NOW YOU’RE GETTING NASTY: Troublesome similarities between Congress and the Knox County Commission. The only question is, nasty to whom? . . .

A HOMEBREW HELICOPTER IN NIGERIA: “The chopper, which has flown briefly on six occasions, is made from scrap aluminium that Abdullahi bought with the money he makes from computer and mobile phone repairs, and a donation from his father, who teaches at Kano’s Bayero university. It is powered by a second-hand 133 horsepower Honda Civic car engine and kitted out with seats from an old Toyota saloon car. Its other parts come from the carcass of a Boeing 747 which crashed near Kano some years ago.”

My brother lived in Kano for a while. He and this guy would have gotten along well.

NO EXPERIMENT IS A FAILURE IF YOU LEARN SOMETHING, so my experiment with the Fre alcohol-free Merlot can’t be considered a failure. On the other hand, the wine was dreadful.

According to this description, “This soft, fruity red possesses the cherry-like fruitiness and smooth texture characteristic of the Merlot variety. . . . The result is a fruity, delicious beverage with the characteristic aromas and flavours of premium wine, yet with under 0.3% alcohol and fewer than half the calories.” Er, no. The closest thing I can compare it to is the (decidedly not alcohol-free) Night Train Express, not regarded as a premium wine anywhere, even outside of bus terminals. And a way to get even fewer calories is to just not drink it.

Oh, well, it cost $6.99 and as I told the Insta-Wife, “at the very least, I’ll get a blog post out of it.” And the very least it was!

AL QAEDA’S BIO WEAPONS:

Al Qaeda had progressed much further toward developing a particular biological weapon before the Sept. 11 attacks than the United States realized, the presidential commission investigating intelligence on weapons of mass destruction found.

The intelligence community was surprised by al Qaeda’s advances in a virulent strain in the disease, identified by the commission only as “Agent X” to prevent al Qaeda from knowing what the U.S. government has learned.

The discovery of al Qaeda’s work came only after the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan removed the Taliban from power, the report says.

“Al Qaeda’s biological program was further along, particularly with regard to Agent X, than pre-war intelligence indicated,” the report says. “The program was extensive, well-organized, and operated for two years before September 11, but intelligence insights into the program were limited.”

Another dropped ball from the intelligence community.

HEH:

“Violence in Iraq has dropped by 70 percent since the end of June, when U.S. forces completed their build-up of 30,000 extra troops…”

According to the Iraq Interior Ministry.

And bin Laden pipes up and tells his people they’ve been “lax.”

When they haven’t been dead. More on Osama’s problems here.

OF STRAW DONORS AND straw men.

KITCHEN ADVICE BLEG: Reader Rob Long emails:

Oh-sage-of-all-cooking-gadgets: Searched the archives, but didn’t find any “pressure cooker” posts – might you have any pressure cooker thoughts/experience?

Happened upon a pressure-cooker segment on one of the shopping channels over the weekend (alas, my UW Huskies lost another blowout)… thought I might try my hand – thinking a plugin/electric, low maintenance, slow-cooker-easy model. Any experience?

Nope. I’ve never used one. But I’ll bet some readers have advice. Anybody out there got any recommendations?

LOTS OF LINKS AND RESOURCES on the Southern California fires.

ADVICE ON UNIVERSAL REMOTE CONTROLS: I tried several about five years ago and they all sucked like bilge pumps. I wouldn’t be surprised to find they’ve improved a lot, but I haven’t been motivated to try again.

UPDATE: Stephen Green emails:

We tried a middle-of-the-line model from Harmony, because their whole line gets good reviews. And it still sucked. Bad ergonomics, lousy software, and keeping it synced with what units were on or off was impossible. Even for people paying close attention. We took out the batteries and gave it to the baby.

I’d rather use four remotes that work than one that doesn’t.

Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Green’s Vodkapundit co-blogger Will Collier emails:

Might as well offer my $0.02 on this one since Martini Boy has weighed in… I picked up a Logitech Harmony 880 when I revamped (read: bought lots and lots of gear) my system two years ago, and it’s been excellent. The web-based setup software was not great when the 880 was new (it’s better now, although still not exactly as easy as iTunes), but once you do get the thing tweaked–which takes about an hour–it’s bulletproof, and more-or-less wife-friendly. I’ve been very happy with mine, much moreso than a brother-in-law who got the newer, more expensive Harmony 1000 touchscreen version that apparently isn’t ready for prime time (he returned it). I’d say 99% of the time the 880 is the only remote I need–but I still keep all the others in a convenient drawer.

Sooner or later I’ll buy another one of these, but I think it’ll be later.

MORE BATTLESPACE PREPARATION EFFORTS from the MediaMatters crowd. So far it hasn’t been working very well for them, but they haven’t quit trying.

HAPPY Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

UPDATE: Don’t miss this piece from Christopher Hitchens.

ERIC SCHEIE: “I think that the general public is fatigued to the point of being burned out. While this is often thought of as war fatigue, unfortunately it takes the form of information fatigue. People just don’t want to hear any more. Part of the reason is because they have already heard too much, and they are tired of being scolded in a partisan manner if they so much as utter a war related thought. . . . However, I do watch mainstream media reports pretty closely, and what I have noticed is that at the same time the situation in Iraq improved, mainstream news reports seemed to dwindle in a direct relationship to the improvement. To me, that’s a clue. But to others (especially the more “normal” people who rely on news accounts) no news is not seen as evidence of good news, but just a relief from news. Unfortunately, all they remember is the steady drip drip drip of bad news from Iraq. Without any news, they’re probably just hoping that the channel has been changed.”

Well, there’s always t-shirt blogging.

GREG MANKIW ON the increasing cost of government. It keeps getting more expensive — but it isn’t getting, you know, better.

THOUGHTS ON TRUTH, LOYALTY, AND JOURNALISM.

JOHN BADEN OFFERS A diagnosis of corporate pathologies.

AT BLOGOMETER, a big roundup of reactions to last night’s debate.

IS TOYOTA GOING BACKWARD ON SAFETY?

Our pick for safest hybrid in 2007 was, for passenger cars, the Toyota Camry and, for SUVs, the Toyota Highlander. In 2008, it looks like the safest hybrids for the passenger and SUV classes will be from GM, not Toyota. It’s not even a close call in the SUV class.

Ouch.

BRUCE HENDERSON IS photoblogging the San Diego fires. Pretty eerie-looking stuff.

THE “HOT DOZEN:” A list of the top 12 toys for this holiday season. I’m a bit underwhelmed, though I do like the Fisher-Price Smart Cycle, where the kid has to keep pedaling an exercise bike to keep the game going on the TV. . . .

JOHN FUND: Louisiana elects a reform governor. What’s next? A nonwhite reform governor, to boot.

YEAH, YOU’D THINK THIS DEAL WOULD BE A BARGAIN in a time of falling news budgets.

MICHAEL TOTTEN is heading back to Iraq. “’I’m out of fresh material from Iraq, so I’ll be heading back in a few weeks to get more. This time I plan to visit in Fallujah. I’ll spend more time there than I did in either Baghdad or Ramadi, and I’ll embed with the Marines instead of the Army.”

He’s supported by reader donations, like Michael Yon. If you like his work, consider donating.

HMM: “A judge declared a mistrial Monday for four former leaders of a Muslim charity accused of funding terrorism, after chaos broke out in the court when three jurors disputed some verdicts that had been announced. . . . The outcome came about an hour after a confusing scene in the courtroom, in which three former leaders of the group were initially found not guilty of most counts involving funneling money to terrorists. But when jurors were polled, three jurors said those verdicts were read incorrectly.”

UPDATE: LawHawk has much more.

ANOTHER UPDATE: And still more, here.