THOUGHTS ON TAXING AND SPENDING, from Professor Bainbridge.

PUNISHING BLASPHEMY AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY: They told me that if George W. Bush were reelected our universities would be run by theocrats who wouldn’t brook criticism of religion. And they were right!

Via Eugene Volokh, who has further thoughts.

MICHAEL SILENCE EXCEEDS THE SPEED LIMIT ON I-40 and still gets passed like he’s standing still. Video at the link.

A LOOK AT polling on Iraq.

EXPENSIVE IDEAS from John Edwards.

VARIOUS PEOPLE think that the sound quality on yesterday’s podcast was especially good. I think it’s mostly just that we had a really good phone connection. They vary a lot, and alas there’s not much we can do except try redialing if they’re too bad. But on listening to some older podcasts, I have to say that the audio treatments we added a while back have made a big difference, too. Thanks, Ready Acoustics! (Various other podcast questions answered here.)

I HAVEN’T READ THE “NEW” TOLKIEN BOOK, The Children of Hurin, yet. But I notice that Eugene Volokh Ilya Somin liked it.

UPDATE: Sorry — the dreaded co-blogger confusion strikes again.

A LOOK AT Paris Hilton’s prison hell.

ROBERT MCCHESNEY AND I LOOK AT MEDIA CONCENTRATION in today’s Los Angeles Times.

ATUL GAWANDE ON aging and what to do about it.

But be sure to read this, too.

“ICE-COLD REALPOLITIK” from Morton Kondracke. I’m afraid I’m not that cold.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE fact-checks Barack Obama on fuel economy and finds some major errors:

Obama this week flew to Detroit to deliver his message that the U.S. auto industry is the villain for “investing in bigger and faster cars while foreign competitors invested in more fuel-efficient technology.”

The domestics certainly haven’t flooded showrooms with gas/electric hybrids like the Japanese. But in fairness, the newest Japanese assembly plant in the U.S. produces 14-m.p.g. Toyota Tundra pickups, not Prius hybrids rated at 60 m.p.g.

“While our fuel standards haven’t moved from 27.5 miles per gallon in two decades, both China and Japan have surpassed us, with Japanese cars now getting an average of 45 miles to the gallon,” Obama said.

“I’m not sure where he got that figure,” Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said. “No carmaker gets 45 m.p.g. Ours is closer to 30 m.p.g.”

If elected president, perhaps Obama’s first appointment should be a fact-checker.

Not just for number crunching but also because neither China nor Japan mandate fuel-economy standards. And the 27.5 m.p.g. standard was set by the government, not the automakers.

(Via Matt Sheffield).

A LOOK AT JIHADI CHIC: From Jonah Goldberg.

ER, I COULD BE WRONG, but aren’t the scary automatic weapons in this photo actually just AirSoft guns? (More here.)

Then there’s the fun of Mayor Bloomberg slamming Virginia for “enforcing the laws.” Is this guy for real? Maybe Bloomberg should try not violating federal firearms laws before he gets on his high horse.

UPDATE: Reader Josh Coray is sure these are Airsoft guns: “Being an avid paintballer and related airgun fan, yes, those are airsoft guns.” Others aren’t so sure. So I guess I can’t blame AP for the photo too much, regardless.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More from SayUncle.

OKAY, IT’S NOT HOSPIBLOGGING, it’s doctor-office-blogging, while the Insta-Wife gets imaged. Thank goodness for EVDO.

BILL HOBBS: “It’s a good thing that the Alabama Homeland Security folks don’t have jurisdiction in Nashville, else they might have raided the big libertarian hoedown Tuesday night.”

Plus, how to get psychotic school shooters off campus. It’s so simple!

IT’S BETTER THAN KEITH OLBERMANN AND HARDBALL PUT TOGETHER! The latest Corn and Miniter Show is up!

IN THE MAIL: Joe Haldeman & Martin Greenberg’s Future Weapons of War. I thought at first that it was a nonfiction book by a couple of science fiction guys, which would have been pretty cool, but it’s actually an anthology of military SF stories. They’re all copyrighted 2007, so they’re all new, apparently.

DOG BITES MAN: Zbigniew Brzezinski wrong again.

LONG LIVE THE BLOGOSPHERE: Norm Geras has some thoughts on newspapers and blogging.

HOWARD KURTZ rounds up reactions to Tony Blair’s step-down announcement. It seems to me that it comes with less a bang than a whimper. Perhaps that’s because he’s leaving on his own, but I notice that libertarian Britblog Samizdata hasn’t posted anything on the subject yet. You’d expect them to be cheering.

UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive: At Samizdata, Perry de Havilland writes: “I do not really give a damn because it is actually not that important. Glenn expects us to be cheering, but why? About the prospect of Gordon Brown running our affairs? Sorry but that is nothing to cheer about and I cannot really see that this will make a great deal of difference to government policies.”

And further thoughts from Paul Marks: “Mrs Thatcher was interesting. Mr Blair (like Mr Major) was just another statist politician.”

Well, aside from the general benefits of government turnover — which come into play more strongly when there’s a change of party anyway — I don’t think the difference will be huge.

BORIS YELTSIN: lessons for America.

WALMART SALES PLUMMET, but Bob Krumm thinks that’s actually economic good news: “Well, simply put: No-one likes to shop at Wal-Mart unless they have to. It’s always crowded, the checkout lines are understaffed, the place is dirty, the parking lot is a mess.” Thus, when Wal-Mart goes down, it means people can afford to shop elsewhere. Interesting theory — we’ll see if he’s right. Personally, I’m a Target man because he’s right — Wal-Mart is just depressing. But I’d ditch Target in a second if someone would open up a Samuel’s in my neighborhood.

PHIL BREDESEN AND JOHN MCCAIN: Together at NASCAR. Hmm. A McCain-Bredesen “unity ticket?” Gentlemen, start your punditry . . . .

DEBUNKEN!