MATT CONTINETTI: Honey, I Shrunk Obama: Four years have miniaturized Obama’s appeal, plans, and rhetoric.

I think he shrank himself.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: More Nonsense on the Home Mortgage Front: Don’t Let Municipal Governments Condemn Mortgages at Bargain Rates.

ARE “BAINERS” the new “birthers?”

A BIG ROUNDUP OF REACTIONS to Yale’s PhD in Law.

THIS IS LOOKING MORE AND MORE LIKE A LYNCHING: Detective in Zimmerman case said he was pressured to file charges.

Telling the FBI that he was concerned that people inside the police department were leaking information, Serino cited Sgt. Arthur Barnes, officers Rebecca Villalona and Trekelle Perkins “as all pressuring him to file charges against Zimmerman after the incident,” an FBI report said. “Serino did not believe he had enough evidence at the time to file charges.”

The summary of Serino’s statement does not mention the race of the officers who allegedly pressured him, but sources told The Miami Herald that Barnes and Perkins are black, and Villalona is married to an African-American man. All three, the source said, had been called in by their supervisor and questioned about leaking information in the case.

A request Thursday evening to the Sanford Police Department for comment about Serino’s statement went unanswered. . . . Records released Thursday show that Sgt. Barnes, a 25-year veteran of the department, told the FBI that he believed the black community would be “in an uproar” if Zimmerman was not charged. “The community will be satisfied if an arrest takes place,” the FBI quoted him saying.

Related: Zimmerman seeks new judge in murder trial.

The Florida man charged with second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin asked for a new judge in his case on Friday, accusing the current judge of bias.

Lawyers for George Zimmerman filed a motion requesting that Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester withdraw from the trial.

Zimmerman alleged in the filing that Lester made “gratuitous” and “disparaging remarks” about him during a July 5 bond hearing and offered “a personal opinion” in the case.

“In doing so, the Court has created a reasonable fear in Mr. Zimmerman that this Court is biased against him and because of this prejudice he cannot receive a fair and impartial trial or hearing by this Court,” the motion said.

I think that Zimmerman’s lawyers feel the tide is turning.

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste emails: “It’s reminding me of the Duke LaCrosse case. That one ended with the prosecutor getting disbarred for gross misconduct.” Yes, and he did a small amount of jail time, though not nearly enough. Then he went bankrupt.

ERIN BIBA: Kepler Will Make Us All Planet Hunters.

BEWARE THOSE nasty bicyclists.

SHOCKER: A lot of what you’ve heard about the dangers of spanking might not be true.

UPDATE: Reader James Driscoll writes: “Prior to about 1970, we everyone in this country spanked or got spanked. In a related note, we built a Transcontinental Railroad, won a couple of World Wars and went to the moon. Since then? We’ve elected Obama. Spare the rod, spoil the child…”

AT AMAZON, up to 30% off on outdoor toys.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS: Reader Rob Hampson writes:

I wonder if you would give us a mention on Instapundit?

The “Baen Barflies” (i.e. fans of Baen Books and participants in the Baen’s Bar webboards) launched a fundraiser today to fulfill some oddball requests of a unit deployed to Afghanistan. We’re raising money to send electrolyte drink powder, protein powder, flashlights, batteries, beef jerky, sweet and salty snacks, … oh, and books! We’ve been doing this for three years already and help our deployed troops with supplies, convenience and comfort items as well as special requests. We support a unit at a time rather individual soldiers.

Here’s our website with link to a video which tells what we’re about.

For donations at the $25 level we have some window decals – for donations at the $100 and $250 level we have commitments from 4 Baen authors for “redshirting” in upcoming novels. There’s also one copy of the upcoming Schlock Mercenary board game (with Kickstarter extras) available for the first ambitious donor to claim it at the $250 level. Folks can check the link and video for more details.

Done!

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: My husband has been monitoring me through my laptop. How can I get him to stop?

WHY YUPPIES feel so busy.

Meh. I explained this in the Yale Law Report over 20 years ago. With an economic model and everything.

