ILYA SOMIN on Ayn Rand.

SAVE THE PLANET: Eat A Dog? “The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found. Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in their provocative new book Time to Eat the Dog.”

SOLAR POWER COST DECLINES getting steeper.

IS SHOUTING the new spanking?

NOTHING SUSPICIOUS ABOUT THIS: “Police are investigating after a British nuclear energy expert involved in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme fell 40 metres to his death from a UN building in Vienna.”

WELL, THEN, IT MUST BE BAD FOR THE FATCATS: Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC’s net neutrality push.

Related item here.

IN THE MAIL: Ilan Berman’s Winning the Long War: Retaking the Offensive against Radical Islam.

RASMUSSEN: “The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. That’s the lowest level of Strong Approval yet measured for this President. . . . For the first time during Obama’s time in office, the Approval Index has been in negative double digits for seven straight days.”

ANDREW KLAVAN: How To Have Sex.

MORE ON THAT Illinois admissions corruption scandal.

PENN JILLETTE and Tommy Smothers. “An icon, screaming at me.”

But if “it’s a drag, being yelled at by your idol,” then reconsider your idols. Or even the idea of having idols, who usually have feet of clay. At best.

UPDATE: Link was wrong before; fixed now. Sorry!

CLARICE FELDMAN: Another inexplicable decision from the Holder Justice Department. I dunno, it seems pretty explicable to me.

CUT THEIR PAY and send them home.

DAN RIEHL: Don’t Blame The National GOP for the Scozzafava Candidacy.

Bill Whittle, Dana Loesch, and I talked about this last night.

CHANGE: 7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs. What’s shocking is that even Washington, D.C. has lost jobs. How can that be?

STEVE CHAPMAN: Obama’s new position on medical marijuana is a step in the right direction.

CHANGE: New jobless claims rise more than expected to 531K.

HURRAY FOR BELLSOUTH: Phone went out the other day. I put in a service request via the web, Bellsouth had a guy out within a couple of hours, he traced the problem to a short in a never-used jack — when it was installed, a length of cable was terminated bare, and two strands had somehow decided to touch after all these years — fixed it, and was very pleasant the whole time.

THE FINE NUANCE of proper political mockery.

THE HILL: Blue Dogs getting spending fatigue; wary of new economic fixes.

TEA PARTIERS changing face of GOP races.

WHEN PHOTO-OPS go wrong.

SORRY, I’M BUSY THOSE YEARS: Volunteers Wanted for Simulated 520-Day Mars Trip.

FALLOUT from Cold War-era nuclear tests.

THE OTHER THING OBAMA INHERITED. A viable war strategy. And yet. . . .