IT IS TIME to rethink our opinion on President Obama: "He has done more to discredit big government in one year than we could do in an entire decade."

THE NEW RACISM: cultural incompetence.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER columnist Gregory Kane on "culturally relevant" education. "They [black boys] are not seeing themselves in the curriculum, and they do not see where it is relevant outside of school and therefore do not see it as an investment in their future."

As a former black boy myself -- one who managed to learn how to read, write and master enough math to get me through algebra and calculus -- I feel compelled to slash through this web of nonsense.

When I was a lad I did not have to "see" myself in the curriculum. The only picture I needed to see was my mother's foot being placed firmly up my derriere if I didn't bring home good grades from school. You'd be amazed at how "relevant" that made everything my teachers taught me.

In other words, the geography I learned in eighth grade, the history and the science: all were relevant outside of school because my mother said they were. And her vote was the only one that counted.

Start talking about "culturally relevant teaching strands," and you may end up teaching students absolute nonsense.

It doesn't matter if you "see yourself" in the subject taught; it does matter that you master it.

OBAMA TO end NASA's Constellation program.

In his new budget, President Obama plans to eliminate the space program's manned moon missions. When the president releases his budget on Monday, a White House official confirmed on Thursday there will be a big hole where funding for NASA's Constellation program used to be.

From the comments at Michelle Malkin's web site: "For the love of God, would someone please point out the hypocracy [sic] of trying to create jobs on one hand, while killing the space program with the other?"

PRO-LIFE, PRO-CHOICE: At a rally in San Francisco, pro-life outnumbers pro-choice 500 to one.

OBAMA TRANSLATOR. Ben Shapiro deciphers Obama-speak.

“Hope and change”: Socialism at home, surrender abroad.
“False choice”: A very real choice Obama wants to pretend doesn’t exist.
“Let me be clear”: Let me lie to you.
“Make no mistake”: See “let me be clear.”
“This isn’t about me”: This is completely about me.
“Failed policies of the past”: Don’t blame me! Blame Bush!

There are more here.

[Added] Here's one I suggest:

"A failure to communicate": You’re not listening.

THE CREDIBILITY GAP: Sarah Palin on Obama’s State of the Union.

Last night, the president spoke of the “credibility gap” between the public’s expectations of their leaders and what those leaders actually deliver. “Credibility gap” is a good way to describe the chasm between rhetoric and reality in the president’s address. The contradictions seemed endless.

We now can see the failed policies behind the flowery words. If Americans feel as cynical as the president suggests, perhaps it’s because the audacity of his recycled rhetoric no longer inspires hope.

Read it all.

I ALSO THINK that the people governing us have become objectively dumber over the last 50 years or so.

Of course. A larger and larger percentage of that governing class have been edjumakated at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, ....

MSNBC'S CHRIS MATTHEWS: "He is post-racial by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour."



Jon Stewart responds:

IN THE WASHINGTON POST:

Promising to change the tone in Washington, [Obama] managed to be petty, backward looking, defiant and self-justifying.

Barack Obama has lost his promise. He has lost his momentum. He has lost his touch. He has lost his filibuster-proof Senate majority. He has lost his first year in office.

Tonight, he lost his grip on reality.

No, he just demonstrated it to the rest of the rest of the world.

THE "COURAGE" OF CONVICTION: Invited to a tea party debate on climate change, AGW supporters opt out of participating — and quite rudely.

When the idea came up for a debate on global warming, it seemed like a great idea to our tea party group.

I invited scientists from all over the country — even some from around the world — to a fair and balanced event. I was amazed at the lack of response to the many invitations that went out, but more interesting were the insulting, mocking, sarcastic replies I received from scientists who seem to share a similar belief that a debate is ridiculous on such a settled science.

I agree with many of the commenters - 1) I sure wish Ms. Simac would post the scientists' email responses, and 2) Ms. Simac overestimates the intelligence of men "much smarter than me."

NEVER LET FACTS interfere with the narrative: "The Jan. 25 article 'Is the President Panicking' originally stated that Fox News led the charge against Bill Clinton in the '94 midterm elections. Fox News did not come into being until 1996. The story has been corrected. [Correction made 1/27/10]”

THE STATE OF THE UNION as translated by a Don Surber reader:

Hope and change, blah, blah, blah, False choice, yada, yada, yada, Deficit reduction, uh, Let me be clear, blah, blah, yada, yada, Make no mistake, uh, uh, Unprecedented, blah, uh, yada, uh, This isn’t about me, I, I, I, Hitting the reset button, uh yada, blah, yada, Reaching out to the other side of the aisle, uh, blah, yada, yada, Failed policies of the past, uh, uh, I, Teachable moment, blah, blah, blah, Tax cuts, I, uh, I, uh, Transparency (pause for applause) Accountability, yada, yada, uh, Stimulus uh, Shovel-ready jobs, yada, yada, I, Green jobs, blah, blah, I, uh, Saved or created, uh, I, blah, yada, yada, Recovery!!! (pause for applause) Jobs funded, uh, I, uh, It won’t happen overnight, yada, yada, yada, Progress!!! (pause for applause) Cynics, blah,. blah, blah, As I’ve said before, uh, uh, Acted stupidly, yada, yada, blah, blah, Back from the brink!!! (pause for applause) No longer a Christian country, yada, yada, yada, Non-defense, non-discretionary budget freeze, blah, blah, I, I, I, uh, Salary freeze for WH and political appointees, yada, yada, yada, Tax cuts and credits aimed at the middle and working classes!!! (pause for applause) Education funding, blah, blah, blah, I, I, Call for Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell repeal,, uh, uh, I, uh, Call for amnesty, uh, I uh, Call for legislative attack on the financial industry!!!! (pause for applause)…….. Thank You CLEVLAND,,,, GOOD NIGHT!!!!

It’s about what I heard, too.

iPAD INTRODUCED: I agree with the Instapundit link that it sounds more like a feminine hygiene product.

NOSTALGIA: When Ronald Reagan was president, we also had Bob Hope and Johnny Cash.

Now we have Obama, no Hope and no Cash.

WHY THE HIMALAYAN GLACIERS DIDN’T MELT: all the hot air went to Copenhagen.

GIVING DORKS a bad name.

IT’S THE ARROGANCE, STUPID. "Scott Brown won [in Massachusetts] because American citizens everywhere, even in the bluest of blue states, are fed up with arrogance in public life."

Arrogance isn't unique to the Democrats. The Republican establishment should beware as well; the Tea Party movement is bipartisan.

THE WAR against suburbia.

