THOUGHTS ON flicking and spitting.

THOUGHTS ON GAZA AND IRAQ.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT:

Kieran King’s views on marijuana have led to his suspension from Wawota Parkland School.

King said he was threatened with police action by Principal Susan Wilson previously after making the case that marijuana was less harmful than alcohol.

Petty dictators.

A REGGIE WALTON / SARAH SILVERMAN CONNECTION? Only Hitchens could make that work.

BILL FRIST responds to Harry Reid.

MICHELLE BERNARD:

Like most of the American public, I have stood at the pump at my local filling station and cursed the cost of gasoline. Yet, after filling my tank I inevitably drive to Starbucks to stand in line with other women seeking a reprieve from morning mommy detail, handing over $4.24 without batting an eye as I order my beloved venti, soy chai latte.

The other morning I had, as Oprah might say, an “aha” moment. After paying for my cup of tea, I thought “What’s wrong with this picture? Why am I complaining about the price of gasoline while forking out what is arguably a lot of money for a cup of hot water and spices?”

Mothers and fathers beware – if certain members of Congress have their way, you will not be standing in line at Starbucks any more because you’ll be too busy waiting in mile-long lines to get gasoline.

Maybe the solution is for Starbucks to go into the gasoline business, so that people will be happy to pay outrageous prices.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: TOM COBURN TAKES ON THE EARMARXISTS:

Six months ago, the Democratic Party regained its majority in an election that was not just about Iraq. The new House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said the American people “called for greater integrity in Washington, and Democrats pledge to make this the most honest, ethical and open Congress in history.”

The history of the intervening months has only confirmed that promises in Washington have a very short shelf life. Any promise not fulfilled within 60 days after an election is apparently considered expired, to be replaced with new promises. I saw this behavior in my own party with regard to the reform of pork-barrel spending — aka “earmarks” — and no Republican fought more forcefully against the forked-tongue syndrome than I did. . . .

If earmark reform in the House is the story of “three steps forward, six steps back,” as Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) tartly observed, the situation in the Senate resembles sidesteps. When we considered ethics and earmark reform in January, Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S. C.) ingeniously forced our chamber to vote on a strong earmark-reform package — written by none other than House Speaker Pelosi herself. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid initially blocked the “DeMint/Pelosi” amendment, but after it was “modified” in a face-saving exercise it passed largely intact.

The DeMint/Pelosi language would disclose backdoor earmarks, often called report language earmarks, that are tucked away in non-binding, staff-written appropriations committee reports. Ninety-five percent of all earmarks are written as “coercive suggestions” to agencies in these explanatory reports that accompany bills. DeMint/Pelosi would make public the sponsors of earmarks, requiring members to file a public disclosure statement stating that neither they nor their spouse will benefit financially from a pork project. Finally, it would give members new procedural tools to block bills that violate these rules.

However, the underlying legislation, S.1, a central Democratic campaign promise, has gone nowhere since it passed five months ago. House and Senate conferees have not even begun meeting to iron out a final bill. Each day, it looks more like another expired promise.

Sen. Reid and top Senate Democrats have had two other opportunities to enact Ms. Pelosi’s earmark reform language. They blocked both attempts, arguing that ethics reform must be done comprehensively, not in a piecemeal fashion — conveniently making the perfect the enemy of the good and doable. Some members of Congress seem to be hoping the public will lose interest in earmark reform. That isn’t likely. Voters and taxpayers continue to be enraged — Congress’s approval rating is an abysmal 27%, in part because reform hasn’t happened. Presidential politics will keep the issue front and center, and the army of bloggers who have long led on this issue are ratcheting up their criticism of the status quo.

And we’ll be ratcheting some more! Meanwhile, here’s video of the Wall Street Journal’s Brendan Miniter on how the Democratic Congress is hiding the pork in ways that their GOP predecessors never dreamed of.

LEGACIES OF the Falkland Islands war.

J.D. JOHANNES LOOKS AT BODY COUNTS AND VICTORY. I think the subject is more useful in assessing media bias than military progress.

Plus, he answers reader questions.

MORE ON HARRY REID AND INCOMPETENCE:

Democrats keep challenging the weakest administration since Jimmy Carter, and incredibly, prove to be even weaker. . . . It took Republicans 12 years to dissolve. Democrats have done it in less than six months.

I congratulate them on their efficiency.

It’s a race to see who can commit suicide faster. As I’ve said before, Ana Marie Cox calls Washington “the Special Olympics of sex,” but it’s beginning to look like the Special Olympics of politics, too. Can’t anyone play this game?

A NEW CIVIL RIGHTS BILL in Ohio.

A EUROPEAN ROCKET PLANE aimed at the space tourism market:

Europe’s biggest aerospace company, EADS, has concluded that carrying wealthy tourists to 100 kilometers in altitude for several minutes of weightlessness could be a multibillion-dollar industry in 20 years and is seeking co-investors to build a rocket plane it already has designed. . . .

Taking off from an as-yet undetermined spaceport using two conventional jet engines, the plane would climb to 12 kilometers in altitude before its rocket engine ignites, powering the vehicle through the atmosphere and into a coast phase whose 100-kilometer apogee would provide passengers with one and one-half minutes of near-zero-gravity experience.

It’s very nice to see how this field is, er, taking off. I remember a seeing presentation by Wolfgang Demisch on the likely impact of space tourism as a technology and economic driver over ten years ago, and being very impressed with its potential. Looks like that potential is becoming actual.

