JOHN STEELE GORDON: Deliberate Nonfeasance At The DOJ. “The only reason I can think of why the DOJ would not want to purge the voter rolls of the names of those ineligible to vote is to make voter fraud as easy to accomplish as possible.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES EXPLAINS FACEBOOK, ETC. TO ITS READERS: “But one day it occurred to me: how would they know? All of these buzzy social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter sort of crept up on us. The government never mailed fliers to every household explaining what it’s all about.”

ED DRISCOLL: When the personal becomes really, pathetically, political.

SO LONG AS WE’RE AFFIXING ADJECTIVES, what of Politico? Name-calling as journalism. Two things: First, I note that the headline has changed, probably as a result of Power Line’s criticism. Second, the headline probably isn’t writer Alex Isenstadt’s fault, as writers don’t usually choose their own headlines.

A LETTER from Harper Lee.

RUSSIAN SPY MAY LOSE HARVARD DEGREE, and James Joyner asks: “By all accounts, Bezrukov completed the program and earned the degree in the same way as any other student. A decade ago. So, what’s the problem? He lied about his name, of course, but so what? Presumably, he also used fake credentials to get into the program. Maybe he wouldn’t have been admitted based on his actual qualifications. But that seems trumped by the fact that he was obviously qualified to do the work since, um, he did the work.” I remember a professor telling me about a fake-student case at Yale; she’d done the work satisfactorily but was still booted. Explanation: “We turn down lots of people who could do the work satisfactorily if they got in. If we start letting them stay on that basis even if they’re frauds, we’ll have a lot more frauds show up.” But, you know, that’s Yale. The Harvard crowd seems to have more trouble figuring out how the incentives created by a policy will play out . . . .

“YOUR HEAD IS BEING FROZEN: I get the rest of you.”

SEEN ON TV: “If you or a loved one has died of mesothelioma, call . . . ” If I ever die of mesothelioma, I plan to haunt a commercial-writer or two.

COATTAILS? T-SHIRT. Obama’s Black Support Not Transferring To Carnahan, Other Democrats. “While blacks continue to be overwhelming supportive of Obama, that popularity doesn’t seem to transfer to other Democrats.”

THIS HEADLINE WAS PRETTY INEVITABLE, WASN’T IT? Energy Department Lags in Saving Energy. “Its Web site advises that choosing new lighting technologies can slash energy use by 50 to 75 percent. But the department is having trouble taking its own advice, according to an internal audit released on Wednesday; many of its offices are still installing obsolete fluorescent bulbs. And very few have switched to the most promising technology, light-emitting diodes, which the department spent millions of dollars to help commercialize.”

HEH: Obama’s Weekly Video Addresses Becoming Increasingly Avant-Garde. “The president’s work has grown more abstract and drawn mixed reviews. Citizens reacted favorably to the absurdist slapstick of Reshaping Wall $treet, which features a man in a pig mask rooting through a garbage pail filled with currency, but were less satisfied with (S)Mother Earth, in which Americans ranging in age from 6 months to 90 years are submerged in oil and found guilty by a clown-faced judge for their role in the recent BP oil spill. . . . Nonetheless, a number of critics have embraced Obama’s edgier productions. Artforum magazine referred to Obama’s oeuvre as ‘a winking indictment of the institution of the presidency from none other than the president himself,’ and cited in particular his wildlife conservation video Meat Play as ‘the direction the office needs to go in if the executive branch is to remain relevant.'”

MARKDOWNS ON CELLPHONES AND ACCESSORIES. I’ve never been a smartphone guy, but I’m thinking of upgrading to a Droid X when they come out next week. What do you think?

ABC NEWS: White House: Berwick Appointment ‘Too Important’ to Wait for a Hearing.

STIMULUS! $1.45 Billion — 85 Jobs. Hey, for that I’d be willing to create 90.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER BRAD, who turns 30 and is still rockin’.

SO I WATCHED THE PAPER CHASE last night, for the first time since my first year of law school. As Yale Law students, a bunch of us watched it during exams and laughed at how the Harvard weenies suffered; there were no Kingsfields at Yale, the closest approximations being Quentin Johnstone and the very early Lea Brilmayer, but they were a far cry from Houseman. Of course, there were no Kingsfields at Harvard by then, either. . . .

Hart seemed like a weenie then, and seems like more of one now. (The pre-bionic Lindsay Wagner, meanwhile, seemed luscious then, and seems at least equally so now). But watching the often-vilified Kingsfield, I thought that while he seemed something of a bully then and now, what was great about him was that he actually cared about teaching the students about contract law, and about thinking like a lawyer. The bad law professors today aren’t the sadistically Socratic ones — those are now rare enough to be worthy of Federal protection. Instead they’re the ones who go through the motions, who don’t really care if the students learn anything, because they’re focusing on their research — or, worse yet, phoning that in, too, and blaming their research assistants when charged with plagiarism. They wouldn’t make an interesting anti-authority movie, though. Or maybe they would: A remake of The Paper Chase where the protagonist is a student research assistant who writes all the bigshot prof’s articles and decides to blow the whistle. . . . Nah. Wouldn’t sell.

Meanwhile, some related thoughts from Ann Althouse.

IT’S THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF HARPER LEE’S To Kill A Mockingbird.

WHAT’S THE FASTEST YOU’VE DRIVEN? A shade over 135, on U.S. 50 in Nevada, back before I had any dependents. . . .

ON PATROL IN KARAMANDA: Bill Ardolino Reports From Afghanistan. Bill emails: “I’m currently in Salaam Bazaar, site of a former Taliban weapons and opium market now occupied by Marines, and additional reports will be published at Long War Journal”.

MARKDOWNS ON musical instruments.

MICHAEL WALSH: No Pony Under the Tree After All: The Left Begins To Come To Terms With the Looming Catastrophe Of Hope and Change.

FOLLOWING UP ON MY EARLIER POSTS FROM REMOTE LOCATIONS, reader Rebecca Robison emails:

Hello Professsor Reynolds, apropos of your recent posts about instapundit being accessible everywhere. I am currently writing you from an American flight over the southwest. I am using a little Dell inspiron and was able to snap the attached picture from the webcam. The fee for the wifi service is 9.95 but surfing the internet and reading you is much more entertaining than any in-flight movie has ever been.

Thank you for all the bloggy goodness you provide.

Actually, Rebecca, this is bloggy goodness that you are providing! Which is how things tend to work here at InstaPundit.

UPDATE: Reader Chris Floyd writes from False Pass, Alaska:

Couldn’t resist trying to jump aboard the ‘remote location’ bandwagon – I’m currently catching up with the Blogosphere from the tiny community of False Pass, Alaska, about 600 miles west of Anchorage on the tip of the Alaska Peninsula.

I live in Anchorage, but my job with the Army Corps of Engineers often takes me to remote locations in Alaska. It is amazing how rapidly wireless internet has become one of the necessary accouterments of civilization out here… it’s the new indoor plumbing!

Not that we’d trade it for the old indoor plumbing. But yeah. Here’s a cool pic from Chris.

NASA IS running short of plutonium.

UPDATE: Reader Troy Hinrichs emails: “Maybe NASA can get some plutonium from Iran when they hit the road on their Mission to Muslims tour.” Heh.

CHANGE: Dem governors blast Congress, administration for their woes.

FASTER, PLEASE: A chemical to make brain cells grow: Mental decline thwarted in aging rats.