ATTACKING FREE MARKETS in Chile. “Chile has 6% growth now, 60 free-trade pacts, billions in foreign investment, and top rankings as the freest, least corrupt and most open economy in the world. What it seems to lack is a leader who believes in it.”

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM SAYUNCLE: “If you’re prepared for the zombie apocalypse, a hurricane is just a storm.”

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Exercise & Fitness.

BADASS of the week.

YOU DON’T SAY? GENERATORS, BATTERIES BIG SELLERS IN ADVANCE OF IRENE.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Earthquake, hurricane, Obamacare. When does it stop? Seven more and I vote we let the Israelites go.

UPDATE: Well, here’s one more. Sheesh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Related thoughts.

WAR ON PHOTOGRAPHY UPDATE: Court says state law used to ban recording of police officers in public is unconstitutional.

A Boston lawyer suing the city and police officers who arrested him for using his cell phone to record a drug arrest on the Common won a victory today when a federal appeals court said the officers could not claim “qualified immunity” because they were performing their job when they arrested him under a state law that bars audio recordings without the consent of both parties.

In its ruling, which lets Simon Glik continue his lawsuit, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston said the way Glik was arrested and his phone seized under a state wiretapping law violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights.

Good. The really important part is that the court held that the right to photograph is “clearly established,” meaning that the officers are not entitled to official immunity. Full opinion here. And some useful background reading here. Key bit: “The proliferation of electronic devices with video-recording capability means that many of our images of current events come from bystanders with a ready cell phone or digital camera rather than a traditional film crew, and news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper. Such developments make clear why the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status.” Indeed.

THE IMPORTANCE OF independent bloggers.

GIBSON GUITAR CEO ON RAIDS: “We’re being persecuted.”

MAYBE THAT HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE HASN’T BURST YET: New Nashville Law School Opens With 30% More Students Than Expected.

The nation’s newest law school opened its doors on Aug. 25 to welcome its first class.

The Belmont University College of Law in Nashville has an incoming class of 130 students — 30 more than a feasibility study predicted, said Dean Jeff Kinsler. “We had a much higher yield on our offers than we thought we would,” he said.

That same feasibility study predicted that the class’ median score on the LSAT would be 152, but it ended up at 154.

On the other hand, two other new law schools haven’t done so well. Maybe it’s just the Nashville area.

THE MIDDLE GROUND BETWEEN technology and revolutions.

BUSTED: China Removes Cyberwar Video, Denies Everything.

SPECIAL TREATMENT: Isabelle Huppert Plays A Call Girl.

THEY HAVE GOOD LAWYERS: Asian Carp Win Again.

UNHAPPY WITH YOUR JOB? It may be genetic.

JOHN HAWKINS INTERVIEWS MARK STEYN about his new book, After America: Get Ready For Armageddon.

WE WERE LIED TO AGAIN: “Where Does David Prosser Go To Get His Reputation Back?” “This is the level of left-wing activism we witnessed here in Madison. A justice is despised because his decisions do not please liberals, and so, without thought, they forgot about things liberals like to love themselves for caring about, such as fairness and due process.”

Well, when the pro-union left has been reduced to supergluing school doors shut, I think his reputation is comparatively safe. . . .

Plus, naming names. “Anyone who calls him/herself ‘progressive’ should be ashamed. Time to rebrand with a new moniker. Let’s be clear: their outrage had nothing to do with justice and everything to do with politics. . . . Justice Bradley should apologize. If she does not understand what constitutes a crime under Wisconsin law, the high court is in more trouble than we realized. . . . Madison, WI, this year has resembled the Directorate of the French Revolution when allegation = fact, when accusation = condemnation. This is not what democracy looks like.”

PETER INGEMI: Bill Keller, Fiscal Conservatives, And Fear Of A Past That Never Existed. Plus this: “Time spent discussing religious tests, Trojan horses and ‘fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity’… …is time spent not discussing unemployment. With jobless rate at 9.1%, that’s a major Democratic goal.”

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale!

