WELL, IT IS THE 21ST CENTURY: Countries Look to Robot Armies for Border Defense.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: “The New Black Panther Party plays the same role for the right that basically everyone that Dave Weigel covered when at the Post played for the left.”

Plus, a dash of common sense: “For most people the story is about whether the DOJ has a race based policy not about the NBP. Weigel is trying to make the story about Fox instead of the DOJ.”

Must be the new JournoList narrative. But the big news is that the story is now big enough that they have to try to explain it away, or change the subject, instead of just ignoring it. That means we’ve reached Phase Two.

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR CAR’S INTERIOR.

A BACK-TO-SCHOOL SALE on kids’ clothes. Sadly, my school starts in just a month.

PJTV: Andrew Klavan: Obama’s Beach Blanket Recovery: It’s Happy. It’s Snappy. It’s Incredibly Crappy.

UPDATE: Hey, if you like these videos, why not subscribe to PJTV?

FINREG: “Sissy Willis, Scott Brown doesn’t want to hear from you.”

HELPING VETERANS at Quilts Of Valor.

BUSH JOBS KNEW: Apple Engineer Told Jobs IPhone Antenna Might Cut Calls.

A CLEAR PATTERN, OR A SMEAR PATTERN? “A clear pattern of behavior has emerged over the last 16 months. According to liberals, if you disagree with their thinking, and if you disagree with the Obama administration, you are not only wrong, you are a ‘racist.'”

NEWS: Why Our Universe Must Have Been Born Inside a Black Hole.

HOW TO MAKE lemon gelato.

INTERESTING: It doesn’t come out until November, and if it’s gotten much publicity I’ve missed it, but George W. Bush’s Decision Point is currently #5 on Amazon.

LOADS OF LIBERTARIAN LITERATURE NOW ONLINE. (Via Volokh.)

DON’T PAY THE DEBTS of dead people. Good advice for America’s youth!

NEW VITAMIN D GUIDELINES in Canada.

DAVID LAT: John Yoo, Richard Epstein, and Liz Wurtzel Walk Into a Bar….

THE MYTH OF THE clean, compressed-air car.

BEN JEALOUS MUCH? NAACP Leader Backs Away From Charges of Tea Party Racism.

AND DELICIOUS! British-Designed ‘Bulletproof Custard’ Liquid Armor Is Better than a Kevlar Vest.

KILLJOYS: Report: EPA kills Chevy Volt’s 230 mpg rating.

IN THE MAIL: Edited by Elizabeth Anne Hull, Gateways. With Greg Bear, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge and more.

CONFLICT: House Democrats hit boiling point over perceived lack of White House support.

ACCORDING TO WASHINGTON POST WRITER STEVEN PEARLSTEIN ON NPR, we’re stuck in a recession because businessmen are dumb and just parrot whatever they hear in the country club locker room. It’s good to know that we have people with such penetrating insight covering our economy, and one can only wish that the business community at large had the kind of financial savvy that has made the Washington Post so profitable an enterprise.

UPDATE: Wrong link before. Fixed now. Sorry! Thanks to reader D. Greene for pointing it out. Still not sure how I managed that.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Veronique de Rugy is not impressed: “I usually enjoy reading Steve Pearlstein’s work. I always learn something, even if I don’t agree with him. This time, however, I am very confused and unconvinced.”

MORE: A reader emails:

The Washington Post business writer says “most of the economic problems we have today have been brought on by poor allocation of capital by the private sector acting by itself”? He’s never heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? By any chance, was he on that lefty coverage-coordinating JournoList with ex-colleague Dave Weigel?

I don’t know. Maybe someone should ask him. And reader Clifford Grout writes:

What? Those of us who own a business and do not belong to a country club (and therefore do not have a locker room the hear things to parrot) are just plain dumb? Gee, thanks.

We’re not adding staff (and will likely cut staff) this in this ‘Recovery Summer’ because 1) no one – other than government – seems to have funds to build right now, so we don’t have the workload anymore (we’re architects, not sign designers…); 2) the complete uncertainty of what our bottom line will be with all of the new government mandates and regulations (enacted or proposed); and 3) adding staff right now means adding debt, something we already have quite enough of after the last two years, thank you very much.

You don’t need to hang around the country club to figure this out, do you?

STILL MORE: John Galvin writes: “It’s interesting that this coincides with business people getting fed up with our Community Organizer in Chief. The Business Roundtable and the U.S. C of C have expressed disapproval. Even Mort Zuckerman called Obam anti-business. So now, just as the Tea Party folks are knuckle dragging racists trying to drag us back to the 19th century, business leaders are incompetent fools who cannot possibly understand the wonders that Obama intends to bestow upon them.” Obviously, a lot of people need re-education.

MORE STILL: Reader Stephen Byrd writes: “My opinion of country club locker rooms just went up … at least in comparison to ‘business columnists’.”

JOHN NOLTE: Same Whoopi Goldberg Who Condemned Tea Party ‘Racism’ Defends Mel Gibson. Well, to be fair, Gibson never said anything about Barack Obama.

A STORY SUGGESTION for Diane Sawyer.