RADIATION DOSES EXPLAINED at XKCD.

BYRON YORK: “Unique Capabilities” Mean Virtually All-American War In Libya. Wait, I thought it was a multinational coalition. You know, like Iraq.

NEW YORK POST: Frack, Baby, Frack! “In three months, a statewide ban on all natural gas drilling comes to an end. But will Gov. Cuomo allow developers to begin tapping the rich Marcellus Shale — and thus not only help allay New York’s energy woes but also boost the upstate region’s ailing economy?”

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D BE BOMBING STILL MORE ARAB COUNTRIES AND TALKING ABOUT REINSTATING THE DRAFT: And they were right!

JAPAN’S MELTDOWN and the economy’s.

AUSTIN BAY: Community Organizer Turns Cowboy. “I now call on Candidate Obama to protest President Obama.” I guess I’m not the only one who’s rubbing it in today.

UH, NO, IT’S NOT DOMESTIC TERRORISM:

The leader of a group that marketed a fake currency called Liberty Dollars in the Asheville area and elsewhere has been found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy against the government in a case of “domestic terrorism.”

Making silver coins is not terrorism, though I suppose the government’s claim that this might undermine the value of actual U.S. currency is something of an admission of that currency’s true worth.

MARKDOWNS ON Men’s Watches.

UPDATE: Reader G.L. Carlson says these aren’t so much markdowns as inflated list prices. That does seem to be par for the course with watches, for some reason.

WE’RE ALL ALONE, AND NOBODY KNOWS WHY: The rejection of human specialness here is basically an act of faith, though: “The first proposition, that we humans are unique and special, appears quite absurd. It contradicts all that we have discovered during the last five hundred years about the true nature of the universe and our place in it. We are not special: the Earth is not at the center of our solar system, the solar system is not at the center of our galaxy, and our galaxy is not at any special position in the universe. Our placement in space and time seems to be random and unremarkable.” Somebody has to be the first intelligent species. If you believe in randomness, why can’t it randomly be us? The odds may be low, but low-probability events happen all the time, and it’s consistent with the available evidence and doesn’t require the invocation of fudge-factors — “cosmic roadblocks” — for which there’s no actual evidence at all.

ANOTHER RUBE SELF-IDENTIFIES: YOU CAN CALL ME “SMUG” AS LONG AS YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THE STING. You were played. I told you so at the time. The whole hope-and-change thing was an obvious con, and you were among the rubes who fell for it anyway. And yeah, I’m rubbing it in.

And, heck, I’ll link this while I’m at it. How things change. Given what’s going on, why wouldn’t I be smug?

UPDATE: Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Moe Lane emails: “I will admit to a certain amount of smug, myself. I mean, it’s not like we didn’t tell these rubes, over and over and over again. Jim Geraghty especially, back in November 2008…”

And Moe’s rubbing it in, too. Why not? It’s the chief pleasure offered by this miserable administration. And, as I said right after the election, you’ve got to take your fun where you find it.

MORE: Reader Michael Hankamer writes: “So I guess that recognition that Obama is a dunce, was always a dunce, and forever will be a dunce is the new definition of ‘uber-partisan.'” So it would seem. But since that characterization seems merely to increase the sting, I’m okay with it this time. . . .

And Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “By all means, rub their whole faces in the facts of this latest intervention. To be clear: if the left and Democrats generally do not savage this President in much the same manner they savaged Bush, if they are not out in the streets protesting, if they are not opposing his reelection, if they are not demanding his impeachment and trial, if they are not hoping for his very death, then they will have shown themselves to be every bit the craven hypocrites that many have long claimed.” I have not yet begun to rub it in.

FAIRWEATHER MEDIA: CNN Sends 400 Reporters To Royal Wedding, Only 50 Sent To Japan. 400?? Really??

WHAT’S A REALLY “DIVERSE” SCHOOL? One that’s practically all black! You can’t get more diverse than that!

FROM CHARLIE MARTIN, a Fukushima update.

SOME OBAMA MILESTONES: “Barack Obama has now been responsible for firing more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined. He’s still in 2nd place for number of Arab deaths caused (and 3rd place for Muslim deaths) behind Yassir Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev.”

MODELING TOXIC PLUMES to predict radiation exposure.

OF COURSE, PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING DOES: Candles Kill Many More People Than Nuclear Power.

Insert joke about Ted Kennedy’s car here.

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: What I Like About Obama.

Obviously, the biggest problem with Bush was sending the military into an Arab Muslim country that hadn’t even attacked us. Among the several things that made that offensive were
* the rush to war – it was only several months after the possibility of military involvement was raised that combat operations began
* lack of United Nations sanction – only 17 relevant resolutions were ever passed before they were enforced
* lack of Congressional oversight – the President authorized the use of military force based on the flimsy pretext of a bill passed by Congress titled “Authorization of the Use of Military Force”, rather than seeking a document that had the words “declaration of war” in it; that’s every bit as bad as getting no Congressional approval at all
* obvious financial motives – clearly no one approved of the murderous dictator or sought a normal working relationship with him besides the French; at the same time, one couldn’t help but be suspicious of the fact that the population we were ostensibly protecting was located conveniently near the oil fields
* stretching our military – we were overburdened as it was, and our brave military despite its courage lacked the resources for yet another operation
* inflating our military – the only way to keep the bloodthirsty Pentagon beast fed was to give it the hordes of jobless young men who had no prospects in an economy that saw unemployment skyrocket above 4% in most states
* ignoring our generals – the decision to go to war was made by political hacks who had never worn a uniform
* inflaming the Arab Street – despite some touchy-feely talk about Islam, it was impossible for the Muslim world not to notice how the President made repeated, insistent proclamations of his Christianity, how he only ever used the military against Muslim targets, and how at the time the war started he’d kept the concentration camp at Guantanamo open for over a year
* wasting money – it was completely irresponsible to commit the military to an expensive mission when the President’s fiscal mismanagement had resulted in a budget deficit of over $150 billion in 2002

But anyway, what I really like about Obama is that he’s gone 29-3 in his bracket picks over the first two days. You have to spend a lot of time watching college basketball to be that good.

I couldn’t do that well.

SPRING SAVINGS IN patio, garden and grilling stuff.

“I CAN’T EAT AN IPAD:” The Federal Reserve Bombs In Queens.