OKAY, YESTERDAY’S PARIS HILTON POLL WAS A JOKE, but some people wanted a real one. So here goes:

UPDATE: Redone to add a “none of the above” option.

HOW THE BRITISH BLEW IT IN BASRA: “You can accuse the Americans of many things, such as hamfistedness, but you can’t accuse them of not addressing a situation when it arises. While we had a strategy of evasion, the Americans just went in and addressed the problem.”

As Greyhawk comments: “From the get go, they tried very hard to not be American. They succeeded.” And they got great press on how much smarter than Americans they were, until things were obviously in the toilet, at which point the problem became America’s fault!

MICKEY KAUS: Waiting for the other Gucci to drop.

TALKLEFT: “On Morning Joe, Chuck Todd said that the ‘feeling in Chicago,’ presumably referring to the Obama campaign, is that Hillary Clinton is seeking treatment that she would never have given Barack Obama had the roles been reversed. If they REALLY believe that, then they are fools. If Hillary Clinton were the nominee, Barack Obama would have been the vice presidential nominee a month ago. I can not believe Todd is passing on this foolishness.”

UPDATE: Satisfying that “incredible pent-up desire.”

A PREEMPTIVE PLAY of the Race Card?

INFLATIONARY THEORY: “Of course, Barack could easily defuse this by admitting he was wrong, but as with the surge he will not. This is why Barack Obama’s team is scared to death of any debate format that doesn’t rely on teleprompters: he’s a walking gaffe-o-matic and too arrogant to admit when he’s wrong — probably partly because the MSM scrambles to explain his mistakes away.”

CENSORING SKEPTICISM: Because it might lead the common folk astray!

SO ARE THESE INTUITIONS RIGHT, OR SPURIOUS? Whom do we fear or trust? Faces instantly guide us, scientists say. “A pair of Princeton psychology researchers has developed a computer program that allows scientists to analyze better than ever before what it is about certain human faces that makes them look either trustworthy or fearsome. In doing so, they have also found that the program allows them to construct computer-generated faces that display the most trustworthy or dominant faces possible.”

WELL, I GUESS THAT’S GOOD: Third Rocket Launch Fails, but VC Cash for SpaceX Pours in Anyway.

OKAY, I MENTIONED IT IN PASSING EARLIER, but this Washington Post correction is worth quoting in full: “An earlier version of this story about campaign donations that Florida businessman Harry Sargeant III raised for Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton incorrectly identified three individuals as being among the donors Sargeant solicited on behalf of McCain. Those donors — Rite Aid manager Ibrahim Marabeh, and lounge owners Nadia and Shawn Abdalla — wrote checks to Giuliani and Clinton, not McCain. Also, the first name of Faisal Abdullah, a McCain donor, was misspelled in some versions of the story.”

Next time, do some research to confirm what the Obama operatives email you, before you run the story on Page One. It’ll work out to be less embarrassing in the end . . . .

GORDON CHANG: What to Look For as the Olympics Kick Off.

MICKEY KAUS: “Old MSM line: We demand photos! … New MSM line: We demand high definition photos!”

HEH: “Can Obama laugh at himself?” “Of course not. That would be racist.”

DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Mountain Lion in Bedroom Kills Family Dog.

Related thoughts here.

THE JOHN EDWARDS STORY seems to be breaking out.

CANADIAN “HUMAN RIGHTS” KANGAROO COURT UPDATE: Punished First, Acquitted Later:

My lawyers have just received a copy of a letter from the Alberta Human Rights Commission dismissing the complaint of “discrimination” filed against me by the radical Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities. They had complained that by publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in the Western Standard in February 2006, I had engaged in an illegal act.

Their complaint was identical to the one filed earlier by an anti-Semitic imam named Syed Soharwardy. Soharwardy abandoned his complaint this spring. You can see Soharwardy’s complaint here; it named both me and the magazine. The Edmonton complaint named just the magazine. My initial legal response is here.

The two complaints cost Alberta taxpayers in excess of $500,000 and, according to access to information documents, involved no fewer than 15 government bureaucrats. What a scam – on the part of the complainants, who were able to wage “lawfare” against an infidel without paying a cent; and on the part of the HRC, as a make-work project.

Fire. Them. All.

Good idea. Either that, or free-speech supporters in Canada are going to have to adopt Muslim extremists’ tactics — which seem to work — and saw off a few heads. The rule of law is better, if people will let it work.

DUDE, I’VE ALREADY got “the physique of an American gladiator.” So we’re at least 1/3 of the way there . . . .

Anyway, this whole thing is old news.

UPDATE: Okay, technically it’s the physique of an American gladiator who retired after the first season and now works at a beer-and-barbeque joint. But my arms are as buff as John Scalzi’s!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Maguire emails:

I’m not sure how seriously we should take techology forecasting from someone who describes an IEEE publication as “A publication called IEE Spectrum”. Not only does the “called” indicate that Last has no idea what IEEE and Spectrum are, he’s one E short in IEEE.”

I’ve had issues with Last for a while.

MORE: Heh. All I need to be that ripped is to give up beer. Not gonna happen.

IF ONLY WE HAD A HEALTH PLAN LIKE BRITAIN’S: Hospitals ‘infested with vermin’. “Vermin were found in wards, clinics and even operating theatres. A patients’ group said the situation was revolting.”

MATT BAI: Is Obama The End of Black Politics? “The generational transition that is reordering black politics didn’t start this year. It has been happening, gradually and quietly, for at least a decade, as younger African-Americans, Barack Obama among them, have challenged their elders in traditionally black districts. What this year’s Democratic nomination fight did was to accelerate that transition and thrust it into the open as never before, exposing and intensifying friction that was already there. For a lot of younger African-Americans, the resistance of the civil rights generation to Obama’s candidacy signified the failure of their parents to come to terms, at the dusk of their lives, with the success of their own struggle — to embrace the idea that black politics might now be disappearing into American politics in the same way that the Irish and Italian machines long ago joined the political mainstream.”

“FIND OUT WHERE HIS KIDS GO TO SCHOOL:” Just don’t do the same thing regarding a “progressive” figure. That would be McCarthyism.

TIGERHAWK: The Hypocrisy Trifecta.

YOUR STATE DEPARTMENT AT WORK: I just wish they were willing to stand up to America’s enemies this way.

AT AMAZON, a half-price sale on sports and fitness equipment.

UPDATE: Bill Quick: “Never buy this stuff new. There’s tons of barely used stuff out there.”

I MISSED THIS EARLIER: Fact-checking the tire-inflation claim.

And I love this: “Whip Underinflation Now!” I want a button!

UPDATE: Reader Ric Manhard emails: “Maybe we should start inflating our tires with C02 and kill two birds with one stone.” Brilliant!

MICHAEL TOTTEN: “A significant percentage of my travel expense income has come from those of you who signed up for recurring payments through a Blog Patron subscription. Blog Patron, unfortunately, has now closed. That cash flow has stopped up entirely. If you were one of my Blog Patron subscribers, please consider re-enrolling with a Pay Pal subscription so I will continue to have money for travel expenses. I would write these dispatches for free if I could, but I don’t have a trust fund or any other independent source of wealth to keep me going.”

I’ve donated to Michael, and if you like his work I recommend that you do the same.