JOE BIDEN on shotguns for self defense. Best comment: "For the record, blasting a hole in your door with a shotgun in order to 'deter people coming in' is not a very good idea. Assuming you didn't just murder the UPS man or one of your kid's friends you just opened a large entry to your home. And now your gun is unloaded."

THE NEW YORK TIMES fails grade-school mathematics. Pi r-squared? No, pie are round.

CUOMO: Hollywood is going to be exempt from New York’s gun laws. So .. if Hollywood can use real weapons without real ammunition, can NY citizens do the same?

DEEP THREATS: the Obama administration appears to be imploding. More here.

Let the mocking continue....

DIONNE and gone around the bend. I rarely waste my time with Dionne any more.

WILL DUMB CUTS trump smart cuts? No, but they will trump no cuts.

HEH. And the Oscar for Sequester Goes to...

MY, MY: "David Plouffe is an Ass."

DAMN! Those women just won't stay on the plantation.

MORNING EXAMINER: Obama has lost all credibility on sequestration.

PROBABLY NOT. Did the stimulus work?

MOCK THEM: Michelle Malkin defends mocking first lady's late night appearance.

I had seen her video, not realizing it was Michelle, but the most important part of her appearance on Hannity's show is her comments on the importance of mockery.

HOUSE INTRODUCES new bill to change NASA management. It's not clear to me that NASA management is the problem....

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

TWEETS OF THE DAY: "Does This Sequester Make My Lies Look Big?"

I'm particularly enamored of the Donna Brazile tweet. As a major Democrat operative, it's good for her to find out that she's just another 'little person'.

JUST DESSERTS.

DEMOCRATS still obsessed with Citizens United. Those evil corporations....

WITH CUTS LOOMING, what has Obama done to reduce cost of presidential travel? Take a wild guess....

OBAMACARE WON'T ADD A DIME TO DEFICITS; it will add 62 trillion dimes.

MID-AIR REPAIR:



Gladys Ingle died in 1981 at the age of 82.

WHY IS THIS MONTH-OLD CLIP of an ex-Secret Service agent suddenly going viral? Because the sun is setting on the Age of Aquarius.

NORMATIVE: This is the kind of claptrap psychobabble that infects the 'minds' (I use the term used loosely) of liberals.

JUAN WILLIAMS: Liberal media will ‘shut you down, stab you, kill you, fire you’ if you disagree. As a black who strayed from the liberal plantation, he should know.

THE ILLUSTRATED BUDGET AND SEQUESTRATION PIE CHARTS.

FOR THE FIRST TIME in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my celebrityhood...

WE’RE GETTING CLOSE to the point at which our bullying government will no longer be legitimate.

RACE HUSTLER on the public dole.

PAUL RAHE: Obama's next move. Our next move should be to punch back -- hard.

DEPARTMENT OF INSANITY: I'd be all for it, if we could sequester the Democrats in it.

DOES IT OCCUR TO YOU that Captain Queeg President Obama may be insane? Yes. Yes, it does.

ONE FOR THE MONEY....

The local news station was interviewing an 80-year-old lady because she had just gotten married for the fourth time. The interviewer asked her questions about her life, about what it felt like to be marrying again at 80, and then about her new husband's occupation. "He's a funeral director," she answered. "Interesting," the newsman thought.

He then asked her if she wouldn't mind telling him a little about her first three husbands and what they did for a living. She paused for a few moments, needing time to reflect on all those years. after a short time, a smile came to her face and she answered proudly, explaining that she had first married a banker when she was in her 20's, then a circus ringmaster when in her 40's, and a preacher when in her 60's, and now - in her 80's - a funeral director. The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and asked why she had married four men with such diverse careers.

She smiled and explained, "I married one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go."

From my email.

THOMAS SOWELL: Government is proof that the shepards are dumber than the sheep.

THE MOVEMENT KNOWN AS ENVIRONMENTALISM is not only a false religion, it is one that allows human sacrifice.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENT STUPIDITY: Louisana homeless can't eat venison (unless, I suppose, it's road kill and they cook it themselves).

Reduce the deficit; fire the regulators.

OBAMA PHONES are bankrupting the country. Free lunches are the most expensive....

OBAMA IS FOR SALE, for the modest price of $500,000. As the old joke goes, "we both know you're a prostitute; we're just haggling over the price."

DEBUNKING Chicken Little.

FEWER GOVERNMENT SERVICES? Please, please, Br'er Fox, throw me into that briar patch.

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE is up for sale again.

THE POWERS THAT BE ARE HARD AT WORK, turning America from the kind of country people want to sneak into, to the kind they want to leave.

They're succeeding.

THE ANSWER to a question unasked: "The president is more interested in golf, photo-ops, or picking the Final Four, and so he shrugs and thinks: 'Debts, schmebts. Who cares?'”

FIRST THERE WAS 'FAKE BUT ACCURATE'; now it's fair but biased.

OBAMA'S WASHINGTON MONUMENT STRATEGY: If you don't let us raise taxes, we will hurt you.

Here's how. All that pain for a mere 1.4% of the current annual budget....

EZRA KLEIN argues that Obama should be able to raise taxes as much as he wants because he won reelection. I agree; let him raise the taxes all he wants on the Democrats who voted for him.

QUADROCOPTER BALANCING ACT:



Linked from Popular Science.

JOHN RANSOM: Another Reason Ezra Klein is an Idiot. If you need another reason....

SINCE GUN-FREE ZONES WORK SO WELL: UN needs to declare Earth an asteroid-free zone.

Three cheers for big government....

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S Chicken Little strategy.

