QuickLinx, Wednesday, July 21.

Not a ideal time to be a Lindsey or Lindsay

Jack Shafer on a fantastic new book that debunks statistical balderdash. (Slate)

Eugene Robinson: Tea Partiers need to clean up their racist act. (WaPo) Don't hold your breath.

Anti-Obama demo by Tea Partiers. (Getty Images) 

At least the Tea Party infighting is fun to watch. (Atlantic) The "movement" now goes by at least three names, whose adherents are consumed with expelling each from the other. Time was the loony left had a lock on purism and factionalism.

The crisis in crisis public relations. Have the practitioners lost their touch, or is there simply so much of an abundance of bad business behavior to cope with? (BP, Toyota, Apple's Antennagate, drug recalls...) (The Big Money)

Felix Salmon's convincing endorsement of Elizabeth Warren to head new consumer-finance protection agency in Obama's landmark financial-reform bill. (Reuters)  

The Afghan quagmire

Brian Collier of Toronto, killed by an IED blast. Photo from his Facebook account. 

Sapper Brian Collier, 24, is 151st Canadian killed in Afghan conflict since 2002. (Toronto Star)

Call it what you want, but what the U.S. is doing in Afghanistan is nation building. (WaPo editorial)

Scrap the nation-building veneer, defeat the damned Taliban already. (Daily Telegraph editorial)

Afghanistan's treasure house of natural resources is poised to be plundered. (NYT)

Meanwhile...

Why an over-achieving Obama gets so little credit. Hint: An inherited recession and 9.5% jobless rate. (McClatchy)

Dems break filibuster, restore jobless benefits to 2.5 million Americans. Seems the GOP plans to run in November on making the lives of the unemployed even more miserable. (McClatchy)

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. (Reuters) 

Chelsea Clinton nuptials: There will be tears. (Reuters) Says Hillary Clinton:

You should assume that if [Bill] makes it down the aisle in one piece it's a major accomplishment. He is going to be so emotional, as am I, but we're both looking forward to it and very happy about it.

Listening to sports radio while driving can be dangerously distracting. (Kansas City Star) Plus, we're all dehydrated, sleep-deprived and consume too much salt. Give up.

Freaky: At least 25 United Airlines passengers suffer injuries from turbulence, a relatively rare occurance. Possibly the pilots were tuned into 13-1 blowout of Royals by Blue Jays. (Reuters)