For a nice distraction from Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Dan on this fabulous Friday afternoon (or early evening for you East Coast types), I recommend the following best of the web:

1. At Southern Appeal, guest-blogger Centinel's coverage of the hotly contested congressional race in the Big D. For the lowdown on Centinel, point your browser here. Also, congrats to SA for hitting the quarter-million mark today.

2. Brian Leiter deems Dylan worthy of derision. Too many good lines, but here's the short version: "I do sometimes wonder whether stupid public displays like this are simply an artifact of the Internet, or whether the individual in question really conducts himself, say, at school in a similarly presumptuous, loud, and ignorant manner? Insight, anyone?"

Head to Dylan's post for the long version. Why do you guys read his blog? Leiter's blog, that is, not Dylan's.

3. Jason Van Steenwyk on how Air America has affected at least one voter in Florida.

4. Professor Yin on Saddam, WMDs and weapons inspectors. Don't avoid the link just because you think you've heard enough about Iraq. And if you're not reading Yin and Heller every day, you should be. Bookmark it. Now.

5. Slate's Brendan Koerner on what exactly is an assault weapon. Well, an assault weapon as was once defined by Congress that is.