TEN MORE DAYS, 10,000 more leaves.



Quite a change from April 21st and April 8th.

DO WE WANT TO BE FOOLED? Well, yes - if we’re a liberal. Reality, after all, is what we want it to be.

FINDING THE SOUR SPOT: the Daily Caller’s Mickey Kaus has coined the perfect descriptor for the Obama administration’s entire governing philosophy.

TELEPROMPTER ONE is in the rough again.

FROM AROUND THE WEB: an interesting note on Social Security numbers.

The nine-digit SSN, which has been issued in more than 400 million different sequences, is divided into three parts:

Area numbers – The first three numbers originally represented the state in which a person first applied for a social security card. Numbers started in the northeast and moved westward. This meant that people on the east coast had the lowest numbers and those on the west coast had the highest. Since 1972, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has assigned numbers and issued cards based on the ZIP code in the mailing address provided on the original application form. Since the applicant’s mailing address doesn’t have to be the same as his residence, his area number doesn’t necessarily represent the state in which he resides.

Group numbers – These two middle digits, which range from 01 through 99, are simply used to break all the SSNs with the same area number into smaller blocks to make administration easier. (The SSA says that, for administrative reasons, group numbers issued first consist of the odd numbers from 01 through 09, and then even numbers from 10 through 98, within each area number assigned to a state. After all the numbers in group 98 of a specific area have been issued, the even groups 02 through 08 are used, followed by odd groups 11 through 99.)

Serial numbers – Within each group designation, serial numbers — the last four digits in an SSN — run consecutively from 0001 through 9999.

The numbers are not recycled. Recycling numbers might become an issue someday, but not any time soon — there are only about a billion possible combinations.

No link, unfortunately.

"SOMETIMES IT’S BETTER to wait for people to ask for advice or to be judicious in doling out advice. Socrates learned this the hard way. The Greek philosopher went around giving people good advice. And they poisoned him."

From a Harvey MacKay column.

JUST LEAVE OUT THE WORD ‘GAY’ and you have my thoughts exactly: ”I am gradually becoming weary of the tactics of the radical gay leftists, and I find myself wondering if and how their relentless, unceasing, and unquenchable campaign will end. I am beginning to look back fondly on the days when most of them stayed in the closet. Will they push too far and end up losing much of what they have gained?

The post from which this comment was extracted is here.

AS EVERY GOOD ENGINEER KNOWS, correlation does not necessarily prove causation - but it tells you where to look.


Will Collier looks. "Limited supply plus growing demand equals higher prices. That’s a formula so simple, even a community organizer should be able to understand it."

I HAVE A DEGREE FROM HARVARD, and you expect me to work?

IT’S NOT “AND YET” ... it’s because. More: “Inside every Leftist is a little authoritarian dying to get out.” Emphasis on “little.”

THERE'S SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR MATURITY: "Only in 1976 and 2008 did young people vote in large enough numbers to elect a president. They screwed up both times."

P. T. BARNUM is reputed to have said “There’s a sucker born every minute.” And many of them get MBA’s.

OBAMA: No ‘silver bullet’ to bring down the price of gas.

His ’six-gun’ only shoots green bullets.

GREAT NEWS: Superman to renounce his U.S. citizenship. But “[i]sn’t he … an illegal alien? Since when did we start admitting people from Krypton, anyway? Ah well. More work available now for American patriots like Batman and Spider-Man.”

THERE. NOW IT'S FIXED: "In a major strategic shift, the Service Employees International Union plans to use its giant political operation to try to build a[n] grass-roots astroturf movement of public protest and organization similar to the massive show of pro-labor support that overran Madison, Wis. last month."

NOW WE KNOW: "Shared sacrifice" means you share the sacrifice.

NOT JUST any idiot.

THIS IS the America I know and love.

The dash cam video is from a state trooper escorting Marine home.

COUNT ME IN as part of the 30+ percent group in the over-65 age category. I want nothing more than to be out of Medicare.

PRESIDENT OBAMA should write a check to the U.S. Treasury for $182,998. That’s how much more he would have owed had his “tax the rich” plan passed.

FLIGHT DESIGN to produce a low-cost alternative to Cessna 172/183 singles. Maybe it’t time to rethink letting my pilot’s license lapse.

ENDEAVOUR is proceeding towards launch on April 29. My son and granddaughter are driving down to Cape Kennedy to see it. It will be her first - and hopefully not her last. Early in my career, I was at the Cape for a Saturn launch - but I was working and never actually saw it.

FINALLY SPRING. Images from around the neighborhood.

THE ROAD TO HELL is paved with stimulus funding.

GASOLINE PRICES are skyrocketing. I paid $3.92 a gallon (for regular) this afternoon, compared to $3.52 this time last month. That’s an 11% per month inflation rate; roughly a 250% annual increase. Expect to hit $6 a gallon by the end of August.

Hyperinflation, anyone?

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS cleared to attend husband’s shuttle launch. You can bet your bottom dollar that President Obama will also attend.

MORE NANNY-STATE MADNESS: don’t hit the pinata! (Smack the author instead.)

MORE THOUGHTS: Earth Day was conceived by urban cave dwellers who’ve never worked an honest day outdoors. (or a dishonest day, for that matter).

THERE'S A REASON why it's called the "Clown News Network."

PRESCRIPTION for what ails you.


It's been around for a while, but today it just feels right.

YESTERDAY WAS ‘EARTH DAY’ and hardly anyone noticed.

The President did issue an Earth Day Proclamation - quietly, at the end of “a three-day campaign-style trip logging 10,666 miles on Air Force One, eating up some 53,300 gallons at a cost of about $180,000. And that doesn't include the fuel consumption of his helicopter, limo, or the 29 other vehicles that travel with that car.”

HAVE A HAPPY Easter egg, er, ‘Spring Sphere’ roll.

WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER PAY FOR? Gender, women’s and sexuality studies, or skills training at a non-traditional ‘for-profit’ college?

We know which way the Democrats lean.

SUCKERS: That’s what you get for trusting me.

