THE PARANOID CENTER: If you’ve never read it, Jesse Walker’s article in Reason from last fall is a must-see. However, calling today’s left “the center,” whether compared with conservatives, libertarians, or even liberals of the New Deal era seems to be a pretty big stolen base, albeit unintentionally by Walker — perhaps it was too good a title to pass up.

“WELL PLAYED, SIR. WELL PLAYED:” Yet another reason to love Michael Caine.

ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS: Mark Steyn on “Obama’s lazy tribute to Daniel Pearl:”

Like a lot of guys who’ve been told they’re brilliant one time too often, President Obama gets a little lazy, and doesn’t always choose his words with care. And so it was that he came to say a few words about Daniel Pearl, upon signing the “Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act.” Pearl was decapitated on video by jihadist Muslims in Karachi on Feb. 1, 2002. That’s how I’d put it. This is what the president of the United States said:

“Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is.”

Now Obama’s off the prompter, when his silver-tongued rhetoric invariably turns to sludge. But he’s talking about a dead man here, a guy murdered in public for all the world to see. Furthermore, the deceased’s family is standing all around him. And, even for a busy president, it’s the work of moments to come up with a sentence that would be respectful, moving and true. Indeed, for Obama, it’s the work of seconds, because he has a taxpayer-funded staff sitting around all day with nothing to do but provide him with that sentence.

Instead, he delivered the one above, which in its clumsiness and insipidness is most revealing. First of all, note the passivity: “The loss of Daniel Pearl.” He wasn’t “lost.” He was kidnapped and beheaded. He was murdered on a snuff video. He was specifically targeted, seized as a trophy, a high-value scalp. And the circumstances of his “loss” merit some vigor in the prose. Yet Obama can muster none.

Even if Americans don’t get the message, the rest of the world does. This week’s pictures of the leaders of Brazil and Turkey clasping hands with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are also monuments to American passivity.

At Commentary, Jennifer Rubin notes that during Obama’s signing ceremony, Pearl’s eight-year-old son and his father, Judea were essentially “props to adorn the Oval Office:”

They were not afforded the chance to speak. But now Judea gives an interview and expresses his views on Miranda rights and the KSM trial, among other issues. The interview is worth reading in full, and it’s clear why he was a silent participant in Obama’s stage show.

Read the rest here.

PENNSYLVANIA’S GOV. ED RENDELL TO ROOT FOR THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS: Hey, that’s as likely to happen as the New York Times rooting for the Boston Red Sox.

Err, wait a second…

SPIN-FREE OVERSEAS: In audio obtained by Naked Emperor News, Paul Volcker explains to a London audience that Obama has raised spending to 25% of GDP and there must be a massive new tax to cover it.

What could go wrong? American voters can look to California, “The Frog in the Sub-Prime Frying Pan” to find out.

MEET THE MAN WHO WANTS TO BEAT PELOSI: Tracie Savage of PJTV interviews Republican John Dennis:

ROGER SIMON: “Time for Rahm Emanuel to bar mitzvah himself.”

RUSSIA will sell an advanced missile system to Iran despite sanctions.

THE ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY says thirty five tons of weapons seized last year on a plane from North Korea were bound for Hezbollah.

CROCODILE, KANGAROO, ANTELOPE, AND HIPPOPOTAMUS are all at the Beijing zoo — on the restaurant menu. Incredibly, some people are outraged, the theory being the zoo is where we go to learn “to be nice to animals.”

CRAZIEST CANNES OUTFITS. Don’t miss #1.

“ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO USED TO BE OPPOSED to the idea of unlimited executive power during the Bush administration … now seem to have embraced it during this administration.” Oh! The disillusionment, as Obama wins a case about detainees.

An appreciation of the vending machine.

A CHEERY TAKE FROM MATT RIDLEY: The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. “Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people’s lives as never before. The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for two hundred years. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.”

BENJAMIN KERSTEIN on liberalism and Zionism.

How about Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, for House Bull Dog of the Year Award? He’s threatening to file an ethics complaint against Rep. Joe Sestak if the Pennsylvania Democrat doesn’t fess up to who in the Obama White House offered him a cushy federal job earlier this year in return for dropping his run against Sen. Arlen Specter. Sestak beat Specter Tuesday and Issa is steadily turning up the heat for the name (s).

I spent most of today as one of the instructors for the Heritage Foundation’s Computer Assisted Investigative Reporting Boot Camp program at the National Press Club. It’s all about the incredible explosion of data about government programs and how easy it is to download and analyze. It’s free, too, you just have to get to D.C. for a full Friday of rather intense learning (We don’t call it a “boot camp” for nothing!). All bloggers who want to nail bad guys and bad programs should take it.  The scrupulously trans-partisan instructor team also includes folks from OpenSecrets.org and the Sunlight Foundation. Schedule is on the online enrollment page.

IS THE EURO AS WE KNOW IT FINISHED?

APOLOGY TOUR III: US Apologizes to Billionaire Added to Terror No-fly List

LEE SMITH says Lebanese-American Rima Fakih, this year’s Miss America winner, isn’t necessarily a fully Westernized Muslim just because she wore a bathing suit. She may well be what her admirers say she is, but to know for certain you’d have to look into her head and her heart, not at her body or clothes. The same is true for any other beauty pageant contestant, but there’s something else, too: Some bikini-clad women in Lebanon, believe it or not, support Hezbollah, just as a small number of Middle Eastern doctors perversely become terrorists.

I have already strongly recommended Smith’s book The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations, but I want to plug it one last time because everyone who wants to understand how the Middle East works needs to read this.

ONE NATION, UNDER A GRAPH: At Maggie’s Farm, “Our culture in graphspeak.”

Charles Krauthammer and Bill O’Reilly talk about SWAT teams and the drug war.

Over at Reason, I offer some commentary.

Over at my place, I discuss the looming problem in public pensions.  Frankly, at this point it’s not so much looming, as raising a giant foot to stomp us all flat.

APOCALYPSE HARTFORD: Why aren’t Connecticut Democrats terminating the campaign of Richard Blumenthal with extreme prejudice?

UPDATE: Elsewhere in the department of film-related metaphors, Republicans would wise to “Beware the Reverse Pauline Kael Effect” this fall.

THE QUINTESSENTIAL THOMAS FRIEDMAN: “Let’s say you think the world needs a parody Tom Friedman column. Dutifully, then, you set out to create one.” Maryland Conservatarian runs down all the essential elements you’ll need.