AT AMAZON, bestsellers in biography and memoirs.

WILL DEMOCRATIC SENATOR MARIA CANTWELL get a free ride in 2012?

THE KENNETH GLADNEY BEATING CASE GOES TO TRIAL TOMORROW. Will we see justice, or a coverup?

LARRY TRIBE RESPONDS TO Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

AT AMAZON, an outlet sale on watches.

“FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS” HORROR STORIES. When I was single, I found FWB relationships quite congenial and I have to say there were no horror stories. But it requires a certain degree of maturity on both parts to make it work.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: Stimulus Spending And Unemployment.

MARK STEYN: Selective Shaming: If Only Government Were As Accountable As British Tabloids.

We’re not talking about hacking a schoolgirl’s cellphone here. Real people are dead. Yet nobody’s going to close down any wing of the vast spendaholic DEATFBI hydra-headed security-state turf-war. And while Eric Holder, the buccaneering attorney general at the center of this wilderness of mirrors, doesn’t yet have as many Distinguished Public Servant of the Year awards as Beverly Hall, judging from his cheerfully upfront obstruction of the congressional investigation, he’s not planning on going anywhere soon.

So, at the News of the World, every single employee is clearing out his desk. But, at the Atlantic Public Schools, at the DEATFBI, life goes on. A curious contrast. The striking feature of Big Government, from Athens to Sacramento, is its imperviousness to any kind of accountability — legal, fiscal, electoral, popular. A media mogul, a bank chairman, an oil executive, a corporate-jet depreciation-claimant are easily demonizable: As President Obama cautioned CEOs a couple of years back, “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

More fool us. Our pitchforks are misdirected.

Indeed.

MORE ON EATING INVASIVE SPECIES. They can be delicious!

ROGER KIMBALL: Time for tea, or, What would Wilkins Micawber think? “There is no point in trying to imagine what a $1.5-trillion deficit means. For most of us mortals, it is simply unimaginable. All the more is a total federal debt of $14.3 trillion (and counting). And I haven’t even broached what I think of as the Williamson Warning (after Kevin Williamson, who gave prominence to the dour fact), namely that the real out-the-door, all-in price of U.S. debt is something closer to $130 trillion, a sum that, if you can bear to think about it, is Book-of-Revelations, Seventh-Seal, Four-Horsemen-of- the-Apocalypse scary.”

Plus the answer: “Stop spending. Live within your means.” Some people may fear that it’s too late for that.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS of ocean-floor mining.

SAN FRANCISCO’S CRIME CAMERAS zoom in on the innocent.

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Will Boehner pull a ‘Reagan at Reykjavik’ and walk? Yep.

ECO-FAIL? Report: Imperfect fuel-saving tech contributed to Ford’s fall in quality.

JIM TREACHER: PANDA-LOVERS MUST BE STOPPED.

BEACH READING: I just noticed that Charlie Stross’s Rule 34 is now out. I read an advance copy a couple of months ago. Here’s what I said then: “It’s like the perfect InstaPundit novel — there’s a burst higher-education bubble, talk of the Singularity and artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and even home-based fab/maker technology. What’s not to like?”

IN THE MAIL, The Next Wave: On the Hunt for Al Qaeda’s American Recruits.

DEBT-CEILING UPDATE: The Rose Garden Collapse. “The White House dished out the spin that suddenly the Tea Party crowd had nixed a deal. In reality, the White House had upped the ante on taxes.”

Republicans need to respond with my revenue-enhancement ideas.

UPDATE: Reader Steve Barns emails: “I want money taken from any multigenerational family trust to be taxed as ordinary income. Twice that rate if a family member has ever been a Senator or Congressman.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader James Becker writes:

If I were Boehner, I’d offer a full repeal of all Bush era tax cuts in return for repeal of Obamacare.

Then – after Obama nixed the deal, I’d spend the next 100 interviews talking about the evilness of Obamacare.

Even if Obama approved of the deal (fat chance), it would be a win for liberty.

Indeed.

SALENA ZITO: Unemployment Issue Could Cost Obama His Job. “Polls at the beginning of July showed President Obama in an increasingly hazardous position with voters on jobs and the economy.”

U.S. AND RUSSIA stir up political tensions over Arctic.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Great Madness of 2004-2010. “For about seven years the nation lost its collective mind—and was only partially coming to in November 2010.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Is Obama Getting Ready To Snooker Boehner On Taxes?

HOW BIG A SCANDAL? “Obama Sold, Tracked, Same Guns To Cartels He Hoped To Ban Because They Were Tracked From Cartels.”

CONGRATULATIONS: Blogger Ric Locke’s Temporary Duty is now up to #5 among bestsellers in science fiction. It’s gotten good reviews from InstaPundit readers.