BEING FAT: Not as bad as they thought. Er, healthwise, anyway. Of course, this study isn’t really about fat, but about BMI. Lots of bodybuilders with 3% bodyfat have high BMIs.

“IT’S NOT A DOCTOR’S OFFICE. It’s a saloon.”

LICENSES FOR ILLEGALS: Not so popular.

ERNIE FLETCHER LOSES IN KENTUCKY: Apparently, that ten-commandments-posting issue wasn’t a winner for him.

ALCEE HASTINGS on Dennis Kucinich.

EVERYBODY LOVES Obama. “The people that Obama so thoroughly charmed generally weren’t the charm-prone types. I say the following as a well known Republican partisan–the fact that his classmates so universally held him in the highest regard suggests that Barack Obama may truly be a special person. All of which makes his campaign’s ineptness more mysterious.”

MICKEY KAUS: “A full week after the Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton is still flailing on the licenses-for-illegals issue.”

SINGLE AND NOT-SO-RESTLESS in Cairo.

SO I BOUGHT this little Sony HD video camera, which records to a chip. First impressions out of the box: Boy is it little! (The Insta-Wife pronounced it “adorable”). Pretty easy to use — but I’m used to Sony cameras. Battery’s charging now, though, so I won’t be able to really play with it for a while.

FAKE ELECTION websites.

I WASN’T: “Obama ‘stunned’ by Bill Clinton’s remarks.”

PORKERS SAY THE DARNEDEST THINGS: The excuses that members of Congress use to defend pork. Plus, this important observation: “There are currently two members of Congress in prison, and several more under investigation for corruption. In a lot of these cases, earmarks were involved. This is because the earmark process allows members to exploit their positions of power. . . . Pork projects are the currency of corruption in Congress.” It’s not the earmarks as such. It’s the corruption the earmarks represent, and foster.

TOO BAD WE DON’T SEE AT LEAST A TOUCH OF THIS ATTITUDE in the federal government: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday ordered all state departments to draft plans for deep spending cuts after receiving word that California’s budget is plunging further into the red — largely because of the troubled housing market.”

“NUANCED GIULIANI-BASHING,” from David Adesnik.

BILL QUICK ON how technology has changed his life.

PLEASE SUPPORT Project Valour-IT.

A FEW CORRECTIONS ON JUSTICE STEVENS, from Jeffrey Rosen. But the NYT buried them by putting them in the print edition and leaving them off the website.

GIVING YAHOO! HELL, for cooperating with dictators.

BWANA!

SOUNDING ALMOST LAFFERESQUE:

“The evidence is that when tariffs come down, tariff revenue tends to go up.”

– Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, on why poor countries should liberalise trade

Go figure.

MORE ON THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE, from Joanne Jacobs.

THOUGHTS ON repairing our alliances.

A BLOGGER VICTORY: “Egyptian Police Jailed For Sexual Abuse of Prisoner.”

HERE’S A SURPRISE: “Farm Payments Benefited Legislators:”

When the bill that would extend farm subsidies for five years goes to the Senate floor this week, eight senators will have special reason to pay close attention: They or their relatives collected about $3 million in federal payments from 1995 to 2005, according to government records compiled by a non-partisan environmental group. . . .

Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., says the system works well. He and his family’s farming interests received almost $2.4 million in federal payments from 1995-2005, records show. His net worth in 2005 was $1.7 million to $6.6 million, according to his financial disclosure statement. “He has firsthand experience of how this really benefits farmers,” said his spokeswoman, Angela Guyadeen.

I imagine he does . . . .

JETTING TO BALI to talk about global warming.

How about staying home and using videoconferencing instead?