SHOWERING WITH JOHN EDWARDS, at Oberlin.

ITALY’S NUCLEAR MOVE triggers chain reaction: “Italy, which last week decided to embrace nuclear power two decades after a public referendum banned nuclear power and deactivated all its reactors, could be just the first of several European countries to reverse its stance on nuclear power, a leading industry group has said. Ian Hore-Lacey, spokesman for the London-based World Nuclear Association, said: ‘Italy has had the most dramatic, the most public turnaround, but the sentiments against nuclear are reversing very quickly all across Europe.'”

THOUGHTS ON LIBERALS, CONSERVATIVES, and racial guilt.

HIGH FOOD PRICES: Reader Robert Denton notes this post and this one, and suggests that I’m wrong to think that food prices aren’t really up.

Well, I don’t think that food prices aren’t up. I do the grocery shopping for my household, and believe me, I’ve noticed; my average grocery run costs about 20 bucks more than last year. Rather, my point was the lameness of media efforts to report on that — interviewing people at fancy gourmet markets? — and the cheesiness of their “holiday” angle. As is often the case, even as they try hard to manufacture one bit of bad news, they’re actually missing the real bad news, because reporting on that usefully would require actual work. As I’ve noted on this topic before, their bias is exceeded only by their laziness and ignorance. The data in the AP story don’t prove its ostensible point — that holiday barbecues (by which they mean cookouts, not actual barbecue) are vastly more expensive — but to do an actual story on what food prices are up across the board, and why, would be actual work and wouldn’t produce the “holiday angle” that editors want.

UPDATE: Related item here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More from Steven Malanga at RealClearMarkets. (Thanks to reader Tom Scott for the tip).

SURPRISE: Nuclear Agency Accuses Iran of Willful Lack of Cooperation: “The nine-page report accused the Iranians of a willful lack of cooperation, particularly in answering allegations that its nuclear program may be pointed less at energy generation than at military use.” Do tell. That National Intelligence Estimate is looking kinda shaky, isn’t it?

MICKEY KAUS: “Nearly 1,000 state employees in California make more than $200,000 a year, according to the S.F. Chronicle. That’s excluding university employees. … The month before Gov. Schwarzenegger took office, there were only eight. … Mainly, the high earners seem to be dentists, doctors, and psychiatrists in the state prison and mental health systems. … The total state employee head count has gone up by 26,000 under Schwarzenegger.”

Bizarre, but unrelated, Schwarzenegger item here.

A MEMORIAL DAY GAFFE? “On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.” Nice.

UPDATE: Airbrushing, at the Obama website.

IN CHINA, TRAGEDY COMPOUNDED BY TYRANNY: “Imagine having to get a government certificate in order to obtain permission to have another baby after losing your only child to natural disaster.” But it’s good for Gaia . . . .

WILLIAM BEUTLER: Newsweek buries Isikoff scoop to help Obama. (Via Memeorandum).

POLYGAMY IN TORONTO. But it’s okay, because they’re Muslims.

IT’S A SPECIAL MEMORIAL DAY Blawg Review.

TRUE GRIT: “Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday offered a spiritual defense for continuing her presidential campaign.”

BLAMING HILLARY IF OBAMA IS ASSASSINATED: “Approaching June, my prayers for Barack Obama’s safety have indeed become a daily plea. I’m not a big prayer guy, but I had no idea Hillary Clinton would make that necessary for my own peace of mind.” I think that’s unfair, as is blaming Rush Limbaugh for Timothy McVeigh.

UPDATE: Related item here.

HELPFUL ADVICE FOR AMERICA’S YOUTH, though it’s probably not safe for work.

BLOGGING FROM the Sasquatch! festival.

GUNS, PHILADELPHIA, and a tale of three criminal records. “I think it’s time we had a serious discussion here in Pennsylvania about how absolutely and utterly broken the City of Philadelphia’s criminal justice system is, and talk frankly about things we can do to fix it. Gun control obviously is not a solution, since the system is currently not using the laws already in the books in prosecutions. The Philadelphia media must not continue to give the politicians a free pass on deflecting blame onto others, and shame on them that it takes bloggers to bring the criminals records of these scumbags into the public light.”

INSIDE THE MARINES’ Kearsarge assault ship.

THE HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY. (Via Volokh).

ANN ALTHOUSE ON Bill Clinton on the media. And, from the comments: “The Clintons were the media’s old darlings. The reason for the negative media attention is that she is now standing in the way of the media’s new darling.”

VIDEO: Roger Simon with a Tesla Roadster. Why don’t I get assignments like this?

THOUGHTS ON FOOD, from Dr. Weevil: “InstaPundit quotes an AP story claiming that the cost of a package of hot dogs is up almost 7% in the last year to $4.29. I paid 99¢ each for my last two packs, on sale at Food Lion. Hot dogs keep for months in the refrigerator and years in the freezer, so there’s no reason ever to pay full price. What brand did I buy, and what kind of animal(s) were they made from? Who cares? Anyone who worries about the precise ingredients of his food shouldn’t be eating hot dogs in the first place. “

ABOUT THAT SURGE STRATEGY: It’s still working.

INTERNET UPHEAVAL at the Washington Post.