JUNE'S Nanny of the Month. There's never a shortage of nannies.

IS IT WORTH IT? The $10,000 College Degree. It's worth a helluva lot more than a 4-year, $100,000+ degree in 'victim studies' from Harvard.

WELL, they are the party of classless warfare.

"JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES said that a good catchword can stop thought for 50 years. The phrase 'social justice' has stopped many people from thinking, for at least a century -- and counting."

"THE PRESIDENT'S DECISION [on illegal immigration] is politically tainted, constitutionally suspect, cynically timed and poorly thought out. But it did result in one unintended consequence: We are reminded once again that there are millions of foreign nationals dying to reach the United States -- and to stay at any cost after they get here."

THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY: Justice Department refuses to prosecute Eric Holder after contempt vote.

I'm thinking the Imperial Presidency just signed its own death warrant.

OBAMA LIES, FREEDOM DIES:

WILL “THE BLADE” pop the higher education bubble?

BAD DECISION: California Gov. Jerry Brown signs budget that relies on voter-backed tax hikes. I doubt very much that voters in California are in a mood for more taxes.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL TEST of the AEGIS/SM-3 ballistic missile defense system. Hitting a bullet with another bullet is getting to be rather routine, but the 'which bullet to hit' problem remains.

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: Obama Does Not Know What ‘Outsourcing’ Means.

WHY ALL MY EX'S live in Texas:

[T]he most important attribute of Texas is that its constitution limits the time that politicians can meet. The Texas Legislature is limited to meeting only 4 months every other year. That pretty much explains everything. Texas and my state of Nevada have no state income taxes and the fastest growing populations in America…not in spite of, but because the politicians aren't allowed to sit in their seats all year long thinking of new ways to re-distribute income, impede business, and destroy jobs.

Read it all.

BEWARE THE SALESPERSON with an iPad.

RULES ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE: NYC Mayor Bloomberg solution to obeying NY idling restriction while still keeping his SUV cool gets ‘thumbs up’ from Larry the Cable Guy.

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE: ObamaCare upheld because America was lied to: the mandate is not a mandate; it is a tax.

NEWS FLASH! Obama has no public events on his schedule today. Must a day for golf and basketball....

CHARLES LANE: Is ObamaCare the result of a 'living Constitution' or a history lesson finally learned? Perhaps 10:00 am today will tell us.

THINK OF THE TERRORIST APPLICATIONS: Commercial Drones and GPS Spoofers a Bad Mix.

JAY COST: The Mandate Represents What’s Wrong With Democrats. Read it all.

JONAH GOLDBERG on a proposal for mandatory voting: "If the old line that lotteries are taxes on stupid people is correct, then the upshot of this proposal is that the cure to what ails democracy is an influx of large numbers of stupid voters."

ESCAPE FROM CHARLOTTE: Moderate Democrats are increasingly finding 'previous appointments' will prevent them from attending the Democratic National Convention.

WHY IS IT that the only choice left in America is whether or not you can kill a fetus?

HOW CAN WE MAKE RULES governing aircraft safety if you don't crash enough airplanes? Maybe because airplanes are already safe enough?

EVEN THE MEDIA WORKHORSES are beginning to chafe in their harnesses.

WILD TURKEYS terrorize New Jersey town. Shotguns work, and New Jersey seems to have fairly liberal gun laws. I'd recommend another Thanksgiving dinner on the Fourth of July.

PENTAGON’S Zombie Satellite Program Comes to Life. There's an awful lot of 'debris' in orbit that could probably be reused if only we had a remanufacturing facility at the International Space Station.

GOOD QUESTION: What Does Obama's 'Marriage Equality' Mean for Bisexuals?

THOMAS SOWELL: A political glossary in two parts.

AARON WALKER defeats convicted felon Brett Kimberlin in court, gets SWATted. For a complete account of the events leading up to the SWATting, follow the links from here.

And the saga continues here.

UNEARNED VICTIMHOOD? Liberal Group Thinks You Are White, and That's Not Fair.

A BEAUTIFUL POEM ABOUT GROWING OLDER: Walk with me by the water.




















Shit... I forgot the words....

From my email: all you need to know about aging.

AMERICA THE NON-RACIST: The simple fact of the matter is that 'white racism' is largely confined to white progressives.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Wildfires are nature's way of telling us we're lousy housekeepers.

IF OBAMACARE DIES TOMORROW, what’s next? Here are some excellent suggestions.

More thoughts here.

PRESIDENT OBAMA in a campaign email Tuesday: “I will be the first president in modern history to be outspent in his re-election campaign, if things continue as they have so far.” I have no problem with that.

THE UNICORNS' REPUTATION is getting badly sullied by association with the progressives.

TEN THINGS you would miss about Obamacare. Nope, nary a one.

What I do miss is the ability to buy on the free market high-limit catastrophic health insurance (not health care, health insurance) without all the government-mandated bells & whistles that I neither need nor want.

A SNAPSHOT of Obama's economy. As you scroll through the gallery of charts, CNN tries to generata a sense of optimism which simply doesn't correlate with what I see looking out my window.

GET READY TO DUCK: FAA Forecasts 10,000 Unmanned Aircraft Could Be Active Within Five Years. And turn your privacy shields on....

HEH: Orbitz steers Mac users to pricier hotels after tracking software shows they spend more than Windows users. Windows users are thriftier.

ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW: It looks like the conservative position did in fact win.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY need not be electro-mechanical.

BACK TO THE PAST: 'Cloud computing' is nothing more than a sophisticated version of the 1970's technology of a single central computer (server in today's techno-speak) connected by a time-shared communication system (intranet/internet in today's techno-speak) to hundreds of dumb terminals (PC's in today's technospeak), so the 'inevitable answer' is nothing more than a return to past practice.

POSSIBLE ALIEN MESSAGE to get reply from humanity -- via Twitter, thus guaranteeing an intergalactic 'fence' to keep the twits isolated.

