10 COOL ROBOTS hand-built by high-schoolers.

I’M GUESSING IT’S NOT A RESPECT FOR DEMOCRACY AND LIBERTY: “What do Libya, Iran, Cuba, Russia and Pakistan All Have in Common?”

MAJOR JOHN TAMMES: Nothing improves morale like victory.

FRANK J.: People Expect Too Much Out of White Men.

STEVE CHAPMAN: Murder and reactions in Chicago:

When a rash of gun murders takes place, it makes sense for the police to do one of two things: renew tactics that have been effective in the past at curbing homicides, or embrace ideas that have not been tried before. But those options don’t appeal to Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis. What he proposes instead is a crackdown on assault weapons.

I’m tempted to say this is the moral equivalent of a placebo—a sugar pill that is irrelevant to the malady at hand. But that would be unfair. Placebos, after all, sometimes have a positive effect. Assault weapons bans, not so much.

Indeed. Gun control proposals are, however, a useful marker for politicians who aren’t serious about crime. Chapman asks: ‘Gun control hasn’t worked as a remedy for crime. So what makes anyone think the answer is more gun control?”

I don’t think they do think that. I think they just want to disarm people, and hope you’ll buy the excuse that it’s for crime fighting.

UPDATE: Or there’s always sackcloth and ashes. I double-checked the date on this story to make sure it wasn’t an April Fool. Alas, no.

A REPORT ON THE EMPTY-HOLSTER PROTESTS at the University of North Carolina.

LATE FROST DAMAGES CALIFORNIA VINEYARDS: As reader Jim May notes, this is “the sort of short-term weather news that would be front-page news if global *cooling* were the Left’s cause-du-jour.” Yes, they never seem to let natural variability get in the way of a good things-are-really-hot story.

Meanwhile, there’s pushback on the whole Ice-Age-Is-Coming story.

TIPPING OFF A TERROR SUSPECT — and checking license plates for him?

A Fairfax County police sergeant was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Alexandria to two years’ probation for his admission that he checked police databases for someone who was the target of a federal terrorism case.

Sgt. Weiss Rasool, 31, initially faced up to six months in jail, but federal prosecutors urged U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry R. Poretz to consider as much as a year of jail time after Rasool took a lie-detector test last week and “was not fully compliant” with the test procedures. Prosecutors also said in a motion filed with the court that FBI agents “do not believe that he has been truthful.” . . . In June 2005, when federal agents had a Fairfax man under surveillance, the man apparently asked Rasool to check the license plates of three vehicles he thought were following him. Rasool’s lawyer described the man as a member of Rasool’s mosque.

Seems to me that Sgt. Rasool got off light.

RAGE BOY: “While I personally have nothing against torching buildings and brawling under appropriate circumstances, I can’t understand why Paul Auster simply can’t say, ‘I ripped out the fence because I wanted to. I rioted because I decided to.’ The idea that a 61 year old man might act irrationally because the mere thought of US policy in Iraq deprives him of reason is a pretty disturbing. It suggests there’s a whole population of people of seemingly normal people out there just waiting to go berserk at the mere mention of politics they disapprove of.”

THE G.O.P. AD THAT John McCain doesn’t want you to see.

GOVERNMENT WORK! “Drought strikes. People, exhorted by the politicians and functionaries of municipal utilities exert themselves and conserve water. Then comes the reward for all their scrimping on water: Massive fee increases because the water authorities didn’t make enough money what with people saving water and all.”

VICTORY IS THE BEST MORALE BOOSTER: Clinton’s donations surge after Pennsylvania victory.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: There’s no such thing as a free carbon cap.

BILL ROGGIO REPORTS: “The senior-most Iraqi general in charge of the security operation in Basrah has issued an ultimatum for wanted Mahdi Army leaders and fighters to surrender in the next 24 hours as the Iraqi and US military ignore Muqtada al Sadr’s threat to conduct a third uprising. US troops killed 15 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad yesterday and have killed 56 fighters since Sadr issued his threat last weekend.”

MOST PEOPLE WOULD PREFER CHOCOLATE: VD Valentines.

TEACHING KIDS ABOUT the age of exploration.

MESSAGE TO GEORGE SOROS: InstaPundit would have been a better investment. Well, traffic-wise, anyhow.

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HANDLING OF THE Texas polygamy case. This thing seems to be turning into a major disaster for the authorities.

ROBERT ZUBRIN EMAILS this audio link and writes:

I recently debated Robert Bryce, the author of “Gusher of Lies,” a book that says we don’t need an energy security policy because the Saudis are our friends, on the Mike Medved show. It was broadcast nationwide April 21.

I think people might find it very interesting.

They just might. Zubrin’s own book is Energy Victory. Our interview with Zubrin is here.

When we spoke, he was pretty clear on the difference between today’s porky food-based biofuels and the kind of thing Zubrin is planning. My own sense is that “energy independence” is nice, but simply ensuring that we don’t have the current degree of energy dependence would be a good thing.

BUSTING BOGUS GUN REPORTING from Brian Ross and ABC News.

ACCURACY IS QUESTIONED, BUT IT’S EASY! A look at electronic voting in Pennsylvania.

SAYUNCLE: No more Pizza Hut for me.

OBAMA-INSPIRED street art.

A LOOK AT WHAT’S amazingly cheap.

ARNOLD KLING on separating tribe and state.