THOMAS SOWELL: Who Is Racist?: Part II. Part I is linked here.

OBAMA ENERGY SOLUTIONS: Chicken crap is the new algae. If it were bullshit, Washington DC would be the energy capitol of the world.

WITH MY DOCTORS, it's no secret.

AND THEY WANT to run health care?

WIMPS have no fun.

I KEEP TELLING YOU: Private investment is still a better deal than Social Security. Follow the links to the pdf for proof.

ALWAYS WEAR EAR PROTECTION ...

... while while Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are speaking.

DON'T MESS WITH MOTHER NATURE: Wind farms cause global warming. "[W]e need to think carefully about the unintended environmental consequences of any large-scale energy development, including green technologies." You don't say....

HE MAY HAVE BEEN a constitutional law professor, but it wasn't our Constitution.

NEW YORK CITY: Let's ban happiness.

DEBASED CURRENCY: Rember when a college diploma meant something?

HEH: "Anti-smoking crusaders fail to understand that there are many far worse addictions than smoking, of which political correctness is among the most damaging."

Now go away.

NOT RUSSIA, but I'm thinking about it.

JEFF JACOBY: The government's college money pit. The government funds loans and keeps the interest rate low to encourage students to go further into debt to fund a baccalaureate (or higher) degree for which the employment possibilities are nil. Insanity, indeed.

WE JUST INSTALLED new countertop sinks in our master bathroom.

Our cat Diamond likes them so much she's decided to use a planter on the back porch as her new 'countertop potty'.

DEREK HUNTER: A Plumber To Snake The DC Drain. Wurzelbacher's campaign website is here.

SO NOW THE US CAN BORROW MORE. Demand for Credit in Europe Collapses.

JOHN RANSOM: Where Liberals Really Suck Eggs. Ransom responds to his commenters; some are hilarious. Read them all.

HEH. A DENTIST pulled out all her ex-boyfriend’s teeth after he dumped her for another woman – who has now left him because he is toothless. OK, it's not really funny, but you can't help but laugh....

LEFTISM AT WORK: Chaperones included in new Secret Service conduct rules. Instead of firing the miscreants and making it absolutely clear that such behaviour will not be tolerated, the administration assigns even more bureaucrats to 'chaperone' and make sure it will absolutely, positively never happen again.

What a crock.

MARK STEYN: Cuisines from my stepfather and other exploding cigars. "It’s not just that Obama ate the dog, but that he’s screwing the pooch."

Read it all.

THE MAN OF STEAL.

FOOD POLICE, run amok. There ought to be a law that no government entity can have more than, say, five regulatory agencies.

I'M FROM THE GOVERNMENT, and I'm here to help crucify you.

ARE PEOPLE really that stupid? In a word, yes.

MONA CHAREN: Carter Redux? Hopefully, but it's not a given.

NASA PROBE leaves 164-foot-deep hole in the comet Tempel-1. The pictures don't do justice to the size of the impact zone.

OBAMA'S REELECTION STRATEGY: Blame Bush again. It worked the first time....

YOUR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH does not incur an obligation on my part to listen: Anti-bullying speaker curses Christian teens -- and they walk out.

THE SUITS ARE NICE, but they're empty.

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: "Obama thinks you’re stupid. And if you voted for him, he’s right.”

IT'S NOT EASY fueling green. What gets to me about the whole biofuel thing is that the enthusiasts always fail to recognize that oil is a biofuel. It was just 'planted' a few tens of thousands of years ago.

BUT SHE'S helping to spread the wealth: Michelle Obama's Spain vacation cost $467,585.

WORLD'S LARGEST SOLAR PLANE to make its first cross-continent flight.

"This long-duration flight will serve as a dress rehearsal for the round-the-world flight in 2014, and will allow the team to gather experience in cooperating with international airports, integrating the prototype into regular air traffic patterns, and managing the logistics of maintenance ...."

"'Solar Impulse', the first aircraft that can fly day and night without fuel or polluting emissions, has a wingspan of 63.4 meters, as wide as an Airbus A340, and weighs only 1,600 kg. It has 12,000 solar cells mounted on the wings, which provide momentum for its four electric motors."

JONAH GOLDBERG: Making citizens 'legible'.

VACATION BACKLASH: Blue collar Democrats jealous, angry at Obamas. Nothing like alienating the base....

HEY, I'LL DONATE TO ROMNEY if Team Obama will publicize my name and web site.

SOME FACTS about Social Security you probably didn't know.

WORDS OF (ECONOMIC) WISDOM: “Generally speaking, states that spend less — especially on income transfer programs, and states that tax less — particularly on productive activities such as working or investing — experience higher growth rates than states that tax and spend more.”

VIDEO: an inflatable flying wind turbine. Best comment: "I want one to power my house." Me, too.

DECLINE OR DECADENCE? Decadance.

ANN COULTER: Romney Doing the Job the Republican Establishment Won't Do. Ann's a bit over the top (as usual) but (again, as usual) she's dead right on one point: the high cost of cheap labor.

OBAMA'S TAXPAYER-FUNDED CAMPAIGN is being noticed -- even by Democrats.

IS IT TIME TO PANIC?



Not yet, but it is time to get serious.

LOVE IT: House to Vote Friday on 1-year Extension of Student Loan Rate. House Speaker John Boehner announced “We will pay for this by taking money from one of the slush funds in the president’s health care law,”

DEMOCRATS: counting on the 'moocher' vote.

53% OF NEW COLLEGE GRADUATES are jobless or underemployed. Let's just hold on a moment. Does anyone seriously contend that a new graduate in 'victim studies' employed full-time as a barista is 'underemployed'?

FANTASY FRIDAY: It can't wait.

STAND YOUR GROUND: support the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Follow Michelle's link for more.

ATTRITION WORKS — so why do we need amnesty?

FREE SPEECH: the Democrats' war on the Constitution.

PROFILE of an angry racist.

HOW ALEC became a political liability. I'm inclined to think that as the American Legislative Exchange Council becomes more widely known, it will indeed become a political liability -- for Democrats.

JOHN STOSSEL: The Assault on Food -- and you. "It is no coincidence that the push for more food regulation came at a time when Congress obsessed about the rising cost of medical care. When government pays for your health care, it will inevitably be drawn into regulating your personal life. First, politicians promise to pay [for you]. Then, they propose to control you."

BEST SENTENCE EVER! "The love of theory is the root of all evil." Bill Whittle explains.