HOW'S THAT Hopey-Changey stuff working out for ya?

FEINSTEIN: Gun Owners Should Decide Between ‘Personal Pleasure’ and ‘General Welfare’. I did, and 'general welfare' won. But general welfare does not mean what she thinks it means.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: If you haven't yet read Atlas Shrugged, don't bother -- you're living it.

BACKGROUND CHECKS:



From my email.

CNN PERFORMS a random act of journalism. Accident, no doubt.

WOMAN STOPS GRIZZLY ATTACK with .25 caliber pistol.

This is a story of self control and marksmanship with an itsy bitsy shooter by a woman against a fierce predator.

What is the smallest caliber you trust to protect yourself? The Beretta Jetfire.

While out hiking in Alberta Canada with my boyfriend we were surprised by a huge grizzly bear charging at us from out of nowhere. She must have been protecting her cubs because she was extremely aggressive. If I had not had my little Beretta Jetfire with me I would not be here today!

Just one shot to my boyfriend's knee cap was all it took ... the bear got him and I was able to escape by just walking away at a brisk pace.

It's one of the best pistols in my collection ....

From my email. Remember, in case of emergency, you don't have to be the fastest runner; just faster than the slowest runner.

[UPDATE & BUMP] My wife and I were at the gun range today; there were several of these Berettas for sale. Needless to say, I didn't tell my wife how useful they might be.

A MODEST PROPOSAL for dealing with the sequester. C'mon, Republicans, punch back.

PROGRESS IN DETROIT? "[I]f you want smaller government and lower taxes, the secret is to rapidly grow the size of government until it collapses."

THE HOLLYWOOD TAX STORY they won't tell at the Oscars.

IS HE FREAKIN' NUTS, or does he just play one on CNN?

JEEZ, I'M RUNNING OUT OF TAR & FEATHERS: Top Cuomo Aide Delivers Public Rebuke of State Worker Who Talked to the Press. Even if the guy had been subject to disciplinary action, this was beyond the pale.

A CRIME NOT TO HIRE FORMER CRIMINALS? Not if they're white males.

JUST WHEN YOU THINK your former home can't get any crazier: Illegal immigrants hold rally at state capitol.

YOU DON'T SAY: It's not about education, it's about control.

A HUMANITIES PHD does not seem likely to ever be a career-enhancing move, for the simple reason that a PhD is a lengthy apprenticeship designed to teach you the skills needed to do exactly one thing: be a professor. Unfortunately, this also appears to be becoming true of the science and engineering doctorates as well. At this time, I would not recommend going beyond a Masters degree to any of my children/grandchildren.

Paul Greenberg agrees.

PUNCHING BACK: Greedy class-action lawyers take one on the chin. Here's a personal example of their greed.

WHY DO DEMOCRATS hate American manufacturers? Answer: they don't hate manufacturers; they hate manufacturers who threaten their ability to control Americans.

PAUL GREENBERG remembers Kate Smith.



More videos here.

A VICTORY FOR CONCEALED CARRY: the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a December ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that forces Illinois to adopt a concealed carry law, thus affirming that the right to bear arms exists outside the home.

ON W.

IF WE COULD ONLY sequester fraud, waste, abuse, and absurdity, we could save trillions....

DAN MITCHELL on the United States of Taxes:

…new taxes on high-income Americans are a matter of necessity and fairness; they are also a necessary precondition to what in time will have to be tax increases on the middle class. …As the economy strengthens and the population ages, more taxes will be needed from further down the income scale… But there will never be a consensus for more taxes from the middle class without imposing higher taxes on wealthy Americans, who have enjoyed low taxes for a long time.

Read it all.

GUN LAWS are needed to keep manufacturers from relocating.

Being punched back hurts.

HEH. The Cruise Ship of State.

AS WITH real estate, it's all about location, location, location.

WHO NEEDS A DOCTOR when you have a smart phone?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The unanswered question is whether or not it will be used to empower the patient ... or control him.

A TRIP THROUGH THE LIBERAL MIND: "Just know this. In the world of the liberal you are not yours. You do not own yourself, nor do you own the fruits of your labors. The government owns you. The government will decide how the money you earned is distributed. You will be allowed to keep enough to keep you happy – to keep you working. The amount you are allowed to keep will be referred to in Washington as a 'tax expenditure.' The rest of the money you have earned, which will be referred to as 'your fair share,' will be spent to create more and more government dependency."

IT'S NOT ABOUT EDUCATION; it's about indoctrination: The shaky science behind Obama's universal pre-K.

VIRGINIA approves a two-year moratorium on drone flights in the state.

Virginia is one of several states to consider regulating drones this year as the Obama administration looks to begin permitting their widespread use domestically in 2015, despite worries from groups on both sides of the political spectrum that they could be used by the government to intrude on citizens’ privacy.

The assembly’s bill would outlaw general government use of drones, except for National Guard training and for emergency purposes, such as searching for missing children or seniors.

Wise. It's not that I don't trust the government, but I don't trust the government. Until strict privacy rules are in place, I prefer to keep the government droneless (in the widest possible sense of the word 'drone'.)

A NOTE on single-payer health care: "I recall that when I was stationed in the UK in the early 1990s, at considerable expense to the taxpayers the Navy paid for US service members to have our children in private hospitals because NHS hospitals did not meet the Navy's minimum care standards."

I'll support ObamaCare when I can reasonably expect to share a semi-private hospital room with any of my elected government officials....

CALIFORNIA DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION: a toxic blend of political correctness, anti-Americanism, and bureaucratic senselessness.

WHISTLES, PENS, AND BODILY FLUIDS -- but no guns.