UPDATE TO this June 22nd post on presidential election trends.

The Rasmussen poll data from today shows that 'strong disapprovals' upward trend is accelerating slightly; 'strong approvals' are continuing their downward trend; and more significantly, the 'mixed reaction' upward trend is flattening as more of the polled seem to be making a decision.

RUNNING ON EMPTY: The Contents of Obama's Character.

IT PROBABLY HELPED: Did Obama's arrogance sink ObamaCare?

FOOLS WALK IN where angels fear to tread.

HEH: "The fact that someone is a preening buffoon provides absolutely no assurance that he is not also a grasping egomaniac." Three guesses as to who; the first two don't count.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Is the Country Unraveling? I'm cautiously optimistic the answer is "No."

'FAECIES EVENIO' isn't a legal excuse.

NAMED EGYPT’S WINNER, Islamist makes history. For the U.S., the question is: "Is this the least worst-case or the greatest worse-case?"

IS DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ done as DNC chairwoman? I love the speculation that she would try running against Nancy Pelosi for minority leader (and conceivably Speaker of the House). What a cat fight that would be. My bet would be on Miz Pelsoi: old age and treachery will beat youth and (skill?) every time.

WAS FAST AND FURIOUS intended to promote gun control?

Bill Whittle is arguing that the Fast and Furious program was an effort by the Obama administration to increase bloodshed in Mexico and thereby lead to tougher gun control regulation in the U.S. This theory has been around for a while, and may receive a wider hearing now that Obama has asserted a weak privilege claim to prevent the disclosure of some Fast and Furious documents.

The theory cannot be ruled out. However, I don’t find it persuasive.

I could almost accept the PowerLine argument except for the combined arrogance and abject stupidity of the Obama administration.

ELECTION 2012: Ready to rumble.

MICHAEL BARONE: Obama Backers Use Race as Alibi for Ebbing Support. The race card isn't playing well this year.

JUST PLAIN PETTY: Confirming their arrogance, "in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Arizona's immigration law, Obama administration officials announced Monday they are suspending (in Arizona) a key program that allowed state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law."

COMMENT OF THE DAY ON IMMIGRATION: "Maybe we should build a fence around California rather than Mexico. Ex-Californians do more damage." From the comments here.

CLEARLY IT WAS ALL BUSH'S FAULT: the decline accelerated in 2001 (but there's no data for 2009-2012). Look at the data in Part II and Part III for more economic history.

THE AUDACITY OF SELF-IMPORTANCE.

NEW JOKES about the idiots in Washington.

OH MY GOD! A chlorinated dihydrogen oxide gun.

The silly stupid season is upon us.

SOMEHOW, THE HOPE-AND-CHANGE STUFF always seems to end in higher taxes.

JONATHON TURLEY suggested packing the Supreme Court by increasing the number of Justices from nine to nineteen in order to 'more democratically' interpret the Constitution (never mind that groups comprising more than eight or nine people allow cliques and sub-teams to form, each with their own agenda, which can derail the outcome).

Let's assume for a moment every Supreme Court can have only two decisions (Constitutional/Not Constitutional), that every Justice is independent (no cliques), each Justice has exactly the same probability of coming to the correct (Constitutional) decision. Then the binomial distribution can easily be used to evaluate the Court's likelihood of coming to a correct decision as a function of the size of the Court and the likelihood of each Justice coming to the correct decision.

Given the number of 5-4 decisions, we can roughly estimate the Justices' likelihood of a correct decision (in 'hard' cases) as greater than 5/9ths, or about 60%. If so, then a Court of 9 Justices will have a 'correct decision rate' of about 73% in the 'hard' cases, and a Court of 19 Justices will correctly decide 81% of the time, a difference of 8%.

In 'easy decision' cases where the Justices' individual correct decision rises (to say 80%), then the probability of the Court making the correct decision rises to 98.0% and 99.8% respectively.

This assumes that no cliques form, which will almost certainly lower the larger Court's effectiveness.

FOLLOW THE IDEOLOGY.



It's a pretty ugly accusation, but there has to be some reason Obama intervened. Linked from here.

IS BUYING A GUN a suicidal act? If it is, so is buying an automobile.

HEY, I'VE GOT A GREAT IDEA: Let's pack the Supreme Court.

Hint: IQ isn't additive. Also I recall reading somewhere that a committee is just as smart as it's dumbest member.

More: "Certainly groups comprising more than eight or nine people are inefficient because they allow some members to coast (‘social loafing’), and their size allows cliques and sub-teams to form, each with their own agenda, which can derail the outcome." I would think 19 would more than sufficient to screw things up.

AN IMPENETRABLE PROGRESSIVE BUBBLE: Axelrod: Obama win will 'liberate' Republicans to work with president.

MAN ALLEGEDLY beats school bus driver to death after he accidentally knocked off mirror. The car that the bus hit was double-parked.

I dislike being cynical, but does anyone want to take bets on the value of the car and the political leaning of the assailant?

“IT’S NOT HIS RACE. It’s that he’s awful.”

I COULD WEAR a 'utilikilt' since I look like a dork no matter what I wear.

AMATEUR HOUR at the White House. Actually I have more respect for real amateurs; the White House doesn't even measure up to the amateur standard.

NEW YORK TIMES Columnist Charles Blow(hard): Those kids who bullied the bus monitor remind me of Republicans.

Whether it is a Republican debate audience booing a gay soldier or Rush Limbaugh’s vicious attack on a female Georgetown law student or Newt Gingrich’s salvos at the poor, bullying has become boilerplate.

But of course; only Republicans evil. From the comments:

Wow, I have to admit when I saw this I couldn't figure out a way to tie it to Republicans or conservatives. Thank you to the author for using this story to reinforce to me how bad Romney's party is. Obviously these kids are all from red states who mistakenly were on a bus in a blue state. I think all these kids really need is a hug.

