STOPPING CRIME THE OLD FASHIONED WAY: Man Kills Second Burglar at His Business in Less Than a Month.

TIM BLAIR: “It’s called dissent, pal, and for your information it happens to be the greatest form of patriotism.”

HAS SUBPRIME LENDER AMERIQUEST’S ROLE IN MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS suddenly become unmentionable?

MICKEY KAUS on “Blue Murder.”

PAUL MARKS: “Someone please explain the election in Australia to me.”

BOB OWENS: “I value the writers’ service and their opinions as soldiers who have served in Iraq, but wouldn’t this editorial have meant more if the Washington Post had managed to find soldiers to write it who had actually been in in Iraq in the last year?” Yeah, things change fast. In 2006, Anbar was written off.

Just remember, Michael Yon is in Iraq right now. Why doesn’t the Post ask him for an oped? Drop me a line, Post editors, if you’re having trouble reaching him. I’ll give you his satellite phone number.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here, including this: “Petraeus’ erstwhile counter-insurgency advisor, Australian LTC David Kilcullen, said an interesting thing recently. When you served in Iraq tends to color how you view Iraq.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Murdoc is suspicious.

MORE: From Iraq, Greyhawk writes: “We’ve won the war.”

Well, that’s a relief, though some will find it disturbing.

STILL MORE: Michael Yon emails:

It’s amazing that a dozen ex-captains who apparently served in Iraq — only one of them recently — are so out of touch with the situation.

They’ve shamefully added their names to what amounts to a petition published in the Washington Post. Big questions: Who actually authored this Op-ed? How did these dozen captains get their names tied to it?

If people like Bob Owens and the “Army of Davids” get interested in this, we’ll likely get some answers.

Would be very interesting to know what specifically each of these captains did in Iraq, how they were viewed by their peers, and what they are doing today. Did they come up with the idea for this article themselves, or did someone write it, perhaps, then round up a posse of disgruntled ex-officers who would put their name to it?

It would be interesting to know the backstory.

THOUGHTS ON POT PIE RECALLS: “I love the way these recalls strip the mask off the store-branded fiction. It turns out one or two companies make everything.”

MICHAEL YON ON CNN. Give ’em some credit for having him.

IT’S NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, at JibJab. And you can join the zombie hordes!

A LOOK AT the next Nobel Peace Prize.

I DON’T LIKE TRAFFIC CAMERAS, but here’s an approach to slowing down speeders that I could get behind. (Link is worksafe, but the video there not so much.)

UPDATE: A different approach in Australia.

“WHERE DO THEY GET THESE PEOPLE?”

I’m guessing, at The Olive Garden.

AT OP-FOR, a report from Afghanistan.

NO MORE “HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD:” First Baby Boomer Files for Social Security Benefits.

BROKEN TRUST: Problems for Microsoft with its Windows Update debacle.

HILLARY CLINTON: Tapping phones and planning violence against Iran?

It’ll be like President Cheney, only with hair!

THIS SOUNDS LIKE GOOD NEWS: “Iraqi Police thwart al Qaeda suicide car bomb attack in Samarra.”

THOUGHTS ON PRUDERY, GRACE, FREE LOVE, AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF SEX:

Among the anti arguments, this is surely one of the most pernicious: the idea that sex is not a pure gift (“free”), but a commodity—something with a price. But what I find more troubling—especially when one considers that the quote comes from a Lutheran minister—is the theological implication. The definition of grace includes the concept of “free,” because grace cannot be bought. Theologically, therefore, the notion that something that is free must be valueless is dead wrong; and I would add that, in my view, the notion is equally wrong when it is transferred to the sphere of sexuality, because that is an intimate sphere where human beings are closest to God.

Sexuality that is not free is traditionally known as prostitution. It’s odd that some of those who purport to value love and marriage the most see things in these terms.

DEFINING NON-VIOLENT.

LCD MONITORS SO DURABLE that you can cut sushi on them.

Well, that’s a new test.