HOSPITALS WANT to delay a key Obamacare program. Read carefully between the lines and you'll discover that the fundamental (government) metric is how many -- and how well -- patients are controlled.

STUPID LAWSUIT OF THE DAY.

CAN YOU pass a U.S. citizenship test? I can ... and did.

SO WHAT'S NEW? Obamacare requirements will drive up premiums. And it will generate new tax money for the government as more and more people (like me) opt to go without insurance and pay the 'penalty'.

MICHAEL BARONE: "[A] strong case can be made that our current policies threaten to make slow growth the new normal. And that would be profoundly painful in ways we are only beginning to imagine.... Republicans are being attacked as irresponsible for allowing the relatively small sequester cuts to occur. But maybe that was the responsible thing to do. Maybe it would be responsible to cut spending even more."

RUSSIA to send a woman to space in 2014.

IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, here are some scenes from sequestered America.

THEY'RE WORKING -- the secret about those budget cuts.

NEWT'S NEWS: Overwhelming Reasons for Optimism. I wish it was President Gingrich's website I was linking to ... this is the kind of optimism we need a President to promote.

NASA, GET OUT OF THE WAY: "This explosion of recent commercial ventures is due to several factors, starting with NASA's retirement of the space shuttle in 2011 without an immediate replacement."

WHY IN HELL are we sending anyone -- other than perhaps a garbage truck -- to Chavez' funeral? Oh ... never mind.

SENATORS CRUZ AND LEE threaten showdown over ObamaCare funding.

I'm fine with that. Let's have a vote and see who has the gonads to stand up for what they believe.

I LOVE THIS ONE. I'm in both camps at the same time.

HACKING: not limited to ground systems any more.

THE OFFICIAL RULES. I offered my own contribution, "Counting trees is the easiest way to lose track of the forest." It's from the first of my Three Laws of Systems Engineering (Asimov, anyone?)

“I MAKE NO ASSERTION that this bill will either increase or reduce violent crime. That is not the premise of the bill.” So what is the premise (purpose) of the gun control bill?

ORGANIZING FOR ACTION: We won't be accepting corporate donations after all. But that 'access to the administration' thing? Well, ....

BEFORE DECIDING as to whether they want to pledge to a university their precious time and treasure, aspiring college students and/or their guardians need to know what life in academia is really like.

The article referred to is linked here.

HEH: Denial is a channel on basic cable.

JONAH GOLDBERG on Obamacare: "I told you so."

TODAY’S WASHINGTON JOURNALISTS are like J. R. R. Tolkien’s ring wraiths, petty lords who wanted a few shiny golden Obama rings — only to end up as shrunken slaves to the One.

Read it all.

WHITE HOUSE cancels tours; Fox News anchors offer to pick up the tab ($72,000) for a week each. And on Hannity's show last night (Thursday), Newt Gingrich offered to fundraise to keep the White House tours open for the duration of the sequester.

After all, it's 'For the Children'.

Take that, Obama!

AN ENCOURAGING TREND: Rand Paul's filibuster. John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and the Republican 'Old Guard', your time is past. Go home.

Chris Muir agrees.

UPDATED: "Damn you Libertarian kids. Get off our lawn!"