JIM GERAGHTY: Expect The “Unexpectedly:” In The Obama Era, Bad News Has Always Surprised The Media. “A healthy dose of partisanship.”

I’ve also noticed that when the Dow rises by 200 points after dropping 500, reports say that it has “surged” or “bounced back.” If you didn’t pay close attention to the actual index, you’d think it had made up the losses.

THIS SELDOM WORKS OUT WELL: Withholding sex as a punishment.

THE SUDDEN IMPORTANCE OF Libya’s Berbers.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: Why I’m Glad I Got Downsized.

WANT TO BE AN ONLINE JOURNALIST? THEN BE ONE: “The way you get a job as an online journalist is that you show you can write and get traffic. . . . You should also start your own blog. That is your real resume. If you want a job writing online, any employer will say ‘Why aren’t you doing it now if that’s what you want to do?’ And it’s a decent question. No one is stopping you from writing right now. You don’t need to be paid to write something good. Just write it and put it on your blog. Your blog doesn’t need to get a lot of traffic. It just needs to be there when an employer wants to see what you can do.”

AN ANIMATED MAP OF Virginia Earthquake Tweets.

THE RISE OF designer vaginas. “Considering the risk of loss of sensitivity in vaginal surgeries, and the overall risk of any major surgery, the pay-off doesn’t seem worth it. Not only is it a part of your body that stays mostly under wraps, it’s the part that most sex partners are uniformly overjoyed to be exposed to.”

SO APPARENTLY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT JUST WANTS JOBS MOVED OFFSHORE: Gibson Guitar Responds To Federal Raid: “The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.” More, including video, at the link.

ANDY KESSLER: How Steve Jobs Changed The World.

MORE IRENE UPDATES from Brendan Loy.

SO MY Second Amendment Penumbras piece will be coming out in the Southern California Law Review. I was happy to accept their offer to publish, as I’ve had good experiences with them in the past.

IN THE MAIL: Exiled: Clan of the Claw, Book One.

IT WAS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MATH: Inspector General: IRS Made Math Errors in 17% of its Taxpayer Math Error Adjustments.

EVEN A HURRICANE CAN’T PRY THIS GUY OFF THE VINEYARD: President Obama’s posse stays put as tourists flee. “A sun-soaked relaxer-in-chief spent close to five hours at a private Edgartown beach with the first family yesterday — still with no plans to cut the presidential vacation short while other islanders heeding the threat of Hurricane Irene packed up paradise and high-tailed it to the mainland. . . . He had no plans to leave Martha’s Vineyard early — even as emergency crews mobilized around him.”

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Johnson emails:

Of course Obama is still on Martha’s Vineyard.

When the weather turns bad, he just jumps into the car and heads to the airport. The roads will be cleared for him and all air traffic will stop so he can take off. No traffic jams or flight delays for him. The little people, however, will have to wait even longer to catch a ferry or to take off. He’s still there because waiting to leave the island is for the little people.

Oh, he may not be that inconsiderate. He may take a helicopter, and fly over the heads of the little people without interrupting traffic.

WARREN BUFFET, TAX HYPOCRITE:

If he were truly sincere, perhaps he might simply try paying the taxes the IRS says his company owes? According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills.

According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments proposed by the IRS for the 2002 through 2004 tax years at the IRS Appeals Division within the next 12 months. The IRS has completed its examination of our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 tax years and the proposed adjustments are currently being reviewed by the IRS Appeals Division process. The IRS is currently auditing our consolidated U.S. federal income tax returns for the 2007 through 2009 tax years.”

Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, who was alerted to the controversy by a federal government lawyer, said, “The company has been short-changing the tax collection agency for much of the past decade. Mr. Buffett’s company has not fully settled its tax bills from 2002-2009. Yet he says he’d happily pay more. Except the IRS has apparently been asking him to pay more going on nine years.”

It’s like he’s some kind of two-faced fraud or something.

