BED TIME

OOPS! Satellite image shows Star of David on Iranian airport building's roof.


Embarrassing.

WHY WOULD A WOMAN CONVERT TO ISLAM? Family values.

THE COST OF THE DEBT EXPLOSION: All of a sudden, Social Security and Medicare don't look so bad.

I PREFER ’The Great Refudiation.’ Now is not the time for moderation.

GREAT LAKES WIND ENERGY. “Why not ... focus wind energy development there. In contrast to the Great Plains, which are notoriously distant from the country's major load centers, the Great Lakes are smack dab in the middle of the country's highly populated old industrial heartland, a region that happens to get most of its electricity from carbon-intense coal.”

Umm, well, let’s see.

According to the article, 100,000 wind turbines could potentially generate 321 gigawatts of electrical energy. Googling around, the surface area of the Great Lakes is about 95,000 square miles and a wind turbine costs roughly $3M per megawatt.

So ... we can get roughly 300 gigawatts of (at best) variable power by placing one wind turbine per square mile over the entire surface area of the Great Lakes at a cost of roughly $960 billion.

What a deal.

[Update] By way of comparison, the construction cost of a nuclear power plant is roughly $1.5M per megawatt.

JEFF JACOBY: No subsidy for NPR.

ALLOW STATES TO GO BANKRUPT? The “Territory of California” has a nice ring to it.

AN OBAMACARE UPDATE from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Virginia's lawsuit to determine the constitutionality of the federal healthcare law.

Dear Fellow Virginians and fans of first principles,

The healthcare hearing on October 18th ... was to argue the constitutionality of the individual mandate. It's called a 'summary judgment' hearing, because the judge is going to rule without a trial. The reason for this is that the facts of the case are not in dispute, the only thing to determine is how the law applies to those facts - in this case, the 'law' is the constitution itself.

The two basic facts of the case are the existence of the federal healthcare law and the existence of Virginia's Healthcare Freedom Act (VHFA). These two laws are in direct conflict with one another, because the VHFA says that no Virginian can be ordered to purchase health insurance against his will. This conflicts with the federal healthcare law's mandate that all qualifying Americans must purchase government-approved health insurance.

Normally, under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution - a.k.a. the supremacy clause - a federal law in conflict with a state law would trump that state law. However, the exception to the supremacy clause is when the federal law is unconstitutional, and in this case Virginia is arguing that the federal healthcare law is in fact unconstitutional. So, if we win, at least the individual mandate and all of the insurance components in the federal healthcare law ("the federal law") will fall and the VHFA will stand.

Prior to October 18th, both sides filed approximately 100 pages of briefing. Additionally, there were a large number of amicus briefs filed by third parties (an amicus is a "friend of the court"). The amicus briefs heavily favored our side and were very high quality contributions to the legal discussion. Interestingly, despite the pounding we've taken from the academic world, we had 15 law professors supporting our position to only 3 for the federal government.

The hearing lasted a bit over two-and-a-half hours and featured what lawyers would call a "hot bench." That means the judge was engaged and asking lots of aggressive questions. He was clearly very well prepared and he challenged both sides on their legal theories.

I will point out a few things that happened during the hearing that are funny (to me anyway...) or that show how this administration approaches this case.

Introductions and Federalism

First, as soon as the lawyer for the federal government got up, he introduced himself: "Good morning your honor. Ian Gershengorn for the government, err...., I mean the federal government..."

What's peculiar about this? I suspect that Mr. Gershengorn has never in his life faced off against a government before; however, that's exactly what was happening in that courtroom. The federal government was defending itself against the legal assault of the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Remember that one of the elements of the design of the founding fathers was what we call "federalism." Most people are familiar with the idea of 'checks and balances' in our government, and we usually think of the division of power between the legislative, executive and judicial branches. But there is another division of power within our constitutional system, and that is the division between the federal government and the state governments.

Virginia's own James Madison wrote extensively in the Federalist Papers about how the states would have extensive authority preserved from the federal government to be exercised by the states themselves or reserved to their citizens. When contests about those constitutional boundaries arise, they are to be fought out in our courts, and that is exactly what we are doing in Virginia.

