SCOTT ADAMS: What’s your “permanent age”? I think I’m 32.

Of course, from some people it’s always fifth grade.

POLITICAL PROFILING AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT? Or statistical illiteracy on the part of those making the claim?

1000 WORDS: Part of it’s the pixelation, but it looks a bit like a romantic painting.

COOKWARE UPDATE: Yesterday’s nonstick post led to numerous reader emails recommending seasoned cast iron as durable nonstick cookware. Typical was this one from reader Craig Forrest, who’s a big fan of Lodge Logic cookware — hey, it’s made in Tennessee, so I can’t complain — and writes:

If you want good, long-lasting nonstick cookware, you can’t beat traditional cast-iron cookware. Cheaper than modern non-stick stuff, and you can’t make anything stick to it once it is fully seasoned.

Lodge is what I buy: http://www.lodgemfg.com

You can usually get it cheap at Wal-Mart or on Amazon; I recently purchased my wife this 7-quart enamel Dutch Oven that is beautiful as well as easy to clean.

That’s good stuff, and I had a nice Lodge Logic skillet for a while. It was cheap, and nonstick. However, a few trips through the dishwasher — and as I’ve mentioned before, in my house everything winds up in the dishwasher eventually, despite my best efforts — and it wasn’t seasoned anymore. Others who have more control over their kitchens may want to give the cast-iron stuff a try. It’s cheap, and good.

MORE CELEBRITY GLOBAL WARMING HYPOCRISY:

His serious aviation habit means he is hardly the best person to lecture others on the environment. But John Travolta went ahead and did it anyway.

The 53-year-old actor, a passionate pilot, encouraged his fans to “do their bit” to tackle global warming. . . .

Clocking up at least 30,000 flying miles in the past 12 months means he has produced an estimated 800 tons of carbon emissions – nearly 100 times the average Briton’s tally.

Travolta made his comments this week at the British premiere of his movie, Wild Hogs.

He spoke of the importance of helping the environment by using “alternative methods of fuel” – after driving down the red carpet on a Harley Davidson. . . . Travolta’s five private planes – a customised £2million Boeing 707, three Gulfstream jets and a Lear jet – are kept at the bottom of his garden in the US next to a private runway.

Don’t miss the accompanying photo.

A WHIFF OF GUNPOWDER: Roll Call has an article on gun lobbying. It’s subscription only, but here’s a key bit:

Any lingering doubt about the gun lobby’s continued juice under Democratic rule was laid to rest Thursday. House Republicans, maneuvering to derail a bill to grant Congressional voting rights to the District of Columbia, inserted a provision in their alternative measure that would dramatically scale back the city’s gun restrictions.

But nervous that conservative members of their Caucus who favor gun rights could switch sides and hand the Republicans a victory, House Democratic leaders pulled the bill from consideration — and Republicans gloated. “Fearing that many in their party would support Second Amendment rights for District residents, the Democratic Leadership shamefully exploited a rule to kill debate and postpone the vote indefinitely,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement.

Though the NRA has pushed in the past to roll back the district’s gun restrictions, Cox said his group had no hand in the effort on the voting rights bill. Nevertheless, he said its fate testifies to the potency of the issue. “What you’ve seen is the political reality that the Second Amendment is a major political force, not only on Election Day, but throughout the legislative process,” he said.

It certainly seems that way. I wonder how Jim Webb would have voted? Would he vote differently today than last week?

UPDATE: Michael Geisler, who doesn’t understand the conditional, writes: “Have you figured out yet that Senators can’t vote on House measures you dumbass, you?”

Would have. Not did. Got it?

ANOTHER UPDATE: XRLQ emails: “Has Michael Geisler figured out yet that Senators *can* vote on bills that originate in the House, and in fact must do so before said bills can reach the President’s desk for signature, he dumbass, he?”

Apparently not. Par for the course from my critics, alas.

IN BAGHDAD, OMAR FADHIL’S HOUSE IS SEARCHED. The soldiers see the laptops and digital cameras and one observes:

These are bloggers, dude; cover your face if you don’t want to be seen nude on the internet tomorrow!

Heh. He did get a photo.

THE CARNIVAL OF CARS IS UP: And yes, I’ve been irretrievably lame on carnivals lately. But there’s always BlogCarnival.com, and the list of highlights over in my right sidebar. Click here and look right.

IS A RECESSION ON THE WAY? James Pethokoukis says not if consumers can help it:

And indeed, real consumer spending rose 0.2 percent in foul February. Even a so-so March, JPMorgan added, “would imply a 3.6 percent pace for the quarter. There now appears significant upside risk to our 3 percent consumer spending forecast for the quarter.” As it is, real consumer spending has increased at a 3.7 percent annual clip the past three months.

