GREG MANKIW: How big a problem is lack of health insurance?

RICHARD FERNANDEZ looks at what’s going on in Burma.

WALTER OLSON WONDERS how well-lawyered the Lynne Stewart invitation was.

TODD ZYWICKI likes John Lott’s new book, Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t.

CONTRA KAY HYMOWITZ, I don’t see how this post can plausibly be read as a “taunt.” I certainly didn’t mean it that way. In fact, as noted in our podcast interview of Hymowitz, I’m in many ways sympathetic to her cultural critique, with the exception of gay marriage, which I don’t see as any threat to traditional marriage at all. I certainly don’t see where in my post, or elsewhere, I’ve said that “[G]overnment shouldn’t say anything about the family problem. And neither should anyone else.” I don’t think the government has much to say, and it’ll probably get it wrong if it tries — I’d be happy if it just avoided screwing things up — but I’ve never said that “anyone else” shouldn’t say things. Just disagreed with them, sometimes. (That’s allowed, isn’t it? It’s certainly not a taunt.)

I don’t like her use of the term “freedom fetishist” to describe libertarians, but Eric Scheie has already said all there is to say on that.

UPDATE: Kay emails: “You’re right; you weren’t taunting. An editor inserted the word (I had simply written ‘wrote’) and I didn’t catch it on a final read. Really sorry.”

That stuff happens. Shame on that editor, though, who changed the meaning and who must not have bothered to follow the link. I’d expect better from Commentary.

THE RETURN OF MONDALENOMICS?

KEEPING OUR SCHOOLKIDS SAFE, with bulletproof backpack inserts.

SLATE: Hillary vs. The Seven Dwarves. But they completely blew the Aznar transcript story.

A LAME DISCLAIMER FROM BEST BUY: “It’s still unclear why the company won’t just do the right thing and match its own listed prices, but we’re willing to bet the suits are patting themselves on the back for their innovative, out-of-the-box solution. Martinis for all!”

MICHAEL BELFIORE looks at Europe’s entry into the Space Tourism business.

Belfiore is the author of Rocketeers, a very interesting book on the new private space race, which I reviewed in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

SINGING THE PRAISES OF the Dodge Colt Vista: “These are available for a song nowadays, and to be completely honest I can’t think of a better beater.” Okay, I buy that. But this? “The clincher is that I think the Vista is a very attractive vehicle, with an open and honest “face” and a smooth, well-proportioned body.” Hmm. . . . Look at the photo and decide for yourself . . . .

WHAT MADE HUGO CHAVEZ POSSIBLE? “Latin America’s history shows that populist strongmen keep appearing with astonishing frequency. Understanding why Chavez came to power almost a decade ago and is now poised through a constitutional amendment to become president-for-life is a necessary step in trying to halt the emergence of future populist strongmen.”

POWER GENERATION vulnerable to cyber attacks: “Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the federal government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned. . . . Weiss and others hypothesize that multiple, simultaneous cyber-attacks on key electric facilities could knock out power to a large geographic area for months, harming the nation’s economy.” Seems like a reason not to connect these things to the Internet.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: House Minority leader John Boehner is saying the right things on pork:

House Republicans have launched a renewed effort to change the way Congress spends taxpayers’ money. Our goal: Stop Congress from tucking members’ pet spending projects into bills without public scrutiny and debate.

Pork-barrel earmarks were an important factor in the loss of the GOP majority last November. Years of irresponsible earmarks, slipped into bills behind closed doors without public debate or scrutiny, eroded Republicans’ reputation as the party of fiscal responsibility and trustworthy custodians of taxpayer funds.

I’ve never made a secret of my distaste for worthless pork. Just a few months after being elected as majority leader last year, we enacted comprehensive reforms that brought the earmark process out into broad daylight. All taxpayer-funded earmarks had to be publicly disclosed and subject to challenge and debate. If you sponsor a project, we argued, you ought to be willing to put your name on it and defend it–and if not, you shouldn’t ask taxpayers to pay for it. These reforms were the right thing to do–and they still are.

The Democratic majority came to power in January promising to do a better job on earmarks. They appeared to preserve our reforms and even take them a bit further. I commended Democrats publicly for this action.

Unfortunately, the leadership reversed course. Desperate to advance their agenda, they began trading earmarks for votes, dangling taxpayer-funded goodies in front of wavering members to win their support for leadership priorities.

Yes. Had the GOP done better with this stuff, Boehner might still be Majority, instead of Minority leader. Will the Democrats take a lesson from that?

TRUST IN GOVERNMENT hits an all time low. This ought to encourage government officials behave in a more trustworthy fashion, but . . . .

MORE HEAVY-HANDED PHOTO FUNNIES.

BILL ROGGIO ON Al Qaeda’s last bastion in Baghdad.

I KNEW WIRE SERVICES WERE TRIMMING STAFF, but this is ridiculous.

BAD REVIEWS FOR The Daily Show on Mandela.

MORE ON BURMA: “Intensifying their crackdown despite pressures from abroad, Burmese security forces raided a half-dozen Buddhist monasteries Thursday and opened fire into pockets of demonstrators who continued to demand an end to military rule despite new threats on their lives.”

A CELLPHONE WITHOUT BORDERS: Isn’t that how things ought to work?

SOME WORLD WAR TWO REMINISCENCES, inspired by Ken Burns.

IN THE MAIL: Ruth Wisse’s Jews and Power. It looks very interesting.

UPDATE: I should note that Ron Rosenbaum liked it.

A NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE? “If you’re tracking the nuclear power revival in America, last Tuesday, September 25, was a milestone. For the first time since 1973, a new application for building a reactor was placed before the federal government. ”

It’s greenhouse friendly. And if there’s nothing more important than combating the greenhouse threat, then nuclear power certainly should be undergoing a renaissance.

THIS IS JUST PATHETIC.