FASTER, PLEASE: Steps toward an actual cure for AIDS?

THE GULF’S “LITTLE PEOPLE” FIGHT BACK — against Obama.

EPIDEMIOLOGY SUPERHEROES.

NURSE IN ICONIC TIMES SQUARE PHOTO dies at 91.

JOHN STOSSEL: Why Chicagoans Need Guns.

MCCHRYSTAL FIRED, Petraeus asked to take over. Will MoveOn and Keith Olbermann reprise their “General BetrayUs” routine?

UPDATE: A reader emails: “What’s it say about the MSM that a Presidential Candidate and a Commanding General were taken down by the National Enquirer and Rolling Stone Magazine? They’re not exactly bastions of journalistic integrity-or did things suddenly invert over the last 10 years?” Well, they still do actual reporting.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Obama Votes “Present” — And That’s A Good Thing.

MORE: Michael Yon emails:

The United States has again called upon General David Petraeus during crisis. There have been other times, the most remarkable being in January 2007 when we were on the cusp of losing the war in Iraq. The chances against success were increasingly remote. I was there through the entire surge, and more, and saw the remarkable transformation under command of General Petraeus and due to the incredible efforts of our armed forces and civilian counterparts. No book that I have read, including the one that I wrote, has fully conveyed the magnitude of those days. You simply had to be there.

Here we are again. This time on the cusp of losing the war in Afghanistan. The situation is worse than ever before. Again, the United States has asked General David Petraeus to step into a situation that seems hopeless to many people. It is not hopeless, just extremely bad. All is not lost, just nearly lost. Our people can turn this war around.

I’m pulling for them, God knows.

Plus this comment: “Brilliant choice by the President. He removes his hand-picked choice for someone he had no confidence in just 2 years ago.” Yes, underemphasized in all of this is that McChrystal was Obama’s hand-picked choice, for whom the previously serving general, David McKiernan, was unceremoniously removed. That switch was one of Obama’s first major decisions as commander-in-chief.

Meanwhile, look whose bacon Petraeus is being called in to save.

STILL MORE: Victor Davis Hanson:

It is one of ironies of our present warped climate that Petraeus will face far less criticism from the media and politicians than during 2007–8 (there will be no more “General Betray Us” ads or “suspension of disbelief” ridicule), because his success this time will reflect well on Obama rather than George Bush. It is a further irony that Obama is surging with Petraeus despite not long ago declaring that such a strategy and such a commander were failures in Iraq. And it is an even further irony that he is now rightly calling for “common purpose” when — again not long ago, at a critical juncture in Iraq — Obama himself, for partisan purposes on the campaign trail, had no interest in the common purpose of military success in Iraq.

Indeed.

MORE STILL: What MoveOn was saying.

Plus, from Michael Barone: President Obama took command. And this: “Incidentally, the appointment of Petraeus to replace McChrystal was recommended yesterday by the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol. Does the president read the Weekly Standard’s The Blog?” Better that than some other blogs he’s taken direction from . . . .

FINALLY: MoveOn Scrubs “General Betray Us” Page From Website. Have you noticed how these people are always airbrushing? It’s kind of an admission that their stuff won’t sell if they tell the truth. . . .

IT’S AN OLD TRICK: Canadian Heritage Minister smears DMCA opponents as “radical extremists.” Just ask the Tea Party folks. . . .

FIVE YEARS AFTER KELO: The Sweeping Backlash Against One of the Supreme Court’s Most-Despised Decisions.

GENETIC COUNTING: Chicks count from left to right – just like us. “Rugani says animals and humans may instinctively count from the left because the right hemisphere of the brain – which processes the left field of vision – is dominant in visual tasks. This suggests counting from the left may be instinctive rather than culturally learned, say the team.”

POLL: 42% Oppose Kagan’s Confirmation, 35% Favor. Shockingly, this represents an improvement in her numbers.

Related: Looking at Elena’s Inbox.

THE POLITICS of zombies.

MAKING A MUCH BETTER LITHIUM BATTERY by adding carbon nanotubes.

VIDEO: Insanely Expensive Home-Brewed Eco-Rides.

UH OH: New Home Sales “Collapse” In May.

IN THE MAIL: From Sheena Iyengar, The Art of Choosing.

DAVID HARSANYI: Obama: Lord Of The Rigs.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD on Chinese wages, automation, and unrest.

LEE SMITH: The Next Lebanon War.

DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY: Inflation is good for you!

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Getting To Know The General:

Rolling Stone’s piece on The Runaway General hit the web, and presto! before the print edition was even on the newsstands, Gen. Stanley McChrystal was ordered back to Washington for a sitdown with President Obama. If only Obama had been as eager to clear time on his calendar for McChrystal back in 2009. That’s when really getting to know the general — the man entrusted with winning the war in Afghanistan — should have been one of the top priorities of the new president.

I’m not suggesting that with earlier close acquaintance Obama might have spotted the seeds of McChrystal’s “enormous mistake” — as White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described it at press briefing Tuesday. I’m suggesting that better leadership from Obama himself would have averted this mess altogether. Whatever comes next for McChrystal, the biggest lesson here is one the commander-in-chief himself has yet to master.

Since Obama removed Gen. McKiernan from command and replaced him with McChrystal — an unusual move — it would have behooved him to know what he was doing. It makes things a bit awkward now.

IT ONLY WORKS IF YOU’RE TREASURY SECRETARY: Tax Court Rejects Geithner/TurboTax Defense.

BIPARTISAN: Vitter, Feingold call for end to automatic congressional pay raises.

WOMAN WITH NO ARMS gets black belt in taekwondo.

FORCING A VOTE on “Jobs-Gate.” “Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Constitution Subcommittee ranking member Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) introduced a resolution demanding that the administration turn over information about the Department of Justice’s involvement in the White House’s efforts to drive Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff out of their Senate primary races. That resolution will be taken up by the House Judiciary Committee today.”

LOOKING AT THE FORD GT: “Seeing this thing at the Wednesday night cruise-in lurking among the hot rods and Fox-body Mustangs was sort of like going to the county airport and finding an F-117 Nighthawk parked in the middle of a row of Cessna Skyhawks.”