JERRY POURNELLE ON THE Texas polygamy case: "If we are going to establish that precedent -- that I can call the police and allege that you are abusing me and your children -- and never come forward to confront you, or give any real specifications, but they will come and take your children for their own protection, I have the power to ruin your life." Plus, reflections on education in 1957 versus education in 2007.

ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING stopped by a man with a gun carry permit.

DARTMOUTH AGAINST DEMOCRACY?

HOW TO SNACK LIKE Barack Obama.

RAND SIMBERG ON OBAMA: The uncle seems real.

SARAH PULLMAN has read Nina Planck's Real Food and likes it. Our podcast interview with Planck is here.

NOW THERE'S A WINNER: "Senator Biden Wants to Give Your Ex-Wife a Free Attorney..."

A 220 MPG HYBRID SUPERCAR featuring "wild horsepower?" I'd like to see one. Er, and drive one . . .

EXTREME BALLOON TYING! But it's only "pop art" if you do it wrong . . . .

I HAVEN'T SEEN SCOTT MCCLELLAN'S NEW BOOK, but McClellan himself is not exactly getting raves at The New Republic:

Writing a harsh tell-all memoir of the Bush years is just good business sense at this point. You only need to look back at the anemic sales of Ari Fleischer's rosy, no-tell memoir of his White House years to realize that--and Fleischer's low-seller came out at a time when Bush's approval rating was higher than 28 percent.

So kudos to McClellan. His book displays a calculating mind that was never much in evidence in the White House press room.

Ouch. Anyway, the Wall Street Journal has an excerpt, and some are noting the contrast between the press's reception of McClellan's book and the heavily-documented work of Doug Feith. What could account for the difference?

UPDATE: Clayton Cramer: "Still, I find myself asking this rather serious question: if, as McClellan says, he could see that Bush was intentionally misleading the nation into war back then, why didn't McClellan say anything? Why didn't he quit his job and blow the whistle? . . . It makes me wonder how much of this is that McClellan is trying to sell a book." Yes, it's hard to decide whether he comes off worse if he's lying, or if he's telling the truth.

MORE: Indeed: "It's not the disloyalty that bothers me. It's the press suddenly finding wisdom in a guy they previously disregarded as stupid and unreliable. It's inevitable that critical Bush-era memoirs will come out, but written by smarter people. I'll read those."

POLITICS, COLLECTIVISM, and hypocrisy.

CHOCOLATE: Is there anything it can't do? "All the talk about chocolate being good for your health is starting to get serious. Mars Inc., of chocolate bar fame, has established a scientific division. And a group of researchers, some in Germany, others with the new Mars division known as Symbioscience, has just published a report showing that an enriched hot cocoa beverage can improve blood flow in people with type 2 diabetes."

ADVICE ON AVOIDING TRASH on airplanes.

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