INTEGRATING NANOTECHNOLOGY with silicon wafer technology.

MAKING YOUR KITCHEN Plastic-free.

IGNORANT, RACIST HEARTLANDERS angry, bitter at media name-calling.

ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN a member of the American Constitution Society?

ADVICE TO MCCAIN: Run against Congress.

AUSTIN BAY: Limited options in Burma. Yeah, as Shannon Love notes about people agitating for a humanitarian invasion: “It’s not a bad idea except it is at least 6 months too late.”

MICHAEL ON MICHAEL: Totten on Yon, that is. It’s a review of Michael Yon’s Moment of Truth in Iraq by Michael Totten.

GENERATING NEITHER LUST NOR RESPECT: The Geo Metro. Chris Hafner says it deserves the latter, anyway. “I like both the Smart and the Prius–there’s something gadgety about them that appeals to me–but if your goal is just to have a useful gas-sipping car, it would be hard to do better than a Geo Metro.”

A PRO-NUKE PROGRESSIVE? Tennessee Democratic Senate Candidate Calls for Removal of Harry Reid over Reid’s opposition to nuclear power.

WELCOME TO the new diplomacy.

SMALL SHELLS, BIG BOOM: A look at the military’s new miniature arsenal.

IN THE MAIL: 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn’t Help. I don’t think I agree with all the choices here.

YEAH, THAT’LL HELP MATTERS: “Revolutionary Defeatism” on the right.

MORE NEWS ON the automotive X-Prize.

P.J. O’ROURKE SUMS UP THE ELECTIONS:

Two substantive political issues are the federal budget deficit and the war in Iraq. Now, if you’re electing Democrats to control government spending, then you’re marrying Angelina Jolie for her brains. This leaves the Democrats with one real issue: Iraq. And so far the best that any Democratic presidential candidate has been able to manage with Iraq is to make what I think of as the high school sex promise: I will pull out in time, honest dear.

Though, actually, I think Angelina Jolie is smarter than Obama when it comes to Iraq.

SO IF THE REPUBLICANS ARE IN TROUBLE, WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE SO HAPPY? I’m at the NRA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. I haven’t been to a big gun event in probably a decade, and the change in mood is striking: People are, well . . . not ebullient, really, but noticeably cheerful and confident. The defensive crouch of a decade ago is gone. Will that change if the Democrats take the White House?

They don’t seem to think so here. Ten years ago, gun rights were under siege. Now the two Democratic presidential candidates are bending over backward to try to paint themselves as pro-gun. It’s a lie, of course. But it’s a lie that shows where the political balance of power, er, lies on this issue. The Democrats are electing new members of Congress, too — but, again, they’re running as pro-gun. People here, I think, feel like they’ve got the momentum regardless of what happens in November.

That’s bad news for the Republicans, in a way. Scared gun-rights people vote Republican, and work hard to get Republican candidates elected. Confident gun-rights people figure that they can force Democrats to protect their rights, too. Probably the best thing that could happen for John McCain’s candidacy — and for the GOP’s Congressional prospects — would be a Supreme Court decision upholding D.C.’s gun-ban law. Will that happen? Well, possibly. The smart money says “no,” but counting Supreme Court votes is a risky business. We’ll see.

McCain’s speaking here this afternoon — alas, after I have to leave to return home, as I’m just here to give a talk on the Heller case this morning and will then head back — and it’s the only event in which people aren’t allowed to carry guns. That’s the Secret Service’s demand. If I were McCain, I’d note that I’d feel safer in an audience of armed NRA members. It’s likely true, and it would make a point.

LOOK WHO’S DRILLING: Petrobras Hires 80% of Deepwater Rigs, Inflates Rents.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, leased about 80 percent of the world’s deepest-drilling offshore rigs to explore prospects including the Western Hemisphere’s biggest discovery in decades.

Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is known, is hiring rigs that can drill in at least 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) of water, Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli said in an interview last week. The world has 21 such vessels, according to Rigzone.com, which tracks the offshore drilling industry.

The company’s “insatiable” demand is forcing producers including Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc to pay more as they compete for the remaining units, said Kjell Erik Eilertsen and Truls Olsen, analysts at Fearnley Fonds AS in Oslo. Explorers that don’t have rigs under contract may delay projects or pay rents of more than $600,000 a day.

Sounds like they’re onto something. And maybe we need to be doing more drilling at home? Hell, thanks to Congress we can’t even get shale oil going.

A LOOK AT ANGRY DEMOCRATIC WOMEN. It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.

HEH: “Selling well is the best revenge.” I’ll note that only one of these books was featured on The Glenn and Helen Show. Guess which one?

HAS THE LA TIMES UNCOVERED Obama’s Bosnian sniper tale? Video at the link.

SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PLANTS?

ROCKET MAN FLIES ON JET-POWERED WINGS:

After one last wave to the crowd the rocket man tipped his wings, flipped onto his back and leveled out again, executing a perfect 360-degree roll that most birds would find impossible.

“That was to impress the girls,” he later admitted.

Isn’t it always? Play your cards right and you might wind up with Jennifer Connelly.

THE BLOGGER MEETUP WAS FUN: Met a bunch of bloggers, some of whom I already knew, including SayUncle, Bitter, Sebastian, Murdoc, etc., and firearms legend Ronnie Barrett dropped by, which was kinda cool. There were probably about 50 people there, which is a pretty good-sized turnout of gunbloggers.

BECAUSE IT’S NOT LIKE WE NEED ANY DOMESTIC OIL OR ANYTHING

The Senate Appropriations Committee today narrowly defeated Sen. Wayne Allard’s attempt to end a moratorium related to oil shale development in Colorado. . . .

The moratorium prevents the Department of Interior from issuing regulations so that oil companies can move forward on oil-shale projects in Colorado and Utah. Allard said the moratorium has left uncertainties at a time when companies need to move forward and in the long term make the United States more energy independent.

“If we are really serious about reducing pain at the pump, this is a vote that would make a difference in people’s lives,” Allard argued.

But in a 14-15 vote, the committee spilt strictly on party lines and rejected the amendment.

Are these guys on the Saudi payroll, or what?

UPDATE: Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!