WASTE, ABUSE, AND FRAUD: “In other words, we do have a problem with waste, abuse, and fraud. We have wasted years in developing our own rich resources, an effort that not only would insulate us from the political shocks from political turmoil in oil-producing regimes but would also employ hundreds of thousands of Americans in high-paying jobs. This administration in particular has abused its power, even to the extent of defying a court order, to keep American production from getting more domestic oil to the country and lowering prices through the hardly-mysterious mechanism of supply and demand. And the fraud involved is the idea that we elected a brilliant President — instead of one who apparently needs an entire task force to understand the most basic concepts of free markets and pricing.”

DESTINATION DEIMOS: stepping stone to a Mars landing.

HEY, AS LONG AS THE COSTS fall on someone else ....

MAKING A PROFIT seems like a good reason to me. "The National Labor Relations Board Wednesday said aircraft maker Boeing Co. violated federal labor law by building a second production line for its 787 Dreamliner at a non-union factory in South Carolina, siding with union workers in Washington State who charged the decision was retaliation for their past strikes."

MORE here.

NOT ENOUGH TO DO IN WASHINGTON: President Obama will attend next week's launch of the space shuttle Endeavour.

THE REST OF US GET THE SLEEPING CONTROLLERS: FAA announces supervisors must oversee planes carrying Biden, first lady.

TSA UNION ELECTION heads to a runoff. Now it's time for the 20,000 or so TSA employees who didn't vote (nearly 50%) to join with the 3,111 who voted not to elect union representation.

AND THAT IS SUFFICIENT REASON TO RETIRE: "We know that every intersection surrounding this new BRAC center site on Seminary Road and I-395 is going to be at a failing level of service."

ENVIRONMENTALISTS WONDER: Has the green movement been a miserable flop?

Uh, yes.

GALACTIC ROSE.


The Hubble Space Telescope turns 21 years old.

A BOON FOR OBAMACARE: energy-saving compact flourescent light bulbs can kill you.

SO WHAT'S NEW? "[Transportation Secretary Ray] LaHood seems blissfully uninterested in actually making things under his purview better. Rather, he spends most of his time going from cover-your-ass mode to laying on new fines and regs to anyone he can."

PENSION FUNDS unite Wall Street, public employee union politicos: ”The partnership between Wall Street and government unions wouldn't be so troubling except for one simple problem: When things go south, the taxpayer will end up holding the bag.”

COMING SOON FROM THE AIR FORCE: mind-reading drones:

Someone’s got to say it. Predicting a pilot’s intent might prevent collisions. But it can also neutralize a human counterattack. Or it can allow the drones’ armed cousins to mimic Israel in the Six Day War and blow up the manned aircraft on the tarmac. Coincidentally, according to the retcon in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, April 19, 2011 is the day that Skynet goes online. Think about it.

A bit overwrought, I think.

YOUR iPHONE IS SPYING ON YOU, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

NASA, Houston has a problem.

NASA should be honest and provide the answers we seek on the criteria used to reach this decision and why Houston failed to meet those criteria. If, as we suspect, the measures were purely political, we will do everything in our power to make this right.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden has some explaining to do.

CROSSING THE LINE. It is long past time for moderate liberals - if that isn’t an oxymoron - to put their frothing mad dogs on a very short leash (preferably a choke chain).

OBAMA’S FISCAL FANTASYLAND: Obama's [deficit] plan resides firmly in the fantasy camp. "His vision is that America's financial problems can be fixed by raising taxes on 2 percent of the population. Everything else will take care of itself (by kicking the can) down the road."

BOONDOGGLE IN GREEN: U.S. taxpayers cut a $276 million check to a Portuguese company in order to create jobs in Denmark and Vietnam.

THE TOLERANT LEFT: They never miss an opportunity to let the mask of hatred slip. “If the taxpayers of Iowa feel the need to start budget-cutting, the Department of Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies sounds like a good place to start.”

HERE’S THE KIND OF IDIOT we must put up with in Washington DC.

This was taken at a press conference held by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray regarding his opposition to Congress's re-authorization of DC's school voucher program. The reporter is the Washington Times’ Kerry Pickett.

I THOUGHT SO: Indiana’s government unions paid for Democrats to flee-bag their constituents.

WHAT A SURPRISE: Children beyond the reach of bureaucrats outperform their peers.

GOVERNMENT BY DECREE: Liberals' impatience with democracy, rule of law is growing ... and must be stopped.

WHITE HOUSE floating proposal to curb contract campaign cash. I think I’d be okay with it provided all parties to a contract - including any unions - had to disclose.

ROOTS OF RACISM.

There is, to begin with, the notion of racial identity. Your garden-variety bigot is apt to argue that the differences between the races are not superficial but quite profound. He is apt to tell you each race possesses its own essential nature, its own culture and mores, and that for this reason it is best if each sticks to its own kind.

Some would call that backward. Others would call it progressive. Put a happy-face on the same sentiments and you have something like Somerville Place, a blacks-only residential floor at the University of Southern California. Says USC, "The goals of Somerville Place aim to foster an understanding of and respect for Black culture." Ahh, that. The bigot and USC might differ on whether black culture should be respected, but they agree it exists. Interesting.

Read it all.

INTERESTING READ: The Floating dollar as a threat to property rights. I tend toward a simpler view: the idea of the pool lifeguard getting to decide what level of submergence constitutes “floating” is, umm ... disconcerting.

AMERICA’S ELITES have a duty to the rest of us. But notice - “the rest of us” have no duties at all.

E. J. Dionne - still stupid after all these years.

IT’S OKAY TO BE ‘UNCIVIL’ if you’re a liberal college professor. More here.

SPRING IS FINALLY HERE: the beech trees are finally showing their leaves.


Quite a difference in a bit less than two weeks.

I’M NOT BLACK; just heavily tanned.

"AMERICA IS TRULY A WONDERFUL COUNTRY. Where else would you find a female Navy officer from Reno, Nevada, commanding the destroyer USS Decatur? Did I mention that she is of South Asian origin? Oh, and let us not forget that she is a graduate of the nation’s oldest private military academy, Norwich."

