AT THE LAWFARE BLOG: Remarks of CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston at Harvard Law School.

IS THE GSA LAS VEGAS SCANDAL like Canada’s sponsorship scandal?

TIME TO ACCUMULATE HARD GOODS? America’s Debt Is Greater than Entire Eurozone’s (and U.K.’s) Combined Debt.

UPDATE: Reader Jack Hoysted writes:

Well yes, time to buy those goods you have to spend US dollars on, but which are really priced in Aus dollars, etc.

Think wine for instance, and please go out and buy as my family sells over there.

You guys are in the middle of a large devaluation of the dollar and I expect that how far it goes will depend on how serious you are about fiscal responsibility and how soon.

cheers,

Jack

ps I am just curious that there is almost no discussion of this the US media.

There will be, but not until the second half of November.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT:

A BUNCH OF PEOPLE have sent me copies of their letters to the Norwegian Embassy protesting the absurd and nasty action of expelling a man from the Norwegian Parliament building for wearing a Star of David, even as many people were wearing Palestinian emblems.

The issue was also picked up in Best of the Web today, which also ran a link to the Norwegian Embassy “contacts” page with its item. I think they probably got a fair amount of email on this. Good.

But they’re still anti-semitic.

JIM TREACHER: The George Zimmerman 911 scandal is now being called Editgate, and NBC News is acting accordingly.

YA THINK? Obama’s Achilles Heel: His Economic Performance. Which is why he’d rather talk about birth control, hoodies, and golf courses.

DOZENS OF BOMB THREATS at the University of Pittsburgh.

SCOOPED: BIRMINGHAM NEWS FINDS BIKER-GANG ATTACK STORY “NEWSWORTHY,” after PJ Media takes it national.

TOM MAGUIRE debunks the eat-less-exercise-more piece I linked earlier. Though you will, in fact, lose weight if you eat less and exercise more.

REVEALED: President Obama’s Brand Of Cigarettes. Heh.

FAMOUS NASA ENGINEERS BREAK RANKS: Hansen and Schmidt of NASA GISS under fire for climate stance: Engineers, scientists, astronauts ask NASA administration to look at empirical evidence rather than climate models. “When Chris Kraft, the man who presided over NASA’s finest hour, and the engineering miracle of saving Apollo 13 speaks, people listen.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Law Students Reluctant To Talk About Their Student Loan Debt.

AT AMAZON, most popular mysteries and thrillers.

RETHINKING GENDER EQUALITY in Sweden? “When the Green Party recently proposed placing gender pedagogues at every preschool in Stockholm, the capital, they were accused of promoting an extremist feminist agenda and told they were not reflecting parents’ interests. And when it emerged that some preschools have banished references to children’s genders, it sparked a national furor, revealing that while most Swedes support gender equality, not all are on board with the idea of gender-neutral child-rearing.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: With less state support, public universities turn to debt market to finance new buildings, acquire crippling financial burdens.

OUCH: President Obama tries to get one guy a job, and fails: A poignant vignette from a failed Administration. “More than two months after President Barack Obama asked for Darin Wedel’s résumé, the phone is quiet, e-mails are no longer flooding in and the long-sought-after job interviews — which had begun to be scheduled — have petered out.”

JOE PAPPALARDO: B-1 Pilots Turn Their Bombsights to the Pacific.

One of the hottest topics in the defense and diplomatic worlds is the Obama administration’s “rebalancing” of U.S. interests toward Asia. The new focus is a slate of military and geopolitical strategies meant as a hedge against China, and to a lesser extent its client, North Korea. But what does it mean for the armed forces when the White House focuses its gaze on a new part of the world, and a new foe? . . .

After 9/11, the Pentagon’s focus was fixed on small wars, counterinsurgency tactics, and ways to keep ground forces safe from asymmetric attacks such as roadside bombs. America’s high-tech weapons were used against low-tech targets: Aircraft built to dogfight Soviet fighters scanned convoy routes for IEDs; tank-killing helicopters fired missiles at mud huts; submarines launched cruise missiles against terrorist training camps.

Now, though, the Pentagon has been tasked with keeping up with China’s ambitious militarization. The Chinese military has invested billions in aircraft, long-range missiles, submarines, anti-ship missiles, and air defense missiles, all meant to keep the American military from gaining access to the South China Sea and, increasingly, the Pacific.

Focusing the Pentagon’s attention on the Pacific Rim will present unique challenges for the Air Force. Unlike Marine units (who will be stationed in a new base in Australia) and Navy ships (that will stage in Singapore), combat aircraft will have a role that’s much different from their current missions in Afghanistan.

Read the whole thing.

ROGER KIMBALL: So much for that “frank conversation on race.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Targeted nanoparticles show success in clinical trials. “Targeted therapeutic nanoparticles that accumulate in tumors while bypassing healthy cells have shown promising results in an ongoing clinical trial, according to a new paper.”

SANTORUM quits the race.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “He Got Another Woman Pregnant While We Were on a Break!”

AT AMAZON, up to 60% off on former bestsellers.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Higher Education Money Pit.

PRIVACY: Maryland bans employers from asking for Facebook passwords.

SHOCKING DIET NEWS:

Contrary to popular perception, a large proportion of obese Americans can and do lose weight, say researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. What’s more, they say, the old tried and true methods of eating less fat and exercising are some of the most effective paths to weight loss success.

Eat less, exercise more.

UPDATE: But note this from Tom Maguire.