HIGH FOOD PRICES: Reader Robert Denton notes this post and this one, and suggests that I'm wrong to think that food prices aren't really up.

Well, I don't think that food prices aren't up. I do the grocery shopping for my household, and believe me, I've noticed; my average grocery run costs about 20 bucks more than last year. Rather, my point was the lameness of media efforts to report on that -- interviewing people at fancy gourmet markets? -- and the cheesiness of their "holiday" angle. As is often the case, even as they try hard to manufacture one bit of bad news, they're actually missing the real bad news, because reporting on that usefully would require actual work. As I've noted on this topic before, their bias is exceeded only by their laziness and ignorance. The data in the AP story don't prove its ostensible point -- that holiday barbecues (by which they mean cookouts, not actual barbecue) are vastly more expensive -- but to do an actual story on what food prices are up across the board, and why, would be actual work and wouldn't produce the "holiday angle" that editors want.

SURPRISE: Nuclear Agency Accuses Iran of Willful Lack of Cooperation: "The nine-page report accused the Iranians of a willful lack of cooperation, particularly in answering allegations that its nuclear program may be pointed less at energy generation than at military use." Do tell. That National Intelligence Estimate is looking kinda shaky, isn't it?

MICKEY KAUS: "Nearly 1,000 state employees in California make more than $200,000 a year, according to the S.F. Chronicle. That's excluding university employees. ... The month before Gov. Schwarzenegger took office, there were only eight. ... Mainly, the high earners seem to be dentists, doctors, and psychiatrists in the state prison and mental health systems. ... The total state employee head count has gone up by 26,000 under Schwarzenegger."

Bizarre, but unrelated, Schwarzenegger item here.

A MEMORIAL DAY GAFFE? "On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong." Nice.

UPDATE: Airbrushing, at the Obama website.

IN CHINA, TRAGEDY COMPOUNDED BY TYRANNY: "Imagine having to get a government certificate in order to obtain permission to have another baby after losing your only child to natural disaster." But it's good for Gaia . . . .

WILLIAM BEUTLER: Newsweek buries Isikoff scoop to help Obama. (Via Memeorandum ).

POLYGAMY IN TORONTO. But it's okay, because they're Muslims.

IT'S A SPECIAL MEMORIAL DAY Blawg Review.

TRUE GRIT: "Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday offered a spiritual defense for continuing her presidential campaign."

BLAMING HILLARY IF OBAMA IS ASSASSINATED: "Approaching June, my prayers for Barack Obama’s safety have indeed become a daily plea. I’m not a big prayer guy, but I had no idea Hillary Clinton would make that necessary for my own peace of mind." I think that's unfair, as is blaming Rush Limbaugh for Timothy McVeigh.

UPDATE: Related item here.

HELPFUL ADVICE FOR AMERICA'S YOUTH, though it's probably not safe for work.

BLOGGING FROM the Sasquatch! festival.

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