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.