So there you go. Americans are working, getting paid good dough, and spending it. (The big surge in government tax revenues is another sign that there is plenty of juice out there.) That points to an economy that will continue to expand–2006 fourth-quarter gross domestic product was just revised up to 2.5 percent from 2.2 percent–going forward.

Oh, and this just in: The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index posted its largest one-month movement ever in March, rising to 61.7 from 47.9, thanks to big jumps in new orders, production, and backlogs.

That means that it’s time for economists and pundits to go back to worrying about inflation!

IF FRED THOMPSON RUNS, will that knock his episodes of Law and Order off TV? Jonathan Adler looks at the question.

THE DIANNE FEINSTEIN SCANDAL: The San Francisco Chronicle is reportedly investigating.

SELECTIVE REPORTING ON PORK?

ALAS, YES:

African leaders often point fingers at the West for “not doing enough.” But last week’s meeting of the Southern African Development Community shows why sensible wealthy nations are reluctant to give aid.

For at that meeting, some of Africa’s so-called leaders disgraced themselves by endorsing the brutal, murderous regime of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe’s 27 years of misrule have taken a country that was once prosperous — the breadbasket of Africa, it was called — and turned it into a poverty-stricken hellhole rife with famine, genocide and terror, and lacking rule of law.

Indeed.

THE .XXX TOP LEVEL DOMAIN gets rejected again.

AT POPULAR MECHANICS, a response to Rosie O’Donnell.

UPDATE: More on Rosie O’Donnell, here.

FIGHT THE POWER! By subverting American Idol?

I mean, sure, Ann Althouse will be pissed, but . . . .

RAND SIMBERG WRITES ON DIY ROCKET SCIENCE, for Popular Mechanics. (Via, er, Rand Simberg.)

LIGHTBULB-BLOGGING, from Eric Scheie. He likes his compact fluorescents.

MORE BUZZ on a Fred Thompson candidacy.

DOCTOR WHO MEETS THE BEATLES (Via BoingBoing).

EUGENE VOLOKH LOOKS AT overheated judicial rhetoric. It doesn’t produce great confidence in the judiciary.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE GOOD NEWS: Taliban flee Afghan-led NATO offensive:

Complete success is being claimed for the largest Afghan-led operation yet against the Taliban.

Afghan army forces and police have now purged the Nad Ali district of Helmand of 400 Taliban fighters, following a series of chaotic battles.

Allied commanders estimated 70 Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting, while many others fled or gave up their weapons.

Locals said that the dead included at least one senior commander, Mullah Abdul Bary.

“Of course there are some Taliban left in here, but they have dropped their weapons and they are hiding,” said Colonel Rasoul, the commander of the 3rd Kandak, the best regular army unit in the fledgling Afghan security forces.

I hope the news stays good.

DER SPIEGEL:

The Germans have believed in many things in the course of their recent history. They’ve believed in colonies in Africa and in the Kaiser. They even believed in the Kaiser when he told them that there would be no more political parties, only soldiers on the front.

Not too long afterwards, they believed that Jews should be placed into ghettos and concentration camps because they were the enemies of the people. Then they believed in the autobahn and that the Third Reich would ultimately be victorious. A few years later, they believed in the Deutsche mark. They believed that the Berlin Wall would be there forever and that their pensions were safe. They believed in recycling as well as in cheap jet travel. They even believed in a German victory at the soccer World Cup.

Now they believe that the United States is a greater threat to world peace than Iran. This was the by-no-means-surprising result of a Forsa opinion poll commissioned by Stern magazine. Young Germans in particular — 57 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds, to be precise — said they considered the United States more dangerous than the religious regime in Iran.

The German political establishment, which will no doubt loudly lament the result of the poll, is largely responsible for this wave of anti-Americanism. For years the country’s foreign ministers fed the Germans the fairy tale of what they called a “critical dialogue” between Europe and Iran. It went something like this: If we are nice to the ayatollahs, cuddle up to them a bit and occasionally wag our fingers at them when they’ve been naughty, they’ll stop condemning their women to death for “unchaste behavior” and they’ll stop building the atom bomb.

That plan failed at some point — an outcome, incidentally, that Washington had long anticipated. Iran continues to work away unhindered on its nuclear program, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reacts to UN demands with an ostentatious show of ignorance. The UN gets upset and drafts a resolution.

Read the whole thing, which also has some interesting thoughts on German anti-Americanism and its dangers.

DIVINE: My not so subtle begging did the trick, as a big box of chocolate-covered cherries showed up in the mail today. They’re beautiful — and delicious!

MARINES UNFAZED BY CHLORINE GAS. Bill Ardolino reports.

UPDATE: John Weidner has some perspective.