UPDATE: Jim Treacher emails: “And yet they still hassle Joe the Plumber about his tax lien…which he paid.” Well, to be fair, Joe The Plumber wasn’t advancing the preferred narrative. Buffett is.

A COLLECTION OF Hurricane Irene Information Sources.

UPDATE: Bloomberg Fail (cont’d): Reader Howard Isaacs emails: “Possibly worth noting that in this first real test of Bloomberg’s much-vaunted NYC website [nyc.gov], the thing has been nearly useless since some time yesterday. I’ve tried to log on multiple times, and all I wind up with is a ‘server dropped connection’ message. So much for emergency info.” Yeah, it’s not working for me either.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: MORE GREEN MADNESS ON THE PLAINS:

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline will carry oil from tar sands in Canada across the entire midwestern United States to Port Arthur, Texas. It could eventually transport 900,000 barrels of oil a day and without government funding of any kind has the potential to create 20,000 jobs starting early in 2012. The greens want President Obama to kill it of course; the political blindness and the wishful thinking that so frequently vitiates green policy proposals is fully on display.

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, now I’ve got Frontier Trust’s “Riot On The Plains” going through my head. Oh, well — it’s a good song if you like Tractor Punk. And I do.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Blum writes: “Living in Nebraska, I get to experience the full madness and incoherence of the anti-Keystone pipeline people. My personal favorite is their clever slogan ‘Windmills, Not Oil Spills’ seen all over their shirts and lawn signs. That rhyme might mean something if GM could produce more than 200 Volts a month…I have yet to figure out how to stuff a windmill into my Scion’s tank.”

A windmill-powered Scion? Not exactly Speed Nebraska.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Nebraska reader Gerald Hanner emails about the anti-pipeline crowd:

Yeah. We have a household of them right across the street.

The parents are teachers, and their oldest daughter is a college student. What a surprise.

Fund teacher raises with an energy tax and watch their positions moderate . . . .

MORE: More on Frontier Trust here.

GDP GROWTH UNEXPECTEDLY SLOW. How’s that hopey-changey stuff workin’ out for ya?

UPDATE: “Politically, of course, this is a rolling disaster for the Obama administration. The downward revision comes while Obama is on Martha’s Vineyard, enjoying a high-profile ‘vacation’ and promising to get around to a jobs plan … soon. Commerce will give one more revision to Q2′s estimate in late September, which will put the poor economic performance under his stewardship on display yet again — and then Obama will have to deal with a Q3 result that so far doesn’t look any better than Q2. If Hurricane Irene doesn’t bring the vacation to an early end, this number really should have the White House political team calling to have Air Force One warming up the engines.”

TODAY ONLY, a sale on Energy speakers and subwoofers.

GEORGE WILL: Liberals’ Wisconsin Waterloo:

During the recall tumult, unions barely mentioned either their supposed grievance about collective bargaining, or their real fears, which concern money, particularly political money. Teachers unions can no longer bargain to require school districts to purchase teachers’ health insurance from the union’s preferred provider, which is especially expensive. This is saving millions of dollars and reducing teacher layoffs. Also, unions must hold annual recertification votes.

And teachers unions may no longer automatically deduct dues from members’ paychecks. After Colorado in 2001 required public employees unions to have annual votes reauthorizing collection of dues, membership in the Colorado Association of Public Employees declined 70 percent. In 2005, Indiana stopped collecting dues from unionized public employees; in 2011, there are 90 percent fewer dues-paying members. In Utah, the end of automatic dues deductions for political activities in 2001 caused teachers’ payments to fall 90 percent. After a similar law passed in 1992 in Washington state, the percentage of teachers making such contributions declined from 82 to 11.

Democrats furiously oppose Walker because public employees unions are transmission belts, conveying money to the Democratic Party. Last year, $11.2 million in union dues was withheld from paychecks of Wisconsin’s executive branch employees and $2.6 million from paychecks at the university across the lake. Having spent improvidently on the recall elections, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the teachers union, is firing 40 percent of its staff.

Progressives want to recall Walker next year. Republicans hope they try.

It seems that unions don’t do well if people get to choose whether to support them.