Her blog is here.

ANOTHER ARGUMENT FOR SMALLER GOVERNMENT: Tax compliance employs more workers than Wal-Mart, UPS, McDonalds, IBM, and Citigroup combined.

PRESIDENT WHATEVER finds things not going his way. Whatever you thought of the “great budget debate,” my sense is that Speaker Boehner is taking Sarah Palin’s advice: don’t retreat; reload.”

Read the whole thing.

THAT’S 4% PER ANNUM, over and above the normal inflation rate. Compliments of Neal Boortz.

SAVING ELECTRICITY: and, yes, the view is depressing.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS insist S&P warning means Congress should raise the debt ceiling, no strings attached.

More than half of House Democrats are seizing on news that Standard and Poor's could downgrade the United States' bond rating to make the argument that Republicans need to raise the debt limit without tying it to additional spending restraint.

"America pays its bills," said Rep. Peter Welch, (D-VT).

I would argue that the fact that the debt ceiling needs to be raised is proof that America does not pay its bills. Hence the need, not for strings, but for high tensile strength steel cables.

NO SURPRISE: Rising gasoline prices sinking Obama.

GIANT [SUPERMARKET] DISRESPECTS THE COMMUNITY by outsourcing its formerlly unionized warehousing operation. “From a union activist: ‘We fought for the consumer, who deserves to have food that comes from union workers, warehouses and distribution.’ Problem is, the food tastes the same without the union. And it probably costs less, too.”

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS may not be the righteous voice of the virtuous proletariat, but rather a privileged group that the voters ... are getting wise to.

HOGWASH ONLY A PROGRESSIVE COULD BELIEVE: “Obama ...framing himself as the pragmatic voice in a highly charged partisan environment that could devolve into chaos without adult supervision.”

GOP RUNNING POLITICAL RISKS with Medicare reforms?

I don’t think so. Moreover, I suspect that the Ryan plan might garner even more support from seniors like me if we were allowed to “buy into” his plan early - maybe as part of a 10-year “grand experiment.”

WHY ‘BIG GREEN’ doesn’t make any sense. Read it all.

ANOTHER USE FOR THE CHEVY VOLT: starting fires.

100 REASONS NOT TO GO TO GRADUATE SCHOOL: “The traditional American master’s degree ... has been dramatically watered down. Will it be long before the PhD suffers the same fate?” It already has.

MORE: Why bother with the expense of a Ph.D. when you can buy one for a thousand bucks?

AND THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIALS LOST 140 POINTS: Standard & Poor’s cut its ratings outlook on the U.S. to negative from stable. Thanks, Mr. President.

NOT AN ENCOURAGING FORECAST: ”Dismal.” It’s becoming more and more obvious that the only solution to America’s problems is the wholesale dismissal of the “elected class.”

TAXES: go where the money is. Willie Sutton supposedly robbed banks for the same reason.

OBAMA SAID that he wants to trim “spending in the tax code” (read as tax breaks) - except for those “tax expenditures” he supports.

STAY TUNED: an email from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli about Virginia’s lawsuit challenging ObamaCare:

The United States Supreme Court Justices met last Friday to discuss whether or not to grant Virginia's request to expedite our healthcare case directly to the Supreme Court - thereby bypassing the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Virginia, along with many other states and companies, has been left with great uncertainty regarding the healthcare bill. Virginia alone is spending millions of dollars preparing to implement the bill - despite the fact that if Virginia's legal challenge succeeds, the bill may well be stricken before it is ever fully implemented.

The Supreme Court did not make an announcement today on whether or not it was going to expedite the case. Instead, they relisted the case on their docket for this Friday, April 22nd.

What does that mean?

It means that they haven't rejected our request - yet. Remember, requests to expedite are infrequently granted. However, it also probably means that one or more of the Justices want more time to consider the question.

It also means that there appears at least to be interest in the petition at the court, which is itself encouraging. If my numbers are right, over 90% of petitions addressed in these conferences are summarily rejected because no Justice has any interest in them. So, the fact that the Justices didn't summarily dismiss our petition is itself interesting and at least modestly encouraging (hopefully not in the vein of what your mother told you growing up: "the worst thing they can do is ignore you"... of course, my mother has never filed a petition with the Supreme Court).

Generally speaking, we would expect an opinion issued Monday the 25th; however, it is Easter weekend, so I don't know if that will have an impact on timing, but I'll let you know as soon as we find out!

If we’re lucky ....

ANOTHER HIT: Navy Aegis destroyer USS O’Kane successfully engages an intermediate-range ballistic missile [IRBM] during a test off the coast of Hawaii. This a first - using the Aegis BMD system’s launch-on-remote capability. To paraphrase Vice-President Biden, this is a “big deal.”

OBAMA: I WAS AGAINST SIGNING STATEMENTS before I was for them.

USAF SPACE CHIEF eyes simpler satellites. But more 'simple satellites' in low Earth orbit also means more space 'junk' to get rid of.

LEFTISTS IN WISCONSIN acting like drunk frat boys (but without the charm). Watch the videos (if you can stand it).

Commenter Russ G. says it all: “The biggest problem with modern liberalism, I think, is its certainty that it holds a monopoly on truth and virtue. It’s a lot like many forms of Christianity in previous centuries, and like much of Islam today. If you are the one virtuous population in a sea of evil-doers, it is very easy to justify ignoring rules of courtesy. This is evil you are fighting, after all.”

OOPS! CLIMATE CHANGE? Never mind.

REPEAL THE ‘NATURAL BORN’ CITIZEN CLAUSE? While I don’t really shy away from the idea, I can’t help but think a fairer interpretation of Meacham's argument is something on the order of “we can’t let a mere Constitution interfere with our obligation to do what we believe is right to for the American people.”

CENTRAL PARK IN NYC is about 900 acres. Use it and see how many penthouses it can light.

SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ) let’s his tinfoil hat slip awry. Arrogance unbounded.

X-51 WAVERIDER makes historic hypersonic flight.