Linked from Hot Air.

FASTER! SCOTUS is coming.

MARK STEYN: Americans are such hicks that "we regard the first member of the Invented-American community to make it to the White House as a kinda weird development rather than an encouraging sign of how a new post-racial, post-gender, post-modern America is moving beyond the old straightjackets of black and white, male and female, gay and straight, real and hallucinatory."

OBAMACARE: Rip it out, root and branch.

WAYNE ALLYN ROOT: Why Obama Will Lose in a Landslide.

My thoughts as well.

JEFF JACOBY: "... one more sad reminder of how easy it can be to view everything through a partisan lens, and to assume that the best gauge of someone's integrity is the "R" or "D" after his name." Sadly, I think that judgment is proving to be accurate.

BAD KARMA: Jogger targeted by teens turns out to be Kung Fu expert.

ANOTHER REASON FOR TORT REFORM: New Jersey woman hit with baseball sues Little League player. In addition to 'loser pays', the lawyer who brings a frivolous suit to court should be disbarred.

WHAT? You need gloves to pick up empty shell casings? Another reason why OSHA needs to go.

SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE chairman Sen. Max Baucus: “I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. . . We hire experts.”

Every time I hear the word 'expert', I'm reminded of the classic definition: 'ex' as in 'has-been' and 'spurt' as in 'drip under pressure'.

HEH. GOP GIVES ELIZABETH WARREN an Ancestry.com account for her birthday.

GOVERNMENT: getting nothing for something -- and fined for not getting nothing! Well done (I think).

OH, DANG! The Social Security trust fund will start going bankrupt in 2013. And I just started.

SMOKING BANS are for the little people. Linked from Instapundit.

PROPER GUN CONTROL: Phoenix boy, 14, shoots armed intruder while watching three younger siblings. "[T]the suspect did not get a shot off."

I hope the burglar fell outside the house so as not to mess up the entry floor.

THE WASHINGTON POST retains its credential as an Obama apologist.

I've given up on the Post and canceled my daily subscription. I'll keep the weekend subscription (for a while); the Post's endorsements are useful in deciding who to vote against.

IS POVERTY THE CAUSE OF VIOLENCE, or is violence the cause of poverty? My vote is for the latter.

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: Astronomers Catch Video of "Near-Miss" Asteroid.

MARK STEYN: Obama, Holder have ‘blithe contempt’ for US system of checks and balances.

NANCY PELOSI HIT BY CLUE BAT: If mandate ruled unconstitutional, rest of health law won’t work.

Here's a question from me: Isn't single-payer (National Health Care) also a mandate to purchase (through taxes) something just because I breathe?

KEYSTONE PIPELINE: Death by a thousand studies. There ought to be a legal limit to the number of roadblocks the environmentalists can throw up. One challenge and that's it; you're out of the game. Also implement loser pays.

#OBAMAFUNDRAISINGIDEAS: My personal favorite is #10; it's the one most consistent with his philosophy of government.

MICHELLE MALKIN: The Coming DNC Disaster.

OBAMA'S TRUTHINESS: "It's becoming increasingly clear that President Obama is not burdened with too heavy a commitment to honesty." How does that statement go? The reason truth is put on a pedestal is so that we won't run into it....

CHUTZPAH:

Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?

Let your friends know how important this election is to you — register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It’s a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate—and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.

Setting up and sharing your registry page is easy—so get started today.

Even Democrats are embarrassed.

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT.

"THE BIG TRAP of multiculturalism is simply this: If all cultures are equal, why defend your own? The culture that replaces it will be just as good, won’t it?"

CONN CARROLL: Now unions will have to work for their members to remain relevant. No longer will working for Democrats be sufficient.

LEFT WHINES: [Supreme] Court Rules in Chamber’s Favor in EVERY CASE DECIDED So Far This Term. It couldn't possibly be because the Chamber of Commerce is correct, could it? No, of course not; it's because the Right is evil.

FIGHTING BACK: Major lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Dodd-Frank. Thanks, Texas.

LIBERALS CAN'T HELP BEING JERKS: Activists photographed flipping bird to Reagan portrait at White House.

ANN COULTER: VULGARIANS ON THE LOOSE!

Somewhere, some place, there's got to be a 'no whining' zone for liberals.

OBAMA II FORECAST: "A second Obama term would consist of little other than long drawn out court battles between the Executive Branch and Congress."

BILL CLINTON'S GOOD ADVICE: In 2010, Clinton said "Give us two more years. If it doesn't work, you have another election in just two years. You can vote us out then."

Will do.

NIFTY: New 'Strain Paint' Glows Fluorescent When the Underlying Structure is Stressed.

GASLAND II: Doubling Down on Wrong.

PELOSI: ‘I Could Have Arrested Karl Rove on Any Given Day’. Oh, come now. She could have had a V-8, and would be better off if she had.

SEIU: Employers shouldn't be allowed to pay higher wages than the union contract allows.

LET THE BLOGOSPHERE spike the ball. After all, they're the ones who scored.

MILTON WOLF: A lesson in Obamanomics.


If the video won't load, go here. It seems to be very slow to load.

NOT LOOKING GOOD


Note that the 'strong approval' trend is negative. At the moment the 'strong approvals' are moving to the 'mixed reaction' category while 'strong disapproval' is showing a slow but steady increase. The Rasmussen Index is here.

HEH: Obama Should Invoke Executive Privilege On His Economic Agenda.

THE MONEY MACHINE seems to be breaking down. Except on campus.

CALIFORNIA'S bullet train to nowhere is dead.

DON'T MESS WITH little old ladies who habitually carry sharp pointy things.

UPDATE: Knitters win. That was fast; little old ladies are a force to be reckoned with.

JAPAN to restart its nuclear reactors.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, in a few hundred thousand years, North America could become the next Saudi Arabia of fossil fuels.

