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?