We are fulfilling the founders' expectation of states, that is, because the federal government is overstepping its constitutional authority, the founders expected the states to push the federal government back inside its proper constitutional boundaries, and we are doing that in this case.

I have no doubt which side of this case every single founding father would be on - Virginia's!

Tough Questioning

Very early in the federal government's presentation, the judge asked "if this is constitutional, what limits are there on federal power?" The feds' lawyer never really answered this question. How could he? The judge went on to ask, "if this is constitutional, what's to keep the federal government from telling me what car to buy, to eat asparagus, or to join a gym?" The feds' lawyer's answer was that 'healthcare is different' from everything else.

His reasoning for this was their presumption that everyone will use healthcare at some point. However, this doesn't seem like much of a limiting constitutional principle... What about food? Transportation? Housing? Clothing?

The Statute is Unprecedented... to Everyone but the Federal Government

This administration appears to be the only entity across the country arguing that there's nothing out of the ordinary about the federal law. Even judges ruling favorably to the feds are saying that the federal law is unprecedented, yet the feds in all their briefs keep insisting 'nope, nope, nothing unusual here... nothing to see, move along...' But no one is buying that - no one.

Activity or Inactivity?

One way of thinking about what the feds are trying to do is that in an effort to regulate interstate commerce, they are compelling us all into commerce, i.e., ordering us to buy their mandated health insurance. Virginia's position is that those who decide not to buy health insurance aren't taking any action at all that is related to commerce. All the case law related to the commerce clause addresses people voluntarily engaging in economic activity.

Well, if you're not doing anything (i.e., not buying insurance), there's no activity to regulate. Put differently, you are inactive.

The feds' addressed this argument saying "the appearance of inactivity is a mere illusion."

No, seriously, that's what he said!

So, let me get this straight - if you do something, your activity can be regulated by the federal government, and if you do nothing, your so-called inactivity can be regulated by the federal government... so, what can NOT be regulated by the federal government? Nothing, at least according to the logic of the federal government.

The feds are trying to convert the decision to do nothing into an 'action' or 'activity' that fits within already-existing case law on the commerce clause. This is just one of the leaps of language and logic necessary for the feds' arguments to prevail.

More Problems With the Dictionary

Another good one was when discussing the "penalty" in section 1501(b). The "penalty" is called a "penalty" in the law, i.e., that's what Congress calls it. The "penalty" is a monetary fine you must pay if you fail to buy the mandated, government-approved health insurance. However, according to the federal government "there is nothing punitive about section 1501(b)."

Really? Yes, you read that right. According to your federal government there is nothing punitive about having to pay a penalty.

Again, if we could just get rid of dictionaries and logic, the feds would be able to make all of its arguments without impediments. Oh well, pesky dictionaries...

Constitutional Presumptuousness

Another of my 'favorite' arguments the feds made during the hearing was that "there's no constitutional right to be left alone." While at some level this is technically true, it suggests a very disturbing view of federal government power.

Remember, the Constitution was supposed to establish a limited federal government of only enumerated powers. Put differently, the states and citizens can do whatever they want under the Constitution (I exaggerate of course), but the federal government is supposed to have only limited powers. But now we have a federal government that says that you have no right to be left alone, which suggests that they think they can reach anything you might do (or not do). That doesn't sound very limited to me!

It turns the initial presumptions of the founding fathers upside down. Instead of a restrained government of limited powers, it suggests an all-reaching government with any powers it chooses to exercise. The statement by the lawyer for the feds is a real peek into how this administration views federal power in general and suggests that there is very little (if anything) that they don't think they can reach using that federal power.

Such a view would be antithetical to the founding fathers. It represents the realization of many of the worst fears of James Madison, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson - to name but a few.

What's Next?

The judge said that he would rule by the end of the year, so look for that some time in December.

It is not unreasonable to think that if we lose this case, it will be the end of federalism as we have known it for over 222 years. Thus, the important thing in the ruling is not so much the remedy, but first and foremost the question of constitutionality. The remedy could change when we get to the Supreme Court, but the remedy is secondary to protecting the outer boundaries of the constitution.

