Mira has just left for her first day at school (she’s a therapy-dog-in-training). I’m so proud.

She looks absolutely beautiful—freshly bathed and groomed. I really need to post a more recent picture. We’ll see when she gets home. Maybe my wife will relent about showing her.

Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:

• I’m continuing to update my post on blogosphere reaction
  to Negroponte’s nomination.
• Belmont Club has received
  a non-elective facelift. Scroll down. Wretchard has been very, very busy.
  And, yes, you do need to upgrade from blogspot.
• The Big Picture has a good post on the housing bubble.
• Is it ethical for physicians to engage in bedside rationing? From Bioethics Dicussion Blog.
• The Commons Blog has an interesting post on the problems encountered
  in implementing actual windmill projects.
• Dr. Demarche of The Daily Demarche wonders if good things may come of the assassination of Rafik Hariri.
• Brad DeLong has a fascinating
  post (a handout from one of his courses) on who benefited from American slavery.
• The Education Wonks posts more info on a California school’s plans
  to have students wear RFID badges.
• The Health Care Blog has several good posts up
  about the hearing on COX-2 inhibitors (Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra) being conducted by the FDA.
• Read Phil Carter Intel Dump’s post on
  pop-up units fighting terrorism in Iraq.
• Professor Bainbridge reaches a tentative conclusion on private accounts as a method of
  Social Security reform (and basically reaches my tentative conclusion).
• Samizdata points to a crisis in regional theatre
  in Britain:

  I could have told them. Never, I would have said to them (had they thought of asking me), depend upon government money and the promises of politicians. Never get addicted to the contents of the public purse, for they can be snatched away from you without warning. Renaissances funded only by politicians have a way of dying very prematurely. Getting money from mere customers may be harder in the short run, but once you learn the trick, you have a foundation you can build on more confidently.

  This isn’t just a problem for regional theaters in Britain. When you’re
  a creature of the government, your fortunes rise and fall with its vagaries.

• Varifrank writes about the demise of activist journalism. I suspect
  that news of its death is greatly exaggerated.
• Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly stands up
  for technocracy. My problem with technocracy is that for too many technocrats it means that their specialty should rule
  all the others.

That’s the lot.

The 27^th Carnival of the Recipes, a selection of recipes from some of the best cooks in the blogosphere, is now available for your reading, cooking, and eating pleasure. This week it’s being hosted by Allan of Inside Allan’s Mind and I can see the site has had an attractive facelift.

Many of my favorite cooks from Carnivals past are represented. Alpha Wolf of The Laughing Wolf has a recipe for miso soup. I love miso soup. I’ve been making it for thirty years and it’s one of those dishes which is so delicious and so easy (and so healthy) that I think it should be in everyone’s repertoire. There’s also a recipe for beer. I really should get back to brewing. Maybe this one will light a fire under me.

There are also some new faces: Every And/But Nothing who appears to know something about Southern cooking and Cathouse Chat. Remember to check out the whole blogs when you check out their recipes—go for the recipes, stay for the pie! You may find a new favorite.

I’m feeling a little lazy this week so I thought I’d trot out one of my quick and easy recipes. There was quite a long period when I was eating vegetarian (or nearly so). Here’s one of the recipes I made then and still make occasionally. It’s so tasty, hearty, and satisfying that you just don’t miss meat.

Tempeh with broccoli

Serves four gourmets or two gourmands

4 stalks broccoli
½ lb. tempeh
1 small onion, diced
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. wheat-free tamari

1. Slice the tempeh into 1 inch by ¼ inch pieces.
2. Place the tempeh in the roasting pan, brush it with canola oil, and roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 425°F.
3. Clean the broccoli, peel the stems. Chop the stems into ¼ inch slices. Break the tops into florets.
4. Steam the broccoli for 7 minutes until cooked but crisp.
5. Sautè the onion in oil in a wok until it’s starting to brown.
6. Stir the broccoli and tempeh into the onion. Cook one minute.
7. Stir the tamari into the broccoli and tempeh. Cook for three minutes until tamari starts to reduce.

Serve the broccoli and tempeh over steamed rice.

Matthew Yglesias does a good job, I think, of explaining why it’s easier to walk on two legs:

A big part of what’s appealing about Bush’s idealistic rhetoric is that it plays into America’s very flattering self-conception. The more honest take on this beloved of liberal intellectuals is likely to work better, since it’s more credible, but at best it will confuse the electorate (“nuance” and all that) and more likely it will enrage them. People don’t want to hear that America, though often good, has also been bad and needs to reform its ways to meet the challenges of the 21st century. There’s a genuine difficulty here, and it needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

Part of the distinctive genius of America, in my opinion, is our ability to love our country and criticize it at the same time. The problems come when self-criticism becomes a substitute for anything else.

Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:

• The Adventures of Chester
  has some interesting speculations about the explosion in Iran yesterday.
• Beldar scores the DC Circuit’s Plame decisions. See also Left2Right’s observations.
• CodeBlueBlog weighs in on performance-enhancing drugs.
• The New Sisyphus muses on the prospects for the future Middle East.

That’s the lot.

President Bush has nominated John Negroponte as the first Director of National Intelligence:

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush on Thursday named John Negroponte as America’s first national intelligence director, congressional sources said Thursday.

It’s a sudden job change for Negroponte, a career diplomat. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has been serving as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad sincet June.

I’ve already expressed my skepticism about this new position but I doubt that Negroponte will have any difficulty getting confirmed.

UPDATE

Reactions from around the blogosphere

Yesterday I was sorely tempted to link to Tom Maguire of Just One Minute’s brilliant post, How The Lefty Blogs Can Win The Blogosphere, Revive Their Party, And Save Our Country (And Why They Won’t). I held back because Glenn had already linked it and I didn’t have much to contribute.

After a little reflection I see the potential for a new set of metaphors inspired by Tom’s imagery in describing blogs and the right and left sides of the blogosphere. For example:

“He was set upon by a pack of wild blogs.”

“She pursued her quarry with blogged determination.”

Waddaya think? Got any more?

Transterrestrial Musings points to a list of really geeky hobbies. Sadly, I can claim three of the 10. (No, I’m not telling which ones.) Pathetically, I actually took the time to multiply out the “Public Humiliation” and “Damage to Sex Life” ratings to get a cumulative total. In my defense, I’m traveling on a contract, and my family is not with me. Still …