DOES IT REALLY WORK? Dry Shampoo.

LIST: States most and least friendly to motorists.

A MEMORIAL DAY SALE ON housewares and kitchen stuff.

WHY JOURNALISTS DESERVE LOW PAY. This’ll make some friends.

MEGAN MCARDLE DISCOVERS an NYT bankruptcy tale that isn’t what it’s been made to seem.

THOMAS BARNETT: Despite Rhetoric, Obama Still Following Cheney’s Lead in Dictatorial Justice. But Obama has the fierce moral urgency of change! And that’s something. Because even without the change, you’ve still got the fierce moral urgency, you know. And that’s the really satisfying part anyway.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: What the Future of American Motoring Will Look Like.

BLOGGERS BEWARE: Of getting sued.

NO INTERNATIONAL TRADE IMPLICATIONS HERE: Warren mayor wants requirement for all municipal works to ‘Buy American’.

SHOOTING UNDERWATER HD VIDEO with new video-capable DSLRs.

SEVEN TIPS FOR making good conversation with a stranger.

A SOFTWARE ETHICS PACKAGE for battlefield robots. More Bolo than Skynet, one hopes.

AT REASON, a forum on Obama’s first Supreme Court pick. There appears to be a lot of support for Randy Barnett — more, I suspect, than we’ll find within the White House. . . .

Of people who actually have a chance, I like Kathleen Sullivan.

STUDY: Vitamin D improves cognitive function in middle-aged and older men. Is there anything better for you than sitting in the sun and having a glass of red wine?

IN THE MAIL: A Poul Anderson collection, To Outlive Eternity.

MORE FROM RANDY BARNETT on his Bill of Federalism proposal. I think it’s got legs.

POLIWOOD: Lionel and Roger Duke It Out.

TRANSPARENCY! Tracking Stimulus Spending May Not Be as Easy as Promised. “To build support for the stimulus package, President Obama vowed unprecedented transparency, a big part of which, he said, would be allowing taxpayers to track money to the street level on Recovery.gov. Together with a spruced-up WhiteHouse.gov, the site would inject the stodgy federal bureaucracy with the same Webby accessibility and Facebook-generation flair that defined the Obama campaign. But three months after the bill was signed, Recovery.gov offers little beyond news releases, general breakdowns of spending, and acronym-laden spreadsheets and timelines.”

RASMUSSEN: “Thirty-eight percent (38%) of U.S. likely voters believe the nation is now moving in the right direction, down slightly from a week ago and the first drop since March. It’s too early, however, to say if it’s a trend in the making. . . . Women remain more optimistic than men this week. While 41% of women say the nation is heading in the right direction, just 34% of men agree. Sixty-one percent of men say the country is heading down the wrong track, compared to 51% of women. Optimism among black voters jumped four points to 70% this week, which is over twice the number of white voters who say the nation is heading in the right direction.”

A “SERIOUS CASE OF DOLLAR DAMAGE?” “Concern has been mounting that the increasing U.S. debt load, as well as a potential inflation time bomb in the form of the quantitative easing, could drag down the greenback. Garnering attention is the risk the United States could lose its triple-A sovereign credit rating, which reflects the chance of the borrower defaulting on its debt.” Given the disrespect shown to the rights of Chrysler and GM bondholders, it’s easy to see why people are worried, entirely aside from the reckless spending.

HEH: Obama Gives UAW 55% Control Over Chrysler; UAW Negotiations With Itself Go Smoothly.

WORDS AND DEEDS: A light bulb goes off.

UPDATE: More on the fierce moral urgency of change:

As a candidate, Barack Obama promised to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As President, he has not lifted a finger to overturn the ban. This is disappointing. As Hughes notes, public opinion is strongly against the policy, and there is real reason to believe that, if anything, maintaining the exclusion on openly gay servicemen and women compromises our security and defense.

“Just words?” Looks like it.

L.A. TIMES: Crisis 18% salary slash for California officials isn’t 100% what it seems. “The pay cuts for officials to share the hard times with voters don’t take effect for seven months. Not until 2010. Commission members said their lawyer said the reductions would be impossible to implement during this calendar year. That’s how serious and urgent this state budget crunch really is.”

SHOCKER: Sexual-Harassment Cases Plague U.N.

IN CALIFORNIA, BLAMING THE VOTERS. Stupid voters. Can’t we import better ones from Mexico or something?