DON'T GET SICK: Obama's Health Insurance Premiums are Going Through the Roof.

Pay the penalty (if you must), and pay cash.

THE LEFT’S OVERREACH on guns has been very good for the NRA.

MEDIA: "The entire reporting of the news has gotten so fake, reading the above just reinforces how vacuous it all is."

GUN RETAILER ABANDONS CALIFORNIA -- for Texas.

Finally. It looks like it took the Second Amendment for Americans to start 'punching back'. Shield Tactical is departing California; Magpul is leaving Colorado; Olympic Arms is no longer selling to any New York government agency; and Ruger is encouraging customers to contact their legislators.

It's about time.

TAR & FEATHERS isn't enough.

Last week the Massachusetts Department of Education issued directives for handling transgender students – including allowing them to use the bathrooms of their choice or to play on sports teams that correspond to the gender with which they identify.

The 11-page directive also urged schools to eliminate gender-based clothing and gender-based activities – like having boys and girls line up separately to leave the classroom.

Schools will now be required to accept a student’s gender identity on face value.

“A student who says she is a girl and wishes to be regarded that way throughout the school day and throughout every, or almost every, other area of her life, should be respected and treated like a girl,” the guidelines stipulate.

According to the Dept. of Education, transgender students are those whose assigned birth sex does not match their “internalized sense of their gender.”

They said gender nonconforming students “range in the ways in which they identify as male, female, some combination of both, or neither.”

“The responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student,” the guidelines dictate. “One’s gender identity is an innate, largely inflexible characteristic of each individual’s personality that is generally established by age four…As a result, the person best situated to determine a student’s gender identity is that student himself or herself.”

The new rules would also prevent teachers and administrators from telling parents with which gender their child identifies.

It's getting to the point where sending one's child to a public school is -- or should be -- considered child abuse.

HEH: Are environmentalists dupes of Warren Buffett? Apparently so.

JOE BIDEN'S felony self-defense advice. Unfortunately, I think it speaks equally to the stupidity of the law when even a warning shot is disallowed. On the other hand, the cost and availability of ammunition is such that a warning shot is probably ill-advised.

ANN COULTER: 'hispanicked'.

MORE TAR, MORE FEATHERS, an apology isn't adequate: Texas teacher refuses to grade papers on hunting, gun show.

MONEY TALKS, and that's just another reason to cut the size of big government.

A NEW DAWN for the smart grid? If it is, be sure you have a plan for going off the grid.

THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE: time for a national ID card?

GILDED CLASS WARRIORS. Obviously you misunderstood my first term in office: 'change' is for little people.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? Columbine victim rejects gun control.

NOT OUR BOSS: I'm seeing more and more of this -- and not just with respect to gun control laws.

THE PRO-GUN ARGUMENT -- cogently.

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion.

Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunken guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for an [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force, watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the
actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

From my email.

WHAT IF ONE DAY WE GET A BAD PRESIDENT? The consequences of being saddled with a non-progressive, dumb chief executive are too horrible to imagine.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON explains our brave new world.

JACK DUNPHY: Waiting for Dorner.

COMPLACENCY: This is what happens when you over-automate.

MEALS ON WHEELS



Environmentalists feeding the hungry.

MANNED MARS MISSION BY 2018?

DR. BENJAMIN CARSON'S speech at the National Prayer Breakfast:



Those commentators who've criticized him for bringing 'politics' to the National Prayer Breakfast obviously didn't watch the entire video. You should.

The original video is here.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Daily Currant “reported” on Monday that Sarah Palin has decided to accept a position at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard where she will teach four courses over the next three years, including:

• John Locke and the State of Exception: Extrajudicial Executive Action In the Age of Terror
• The Evolutionary Psychology of The Welfare State
• Pascal, Chateaubriand and The Modern U.S. Evangelical Movement
• The Geopolitics of Arctic Hydrocarbon Resource Development

According to a Palin spokesperson, the Currant said, “The governor was ‘thrilled’ to be working at Harvard, and hoped to bring a little ‘Wasilla main street’ to the Ivy Towers of America's most venerated university.”

It's satire, people.

THIS MONTH the stench of burning government IT projects has been especially pungent. While I take some small pleasure in watching the government self-immolate, government incompetence is not solely to blame. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), of which I have long been critical, richly deserves some of the blame.

OBAMA PREDICTS APOCALYPSE if budget is 'cut' 1.4%. One-point-four-percent. Hell, for most Americans, that's barely pocket change.

JOBLESS MOTHER OF 11 to get six-bedroom eco-house after moaning her TWO council homes are cramped.

The compassionate solution would be to take her kids away and kick her out on the street to fend for herself.

EUGENE ROBINSON'S great conspiracy theory. The only problem is that I know no Republicans who "have spent years demonizing undocumented immigrants as a way of appealing to xenophobic, jingoistic sentiment." What we Republicans do want is adequate, real, verifiable border control (and not just of the Mexican border) before beginning the process of assimilating the illegals who are already here.

GUN CONTROL BY DUMMIES: NRO schools David Frum about guns. I had intended to school him myself, but VerBruggen does a better job.

I would only add one thing with respect to the 'bullet in the chamber' comment. Every gun owner I know or have talked to is aware of Rule 1: a weapon is presumed to be loaded until you, personally, have verified by inspection that it is not. That said, both my handguns have chamber indicators on them; I pay them no attention until I have personally verified the chamber is clear.

EVEN LABOR UNIONS are opting out of ObamaCare. They should have read it before lobbying for it....

