A SUBMARINE-LAUNCHED HELICOPTER: Every Bond villain will want one!

ED MORRISSEY: Waterboarding is torture and Congress should outlaw it. That would, however, require courage.

A TRIUMPH FOR APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY: Mostly smooth debut for paper ballots.

Can I say “I told you so?” Yes, I can.

UPDATE: First link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

INCREASINGLY EFFECTIVE IRAQI SECURITY FORCES: “A reduction in violence in Baghdad over the past few months represents a sustainable trend that will allow fewer U.S. troops to protect the Iraqi capital, a top American general said on Wednesday. . . . He said the Iraqi security forces had become ‘much, much more effective,’ while volunteers who patrolled their own neighborhoods in coordination with the Iraqi security forces had had a positive impact.”

MILITARY CRACKDOWN IN THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA: A firsthand report at the Democracy Project. Reportedly, journalists are being locked up at gunpoint. Is there a Russian connection?

UPDATE: More here.

JAMES CARAFANO IS blogging from Gitmo, He’s covering the trial of Omar Ahmed Khadr.

GIULIANI’S pseudo-coup.

A HILLARY SLIP? “The federal government should be making immigration policy and that’s what I’m going to try to do as president again.” Again? (Via Yankee Sailor).

UPDATE: Video, courtesy of Ian Schwartz.

JOHN TIERNEY LOOKS AT money, fats and science.

Meanwhile, scientists are terrified. I’d say that the biggest threat to scientists’ credibility, though, comes from overheated science journalism, and its exploitation by politicians and interest groups.

NORM AUGUSTINE once — mathematically — compared the growth of bureaucracy to that of weeds. Here’s more support for the comparison. Can we get some Roundup, please?

IN THE MAIL: Kingsley Browne’s new book, Co-ed Combat: The New Evidence That Women Shouldn’t Fight the Nation’s Wars. Kingsley’s a smart guy, but I’ll take some persuading on this topic.

ANOTHER NEW PLANETARY DISCOVERY, adding to the sense that planets are pretty common in general. What about earthlike planets? Looking better, but so far pretty much a matter of inference, not discovery. That’ll change as instrumentation improves.

A SETBACK FOR RUDY: “Evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson on Wednesday endorsed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.” Well, it’s only fair — Hillary has to deal with the Mondale endorsement . . . .

UPDATE: David Gulliver emails: “This helps Rudy far more than it hurts him. ” Oh, no doubt. Just my usual shot at Robertson, whom I have never liked. Sorry — I thought the snark was obvious.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Some further thoughts on the endorsement game.

MORE: (One) reason why I don’t like Pat Robertson.

CAN’T PEOPLE JUST get along? “Norvalla Marie Peacher, 28, of Joelton, was arrested by TBI agents late Monday night after an investigation revealed she planned to have someone kill the girlfriend of her baby’s father.”

DECODING whale conversations.

IS PLANKTON OUR FRIEND? “The WeatherBird II, a 115-foot private research vessel, has put to sea from Florida as part of a novel and contentious effort to commercialize the removal of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by triggering blooms of plankton.”

But as I’ve noted in the past, you can never trust Plankton.

UPDATE: Reader Jim O’Neill has identified the global-warming mechanism:

So is it now conceivable that the root cause of global warming is the growth of the whale population that is decimating plankton in the oceans?

21st Century Hippies: pro-nuclear power and anti-whale!

Irony abounds.

SO I WAS AT STAPLES THE OTHER DAY, and they were hawking this Grab ‘n’ Go Emergency Kit up front, next to the printer paper and the antivirus programs. Just further evidence of the mainstreaming of survivalism.

UPDATE: SayUncle emails:

It’s even getting to our kids. There’s a show called Lou & Lou safety patrol. They have a short on Bug Out Bags:

You can see the video here: select Get Ready, Get Set, Emergency

I think that’s a good thing.

GIGGLING ROBOT becomes one of the kids.

SOME COOL PHOTOBLOGGING from Lisa Scheer.

JOHN LEO HAS MORE ON THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE, where it looks like there’s a coverup of sorts: “The RAs are forbidden to talk to outsiders about the residential curriculum, though attacking FIRE is apparently allowed.”

GEORGE LEEF: “The situation at Columbia is playing out just the same as the lacrosse case at Duke.”

TNR ADVERTISERS respond to the Beauchamp scandal.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Contrast the speed of response to the Dog the Bounty Hunter incident by the network, versus this by the corporations involved with TNR.”

I’VE HEARD OF BEING PREPARED TO FIGHT THE LAST WAR, but this is ridiculous: “John Kerry: I’m Now Prepared to Fight Off Swift Boat Veterans.”

BOOKS ON THE TITANIC, for kids.

THE PORK AIRLIFT OF 2007: Somewhat less noble than the Berlin Airlift of 1948.