DEBUNKING dangerous detox diets.

WAIT, I THOUGHT it was supposed to be John McCain with the temper problem.

REPORTS ON CANCER VACCINE TESTS: The scientist involved is described by CTV as “Canadian-born,” but he researches at Duke.

FRENCH COURT VINDICATES AL DURA HOAX CRITIC: Philippe Karsenty, fresh from his victory over a bogus libel suit, reports. “Now it is time for France 2 to acknowledge that it created and is continuing to perpetuate the worst anti-Semitic libel of our era. It’s the responsibility of the French government and, ultimately, the responsibility of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy — who is, for all practical purposes, the chief executive of French public television — to finally reveal the truth.”

JOE LIEBERMAN ON DEMOCRATS AND OUR ENEMIES. “How did the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy drift so far from the foreign policy and national security principles and policies that were at the core of its identity and its purpose? . . . A great Democratic secretary of state, Dean Acheson, once warned ‘no people in history have ever survived, who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies.’ This is a lesson that today’s Democratic Party leaders need to relearn.”

I THOUGHT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO listen to the generals.

MORE PROGRESS WITH ARTIFICIAL BLADDERS: “In this recent study, they grew substitute organs out of bladder cells taken from 23 animals, cultivated the cells in a biodegradable scaffold, and then implanted them back into the test subjects. Six months after the surgery, the regenerated bladders were the same size as the originals, and worked effectively, too. Next the company hopes to start clinical trials in 2009.”

More like this, please.

THE PRESS: PROTECTING BARACK.

THIS WILL NECESSITATE SOME REFINING SHIFTS: Volkswagen predicts U.S. diesel share could hit 30% by 2018.

BUT THEY SUPPORT THE TROOPS: More on the mistreatment of American soldiers by antiwar types.

ON FRIDAY, JUNE 27, what looks to be an important conference on aging and longevity research at UCLA.

IN THE MAIL: Party of Defeat, by David Horowitz and Ben Johnson.

FORGET THE RECESSION-TALK. WANT REALLY BAD ECONOMIC NEWS? Try this report:

By firing its actuarial consultant last week, the New York State Legislature shone a light on one of the public sector’s deepest secrets: All across the country, states and local governments are promising benefits to public workers on the basis of numbers that make little economic sense. . . . In the private sector, pension funds are highly regulated, and actuarial numbers are less of an issue. But in government, actuaries and the consulting firms that employ them are starting to draw lawsuits in places like Alaska, San Diego, Milwaukee County, Wis., and Evanston, Ill. . . .

Two big problems are being laid on actuarial doorsteps: overly aggressive investing and overly rich benefits. Benefits can go off the scale because widely used actuarial methods tend to make them look inexpensive. And this tends to encourage aggressive investing, because the greater the risk in the portfolio, the less costly it can seem to provide the benefits.

Read the whole thing. This has the potential to be much, much worse than Enron, and with much, much less accountability — because, you know, it’s government instead of those greedy selfish businessmen.

IN ESQUIRE, a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of John Yoo.

Is that a surprise? Well, there’s this Yoo defense, too.

MICKEY KAUS: “Paul Maslin’s Electoral College math looks surprisingly grim for Obama.”

HERE’S MORE ON THE Tennessee judicial selection fight: “Tennessee Plan” dies for session.

ABSURD AS IT IS, I KIND OF WANT ONE: Samsung Shows Off 82″ 2160p HDTV. “The prototype features a resolution of 3820×2160 pixels with a refresh rate of 120Hz. Compare that to the kind of HDTV that’s currently on the market: 1080p TVs that run at 1920×1080 pixels. Or to put it another way, that’s an 8.3-megapixel screen compared to today’s 2.1-megapixel TVs.”

UPDATE: Yes, the problem of what to watch on it did occur to me. . . .

ADVENTURES IN police professionalism.

SELF-REGULATION COMES TO molecular nanotechnology.

AL DURA UPDATE: “Israel Radio’s Paris correspondent Gil Michaeli has just reported that the French Court of Appeals has overturned the libel judgment against Phillipe Karsenty and has determined that Karsenty did not libel France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin when he reported that the ‘death’ of 12-year old Mohamed Al-Dura at Netzarim in the Gaza Strip in September 2000 may have been staged, and that it was unlikely that the death was caused by IDF soldiers.” Perhaps the Israeli military should start filing foreign libel suits against media outfits that collaborate in fake reporting. There’s likely enough to keep quite a few lawyers busy . . . .

DON SURBER: “Is Geraldine Ferraro nuts to call Democrats sexist? No.”

WHY DON’T I GET ASSIGNMENTS LIKE THIS (CONT’D): Touring Nevada in the Maserati Gran Turismo.

SEE, ATTACK THE BLOGOSPHERE AND HERE’S WHAT YOU GET:

Representative Rob Briley criticizes the press and bloggers cautioning that if media doesn’t act responsibly they will be denied access to information.

Rep. Briley, of course, was the subject of quite a few barrels of ink and webspace after getting clipped for DUI after a hit and run. Following his arrest, Briley gave the name of a lobbyist as his next of kin. Later, it was reported by the Nashville Scene that Briley and the lobbyist were having an affair.

Plus, a whole roundup of “irresponsible links” on Briley’s history. Really, was bringing this up again smart? And wasn’t there somebody better-situated to issue a lecture on responsibility?

UPDATE: Briley’s blogging legislative colleague Stacy Campfield is unimpressed: “It was almost hilarious when the first bill after the speech was a bill increasing the penalty on people who leave the scene of an accident.”

LONDON BOBBIES COMPARED TO Saudi and Iranian Religious Police. And I remember when they were a symbol of civilization. . . .