"WE'RE TRYING to save life on this planet as we know it today." And there's no place left for intelligent life to go.

I MISSED THIS: House votes on Reid's debt bill, before he offers it, and defeats it -- with Democratic help.

WASHINGTON IS ANNOYED at Wall Street's failure to panic. As I pointed out early in the Obama administration, I believe businesses, large and small, recognized the Obama administration for the incompetent boobs they proved to be and made their plans accordingly: continue business as usual where they could, and sit on their hands where they couldn't. Four years may be an eternity in politics, but in the business world, it's just 4 years.

[Added] My guess is that the stock market will decline another percent or two and then remain relatively stable until the 2012 elections.

Linked from Instapundit.

FLIPPING THROUGH THE CHANNELS ON TV a few minutes ago, I happened to catch Democratic Sen. Boxer's speech in the Senate, then on another channel, Republican Rep. David Dreier. At that point it came to me: Republicans argue facts; Democrats argue fantasies. Which, I guess, is why rainbows and unicorns are so popular.

IN THE WASHINGTON POST, another insane leftist rant attiributing the attacks on non-muslim children in Oslo last week by an obviously deranged Norwegian to anti-Islamic (e.g., Christian) white supremacists (e.g., right-wing extremists).

Read the whole thing, and then ask yourself: Is there any mention of the Muslim attacks (plural) on Ft. Hood? Is there any mention of the Muslim attacks (again plural) on the World Trade Center? Is there any mention of the Muslim attacks (again, plural) on our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya? Or the Muslim attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen? Or the beheadings, which are too numerous to count?

The Left has a very short memory.

THE SENATE is trying to bring the (still unread) Reid deficit bill up for a vote. Senate Minority Leader McConnell is continuing to resist until an acceptable "trigger" is agreed on. I would suggest that the Republicans would agree the debt ceiling increase if the "trigger" was an agreement by the President to not run for reelection in 2012.

WHY I'M SCARED OF OBAMACARE: "One of the problems with socialized medicine is that it pretty much destroys–or entirely destroys, depending on a given country’s laws–the private provision of medical services. Thus, when the socialized system begins to crash and burn, as it inevitably will, citizens have nowhere else to turn."

And those of us who are on - or eligible for - Medicare will be first in the line to nowhere.

ACCORDING TO the Washington Post's Colbert I. King, the Obama administration's dismal performance can be attributed to one Rush Limbaugh.

Forget the "Bush did it" mischaracterizations throughout the King commentary for a moment and let me ask two simple questions: First, what was Obama's approval index on January 20, 2009? And second, what is his approval index today? The answers are +28 in 2009 and -21 today -- a difference of 49 points.

Now clearly Rush Limbaugh has many fans, but not that many.

ROBOTS GO ON STRIKE: Instapundit asks "Have they unionized the robots too, now?"

SURE, higher taxes are the answer.

THE COUGAR BEHIND YOUR TRASH CAN. I agree with Instapundit: "Anybody who wants to kick me off the apex of the food chain had better be prepared to wind up as a rug." Only in my case, it would be Presidential dinner.

THE PRESIDENT IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE:


The data is from the Rasmussen presidential approval index for the 2011 calendar year. Back in April, the "undecideds" - those who moderately approve or disapprove - strongly increased, with about equal percentages taken from those with strong feelings. In July the "undecideds" moved en masse to strong disapproval.

Obama's approval index today is at -21, a number which has been exceeded only 5 times (-22 on 5/26/2010, 8/11/2010 and 3/15/2010, -23 on 9/5/2010, and -24 on 9/9/2010).

I'VE POSTED on quadracopters several times before. Now the Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab has developed robots "that work together to build a mobile landing pad for a quadcopter while it's in flight." Here's the video.

BACK IN MAY, Power Line, in conjunction with the Freedom Club, offered a grand prize of $100,000.00 to whoever could most effectively and creatively dramatize the seriousness of the federal debt crisis. Here are two of the final entries: "Passing the Buck" and "Digging a Hole."

Check in with Power Line for more.

THE CARRIER-BASED VERSION of the F-35 Lightning II stealth combat aircraft has successfully completed its first catapult launch test. Video at the link.

THE WASHINGTON POST'S EUGENE ROBINSON says that liberals need “a Big Idea” if they don’t want to lose the next fight the way they lost the debt limit fight. Uh, how successful was their last "Big Idea" -- ObamaCare?

FINALLY, THE BEGINNING of a contingency plan: "The U.S. Treasury will give priority to making interest payments to holders of government bonds when due if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, according to an administration official."