REINING IN the insane clown posse. As a former MSNBC guy, I’m glad to see sanity reassert itself.

LOTS OF PEOPLE ARE EMAILING ME THAT BARACK OBAMA NEVER REGISTERED FOR THE DRAFT: Yes, he did.

UPDATE: Why do I care? (1) It’s bogus; (2) It irritates me to see the kind of stuff that I slapped down during the Dem primary resurface now. Hint: If you get a multiply-forwarded email about a candidate, do a little research before passing it on.

TALKLEFT: “It is disingenuous to now pretend Oprah is not a big story this campaign season. Oprah has a perfect right to act in a partisan way, but please stop with the whining when that is pointed out. Oprah injected herself into the political campaign. And now she has to take her lumps for it, as would any other media figure who did what Oprah has done.” Yes, Oprah has a right to use her show as a political platform, and her viewers have a right to applaud her, or to be unhappy and take their eyeballs elsewhere. That’s how things are supposed to work.

NEAL STEPHENSON’S ANATHEM COMES OUT ON TUESDAY, and I’ve got a review in the New York Post. A reader emailed me to ask if Anathem is more like Cryptonomicon or more like The Baroque Cycle. I’d say more like the latter — my review of those books is here — but it’s really a thing unto itself. (Bumped).

BARACK OBAMA: I’m not going to take your guns away. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress.”

YOU CAN’T TELL THE PLAYERS WITHOUT A SCORECARD: Biden Says Life Begins at Conception.

SHIFTING RESOURCES TO FIGHT THE REAL ENEMY: Mainstream Media Diverting Terrorism Reporters Into Political Investigations. “At least three such reporters at three major papers are now chasing Sarah Palin stories.”

HER FIRST INTERVIEW SHOULD HAVE BEEN WITH THE GLENN AND HELEN SHOW: ABC News’ Gibson lands first Palin interview. But hey, we’re still available. Also to you, Barack! And Joe Biden, too! We’ve already done McCain.

BOUNCE: “In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 points for both samples.”

UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson: “On matters like abortion, capital punishment, gun control and FISA, Obama again moves closer to McCain rather than vice versa.”

HEH: “In Oliver Stoneland, we question authority.”

SARAH PALIN, INTERVIEWS, and dumb things Obama and McCain have said.

JIM TREACHER: Media Entitlement for Dummies.

Plus, from the Wall Street Journal: “Rasmussen has a new poll out that suggests that piling on Mrs. Palin may do more to harm the media’s own image than hers.”

According to Rasmussen, fully 68% of voters believe that “most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win.” And — no surprise — 49% of those surveyed believe reporters are backing Barack Obama, while just 14% think the media is in the tank for Sen. McCain.

Meanwhile, 51% of those surveyed thought the press was “trying to hurt” Mrs. Palin with its coverage.

Perhaps most troubling for the press corps, though, was this finding: “55% said media bias is a bigger problem for the electoral process than large campaign donations.”

It’s getting hard to tell the coverage from campaign donations, anyway.

PROBLEMS WITH MISSISSIPPI’S MEDICAL EXAMINER: Radley Balko remains on the story.

KATIE GRANJU’S FATHER HAS DIED UNEXPECTEDLY: Please send her your prayers and condolences.

POLITICO: Obama considered joining military, regrets abortion answer.

(Via Ann Althouse, who’s running a poll.)

UPDATE: Tom Maguire comments. Personally, I seem to remember registering for the draft when I graduated from high school, which was in 1978. Am I remembering wrong? I remember taking the forms to the Maryville, Tennessee post office, and I didn’t live there after that. Or is my memory playing tricks?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Various readers tell me that my memory must be playing tricks on the draft-registration bit. Perhaps Obama’s is, too. As for the bit about considering a hitch in the military, well, I don’t know what to say about Obama’s memories here.

GREYHAWK responds to Mickey Kaus on McCain and the Surge.

DAMON ROOT looks at Charles Rangel’s various scandals.

WILLIE BROWN ON SARAH PALIN: “The Democrats are in trouble. Sarah Palin has totally changed the dynamics of this campaign.”

This puts him squarely in agreement with most InstaPundit readers, which is evidence of his shrewd political judgment!

Some related thoughts from Joe Gandleman.

SARAH PALIN: Too progressive for the G.O.P.?

The Republican vice presidential candidate says students should be taught about condoms. Her running mate — and the party platform — disagree.

Read the whole thing. (Via Jim Lindgren).

A LOOK AT JOE BIDEN and judicial nominees.

IN THE WAKE OF MIDWEST FLOODS AND GULF STORMS, beware of used cars that may have been soaked.

A DREAD PHRASE: More bakeware I didn’t know I needed.

ROGER KIMBALL on media scrutiny and double standards about privacy.

UPDATE: Demonizing “the other.” “In an age when politics is choreographed, voters watch out for the moments when the public-relations facade breaks down and venom pours through the cracks. Their judgment is rarely favourable when it does.”

RESTAURANT-BLOGGING from Asheville, North Carolina.

RANK CONFUSION from Major John Tammes.