We're also informed that Daylight Saving Time helps conserve energy, apparently because people arriving home when the sun is still up don't switch on their lights. Didn't it occur to anybody that maybe they compensate by switching them on earlier in the morning? Moreover, people who arrive home from work an hour earlier during the hot summer months are probably more prone to turning up their air conditioners. According to researcher Michael Downing, the petroleum industry once was "an ardent and generous supporter" of DST because it believed people would hop in their cars and drive for pleasure -- and guzzle more gas.

Where is the Charles Schenck of the Global War on Terrorism? Schenck was a Socialist Party leader arrested in Philadelphia in 1918 and convicted under the Espionage Act. His crime: distributing anti-draft pamphlets that read like well-reasoned, patriotic tracts compared with some of the obscenity-laden Internet screeds of the anti-war left today.

Yet a judge ordered Schenck to federal prison for 10 years. The Supreme Court, in the decision that informed Americans they have no right to "shout fire in a crowded theater," upheld his conviction. What's more, the provision of the Espionage Act under which Schenck and others were jailed remains enshrined in the federal statute books. But Bush and his Justice Department have yet to use it.

The best candidate 1) will be obviously ready to become president at a moment's notice; 2) will be a Reaganite conservative; 3) should at least put into play a state, region, or constituency that otherwise would be far less attainable for McCain or for a typical Republican; 4) should be well rounded, preferably with at least interesting non-political item on his resume; 5) should have some executive or serious organizational experience; 6) should be intelligent, widely respected, good on TV, and preferably "cool" in persona to balance McCain's sometimes fearsome intensity; and 7) should clearly be a reformer with a record of occasionally bucking the establishment on behalf of principle.

In its efforts to protect the children in this case and to promote some goods that public schools are said to accomplish (as do many families that homeschool) the court has potentially made it nearly impossible to homeschool in California. The many who are decent and scrupulous about caring for the good of their children and of their country are sacrificed because a few might not do well by their children. We might as well take all children out of their parental homes because some parents are abusive behind closed doors. (With updates here and here.)