A “WHISPER CAMPAIGN” against fair use.

RON BAILEY on world food prices: “If surging demand is not the problem, what is? In three words: stupid energy policies. Although they are not perfect substitutes, oil and natural gas prices tend to move in tandem. So as oil prices rose above $100 per barrel, the price of gas also went up. Natural gas is the main feedstock for nitrogen fertilizer. As gas prices soared, so did fertilizer prices which rose by 200 percent. . . . Even worse is the bioethanol craze. Politicians in both the United States and the European Union are mandating that vast quantities of food be turned into fuel as they chase the chimera of ‘energy independence.'” You can make methanol — and, now, ethanol — from kudzu. Forget corn.

THOUGHTS ON SURVIVAL FROM SAY UNCLE. Plus, this important observation: “I see that some other experts say that setting zombies on fire is bad.”

A RELIGIOUS SYMBOL outside a Tennessee courthouse. Will the ACLU complain?

LAW SCHOOL ADVICE FROM PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE:

You want to help make society a better place? You want to eliminate poverty? Become a corporate lawyer. Help businesses grow, so that they can create jobs and provide goods and services that make people’s lives better.

A corporate lawyer not only serves the public interest by helping to create new wealth, we also help defend an important social institution from statism. . . . Those whose livelihood depends on corporate enterprise cannot be neutral about political systems. Only democratic capitalist societies permit voluntary formation of private corporations and allot them a sphere of economic liberty within which to function, which gives those who value such enterprises a powerful incentive to resist both statism and socialism. Because tyranny is far more likely to come from the public sector than the private, those who for selfish reasons strive to maintain both a democratic capitalist society and, of particular relevance to the present argument, a substantial sphere of economic liberty therein serve the public interest.

Bravissimo!

UNDER FIRE: “The BBC is under fire after altering a news story about global warming as a result of activist pressure.”

REPORTS FROM THE anti-China protests in San Francisco.

AN ARMY REENLISTMENT GOAL, exceeded. “In case that wasn’t clear, I’ll explain: the 3ID – the Division that took Baghdad in 2003, did a second tour in Iraq in 2005, and then bore the brunt of the surge in 2007, exceeded it’s re-enlistment goal for FY2008 half way through the year.”

“GET ME MORE WHITE PEOPLE.”

UPDATE: TalkLeft: “Can you imagine if a similar request for African-Americans was made by the Clinton campaign? It would lead the evening news.”

$100 OIL EQUALS liquid coal? Bring it on.

AN UNWANTED PROMOTION FOR BILL STUNTZ: “My cancer has been promoted: I’m officially in stage 4. My doctors have found two cancerous nodules—a euphemism for “small tumors”—one on each of my lungs. I started chemo this week. Next week, I’ll see a thoracic surgeon who will, sometime this summer, cut those tumors out. Needless to say, this isn’t good news—though, thanks to medical advances (especially, thanks to those evil drug companies that politicians regularly attack), it isn’t disastrous news either. We’ll see what the future brings. I don’t have any previous experience with this sort of thing, but judging from what I hear and read, I’m supposed to be asking why all this is happening, and why it’s happening to me. Honestly, those questions are about the farthest thing from my mind.”

Send him your prayers and best wishes.

POLITICO: OPRAH ENDORSES OBAMA, sees her popularity dive.

UPDATE: A “barrage of bilge.”

TOM MAGUIRE: “Not for the first time Jay Rockefeller manages to be part of an embarrassing story for the Obama campaign.”

GOVERNMENT-MANDATED maximum waist sizes in Japan?

AN ELLIPTICAL-MACHINE ROWBOAT: Why? Because we can!

THE GERMAN TAKE on the Democratic primary.

NEWSPAPERS SLASHING JOBS, and Gerard van der Leun says they still won’t admit their problem. “And yet the Seattle Times, as well as numerous other newspapers now dying in the US, never ever cops to its point of view as the reason why it is failing. This is like some postmodern purist hamburger joint that won’t put cheeseburgers on the menu. There’s 100 people who want either a hamburger or a cheeseburger, but the cooks only want to make hamburgers. For 55 people, that’s great, but there’s 45 people who won’t ever again go to the Chez Hamburger Only / No Cheeseburger joint.”

DOUBLE-TALK on trade and globalization.

CONGRATULATIONS TO NICK SCHULZ.

AT SILICON GRAFFITI, Mugging for the Camera compares reporting on the 80+ paratrooper who beat up a mugger with the earlier work of Rebecca Aguilar.

DAVID CORN: Petraeus takes The Hill; Democrats miss an opportunity.

UPDATE: Comments on Corn, from The Belmont Club.

Corn thinks the “big news” in Petraeus testimony is that there isn’t going to be a definite drawdown to pre-Surge levels any time soon. He may wish to consider another candidate for the headline. Admiral Fallon left CENTCOM amid rumor that he and Petraeus had clashed over the subject of how to respond to Iran. A recent spate of articles quoting Petraeus shifting the focus of operations to Iranian and Iranian backed groups suggests that the real context of the Surge and what follows is no longer driven by events in Iraq, but in its Islamic neighbor.

That, says Richard, is the real news. Plus this: “Corn seems to think that the proper role of the Democratic Congressmen was to discredit or attack the Surge. I would have thought their first duty was to listen to Petraeus and think about America’s strategic choices in the region. But then it’s 2008 and we all know what that year signifies.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Much more rounded up at Slate.

MORE: Some thoughts on the Petraeus testimony from Austin Bay.

IS THE 9″ ASUS EEEPC coming out early? Okay, technically it’s an 8.9″ Eee PC.

I continue to like mine, by the way.

RIOTS in Egypt.

SHOULD BANDS CHANGE THEIR NAMES when a singer/frontman dies?

GREG LUKIANOFF on the Colorado College censorship debacle.