THE WALL STREET JOURNAL looks at judicial reform in Tennessee. (Via Point of Law, which has more). I don’t believe, however, that — despite what the WSJ story suggests — Tennessee courts are particularly friendly to trial lawyers.

BILL ARDOLINO REPORTS FROM SADR CITY. Like Michael Yon and Michael Totten he’s supported by reader donations.

ROGER KIMBALL: Some disadvantages of sainthood.

THEY’LL SELL! Patriotic Barack Obama lapel pins unveiled honoring all 57 states. Heh. I still like this Obama pin, but it’s probably too subtle. Though if I were McCain I’d wear one at the first debate . . . .

HE IS FIGHTING FOR HIS WOMAN’S HONOR, which is more than she ever did.

KEVIN DRUM ON OIL PRICES AND DRIVING HABITS: I think it’ll take a while to see if there are lasting changes in people’s behavior, but it would be a strange thing indeed if people didn’t respond to higher gas prices by figuring out ways to use less, either by driving less, driving more slowly, or getting more efficient vehicles. (My brother has retired his truck to occasional haulage duties and is now commuting to work in a Mazda 3, bought used. He was going to sell the truck, but it’s got 150K miles on it and is worth very little on the resale market anyway — he said looking at used car prices suggests that gas hogs are selling at a much steeper discount than a few months ago, and more efficient used cars are selling at a premium.)

THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND SPEED RACER.

WEST VIRGINIA POLL: Hillary Clinton by 38.

UPDATE: West Virginia Could Spell Trouble for Obama. Wait, I thought it was all over . . .

HYBRID UPDATE: Spy shots of the Fisker Karma.

IN THE MAIL: Marwan Muasher’s The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation.

LAMAR ALEXANDER’S 7-STEP PLAN for energy independence. He’s getting a fairly lukewarm response in the comments so far.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, even mentioning constitutional rights could be banned. And they were right! “Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a gun shop owner who was sued by the city.”

UH OH: “A lethal variant on an ancient disease affecting wheat has spread from its base in Africa to Iran and now threatens vast fields in South Asia, the Middle East and Europe at a time of global food shortages, agricultural specialists warn.”

A LOOK AT Democrats, gun control, and the Second Amendment. “Democrats have run away from gun control because they think it’s a major reason they lost swing states in the last two presidential elections.”

A COMEBACK IN BRITAIN: What the Republicans can learn from the Tories. They’d better learn something from somebody . . . .

CINDY MCCAIN WON’T RELEASE HER TAX RETURNS: You could try to put a feminist-independence spin on this, I guess, but in the post-Clinton era the notion that a First Lady isn’t part of the overall political operation is going to be a tough sell.

UPDATE: See what I mean? “Michelle won’t let Barack pick Hillary as VP.”

SOMETHING I MISSED in the run-up to the North Carolina Primary, from K.C. Johnson: “Obama was, of course, the only presidential candidate of either party to support a DOJ investigation of Mike Nifong. . . . Hillary Clinton remained silent on the issue, even though one of her constituents was among the falsely accused.” Bravo for Obama. Boo for Hillary. (Via Tom Maguire).

I CAN’T SAY I’M SURPRISED TO HEAR THIS: “Experts say sex abstinence program doesn’t work.”

JACK KELLY: Obama Needs a History Lesson.

In his victory speech after the North Carolina primary, Sen. Barack Obama said something that is all the more remarkable for how little it has been remarked upon.

In defending his stated intent to meet with America’s enemies without preconditions, Sen. Obama said: “I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.”

That he made this statement, and that it passed without comment by the journalists covering his speech indicates either breathtaking ignorance of history on the part of both, or deceit.

Read the whole thing. And also Tom Maguire, who observes: “Think about this – the probable next President of the United States does not know even the broad outlines of the history of American foreign policy from WWII forward and does not know the history of Democratic icons Roosevelt or Truman. ” Then there’s the fact that he’s still hazy about how many states there are in the Union . . . . “I would tell him to check the flag in his lapel, but of course he won’t be wearing one.”

IN MY EARLIER LAWNMOWER POST, I mentioned the coolness of lawnmowing robots. That subject gets more treatment in Slate, but of course it ends with a robophobic twist: “They have no idea what’s coming.”

AUSTIN BAY’S LATEST COLUMN is on Michael Yon’s new book. You can also get a free copy of Yon’s book by subscribing to Townhall Magazine.

MORE CHINA NEWS: “The United States is offering to help China in its fight against a viral infection that has killed 34 children, including two reported Friday, and sickened thousands of others.”

BARACK OBAMA SACKS ADVISER OVER TALKS WITH HAMAS: “One of Barack Obama’s Middle East policy advisers disclosed yesterday that he had held meetings with the militant Palestinian group Hamas – prompting the likely Democratic nominee to sever all links with him.” I hope he didn’t tell them that Obama secretly supports NAFTA . . . .

It’s a good thing for Obama that everybody thinks he’s got the nomination locked up, because otherwise all this bad news would do some damage.

THIS IS COOL: Data from Columbia disk drives survived the shuttle accident. After a lot of painstaking recovery work.

MATTHEW YGLESIAS RIPS ME for linking a Victor Davis Hanson quote charging Obama with having a socialist view of government. Well here’s Yglesias’ Atlantic co-blogger on Obama and corporations:

Gack. Now Obama is ranting about how he’s going to make the corporations give us super fuel-efficient cars, find awesome new sources of oil, make renewable energy affordable, and invent a really delicious fat-free ice cream. However did we manage to get through the first 200 years without Barack Obama to beat some progress out of the corporations that have been holding us back?

To be fair, it’s not clear if Obama is talking about “nationalization of the means of production,” or something even stupider, but if I were an Obama booster I wouldn’t be calling attention to the issue. Instead, I’d try to make sure Obama knew how many states are in America. Baby steps, baby steps . . . .