When you're playing with toy cities in the basement, you don't have to, you know, make the dang things work.

FOR $25 you, too, can have a Raspberry Pi.

SUSPECT CLAIMS he attacked white teen because he was angry over Trayvon case. So where's the outrage? Could it be because the suspect is black and the victim white?

UPDATE on another incident: Move along, now. Nothing to see here; it's not a hate crime.

MODERN ENVIRONMENTALISM: seduced by the Dark Side.

DESPITE A VETO THREAT from President Obama, the Republican-led House approved a 20% election-year tax cut for companies with fewer that 500 employees. Obama and Democrats attacked the legislation as unfairly favoring wealthier small-business owners, celebrities and sports teams.

Ri-i-i-i-ght.

DEMOCRATS have nothing to offer but fear itself. Divide and conquer.

EPA OFFICIAL: Our Philosophy is to Crucify in Order to Pacify. Our policy toward them should be simpler -- just crucify.

TWENTY FIVE best quotes from Thomas Sowell. My top three:

There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

Killing the goose that lays the golden egg is a viable political strategy, so long as the goose does not die before the next election and no one traces the politicians’ fingerprints on the murder weapon.

Read the rest.

THE WASHINGTON POST'S Eugene Robinson: "... the extreme language we hear from the far right is qualitatively different from the extreme language we hear from the far left — and far more damaging to the ties that bind us as a nation."

Robinson must have had his hands over his ears during the entire Bush administration.

CAPITALISM WORKS.

From this post by Daniel J. Mitchell of the Cato Institute

THE GUTFIELD RULE: To make schools 'fair', students should redistribute their grades. Then maybe Obama would consider releasing his college transcripts.

EXCELLENT! Supreme Court signals support for Arizona immigration law provision.

Immigration law is clearly the province of Congress, but states should have a role - if not a primary role - in enforcement.

WHY THERE SHOULD BE a hunting season for lawyers (no bag limits).

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: "[N]oble ends justify the tawdry means." It should be 'ignoble' ends, and the word 'tawdry' is far too kind.

DAY BY DAY on America's underground economy. I posted my thoughts back in February, and again in March, referencing Greece's aboveground barter economy.

SUNDAY WAS 'EARTH DAY'. In our nation's capitol, less than 1% of the anticipated crowd showed up to celebrate. The Washington Post tried very hard not to notice.

Andrew Klavan noticed and had some thoughts: "So screw Earth Day. I would like to declare today — and every day — the Mind of Man Day. Celebrate that — nurture that — glorify that — and the earth, believe me, will take care of itself." Read it all.

I GUESS I'll have to die a bit sooner than expected: Social Security is slipping closer to insolvency. Medicare, too, in case you haven't noticed....

SELF-DEFEATING: If the Supreme Court upholds Arizona's immigration law, which is consistent with federal immigration law, the Democrats will introduce legislation requiring federal approval of state immigration laws that are already consistent with federal law. Huh?

PROJECTION: Democrats think you're stupid. It's time to remind them about projection: it's a mirror, guys, not a window.

POLITICS AS USUAL: Thompson cohort pays politicians, not overdue taxes. This particular instance is local to metro DC, but who wants to assert that it isn't common?

BEATING OF ALABAMA MAN not seen as hate crime, despite claim 'Trayvon' invoked. Of course not. For it to be a 'hate crime', the victim has to be properly registered as a member of an authorized disadvantaged class. Owens is white.

UPDATE: More here; including a link to Thomas Sowell.

CUDDLY SYMBOLS not cooperating in climate panic. Someone notify Al Gore....

SO NOW we have an illegal emigration problem? Is this an 'every cloud has a silver lining' or an 'every silver lining is wrapped in a cloud' effect?

OBAMA FACES DEFEAT on Keystone Pipeline as Congressional Democrats begin to defect. No matter what Obama does, he loses.

THOMAS SOWELL: Who is 'racist'? The question is self-answering.

BUT OF COURSE: Are Republicans more open-minded, better informed than Democrats? Some amusing statistics:

Liberals are more likely to block, unfriend or hide someone on social networks because they disagree with their politics.

Liberals are more willing to change their views to make their team look good.

Liberals outnumber conservatives at online dating, job-search (heh), and video game sites.

Liberals are less likely to eat at Cracker Barrel, Chik-fil-A, Panera, and Bob Evans restaurants.

And ... customers at Cracker Barrel, Chik-fil-A and Bob Evans are more likely to vote.

HEDY LAMARR: From Film Star to Frequency-Hopping Inventor.

SURPRISED? Richer Democratic States With Lower Unemployment Got Bulk Of Obama Stimulus.

I didn't think so.

BBC: CAMILLA LAUNCHED IN BALLOON to study space storms (Camilla is a rubber chicken).

LIBERAL NOSTALGIACS don't understand jobs of the future. Hell, liberals don't understand anything beyond 1960's hippiedom.

ARE DEATH PANELS making a comeback? They should, provided the death panel and the patient are one and the same.

OBAMA THE DOG EATER: this week's exploding cigar. It's not a good idea to smoke from Wile E. Coyote's stash.

EFFECTIVE, if you like torture. Scroll down to the comments.

IF I WANTED AMERICA TO FAIL, I wouldn't change a thing.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Freedom of association means the freedom to associate with whomever we select.

More: "Christians, beginning first at the grassroots and now moving up to the legislature, have decided they will not quietly acquiesce to the intolerance and exclusion of the academic elite."

OUT TO PASTURE.

CONGRESS AND THE MSM are in a dither about a few thousand taxpayer dollars being spent on prostitutes, yet this far larger taxpayer waste is ignored.

WILL THE HYPERSENSITIVE FEMINISTS please shut up?

WERE THE COLOMBIA PROSTITUTES paid with taxpayer dollars? What an incredibly dumb question. Of course they were paid with taxpayer dollars; every one of the individuals involved was a government employee.

JOEL KOTKIN: The Great California Exodus. Somewhere I remember a blog post from a Texan saying that Californians are welcome to come to Texas, but shouldn't be allowed to vote for 10 years until they become properly acculturated to Texas values.

NEWS ANCHOR FAIL (2012 EDITION):



Language warning -- newscasters aren't as clean-minded as we're led to believe.

INTERESTING: A Cheap Terahertz Camera.

EXPLAINING WHY Liberals are dumb.

