PUBLIC FINANCING? “Never mind.”

KASHMIR HILL: The Affirmative Action Matryoshka: Where Does It End?

IN THE MAIL: My copy of Rebooting America: Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age, put out by the Personal Democracy Forum. My chapter was on privacy.

I’ll be on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show in just a minute, talking about it.

UPDATE: Well, we wound up talking more about Obama’s decision to drop out of public campaign financing — my take: he’s hypocritical, but at least he’s killing campaign finance “reform” — and I kept getting my phone connection dropped, so I don’ t think it was one of my better appearances. Also, they said I’d be attending the Personal Democracy Forum at Lincoln Center in NYC, but alas, that’s not the case.

WELL, THIS IS ENCOURAGING: I hope it pans out, anyway. “A cancer patient has made a full recovery after being injected with billions of his own immune cells in the first case of its kind, doctors have disclosed. The 52-year-old, who was suffering from advanced skin cancer, was free from tumours within eight weeks of undergoing the procedure. After two years he is still free from the disease which had spread to his lymph nodes and one of his lungs.” Faster, please.

BILL ALLISON: Subprime 6, 60 . . . well, at least 13 . . .

MATHEMATICS IS THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE: Is the Universe actually made of math?

TAYLOR MARSH: Obama Campaign Angers and Confuses Clinton Supporters. Apparently the healing isn’t complete.

HEH: “They told Glenn Reynolds that if George Bush were elected Muslims would face discrimination at political rallies… and they were right!”

D’oh! How did I miss that?

PAYBACK: Rumsfeld declines to endorse McCain.

INDEED: “Messrs. Obama and McCain both reveal a disturbing animus toward free markets and success.”

WHERE’S THE BEEF BACON? “Is the Obama campaign in danger of overdoing the I-am-not-a-Muslim routine? After all, it’s not bad to be Muslim.”

This, on the other hand, smells like something, but it’s not bacon.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Rick Moran. “It pains me to waste space on this website attempting to tamp down these persistent and pernicious rumors that Obama is or was a Muslim. By relating the substance (more accurately, the total lack of substance) of these rumors, even the act of debunking them could be seen as promoting the smear.” If Obama loses, Rick, you’ll probably be blamed for just that.

MEGAN MCARDLE ON WHY WE DON’T HAVE HIGH-SPEED RAIL: “I am about to blame–you will perhaps be unsurprised–the government. Why isn’t there a high speed train from New York to Chicago? Well, first of all, this would greatly anger legislators from New York and Michigan, who like the fact that the Chicago train must pass through Buffalo and Detroit, even if this assures that almost no one with a job will actually use it. There’s also the problem of the Federal construction process. The high speed train between DC and Charlotte was first conceived in the early 1990s. The EIS for this project will be completed probably sometime in 2010.”

LOOKING AT SCENARIOS where Obama wins the popular vote but loses the election. Thus doubling the irony of this year’s Democratic primary.

AL SHARPTON FACES a subpoena blitz. “Sharpton himself, his business entities and his nonprofit civil-advocacy group owe millions in back taxes, documents show.”

MORE ON CANADA’S “HUMAN RIGHTS” COMMISSION KANGAROO COURTS:

We hope the “free speecher” Prof. Moon conducts the review and recommends that CHRC rein in its overzealous regulation of speech.

Yet even if that happens, the main problems with the federal commission — and its provincial counterparts — will not have been addressed. It is increasingly obvious these commissions were set up deliberately to lower the standard of proof and get around rules of natural justice, thereby ensuring people who would never be convicted in court are punished to the satisfaction of the activists and special interest groups that hover around the tribunals.

Third parties not involved in the alleged offences may nonetheless file complaints. Occasionally, the plaintiff has been given access to the commissions’ investigation files and given the power to direct investigators. Truth is not a defence. Defendants are not always permitted to face their accusers. Normal standards for assuring the validity of evidence do not apply. Hearsay is admitted. The government funds the plaintiff but the defendant is on his own and commission investigators may attempt to entrap suspects by getting them to say or do hateful things they might not have done on their own.

No wonder the CHRC has a 100% conviction rate on hate speech complaints.

Maple-leaf fascism? Just remember, there are plenty of people who’d like to see this happen in America, too.

TIGERHAWK: The partisan theory of Osama bin Laden’s freedom.

ROBERT COX: Backstory on AP – Drudge Retort Issue.

GOOLSBEE’S BACK! Obama: NAFTA not so bad after all.

BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION? Hell, I’ve seen it done.