Rarely will you see an expression of joy purer than the one on this boy’s face.

Begging the question:

I have never suggested that Senator McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America’s national interest. Now, it’s time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same.

But such an acknowledgment isn’t due if McCain has a point.

Three point shot:

In short, both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference, the great difference, is that I intend to win it first.

McCain probably can’t say anything to get anti-McCain Republicans like myself to vote for him. But if he continues to make the clarifying remarks he made today, he won’t need our votes.

I don’t support Obama or McCain. But if I supported Obama, I’d be worried about his inability to shake McCain.

With all his advantages — fulsome treasury, ebullient volunteers, and sycophantic media — Obama ought to be up six to eight points over McCain. But he’s not; he’s tied. Which probably means that he’s actually behind.

Patrick Buchanan defends Russia:

American charges of Russian aggression ring hollow. Georgia started this fight — Russia finished it. People who start wars don’t get to decide how and when they end.

That’s the number of iPhone 3Gs sold in the gadget’s first month. Astonishing, isn’t it?

“They are seeing unprecedented demand,” says [analyst Michael] Cote, adding that there appears to be no signs of a let up yet.

The iPhone 3G debuted July 11, a month ago. And yet at the Apple store in the Houston Galleria, you still have to stand in line to buy one.

Are dogs “livestock”? Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit took up that very question.

Jim McGreevey, the gay, disgraced former governor of New Jersey, owes no alimony to his ex-wife, a judge ruled. McGreevey is now a, ahem, seminarian and is living off a sugar daddy.

Item:

… the recent economic downturn hasn’t made Americans poor by any sane measurement. No one enjoys downward mobility, but let’s ask whether telling kids to share a bedroom or downsizing to a sedan represents anything worthy of the word “sacrifice.”

Item:

… an increasingly nasty lawsuit against the [Democratic National Committee] … has exposed the rift between gays and one of the party’s most important constituencies, African Americans.

Item:

City officials in San Francisco and Los Angeles intend to ensure that individuals are free to do what they want, if what they want is good for them.

In Texas, justice:

In a case that has drawn international attention, Texas executed José E. Medellín on Tuesday night in defiance of an international court ruling and despite pleas from the Bush administration for a new hearing.

Medellín was one of five bastards who, in 1993, raped, tortured and murdered two teenage girls from Houston. He was the second of the five to be executed. Texas put down Derrick O’Brien in 2006. Gang leader Peter Cantu is next.

The people of Texas can’t bring back Elizabeth Peña and Jennifer Ertman. But we can avenge them.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will not rehear a case in which a divided three-judge panel invalidated my state’s ban on the sale of sex toys.

Barack Obama has more money, more favorable media and a better organization than John McCain; Obama is also running in an environment agreeable to Democrats.

And yet no non-partisan poll has ever put Obama at or above 50%. In fact, according to Gallup, McCain now leads Obama by four points among likely voters, or at least he did as of Monday.

Why can’t Obama put McCain away?

During the Republican primaries, many of us wrote McCain off. We not only hoped he wouldn’t win, we also thought he couldn’t win. We were wrong. Now many say McCain can’t win the general election. Maybe they’re wrong too.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party remains as corrupt as ever, all but guaranteeing that the Democrats’ congressional majority will grow, regardless of what happens in the presidential race.

And had he gone to a meeting of secular liberals rather than religious ones, they would have obliged him.

Because people often want their political enemies in prison, you could get 100,000 signatures on a petition to prosecute just about anyone. Humans, especially liberals, are nasty that way. Fortunately, in America we don’t prosecute by petition.

If you must pray at the city council meeting, the Fourth Circuit wants your god to remain nameless.