VICTOR DAVIS HANSON makes the case that liberals progressives are puritans.

AMERICANS SUFFER from 'Obama Underappreciation Syndrome.'

RASMUSSEN: "I'd prefer a government with a lot less people who get sent home on snow days because they're 'nonessential'."

OK, it was in the comments, but still ....

THE IMPACT OF THE CITIZENS UNITED DECISION allowing corporate speech: "Speech restrictions draw businesses to K Street, where politicians can more easily demand cash and cooperation. Who wants the First Amendment ruining such a fine arrangement?"

COMMENT OF THE DAY. I'll second Don Surber on this one - "[A]s long as we have guys like Joe moving in, we have one helluva country."

RETRACTO THE CORRECTION ALPACA strikes again.

YES, he is a fool.

LIBERAL HUNTING IS SO EASY: Every time you come to believe they can't possibly be more ignorant stupid, they surprise you.

Linked from Instapundit.

[Corrected and bumped.]

OUR SNEERING LIBERAL CULTURE in a nutshell. Money quote: "One of the better arguments, of dozens, for smaller government is that the larger the state becomes, the more it attracts social engineers under its protective umbrella. The latter do not wish to work in the private sector, but gravitate to a public/not for profit entity where theorizing and editorializing apart from the market are not only encouraged but inevitably lead to hostility to the market."

IF THEY SILENCE FOX [NEWS], who will they attempt to silence next?

CALL ME SENATOR: "I worked so hard to get that title."

CAN JOHN DENNIS knock off the "wicked witch of the left?"

IT'S PAST TIME to retire Jim Moran from Congress. Follow this link for Patrick Murray's response.

AMERICAN GOTHIC II




Shouldn't he (she?) have a pitchfork?

THOUGHTS FROM A COUNTRY MOUSE.

I suppose what I’m doing is retracing on a personal level the Great Migration of Americans from the cities to the suburbs and exurbs after World War Two. A nation of subway and tram riders turned into a nation of motorists — and gradually lost its taste for Progressive era reforms. City dwellers know they need the state; there was no way I could commute by car to Manhattan and find parking at a reasonable time or cost. The government stepped in to help me with subsidized mass transit. Suburban and exurban people aren’t so sure about the government’s role. Out here, I want government to do its job and fix the roads, but otherwise stay out of my hair — and stop wasting my time and taking my money.

A very interesting commentary from Walter Russell Mead as he transitions from city life to rural life. Note the importance of the automobile to independence.

EDUCATION REFORM: "Rather than giving real power to the parents and kids public education is supposed to serve, they [education reformers] insist on keeping them subject to the authority of politicians and politically potent special interests. They refuse to let all parents make the same choice the President has made, and they continue to force all Americans to hand huge sums of money over to government schools."

The solution? "Let parents take their education dollars to any school they wish, with no government thumbs on the scale ...."

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL is the ObamaCare train: "I have no desire to stand next to the tracks in order to watch this train wreck unfold at close range."

UNEXPECTED? or obvious? No subsidy is forever. What happens when it ends?

I SAVED THE WORLD: "Reid wants everybody to believe that he’s Bruce Willis in Armageddon, when in fact it’s now common knowledge that he’s been nothing but the asteroid for far too long."

Goodbye, Harry - and good riddance.