ERIC SCHEIE ON Why facts should matter (even on the Internet).

“THIS GUY WAS PRESIDENT BEFORE I WAS:” And with many more slips like that, some other people will be, too . . . .

Obama’s smarter than this. I think he’s tired. Tired politicians make mistakes. He should take a rest — the primaries are most of a year away.

“I FOUND SADDAM’S WMD BUNKERS:” Er, wouldn’t this be news if it were true?

Maybe not, these days. . . .

MICKEY KAUS:

Alert emailer S.F. asks if NBC, when it broadcast baseball games, refused to show video of fans running onto the field. Most broadcasters don’t, on the grounds that it would only encourage more attention-seeking disruptions. … If that’s NBC’s practice, why is it OK in order to prevent the disruption of a baseball game but not to prevent mass murder? Just asking.

A cynic would say that when fans run onto the baseball field NBC doesn’t make money. But when copycat mass shootings occur, NBC makes money. . . .

A LOOK AT WHO’S TAKING AID AND COMFORT from Harry Reid’s statements.

THE LYRID METEOR SHOWER will strike this weekend. Should be pretty, for those in the right place at the right time.

A CALL FOR “common-sense restrictions” on freedom of assembly. From an unimpeachable source!

SHOTS FIRED AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER: Reports seem pretty confused at the moment — I’m watching CNN. Wolf Blitzer says weapons aren’t allowed on the property, but it sounds like that didn’t work. . . .

But early reports are usually unreliable, so stay tuned.

UPDATE: A report that it’s a contract employee, plus much more, here. More reports, and live video streaming, at KHOU TV.

MORE: Gunman and one hostage dead; another hostage freed. Reports that gunman was shouting “Put me on TV, NBC!” are likely not true . . . .

THOUGHTS ON CHINA, and the academics who study China.

“THE BEST CHILDREN’S NOVEL about World War II.“

FRED THOMPSON: “Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on ‘the authorities’ for protection. . . . Whenever I’ve seen one of those ‘Gun-free Zone’ signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I’ve always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don’t mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.”

A ROUNDUP OF Earth Day technical tips.

SUING YAHOO! FOR RATTING OUT a Chinese dissident.

HAS OBAMA-MANIA PEAKED? “What really struck me about that audio clip though was what a gasbag Obama is. I hear a tired-sounding man, who rambles on and on. I know he’s speaking before a group. I hear them respond now and then, when he mentions that Iraq is a war that should never have been waged and when he says teachers deserve higher pay. But if I didn’t know who he was and that there was a crowd there, I would picture an old man slumped in an armchair, expatiating for the benefit of anyone unlucky enough to be within earshot. It’s formless stream of consciousness. Oh, there is that theme of hope. The stream swirls back there at predictable intervals.”

CANDIDATE CARICATURES by Roman Genn.

JAMES Q. WILSON: “Gun control isn’t the answer.” Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Wilson observes:

AS FOR THE European disdain for our criminal culture, many of those countries should not spend too much time congratulating themselves. In 2000, the rate at which people were robbed or assaulted was higher in England, Scotland, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Sweden than it was in the United States. The assault rate in England was twice that in the United States. In the decade since England banned all private possession of handguns, the BBC reported that the number of gun crimes has gone up sharply.

Some of the worst examples of mass gun violence have also occurred in Europe. In recent years, 17 students and teachers were killed by a shooter in one incident at a German public school; 14 legislators were shot to death in Switzerland, and eight city council members were shot to death near Paris.

The main lesson that should emerge from the Virginia Tech killings is that we need to work harder to identify and cope with dangerously unstable personalities.

It is a problem for Europeans as well as Americans, one for which there are no easy solutions — such as passing more gun control laws.

More on that here.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

And read this: “We decided a half a century ago that our more eccentric and, indeed, crazy fellow citizens would not be easily locked in asylums. It was a humane decision, but with the inevitable consequence that some who really need quarantine are allowed to roam the streets.”

DON SURBER on NBC’s airing of the Cho video: “NBC should not have shown it. This video was a peep show, not news. There was nothing to be gained in showing it. . . .As a member of the mainstream media, please, accept my apology for the airing of this video. I’m sorry.”

IN THE MAIL: The latest Harry Turtledove novel, Beyond the Gap, part of an entirely new alternate-history series.

A HERO IS LAID TO REST: A report from Liviu Librescu’s funeral.

MCCAIN TO CRITICS: “Get a life.”

Is it just me, or has he started to enjoy himself on the trail again?

WHO IS SICK? A user-generated epidemiology map. Cool.

RADLEY BALKO looks at the National Association of Broadcasters’ hatred of satellite radio.

JOHN SCALZI’S NEW NOVEL, The Last Colony — sequel to Old Man’s War and Ghost Brigades — is now officially out. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy, and I recommend it highly.

MICKEY KAUS: “The Imus affair does look kind of small in retrospect, doesn’t it?”

ADVERTISING FOR SOLAR ENERGY:

Next month Sharp plans to send a trailer with a rooftop solar panel to sites in California, for demonstrations of how the system can run a television set and other appliances (needless to say, the trailer will be towed by a hybrid vehicle). And in August, when the current campaign runs its course, Sharp expects to send posters and lesson plans to elementary-school teachers to help them teach about solar energy.

“It was children who taught parents about recycling, and children will teach parents about solar energy,” said Ronald Kenedi, vice president of Sharp’s solar energy solutions group.

Hmm. I thought ads aimed at kids, designed to influence parents, were supposed to be bad.