7 Million Down, Only 33 Million to Go...

Robert Stacy McCain previewed his 7 millionth hit the other day, and then Smitty recorded the moment: "7,000,000 Hits, 7-Minute Blogs."

And I just want to say, "Hey, guys, congratulations — and don't be getting too cocky, alright? Ha!"

It turns out Ann Althouse had a blogging milestone the other day as well, 40 million hits!

Now that's some traffic!

And how's it done? Well, Doug Ross offers a 10-trick guide: "Advice for a Young Blogger: How to get a million or less hits on your blog over some unspecified period of time, maybe." I like this part, tip #4:

Try to keep content fresh and stories flowing, even if it means running a group blog or having guest bloggers. People don't visit sites that are static. If nothing changes between visits, there's really not a reason to surf to your site. As for myself, each day since January 9, 2009, I've posted Larwyn's Linx, my roundup of important stories. No matter what else is happening, regular readers can at least get a daily snapshotof my favorite articles.

Excellent advice (and RTWT), and I want to give Doug some extra kudos for keeping up the Linkfest with such consistent excellence. That's an achievement all by itself. Meanwhile, Robert Stacy McCain takes a bit different approach: "‘Like Losing Your Virginity …’"

I've written about blogging success numerous times before, and I hope readers have learned something. Checking back on some of the old posts I'm reminded of political science research on the gatekeeper effect in the blogosphere, which holds:

Blogs with large numbers of incoming links offer both a means of filtering interesting blog posts from less interesting ones, and a focal point at which bloggers with interesting posts, and potential readers of these posts can coordinate. When less prominent bloggers have an interesting piece of information or point of view that is relevant to a political controversy, they will usually post this on their own blogs. However, they will also often have an incentive to contact one of the large “focal point” blogs, to publicize their post. The latter may post on the issue with a hyperlink back to the original blog, if the story or point of view is interesting enough, so that the originator of the piece of information receives more readers. In this manner, bloggers with fewer links function as “fire alarms” for focal point blogs, providing new information and links. This reduces the need for bloggers at the top of the link structure to engage in “police patrols” to gather information on their own...

The point still holds, although at the time of publication social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter hadn't taken off, so I'm convinced that self-promotion and networking can help newbies break into the top tier much more quickly than in earlier days of the blogosphere. And frankly, I think there's less consensus on the "top tier" itself, since reader self-segregation and the sheer number of excellent blogs makes those earlier hierarchical effects less meaningful or pronounced.

In any case, here's an interesting flashhack: "Blogging While Female: 5 Conservative Women Bloggers Talk About Gender Issues And The Blogosphere."

Julie Chen Breaks Down Over Casey Anthony Verdict

At Hollywood Reporter, "Casey Anthony Trial: 'The Talk's' Julie Chen Becomes Emotional While Reading Verdict On-Air (Video)."

And my previous report: "Casey Anthony Not Guilty — UPDATED: Report: Casey Anthony Pregnant!!"

Added: The Lonely Conservative has more: "Julie Chen Needs Therapy After Casey Anthony Verdict."

Google to Retire Blogger!

The brand name "Blogger," that is.

With the launch of Google+ there's some other developments in store as well, called "brand unification."

See Mashable!, "EXCLUSIVE: Google To Retire Blogger & Picasa Brands in Google+ Push."

Say goodbye to the Picasa and Blogger names: Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products, Mashable has learned.

The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+, the search giant’s social initiative.

Blogger and Picasa aren’t going away, of course — they’re two of Google’s most popular products. Instead, according to two sources familiar with the matter, Google intends to rename Picasa “Google Photos” and Blogger will become “Google Blogs.” Several other Google brands are likely to be affected, though our sources made it clear that YouTube would not be rebranded. The technology giant shut down Google Video, its failed web video service, in May.

Meanwhile, it looks like Ann Althouse has gotten the full archives from Google, and should be making her switch-over soon. See, "'Hello. I am on the Blogger team and am one of the guys who has been helping Ann with her blog...'"

Are You Reading Theo Spark?

Lovely blogging over there.

Today's pic dump and news roundup, for example, and also some Tuesday totties and bonus babes.

And check out Maggie's Farm too! "Tuesday morning links - It's really summer now."

