HERE’S ANOTHER REVIEW of Michael Yon’s Moment of Truth in Iraq. By rights, this book should have been reviewed in the New York Times and the Washington Post by now. Perhaps if this weren’t an election year, it would have been. Still, he continues to do quite well on Amazon.

BARACK AT THE BOILING POINT?

Barack Obama is struggling to contain his anger and frustration over the constant barrage of questions about his character and judgment, his wife has revealed.

I thought it was supposed to be McCain with the temper problem.

UPDATE: And she knows angry!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Brian Faughnan writes: “Does Michelle Obama understand that part of Barack’s . . . appeal is that he does not seem to be an angry person?”

MORE EFFECTIVE DELIVERY OF RNA-INTERFERENCE AGENTS, with nanotechnology.

LOOKING FOR A CHEAP, FUEL-EFFICIENT ALTERNATIVE TO AN S.U.V.: The Jetta Sportwagen might be a good choice, with a diesel TDI version that will get up to 60 mpg on the highway.

MICHAEL WEISS on Scott Ritter.

AMAZON SUES NEW YORK over Internet taxes. Though it’s actually on a related topic, this short article offers an overview of the legal issues involved.

MORE OLYMPIC WORRIES FOR CHINA: “China’s Health Ministry strengthened surveillance and dispatched specialists to the eastern Anhui province as the death toll from a virulent virus climbed to 22, the Xinhua News Agency reported. . . . The virus is another concern for Chinese officials as the nation prepares to host the Summer Olympics, which open August 8 in Beijing.” It’s mostly a threat to children, so I doubt the athletes are at great risk, but . . . .

KICKBACKS TO PLAINTIFFS — a legal industry problem? A rather surprising amount of outrage in the comments.

THAT WOULD BE GOOD: Predictions of a big price drop for photovoltaic cells.

GUY HERBERT on the culture of control.

THE SAUDIS’ SECRET AGENDA. It’s not that secret, it’s just that the people involved don’t really want it discussed.

“MY IMMIGRANT VAGINA IS ANGRY:” Won’t Monistat take care of that for you?

BLAIR’S LAW meets Radical Chic.

TOM MAGUIRE: “NOTE TO HENDRIK HERTZBERG: Your list of ‘relevant facts’ is woefully incomplete; try doing some reporting. “

THE SILENT SCREAM of asparagus. “What is clear, however, is that Switzerland’s enshrining of ‘plant dignity’ is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization, causing us to lose the ability to think critically and distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns. It also reflects the triumph of a radical anthropomorphism that views elements of the natural world as morally equivalent to people.”

Haven’t we seen this before? I guess now it’s the first time as farce! Though that would make this time the tragedy . . . .

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Maggie’s Farm: “These folks have taken the Pathetic Fallacy to a psychotic extreme.”

HOME THEATER RECEIVERS are marked way down, but I’ve never done the whole surround-sound setup myself. I don’t watch a lot of movies, and anyway the sound I’m getting seems pretty good. I’m afraid if I improve it I’ll start noticing the difference . . . .

MICKEY KAUS:

Jon Keller revisits possible Obama wrang-wrang Deval Patrick–the pioneering African-American governor of Massachusetts who now has a 56% disapproval rating. What’s the difference between Obama and Patrick? They were both relatively inexperienced. They were both advised by David Axelrod. They both ran on “hope.”

But there is a difference, reportedly.

A LUKEWARM REVIEW FOR IRON MAN, from Kyle Smith: “The first hour of Jon Favreau’s new film is right up there with the best movies of the genre. Too bad the second half sounds like a Ralph Nader lecture on America’s responsibility for all the world’s wars.”

MARKETS AT WORK:

Call it the paranoid theory of petroleum. Somehow, dark forces behind the scenes keep us from doing anything about soaring oil prices. In fact, something is being done to bring down oil prices. And you’re doing it. . . .

U.S. fuel demand in the first three months of 2008 was down 1.4% from a year earlier — the third straight quarterly year-over-year decline in a row.

Gasoline consumption has risen about 1.5% a year since 2000. But Energy Department data showed demand in the first quarter edging down for the first time in more than two decades.

In short, the tide has turned.

The New York Times notes that U.S. car buyers have suddenly gone ga-ga over small cars. One in five purchases is now a compact or subcompact, while SUV sales are off 28%. “It’s easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,” said George Pipas, Ford Motor’s chief sales analyst.

Go figure.

A BUNCH OF MOTHER’S DAY GIFT RECOMMENDATIONS, helpfully sorted by price and category.

VISITING THE Tesla Motors factory store in Los Angeles.

BOB OWENS:

Fifty-four shootings in two weekends. Shot-up bodies recovered in groups of three and five. Is this Ramadi? Basra? No.

Welcome to Chicago.

Note the fruits of gun control. Plus this on the Chicago P.D.’s up-armament: “If the department arms 10,000 of their officers with M4s, the police will have 9,900 more assault rifles in Chicago than the U.S. Marines presently have in Fallujah, Iraq.”

POT, KETTLE: Hillary Clinton’s flyer calling Barack Obama a gun-grabber. (Thanks to SayUncle for the tip).

A ROUNDUP ON FUSION POWER RESEARCH from Alan Boyle. And some more information here, focusing on the Bussard Polywell fusion project.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB! Iraqis begin to “despise” the Mahdi Army in Baghdad’s Rusafa district.