PAT SUMMITT FANS WILL BE wearing orange today to show support.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D) Men are spending way less on engagement rings. “Engagement rings are supposed to be the ultimate symbol of love, but during this recession men can’t afford the giant rocks they once could. A new study by home insurance firm LV found that while many guys used to spend three months’ salary on a ring, now two thirds of grooms are spending only about three weeks’ salary. So while men used to cough up $8,000 on a ring the majority are now spending around $2,000.”

PRINCIPLE: Rep. Steve Chabot Criticized By Tea Party Activists For Seizing Cameras From Democrats At Town Halls.

WHY CONSERVATIVES get paranoid about Obama.

I mean since Obama has become president conservatives have often wondered: is he really this bad at his job, or is he some kind of evil genius trying to intentionally frak up this country? . . . Now, consider this syllogism.

1. An unpatriotic act is one that unjustifiably harms this country.

2. Obama has declared that adding $4 Trillion to the debt was an unpatriotic act.

3. As President, Obama has added $4 Trillion to the debt.

4. Therefore Obama is knowingly, intentionally, and unjustifiably engaging in conduct that harms this country.

Now, tell the truth liberals, is there anything at all unreasonable about that syllogism? No.

But there is a reason why that syllogism fails, because there is a hidden premise in it. Let’s call it step 2.5 and insert it back into my syllogism:

1. An unpatriotic act is one that unjustifiably harms this country.

2. Obama has declared that adding $4 Trillion to the debt was an unpatriotic act.

2.5 Obama actually means what he said.

3. As President, Obama has added $4 Trillion to the debt.

4. Therefore Obama is knowingly, intentionally, and unjustifiably engaging in conduct that harms this country.

And as far as I can see, that is the only logical defense to the charge that the President is knowingly and willfully harming this country: that he is a cheeseball politician willing to say one thing to be elected and to do another once he actually has power.

Well, that makes it all better then.

CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Every Single One: The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Compliance Section.

SARAH PALIN’S Four-Point Plan For Libya.

JERRY POURNELLE ON WHAT’S WRONG WITH A VALUE ADDED TAX: “A VAT would lock the 7% exponential growth of government in place for decades; the result would be a doubling of the size and cost of government every 12 years until the collapse of the economy.” I propose an income tax where withholding is forbidden and people have to write a check to the government each year. The day before election day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO Todd Steed!

FIXING YOUR ACHING back, neck, and shoulders.

MORE ON Greece’s abandonment of Sharia law.

THE WRATH OF ALLAH: “Remember how the Islamists were reveling in the Almighty’s earthquake that hit America the other day? Well, there’s flooding, big flooding, in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran. Four dead. I keep looking for the holy men cheering on the divine carnage. Nothing yet.”

DISASTER-PREPARATION IDIOCY: North Carolina Governor Declares Every Concealed Carry Permit in eastern NC Invalid Due to Hurricane Irene.

IF RICK PERRY IS MORE MANLY THAN BARACK OBAMA, then there must be something wrong with the notion of manliness.

CERN UPDATE: Climate Models Will Need Substantial Revision.

NOW THAT’S JUST MEAN: “Ed Schultz With A Smaller Rack.”

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum. And here’s a hurricane preparedness list.

Also, some bug-out bag recommendations. And some stuff to keep in your car or SUV.

UPDATE: Some preparation advice from Dr. Melissa Clouthier.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hints for boarding up your windows.

LOTS OF HURRICANE IRENE UPDATES from Brendan Loy.

UPDATE: New York Declares State Of Emergency.

NO, I DON’T KNOW why the last 8 hours of posts suddenly vanished. Working on it.

UPDATE: Okay, it’s not just the last 8 hours, it’s everything I posted or scheduled since last night. Sigh.

SLIDESHOW: Back Before Warning Labels: Vintage Cigarette Ads.