Britain's News of the World Scandal

This is the big story across the pond.

At Telegraph UK, "Live coverage of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, in which 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler allegedly had her voicemails intercepted ..." Also, "News of the World loses adverts over Milly Dowler scandal."

And from Telegraph's Daniel Knowles, "The News of the World has put the independence of the press at risk."

And at Financial Times, "Rupert Murdoch’s responsibility":

The latest allegations in the phone hacking scandal at News Corp’s UK tabloid papers elevate it to a new level. This is no longer just a matter of journalists infringing the privacy of celebrities in order to gossip about them in print. By intercepting the voice messages of a murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, as the News of the World is alleged to have done, the newspaper has potentially impeded a criminal investigation. If true, this is not only wrong and illegal; it exhibits a fundamental lack of human decency.

We must hope the public disgust that has greeted the allegations may finally persuade the company to get a handle on the hacking scandal. For nearly five years, it has shamefully dragged its feet as interminable investigations have continued into the illegal interception by its UK journalists of mobile phone messages. True, the police have been similarly lackadaisical and puzzlingly reluctant to pursue cases – an attitude that still has properly to be explained. But none of this excuses News Corp. Rupert Murdoch must now get a grip.

And I'm seeing nothing but bikini babes and celebrity hotties at News of the World.

More on this later ...

4:42pm PST: At Los Angeles Times, "Phone hacking scandal involving kidnapped girl roils Britain":

For months, Britain's scandal over scoop-hungry reporters hacking into the cellphones of celebrities and politicians drew shrugs from the general public, which viewed the affair as a rarified dispute between the rich and famous and those who write about them.

Not anymore.

Revulsion swept the nation Tuesday amid allegations that a sensationalist tabloid owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch also intercepted and tampered with voicemails left for a kidnapped 13-year-old girl whose body was later found dumped in the woods.

Britons from Prime Minister David Cameron on down declared their disgust over the accusations, the latest to hit Murdoch's weekly News of the World.

The disturbing turn in a long-running scandal has raised troubling questions about the media magnate's relationship with the British political establishment and police. It comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Australian-born Murdoch, who also operates Fox News in the U.S. and is seeking political approval to expand his already massive media empire in Britain.

This should be manna from heaven for the progressive left, for example, at Media Matters: "Murdoch Tabloid Accused of Hacking Murdered Schoolgirl's Phone."

6:25pm PST: At New York Times, "Milly Dowler Hacking Puts Pressure on Rebekah Brooks of News Corp.":

LONDON — Political pressure is bearing down on Rebekah Brooks, a top executive of the News Corporation in Britain, following allegations that one of the company’s newspapers hacked the cellphone of a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 2002, when Ms. Brooks was its editor.

Prominent politicians chastised the company and Ms. Brooks, and Ford Motor Company suspended advertising in News of the World, the tabloid that has faced a long-running scandal over the widespread interception of voice mail messages of celebrities and other public figures.

Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Tuesday that Ms. Brooks should “consider her conscience and consider her position” after the disclosures.

“It wasn’t a rogue reporter,” Mr. Miliband said. “It wasn’t just one individual. This was a systematic series of things that happened and what I want from executives at News International is people to start taking responsibility for this.” News International is the News Corporation’s British newspaper division, and Ms. Brooks is now its chief executive.

Prime Minister David Cameron took time out from a visit to British troops in Afghanistan to lament what he called a “truly dreadful situation.” The police, he added, “should investigate this without any fear, without any favor, without any worry about where the evidence should lead them.”

And the editors at New York Times weigh in, of couse: "The Greater Evil."

Casey Anthony Not Guilty — UPDATED: Report: Casey Anthony Pregnant!!

R.S. McCain has the headline: "HOLY FREAKING CRAP! Casey Anthony Becomes the O.J. Simpson of Baby-Killers."

Updates coming ...

Some video:

12:25pm PST: More video ...

And R.S. McCain updates with a report from the Orlando Sentinel:

Frankly, I thought she deserved the death penalty for hogging up endless hours of cable-TV news coverage, but apparently that’s not a capital felony in Florida.

12:50pm PST: Aaron Worthing says he's just getting up to speed but promises updates: "Casey Anthony Found Not Guilty of Murder."

