EVEN IF YOU’RE DRIVING YOUR CAR LESS, you still need to keep up with basic maintenance.

MEGAN MCARDLE on why pro-regulation fever will abate. I hope so. One reason why I worry less about guns than butter is that there’s always more political pressure to end a war than to end a social or regulatory program.

TOM MAGUIRE: “Biden is trying to put lipstick on the Bay of Pigs.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Structural DNA Nanotechnology in Living Cells.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of Apple computer news from all over, including anger over the new MacBook’s lack of Firewire connectivity.

CATO ISSUES A fiscal policy report card on the nation’s governors.

COCOONING IN THE CAMPAIGN? CBS reports: “Palin becomes increasingly accessible to the national media . . . . By contrast, Biden hasn’t held a press conference in more than a month, and Obama hasn’t taken questions from his full traveling press corps since the end of September.”

UPDATE: Heh: “I am utilizing my retroactive genius to note the now-so-obvious-it-was-inevitable media surge in support of Sarah Palin.” Plus this: “A bunch of bored, paunchy male reporters hanging out with the Hot Chick and liking it – imagine my surprise. My question is, what took the McCain geniuses so long to figure this out?”

UNVEILED: The all electric MINI-E.

THE CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES IS UP!

THIS TAX HOPE OF VIRGINIA POSTREL’S didn’t bear fruit in the last Congress. “How about a loophole-closing, rate-flattening 1986-style tax reform from the new Congress? It would be a lobbyist nightmare, and a repudiation of the Clinton administration’s zillions of tax credits for good behavior (extended by the Bushies). But if I squint really hard I can see it happening.”

Is it too much to hope for better next time around? Well, probably.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, bad environmental news would be hushed up to protect political positions. And they were right! “A government report that found old-fashioned reusable nappies damage the environment more than disposables has been hushed up because ministers are embarrassed by its findings.”

I KEEP SAYING THAT AIRPORT SECURITY IS A JOKE, but here’s more evidence, from Jeffrey Goldberg and Bruce Schneier. But to be fair to the TSA, their officers no doubt know that subjecting someone carrying a Hezbollah flag to extra screening would probably produce complaints of ethnic profiling, political discrimination, or something.

TOP 5 law school ranking scams of 2008. Well, so far — the year isn’t over yet!

BIDEN ON Obama and foreign policy.

UPDATE: Biden’s major gaffe: “It is rather unwise to air such predictions about your running mate’s presidency two weeks before the election, but that’s what you get when you bring Joe Biden onto the campaign. Lawyers call this ‘assuming the risk.'”

THE POLITICS OF “HATE” AND “RAGE” — from Jon Stewart? “The media has devoted hundreds of stories of late to the tenor of audience comments at McCain-Palin rallies, fretting about ‘rage’ and ‘incitement’ by the campaign, but the only account of Stewart’s appearance is a one-sentence mention in the Boston Globe, and his abusive Palin comments are not included.” Video at the link.

Meanwhile, a report of shots fired at the McCain-Palin bus.

UPDATE: “She is not a woman. She is a Republican.”

JURASSIC TRAILER PARK: Michael Yon posts another dispatch from Afghanistan. With lots of cool photos.

A BAD YEAR TO BE GRADUATING LAW SCHOOL? “3Ls Have $73k Average Debt, Bleak Job Prospects; 1Ls & 2Ls Face 33% Cut in Summer Associate Programs.”

IN THE MAIL: From Sumbul Ali-Karamali, The Muslim Next Door: The Qur’an, the Media, and That Veil Thing.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOP HOSPITALS AND THE REST LOOKS pretty dramatic: “If all hospitals performed as well as 5-star facilities, as ranked by an independent healthcare ratings company, 237,420 U.S. Medicare patient deaths could have been prevented between 2005 and 2007.”

SNATCHED FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: There seems to be a lot of this scrubbing going on.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT: But remember, dissent is the highest form of patriotism!

AT THE WHITE-COLLAR CRIME BLOG, a response to the New York Times on how best to deal with white collar crime. The press also needs to remember that companies can go broke from bad management, and that bad management isn’t a crime. If it were, certain media companies might be sweating right now . . . . .

MORE BIG MEDIA RETRENCHMENT: “NBC Universal is prepping another round of major cuts, slashing spending by $500 million next year. Conglom topper Jeff Zucker announced the reduction Friday via a memo to staffers. Cuts would equal 3% of the company’s budget, according to Zucker.”

LAWRENCE TAYLOR’S D.U.I. BLOG looks at abusive drunk-driving laws and enforcement.