MARK STEYN: “Is roping your genitals illegal in New York? Do you need a permit?”

PEOPLE STARVING IS ONE THING, E.U. POLITICS IS ANOTHER:

The EU Commission on Monday rejected claims that producing biofuels is a “crime against humanity” that threatens food supplies, and vowed to stick to its goals as part of a climate change package.

“There is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for biofuels,” said Barbara Helfferich, spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

“You can’t change a political objective without risking a debate on all the other objectives,” which could see the EU landmark climate change and energy package disintegrate, an EU official said.

Their comments came amid growing unease over the planting of biofuel crops as food prices rocket and riots against poverty and hunger multiply worldwide.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told German radio Monday that the production of biofuels is “a crime against humanity” because of its impact on global food prices.

God forbid we should have a “debate on all the other objectives.” Read the whole thing.

CHINA, MUGABE, WEAPONS, AND SOUTH AFRICAN LONGSHOREMEN:

On Friday, the An Yue Jiang, a Chinese ship carrying arms bound for Zimbabwe, left the port of Durban. Earlier, a high court refused to allow the weapons to be transported across South African soil.

The decision capped a surprising turn of events. On Thursday, Themba Maseko, a spokesman for Pretoria, said that his country would not stop the shipment as long as formalities had been completed. Dockers of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, however, refused to unload the cargo, fearing that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe might use the weapons against his opponents, who are locked in a post-election standoff with him. Mugabe appears to have lost his post in the March 29 presidential election but is unwilling to step aside. . . .

But let’s not call these South Africans “ordinary.” They have done more to stop Chinese autocrats from aiding Mugabe than their own leader, Thabo Mbeki–and than the most powerful individual on earth, President George W. Bush.

We should be sending guns to Zimbabwe, but not to Mugabe. On the other hand, the slam at Bush isn’t completely fair:

More recently, police arrested an American, Peter Spitz, in Florida, for trying to sell ten Russian helicopters (apparently Mi-8s) to Zimbabwe. Spitz was caught in a sting, and he boasted of having 30 Russian made helicopters and warplanes in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan).

He’ll stop weapons to Zimbabwe, so long as it doesn’t mean standing up to China.

TIGERHAWK: “Even the New York Times, which has done its level best to promote the myth of Iraqi incompetence, acknowledges that the government has won the battle of Basra.”

UPDATE: Related thoughts from T.M. Lutas: “This is progress. This is good. This is going to be recognized by the mainstream media (on their own schedule) sometime between November and January or, if McCain’s smart, he’ll force them to recognize it in the summer so by the fall, Iraq will be a net benefit for Republicans, not a drag.”

OOPS:

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea’s first astronaut landed on Saturday in northern Kazakhstan 260 miles off its mark and 20 minutes late, Russian space officials said. . . .It was not the first landing of a Soyuz capsule that has gone awry. Last October, a technical glitch sent a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Malaysia’s first space traveler and two Russian cosmonauts on a steeper-than-normal path during its return to Earth.

But everyone’s okay.

PHOTOBLOGGING A TIBET/CHINA PROTEST in Wisconsin.

TODAY’S NEW YORK POST FEATURES A REVIEW of Michael Yon’s new book:

Those already familiar with Michael Yon’s work might have one question regarding his book: Is it simply a printed version of his dispatches from Iraq published on his popular Web site (michaelyon-online.com)?

The answer: No.

The best of those stories are in the book, but they’ve been expanded with the passage of time and military details too sensitive to use immediately, and told in the same gripping style that can now truly be called page turning.

Indeed. Read the whole thing.

THOUGHTS ON HEART-RATE AND TRAINING: When I’ve trained with a heart-rate monitor, I think I’ve worked out harder and made more progress. Your results may differ, however, as it seems to be as much a matter of psychology as physiology.

THOUGHTS ON RETIREMENT, FROM JERRY POURNELLE:

I discovered to my horror just how much the Feds tax retirement including Social Security! Having collected taxes for my lifetime — including to this day — on self-employment to pay into the Social Security account, they hand me a miserable pittance compared to what I would have got had I simply put the money into a money market account; then they tax part of it away.

