THINKING ABOUT THE CENSUS. A month or so ago, I wrote that an “oath of citizenship” should be required of Americans before being allowed to vote. Now I wonder if the census should be limited to those (and their dependents) who’ve taken that oath.

NO LIBERAL WOMEN of any wattage in sight.

Well, of course. When you ban incandescents, all you’re left with are flourescents.

EVEN THE TREES are bowing to “His WONness”, the President Obama.


Is this one bowing, or trying to hide the fact that the road ahead is dangerous?

TWO VIEWS on ObamaCare. Follow the links, but I think both articles can be summed up as follows: (1) rationing is coming; (2) it ain’t gonna be you making the decisions; and (3) get used to it.

NEXT UP, THE VAT TAX. Why not? We’ve already got fat taxes.

With the VAT, Obama’s triumph will be complete. He will have succeeded in reversing Reaganism. Liberals have long complained that Reagan’s strategy was to starve the (governmental) beast in order to shrink it: First, cut taxes — then ultimately you have to reduce government spending.

Obama’s strategy is exactly the opposite: Expand the beast, and then feed it. Spend first — which then forces taxation. Now that, with the institution of universal health care, we are becoming the full entitlement state, the beast will have to be fed.

Read James Pethokoukis’s commentary to see how the VAT could come to pass. I could live with a VAT in lieu of an income tax, but only if a massive, market-based restructuring of ObamaCare was part of the package.

SIDE NOTE: the value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax, structurally similar to the Fair Tax, but without its transparency. As Pethokoukis notes: “[P]oliticians love the hidden aspect of a VAT as way of duping voters. To them opaqueness is a feature, not a bug.”

A TEA PARTY SUCCESS in the making?

THE TEA PARTY is pro-family. Somehow, I already knew that.

UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE: Are aircraft carriers obsolete?

This is long (39 minutes), but it’s a must-watch if you’re interested in the future of the Navy in an Army of Davids environment.

The Uncommon Knowledge website is here.

OBAMACARE AT WORK: New health care law could treat ED for sex offenders.

YES! MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC REP. BART STUPAK will retire from Congress at the end of this term.

As much as Stupak claimed he was a good candidate for re-election, he may be among the first casualties of the [health care reform] law, which has not gained traction among Americans who roundly disapproved of it throughout debate, in part because of its massive price tag.

Round One to the Tea Party movement.

IT’S GOOD TO BE EXCEPTIONAL. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks people who don’t like ObamaCare are a “rare exception”. Here’s the money quote:

I was in Salt Lake doing church business this past weekend, and it was interesting — the newspapers there and the conservative bastion of America, Utah, even the Republican leaders up there are saying we don’t want to change the things that are already in effect. What we want [is] to improve some of the things that are going to happen later.

Since everything about ObamaCare will happen later (except taxes) that’s a pretty damning statement.