SAY WHAT? first we demonstrate it works, then we cancel it.

THE GODDESS lives on—“notably in the syllabi of numerous women’s studies courses and feminist-inflected courses in other parts of the curriculum.“

Linked from Instapundit.

WELL, ISN’T THE U.S. already a wholly-owned subsidiary of Obama Inc.?

BIG-TIME CAN CRUSHING: This should be good news for Space-X and the other companies vying to develop commercial heavy-lift vehicles. I doubt that it will significantly affect manned spacecraft design, though.

“ONE WONDERS how long it’s been since [Jesse Jackson Jr.] actually read a book.”

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: “[I]f anyone had spoken like this to the princeling earlier in his life, he very likely never would have become president. Instead, Obama has been coddled and cosseted throughout his glide-path trajectory — maverick Democrat Mickey Kaus just called him “the biggest affirmative action baby in history,” and said he was a lousy politician to boot. No one, it seems, has ever sat him down and explained to him how thoroughly mediocre he really is.”

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF GANGSTER GOVERNMENT: taxes are for the little people.

THE PRESIDENT’S NEW ECONOMIC STRATEGY “guarantees two more years of fiscal stalemate and poisons the well on the most important economic policy question facing American policymakers: how to permanently solve the long-term fiscal problem caused by the unsustainable growth of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”

IF IT WEREN’T FOR FALSE CHOICES, Obama would have no choices at all.

SQUARE KILOMETER RADIOTELESCOPE ARRAY.

"Using innovative receptor technologies and one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, the SKA will probe the origins of the universe. However the spin off technologies will have applications closer to home such as mega-data management, very low-power Radio Frequency devices, and 'system of systems' control software."

I suspect the ‘close-to-home’ applications will be far more significant than currently imagined.

YES, CALL US 'PETS' because 'slaves' is a bit too ... harsh. Read the comments, too.

UNITED NATIONS document would give ‘Mother Earth’ the same rights as humans. And if the Japanese earthquake means anything, this is akin to fleas giving a dog “flea rights.”

More on the silliness here.

THE TAX MAN COMETH Frank & Ernest is here.

OBAMA'S SOLUTION TO THE DEFICIT: ObamaCare, tax hikes spending reductions in the tax code, and spending.

RHAPSODY IN RED ... INK.

BRING IT ON! John Derbyshire echos my thoughts as he prepares his tax return.

HEH. Obama’s approval rating hits all time low; search for cool phone intensifies.

AS LOW AS 60%? Obama's new [deficit reduction] plan may actually rely 60% on tax increases.

OBAMA WILL LOSE IN 2012: “The more that people experience his leadership, the less they like his leadership.”

“WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE, you ask, between [the Biden ‘Deficit Working Group’] and the Bowles/Simpson Deficit Commission whose plan went nowhere last year? I … don’t know. The members are different, for one thing. Plus, the Deficit Commission was designed to let Obama avoid leadership on the debt crisis during his first two years in office. The deficit ‘working group’ is really more designed to let Obama avoid leadership on the debt crisis during his second two years in office. So, there’s a difference.”

172 DEMOCRATS VOTE ‘PRESENT’. “Sounds like Obama has set the standard.”

Little wonder the Democrats are not in favor of spanking little children.

BACK TO BASICS for Wal-Mart. Out: upscale organic foods, “green” products, trendy jeans, and political correctness. In: “heritage” products, like inexpensive jeans and sweatpants. Like other real-world experiments, the Wal-Mart story exposes the failure of progressivism in the marketplace.

WE’RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT, and we’re here to help (second item): “So, the purpose of government is to take my money, filter it through a bunch of agencies and contractors, each taking their cut, and then give a small fraction of it back to me to spend on ‘approved’ services. Gives new meaning to the phrase ‘I'm from the government and I'm here to help.’ I wish they would stop helping.” So do I.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL HEAD’S EXIT leaves behind a system in turmoil. What has been left unmentioned in this whole kerfuffle is that safety of flight is solely the responsibility of the person in the cockpit - the pilot. The role of the air traffic control system is to aid and assist, but flight safety has always been the responsibility of the pilot.

IT'S EASIER - and quicker - to list the items that won't cost more in the coming year.

ODDLY ENOUGH, I agree with Paul Krugman: It's time for the Republicans to begin kicking ass and taking names.

UPDATE: Don Surber starts.

MICHAEL BARONE on gangster government: "The law in its majesty applies to everyone except those who get special favors."

A LESSON Democrats will can never learn: “Caring don’t pay the bills.” A truly fine rant about taxes and budget cutting. Here are some nuggets:

(budget cuts) “[T]hat’s like a 600 pound man who’s heart is about to explode congratulating himself that he got a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger… for his fifty-seventh meal of the day.”

(Social Security trust fund) “[E]xpecting congress to save money is like expecting crack whores to save crack.”

(ethanol) “I went from 35 to 27 mpg when they started adding corn and rainbows to my gas.”

Read the whole thing and scan through the comments. Linked from Instapundit.

CLEVER: The Obama administration wants automatic tax increases.

EUGENE ROBINSON on ‘selflessness’. To which I have to respond: “I know you want to help me. Please, don’t.”

I DIDN’T BELIEVE IT when I first heard it on the radio, but ABC News has the video. Talking about gasoline prices, President Obama said (4:23) that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be used only for ‘serious disruptions - like [hurricane] Katrina - when the refineries are shut down’ (paraphrased).

I guess an Ivy League education doesn’t include the knowledge that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is crude oil, not gasoline, stored underground in huge salt domes along the Gulf coast.

The guy gives “dumb” a bad name.

VENI, VIDI, VICI:

If Sarah Palin’s not running for president, what a terrible waste that would be of the single best stump speech I’ve heard since, well, Palin’s ’08 convention speech, which just happened to be the single most electrifying political moment of my adult life. … On this day, Tea Party tax-day, Sarah Palin walked into the heart of this nation’s battle, stared down a gallery of Leftist union goons with poise and grace, and articulated our message as well as anyone ever could. Let’s hope this is just the beginning.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

COUCH RUG I wish I could have gotten a picture of Shadow's scowl at having his nap interrupted, but the infrared rangefinder would cause him to close his eyes just as I took the picture.

