Random.

* Call us "brights": Evidence is reviewed pointing to a negative relationship between intelligence and religious belief in the United States and Europe. It is shown that intelligence measured as psychometric g is negatively related to religious belief.

* The New Hampshire legislature has passed gay marriage. Live free or die!

* Teaser images from the "lost," DVD-only 13th episode of Dollhouse. This looks really, really good.

* Watchmen watch: costumed vigilantes in Cincinnati.

* "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission tells lawmakers it has no power to stop a Salt Lake City firm from taking tons of waste from Italy, processing it in Tennessee, then disposing of it in Utah." Well, who the hell does have the authority?

"It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free."

When did Ronald Reagan say this bold, stirring words, quoted by Sarah Palin at the close of the debate yesterday? As Jonathan Chait remembers, he was talking about the terrible extinction of freedom that would result—has resulted!—from the enactment of Medicare. (Via Steve Benen.)

Why didn't we listen? Oh, for the days when men and women were free!