UPDATE: Reader Michelle Tellock writes:

Your Yale Law Report article explained so eloquently exactly what my fellow YLS grads and I (class of 2011) felt at the time we were selecting jobs–and continue to feel acutely now, one year out, at the end of clerkships or fully ingratiated into biglaw life, thinking about “what’s next,” etc. I’ve shared the link to your YLR article with friends and classmates to say, “See, we’re not the only ones!”

My response: “Just be glad YLS grads still have this problem.” Not many other law grads do any more. Yale may weather the storm, or they may just be the top deck on the Titanic. We’ll see. . . .

WILL AMAZON’S PUSH FOR SAME-DAY DELIVERY destroy local retail? “Physical retailers have long argued that once Amazon plays fairly on taxes, the company wouldn’t look like such a great deal to most consumers. If prices were equal, you’d always go with the ‘instant gratification’ of shopping in the real world. The trouble with that argument is that shopping offline isn’t really ‘instant’—it takes time to get in the car, go to the store, find what you want, stand in line, and drive back home. Getting something shipped to your house offers gratification that’s even more instant: Order something in the morning and get it later in the day, without doing anything else. Why would you ever shop anywhere else?”

Avoiding stores is mostly a plus, not a minus. Maybe if physical retailers had better staff. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Hunt Brown writes:

Hypocrite.

I like your page, and I enjoy your perspective, but when you start slamming bricks and mortar retailers about the time involved… without mentioning that absent the cost of gas looking on line for an item can be as infuriating as Burdines on December 24… well, that’s not entirely transparent, especially when you are taking a percentage of all online sales that slip through your site. You rail about Obama’s double standards and duplicity, perhaps it’s time you considered your own.

Tough love sucks.

Hey, Farhad Manjoo wrote that passage, not me. (And my Amazon Affiliate status is hardly any secret). But I’ve seldom had to spend much time finding things online — and nothing like the experience of looking in a crowded brick and mortar store. (And I just bought a new skillet at Williams-Sonoma, ending my boycott over their maltreatment of the Insta-Daughter.)

There are some things (shoes, nicer clothing) that I prefer to buy at brick-and-mortar stores; for everything else, I’d personally rather shop online. I do feel, though, that brick-and-mortar stores ought to be trying harder to make the shopping experience pleasant. Instead, I often get the feeling that the staff views me as a disturbance to their texting-their-friends time. I wrote a column nearly eight years ago about how brick and mortar stores could compete with online selling, but most of them seem not to have listened. Oddly, places that compete most directly with online — like Best Buy — seem to try the least.

Meanwhile, reader Grace Kittie has another complaint:

You have touched on a subject near and dear to my heart! I agree that dealing with what passes for “staff” these days is a fine reason all on its own for avoiding local shops, however the feature that has driven me to my laptop and comfy chair is the music that assaults the shopper the instant one steps through the door. It is not uncommon to have two or three different “tunes” floating through the air at once if the shop is large enough. Whatever happened to the concept of quiet contemplation? My first push to the online approach was a few years ago when a locally owned book store, where for many years I had enjoyed wonderfully peaceful browsing, started sponsoring live music events. I complained but was clearly in the minority. I was gone shortly thereafter. (So was the bookstore, come to think of it.)

On the other hand, when you shop online sometimes music starts up in another browser tab and it’s hard to find it and shut it down. At least when you have as many tabs open as I do.

And reader Marc Bacon writes to tell me where I should be shopping: “At Publix. Where shopping really is a pleasure…really.”

Well, we’re getting a couple of new Publix stores later this month. Happy to have someone challenge Kroger’s near-monopoly anyway, but on that recommendation I’ll definitely check them out.

