SARAH HOYT: Give Me Back My Spaceships and Dinosaurs.

We’re writing to set our minds and hearts free, to explore and roam places yet undiscovered. They might be strange places like… ancient astronauts, or as pulpy as I suspect the Shores of Kansas will turn out to be. In their ability to pit man against the dinosaurs of the ancient past or the aliens of the distant future, they tell stories only science fiction can tell. All it needs is the barest thread of verisimilitude, absent from fantasy. We know that sorcerers are imagined, but time travel, who knows? It might be real and we just having figured it out yet.

I have a collection of many hundreds of science fiction books dating back 60 or more years that I keep rereading for exactly Hoyt's reasons.

THE SCOREKEEPER today (#13):

From White House spokesman Jay Carney: "Six out of ten people without insurance can get insurance for $100 a day or less."

Let's see, $100 a day times 365 days is $36,500 a year.

And four out of ten pay more?

Gee, wonder why Democrats are having such a hard time this year.

Carney accurately quoted the real price of ObamaCare....

HARRY REID'S people who don't exist.

THE HARD SELL: No amount of advertising will make Obamacare attractive to the young.

THE BIGGEST HEALTHCARE SCANDAL you’ve never heard about.

And then, of course, there's Maryland.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on ideologies without consequences: "Modern elite liberalism is based on the simple creed that one’s affluence and education, one’s coolness and zip code, should shield him from the consequences of one’s bankrupt thoughts that he inflicts on others. We are a state run by dead souls who square the circle of their own privilege, who seek meaning in rather selfish lives, always at someone else’s expense."

Consequences to liberals, that is....

SPRING LEAVES, Week Three: finally, a decent day. The yard is clear of snow, and I've finally begun to cut up and move the fallen branches from the winter snows. Here's today's view:

And with the picture some small evidence of blossoms:

Here's last week's picture and the one of the day after the day before.

IT'S BEYOND REPAIR, but is ObamaCare beyond repeal?

YES. NEXT QUESTION. Do ‘bag bans’ tick off consumers?

WIRED: Pilot flies through Greece's Corinth Canal.

NEWS I DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW: Elton John is getting married.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: "So two of the lowest temps in the last 14 years were right after Obama was elected and re-elected? Was that because Hell froze over?"

The post that elicited the comment is here.

"IT DOESN’T LOOK GOOD when more than 10 percent of the [California] Senate Democratic caucus is looking at prison time."

THEY'RE IGNORED: What Happens When The Facts Don’t Fit The Progressive Script? Facts are only facts when they fit 'The Narrative'.

TRIFECTA OF ZING: Fred Thompson scores with trio of Obamacare truth-booms.

BITTER WHITE LIBERALS urge University of Minnesota to rescind Condi Rice speaking invitation. 'Bitter liberal' is a tautology.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Pee plus chlorine yields a chemical warfare agent.

[W]e need [an olympic-sized] pool that is two parts water to one part chlorine and would probably burn the eyeballs out of your sockets and make your skin peel away from your bones (this calls for a pool boy who can only be criminally sadistic). If you and three million other people could get at this pool and unload your pee into it before your bodies melted, before the crowd crushed you to death, and before you drowned from the massive tidal wave of pee... yes, you could feasibly die of cyanogen chloride poisoning originating from chlorinated water and pee.

So it's probably safe to swim in yellowed water.

WELL, OF COURSE: 'Cooking the books' with ObamaCare? Given the Obama administration's past history, can there be no doubt?

PIERS MORGAN: "The gun lobby in America...has bullied this nation's politicians into cowardly, supine silence".

I see. You're the bully if you don't do what I demand. Goodbye, Piers. Don't let the door hit your behind on the way out....

LAST WEEK the Washington Post received a number of letters to the editor complaining about the comic strip Prickly City on the comics page. This week, the responses. My favorite contained this comment:

[T]o me, every page of the Post, including the comics pages, on which one finds 'Doonesbury', is the editorial page.

Too true.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY to sign up for ObamaCare. WTOP radio is reporting that the ObamaCare web site is ... down for maintenance.

Government competence at its best....

SO THAT'S WHY I can never find ammunition.

GUNMAN INVADES DOLLAR GENERAL STORE, meets concealed carry permit holder, gets killed.

Good.

A REAL QUESTION: Does Obama's budget fund overseas abortions to protect endangered animals?

It sure reads like it does.

FOX BUSINESS: Top Temp Jobs in America.

Under the Obama administration, all jobs will become temp jobs....

SO GO AHEAD, jail her.

JEFF JACOBY: How unborn babies become 'clinical waste'.

Not just inhumane; inhuman.

RICHARD COHEN has a rare burst of good sense when it comes to charter schools. When he does, he should be congratulated.

THOMAS SOWELL: Rethinking the GOP rule-or-ruin option.

My intent is to vote for new blood in the primaries (especially those who are Tea Party backed) and vote for the Republican in the general election. And I will vote.

BAD GOVERNMENT flows from bad science. Or is it the converse?

The beauty of liberalism is that it's completely unfettered by reality.

WHAT! OUR FOOD IS RADIOACTIVE? OMG, we're all gonna die.

HOPE 'n CRINGE: a post from 5 years ago today.

DANA LOESCH celebrated Piers Morgan Range Day yesterday to honor the former CNN host. It was raining here yesterday, so I had to hold off my celebrating till next Tuesday.

Best (sort of related) comment: "If it were not for the ignorant left, we'd have no left at all."

IT'S NOT ABOUT RACE --- it's about how liberalism doesn't solve poverty.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Why is it that government is never downsized when the economy sours?

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS VOTER FRAUD. Because intimidation is not fraud.

WESLEY PRUDEN: Elect more college dropouts.

