 1,700 metres, he said all that ran through his mind was locating his next target.

“All I thought of was Sept. 11th and all those people who didn’t have a chance and the American reporter who was taken hostage, murdered and his wife getting the videotape of the execution; that is my justification.”

More Canadians like that, please, and fewer like Chretien.

I JUST ran across this post from Razib K responding to Nelson Mandela’s silly black/white comments on Iraq. Check out the pictures.

IN SAN FRANCISCO, some “activists” are vandalizing cars with American flags. Some are responding by threatening to give them the Aldrin treatment. In fact, if you scroll down through the comments, you’ll find that at least one burly Canadian has done so.

UPDATE: Someone has added the goatse.cx photo to the comments on the Indymedia page, so scroll at your own risk.

SINCE I NEVER READ BEN SHAPIRO, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this “full frontal Fisking,” but it’s found favor with other bloggers who do read Shapiro.

UPDATE: Here’s Corsair’s take on the subject. Well, this certainly disproves the theory that only lefties get Fisked by the warbloggers.

HOW TO ADOPT THE CORRECT MORAL STANCE in arguing against the war: a guide by N.Z. Bear. Very amusing, but the conclusion is not just amusing, but important.

DAVID BATTISTUZZI is one of the protesters who shut down Benjamin Netanyahu’s Concordia University speech. He’s quoted in news stories as saying “there’s no free speech for hate speech.” Turns out he’s a serial protester with a variety of lame causes. Pundit Tree has the scoop. While this is interesting on its own, its also a glimpse into a subculture of vicious stupidity that’s worth looking at.

FLIT, which has owned this story from day one, has a lot of stuff on the Afghanistan bombing investigation and the decision to prosecute the two U.S. pilots who accidentally bombed Canadian troops. Start at the above link and scroll up.

I HAVEN’T WRITTEN ABOUT FLORIDA, EITHER for the same reason. All I have to say is “what the hell is wrong with those people?”

To be fair, it’s not really Florida. Just two counties in Florida that, well, just seem utterly inept. I forget which weblog asked why they couldn’t just get different-colored rocks and drop them in a basket, but I agree — though I’m beginning to wonder if they wouldn’t experience a basket shortage, or something, and screw that up too.

WHY HAVEN’T I WRITTEN about Warren Zevon? Because I don’t have anything to say, really, besides “that sucks.” Jim Henley on the other hand, does more than that. But it still sucks.

THE NEW YORK SUN announces that it has 20,000 readers. Congratulations, guys — at this rate, one day soon you’ll have as many as InstaPundit!

Actually, I hope the Sun has ten times that many. I think that it’s nice that they’re putting content online, and they’re providing some new breadth to the New York media world. A new daily paper is a great thing, and the Sun is a good, soon to be a great, paper. I hope L.A. gets one next.

And, if you’re wondering, I did finally get the check from them last week.

EUGENE VOLOKH points to a piece contrasting media treatment of Clarence Thomas and Cornel West as evidence of liberal bias.