THE MAN WHO almost killed Hitler. “The Munich bomb, on the other hand, exploded on November 8, 1939, at the height of the Führer’s popularity and less than three months after the outbreak of World War II—before the final order was given for the invasion of France, and when Russia remained a German ally and the United States remained at peace. Not only that; this bomb was the work of just one man, an unassuming carpenter who was far more principled than Stauffenberg and whose skill, patience and determination make him altogether much more interesting. Yet the Munich incident has been almost forgotten; as late as 1998 there was no memorial, in Germany or anywhere else, to the attempt or to the man who made it. His name was Georg Elser, and this is his story. . . . Asked later to explain his decision to take on Hitler, he was blunt: ‘I considered that the situation in Germany could only be changed by the elimination of the current leadership.’” Too bad he failed.

RESEARCH: The Least Amount Of Exercise Needed To Extend Life.

IN THE MAIL: The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking . . . Because People Do Business with People They Like.

OF COURSE HE DOES: Mayor Bloomberg Wants A Traffic Camera On Every Corner.

Hey, Bloomie: How about you deal with the bedbugs first?

NEW MADRID REDUX: The Pentagon’s Quake Nightmare.

“Electric power would go out, not for days, but for weeks and months in the four state region,” he said. “Municipal water systems, they all run on electricity, don’t they? Well, people are gonna get thirsty. You need water for firefighting, don’t you? Second, all gasoline pumps run on electric power. Same with diesel fuel. So in terms of road mobility, of getting the relief forces in, and evacuating people out — no gasoline? The cascading failures go on and on.”

Harden the systems now. Every gas station should have a generator adequate to power at least one or two pumps. (And there’ll be plenty of gas!) Also, old gas pumps used to have a handcrank behind the panel. New ones, as far as I know, don’t. Maybe that’s a bad design?

Meanwhile, this is another reason to engage in disaster preparedness at home. The government won’t be there in a hurry.

AT AMAZON, Top Deals In Electronics.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The $350 bottle of wine vs the $400 haircut vs the $10m vacation.

CHUCK NORRIS vs. stealth gun control.

JOHNATHAN PEARCE ON SAM HARRIS: “It is interesting that those who criticise religion on the grounds of reason and logic can, as in the case of Harris, make such basic errors on subjects such as trade, notions of self-ownership, justice and the like. It is as if they are craving a secular god to fill a gap left by the traditional one. I must say I was quite shocked at the incoherence of some of Harris’s comments and his failure to examine and demonstrate his premises, such as when he talks about ‘fairness’ without asking what he might mean by that.”

I suggest some additional reading.

Or, if you’re short on time, this Memorandum From The Devil. “I am something of a connoisseur of these attempts by scholarly humans to find and describe some meaning in their personal and species existence, and when nonironic divine address comes out of Langdell Hall these days, attention must be paid.”

Oh, okay, one more irresistible passage: “But having opted for ‘mankind is the good,’ you just couldn’t stand it. It is not hard to see why. For if human nature were to be the good, then there was nothing for you or anyone else to do to change it in any way. Indeed, even as a matter of scientific curiosity, there wouldn’t be much call to find out what human nature was, for whatever it turned out to be would be what it ought to be. Now that is a loathsome idea. Under its reign, a man like you, rightly appalled at the world, would, have no role at all. That was too dreadful a possibility.”

THE ECONOMICS OF wishful thinking. Lot of that going around in certain quarters, lately.

YOUTUBE NEVER FORGETS: Barack Obama On The Dangers Of Deficit Spending. Boy, the 2012 campaign ads just write themselves, don’t they?

CHANGE: Sharia Banned For Greek Muslims: “According to an article of the Greek newspaper ‘Eleftherotypia’, under the scope of reforms in the Greek Family Law, the Shariah will be abolished for Greek Muslims.”

FEDS RAID GIBSON GUITAR PLANTS IN NASHVILLE AND MEMPHIS. You know, if you just move those jobs overseas you don’t have to worry about this kind of thing.

PERRY’S A THREAT: Obama team to Texas Democrats: It’s time to start attacking Rick Perry. “Forget today’s Gallup poll. If you want a solid sign that Perry’s achieved at least parity with Romney, here it is.”