MARK STEYN: The “public servants” manning the government that hands out the food stamps are themselves on Vegas hot-tub stamps, beach-resort stamps, Colombian hooker stamps, third-of-a-century retirement stamps....

For more, read Grope and Change.

JUSTICE BE DAMNED: Daily Beast Columnist Politely Calls for George Zimmerman’s Lynching.

Mob rule.

JUSTICE BE DAMNED: Daily Beast Columnist Politely Calls for George Zimmerman’s Lynching.

Mob rule.

MOCK THEM. Earth Day-Brought to You By Hunters and Fisherman.

DARPA: The Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 likely aborted its 13,000 mph flight over the Pacific Ocean last summer because unexpectedly large sections of its skin peeled off.

That does make flight control a bit more difficult.

OBAMA BUCKS:



Our tax dollars at 'work'.

IOWAHAWK: "Apparently, I'm supposed to be more angry about what Mitt Romney does with his money than what Barack Obama does with mine." From his Twitter stream.

AND OBAMA'S ARE NOT? Democrat Governor says Romney’s polygamous roots are politically problematic. If ancestry is 'problematic', then why weren't we informed of Obama's polygamous ancestry in 2008?

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. MSNBC needs a new logo. "Leaning Forward" (to fall on our face) didn't work, so I'd suggest they consider copycatting their more famous enemy's logo. My suggestion: "Unfair, Unbalanced, and Scared Shitless Afraid."

HATE AND BIGOTRY is all they have left.

MALLARD FILLMORE: It's election season.

More Mallard Fillmore here.

HEH: government isn't working.

Mitt Romney appears at a shuttered industrial warehouse to dramatize his complaints about Obama's economic policies.

NASA ADMINISTRATOR CHARLES BOLDEN "NASA can continue 'making the future' -- including taking people to Mars by 2030." I'm sure man will go to Mars in the relatively near future; NASA - not so much.

COMPLETE WITH ROBOT PIMPS? Brothels will offer robot prostitutes by 2050.

IF WE CAN'T CONTROL GUNS, we must control the internet.

CONTRADICTING FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA’S signature public policy initiative, two new studies show that poor urban neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too.

JOE KENNEDY III: no gasoline, no electricity, no solutions.

GOODBYE, BANK OF AMERICA: Bank of America Reportedly Drops Gun Company for Political Reasons.

EPA'S SIX-WORD ESSAY CONTEST: "One planet. One people. Billion regulations."

NANCY PELOSI: We have a clear agenda to amend the First Amendment.

Ah, yes -- freedom for me, but not for thee.

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Obama Ate A Dog Edition. Much more here.

SEN. HARRY REID: Save the Postal Service, seniors love getting junk mail.

Then why do I throw it in the trash unopened?

DEMOCRAT BUDGET sunk by Senate Majority Leader (who just happens to be a Democrat).

Budget? We don't need no stinkin' budget; it interferes with our spending.

BLOOMBERG'S NYC: Fraud is okay, but beware the salt police.

ANN COULTER: Negroes With Guns.


"Gun control is always a scheme of the powerful to deprive the powerless of the right to self-defense."

SAVE THE RUBBER DUCKY from the fear nannies.

EVEN THE OBAMAS are doing worse under President Obama.

DR. NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON calls for invigoration of national spirit through increased space exploration. So why not follow Newt Gingrich's suggestion and offer a (say) $10 billion 'X-Prize' plus a lunar land grant for the first established lunar colony?

NEVER LET IT BE SAID the Navy has no sense of humor.

TAX THE RICH -- into oblivion. Then tax the Canadians ... or the French ... or anyone but me.

TOO BIG TO FAIL now 'too bigger' to fail. So let them fail next time - and there will be a next time.

POUND SAND: What a mom with five kids wants to tell Bill Maher.

RISK AND PROFIT are not yet crimes. But they will be if Liberals get their way.

THOMAS SOWELL: "People convinced of their own superior wisdom and virtue have no time to spare for what other people want, whether in housing or health care or a whole range of other things."

NEW MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS: Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. The best medicine is a hearty laugh.

USA AND CHINA engaged in secret cyber-war games?

THERE IS A PRICE WE WILL NOT PAY.



Link here.

THE 'MOMMY WARS':

The view expressed by Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen that Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, has "never worked a day in her life" and thus can't relate to struggling families is bogus. Can a politician who has never held a job in the private sector relate to those who work there, or are searching for a job there? I'm thinking of the former community organizer, now president, Barack Obama. Can a career politician like Vice President Joe Biden identify with someone who doesn't have the perks -- planes, limousines, high pay and discounted, or free health care -- he has enjoyed for most of his career?

Good questions both.

SOME THOUGHTS FROM TAX DAY 2012: Just abolish the old tax code and the politicians in Washington would have to devise a new, better, simpler one. From scratch. They'll want to get paid, won't they?

The first part sounds great, since I spent the better part of two consecutive weeks filling out my federal and state income tax forms. The federal tax return took a 1040 tax form, 5 schedules, and 4 worksheets to complete. The state tax return took a 760 tax form, 2 schedules (both required but worthless) and 3 worksheets to complete.

The idea of Congress devising a "new, better, simpler" tax code scares hell out of me though.

SPACE MADNESS? 'Fraid not.

EVERYTHING you wanted to know about yourself.

Maybe we do live in a deterministic universe with our minds just along for the ride (from a science fiction novel I read long ago).

AWAY GAME.

2008: HOPE AND CHANGE. 2012: Blame and Shame.

A SPACEPORT at Ellington Field (formerly Ellington AFB) near Houston?


Space tourism.

IF YOU BUILD IT, they will come: "NASA’s as-yet-unrealized efforts to offload routine human space access onto the private sector is beginning to ripple across the U.S. launch industry in ways that could go well beyond transporting people and their stuff into space."

JUST WONDERING: Will ObamaCare turn us into a nation of part-time employees?

Those pesky unintended consequences again....

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane.

It just occured to me ... with all the noise the media is making about Romney's wealth, I don't recall such bluster and hand-wringing over the Kennedy fortune. Or, for that matter, John Kerry.

Or the fact that John Kerry gave virtually nothing to charity while Romney gave something on the order of $4 million ... in addition to his entire inheritance from his father.

Oh. Wait.

I just remembered. Romney is Republican. Kerry and the Kennedys are Democrats.

Also, Romney worked for his money. Kennedy inherited his. And Kerry married it.

Never mind. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Actually from my email.