ARE THEY CALLED 'GREEN' JOBS because they cost so much money?

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING EMPEROR.

BLOOMBERG POLL: Obama leads Romney 53 to… 40? Obviously they only polled Democrats....

THE PEOPLE have gotten dumber -- just because they won't follow idiots over the cliff.

TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: the 'skills' gap.

THE POLITICAL FIGHT on health care is over. Republicans won. To borrow a phrase from the RatherGate era: 'snide but accurate'.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Are the Democrats doomed? Only if they insist on remaining true to their "progressive" colleagues.

THE BENEFIT of Bloomberg's big beverage ban may be the beginning of the dismantling of the Nanny State.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION passing over major U.S. population centers for the next week or so. Here's a website that will tell you where and when to look.

OBVIOUSLY THIS IS HATE SPEECH:

In church last Sunday, this little old lady in the pew next to me was silently saying a private prayer. I saw her lips moving and I thought it was so unique that I just had to ask her who she was praying for. What she said was so sweet and sincere that I just had to share it with you:

Dear Father, These past couple of years have been tough... You have taken my favorite actor Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress Elizabeth Taylor, my favorite cowboy James Arness, my favorite athlete Bob Feller, my favorite singer Whitney Houston and my favorite salesman Billy Mays. I just wanted you to know that my favorite president is Barack Obama.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

From my email. Don't tell the Democrats.

THOMAS SOWELL: Random thoughts on the passing scene.

For a long time, Democrats have gone to Washington to win at all costs, while too many Republicans went to Washington to compromise with Democrats. The rise of the Tea Party may change that.

Read the rest.

"IF THE PRESIDENT can rewrite federal laws that he doesn’t like, there is no limit to his power. Then, he will not be a president - he will be a king."

The world in catching on. I first wrote about His Royal Kingship in 2011 and many times since.

AT LEAST HE'S CONSISTENT: Obama Runs His Campaign Like He Runs the Country … In the Red.

MEMO TO NBC: What the hell is wrong with you?

You deserve what they’re saying about you. It’s earned. You have worked long and hard to merit the suspicion, acrimony, mistrust and revulsion that the media-buying public increasingly heaps upon you. You have successfully eroded any confidence, dispelled any trust, and driven your audience into the arms of the Internet and the blogosphere, where biases are affirmed and like-minded people can tell each other what they hold to be true, since nobody believes in objective reality any more. You have done a superlative job of diminishing what was once a great profession and undermining one of the vital underpinnings of democracy, a free press.

The mainstream media isn't mainstream any more.

HORSES' ASSES

HEH: Vulnerable Democrats Skipping DNC Convention. Now is not a good time to mention the Titanic.

THOSE FAST AND FURIOUS documents must be dynamite: "Some have speculated that Obama’s intervention means that the president himself has something to hide."

OMG! Those racist Republican evangelical rednecks are ... black!

SAM DONALDSON: Many on Right Oppose Obama Because He's Black. Most oppose him because he's the worst President ever.

THEY'RE JEALOUS because Romney's wealthier than they are....

NO, HE JUST PUSHED THE 'RESET' BUTTON: Obama Suffers Amnesia About His First Year As President.

CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE how far he [Obama] will go if he wins reelection and knows he will never again be held to account?

My worst-case scenario: the Kingdom of America.

AWAITING THE OBAMACARE DECISION - issues and possible outcomes. Soon we will know.

TAXMAGEDDON to hit these states and congressional districts especially hard. Virginia's in the top ten, but luckily (?) I'm in the 10th congressional district.

UNDERSEA 'SPACEWALKS': NASA Undersea 'Asteroid' Mission Passes Halfway Mark.

CHINESE SPACECRAFT docks with orbiting Tiangong 1 space station. More news here.

NOT ONLY do Democrats pay 'protestors' to heckle Romney, they won't even pay minimum wage. There's no union for paid hecklers.

UPDATE: "Whatever happened to equal pay for equal work?"

THOMAS SOWELL: Obama's immigration ploy.

MICHELLE MALKIN: How Obama Bureaucrats Fueled Western Wildfires. Even conservatives get it wrong occasionally; the problem isn't too little effort fighting fires, it's far too little effort preventing them.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN proposes ban on use of armed drones in the US. A conspiracy-ish thought, certainly, but doesn't this look like a pre-emptive strike against Obama's aggressive use of drone strikes against terrorists abroad?

IT'S LONG BEEN a liberal assertion (and battle cry for gay marriage) that children of stable homosexual families fare as well as children of stable heterosexual families. That assertion may now be in doubt. I don't believe the research is dispositive, since (a) gay families don't beget children, they adopt (artifical insemination is a form of adoption to my mind); and (b) there is not yet a large enough research population to make any truly confident statement.

For those interested, there is more here and here.

SERVICING THE PRESIDENT.

OF COURSE it wasn't political: Obama Campaign Denies that the Immigration Fiat was Political, Then Sends Out Fundraising Email Touting the Diktat.

ANDREW KLAVAN: It's because he's black. Klavan's post leads to an interesting question: Would you rather be opposed because you're black or because you're an idiot?

SATELLITE spots Lockheed Martin mystery drone.

IT'S THE SYSTEMS ENGINEERING 80/20 RULE: 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Read Augustine's Laws for more.

SO MAYBE THE BUYERS DON'T WANT THEIR NEW SNEAKERS STOLEN? Adidas blasted over new 'shackle' sneaker.

ASK GOOGLE how racist we are. If this is an example of a Harvard doctoral dissertation, America is in deep doo-doo. Just cataloging the errors, false assumptions, and strawman arguments would take a week to do (not to mention that this is an economics dissertation).

AMERICA’S TAX REFUGEES: citizens flee states with big government. The migration map referred to is here; pick a state, a start date and an end date, and you can find out how many people and how much income moved to and from that state, from and to every other state, in the time period you've chosen.