A TREE FALLS IN MANASSAS. We've been having some dead trees taken out on the property, and this one proved interesting. Because of its nearness to our neighbor, the tree service decided to drop it vertically by attaching it to a nearby tree, cutting it at the base, and then winching it down about 4 feet at a time. Here it is just after the first cut was made ....

And here it is about three cuts later as the crown is about to be removed.

It started raining shortly after this photo was taken or the tree would be firewood by now.

ALL ABOARD THE BULLET TRAIN TO BANKRUPTCY: Sarah Palin at a Tea Party event in Madison, WI. A bonus in Andrew Breitbart’s introduction.

UPDATE: the view from Althouse.

UNYIELDING IDEOLOGUE on the federal budget: “Obama ... made it clear that nearly everything that he ‘believe[s] in’ should remain untouched. Anything else would reflect a lack of ‘patriotism’."

NEAL BOORTZ: “I’ve got my escape plan and yes, it does involve suitcases.” So do I, and it involves a language other than English. There are givers and there are takers - and right now the takers seem to be winning.

HAVE THE U.S. AND NATO given up on Libya?

I think we’re seeing two things going on here. First, NATO is not willing to step up to the plate in the absence of U.S. leadership. a result of too many years of letting the U.S. be the world’s policeman. And, second, that the Obama administration has no principles whatever.

SHOULD I BE SURPRISED? Obama is just plain bad at politics.

WHY IS OBAMA’S SUPPORT slipping among Blacks and Latinos? Answer: it's the economy, stupid. Gasoline prices. Food prices.

IT’S NEVER JUST THE ECONOMY, STUPID: the moral high ground is not the place to be when your enemies are armed.

HOW THE NATURE CONSERVANCY undermines property rights and expands government control. But it’s for your own good.

A UNIFIED THEORY OF OBAMA:

I wondered if it would be possible to explain the many contradictions of Obama and the mystery of his origins and incomprehensible nature of his domestic and foreign policies to better understand him and predict why he seems to be steering the ship of state onto the shoals. I think I've finally got it .... Barack is not one person. The man we know as Barack Obama is really two people, identical twins.

It’s an interesting read, but not original. There was a short story, I believe in a 1960’s-ish issue of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, based on exactly the same premise. A “Kennedy-like” patriarch raises multiple identical siblings to be the eventual president of the United States. Each sibling was educated specifically for one aspect of the presidency (foreign policy, domestic policy, campaign policy, etc.) and one was chosen to be the face of the President while the others remained hidden.

The difference with Feldman’s hypothesis is that, in the story, the multiple siblings were competent.

BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY

Milk Sucks! Got Margaritas?

SPACEFLIGHT GAP IS BIGGEST NASA CHALLENGE: "The most distressing challenge for NASA ... is the looming gap in human spaceflight that will be created once the shuttles are no longer available to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station." You don’t say. Read it all, especially former NASA administrator Michael Griffin’s comment that the government should retain some capability even after commercial human spaceflight becomes extant. Griffen’s loss was a huge blow to NASA.

SACRED COWS, third rails, and the scope of government.

The debate over cutting federal spending has so far concentrated on shrinking the size of the federal government, not necessarily its scope. Even if Republicans prevail in cutting some spending and reforming entitlements, the federal government will still be involved in a wide swath of American life. There really hasn’t been a serious discussion (outside of votes on funding for NPR and Planned Parenthood) of shrinking the breadth of governmental spending, activity, and involvement. Continued failure to do so would be a serious substantive and strategic error. Merely reducing spending in certain areas while leaving the departments, agencies, and programs intact ensures that those departments, agencies, and programs will soon resume growing and even metastasizing. It’s the Washington way.

I love the use of the term 'metasticize.' Government is a cancer on the body politic. It’s time to start excising the cancer.

TAX HIKES? Nope; 'spending reductions in the tax code'.

I’d like to commend President Obama for his backhanded honesty on this, though. He has finally admitted that he thinks the money that you work for belongs to the government before it belongs to you. He just had to utter the most Orwellian phrase ever spoken by an American president to get the admission out there.

You're just a temporary custodian.

THERE ARE MEN; there are ‘girly men’; and then there are these doofi (plural of doofus).
Watch it if you have the courage. ADDED: Bingo!

BOEHNER WON THE VOTE, but lost the trust of conservatives. I’ve written off the Democrats long ago; now it seems to be time to write off the establishment Republicans as well. Bring on 2012.

SIR BARACK THE VALIANT Ed Morrissey is not as kind as Nate Beeler.

CONSERVATIVES should no longer be happy about budget deal.

[I]it now appears that the new Republican majority has done what it attacked Democrats for doing when they controlled the House. They negotiated a back room deal, didn't release the details until 2 a.m., and the more we have of the details, the more we find out that the actual deal is filled with accounting gimmicks. Not a good way to earn back the trust of conservatives ....

"Trust, but verify" needs less trust and more verify.

ORBITING DUST STORM could remove space junk. It could also remove satellites, space stations, and other living things. It is an interesting proposal, though - the unintended consequences will be a wonder to behold - and I've seen similar proposals in my normal line of work.

WASHINGTON POST columnist E.J. Dionne gets the Tea Party - and everything else - wrong again. At his core, Dionne believes government is essential in making the United States more competitive. Tea Partiers disagree, and to Dionne, disagreement is somehow evil.

ONLY YOU CAN STOP HIM!

OBAMA'S DEFICIT SPEECH.

From the left: "the man America elected president has re-emerged."

From the center left: "kicking the can down the road ... is not leadership."

From the center: "pitiful."

From the center right: "was he serious?"

From the right: "rather than building bridges, he's poisoning wells."

SIXTEEN TONS (OF DEBT). Sleep well.



From IowaHawk, via Instapundit.

MICKEY KAUS on the real healthcare divide: treatment vs. rationing.

