THE TROOPS DON’T SEEM TO LIKE THE ARMY’S NEW “LAND WARRIOR” GEAR: And based on this story by Noah Shachtman, there’s reason. A mature version of this stuff would be great, but climbing the learning curve is hard.

DAVE WINER to NBC: Free the video!

NO SECRET HOLD AFTER ALL? See the update to my earlier post.

IT’S CALLED A “THINK TANK,” NOT A “KNOWLEDGE TANK:” But Kenneth Weinstein of the Hudson Institute doesn’t know enough about guns to be offering an opinion:

Monday’s carnage might possibly have been limited through a number of policy options [such as] greater controls on the sale of automatic weapons, which are almost impossible for victims to defend against and have no justifiable use for hunting;

Er, except that no “automatic weapons” were used in Monday’s shooting. Does this guy not know the difference? Obviously not. So why is he opining in the Washington Post? (Via Countertop). Ignorance about firearms is standard in the press, but I’d expect better from the Hudson Institute.

MORE THOUGHTS ON GUN-FREE ZONES from Jacob Sullum at Reason.

UPDATE: Read this from Investor’s Business Daily.

ZIGGURAT CON will be the first Dungeons and Dragons convention / tournament held in Iraq. (Via Boing Boing).

A REPORT ON THE TOUR DE FRED: “The conservatives say he checks the boxes but he also transcends our party. He reaches out to the middle. He brings Reagan Democrats back to our party. He has appeal that other candidates simply don’t have. . . . The man that came to see us today, in my view, is preparing to run for president.”

MARK STEYN: A Culture of Passivity.

UPDATE: Wanted: A Culture of Self-Defense.

RICH LITTLE gets a new fan.

THE VICTORY CAUCUS IS INCORPORATING as a 501(c)(4), and is looking for donors.

MICHAEL EISNER: It’s time to get the public emotional about gun control. Follow the link for video.

Watch out for another one of those media-activist political partnerships like the one that brought us campaign finance “reform.”

A REPORT ON THE BLACKBERRY BLACKOUT — and its devastating psychological toll.

The photo is heartrending.

(Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!)

WISHING FOR CHENEY’S DEATH AT THE WASHINGTON POST: It was a mistake to pick a fight with Charles Johnson on the topic of comments.

STILL MORE ON FEDERALISM AND PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION, from Ilya Somin.

Earlier post here.

HILLARY PLUNGING IN THE POLLS? “A majority of Americans have an unfavorable image of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton’s current 45% favorable rating with the American public is her third consecutive reading below 50% in the past two months, and is one of the lowest Gallup has measured for her since 1993.”

I wonder why that’s happened? Other than a bit of waffling on the war, I can’t think of anything new that she’s done in that time to push her polls down.

UPDATE: Some positive spin: “Hillary is already looking Presidential in the polls!” Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Frank Newport, who knows more about polling than I ever will, is mystified, too: “This is not a one-poll phenomenon. The pattern is fairly linear and persistent. . . . But so far, as others have noted as well, there is no one explanation which can be successfully defended with the available data.”

Numerous InstaPundit readers suggest that it’s not anything in particular, it’s just that she’s been campaigning and that’s focused people’s thinking on what they like, and don’t like, about her.

LANNY DAVIS: Who cares about the “fundraising primary?”

NEW YORK NANNYISM: Eliot Spitzer is going after violent videogames. (Via Slashdot, whose denizens aren’t overjoyed).

For a contrary view, read this: Porn and Violence: Good for America’s Children?

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Hey, it’s another secret hold in the Senate!

Yet again an anonymous Senator has placed a secret hold on legislation that would increase transparency. This time a secret hold has been placed on a bill, S. 223, that would mandate that Senators file their campaign finance reports electronically. This process would not only make these reports more readily available to the public but would also save money and resources. Yesterday this bill was blocked by an anonymous Senator who placed a secret hold on the bill. Secret holds are so looked down on these days that earlier this year the Senate itself banned the practice, although the bill containing that provision has yet to become law. But until secrets holds are banished forever, we need your help in exposing the culprit who is blocking consideration of the electronic filing requirement for Senate campaign finance reports. We need your help to find out who placed this secret hold! Call your Senators and ask them if they are the one with the secret hold on S. 223. Then report back here in the comments with your findings or email us at .

Follow the link for contact information.

UPDATE: A reader who works in the Senate says that there’s no secret hold: “Yesterday, somebody attempted to move the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act up on the schedule by asking for Unanimous Consent. One or more Senators objected to an immediate Unanimous Consent to give themselves time to review the legislation. The legislation is not blocked from receiving its regular consideration; it simply did not receive an early Unanimous Consent vote. The bill will come up in regular order.”

DILIGENT CORRECTIONS at The Washington Post. Okay, it’s not important, but I’m glad they fixed it.

IN THE MAIL: David Linden’s The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God.