AN INTERVIEW WITH DEMOCRAT MIKE PADGETT, who’s running for Lamar Alexander’s Senate seat.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

HEROES AND ZEROS at MSNBC. Seems like they went downhill right about the time I left. I’m sure it’s a coincidence.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS’ COMPLAINTS about what Indiana Jones has done to the image of their profession seem a bit overwrought — especially if it’s true, as many claim, that the Indiana Jones character was actually based on Hiram Bingham, Yale prof. and discoverer of Machu Picchu. Of course, all those claims probably came from Yalies. But if you check out the cover photo on Bingham’s Lost City of the Incas, the resemblance is pretty strong . . . .

MY REVIEW OF THE NEW 9″ XP-EQUIPPED ASUS MINI-PC is now up over at Pajamas Media.

INSTAPUNDIT IRAQ CORRESPONDENT Maj. John Tammes sends this report (typed laboriously with his injured hand):

Meet Alaa. He is a regular soldier in the G-1 section of an Iraqi Army unit I work with. His story has given me additional hope that Iraq will be OK in the near future.

Alaa had been working outside of Iraq for some time before 2003. He was an accountant and corporate secretary for more than one construction firm in the Gulf region. After OEF swept away the Ba’ath and Saddam his father asked him to come back to Iraq and help rebuild his country. Being a dutiful son, he did so. He took his experience and knowledge to the new Iraqi Army, where he has done excellent work in a difficult job.

When his original enlistment is finished, he may re-up, or he may turn to help his country as a businessman with experience from abroad. Either way, Iraq is better off for having people like Alaa work for her future.

May there be more.

A BIG BREAK for Internet-based Realtors.

MICKEY KAUS: “What if the Dems aren’t serious about health care? The immigration angle! Bubbling around the blogosphere is an inconclusive debate on whether Dem Senators are preparing to go slow on health care, staging endless hearings but passing little actual legislation.”

REVOLUTIONIZING DIAGNOSTICS, with nanotechnology.

JAMES LILEKS ON THE BOON OF AMERICA — plus, advice for Chairman Bob.

A PROFILE OF LOWELL CUNNINGHAM, Knoxvillian and Men in Black creator.

A “SUPER-CRAPPY PLAN:”

I do not believe you’re going to teach anyone a “lesson” by sitting this one out or writing in Fred Thompson or Sunny Lucas. I believe that way too many people are ignoring the forest for the trees and that in doing so, they’re going to have a hand in electing Obama. Some say that’s fine because if the country’s going to be “ruined”, better that it’s ruined by a Democrat, and somehow magically we’ll come up with a fantastic, “real” conservative in 4 years even though there is no one like that on the horizon and everyone knows it. Like I said, I think that’s a super-crappy plan.

More on this theme at the link, from Rachel Lucas. (Via the Insta-Wife).

JASON VAN STEENWYK: An open letter to David Carr of the New York Times.

UPDATE: Thoughts on the media’s Iraq narrative.

WELL, HE’S RIGHT:

Kids actually understand robotics in an amazing way. If NASA said they were going to land monster robots on Mars and crash them into each other we would have a huge pool of kids who were interested in science and engineering.

That’s Obama advisor Steve Robinson, quoted in the (print only) May 19 Space News. The next President should bring in Conn Iggulden, along with Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz as consultants.

ILYA SOMIN explains why Robert Bork is wrong.

UPDATE: But Obama gets it!

FRONTLINE; Mexico: Crimes at the Border.

I’VE MENTIONED Doug Feith’s new book on Iraq before. Now he’s got a piece in the Wall Street Journal on the selling of the war. I don’t think the shift in emphasis was as stunning as he makes it sound, though — in fact, back before the war people were criticizing Bush for talking about promoting democracy. Nonetheless, he’s right that the Bush Administration should have engaged in more pushback on the WMD question. Read this, too.

ANN ALTHOUSE DOESN’T LIKE HER KINDLE.

OBAMA: Not Auschwitz, but Buchenwald. And not his uncle, but his great-uncle.

UPDATE: Apparently, he’s been telling variations of this story for years.

A ROUNDUP OF all-time favorite war films.

IT’S NOT A ZBIG DEAL: If you don’t believe me, watch the media coverage . . . .

A MCCAIN-LINGLE TICKET? “Feel a tingle, with McCain/Lingle!” Nah, too Chris-Matthewsish.

NOT FOLLOWING THE NARRATIVE (CONT’D): “U.S. and Iraqi military officials said violence in Iraq has decreased significantly in recent weeks to levels not seen in four years.”

HOW TO WIN THE GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE.

SOCIAL WORKERS behaving badly.