BE CAREFUL WHEN ORDERING A SHOT

Guns allowed in Arizona bars starting Wednesday.

Oh, this should be interesting to watch over the next few months.

TAX BREAK FOR CATS

Should there be a tax break for pet expenses?

PetExemption.com founders Leo Grillo and Robert Davi are pleased that the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (“HAPPY”) Act was introduced last week in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation introduced by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) is a federal bill that would reward pet owners by allowing them to deduct up to $3,500 for pet care costs, including veterinary services.

Why not just declare pets to be dependents? I’ll gladly take the $3500 standard deduction for Shadow, Daisy, and Diamond ....

AMERICA’S NEXT GREAT PUNDIT

The Washington Post is looking for America’s next great pundit.

[T]en prospective pundits will get to compete for the title of America’s Next Great Pundit, facing off in challenges that test the skills a modern pundit must possess.... The ultimate winner will get the opportunity to write a weekly column that may appear in the print and/or online editions of The Washington Post .... We’ll set our promising pundit on a path to become the next byline in demand ....

And join the ranks of Eugene Robinson? Dana Milbank? Richard Cohen? Ezra Klein?

No, thanks.

Link from Michelle Malkin.

MESSENGER GOES TO MERCURY

NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft—known as MESSENGER—will fly by Mercury for the third and final time on Sept. 29. The spacecraft will pass less than 142 miles above the planet's rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter Mercury's orbit in 2011.

More images here.

WHEN SARKOZY MOCKED OBAMA

"It's a sad state of affairs when a Frenchman mocks an American president and you have to go with the Frog."

NO PUBLIC OPTION

The Senate Finance Committee has voted against creating a new government health insurance plan to compete with the private market.

A good beginning, but only a beginning.

THE BLOOM IS OFF THE ROSE (AGAIN)

It’s time to act like a president.

Sooner or later it is going to occur to Barack Obama that he is the president of the United States. As of yet, though, he does not act that way, appearing promiscuously on television and granting interviews like the presidential candidate he no longer is. The election has been held, but the campaign goes on and on. The candidate has yet to become commander in chief.

From Richard Cohen, one of the Washington Post’s chief Obama apologists, no less.

The trouble with Obama is that he gets into the moment and means what he says for that moment only. He meant what he said when he called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" -- and now is not necessarily so sure. He meant what he said about the public option in his health-care plan -- and then again maybe not. He would not prosecute CIA agents for getting rough with detainees -- and then again maybe he would.... [H]e gave Congress an August deadline for passage of health-care legislation -- and then let it pass.

Cohen has belatedly recognized that every Obama promise -- every single one -- comes with an expiration date. What’s next? -- recognition that Obama will vote “present” until someone else is forced to make a decision -- and then “tut,tut” the decision with his (inevitably) perfect hindsight?

VOTING RIGHTS

Instapundit: "Personally, I think that no incumbent should run unopposed."

Personally, I think no incumbent should be reelected.

WHEN IS A HATE CRIME A HATE CRIME?

Okay, Mike Adams is often over-the-top with his Christian conservatism, but with this question, he nailed the hate crime hypocrisy: “When a white abortion doctor kills a black baby, is it a hate crime?”

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNISM

The Defenestration of Prague occurred in 1618 when two royal officials were summarily thrown out of some rather high windows and landed, as luck would have it and history recorded it, on a pile of manure. The Defenestration of New York happened just the other day when Barack Obama tossed New York Gov. David Paterson out of a window ....”

“Obama ... is not from Chicago. He is from the Land of Ambition. That is a storied realm where all the posted signs warn, ‘Don't Get Between Me and What I Want.’ Obama wants a second term, and neither racial fellowship nor bonhomie nor a touching consideration for the bruised feelings of others will, in the end, make a difference.”

Gov. Paterson, meet Obama’s bus.