And more video. The local reaction to the verdict:

And Blazing Cat Fur links. Thanks!

1:10pm PST: At Los Angeles Times, "Casey Anthony found not guilty; Twitter erupts in outrage."

And more video:

1:22pm PST: FWIW, from National Enquirer, "EXCLUSIVE: CASEY ANTHONY TELLS PALS -- I’M PREGNANT!"

4:32pm PST: Pat Austin has a report: "Casey Anthony Walks Away."

And more video:

Also, at New York Times, "Casey Anthony Not Guilty in Slaying of Daughter":

ORLANDO, Fla. — Casey Anthony, the young mother whose seeming heartlessness at the disappearance of her daughter transfixed America for three years, was found not guilty on Tuesday of killing the girl, Caylee Marie.

After nearly six weeks of testimony, a panel of seven women and five men decided that Ms. Anthony did not murder Caylee by dosing her with chloroform, suffocating her with duct tape and dumping her in a wooded area, as prosecutors claimed. They did, however, find her guilty of lesser charges of providing false information to law enforcement officers. The jury did not ask to review any evidence.

When the verdict was read, Ms. Anthony, 25, who faced a possible death sentence, cried.

The verdict vindicates the defense, which argued from the start that Caylee drowned accidentally in the family swimming pool and that the death was concealed by her mother and her panicked grandfather George Anthony.

It also drove home just how circumstantial the prosecution’s case proved to be. Forensic evidence was tenuous and no witnesses ever tied Ms. Anthony to Caylee’s murder. Investigators found no trace of DNA or solid signs of chloroform or decomposition inside the trunk of Ms. Anthony’s car, where prosecutors said Ms. Anthony stashed Caylee before disposing of her body.

The prosecution was also hurt by the fact that nobody knows exactly how Caylee died; her body was too badly decomposed to pinpoint cause of death.

All of this allowed José Baez, Ms. Anthony’s lawyer, to infuse enough reasonable doubt in jurors’ minds to get Ms. Anthony acquitted of murder.

“They throw enough against the wall and see what sticks,” Mr. Baez told the jury, “right down to the cause of death.”

More at the link. (Via Memeorandum.)

Ann Coulter's Valentine to the Left

A two thumbs-up from David Horowtiz:

At last we have a conservative narrative that not only nails but also encompasses the left, totalitarian bombers and liberal fellow-travelers, exposes its love of violence, its witch-hunting mentality, its rampant hypocrisy, and destructive nihilism, and puts them all in the historical perspective they require.

Crystal Cathedral Denies Robert Schuller Ousted From Board of Directors

The initial report was in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "Crystal Cathedral board ousts the Rev. Robert H. Schuller." But I saw a conflicting report at the Orange County Register, "Schuller will be a non-voting board member." And then this update at the Times, "Crystal Cathedral denies reports of Schuller's ouster from board":

A Crystal Cathedral spokesman on Monday denied reports that the church's founder, Robert H. Schuller, was voted off the board of directors in a meeting more than a week ago.

“He [Robert H. Schuller] was not voted off the board,” said John Charles, the Garden Grove church spokesman. “He is still board chairman emeritus.”

The church released its statement a day after Schuller’s son, Robert Anthony Schuller, said his 84-year-old father had been ousted because he had proposed adding new members to the board.

“Recently, the board of directors of Crystal Cathedral Ministries voted to change Dr. Schuller's position from that of a voting board member to the honorary Chairman of the Board Emeritus, a non-voting position,” the statement read.

The Times reported Schuller's new non-voting position June 19.

In Monday’s statement, Charles said the move will free up Schuller's time for more speaking engagements and a writing project: “He will also continue to speak in the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and on the 'Hour of Power' and meet with staff in creative and vision-casting meetings.”

PREVIOUSLY: "As Crystal Cathedral Fights to Survive Bankruptcy, Spanish-Language Ministry Comes of Age."

The Space Shuttle Program Helped Carry Southern California's Aerospace Industry for Four Decades

At Los Angeles Times, "The space shuttle's Southland legacy."

Amid the odes to a shuttle program that ends with the last mission of the last shuttle, Atlantis, scheduled for liftoff Friday, is an awareness that the space plane helped carry Southern California's aerospace industry for four decades. It staved off decline after the end of the moon landings, bequeathing new generations of aeronautical technology — and jobs — to the regional economy.

