MICKEY KAUS: A kinder, gentler but still paranoid view of Fast & Furious:

What I don’t understand is why, according to both Powerliners, the “gun control” theory requires the administration to have wanted to “increase bloodshed in Mexico”? Why increase? It requires more paranoia than even I’m able to muster to think that the Holder Justice department’s goal was to produce more violence and death (in order to grab headlines, etc.). Why isn’t there a far more plausible and mundane possible purpose: The administration wanted to document that the guns used in Mexican drug gang crimes–including violent crimes–came from the U.S.. There might be more crimes, there might be fewer. There could be less bloodshed, there could be increased bloodshed–but that wasn’t the point. The point was that gun controllers could argue that X% of the guns, or X number of guns, found at crime scenes were sourced from this country–whatever the overall level of crime. That would establish the factual basis for gun control the same way the Dartmouth studies and Atul Gawande’s articles allegedly established a factual basis for Obamacare. Entirely plausible, and not criminally evil! Just amazingly stupid.

Yeah.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: One Nurse’s Travails With Student Debt. “The idea of getting married and getting kids is frightening. If I can’t afford to move out of my parents’ house, how can I afford to raise someone? It’s all going right out the window.”

SPACEX JOINS AEROSPACE ELITES to test new engines. “The new Merlin 1D engines will power both the Falcon 9, providing the capability to deliver heavier loads into LEO, and the yet to be flown Falcon Heavy. The Falcon Heavy is a massive rocket built on a Falcon 9 with two additional boosters for a total of 27 engines. The rocket will be capable of heavy lifting to LEO, lunar trips or as SpaceX founder Elon Musk plans, trips to Mars.”

AT AMAZON, Titles As Low as $5.99 in the Big Blu-Ray and DVD Sale.

NEURAL CIRCUITS IN BRAIN model values of others.

PRESIDENT DISASTER: Obama finally remembers Colorado exists, will head there Friday; Update: What about aerial firefighting fleet he shrunk? “They didn’t want to talk about it.”

ED DRISCOLL: “There’s no doubt that CNN is in deep trouble, but see if you can spot the ideologically-driven faulty assumption as to why in this Politico report on CNN’s ratings woes.”

CHANGE: Male Contraceptive Gel Could Be Applied Directly to the Skin.

SCIENCE: Low-Carb Diet Burns The Most Calories In Small Study.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was designed to see if changing the type of diet people consumed helped with weight maintenance because dieters often regain lost weight.

So scientists had 21 obese participants, ages 18 to 40, lose 10% to 15% of their initial body weight (about 30 pounds). After their weight had stabilized, each participant followed one of three different diets for four weeks. Participants were fed food that was prepared for them by diet experts. The dieters were admitted to the hospital four times for medical and metabolic testing. . . .

Findings, published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association: Participants burned about 300 calories more a day on a low-carb diet than they did on a low-fat diet. “That’s the amount you’d burn off in an hour of moderate intensity physical activity without lifting a finger,” says senior author David Ludwig, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“Participants burned 150 calories more on the low-glycemic index diet than the low-fat diet. That’s about an hour of light physical activity,” he says.

The reason for the low-carb advantage is unclear, he says.

“We think the low-carb and low-glycemic index diets, by not causing the surge and crash in blood sugar, don’t trigger the starvation response. When the body thinks it’s starving, it turns down metabolism to conserve energy,” he says.

More research is needed, but it’s a mark in favor of Gary Taubes’ approach.

WHO IS KARL ROVE? We don’t know, we’re just protesting him. Video at the link.

THEN THERE WERE FOUR: Four House Dems back measure to place Holder in contempt. So it’ll be a bipartisan majority that does it.

CORRUPTION AND BANKRUPTCY: A California roundup from Tim Cavanaugh.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Build A Space-Time Crystal.

STACY MCCAIN’S CO-BLOGGER SMITTY has a book out.

MOE LANE: Shorter DCCC Chair Steve Israel to Democratic candidates: “Sauve qui peut!”

SIX COMMON TIRE MYTHS, debunked.

IN MEN, long-term testosterone replacement yields substantial weight loss. “Obesity is associated with reduced testosterone, and low testosterone induces weight gain.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Driving a hydrogen car on a hot day? Drink the exhaust for refreshment. Doesn’t really live up to the hype, though.

ANOTHER DEMOCRAT WILL VOTE TO HOLD ERIC HOLDER IN CONTEMPT: “When House lawmakers vote Thursday on GOP recommendations that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder be held in contempt of Congress for stonewalling an investigation into a bungled gun-running operation, Georgia Democratic Rep. John Barrow will break partisan rank to censure the president’s choice for the nation’s top law enforcement post.”

JONATHAN MARTIN: Dems Go AWOL in Class War. Well, when your base is Hollywood, Wall Street, public-sector unions, and academia, it’s hard to wage a credible class war. Although Obama did it well enough that a lot of Wall Street is donating to Romney instead . . . .

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: “Could somebody please get Barack Obama to shut up about ‘outsourcing’ until some undergraduate aide has explained to him what the word means? As it stands, the president is showing himself an ignorant rube on the subject, and that is to nobody’s advantage.”

CRY ME A FREAKIN’ RIVER: Writers Complaining That Bloggers Have Democratized Writing. Hey, if you consider yourself an aristocrat, it’s natural to be horrified by democratization.

SAY, BARACK, MAYBE IT WAS A MISTAKE TO BRAG ABOUT HOW YOU WOULD RAISE A BILLION DOLLARS FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN: Democrats’ Money Panic: Is Obama About to Get Swamped by GOP Cash? Quick, cue a lot of conveniently timed worries about the role of money in politics. It couldn’t be because people just don’t like Obama that much. If a Democrat’s losing, it must mean the rules need to be changed . . .

Meanwhile, blog commenter Matthew Sablan observes: “He was also the first presidential nominee in modern history to not accept public financing. Remember when out spending your opponent was a good thing and showed the support of the nation was behind you? Sigh. Those long, lost days.”

Heh.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: German Court Declares Judaism A Crime. “Hard to believe, but that’s what the decision handed down by the regional court in Cologne, Germany means: circumcising a child under the age of consent is a crime, notwithstanding the religious beliefs of the parents. . . . Perhaps those convicted of wrongful circumcision could be required to wear a yellow star?”