VANDALISM AND HATE SPEECH at the University of North Carolina.

FISK FISKS FISK: (Via The Corner).

SOME POPULAR MECHANICS PARENTING ADVICE: It sounds good to me.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: “After living in an Arab country for nearly six months, arriving in Israel came like a shock.”

IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, PRAISE FOR THE FLIGHT 93 MOVIE.

At Hot Air, something less than praise for some commentators on the film.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: N.Z. Bear emails that my linkage of the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll below was too coy, and that I should have trumpeted this bit:

Among all Americans, a 39% plurality say the single most important thing for Congress to accomplish this year is curtailing budgetary “earmarks” benefiting only certain constituents.

He’s right — controlling pork is the single highest-priority item identified in the poll, and I should have made more of that. Mark Tapscott summarizes the message to the GOP Congress:

You think the folks back home love those earmarks, right? Guess again, Bunko Boy! And Girl! New NBC survey puts ending earmarks on top public’s priorities!

So how about some action here?

UPDATE: “Pork Awareness Month!” I like it.

Much more on pork-related developments here.

MORE ON OIL over at GlennReynolds.com — though mostly you should just go straight to this piece on “peak oil” theories by Ron Bailey.

And if you missed our podcast on the subject with Lynne Kiesling and Roger Stern, it’s here.

A CONSTITUENTS’ REVOLT against Dianne Feinstein over MP3 streaming?

SWEET JESUS, I HATE BILL O’REILLY: Okay, I don’t usually feel that way. In fact, I seldom think of O’Reilly at all. But I caught a bit of him and Chuck Schumer doing double-team demagoguery on gas prices last night and, well, the sentiment did cross my mind. Can somebody please send him a copy of this book, ASAP?

UPDATE: Evan Coyne Maloney is unhappy with Republican demagoguery on gas prices. Yeah, we expect it from Schumer, but . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: John Hinderaker asks: “Wasn’t there a time when Republicans knew something about economics?”

Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, is just dumb.

REPUBLICANS ARE SAGGING IN THE POLLS: Maybe, in part, it’s because Harry Reid is doing better than Bill Frist in fighting pork?

Here’s the kind of response that’s getting from former GOP supporters: “Okay, real conservatives, Republicans, and libertarians, stay home. Just…stay home in 2006. Or – what the hell – vote for a Democrat. We have to wake up the Stupid Party, before it completely merges itself into the Republicrat Statist Party.”

I think that a GOP disaster is now officially looming.

TOM MAGUIRE has lots of new stuff. Just keep scrolling.

ANOTHER U.N. SCANDAL:

Amid the many scandals at the United Nations, a new mystery now looms. What happened to the world organization’s unique and valuable postal archive — in effect, the U.N.’s own stamp collection, one of the crown jewels of its past and a popular point of contact with the global public? . . .

The postal archive sale may be yet another instance of what Paul Volcker’s investigation into the Oil-for-Food scandal described as “systemic problems in United Nations’ administration,” involving lack of accountability, oversight, or even basic clarity in the organization’s activities. Despite the historic importance of the postal archive, senior U.N. officials contacted by FOX News professed to know nothing about it — including some in departments specifically charged with approving or blocking the dispersion of U.N. historical material.

Can’t say I’m surprised.

MICKEY KAUS is saying “I told you so.” He did!

JONAH GOLDBERG: Let the Iraqis vote on whether we should stay in Iraq.

UPDATE: Jonah defends his idea on Blogging Heads TV.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Here’s an interesting report:

Senators Frist, McConnell, and Sessions just finished assembling over 34 Senate signatures on a letter backing the veto threat the President laid out yesterday on the groaning Senate supplemental. This plan—have the President say he will veto a fat bill, and have the Senate leadership deliver fiscal conservatives to that cause—should serve as a rallying point for those who have been horrified at the spending spree underway in Congress, for which the House, Senate, and White House all share responsibility. It’s time to rally to the fiscal conservative flag, and the sooner our friends in the conservative community know that there is a majority in the Senate worth listening too when it comes to spending matters, the sooner people can realize what the stakes really are in November.

I think that this should be a bipartisan issue — but it’s certainly true that Republicans have the most at stake in getting this under control at the moment, since they’re in charge.

NEWSBUSTERS has a massive Tony Snow roundup. Meanwhile James Taranto looks at some reports of previous Bush criticisms from Snow and comments: “Snow’s appointment suggests that President Bush is not afraid of constructive criticism.”

I tend to think of stories like this as mostly insider stuff. But I remember reading in Liberty magazine, back when Clinton appointed Mike McCurry as Press Secretary, that it was going to turn around Clinton’s fortunes with the press. And it kind of did. So who knows?

THE PICTURE OF HEALTH: Virginia Postrel reports that Sally Satel is doing well after their kidney donation.

THE HOUSE JUST PASSED A BILL ON CELL PHONE PRIVACY that was inspired by blogger John Aravosis.

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM: “Rather may blog after leaving CBS.”

UPDATE: Reader Doug Hart emails that we need a Dan-Rather-in-Pajamas photoshop contest.

I’M NOT SURE, but I think we may be reaching more people with our podcasts than Air America is reaching with its broadcasts. And our cost per listener is definitely lower!

UPDATE: Yes, my book is selling a lot better than Drudge says that Kos’s book is selling. But I don’t know whether to put any credence in those numbers or not. I haven’t read all of Crashing the Gate, but I thought what I read was pretty good, and given his audience and exposure I’d be surprised if the Drudge numbers were right.

MORE ON MOLLOHAN: Over at Hot Air.

IN THE MAIL: Joe Klein’s Politics Lost : How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You’re Stupid. They sure seem to, and I think it accounts for the mixture of apathy and contempt with which people view politics now — and for falling newspaper and TV circulations.

L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP: “After forty, it’s just patch, patch, patch.” Michael Silence is living that phrase.

WRITING IN FORBES, NICK SCHULZ notes something I’ve been wondering about — if high gas prices are hurting consumers as much as news accounts say, how come consumers aren’t changing their behavior?

But what’s more interesting about these stories is what they don’t tell you. For example, the Associated Press reports that “surveys indicate drivers won’t be easing off on their mileage, using even more gas than a year ago.” Now why is that? If prices are rising, one would expect consumers would use less.

The answer might be in some of the long-term trends that the short-term media lens is too cramped to see. Energy prices may be rising, but energy itself is much less important to consumers and to the overall economy than it once was.

According to the Bureau of Economic Affairs ( see chart here), American consumer spending on energy as a fraction of total personal consumption has declined considerably since 1980. Whereas 25 years ago, one in every ten consumer dollars was spent on energy, today it’s one in every 16. In other words, what it takes to heat and cool our homes and drive to and from our jobs and vacation destinations is relatively less costly than it was then.

This goes a long way toward explaining why even when gas prices rise this summer–higher than they were throughout the 1990s–people will still be driving more; it’s much more of a value than it was a generation ago.

Heck, as I’ve mentioned before, people don’t even seem to be slowing down on the Interstate. Go less than 85 in the left lane and you’ll find some soccer mom in a Honda Odyssey flashing her lights behind you.

UPDATE: Check out this gas price chart that shows adjustments for inflation. (I’ve mentioned this before.)