OBAMA IN WONDERLAND: It's a warship, stupid.

A LESSON FOR THE WILLFULLY IGNORANT: Corporations are people, too.

From the comments: "The Mittster meant that all corporations are made up of people: their employees and owners (who usually overlap substantially). People like to talk about corporations as if they’re some nefarious exogenous force from beyond the moon, but that’s just wrong. Romney’s correct; corporations aren’t just people: in the age of mass investing, corporations are us."

EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK ....

To any environmentally conscious American, building the Keystone XL oil pipeline doesn’t sound like a great deal: a new pipeline that would transport dirty tar sands crude from Canada, over the Great Plains and to the Gulf Coast. Why would America “double down” on Canadian oil, when it takes more water and energy — which means more pollution — to extract? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will decide before the end of the year whether to approve the project, has to answer that question.

Here’s what she should say: Even if the U.S. government adopts stringent policies to cut oil use, the United States will be dependent on crude for decades. Oil demand across the world, meanwhile, is rising, which applies upward pressure on prices — and makes it economical to extract oil from Canada’s tar sands. Canada will produce its oil. We will burn a lot of it, no matter what, because there’s still spare capacity in existing U.S.-Canada pipelines. But when Canada produces more oil than it can send south, the Canadians won’t just leave it in the ground; they will ship it elsewhere. And America won’t be kept from importing and refining more low-grade crude oil; the United States will just get it from the Middle East, the Energy Department has concluded.

Washington Post editorial, linked from Hot Air.

The Hot Air website also has a three part series on the Canadian oil sands, well worth reading.

WAS IT REALLY only 832 days ago?

Linked from the PJ Tatler.

THEIR PROJECTION IS ASTONISHING: "Much of the [Democrats'] criticism is focused on describing the [Republican presidential] candidates as lackeys to the Tea Party, which establishment Democrats have classified as right-wing zealots bent on destroying the U.S."

HEALTH TIP: Walk or bike to work. Right ... 29.6 miles (each way).

RESIGN: How can Obama get CEOs to hire?

MARK TWAIN: God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

ANOTHER DAY, another diatribe from E.J. Dionne. Read the comments to see how the welfare community reacts.

EVEN VIRGINIA IS HAVING PENSION PROBLEMS: "Forced by state lawmakers to delay payments into the Virginia Retirement System during the financial crisis two years ago, local school officials now worry they will have to cut and strain to pay off the bill that is coming due in 2013."

Luckily, my wife retires in 2012, so she should get at least one year's pension....

SAVING SMART METERS from a backlash. Zachary's argument is a strawman. The backlash isn't due to the wireless meters; it's about what the wireless meters can do -- control the user's power consumption.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living." We're not there yet, but getting damned close.

From my email.

CONGRATULATIONS, BRITAIN: You've barbarized your citizenry, without regard to race, gender or physical handicap!

MY CURRENT CHOICES FOR 2012: Perry/Bachmann (either order) and Sarah Palin for Secretary of Energy after she completes her first job -- dismantling the EPA.

RECYCLING ELECTRONS: a novel approach to solar cell design. The real question -- still unanswered -- is whether or not it is competitive with fossil fuels. I suspect it is not.