[T]he war against suburbia reflects a radical new vision of American life which, in the name of community and green values, would reverse the democratizing of the landscape that has characterized much of the past 50 years. It would replace a political economy based on individual aspiration and association in small communities, with a more highly organized, bureaucratic, and hierarchical form of social organization.

In some ways we could say forced densification could augur in a kind of new feudalism, where questions of land ownership and decision making would be shifted away from citizens, neighbors, or markets, and left in the hands of self-appointed “betters.” This seems strange for an administration—and a party—whose raison d’être ostensibly has been to widen opportunities rather than constrict them.

Indeed it is one of the oddest aspects of contemporary “progressive” thought that it seeks to undermine even modest middle class aspirations such as living in a quiet neighborhood or a single-family house. This does not seem a winning way to build political support across a broad spectrum of the populace.

Of course suburbia is not and will not be the option for everyone.... But unless we see a radical change in human behavior and social organization, the majority will likely settle for a suburban or exurban existence.

It's a long article, but ... read it all.

Via Instapundit.

MASSACHUSETTS 2010: a real tea party?

But did Barack Obama and Co. get it? And if he did, will he act on it, and think again on the course that has just been soundly repudiated by voters in the Bay State? ... Has he grasped how deeply he has stirred the voters' passions -- and this time not in his favor? There is still time for him to change. Will he?

The State of the Union was last night. He didn't learn.

IT’S NOT the Obama White House?


Scott Adams is rarely wrong, but he may have missed on this one.

A LONG INSTAPUNDIT post on the State of the Union addresses with lots of links. Go there, read it all, and follow the links. It's worth the time.

KRAUTHAMMER on the State of the Union Speeches: we are seeing the beginning of the 2010 campaign season.

My thought as well ... both of the speeches were campaign speeches.

2010 REPUBLICAN RESPONSE

10:31 McDonnell begins ... 10 minutes before ESPN Sports Center begins.

10:32 Government should not create more taxation, regulation ...

10:33 Federal debt over $100K per household.

10:34 We must restore the proper, limited role of government at every level. Excessive growth threatens liberty.

10:35 Promoted Republican ideas on healthcare.

10:36 Virginia trying to become first state to promote oil/gas exploration offshore, but Government policies are making it difficult. Government must get out of the way.

10:37 Education -- emphasis on charter schools, non-government options.

10:38 Taxpayer dollars to defeat terrorists; not to defend them ... following Sen.-elect Brown's lead.

10:40 Attacking Government control: overregulating will not create more employment. Government closest to the people governs best.

2010 STATE OF THE UNION - the President speaks:

9:07 The President arrives.

9:09 (on Fox, Sarah Palin introduced as an analyst - this should be interesting.)

9:12 It begins; Pelosi introduces the President.

9:14 One year ago, the US was a mess -- the first blame Bush moment.

9:19 The American people want us - Democrats and Republicans - to work together. I'll talk about how together we can meet that desire [first applause moment]

9:20 I supported the Bush bailout - even though we all hated it. Stabilized the financial system - in a transparent manner.

9:21 We cut taxes for almost everybody ... homebuyers, parents with kids going to college, .... millions of Americans have more to spend. Not a single dime in income taxes. Two million people employed who would otherwise be unemployed ... teachers, firemen, police.

-- taxes? surely you jest.
-- the newly employed are all government employees.

9:25 He's calling for Stimulus II, given that stimulus I was so successful.

9:27 Let's take the money the big banks paid back and spend it on more loans to the insolvent.

9:29 Let's build "green" infrastructure; high-speed rail that won't be used; insulation for homes, , clean energy, etc.

9:32 The only way to full employment is to ..., to ..., to ... not wait? No, to fix the problems that ..., that ..., lack of financial regulation caused?

9:36 Well, well, ... better batteries; advanced solar cells, nuclear power plants, clean coal, and ... wait for it ... cap 'n trade (alsl known as climate change).

9:38 We will double our exports over the next 5 years. OK, how? Make our trade partners follow our rules. Oh, yeah, that'll work.

9:40 We'll improve education by rewarding things that work -- spend more money on government schools that already don't work. More student loans for college; no repayment larger than 10% of income; no repayment at all after 20 years - 10 if you go into government work.

----- MORE ON EDUCATION IN A FUTURE POST

9:45 Back to the past (health care) once again. Kudos to Michelle for being the Government nanny and reduce child obesity.

9:48 I will not walk away from health care (3rd time is a charm, right?).

9:50 Let's turn to government spending ... Bush did it ... we were $3 trillion in the hole "before I walked in the door."

9:52 Now that we all understand it's Bush's fault, I propose that we freeze government spending - except for Social Security, Medicare, defense, etc.

9:54 It's still Bush's fault. And oh, by the way, the freeze I just declared won't take effect until next year when my charisma will cure everything.

9:56 It's still Bush's fault.

9:58 No lobbyists (except those in the White House).

9:59 Let's overrule the Supreme Court.

10:00 Publish all earmarks online before there's a vote ... uh, like the 5 day rule posting a bill before it's signed?

10:05 Ah, now it's time for defense ... prohibited torture; stopped far more attacks than in 2008 (uh, yeah, could that be because there were more attempts in 2009?)

10:07 All combat troops out of Iraq by August ... this war is ending and our troops are coming home.

10:08 Secure nuclear materials so they can't fall into the hands of terrorists .... Uh, Pakistan? North Korea?

10:14 Repeal don't ask; don't tell.

10:15 Equal pay for women ... how about equal pay for equal work? equal time served?

10:15 Let's fix immigration. OK, how? ...

10:15 Let's bash the rich again.

10:17 I campaigned; I did this; I did that. Me again.

10:21 I don't quit ... (Thank you, God bless, and Good Night)

"Obamism" count
--------------------
I am/did/will ... : 11
Let me be clear: 2
False choices: 1
I inherited this mess: 5
-------------------

2010 STATE OF THE UNION

OUR PHILOSOPHER-KING:

In Plato's ideal society, philosopher kings and elite Guardians shepherded the rabble to force them to do the "right" thing.

To prevent the unwashed from doing anything stupid, the all-powerful, all-wise Guardians often had to tell a few "noble" lies. And, of course, these caretakers themselves were exempt from most rules they made for others.

We are now seeing such thinking in the Obama administration and among its supporters.

And in 2010 we will see a dramatic repudiation of such thinking.

A VERY INTERESTING and lengthy post, well worth a full read.

Link via Instapundit.

A CULTURE OF LOSERS: In a world where victimhood is a badge of honor, nothing succeeds like failing.

STATE OF THE UNION talking points.

PowerLine has a copy here.

I tend to agree with their assessment - a good list of the Obama administration "stretchers and prevarications" from the last 12 months.

