A LOOK AT THE IMPACT of mandatory vaccinations on death and disease.

STOCKS ADVANCE ON EXPECTATION THAT FED WILL RESCUE AIG. How many bailouts is too many?

I SEE MY FUTURE, and it holds a Lego-shaped cake.

NERD-ON-NERD VIOLENCE: Is computer geeks/physicists the new Jets/Sharks? Can’t we all just get along?

A PUBLIC HEALTH WARNING, from Roger Kimball.

TAXPROF: Rangel refuses to step down as Ways & Means Committee chair. This could hurt — if I were the GOP I’d put together an ad featuring Biden’s credit-card connections, Dodd’s sweetheart mortgage scandal, and Rangel’s ongoing problems and run it all over. I can’t believe they won’t do something like that, since it’s a gimme, and I’m surprised that the Dems couldn’t get him out of the picture. Then again, I said the same thing about the Republicans and Ted Stevens . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Mark Cates writes:

I would put together a commercial that said…

James A. Johnson – former Fannie Mae CEO and Obama Advisor

Just cost you billions in taxes

Franklin Raines – former Fannie Mae CEO and Obama Advisor

Just cost you billions in taxes

Barack Obama – If we can’t afford his advisors, how can we afford him?

Yeah, I’m actually kinda surprised we haven’t seen something like that already. Maybe the McCain rapid-response team is off its game . . . .

MORE: Reader Krys Corbett emails:

Oddly enough, there is a similar story on huffingtonpost — but the other direction.

——–

It seems to me that neither candidate wants to open this particular campaign financing can-of-worms.

Could be. The money tends to get spread around.

ZAP BREAKS GROUND on an electric car factory in Kentucky. “ZAP’s vehicles are currently manufactured in China, but according to the company’s CEO Steve Schneider, the costs of logistics for ZAP have risen in recent years, particularly to ship vehicles from California to the East Coast. A Kentucky manufacturing plant would help reduce that cost, he said.”

A WORLD OF WARCRAFT terror plot?

HAD ENOUGH OF SILLY DEATH THREATS: “Despite several threats by extremists, Paul McCartney has refused to cancel an upcoming concert in Israel. He will go ahead with a gig in honour of the country’s 60th anniversary.” Good for him!

UNVEILING the Chevy Volt. A first look.

WELL, GOOD: Europe backs off on crop-based biofuels.

CHILDREN AND medical mistakes.

IN THE MAIL: From Bjorn Lomborg, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming.

SOME FINANCIAL ADVICE for the current unpleasantness. Not sure I agree with the Home Equity advice, but I like the Monty Python reference. And there’s this: “If you want to worry about anything, worry about your taxes. The worse this crisis gets, the more they will end up putting the taxpayer on the hook to prevent a meltdown.” Alas, yes.

The “don’t panic” advice is probably good, too. I remember the 1987 crash — I was working at a Wall Street law firm then — and people were scared spitless as stocks dropped something like 25% in one day. But it wasn’ t the end, and we’ve seen nothing like that drop so far.

UPDATE: Reader John Pranikoff emails:

I remember the 1987 crash vividly too. I was right in the middle of it, working as a derivatives trader for a large global bank. Yesterday market sold of sharply, but it didn’t bear the slightest resemblance to 1987. Trading was orderly, the market was down 4.4% vs. 25%, there were no trading halts, and there was plenty of liquidity- if you wanted to sell, there were bids, unlike on that day almost 21 years ago.

The left knows that its in their interest to make the current situation sound as dire as possible (shades of “the worst economy in 50 years”). They will try to paint this as a failure of the markets, but in reality its the result of government meddling in the mortgage markets.

On thing’s for sure. There will be a renewed emphasis on economic policy in the campaign. In that light, John McCain should read this editorial over at NRO and take it to heart. It offers some sound advice.

Yeah, and today the indices are all up a bit at the moment. I’m not saying things are rosy — in particular, there are lots of hidden problems like underfinanced public pensions and ballooning entitlement programs — but it’s not 1987, and even 1987 wasn’t a new Depression, though they tried to make it sound like one for a while. I’m actually more worried about inflation as a result of low interest rates and too many bailouts.

LAST NIGHT I MENTIONED SENATE EFFORTS TO KILL DEMINT’S ANTI PORK AMENDMENT. Now Wesley Denton of DeMint’s office sends this on the effort to kill his amendment: “This is an attempt to make law without actually writing law. The ‘incorporation language’ is a just gimmick to strong-arm taxpayers into paying for secret earmarks. Americans are fed up with wasteful spending rammed through in the dark of night. Senator DeMint’s amendment will ensure that all of these projects are subjected to a competitive, merit-based review before any of them are funded. Americans expect their taxes to be spent wisely or not spent at all.”

If people want appropriations for their pet projects, it seems to me they should have to ask for them publicly, have them reviewed through the usual channels, and have them voted for. Is that asking too much? Apparently. But efforts at putting secret earmarks through are likely to play badly right now, with the federal government already facing financial strain from bailing out corrupt, politically-connected entities like Fannie Mae.

I also notice that the press seemed a bit quicker to pick up on these earmark stories back when the GOP controlled Congress . . . .

INSTA-POLL: Various references to an earmark-funded “PorkBusters Museum” have amused readers, so here’s a followup.

HOW TO SELL CREATIONISM IN EUROPE: “This material is currently being delivered free of charge to schools all over Europe. If it emanated from fundamentalist Christian America, I suspect it would be dumped in the wastepaper basket. But schools are more wary of offending the views of Muslim or Hindu pupils.”

LIVE-BLOGGING FROM THE WEB 2.0 CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK, at Edgelings.

MCCAIN AND OBAMA on science.

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

DO CARS REALLY NEED TO LOOK LIKE U.F.O.s to save gas? I dunno, but I like the way the Aptera looks.

Plus, air cars vs. electric cars vs. hybrids. And a roundup of new vehicles along these lines.

OBAMA, MCCAIN, AND PAY EQUITY: One talks the talk, the other, well . . . .

UPDATE: Speaking of double standards, do you think that if a Republican were holding a $28,500 a plate fundraiser while markets tanked the press would be talking about out-of-touch plutocrats?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Biden’s even worse on the gender pay gap. Will the press pick up on this? Doubtful. Doesn’t fit the narrative.

MORE ON THE UBIQUITOUS JAMIE GORELICK: “It’s not often that one person plays key roles in two — count ’em, two — trillion-dollar disasters.” Plus the Duke Lacrosse Rape Hoax case, which was a disaster of the first order too, even if it didn’t have a trillion-dollar price tag.

PELOSI TRYING TO QUIETLY PUSH RANGEL OVERBOARD? I love the photo, anyway . . . .

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: The real culprits in the subprime mess. “Market failure? Hardly. Once again, this crisis has government’s fingerprints all over it.” Not to mention the payola.