THE GENE MACHINE AND ME: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is cheap, fast, and poised to revolutionize medicine. And it worries me more than I'd care to admit.

ACCORDING TO JAY CARNEY, sequester’s ‘real world impact’ will not curb Obama’s campaign travel or golf. It's our sequester, not his.

PHOTO CONTEST captions for the 2016 Hillary-Michelle 'dream ticket'. My favorite is in the 'also rans': "Double Trouble".

CHARACTER COUNTS: an email from Scott Lingamfelter, candidate for Lt. Governor of Virginia.

My Friends,

As a commander of soldiers in the Army, I followed a long-standing tradition of leadership that embodies this idea: all that happens or fails to happen in the unit is my responsibility. I subscribe to that idea today both in business and politics. In my political campaigns, I have taken this concept further by letting my campaign team know that all mistakes my campaign makes are “my mistakes”. In other words, I am responsible for my campaign, its conduct and actions because both are part of defining the character of the candidate. And we have made some mistakes too. Sometimes in the form of excessive and passionate rhetoric that did more to offend than to affirm. Sometimes in over energetic actions that made us appear overbearing. But these mistakes—as I insist to my team—are my mistakes. And in being willing to take ownership of them before they even occur, my team works hard to avoid such problems whenever they can. And rest assured we have not committed our last mistake, even as we hope we have.

The flip side of taking responsibility for the actions of your organization is to shift credit for success to others who did the hard work to achieve it. General George C. Marshall (VMI Class of 1901) was fond of saying “There is no limit to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit”. This is a wonderful leadership characteristic and it works too. But it’s tough for politicians because many—including me—often speak of “our personal” accomplishments when in fact many people come together around good ideas and they too should share in the credit. There is very little I can point to in politics that I can say—honestly—that I did that on my own. But when I was willing to listen and pull in the ideas and considerations of others, together our accomplishments were significant, whether it was advancing the audits that found waste in government, repealing the completely unnecessary one-gun-a-month law, or crafting and advancing the “Boneta Bill” that would protect the rights of small farmers and property owners from overbearing government.

Both of these concepts, (1) owning mistakes and (2) shifting credit for success to others, are essential qualities in good leaders. They are also a window into the character of a leader. Now look. I have made many mistakes in life. And that includes some less than wise political ones. But by observing these two concepts, I strive to be the kind of leader I look for and have seen in others. President Ronald Reagan loved the Marshall quote on shifting credit for success. He also took responsibility for the mistakes of his Administration. I think he was right and I will strive to be that kind of leader as your Lieutenant Governor if you nominate me to be your candidate at the Republican Convention on May 18th.

A final thought. One of our Founding Fathers, President John Adams, said that people “have a right, an indisputable, indefeasible, and divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the character and conduct of their leaders”. Adams was writing in the context of a newly established democratic republic—the United States—having thrown off the shackles of tyranny for a system of elected government where the character of its leaders are decisive in whether that government would respect the law and the rights of its people.

Character counts, folks. And while none of us are perfect, that is why all of us need the redeeming power of a loving God. Those of us who seek your support would be good to begin with some simple lessons on leadership; take responsibility for your mistakes and learn to acknowledge the hard work of others.

I'm pretty sure he's got my vote.

CHUCK SHUMER'S AMERICA: full of gun-free felons.

So ... if my wife and I go on a 10-day cruise, leaving our weapons in locked cases in a locked house, we're felons? If I let my 40-year-old son take my handgun to a gun range for target practice on a day when I have to go to work, I'm a felon?

S.374, the Senate bill containing Sen. Shumer's amendment passed the Judiciary Committee on a 10-8 party-line vote this afternoon.

THE WASHINGTON POST'S EZRA KLEIN calls the Senate Democrats’ $1 trillion tax hike “conservative.” It certainly is; the Democrats' goal is to have it all.

THERE ARE better alternatives to Planned Parenthood. Much better alternatives.

I'M OK WITH CULTURAL TABOOS as long as they're my cultural taboos. Marc Ambinder on Nanny Bloomberg's soft drink ban:

After thinking it over, though, I became less and less uncomfortable with the idea. For one thing, social experimentation on this level, on this scale, has not been tried in the United States. It's not a off-one stab into the heart of the problem; it embeds into a framework of other interventions that Bloomberg has pursued. It is transparent: It seeks to change behavior and draw attention to a source of empty calories. It does not, at least to me, unreasonably restrict the purchase of soda itself. And obesity is not an individual problem that calls for individualized solutions. To reduce obesity in New York City, large-scale interventions now may pay off in decades, when habits are changed. Bloomberg is absolutely making a moral judgment about the consumption of certain drinks, and people might be hurt by the government's sudden disapproval of their choices. They won't be harmed by it, though, and if over-consumption of sugary drinks is indeed a major contributor to a problem that has widespread, distributed social effects, even the "hurt" might be mitigated by the benefit.

Armbinder is clearly too young to remember the counterculture 60's, which brought us AIDS, unwed mothers, an explosion in teen pregnancies, abortion on demand, and the welfare state. The cost of those 'culture changes' is incalculably higher that the expected cost of treating obesity (which, by the way, is part and parcel of the 60's liberal culture change).

History repeats, the first time as a tragedy, the second as a farce. May the farce be with you....

OH, GREAT, now there's an 'electricity gap'. For God's sake, don't tell the Obama administration lest they decide to redistribute the electricity pie.

OH, THEY BELIEVE IN SOCIAL EQUALITY, ALL RIGHT. They believe in it for you, not for them.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: From Affirmative Action to Diversity.

RACISM: the one-size-fits-all solution. Chris Matthews comes to mind....

BYRON YORK: Obama Resists Simple Fixes for Sequestration Cuts. Notice that not one faceless, behind-the-scenes bureaucrat or regulator has been referred to, furloughed, or cut -- not one. In Obama's sequester, if you're not in front of the public, you won't be touched.

THE LONG VIEW: Why Republicans aren’t shutting down the government over ObamaCare. The problem with the long view is not that is won't happen; the collapse of ObamaCare is inevitable. The problem is that I'm afraid ObamaCare will fail on me. I'd rather have it collapse it now rather when I need medical care.

DOES THIS REMIND YOU of an election in 2012?

MALICE OR INCOMPETENCE? The general rule is to never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence. I suspect this is proof of the rule, expecially given that this occurred in very liberal Colorado.

ON RE-BANNING ALREADY BANNED STUFF: There is one thing more dangerous than an arrogant, highly educated person, and that is an arrogant, highly educated, ignorant person (usually called a politician).

A HISTORY LESSON FOR OBAMA.

MEDICAID: an 'estate tax' on the poor.

MORE KEYSTONE (PIPELINE) KOPS. Damn that technology stuff!