MICHAEL S. MALONE on the solar power boom. Moore’s Law, it turns out, applies to solar power, and non-greens are figuring out what that implies.

A STIRRING DEFENSE OF JANE FONDA, at InstaPunk.

IN THE MAIL: Lee and Bob Woodruff’s In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing.

RIOTS IN DENMARK: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

A BLOGGER REVOLT over the Bonner appointment.

CRIME IN A NON-GUN-FREE ZONE:

Investigators say they were definitely going to rob him – possibly even kill him.

But an 80-year-old North Texan wasn’t about to let that happen, so he took action.

One of the suspects is in the hospital and both are facing charges.

Two men obviously thought James Pickett, 80, was an easy target when they showed up at his home on Saturday with a knife. . . .

What the men didn’t know is Picket had taken a pistol and put it in his pocket before opening the door.

“He jumped and turned and I shot him,” Picket said.

The two brothers, Paul and Holden Perry, ran but didn’t get far before calling an ambulance.

A bullet just missed Paul Perry’s spine.

“The only problem was I run out of bullets,” Picket said.

Obviously, he should have had a high-capacity semiautomatic. He’s not worried about retribution, though: “‘They best not come back,’ he said.”

ZOMBIES at the WaPo!

HERE’S THE NEW Indiana Jones trailer. Looks pretty good.

A SOLAR SYSTEM THAT looks like ours. Good news: “The fact that these are hard to detect by microlensing means there must be a good number of them — solar system analogues are not rare.”

IN NEW HAVEN, they’re still trying to save the Yankee Doodle diner.

GOOD QUESTION: “What in the world are advisers to both Senators Obama and Clinton doing in Syria in the middle of a presidential campaign? . . . The same week that a terrorist mastermind harbored by the Baathist regime in Damascus was assassinated by a car bomb, both one of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy counselors, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a long-time critic of Israel, and one of Mrs. Clinton’s national finance chairs, Hassan Nemazee, were meeting with President Assad.”

Of course, maybe it’s not just a coincidence, as Zbig was always a dab hand with the Semtex.

MATH: Not all that important to engineers. Who knew?

DOES THE G.O.P. SEE AN OBAMA PRESIDENCY as inevitable? They shouldn’t get too carried away with that — “inevitability” has already taken quite a beating in this election cycle.

Related thoughts here. And Jules Crittenden thinks the bubble will burst. Undoubtedly. The question is — before, or after, the election?

UPDATE: Further thoughts from James Joyner, who adds this useful cautionary note: “This election cycle has defied expectations so many times already. Hillary was done after Iowa, became inevitable after New Hampshire, and has now been written off again. McCain was toast just a few weeks ago and is now the all but certain nominee. There are still another nine months to go.”

MICKEY KAUS: “If a Hispanic who has performed as poorly and prominently as Patti Solis Doyle can’t be fired without her employer getting grief from Hispanic leaders, isn’t that a pretty big disincentive to hiring a Hispanic in the first place?” Lesson: “Stick to white males–if they screw up, you can sack them and nobody will whine.” Ah, the bold new politics of the 21st Century. . . .

ROWAN WILLIAMS UPDATE: The gathering storm.

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: An underwater car. I’m somewhat skeptical, but hey, whatever floats your boat sinks your car.

THIS KIPLINGER ONLINE CALCULATOR lets you calculate your tax rebate (if any) online. (Via TaxProf).

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: House Republicans aren’t serious about earmark reform:

Just when it appeared House Republicans had turned the corner on earmark reform, party leaders did the unthinkable. They picked Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) for the vacant seat on the Appropriations Committee, bypassing conservative Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and the opportunity to show they were committed to real reform.

Bonner may talk a good game when it comes to earmark reform. However, his record is abysmal. The three-term Republican scored just 2% on the Club for Growth’s 2007 RePORK Card, meaning he voted for just one of the 50 anti-pork amendments offered by conservatives. Andy Roth notes that’s the same score as liberal Reps. Steny Hoyer, Bill Jefferson and James Moran. Flake, on the other hand, not only supported all 50, but he introduced many himself.

Ouch. The New Boss looks a lot like the old Boss.

WHAT WILL OBAMA DO when there’s no Hillary firewall? We’ll find out soon!

CAMPAIGN CASH FOR SUPERDELEGATES: “Many of the superdelegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a new study shows.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES DISCOVERS THAT greed is good.

JERICHO IS BACK, and you can watch the first episode of the new season online for free right here. This whole free thing is kind of cool.

HILLARY WINS NEW MEXICO.

TALKING IN PUBLIC IS HARD; too hard for some people.

UH OH: “Representative John Lewis, an elder statesman from the civil rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Senator Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.”