IF THE ISRAELIS HAD DONE THIS KIND OF THING IN GAZA, there would have been a worldwide outcry. There might also have been more of a chance for peace. Certainly it would have been hard for things to have worked out worse. But since it’s Hamas killing people, nobody will really care — unless, ironically, they can find a way to blame the Israelis. Or Bush!

UPDATE: Boy, that didn’t take long!

LOCAL LETTUCE=“liberty cabbage.”

HONDA REPLACES THE ACCORD HYBRID with an efficient, clean-burning diesel: “If you find this sad, you’ve never driven an Accord hybrid. The regenerative braking system felt stiff and unresponsive, the car shook noticeably when the gasoline engine turned on and off, and it looked just like a boring ol’ Accord.”

RED-LIGHT CAMERA justice.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: More from The Examiner:

It may not be possible for Democratic leaders in Congress to look even more ridiculous on earmarks reform than they do now but they’re doing their best. Take House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion Tuesday that House members “leave this room today forgetting earmarks.” Her appeal came as House members on both sides of the aisle bashed each other over provisions of the $36 billion homeland security appropriations bill. At issue were provisions to spend tax dollars on such terrorism-fighting essentials as puppet shows and designer hand bags. Pelosi suggested forgetting earmarks would help restore a spirit of bipartisan cooperation in the House.

Forgetting earmarks now won’t change the basic characteristics that make them such a ripe symbol of the culture of corruption that still pervades Congress and underscores its inability to control federal spending. The pork-barrel crowd loves earmarks for several reasons. Most important is the anonymity for the member sponsoring an earmark. Then, recipients don’t have to go through a competitive bidding process once their earmark is approved. Finally, earmarks are handy tools for rewarding campaign donors, lobbyists, special interests, loyal staff aides and even family members. Democrats promised to reform Republican abuses of earmarks but observers across the political spectrum have concluded in recent weeks that nothing has changed since the November 2006 election.

My expectations for the Democrats were modest enough — I just figured they wouldn’t be any worse than the Republicans — but they’ve been disappointed nonetheless. And don’t get me started on the business with the jets.

RICHARD RAHN: “The rise of anti-Americanism in Europe is a danger to both American and European pocketbooks, and our collective liberty.”

FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, a list of the 100 greatest adventure books of all time. Nonfiction, that is. I remember reading Annapurna when I was a kid, and I was glad to see Michael Collins’ Carrying the Fire on the list, too — it’s an absolute gem, and hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.

LOOK WHO’S TALKING: Harry Reid calls Generals Pace and Petraeus “incompetent.”

Reader Brett Conner, who sent word of this, writes: “As a veteran who has served under General Pace, I can
attest to not only his competence but also his compassion for his Marines and as a member of the Joint Chiefs, all servicemembers. Senator Reid has crossed a sacred line between the military and our civilian leaders. One of the reasons I left the military was being stabbed in the back by our fellow countrymen. It happened to my father in Vietnam, and I didn’t want to continue living through the same experience.”

I’m afraid a lot of people will view Harry Reid’s statement that way. Of course, some folks like the way the Vietnam War turned out.

UPDATE: Waiting for Wesley Clark to slam Harry Reid as a “chickenhawk,” as he did with Joe Lieberman. Wouldn’t that be a “chickendove?” But then, Reid voted for the war, didn’t he? So maybe it’s more a case of chicken . . . well, never mind.

MARK STEYN TALKS DOOMSDAY WITH ROGER SIMON.

LET THE CHILDREN PLAY, or they will never learn:

Children are so cocooned by their parents that they rarely venture far from home and have little concept of space, volume and how the world actually works, David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, said yesterday.

The area in which children were allowed to range freely by their parents was a ninth of what it was a generation ago, he said. He also referred to “most worrying” research which showed children could not grasp basic maths. . . .

Mr Willetts’s comments come amid increasing concern that children’s experiences are being stifled by over-anxious parents obsessed with “stranger danger”, and an increasingly litigious society which means schools and clubs are nervous about taking children on activity holidays and adventure trips.

As a consequence, children who sit in front of their computer or television, grow up with concentration problems as a result, and suffer a “nature deficit disorder”, Mr Willetts said.

I can’t say I find this surprising. Plus, there’s this:

Britain’s safety charity suggested yesterday it would be better for the occasional child to fall out of a tree and break their wrist than develop repetitive strain injury from playing computer games.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said parents were too risk-averse, particularly after the abduction of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, and youngsters should be allowed to bruise and cut themselves.

As the playground movement of 100 years ago said, “better a broken arm than a broken spirit.” We talked about that in our podcast interview with Conn Iggulden, author of The Dangerous Book for Boys.

IS KILLING YOUR HUSBAND LESS SERIOUS than serving kids beer?

OBVIOUSLY, IT’S SWEEPS WEEK IN THE BLOGOSPHERE:

I really enjoy reading the indominable Oliver Willis. And of course he’s right about this. But let’s review the titles of some his recent posts:

* “Kim Kardashian and the Brazilian Butt-Lift”
* “Jessica Alba Makes The Case For Why She And Not Lindsay Lohan Should Have Been #1 on Maxim’s Hot 100”
* “Obama and the Celebrity Hottie Vote”
* … etc.

Why, it’s almost as if Oliver Willis uses images of attractive Hollywood twentysomething women to improve his ratings!

Hey, I should try that!

A LOOK AT gay life in Afghanistan, which is reportedly improving.