FOR HIM BEFORE HE WAS AGAINST HIM: “John Kerry says that John McCain lacks the good judgment necessary to be president. Four years ago, Kerry wanted McCain to be his vice president.” Ouch.

COOL: “Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho.” Cool photo of his flying machine, too. And I love this comment from his wife: “It’s never been a dull moment since I married him.”

THE FIRST POST-HELLER SECOND AMENDMENT OPINION: Not much news here, but still.

SCIENCE FICTION WRITER Thomas Disch has died.

UPDATE: Here’s more from Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

Via Patrick’s post I see that he had a blog, which I didn’t know. A number of the entries, in retrospect, seem to foreshadow his death. On the other hand, you could probably say that about half the stuff he wrote . . . .

ISRAEL SUCCESSFULLY TESTS missile interceptor.

THINGS THAT SUCK. So last night the Insta-Daughter and I watched Casablanca, which she’d wanted to see. That didn’t suck — I hadn’t seen it in years but it was just as good as ever, and the DVD transfer was good. But then she wasn’t ready to go to bed, so I broke out a Fractured Fairy Tales DVD. The material there was quite funny, but the DVD, well, sucked — it forced us to sit through a bunch of lame previews about now-flopped children’s movies from a few years ago, and would not allow us to fast-forward or skip those. It just served to remind me that the Hollywood folks think your DVD player belongs to them, not to you; I was irritated enough that I posted a negative review over at Amazon. I don’t post a lot of reviews over there any more, but I wanted to warn people. I think that any DVD this bossy should get downgraded significantly.

UPDATE: Reader Leland Jackson emails:

I purchased the HBO John Adams DVD set when you mentioned the pre-order date. It was indeed a nice Father’s Day delivery. However, all three DVD’s in the set begin with a required-to-watch trailer for various HBO mini-series including John Adams. The first time was memorable enough. The third time occurred with the TV off for 5 minutes. Message to HBO, I purchased John Adams because of the quality making of it and word-of-mouth advertisement. If I want crass advertisement, I’ll watch American Idol.

Indeed. My suggestion — any time this happens to you, post a one-star review on Amazon, and complain loudly about the mandatory commercials. Maybe that’ll get their attention.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Lee Hutchins emails:

I read Leland Jackson’s email about ‘required-to-watch’ trailers on his John Adams DVD, but in all fairness, I have to report the one I bought last week thankfully had no such imbedded previews.

When I bought the DVD, my wife ridiculed me for being such a nerd: ”who would be interested in watching that?”. Well, I’m glad to say she (and I) are thoroughly enjoying watching the episodes.

And Richard Dyman emails to ask why I gave Fractured Fairy Tales three stars instead of one. Answer: I hadn’t thought it through yet. It would be five stars without the dumb intro, so I penalized ’em two. But on further thought I don’t think that’s enough to get their attention.

JAMES JOYNER: “The resilience of the Hillary Clinton dead-enders is surprising.”

WE STILL HAVE ELIOT SPITZER TO KICK AROUND. But now I’m wondering what the story was with Mario Cuomo. Oh well, old news anyway, I guess.

ARE HIGHER PRICES PRODUCING gas-pump conservatives? “The Pew Center’s latest survey reveals that it is self-identified liberals who have most changed their attitude about drilling. Indeed, a slightly higher percentage of Democrats than Republicans now say that more energy production is important.”

Does that mean we can expect an Obama pivot on drilling, too?

SOME SUMMER GOOD NEWS: Despite its reputation, mayonnaise can reduce food spoilage. That’s right, it’s not a special risk for food poisoning; rather, the reverse.

MICKEY KAUS: “More than two weeks ago the New York Times mentioned that the Iraqi city of Mosul was ‘in the midst of a major security operation’ against one of the last bastions of Al Qaeda in Iraq. So how’s that going? Should we have to read the London Times (or Belmont Club) to learn about its success or failure?”

If you have to go to The Belmont Club to find out how it’s going, then it’s a success. Failure, the NYT has no trouble covering.

POLITICO: Obama’s own voice may haunt him.

The snippets, though, seem tailor-made for attack ads against Obama, who at first responded to media coverage of Wright’s inflammatory remarks by asserting, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.”

But in the audio book, Obama recreates the very first sermon he heard Wright deliver — “The Audacity of Hope,” a phrase Obama has since used frequently, including as the title of his second book — which includes several remarks similar to those that sparked the controversy.

Obama describes the sermon as “a meditation on a fallen world. … Rev. Wright spoke of Sharpsville and Hiroshima, the callousness of policy makers in the White House and in the State House.”

Other potentially troublesome clips feature Obama swearing and quoting others using racial slurs.

Read the whole thing.