OUCH: "Someone needs to tell him [Obama] that combining arrogant condescension with intellectual shoddiness is not a winning political tactic."

WASHINGTON POST: We Tried To Bury That Story About ObamaCare Blowing Up The Deficit. Surprised?

LITTLE PEOPLE trying to feel important. Pitiful.

WALKER TALKS POLICY, Democrats talk Hooters. The OWS crowd is mortified because Hooters wouldn't hire them.

SURRENDER NOW or be slaughtered later: Do Democrats really want a fight over transparency?

CORRECTING THE NEW YORK TIMES: "For good or ill (and most [Liberals] would say ill), no one did it like Mr. Breitbart."

"AS THE LAW IS IMPLEMENTED, those who pushed Obamacare are forced to ask 'are you going to believe us or your lying eyes?' The public to a great degree is [correctly] believing the latter, which to the Left means it’s well past time for a government takeover of the ophthalmology industry."

There must be a government cure for 'lying eyes'.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Looking at another photo of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, I'm left thinking her name should rightfully be Debbie Wasserman-Schlitz because what she's been drinking is clearly more powerful than Kool-Aid.

DICK CHENEY: “[Obama] has been an unmitigated disaster for the country.” The thing I've always admired about Cheney is his willingness to speak his mind.

BILL MAHER must be a GOP mole in the Obama camp.

UPDATE: another mole.

Maher and Barr are doing some heavy lifting in moving women into the Romney camp.

WHERE OBAMACARE DOLLARS are going.

I suppose this has some deep meaning to Ezra Klein and the Washington Post, but it just says that the more populous states are getting a larger share. Isn't that to be expected? It might be useful if the scale were per-capita and not total funding.

The interactive map is here.

WHY LIBERALS HATE ANN ROMNEY ... I am a counterweight to the power of the state.

BARNEY FRANK: President made a ‘mistake’ pushing so hard for ObamaCare. Now he tells us.

MEDIA MATTERS leads in the 'war on women'. Even the Obama White House did better -- or rather, less bad.

INCOME TAXES: What's a fair share?

YOU THINK? Party fears credibility ‘doomed’ after staffer claims (same sex) sexual harassment by North Carolina Democrat official.

WHO IS 'COLOR OF CHANGE'? The keyword is 'obscure'; it tags it as most likely just another Democrat grassroots astroturf operation.

More here (hmm ... Van Jones?) with additional links.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA FACULTY: Do you really expect us to follow a mere policy?

(Regents) are responsible to see that the University remain aloof from politics and never function as an instrument for the advance of partisan interest. Misuse of the classroom by, for example, allowing it to be used for political indoctrination ... constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.

Shades of Nancy Pelosi and her reaction to being asked if ObamaCare is constitutional.

IS BARACK OBAMA closer to a Chevy Volt or a Yugo? I'll vote for the Volt; like Obama, it's environmentally friendly, can't do anything useful, and occasionally bursts into flame. [The Volt, however, is less likely to flame out.]

NEAT IDEA: Trade Mexico 1 illegal immigrant for 2 OWS protestors. I think it should be 4-to-one, but the U.S. would still win at one-to-one.

SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT - support stay-at-home Moms (and Dads).

On the other hand, if Moms (and Dads) stay home, think of the economic suffering: fewer doctor visits (health care employees laid off); fewer cars sold (manufacturing employees laid off); less need for day care (more day care workers laid off); less clothing required (more retail and manufacturing laid off; dress designers terrified), and so on and on....

IS SOFTWARE ENGINEERING really engineering?

"FEMINISTS don't want to expand choices available to young women so much as they want to limit the options to feminist-approved categories."

NOT PRETTY: the true cost of ObamaCare.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: $205,000 to move a shrub.

THE LEFT'S war on women is actually a war on families.

REAL RACISM.

OBAMA'S ACHILLES HEEL is his economic performance, but "Romney will need to reassure the base while reaching out to moderates, to cut down on gaffes but find a way to connect with voters, and to indict Obama’s record without seeming mean-spirited."

LAUGHING MY ASS OFF, OBAMA:


Like that'll bring in a lot of money....


Please don't tell him they're leaving, not entering.

Many, many more here. Linked from Instapundit.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: I wonder if the reason the Democrats hate stay-at-home Moms is that they're not paying taxes (directly, at least).

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW about "haters who can't handle feminine roles."

HARSH: Who is this guy pretending to be president?

EMBRACE THE POWER of other people's money.

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE: political indoctrination by the educational 'elite'.

SOLAR POWER STATIONS: Beaming power down to Earth.

It's certainly not a new idea; it was popular in science fiction in the 60's and I can recall attending several college seminars on solar power stations during my graduate studies in the mid-1970's. Here's a more recent view of a new SPS option.

Linked from Instapundit.

YOU DON'T have to buy a cow to get milk.

THE WHITE HOUSE declaration that the Republicans have instituted a 'war on women' with their principled opposition to ObamaCare's mandated requirement to provide 'free' contraception is being met with return fire: Romney's assertion that "women account for 92.3 percent of jobs lost since President Obama took office". What's more interesting, in my view, is this story that asserts that women in the White House staff are being paid about 18% less than their male counterparts.

Just for grins, I downloaded the data into an Excel spreadsheet and did a few calculations myself. Here's what I found:

The White House staff is relatively evenly divided between males (53%) and females (47%). [Note: the original data gives name, title, and salary, not sex, so I had to assign sex (M/F) by name. Some names are ambiguous, which may explain why the numbers below don't exactly agree with the post being linked to.]

The female median salary is $62,500 compared to the male median salary of $73,938 - a 15% gap.

The female average salary is $76,839 compared to the male average salary of $86,081 - an 11% gap.

The fact that the average salary is higher than the median salary means that the distribution is skewed in favor of high earners; their salaries are much higher than the low end of the wage scale.

At the lowest salary level ($42,000) there are 54 employees; 57% are female. At the highest salary level ($172,500) there are 21 employees; 33% are female.

And the really big surprise is that Obama's staff totals an amazing 454 people, whose combined salaries (excluding benefits) amount to $37,121,463.

ROBOTS VS. HUMANS for space exploration. As I pointed out in a previous post, it's not about science or economics, it's about human desire to be there.

WHO IS REALLY not paying their ‘fair share’ of taxes? Hint: It isn't the 'rich'.

Related post here.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ on the Zimmerman indictment. It's bogus.

