A LOOK AT Barack Obama and Supreme Court appointments.

THOUGHTS ON “HUMAN RIGHTS” AND FREE EXPRESSION. They seem increasingly at odds, which suggests that “human rights” aren’t about, you know, “rights” at all.

GIVING THE MOMMYBLOGGERS some respect.

IN THE MAIL: Marci Hamilton’s Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect its Children.

NOW IT’S CAMPING AND HIKING GEAR ON SALE: At least, it’s there until I point it out . . . .

This should come in handy for all those new survivalist types, anyway. Might as well take advantage of free shipping before the apocalypse arrives. It’ll be harder to come by, after . . . .

GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT AT THE SHOOTING RANGE: In Manhattan. But what’s the “vice” angle? As you can see from the video, it’s good clean fun.

TERROR TIMELINE: We seem to have gotten quite a bit safer in recent years. Funny we’re not hearing more about that.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from John Weidner:

Terrorist attacks are done for a reason. The terrorists hope to get something out of them. The normal reaction in the West is to give them what they want. They want to sow fear, so we become fearful. They want publicity, so our “journalists” hasten to oblige. They want to demonstrate that we are not really dangerous, and so we lash out ineffectually. They want concessions, we run to the negotiating table. They want a break, we give them a truce.

It’s like our collective mind has a little Jimmy Carter whispering in our ears.

2002 and 2003 was the first time we responded to terror attacks by doing something they REALLY don’t want us to do. We cold-bloodedly and effectively brought democracy and freedom to two Islamic countries, and most importantly, one of them right in the Arab heartland. If our project in Iraq succeeds, al-Qaeda and its project are locked out of that country forever. They know it, they’ve said it, they’ve thrown their best efforts into the counter-attack.

And they fear that if they attack us we may do something like Iraq again .

Good point.

BILL BRADLEY ON McCain and Memorial Day. “John McCain represents two great traditions in American life. The career military tradition, in which he and his forebears have served America as professionals for more than a century. And the Scots-Irish tradition, the history and meaning of which is laid out in Webb’s Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish Shaped America. Both traditions overlap. Without them, we wouldn’t be celebrating our ease on this fine Memorial Day.”

PAUL LUKASIAK WRITES that Democratic voters are suffering buyers’ remorse. Meanwhile, Jennfer Rubin has some similar thoughts on why Obama isn’t farther ahead. Hey, at least he’s bringing people together from across the political spectrum . . . .

MORE ON CONGRESSWOMAN LAURA RICHARDSON (D-CA): The Richardson mess: She defaulted on three houses, report says.

FIRST PHOENIX PHOTOS arrive from Mars.

REMEMBERING MEMORIAL DAY: This always comes up, so I made the rounds. Google: Nothing. Ask.com: Yes. Yahoo! Yes. Dogpile.com: Yes. Clusty: Nothing. Ms. Dewey: Nothing, but she’s kind of hot.

UPDATE: Reader Dart Montgomery emails: “In fairness to clusty.com (which I use almost daily), it never does anything for any holiday. I think it would be great if it did, but it is not guilty of singling out Memorial Day for non-observance like google.”

SOME MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS from Donald Sensing.

AMY ALKON: “Jihad” Means “Hugs All Around!” I prefer the version of Islam represented in the Los Angeles Times, but I agree with Amy that it doesn’t seem entirely representative.

A MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGE FROM JIMMY CARTER: Hitting the right note, as usual.

MARK STEYN: “Strange to witness one of the oldest and most successful of nations commit suicide without even being aware of what it’s doing.”

Perhaps they’ve been paralyzed. Plus, thoughts from Rand Simberg on the difference between Britain and America.