“NOW I CAN MAKE THE BLOGS!!!” Oh, beautiful! Eggagog is back! Nothing is more certain to put a smile on my face than a new post from Eggagog!!!

IS IT FOR REAL, this suggestion — published in the Boston Globe — that Catholic judges be barred from participating in abortion rights cases?

AUSTIN BAY IS SUBBING for Glenn over on GlennReynolds.com. His first post is about executive greed and “golden parachutes,” a good subject to think about as the Disney case comes out, approving of the deal that rewarded Michael Ovitz with $140 million for 14 months’ work.

BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T WANT TO DETRACT from the rest of the art exhibit, the curators removed the fetus head grafted onto the body of a bird.

“OH, LIVERMORE, THE TOWN THAT MISSPELLS STUFF.” For $6,000, an artist, already paid $40,000, returns to correct the 11 misspellings — like “Eistein” for “Einstein” — in the “educational” mural she made for the Livermore public library.

UPDATE: A reader emails that Livermore is also the town that lost its own time capsule. There’s a film documentary about it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: In Livermore’s defense, though it may not have the brightest bulbs, it does have the world’s longest burning light bulb.

RECREATING THE BAMIYAN BUDDHAS. By laser projection.

“WEARY AND INCREASINGLY PLAGUED BY SELF-DOUBTS”: How Der Spiegel sees us, as translated and analyzed by Davids Medienkritik.

THE GOOD NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN. Arthur Chrenkoff presents Part 15 in a series.

HITCHENS ON IRAQ:

How can so many people watch this as if they were spectators, handicapping and rating the successes and failures from some imagined position of neutrality? Do they suppose that a defeat in Iraq would be a defeat only for the Bush administration?

A HAPPY LANDING. The shuttle astronauts have returned safely.

JOHN TIERNEY ON METH: Drug opponents say “drugs destroy one’s moral sense,” but if you really believe in individual moral responsibility, you should let people make their own decisions about drugs.

HI TO DAN SAVAGE, parallel guest-blogger, over there on Andrew Sullivan. He posted up a storm yesterday, putting in quite an effort, even though it’s just the depth of August, the quietest time of the year. (Saying that, however, makes me want to pause and wish the astronauts well. Irish Trojan is simulblogging the landing.) I’ve loved Savage’s advice column for years and even went to a reading he did on one of his book tours. He drew a huge crowd here in Madison, Wisconsin. So, good luck to The Savage Sullivan. Over on my home blog, my commenters are trying to come up with a name for me to use during my Instapundit stint. One writes:

I have a better nickname than AnnPundit or ALTernaPundit (magic though those are).

How about…

Glenn or Glenda?

Sorry, I’m not going to link back to my own blog. It seems gauche. And I don’t want to set these characters off.

“ARLEN SPECTER SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE CHUCK SCHUMER,” said Chuck Schumer.

THE MYSTERY OF THE PIANO MAN CONTINUES, perhaps forever.

DON’T YOU LOVE TO HATE PAULIE G on the great HBO comedy “The Comeback”? I do! Here‘s a big article about Lance Barber, the actor whose smirking hostility enrages us into helpless laughter.

“FOR LESS THAN I PAY A BABYSITTER, I could have had someone write my article,” writes lawprof Christine Hurt.

IT WAS FIFTEEN YEARS AGO TODAY, Trey Jackson reminds us.

LOTS OF TRIVIA ABOUT POLITICS IN THE MOVIES at Cinemocracy.

“THE MOST DISHONEST, UNGODLY, UNSPIRITUAL NATION that has ever existed in the history of the planet.” That’s how Dick Gregory described the United States at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (a statute passed by said ungodly nation). La Shawn Barber provides the link to the news report and expresses her sadness at the decline of Harry Belafonte.

DOES “ASSORTATIVE MATING” CAUSE AUTISM? Simon Baron-Cohen theorizes that the condition may result from the mating of two “Type S”-brained individuals.