SARAH PALIN goes to Tampa. Why?

ANOTHER REASON to abolish the Department of Homeland Security. I would say you have to be kidding, but sadly, no.

YES, CLIMATE CHANGE MUST BE REAL. Why? Because "boring, non-catastrophic science doesn’t rank highly on the government-handout to-do list, as it doesn’t whip the public into the suitable frenzy."

SO NOW tell us what you really think....

OBAMAFAIL: his personal war on women. Even if he were a millipede, by now he'd have run out of feet to insert in his mouth.

Linked from Instapundit.

BURSTING BUBBLES kill cancer cells.

FOX MOLE is a weasel -- and a cheap weasel at that.

I HOPE IT'S FOR REAL: a Craig's List personals ad.

To: the guy who tried to mug me in downtown Savannah night before last.
Date: 2010-09-27, 1:43 am. E.S.T.

I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on me and my girlfriend, threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend's purse and earrings. I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important message.

First, I'd like to apologize for your embarrassment; I didn't expect you to actually crap in your pants when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket.. The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason.. my girlfriend was happy that I just returned safely from my 2nd tour as a Combat Marine inAfghanistan .. She had just bought me that Kimber Custom Model 1911 .45 ACP pistol for my birthday, and we had picked up a shoulder holster for it that very evening. Obviously you agree that it is a very intimidating weapon when pointed at your head ... isn't it?!

I know it probably wasn't fun walking back to wherever you'd come from with crap in your pants. I'm sure it was even worse walking bare-footed since I made you leave your shoes, cell phone, and wallet with me. [That prevented you from calling or running to your buddies to come help mug us again].

After I called your mother or "Momma" as you had her listed in your cell, I explained the entire episode of what you'd done. Then I went and filled up my gas tank as well as those of four other people in the gas station, -- on your credit card. The guy with the big motor home took 153 gallons and was extremely grateful!

I gave your shoes to a homeless guy outside Vinnie Van Go Go's, along with all the cash in your wallet. [That made his day!]

I then threw your wallet into the big pink "pimp mobile" that was parked at the curb ..... after I broke the windshield and side window and keyed the entire driver's side of the car.

Earlier, I managed to get in two threatening phone calls to the DA's office and one to the FBI, while mentioning President Obama as my possible target. The FBI guy seemed really intense and we had a nice long chat (I guess while he traced your number etc.).

In a way, perhaps I should apologize for not killing you ... but I feel this type of retribution is a far more appropriate punishment for your threatened crime. I wish you well as you try to sort through some of these rather immediate pressing issues, and can only hope that you have the opportunity to reflect upon, and perhaps reconsider, the career path you've chosen to pursue in life.. Remember, next time you might not be so lucky. Have a good day!

Thoughtfully yours,
Semper Fi,
Alex

From my email.

PODCAST: The Titanic launched a century of emergency response technologies.

WELL SAID: "Today’s intellectual class is a direct descendant of the courtier intellectuals of the Divine Right era. Its skillset still resolves as much around sucking up and playing politics as around producing anything of value. Naturally it would prefer an aristocracy, and tends to despise the bourgeoisie and free markets."

OBAMA’S ten worst energy policies (i.e., all of them).

IT TAKES A REPUBLICAN to reform education.

RNC CHAIR REINCE PRIEBUS: Yes, you can be pro-life and pro-woman.

GUIDED BY the dim dumb light of liberalism.

THE BUFFETT RUSE: "When your [Obama's] record is this disastrous, then you have no choice but to run on disingenuous distractions."

MARINES DEFEND 'Symbol of Sacrifice' against atheists.

The Marine commandant should tell the protestors to pound sand.

OBAMA: The entitlement state is not the welfare state. You could've fooled me.

A WAR ON WOMEN or Barack Obama's "war with GOP women"?

NET ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION from Mexico has dropped to zero. Thank Texas for exporting its economic growth policies.

THE 'WAR ON WOMEN' has just begun.

OBAMA'S LEAD isn't.

NOW THAT YOUR CAR records what you do behind the wheel, can you swear it to secrecy? In a single word, no.

THE DEMOCRATS' MOMMY WAR: "My advice for politicians is don’t mess with stay at home moms. We deal with children who are about the only thing sneakier and more devious than politicians. Building defenses against puppy dog eyes and crocodile tears creates a certain ruthlessness. Underestimate us at your own peril."

MARYLAND GOV. MARTIN O’MALLEY: So eager for presidency, he ‘forgot’ to be governor. Which is probably why he 'forgot' to lobby for the Maryland state tax increases.

NORTH KOREAN ROCKET LAUNCH FAILS. From what we know so far, it sounds like a booster (first stage) separation failure.

HOW TO make an octopus walk.

SHOULD KIDS AND PARENTS be put in separate seating on planes? No, and those who object to kids should be put in separate (steerage) class. Not economy class, steerage.

GOTCHA! Blog comment of the day.

NATIONAL DATABASE planned to disable stolen cellphones. Today, stolen phones; tomorrow, all phones?

Best comment: "Is a government controlled kill-switch for every mobile device in the country really the best solution for unprotected data? Really?"

LOYALTY: Hybrid car owners unlikely to buy another.

HEH: Newt Gingrich may not appear on the Utah primary ballot because his $500 check for the registration fee bounced.

WHY DOES THE GENERAL WELFARE never include my welfare?

VIGNETTE from a failed Presidency.

OBAMAFAIL: the Democrats' war on women. Ann Romney has 5 children, 5 spouses of her children, 15 grandchildren -- and she never worked a day in her life?

UPDATE: Rosen apologizes.

ROMNEY: the man who says 'marvelous'.

My first association, on hearing one man [Obama] mock another for saying "marvelous," was: Gay. It's an I'm-more-manly move. I heard a smidgeon of homophobia. Perhaps I heard it because, a few days ago, on winning the Wisconsin primary, Romney introduced Ryan, saying: "Congressman Ryan, he's a great leader, wonderful speaker, but he's not gonna take Ann's place." (Ann being, of course, Mitt's wife.) At the time, I quipped: "Combatting the 'bromance' rumors!"

This is just a meme watch. Note that the budget Romney was talking about was Paul Ryan's budget. The alliance of Romney and Ryan is so good that I suspect the Obama campaign will toy with mockery that has a homophobic edge. Let's make their "marriage" seem unseemly. Not so blatantly that they can't deny it. Any homophobia can be disguised within a socially acceptable distaste for the rich.