And reader Clay Register gets the last word:

Funny this came up today. Last night I ordered a new $30 weather station from Amazon at about 8 P.M. (tree ants got my remote for the old one). It arrived this afternoon from Kentucky (I’m in FL). I told the UPS guy that, even if I had to pay taxes, this kind of service would be better than driving to the store and possibly not finding what I wanted

You know, I’ve never really considered moving to Florida, but if you’ve got ants that can carry away a remote, I’m pretty sure I never will. But yeah, that’s pretty good. Meanwhile, some related thoughts from Megan McArdle.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Tina Parker emails: “My son, an Economics doctoral student, just came in from the local games & graphic novel store. He browsed, bought a card game, and a couple of books. He said he realized he could have bought the game for less at Amazon but decided he wanted to reward the store for their customer service and game selection. Service will be the only way brick and mortar stores will survive online buying.” That’s what I keep trying to tell them.

MORE: Reader Mike Reynolds (no relation) writes:

First, Thank you for the site, love it, I will keep visiting. Second, in response to your reader Hunt Brown who called you a hypocrite, I must call foul. Having visited your page on a regular basis over the years I know you are affiliated with Amazon. You have told us so and have indicated our patronage of the Amazon link puts a little money in your pocket. I get that. It’s called capitalism. I actually appreciate your recommendations. I shop Amazon weekly and will continue to do so because I get what I need at a great price and with Prime, I get it quick.

If you want to use my name, you may. It’s Reynolds, and even though we are not related, I will continue to visit your site throughout the day.and click through to Amazon. Then I might hit The Corner, or Wired.

And reader Michelle Dulak Thomson emails:

Unless I’m listening to music for work (I’m a classical CD reviewer) at my computer, or watching online video/podcasts/whatever, I just turn the speakers off. There is too much loud and obnoxious music tied into websites these days (or, more often than not, to the pop-up ads associated with them, which Firefox isn’t catching as often as it used to).

Re: Amazon, the sales tax business doesn’t affect me at all, as I’m in Oregon. But if they can leverage their capitulation on the tax thing into even quicker shipping, good on them. I’ve noticed, as Manjoo did, that my Amazon orders are frequently coming ahead of schedule.

Indeed.

HIDE AND SEEK: The Evolution of Camouflage.

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals on Electronics.

OUTSOURCING: Lawmakers are angry that the US Olympic Team uniforms are made in China, but to me the real issue is that they’re terrible. They look like something from an SNL skit about America becoming a gay military dictatorship.

TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE: Paterno and Sandusky: Why Do We Care Less About the Rape of Boys and Men?

ONLY 3? WaPo Fact Checker gives the Obama campaign 3 “Pinocchios” for using Bain’s SEC documents to portray Romney as a criminal. Well, somebody should give Mother Jones, the Boston Globe, and TPM a Pinocchio for not knowing where the story came from. . . .

UPDATE: Ed Rendell — Team Obama went “a little bit too far with the felony business.”

It doesn’t seem to me that Obama’s doing especially well, but judging by the flailing and desperation we’re seeing from his campaign, it must seem to them that he’s doing worse than I think.

TODAY’S KINDLE DAILY DEAL IS KURT VONNEGUT’S Welcome To The Monkey House. It includes the story “Harrison Bergeron,” which was one of the main sources of the Obama Administration’s domestic policy platform. . . .

THE ATLANTIC: Stop Dissing Legal Tax Shelters.

THAT JANE AUSTEN RING I MENTIONED A WHILE BACK sold for $236,000, not the $40,000 pre-sale estimate.

HMM: Will the Duke Energy scandal hurt the Democrats in November? “The scandal surrounding Duke Energy in the wake of the abrupt departure of incoming CEO Bill Johnson shows no signs of going away any time soon — and that could spell trouble for Democrats, who have tied their political fortunes to once-and-again Duke CEO Jim Rogers in advance of the party’s upcoming national convention in the utility’s home city of Charlotte, N.C.”

MICKEY KAUS, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Romney hits Obama move gutting welfare reform.

MIKE BLOOMBERG’S EMPLOYEE INVOLVED IN ILLEGAL GUN SALES: NYPD Officer Accused of Stealing Guns from Precinct, Selling Them on Street.

BIOFUELS INDUSTRY LIKELY TO LOSE FEDERAL SUBSIDY. Well, now that we’ve identified enormous new domestic supplies of oil and natural gas, there’s not much reason to pursue this expensive alternative.