Free Period

A Sweet 16 of links. Or "things that I wanted to blog about myself but didn't":

1. A retrospective of Michael Steele's first 100 days as chairman of the RNC. Cue the circus music.

2. More good news for Euro-style socialism: Mercer's quality of life index shows that 13 of the top 20 cities are located in Europe. The first U.S. city to appear on the list is Honolulu at No. 29. h/t Yglesias.

3. Why are some Texas hospitals charging women for rape kits? Read more about the issue here.

4. McCain: ridding the U.S. military of dirty butt sex is more important than national security. We're going to need President Obama to nip this silliness in the bud. Sooner, rather than later.

5. A great take on "Dijongate."

6. Republicans want to know why black people don't like them. But not really.

7. Related: Jonah Goldberg advocates tokenism. Because Ward Connerly has done such a great job at reaching out to black people.

8. Is it really the worst thing in the world for a teenage girl to have sex? Or is it worst to compound the issue by denying her information about the possible consequences? Or, even worse, for her to develop a really unhealthy attitude about sex? Into the fray jumps teen babymama and abstinence champion Bristol Palin.

9. Utne attempts to make a case for adultery. I think it would be easier to stay single. But that's just me. h/t Gawker.

10. There's been a lot of talk about Asher Roth and his celebrated - and controversial - entrance into the hip hop biz. We did the business over at PostBourgie, Jay Smooth is as insightful as always and here's a nice take from Racialicious.

11. I'm a couple days late on this but, yo, Ron Artest was not lying about watching a kid get stabbed to death during a basketball game in New York. That just reminds me that you never really know the path that some people have traveled.

12. Via Ryan, a very long and interesting piece on the prize culture in journalism. But to address at least one point, I don't think there's anything that newspapers could have done in recent years to avoid the collapse of the business model short of a radical rethinking of the way we allocated and used resources. Really, on a number of levels, newspapers have been very wasteful.

13. John asks if Miss California should have lied about her preference for "opposite marriage" to win the crown. I don't think so. To me, her mangled response was the problem more than the substance of her remarks.

14. The full-court press, or five smooth stones. Malcolm Gladwell thinks "Davids" should try to "Goliaths" on their own terms. As always, Gladwell makes a compelling case but there's some lazy analysis that underlies his thesis. Namely, an assumption of black athletic supremacy. I'll let G.D. handle this later in the week, and come back to it then.

15. If you ever read (emphasias on the read) "Friday Night Lights," you know Odessa Permian High School (aka Mojo) went on to win a state title the season after Buzz Bissinger spent a year with the team. What follows in the video commemorating that season are some highlights, some awkward boasting, lots of unintentional comedy and a little New Kids on the Block. h/t to the college friend I dubbed "Pepette."

16. And now a message from Michael Steele: