PLATFORM COMMITTEE puts marriage equality (gay marriage) on Democrat party platform. If they want to speed up their slide into oblivion, that's fine with me.

TEA PARTY-BACKED TED CRUZ beats Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the Republican nomination for US Senate. I think we're seeing the Tea Party as a force to be reckoned with and (I hope) a threat to the entrenched bureaucrats on both sides of the political aisle.

The progressives won control of the Democrat party in 2006, won the Presidency and Congress in 2008, and promptly imploded with their starry-eyed, narcissistic incompetence. The 2010 election was a strong rebuke to the progressives, which they refused to accept, and 2012 will be a watershed election where Americans will take back their government. In 2014, I expect (hope) that Americans will complete the process by tossing out the entrenched on both sides of the political spectrum.

AMEN!

Ease of living and the stupid Cyclops eye of media meteorologists have Americans into weather wimps. The wimpiest live in Washington, D.C., and environs. In a continental nation subject to hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, blizzards, and heat waves, the least jog out of the normal -- a few flakes of snow, for instance -- shuts the nation's capitol down. Recent high winds -- with a fancy Spanish name (derecho) like a cheap sports car -- caused real havoc, but were treated like the end of the world. The wind's force multiplier was the local utility, Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), which was a day late and a dollar short in clean-up. There was ample power, though, for handwringing, some of it coming from conservatives (Farewell? A long farewell to all my greatness!). Here's a suggestion: Next time there is a spot of bad weather, could everybody just do his job, and suck it up?

From the dead-tree edition of National Review (July 30, 2012).

JUST A CONCIDENCE: CNN didn’t intentionally play ‘Stupid Girls’ for the Palin introduction. And just by coincidence, I happen to have some nice oceanfront property in Arizona for sale ....

DUPLICATION, WASTE, INEFFECTIVENESS, AND STUPIDITY: A Government Program. I know you're shocked.

GIVE THE MAN A BONUS. Romney aide to 4th Estate: "Kiss my ass." Cordially, of course.

GET YOURSELF A 'DISABILITY' and be a victim too. It wasn't that long ago that it was politically correct to declare the disabled to be 'differently abled' to avoid being thought of as 'victims'. Now that victimhood is politically correct (and profitable), everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

THE TEA PARTY IS DEAD? We'll find out in Texas tonight.

TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: When your friends use Facebook apps, they compromise your privacy, too.

YES, ABSOLUTELY. Let's tax the rich.

KATIE KIEFFER: Where Is John Galt? Sitting in the 12th row, center seat. He's the smiling guy with the big bag of popcorn.

PRINTING YOUR OWN WEAPONS: the end of gun control?

REP. MIKE KELLY (R, PA-3): “You want to talk about creating jobs in America? ... Take the heavy boot off the throat of America’s job creators, and let them breathe!”



Linked from the PJ Tatler.

SQUINT REAL HARD and for Heaven's sake, don't think: racism is why people are irritated at Obama's "you didn't build that" line.

And racism is the real reason why Romney went to Poland.

WHAT A SURPRISE: U.S. Business Owners Now Among Least Approving of Obama.

OF COURSE: Is Your Cell Phone Snitching on You?

OBAMA STANDS BEHIND SMALL BUSINESSES -- the better to knife them in the back.

JEFF JACOBY: Public discourse, without the 'hard zinger'. More, please.

THE 'OCTOBER SURPRISE' I'm looking forward to.

SOCIAL JUSTICE? We don't need no stinkin' social justice. At least not your social justice.

BELIEVING IN SOMETHING DOESN'T MAKE IT SO: New gun laws will do nothing to stop mass shooting attacks. But common sense is not a strong suit for liberals.

BLOOMBERG: Maybe cops across the country should go on strike until tougher gun control laws are passed. Bloomberg quickly backed down, perhaps realizing that if the government went 'on strike' they might find out that we can do quite well without them.

SALLY RIDE, America's first woman in space, loses cancer battle at 61. Sally Ride, it turns out, was a lesbian. No one noticed -- or cared -- until she died. Now the gay activists are upset; because she didn't 'out herself' earlier to support their cause. No one else cares.