WHY RINOS ARE TERRIFIED: the middle class doesn’t want a middleman.

THE AGE OF AQUARIUS ADOLESCENCE: “One of the great themes of the 1960s was to ‘do your own thing.’ But usually ‘liberation’ distilled down to creating your own rules and norms to justify allowing the appetites and passions to run free, while offering some sort of exalted cover for being either gross or mediocre — or both.”

Read it all.

ANOTHER OBAMACARE SUCCESS STORY: We increased your coverage before you dropped it.

CHANGE you can believe in.

BEYOND THE NANNY STATE: Are Obama administration ideas and actions about more than "it's good for you" paternalism?

THOUGHTS ON MANURE from my email.

In the 16th and 17th Centuries, everything had to be transported by ship. This was also before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common.

It was shipped dry because, in dry form, it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a byproduct is methane gas. As the product was stored below decks, in bundles, you can see what could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the instruction: "stow high in transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T" (Stow High In Transit), which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I. I thought it was a golf term.

WHAT CAUSES more traffic accidents than cellphones?

NOW THAT THE ELECTION IS OVER, an uneasy libertarian–Christian conservative alliance shows its cracks.

Oh, bull. Newsweak [yes, the spelling is intentional] is thinking in stereotypes again.

HOUSE CENSURES CHARLIE RANGEL; Rangel blames everyone but himself.

POLITICS AS WARFARE? For the Democrats, yes.

SO NOW IT’S ILLEGAL to pay for your own healthcare out of your own pocket?

“I hold that there is a rational basis for Congress to conclude that individuals’ decisions about how and when to pay for health care are activities that in the aggregate substantially affect the interstate health care market,” ruled U.S. District Judge Norman Moon, a Clinton appointee. “Nearly everyone will require health care services at some point in their lifetimes, and it is not always possible to predict when one will be afflicted by illness or injury and require care.…

“Far from ‘inactivity,’ by choosing to forgo insurance, Plaintiffs are making an economic decision to try to pay for health care services later, out of pocket, rather than now, through the purchase of insurance. As Congress found, the total incidence of these economic decisions has a substantial impact on the national market for health care by collectively shifting billions of dollars on to other market participants and driving up the prices of insurance policies.”

OK, fine. So let’s enshrine that in granite. Start by making it illegal for any current or former elected or appointed federal official to spend so much as one thin dime out of his or her pocket on his or her (family’s) healthcare. Tough luck if the insurance company’s ‘death panel’ decides not to fund the care.

Question: would former president Clinton be alive today if his quadruple heart bypass had been funded entirely by insurance?

NEVER MIND THAT IT IS BOTH VACUOUS AND BANKRUPT. Democrats Suffering From 'Intellectual Elitism'.

Linked from Instapundit.

SMART GRID? The “smart grid” rollout appears to be having some problems. One example: “[L]ast year the [Dutch] rebelled against a proposed compulsory rollout of smart meters, on grounds that the equipment could reveal too much personal detail to utility company employees and expose citizens to wrong-doing.” They’re almost certainly right.

And then there’s the cost: “In England, the Department of Energy and Climate Change intends to see all households equipped with smart meters by 2020, at a cost of about $13 billion. The anticipated average saving to each household will come to $45/year.”

According to Google, there are roughly 25 million households in the UK. If the Brits equip those 25 million households with smart meters, at an average savings of $45/yr, they will recoup the initial investment cost in a mere 11-1/2 years ... around 2031.

Right now, the “smart grid” isn’t looking so smart.

A WIN-WIN TAX COMPROMISE: allow the Bush tax cuts to expire only for those making $250K or less. The Republicans get to keep those small businesses creating jobs, and the Democrats get to rake in an additional $2.5 trillion in taxes (there are a lot more of us poor schlubs, you see, and with small business creating more and more of us ....). Win-win.

Linked from Instapundit.

MORE REGULATION: Senate passes bill to boost food safety.

Despite wide bipartisan support, the legislation stalled as it came under fire from advocates of buying locally produced food and operators of small farms, who say it could bankrupt some small businesses. Senators agreed before Congress left for Thanksgiving to exempt some of those operations from costly food safety plans required of larger companies.

What they don’t tell you is how much this regulation will add to the cost of putting dinner on the table.

[Update & bump] Corporate welfare?

THE BIGGEST ISSUE TO COME in a single chart.


It reminiscent of aviation's ”coffin corner”, that part of an aircraft’s flight envelope where a slight reduction in speed will cause the wings to stall and the aircraft fall out of the sky and a slight increase in speed will cause the wings to fall off - and the aircraft fall out of the sky.

Raise taxes - the economy collapses. Raise spending - the economy collapses.

THE GREAT PLACATOR NEEDS TO THROW SOME ELBOWS. The Washington Post’s Courtland Milloy provides a sad commentary -- on two levels.

The first is Milloy’s assertion that Obama needs to “throw some elbows.” More correctly, the Obama administration is finally finding out what happens when the electorate refuses to be bullied -- a fat lip hurts.

And second is Milloy’s admission that he voted for the black -- and not the man. That’s going to hurt much more, for the next black man to aspire to the presidency is going to be faced with the near-insurmountable obstacle of Obama’s failed presidency.

UN’S CANCUN (!) CLIMATE SUMMIT: Scientists call for rationing in the developed world (well, except for themselves).

Perhaps it’s time for this reminder.

TEA PARTY ORGANIZER: liberals use "slave owner" tactics. Obviously overblown, but I think there is some "there" there.