THEY CAN USE A WHISTLE: Women don't need guns if they feel like they're going to be raped. Instead of a whistle, I'd suggest a .45; it's louder than a whistle (and much more authoritative).

UAV NEWS: Global Hawk Block 40 In Budget Crosshairs. That's probably good news for Lockheed Martin's venerable U-2.

PHYSICS PROFESSOR strips, shows 9/11 footage, impales stuffed animal all to introduce quantum mechanics. Columbia University, no less.

I looked at his faculty webpage -- a quantum mechanics 'star' he ain't. How any rational parent would pay Columbia's tuition to be taught by a 'professor' of his caliber is beyond me.

OUR CONSTITUTION was an act of genius but it is not idiot resistant and we, the people, have not been careful about the idiots whom we gave the keys.

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If the only school curriculum allowed to explain how we got here is evolution, but the government stops a $15 million construction project to keep a rare spider from evolving to extinction ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but not to vote who runs the government ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is "cute", but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them with spankings while children of addicts are left in filth and drug infested homes ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor buys iPhones, TV's and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more "safe" according to the government ... you might live in a country run by idiots.

Eternal vigilance is the price of idiot resistance.

GUN CONTROL: Democrats in Washington State would allow warrantless searches of private homes for guns. Tent, meet camel's nose.

GUNS VS. BUTTER PENSIONS. Pensions are winning.

THERE IS NO DEBT CRISIS: America can be much richer if we just spend more money we don't have.

Best comment (apparently via Walter Williams): "[T]he only way Congress can get one dollar to spend is to take that one dollar from Americans, borrow that one dollar from Americans, or inflate that one dollar from Americans. So, it’s very much like the visual image of a swimming pool. A person notes there is a shallow end, so he takes the water out of the deep end and pours it in the shallow end, hoping to raise the height of the water in the pool...."

THE STATE OF THE UNION, as seen from Wisconsin.

PRESIDENT NARCISSISM celebrates president’s day with a picture of … himself!

WOW! A WHOLE 27%: Democrats Push U.S. Satisfaction Up to 27%.

PAUL GREENBERG on the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. He's agin it.

OBAMA ISN'T YOUR DADDY; he's your employee. Get it right.

NATIONAL RIGHT-TO-CARRY: Reciprocity bill goes back to Congress for a second try.

SEVENTY-TWO VIRGINIANS.

WASHINGTON POST 'journalist' (almost) connects the dots. In M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, it was called a Goofus test.

OBAMACARE steamrolls conservatives. Not really; Obamacare steamrolls everyone. Only conservatives care.

KOCH BROTHERS tried to start the Tea Party in 2002. It's a stupid assertion by the liberal clowns, but even if true, what difference does it make? Who cares?

CALIFORNIA is becoming less family friendly? Actually, I'd call it becoming more human hostile.

SO MUCH FOR GLOBAL WARMING: Coal use is up everywhere but in the United States.

We need to export less coal and more environmentalists....

IN AN EARLIER POST I linked to an IRS estimate of $20,000 for the most inexpensive ObamaCare family health plan. Looking back, here's an old post from 2009 that has an 'absurd' estimate of $25,000 for a family of four.

Trust the numbers; not the politicians.

FEDS SPEND $7 on elderly for every $1 on kids. Except that Wonkblog's Figure 2 shows about a 4:1 ratio, and actually, when total (e.g., including state) funding is considered, the ratio is closer to 2 to 1. Education, after all, is primarily a state function.

But the real question is "So? What's your point?" But then, to the kiddies at Wonkblog, maybe it isn't completely obvious.

THE DEMOCRATS should start working on a budget that assumes the(ir) full sequester happens on schedule.

WHAT HAPPENS TO TEEN UNEMPLOYMENT when the minimum wage is raised?

It goes up. What's so difficult for liberals to understand about a fact that is absolutely unremarkable?

COMMENT OF THE YEAR: "The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

From my email (naturally).

SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT:



From my email.

COLORADO SCHOOL DISTRICTS are quietly taking up arms.

WHERE NOT TO USE hair removal cream.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION to push for 10 year project to create human brain map. For liberals, a blank sheet of paper should do.

OBAMA: the farce is strong in this man.

FIRE PROFESSOR who forced students to vote for Obama? No, tar & feathers are a better option. Ridicule works; victimization doesn't.

IF ONLY MORE WOULD: Connecticut reporter learns about guns.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: "History has shown that a government’s redistribution of shrinking wealth, in preference to a private-sector’s creation of new sources of it, can prove more destructive than even the most deadly enemy."

SLOWER GROWTH OF HEALTH COSTS, but no one knows why. The article itself is a waste of pixels, but the comments are interesting. I'm surprised by the number of commenters who expect -- no, demand -- someone else take care of them. For 'free'.

STOP BIKING TO WORK: Senior White House official could be mistaken for 'commoner'.

GREGORY KANE: One gun victim Obama will not trot out.

ANDREW KLAVAN: the voice of addiction. Someone needs to revoke the prescription for the drugs he's taking.

TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: Smart guns and gun control:

There are a number of potential biometric controls—ways that guns can be made to fail to fire if they don’t recognize the person holding them. Could they have spared the life or well-being of a Sandy Hook student? An Aurora moviegoer? A Tucson congresswoman? We can’t know till we ask the question.

One reason for the technological lacuna in the national discussion is that the technologies haven’t been discussed much, even among technologists. And they haven’t been implemented very much, either, apparently less for technological reasons than political ones.

No, it's not political reasons; it's practical. A weapon only I can shoot is a weapon my wife can't shoot -- or my son, or my daughter, my granddaughter.

