DAVID HARSANYI: Risk for Thee, But Not For Me. “The feds will rescue anyone, it seems, except those suckers who dutifully mail their mortgage checks in on time every month.” Perhaps if we offered lucrative employment to ex-Congressmen. . . .

EAVESDROPPING ON IMMUNE-SYSTEM CELLS with nanotechnology.

HEH: “Yes, yes, everybody wants to be Camille Paglia.”

Plus, a question for Josh Marshall.

CLONING MEAT.

TOM SMITH: “I do think Google has a pretty creepy corporate culture, not overly law abiding and respectful of the IP rights of others, and with imperial ambitions. They scare me, but golly, they do make good products. I do think it’s wrong for them to keep all those brains they stole from orphans alive in vats underneath their server farm in Oregon just to alpha test their products, however, even if the technology is really impressive.”

The Department of Justice has its own concerns.

PENNSYLVANIA: “It’s official, Sen. John McCain’s crowds are now Obama-sized.”

NEAL STEPHENSON’S ANATHEM gets reviewed in the Wall Street Journal by Paul Boutin. My take on Anathem is here.

WHO NEEDS HYBRIDS? VW shows off 74 mpg Golf BlueMotion Concept.

MEGAN MCARDLE ON COASTAL PRIVILEGE: “I’m surprised–though I shouldn’t be, of course–that any number of liberals who are (presumably) comfortable with concepts like unconscious discrimination and privilege when it comes to race, have not even stopped to consider that the same sort of thing might be operating here. . . . Maybe you don’t know you’re doing it. But I have quite brilliant friends who grew up in rural areas and went to state schools–not Michigan or UT, but ordinary state schools–who say that, indeed, when they mention where they went to school, there’s often a droop in the eyelids, a certain forced quality to the smile. Oh, Arizona State. Great weather out there. Don’t I need a drink or something? This person couldn’t possibly interest me.”

UPDATE: It’s all about fear of encroaching Dollywood Values.

MAKING NEWS MEDIA TRANSPARENT with SpinSpotter. But here’s the part that will really make journalists shiver: “Soon SpinSpotter will add a feature that will alert readers if a story uses suspiciously similar language to a press release.”

JENNIFER RUBIN: “While Obama supporters flail about and bemoan the state of the race, here’s something to consider: the fix which Barack Obama is now in is entirely of his own making.”

PURGING YOUR BRAIN OF impure, un-green thoughts.

IN THE MAIL: From Chuck Norris, Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America. There are two kinds of people in the world: People who bought Chuck Norris’s book, and people who Chuck Norris has made wish they had bought his book . . . .

ANDREW BREITBART: Hollywood Infidel.

INSTA-POLL:

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS if you don’t build power plants:

Britain is “quite simply running out of power” and blackouts are almost inevitable within the next few years.

This is the stark warning from the head of an energy think-tank who believes power cuts could be serious enough to spark civil disorder.

A warning for America, too. But here are two pieces of good news:

1. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved uprates to seven nuclear reactors over the last year, adding a further 249 MWe (2 billion kwh) to overall US nuclear capacity.

2. Researchers have genetically engineered a thermophilic bacterium, meaning it’s able to grow at high temperatures, and this new microorganism makes ethanol as the only product of its fermentation. The technology to convert cellulosic biomass to ethanol is steadily improving, and it also has the potential to be cost-competitive with gasoline production.

Faster, please.

POLITICO: Ed Koch Backs Obama, Calls Palin “Scary.”

UPDATE: Wall Street Journal: Record Contradicts Palin’s ‘Bridge’ Claims. Remember, you may like her, but like everybody else in this race she’s a politician. Don’t go building a cult.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kenneth Scislaw emails:

You are puzzling. Your immediate reaction to Palin was negative and gloomy. You’ve clearly been dragged along to the point you are luke warm. You are now hectoring your readers about CULTS!!

Hectoring? I don’t see my reaction to the Palin nomination the same way as Scislaw does, but, really, “luke warm” is about as good as I get where politicians are concerned. People think I’m a Pollyanna sometimes, but as I’ve noted before, it’s because my expectations are low.

I do find it odd, though, that they’re attacking her over the Bridge when Obama and Biden voted for it in place of funding Katrina relief with the money, as Tom Coburn wanted.

JAMIE KIRCHICK ON why the G.O.P. should go pro-gay.

Happily married gay couples with closets full of assault weapons. That’s my vision for America, and it’s a good one.

ROGER SIMON: Campaign ‘08: Attack of the Cyber Cockroaches.

ABOUT TIME: “With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now under federal control, some people are paying attention not just to the housing market conditions involved in their downfall but also to the mismanagement and corruption that helped cripple the federally-backed mortgage companies.” These places have provided lucrative employment for ex-members of Congress, and used those members to lobby for lax regulation. Corruption and other people’s money — a common recipe for failure.

Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus notes a Jim Johnson omission on the part of NPR.

UPDATE: Related item here.

LACK OF VITAMIN B12 tied to brain shrinkage.

TIM BLAIR: Victim of speed cameras.

TOM SMITH: “Maybe there are two Americas: one likes kids, the other doesn’t. Maybe it’s just that simple.”

JIM TREACHER returns to comics.

JOE BIDEN GETS high marks as a law professor.

“It was just a fantastic experience,” said Christin Kubacke, an assistant district attorney in the Chester County DA’s office and a 2006 graduate of Widener. “He was just an amazing professor and a man of the people.”

“He really was an amazing professor,” said David Clark, a former prosecutor now in private practice in West Chester and a 2001 gradate of the law school. “There was nothing you couldn’t say, and he listened to everyone’s opinion.”

Robert Hayman, a professor at Widener who has taught alongside Biden since 2003, agreed with the students that whatever his gifts as a legislator or politician are, he has made a reputation as a “terrific teacher.”

“He obviously knows the subject matter very well, and he’s a gifted speaker,” Hayman said Friday. “He has a real passion for the subject. He’s a real student of the Constitution.”

Joe, if this Veep thing doesn’t work out for you, we’d love to have you visit at Tennessee.