"’I'D RATHER BE a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,’ he [Obama] told [ABC’s Diane] Sawyer in an exclusive interview.”

He will get half his wish.

FOOL ME ONCE, shame on you.

Some of the most melancholy letters and e-mails that are sent to me are from people who lament that there is nothing they can do about the bad policies that they see ruining this country.... [T]he letters they send to their Congressmen are either ignored or are answered by form letters with weasel words. They feel powerless.

Sometimes I remind them that ... if politicians can't do anything else right, they can count votes.

What matters is that you let him know what you are for or against and, when enough people do that... politicians get the message, because they know their jobs depend on it.

Fool me twice .... I don’t think that’s going to happen.

ANY DAY NOW the media will show up.

I had forgotten about 2003; the Mudville Gazette did not.

THREE CULTURES ON CLIMATE SCIENCE. theory, empirical work, and modeling.

The key question - unanswered - is "Do they agree?"

THERE'S A TAX FOR THAT. And if you could use a government bailout, there’s an app for that. (msg #2927)

BOORTZ on ObamaCare:

Why not allow people to deduct the cost of their health insurance from their taxable income the way their employers can?

Why not allow health insurance companies to sell their products across state lines like almost every other company can?

Why not get rid of some insurance mandates that drive up the cost of policies? Does it make sense that hair transplants must be covered in Connecticut?

Why not allow numbers of small businesses get together to form a consortium for the purpose of purchasing health insurance for the entire group?

Why not pass some tort reform to reign in the Democrat's most loyal constituency, the trial lawyers?

Good questions, every one. Why is this not the core of a bipartisan health insurance reform?

REPUBLICANS AND THE BLACK VOTE: Thomas Sowell comments.

THE DIFFERENCE IS ME: "the most arrogant person I've ever met."

SOMETIMES YOU DO what you gotta do. Kimberly Dozier explains why she went back to Baghdad after being badly injured in an IED explosion in 2006.

And just today a young lady from my office, recently returned from 6 months in Afghanistan, is leaving to accept an offer with another company more directly involved in supporting the troops there.

Some folks, liberals in particular, seem to have a problem understanding that there are those of us willing to accept the risks of "completing the mission."

CULTURAL INCOMPETENCE, white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, internalized oppression. Nothing hides bad ideas like covering them with pretentious phrases out of a bad sociology textbook.

Whoever dreams up these phrases must have a lot of time on his hands, and probably a government job.

OBAMA IN FREE FALL: "On every issue — more bailouts, more stimuli, more deficits, higher taxes, statist health care, cap and trade, diplomatic apologetics, the shunning of natural gas, oil, and nuclear in favor of "millions of green jobs" subsidized by billions in federal "stimulus" — the Obama position polls 5-15 points below 50 percent."

Let’s hope he doesn’t have a parachute.

OUCH! On Obama’s first year in office: “Heck, Joe Biden would have done better.”

And as a bonus, Sarah Palin’s latest Facebook entry: “Candidate Obama over-promised; President Obama has under-delivered. We understand you, Mr. President. We’ve listened to you again and again. We ask that you now listen to the American people.”

Read it all.

SCRAPPLEFACE has an advance copy of the President’s State of the Union speech tonight:

President Obama plans to use Wednesday night's State of the Union address to unveil sweeping employment-reform legislation that would provide a good job to every American regardless of his ability to work, and would prevent companies from declining to employ applicants who suffer pre-existing conditions like laziness, incompetence, or kleptomania.

We should be so lucky ....

“[I]T IS NOW SETTLED LAW that congressmen are sufficiently corruptible that they can't be trusted with campaign donations of more than a few thousand dollars.”

“Which raises the question: How can they be trusted with our tax dollars?”

From Best of the Web (scroll down to 'Corruptible as a Matter of Law').

CLIMATE GATE REVISITED: John R. Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama - Huntsville and contributor to reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on climate change considers the IPCC consensus to be overstated and unduly alarmist:

It sounds like you're on the side of the angels when you say you want to save the planet. But if you're talking about preventing energy from expanding in the Third World, you're condemning people to perpetual poverty. What's more, it's economic development that creates the cleanest environments we have. You don't find clean rivers or clean air in the poorest countries.

Less energy use won’t protect the environment, more energy use will.

WELCOME to the “Post-Accomplishment Generation”: ethno-mathematics.

Ethno-mathematics links math with culture. Some educators say it can help kids feel more connected to the subject and better understand the why and how behind the skills they learn in school.

“Math is not usually treated as a subject with a cultural context,” said Faviana Hirsch-Dubin, a former elementary school teacher and lecturer at UC Santa Barbara who is working with Mesa on the special math lessons. “Being able to feel some cultural connection to math or other subjects can enable students to feel more ownership of the subject matter.”

But can they add?

A BIRD STRIKE can bring an airplane down. Will an ego strike bring the Democrats down?

MODELING CONGRESS like a sandpile? I’ll have to go with Instapundit on this one - while I do understand stochastic processes, a different pile does come to mind.

JOE THE PLUMBER SEZ:

Those who are passionately protesting at Tea Parties and making themselves felt at the polls have rightly detected more than a hint of contempt for the average citizen. If everything were going well such elitist arrogance might be accepted, as it has been in the past. But things are not going well for our nation and more and more people are challenging the performance, ideas and motivations of those who hold themselves out as smarter and better than the rest of us.

Read it all.

IT WAS RATHER INCREDIBLE for Barack Obama to express outrage over the Supreme Court's pruning of McCain-Feingold's regulation of public financing and corporate campaign donations, since in June 2008 Obama became the first presidential candidate to forgo public financing in the general election, expecting that by doing so he could raise several millions more, much of it from the Wall Street and big-money interests that he now serially demonizes.

WHITE HOUSE senior adviser Valerie Jarrett says that "we turned the economy around."

It was improving when Obama took office?

Via Neal Boortz.

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE NANNY STATE: “New York's proposed soda tax would make a six pack of Coke a hair more expensive than a six pack of cheap beer.”

Look for lots of skinny drunks.

JIM GERAGHTY eviscerates David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, on his diagnosis of what Democrats need to do in 2010. Here’s a small taste:

They’ve got the casual, laid-back charm of Barbara Boxer in California; the even-tempered verbal delicacy of Jim Moran in Virginia; the raw, energetic charisma of Michael Bennet in Colorado; the warm, confidence-inspiring leadership of Harry Reid in Nevada; the cutting-edge style and deeply-held principles of Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, the common people’s touch of Baron Hill in Indiana, the dedication to state values and views of Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas; and the even-tempered, sensible rhetoric of Alan Grayson. Plouffe’s right, it’s hard to see a crew like this making a mistake on the campaign trail and seeming out of touch with their constituents.