That's not a tool that's particularly useful. To use Spitzer's analogy correctly, think of an automobile that only I can drive.

ENDNOTE: I'm getting more and more disappointed in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. For a professional society, it is getting far too politically correct for my taste.

THE REAL PREDATOR.

ONE BILLION RISING. Are we sure there shouldn't be at least some minimum limits on sufferage?

YES, let's really hike the minimum wage.

WOULD NEW GUN LAWS spark widespread civil disobedience? Yes.

RIGHT: take Wall Street banks to trial for not disobeying the law. Makes perfect nonsense.

COMMENT OF THE DAY:

Look at the media's track record. Clarence Thomas, Sarah Palin, Jindal, Rubio, Cruz, Allen West, Michelle Bachman .... all treated with utter disdain. Labelled as stupid, extreme, whatever.

Yet they offer Pelosi, Boxer, Sheila Jackson Lee (astronauts planted a flag on Mars?), Hank "Guam may tip over" Johnson. Total up their brain cells and you couldn't reach a vegetative state.

With the addition of a few more Democrats (I'm thinking of Harry Reid, Al Franken, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Alan Grayson) they might be able to reach a persistent vegetative state.

YOU SHOULD BE THANKING ME: I've set a new goal for America. Be sure to click through to the Mark Steyn piece.

WHAT? I have to pay higher taxes as well?

ABORTION RIGHTS GROUP strives for youthful image. James Taranto comments:

If you're under 40, NARAL's efforts make it much likelier that your mother didn't even have children. There's something both poignant and funny about a group devoted to abortion puzzling over its difficulty in finding young people to support it.

From Best of the Web (third item).

A LONG WAY HOME: some interesting history from World War II.



The YouTube link is here.

AFTER THE 'TOUGHEST' GUN LAW, gun crime rose.

HUH?

The study also revealed something counterintuitive: The people most knowledgeable about science and who had the best grasp of math and numbers were the ones least concerned about climate change. On both sides of the issue, those who held the strongest opinions knew the most about science -- suggesting that the more information you give people, the more entrenched they can become on their own beliefs.

Let's try this again ... the ones who knew the most about science were the least concerned about climate change. Okay. But on both sides, the ones who knew the most science held the strongest opinions. Aren't those statements contradictory? Or is one 'most' stronger than the other 'most'?

STATISTICS DON'T LIE, but liars routinely misuse statistics.

IN ITS PURSUIT OF 'SAFETY', the government too often sacrifices freedom.

NINJA BUREAUCRATS.

AND THEY'RE BUSY killing themselves, too. Problem solved.

PRETEND GUN CONTROL: Gun control advocates won't know the difference if we pass laws banning a bunch of made-up things that sound scary. So ... no more unicorn horn-tipped bullets and rainbow clips.

SO HOW LONG IS 170 LBS? 'Mass Equals Time' Redefines Weight Standards.

IN THE FINEST TRADITION OF LIBERALISM, Obama has identified a non-problem and proposed a “solution” that would not be needed even if the problem did exist.

“IF WE MANDATE IT, the science will come.”

Uh, right.

THE STATE OF OBAMA: It's all about me.

OBAMA, RUBIO: False vs. Defining Choices.

ANOTHER HONEST LIBERAL writes about gun ownership and Second Amendment rights.

THE STATE OF THE UNION translated to English:

"I want you to know that I'm all for the middle class and for expanding it when I'm not taxing it to death, and that goes for small business, too, when I'm not loading it down with taxes and penalties and forms to fill out. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (none dare call it Obamacare in my administration), health-insurance premiums are increasing dramatically, and our entire approach to better medicine is being carefully wrapped in red tape, mountains of it. What's more, I promise there'll be more of it once we find out all that's in Obama -- I mean the Affordable Care Act.

"I want to assure you, as I go down the list of challenges facing this great nation, that there's not a one that more government spending won't fix. Why, the economy is already improving noticeably thanks to my ministrations. Pay no mind to those unemployment figures. I'm certainly not going to mention them tonight, just make a passing remark about the need for more jobs. I'm sure the next economic stimulus I get passed will be as effective as the first in getting this vibrant, improving economy started again.

"Why, under my administration, we're producing more oil and natural gas than we have for years. For decades. No need to mention a forgotten historical figure like George P. Mitchell, a wildcatter-engineer-entrepreneur out on the Barnett Shale who pretty much invented fracking, which now has made all the difference in our and the world's energy picture. The man persisted in his crazy idea for years, being just the kind of wicked capitalist we've got to tax and discourage more.

"I want to assure all of you that I'm as completely committed to Comprehensive Tax Reform as I was during my first four years in office. Which may be why it hasn't gotten anywhere, but never you mind all that. We've just got to stop creating the kind of manufactured crises every few months that I invented with a little help from my friends in Congress. As for the arbitrary, indiscriminate sequestration of government spending now hanging over our heads, that's the worst idea I've heard since I introduced it, confident nobody would be damfool enough to call my bluff."

"Let the word go out from this time and place: I stand with our brave troops and diplomats around the world, except maybe at Benghazi. And we will do everything in our power to support the rising tide of freedom throughout the Arab world, except maybe in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia.

"I don't know why we can't make it easier to vote in this country. Let's follow the example of my hometown, Chicago, that paragon of clean elections. Why, in Mayor Daley the First's time, or Boss Hague's in Jersey City, even the dead were voting. And nobody ever asked them for any steenkin' ID...."

Compliments of Paul Greenberg.

BEN SHAPIRO: Did the Left create Chris Dorner?

FOUR WAYS Obamacare could still fail. And hopefully will fail.

