REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

PARANOIA STRIKES DEEP:

SMARTPHONES: A bigger security risk than laptops?

MILITARY NANOTECHNOLOGY: A threat or a promise?

HELPING KIDS remember World War II.

SUING SAUDI ARABIA FOR 9/11: Here’s part one, and here’s part two. “The lawsuit compiles hundreds of incremental disclosures from U.S government and other sources and weaves them together to form one basic assertion: Al-Qaeda’s development from ragtag regional terrorists into a global threat was fueled by Saudi money, some of it from the government.”

(Via Howard Bashman).

SKEPTICISM ON CAP-AND-TRADE, FROM ROBERT SAMUELSON: Just Call It ‘Cap-and-Tax’.

Plus, I’m sure it will be managed as efficiently and honestly as, say, public pension funds. . . .

MICKEY KAUS FINDS AN INCONSISTENCY from Paul Krugman on unions and inflation.

TRENDS IN IRAQ, at The Mudville Gazette.

SAUDI MONTANA? “The state may hold 40 billion barrels of oil. Best of all: No burqas.” Let’s hope.

A TALE OF TWO TALE-TELLERS: Christopher Hitchens compares Doug Feith’s book with Scott McClellan’s. “As undersecretary of defense for policy, Feith was one of those most intimately involved in the argument about whether to and, if so, how to put an end to the regime of Saddam Hussein. His book contains notes made in real time at the National Security Council, a trove of declassified documentation, and a thoroughly well-organized catalog of sources and papers and memos. Feith has also done us the service of establishing a Web site where you can go and follow up all his sources and check them for yourself against his analysis and explanation. There is more of value in any chapter of this archive than in any of the ramblings of McClellan.”

And guess which one got all the press? Though happily, Feith’s book is still managing to stay up at #84, which isn’t bad for a book that’s been frozen out of major review venues — and certainly one that hasn’t gotten the benefit of the Bush-bashing premium in media coverage.

OKAY, IT’S MICROMACHINES, NOT NANOTECHNOLOGY, but it’s still cool:

Waltzing microbots are all the rage at Duke University.

Researchers there today said they made microrobots shaped something like a spatula but with dimensions measuring just microns, or millionths of a meter pirouette to the music of a Strauss waltz on a dance floor just 1 millimeter across. In another sequence, the devices pivot in a precise fashion whenever their boom-like steering arms are drawn down to the surface by an electric charge. This response resembles the way dirt bikers turn by extending a boot heel, researchers said. The researchers said they have also been able to get five of the devices to group-maneuver in cooperation under the same control system.

Known as microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microrobots, the devices are of suitable scale for Lilliputian tasks such as moving around the interiors of laboratories-on-a-chip.

As I say, cool.

HERSCHEL SMITH thinks that reports of the Taliban’s impending defeat in Afghanistan are exaggerated, and offers this disturbing reminder: “These radically divergent reports are not atypical of NATO behavior in Afghanistan. We are accustomed to well-rehearsed strategy and clear, consistent communication from the Multinational Force in Iraq. NATO performs more like a multi-headed creature with different countries not only failing to ensure consistency in communication, but following very different strategies (most remarkably the British at all levels of the government).”

GEOFFREY FEIGER acquitted.

SUPPRESSING THE VOTE: At Dartmouth? “I have received reports that some people have not received ballots and when they inquired as to why, they were told that they had been classified (without their knowledge) as ‘not interested’ in voting. If you are in that category and have not received a ballot and you are in fact interested in voting, you should call 603-646 2258 or email the alumni relations office at dartmouth [dot] alumni [dot] relations {at} dartmouth.edu.”

MARK STEYN: “In among all the usual presidential ditching of inconvenient associations, I can’t think of anything to compare with Obama’s dumping of Trinity. It’s like Jimmy Carter renouncing his Baptist Church in Plains, Ga – although Carter never went so far as to title his campaign-launch promotional book after one of his preacher’s sermons.”

U.S. BLOGGER ACCUSES JUDGE OF BEING A STOOGE OF LEE KUAN YEW. Singapore government arrests blogger.

A TERRORISM GUILTY PLEA in Ohio. Gateway Pundit has more.

GARRISON KEILLOR, James Lileks, and some bikers.

MEGAN MCARDLE:

At each turn, the news that tax revenues fall during recessions is greeted first with surprise, and then with indignation. This is perhaps why no one has expected the states to anticipate this bewildering state of affairs by building up their reserves to levels adequate to weather the really rather moderate financial storms that beset them during lean times.

Too, these articles rarely see fit to mention the other ways in which these wounds have been self-inflicted–the habit of making ever more lavish pension promises to the public sector unions, for example. Public pension funds are now officially a disaster. Politicians promised benefits without funding them. The befuddled fund managers seem to have mistaken beta for alpha, pouring their assets into riskier asset classes because they couldn’t make up the deficit on a safe, modest appreciation every year. If these were private companies, most of those managers and their bosses would be under indictment.

Indeed.

BILL CLINTON EXPLODES AT Obama and the press:

Maybe you can figure out who Clinton means “didn’t do anything about it”:

“It’s part of the national media’s attempt to nail Hillary for Obama,” Clinton continued. “It’s the most biased press coverage in history. It’s another way of helping Obama. They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he didn’t do anything about it.

“The first day he said ‘Ah, ah, ah well.’ Because that’s what they do– he gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain — maybe I better quit the church. It’s all politics. It’s all about the bias of the media for Obama.”

As somebody said, “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.”

UPDATE: Obama’s New Party endorsement.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Autopsy of the Primaries: The only Democratic Candidate who can lose the General Election; the only Republican one who can win it. Plus, advice for both candidates.

DANA GOLDSTEIN LOOKS AT Netroots infighting.

JONATHAN MARTIN: Drudge may no longer be reliable GOP ally. In truth, he never has been. Drudge likes sensational news, and puncturing the pompous self-righteousness of Big Media. That’s meant he helps the GOP more than the Democrats — who rely on Big Media’s pompous self-righteousness a lot — but that’s more because of the state of the media landscape than because of any alliance.

IOWAHAWK LISTENS TO CANADIAN RADIO: Warman of the Mounted Human Rights Police.