Same with retirement accounts. They tax Roberta’s State Teacher’s Retirement income. They tax my TIAA retirement income from my academic years. Incidentally, a few years of TIAA/CREF generated a very sizable fraction of the income I get from Social Security from paying into that all my life. I have taken the “minimum distribution” option from TIAA, so I could get a lot more; my theory is that Mr. Heinlein was right, we writers are professional gamblers, and it’s well to have your house and car paid for and sock something away for a bad year, because you are likely to have one. Robert ran scared all his life.

Clearly the government wants us to spend ourselves broke and throw ourselves on welfare. Then they will stop fining us every year. They fine us for speeding, for spitting in the streets, for doing things they don’t want us to do: they also fine us for improving our property, investing money to grow the economy, saving money; the implications are pretty clear?

As the Rainmakers sang, “They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.”

IS THE PRESS LULLING OBAMA’S STAFFERS into a false sense of security?

Meanwhile, advice for Hillary: Don’t get cocky! Good advice for everyone in this election. Including you, John McCain.

ANOTHER REVIEW OF MICHAEL YON’S NEW BOOK, at the Mudville Gazette.

I HAVEN’T SEEN BEN STEIN’S EXPELLED, and I regard “Intelligent Design” theory as pernicious twaddle. But it’s interesting to see Stein clobbering Morgan Spurlock in box office. At any rate, according to the comments, at least, there’s more to the film than I.D. twaddle.

UPDATE: Here’s a review from Ed Morrissey.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a less favorable take.

MORE: I hate writing about this stuff because — pardon me while I speak plainly — the people on both sides of this issue are assholes. I mean, even by the low standards of Internet discussion. I’m getting email calling me a “theocon shill” for mentioning Stein, and email telling me I’ll burn in hell for calling Intelligent Design “pernicious twaddle.” Frankly, the rabid atheists and the rabid creationists seem an awful lot alike, and no proper hell could be truly hellish without the both of them yammering away at each other. Feh.

A ROUGH WEEK in the Ivy League.

MAJOR JOHN TAMMES REPORTS from an Iraqi Army memorial service.

Related item here: “Despite the news media’s apparent insistence on clinging to their narrative of defeat and disaster in Basra, Nouri al-Maliki’s operation to restore control of the city to the elected government achieved its major goal today with the fall of the Mahdi militia’s stronghold in the city.”

And reader C.J. Burch emails: “Look for media operation ‘Save Sadr.’ To begin any moment now.”

TENNESSEE TAX TALK: “Sen. Lamar Alexander’s proposal to give Americans the option of paying a federal ‘flat tax’ instead of an income tax has drawn criticism from two of his prospective Democratic opponents.”

Meanwhile, there’s this:

Congressman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) voiced his continued support for middle class Americans by signing onto legislation earlier this week giving the wealthiest taxpayers the option of returning more of their incomes to the federal government.

The legislation, H.R. 5783, the “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” Act, amends the U.S. Tax Code to allow citizens to make voluntary donations above their normal tax liability to pay for federal government programs. The legislation was introduced on April 10 by Congressman John Campbell of California. . . . Wealthy liberals like Barbra Streisand and Warren Buffet have frequently complained that taxes are too low. This bill gives them the opportunity to voluntarily pay more taxes.

I’d rate prospects for passage as poor (and can’t you already pay voluntarily?), but prospects for amusement as pretty good.

A.C. KLEINHEIDER’S new political blog for the Nashville Post is now up and running.

TOM MAGUIRE: “I am going to take a bold step in a brand new direction and offer the notion that working class Americans aren’t idiots.”

Plus this: “I will echo Michelle Obama by saying that in my adult lifetime I have never been proud of Europe’s ability to create jobs or absorb immigrants. “

BIG, FAT, HAIRY DEAL: A new car that has gone 142 miles without a fuel purchase? Er, that would be pretty much any new car that’s delivered with a full — or even a half — tank of gas, wouldn’t it?

POLL: Britons Fear Racial Violence: “Almost two-thirds of people in Britain fear race relations are so poor tensions are likely to spill over into violence, a BBC poll has suggested. Of the 1,000 people asked, 60% said the UK had too many immigrants and half wanted foreigners encouraged to leave.” The multi-cultural progress meets with its usual success.