HALF SIGMA: Why Barack Obama is Like LBJ.

UPDATE: Well, LBJ probably wouldn’t have said this.

AMY ALKON: Not everyone should go to college.

THE MILITARIZATION OF FOREIGN POLICY:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned yesterday against the risk of a “creeping militarization” of U.S. foreign policy, saying the State Department should lead U.S. engagement with other countries, with the military playing a supporting role.

The problem, of course, is that the State Department hasn’t been up to the job. Given its abject failure in Iraq, and its — to put it charitably — very limited success in the Middle East generally, it’s no surprise that State has lost influence, while Defense, which has been far more successful, has picked up some of the slack. But if the State Department is to wield its traditional influence, it needs to start doing a better job. Otherwise its decline in influence is inevitable. The same is true for other agencies — like the CIA — that have dropped the ball repeatedly in recent years.

IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The New Reality in Iraq:

All of the most important objectives of the surge have been accomplished in Iraq. The sectarian civil war is ended; al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been dealt a devastating blow; and the Sadrist militia and other Iranian-backed militant groups have been disrupted.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has accomplished almost all of the legislative benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration. More important, it is gaining wider legitimacy among the population. The attention of Iraqis across the country is focused on the upcoming provincial elections, which will be a pivotal moment in Iraq’s development.

The result is that we have an extraordinary – but fleeting – opportunity to advance America’s security and the stability of a vital region of the world.

So don’t blow it.

PROGRESS TOWARD ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS, with nanotechnology.

BURGERS MAY BE CATCHING ON IN FRANCE, but in Los Angeles they’re still stuck in the anti-burger prejudices of the past.

IN THE MAIL: An Edge in the Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Knives — How to Buy Them, Keep Them Razor Sharp, and Use Them Like a Pro, by Chad Ward. I looked inside and it’s not only got advice on buying and caring for knives, but a lot of clear and helpful photos on how to use them, sharpen them, etc. Since knifeblogging has been a staple at InstaPundit for quite a while, some readers may find it useful

JUST HEARD MITT ROMNEY ON LAURA INGRAHAM’S SHOW: He was pushing for more drilling, which is fine, but then he felt he had to add that he was for other sources, like wind. Glad to hear it, but when he was governor he played ball with Ted Kennedy’s efforts to block the Cape Wind project, so his wind-energy credentials aren’t very good.

BARACK OBAMA: The first Presidential Candidate that you’re not allowed to mock.

On Tuesday, Andy Borowitz satirized on that subject. He said that Obama, sympathetic to comics’ attempts to find jokes to make about him, had put out a list of official ones, including this:

“A traveling salesman knocks on the door of a farmhouse, and much to his surprise, Barack Obama answers the door. The salesman says, ‘I was expecting the farmer’s daughter.’ Barack Obama replies, ‘She’s not here. The farm was foreclosed on because of subprime loans that are making a mockery of the American dream.’ ”

Obama is humorless, and full of himself. That would make him a great target for satire, except that his followers take the position that any mockery or criticism is racist. The prospect of four years of that sort of thing is the best reason I can think of not to vote for him.

Related thoughts on humorlessness here.

AN INVASION ON A SESAME SEED BUN:

It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said Hélène Samuel, a restaurant consultant here. “Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it.”

It is a startling turnaround in a country where a chef once sued McDonald’s for $2.7 million in damages over a poster that suggested he was dreaming of a Big Mac. Hamburgers were everything that French dining is not: informal, messy, fast and foreign.

The delicious taste of the forbidden. But, naturally, one must not transgress too far:

“We’re a little terrified of making a mistake,” said Ms. Samuel. “We cling to things like the soft buns, sweet-and-sour pickles, onions, tomatoes, cheese. We need these guideposts because we don’t have the history, the context. Otherwise, for us, it’s not a burger. It’s a hot sandwich.”

Lighten up. You can even steam ’em. Leave the tradition-bound approach to Louis.

SLEEPING AROUND CRAIGSLIST: There’s a reason they call it the Net of a million lies . . . .

A FANNIE MAE ROUNDUP, from Mickey Kaus. Plus this observation: “Letting Jim Johnson politico types build profit-making empires with taxpayer-supported credit is just too risky.” This, alas, seems to be the usual fate of “public-private partnership.”

UPDATE: Related item. Plus, Fannie Mae vs. Enron.

MORE ON THE OBAMA WEBSITE’S Iraq war airbrushing, at the L.A. Times.

UPDATE: Some surprisingly strong Obama criticism in the Washington Post:

At the time he first proposed his timetable, Mr. Obama argued — wrongly, as it turned out — that U.S. troops could not stop a sectarian civil war. He conceded that a withdrawal might be accompanied by a “spike” in violence. Now, he describes as “an achievable goal” that “we leave Iraq to a government that is taking responsibility for its future — a government that prevents sectarian conflict and ensures that the al-Qaeda threat which has been beaten back by our troops does not reemerge.” How will that “true success” be achieved? By the same pullout that Mr. Obama proposed when chaos in Iraq appeared to him inevitable. . . .

The message that the Democrat sends is that he is ultimately indifferent to the war’s outcome — that Iraq “distracts us from every threat we face” and thus must be speedily evacuated regardless of the consequences. That’s an irrational and ahistorical way to view a country at the strategic center of the Middle East, with some of the world’s largest oil reserves. Whether or not the war was a mistake, Iraq’s future is a vital U.S. security interest. If he is elected president, Mr. Obama sooner or later will have to tailor his Iraq strategy to that reality.

Indeed.

GREENHOUSE-FRIENDLY! Mini Reactors Show Promise for Clean Nuclear Power’s Future. Bring it on!

SUNNY NEWS FOR solar power.

AN ALTERNATIVE MOON ROCKET: “By day, the engineers work on NASA’s new Ares moon rockets. By night, some go undercover to work on a competing design. These dissenting scientists and their backers insist they have created an alternative rocket that would be safer, cheaper and easier to build than the two Ares spacecraft that will replace the space shuttle.”

CLEAN WATER, thanks to nanotechnology.

A RADIOHEAD VIDEO MADE USING ONLY LASERS, NO CAMERAS. “Every once in awhile I have one of those ‘OMG, I totally live in the future!’ moments, and watching this video was one of them.” Hey, it’s the 21st Century. The video, and a “making of” video, at the link.

POLLS: More bad news for Congress.

SAUDI ARABIA CAN’T MAKE oil production goals? More evidence that capacity is overstated.

BARACK OBAMA, JIMMY CARTER, and Bob Dylan. I was at Newport when I was a little kid, but all I remember was the pizza and ice cream.

And speaking of Hunter S. Thompson, here’s your movie. And speaking of Bob Dylan, here’s your blog.

UPDATE: Hey, Obama’s bringing together The Daily Show and Rush Limbaugh. He’s a uniter, not a divider!

But, as usual, Limbaugh and Stewart are playing catch-up to InstaPundit.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Science Fiction Journalism Becomes Real Journalism. Related thoughts here and here.

TIGERHAWK: Is the stock market discounting an Obama victory?

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, people would try to silence bloggers with secret subpoenas. And they were right!