MORE FROM RAMADI: “An Iraq success story.”

IN THE MAIL: David Gelernter’s new book, Americanism:The Fourth Great Western Religion. Looks very interesting. I wish I’d had it while discussing “civil religion” in my Constitutional Law class.

ASTROGLIDE LEAKS CUSTOMER INFORMATION: A variety of semi-clever puns and jokes occur to me, but I’ll leave them as an exercise for the reader.

DISCOVERING KRYPTONITE: Does it need a lead box?

“WHAT IS HAPPENING OVER HERE:” An email from a soldier in Iraq. “Gen Petraeus is treating the war like a counter-insurgency rather than a stability operation. . . . there is a HUGE difference between the two. . . . However, you don’t see Harry Reid talking about this. When I saw what he said, it really pissed me off. That guy does not know what is going on over here because he hasn’t bothered to come and find out. The truth on the ground in Al Anbar is not politically convenient for him, so he completely ignored it.”

AT THE RISK OF BEING TARRED FOR TREASON LIKE HARRY REID, I’m going to declare that the war against toilet paper is already lost.

But unlike Reid and the other 76 Senators, I never voted for this one!

UPDATE: A reader suggests “smeared” instead of “tarred.” In this context, all I can say is “Eww.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: By the way, Sheryl Crow says the whole toilet-paper thing was tongue in cheek, though Rand Simberg isn’t sure he believes her. But either way, Ed Driscoll is right — we should thank her for injecting some much needed humor into what has otherwise been a bummer of a week.

MORE: The One Sheet to the Wind Tour. The opening act is, well, the only plausible choice . . . .

MORE STILL: Karl Bade emails:

If Sheryl Crow was joking, she was making fun of Laurie David, who is known for using recycled toilet paper. Was she making fun of Laurie David? Word is the two aren’t getting along now.

Hard to imagine, that.

And reader Tom Brosz has the last word:

It says a lot about the “serious” environmental proposals that we all have to think long and hard about whether or not something like Crow’s statement was a joke or not.

A few years back, I would have thought making incandescent light bulbs illegal was a joke, too.

Good point.

RICK LEE GETS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL with a black widow.

NBC AND PBS: A study in contrasts. Though there’s a common theme if you look closely.

NEVADA SOLDIERS RESPOND TO HARRY REID: And they’re not happy: “‘it does make it a lot harder for us to fight the enemy, but we’re not losing this war.'”

Upside for Reid: At least they’re not calling for him to step down, so far. But I guess that would be inappropriate anyway.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION for Sheryl Crow.

HOWARD KURTZ has a John Edwards haircut roundup. It’s even turned into a unit of measurement.

I’m still trying to figure out what you get for a $400 haircut. According to some people, I need it . . . .

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The Examiner reports that the earmark stench is getting worse:

Remember right after the November elections when the Senate’s longtime “King of Pork,” Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., promised an “earmark moratorium” on 2007 spending? The moratorium was supposed to give the new Democratic majority time to pass the promised legislation that would shine needed light on the thousands of anonymous spending measures slipped into bills by senators and congressmen. Since Byrd was about to become Appropriations Committee chairman and was well-known for directing billions of dollars in earmarks to his home state, the moratorium was seen by many congressional reformers as an encouraging sign.

Now we find that not only has the moratorium on 2007 spending bill earmarks been forgotten, senators are in the process of larding up 2008 bills as well. Both the Senate and the House have passed earmark reforms, but the Democratic leadership in both chambers is taking its time in resolving differences between the two measures. So the rules Kratz reminds senators to follow are the same ones that were in place when the GOP sowed its culture of corruption. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Read the whole thing.

TAKING THE COMFY-CHAIR REVOLUTION TO THE NEXT LEVEL: Workspace Vancouver seems like the next step after working at Starbucks — it’s a Starbucks of your own, turned into an office. Er, or something. Anyway, it seems very cool. It seems to me that this is the kind of thing that could easily franchise, or spread in some other fashion.

Here’s a video.

ROBERT COX says that the right is losing the online arms race.

OFF MESSAGE:

The president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, the only relief organization operating in Iraq, is calling on the Democratic-led Congress to rethink its troop withdrawal strategy and recognize that Iraq suffers from a worsening humanitarian crisis. . . .

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society or Organization, as it is often referred to, is an auxiliary arm of the Iraqi government and is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Insisting that he is not a politician, Hakki — a U.S. citizen who spends most of his time in Iraq’s red zones — is pushing for a time-out in what he calls the “partisan squabble” over the U.S. troop withdrawal timetable.

Via Don Surber, who asks: “It is important to remember that Reid voted for this war, when that was popular. Now that it is unpopular, he seeks to shrug it as if it were last year’s hot new dance craze. . . . What sort of tree do you plant as penance for turning your back on 24 million people?”

SOME UNUSED Sheryl Crow headlines.

STEVEN LANDSBURG: “So if I could make just one change in the American political system, it would be to give each voter two votes in every congressional election. You’d get one vote to cast in your own district and another to cast in the district of your choice. When a congressman from West Virginia funnels taxpayers’ money from fifty states to his home district, I want him to face the prospect that taxpayers from fifty states will share their feelings with him on election day.”

I like this.

MICKEY KAUS: “Affirmative action may be joining gun control on the list of liberal issues Dem candidates don’t push very hard because they want to win.”

MORE ON THE VANISHING BEES: Cellphones aren’t being blamed, but there’s mad bee syndrome.

SIGNS OF THE END TIMES: A sex doll for dogs.

HERE ARE SOME MORE PICTURES FROM CAMPUS: I headed over to the library to check the Freud quote (turns out to be misattributed — see below) and I had my camera with me, so I took a few pictures.

I also got a few shots inside the palatial Starbucks that’s inside the palatial main library. Coffee, pastries, comfy chairs, wi-fi. What more could you want?

Oh, yeah, computers. They even have loaner laptops if you forgot yours. That’s a nice touch, I think.

But while the usual cluster of people was studying in the library — finals are coming — more seemed to be outside enjoying the nice weather, which — thanks to global coldening — we haven’t had enough of this spring. I wish I’d gotten to enjoy it more myself.

UPDATE: John Marcoux emails: “Your new campus pics are great. Were they taken with your new Sony?”

Yes, they were taken with this one. It’s tiny, so it goes everywhere. And it seems to me that the colors are better than on the old camera.

NOW IT’S DAVID BRODER SUGGESTING THAT HARRY REID SHOULD GO: He calls him a “bumbling embarrassment.”

Well, I guess Joe Lieberman can fire him if he wants to . . . .

UPDATE: Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: “Fortunately none of this matters.”

MAX BOOT REPORTS FROM RAMADI and elsewhere in Iraq.

IS FRANCE DOOMED? A discussion at PostGlobal.

MSNBC QUOTES A “RETIRED ATF AGENT” but doesn’t mention that he’s a leader of an anti-gun group.

Not improving their credibility.