WHAT HAPPENED TO ‘SCIENCE’? EPA suddenly retreating on emissions rules enforcement.

GOING GALT: New poll indicates 40% of physicians will retire or find other work under ObamaCare.

Not surprised, I hope.

WOULD YOU VOTE for Sen. Reid’s tax cut bill? No. I think we can get a better deal from the new Congress in 2011.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN:

If Obama had pushed a one-year suspension of the payroll tax instead of the first stimulus, wouldn’t the country — and Obama – be much better off right now? He would have gotten money directly into the hands of the American people instead of teachers’ unions, state governments, and rent-seeking green companies. It would have been every bit as Keynesian, but infinitely more popular, including among Republicans.

Instapundit comments: “Insufficient opportunities for graft.”

GIVE US YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR … and your PhD scientists.

I wrote something similar here.

LAST NIGHT on Barbara’s Walters’ annually insipid “10 Most Fascinating People” special, America was shown such a textbook example of media bias, hypocrisy and incompetence that it bordered on parody.

People watch Barbara Walters?

More.

SOMEONE OWES REPUBLICAN REP. JOE WILSON AN APOLOGY. Which Democrat House member said ‘F*** the President’?

OOPS! FAA loses track of 119,000 aircraft.

More government incompetence.

CAN THE OLD LIBERAL STALWART play a role in today’s world? Short answer - No. Here’s why:

Since the late nineteenth century most intellectuals have identified progress with the advance of the bureaucratic, redistributionist and administrative state. The government, guided by credentialed intellectuals with scientific training and values, would lead society through the economic and political perils of the day. An ever more powerful state would play an ever larger role in achieving ever greater degrees of affluence and stability for the population at large, redistributing wealth to provide basic sustenance and justice to the poor. The social mission of intellectuals was to build political support for the development of the new order, to provide enlightened guidance based on rational and scientific thought to policymakers, to administer the state through a merit based civil service, and to train new generations of managers and administrators.

For America to prosper:

Power is going to have to shift from bureaucrats to entrepreneurs, from the state to society and from qualified experts and licensed professionals to the population at large.

And from the comments: “Old-school progressivism appeals to the narcissist in people in high places. They want to believe that they can and are uniquely qualified to dole out justice and mercy and goodness to the poor oppressed masses. If the new paradigm involves devolution of power to the masses, there’s no more need for narcissistic demigods.”

More: Walter Russell Mead’s “The Crisis of the American Intellectual” is here.

WIKILEAKS CONFIRMS the worst fears of climate change skeptics: government-sponsored bribery.

THE LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL has banned new stand-alone fast food restaurants from opening within half a mile of each other in South L.A., citing rising health concerns and the need for more food choices in the area.

Hmm. Maybe because the residents of South L.A. are just poor? What’s next? Waygu beef subsidies?

[Update] "Because the last thing they need is new entry-level jobs."

GOOD GRIEF: “If you can’t afford to hire a bartender, you shouldn’t be having a party.” Rampant stupidity in NYC.

A SNOWFLAKE FELL IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY and traffic in Washington D.C. came to a grinding halt as the perpetually clueless found out that even the lightest snowfall turns to ice glaze in subfreezing temperatures.

IN TEXAS, FREE SPEECH FOR ME but not for thee. Bonus points for Hispandering.

IS CONGRESS ABOVE THE LAW? Well, it certainly appears as if they tried. Follow these two links and make up your own mind.

Linked from Instapundit.

OBAMA TALKS TRASH. “Liberals are getting a taste of what conservative critics saw close up during the 2008 campaign and the health care fight: Obama's intolerance toward dissent, perhaps rooted in a personal arrogance and too much self-regard. His personality leads him to call names and question critics' motives, and it also makes him bristle at outside pressure. ‘He knows he kicks ass, and he doesn't need any other validation,’ one liberal former Obama administration official told me this week.“

THEY DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT TAKING AMERICA BACK - we’re giving it to them.

HEH: STUXNET WORM still out of control at Iran's nuclear sites. Earlier post here.