Lileks is disturbingly, invariably good, but today’s bleat is great. Particularly the part about Our Boy Ted.

Here’s a little whining in the Paper Formerly Known As The Paper Of Record about the fact that handguns have become fashionable among coeds at Mt. Holyoke.

Defenders of guns can intelligently argue that, as with fast cars, the pleasures of gun ownership are worth the increased mortality. That is an opinion with which one can agree or disagree. Likewise, it is true that the overwhelming majority of guns will be used responsibly (from the point of view of everyone except hungry coyotes). But it is pointless to try to deny the link between more handguns and increased murder and suicide.

Pointless? I suppose. Unless you’re actually familiar with the data and statistics…

It seems that the White House wasn’t the only one to back the wrong horse in the Republican primary. The NRA apparently screwed up as well–it was urging its members to vote for Bill Jones. Presumably, they didn’t take Simon seriously enough, and thought that the race was between Jones and Riordan. Then, even after it became clear that Simon was the Second-Amendment candidate with the best chance, they didn’t want to go back on their endorsement, but risked splitting the conservative vote.

They’ve gotten themselves a black eye with a lot of conservatives in California as a result. One expects that they’ll now endorse Simon for the general election.

It seems that the White House wasn’t the only one to back the wrong horse in the Republican primary. The NRA apparently screwed up as well–it was urging its members to vote for Bill Jones. Presumably, they didn’t take Simon seriously enough, and thought that the race was between Jones and Riordan. Then, even after it became clear that Simon was the Second-Amendment candidate with the best chance, they didn’t want to go back on their endorsement, but risked splitting the conservative vote.

They’ve gotten themselves a black eye with a lot of conservatives in California as a result. One expects that they’ll now endorse Simon for the general election.

It seems that the White House wasn’t the only one to back the wrong horse in the Republican primary. The NRA apparently screwed up as well–it was urging its members to vote for Bill Jones. Presumably, they didn’t take Simon seriously enough, and thought that the race was between Jones and Riordan. Then, even after it became clear that Simon was the Second-Amendment candidate with the best chance, they didn’t want to go back on their endorsement, but risked splitting the conservative vote.

They’ve gotten themselves a black eye with a lot of conservatives in California as a result. One expects that they’ll now endorse Simon for the general election.

I don’t agree with Dan Weintraub that often, but I think that he’s nailed it here:

Way ahead in the early polls, Riordan expected a coronation but found himself in an election instead. He ran as a leader and a competent manager. But given the way he managed his own campaign, or failed to, it’s probably best that he’ll never get the chance to run the state.

Someone should suggest to Ira Stoll that he add Megan McArdle as a columnist to counter the idiocy from Krugman over at the Paper Formerly Known As The Paper Of Record.

He’s about to be interviewed on Fox News.

[a few minutes later]

He looks almost like a normal person. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I always imagine him as looking like one of his own characters (his art imitates his life, as it were).

His excuse is that he wasn’t going after the bereaved, per se–just the ones who have put themselves in the news and gone on Larry King.

According to him, we’re just too dumb to understand the nuance of his art.

According to Space.com, Lori Garver, former National Space Society director, and NASA Associate Administrator (and a friend of mine) is angling for a seat in a Soyuz. I hope she can pull it off. She’s likely to do more for public space travel than any of the others who are trying to go.

There’s an interesting article in the Orange County Register about high-tech ghost towns in Silicon Valley, many of them only recently built.

The amount of excess capacity up there right now is staggering, but it may lay the foundation for a good recovery, once people figure out how to actually make money off the Internet.