IF YOU’RE A BLOGGER, and you haven’t read this post by Roger Simon on Pajamas Media, then you probably should.

PUT DOWN THAT DOUGHNUT: Guestblogging over at GlennReynolds.com, Tom Maguire looks at fat and longevity.

WITH WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY COMING UP, Austin Bay surveys press freedom in the former Soviet Union, and is less than fully impressed.

BLOGGING FROM THE SPACE ACCESS CONFERENCE, Rand Simberg reports some very interesting news:

What’s different now? We have supportive national policy, including the words “public space travel” in the Space Transportation Policy for the first time in history, with responsibility falling on Secs of Commerce and Transportation to carry that out. We have realistic objectives this time: no technology breakthroughs required, suborbital trajectories with primary emphasis on passengers, using available technologies. We also are seeing non-federal funding become available from numerous wealthy individuals, as well as good support by state and local governments. Prizes are helping as well. The regulatory framework is in place with the Commercial Spacelaunch Amendments Act, which puts Congress and administration on the record as supporting human spaceflight.

FAA has a very ambitious homework assignment to write the regulations for passengers, experimental permits, and license requirements, which will result in a Notification of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in a year or two.

They’re hoping for input from the public, too.

MICHAEL TOTTEN IS DECLARING VICTORY FOR THE CEDAR REVOLUTION: That’s absolutely terrific news. But remember: Democratization is a process, not an event.

AND WITH PLENTY OF TIME BEFORE DINNER: This week’s Carnival of the Recipes is up.

JAMES PINKERTON writes that videogames may be killing the media stars:

Applying Marxist terminology (all those years in lefty schools in the ’70s ought to be put to some good use!) to this situation, we might say that while the economic substrate for videogames is larger than that of movies, videogames’ cultural superstructure is still dwarfed by the flicks’ superstructure. And yet if we are going to be good materialists, we must believe that situation determines consciousness. Or, to put it another way, the media phylum with the greater mode of production will ultimately produce the greater superstructure. Therefore, according to the dialectical laws of history, this anomalous situation will be reconciled, as videogames empower many a flower of the new super-culture.

In the meantime, another interesting question is this: Why has Hollywood proven to be so far behind the cutting edge of entertainment?

I think that the structure of videogames is inherently more positive than movies. In movies the actors are on the screen. In a videogame, the true actor — the one who acts — is the “consumer,” who is also the producer of the entertainment in a very real way. This is something I’ve written about before, and I think it’s significant. Movies encourage passive titillation; videogames encourage active involvement, and often present consequences as well.

And maybe that’s Hollywood’s problem. A culture built around passive titillation isn’t likely to view its audience in ways that facilitate active engagement.

WANT BASKETBALL BLOGGING? Then you’ve come to the wrong blog! But the Carnival of the NBA has loads of posts by people who care about basketball in a way that I, sadly, just don’t.

MICHAEL SILENCE points to this Gallup poll on what Americans would ask President Bush if they had 15 minutes, and observes:

Scroll way down the page and you’ll find moral issues just got a response of 6 percent, and just 1 percent mentioned the courts and judicial system.

The war in Iraq, the economy and Social Security topped the list.

I’m not surprised by that, but some people will be.

ERNEST MILLER DOES SOME INTERVIEWING OF HIS OWN, and explodes a bogus L.A. Times claim about Trekkies and pedophilia.

One suspects that the LAT’s editors would have been more careful had the claim been made regarding other distinct and insular minorities.

JAMES LILEKS IS WRITING ABOUT BRATZ:

The Bratz are now Baby Mommaz. Yes, the hooker-in-training dolls have children. Bratz are the main reason I do not keep a supply of bricks around the house, because everytime the commercials come on I wish to pitch something kiln-fired through the screen so hard it beans the toy exec who greenlighted these hootchie toys. The Baby Bratz are as bad as you can imagine: “Bottles with Bling.”

The Insta-Daughter has emerged from her Bratz phase (some Bratz-blogging from back in the day here and here: “And if you don’t know about the Bratz, well, it just means that you’re in the wrong demographic. Relax, you’re not missing much.”)

The good news is that after Bratz you get The Sims, which teaches a variety of constructive life lessons that Bratz don’t offer.

