NOW IT’S N.Z. BEAR who’s using his blog to seek new employment opportunities. He’s also got an interesting theory as to why the recently released Al Qaeda tapes mean that Osama bin Laden is dead.

WHEN LIFE IS TOO WEIRD EVEN FOR THE ONION: As the saying has it: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” These guys are pros.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HAS PLUNGED IN THE RANKINGS. I blame budget cuts and the lack of an income tax.

HESIOD THEOGENY has found an interesting item about Abu Nidal’s death: he was reportedly working with anti-Saddam forces at the time he was killed.

MALE PROCREATIVE AUTONOMY: Howard Bashman has more bad news for men. Take it away, Richard, Diane, and Meryl!

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, I’ve put up an article that I wrote with Rob Merges (who teaches I.P. at the U.C. Berkeley law school) on the constitutional limits to Congress’s power to create intellectual property rights. You can read it here if you’re so inclined. There have been lengthier treatments of this subject published since, but this one has the advantage of being (1) earlier; and (2) shorter. You’ll probably find advantage (2) more significant.

CAPITALISTS FOR FREEDOM: Here’s an item in opposition to Joe Biden’s dumb “RAVE Act,” from a source that some ravers might not expect.

HERE’S AN INTERNET PROVIDER THAT HAS BANNED THE RIAA FROM ITS NETWORK in response to RIAA threats to hack the computers of file-sharers:

Earlier this year, the RIAA announced its new plan to access computers without owner’s consent for the sake of protecting its assets. Information Wave believes this policy puts its customers at risk of unintentional damage, corporate espionage, and invasion of privacy to say the least.

Bravo.

RADLEY BALKO writes that fat people should be suing the U.S. government, not McDonald’s, for making them fat.

It’s a good article, with lots of links. I remember some years ago seeing someone compare the food pyramid with the dietary guidelines for cattle feedlots (which are designed to pack on the fat, of course), and finding them almost identical. Moo.

By ignoring the starch-to-sugar science, the USDA could continue recommending that Americans eat lots of grain. That kept the corn and wheat farmers happy. By downplaying sugar’s effect on metabolism, Americans would continue their low-fat obsession, consuming snacks and soft drinks largely sweetened with corn syrup. That kept the sugar farmers happy, and the corn farmers even happier. And all of this allowed NIH scientists to avoid admitting that their long-held low-fat prejudice might have been wrong. That kept the bureaucrats happy.

Everybody wins. Except the people who took their own government’s advice, and wound up with bulging bellies, belabored hearts, and a case of diabetes.

Sounds worse than anything McDonald’s is accused of. But when the government does things out of corrupt self-interest, it somehow gets a pass that the corporate sector doesn’t. Why is that?

RAND SIMBERG has an intriguing report on a split within the administration concerning invasion plans. This is a story I haven’t seen reported elsewhere.

PAUL PALUBICKI SAID IT IN JULY. The Village Voice is saying it in August.

Advantage: Palubicki!

TERRIBLE WESTERN VALUES: A devastating comparison.

MCKINNEY UPDATE: Reid Stott is reporting that the Justice Department apparently is looking into possible voter intimidation by the McKinney campaign. And then there’s this:

11Alive made a point of re-running the footage where Billy McKinney responds to a question about his daughter’s “fudging” of Andrew Young’s endorsement: “That ain’t nothin’. Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J-E-W-S.”

Nice family. No wonder she’s so popular with the Saudis.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s another report on the voter-intimidation story, and here’s one from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

SLATE’S MARK JENKINS writes that the music industry’s problems don’t come from copying, but from the fact that the people running it just aren’t very good at what they do. There’s more support for that proposition elsewhere in Slate, in James Surowiecki’s review of the new Wilco movie.

Too bad that nobody at the FCC is paying attention.

IS ANNA NICOLE SMITH SMARTER THAN NOAM CHOMSKY? Well, here’s some evidence for that proposition, from Norwegian blogger Vegard Valberg.

AZIZ POONAWALLA doesn’t like labels, whether “neocon” or “transnational progressives.”

I suppose that “Tranzi” is even worse.

HOUSTON POLICE SCREWUP: According to The Comedian, Houston Police planned a massive crackdown on drag racers. Unfortunately, when they got the troops together, there was no drag racing going on. So they just arrested everyone in sight on general principles. 278 people were arrested for the crime of being in the wrong place, doing nothing in particular.

The guy in charge should be fired. Think he will be?