I believe that some of the federal government's arguments in court clearly reflect an attitude that the constitution is almost unlimited in its 'flexibility,' which, if true, would be a radical departure from what the founding fathers thought they had established.

Cuccinelli's web site is here.

OUCH! "In my experience, university registrars are formidable and competent. Apparently the same can’t be said for the folks entrusted with our national secrets."

HEH. "Of course he's not a Muslim. If he were a Muslim, he’d have to believe in something greater than Barack Obama."

FIRING BACK: A Thanksgiving message to all 57 states.

OBAMA'S POLL NUMBERS point to his defeat in 2012: "Just one group has stuck with Obama through it all. In '08, he won 58 percent of people with graduate degrees. Now, he's at 59 percent."

So much for graduate education....

WILL THE NEXT FISCAL CRISIS start in Washington?

Two years ago the United States experienced its worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The crisis began on Wall Street, where misguided bets on risky mortgage loans resulted in enormous losses that few anticipated.

Umm, weren't there some in Washington involved in encouraging those "risky mortgage loans?"

SHARED SACRIFICE: for thee, not me.

Just to be clear, she's not a teacher; she's a teacher unionist.

THE UNDEREMPLOYED UNIVERSITY GRADUATE: Is it socially responsible ... "to encourage individuals to enroll in college and accumulate massive debt when the benefits are becoming increasingly uncertain?"

Good question. But better questions are "Who are the underemployed graduates?" and "Are they really underemployed?"

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION -- Americans Against Prosperity.

REPUBLICAN MESSAGE more popular with voters than Republicans are. No, it's the Tea Party message that's more popular than Republicans.

IT'S HARD OUT HERE for a messiah.

LIBERALS EXPLAIN THE TEA PARTY: "These oh-so-civilized observers may think they’re measuring an elephant .... In fact, they’re dimly glimpsing a 1000-pound gorilla."

THE WELFARE STATE versus private charity.

[T]here is actually a lot of historical evidence that private sector institutions often do a better job than the state in aiding the poor as well as the rich and middle class. But even if you believe, as I do, that some degree of government redistribution to the poor is needed, that doesn’t justify anything remotely resembling today’s overgrown government. Indeed, redistribution to the genuinely needy would be far easier to maintain if it weren’t for the looming fiscal crisis created in large part by enormous bailouts and entitlement programs that mostly benefit the nonpoor.

Link from Instapundit.

TAXI OF TOMORROW. Now government is designing taxis? To be built overseas?

ANYONE WONDER why California is going broke? Here's a list of funded State agencies:

Academic Performance Index (API)
Access for Infants and Mothers
Acupuncture Board
Administrative Office of the Courts
Adoptions Branch
African American Museum
Agricultural Export Program
Agricultural Labor Relations Board
Agricultural Statistics Service
Air Resources Board (CARB)
Allocation Board
Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority
Animal Health and Food Safety Services
Anti-Terrorism Information Center
Apprenticeship Council
Arbitration Certification Program
Architects Board
Area VI Developmental Disabilities Board
Arts Council
Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus
Assembly Democratic Caucus
Assembly Republican Caucus
Athletic Commission *
Attorney General

And those are just the As. The rest are listed at Maggie's Farm.

[Update] Another reason California is going bankrupt.

ON THE UPSIDE ... more government control.

THE CASE FOR MONARCHY -- at least then you know who is screwing you.

IT'S NOT ABOUT EDUCATION, it's about profit.

THE GREAT U-TURN: the ship of state turns slowly, but it will turn. Now it's up to the American voters to set the course.

OBAMA REGULATIONS threatens colleges. "The new regulations ... will mandate that America's private higher-education institutions must follow new federal guidelines in order to be accredited. Also at stake is whether those private institutions could accept students with government loans or grants."

Of course, the "federal guidelines" are TBD. It's time to abolish the Department of Education.

I THOUGHT I was the only one.

JEFF JACOBY: What public sector unions have wrought.

OIKOPHOBIA: "a stage through which the adolescent mind normally passes."