ANN ALTHOUSE NOTES A SLUMP IN INTEREST for both liberal and conservative talk radio,and puts it down to the boringness of today’s debates:

I’d say people get tired of talking about politics all the time. And — the article doesn’t mention this — the debate about Social Security was mind-numbing! Also, even though I’m especially interested in the topic, the subject of judges, religion, and the filibuster is really tiresome. What are the good topics?

How about the history of the filibuster! I think this has its parallels in the blogosphere, too. Some people wish I were blogging more about politics, but I find Social Security and filibusters boring as well. Sorry. More words of wisdom: “If you satisfy some listeners, you lose others. You can’t please everyone, and putting together an interesting mix is an art.”

And the blogosphere is a place with millions of channels.

THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY is hosting a discussion regarding the constitutionality of the new abortion bill.

CATHY SEIPP HAS THOUGHTS ON HOLLYWOOD and history.

IT’S THE FIRST CARNIVAL OF COMEDY, hosted over at Imao.

BOTH TIGERHAWK and Ankle-Biting Pundits are live-blogging the Bush press conference.

UPDATE: TigerHawk link was busted before; fixed now. Sorry.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The mainstream media, of course, ignored the special blogger press conference segment. But here’s a transcript.

JOHN WALT says that the pro-filibuster protest that I photoblogged yesterday was part of a MoveOn campaign. I can’t say I’m surprised.

MY BROTHER EMAILED that this link makes him very happy. I can see why. Congratulations, bro!

IS CANADA THE NEXT FAILED STATE? Austin Bay ponders.

OOPS:

Sen. Ken Salazar said Wednesday he regrets referring to Focus on the Family and its founder James Dobson as “the Antichrist” – a term among the worst slurs in Christianity.

Salazar issued a statement Wednesday evening, backing down from a remark he made Tuesday night during an audio interview aired on KKTV of Colorado Springs.

If the Republicans are overplaying the religion card, well, so are the Democrats, in a different way. A plague on both of their houses, I say. But only one of the minor ones, like the frogs.

UPDATE: No, not these frogs. Which are toads, anyway.

I’M KIND OF BUSY this afternoon, which means that blogging may be light. But if you’re interested in the future, check out the Carnival of Tomorrow, a collection of futuristic posts. And you can tour the Indian blogosphere at this week’s Blog Mela. India and the future seem to go together anyway, these days.

“CORSET-PIERCING:” Not an urban legend (heck, I knew that, and I don’t stay in close touch with the fetish community these days), but not terribly appealing, either. But there’s this added attraction: “They usually can’t heal properly because they are a surface piercing in an area prone to rejection and they use a type of jewelry that isn’t really suitable for permanent use in the area.”

Whatever turns you on, I always say.

IN THE MAIL: Richard Zacks’ The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805. Looks like an interesting account of one of the more exciting episodes of early American military history.

LEBANON UPDATE: Michael Young is reporting from Beirut:

BEIRUT — It was enlightening, though not surprising, that in the days leading up to the Syrian Army’s pullout from Lebanon, which was completed on Tuesday, a peculiar activity took place. Syrian soldiers removed statues and other effigies of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad and his son Bassel, who was killed in a car crash, fearing the Lebanese would vandalize them and show what a sham the long-vaunted “brotherly relations” between Lebanon and Syria really were.

The Syrian withdrawal, which was imposed by a combination of international pressure and domestic Lebanese protests, ends a 29-year-old military presence. During that time, particularly after the war ended in 1990, Syria ran Lebanon like a protectorate, and was the final decision-maker on everything of consequence in the country, including who would be president, prime minister and Parliament speaker, who would be appointed where in the public administration, even who could be invited to political talk shows — and much else both high and low.

At the same time, Syria extorted vast sums of money from the Lebanese economy, usually in collaboration with local politicians. According to a report written by a Lebanese businessman for a presentation before the French Senate in 2003, Syria may have extracted through illicit activities alone as much as $41 million from Lebanon between 1991 and 2001. While the figures cannot be confirmed, they square with many other estimates circulating in recent years.

Read the whole thing. And don’t miss the Spirit of America Lebanonblog, where Michael Totten is continuously updating from the scene.

TIM RUSSO HAS THOUGHTS on the FEC and blogging.