BREITBART LAUNCHES Big Peace.

EUGENE VOLOKH: Gun License Fees and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms for Self-Defense.

IMPORTANT lawn sprinkler advice.

IN THE MAIL: From Stephen D. King, Losing Control: The Emerging Threats to Western Prosperity.

Happy Independence Day.

Quincy, Illinois. Taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX-3.

SHOCKER: Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse. Unless You’re in Law Enforcement.

Laws should be simple enough that law enforcement people can be held strictly liable for knowing them. You know, like the rest of us are.

SIGH: Republicans On Energy: More Pro-Business Than Pro-Market. Alas, that’s the Republicans on economic issues in general, all too often.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl on why the GOP apparat isn’t so hot on the Tea Party movement: “The grassroots and conservative movement are genuine free marketers and capitalists. The beltway establish, GOP and otherwise, is corporatist. This is also one reason why you have so called Reagan Democrats.”

WINSTON GROOM: Anger grows along the Gulf Coast at the Obama administration’s pathetic response to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Yeah, I linked this last week but it bears repeating.

AFGHANISTAN UPDATE: Michael Yon has a couple of statements from Gen. Petraeus.

CAR LUST: The RestoMod Challenge.

Farragut, Tennessee. Happy Independence Day!

TOM SMITH: Collegiality Over Constitutionality. “As Thomas More implies in Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, nobody is obliged to go to hell out of good fellowship.”

THE HILL: Steele’s Afghanistan criticism highlights Democrats’ mixed message on war. “Michael Steele’s criticism of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan may be creating a headache for the Republican National Committee, but it’s also shining a spotlight on the Democrats’ mixed message on the war.”

EMPTY HOLSTERS.

IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP ADVICE: “You can never have enough sex, especially when you’re in a relationship. One way to make sure that your man is happy is to be intimate with him as much as possible. Whenever, wherever, make sure that you’re doing it. Besides the fact that sex is so fun, it will also make you a stronger couple. There’s no excuse not to be getting busy all the time.”

JIM TREACHER: Dear Al Gore climax deniers: Why do you keep ignoring the computer models? There do seem to be a lot of them . . . .

WHY IS THE GULF CLEANUP SO SLOW? There are obvious actions to speed things up, but the government oddly resists taking them.

CHANGE: “Barton Biggs, whose investments in stocks 15 months ago gave his Traxis Partners LLC a 38 percent gain in 2009, said concern the economy will contract spurred him to sell almost all his U.S. technology shares this week.”

AT AMAZON, 30% off kitchen and dining stuff.

MAXIMUM LEADER John Scalzi.

A WARNING TO TRAVELERS ON I-40 WESTBOUND: It narrows to one lane in North Carolina at mile marker 7, just before the Tennessee line. For some reason, this produces a multi-mile backup that took us over an hour to get through. Alas, the alternate route on I-26 to I-81 adds . . . something over an hour to the trip itself, so I don’t have a lot of good advice for you. You can try going via Hot Springs on the 2-lane, but that will either be faster, or much slower, depending on traffic.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing writes: “I drove from Charleston, SC, to Williamson county today, 600 miles. Knowing about the blockage, I continued on I-26 W north of Asheville, then took Hwy 25N/70W thru mountains to Newport, TN, where I rejoined I-40. Not much traffic on this route and much shorter than the I-81 detour.”

S.S. UNITED STATES saved from the scrapper. For now.

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Former U.S. prosecutor to testify on New Black Panthers charges.

TELEGRAPH: America is sinking under Obama’s towering debt.

HOW FIREWORKS PROS make brilliant pyrotechnics.