I chose to look at the net migration data for the years 2000-2009; then for 2001 (President Bush's first year in office) and finally 2009 (President Obama's first year in office). Over the 10-year period 2000-2009, the top ten states in out-migration were, in order, New York, California, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Louisana, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Total out-migration was 2,173,604 households. All but Louisana (solid Republican) and Ohio (tossup) were designated as solid Democrat on the Washington Post's electoral prediction map.

The top ten states in in-migration were Florida, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Washington. Total in-migration was 2,090,493 households. Of the top in-migration states, 5 were designated as solid Republican, one was solid Democrat, and the remaining 4 were designated as tossups.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the net migration data for each President's first year in office (there is only Obama's first year data available).

During Bush's first term, Connecticut and Louisana were replaced by Iowa (tossup) and Indiana (red) in the out-migration data. Virginia (tossup), Oregon (blue), and Maryland (blue) replaced South Carolina, Washington, and Tennessee in the top ten for net in-migration.

During Obama's first term, Minnesota (blue), Wisconsin (tossup), and Indiana (red) moved into the top ten for out-migration, replacing Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Louisana (which moved from a top ten out migration state to a top ten in-migration state). Oklahoma (red), Virginia (tossup), and Louisana (red) moved into the top ten for in-migration.

The single most interesting point is that the migration pattern appears to be largely independent of the President/administration. At least 7 of the top ten in both in-migration and out-migration didn't change with respect to who was in office (there is obviously more data from the Bush presidency than from the Obama presidency). The migration pattern appears to be most strongly influenced by state rather than federal government: blue states to red or tossup states.

Here's the electoral map I used courtesy of the Washington Post (assuming it will load correctly for you; it randomly chooses to do me evil....).

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Democrats are the ‘Big Tent’. “We’re tolerant and respectful of a diverse point of view."

Just as long as you don't express it.

THE WASHINGTON POST'S E.J. Dionne proposes a new obama campaign slogan: Keep the change.

MADNESS: the media's moral morass.

SMART: West Virginia Democrats distance themselves from Obama by skipping national convention.

WHY OWN A BMW when you can have a Zombie Survival Machine?

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: How much is ‘enough’? President Obama has long been a proponent of 'fairness' ("I do think at a certain point you've made enough money.") so I ask what are the limits to 'fairness'? Is fairness strictly limited to earnings? Or does it extend to wealth?

Is is fair that I own a 4-bedroom house when it's occupied by only my wife and
myself? Or should the government step in and require that I move to a one-bedroom apartment?

Is it 'fair' that I own over an acre of land where my house is located? Or should my property be broken up into 1/4 acre (or smaller) parcels and given to others?

Is it 'fair' for me to have two cars when there are only two of us? Or should we be forced to give up one car to someone else who is needier?

Is it 'fair' for me to take Social Security when I could live on my retirement income? Or should I be forced out of a system I've paid into for over 40 years?

Is it 'fair' for me to be on Medicare when I could afford private insurance (assuming, of course that Obama would let an insurance company sell me a high-limit health insurance policy)? Or should the government force me into Medicaid?

Is it 'fair' for me to bequeath my estate to my children and grandchildren? Or should the government tax it all away for the benefit of others?

Obama's vision of 'fairness' is a zero-sum game: a nation of equal poverty (except for the government overseers, of course).

SINCE WHEN has citizen 'happiness' been a part of the Constitution?

MASSACHUSETTS SENATE: Sen. Scott Brown has agreed to debate Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, but only if it is not on MSNBC. Looking good, MSNBC, looking good.

SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT: Buy now, buy used.

BLUE MARBLE 2012: The Arctic Edition.

THERE'S NOTHING like a brand-new 'shiny object' to distract from the 2012 presidential election. An older news report, complete with an X-Files-like video, is here.

A GOP bait-and-switch on campaign finance disclosure? I too have been a member of the full disclosure camp -- until I saw this year the liberal/progressive willingness to use disclosure to threaten donors. Now -- as much as I don't like the idea -- I'm moving toward the anonymity camp as long as amounts are fully disclosed.

THIS KIND OF NONSENSE would go away very quickly if the council members had to pay for the study out of their own pockets.

WHAT? Me worry? Skim the comments -- some people simply can not take a joke.

10,000 POSTS: This was my first post, on August 4, 2006, as I prepared for my first tour at Camp Victory in Bagdhad, Iraq. At that time the weblog was meant to be my method of communicating with my family from Iraq. Little did I know how much it would evolve over the last (nearly) six years.

Little else has changed, however. Six years later, Daisy is still webmistress, Shadow is still keeping the socks from sneaking out of the sock drawer, and Diamond has joined the team as the 'snack mistress'.

THE EPA is coming for you.

HMM. Can I get $150,000 to study whether my cats frighten the birds in our back yard? And another $150,000 to see if they frighten the squirrels?

REACH OUT to somebody at the White House or the Obama campaign and give them a pat on the back. Don't you think they first have to deserve it?

UH, HUH: 'Angry' Money Gives Funding Edge to GOP and Romney.

BRUCE BIALOSKY: Random thoughts on the political scene.

IF REPUPLICANS ARE SMART ... they will mock Obama unrelentingly. Mockery works; unrelenting mockery works better.

COLLEGE PROFESSOR: I'm not just a diversity number. I remember -- way back in the early 1980's -- hiring two three women engineers who soon proved to be outstanding employees. Then in the mid-1980's when diversity programs reared their ugly heads, they were appalled, then angered, that they might soon be thought of as 'diversity' hires.

The diversity problem isn't new, but it is good that it is being recognized in the very environment that gave it birth.

IMPROVING HEALTH CARE: Why should government be involved in medicine at all?

THE PRIVATE SECTOR is 'doing fine'.