Best comment: "The Bamster, with his mom jeans and cute little bicycle helmet, and general air of metrosexuality is in no position to mock any male."

RAY STEVENS: 'Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music'.

REMEMBERING THE TITANIC.

A STREETCAR NAMED DEBT: "Public officials remain infatuated with the idea of getting other people out of their automobiles so the government can decide when and where they can travel."

NASA REGULATIONS for commercial spacecraft a "touchy" subject.

ELECTION 2012: Let Us Help You Pack.

YOU TOO can vote in place of Eric Holder. And we'd probably be better off if you did.

[Update & bump] Tim Tebow and Tom Brady are eligible to vote in Minnesota.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: Media Dishonesty and Race Hustlers.

FOR THE ELDERLY, EMERGENCY ROOMS OF THEIR OWN: "Let’s make them very comfortable, let’s palliate, but let’s not save them. The heroic treatments are in that other emergency room, the one for the people who are still useful."

Soylent Green.

COUNT ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION to try to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery.

A SMALL BUSINESS FIGHTS BACK.

FORMER NASA SCIENTISTS TO NASA: stick to science, not politics.

CATHOLIC CARDINAL: Yes, it’s a sin to comply with the ObamaCare mandate.

Obama: Yes, it's illegal not to comply with the ObamaCare mandate.

ANDREW KLAVAN: It's good to be evil. And evil to be good.

HEH: Obama's campaign staff 'almost universally white'.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S LANDMARK HEALTH-CARE INITIATIVE, long touted as a means to control costs, will actually add more than $340 billion to the nation’s budget woes over the next decade.... And that's just pocket change in a $3.4 trillion annual budget.

GO AHEAD, make my day. Gay rights groups and their allies are pushing to make gay marriage a part of the official Democratic Party platform at the national convention in Charlotte this summer.

THE BUFFETT RULE: it's not about money; it's about 'fairness' (class warfare 'fairness').

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY fines school bus contractor almost $500,000 for ‘excessive idling’.

Best comment: "Excessive idling? You can observe that in virtually every office within the Federal Governmment."

WILL THE NEXT SPACE STATION be a distillery? Depends on the taste.

OBAMA: It's constitutional if I say it is.

AN EXAMPLE of crony capitalism from the 'Show Me' 'Who, Me?' state.

Linked from Instapundit.

RUSSIA PLANS TO SEND two lunar rovers to Moon after 2020 and a landing station after 2022 as the first steps to form the future manned lunar base there. The U.S. should -- but probably won't -- be there to welcome them.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from Thomas Sowell. Here are some favorites:

Have you noticed that what modest economic improvements we have seen occurred during the much-lamented "gridlock" in Washington? Nor is this unusual. If you check back through history, doing nothing has a far better track record than that of politicians intervening in the economy.

With all the talk about people paying their "fair share" of income taxes, why do nearly half the people in this country pay no income taxes at all? Is that their "fair share"? Or is creating more recipients of government handouts, at no cost to themselves, simply a strategy to gain more votes?

In an old Western movie, John Wayne encounters a black man. Wayne tells him, "I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body. I would shoot you as quick as I would shoot any white man." That is what equality is supposed to mean

. Read the rest.

SLIMEY SPIES: tinkering could tailor snails to spy. The next time you see a snail, you could be on candid camera.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: It's wise for the Left to learn that the sword slices both ways.

OBAMA STILL SMOKES: but he has gone to a cheaper brand.

REAGAN VS. OBAMA: Social Economics 101.

ATV-3 'EDOARDO AMALDI' docks with the International Space Station. The photography and video are superb.

SHOULD WE homestead the moon? More links here.

Related: "There is something in our very chemistry that calls us to be a world of explorers. Let’s hope it survives the Obama administration."

BAD NEWS FOR SOMALI PIRATES: "The Office of Naval Research has plans to imbue its Fire Scout unmanned, ship-launched helicopters with electronic brains capable of identifying the small boats generally used by pirates."

Identifying them is the hard part; blowing them out of the water is easy.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN demands 23 years of Romney’s tax returns … but won’t release 23 years of Obama’s returns. Well, of course. They don't want his years on the 'crony capitalism' dole to be made public.

TAX THE RICH: Obama renews call for 'Buffett rule' to tax wealthiest. Can you say 'broken record'?

REMEMBER 'FAKE BUT ACCURATE'? Now there's 'true but false'.

SEEN ON THE WEB: "If George Zimmerman is a white Hispanic, is Barack Obama a white Black?"

PAUL RYAN: The President distorts the truth to distract from his failed record.

INVESTING IN EDUCATION DIVERSITY: Colleges Skimp on Science, Spend Big on Diversity. Go where the big money is ....

WILL TOTUS challenge the president again at the Democratic National Convention?

SANTORUM suspends his presidential campaign; now can Gingrich make a comeback?

DOES LAND OF THE FREE mean everything should be free? Well, since ObamaMoney grows on trees, yes.

MICHAEL BARONE: Can Romney Show [Young] Voters that Obama Is Out Of Date?

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: overpaid, underworked, and still complaining.

STRANGERS IN A STRANGER LAND: "'Truth', after all, is not the Socratic absolute, but a socially constructed commodity, defined by power and predicated on race, class, and gender concerns that can be made to serve the greater good, if adjudicated by —" [right-thinking people].

IT'S TIME to tell Leftist whiners to pound sand.

OBAMA 2012 CAMPAIGN SLOGAN: "Double Down".

AN ANALOGY for liberalism: "The Left is to human welfare as prostitution is to love."

ELECTION 2012 is about limited government or limitless government.

DEATH PANELS: coming to an America near you.

Of course, according to Paul Krugman, they're not really death panels, they're 'medical effectiveness' panels. Call them what you will, but a 'medically effective' death is still a death.

ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMANITY. Sorry, but no. As I've written before, if an individual member wants to 'advance technology for humanity' he or she should be free to do so. But it's not an appropriate mission for a professional society.

IF TAXES AREN'T RAISED, we can't have $4 shrimp in Las Vegas.

OBVIOUSLY: Global Warming Skeptics are Crazy Racists.

WE CAN'T WAIT.

As one listens to the Obama administration and others defend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a Obamacare), one gets the impression that Roosevelt’s nostrum has been adopted as the official motto of this administration. Their attitude seems to be that, of course Obamacare is constitutional because, well, because it’s important.