So progressives are oiks?

Linked from Instapundit.

TEA PARTY has elites on the run.

The tea party movement will assert middle-class values, economic nationalism, patriotism and other concepts derided by post-modern elitists. The movement's central tenets -- small government, decentralization of power and end to profligate spending -- are precisely what [historian Christopher] Lasch prescribed to restore American democracy [The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy].

The elite's fear and loathing of the tea party movement is rooted in the recognition that the real change is only now coming.

The next two years will be 'interesting.' Read the whole thing.

NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE tells of apology from President of Teachers Union.



Keep it up, Gov. Christie ... and loan some of that backbone to the Republicans in Congress.

WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST Anne Applebaum on the rise of an anti-elite-education "populism."

She's right about the resentment, but wrong about the source. It's not the meritocracy; it's the smug arrogance of the self-appointed "that 'we' are the best and brightest while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained."

THE REPUBLIC OF PAPERWORK: "[T]he short history of the post-war western democracies is that you don’t need a president-for-life if you’ve got a bureaucracy-for-life."

Read it all.

THE GOVERNMENT'S SOLUTION TO EVERY PROBLEM: more mental health "professionals."

SMUG IS UNBOUNDED: "It's no surprise that atheists know more about religion than most Americans. The simple truth is this: the more someone knows about religion, the more likely they will reject it as mythology."

That assertion is bound to surprise most theologians.

WHY I MISS GEORGE W. BUSH: he's a man, not a messiah.

IN PRAISE OF MODERATION. Washington Times columnist Jeff Birnbaum counsels compromise.

Nuts. “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” – Henry Louis Mencken

These are those times.

ONLY 77 EMPLOYEES ... have submitted their benefit elections for 2011 so far--three weeks into Open Enrollment. That means about 500 of you still need to finalize your benefits for 2011 by November 30 in order to have benefits next year!

From an internal office email. Looks like ObamaCare isn't going over too well....

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: the junk man's revolt.

When you've lost the junk man ....

YOUR PAPERS -- or your testicles.

RESIDENT JOKESTER DANA MILBANK claims the Republicans are no longer interested in national security; Power Line responds.

Milbank is a joke, not a jokester.

BARNEY FRANK: "[I]t was Republican policies under George W. Bush that caused this terrible recession, and now they are resisting our efforts to get out of it."

And to think Massachusetts reelected this idiot.

ARE WE CITIZENS? Or subjects?

WHICH DO YOU PREFER? Sarah Palin's Alaska or Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco?

[Warning: Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco is not safe for work - or small children.]

THE WORLD WE READ OF increasingly does not resemble the world we see about us. When watching or reading the news, I ask myself if what I watch or read has any correspondence with what I see every day as I go about my life. More and more frequently it does not.

A SUGGESTION FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA: " Let go of a now-smiling and relatively rehabilitated Bush -- before such a fixation consumes you and your presidency.

Too late, I'm afraid.

GEORGE WILL on life in the T.S. of A.

What the TSA is doing is mostly security theater, a pageant to reassure passengers that flying is safe. Reassurance is necessary if commerce is going to flourish and if we are going to get to grandma's house on Thursday to give thanks for the Pilgrims and for freedom. If grandma is coming to our house, she may be wanded while barefoot at the airport because democracy - or the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; anyway, something - requires the amiable nonsense of pretending that no one has the foggiest idea what an actual potential terrorist might look like.

Read it all.

MALL RALLIES IN A MEET-UP AGE: Getting the numbers right.

I didn't see this level of concern after Glenn Becks's 'Restoring Honor' rally, which was roughly twice as large. Nor did I see it at any of the prior Tea Party rallies, most of which were about equal size.

I wonder why?

HOW TO GET UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: force doctors, hospitals, and insurers to merge, then take over the remaining one when it goes bankrupt.

Linked from Instapundit.

THE FORCE IS STRONG at the Washington Post. More Palin hatred in the book reviews.

My favorite: Palin's book (American Idol) is well-written, so she must have had a ghost writer; Obama's book (Of Thee I Sing) "has no melody;" so it must really be "a letter from a very busy dad-president."