KING OBAMA and the royal 'we': [We] “save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and well-connected.”

$1.1 MILLION REWARD for Christopher Dorner may go uncollected. But you can bet it won't be returned to the donors....

PUNCHING BACK: Colorado company threatens to leave state if gun bill passes.

NASA not mentioned in State Of The Union address. Given the Obama administration's propensity to screw up anything it takes an interest in, the lack of attention is probably a good thing.

GOVERNMENT WASTE includes lives once it is running health care.

IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE: Al Gore calls John Holdren 'completely nuts'.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: White Liberals Tell Black Lies about Civil Rights.

HEH:

UNEXPECTEDLY: Obama's gangster government operates above the law.

INVEST TWO MINUTES to protect your right of self-defense. I have -- and will again by simply replacing the template letter with my own. Ruger simplifies my life by identifying my congresscritters and sending the letter to all of the with a single click of the button.

I will also note that the National Rifle Association uses a similar template form to allow me to contact my state legislators equally easily.

Thanks to both.

STUDY TIES Tea Party to tobacco. If the researchers at the University of California - San Francisco had smoked cigarettes rather than marijuana, perhaps they wouldn't have made such asses of themselves.

THE REAL QUESTION isn't why the DHS is buying so many bullets; it's why are so many federal agencies (like Social Security) packing heat?

OBVIOUSLY NOT. Would you hire after listening to Obama's State of the Union speech? If I were an employer, I'd be seriously looking for ways to reduce employees.

IS IT OKAY TO STEAL if you’re from the Government? Yes. Next question?

HAS OBAMA become Jack Bauer? The real question, it seems to me, in not whether he's gone Jack Bauer (he has), but whether there are any real limits on how far he can go.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION is starting a new Healthy Housing program that will no doubt make housing 'healthy' the same way it's making health care 'affordable'.

The Democrats are good with hot air and regulation; short on doing anything useful. More proof - if any is needed - that Reagan was right: government is the problem, not the solution

WHY THE LIBERAL HATRED OF CITIZENS WITH GUNS.



Because we're not slaves.

A REFLECTION ON THE PRESIDENT? The State of the Union is getting dumber: "President Obama ranks second-lowest of every president in history with a reading level of 9.2, using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test on a scale of 8 to 26."

Even then, he was over the heads of most of his supporters.

A FRIGHTENING JOURNEY: inside the mind of President Obama.

CNN: American news media reaches peak moron.

YOU DID NOTHING: time for a Thomas Paine reminder.

A REAL STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH: Sen. Marco Rubio's response.

MY THOUGHTS on last night's State of the Union speech: unexceptional, trite, banal, same old, same old ... then Stephen Green, liveblogging as http://pjmedia.com/blog/drunkblogging-sotu/Vodkapundit, got it exactly: "the Audacity of Bullshit." Here are my notes again, cleaned up and slightly expanded.

Our military men & women coming home. Yes, but as they did during Vietnam, sacrificing in vain because the administration didn't have the courage to win.

Today America uses less oil. Yes, but because America is a less prosperous nation under Obama's 'leadership'.

Can I buy (tax, borrow, or steal) some more zeros? I'll need them to continue the administration's 'investment' in government. Nothing I'll propose will increase the deficit (neither will it decrease the deficit).

Keystone? Fracking? Nope, but I will 'speed up' (ha!) leasing public lands (my lands, by the way; I'm the public) and use the income to combat climate change by -- you guessed it -- further subsidizing wind and solar.

Let's "Fix it First" -- with more tax money we don't have, of course. And by the way, I'll direct private capital their money on ports, pipelines, and schools.

More NewSpeak (again via Stephen Green): Spending is Saving.

Our children aren't learning enough in government schools, so we must start their indoctrination earlier with government-funded preschools.

Colleges and universities are becoming unaffordable, so let's get rid of those pesky 'for profit' institutions.

Obama promised me a job.... 0ops, he meant illegals.

Raise the minimum wage; take another rung from the bottom of the latter. Jump higher, you poor bastards.

We're going to fill up the middle class by reducing the number of people in the upper class.

We're going to defeat Al Qaeda leaving the Mideast and focusing on reducing our nuclear arsenal.

A nothing speech. Reduce government tax expenditures (NewSpeak for raise taxes); invest (NewSpeak for spend more [on pie-in-the-sky liberal dreams]); educate more (NewSpeak for indoctrination); and promote public safety (NewSpeak for control more). Be of good cheer; our Government is here and it.will.help.you.

ENDNOTE: I participated in the Fox News/Bing pulse poll during the State of the Union speech. The results, posted http://www.bing.com/politics/stateoftheunionhere, are accurate only if the vertical axis went from Neutral (top) to Negative (bottom). Only once during the entire speech did the 'pulse' ever move into positive territory. The charts are bogus.

TECHNOLOGY: tracking aircraft by television. Making more spectrum available for social networking and video games....

THE FUTURE of your 401k is ... unsettled. To say the least.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The long run decline in actual homeownership. "The primary impact of US homeownership policy has not been to increase homeownership, but to increase debt along with driving up house prices.... [H]elping everyone live in a McMansion hardly seems like a compelling public policy goal."

RANDOM THOUGHTS from Thomas Sowell are always worthwhile. Here are two:

Why do so many judges' views of criminals seem to be the opposite of policemen's view? It could be that judges see criminals when they are on their best behavior, while the police see them at their worst. But I believe it is because judges have usually spent more time in educational institutions than policemen, and have picked up more politically correct nonsense as a result.

