ROGER KIMBALL: A spoke in the news cycle: slow down and join a freedom brigade near you. “Really what is needed is not a 12-step support group for damaged souls but a network of back-stiffening resource groups equipped to sound the alarm over the government’s astonishing encroachments upon prosperity of the United States and the freedoms of its citizens.”

Plus, TigerHawk on the mistaken but understandable desire to keep your head down. On this day of all days, perhaps people need to start showing a bit more backbone.

UPDATE: Protesting “corrupt media” at MSNBC headquarters. Why not send busloads of protesters to executives’ homes? It’s a tactic that’s ACORN-approved! But will it get the same boffo press coverage? Don’t count on it!

More here.

NEOLOGIC SPASM: Village Voice chokes on Jeff Goldstein’s vocabulary. They’d better hope they never encounter the armadillo. . . .

UPDATE: Coming soon at the Village Voice: A blog “expert” who can tell Moe Lane from Erick Erickson!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gender confusion? Nothing new about that at the Voice! But confusing Jules Crittenden and Ed Driscoll? One’s a towering giant who can kick your ass without breaking a sweat. The other — is the really scary one.

TRANSCRIPT: Obama on “empathy” in judges.

SOME war movie trailers for Memorial Day.

COOLING YOUR PLACE EFFICIENTLY, with Big Ass Fans.

TOM MAGUIRE: Who Will Ombud the Ombudsmen?

Clark Hoyt, ombudsman of the NY Times, goes into the tank for Edmund Andrews, author of “Busted”, who was busted by Megan McArdle.

To recap – Edmund Andrews, Times financial reporter, is promoting a new book claiming to detail his personal journey through the dark underside of easy mortgages and financial distress.

The NY Times gave him space in the NY Times magazine to talk up his story and his book. But missing from the story is any mention of the fact that his wife has filed for personal bankruptcy not once, but twice. For a story about personal finances, that is a staggering omission, leading to some absurd phoniness in the Andrews tale.

However, Clark Hoyt addresses it this way:

Well, you’ll just have to read the whole thing. I don’t want to spoil Maguire’s work. But here’s the conclusion: “Let me join the bashing with a frontal assault – there is no way the Edmunds story can be read as accurate, honest depiction of his experience.”

FOR MEMORIAL DAY, some space heroes.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY: North Korea tests nuclear weapon ‘as powerful as Hiroshima bomb’.

UPDATE: “Is Obama Another Jimmy Carter?” Actually, I’m beginning to think that’s a best-case situation. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Will the Left apologize to John Bolton?

Plus, Don Surber rounds up the lefties. And the failure of “we’re-so-smart diplomacy.”

MORE: Don’t be silly. The golfing is just evidence that Obama is keeping his cool.

IT’S AN ICE-CREAM MAKER! IT’S A KICKBALL! It’s both!

UPDATE: Reader Brett Belmore writes:

Actually, my mother bought that thing as a gift for various kids in the family last year. “Kickball”? You read the instructions, and it’s more like, a “roll gently back and forth, and don’t you DARE kick it!” ball. (Guess the plastic gets brittle at ice cream temperatures, or some such.) Boring!

Bummer. I liked the idea of having kids kick the thing around, then eat ice cream.

USING battery packs and portable chargers so that you can go farther with your electronic devices.

JOHN SCALZI: Adjusted for inflation, what was the biggest science fiction film before Star Wars?

IN THE MAIL: From Doug Stanton, Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan. There’s also an audiobook version, which they kindly sent as well.

LORD OF THE RINGTONES: Are mobile devices enslaving us?

He shut his eyes and struggled for a while; but resistance became unbearable, and at last he slowly drew out the chain, and slipped the Ring on the forefinger of his left hand.

Immediately, though everything else remained as before, dim and dark, the shapes became terribly clear.
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

That scene from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy flashes to mind during any tedious work meeting: the hand moves inexorably toward the iPhone; the urge to check email, texts, Facebook, even favorite blogs begins to overwhelm; one enters the shadowy, virtual world of online friends and welcome strangers, ever oblivious to the surrounding real world.

Such scenes are repeated daily in boardrooms, around dinner tables, on trains, and even (gasp!) on our freeways. The ineluctable pull of mobile devices and the ubiquitous cloud of connectivity tempts us away from the task at hand, rendering us invisible—or at least unavailable—to the physical world around us.

Once you’re partway into the wraithworld, all sorts of evil spirits — like blog-comment trolls! — acquire a measure of power over you. . . .

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY. Just remember, it’s not all about picnics and beer.