BEFORE THE Big Bang.

OKAY, LOOKING FOR STUFF ON THE NSA-INTERCEPT STORY I ran across this bit, which I had forgotten. Pity the poor wiretap guys . . . .

BILL WHITTLE: A Tale of Two Revolutions: The War of Ideas & the Tragedy of the Unconstrained Vision.

Somebody send Tom Friedman a link.

WHY EXERCISE Won’t Make You Thin.

URANIUM FROM coal ash and seawater? Some refining required. . . .

A NEW ONE FROM ANDREW BREITBART: New Political Blog BigGovernment.com to Launch Thursday. Knowing Andrew, he’ll start out with a bang.

IT’D BE BETTER WITH BACON! Deep-Fried Butter.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

REASON TV: Markets and the “molecule of love.” “Markets are pro-social. Markets are about serving the needs of another—that is innately virtuous.”

WILL ANYONE IN THE PRESS ASK THIS QUESTION TONIGHT?

How much will reform cost, and how does he mean to pay for it?

That question takes on greater urgency now that Obama has asked Congress to raise the federal debt limit past its already-staggering current $12.1 trillion.

Unless it does so by the middle of next month, when the national debt is expected to exceed the existing limit, Washington faces default and a curtailment of government operations.

The ceiling already has been raised three times in the past two years. The House raised the limit to $13 trillion in April (with Democratic leaders using a disingenuous parliamentary maneuver to avoid a recorded roll call).

Now the Senate must take action.

But how high can debt be allowed to go — and how much higher will it go if ObamaCare, whose estimated costs could exceed $1 trillion, is enacted?

Back when he was in the Senate, Obama voted against raising the debt limit, saying it was irresponsible and a sign of bad leadership in the White House. So what is it now?

PEREZ HILTON EXPLAINS WHY YOU SHOULD SUPPORT OBAMACARE. Well, with him weighing in, Obama’s got it made.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: New Communique From The Ministry of Truth. “What we are now seeing with Obama’s coterie is a sort of Billy Carterism.”

FROM KEITH HENNESSSEY: A Checklist for the President’s Health Care Speech.

SECRETS OF THE CENTENARIANS: Life Begins At 100. “It is becoming clear that people who break through the 90-plus barrier represent a physical elite, markedly different from the elderly who typically die younger than them. Far from gaining a longer burden of disability, their extra years are often healthy ones. They have a remarkable ability to live through, delay or entirely escape a host of diseases that kill off most of their peers. Supercentenarians – people aged 110 or over – are even better examples of ageing gracefully.”

But it’s not just genetics, because there are a lot more of them than there used to be.

CHINA TO double nuclear plant build rate.

AND AROUND THE WORLD, MILLIONS OF GUYS ADMIRE HIS GENIUS: “One woman even admitted to having sex just so her husband would put the rubbish out.” But hey, “maintenance sex” is cool now.

FOR THE DEMOCRATS, a serious Charles Rangel problem.

Plus, For the Democrats’ Sake, Charles Rangel Must Go.

NO SURPRISE HERE: NY Times Rewriting History on Van Jones Debacle. But at least they gave some credit to Gateway Pundit.

HEH: Thomas Friedman, For One, Welcomes Our New Chinese Creditor Overlords. “Because not only does China finance our deficit, it sets an Example of Governance and Shows Our Decadent Democracy the Enlightened Autocratic Way. In Friedman’s hands, China is, dare one say it, nearly a City on a Hill. This is quite an op-ed, even for Thomas Friedman and even by the historical apologetics of the New York Times. . . . Let me just say for the record that this is a monstrous column. When faced with American public defection from elite preferences outcomes on certain policy issues that involve many difficult tradeoffs of the kind that democracies, with much jostling and argument, are supposed to work out among many different groups, Friedman extols the example of … China’s political system, because it’s both enlightened and autocratic? Who among us knew?” Our political class — which emphatically includes the NYT punditocracy — is far more interested in its own power and position than in anything so trivial as democracy.

UPDATE: Friedman’s cheerleading for China comes one week after dissident Xie Changfa was sentenced to 13 years for trying to organize a political meeting.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Why You Should Support And Read Michael Yon. And donate to him. I have, more than once.

BACKYARD GENIUS: 10 Incredibly Cool DIY Projects.

YALE ALUMNI CRITICIZE YALE PRESS FOR COWARDICE.

THE MCKINSEY CONSULTANTS: They might axe your job, but at least they’re “kind of hot.”

THE MURTHA METHOD: Computer Analysis Shows 12 of 16 House Defense Subcommittee Members in Controversial Circles of Lobbyists, Earmarks, and Campaign Cash. “Murtha and fellow panel members Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.) steered a host of earmarks to PMA clients, and those clients and PMA staffers gave campaign contributions to the lawmakers.”

ADVICE FOR the Volcker tax reform commission.