No bias here. Nope. None. Move along now.

FROM THE EMAIL: another TSA stupidity.

A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience. He, unlike most of us, was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.

As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.

Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through.

After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.So we’re in line, going through one at a time.

One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.

TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.

Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?

TSA Guy: [awkward silence]

Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.

Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.

True? I dunno - but based on recent TSA news about scanners and 'intimate' patdowns, I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Update: We're not going to change.

INDIANA CONGRESSMAN MIKE PENCE on the Presidency and the Constitution:

The president is not our teacher, our tutor, our guide or ruler. He does not command us; we command him. We serve neither him nor his vision. It is not his job or his prerogative to redefine custom, law, and beliefs; to appropriate industries; to seize the country, as it were, by the shoulders or by the throat so as to impose by force of theatrical charisma his justice upon 300 million others. It is neither his job nor his prerogative to shift the power of decision away from them, and to him and the acolytes of his choosing.

This is only a small excerpt of a much longer speech. Read it all.

DEBT COMMISSION co-chair Alan Simpson on Congressional reaction to the comission's recommendations: "I’ll be watching … from our witness protection program.”

SARAH PALIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES, AND GRAVITAS: how to express our Palin-phobia.

From the comments: "Palin does not drive people crazy. Those people seem close enough to walk themselves to crazy."

MYTHS ABOUT HUNGER IN AMERICA. If the problem goes away, redefine the problem.

THE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Always one step behind the terrorists.

If we can't - or won't - adopt Israeli-style profiling, then let's just arm the passengers.

WE, THE PEOPLE.



The original is here.

WARNING LABELS and the Nanny State. The Food and Drug Administration announced that it will soon require tobacco warning labels to be much bigger -- and more graphic.

The proposed warnings, reports the Washington Post, include one "containing an image of a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole in his throat; another depicting a body with a large scar running down the chest; and another showing a man who appears to be suffering a heart attack. Others have images of a corpse in a coffin and one with a toe tag in a morgue, diseased lungs and mouths, and a mother blowing smoke into a baby's face."

Smoking is unhealthy, no question about it. But the loss of freedom is more hazardous by far.

RED SKELTON'S Pledge of Allegiance. Oddly enough, I remember the show. In 1969, I was 24 or 25 years old, newly married.

"LET ME HELP YOU PACK" New Jersey Governor Chris Christie coins the perfect 2012 campaign slogan.

THOSE BIG, EVIL INDUSTRIES FUNDED ... Democrats?

WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN this Christmas? Send the ACLU a Christmas card. As they are working so very hard to get rid of the Christmas part of the holiday, we should all send them a nice, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world. Here's the address:

American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004

Make sure it says "Merry Christmas."

DON'T TREAD ON ME soon may become an oft-used expression on Virginia roads. A state lawmaker is proposing a bill to create a license plate for Virginians to express solidarity with the spirit of the Tea Party movement.


I've already submitted an application for mine.

OOPS! We were only supposed to target right-wing bloggers.

Some history is here.

RIGHT ATTITUDE, WRONG FINGER.



National Review cover for October 30, 2010.

TAXES ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE: “One of these four men is going to jail for three years for not paying his taxes. (The other three are politicians.)”

ANOTHER DEMOCRAT gets the message. Follow the link.

STUCK ON STUPID: the Transportation Security Administration strikes (out) again.

HEH. “Europe wanted Obama, got Obama, and now its elites are quietly whispering: ‘Why did you fulfill our childish wishes?’”

Read it all.

“DANCING WITH THE STARS” INSIDER: the “creditability” of the show will be hurt if Bristol Palin wins.

DWTS has "creditability"?

GO SOMEPLACE WHERE THERE ARE NO AMERICANS - like Harvard.

IF YOU LIKE FLYING, you’ll love these photos. They're from a cross-country flight in a Piper Cub.

DRIVING MISS SARAH



Sitting in the back ain't all bad ....

CAN A CAR BE RECALLED to repair a loose nut behind the wheel?

