DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE? “Kos Disappears Kantor ‘WWN’ Diary.”

UH OH: States Aim To Tax Private Jets, Yachts. First they go after Harvard, now this . . . .

UPDATE: Aleta Jackson emails:

A lot of people who have airplanes are not wealthy. We save up for our trips, and are frugal with the extra cash we have. And with avgas prices at $4.50 or more per gallon, you can bet that owners of small airplanes are looking for good deals on where to go, places where we will be welcomed. Maine has just closed the door to any visit by me or my plane. When we fly to a place we usually stay for at least three days. So Maine just lost three days of bed taxes, meal taxes, rental car taxes, plus taxes on the goodies we usually carry back for our friends. Then there’s the revenue that won’t be going to Maine residents, and let’s not forget the taxes Maine won’t get because I won’t be filling the plane’s tanks for the return flight.

The flying community learns fast where general aviation is unwelcome or discouraged.

I hadn’t realized that Maine was in a position to turn away trade.

FROM THE BBC, a look at the new survivalism: It’s not just for deranged loners and religious cults anymore!

This story has already been addressed here, and here. But I’m happy to see these ideas get more attention. Everybody’s better off with some emergency skills and supplies, just in case. You don’t need a bunker, but more of what Massad Ayoob calls “soft survivalism.”

HILLARY-HATRED IN AUSTRALIA: Don’t these comments count as some sort of hate speech there?

MORE COMPLAINTS ABOUT FRANKLIN GRAHAM-SHILLING in Knox County Schools. And note this, from the comments:

Junipero is so right about how our kids’ school time is squandered in Knox County.

FYI, though: No one’s going to be sponsoring recess. They don’t get recess–not at Bearden Middle School, anyway.

That’s right: No recess for the more than 1,000 10-15-year-olds spread over just 3 grades.

Just can’t fit it in, I guess, what with the demanding roster of baby showers for teachers, pizza evangelism, and sports fundraising.

I remember my teachers exhorting us to “use our time wisely.” I notice that my daughter seems to get exposed to a lot of this kind of thing. On the other hand, it’s not just the Christian stuff. Kids are constantly being sent out to sell crap (frozen Sara Lee pies?) to raise money. And, as I mentioned before, one of her teachers turns every lecture into a lesson on the evils of white Europeans, and of Western civilization generally. This is why I don’t get more upset at the notion of “teaching to standardized tests.” I suspect things would be even worse if it weren’t for that . . . .

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, we’d see college professors fired for refusing to swear loyalty to the state. And they were right!

DANICA PATRICK going Formula One?

IT’S NOT A BLOG. It’s a journal.

WHO NEEDS GPS, when your cellphone can do the job?

STEVEN EMERSON: “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is refusing to identify the ‘influential Muslim Americans’ and ‘leading U.S.-based scholars and commentators on Islam’ who met with Secretary Michael Chertoff in helping shape a softer approach to government lexicon about terrorists and their ideological motivations.” (Via Memeorandum).

SO THE KANTOR VIDEO IS BOGUS: But who’s behind it? Obama people? Or Hillary people? It was certainly exposed as a fake very quickly. . . .

SHOCKINGLY, PEOPLE RESPOND TO PRICE SIGNALS: As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars. At least the ones who aren’t sticking taxpayers with the tab, anyway.

TIM PAWLENTY: Wrong on Polka, Wrong on America!

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 45 years since Bull Connor’s firehoses, and a reminder that things weren’t as some might think.

MR. CONSERVATIVE: Jonathan Rauch on John McCain.

ARE UNIVERSITIES TURNING INTO PINK COLLAR GHETTOES?

Some related thoughts here.

DUDE, WHERE’S MY RECESSION? (CONT’D): Chicken Little Alert, or how to make good news sound like bad news.

BEWARE THE screaming ovaries.

I GUESS IT’S GOODBYE TO “RED KEN” LIVINGSTONE: Boris Johnson poised to become London Mayor as Tories seal local election success.

THERE’S NEVER ENOUGH MONEY: U.N.’s World Food Program Cried Poverty While Sitting on Cash Stockpile of More Than $1.22 Billion.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Obama Joins Levin and Coleman to Introduce Absurd Bill to Stop “Misuse” of U.S. Companies. “This bill is a very bad idea.”

AN ANTI-CLINTON DIRTY TRICK IN INDIANA? I was hoping for change.

BLOGGER “has Al Franken’s campaign reeling.”

IN THE MAIL: Mark Juergensmeyer’s Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State.

DUDE, WHERE’S MY RECESSION? (CONT’D): Jobless Rate Falls; AP, Economists Baffled.