Sometimes it’s better – politically and morally – to have decentralized decisions, made by doctors and patients on all sorts of varied grounds. Even if it looks irrational, it will respect both life and individual autonomy (and the equality thereof).

The quote appears to put me in the “treatment” category, but I’m rather of the category that believes the decision is best left to those most intimately involved - the patient, family, and those they deem necessary for support.

LAHOOD "OUTRAGED" by sleeping air traffic controllers. No, he isn't. He's outraged because he got caught with his pants down with his incompetence on full display.

IF YOU'RE SO DAMN PATRIOTIC, write the Treasury a check!

OBAMA’S CHARITY STATE: “Nearly half of American households — 47 percent — pay no federal income tax whatsoever. Raising that number to over 50 percent by increasing the number of poor and getting them to vote appears to be the Democrats’ election strategy.”

A RETURN TO COLONIALISM? Recent history in the Middle East suggests that this may become necessary (and on the bright side would necessitate the dissolution of the United Nations). Linked from Instapundit.

LOOKING BACK TO THE HOOVER ADMINISTRATION for answers: "If stimulus is the solution to high unemployment," remarks Santa Clara University economist and law professor David Friedman, "the Great Depression should have ended almost before it began."

SUPPORT TEEN DRINKING - and earn the youth vote.

THE LEMMINGS ARE BEATING US TO THE CLIFF’S EDGE; we have to catch up!

BLACKS FLEE BLUE STATES IN DROVES. "Disaster is too kind a word for what the blue social model has (inadvertently) built in America’s cities. No wonder that to be young, gifted and Black today means fleeing the consequences of blue social policy as fast as you can." Read it all.

THE UNVARNISHED TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY: There is no money. Oh, I’ll get mine - because I’ll die before your kids quit paying into the kitty that supports me. But they won’t get theirs because Ponzi schemes always go bust when the supply of suckers runs out.

OBAMA'S LOST THAT LOVING FEELING: "Campaign 2008 was an air-filled souffle of a moment. And souffles don’t rise twice."

EVERY TIME I leave the parking garage from work the meter advises me to ‘Drive Safely’. And everywhere I go I’m surrounded by gratuitous advice dispensers - on TV, on the radio, in the newspaper, on my restaurant menu, in the mail. How long will it be until my alarm clock advises me not to get out of bed until I’m fully awake?

PROGRESSIVE, SUCKER, VICTIM, WHINER: what’s the difference?

MY TAXPAYER DIED: the limits of government growth.

UPDATE TO my 'going Galt' post: I've also noticed that the nagging lower back pain has gone away now that I no longer have to bear the crushing burden of Obama's "taxes on the rich."

WILLIAM J. LEDERER wrote a book about America titled A Nation of Sheep (1961); Judge Andrew Napalitano reused the title in 2007. I was going to ask who’s going to write A Nation of Wimps, but Hara Estroff Marano already has.

EXPORTING MANUFACTURING: Ford’s most advanced assembly plant operates in rural Brazil.

Is this why Brazil hates us? Or a new beginning with our neighbors in the south?

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson confirms his misunderstanding of the Constitution.

The far-right ideologues in the House seek to starve the federal government to the point where it can no longer fulfill its constitutional duty to promote the general welfare.

And with that simple statement, Robinson finally comes close - no cigar, but close - to understanding the Tea Party objections to the tenets of progressivism. Those "far-right ideologues" - myself included - simply don't believe that promoting the general welfare includes controlling the most minute details of every individual's life.

WHY I LIKE MY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Personal protection is “good and sufficient reason” for carrying a gun to church.

WE SCREWED UP; now take your punishment.

If politicians in Washington spend too much and cause more red ink, which happens on a routine basis, Obama wants a provision that automatically would raise taxes on the American people.

Politicians play, taxpayers pay.

ACTUALLY IT'S 'POSEUR' but, well, yeah.

POLITICS, PROPAGANDA - and control. We’d be much better off as a nation without all the damned “public service” announcements.

USE THE DEBT CEILING to 'punish our enemies'. The Washington Examiner's David Freddoso thinks the idea is tongue-in-cheek, but I’m not so sure. The Obama administration has been willing to use gangster tactics in the past.

LOCALLY gasoline is up over $4/gal for premium; regular is $3.82. Could that be why the inflation rate is nearing 10%?

It looks more and more like a Jimmy Carter rerun is a best-case scenario.

DRINKING ALCOHOL primes certain areas of our brain to learn and remember better. It's a study from The University of Texas at Austin. I'm sure they would like to believe that they learn and remember better.

JOHN RANSOM responds to email, hate mail, and comments from readers. My favorite: “Truth is always just a point of view ....”

THROW GRANDMA FROM THE TRAIN - it’s too crowded under the bus.

JOHN GALT IS A LIBRA

(April 13) You like your drama with popcorn. As for the real-life show that’s going on, you didn’t buy a ticket, so you don’t have to watch ....

So am I.

BRYAN PRESTON explains why he and I didn’t - and won’t - vote for Obama.

I don’t want the government doing everything for me, I just mostly want it out of the way. I don’t want a president who’s sensitive, I want a president who will defend our country and not go around apologizing for it. I want a president who understands federalism, not one who attacks states for trying to uphold the rule of law. I want a president who understands economics in the real world, not just in the halls of academia. I want a president who has held down a real job, who has met a payroll, and who has achieved something on his own or met failure trying. I want a president who loves liberty, not one who is constantly finding ways to curb liberty. I want a president who appreciates our allies and stares down our enemies, and doesn’t hug our enemies and alienate our allies. I want a president I can trust, and I don’t trust Barack Obama at all, on any issue. I don’t trust his judgment or his instincts or his intentions.

Well said.

NOW THEY TELL US: hope is not a strategy.

WILLIAM McGURN: Economics, the "dismal science" isn't. Progressivism is.

"A NEW SPACE AGE is dawning now, a private one driven by profit and adventure, rather than national prestige and fickle politics, so the next half century is likely to be more exciting than the past one, with opportunities for all to go into space, and not just a few privileged government employees, whether Russian or American.” I hope so.

