RATTNER UPDATE: New York State Pension Pay To Play Investigation Expands.

THOUGHTS ON EXTENDING LIFE:

The chief causes of natural death among the elderly form a concise set: Heart disease and cancer are the big killers, with strokes, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, or opportunistic infections claiming most of the rest. Until recently, we’ve focused on attacking each of these diseases separately, but we’ve made little progress; despite developed countries’ collectively spending untold billions of dollars pursuing this elusive goal, eventually something from the same old rogue’s gallery seems to arrive for everyone.

This could all soon change, thanks to a recent, astonishing discovery of genetic pathways that defend against aging. This has opened up, for the first time, the possibility that we can develop medicines that will not only help us live longer but also reach the ends of our lives more gracefully, free from the pernicious diseases that would otherwise plague us. In other words, with the help of drugs already in human trials, there is now a chance that you will be able to dance at your great-granddaughter’s wedding just as you did at your own. . . . During the Victorian era, children commonly died of illnesses like measles, mumps, and whooping cough; surely, no one would suggest today that we eliminate prenatal care, vaccines, or water purification in order to return to a more “natural” state. Now that we have the technology to eliminate the scourge of infant mortality, it would be immoral to not use it. In truth, we’re fighting aging and extending lifespan every time a doctor prescribes a statin drug or recommends a healthier diet to a patient. And the fact remains that science has not yet discovered an indisputable biological “expiration date” for a human life, nor is there good evidence that one exists.

In time, the idea of an inevitable, debilitating decline starting at age 50 will seem as horrifying and primitive as it does for us, in the age of potent antibiotic cocktails, to imagine a young person in the 19th century dying from an infection caused by a splinter.

Read the whole thing. Er, and faster, please . . . .

EUGENE KONTOROVICH: The Administration’s Pathetic Piracy Policy. “Indeed, as I’ve recounted elsewhere, since the beginning of the piracy epidemic last summer the United Nations has passed five Security Council resolutions on the subject– all under its binding Chapter VII authority. No other issue, not even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (to say nothing of the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka or the ongoing genocide in Darfur) has commanded as much of the Council’s attention. Yet the piracy epidemic has only increased apace. In the days after Obama announced that the U.S. would be getting tough on pirates, as if to mock his words several more vessels were seized, including another American ship.”

LESSONS LEARNED FROM BRITISH LEYLAND: Since we seem to be headed toward an American Leyland, this is probably apt . . .

SECURITY IS ALWAYS OVERRATED: U.K. Man Sues Bank Over ‘Phantom’ Withdrawals from Chip-and-PIN Account. “The case highlights the fragility of the chip-and-PIN security scheme that was launched in the UK in 2004 and became mandatory nationwide in early 2006. The system was supposed to have resolved questions about who was liable when funds were withdrawn from accounts, since only someone who possessed both the card and the PIN could theoretically make a withdrawal.”

HOW TO make quick money on the Web.

SUDANESE LOST BOYS making it with art.

THE SCIENCE, NATURE, AND MEDICINE BLOG CARNIVAL is up!

TEA PARTY RESULTS IN RHODE ISLAND: “In Woonsocket, RI, Tea Party activists swarmed the City Council and stopped massive new supplemental tax hikes to bail out the public school district. The tax measure, which had been expected to pass 6-1, went down by a 4-3 vote.” As Jim Geraghty noted the other day, 100 or even 1000 people at a rally might be a news story, but when they show up to a City Council meeting it’s an earthquake. Or a Congressman’s meet-and-greet.

GENERAL MOTORS will default on its debt. And a good question: “Why couldn’t we have done this in December? What did taxpayers get for the $13.4 billion we invested in the company?” A better question: What did the people who approved the investment get?

POLITICO: Obama Muddles Torture Message: “President Barack Obama’s attempt to project legal and moral clarity on coercive CIA interrogation methods has instead done the opposite — creating confusion and political vulnerability over an issue that has inflamed both the left and right. . . . That leaves a top Obama administration official appearing to validate claims by former Vice President Dick Cheney that waterboarding and other techniques the White House regards as torture were effective in preventing terrorist attacks. And the press release created the impression the administration was trying to suppress this conclusion.” The country’s in the very best of hands.

FASTER, PLEASE: Another step closer to the medical tricorder.

ROLL CALL: Pelosi Knew About Harman Wiretap.

AN ELECTRIC STREET BIKE.

MICHAEL FOLEY SENDS some pictures from the Santa Ana Tea Party.

RICH KARLGAARD: Scared CEOs hamper economic recovery.

Or is it just a case of going “John Galt?”

UPDATE: In response to Karlgaard, a reader emails: “I am a hospital CEO and I am doing exactly what he says here – hunkering down before the government take over of health care hits.”

JACOB SULLUM ON GUNS AND DRUGS IN MEXICO: “The violence in Mexico is caused by prohibition, not firearms.”

IN THE MAIL: From Peter Shane, Madison’s Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy.

TOP LAW REVIEWS LAUNCH The Legal Workshop. (Via TaxProf.)

JIM LINDGREN CRUNCHES THE NUMBERS: High Unemployment States Have High Income Taxes or High Unionization or Both.

MATT DRUDGE VS. THE MEDIA HACKS. I’d give the advantage to Drudge, who still has a job . . . .

UPDATE: Oops. Had the wrong link before. Fixed now. Sorry!

AT WIZBANG, praise for Barack Obama on Colombia trade.

BRIAN DOHERTY: The Anti-Capitalist Documentary That Can Make You Love Ayn Rand.

CAN CHRIS DODD stay in the Senate? “His Friends of Chris Dodd PAC filings show more than $1 million in contributions from other PACS and out-of-state donors in the first quarter of 2009, but only a total of $2,250 from four Connecticut residents. All the other money came from out of state.”

CQ POLITICS: Here’s Another Reason Trial Lawyers Love Democrats.

Rep. Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, third-ranking Democrat on Rep. John P. Murtha’s Defense Appropriations Subcommittee — yesterday asked the Federal Elections Commission for permission to use funds from his campaign committee to pay the lawyers he’s hired to represent him in what has been reported to be an investigation of fundraising practices.

Given Visclosky’s anemic first-quarter fundraising effort — he raised just $11,800 from individuals in amounts over $200 this year, compared to $266,250 he raised in the first quarter of 2007 — it’s a sure bet that at least some of the money he’ll use to pay his lawyers will be funds he rolled over from earlier campaign fundraising efforts.

That left-over money has to include money that came from officers, employees, and clients of the now defunct lobbying shop PMA Group in previous years.

This is exactly the same thing that former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich last week asked for permission to do — use campaign funds (allegedly obtained illegally) to pay the legal bills incurred in defending himself against charges that he raised money illegally.

There’s a certain symmetry here.