IN PENNSYLVANIA, the Democrats’ racial divide.

AN ANTI-WAR EASTER ASSAULT on the congregation at a Chicago church. Photos and video at the link. If people did this kind of thing at a mosque it would be international news, and evidence of irredeemable hatred and bigotry . . . .

BIPARTISAN CORRUPTION in Illinois.

MIDDLE-AGED PEOPLE moving back in with Mom and Dad?

UPDATE: A different perspective on the same story.

I’M SIDING WITH NANCY ON THIS ONE: China attacks Speaker Pelosi.

A NEW EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION: “Kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure.”

PATHOLOGIZING hobbits. “Skepticism, of course, is the muscle of scientific inquiry. But one wonders if the scenario of stunted, hirsute, potbellied misfits banished to a cave is too compelling to ignore, even when the bulk of the emerging evidence suggests that evolution alone—albeit a more complex version than we are now comfortable with—could have produced them.”

SO I TOOK JOHN VARLEY’S STEEL BEACH with me for, um, beach reading as part of my reread-old-John Varley project, and I was struck by this passage, which I had forgotten:

“There’s something else,” he went on. “We know there are aliens out there. We know interstellar travel is possible. The next time we meet aliens they could be even worse than the Invaders. They might want to exterminate us, rather than just evict us. I think we ought to keep some fighting skills alive in case we meet some disagreeable critters we can fight.”

Brenda sat up, wide-eyed. “You’re a Heinleiner!” she said.

It was MacDonald’s turn to shrug. “I don’t attend services, but I agree with a lot of what they say.”

Heh.

UPDATE: Yeah, it’s not in print — I had to buy a used one. Hope they reissue it soon. It’s good. Meanwhile, reader Robert Evans asks if I’m a Heinleiner. Well, you know, I don’t attend services, but . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Ted Rathkopf writes: “Is there a fish we Heinleiners can get to put on the back of our cars?”

RECRUITING PROBLEMS: For Al Qaeda: “The sharp drop in suicide bombings in Iraq is partly due to the decline in foreign al Qaeda volunteers coming into Iraq. The recruiting, mostly in Saudi Arabia and North Africa, preys on the unique social conditions in those areas. . . . The main reason for this is bad news, and some survivors, coming back from Iraq. Not many of these losers make it back, but the word gets on to the Internet, and this has caused quite a commotion on pro-terrorist web sites and message boards. There’s also been a sharp drop in pro-terrorist combat videos coming out of Iraq. This is largely due to the death or capture of the people responsible for getting those videos onto the Internet. . . . For most of the last four years, the al Qaeda volunteers would go to Iraq and ‘die a glorious death.’ Now the trip tends to end in despair and humiliation. The word is getting around, and the recruiters don’t like it.”

Of course, they did manage some attacks today. Is this the start of the Terrorist Tet that some people have been predicting?

THE AIR FORCE IS PUSHING coal-to-oil plans. Do they know something we don’t?

NETWORK SOLUTIONS SHUTS DOWN A WEBSITE under Islamist pressure. I’m guessing they wouldn’t respond to complaints from Baptists quite so readily.

UPDATE: Reader Antoinette Aubert emails: “Baptists don’t blow people up for disagreeing with them. Heck Baptists don’t even sue you for disagreeing with them. Thus does multi-culturalism make cowards of us all.” Or encourage violence and litigation.

NEWS WITHOUT REPORTERS?

OBAMA’S MILITARY ADVISER ON IRAQ, FROM 2003: “There’s no reason why this shouldn’t be a walkover.” Well, it was, in the beginning. But Tom Maguire observes: “McPeak is a part of the American story; Barack can no more disown him than he can disown his own grandmother, who made comments about the war effort against the Japanese that made Barack cringe.”

Of course, one of Hillary’s advisers said it would be a “cakewalk.” And the invasion part pretty much was. Nobody — in or out of the Bush Administration — worried enough about the reconstruction phase.

ROMNEY BACKER DOUG KMIEC endorses Obama: “I believe him to be a person of integrity, intelligence and genuine good will. I take him at his word that he wants to move the nation beyond its religious and racial divides and to return United States to that company of nations committed to human rights. “

THANKS, Skippy. Though I’ve been holding up pretty well under the strain.

THREE SIMPLE RULES for a sex scandal.

REMEMBERING THE 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix 455. When we were in high school, Doug Weinstein had a 1973 model that he had bought used from Ernie Grunfeld. It wasn’t a bad car — we drove it to the Keys one year for spring break and it was fast, smooth, and comfy — but it was a gas hog.

Plus, the joys of the once-ubiquitous Volvo 240DL. “The car made up for that lapse of refinement with an almost utter lack of power. Brand-new, the four-cylinder engine pumped out 114 horsepower. After more than 300,000 miles of abuse, I’d be surprised if it generated anything close to that lofty figure. This, when powering a two-ton steel safety cage, resulted in a car able to drive out of a paper bag only if that bag is properly moistened.” It was a popular car for daughters for this reason — safe in a crash, and unable to muster enough zip to encourage dangerous driving . . . .

PANDEMIC PLANNING: Still not ready:

WHEN an outbreak of the Spanish flu spread worldwide in 1918, a doctor in Newark advised his patients that they could cure their illness with red onions and coffee. In Atlantic City, the authorities closed amusement parks and theaters indefinitely. And in upstate New York, public health officials distributed a poster warning people against “careless spitting, coughing, sneezing.” Those precautions had mixed results, and an estimated 675,000 Americans died during that outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Today, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York are much more prepared than they were 90 years ago in the event that an influenza outbreak turns into a pandemic. But five years after an avian flu outbreak in Asia made pandemic flu planning a priority, some experts are concerned that states have not been equally vigilant about preparing, and as attention and federal financing begin to decrease, they fear that preparedness efforts will slacken.

Sooner or later, something will come along. It’s best to be prepared.

ROGER SIMON: Bill Clinton is no McCarthyite.

And Bill Richardson is no Judas. Notwithstanding the beard.

SURPRISE:

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has been taken aback by the scope and variety of potential terrorism threats facing the United States, he told reporters Friday at an informal meeting in his office. “I’m surprised by how surprised I am,” said Mukasey, who as a federal judge presided over terrorism-related trials in New York.

“It’s surprising how varied [the threat] is, how many directions it comes from, how geographically spread out it is,” he said.

I’m surprised by how surprised he is, too.

EASTER THOUGHTS FROM The Anchoress and from Roger Kimball.

A NEW, HIGHLY-EFFICIENT LIGHTBULB that’s neither an LED nor a CFL. (Via Slashdot.)

BARNEY FRANK: Feds should decriminalize marijuana. Yep. But don’t count on any support from Obama, Clinton, or McCain.

UPDATE: Thoughts from TalkLeft.

THE LONDON TIMES: Barack Obama: toxic mentors start to corrode pristine campaign.

TIBET UPDATE: “US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday gave a strong message to the world from the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, asking it to raise its voice against ‘Chinese oppression’ in Tibet.” Good for her.