Read it all.

[L]AST WEEK Obama played his populist card by going after Wall Street; result, the stock market promptly tanks by more than 500 points. So long, farewell, adieu, auf wiedersehen! Way to go, Barack: all those old folks nearing retirement ... too bad!

I KIN REDE: Obama at school.

A MODEST PROPOSAL for curing lower back pain and restoring the economy.

Well, the idea is better than what the Democrats have already tried.

If I were a Democrat I'd declare the U.S. to be a third-world country and ask the United Nations for economic assistance.

MONDAY, Monday.



Another day, another delay ....

IT'S OBAMA'S FAULT: "I'd guess we're about 36 hours away from a Beltway call for 'wise men.'"

The problem, of course, is that using "Democrat" and "wise man" in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

ELLIE LIGHT, call your office.

And yes, I did see the letter in the Washington Times. It was so obviously an Obama apologia that I paid it scant attention. I guess I should have known ....

Via Instapundit.

[Update] Wow. Ellie is a busy lady. Follow the comment stream.

[Update & bump} Ellie Light has been found! Via Instapundit.

THE NUTS VS THE CREEPS: sounds like gang warfare.

“Speaking broadly: In the 2006 and 2008 elections, and at some point during the past decade, the ancestral war between Democrats and the Republicans began to take on a new look. If you were a normal human sitting at home having a beer and watching national politics peripherally, as normal people do until they focus on an election, chances are pretty good you came to see the two major parties not as the Dems versus the Reps, or the blue versus the red, but as the Nuts versus the Creeps. The Nuts were for high spending and taxing and the expansion of government no matter what. The Creeps were hypocrites who talked one thing and did another, who went along on the spending spree while lecturing on fiscal solvency."

“In 2008, the voters went for Mr. Obama thinking he was not a Nut but a cool and sober moderate of the center-left sort. In 2009 and 2010, they looked at his general governing attitudes as reflected in his preoccupations—health care, cap and trade—and their hidden, potential and obvious costs, and thought, ‘Uh-oh, he’s a Nut!’…
“Which meant they were left with the Creeps.”

From Peggy Noonan's Declarations in the Wall Street Journal.

It reminds me of the "I may be fat, but you're ugly - and I can diet" jibe. The only question is who's ugly and who's fat.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Krauthammer doesn't miss a beat.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF OUR CATS

Hunting for dinner;



A little after-dinner nap;

Followed by bedtime.

WHERE ARE DEMOCRATS FROM? Gaia? Pandora?

My own opinion is Lake Wobegon, where everyone is above average and no one ever fails.

David Brooks, the right-leaning columnist for the New York Times, illustrates the "Wobegon effect". Taking President Obama as a proxy for Democrats, Brooks writes:

The country is now split on Obama, because he is temperate, thoughtful and pragmatic, but his policies are almost all unpopular.

"Temperate, thoughtful and pragmatic" - above average. The president - and by proxy, Democrats - are from Lake Wobegon.

"His policies are almost all unpopular" - below average. But, but ... Obama - and by proxy, the Democrats - are from Lake Wobegon. No one from Lake Wobegon ever fails. Therefore the failure must be with those for whom the policies are unpopular.

THAT'S THE IDEA: Democratic defeat imperils health care overhaul.

Obama may have obtained the worst possible result: blame for a crummy process that caused Democrats to look crooked and out of touch with no result to show for it.

Well, that's because (a) it was a crummy process; (b) it proved the Democrats were crooked (though probably no more than the Republicans); (c) it proved the political establishment (both parties) is completely out-of-touch with the electorate; and (d) ObamaCare should fail.

But other than that, the Times editorial is right on the mark.

LIBERALISM should be diagnosed as a form of mental illness. But if it were, there would be no one left to treat it.

LOSING INDEPENDENTS: "Perhaps most troubling for Mr. Obama and the Democrats is that independents are souring on them. That bloc backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008. Now, by a nearly 2 to 1 margin, independents said they would prefer Republicans to control Congress after November. Still, distaste for Democrats isn't translating into more love for the GOP. Just 30% of voters felt positively about the Republican Party, compared with 39% for the Democratic Party."

There is still time for the Republicans to peel off the independents, but only if they get aboard the Tea Party Express before it leaves the station. Contrary to media assertions, the "teabaggers" are not "racist rednecks", but moderates of both major parties concerned about the direction the Obama administration is taking.

OH BOY! The White House has a new iPhone app. The bad news is that you must purchase the CricketToy app separately.

ANN COULTER writes a column about the Massachusetts senatorial election results, the Democrats’ propensity to implode nearly immediately after being being returned to power, and Obama’s immensly short coattails. The title of the column is "That Old Obama Magic is Back".

Hmm. Obama magic. Black magic. I wonder when the Left will erupt with the “ra-a-acism” cry?

PROMISES KEPT, PROMISES NOT. He kept the promises he made to his family; to the country, not so much.

DEAD AIR AMERICA “It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.”

What’s next? Pacifica?

JON STEWART on Keith Olbermann. It isn't pretty - for Olbermann.

IS THE LONG TREK BEGINNING? Palin to campaign for McCain in March.

The former Alaska governor will also hit the campaign trail in the coming month for two conservative heroes - Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann

For someone’s who’s “a clear and present danger to the safety and security of this nation”, Palin’s pulling down some big IOU’s.

CHRISTIAN SIGHTS: "Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found."

One minor detail: That the manufacturer of gun sights used by the U.S. military inscribes references to New Testament passages on them is a fact known to the public for 23 years.

Instapundit quips: “I hear each scope is equipped with ‘cross’ hairs, too. Will these Christianists never stop?”
----------------
[Update] Muslims angry Over U.S. military 'Jesus' rifles. But it won't stop them from using them against us.

IF OBAMA seizes the opportunity that Massachusetts and its senator-elect have given him, the brightest days of his presidency may be still to come.

Never happen.

MY BET is 8 or higher.

The Democratic statist transformation suffered a sudden earthquake in Massachusetts last night. How can we measure the severity of the upcoming reaction aftershocks?

The subsequent damage will depend on the magnitude of the next round of shaking—a 7 aftershock ensuring rubble, a 1 suggesting that rebuilding can proceed.

I think the rubble will bounce.

PUFFIN - a one-man vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. It's a NASA concept vehicle. I just wonder if NASA has learned from the Air Force experience.

[Added] Fox News noticed. Here's a video from the Fox News link.

DEMOCRATIC Senator Jim Webb of Virginia: “In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.”