"Building the space shuttle fleet enabled a historic chapter in NASA's space program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander. "Southern California has a strong place in shuttle history as a key site where the spacecraft were built and often landed."

Constructing the shuttle fleet was testament to how advanced Southern California's aerospace engineering and labor workforce had become by the 1970s — and assured that the vast assemblage of brainpower and engineering know-how would not be lost in the Southland.

The history of the shuttle program may be linked forever to the flights of Challenger and Columbia, its two deadly tragedies. But the shuttle era will also be remembered for advancing technology, including reusable rocket engines and computerized guidance systems, that changed manned flight.

Chasing the Dying Memories of Soviet Trauma

There's a retrospective on the fall of the Soviet Union at the new Foreign Policy. I'll be reading and posting more from it, but this essay from Orlando Figes is fascinating, "Don't Go There":

In November 2004, Nona Panova was being interviewed by a researcher from the Russian human rights organization Memorial, working under my direction on an oral history project about private life in the Stalin era. Nona, a 75-year-old woman whose father had been arrested during the purges of the 1930s, had been talking for several hours about her upbringing in St. Petersburg and her family when she saw the tape recorder with its microphone. The conversation went like this:Panova: So that's how it was.… [Notices the tape recorder and shows signs of panic.] Are you recording this? But I'll be arrested! They'll put me into jail!

Interviewer: Who'll put you in jail?

Panova: Someone will.… I've told you so much; there's so much I've said.…

Interviewer: [Laughs.] Yes, and it was very interesting, but tell me, who today would want to put you in jail?

Panova: But did you really make a recording?

Interviewer: Yes, don't you remember? I warned you at the start that our conversation would be recorded.

Panova: Then that's it. It's all over for me -- they'll arrest me.

More at the link. Ms. Panova thought she'd be killed. Here's another part this was gripping:

For years, what the world knew about the Soviet Union was limited entirely to the public sphere. Apart from a few memoirs by great writers caught up in the repressions of the 1930s, particularly Evgenia Ginzburg and Nadezhda Mandelstam, there was little from a personal perspective coming out of those years. More representative testimonies began to emerge only in the glasnost period, when victims of Stalin's repression were encouraged to come forward with their stories. Organizations like Memorial helped them look for information about their missing relatives, took interviews, and organized archives from the mass of documents, letters, photographs, and artifacts that people brought into their offices in plastic bags and boxes following the Soviet regime's collapse.

And yet even these documents were difficult to interpret. Take diaries, usually regarded as the most direct expression of an individual's private thoughts and emotions. Diarists of the 1930s and 1940s, however, faced serious obstacles. When a person was arrested, the first thing to be confiscated was the diary, which was likely to be used as incriminating evidence. Many diaries that came to light during the glasnost years express conformist political ideas. Should we take their words at face value, as expressions of a genuine yearning to belong to the Soviet collective, which was no doubt felt by many people insecure about their place in the system? Or should it be assumed that fear drove more to hide themselves behind a mask? Two major finds have been translated from Russian: the 1930s diary of Stepan Podlubny, a kulak son fashioning a Soviet identity for himself in a factory school, which was published in Germany as Tagebuch aus Moskau (1996) by historian Jochen Hellbeck; and Nina Lugovskaya's schoolgirl diary from the same decade, published in English as I Want to Live (2006). For Hellbeck, the Podlubny diary shows how the individual was practically unable to think outside the terms defined by Soviet politics. In this vision of the "Soviet subject" -- developed by Hellbeck from several newly discovered Stalin-era diaries in Revolution on My Mind (2006) -- there is little space for private life at all, if we take that to depend on independent thought. Yet the Lugovskaya example shows that even a schoolgirl subjected to the full array of propaganda about the "radiant Soviet future" was not only capable of dissenting, pessimistic, and even "anti-Soviet" thoughts, but eager to confess them to her diary as an expression of her individuality.

Living in fear as a direct result of communist totalitarian control. This is where today's progressives seek to return. They're communists, and just take a look across the radical left establishment today. To simply speak out against the PC commissars is to risk a termination of employment, personals attacks, threats of violence, or even possible jail time in country's like Canada and the Netherlands. Progressives are communists. Like Soviet citizens under Stalin, there is no dissenting from the progressive line without threat to life and liberty.

