THE EMAIL CONTINUES TO POUR IN on yesterday’s Razorblogging post. I had no idea this was a topic of such intense interest, but I think I’ve gotten more email on that than on anything else in ages.

NOW THEY’RE MARCHING FOR DEMOCRACY IN MONGOLIA: That should make the neocon who authored these words very happy. . . .

This victory of freedom is practical, not ideological: billions of people on every continent are simply concluding, based on decades of their own hard experience, that democracy and markets are the most productive and liberating ways to organize their lives.

Their conclusion resonates with America’s core values. We see individuals as equally created with a God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So we trust in the equal wisdom of free individuals to protect those rights: through democracy, as the process for best meeting shared needs in the face of competing desires; and through markets as the process for best meeting private needs in a way that expands opportunity.

Both processes strengthen each other: democracy alone can produce justice, but not the material goods necessary for individuals to thrive; markets alone can expand wealth, but not that sense of justice without which civilized societies perish.

Don’t you think?

TREY JACKSON HAS VIDEO of a discussion of blogs and journalism featuring Jeff Jarvis, Peter Beinart, David Brooks, Ana Marie Cox, and more. I disagree with Ana’s claim that the Trent Lott affair was driven by partisanship, though — it was pretty thoroughly bipartisan. See the Kennedy School study on that topic for the full story.

AUSTIN BAY IS SOLICITING SUGGESTIONS as to who should fill Kofi Annan’s job, given that Kofi’s tenure appears short.

I’ve already made my suggestion. You can make yours in the comments to Austin’s post.

HAPPY EASTER: I’d planned to spend the day taking it easy, following the advice in the post just below. Instead I wound up in the Emergency Room at Children’s Hospital, as the Insta-Daughter’s sore throat turned into a galloping case of strep. Sigh.

WORDS OF WISDOM:

If you ever wish you could have more time to get something done, just remember: if you did have more time, you wouldn’t get more done. The extra time would melt away, and you’d be back feeling pressure to get it done in too little time. You might as well enjoy the free time and not moan about the things you didn’t achieve. Idle moments at the dining table, talking about this and that, are much more your real life than all those grand accomplishments, achieved and unachieved.

Indeed.

NOT 95 THESES, BUT 11: Bill Quick nails his complaints about the GOP to the church door, and offers a proposal for change:

Am I suggesting the formation of a new party? No, not at the moment. But we do have tools available to us, most especially the Internet and blogs. Moveon.org, as much as I dislike its goals, has perfected these as a method of exerting enormous influence. It has, in effect, taken over the machinery of the Democratic party. What they did, we can do as well, and I am proposing that we do it.

Only in a more moderate way, I hope.

UPDATE: Read this, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More dissatisfaction here, from the retired publisher of the Omaha World Herald: “I would think that I’m not the only Republican who feels the party’s leadership has engaged in an irresponsible and perhaps unprecedented effort to subvert the traditional separation of government powers.”

RIVAL PARLIAMENTS IN KYRGYZSTAN: I don’t know what to make of this, but things actually seem to be settling down.

UPDATE: Nice roundup from The Post on the complications created by a revolution that happened faster than the revolutionaries expected.

WE WATCHED THE CITY CONFIDENTIAL EPISODE based on the Insta-Wife’s documentary last night. It was pretty interesting, as they told the same story (and used some of her footage) but in a rather different fashion from her film. And though she thought her interviews had been cut, she was actually featured a lot. The indefatigable Trey Jackson posted a video montage of her segments from the film.

HAPPY EASTER!

TENS OF THOUSANDS MARCH FOR DEMOCRACY IN BAHRAIN: This strikes me as excellent news.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF CORDITE is up. If you’re interested in gun-blogging, don’t miss it.

A STEP FORWARD FOR SPACE ELEVATOR TECHNOLOGY:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Borrowing a page from the playbook for the X Prize spaceship competition, NASA has set aside $400,000 over the next two years for competitions to encourage the development of wireless power transmission systems and super-strong tethers.

The Beam Power Challenge and the Tether Challenge, announced here Wednesday, are the first two of NASA’s Centennial Challenges, which aim to provide incentives for technological achievements that could be applied to future space exploration.

Although the space agency will put up the prize money, the contests will be administered by the Spaceward Foundation, a California-based group that started planning the contests last year.