Thank you, Sen. Webb.

Via Don Surber.

[Update] Barney Frank, too? Oh, my.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: “I’m pro choice when it comes to aborting intrusive health care bills before they are born!”

OH, MY GOODNESS. Now pickup trucks are racist.

Guess I’ll have to go for that BMW after all.

SARAH PALIN: Mr. Brown goes to Washington ... in a pickup truck, no less!

It will be refreshing in 2011 to see a few more pickup trucks in Washington - and a few less armored SUVs and limousines.

[HAITI] IS "a man-made disaster first and foremost, and so it will remain."

Ann Applebaum gets it: "I also know that a successful recovery and reconstruction will require not just friends, not just money and not just optimism, but also a profound cultural and political shift, the kind of change that normally takes decades."

If Haiti is lucky enough to have decades left before the bleeding hearts destroy it.

SCOTT BROWN won the Massachusetts senate race.

So tell me, Mr. Olbermann ... How do those teabags taste?

Bitter, I expect.

PURPLE STATE PRESIDENTS don’t appoint Van Joneses and Anita Dunns, or turn the NEA into a quid pro quo Ministry of Approved Culture.

Read it all.

HEH. The peasants are revolting.

Read it all, including the comments.

Via Instapundit (second link).

A TRIUMPHANT DEFEAT: “The president packed nearly 75 percent of a 3,000 seat hall. Meanwhile, a similar rally for Scott Brown couldn't even provide seats for everyone, and left some out in the cold ...”

MICHAEL BARONE on the Brown victory in Massachusetts: “Obama and ‘the educated class’ think they know what is best for the little guy. The voters of Massachusetts (Massachusetts!) beg to differ. Is anyone in the White House listening?”

Read it all.

BYE, BYE, OBAMACARE. Nancy Pelosi announces that she doesn’t have the votes.

THOSE PHYSICIAN-REPORTERS in Haiti are actually practicing medicine and saving lives, and some journalism "ethicists" are having hissy fits.

While reporters should help when they can save a life or prevent profound harm, "I think it's very hard for an individual who is professionally and emotionally engaged in saving lives to be able to simultaneously step back from the medical work and practice independent journalistic truth-telling," said Bob Steele, journalism values scholar at the Poynter Institute and journalism professor at DePauw University.

"Truth-telling" is more important than saving lives? Not exactly.

(B)y focusing on the work being done by their own staff, "news organizations at some point appear to be capitalizing for promotional reasons on the intervention by journalists," Steele added.

Oh, no ... they're engaging in capitalism! Horrors. I guess Anderson Cooper should have let that kid die to retain his journalistic integrity.

No wonder "professional journalists" are held in such low regard.

UNDER OBAMACARE, 'patient choice' means the patient can choose to die.

Expect the best medicine that bureaucracy will allow.

NOTHING TO SAY. Umm, we got trounced?

LOCAL NEWS SHOWS are where the biased action is.

There is a case to be made that the steady drumbeat of hyped-up threats — SUV’s that roll over, kitchen-counter bacteria, road rage, swine flu, amber alerts and the stations’ willingness to enlist governments and institutions to solve those “perceived” problems, actually drives a lot of bad and unnecessary public policy.

Building a culture of dependency from the ground up. Read it all.

PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL INDEX - one year later. The approval index is taken from the Rasmussen daily tracking poll, with the approval index being the difference between those who “strongly approve” the President and those who “strongly disapprove”.


President Obama’s “approval” is beginning to level out, probably somewhere around the -15 level, assuming that Tuesday’s Massachusetts “Brown out” doesn’t significantly alter the trend.

Breaking the data down further into those who strongly approve, strongly disapprove, and those who mildly approve/disapprove, the trend lines indicate that while the percentage of “strong disapprovals” is indeed leveling off, there is movement from those who are “strong approvals” to weaker levels of approval.

That trend is increasing, suggesting that his base is weakening.

JIMMY WHO? Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for decades of work seeking peaceful solutions and promoting social and economic justice. Carter won praise for his tireless work as an ex-president in trying to bring peace to places from Haiti to North Korea.

President Obama appointed former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to oversee Haiti relief funding; when he was President, George W. Bush appointed former presidents Bill Clinton and (his father) George H. W. Bush to oversee Indonesian tsunami relief.

Where is (was) former president Jimmy Carter?

Don Surber has more on the missing ex-president.

I BLAME THE MEDIA for trying to scare the daylights out of everyone.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Earthquake victims, writhing in pain and grasping at life, watched doctors and nurses walk away from a field hospital Friday night after a Belgian medical team evacuated the area, saying it was concerned about security.

Via Instapundit.

NEW WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Dan Pfeiffer on Fox News: "I have the same view of Fox that [predecessor] Anita [Dunn] had, which is that Fox is not a traditional news organization," he said. "They have a point of view. That point of view pervades the entire network both the opinion shows, like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, but also through the newscasts during the day."

Greta van Susteren is ready for battle.

WALL STREET OR OBAMA STREET?


Nate Beeler in the Washington Examiner.

CITIGROUP suffers $7.6 billion loss. Much of the bank's big loss was tied to the repayment of its bailout loan.

Question: how much of that loss was taken by Citigroup specifically to get out from under heavy-handed government regulation?

[F]EELING THEY ARE SMARTER THAN YOU, this Democratic president and his compliant Democratic Congress don't want to control spending. They want to control you. And they are spending (and borrowing) your money to do it.

Read it all.

THIS QUESTION came from a Washington Post poll conducted from Jan 12-15, 2010.

Generally speaking, would you say you favor (smaller government with fewer services), or (larger government with more services)?

Nearly 60% favored smaller government.

Given the current political environment, that isn't too surprising. What is surprising is that it wasn't mentioned in the Washington Post article discussing the poll.

More surprising, looking at the details, was that the question has been asked in many polls before, and the results are consistent: 50% or more of the people polled since 1992 has opted for a smaller government with fewer services.


The rapid divergence post-Obama (white line) is particularly striking. The obvious conclusion is that it is a strong reaction to Democrats' overreach following the 2008 presidential election.

The Wall Street Journal has more on overreach.

BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL might drop its science labs from its curriculum. The reason? Too many white kids were taking these classes.

[T]he lamentable “gap” spoken of by Berkeley commandants isn’t in enrollment, but in grades. The white kids are doing better in excess of what is acceptable ... such that the heart-warming state of equality is absent.

If equality of outcome with respect to grades is [Berkeley's] goal, then eliminating the lab courses does ensure that all students will be equally poor in science.

What's next ... the "inequality factories" of math and science?