Jewish Defence League Protests Omar Barghouti in Toronto

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Omar Barghouti - Disrupted."

There's a little bit of discussion of whether free speech rights are violated, and thus conservatives are just as bad as communists and jihadis. As I noted at the comments, I thought about heckling Noam Chomsky at UCLA, but I might not have had any backup, and would have been swarmed by the Student for Justice in Palestine jihadis! That said, there's a lot of frustration on the right, so I can see the temptation. As Vlad Tepes notes:

It appears that the Jewish Defense League has given some Islamic BDS people a taste of thier own medicine that we have seen at so many campus’ across the world from Scotland to Sweden and through the USA ...

VIDEO: Kate Upton SoBe Bikini

The POH Diaries has this: "Sweet Lord. A Kate Upton Staring Contest."

And more Kate Upton, for SoBe:

Jewish Conservatives and the New Media

From Benyamin Korn, at Jewish Telegraphic Agency, "Jews becoming commonplace in conservative ‘new media’."

The piece mentions just about everyone. Andrew Breitbart is Jewish, and so is Tammy Bruce, which I didn't know.

Interesting.

Hat Tip: Israel Matzav.

Lightning Medicine

At London's Daily Mail, "The incredibly rare sacred white buffalo who's one in TEN MILLION" (via AoSHQ).

I'm fascinated by Native Americans. This is really cool story.

Gauging Consequences for Republicans Who Backed Gay Marriage

At New York Times, "After Backing Gay Marriage, 4 in G.O.P. Face Voters’ Verdict":

A day and a half after he voted to legalize same-sex marriage, State Senator Mark J. Grisanti went to church.

There, across the pews at St. Rose of Lima in North Buffalo, sat 81-year-old Ann Deckop, and she felt betrayed, since Mr. Grisanti had vowed in 2008 that he was “inalterably” opposed to same-sex marriage.

“I voted for him and I’m writing a letter indicating that I will not be voting for him in the next election,” Ms. Deckop said.

But there was also Greg Fox, a 52-year-old technology industry salesman, who called Mr. Grisanti “a gentleman.”

“It’s important that we uphold Catholic values,” Mr. Fox said, before adding, “This is also 2011, so things change.”

And at the front of the church was the priest, who, Mr. Grisanti recalled, “put a hand over his heart and kind of pounded his chest, and pointed to me and smiled.” Mr. Grisanti said he was unsure what that meant.

Now, Mr. Grisanti and the three other Senate Republicans who provided votes necessary to legalize same-sex marriage in New York are confronting the uncertainty of how voters in their districts will react. Voter response will influence the balance of power in the New York Senate, where there are just two more Republicans than Democrats. And the events in New York also have national repercussions: because several Democratic-dominated states have already legalized same-sex marriage, gay-rights advocates increasingly need Republican support if they are to change local laws elsewhere in the country.

Some Republican donors, as well as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and leaders of the gay-rights movement, have promised to support the re-election campaigns of the four New York lawmakers. But the National Organization for Marriage, a group opposed to same-sex marriage, said it would spend $2 million in an effort to defeat the legislators, and key elements of the senators’ traditional political base have vowed to withdraw support.

“One thing I know for sure, these four people will not have the Conservative Party endorsement,” said Michael R. Long, chairman of the state Conservative Party. “That is certain.”

Keep your eyes out for these races. A cautionary warning for RINOs.

Reaffirming Our Independence

An editorial, at Orange County Register:

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is a good time not only for hot dogs and fireworks, but to reflect for a moment on what makes this country unique, the qualities that enabled it to become in some ways the most successful country in history, and to contemplate the extent to which those qualities still animate Americans.

It has been said that the United States is the only country founded on an idea, or a set of ideas, rather than on ethnic or racial similarities, kinship, conquest or the simple fact of a relatively homogeneous group of people living in the same geographic region for centuries. Those ideas are summed up in the Declaration of Independence, the document whose signing and promulgation we celebrate. In some ways it can lay claim to being the most revolutionary public document in human history.