I dislike sounding sarcastic, but everything I've read about the Toyota 'sudden acceleration' problems suggest that the primary contributing factor is driver error.

MORE CHINESE STUDENTS are studying in the United States. And I'll bet they're not registering in the 'Asian studies' departments.

HERE'S A CONUNDRUM FOR YOU: Since progressives are such strong believers in evolution, why are they so concerned about climate change? Isn't that just ... evolution?

ON INTELLECTUALISM: "The professors in too many cases have become the village idiots of America, as much out of touch with their own country and reality as the French aristocracy was at the time of the revolution there."

Yep.

WHAT WE BELIEVE, PART VI: Bill Whittle continues.



Linked from Hot Air.

DEMOCRAT FLACK ED SCHULTZ: Let’s pass a “decency law” to regulate speech. Well, if it were strictly enforced (heh), it would sure as hell shut the Democrats up.

HOW DARE YOU! It's your fault we went out of business: "Don Otto’s Market wants to say we had few customers that understood customer loyalty and its importance to our business... If you came in only for baguettes, the occasional piece of cheese, the occasional dinner ... you can not tell yourself you were a supporter of our market."

The liberal entitlement mentality strikes again -- the customers are too stupid to realize they owe us. Un-friggin-believable.

SARAH PALIN: An Open Letter to Republican Freshmen Members of Congress.

But it's not really a letter to the freshmen congresscritters - it's a warning to the Establishment congresscritters, Republicans John Boehner and Mitch McConnell in particular, to pay attention or prepare for new employment opportunities.

CALIFORNIA GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER (R) defended his decision to reduce legal liability for personal marijuana use in the Golden State in a late-night TV appearance Monday. "No one cares if you smoke a joint or not."

But just try smoking a cigarette....

THEY STILL DON'T GET IT: Big Green is welcome in the Tea Party bus, but they don't get the keys.

PAINFUL TO WHOM? Mostly those who live on government largess. As I look at the recommendations of the debt commission, I'm struck that they're more about entitlement pain than actual pain.

WHAT A NOVEL IDEA: "[T]he best course of action is nonetheless for everyone to work as though their efforts actually mattered. And the best way to ensure that they will do so is to allow their efforts, whenever possible, to matter."

Read the whole thing, just to be sure I'm not funnin' with ya.

OOPS! Grumpy white elders did not swing the 2010 election.

GOVERNMENT BROWNIES: I've seen this one before, but now that San Francisco is regulating Happy Meals, it's worth a revisit.

Your world, coming soon.

UH-OH. STEVEN DEN BESTE'S take on the 2008 (yes, 2008) election. After two years, he's proved remarkably accurate.

My only quibble is that his "it's going to be amusing to watch" comment about the probable implosion of the Obama administration should have been "it's going to be frightening to watch."

My hope is that Den Beste's predictions that haven't yet come true -- don't.

Linked from Instapundit.

THERE'S WASTE - and then there's stimulus waste.

By the way, it's called the RAT board.

DEMOCRATS extol facts and science but act on ideology.

Surprise, surprise.

DEFICIT PANEL presents us some hard, but clear choices about our nations fiscal future: "Enough of the right people hate it and enough love it to make me instinctively like the proposal. And it merits much of the positive attention it’s received so far, while much of the dismay over increased retirement age and the like (including wild exaggerations about a war on the New Deal) is little better than melodrama."

ANYONE THINK this can have a good ending?

Austin, TX, is in the same boat. Unfortunately, it has the rest of Texas to bail it out.

HE HAD TO SURRENDER TO SOMEBODY, and the Taliban wasn't returning his calls.

Note: from the comments.

FRED THOMPSON on the Deficit Commission proposal. I haven't read the proposal in depth - yet - but my feeling is similar: "Finally! Something real to discuss."

That said, this comment by rightwingyahoo is revealing of the discussions to come: "The geezers can yell all they want, but the cuts are coming…."

That's a bad assumption, and there are plenty of bad assumptions on both sides of the political divide. I'm a "geezer" - 66, starting social security and Medicare - and I'm "yelling" because I desperately want Medicare/social security cut/reformed. Not for me - it's way too late to improve my lot - but for my kids and grandkids. Without reform, they will be buried in irrecoverable debt.