Some people seem to think that glib and shallow political correctness becomes Deep Stuff when it comes from a TV commentator with a foreign accent.

Read the rest.

TECHNOLOGY: The top 10 tech 'fails' of 2012.

WITH CHRISTOPHER DORNER, the 'blame the Right' movement fell silent. Now that he's (likely) dead, his victimization at the hands of the LA police can proceed apace.

HOW'S THAT hopey-changey stuff working' out for you Millenials? Well, you asked for it, you got it.

FRANK J. FLEMING: Just Say Yes to Gridlock.

When in history have politicians demonstrated an ability to do anything useful? When the two parties actually do come together, we get things like the TSA. Every time you get your junk touched before you get on a flight, you can just consider that bipartisan love.

Gridlock is good.

YES. YES, IT IS. Is it time to get rid of the EPA?

THE 2013 STATE OF THE UNION: live blogging notes.

men & women coming home -- but we didn't end war

less oil -- because we can't afford the gas

Can I buy some more zeros?

SOTU: The Audacity of Bullshit

Nothing we do will increase the deficit ... but will it decrease the deficit?

Make more investments -- spend more tax money.

Keystone? Fracking? Nope ... lets combat climate change by -- you guessed it -- wind and solar

Use gas taxes to pay for ... what? something

Fix it first -- with our tax money, of course. And let's direct corporations to spend their money as well.

Spending is Saving ... Stephen Green

Get rid of for-profit colleges

Obama promised me a job (everyone who wants a job....0ops he meant illegals)

Raise the minimum wage; take another fung from the bottom of the latter. Jump higher, you poor bastards.

We're going to fill up the middle class by reducing the number of people in the upper class.

We're going to defeat al Quada Islamic terrorism by leaving the Mideast.

Even more thansparent .... ha!

Even when he says something I like, I still don't believe him.

We will use the military to continue social experimentation.

I'll clean it up into 'real' thoughts tomorrow.

ROGER L. SIMON: "[O]thers of us think it is the Democratic Party that is the party of racism, dependent as it is on the need for America to be perceived as a racist society in order for it to succeed."

He's right.

SEATING PLAN for the State of the Union.

PEGGY NOONAN: So God Made a Fawner (of the entire mainstream media).

ONLY IF THEY BELIEVE THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT: Would the Obama administration really reject the Keystone XL pipeline?

Dr. Marcy Zwelling on Huckabee: With Obamacare, you're not buying healthcare, you're buying a 'benefit package'. The video is here.

A BUNCH OF BOOBS: Dana Perino wonders about no cleavage dress code for State of the Union. Best comment: "There may not be much cleavage at the STU, but I'm sure there will be a lot of asses making an appearance."

AMERICANS KEEP VOTING against blue state policies with their feet. The downside for Red states is that "Blue staters escape the collapsing economies their own votes have helped create ... but keep voting for those same destructive Democratic policies."

OH, IT'S NOT ABOUT GUN CONTROL; it's about gun safety.

Instapundit comments.

SOME QUESTIONS for the global warmists. My favorites are #4 and #10.

AMERICANS are losing trust in government.

[A] government that does a lot of things badly is more appealing to the political class: more opportunity for graft, and for exercising the inflated self-importance that probably drives politicians even more than graft. The question is whether the government exists for the country's benefit, or for the benefit of the political class. At present, the answer to that question is depressingly clear.

Depressingly clear is right.

STEPHEN GREEN: another self-defense story. It only took the police 20 minutes to respond to the 911 call.

ONLY TWICE? That's gun control.

TEXAS TRUMPS GOVERNOR MOONBEAM: Governor Perry goes on a recruiting tour in California.

THIS SAYS IT ALL....

THE WHEELS are coming off the ObamaCare bus. And 40 million Americans are trapped underneath it.

ObamaCare was never about providing coverage. It was about assuming control.

SCOTT OTT: Piers Morgan Tweet Sparks Papal Confession.

Mock them.

DR. BENJAMIN CARSON’S speech at the National Prayer Breakfast:

AMERICAN HERO: Massive public memorial in Dallas for slain Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. "Nearly 7,000 people ... attended the service at Cowboys Stadium."

MAYBE LIBERALS should think of the children before they go off half-cocked....

BAN REALITY SHOWS: "If it saves only one child person, it'll be worth it."

MICHAEL BARONE: Congressional Hearings Show Obama Treading Dangerous Global Path.

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY: Hurricane Sandy victims facing new tax hit after superstorm.

MORE WILL ROGERS: About growing older...

Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.

When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young.

One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf.

If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old.

From my email.

"CALIFORNIA'S GOVERNING CLASS, along with urban planners and some developers, want to push people into city apartments near rail and bus lines. But that's not what most people want."

Most people, I suspect, view a rental apartment in an urban high-rise as a (hopefully brief) stop along the way to a single-family home in the 'burbs.

OBAMA PREPARES TO SCREW HIS BASE: "Young people re-elected the president. Now they get to pay disproportionately for ObamaCare."

Well, you voted for him, didn't you? Those of us who are older, wiser, and more experienced, knew better. Quit whining. Sit down, shut up, learn from your experience and don't be such damned fools the next time.

SO GOD MADE A LIBERAL:



Linked from PowerLine.

IF WHITEHOUSE.GOV EVER GOES DOWN, here's their backup website.

"LEFTISM REQUIRES this illegitimate use of force — this use of violence — because free individuals simply will not do what leftists, in their wisdom, have decided is right and good.”

Linked from Instapundit.

DEREK HUNTER: Sometimes it is the messenger.