IF YOU SMOKE AND DIE OF CANCER, every obituary will take advantage of your death as an opportunity to remind the living to quit smoking.

LEECHES, OBOES, EXTRAVAGANT CLOTHES CONTRARY TO ALBANIAN TASTES – Eric Muller checks out the world of postal regulations.

HELLO, INSTAPUNDIT READERS. Hello, Michael. Yes, things will be different here this week. Not only are we not Glenn, but there are three of us. The same three of us co-blogged last fall during the final run-up to Election Day, so, in one way, we’re practiced in the art of Instapundit guest-blogging, but, in another way, it’s going to be completely different, because there is no obvious topic to preoccupy us. It’s a slow week in August, and, with luck, it will stay that way. That makes it more likely that the idiosyncratic interests of us three bloggers will be on full display. You might think that, getting the chance to write on Instapundit, a blogger would have a set of opinions ready to promote, but in fact, I’m coming to this task this morning without a single subject planned — except this one: Thanks, Glenn, for letting me play Instapundit for a week.

TIME TO GO BACK HOME, to my home blog, Althouse. It’s been fun coming over here and cavorting on the big stage that Glenn Reynolds built out of sheer good sense and great writing. It’s been great blogging alongside Michael Totten and Megan McCardle. And it’s been a real pleasure to reach so many new readers here. I hope some of you will follow me over to my usual place. I started my blog back in January of this year, when this campaign season was already well under way. My departure from Instapundit and return back home begins a new phase of blogging without the election to kick around anymore, and I’m interested to see what new subjects I’ll discover with this old topic gone.

When I started my blog I didn’t have a particular topic in mind. I just wanted to express myself. I wanted to live freely in writing. My earliest posts are about high and low culture and life in Madison, Wisconsin. My first post about the presidential campaign was a very silly little thing about Wesley Clark’s body fat, not really even political at all. But as the weeks wore on, I got drawn into the fray, and I found my ways to talk about politics, a subject I’ve normally been content to leave to others. Using my blog to talk about politics, I was able also to see how not talking about politics had been, for me, a way to get along in the hothouse environment that is Madison, Wisconsin. Even though I didn’t mean to use my blog to talk about politics, I end this political season exposed on line as a person with political positions that do not fit in my real world environment. I was happy with the way the election turned out, but I was also confronted by people all around me who were very sad and really angry about the outcome. These people had endured the first term of George Bush’s presidency, beginning with outrage at the way he came into office and suffering a growing, festering anger as new events unfolded. That horrible – illegal! – war in Iraq! Yet there was always Election Day — an end in sight for all of that pain. And now, upon reaching that longed-for end they find it was a mirage. There will be four more years! How unendurable!

I’ve tried to use my last day on Instapundit to reach out to those people, those people who, after all, make up my real world environment. Can’t we put aside the anger and see what we share? An elevator conversation:

Did you hear Kerry’s concession speech?

I’m so glad he conceded today and did not drag it out. It was good of him.

You think so?

I think it will help people deal with things in a constructive, positive way. People have been so angry, and I think it will help heal the wounds …

Except that it won’t heal the wounds! George Bush got reelected by a bunch of gay-hating bigots, religious fanatics … a bunch of gun owners…

My interlocutor got out of the elevator and the doors slid closed in the middle of the list of lowdown, worthless folk from the hinterlands who have unleashed this new atrocity, this second term.

So life goes on in Madison. And I’ll go on blogging from Madison, my special, passionate little town, on my little blog, Althouse. Please come over and keep me company.

KERRY HAS CALLED BUSH TO CONCEDE REPORT AP AND CNN. Good man! Thanks.

UPDATE: From the AP report:

Kerry told Bush the country was too divided, the source said, and Bush agreed. “We really have to do something about it,” Kerry said according to the Democratic official.

Again, thank you, Senator Kerry.