JAY AMBROSE says he’s worried we’re heading for a Howard Hughes homeland security plan:

Howard Hughes, you may recall, was the billionaire movie-producer-businessman-aviator whose paranoia about germs eventually ushered him into a reclusive life as ultra-sanitized as his money could buy. Instead of cheating death, he probably hastened it, and in the meanwhile cheated himself out of the kind of full, active, interesting existence disallowed by the excessive precautions of outsized fear.

We could do much the same thing to this society of ours if we delude ourselves into thinking that we can be perfectly safe if we work hard enough at it – if we spend enough money, expand the government sufficiently, put up enough inconveniencing roadblocks of various kinds, curb enough freedoms, look under enough stones.

It’s a fraud, this frame of mind, and it won’t deliver.

He’s right. Fortunately, more and more Americans — encouraged by the tweezer-confiscating air security example — are waking up to this reality.

“DISSIDENTS OCCUPY IRAQI EMBASSY IN BERLIN” — If they blew the place up with everyone in it, would the press call them “militants?”

MCKINNEY UPDATE: I just heard Neal Boortz play a taped recording that has been telephoned to Republican voters in Cynthia McKinney’s district. The recording says that it’s an “official message,” and that voters could be arrested for “voting in a Democratic primary without proper identification.”

This is technically true, but the only ID you need to vote in Georgia is a Voter ID card. The ad gives the impression that it’s illegal for Republicans to vote in a Democratic primary.

I hope that the Justice Department will investigate this ham-handed attempt at voter intimidation.

UPDATE: Boortz is now announcing that the Georgia Secretary of State’s office is investigating. No word about the Department of Justice.

Visit Reid Stott’s page for updates as the day goes on.

AN ENGLISH VERSION OF ORIANA FALLACI’S BOOK on Islamic extremism, The Rage and the Pride, will be released next week. You can preorder it now.

RICHARD DREYFUSS writes an actor’s tribute to Charlton Heston:

Is so and so a great actor? A good actor? A bad actor? Speaking as an expert it’s a stupid question. The actor either gets you to where you have to go, or not. Heston did; priceless. He could portray greatness, which is no longer an artistic goal; he could portray a grandeur that was so satisfying. What he was able to personify so perfectly for us was a vision of ourselves called heroic. Is this out of favor? Out of step? Antique? Yes, antique as in gorgeous, incredibly valuable, and not produced anymore but this is a critique of the world, not him (hopefully we will one day come back to all that). . . .

It has become fashionable to characterize his politics; almost as if his politics were a separate thing, like Diana’s popularity. People are either defensive or patronizing (if not contemptuous). I can only say I wish all the liberals and all the conservatives I knew had the class and forbearance he has. Would I be as patient or serene when so many had showed me such contempt, or tried to make me feel stupid or small? I doubt it, truly I do. This is dignity, simply and completely. A much more important quality than political passion at the end of the day, and far more lacking, don’t you think?

Read the whole thing. Then send a copy to Juan Andrade.

IT’S AN IRAQ ROUNDUP OVER AT WINDSOFCHANGE.NET. Lots of useful information and links about troop movements, etc. And we’re promised a report soon from a WindsOfChange correspondent in the Sudan.

TODAY IS THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY of the cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and the Sudan. Justin Weitz has some thoughts.

HOLY SH*T, CONT’D: Just checked the stats on the Lindgren Bellesiles piece, which has now been downloaded an amazing 40,351 times. Unfortunately, I can’t break down referrers to figure out where the people who are downloading that particular item are coming from, but I’m sure that this link must have spread to various chatboards, etc.

In light of these figures, it’s probably silly for me to plug the piece any more. But the last 16 pages of the review provide a catalog of errors in the book–with the book’s claims juxtaposed with the evidence Bellesiles cited for those claims. For those who want to decide for themselves whether the errors in Arming America are likely to be the result of simple carelessness, it’s good to have the actual text of relevant portions of the original sources reprinted to compare them with the passages in Arming America discussing those sources.

Since Emory should be announcing what it plans to do about Bellesiles any day now, this may be of particular interest at the moment.

UPDATE: I think I’ve mentioned this before, but photocopies of many of the original sources can be found here and here. Oh, and I should mention that these were put together by Clayton Cramer, not Lindgren. Cramer was one of the first to notice and publicize the problems with Bellesiles’ work, and was treated rather disrespectfully by some academic historians since he has only a Master’s degree. I believe, however, that he is getting a bit more respect now.