The idea that federal government’s power should be limited is dismissed as a quaint relic of a bygone age. There are important national problems to be solved, and we should not be held back by a document from the past. As Representative Kathy Hochul (D., N.Y.) puts it, “Basically we are not looking at the Constitution... The decision has been made by this Congress that American citizens are entitled to health care.

This attitude is on display in other areas as well. Constitutional niceties, legislative rules, and democratic debate are all impediments to be dispensed with when “we can’t wait.”

Unfortunately, the attitude isn't just limited to the Obama administration.

MORE RACE-BAITING from my neck of the woods. If there were justice in the world, Marion Barry would just be getting out of the slammer from his 1987 crack cocaine conviction.

A TASTE OF WHAT'S TO COME?



Another incident here. I vaguely remember this incident being described to me by my father when we lived in Nueces County, just east of Duval County.

FACE IT: Liberals just aren't very funny.

I MAY HAVE TO GO with Dr Pepper as my soft drink of choice: Progressive Movement Compels Coca-Cola To Pull Support From ALEC Over Voter Suppression Efforts.

I've already given up on Arby's.

CONSERVATIVES do have a plan for health care reform. It just doesn't depend on government largesse.

ANTHROPOLOGIST criticizes misuse of history in space predictions. I suggest that Ms. Deming think more about the contributions of science fiction authors than those of anthropologists; they have a much higher success rate in predicting the future from the past.

A RIGHT TO URINATE. And if you're not sufficiently tolerant of this right, you must be a bigot.

SPACE TECHNOLOGY:

Manned Missions Said To Be More Versatile Than Robotic Ones.

And

US Moving Towards "Tiny, Speedier And Cheaper" Spacecraft.

So manned space is going to be peopled by dwarves?

AIR FORCE CHIEF: It’ll Be ‘Years’ Before We Catch Up on Drone Data.

The Air Force has more drones and more sensors collecting more data than it has humans to interpret what the electronic tea leaves say. The glut of all that video and still imagery is “unsustainable,” says the Air Force’s top civilian — but it’ll be “years” before the Air Force digs its way out of it. (Spoiler: The solution is automating the cameras [emphasis added].)

I find this somewhat amusing in that the problem is exactly the same as it was when I was working the field back in the mid-1980s. While we've made phenomenal strides in analysis, we've made even more phenomenal strides in data capture, and as a result are even farther back than we were in the mid-80s.

MERCHANTS OF DESPAIR:



So tell us what you really think, Bill.

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-CA) wants to restrict travel from U.S. over taxes. She should try it in her own state first.

THE FRONT FELL OFF. Australian television comedy duo John Clarke and Brian Dawe discuss an oil spill that occurred when the Greek oil tanker Kirki lost its bow off the coast of Western Australia in 1991.



Almost - but not quite - as good as Abbott and Costello's famous "Who's on First?" skit.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: "The emerging tragedy [of our society] is our increased willingness to use the coercive powers of government, in the name of health or some other ruse, to forcibly impose our preferences upon others."

MOCK THEM: you need a photo id to visit the offices of groups that don’t want you to have to show a photo ID to vote.

THOMAS SOWELL on President Obama: "Now there are different kinds of liars. If we must have lying Presidents of the United States, I prefer that they be like Richard Nixon. You could just look at him and tell that he was lying."

HEH. I'VE ALWAYS thought of him as more of a dim bulb.

THIS IS ALMOST ENOUGH to cause me to subscribe to Time Magazine just so I could cancel my subscription.

Linked from Instapundit.

OBAMACARE - a glimpse into the future.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Sarah Palin should be the Republican VP nominee. No, I want her as President Romney's Secretary of Energy.

LOOK TO LOCKHEED: These are the latest sea trials of the F-35B on the USS Wasp. No catapult ... No hook ... It's a new world out there!

"IT'S INCOME-TAX TIME AGAIN, AMERICANS: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil and stab yourself in the aorta."

HE'D NEVER donate his own money.

OBAMA IS MAKING THE CASE for his own impeachment. But it's quicker to just vote him out.

HIS ROYAL IMPERIAL HIGHNESS, Barack Obama the Great.

PAUL GREENBERG: When ethics is just public relations.

WILL AMERICA ever bridge the racial divide? America already has, but the Democrats want to bring it back.

ARIZONA'S IMMIGRATION LAW is working. And Massachusetts, California, Illinois, and New York (among other sanctuary states) are happily accepting the Arizona refugees (not).

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: Senate Democrats Stall House-Passed Bills to Address Gas Prices, Create Jobs.

FRONT PAGE: Going Galt or Going Broke [registration required; it's free].

FAT CHANCE: an Obamacare loss in the Supreme Court will “guarantee” an Obama second term.

The Democrats are panicking.

TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES? How to Hit a Nude Beach.

CALIFORNIA ENVISIONS A STATE OBAMACARE: Two tidbits --

"I would work with other state leaders to make sure California continues to move ahead," said Dave Jones, state insurance commissioner. "We require everyone to have auto insurance in California, and the world hasn't stopped spinning on its axis. All this political tumult generated by the far right is really ignoring the reality in California and elsewhere."

Uh, no. California, like other states, requires auto insurance to drive on public roads. If you don't have a car or don't drive on public roads, you don't need auto insurance. Merely being alive isn't sufficient to mandate auto insurance.

[T]he California Health Benefit Exchange — using about $40 million in federal money — has been setting up an enrollment process and marketing campaign to reach consumers in preparation for a January 2014 launch.

Forty million for 'enrollment process and marketing' for a mandatory system. Does the word 'squandering' come to mind?

California reminds me of the Roadrunner in the old Loonie Tunes cartoons. They've already run off the cliff; just not looked down yet.

SAY WHAT? Government is the Problem.

HOMO POLITICUS: Why Washington Never Learns.

The most plausible explanation lies with the chimpanzees whose deference to authority perfectly exemplifies those who make up our Permanent Government. Washington defers to the alphas, whose confidence in their judgment does not, as it happens, correlate closely with its goodness.

In my view, the correlation coefficient is negative.

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, bigot.

INCREASED DRONE USE spurs questions over privacy.

The use of drones in the U.S. by law enforcement and other government agencies has privacy advocates on edge. At the same time, some do-it-yourself drone flyers believe the ease of sending cheap pilotless planes and choppers airborne gives citizens a powerful tool for keeping public servants on the ground honest.