Power-beaming technology looks good, too. Solar Power Satellites look a lot better when you’re thinking of hydrogen cars, and when oil is over fifty bucks a barrel. I’m also happy to see NASA taking the prize approach, too.

MORE ON THE TAIWAN PROTESTS HERE.

UPDATE: Robert Mayer sends a link to this very cool panoramic photo of the protests.

Meanwhile, they’re coming down hard on protesters in Belarus.

ACTING LIKE THE LEFT, CONT’D: Donald Sensing is getting flamed over the Schiavo matter:

Some of you have questioned whether I am truly Christian because of my position on the Terri Schiavo case. This speaks volumes because it is not I or my ideological allies who are casting people into the outer darkness because they disagree. The speed at which some of you have reached to condemn me – in the most literal way, since as a not-true-Christian I am obviously Hellbound – reveals much more about your spiritual condition than mine.

Likewise, I’ve gotten some email from people who are actually angry at me for having the temerity to disagree with Hugh Hewitt (an anger that Hugh certainly doesn’t share). We’ve seen what the you’re-the-enemy-if-you-don’t-agree-with-me-on-everything approach has done for the left. It’s disappointing to see people on the right imitating it. But read this post by Dan Riehl for evidence that it doesn’t have to be that way.

UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein thinks that this will actually make it harder for Bush on the judicial confirmation front. I’m not sure.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Charles Johnson has comments.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: So does Michele Catalano.

And it’s worth reading this Terri Schiavo FAQ from Football Fans for Truth (no lefty front group!), which suggests that an awful lot of things people have been saying about the case are, well, wrong. And read this, too:

Courts, however, rely on facts. Facts are determined by a predetermined process. In this case, the process has gone on for a very long time. Both sides have had every opportunity to have their say on several occasions. Independent factfinders and physicians have made their reports. Several courts have upheld Judge Greer’s rulings, including one in which the appellate court reviewed all the evidence. The end result of this long process are several factual determinations: Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, she would not want to live in this condition, and Michael Schiavo has given his wife excellent care.

But this isn’t enough for Last. He goes into classic “Free Mumia” mode, declaring that these factual determinations are “tyranny by other means”. Much like Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover with Mumia, Last declares that to defer to the judicial process is to defer to “an imperfect system implemented by imperfect men.”

Free Mumia! Yeah, that’s pretty much the flavor of it.

MORE: Reader Charles Rutt emails:

While I agree that the Schiavo case has been handled by the courts in a way that is at least competent, it is the true innocence of this victim that arouses the passion of so many of her supporters. Mumia killed a policeman and was convicted. Terri Schiavo’s husband wants to end her life for what seem to be suspicious reasons. There is no written accounting of her wishes, her parents have said they would take care of her and release him from any responsibility, there is some money involved (to be honest there are so many “set the record straight” articles circulating.I’m not sure there truly is any money involved), and there are curious associations Mr. Schiavo’s lawyer seems to have with some strange “right to death” groups. I am not trying to convince you of the merits of the Schiavo case or that her supporters are right, but it comparing it and them to the “Free Mumia” crowd is borderline insulting.

That said, I enjoy what you do and really enjoy when you share your thoughts in depth.

Well, the “Free Mumia” comparison only applies to the unwillingness of some commentators to look at the actual record, and the willingness to posit a huge and implausible conspiracy on the part of numerous judges, attorneys, etc. (And Schiavo-partisan Randall Terry is just Al Sharpton with an inferior tailor. At best.). But the point is taken, and I apologize for any suggestion that the cases are otherwise comparable, because of course they’re not. There’s nothing tragic about what happened to Mumia.

I DIDN’T NOTICE AT THE TIME, but InstaPundit had its hundred millionth pageview a couple of days ago. Actually, it was a while longer ago than that, as this counter only went on when the site moved off blogspot, but it still seems like some sort of a milestone.

UPDATE: Reader John MacDonald jokes: “Yeah, but let us know when it’s a hundred million a day.” Just a dollar a pageview, that’s all I ask . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Yes, I would actually settle for a penny per pageview.

ANN ALTHOUSE RESPONDS to Hugh Hewitt.

ROGER SIMON SAYS “BRAVO!” to Taiwan’s independence marches.

THE INSURGENTS’ “EXIT STRATEGY?” Turning in Zarqawi.