HEATHER SOLOS’ BLOG HOME EC 101 offers skills for everyday living.

She’s also got a book, called, surprisingly, Home-Ec 101: Skills for Everyday Living – Cook it, Clean it, Fix it, Wash it. Val Prieto recommends it.

ED DRISCOLL: Eve Of Destruction.

THE TOP 8 REASONS men fall out of love.

OVER AT PJTV, lots of coverage from FreedomFest.

VIDEO CAPTURES police officer behaving properly.

PJTV AND BILL WHITTLE ANNOUNCE, the return of Afterburner.

WHAT? LIBYA? OH, RIGHT: Scant Planning for Post-Qaddafi Libya.

Of course, at the rate we’re going — despite the days-or-weeks-but-not-months promise from several months ago — Qaddafi will die of old age before we kick him out anyway.

As I said a while back, “Waging war halfheartedly, on the cheap, and by committee is not a formula for success.”

Some criticized me at the time for not appreciating the brilliance of Obama’s plan. Well, the brilliance remains obscured.

UPDATE: Brits not buying ‘Days, Not Weeks’.

Meanwhile, the White House seems shockingly somnolent about Syria, even though Syria has been a much more serious enemy of the U.S. and Israel than Libya in recent years. “If there is a country in the Arab world where trying to shape events is a vital American interest, it’s Syria. For starters, the brutal regime is the linchpin to Iran’s growing influence in the region and a key transit point for weapons and insurgents heading to Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Successfully nurturing a friendly opposition in Syria could change the dynamics of the region and cut off at least three of Iran’s tentacles. Now that would really advance the cause of peace. Yet, in the one place where an active American role seems more than justified, Obama is acting like a deer caught in the headlights. Odd, isn’t it?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kim du Toit emails: “Pick ANY actual crisis that has faced this President, and the reaction has been identical. The only time he has been decisive is when there’s been an opportunity to punish his political adversaries.” It’s all a question of priorities, I guess.

MORE: Dodd Harris emails:

“Obama is acting like a deer caught in the headlights.”

I don’t think he’s acting.

Heh.

POLITICIZED MEDICINE IN BRITAIN: “If policy makers followed the evidence base, they would advise men and women over 45 to drink more. Yet last week, the BMA called for shorter opening hours of pubs and off-licences, a total ban on alcohol advertising, and higher alcohol pricing. Much energy is devoted to the low-hanging fruit of junk science, such as homeopathy, yet there seems to be a reluctance to tackle the institutional junk.”

That’s because the “institutional junk” serves institutional interests — mostly in controlling people.

CONTESSA BREWER asks the wrong question.

Brooks actually has three degrees: political science, economics, and law. As a lawyer, Brooks would have been experienced enough not to make Brewer’s mistake in a cross-examination, which is to ask a question without first knowing the answer. Not only that, but Brewer was being flat-out rude as well as foolish; MSNBC invited Brooks to appear to get his perspective on the issues. If their hosts respond by belittling them (whether it backfires or not), what does that say about MSNBC, its management, and the kind of invitations they make?

Since Brewer made an issue out of having an economics degree before engaging in economics debates, she must have a doctorate in the subject herself, right? Not exactly. According to her Wikipedia entry, Brewer has a baccalaureate in broadcast journalism (magna cum laude). Apparently they didn’t teach interviewing skills at Syracuse, or logic either, as a requisite for the degree.

Exit question: If it weren’t for right-leaning bloggers looking for laugh lines, and Beltway journalists imbibing the talking points of the day, would MSNBC even have an audience? And yes, I know the answer to that one . . . .

HOWARD LOVY: Counting falls, looking into eyes may be low-cost Alzheimer’s predictors.

REDUCING ANGINA WITH STEM CELL THERAPY: “New research published online today in Circulation Research found that injections of adult patients’ own CD34+ stem cells reduced reports of angina episodes and improved exercise tolerance time in patients with chronic, severe refractory angina.” Faster, please. . . .

FOOT VOTING for freedom.

IMPORTANT ADVERTISING INSIGHT: There’s Really No Good Way to Advertise Douching Products.

OH NOES: More efficient vehicles will mean less gas-tax revenue.

UNEXPECTEDLY: June Existing-Home Sales Drop. Plus, “the sales decline year-on-year is now 8.8%, indicating that we’re still plumbing for the bottom. “

J.D. JOHANNES: In Afghanistan, An Argendahb Awakening? “For the last four months I have been traveling Afghanistan looking for a place where the surge here may equal the effects of the 2007 Iraq Surge. If there is anywhere in Afghanistan where a movement similar to the Anbar Awakening that sprang up in Iraq’s Al Anbar province along the the Euphrates river in 2007 can be built, it is the Argendahb river valley west of Khandahar.”

NOBODY TELL CHRIS MOONEY: Why Did CERN Gag Its Scientists?

BLOWING THE STRATEGIC PORK RESERVE IN ONE GRAND GESTURE, at Knoxville’s BaconFest!

FROM RICHARD FERNANDEZ, some higher education bubble thoughts.

WHAT AMERICA NEEDS: A Glass Bikini?

DOUG BANDOW: It’s Time To Kick Farmers Off The Federal Dole.

JUST A QUICK NOTE OF THANKS to everyone who shopped through the Amazon links on this page, or the search box over in the right sidebar. By doing so you put a little money in my family’s pocket at no cost to yourself. It’s much appreciated!

RAND SIMBERG: How Congress Sabotages Space Exploration.

The end of the Shuttle program ends more than the Shuttle era. Historians in the future will note that it ended a false notion, one half a century old: that humanity would open up space through the application of command-economy government programs. The future, even the immediate future, of human spaceflight lies not with a single type of vehicle developed by and for a massive government bureaucracy, but with public/private partnerships that create a robust, competitive commercial spaceflight industry. This is the only practical way forward to close the gap between the end of the Shuttle and new domestic capability that will eliminate our reliance on the Russians.

Unfortunately, Congress, caring more about space pork than progress, continues to have other plans.

This is one where the Obama Administration is better than the Congressional Republicans.