Interesting - a private eye on our public servants.

THE SEPTEMBER SPENDING SPREE: Shocking. Shocking, I say. Well, only if you're as ignorant as our current President.

THE CASE for trimming the EPA. There's a better case for killing it and driving a stake through its heart.

IF YOU WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE, don't go to work first; it'll endanger your federal financial aid.

THE BIG GREEN MACHINE comes to a screeching halt.

PROMISE MADE; promise kept -- but for me, not for him.

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN CUCCINELLI with more thoughts on ObamaCare and the Supreme Court:

There are many things that I would like to address regarding the health care case. Today, I'll address two unrelated aspects of the case. First, the apoplexy of the left regarding the performance of their legal team; and second, a different perspective on the consequences for the Supreme Court itself if it upholds the mandate as constitutional.

Apoplectic

While the limited-government, constitutionalist side of this week's legal conflict is happier today than we were last week, as you might expect, the opposite is true on the big government side.

Mere 'unhappiness' doesn't seem to properly describe their reaction... I definitely think 'apoplectic' describes it better.

The professional and unprofessional left has been dumping on their lawyers - especially Solicitor General Verilli. Blame for their bad week is being dumped overwhelmingly, nearly exclusively, on the federal government's alleged poor legal performance.

That's flat out baloney.

The best lawyer in the world can't win a lousy case. Put differently, it's tough to win a hand of poker when you're dealt a 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7.

From the very beginning of this case on March 23, 2010, the professoriate, media, and political left established completely unreasonable expectations regarding the outcome. As recently as this past week - after the hearings - I did a media appearance with Democratic Attorney General Doug Gansler of Maryland. With a straight face he declared 'this case should be 9-0.' Of course I agreed, but acknowledged that his 9-0 was probably different from mine...

I have never expressed more confidence than to say that I am cautiously optimistic that the individual mandate will be found unconstitutional. Though my optimism has increased since I attended the hearings last week...

Now that the liberal professoriate etc. has spent two years convincing themselves that they should never lose, their reaction to the possibility of actually losing has been explosive and nasty. While taking the usual shots at those of us that have led the efforts to protect the U.S. Constitution from this federal health care law, they have also turned viciously on their own.

Bearing the brunt of the assault is Solicitor General Verilli (SG) - the lawyer for the federal government tasked with defending the constitutionality of the individual mandate. He was definitely outshone by Paul Clement for the states, but frankly, anyone would be outshone by Paul - he's that good.

But the SG's main problem was not Paul Clement, it was his own case. Remember what I said above about winning a poker hand starting with a 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7? That was what the SG was called on to do in this case.

How bad is it? Mother Jones is one of the most reliable far left blogs out there, and here's what they had to say:

"Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. should be grateful to the Supreme Court for refusing to allow cameras in the courtroom, because his defense of Obamacare on Tuesday may go down as one of the most spectacular flameouts in the history of the court."

And after all of their teeth gnashing and rending of garments, they concluded: "If the law is upheld, it will be in spite of Verrilli's performance, not because of it."

Now, as a general matter, I am not one to defend my opponent's lawyer, but the obstinate refusal of the insular left to accept that they had a bad case from the beginning, i.e., that the law was wholly unprecedented and likely unconstitutional, is almost breathtaking. Their cruel willingness to rhetorically put the SG's head on a post just to avoid blaming those that actually brought America this unconstitutional monstrosity (and to avoid admitting that they were wrong themselves), is sad and pathetic.

It is still not clear whether the mandate will be found unconstitutional or not, but this chapter in the left's vicious cannibalism should serve as a lesson to America of how close-minded and insular the left really is. And more than that, it's a lesson of just how committed to government control of everything they really are, as they simply won't allow that any other course is even worth contemplating.

Wow. Ouch.

Marbury vs. Madison and this Case

For those of you that don't remember Marbury vs. Madison, don't worry, you didn't miss something in the newspaper, Marbury was decided in 1803. It is considered the landmark case in the history of the Supreme Court, as it is the case that definitively established the concept of what's called "judicial review." Judicial review simply means that the courts are the final decider of what the law is, including the Constitution.

The Supreme Court declaring itself as the final arbiter of the Constitution was a controversial position at the time - even though it was a unanimous decision (4-0). It has historically been seen as a very clever maneuver by Chief Justice Marshall to solidify the Court's position and power.

The reason I bring it up now, is that it has occurred to me that a certain degree of the Court's own power is at stake in the health care case.

How?

Well, I'll tell you...

If the Court rules that the mandate is constitutional, then Congress in particular -- and to a lesser extent, the Office of the President -- will suddenly be a lot more powerful in our constitutional system. Put differently, the balance of power between the three branches of our federal government will noticeably shift.

Congress will gain the most power among the three branches, the Presidency will gain, too, but not nearly as much as the Congress. Those gains in authority will come entirely at the expense of the Courts.

Why?

Well, I'll tell you that, too...

If Congress' power under the Commerce Clause is so broad that Congress (with the concurrence of the president) can order citizens into commerce in order to regulate those citizens, that would represent a massive increase in the recognized breadth of the Commerce Clause, and therefore of the power of Congress and the president.

Remember Justice Kennedy's first question to the SG on Tuesday: "Can you order people into commerce in order to regulate them?" For the mandate to be constitutional, the answer to that question would have to be 'yes.' And reflecting a different comment by Justice Kennedy, this would represent a fundamental shift in the relationship between the government and the citizens - massively increasing the power of government at the expense of citizens' liberty.

So, one consequence of a finding by the Supreme Court that the mandate is constitutional will be that the Court will have much less need to review federal legislation in order to judge such legislation's constitutionality. The reason for this is that the legal theory supporting a finding that the mandate is constitutional is so sweeping, that there won't be nearly as many questions in the future as to whether or not a particular piece of federal legislation is constitutional or not, as so much of it will fit comfortably within the new outer limits of the Commerce Clause.

Put another way, if the mandate is constitutional, the outer boundary of Congress' power would be so broad, that it would be ridiculously simple to draft laws that fit easily within that boundary, even though such laws might appear to be very far-reaching by any previous constitutional standards. And because so much more federal power would fit within the new outer boundary of the Commerce Clause, there just wouldn't be as much cause for the Court to review federal laws for constitutionality as in the past, as it would almost be hard to draft a law that was a close call by the potential 'new' outer limit of commerce clause power.

Those are my health care litigation thoughts for the day!

From my email.