TAX, TAX, TAX ... AND TAX SOME MORE: the ‘People’s Budget’. “Perhaps the most extraordinary [part of] the caucus plan [is] to raise the Social Security tax to cover nearly all of a taxpayer's income.” Just to add some perspective to the ‘People’s Budget,’ when I started work in 1972 the FICA tax for Social Security (only) was 4.6% of the first $9,000 of income. Today it is 6.2% of the first $106,800 of income. That’s only a 1600% increase.

REFORMING YOUR WAY TO RICHES:

Remember how the health-care bill was about "standing up to the special interests" and the lobbyists? Tell that to Democrat Bart Stupak, perhaps the single most important rank-and-file House member in passing the bill, who just got a fat new gig on K Street.

Enough said.

THE NEXT OBAMA STIMULUS PROGRAM: Cash for Foreclosures. Of course, you'll have to have the house razed ...

Uh, no, it's not real. The idea came while waiting for today's deficit speech and perusing the comments here.

WHY BRAZIL HATES US: it's the environmentalists.

It's only partly tongue-in-cheek. Linked from Instapundit.

INSTAPUNDIT calls for shared sacrifice. Follow the last link to his earlier post.

OBAMA MOTORS FAIL: “What we do know is having the steering wheel fall off the car created by Obama and Government Motors is the most perfect analogy for this administration ever.”

Instapundit comments.

CHICAGO SCHOOL TO KIDS: You can’t bring lunch from home. I wish I could say “You gotta be kidding” but unfortunately it’s just another manifestation of the progressive superiority complex.

WHAT A WASTE OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION: the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein writes on economic policy. The Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein slices and dices Ezra’s argument.

WHAT PARTS OF THE GOVERNMENT should be permanently furloughed?

Foreign Policy magazine tends to be a liberal domain, so there’s lots to quibble about in the first 8 items, but they generally come off as reasonably thoughtful. But the ninth? The best that can be said is that Michael Lind, of the New America Foundation, has come unglued. Here is his contribution (in italics):

[T]the federal government is too small, not too large, and should be expanded. At the price of inefficiency, things which could be done more simply and efficiently by the federal government have been delegated to the states or subsidized private corporations.

Name one thing - just one - that the federal government has ever done more simply or efficiently.

For example, hybrid federal-state programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance are threatened by unstable state revenues, unlike purely federal programs like Social Security.

Uh, Social Security is stable? Only Harry Reid doesn't recognize it is destined for eventual bankruptcy.

Tax-favored private retirement savings programs like IRAs and 401k's are riskier than Social Security and allow brokers to fleece unsuspecting clients with their fees. These programs should be shrunk and Social Security should be expanded.

Not so. My social security check is not nearly as big as it could have been had I been allowed to invest privately what I paid in FICA taxes.

Medical cost inflation threatens both the efficient Medicare program and the dysfunctional, employer-based health insurance sector.

Employer-based health “care” is dysfunctional because of government interference, not in spite of it.

The solution is cost controls, not rationing access to health care by Americans.

Wrong again. Cost control is a means of rationing access.

In a rational country, the federal government would take over functions that never should have been shared with the states or off-loaded onto the private sector.

Only if “rational” and “insane” are synonyms.

Higher federal taxes would be offset somewhat by lower state taxes and the abolition of tax subsidies for private insurance and private retirement savings.

It’s sufficient to just say “higher federal taxes.”

OBAMA REGRETS not voting ‘present’ in 2006.

WHY WOULD ANYONE PAY FOR BIAS AND INACCURACY? NY Times traffic down 11-30% since paywall went into effect.

HELL TO FREEZE OVER: Senate to vote to defund Planned Parenthood on Thursday. Urge your Senator to vote in favor of defunding. This isn’t about abortion; it is about getting a $1B behemoth off the government teat and getting government out of healthcare.

GEE, THAT 'GOING GALT' THING has worked out pretty well. In 2010, I “went Galt” - retired and started working part-time. My income has decreased 42%, my taxes decreased 65%, and my standard of living has hardly changed. Tough luck, Mr. Obama - you’re going to have to remake America without my help.

OBAMA LAUNCHES 2012 CAMPAIGN.

FROM AN EMAIL: With their country in the midst of a colossal disaster, the Japanese can teach plenty of lessons to the world.

CALM. Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

DIGNITY. Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture. Their patience is admirable and praiseworthy.

ABILITY. The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn't fall.

GRACE. (Selflessness) People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

ORDER. No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

SACRIFICE. Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

TENDERNESS. Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

TRAINING. The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

MEDIA. They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage. Most of all - NO POLITICIANS TRYING TO GET CHEAP MILEAGE.

CONSCIENCE. When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.

Better us to learn from them than them to learn from us.

INSTAPUNDIT: You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind’s blowing.

Unless you’re a Democrat (and then you won’t listen).

CONTINUING RESOLUTION IMPASSE: Do the Democrats dare risk voting 'no'?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER senior political analyst Michael Barone on the changing tide.

D.C MAYOR VINCENT GRAY arrested and jailed for Capitol Hill protest. The city would be better off if the police had kept him.

HOW SAFE is your Roth IRA? My son’s response to the LA Times article can only be described using the keyboard’s “special characters.”

Author Gerald E. Scorse is typical of the progressive mindset: it's the government's money, just loaned to you provided that you use it "rightly."

APRIL SHOWERS bring May flowers. Well, it’s raining - and we could use it. But I do wish it was a warm rain.

GET READY FOR WEDNESDAY: Obama to outline plan to confront long-term debt crisis -- and this time he really, really, means it.

ANGER, SADNESS among GOP over $39B continuing resolution: "The amount of cuts extracted from the President and his Senate Democrats was a step in the right direction, but the American people expected, deserved, and needed much, much more.”

My sentiments as well.

VIRGIN GALACTIC hiring pilots to fly both the air-launched SpaceShipTwo and its multi-engine WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.

Oh, to be young - and dream - again.