Aspects of the idea that people are not just vassals of the powers that be, interchangeable cogs in the great machinery of society presided over by leaders who had by and large established themselves through conquest and pillage, had been growing for centuries before 1776. But the circumstances surrounding the decision of the Colonists to separate from Great Britain offered the opportunity to summarize emerging principles in a uniquely eloquent manner.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," the Declaration proclaims, "that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." By "created equal," of course, the founders were not so naïve as to believe that we were all equally tall, intelligent, beautiful or worthy, but that we have equal value in the sight of God or Natural Law and should receive equal treatment rather than preferences or punishment based on our status from government. Every human being has a certain inherent dignity, and decent people respect that.

Check that link above for the rest.

Also, from Jennifer Braceras, at Boston Herald, "The lasting lessons of independence."

BONUS: At American Digest, "How Beautiful We Were."

Progressives Cheer Death of Motorcyclist Who Died Protesting Helmet Laws

I guess the death of Philip Contos, who lost control and flew over the handlebars on his '83 Harley, hitting his head, gives ideological vindication to the progressive left, some of whom are gleefully mocking the rider. The background details are at Clutch & Chrome, "Rider dies at motorcycle helmet protest in New York State."

The death of a motorcycle rider while protesting helmet laws in upstate New York has made international headlines.

The tragic irony around the death of 55-year-old Philip A. Contos won’t be lost on those involved in the ongoing debate which weighs rights against needs in the case of mandatory helmet laws. Nor will it be the last time the events of Saturday June 2nd are discussed.

The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse. Contos was taking part participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York in an event organized by American Bikers Aimed Towards Education, or ABATE.

ABATE is a motorcycle rights group organized by chapters all over the United States and promotes motorcycle safety, awareness and education and organizes motorcycle rides.

Contos was riding his 1983 Harley-Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets when tragedy struck.

"He hit the brakes, lost control, was ejected and struck his head on the road,“ State Trooper Robert Jureller said, “He suffered a skull fracture."

Crooks & Liars is using the story to ridicule self-interested personal behavior, which is apparently a lesson for "Ayn Rand fans." See, "Moral of The Story: When You Always Put Your Own Interests First, It Can Work Against Your Interests." And even worse is ASFL John Cole at Balloon Juice, "Freedumb Riders."

Don Surber responds, "Mocking the Dead." (Via Memeorandum.)

Angie Harmon Squelches Rumors That 'Rizzoli & Isles' Characters Are Lesbian

Well, this story gives me a chance to blog Angie Harmon!

At Los Angeles Times, "'Rizzoli & Isles' — are they or aren't they?":

The first season of TNT's crime drama "Rizzoli & Isles" featured an episode with the title "I Kissed a Girl." Its stars, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander, played on a softball team, shared some intimate dinners, drank wine over candlelight and hopped into the same bed for girl talk.

But this is not a gay show.

Series creator Janet Tamaro described Harmon's Rizzoli and Alexander's Isles as a "power couple" — the center of a buddy drama, one that broke cable ratings records in its debut run and returns for its second season July 11. But the women are not together, as in together.

Tamaro chalks up the rampant are-they-or-aren't-they discussion to throwing "two gorgeous actresses together who have great, natural chemistry." She contends that Harmon's tomboyish homicide detective and Alexander's stylish medical examiner "are straight women who don't fear the interest in or the speculation about their relationship."

That hasn't stopped gay pop culture blog AfterEllen from dubbing the show, "totally gay, it just doesn't know it yet." Or another lesbian blog, CherryGrrl, from creating a "Rizzoli & Isles" drinking game, advising viewers to take a shot for interaction between the title characters that includes "stares lasting longer than three seconds," "sleeping in the same bed/couch/squad car," "adorable bickering which generally relates to sexual tension," or "complaining to each other about their inability to find a compatible mate, all while being completely compatible mates." The Washington Post even pointed to a hunky visiting FBI agent as a short-lived distraction from the "faintly lesbian undertones that the show keeps trying to establish."

Harmon, a veteran of "Law & Order," said she's familiar with the online chatter and that it's "super fun" to play a role that has some same-sex romantic vibes. She's relishing a character who's gruff and aggressive, the polar opposite of her own girlie personality, she said.

