A LOOK AT THE SITUATION IN IRAQ, via the Stanford Review.

OBAMA: Opposed to legal concealed-carry.

MICKEY KAUS on mysteries of the market: “So let’s see: Corn prices soar. Farmer decides to plant corn. It’s the yahoos fault!”

RECESSION POLLING: “It’s not an opinion.”

TOM MAGUIRE: Truth, put your boots on! “Punters, do keep in mind – the print people can just rely on the bum Hamsher transcript; Olbermann and Matthews would almost surely feel obliged to play the clip and strain to mishear it. Doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of it.”

NEW YORK TIMES: Obama’s Support Softens, Poll Shows: “Senator Barack Obama’s support among Democrats nationally has softened over the last month — particularly among men and upper-income voters — as voters have taken a slightly less positive view of him than they did after his burst of victories in February, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.”

JON HENKE on politicians and heritage.

MUSLIMS leaving Islam in droves? I might need more convincing.

JAMES KIRCHICK on Matthew Yglesias: “A retrospective obsession, married to an indifference to Iraq’s prospects.”

GLAD THEY GOT CAUGHT, FIRST: British Muslims ‘planned to kill thousands by bombing SEVEN transatlantic airliners in one go’.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: The glamour of Obama may be hard to resist, but could it get the country into trouble if he wins the presidency?

APPARENTLY, it’s the Diamond Age. In light of the great engagement-ring discussion, some may be interested.

SOMEONE TELL JOHN MCCAIN:

A measles outbreak in and around the Austrian city of Salzburg has spread to about 180 people, most of them schoolchildren, authorities said Thursday. . . .

Hubert Hrabcik, director general of public health in Austria’s Health Ministry, said the vaccination rate for measles, mumps and rubella, which are administered together, may have been “almost nil” at the school. . . . Five people between the ages of 16 and 30 have been hospitalized but all are on their way to recovery and one was released Thursday, Salzburg’s Federal Medical Center said.

Once a scourge of children in Europe, measles spreads very easily, jumping from person to person through droplets emitted in sneezing or coughing. It is one of the most contagious diseases known, according to the World Health Organization.

An estimated 242,000 people, the majority of them children, died from measles in 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, the WHO says.

Don’t get your public-health advice from Don Imus.

DRINKING COFFEE FOR BRAIN PROTECTION? “Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests. The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.”

First rate coffee, red wine, Guinness — you won’t live forever, but you may live longer. And more enjoyably!

STORING A TRILLION QUADRILLION BYTES ON A DVD using nanotechnology.

PHOTOS: Prepping the Space Shuttle for launch. (Via BoingBoing).

MICHAEL BARONE: In Terms of Geography, Obama Appeals to Academics and Clinton Appeals to Jacksonians.

PRO-GUN AND PRO-PRIVACY LEGISLATION killed in Tennessee.

HMM: “Consider this troubling question: Do mortgage lenders have any obligation to take over a property that has defaulted on its mortgage?”

ITUNES: America’s #1 music retailer.

SEND IN THE STRIKE FORCE!

BRUCE SCHNEIER ON the difference between feeling secure and being secure.

SCHEDULING FEWER RERUNS, because everything’s available online.

LEE SMITH: When Obama Talks to Our Enemies, What Will He Say?

ANN ALTHOUSE: “If this is Obama losing his cool, Obama is very cool.”

Actually, on watching it, what strikes me is how close this guy got to Obama. He was, of course, no threat, but it does demonstrate that Obama’s security — like McCain’s — is nothing like the security that Presidents get.