THERE’S NO PLACE like Rome.

WILL THE NEW FORBES LAW SCHOOL RANKINGS reduce the influence of the U.S. News rankings?

I think competition is good.

REMEMBERING PRAGUE, 1968.

BYRON YORK: Obama has himself to blame for Muslim problem. “Since Smitty the barber first asked the question 25 years ago, Barack Obama has been reluctant to discuss his Muslim roots. Except, of course, when he’s been eager to discuss his Muslim roots. And roots aside, to the outside observer, Obama sometimes doesn’t appear to practice any faith at all. Put it all together, and is it any wonder the public is confused?”

Obama famously described himself as a blank screen onto which others projected their impressions. This worked for him for a long time. Now, it’s working against him.

UPDATE: Reader William Kuhle emails:

My hypothesis on the increasing view that Obama is muslim:

Surely some of those polled are against Obama and would respond in a way that would publicly tweak Obama, even though they know in their heart of hearts that he probably isn’t muslim. This polling behavior is , effectively, tit-for-tat, as Obama frequently does the same to his opponents, in the form of references to “tea baggers” and on-the-sly displays of his middle finger. Well, this is one way we’re publicly but surreptitiously giving him the middle finger back.

Hmm. Could be.

TECHONOMY: Bullish On Life Extension.

Olshansky doesn’t just think we’re going to get that 7 year pill. He also thinks it’s going to extend healthy life, rather than simply prolonging us while we’re hit by a flurry of debilitating illnesses. The technical term is “compression of morbidity”: The period of life beset by disease-related suffering and impairment would be compressed, and essentially come right at the end. You live long, you prosper–and then you die fairly quickly.

Of course, the prospect of extending healthy human life by just 7 years on average (the current life expectancy for women is 80 and men is 75) would have dramatic consequences. The retirement age would have to change, or else you could forget about Social Security. And would people then explicitly set out to have multiple careers? Would marriage contracts have an end date, so that people could go on to another one?

I had some thoughts on that in Forbes last year.

And just a reminder, if you want to got to Chris Peterson’s life extension conference, you can get a hundred bucks off by using the code INSTAPUNDIT.

LAW PROFESSORS argue about tenure. Expect more of this sort of thing, as the higher education bubble talk continues.

UPDATE: Speaking of the higher education bubble, reader Chris Farley offers some advice:

I used to be a college administrator and learned a lot of tricks that you can pass on.

My son is going to graduate High School in three years – not because he is a genius, but because he can arrange his schedule to fit in all the requirements and credits in three years. Anyone at his high school can do it. That’s at least one year of tuition increases avoided. When he finishes High School, we are sending him to the local community college for two years. It is very inexpensive, will give him a chance to mature and will allow him to explore different subject matter prior to choosing a major without wasting a lot of time and money. Two years for about $5K total and then he can transfer pretty much anywhere he wants. It is much easier to get accepted to a school as a transferring Junior than fresh out of high school and he’ll have plenty of money between his college fund and a few small loans. All of my children must take out some small bit of loans to put a little skin in the game so they will be more serious.

The other smart move is ROTC – Running Off To Canada. Tuition, room, board, books and everything else is very inexpensive in Canada and most schools are accredited the same as US schools. My oldest went to the University of Prince Edward Island. When she was done, she worked for the government in Iraq for about 16 months and is now finishing up an internship in Finance and Accounting with the US Army Corps of Engineers. She has about $20K in loans and we paid the difference in cash and one small loan that is already paid off. $20K is a payment she can easily afford now and won’t haunt her forever.

My last bit of advice is to find free money. If a Junior spends an hour a day applying for scholarships over the summer, even one small scholarship of $1,000 would come out to about $11/hr. for the time spent. That’s a pretty good wage for surfing the net and filling in forms!

Sounds useful.

UNEXPECTED! “While our economy is enormously complicated, it seems reasonably clear that the current slump has turned into the ‘worst downturn since the Great Depression’ precisely because of the ill-advised policies of the Obama administration. Those policies contradict the lessons of history, and there is no reason why their failure should be unexpected.”

U.S. NEWS: Pelosi Tells America to Shut Up on Ground Zero Mosque. “Pelosi’s comments are appallingly reminiscent of her views during the heated town halls of the healthcare debate.”

