A COLLECTION OF interesting food links.

POLITICS: Silicon Valley reaps what it sows.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: At Geithner’s Treasury, Key Decisions on Hold. At the rate they’ve been going, I see this as a feature, not a bug . . .

GAY PATRIOT: Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell Repeal and the Limits of Political Labels.

MEGAN MCARDLE on debt and a writer’s life.

FABIUS MAXIMUS: James Bond is not just our hero, but the model for our geopolitical strategy.

POPULAR MECHANICS: The Ultimate Guide for Summer Grilling.

ROBERT SAMUELSON: Obama’s Dangerous Debt. “The final version of his 2010 budget, released last week, is a case study in political expediency and economic gambling.” In a healthier political system, economic gambling wouldn’t be expedient.

ARTISTIC IMAGES found while doing science.

IN THE MAIL: From Jeff Rubin, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Obama Must Stop Ignoring India.

THOUGHTS ON SPACE POLICY from Rand Simberg.

MORE ON how Wikipedia is run.

ARE THE SPANISH ENGAGING IN extraordinary rendition? Or something akin to it?

EVERYBODY’S GOT AN EXCUSE THESE DAYS: CNBC: Recession Drives Moms to Drink, Do Drugs and Gamble.

PJTV: Meet The Blogs: Obama Stimulates The Dead, and Takes On Nancy Pelosi.

POLITICIZING U.S. ATTORNEYS? Democrats fix sights on GOP prosecutor
Easley, Edwards probes under way.

John Edwards admits federal investigators are asking him questions. Federal subpoenas were issued Friday related to Mike Easley.

As the separate federal probes into a former senator and the former governor are emerging, Democrats are taking steps to replace the Republican prosecutor who is spearheading the inquiries about the highest-profile North Carolina Democrats of the past decade. . . .

Edwards, a former senator, vice presidential nominee and presidential candidate, has acknowledged the federal investigation into whether any money given to his presidential campaign — or to nonprofits connected to his campaign — was funneled to his girlfriend, Rielle Hunter. Edwards has admitted having an affair with Hunter, who was hired to make short videos for the campaign.

Easley, governor from 2001 until January, was the subject of a federal subpoena issued Friday to the state Highway Patrol. The FBI wants records and information related to Easley’s private air travel. A separate state Board of Elections inquiry also is under way into a range of activities.

If Republicans were doing this, would it be a scandal?

IN TODAY’S WALL STREET JOURNAL, I’ve got a piece on Obama’s tax audit threat “jokes” and their effect on the tax system.

D’OH! From Patriarch to Patsy: A father of three young children discovers the humiliations of being a modern dad.

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:

Chris Dodd supporters’ rally turns out to be a small, intimate affair.

How America is vulnerable to bio-attacks.

Selling barbecue with fake boobs.

Yuan to replace dollar as world’s reserve currency?

The joys of the Flip Mino HD camcorder. Plus, why I’m lame.

Obama’s new terror policies, and the problems they pose for Bush critics now serving in the Obama Administration.

Plus, Nancy Pelosi and the pro-torture Democrats.

A MAUREEN DOWD PLAGIARISM SCANDAL. Here are my thoughts on plagiarism, generally, from The Appearance of Impropriety.

Meanwhile, I agree with this take:

In fact, the beauty of MoDo’s snafu is that not only does it show a major player in the media being led around by nutroots talking points, it involves her lifting stuff from a blog that’s actually called “Talking Points.” Glorious.

Indeed.

KILLING A STORY: How it’s done. “In today’s New York Times, Public Editor Clark Hoyt reveals the result of his investigation into the charge that the paper killed a story during the 2008 Presidential campaign in order to help Barack Obama. Hoyt concludes that the claim is ‘nonsense.’ . . . But the facts as related by Hoyt don’t rebut the charge; they support it.”

UPDATE: Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!