ITALY TAKES A CUE FROM OBAMA: shoot the messenger.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME: "It’s hard to tell if we should mark August 4 as Barack Obama’s 50th birthday or his 50th anniversary with himself."

DEBT DEAL DONE, Obama focuses on jobs. So why's he still pushing taxes on the wealthy?

SHOOTING IS TOO GOOD FOR THEM: Secret Club Rewarded Lurid Child Sex Abuse. I'd suggest staking them to an anthill in the middle of Death Valley, but that would be too quick.

A CONSUMER-DRIVEN health plan keeps the doctor away. The evidence seems to suggest so, and moreover it's exactly what I would prefer to Medicare.

HOW TO create (government) jobs.

WHERE'S YOUR BUDGET, MR. PRESIDENT?

During the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, President Obama reportedly warned Republican leaders not to call his bluff by sending him a bill without tax increases. Republicans in Congress ignored this threat and passed a bill that cuts more than a dollar in spending for every dollar it increases the debt limit, without raising taxes.

Yesterday, Mr. Obama signed this bill into law. He was, as he said, bluffing.

Ever since they fudged the numbers to pass ObamaCare, Democrats have abandoned credible spending plans.

GOOD NEWS: U.S. borrowing tops 100% of GDP. "The last time US debt topped the size of its annual economy was in 1947 just after World War II."

FROM MY EMAIL.

The phone rings and the lady of the house answers, 'Hello...'

'Mrs. Sanders, please.'

'Speaking.'

'Mrs.. Sanders, this is Doctor Jones at Saint Agnes Laboratory. When your husband's doctor sent his biopsy to the lab last week, a biopsy from another Mr. Sanders arrived as well. We are now uncertain which one belongs to your husband. Frankly, either way the results are not too good.'

'What do you mean?' Mrs. Sanders asks nervously.

'Well, one of the specimens tested positive for Alzheimer's and the other one tested positive for HIV.... We can't tell which is which.'

'That's dreadful! Can you do the test again?', questioned Mrs. Sanders.

'Normally we can, but Medicare will only pay for these expensive tests one time.'

'Well, what am I supposed to do now?'

'The folks at Medicare recommend that you drop your husband off somewhere in the middle of town ... If he finds his way home ... don't sleep with him.'

Government health care in a nutshell.

"LIBERALS WHO LOATHE THE TEA PARTY have every right to challenge it. But when, in an apoplectic frenzy, they defame its members as "terrorists," they go way too far, and debase only themselves."

ONE NEEDN'T BE CONSISTENT, so long as one is consistent with the narrative.

THOMAS SOWELL: Misleading Words Part II: Poverty.

I had similar thoughts here.

YES, THE TRUTH'S A BITCH:

But no matter how many times we try to kid ourselves with one poll result or another, liberals just don't have that [public opinion] advantage. The public is mostly in favor of raising taxes on the rich — though I suspect its support is pretty soft — but on the bigger issues they mostly aren't on our side. They think deficits are bad, they don't trust Keynesian economics, they don't want a higher IRS bill (who does, after all?), and they believe the federal government is spending too much on stuff they don't really understand. Conservatives have just flat out won this debate in recent decades, and until that changes we're not going to be able to make much progress.

It won't change.

THANKS, MR. OBAMA: the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down nearly 400 points at 2:30 pm (EDT).

[Update] At 4:15, it's now down over 500 points.

DISAPPOINT-MINTS: What more can you say?

GUESS WHAT? You Get to Pay for Obama’s ‘Jobs’ Bus Tour. So Obama gets a bigger, heavier, armored Official Presidential Bus to throw people under. We should be happy.

ON THE DRONE SCENE: commercially available news drones and spy drones.

ROBOCOP(TER): ShadowHawk Mk II.

IF THIS WERE TO PASS, I suspect it would enrich the Tea Party.

THINK ABOUT THIS for a moment. We spend billions of dollars on Chinese goods. China takes those dollars and rather than spend it to build up China, buys U.S. Treasury bonds to allow the U.S. to go further into debt. The net result seems to be that China remains dependent on the U.S. to fuel its limited growth, and the U.S. is dependent on China to sustain its already-weak economy.

It strikes me that we're in a race to the bottom, and the U.S. is leading.

HOW BAD IS THE ECONOMY?

I spent a few hours on my birthday, Sunday, at the Finger Lakes Racetrack and casino. I’ve been going there 2-3 times a year for a few years now.

In what may be a true comment on the economy, the number of 1 cent video slots was overwhelming. It was almost difficult to find a quarter slot. Two years ago, the penny slots took up one tiny section of the floor. Sunday they were everywhere. Gotta wonder.

Jeez. I think I'll check it out at my local casino. If it's true, I can afford to gamble again.

DENIAL IS A RIVER IN LA-LA LAND: Obama’s Hope-a-Dope Strategy.

WOW! THE DEBT CRISIS is the result of a "neo-conservative sex panic." Who knew?

INTEGRATED SENSOR IS STRUCTURE (ISIS) AIRSHIP is poised to become the ultimate eye in the sky. If that radar antenna really works, it should be phenominal. Synthetic aperture radar (mapping) might be a little tricky with the airship's slow speed, but with that aperture size, it might not even be necessary.

[Added] This might have been the ISIS prototype airship. If so, there is a bit of work still to be done.