IN RESPONSE TO French accusations that the US is “occupying Haiti”, Neal Boortz responds:

The United States - the people and our military - have stepped up in a big way to organize relief efforts in Haiti. Sure ... we sent the military. Who would you rather we send? ACORN? The United Auto Workers? The Service Employees International Union?

Why not? Fight thuggery with thugs.

Fox News is reporting a 53-47 Brown lead over Coakley in the Massachusetts at 9 pm with 52% of the precincts reporting.

Looks like a Brown victory.

[Update] Fox News is reporting that the Associated Press is calling the election for Scott Brown at 9:20 pm with 69% of precincts reporting. The percentages are 53% for Brown, 46% for Coakley. Coakley has conceded.

IS THE STOCK MARKET responding to the Massachusetts senate election?


Dow Jones Industrial Average as of 3:22 pm.

[Update] The Mudville Gazette agrees.

EXACTLY BACKWARDS

"Regardless of the outcome [of the Massachusetts senatorial election] ... this should be a gigantic wake-up call to the Democratic Party - that we're not connecting with the needs, the aspirations and the desires of real people right now," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The Democrats are not trying “to connect ... with real people”; they’re busy demanding that real people submit to their authority.

LIBERAL ARROGANCE. Michael Barone slaps a Slate writer around for his attack on Scott Brown:

[L]isten up. Scott Brown made his money.... Scott Brown is a shining example of the American way: he started off at some point near the bottom of the ladder and worked his way up. He wants others to have the same chance. What’s wrong with that?

Conclusion: “This is not a byline I feel I need to check out again.”

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are losing confidence in Team Obama because quite simply they are tiring of being lied to, and treated like children in need of Ivy-League Platonic guardians.

Read it all.

CRUISE SHIPS are still docking at Haiti despite the earthquake. According to some, this is indefensible:

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now."

Instapundit readers Leo Jiang and Rob Crawford interpret: Not all money is the same. Rich people on cruise ships give Haiti money voluntarily through evil capitalism. What they really need is handout money confiscated by force from the middle class and given through government compassion.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE WINNING when Keith Olbermann calls you a “homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman.”

HEADLINE from the Boston Globe web site at 1:51 pm today:

Senate Poll: Coakley up 15 points.

The poll was done on January 10th - over a week ago.

WHY I AM not a Democrat. In a post on the Washington Post's PostPartisan web site, Jo-Ann Armao tries to explain the meaning of the Massachusetts Senate race. The money quote is taken from Ted Kennedy's memoir, True Compass:

That building [the Capitol] symbolizes ... the benevolent power and the majesty of our government.

Wrong. The Capitol building symbolizes the "benevolent power and majesty" of the American people. Or, as Scott Brown so eloquently put it, "It's the people's seat."

T. BOONE PICKENS drops Texas wind farm project. The blowhards are in Washington, not Texas.

I MISSPOKE. The Indian scientist who claimed that global warming will melt the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 has acknowledged it was speculation and not supported by any formal research.

Oops.

CO-RELIGIONISTS Pat Robertson and Danny Glover believe Haiti is suffering because mankind has sinned. In Robertson's case, it's because Haitian's have turned away from God and made a pact with the Devil. In Glover's case, it's a result of mankind turning away from Gaia and refusing to endorse climate change, er, global warming.

BROWN V. GOLIATH: Jules Crittenden on the Massachusetts Senate election today: "It could still be a squeaker for either camp, and remains impossible to call. But it is beginning to look like a rout in the making, something momentous that only happens when a lot of forces line up."

I'm cautiously optomistic.

[Update] Mark Steyn thinks that Brown is leading, but "it's not necessarily beyond the margin of Acorn, the margin of lawyer, and the margin of Franken-style recounts." I suspect he's right.

TALES FROM THE VAULT: the "Pogo Stick." I have the honor of being a Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (by virtue of being 65 years old and a member for 35 years). The Life Members newsletter has a section titled "Tales from the Vault" of anecdotes from member's experiences. Here's one from the December 2009 issue (not on line yet) on the development of the Convair XFY-1, the first vertical takeoff aircraft.

When I worked at Convair's Dynamics Test Lab in the 1950s, we were flight testing a novel new combat support aircraft nicknamed the "Pogo Stick." So far as I know, it was the very first vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, other than helicopters. It had delta wings and large contra-rotating props on its nose, driven by u turbine engine. For safety, Flight Test had us inst all accelerometers on the turbine bearing cases and the case of the reduction gear transmission, which drove the props. That way, the test pilot would receive advance warning of a bearing was getting noisy and about to seize while he was hovering tail-down. If that catastrophe were imminent, a row of red lights on his instrument panel was supposed to light up, giving him time to touch down. Or, so went the theory.

There was one small problem. When I climbed aboard the aircraft to check the calibration of the instrumentation. I found someone had gotten tired of seeing the lights constantly flickering (due to the exremely noisy environment in this experimental craft) and had cranked the channel gains to zero. Problem solved. Right! When I informed the Flight Test Department that they had been flying this highly experimental craft without their safety net, so to speak, the chief test pilot was not a happy camper.

There were other problems. They had provided the pilot with an ejection seat. This seat swiveled forward when the craft was hovering vertically, so he was at least able to sit much as one sits in a recliner chair, not upright, but not flat on his back either. Flight Test wanted to see how much actual safety this arrangement provided in case the pilot had to eject at a very low altitude, so they arranged a test. With the craft resting on the tarmac, and the seat in the appropriate position, they fired the 75 mm shell attached to the seat, propelling it at prodigious velocity in a low arc. The seat and its occupant (an anthropomorphic test dummy). landed perhaps 250 feet away, still traveling at high velocity. The parachute, which was supposed to have deployed by this time, dragged uselessly behind, partially opened at best. Needless to say, the dummy suffered a cruel fate indeed. The chief test pilot, who was of course watching intently, merely walked away, muttering. Rumor had it he went directly to executive row and negotiated a much larger bonus for his services.

At long last came the day of the big flight-the first transition from vertical hovering to horizontal flight supported by the delta wings. The Marine Corp's Osprey performs a similar maneuver. All of us were gathered beside Lindbergh Field watching expectantly. The pilot hovered about 20 feet up for a few minutes, gunned it, and the craft thrillingly shot straight up several hundred feet, then performed a beautiful arc into horizontal flight. There was much cheering among the observers. After a triumphal tour around San Diego Bay, Pogo Stick returned, roared down the length of the field, and then performed a perfect upward arc. It came to rest, hanging on the huge props as planned. There was only one small problem: It was about 500 feet up.