CAR METAPHORS: bipartisan agreement.

WE, THE PEOPLE, simply can't be trusted.

FACTS? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' FACTS. Ideology trumps science - every time.

THE ARMED LIBERAL on Veterans Day 2010.

Linked from Instapundit.

WHAT HAPPENED to the glorification of youth among the American Left? Maybe youth are no longer as easily led.

NPR LISTENERS ARE SMARTER: just see what they said about 'balloon boy.' "NPR President Vivian Schiller ... told an audience Sunday that NPR's viewers are a league apart from those of other media organizations -- a hypothesis proven by its comments section on the network's website."

Well, um, okay. Here are three NPR posts on the 'balloon boy' incident from October 15-16 of last year. Scroll down to the comments in each case. I see nothing different from what I would see on most any liberal blog. Of the several hundred comments, many disparaging Fox News, most were routine blather -- and the two cherry-picked "intelligent" comments.

Vivian Schiller is full of bull ....

IF THEY'D GO AFTER THE "NOT-FOR-PROFIT" SCHOOLS WITH EQUAL ENTHUSIASM, university departments of victimization would disappear in a heartbeat.

MORE GOVERNMENT OVERREACH: "[Y]ou may get mugged or murdered in Orange County [FL], but at least you won’t get a bad haircut."

Tar. Feathers. Now.

SO WHAT WAS TUESDAY'S ELECTION ABOUT? Victor Davis Hanson on what the election was not about. Here's the summary:

The truth is always the simplest explanation. Here it goes in simple language from the beginning: Obama was elected largely because of public furor over Bush/Iraq. The fawning media hid his socialist background. He ran as a centrist. The Wall Street meltdown wiped away the small McCain/Palin lead. Obama in his hubris took that flukish set of events and reinvented them into proof that he could deliver to the left a once-in-a-century EU-style socialist makeover of America. That effort polarized the country, stalled the recovery, and terrified the private sector into stasis. Obama, who was always himself given something (take your pick—Harvard admission, Harvard Law Review billet, Chicago Law School tenure offer, Noble Peace Prize, etc.) without requisite achievement, is thus stunned that the economy is not a malleable law school dean whom he can hope and change into compliance. So naturally he is angry and has turned to almost everything in the past that worked: the race card, the get-out-the-minority vote card, the enemy Republican bad actors, the greedy rich takers, etc.. But now none of the old “them” bogeymen work; the more that tactic is tried, the more the economy stalls and the people get angry. It’s that simple.

As with anything Hanson writes, read it all.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT zealously protects its power to fiddle while the country burns.

Yet another good reason to devolve power back to the States.

'FAT STUDIES' go to college.

Question: is it an appropriate use of taxpayer money to fund another "Department of Victimization" whose sole purpose appears to be graduating a cadre of credentialed victims?

WHAT WE BELIEVE, PART V: Bill Whittle continues.



Linked from Instapundit.

'MR. GOODWRENCH' laid off. Yes, doing actual work is just too hard.

WELL, THEY PROBABLY ARE more in need of grief counseling than ordinary Americans.

"WHAT WORRIES ME ABOUT PRESIDENT OBAMA is really one general issue: his very concrete enjoyment of the good life ... and yet his obvious distrust of the private sector and the success of the wealthy."

Yes, our President is very much interested in wealth distribution - our wealth into his pocket.

Read it all. And as an added bonus, a wonderful put-down of the formerly great (?) Andrew Sullivan.

A REMINDER FOR 2012: "If you don’t care about winning, you’re merely handing triumph to the other side."

MORE STIMULUS, ANYONE? The (un)common-sense answer is that when you find yourself in a deep hole, stop digging.

THE MOST ENCOURAGING THING about the Republican triumph in last week's midterm elections is that so many Republicans acknowledge that it wasn't a Republican triumph.

Now it's time to hold the Republicans' feet to the fire to make sure they don't get cocky.

