CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The Selective Modesty of Barack Obama. “Obama is not the first president with a large streak of narcissism. But the others had equally expansive feelings about their country. Obama’s modesty about America would be more understandable if he treated himself with the same reserve. What is odd is to have a president so convinced of his own magnificence — yet not of his own country’s.”

LAWLESSNESS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE? Voting Section Told Not To Enforce Purging the Dead or Ineligible from Voting Rolls. It’s just a question of priorities.

JON BASIL UTLEY: The Government’s Catastrophic Response to the Oil Disaster.

FASTER, PLEASE: New “Ultra-Battery” as Energy-Dense as High Explosives.

Of course, the energy to charge the batteries has to come from somewhere.

GULF NEWS: Obama loses in court again over deepwater drilling moratorium.

JIM TREACHER: You’re only saying that because Obama is [half-black/sorta Muslim-ish/other].

SHORTER TELOMERES LINKED TO A higher risk of cancer.

WHAT’S UGLIER THAN A SMART CAR? A Plaid Smart Car.

WHAT LADY GAGA tells us about the economy.

DANG: California Yanks Prius’s Smug-Inducing HOV-Lane Privilege.

LOUIS BRANDEIS on the right of self-defense.

NEW JAMES CARVILLE POLL ON OBAMA: “Not only does it show Barack Obama underwater on job approval, it also shows that Obama has created a wide impression that he is a socialist in practice.”

PEGGY NOONAN: The Town Hall Revolt, One Year Later: Democrats didn’t get the message. Will Republicans do better? “Republicans still need to show that they are worthy of the electoral bounty that is likely to come their way. Are they ready to govern, or only to win?”

WE NEED MORE OF THIS SPIRIT: McDonalds to Happy Meals critics: Molon labe, baby!

IN THE MAIL: Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather.

CAMERABLOGGING: So I’ve liked the Panasonic Lumix LX3 that I’ve had for quite a while now very much — it takes terrific pictures in all sorts of settings. But one thing I’ve wanted is a camera that I can take to the beach or the pool or the lake without worrying about it; I’ve dealt with that mostly by taking old cameras that are expendable, but the problem with them, of course, is that the pictures they take aren’t as good.

Now I’ve decided to fix that by buying this waterproof Panasonic Lumix camera. It’s not a true underwater camera, as it’s only waterproof to 33 feet, but you can get it wet or sandy without fear, and it should be good for snorkelers, most of whom probably shouldn’t be venturing deeper than 33 feet anyway. I’ve tried it out above water and it does well even in dim light thanks to the optical image stabilization. I took it to the pool with Helen the other day and it did pretty well, too. It also shoots HD video, and that looked quite good as well. Here are a couple of pool pics.

UPDATE: Reader David Bowman writes:

I have had fantastic results with this inexpensive little waterproof camera that I bought last summer. I am an ophthalmologist, and have little tolerance for blurred or otherwise distorted photos. This camera continues to amaze me every time I take it underwater with my kids. It’s also great outside in the sun, just not particularly useful indoors or in the dark.

Here is the updated version which came out earlier this year for about $50 more. Last summer at the beach we also tied it to a kite (it is quite light), set it to video mode, and ran it up about 200-300 feet. The video is almost unwatchable due to all the motion, but the still frames pulled from the video are amazing. I stitched them together for an almost 180 panorama. We plan to do this again this year.

That’s very cool, and for half the price of the Lumix it’s easy to forgive the flaws. One advantage of cheap cameras that I can’t stress enough: You’ll do things with a cheap camera that you wouldn’t do with an expensive one, and that can be a major feature.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Rose says take a look at this. A little more specialized, but cool.

MORE: This one was an accidental exposure, but it turned out kind of arty.

CONSIDERING THE ELECTED OFFICIALS IN QUESTION, IS THIS A SURPRISE? Volunteers Take Better Care of Detroit Than Elected Officials.

PAUL MIRENGOFF: Why The Silent Treatment?

DAVE KOPEL: The DOMA Case And The Tenth Amendment. “Balkin is right to point out that the new federal health control law could be found unconstitutional by any court which applies the Tenth Amendment as seriously as did Judge Tauro.”

IS THE “TANNING TAX” racist? Absolutely! I mean, open your eyes, people.

DOCTOR ZERO: The Business Of Government.

DESPICABLE ME: The Amazon.com Review.

DANA LOESCH: THIS WEEK IN TEA. The Test For Tea Partiers. Plus, Founders, Challengers & Freedom. Love the Public Enemy t-shirt. And here’s the healthcare lawsuit site she mentions.

JOHN FUND: The Obama-Pelosi Lame Duck Strategy: Union ‘card-check,’ cap and trade, and so much more.

STRATEGY FOR 2010: Judge us by what we say, not by what we did! Yeah, that should work.

UPDATE: “Please Mr. President, Please Don’t Try to Help Anymore.”