D.C. NO JOKE NOW: Strong economy helps shake off sting of scandals, flaws. No, it's really proof of the efficacy of government corruption.

I'M DOING MY SHARE; why aren't you doing yours?

OCCUPY WALL STREET: conciliation and generosity.

TWO THREE MORE from the "Why am I not surprised?" department:

The camp at Occupy San Francisco is an imminent hazard to health.

ACORN is Behind the #Occupy Movement.

State Dept. Spent More Than $70,000 on Dreams from my Father.

It should be "Why am I not outraged?" but outrage is too precious a commodity to waste on this tripe.

I'M GONNA ARREST THE OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT.



Mighty Midget. Mommy's basement looks pretty comfy, though.

Linked from The Corner.

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Are Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden Trying Out for New Jobs?

Is retirement a job?

ABOLISH THE 1%: make 99 the new 100.

HEH. The Shocking Trend In U.S. Individual Income Inequality 1994-2010.

MICHAEL BARONE: "It’s offputting to watch what a low value voters put on expertise."

No. What's truly offputting is to see how many of these 'duly certified experts' are completely divorced from reality.

Related item here.

SWELL: 26 years on the government dime (six in college; 20 on welfare) and all is forgiven.

THE [OWS] PROTESTERS "don't want to end crony capitalism, with its handouts and government favoritism; they want to participate in it."

ELIZABETH WARREN: I provided the intellectual foundation for Occupy Wall Street. Chaos is an intellectual foundation?

DON'T TELL THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Scientists reveal millions of regulatory elements in human genome.

MUCH OF THE MEDIA has taken the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) study released this week as proof that global warming is real. Dr. William Briggs is less sanguine.

BEST has confirmed what everybody—and I mean everybody—already believed: that temperature changes. BEST has not—I repeat not; I repeat it in bold: not; I repeat it in italics: not—proved why the temperature has changed.

That is, BEST has not given any evidence that the temperatures changes because a particular theory of anthropogenic global warming is true. Nor has it proven that any AGW theory is false. BEST says nothing one way or another. As in nothing. As is not one thing. As in it remains mute. As in AGW is not confirmed nor discomfirmed by BEST. As in the debate is not over.

BEST believes that, over the past two centuries, the temperature went up in about two-thirds of all land-based stations. BEST also believes, and has so stated, that the temperature went down in about one-third of all land-based stations. As in decreased. As in became cooler. As in, it is not so that everywhere became hotter.

BEST has said nothing about temperature changes over most of the EARTH’s surface, which is to say, the oceans. As in BEST had nothing to say about most of the planet. And BEST has confined itself to a very brief period of time.

Read it all. Then go to Briggs' original post (math warning) for more. I found the comments especially fascinating, not so much because I really understood them, but for the reminder of how much I've forgotten in the nearly 35 years since my Ph.D.

NOW TAXPAYERS get to pay for diapers. How freely we spend other people's money.