WISE LATINA DELIVERS THE PITCH: And it sounds as if some of the undergrads are catching on! "I think the majority of our class is going to have to work hard to get the best jobs we can."

WHICH MEDICAL PROCEDURES SHOULD YOU CONSIDER REJECTING DURING A PREGNANCY? Personally I trust this sort of advice a lot more when it comes from Consumer Reports than when it comes from a panel of experts appointed by the government. That's because unlike the government, Consumer Reports has never lied to me.

DOES AMERICA DESERVE EDUARDO SAVERIN? Our loss is Singapore's gain, and it's safe to say that none of the people calling for Saverin's head has created anything as useful as Facebook.

Has created anything, period.

AMAZON CAN HELP YOU enjoy the summer with some friends… or co-bloggers! Remember– any purchase you make through the links on this site puts a little change in our pockets at no cost to yourself!

ON THE ONE HAND I'M HAPPY TO SAY that I've eaten barbecue cooked by five of the people on this list.

On the other hand, I'm sad that I haven't traveled widely enough to try the other five.  Based on the half I've tried, I'll bet their 'cue is damned great.

BADABING! Google tweaks search results. Again.

I CAN'T SAY THAT "EPIC" IS THE WORD TO DESCRIBE THIS.

But it's true that Darth Vader was able to lop off Luke Skywalker's hand in less time than it took these two to work out their differences.

MANY APOLOGIES FOR TODAY'S LIGHT BLOGGING, but I had to take a deposition this afternoon.

I'd like to thank guest-blogger David for picking up the slack.

WILL YOU BE EATING THAT CHOP?: Trustees paid off or litigated into oblivion. Incalculably valuable private art collection appropriated by the state for its own use in generating tourism revenue. Spirit and letter of individual, independent collector's will trodden underfoot for the greater good. Mission accomplished.

If they want your stuff, eventually they'll get your stuff. Somebody should write a book about this!

AT AMAZON, a celebration of all things Diablo. I recently dusted off my copy of Diablo II, and while it may not be true that you can't go home again, sometimes you don't want to stay very long. Diablo II was one such case.

STARBUCKS HAS LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT OKLAHOMA CITY: "Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed into law on Tuesday a bill that will allow Oklahomans to openly carry guns if they pass a criminal background check and take firearms training." Make mine a double… barrel.

IS DAVID BROOKS AMERICA'S WORST COLUMNIST?

But, more than it just being lousy writing, there is a distinct and depressing sense of distance that comes with reading all these dialed-in, spiritually be-khaki'ed D.C. types writing themselves in circles about Obama "spiking the football" or "punting" or whatever. It's not just that these sports metaphor is often the only living image in a waste of off-brand snark and to-be-sure equivocation and flatlined evenhandedness, although that is indeed a bummer. It's that the inevitably and invariably off-key sports stuff brings home just how far from regular human idiom the elite political conversation is pitched; this one thing that can be talked about, more or less well, by people all across the spectrum of class and race and lived experience and political and sexual orientation is somehow thoroughly beyond so many who write about politics.

The competition is fierce. The answer may surprise you. Read the whole thing.

ONCE UPON A TIME, the making of secret laws kept hidden from the people was cause for revolution, and condemned by all right-thinking men.

In this modern progressive era it's business as usual.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: "If UC approves a 6 percent hike, tuition for in-state undergraduates would rise by $731 to $12,923, nearly double what students paid five years ago." But that's ok. After all, if we all live within our means, then only the mean will have lives. Or something.

IT TAKES COURAGE TO TESTIFY AGAINST A KILLER, especially when the killer is a cop.

Had Patricia Cook shot the officer under similar circumstances, I doubt that the District Attorney would have needed ten weeks to complete his investigation.