SUBPOENA ABUSE, and an effort to chill bloggers’ speech?

JERRY SEINFELD: “Because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do.”

SADR’S spring jam.

CANADIAN TROOPS will stay in Afghanistan. Plus, more troops from the French.

MORE ON OBAMA AND THE COOK COUNTY VOTE, from Tom Elia. Note the update.

YEAH, THAT’S THE TICKET: Obama-Kerry 2008!

KERRY HOWLEY: “Will no one protect French workers from their rapacious capitalist overlords?”

OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM: Hillary’s Pastor, in Interview, Sympathizes With Jeremiah Wright. ““I’ve come pretty close to saying in some sermons, I guess, what Jeremiah Wright did.”

GOOD NEWS, though it’s unlikely to find application in my own work: “The University of Tennessee has entered the ranks of the nation’s elite in using supercomputing to solve the most significant scientific questions facing humanity. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $65 million to UT to build and operate one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers and lead a nationwide partnership to put it to use.”

FREE SPEECH BE DAMNED: Accreditors going after colleges for “incivility.” I recommend that libertarians and conservatives who are made to feel uncomfortable on campus immediately file complaints with their schools’ accreditors . . . .

JOHN MURTHA rips both Hillary and Obama.

EUGENE VOLOKH ON the legality of firing an employee for legally carrying a gun.

CORZINE FLIPFLOPPING ON HILLARY? Laying the groundwork, anyway. “While Corzine emphasized he still thinks Clinton will win the popular vote, he did open the door to a possible switch.”

THE WORLD’S SMALLEST HD camcorder.

IN THE MAIL: David Berlinski’s The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions. No idea if he’s related to Claire Berlinski, though you would expect that an author-Berlinski living in Paris might well be.

UPDATE: Various readers email that David Berlinski is Claire and Mischa Berlinski’s father.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Raymond Eckhart emails: “In addition to being Claire and Mischa’s Dad, he’s a fellow at the Discovery Institute and ID proponent. I’d love to hear a debate on ID between him and John Derbyshire. Methinks the Derb would clean up.” I don’t believe in intelligent design. The case for not-very-bright design, however, remains open.

CHINA’S LATEST INTERNET CELEBRITY: The government’s efforts at censorship don’t seem particularly successful. See this interview, too. Last night, however, the house was razed.

UPDATE: D’oh! The story’s a year old. How did I miss that?

DISTASTE FOR NAPOLEON: “Over the long run, the costs to France and to Europe of Napoleon’s monumental ambition —indeed megalomania — were enormous. . . . Napoleon modestly portrayed himself as ‘the savior,’ and, although not a religious person, encouraged comparisons with Jesus Christ. “

BOGART, KIRK, AND MCCAIN:

Humphrey Bogart never said, “play it again, Sam,” Captain Kirk never uttered, “Beam me up, Scotty” — and John McCain never promised a hundred year war! . . . Of course, this lie isn’t just spreading itself. The fact that Barack Obama and Howard Dean continue to intentionally mischaracterize John McCain’s statements — and mislead the public — obviously creates a level of difficulty that may other misquoted victims haven’t had to confront.

Indeed.

UPDATE: Other media mythmaking, more to McCain’s benefit, explored at today’s — well, actually it’s yesterday’s — Daily Howler.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader David Cavalier emails:

On this note, George Bush also never said that God told him to invade Iraq, although I hear this all the time when I am in Europe.

Also, George Bush never refused to sign Kyoto, as you constantly point out. Again, when I am in Europe I have to explain over and over that the U.S. Senate voted unanimously against the treaty when Bill Clinton was president, but never let the truth get in the way of a good ol’ Euro Bush Bash.

Indeed.

BLOODSHED crosses the border.

PREDICTION: There will be hunger in Argentina. Well, that’s the usual result of an unchecked socialist government.

UPDATE: And, also predictable, saber-rattling over the Falklands.

JON HENKE: Dark Clouds.

Related item: “McCain talking about his life? Raaaaaacist!”

ABSOLUT AZTLAN.

MICKEY KAUS: “Whether it was an incremental success or a humiliating fizzle, hasn’t the Maliki government’s assault on Sadr-linked Shiite militias operated, de facto, as a highly efficient purge of the Iraqi army?” Plus, Hillary hysteria!

NATO BACKS Bush’s missile defense system. Apparently, we can still get some things done diplomatically in Europe.

UPDATE: Mick Stockinger notes that this makes things tough for Democratic opponents of the plan: “Making the missile defense a NATO alliance program sets a trap for the Democrats, who are on record as wanting to ‘strengthen our traditional alliances’. Unilaterally abrogating the program would put them in a position of going-it-alone and having to explain to the American people what they are doing.”

TALKLEFT: “I am completely unimpressed by Howard Dean’s statement about seating the Florida delegates today.”