THOUGHTS ON Vice President Sarah Palin?

WELL, DUH: “Regular wiping of student desks and use of hand sanitizers during the school day can significantly reduce student illness and absenteeism, a new study shows.”

Okay, you have to study this kind of thing, but the answer is no surprise. I’ve suggested before, in fact, that this may turn out to be a small-but-important public health revolution.

BRING IT ON, PLEASE: Calorie Restriction mimicking Longevity drug could be available in 5 years.

MICHAEL SILENCE SUMS UP THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY: “The people haven’t spoken.”

SIX HOTSPOTS in the new Russian-American arms race. Russian stuff’s cheap, and it works fine as long as you’re only fighting other third-world countries with Russian weapons. . . .

A BIG ROUNDUP OF Father’s Day gift recommendations. You can’t fall back on ties anymore. Not enough men wear ’em.

BECAUSE TO SECURITY PEOPLE, CARTOON CHARACTERS ARE REAL:

A man wearing a T-shirt depicting a cartoon character holding a gun was stopped from boarding a flight by the security at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

Brad Jayakody, from Bayswater, central London, said he was “stumped” at the objection to his Transformers T-shirt.

Mr Jayakody said he had to change before boarding as security officers objected to the gun, held by the cartoon character.

At least in Britain, apparently. Jeez.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Sounds like a hoax to me. Let’s not dilute real security beclowning with hoax stories. You know, falling for the narrative and all…” Good point, though it’s not as if stories like this haven’t been true in the past, providing at least a superficial air of plausibility.

DON SURBER: “Green” Stars Talk the Talk … but Do They Walk the Walk? Not so much.

THE CHEVY VOLT has been approved for production.

THOUGHTS ON BIGOTRY AND DESTINY from Eric Scheie. All I know is that if Obama isn’t President, it’ll be because of racism. And if Hillary isn’t President, it’ll be because of sexism. And if either one somehow does manage to get elected in spite of all the bigotry, that will nonetheless be a sign that the federal government needs to redouble its efforts to extirpate whatever bigotry is still out there.

Plus, beware of sin and hate.

HMM: What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t?

This problem, if it is one, may be fixing itself. My daughter sees a cellphone as a texting-device that in a pinch can also be used to phone out-of-it adults who don’t text.

BRIGITTE BARDOT convicted of racism. So can we call all animal-rights activists racists, now?

THE CARNIVAL OF RECIPES IS UP: Remember, I’m not as good as I used to be at linking carnivals, but that’s because you can always go to BlogCarnival.com — or see the widget in my right sidebar, just above the “Buy My Book!” link — for all of that stuff.

JOHN TIERNEY looks at Ray Kurzweil’s positive take on the future. Ray’s a smart guy, and I think he’s likely to be right. I certainly hope so.

Here, by the way, is my interview with Kurzweil from a while back. And read this, too, if you’re interested.

BILL BRADLEY REPORTS on the Montana and South Dakota primaries.

REVOLUTION: A while back, somebody accused me of fomenting armed revolt. That wasn’t my point, as I noted, but the incident led me to track down a PDF version of a piece I wrote for the Chicago Tribune — shortly before the Oklahoma City bombing, as it turned out — on the Second Amendment, revolution, and democracy. You can get a copy of it right here if you’re interested.

MATT DAMON DROPS BY A COFFEE SHOP in a Tesla roadster.

IN THE MAIL: Doreen Orion’s Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own.

PRAISE FOR ANDREW SULLIVAN ON IRAQ, plus these thoughts: “Now what about Obama? Boy, is the Good Judgement Manâ„¢ ever in trouble. He has been talking defeat in Iraq since forever. Whoops. McCain on the other hand has the distinction that, despite the unpopularity of his position, he was right. I predict a pivot.” It’s almost too late for that given Obama’s past statements.

THE SUN WILL COME OUT, TOMORROW — at least if the Hillary camp has anything to say about it. What’s taken them so long? It’s not like they haven’t had plenty to work with. Maybe it’s all about plausible deniability? But how plausible can it really be? . . .

UPDATE: Reader Yon Lew emails:

It seems to me that Beckel’s appearance on Fox this morning with rumors of the Michelle Obama tape is a “trickle up” phenomenon. It could still be a hoax, but Beckel seemed to imply that he had heard enough from sources he trusted to worry him. The web is unparalleled as a democratic means for transmitting information but that allows for the unchecked propagation of rumors and speculation. When public figures with the stature of Beckel take notice that implies that the rumor has survived at least an initial round of filtering.

I am still withholding final judgement as to whether this is a hoax or not, but if it turns out to be true and if Clinton does go on to wrest the nomination from Barack Obama then I wonder what the effect would be if McCain drafted Colin Powell as vice-president. It may well be that angry Obama voters might be persuaded to defect–especially if Clinton is perceived to be the source for the tape.

I don’t know if there’s any truth to the rumors, but that they’re plausible enough that even Obama supporters find them potentially credible is damaging enough to Obama, isn’t it?

MORE: Reader Jason Norrett emails: “Who knows if this tape is real. However, what is real is the deep division between Hillary supporters and Obama supporters. Holy cow. I know it is a small sampling, but read the comment section of that NoQuarter blog. Whomever the nominee is, they are in trouble, I think.” Well, it depends on how many people are really this mad, whether they’re in close states, and whether they get over it. But, yeah. It’s ugly. Hillary and Obama have gotten it worse from other Democrats than either will likely get from McCain.

STILL MORE: “Whitey” or “Why’d he?” — a dispute worthy of Seinfeld, which is perhaps appropriate for a campaign that has largely been about nothing.

HERE’S A CONTINUOUSLY-UPDATED ROUNDUP of Montana and South Dakota Primary news.

2008 — YEAR OF THE BLOG: “The blogosphere, once compared to the Wild West, is now a key element of presidential campaign strategy. But will candidates reach out to blogs that don’t necessarily share their views?”

THE ANSWER IS TECHNOLOGY: If The Economy Is So Bad, Why Isn’t It Worse?

THE NEW REPUBLIC calls for intervention in Burma. Greg Pollowitz is amused. I think it’s hard to beat Shannon Love’s observation: “It’s not a bad idea except it is at least 6 months too late.”