SUDDENLY, THE ADMINISTRATION IS GETTING KINDA LEAKY: White House Sources Dish on Michelle Obama.

IRA STOLL ON STEVE JOBS’ DEPARTURE.

RAND SIMBERG: Our Space-Policy Chickens Have Come Home To Roost:

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle last month, the U.S. and its international partners are now entirely reliant on non-U.S. providers for transportation to and from the International Space Station — Russian Progress tankers and others for cargo and Russian Soyuz capsules for crew transfer and lifeboat services. There is currently no U.S. backup or capability.

It turns out that this is a problem, because the venerable Russian rocket that had successfully delivered 43 consecutive Progress missions failed today, with the cargo destined for the ISS instead scattered across the forests of Siberia. Concern is compounded by the fact that Roscosmos, the Russian company responsible for the launch, had also put a communications satellite in the wrong orbit just last Friday, meaning that they had two failures in less than a week.

But wait! It gets better. There was supposed to be a crew delivery to the station next month, and it was planned to go up on…you guessed it…the same type of rocket that failed today. If crew had been on today’s flight, they might have survived (the Soyuz has an abort system), but there’s a good chance they would have been injured — cosmonauts have been injured severely enough to end their careers in previous similar aborts. So now plans for crew replacement this fall are on hold.

How did we get into this mess?

Read the whole thing.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestsellers in Health & Personal Care.

NSFW: The Ukraine Girls Really Knock Me Out. They leave the West behind.

WELL, GOOD: Woman acquitted of criminal eavesdropping on police. “Tiawanda Moore testified she decided to record the meeting when the investigators tried to talk her out of following through on her complaint of sexual harassment against a patrol officer who had come to her home on a domestic disturbance. The Criminal Court jury took less than an hour to acquit Moore, 20, a former stripper, on the two felony counts. She had faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.” An embarrassing loss for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, but a deserved one.

BILL QUICK: NYC Authorities Downplaying Irene Threat: Could Be Much Worse Than They Are Saying . It’s too early to be sure, but not at all too early to be preparing — or leaving — if you live in the area. Just remember: If a lot of people decide to leave Manhattan and Long Island all of a sudden, the bridges and tunnels will be pretty jammed.

UPDATE: Reader Donald Gately writes: “Paul Krugman has been publicly pining for a huge disaster to spur infrastructure spending. Do you think he’ll be even a tiny bit embarrassed if NYC gets clobbered by a massive hurricane? Or would he (like Michael Moore) decry the fact that something horrible happened to a righteous blue state rather than an evil red state?”

Well, just keep a close eye on hurricane-invoker James Wolcott.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Apparently the Krugman disaster-pining isn’t true. “Yesterday, there were rumors that Krugman stated that it would have been stimulative if the earthquake had been stronger and done more damage, but he exposed this as a prank (though it is understandable that many people — including me, I’m embarrassed to admit — initially assumed it was true since he did write that the 9-11 terrorist attacks boosted growth).” Wolcott’s not off the hook, though.

THE ODDITY OF RON PAUL: “Republicans tend to do worse among Adults, but Ron Paul is the exception to that rule it seems. His support is unlike other Republicans, in that he does better with people who don’t vote.”

BARRY RUBIN REPORTS on Glenn Beck’s rally in Israel.

THE PRICE OF Marilyn Monroe’s Underpants.

NEW EXPLOSIVES TECHNOLOGY: Bombs Behaving Oddly.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestselling Digital SLRs.

KATY PERRY: Human Rights Violator.

CHICAGOLAND: Woman Recorded Cops After Harassment Claims Ignored.

Naturally, she’s the one being prosecuted: “Tiawanda Moore, 20, is charged with two felony counts of eavesdropping on a public official for allegedly recording a four-minute portion of the Aug. 18, 2010, interview on her BlackBerry, which she had hidden in her lap. . . . Under Illinois’ eavesdropping law, making an audio recording a law enforcement officer or court official without the consent of all parties is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.”