FOX NEWS SUNDAY with constitutional scholar Nancy Pelosi:

Wow this dizzy bimbo is incoherent. So gun owners have a first amendment right to have a gun in their workplace for hunting?

How many more of her nitwiticisms never make the news?

This was one of the kinder comments.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER is good only when Republicans are in office.

NOW WE KNOW: The $1.2 trillion in tax cuts the Democrats are so proud of are mostly fiction. Using the Democrats' logic I just saved $4.40, or 0.73% of my annual budget, by not going out and buying my usual croissant and cup of coffee this morning.

THE FIRST-RATE IDIOTS behind the new second-rate power. Sequestration's not even pocket change given the size of the federal budget. The tragedy, of course, is that in the sequestration the budget items that should be cut are not the ones that will be cut.

MEDIA CONTROL and the First Amendment. An interesting comparison with gun control and the Second Amendment.

IT'S THE CULTURE, STUPID!

DOUBLE THE HOPE™, double the Change™.

WILL ROGERS, who died in a 1935 plane crash, was one of the greatest political sages this country has ever known. Some of his sayings:

Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back into your pocket.

There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.

After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

From my email.

HAH! Speaking truth to 'gender studies' power. About time.

NANCY PELOSI: “It is almost a false wrong to say we have a spending problem. We have a deficit problem that we have to address."

Good Lord, where to start? Is a 'false wrong' a right? If so, is it correct 'to say we have a spending problem'? And if we don't have a spending problem, why do we have a deficit?

My head hurts....

THE POLL RESULTS ARE IN: gun control lost.

WHERE HAS all that ammo gone? And why?

My wife and I were blowing holes in targets today and after finishing up, we went in to replenish our supplies. Limit: one box (50 rounds) each of .22LR and 9mm. I've still got plenty of 9mm ammunition, but I'm having to dip into my reserves for .22LR as we shoot well over 50 rounds each time we go to the range.

MORE LIKELY, global warming causes asteriods.

When these people were conceived, God must have thought "You're going to be too stupid to be productive, so I'll make you a journalist."

YOU CAN GET OBAMACARE, but your family can't.

A PICTURE: Woman at Military Cemetery.

MOCK THEM: "There has been no statement from a White House 'truth team' regarding the veracity of the president going skeet-shooting in a pink tutu."

A PRAYER BREAKFAST might not have been the best forum, but the words needed to be said.

I HATE TO ADMIT IT, but perhaps ObamaCare will have one useful -- if unintended -- consequence.

NEW HEALTH GUIDELINES: no birthday cake candles allowed for Australian children. At least the Australian Medical Association has shown some common sense.

"THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS that Jack Lew, President Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, held money in an investment fund registered in the very Cayman Islands building that Obama called a notorious haven for tax abuse."

In the Obama administration, hypocrisy has no limits.

SICK SUPPORT for a killer. I wonder if these twits realize that in the anarchist utopia they think they believe in -- free of cops and laws and where everyone can 'do their own thing' -- they will be among the first to be enslaved or killed.

CAN'T BUY A 30-ROUND MAGAZINE for your AR-15? Print one.

IT HAPPENED AGAIN ... and again ... and again.

IT'S ABOUT TRUST -- AND CONTROL. "More guns are being sold in America now than at any point in history, precisely because Americans are being told they cannot be trusted with guns."

BILL O'REILLY: Born on the Bayou. I've always been enamored of this part of Louisana; this is probably why.

Mr. Torres' website. Love that Cajun music!

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: A Miserable New York State Of Mind.

"MEDICAID IS SO BROKEN that surgical outcomes for Medicaid patients are actually worse than for patients who are uninsured. A landmark 2010 study from the University of Virginia, 'Primary Payer Status Affects Mortality for Major Surgical Operations', found that that surgical patients on Medicaid are 13 percent more likely to die than uninsured patients."

Still feeling warm and fuzzy about ObamaCare?

DECREASED INDUSTRIALIZATION: why oil consumption is declining in the U.S.

Welfare societies don't manufacture much of anything ... except whining.

HEY LOOK, ObamaCare is going to make something else more expensive. Because it can.

When it comes to ObamaCare, I'm inclined to remember LSD guru Timothy O'Leary: "Turn on (to knowlege of ObamaCare), tune in (to the details), and drop out (of ObamaCare)."

NEWT GINGRICH: An Immigration Debate Based On Reality. He's right that Democrats are good at pandering messaging and short of performance, and he may be right that Republicans have to improve their messaging (I'd like to believe that Americans are too smart to fall for pandering, but the evidence suggests I'm wrong).

JOHN RANSOM: As Blizzard Nemo Strikes, Global Warming Won’t Be Far Behind.

Published before the blizzard struck, and exactly right.

REMEMBER THE EMPTY CHAIR? Well, it was empty for Benghazi.

REVEREND AL SHARPTON finds new god.

‘OBAMACARE’ HEALTH CARE REFORM already forcing doctors to close practices. I'm hopeful that ObamaCare will drive more doctors to 'fee for service' because that's my plan.

WHY ARE THE FEDS loading up on so much ammo?

They're going to sell it to gun enthusiasts at inflated prices to reduce the deficit? Or perhaps they're protecting the environment by collecting all that hazardous waste (lead) for safe disposal?

It has to be something like that because 1.6 billion rounds obviously isn't enough to counter those crazed right-wing gun nuts with their 30-round magazines.

THE MEDIA EXERCISES ADMIRABLE RESTRAINT crazed shooters can't be linked to conservatives. Here's an example.

BLOOMBERG: Now let's regulate styrofoam cups. How about doing something useful? Like fixing cracks in sidewalks?

Regulation is easier.