Obama’s “the private sector is doing fine” comment will stick ... because he believes it. The Obama administration truly believes that the private sector is doing just fine and all the economy needs is a bit more Keynesian government spending on government employees to get demand going again. That’s their plan.

Tax reform, cutting regulation, ending the uncertainty of Obamacare and Taxmageddon … none of these problems are on the Obama administration’s radar.

The administration is neither blind nor deaf; they simply cannot fathom the possibility that more government can negatively affect the private sector (or citizens, for that matter).

IT'S NOT FAIR! You're playing by our rules.

VOTER FRAUD?



No, it's a crime against humanity.

A CAMPAIGN with no message and no slogan beyond FORWARD! to ... wherever.

GREEK ELECTION RESULTS: just kicking the can further down a dead-end road.

WHO IS TO BLAME when Sacramento "Teacher of the Year" is laid off?

HEH: Barack Obama -- a legend in his own mind?

I'd just like to wake up in the morning to find the last 3-1/2 years were a bad dream.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Scandal of Our Age.

OBAMA: punching the panic/reset button yet again.

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: Showing Our Work for Jobs.

TECHNOLOGY: Intermodulation and IP3. This post is strictly for tech-savvy RF design engineers. I'm posting it only because intermodulation products are the bane of wideband collection receiver designers (of which I was once one).

IS GRIEF always depression? At the current rate, it won't be long before life is diagnosed as a medical condition.

FATHER'S DAY cuteness roundup.

ROMNEY CAMPAIGN'S Father's Day video.

HEH: A tale of two pictures.

AMERICANS don’t think POTUS is #DoingFine on Jobs. From the comments, CandiLLL would be a bit more believable if she could write coherently (and spell).

ICELAND: Obama's Utopia?

WELL, WE KNEW President Obama is a firm believer in recycling. Which means we can expect a second term to be a first term recycled.

PROGRESSIVE GUN CONTROL.



Linked from here.

10 REASONS the private sector is not “doing fine”.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Automobile turn signals ought to be renamed 'idiot signals'. Twice this morning, in the space of less than a mile, I had two cars use their turn signals to tell me that they had already started moving into my lane of traffic.

I was always under the impression that turn signals were to tell the other drivers what you intended to do, not what you had already done. When you turn on the blinker after you've committed to the turn all you're telling me is that you're an idiot.

OBAMA'S 2012 CAMPAIGN THEME SONG:

AND I THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT CONGRESS: Global Wind Day comes and goes.

ADAPTING TO TECHNOLOGY



From my email.

CRUSIN' FOR A BRUSIN': Independents and Nearly a Third of Democrats Think Obama’s Policies Hurt Job Creation.

YOU KNOW WHO'S HURTING WOMEN? Stupid women like Elizabeth Wurtzel. Here's the proof: in writing of 'educated' women who choose to be stay-at-home mothers,

[I]n the interest of doing what’s right both for me personally and for women generally, I ....

So ... what's right for her personally must also be right for women generally. How do you spell 'condescending pseudo-intellectual snob'?

THE SECOND TERM: What would Obama do if reëlected? Long, but worth the read.

PAPER, PLASTIC OR CLOTH: Which Bag is Best for the Environment?

COLLEGE GRADUATES: The new American Helots.

THE ORIGINAL NANNY STATE: Swedish politicians urge men to stop stand-up urination.

AND LIBERALS KEEP COMPLAINING that conservatives/Republicans are bigots.

REGARDING A NEWS REPORT of a large rat clawing the leg of a NY subway rider, Mayor Bloomberg "plans to ban large servings of soda, which should reduce the size of the city's rats (5th item)."

CREATE YOUR OWN wireless yard sign. I checked my neighborhood -- nothing -- but hit paydirt in Washington DC: 11 for, 3 against, and 2 present (one of which may have been the White House).

WHEN YOU LOSE Dana Milbank, you've lost the election: “I had high hopes for President Obama’s speech on the economy. But instead of going to Ohio on Thursday with a compelling plan for the future, the president gave Americans a falsehood wrapped in a fallacy.”

THE 'BENEFITS' of flower power.

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH BIG GOVERNMENT: "Congress is addicted to the allure of doing 'something.' Trusting free people to make rational choices is not considered 'something'. They are addicted to the belief that if there is a problem, there must be a legislative solution."

A REPLACEMENT FOR CHAVEZ? Venezuela has built first drone.

YES. Are We in Revolutionary Times?

MARK STEYN: Ground Control to President Obama. Name one tangible 'great thing' that has been started in the last 3-1/2 years.

ENTITLEMENT GENERATION: I'm voting for Obama because he'll provide me with free sex contraception for the rest of my life.

Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you.

TECHNOLOGY: Quantum Dots Are Behind New Displays.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Francis Gary Powers awarded posthumous Silver Star.

I GUESS the last person leaving California won't have to turn out the lights after all.

FINE WINE: now from New Jersey.

LEADERSHIP DOES MATTER. "The example set at the top is reflected in the behavior of others all the way down the chain of command. It is OK to disclose legitimate secrets that threaten our national security, put the lives of others in jeopardy, compromise sensitive operational capabilities and wreck relations with allies -- as long as the O-Team looks good in the leak."

BLOOMBERG: "[I]f government's purpose isn't to improve the health and longevity of its citizens, I don't know what its purpose is."



If Mayor Bloomberg doesn't know what the purpose of government is, then he damn well should not be in government.

ANOTHER BUMPER STICKER I'D LIKE TO SEE.

BRETT KIMBERLIN and the left-wing money-machine.

TAKE AWAY THE ABILITY TO FIRE PEOPLE, and you have airport security, public schools, Veterans Administration hospitals, the Postal Service, General Motors and Pinch Sulzberger, New York Times family scion.

To see how it relates to health 'care', follow the link above.

PRIVACY, viewed from the Left and Right.

WE'RE GONNA DIE unless we kill ourselves.

