A LIST OF the 25 law schools offering best value for the money. Happy to see that the University of Tennessee College of Law is at #14.

FASTER DESALINATION, with nanotechnology.

AT THE C.I.A., MORALE IS PLUMMETING.

Meanwhile, in response to my earlier post, a reader emails: “Although you aren’t the only one to make this point, I would ask you to consider that you’re using an awfully broad brush to tar a lot of patriotic people. Although I agree that there were some politicized folks at the agency who wanted to undermine Bush policy — Plame and the analyst “Anonymous” who published a book, come to mind — the vast majority of folks there were simply working diligently to protect America. This especially true of officers in the field who take lots of risks with little credit or glory. I don’t think there’s any evidence whatsoever that the clandestine service as a whole ever sought to do anything but follow orders. So it’s not really fair to talk about the agency as a whole wanting something when only a few over-politicized hacks were causing trouble.” Fair enough, but nonetheless if an intelligence agency can’t prevent leaks on that scale, well. . . .

JOHN TIERNEY ON childrearing and the importance of guilt.

FLYING CARS: How Close Are We?

BRITISH BLOGGERS standing up for Michael Yon.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS OF THE FUTURE: Robot Prostitutes? Robosexuality — not that there’s anything wrong with that!

UPDATE: I just don’t want to give ammunition to the robophobes out there.

A VERDICT in the Christian/Newsom torture-murder trial.

IN THE MAIL: From Michael Baigent, Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World.

JOEL KOTKIN: Rome vs. Gotham. “Urban politicians have widely embraced the current concentration of power in Washington, but they may soon regret the trend they now so actively champion. The great protean tradition of American urbanism – with scores of competing economic centers – is giving way to a new Romanism, in which all power and decisions devolve down to the imperial core. This is big stuff, perhaps even more important than the health care debate. The consequence could be a loss of local control, weakening the ability of cities to respond to new challenges in the coming decades.”

ED MORRISSEY: The AARP’s version of a non-endorsement. “If Barack Obama saw this 30-second spot when it first got released, he can be forgiven for assuming that the advocacy group had explicitly endorsed his plans for overhauling the American health-care system. Given its exhortation to call Congress and demand that health-care reform pass, it would be hard to assume anything else.”

MICHAEL BARONE: Doubling The National Debt. “It’s far from obvious that our current economic predicament requires an increase in federal indebtedness comparable to that which was necessary to prosecuting World War II.”

THE DANGERS OF PROPOFOL ABUSE: “What’s especially fascinating is the profile of the typical propofol user. While almost all are anesthesiologists, they also seem to have suffered childhood trauma, often of a sexual nature. They’re often unable to sleep, and they want to block out the world.”

CINDY SHEEHAN: Ignored On Martha’s Vineyard. She’s not a useful idiot anymore.

THE PAINTINGS OF ASTRONAUT ALAN BEAN. I’ve got a print; it hangs in the studio.

A.P.: Young Obama backers AWOL from health care fight. “Add this to President Barack Obama’s problems in selling his health care overhaul: A lot of the tech-savvy activists who helped put him in office are young, feeling indestructible and not all that into what they see as an old folks issue.”

RON BAILEY ON OBAMA’S BIOETHICS COUNCIL: Can Obama do better than Bush when it comes to biotech freedom? “In June, President Barack Obama disbanded Bush’s controversial President’s Council on Bioethics. He is expected to appoint a replacement panel sometime this fall. This is no small matter. Before terrorism became the all-consuming interest of his presidency, it looked like bioethics policy might be Bush’s lasting legacy—his first televised speech to the nation was about restricting stem cell research. Now it’s Obama’s turn. What should the next bioethics council do? . . . A national bioethics panel can serve a very valuable function in communicating to the public the ethical risks and benefits of new biomedical treatments and research endeavors. But when people of good will deeply disagree on moral issues that don’t involve the prevention of force or fraud, it is a fraught exercise to submit their disagreement to a panel of political appointees or a democratic vote. That way leads to intolerance, repression, and social conflict. Whatever else President Obama’s new national bioethics council does, it must make sure that Americans have wide scope to pursue their own visions of the good without excessive hindrance by their fellow citizens.”

The advice that I gave the Kass Council still looks pretty good (not that it was followed!). But I’m guessing we’ll see Carmen Electra II.

THE HILL: Murtha Pressured to Attend Town Hall.

TAX PENALTIES IN THE HEALTHCARE BILL: “Under the House legislation, taxpayers will be fined for honest mistakes.” “Under current law, taxpayers who lose an argument with the IRS can generally avoid penalties by showing they tried in good faith to comply with the tax law. In a broad range of circumstances, the health-care bill would change the law to impose strict liability penalties for income-tax underpayments, meaning that taxpayers will no longer have the luxury of making an honest mistake. The ability of even the IRS to waive penalties in sympathetic cases would be sharply curtailed.”

I’m sure, though, that the IRS won’t have to pay you a penalty if they make a mistake that goes the other way. (Via Jonathan Adler, who comments: “Of course, it would be silly to expect legislators to actually read the whole bill before they vote for it (that would prevent them from blaming the IRS for enforcing the law as Congress enacted it).”)

ANN ALTHOUSE: “If you could pick a book for Obama to read — actually read — what book would you pick?” It would have to be Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man. Or, if that’s too obvious, James Scott’s Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed.

UPDATE: One of Althouse’s commenters recommends Sen. James Webb’s Born Fighting as explaining a side of America that Obama clearly doesn’t “get.”

ALAWITE UNDERWEAR.

OKAY, SOME REAL TERROR IN THE HEARTLAND: New bizarre twists in Clayton bombing. “A federal search warrant obtained by the Post-Dispatch connects a former Democratic campaign strategist to a Clayton bombing last year that seriously injured an attorney. About two months after the October bombing, federal law enforcement officials searched the downtown loft of Milton H. ‘Skip’ Ohlsen III, seeking ‘evidence related to the planning, execution, and/or cover-up of the bombing in Clayton, Missouri, on October 16, 2008.’ Ohlsen in recent weeks has been at the center of a swirling political scandal that is threatening the political careers of at least two Missouri Democratic legislators. . . . Ohlsen was arrested on federal fraud and firearms charges on Dec. 18, 2008, in an unrelated case, according to federal court records.” (Via Gateway Pundit).

But remember, it’s the Tea Party folks who are the “terrorists.” The people who actually make bombs are just “activists.”

VIDEO: Political Terror In The Heartland!!!

CIA DOCUMENTS: Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Worked. “At best, the Obama administration can hope that this distracts from their collapsing domestic agenda. Otherwise, they lost the argument last night.”

MATTHEW CHENEY interviews Samuel R. Delany.