HMM: “In a potential matchup with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Giuliani wins 50-43 percent. Republicans Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney also beat her, although their wins are within the margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.” I wouldn’t make too much of this Florida poll.

ERIC SCHEIE: “Anyway, ‘GOD HATES SEX’ seems to be an apparent area of agreement between those waging war against sex, and those waging war against God.” I’m pretty sure that both groups are wrong.

GUNS AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT: Since we may be hearing something on the subject soon from the Supreme Court, here’s a link to my Guns and Gay Sex: Some Notes on Firearms, the Second Amendment, and “Reasonable Regulation,” which I put up yesterday.

If you’re interested in the subject generally, there’s a survey of the topic in A Critical Guide to the Second Amendment, and a look at the practical consequences of taking a “states’ rights” interpretation of the Second Amendment in The Second Amendment and States’ Rights: A Thought Experiment. And, perhaps a bit further afield — or perhaps not — It Takes a Militia: A Communitarian Case for Compulsory Arms Bearing. Plus, a piece on the Miller case. And there’s always this New York Times column from last year, A Rifle in Every Pot.

Lots more Second Amendment information can be found at the Second Amendment Law Libary. In particular, I recommend this short piece by William Van Alstyne. (Bumped to top).

NEW YORK TIMES: “In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army.”

Noting the sudden, er, surge of good-news stories from Iraq, reader C.J. Burch emails: “I think some media big wigs are getting nervous about their legacy.”

UPDATE: Or maybe not. Page 14?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Of course we support the troops. We’ve always supported the troops!

THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT: Internet autoimmune disorders, or if you prefer, Internet brownouts.

A QUIET CLEANUP? Bob Owens reports that TNR seems to have canned its chief fact-checker.

CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE.

BLOGGER HELPED NAB BILAL HUSSEIN? I wonder if Hussein will turn out to be the next — or maybe I should say the latest — Pham Xuan An?

But hey, there’s a tradition here.

UPDATE: A debate about the role of journalists in a war zone? Yeah, let’s have that . . . .

MORE COMPLAINTS ABOUT The Economist. It does seem to have gone downhill lately. In The Economist’s defense, though, a commenter offers this article.

UH OH: Sikhs Seethe Over a Snub by Clintons. You don’t want the Sikhs mad at you.

WHY WE HAVE A FIRST AMENDMENT — and why Britain’s authorities are somewhere between risible and contemptible. “Over in the UK, the generally left-leaning Channel 4 broadcast a program called Undercover Mosque, which included footage of a British mosque’s preachers spewing hatred against women, gays and the west in general. Viewers complained to West Midlands Police. The police decided to investigate not the preachers, but the program-makers. Failing to find any evidence of criminal behavior by the network, they quite bizarrely referred the program to the broadcast regulator.”

REMEMBERING Mr. Whipple.

UPDATE: From the comments: “‘The kind of pictures they’re making today, I’ll stick with toilet paper,’ he told The Associated Press in 1985.” And it’s only gotten worse . . . .

GIULIANI TO AMERICA: Get real.

HERE’S MUCH MORE on the Amazon Kindle e-reader. I’m going to try to get my hands on one; if I can, I’ll give you a report.

UPDATE: Hey, I’m a featured blogger — scroll down at the link above. So why didn’t they send me one? Heck, I didn’t even get a PR email from Amazon.

MY EARLIER POST ABOUT BEOWULF led Col. Douglas Mortimer to email: “Look, Stupid, a post talking about a ‘trainer’ at your gym is useless without a pic of her to go along with it. OK?”

Alas, I don’t have any pictures of her. But here’s the blog of another trainer from my gym, Jessica Paxson, though I think she’s left my gym recently to work for the Big Orange Army and to pursue a professional bodybuilding career. She was on the cover of Muscle and Fitness last month.

TRYING TO FREE PRISONERS wrongly convicted with bogus scientific evidence.

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH about Iraq.

REPORTS: ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER BILAL HUSSEIN will be charged with terrorism. More here.

61 COLUMBIA PROFESSORS dissent from the statement of 70 Columbia professors on Lee Bollinger and Ahmadinejad.

WAPO: GOOD NEWS FOR BUSH, everywhere but in the polls:

The war in Iraq seems to have taken a turn for the better and the opposition at home has failed in all efforts to impose its own strategy. North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program. The budget deficit is falling. A new attorney general has been confirmed despite objections from the left.

I’m going to be bold and predict he won’t be reelected in ’08.

THE JOYS OF THE Ford Fairmont.

CNN AND the politics of question-planting. Wolf Blitzer’s reputation has really taken a hit over this, and rightly so.

UPDATE: More here.

IT’S NATIONAL AMMO DAY, just in case you’re short on rounds.

HILLARY GOES AFTER OBAMA ON “EXPERIENCE:” Well, it’s true. He’s never been First Lady.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES battle for the law professor vote. Because that’s crucial!