Society globally has to collectively decide that we need to drastically lower our population very quickly. More of us need to move to optimal areas at higher density and let parts of the planet recover. Folks like us have to be forced to be materially poorer, at least in the short term. We also need to invest a lot more in creating technologies to produce and distribute food without eating up more land and wild species. It’s a very tall order.

For grins, read some of the comments. This came from a Linked In discussion topic by someone who is "[t]rying to save civilization before it is too late".

LISTENING to bad advice.

GOOD GRIEF.



Translation: No to 4 more years of excuses. More here.

NOW THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION is backing out of the EU's emission trading system for aircraft flying to or through the European Union.

TERROR AS A TACTIC: the danger of SWATing.

OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY can fit into one tweet with #characterstospare: Failure.

FLYING ROBOT THAT CAN CRASH, RECOVER, AND KEEP FLYING:



Here's the Popular Science article.

WE HAVEN'T DROWNED YET: Obama Brags About Treading Water.

GOP MESSAGE: Untying Hands of Energy Developers will Help Economy Do ‘Fine’.

House Republicans will be ready to use President Obama’s gaffe about the private sector “doing fine” when they bring their Domestic Energy and Jobs Act to the floor for a vote next week.

[snip]

The package of bills — all of which passed out of committee with bipartisan support — pushed by [GOP Whip Kevin] McCarthy’s House Energy Action Team are intended to spur job growth while lowering energy costs.

So watch the Senate for any signs of  'bipartisan' support.

BOSCH introduces new autonomous robotic lawnmower.

I DIDN'T CARE FOR CLINTON all that much, but I have to admit he is smart.

POWERING A HOUSE with a plug-in Prius. A whole house backup electrical generator can be had for about $3,000 (excluding installation); a Prius costs about $26,000 (excluding the vehicle-to-home converter), leaving me $23,000 for wheels. Which is the better deal?

FLAG DAY 2012



ADDED & BUMPED:

EDUCATION 'EQUITY'. The only way to achieve 'educational equity' is to lower the bar and disadvantage the achievers.

GOOGLE now “understands” what you’re looking for. That's hard to believe since most times I don't even understand what I'm looking for.

FIREFIGHTERS BATTLE out-of-control blazes in Colorado and New Mexico. And the fire season is only beginning, underscoring the need for proper forest management. I suspect the cost of clearing underbrush, mechanically or with controlled burns, is significantly cheaper and less destructive than fighting large forest fires every year.

I WATCHED OBAMA'S 'FRAMING' SPEECH. In a few words, it was "Hey, let's forget about the last 3-1/2 years; it's 2008 again." What a waste.

WHY IS THIS MAN WHINING? Because it's all he -- and liberals generally -- knows how to do.

TRICK OR TEAT: Madonna in breast form. Put your coffee down first.

NOT IF I CAN HELP IT: Northern Virginia Edge Could Be Pivotal for Obama.

STUPID SNAKE. I was out yesterday caulking the seam between the patio concrete and the basement wall; this morning I went out to finish the job only to find a small garden snake stuck in the caulk. Luckily, it was alive and barely stuck, so it only took a few minutes to unstick it. Sadder but hopefully wiser, once free it took off under the front porch to seek a new home.

NO SH*T, SHERLOCK: I got duped.

IS PERESTROIKA coming in California? Maybe, but it will take a few more hits from the Clue Bat^TM to be sure.

THE PERFECT LIBERAL WORLD: elementary school. And it matches their emotional and intellectual development too.

E. J. DIONNE doubles down on the progressive dogma that more government is better government. I will grant him one correct statement; that "[a] belief in government’s constructive capacities is not some recent ultra-liberal invention."

That statement is correct, which is the reason that conservatives have a long row to hoe in order to return the federan government to its constitutional responsibilities.

BECAUSE HE'S KING: Why should I wish Barack a happy Father’s Day?

BLUE CIVIL WAR in nation's most unionized state? Not really; it's more of a bipartisan war against special interest groups.

Linked from Instapundit.

PRESIDENT OBAMA is bringing Americans together.

PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION: What could go wrong ... go wrong ... go ... wron....

A MEMO by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reportedly asserts that employers who require applicants to have a high school diploma may be discriminating against those with learning disabilities, in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

They can't lower the bar much more without having to dig....

ONLY THE GOVERNMENT is allowed to help the homeless -- but they won't.

ROMNEY TAKES THE LEAD ... in Wisconsin? It's beginning to look a lot like 1984.

CLEARLY THOSE 'TEXICAN' HICKS lack a nuanced appreciation of the complexity of the situation, not understanding that any man would have done the same.

MARK STEYN: When is a word a codeword for racism?

NBC: how does that crow taste? Especially without salt?

RANDOM THOUGHTS on the 'obesity epidemic' from the retirement lane. Have you noticed that the progressive strain of liberalism isn't happy unless the rest of us are miserable?

FLAME ordered to flame out.

OBAMA IS DOING JUST FINE. He's got a lock on progressives. Related mockery here.

A GOOD REASON to carry a cell phone.

GOOD QUESTION: Do we really know whether we have too few or too many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students to meet the future innovation and competitive needs of the US? My sense is that we probably do, notwithstanding the fact that STEM graduates appear to be better-suited for living and working in the rest of the real world.

FIGHTING OBESITY: now it's movie popcorn and milkshakes. The real obesity epidemic is in government ... it's already beyond morbidly obese.

WHEN HOPE DOESN'T WORK, try fear instead.

WHICH IS WORSE? rabid dogs or gun controllers? I have more respect for rabid dogs.

SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS about the NRO transfer of 'space telescopes' to NASA.

EUROPE'S AIRLINE CARBON TAX isn't doing too well.

X-37B OTV to land today?

THOMAS SOWELL: It's not socialism, it's fascism. Read it.

FIXED: [Political] Science Demands Big Government!

THE IMPENDING demise of the Euro. The sooner it happens, the better.