But as close as they are, Rizzoli and Isles are just best friends, she said. Really.

"I hate to disappoint, but these characters are straight," Harmon insisted. "If we lose viewers because of it — sorry!"

And that's amazing, that Harmon would note the possibility of LOSING viewers if the characters weren't gay. Reminds me of my post the other day, on the anti-hetero bigotry of Dan Savage. It's hard out there if you're straight. See: "Gay Sexual Abandon and the Perverse Inversion of Values by Same-Sex Extremists."

The Rizzoli & Isles page is here, on TNT.

The Meaning of Independence

At the clip, the finale from Saturday night's fireworks at Pechanga:

That was on of the better fireworks shows I can recall. A full video is here. The show was twenty minutes long and the finale was just spectacular.

And check out this essay from E.J. Dionne at the Washington Post, "What our Declaration really said":

Our nation confronts a challenge this Fourth of July that we face but rarely: We are at odds over the meaning of our history and why, to quote our Declaration of Independence, “governments are instituted.”

Only divisions this deep can explain why we are taking risks with our country’s future that we’re usually wise enough to avoid. Arguments over how much government should tax and spend are the very stuff of democracy’s give-and-take. Now, the debate is shadowed by worries that if a willful faction does not get what it wants, it might bring the nation to default.

This is, well, crazy. It makes sense only if politicians believe — or have convinced themselves — that they are fighting over matters of principle so profound that any means to defeat their opponents is defensible.

We are closer to that point than we think, and our friends in the Tea Party have offered a helpful clue by naming their movement in honor of the 1773 revolt against tea taxes on that momentous night in Boston Harbor.

Whether they intend it or not, their name suggests they believe that the current elected government in Washington is as illegitimate as was a distant, unelected monarchy. It implies something fundamentally wrong with taxes themselves or, at the least, that current levels of taxation (the lowest in decades) are dangerously oppressive. And it hints that methods outside the normal political channels are justified in confronting such oppression.

We need to recognize the deep flaws in this vision of our present and our past. A reading of the Declaration of Independence makes clear that our forebears were not revolting against taxes as such — and most certainly not against government as such.

Dionne so badly misses the point on the tea parties, to say nothing of the Declaration of Independence, that I feel bad for him. Keep reading at the link. Anyone can cherry pick the founding documents to find passages and quotations to fit their agenda. Progressives like Dionne are depressed that it's been conservatives and libertarians who've been much more successful in capturing and representing the spirit of individual liberty animating our political culture. I keep seeing progressives argue that the founding documents called for the expansion of government. I mean, c'mon: Dionne is arguing that opposition to taxation is not an element of the Declaration of Independence. But history disproves it, for the ability to tax is the ability to destroy, so to understand opposition to taxation is to realize that government extraction from the people destroys liberty. But again, I feel sad for people like Dionne, because they're getting worried that Americans have awoken from the slumber of affluence and industry, and taken a closer look at how the political class is destroying our very foundations.

In any case, Jeff Jacoby offers the big picture, "Philosophy, faith and the Fourth of July."

Fox News Twitter Account Hacked

It's trending at Memeorandum.

And a report at New York Times, "Apparently Hacked, a Fox News Twitter Account Sent Out Alarming Posts":

A series of alarming Twitter posts about President Obama appeared on Fox News’ Twitter account for political news early Monday morning, and the Web site for the cable television network said it was a victim of hacking.

The Twitter account, @foxnewspolitics, one of many that is operated by Fox News, claimed that the president died while campaigning in Iowa, but gave no source for the news. On Monday morning, FoxNews.com first posted a brief statement saying that the reports were incorrect, and that it regretted “any distress the false Tweets may have created.”

The six messages — which as of late Monday morning were still available online — created a flurry of attention overnight and senior Secret Service officials were gathering on Monday morning to discuss them, said to a law enforcement official who declined to be identified because of an investigation into the matter.

A spokesman for the Secret Service, George Ogilvie, said, “We’re not commenting on any of this.”

Jeff Misenti, the vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital, said in a later statement on Monday that the news organization will be requesting “a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts.”

More details at the link.

And a screencap of the tweets is here.

And check this at Think Magazine, "UPDATED: Think Talks with the Group That Hacked A Fox News Twitter Account."