A ONE-DAY ONLY SALE: Firefly: The Complete Series on Blu-Ray for $26.99. (Bumped, because people seemed excited to hear of this.)

UPDATE: Reader Mary Kay Rohrbach writes:

Add my “thank-you” to the list. I just recently began to watch Firefly – slowly going through the discs via Netflix (when my darling hubby doesn’t bump me from the list). I’m about halfway through the series –but the Amazon deal is too good to pass up. It will arrive in a couple of days.

I believe Firefly came onto my radar through Instapundit.

And I signed up for Amazon prime because you recommended it.

I assume you understand the impact you are having on a certain segment of our culture?

Well, I try to promote the good stuff. Long-term, things thrive when people buy them, and waste away when they don’t.

WHOOPING COUGH CASES continue to climb. Much more here.

HORMONE LEVELS predict sustained weight loss. “Ghrelin increases appetite while leptin reduces it. Someone with higher ghrelin and lower leptin before dieting might have a metabolism that pushes them to eat more. So once they lose weight and go off their diet their appetites drive them to put on too much weight again. Ghrelin might also cause abdominal fat accumulation.”

THE DOWNSIDE OF LIFE EXTENSION:

Russian PM Vladimir Putin has joked that he and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi could stay in their jobs until the age of 120. Mr Putin was responding to Mr Berlusconi’s offer at an informal meeting in Russia to help fund research into extending the average lifespan.

Perhaps it should only be available to those who don’t hold political office. . . .

THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE IS UP!

OKAY, I MENTIONED EARLIER that I think Target’s store brand groceries are unusually good, but this is heresy: “In comparing Heinz tomato ketchup to Target’s Market Pantry private label, Consumer Reports preferred the latter.” Can this be?

I may have to do another of my famous ketchup taste-tests.

IN THE MAIL: The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era.

NONPROFITS: Tom Brady’s wrecked Audi was a charity freebie. “Brady isn’t the only Pats player getting Audis through the charitable partnership: In 2008, the company gave linemen Matt Light [stats], Stephen Neal, Dan Koppen, Logan Mankins [stats] and Nick Kaczur new Audi Q7 SUVs for six months.”

For all the talk about bloat and dishonesty in the for-profit sector, I think people are foolish to believe that the nonprofit sector — where it’s all other people’s money, without the discipline of the need to make, you know, profits, and with substantially less scrutiny from the press — is any better. Be sure to read the comments at the link. My favorite: “Why is he driving a car registered in NJ if he lives in Boston and it is primarily garaged in Mass? 30 days in the aggregate and it is unregistered operation. Mass law and tax don’t count I guess to the beautiful people.” Nope. Taxes are for the little people!

UPDATE: More on nonprofits here.

MARK LEVIN: Don’t Trust Castle On ObamaCare.

MICHAEL CANNON: Secretary Sebelius Slips on the Brass Knuckles.

PROF. JACOBSON: Southern Poverty Law Center Completes Its Descent Into Madness. “Whatever SPLC once was, it now is a bastion of political hackery which, by equating legitimate political opposition with criminal violence, is doing substantial damage to our national fabric. It is time for people of conscience to speak out against SPLC’s tactics.”

Yep, they’ve completely dissipated their moral capital.

UPDATE: Desperate To Connect Tea Party With Domestic Terrorism. The operative word being “desperate.”

Then they tried to portray it as a violent group when it wasn’t, and now they portray it as a racist group and it’s not. To me it’s sad that they would dismiss what is truly an expression of American democracy.

Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Robert Racansky writes: “Dave Kopel made a similar observation 14 years ago.” Political hacks, collecting “dossiers” and spreading fear. Sounds almost McCarthyist . . . .

MORE: Speaking of desperation: L.A. Times: Obama’s electoral coalition is crumbling. “The swing voters who turned out in droves to support the president aren’t likely to back his party in November. Even core supporters express unhappiness with Democrats.” They go with the smears because that’s all they’ve got left.

I BELIEVE THAT REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF SEX are greatly exaggerated. The death of sex-as-schtick, now . . . well, that’s not dead either, but it’s looking kinda tired.

UPDATE: “Isn’t Camille Paglia Afraid Of Sounding Geezerly?” Well, just remember: “Geezerly” is nothing close to being the same as “wrong.”

A REPORT from Greece.

MATT WELCH: Watching California’s Newspapers Line Up Against Legalizing the Pot That 90% of Their Employees Have Smoked.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: Student Loans Deflating A Bit?

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, THE POOR WOULD SUFFER: And they were right! US poverty on track to post record gain in 2009. “The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty. Census figures for 2009 — the recession-ravaged first year of the Democrat’s presidency — are to be released in the coming week, and demographers expect grim findings.”

UPDATE: Chuck Simmins emails:

Having written about the Census Bureau’s annual Poverty in America report for many years, I can make a few predictions.

While the increase in poverty for all races will be noted in news reports, little or no mention will be made of the record or near record lows in the Bush years.

Women reached record parity in wages with men during the Bush years. If reports about the recession layoffs hitting white males hardest are correct, it is entirely possible that wage parity will hit a new record. Fewer men working means working women will have a larger proportion of the wage earning population.

Much will be made of the numbers of people without health insurance. That said, this is a number that has only been tracked for about 12 years. We have no clear picture of what historic values were. It is entirely possible that the numbers from the Clinton bubble era are an extreme outlier and historically irrelevant.

Indeed.

12 PLACES TO GO IF THE WORLD GOES TO HELL. This is a recurring theme, lately . . . .

ANOTHER RUBE SELF-IDENTIFIES: Tim Rutten: Say, That Mr. Obama Is No Better Than Bush On Civil Liberties.

This keeps happening. Ah, but remember when you now-disappointed Obama supporters were lecturing us about the fierce moral urgency of change? With such overweening self-righteousness? Even as you resolutely failed to look at what was going on, or to inquire into what Obama was actually like? So pardon me, now-disappointed Obama voters, if I point out that you’re rubes. Again, and again.

You were expecting a Chicago machine politician to show an enthusiasm for civil liberties?

I expected something more like what we got. And I turned out to be right, didn’t I?

TAXPROF: Obama’s Business Tax Proposals: Permanent Economic Policy Pivot or Temporary Political Shift?

STANLEY CROUCH: The Roots Of Black Homophobia.

SHANNON LOVE: Palin and the Left’s Status-Anxiety.

THE PRESIDENT BEGINS HIS HEALTH CARE BACKPEDAL.

READER PATRICK MCHALE sends this picture of the WTC Towers Of Light tonight. He writes: “I sent you a picture last year of the Light Towers taken with an Lumix LX3 purchased after your recommendation. During the past year I really started to enjoy photography, so I upgraded to a Panasonic GF1 and a few lenses.” Glad to be a good influence!

SCOTT JOHNSON: The Times In Campaign Mode. Is it ever out, any more?

THE PAPARAZZI are everywhere!