"SARAH PALIN PUTS PEOPLE ON HER BUS, rather than under it. And once they’re on, she doesn’t make them sit in the back." A comment on this post.

PATRONAGE: Or why New York and California went Democrat.

THE MOUTH THAT ROARED is suddenly silent.

NBC execs claim KO violated journalistic standards that no one – left or right – felt applied to him because only NBC actually considered him a journalist. Actually, few even considered him sane, luckily not a job requirement at MSNBC.

And the laughter begins.

THE CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST: AARP to Employees: your insurance costs are going up thanks to the great affordable health care plan we promoted.

KEITH OLBERMANN: In Memoriam.

Be sure not to let the door hit you in the backside as you leave.

[Update] More here.

THE UPSIDE OF UNEMPLOYMENT: thousands of Democrats to be jobless in Washington.

Linked from Instapundit.

WILL THEY LISTEN? Of course not. We've still got work to do in 2012.

TOUGH. Sell California to the Chinese - they already own most of it. Give 'em Hawaii as a bonus. And maybe New York can join the EU, although we may have to throw in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to make it palatable.

Linked from Instapundit.

BUMPER SNICKER: "Honk if you see a kid fly out."

Seen on a Mom van in Austin, TX.

A STUNNING WIN FOR THE RIGHT: ACORN has filed for bankruptcy.

MICHELLE STUMPS for Barack ... um, er, Harry.

EPA: THE "EMPLOYMENT PREVENTION AGENCY." Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on why it's time for less regulations.

NOTE TO SELF:


Vote today!

OBAMA DEMOCRATS INSIST the president's record is "moderate, accommodating, if anything overcautious.... That's one way of looking at it. Another way is to say that the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have increased government's share of gross domestic product from 21 percent, where it's hovered for the last several decades, to about 25 percent and have put the national debt on a trajectory to increase from 40 percent to 90 percent of GDP."

Voters have noticed -- and don't like it.

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down.

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political clap-trap

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as they flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note—
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!

OOPS! ... Cable station fails to air O’Donnell infomercial.

Twice. Just coincidence. Nothing to see here. Move along, now.

The "forgotten" video is here. Help make it go viral.

THE "D" stands for "desperate."

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE says it will deploy more than 400 election monitors to 18 states to keep tabs on the electoral process. Their mission is to prevent fraud, intimidation, or voter suppression. Ri-i-ight ... can't have non-approved candidates winning elections.

MY PREDICTION FOR TOMORROW'S ELECTIONS.

FROM MY EMAIL: The Gray Haired Brigade.

They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs. Some of us are "baby boomers" getting ready to retire. Others have been retired for some time. We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were.

We have worked hard, raised our children, worshipped our God and grown old together. Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill and that is probably true.

But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration. In school we studied English, history, math, and science which enabled us to lead America into the technological age.

Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience. We remember the days of telephone party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes. For those of you who don't know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators. A few even remember when cars were started with a crank. Yes, we lived those days.

We are probably considered old fashioned and out-dated by many. But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off. We won World War II and fought in Korea and Viet Nam . We can quote the pledge of allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so. We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield. We didn't fight for the Socialist States of America , we fought for the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag. We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing. We have lived what many of you have only read about in history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America .

Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us. We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it. It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us. We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep. There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.

It was the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic congress. You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies." You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don't like it after all.

You make a lot of noise but most are all too interested in their careers or "climbing the social ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting.

Many of those who fell for the "great lie" in 2008 are now having buyer's remorse. With all the education we gave you, you didn't have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the Kool-Aid. Now you're paying the price and complaining about it.

No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom. This is what you voted for and this is what you got. We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.

Well, don't worry youngsters, the Gray Haired Brigade is here, and tomorrow we are going to take back our nation. We may drive a little slower than you would like but we get where we're going, and in November we're going to the polls by the millions. This land does not belong to the man in the White House or to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It belongs to "We the People", and "We the People" plan to reclaim our land and our freedom. We hope this time you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren.

So the next time you have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance, stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor our country, and thank God for the old geezers of the Gray Haired Brigade.

'Nuff said.