TOM MAGUIRE: “Glenn Reynolds has been wondering what other secrets the media is sitting on and what other stories they are not pursuing that might damage Obama. I have a nominee.”

WELL, THIS IS ALL UPSIDE: Better bicycle seat yields better sex.

THE LADIES HOME JOURNAL shills for red-light camera companies. “It seems to me the magazine should have disclosed the fact that the campaign it partnered with to nudge its readers to lobby Washington is underwritten by three companies who stand to make quite a bit of money should that pressure result in a new law. It may have also given readers reason to look at Alexander’s article a bit more skeptically.”

Have the folks at LHJ ever met a nanny-state proposal they didn’t like?

HMM: Trade Deficit Shrunk in June, and exports hit a record. That’s good news in and of itself, but it’s largely because of a weak dollar and shrinking domestic demand, which is less good.

IN THE MAIL: Bob Moser’s Blue Dixie: Awakening the South’s Democratic Majority. Judging from the cover copy, Moser’s thesis is that Democrats have been telling themselves a comforting tale of Southern racism and Republican perfidy to explain why they’ve lost the South, when the real story “speaks less to the principled nobility of non-Southern liberals than to an uneasy melding of arrogance and willful ignorance.” That seems about right to me.

A POLL: M. Simon at Classical Values thinks that Georgia actually won and what we’re hearing is Russian spin. Most everybody else, however, thinks that Russia won big. What do you think?

UPDATE: From the poll comments: “The US response is dominated by the same logic that has dominated US military thought since the end of WWII – for the sake of the survival of the human race, avoid direct confrontation with Russia. That is the overwhelming factor in the US non-response, and any mention of Iraq as a factor proves you are an idiot. (One French written story today contained the line that our presence in Iraq placed our troops far from the conflict, proving the writer had never used a map.) Even if we had our entire cold war era army arrayed on the border of Russia, we’d still not have intervened directly in the Georgian-Russian conflict. The rules of the cold war apply – Russia and the USA can slug it out, but only by proxy.”

DNA AND STATISTICS at the L.A. Times. Earlier, somewhat related item here.

JERALYN MERRITT: Would Hillary Have Won Iowa Without Edwards?

DON’T GET TOO CARRIED AWAY with reports of progress on invisibility.

NEWSWEEK calls “Obama Republicans” “mythical.”

But are there enough rank-and-file Republicans whispering their support at Obama rallies to actually make a difference on Election Day? As I discovered from examination the last 18 months of head-to-head general election polls, the answer seems to be “no.” In fact, John McCain’s share of the Democratic vote has typically–and surprisingly–been larger than Obama’s share of the Republican vote. In other words, it’s not that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scared the Obamacan masses off, as some pundits have theorized–it’s that they never existed (in any unprecedented way) to begin with.

You mean a politician is making stuff up? Stop the presses! (Via Dan Riehl).

ERIC SCHEIE: “What I can’t figure out is how come we always get stuck with the silly ideas.” We subsidize their production.

COLLEGES GETTING exasperated with the RIAA.

THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN is still in the Democratic Party Platform. Maybe they’ll get smart and change it?

A “TREASURE TROVE” OF CAPTURED AL QAEDA INTELLIGENCE: I hope it’s put to good use. (Via John Stephenson).

DRIP, DRIP, DRIP: Mickey Kaus notes that people aren’t buying John Edwards’ “Story #2.”

Meanwhile, more revelations come out. Just remember how the press covered for this guy, as the story of what they didn’t report continues to expand.

THE EXAMINER: Stop Using SWAT Teams on Civilians:

The violent assault on Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo’s home late last month was certainly not the first bungled raid by a government SWAT team, but the bad publicity it generated should make it the last time these trigger-happy squads target innocent civilians. . . . Originally set up to handle volatile, high-risk situations involving snipers, hostage takers or prison escapees, militarized SWAT teams have been unleashed on civilians with predictably disastrous results — as the fatal shooting of unarmed optometrist Salvatore Culosi by a Fairfax County SWAT team two years ago illustrated all too well. . . . It’s long past time for law enforcement agencies to restrict SWAT teams for use only in situations where massive lethal force is their only remaining option.

SWAT raids should be used only where there’s an imminent risk of death or great bodily harm — since the raids themselves pose just such a risk. Here’s a column I wrote on the subject for Popular Mechanics a while back.

IT’S A WAR AGAINST SCIENCE! “Victor Deeb, a retired chemist who lives in Marlboro, has finally been allowed to return to his Fremont Street home, after Massachusetts authorities spent three days ransacking his basement lab and making off with its contents. Deeb is not accused of making methamphetamine or other illegal drugs. He’s not accused of aiding terrorists, synthesizing explosives, nor even of making illegal fireworks. Deeb fell afoul of the Massachusetts authorities for… doing experiments.”

Somebody tell Chris Mooney. Plus, banning chemistry books in the name of safety?

WELL, GOOD:

Five years after the worst blackout in U.S. history, the nation’s electrical system is far better equipped to prevent another big outage, but significant shortcomings remain, federal officials, grid operators and consultants agree.

Since the blackout on Aug. 14, 2003, which affected 50 million people in the Northeast, Midwest and part of Canada, federal regulators have approved standards for upkeep of the power grid. And utilities have new systems to monitor the network.

“I can definitively say the events that led to the 2003 blackout are much less likely to occur,” says Rick Sergel, head of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), which enforces the new rules.

But there are still concerns.

And, of course, we’re not adding new generating capacity quickly enough to keep up with demand. Should I buy a generator?

THOUGHTS ON “DISASTER MEMORY:” There are some good points here, and my colleague Greg Stein has done some research on this subject. On the other hand, too much memory and caution probably slows progress, and progress — becoming richer and more capable — is better disaster protection than anything else.

I CERTAINLY AGREE: “The misuse of it’s has, for some reason, become ever more annoyingly flagrant in recent years.”

UPDATE: From the comments:

What’s the deal with “lose” vs. “loose”?

That’s another annoying error on the Net that seems to be getting worse, not better.

I hate that. Usually seen as some comment troll triumphantly announces: “You loose.”

MORE RETRO-TECH FROM BOINGBOING TV, with a tour of the USS Pampanito submarine.

AT THE WASHINGTON POST, debunking “snake oil” about offshore drilling.

Compare to Bob Herbert’s uncritical passing-along of same.

MORE ON POST-GEORGIA DIPLOMATIC REALITIES: Including this question: “Does the objective correlation of forces favour those leaders who in a pre-modern way have a clear sense of what they want – and are ready to take risks to achieve it? Will think they have the upper hand against leaders who rely on little more than post-modern flannel and uneasy hopes?”

THEY’RE OFFERING A one-month free trial of Amazon Prime. As I’ve noted before, I’ve found the free 2-day shipping very worthwhile. I’ve now had it for over three years.

The free trial might work out well if you’re thinking of taking advantage of the HDTV sale.

DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE (CONT’D): Black bear attacks boy in Smokies; father also hurt. “A black bear repeatedly mauled an 8-year-old boy Monday evening near a popular motor trail on the outskirts of Gatlinburg, and an animal matching its description was later killed by park rangers.”

Plus, this commentary: “Parks were designed so people could experience nature in a positive way. Not be eaten by it.”