Now, this might not seem like such a problem. What's the big deal? All the pilot had to do was back down to a touch down, right? Well, as we know, conventional aircraft control surfaces assume the slipstream is going to flow from front to back over the rudder and elevators. When Pogo Stick hovered, this flow was supplied by the propwash. What happens when the craft is traveling backwards fast enough that the propwash is overcome? Answer: The effect of the controls is reversed. Still no problem, you say? All he had to do was back down slowly, just as he had done on dozens of practice sessions while hovering 20 feet off the ground. But imagine what it is like to visually judge your sink rate from 500 feet. You can't.

So, while we watched breathlessly, the pilot began his descent. Suddenly, the craft began oscillating wildly. The controls had reversed and the pilot had now become part of a positive feedback loop. He quickly realized his situation, gunned the engine , and roared upward, saving himself from certain doom. However, he now found himself about 1,000 feet up! This was not going at all well. I honestly don't know how he did it, but he spent the better part of an hour slowly, slowly, easing himself out of the sky. The landing was not a thing of beauty, but the aircraft and pilot survived. The Pogo Stick was never flown again.

Thomas l. Kirkpalrick, LM
Half Moon Bay,CA

Some engineering details of the aircraft can be found here, and here is a short video of an RC "Pogo Stick."

This one is of personal interest to me, as it dates to my early interest in flying - and eventually a career in science and engineering.

THE DEMOCRAT PLAN FOR WINNING ELECTIONS - cheat.

And: “I’d cheat to keep these bastards out.”

Via Instapundit.

IS THE GOVERNMENT coming for your IRA?

Try it and I’ll be on the next (one-way) flight to Costa Rica.

More here.

And an especially prescient comment here: " I have an old friend who is converting his life time savings into gold, silver, ammunition, booze and other non-perishable staples for what he believes is the inevitable "economic crunch." I hope he is wrong that it is imminent, but at least now he can rest easy knowing that the government can't get to his nest egg, and based upon the recent price of ammunition and gold/silver it is appreciating nicely. "

IF OBAMACARE PASSES, I predict the Amish community will grow significantly.

The Amish have it right: it's insurance, dammit.

I'd happily give the liberals their ObamaCare if like-minded conservatives could opt for Lloyd's of London-like insurance based on the Amish model.

WHAT? Entitlement isn’t enough? This comment says it all: "WORK, Martha. It's what politicians have to do to EARN respect."

COMMENT OF THE DAY: "Politicians are movie star wannabes sans talent."

From my wife.

A PITY IN THE MAKING. Moderate Democrats may be headed for extinction.

Congressman Vic Snyder, (D-AK) has announced he is not running for reelection this year.

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) will not seek reelection next year.... Gordon joins Reps. Dennis Moore (D-KS.), John Tanner (D-TN) and Brian Baird (D-WA) in announcing his retirement in recent weeks. Also, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) announced that he will resign early to run for governor.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) was booed after dinner out at a pizza parlor in Omaha. I suspect he’s headed for eventual defeat in 2012 unless he redeems himself by voting against final passage of Obamacare.

Maybe Nelson can be that "one brave Democrat" the nation needs.

ERICK ERICKSON from Red State writes:

There is a serious problem developing among some of [Sarah] Palin’s biggest fans....

[T]here are Republicans who like — even love — Sarah Palin who think some of her handlers might not give her the best of advice or think she should or should not do one thing or another. And I’m finding ... that when those points are brought up, the person raising the point is often inappropriately attacked as a Palin hater.

Allahpundit from Hot Air responds:

How did she get to this rare, exalted, and enviable position? Erickson’s surely right that part of it comes from an instinct of wanting to defend her after the relentless media nastiness towards her, but obviously it’s more than that. Is it cultural identification, that she’s blue-collar and familiar in a way that most cookie-cutter pols aren’t, which makes the slings and arrows of liberal “elites” sting twice as much? Is it a function of the leadership vacuum in the GOP, with the emergence of someone young and charismatic such a precious thing that some supporters will do battle with anyone who risks upsetting that? Is it just that she really is more unshakably conservative in her policies than anyone else?

I rather suspect it’s not the criticism, it’s the critics.

WILL IT BE YOU? The Washington Times is looking for one brave Democrat to step forward and kill Obamacare for the good of the nation.

If your senators are Democrats, email them the link and ask "Will it be you?"

TAKE THIS, UNIONS!


A not-so-sly dig at the union workers who were being paid to hold signs at the Coakley rally last week.

The Brown rally today that is pictured here spilled out of the hotel and overflow venues into the streets; apparently today's Obama-Coakley rally was somewhat undersubscribed.

CONSERVATIVE FELONIES; LIBERAL MISDEMEANORS. Victor Davis Hanson on the reason conservative gaffes are treated much more harshly than liberal gaffes.

Hanson is too kind. To have double standards presupposes that Democrats have standards.

PALIN RALLIES UNION MEMBERS to oppose ObamaCare. Don Surber posts her Facebook message:

I know that ordinary union members don’t want to hurt their fellow Americans, just as ordinary Nebraskans didn’t want to stick it to the rest of the country with a sweetheart deal on Medicaid subsidies. I urge union members to make their voices heard. Please, call your leadership – don’t put up with these special-interest politics – tell them to fight for all Americans who want common sense health care reform, not this flawed boondoggle.

Read it all at Don’s place.

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE. I was never in the Navy, but I recognize the terrain.

Via Instapundit.

IT’S TIME FOR a healthcare do-over.

UNCLE SAM will see you next. And then (maybe) you can see a doctor.

TRUTHS WE DARE NOT SPEAK: Victor Davis Hanson on illegal immigration, Iraq, affirmative action, elitism, and the Middle East. Read it all.

BLAME THE COMPUTERS: White House budget director blames old computers for ineffective government.

Instapundit responds: “Funny, it seems the government was a lot more effective fifty or sixty years ago, when it hardly had any computers at all, but better people in charge ....”

Yes. It's the poor workman who blames his tools.

HEALTH CARE DELUSIONS. The problem is that the delusion might pass.

A COUNTERTERRORISM STRATEGY that needs fewer dots.

I rarely agree with Eugene Robinson, but he’s right on this one. Data mining, in the sense of finding out what did happen, is easy; data fusion, in the sense of figuring out what is going to happen, is hard.

CRITICAL THOUGHTS on critical thinking.

If you use an incorrect assumption when you evaluate something, your final conclusion may be flawed. If you allow your emotions to cloud your analysis, you risk making a biased decision. If you don't have all the facts, you may miss the best solution. And if you unthinkingly accept what you hear or read from other people, you risk being manipulated.

That's where critical thinking comes in.

