MARK STEYN on America's debt crisis: "Oh, don’t worry, I’m not one of these 'declinists.' I’m way beyond that, and in the express lane to total societal collapse."

Read it all.

AUTO 'RIGHT TO REPAIR' fight heats up. I can understand both sides of the argument, but as a customer I'm having a harder time finding an independent car repair shop, and I dislike taking my cars to a dealer where I always wind up having to fight off a seemingly mandatory 'maintenance inspection' before I can get even the most minor maintenance started.

WHAT SHE SAID: Chris Muir strikes again.

A 'POPULIST' FUTURE for the Washington Post? Not without firing most of their editorial writers and a goodly number of their journalism staff. I've noticed some progress, but not nearly enough.

TRUST US: SecurID tokens are really, really secure. I'm don't think Lockheed Martin is convinced.

DOES MORE REGULATION create "green jobs"? Only if you're a government employee....

WHY BUSINESSES AREN'T HIRING: machines are exempt from ObamaCare. So the solution is to require 'ObamaMaintenance' for all machines.

GEEK LIFE: The autistic hacker. I could see insanity as a defense, but disability? I don't think so.

SERIOUSLY? Roseanne Barr running for President.

“I’ll forgive all student loans, all debts,” Barr said. “There’ll be no more money, no more money systems. Everything will be based on barter and growing and eating vegetables … People can’t eat money.”

She also said she doesn’t believe in marriage and that “the legalization of marijuana is number one” among her priorities, along with an “end to all drug wars.”

Barr was equally direct when it comes to foreign policy. “I think we should invade Mexico because they’ve got oil,” the actress explained. “And then we just annex them and then we don’t have people sneaking over here anymore.”

On the "I Am Freakin' Nuts" party label....

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA:

Mr. President:

Due to your administrations' utter incompetence, in the last two weeks my retirement savings have have lost 6-1/2% of value. By my calculation, this decline equates to roughly a two-year loss in the length of time I can be self-supporting in my retirement.

But that's okay, I suppose, because the 'death panels' that are an inevitable consequence of ObamaCare will almost certainly cut my lifespan by an equal or greater amount.

Sincerely,

Sent August 7, 2011.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OBAMA'S PASSION? Read through to the linked New York Times commentary. There I think you will find the template for the 2012 Republican election campaign: telling the story of Democratic failure.

JENNIFER RUBIN: pump priming can't work when the well is dry.

HERE'S A QUESTION that should be answered by the 2012 election. But the more important question is "Will the ones we elect be honest politicians?"

WHY OUR CHILDREN WILL PAY THE NATIONAL DEBT: they have no choice. "It would be nothing for us to destroy everything you hold dear. Why, we can just nuke this whole world now, and that’s the end of you. And you can’t stop us. So that’s why you’re going to pay all of our debt and like it."

JUST HOW SLIPPERY IS THAT SLOPE? Euthanasia Study Raises 'Chilling' Concern That Patients Could be Killed to Harvest Better Organs.

MORE TOP-DOWN MEDICINE: The Accountable Care Fiasco:

The theory for ACOs [Accountable Care Organizations] ... is that hospitals, primary-care doctors and specialists will work more efficiently in teams, like at the Mayo Clinic and other top U.S. hospitals. ACOs are meant to fix health care's too-many-cooks predicament. The average senior on Medicare sees two physicians and five specialists, 13 on average for those with chronic illnesses. Most likely, those doctors aren't coordinating patient care.

This fragmentation is largely an artifact of Medicare's price control regime: The classic case study is Duke University Hospital, which cut the costs of treating congestive heart failure by 40% but then dumped the integration program because it lost money under Medicare's fee schedule.

Costs drop 40%; payments drop 60%. That's the way to run a (government) railroad.

OLD NEWS: Wisconsin Democratic Party flak threatens to sic union bullies on independent news group for not toeing the party line.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE the current state of the Republican Party? If these results are in any way indicative of the population at large, Obama -- and the Democrats -- are in a world of hurt. Consider just the Question 2 results: the entire 35-64 age group voted overwhelmingly that Republicans are "not conservative enough."

Now here are the results for the Democrats. Near unanimity over all segments that Democrats are "too liberal." Note, however, that the polling subquestions (2 & 3) are not the same, so the results are not directly comparable beyond the first question.

REPUBLICANS: Why not offer to increase taxes on the rich?

TOPOLOGICAL INSULATORS: keeping the little electrons running rings about themselves? I hate to admit it, but this is well beyond my collegiate training. The advances that have been made in semiconductor technology since the mid-70's are stunning.

SAN FRANCISCO seeks to censor the Internet -- in the name of free (from conservatism) speech.

OBAMA MANDATES all Americans to become serfs.

Here's some background on the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act.

A POX ON ALL YOUR HOUSES: This Time I do Want to Get Off on a Rant....