MY FORTHCOMING HOFSTRA LAW REVIEW PIECE on law firm size is sparking discussion in the Real Estate community. Huh. I didn’t expect that.

CYBERDISSIDENCE: The medium is not the message.

A JAPAN THAT CAN SAY NO: Japan Forces Bureaucrats to Defend Spending. “Seeking to bring its spiraling debt under control, Japan has undertaken an unlikely exercise: lawmakers are forcing bureaucrats to defend their budgets at public hearings and are slashing wanton spending. The hearings, streamed live on the Internet, are part of an effort by the eight-month-old government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to tackle the country’s public debt, which has mushroomed to twice the size of Japan’s $5 trillion economy after years of profligate spending.”

BRIAN MICKLETHWAIT: “Hardly a day seems to go by nowadays without somebody with approximately the same kind of political attitude as me scratching his head, publicly, in writing, about President Obama’s bafflingly sensible space policy, which sticks out like a healthy thumb in an otherwise horribly mutilated hand of policies.”

ROGER SIMON: “The real reason liberals accuse Tea Partiers of racism is that contemporary American-style liberalism is in rigor mortis. Liberals have nothing else to say or do. Accusations of racism are their last resort.”

UPDATE: A related experience from Michael Graham.

REMEMBERING THE “BLACK GOLD” 280 ZX. I had a girlfriend in college who drove a 280ZX, though it was just plain gold. When I picked her up for our first date, she was in the middle of replacing the valves. It was a good start.

INSTAVISION: VAT’s The Buzz: I talk with Mark Tapscott about taxes, immigration, and GM’s auto-bailout story.

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES’ Room For Debate blog, I talk about Supreme Court appointments along with Lani Guinier, Ed Meese, Dick Thornburgh, Vik Amar, et al.

RANDY BARNETT: The Insurance Mandate In Peril: “First Congress said it was a regulation of commerce. Now it’s supposed to be a tax. Neither claim will survive Supreme Court scrutiny.”

CARRYING EXTRA WEIGHT might be good for you. “A body of research is emerging that suggests that there’s little risk to carrying a few extra pounds. And there may even be some benefit. Indeed, people who are 10-to-15 pounds overweight appear to have no greater risk of dying than those of so-called ‘normal’ weight. Other studies have shown that those who are overweight are no more likely to die from cancer or cardiovascular disease. Also, being a little overweight may help stave off osteoporosis. And it can make you look younger, too.”

Related: Brazilian Health Minister Recommends Sex Five Times A Week to Reduce Blood Pressure.

FAA SETTING UP commercial spaceflight centers.

FASTER, PLEASE: In Tennessee, a law to regulate traffic cameras.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: Recession Brings Long-Term Unemployment.

IMF WARNING: Britain could follow Greece?

SO MUCH FOR BILL CLINTON’S CALLS FOR CIVILITY: Violent NY Senator Calls Republicans White Supremacists.

HEH: “Calling all cars: Be on the lookout for an insurrectionist with blue hair…”

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene emails: “Can you imagine the howls this would have generated from the left had George W. Bush ever called out the SWAT team on a bunch of blue-haired retirees? But then again, George W. Bush would never have attempted this. Because George W. Bush has never been afraid of the American people.”

CHARLIE CRIST tries to call Rahm Emanuel?

MARKDOWNS ON DVD and Blu-Ray.

LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: At least they’re not in Arizona! “Amnesty International called the abuse of migrants in Mexico a major human rights crisis Wednesday, and accused some officials of turning a blind eye or even participating in the kidnapping, rape and murder of migrants. . . . Central American migrants are frequently pulled off trains, kidnapped en masse, held at gang hideouts and forced to call relatives in the U.S. to pay off the kidnappers. Such kidnappings affect thousands of migrants each year in Mexico, the report says. Many are beaten, raped or killed in the process.”

THE PEOPLE VS. THE POWERFUL: Cape Wind approved. This wouldn’t have happened if Ted Kennedy were still alive.

Well, it wouldn’t have.

UPDATE: Ron Bailey: Ted Kennedy Spinning In His Grave.

UH OH: It’s sweet old ladies! Call the SWAT Team!

Okay, I think they’re just in riot gear, not SWAT guys. But the optics are bad. More here: “Protesters sang ‘God Bless America’ and apparently that was enough to invoke the riot squad. . . . Who gave the order to call in the riot police on protesters? Word is that Secret Service from inside the venue and the presidential team pressured local law enforcement, who were against the idea.”

What’s that phrase? Oh, yeah: “The people vs. the powerful.” Kind of like the treatment they gave gay rights protesters at the White House last week. The riot squad ain’t on the side of the people . . . .

GIZMODO may sue police over iPhone raid.

PROGRESS: Cheaper Home Power From Sunlight.

BIOENGINEERS turn trees into tires.

PJTV: Bill Whittle flies with the Veterans’ Airlift Command. 1500 pilot-volunteers helping wounded soldiers get together with family.

Their website is at VeteransAirlift.org.