50 YEARS AGO TODAY: Space station crew marks big space anniversary.

ABOUT TIME: GOP House members send letter asking IRS to probe AARP. Anyone who believes that AARP has its members best interest at hears is suffering from a serious recto-cranial impaction.

JEFF JACOBY has thoughts on freedom of association.

ELECTIONS “are the worst time to talk” about serious issues. But here are some items to think about as our neighbor Canada moves toward their national election May 2nd.

I LIKE "extreme," "draconian," and "crazy." Click on the graphic to understand why.

WE, THE PEOPLE

The YouTube link is here.

OBAMA'S VERY BIG, BRAND NEW IDEA on entitlement reform is ... the classic definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

RAT on blogging.

ANOTHER REASON to dis-establish the Nanny State. Drunks are okay; fat drunks are not.

U.S. READIES for high-stakes missile defense test.

THE GOVERNMENT is still "open for business." I don't know whether I'm relieved or disappointed.

UH-OH. ANNIHILATION IS ONLY 3.8 billion light-years away.

YET ANOTHER REASON TO DOWNSIZE BIG GOVERNMENT: Business is so dependent on government that it has been reassuring Democrats that it wants to avert a shutdown and fiercely lobbying Republicans to strike a compromise.

Republicans have two powerful pulls on them: the business lobby and the Tea Party. One has money. The other has votes. Boehner might have to choose between the two.

Go with the votes. The other will follow.

RUSSIA SEEKS 50% SHARE of global space-launch market. The Obama administration certainly seems willing to help.

GAS PRICES went up 10 cents a gallon at my usual gas station last week. That's roughly a 100% inflation rate. I think it may be time to quit working and move back in with Uncle Sam and Aunt Nanny.

NOT A CHANCE: Why can't Maureen Dowd and her fellow liberals grow up?

SO WHO NEEDS the federal government anyway? "Larimer County [CO] Sheriff Justin Smith, worried about the economic impact of shuttering Rocky Mountain National Park in the wake of a federal budget stalemate, today said he’ll provide law enforcement and emergency services to help keep the park open." And the National Mall will remain open. "Anyone can happily walk down the National Mall anytime they want, rain or shine, millions of cherry blossoms or none, whether the government is running or not. There’s no price of admission, no gatekeeper to keep anyone locked out."

WOULD YOU BUY a new car from this man? Hell, I wouldn't buy a used car from him - assuming I could find one.

SHUT IT DOWN: "Let the hacks go out and make things, like the rest of us. If they can’t, they’ll starve."

Read it all.

DEMOCRAT LOSES WISCONSIN ELECTION: “My suspicious, cynical side says that the Republicans delayed the full count to flush out any Democrat tricks. God bless ‘em, I hope they’re just that smart.”

Instapundit would be ‘very surprised’ if they were that smart. I think they’re probably smart enough, but I’d be surprised to find they actually had the cojones to do it.

SPRING SPRANG. The first 3 trees (of 100's) in my yard are showing green. It's about time. The green is barely visible above the house.

LIGHT POSTING for the next few days; I've finally started filling out tax forms. So far, I've used Form 1040, Schedules A, B, D, M, and R, most of the worksheets in the 1040 Instruction booklet - and I'm less than half through!

It's going to be a long weekend ....

POLL: Americans want a new President. Only for about the last 2-1/2 years.

HEH. JOE BTFSPLK is the “only non-essential federal employee left and hence the only one directly subject to the horrors of a government shutdown.”

OBAMA ON GAS PRICES: it’s your fault for not buying a Prius.

UPDATE: the media tried to scrub the story; they didn’t quite succeed.

NEW 'GREEN' LIGHT BULBS are causing mercury pollution. There are at least two natural laws at work here: the Law of Unintended Consequences (there will be; usually bad) and the Law of Insanity (doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results). I don't know whether to laugh (at the unintended consequences) or cry (at the insanity), or both.

WHAT IF THE GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN ... and no one cared. My favorite comment:

[T]hink of government workers like teenagers. You pay them an allowance, but do you get any work out them? They eat the food, put their feet on the furniture and complain loudly whenever they are unhappy.

Read it all.

THE TROUBLE, of course, is that progressives are unable to learn from experience.

BARACK 'HUSAME' OBAMA. Read it all - the pun is in the last line.

WHY WEARING a baseball cap backwards is dumb. Ah, yes, it is, but on the bright side, it allows you to identify them much more quickly.

WHITE HOUSE blasts Ryan budget proposal. So where is their counterproposal?

SO CAN I OPT OUT? Sure, you can opt out of receiving ... you just can't opt out of paying.

SIMPLY ORWELLIAN: Center for American Progress blogger Matt Yglesias on why Ryan's Medicare reforms wouldn’t affect those 55 and older:

The idea here is that today’s old people—a very white group that’s also hostile to gay rights, and thus sort of predisposed to like conservative politicians—will also get to benefit from an extremely generous single-payer health care system. But younger people—a less white group that’s friendly to gay rights and thus predisposed to skepticism about conservative politicians—will get to pay the high taxes to finance old people’s generous single-payer health care system, but then we won’t get to benefit from it. This is in part in order to clear headroom in the budget so as to make gigantic tax cuts for rich people affordable.

Yglesias' youth and inexperience show. Plans for reforming entitlements exempt those at or near retirement because "older Americans have built their lives around the existing system and don't have the opportunity to adjust to changes, whereas younger workers do." I would add that they will also not live to benefit from the improvements either.

PROMISES KEPT, and those to expect again.

MORE: Change - it's worth waiting for.

BUT IT’S your wealth and power she’s dividing, not hers.

AND THE ‘FRAUD MARGIN’ always seems to favor Democrats. Imagine that.

SO QUIT YOUR JOB and let Uncle Sam and Aunt Nanny take care of you.

PELOSI: Republican budget will force seniors into starvation.

Well, I could stand to lose a few pounds.

HOPE ISN”T HIRING

Another great Obama campaign ad.

NEW DNC CHAIR: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. One of the better comments: “A skull that makes vacuum bottles jealous paired with a voice that makes chalk and chalkboards jealous.”