PAUL GREENBERG: Wouldn't it be nice?

Democratic nations are peculiarly susceptible to a soft form of despotism that doesn't so much dictate to its people as embrace them, infantilize them, smother them ever so gently in its all-encompassing arms.

We would all be saved the trouble of making our own decisions, providing our own necessities (like health care), and generally thinking for ourselves. Which was always a bother anyway.

Such a regime would cover "the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. ... Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes and stupefies a people."

The important thing is that nothing come between the caretaker State and its subjects, formerly citizens. So there will be no confusion about who is in charge, no divided loyalties with each of us going our own way, following our own ideas rather than melting into the warm ocean of The People Yes. But the road to serfdom must be smooth, broad, safe -- an interstate compared to the crooked little roads each of us might choose. It'll be more efficient that way.

No.

IT’S TIME for a Bill of 'Free' Rights. Actually we have one (but it’s God-given).

NO DECENCY. No decency at all. More here.

AN ODE TO SMALLER GOVERNMENT: "Science and technology are wonderful, but there’s nothing in this world that politicians can’t manage to screw up if they get their hands on it."

Read it all.

CHEVY VOLT, the perfect car for the real 'one percent' suspends production. "[T]he Volt is the perfect car for the Occupy Wall Street crowd: It makes no economic sense no matter how convoluted its supporters make the economic argument or how much taxpayer support it’s given. The Volt relied heavily on $7,500 federal government subsidies - and even then couldn’t make a go of it."

BACKFIRE! Senate Democrats’ effort to pass a partisan budget results in takeover - from the middle?

HEH: Three Occupy Oakland protesters arrested for robbery and a hate crime, both felonies.

CIGARETTES AND COMPULSION. How about warning labels on all new gasoline-powered cars? Including hybrids.

IS BANNING SKINNY MODELS a legitimate function of government? If they're skinny conservative models, yes.

OBAMACARE: Never underestimate the brilliance of our federal bureaucracy.

[Under Medicare, there are] rules that, for example, apply 36 different codes for treating a snake bite, depending on the type of snake, its geographical region, and whether the incident was accidental, intentional self-harm, assault, or undetermined. The new codes also thoroughly differentiate between nine different types of hang-gliding injuries, four different types of alligator attacks, and the important difference between injuries sustained by walking into a wall and those resulting from walking into a lamppost.

And Democrats wonder why Americans still resist having the government control our health care?

OBAMA'S REELECTION CHANCES:

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. I didn't think it was possible, but every version of Microsoft Windows is worse than its predecessor. I have three computers, running Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 respectively. XP is far from perfect, but it's the only one of the three that allows me to set up, maintain, and control my files the way I want.