The Dish

Professor Bainbridge on the attraction of a Fred Thompson candidacy. In a nutshell: he doesn’t seem to want it too much. And that indeed is very appealing. He just seems level-headed. Which, in these fervid days, is a plus.

Will the eagle soar again? In History? WaPo thinks so. Orin Kerr is happy that

"a more nuanced and accurate and nuanced picture is surfacing."

Ross was ahead of the curve on this – but the backlash from the left – try Carpetbagger and TalkLeft – is still intense.

The dawn of the font-slut.

"And speaking of rewarding good behavior, and punishing the bad: those courageous conservatives (Senators Kyl, Graham, Isakson and, yes, McCain) who have worked constructively and seriously on immigration reform deserve our support, not our rage, while those politicians and media figures who have demagogued this issue in a way that only makes it worse, in no way merit our encouragement," – Michael Medved, TownHall.

The top ten spiritual moments on American Idol.

One can understand why the White House is reluctant to use the word "amnesty" to describe their immigration proposal. But I’m amazed they haven’t been as linguistically innovative here as they have in other areas. The solution is simple. This isn’t "amnesty". It’s an "enhanced immigration technique."

No GOP presidential candidates will be at Falwell’s funeral – and only a junior fellow from the White House (whose job it is to stroke the Christianist base.) Politics can be callous sometimes, can’t it? I mean, judging from their public statements, Falwell was close to a saint.

Not as easy as it might seem, but NASA is gearing itself up for tackling it:

We cannot expect astronauts to spend three years in a spacecraft and not have sex – of some kind. Probably with each other, and likely in more than one combination. Sex in space presents a number of challenges beyond tangible matters like zero gravity or awkward enclosures. In fact, the physics should be the least of NASA’s concerns.

It’s the touchy-feely bit that the agency will need to consider seriously. Blindly applying Earth-bound standards that astronauts cannot follow under space-voyage conditions will only lead to guilt and shame. What happens if one person in the spaceship makes a romantic overture, only to be rebuffed? What happens if an astronaut in a relationship back home falls in love with another member of the mission? What to do — send a breakup text message from Mars?

How do you handle love, sex, romance, heartbreak, jealousy, hurt, unrequited longing, crushes, loneliness and twitterpation when you’re 18 months away from Earth and perhaps unsure whether you’ll make it back?

And what happens to the lube?

"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," Mr. McCain said of Mr. Romney’s position on immigration this week. "Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard." Heh.