OOPS: Romney post from a minute ago deleted, as I made a dumb mistake based on being distracted. I don’t normally delete posts, but I’m off to class and don’t have time to fix it intelligibly.

SOMEWHERE, KARL ROVE IS CHORTLING: “Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) reopened the door to a possible 2008 presidential campaign during a book signing in Denver and then again, in an interview with 9NEWS.”

Plus, this very Kerryesque statement:

Afterwards, while answering a question from a viewer on the program YOUR SHOW about why he chose not to run, Kerry said he had decided it wasn’t the right time.

“Could that change?” Kerry said. “It might. It may change over years. It may change over months. I can’t tell you, but I’ve said very clearly I don’t consider myself out of it forever.”

Meanwhile, Neal Boortz observes: “John Kerry has a book on global warming? Why yes! It appears that he does! Isn’t this the same guy who teamed up with Ted Kennedy to kill a wind power project off Cape Cod? And just what is his electric bill in his Boston townhouse?”

Jump in, John. You’ve been missed!

THIS IS AWFUL: “At least 20 people were killed this morning at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University after a shooting spree at two buildings on the campus.” Nobody seems to know much yet on what happened. These things do seem to take place in locations where it’s not legal for people with carry permits to carry guns, though, and I believe that’s the case where the Virginia Tech campus is concerned. I certainly wish that someone had been in a position to shoot this guy at the outset.

UPDATE: More here and here. And some background here. And reader John Lucas, who works with a Virginia law firm, emails that Va. Tech is a “gun-free zone.” Well, for those who follow the law. There was an effort to change that but it failed: “A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.” That’s unfortunate. Had the bill passed, things might have turned out differently, though we’ll never know now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a big, continuously updated roundup on the subject from Pajamas Media. And here’s lots more from a Virginia Tech alumnus.

More background on Virginia Tech here. And here’s more local blogging on the tragedy. And here’s a blog entry with some photos.

And here are more thoughts from John Noonan. And send your thoughts and prayers to Marc Danziger, who has a son at Virginia Tech. [LATER: Sorry — I misread Danziger’s post, which he’s amended to clarify that his son is at U.Va., not Virginia Tech.]

IN BAGHDAD, RICHARD MINITER INTERVIEWS an Iraqi Parliament member who wants to recognize Israel.

A LOOK AT health care in Cuba.

ERIC SCHEIE RECORDS THE CLIMATE CHANGE APOCALYPSE: “Right now I am blogging using my laptop, only because my modem and router are powered by the dying battery of the computer battery backup unit (which is beeping loudly and is only designed to run for ten minutes).” The end is nigh! And he’s got pictures!

We were warned. We should have listened to the movie!

THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE IS MOCKING ROMNEY’S PRO-GUN CREDENTIALS. But at least they mention his appearance on the Glenn and Helen Show!

HOWARD KURTZ:

Everyone, including Don Imus, agrees that the remarkable women of the Rutgers basketball team were unfairly maligned by his racial slur.

But what about the living hell visited on three young men from the Duke lacrosse team? In all the coverage of the sexual assault charges that were finally dropped last week, very few have talked about how the media slimed them.

That miscarriage of justice was aided, abetted and amplified by a media that unfairly turned the men into a national symbol of pampered, out-of-control student-athletes. Prosecutor Mike Nifong might lose his law license over the botched case, but the media never get disbarred.

Imus repeatedly apologized for calling the Rutgers women “nappy-headed hos,” and a national uproar prompted CBS Radio and NBC News to pull the plug on his program. But where is the apology to David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann from news organizations that launched a classic feeding frenzy based on one woman’s shaky allegations? Even Nifong has said he is sorry.

He’s right that the media disgraced themselves — and he’s right that they won’t apologize. But every time something like this happen, people trust and respect them less.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ON WOLFOWITZ: “The World Bank released its files in the case of President Paul Wolfowitz’s ethics on Friday, and what a revealing download it is. On the evidence in these 109 pages, it is clearer than ever that this flap is a political hit based on highly selective leaks to a willfully gullible press corps.”

There seems to be a lot of that.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: “I can’t help but think that (a) there’s undoubtedly a divide between what the raw intelligence shows and how it’s been described, and (b) the motivation behind this divide is political. I’d love to be proven wrong … but I’m not holding my breath.”

TIME TO LOWER THE DRINKING AGE, according to “a new chorus of critics.” I agree. Excerpt:

The first is that the age set by the legislation is basically arbitrary. The U.S. has the highest drinking age in the world (a title it shares with Indonesia, Mongolia, Palau). The vast majority of the rest of the world sets the minimum age at 17 or 16 or has no minimum age at all.

Supporters of the federal minimum argue that the human brain continues developing until at least the age of 21.

Alcohol expert Dr. David Hanson of the State University of New York at Potsdam argues such
assertions reek of junk science. They’re extrapolated from a study on lab mice, he explains, as well as from a small sample of actual humans already dependent on alcohol or drugs. Neither is enough to make broad proclamations about the entire population.

If the research on brain development is true, the U.S. seems to be the only country to have caught on to it.

Oddly enough, high school students in much of the rest of the developed world — where lower drinking ages and laxer enforcement reign — do considerably better than U.S. students on standardized tests.

In our podcast interview, Prof. Robert Epstein called the “teenage brain” claims “scientific fraud.” Read the whole thing.

MICKEY KAUS: “I’m not saying theocratic incompetents from the ‘700 Club’ aren’t fanning out through the government. Maybe they are. I’m saying Paul Krugman is not convincing on this issue. He doesn’t even seem to be trying to be convincing. Why should he try? There’s always been a market for anti-hick editorializing in the New York Times, especially anti-Southern-hick editorializing.” Well, Krugman’s an economist. Supply and demand!

MODERATE MUSLIMS PROTEST IN PAKISTAN:

Tens of thousands of people rallied in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, on Sunday to show their opposition to a radical religious school which has begun a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign in the capital, Islamabad. . . .

Moderate Muslims in Pakistan were shocked earlier this month when a cleric announced a religious shariat court had been set up at Lal Masjid to enforce a strict Islamic code of justice, and threatened to retaliate with suicide bombers if the government tried forcibly to suppress the movement.

Lal Masjid’s compound has taken on the appearance of a rebel camp in recent weeks, with young men armed with sticks guarding the entrances.

Gateway Pundit has more, including some rather impressive photos.

SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS on the economics of solar power.

HOW EASY IS IT TO GET YOUTUBE TO TAKE DOWN VIDEOS? Way too easy, it appears.