THE CAR BLOGS REALLY DON’T LIKE THIS: UAW Sells Out Members, Holds On To Black Lake Resort.

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: Listen To The CBO, Learn From The Greeks. “When you let the public sector get that big — so big it dominates the economy — then it is nearly impossible to cut back public-sector spending without creating an economic crisis. Our stimulus programs are geared, in no small part, toward achieving permanent expansions of the public sector. Which is to say, we’re stimulating ourselves into a Greek corner. Best to reverse course now before we’re locked in good and tight.”

Plus this: “The amount of debt that the entity known as ORP (Obama, Reid, Pelosi) will pile upon American taxpayers in the year 2010 exceeds the GDP of any country on that list. Which is to say, the GDP of any country in the world except: China, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, or Canada.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns on music.

UPDATE: Michael Greenspan emails: “Don’t forget Amazon’s also offering more than 1000 mp3 albums at $5 each during August. A lot of good stuff in there, by almost anyone’s taste.” Somehow I’d missed that. Thanks!

MICHAEL WALSH REPORTS that his new book, Early Warning, is out. It’s the sequel to Hostile Intent, which a lot of you liked.

COP: “Guys in jail are going to rape you.” “An undercover New York City cop threatens a man taking cell phone video with arrest for being disrespectful. He then explains that an arrest means a weekend in jail, where he’ll probably be raped.”

UPDATE: “You don’t understand the power of the Internet, man.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Redikop writes:

If there is one thing about your political views that drives me nuts, it’s your seeming animosity towards law enforcement. I understand that much of what you highlight are honest to God abuses of power, some of a very serious nature. (Some are just bad mistakes.) But I think you ignore one salient fact – cops basically deal with dangerous assholes. You and I don’t, typically, deal with such people on a regular basis, so we have to be careful how we judge policemen. Maybe the officer was wrong to mention rape, but how many self-righteous (and guilty) jerks whip out their cell phones and start giving cops shit? A lot, I’ll bet. They can’t afford to take a kumbaya approach to dealing with people, you know? Perhaps you should cut them some slack.

Well, I’m happy to cut people slack in cases of, say, mistaken self-defense where it’s an honest mistake. But the things I flag are abuses of power, pure and simple. We don’t have titles of nobility in this country, and when you have a badge and a gun you should behave better than the average schmuck, rather than having a license to be a jerk. I’m always surprised that people find this controversial.

MORE: NYPD Claims He’s Not A Cop. Bizarre. Not clear yet, though:

Teichberg continues to believe the man was a police officer, claiming that another, uniformed officer had introduced him as such, and that “the fact that he was threatening to arrest me and saying he was a police officer in front of other police officers” is proof that the guy was in fact a cop.

So who is he?

PAST THE POINT OF NO RETURN?

ANOTHER CAMPUS SPEECH CODE struck down.

JENNIFER RUBIN: Obama Isn’t That Smart. “To be blunt, Obama suffers from a lifetime of others excessively praising his intellect. . . . The image of himself clashes with the results he achieves and the reaction he inspires. No wonder he’s so prickly. You’d be, too, if everyone your entire life had told you that you were swell but now, when the chips are down and the spotlight is on, you are failing so badly in your job.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Some post-McDonald litigation.

INTERESTED IN LIFE EXTENSION? Consider attending this conference in October, organized by my friend Chris Peterson. Use the code INSTAPUNDIT and get a $100 discount. (Bumped).

JUROR REACTION TO THE BLAGOJEVICH TRIAL: “It was like, ‘Here’s a manual, go fly the space shuttle,” Steve Wlodek, one of the jurors, said Wednesday.

If you’re a prosecutor and your theory of the case is that complex, you probably shouldn’t be prosecuting. And if the law is so inherently complex that a jury can’t understand it, then it’s probably void for vagueness.

SHOCKER: High-flying women lie about sex too.

COME AND SEE MY ETCHINGS: The modern version.

WELL, I’D LIKE THAT TOO: Star Wars fans want NASA to develop faster-than-light travel, so that humans can visit other star systems. Not holding my breath, though.

CAR LUST: Remembering the BMW Bavaria. I had a friend in high school who had one of these — she liked it a lot.

MEDIA REPORTS AND truth in labeling.

GOOD GRIEF: Sorry, But Our Zoning Regulations Forbid You From Celebrating Your Freedom.