BILL & HILLARY: The Rats Leaving A Sinking Ship? I suspect they're trying to steer the Titanic away from the iceberg.

JEFF CARTER: The Most Narcissistic President Ever.

SORRY, KIDS. Don't count on my inheritance.

SO QUIT SWIMMING: Humans have played 'dominant role' in the warming of the oceans.

OBAMANOMICS: Americans saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010. At that rate, it willl be zero by the end of Obama's second term.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: "Like a super nova, contemporary liberalism is imploding through its own irreconcilable forces."

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Shouldn't the real 'war on obesity' be focused on public sector fat?

THE CAMPAIGN BUMPER STICKER I WANT TO SEE

HITLER IS OUT, Ahmadinejad is in. It's about time to replace Godwin's Law.

AN OBAMA WIN means Taxmageddon. The solution is obvious.

NUANCE: "Mitt Romney is a poopie head."

PENTAGON TO DEPLOY PINT-SIZED DRONES.

The Switchblade drone is designed to fit into a soldier's rucksack. It weighs less than 6 pounds and can take out a sniper on a rooftop, without blasting the building to bits. The drone also enables soldiers in the field to identify and destroy targets much more quickly by eliminating the need to call in a strike from large drones that may be hundreds of miles away.

Bleeding hearts object. Naureen Shah, associate director of the Counterterrorism and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School:

She pointed out that when a drone strike is being considered there are teams of lawyers, analysts and military personnel looking at the data to determine whether lethal force is necessary. But the Switchblade could shorten that "kill chain."

"It delegates full responsibility to a lower-level soldier on the ground," she said. "That delegation is worrisome. It's a situation that could end up in more mistakes being made."

She seems to miss the point: war is not a police action.

BUT IF WE LET YOU FEED THEM we lose control of their lives.

ARE REPUBLICANS waging a 'war on women'? Nope. It's 'the patriarchy'.

THERE ARE BALLS, and then there are balls.



From my email.

WILE E. COYOTE has a new job. Read it all (but put your coffee down first).

IS AMERICA ready for 'noodge' government? Speaking for myself, I don't even like 'nudge' government.

THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS DOING FINE. Oh?





The only way the private sector is "doing fine" is if Obama is counting all the welfare and unemployment recipients as employed. And the public sector lines would be much higher if cronys were counted.

BUT OF COURSE: How else can we assure that all those bathroom stalls, extra-wide hallways, elevators, and sidewalk ramps are properly utilized?

Yes, of course I'm being sarcastic, but the point is that not every problem demands a government solution.

DO WE really need an Environmental Protection Agency?

DETROIT: the end state of Liberalism.

IS THE PC WALL CRACKING? “Studies” Departments Suffer a Loss. At UCLA, no less.

WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE? "Government is the tool by which resources are put under the control of people like him [Obama]."

EXCELLENT! Liberals at Nutroots Netroots Nation threaten not to vote in November over disappointment with Obama.

THE WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD is seriously concerned about Mr. Romney' "secret bundlers". I'm sure they will soon evidence concern for Mr. Obama's secret bundlers, but I'm not holding my breath.

Speaking of bundlers, isn't Jon Corzine one of the O's bundlers? And didn't he just happen to 'lose' $1.6B while at IMF Global? Just askin'.

STILL WAITING for our first black president. If reader Hanna can't bring himself to vote for a presidential candidate who can make America better, I applaud him for at least not voting (again) for one who will make America worse off.

GEORGE F. WILL: Subprime college educations. Luckily both my kids graduated before the subprime bubble burst. Their degrees are still worth something.

IF YOU WANT Obama to act on his principles, show him the money.

FROM MY EMAIL: Not all IED's are terrorist devices.



This GPS was placed in its bracket in the windshield and left in the sun. The battery overheated and exploded....

I THOUGHT bake sales were prohibited....

CORPORATE JET TRAVEL is only evil when 'they' do it.

BECAUSE THEY'RE STUPID? Why Do Millionaire Entertainers and Athletes Go Broke?

SAVE THE PLANET; move south. Uh, no, we've got enought pests already, thank you.

MARK STEYN on our celebrity President.

"THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS DOING FINE."

ANOTHER CASE of lawfare from the Left. I think it's past time for conservatives to begin practicing offensive lawfare themselves.

PRESIDENT VS. NARCISSIST: How to praise your predecessor.

PROOF THAT college professors are underpaid. Not exactly the kind of proof you want to shout from the top of the Ivory Tower, though.

OH? I THOUGHT IT WAS A MANDATE. Nancy Pelosi believes ObamaCare is a right.

WHY THE LEFT FAVORS GUN CONTROL.



These are the only weapons they know how to use.

LANNY DAVIS: The Democrat Party has been taken over by thugs -- at least that's how I interpret it. And unfortunately, I agree.

ALEXANDRA PETRI: How not to choose a password.

FROM THE RANKS OF THE SERIOUSLY STUPID: Denver Neighborhood Wants to Ban ‘Distracting’ & ‘Offensive’ Sidewalk Chalk.

ANYTHING TO KEEP THEM ON THE PLANTATION: The Trap of Minority Studies Programs.

ERIC HOLDER is either clueless or dishonest. Take your pick. Personally, I choose both.

DEATH FROM A THOUSAND CUTS: Nobody likes a loser (except Democrats).

JOHN RANSOM: Obama is Latest Surrogate to Break with Obama. Consistency is not Obama's strong suit.

SO WHICH IS IT? New York Magazine‘s Jonathan Chait accuses Romney of lying about Obama’s choice to focus on health care and not the economy. The Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein claims that Obamacare was a focus on the economy since Democrats believed it would reduce long-term deficits.

"THE PRIVATE SECTOR is doing fine." The 'pivotal moment', however, was not this phrase; it was, as John Podhoretz correctly noted, the the President's assertion that the government must step in because the public sector is losing jobs.