Critical thinking is the discipline of rigorously and skillfully using information, experience, observation and reasoning to guide your decisions, actions and beliefs.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, my experience leads me to conclude that critical thinking skills lead to navel gazing skills. Why not give common sense a try?

INSTAPUNDIT comments: “When those “Che” T-shirts become more than just obnoxious…”

HEH. I HAD FORGOTTEN about Senator Boxer dressing down Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh for calling her "ma'am." Chris Muir didn’t, and Don Surber noticed.

WHAT DO ISLAMIST TERRORISTS WANT? The answer should be obvious.

“Islam will be victorious through the blood of martyrs who spread its light in every dark corner of this earth.” ~ Mohammed Bouyeri

What the terrorists want is abundantly clear. It requires monumental denial not to acknowledge it, but we Westerners have risen to the challenge.

Via a comment from Hot Air.

HEH. Majority would vote against Obama re-election.

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI announced on Thursday that the final health care bill will be posted online for the public to view for 72 hours before the chamber votes on it

"The House Democratic Leadership is committed to having the final health insurance reform legislation online for 72 hours before the House votes, for all Members and the American people to review," Pelosi said in a statement released jointly with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "We will continue the transparent process this landmark legislation has had for months."

No word yet from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on whether he plans to follow the House on the 72-house public viewing.

Yes, and the Senate version that Harry Reid likely won’t post will contain the “manager’s amendment” completely altering the provisions of the House bill.

THESE DAYS, “Harvard-educated intellectual elite” is getting to be a pejorative. As a fellow cow-college graduate myself, I’m enjoying every moment.

Pass the popcorn.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT rebuffs Panthers subpoena:

The Justice Department refused Tuesday to turn over most of the information and documents sought by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights explaining why a civil complaint was dismissed against members of the New Black Panther Party who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place in the November 2008 elections.

The commission had sought answers from the Justice Department on why a civil complaint against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members was dismissed after a federal judge in Philadelphia had ordered default judgments in the case.

Since a federal judge ordered a default judgment against the NBPP, one has to wonder what the administration is hiding.

HOLD THE SALT: NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, in order to preserve, protect, and defend NYC residents’ obligation to remain healthy. has now added salt to his list of proscribed food.

Perhaps he should just dictate that NYC restaurants prepare only inedible food.

NOT THAT her column is all that great, but the imagery - a politician “felled by a flying sound bite” is spectacular.

What a way with words.

SURRENDER - it’s easier than fighting.

PANTEX LOCKDOWN: not good news, as Pantex is a nuclear weapons assembly/disassembly facility.

[Update] Apparently, just hunters too close to the site perimeter. Which is odd, since the land around Pantex is so flat a pancake would look hilly.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: “The unpopularity of the stimulus package, cap-and-trade legislation and the various health care bills probably surprised the congressional Democratic leaders who put them together and the president who, with surprising passivity, indicated he would sign them. After all, weren't these ways to spread the wealth to ordinary people, as Obama put it to Joe the Plumber?”

Uh, no. Americans prefer policies that enable and help them to amass wealth rather than those that purport to transfer someone else's wealth to them.

EDJUMAKATED TO RULE: an interesting series of posts by Instapundit on the overeducated ivy league elites who believe they’re destined to lead the great unwashed to a better place.

The David Brooks column that started it is here.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION should learn from Dominos.

It’s not a bad idea; paying attention to the customer might help to restore some of the administration’s luster.

I HAVE FULL CONFIDENCE that he [Obama]will end 2010 above 50% approval — maybe even 60% again.

The commenters don’t agree. Neither do I.

ON TRADE PROTECTION: “[If trade protection is] a sensible approach, why not take it further? In addition to boycotting goods and services made in other countries, let's also avoid spending money on products from other states.

Read the whole thing.

CSPAN: we interrupt our regular programming to bring you the health care reform negotiations ....

Oops, never mind. There’s nothing to see here. Nope. Nothing. Move along now.

THIS IS RICH: [T]he Virginia Dental Association (VDA) will sponsor legislation that would prohibit dental insurance carriers from negotiating discounted fees for some types of non-covered dental services that subscribers currently receive from their participating dentist.

While insurance premiums would not be affected, the legislation would eliminate the discounts employees receive for services that are either not covered under their policy or exceed the benefit maximum. This means that, in these circumstances, employees will have to pay more out-of-pocket and could pay as much as patients without insurance.

At the moment this is state legislation, and limited to dental insurance, but if ObamaCare passes, it’s probably safe to assume that it will spread.

WHY THE ECONOMY IS STALLED: The small business owner/entrepeneur thinks “[The administration] hates me and what I stand for, and wants to appropriate lots of what I make and give it to others he likes better. Therefore I am not going to take any risks, since he’s either going to take lots of what I already made or even more of what I hope to make.”

Psychology matters.

“MIDDLE-INCOME WORKERS could save as much as $8,000 per year by dropping coverage and purchasing health insurance only when sick. Indeed, the legislation effectively removes any penalty on such behavior by forcing insurers to sell health insurance to the uninsured at standard premiums when they fall ill. The legislation would thus encourage "adverse selection"—an unstable situation that would drive insurance premiums, government spending, and taxes even higher.”

And they will. If I could only do that with my Medicare Part B insurance, I would.

Read it all.

PAUL GREENBERG on freedom of thought: “When it comes to anti-intellectualism, no one practices it so assiduously as the West's own intellectuals.”

THE RISK OF catastrophic victory. Peggy Noonan on ObamaCare writ large, the lack of a loyal opposition, and the mood of the country.

Read the whole thing.

AN ODE TO CATS and cat lovers.

Join Sir Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, George W. Bush, Sir Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Schweitzer, Frederic Chopin, Frank Zappa, Carly Simon,


Shadow

Nina Simone, John Lennon, Frank Andrews, Samuel Johnson, Sir Walter Scott, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, M.F.K. Fisher,


Diamond

Clementine Paddleford, Julia Child; Julie Powell, Ron Rosenbaum, T.S. Eliot, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dana Gioia, Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustav Klimt, Andy Warhol, the prophet


Daisy

Mohammad, Pope Leo XII, Pope Benedict XVI, Michel de Montaigne, Eckhart Tolle - and me.

Check out the feline talent at your local animal shelter and consider adopting today.

DEMOCRATS: We’re not spending enough of your money. “[A]n amalgam of influential liberal bloggers, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, and even nervous White House and congressional politicos have concluded that the Obama administration erred in not pushing for a 50 percent larger stimulus plan than the $800 billion effort in early 2009 — or for a massive second dose of steroids since.”

They can’t even spend what’s already been allocated, and they want to spend more?