REMEMBER THAT TIME I opened up the comments on Instapundit? Wanna see me do it again? Oh. I forgot. You can’t answer. There are no comments.

THE $25 PERSONAL COMPUTER ON A STICK.

SPACEX: Why The U.S. Can Beat China In Space.

“EVEN JENNIFER LOPEZ can’t make Harem Pants look attractive.”

“I AM A BIG INSTY FAN so I’m surprised just how much fun it was to gently bust his balls here.”

“OBAMA GOT BIN LADEN just like Nixon reached the moon.”

AS BOEING FACTORY DEBATE HEATS UP, past writings of NLRB member Craig Becker raise questions.

FIXING THE CIA: “Despite the CIA’s success in tracking down Bin Laden, the CIA can still use some fixing.”  I agree.  My two suggestions are, first, get the analysts out from behind the barbed wire university campus in Langley at least to be seen, if not heard, at conferences, think tank meetings, university symposia, etc..  Second, draw the CIA’s lawyers into the process of public legitimacy, much in the way that the JAG, and senior DOD and DOS counsel, have played a role in increasing political legitimacy for government policies by going out and debating them.  You don’t have to reveal operational issues by putting out the broad legal criteria for some very important things – and engaging with them in public.  We’re long past the day when the agency can just refuse to comment … on anything.  A lot, sure – everything, no.

TWO PAPERS IN ONE:  “NYT: Obama Nabbing Osama: ‘Glow of National Pride;’ Bush’s Capture of Saddam ‘Momentarily’ Halted ‘Spiral of Concern.'”

RELATED: Osama, Obama, and the Media.

THE WAY THINGS LOOK FROM MADISON, WISCONSIN. This is where I am. It’s been wild these last few months, but it’s like this today. I think these young people are studying for exams. That’s the University of Wisconsin Law School on the left.

“UNWILLING OR UNABLE:” Former State Department lawyer Ashley Deeks explains the international law behind the US willingness to enter Pakistan without consent to attack OBL.  (H/T Lawfare.)

AUSTIN BAY: “IN PRAISE OF AMERICAN PERSISTENCE” — Read the whole thing.™

SCALIA SAYS WYOMANS. You say… what? Wyomeroonies?

BLOW YOUR NOSE, don’t blow your brains out.

HI, EVERYONE. Sorry to arrive hours past my cue, but we have faculty meetings out here in Wisconsin. I will make it up to you. Hang on a sec. I’m about to do a very Glenn-like post.

CHINA’s DEMOGRAPHICS:  Is China cooking the books on its recent census data? Will it get old before it gets rich? China’s Economic Observer says that China has reached its labor force peak and is on track to repeat Japan’s fate – except that Japan’s per capita income is $40,000 a year, while China’s is $4,000:  “China’s labor age group of the 15-64 years old will reach its peak in 2013, and then start to decrease. Changes to the 19-22 years old age group are key to a country’s demographic health, because they are the most active part of the population and what business needs most. In 2009, this age group attained an historical high of 100 million but will rapidly decrease to 58 million by 2019, a drop of 43% over just 10 years.”

“SO YOUR STATEMENT WAS JUST FALSE” — “MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell had 32 teeth” — then he interviewed Condi Rice.

(Somewhere, Cathy Seipp is enjoying this interview as well.)

AMERICAN PRIMITIVES EXPLAINED FOR YOU: Professor Herfried Munkler of Berlin’s Humbolt University, interviewed in Der Spiegel, explains American celebrations at the death of Bin Laden.  He adds: “For European observers, these kinds of public gatherings are indeed somewhat embarrassing, because they demonstrate a kind of unthinking naïveté, and also because there is something provocative about them.”

Added:  Professor Bainbridge says “the Germans are annoying me.” Me too. Not all, of course; Professor Bainbridge quotes a bracing 2008 interview with former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

AT AMAZON, special MP3 deals.

CNN STORY ON WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM PHOTO “Proves Journalism is Dead” — though dollar book Freudian symbolic analysis is definitely alive, if appearing more than a little sclerotic.

(And just to echo Michael, thanks Glenn for allowing us to sit-in while you’re on vacation.)

THANKS, GLENN, for trusting us with the keys to the blog while you’re away. Enjoy your vacation!

PETER ROBINSON interviewed me on his fantastic show Uncommon Knowledge about my new book, The Road to Fatima Gate: The Beirut Spring, the Rise of Hezbollah, and the Iranian War Against Israel. NRO has been posting one segment each day, but you can watch the whole thing over at Powerline.

THOUGHTCRIME: A judge in Hamburg files a criminal complaint against German Chancellor Angela Merkel because she “endorsed a crime” by saying she’s glad that Osama bin Laden is dead.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND ELECTRIC CARS: U.S. Senators ask Obama to stop China from stealing American EV secrets.

WILL WAITERS BE REPLACED by iPads? No.