Tar, feathers. “Eavesdropping on a public official,” my ass. Let me be very clear: That law is there for only one reason: to protect corrupt politicians and their lackeys from exposure. Those enforcing it and hiding behind it are basically accomplices to a criminal enterprise. But then, when you’re talking about Chicago politicians, that’s a redundancy, isn’t it?

Plus, reader John Steakley writes: “Is there, perhaps, a Due Process right to preserve one’s own statements to the government even when uttered in a private place?” There should be, particularly given the prevalence of “testilying” by law enforcement. Hey, I think I just found my next law-review article topic!

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Thirty Ways To Meet Your Next Husband.

ED MORRISSEY: Biden’s Praise For China’s One-Child Policy: So Much For Being “Pro-Choice.” “Women in China have no choice over their bodies. The state enforces its policy with a totalitarian regime that requires IUDs, aborts children, and tortures and maim women who attempt to exercise choice.”

Silly Ed. These are communists. It’s okay when communists take away your choices. It’s only bad when Baptists take away your choices.

FORD FOCUS ELECTRIC LAUNCH delayed until 2012.

FRUGALITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Expensive massages, top shelf vodka and five-star hotels: First Lady accused of spending $10m in public money on her vacations.

Plus this: “The Obamas’ summer break on Martha’s Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.” And, yes, I don’t want to hear one more goddamned thing about my carbon footprint.

AN UPDATE ON IRENE FROM BRENDAN LOY: Uh oh. “The latest computer model runs, especially the European one, are downright frightening.”

THIS IS JUST PATHETIC: Police Seize Democrats’ Cameras At Ohio Congressman’s Town Hall. Really, if you’re going to pull that kind of crap, just don’t bother showing up at all. That’s just pathetic.

HAVE I RUN THIS STORY BEFORE? I’M NOT SURE. . . . Neuroethicist argues for continuing research into memory dampening drugs. “Unafraid to stir up a hornet’s nest of controversy, Adam Kolber, a Brooklyn Law School professor has published an essay on Nature declaring that he believes it’s time the debate over whether to continue research into pharmaceuticals that can alter, dampen or erase memories should end. He says that it’s clear, at least to him, that the benefits of such drugs would far outweigh the negatives and that research should move full speed ahead so that those who suffer the negative effects of bad memories can get on with their lives in ways they would have had the bad thing they remember never occurred.”

SCIENCE: Scientists Solve Lager Beer Mystery, Crack Yeast’s DNA Code. “People have been hunting for this thing for decades.”

CONFESSIONS of a car dealership service manager.

MORE THOUGHTS ON THE WIDENER LAW SCHOOL DEBACLE: “It still surprises me that Dean Ammons has maintained total radio silence about what her perspective is on this situation. Widener Law School is looking terrible because of this story, and it’s going to be in the news for a long time. Dean Ammons’ refusal to speak on the matter only fuels the perception that this is all about her irrational overreaction, which can’t be good for the school.”

SEARCHING FOR a better prostate cancer biomarker.

A CAMPAIGN I CAN SUPPORT: No Exposed Breasts, No Peace.

UPDATE: Rustmeister emails: “So, conversely – Know exposed breasts, know peace.” That makes sense to me!

GOOD NEWS FOR OBAMA: Hey, don’t worry, you’re still polling one point ahead of . . . Ron Paul!

IS TOYOTA JUST PLAYING CALIFORNIA POLITICS with its new RAV4 electric vehicle? “Plugin Cars says the timing of the electric RAV4′s launch, coupled with its anticipated limited production volume suggests Toyota is aiming to satisfy CARB’s Zero-Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Next year, ZEV credits accumulated by Toyota from the 1997-2003 RAV4 EV will expire, as CARB opens the 2012-2014 chapter of its ZEV mandate. This phase will require a fresh batch of plug-ins (or the purchasing of ZEV credits from other manufacturers) from automakers to meet ZEV obligations; Plugin Cars speculates the 2012 RAV4 EV will be one of those vehicles.”