Please.

IS IT SATIRE? Or is it a prediction?

IT'S ONLY A 'WAR ON WOMEN' if you can blame Republicans.

BUT, BUT ... it will look like a bullet.

CLIMATISTAS double down on stupid.

I sometimes wonder if these people simply don't understand that a sword cuts both ways, or they really are this dumb.

DEMOCRAT DESPERATION:

Thank FDR for Social Security! Of course, Roosevelt won’t be on the ballot. And is Social Security somehow an issue in this year’s election? Not that I’ve noticed. So this appears to be mostly a nostalgia play: forget about Obamacare, the stimulus, lousy economic growth, $17 trillion in debt, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, and recall the glory days! Not long ago the Democrats were yearning for the 1950s. Now it’s the 1930s. They keep regressing; what’s next? Maybe the party will relive its pro-slavery roots before long.

The Democrats have never given up their pro-slavery roots; they've just renamed them 'racism'.

SENATOR PATTY MURRAY (D-WA) finds it “stunning” that “nine people are going to make the decision” on whether religious liberty will trump the Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate to solve a non-issue.

I find it even more "stunning" that 536 clowns in Congress decided that Americans are incompetent to manage their own healthcare.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES: The vanity of public transit. You're worse off, but we feel really, really good about it.

RARE PRAISE: from Newt Gingrich.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA) TELLS NAVY: Skip the tobacco ban, focus on budget and ships.

We want a fighting military, not a politically correct one.

STEALTH TECHNOLOGY: Boeing's Bird of Prey.

ONLY A 'D'? ObamaCare's score of 67% merits a 'D'.

The Weekly Standard is being very generous.

THE IRS SCANDAL: Day 323, and more bad news for the Obama administration. Click through the links for details.

A PERFECT EXAMPLE of liberal projection:

Climate change deniers are as committed. Their denial fits perfectly with their support for free market economics, opposition to state intervention and hatred of all those latte-slurping, quinoa-munching liberals, with their arrogant manners and dainty hybrid cars, who presume to tell honest men and women how to live. If they admitted they were wrong on climate change, they might have to admit that they were wrong on everything else and their whole political identity would unravel.

He describes himself perfectly, attributing his faults to his opponents.

And his climate-change soufflé collapsed as well....

AIR FORCE faces shortage of engineers. It's true. I've worked with a number of very good AF civilian engineers in the past, but they don't tend to stay because Civil Service regulations make life in an industry cube farm seem positively idyllic.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: still just smoke and mirrors.

[N]o attempt will made to change policy, but spend money instead on deception operations, in order to mask reality and conduct business as usual under another name. Nothing changes except the make-up. While this will be as effective as renaming Titanic the Love Boat in an effort to keep things afloat, the probable fact is that the president is unprepared to change. It will be denial to the bitter end.

Sleep well.

POWERLINE: Code Red for team Franken.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) should be sharpening his skills to resume touring as a performer in a third-tier comedy club. Oh, wait ... he already is.

THE SCOREKEEPER'S comment of the day (#6): "Come on. If you cannot run something as simple as a bank, how can we expect you to run a bike stand?"

THERE'S SOMETHING VERY WRONG WITH THIS: "The family of Justina Pelletier, the 15-year-old girl at the center of a battle spanning two states and two prestigious hospitals, is devastated but defiant after a Massachusetts judge gave permanent custody of the girl to the state's Department of Children and Families."

FOX NEWS' DR. KEITH ABLOW is outraged. And rightfully so.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES, spring climate change edition. But my favorite isn't about climate change:

MILLENNIALS, the Social Security sucker generation. You've got it bad, but your children will be much worse off.

And don't blame me, I've been trying to fix it for years.

SCREW YOU, MICKEY KAUS: I want my health insurance back.

I'VE WONDERED ABOUT THAT, TOO.

INSTANT KARMA: How many times I've wished for this.

SAY 'GOOD RIDDANCE' TO COMMON CORE: Fourth-grade Common Core reading worksheet features story about adultery.

The math part of Common Core is horrible, and this (the English part) is obscene.

US AIR FORCE'S secretive X-37B space plane sets new orbital endurance record.

REGULATION.

WOULDN'T IT BE just as easy to rename Asians? The way you did blacks?

SO YOU REALLY WANT these bumbling idiots in charge of your healthcare? For all you liberals out there in La-La Land, remember this: doctors, nurses, and medical technology don't coexist with rainbows and unicorns. Lawyers do. And lawyers don't fix broken bones.

OF COURSE: Former top California educator busted in murder-for-hire plot, blames racism.

IOWA: "So God made a trial lawyer".

OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS ask Issa to call off Benghazi investigation. Obviously the Committee is making headway despite Democrat interference.

DANA LOESCH schools Harry Reid on how to 'internet' for ObamaCare.

Scroll to the bottom for the video.

BYE, BYE, U2: USAF must modernize at the expense of legacy aircraft.

DESPERATION: Anti-fracking/Keystone opponent groups push debunked cancer claim.

MSNBC: Is high unemployment caused by Republicans refusing to hire people with neck tattoos?

Hmm. How many of MSNBC's talking heads have neck tattoos?

YOU CAN'T BE BLACK if you're a conservative. Instapundit comments.

JEFF JACOBY: the Democrats' ObamaCare albatross.

SCOTT WALKER signs bill ending early weekend voting. It time to go back to in-person voting on one designated day -- using paper ballots.

IF YOU EVER chance upon a dimly lit house to which is affixed a sign reading "Schumer Tells Your Fortune," it would probably be a good idea to just keep walking.

TIME TO BREAK OUT THE RICO STATUTE and break up the Democrats.

UPDATE: More here.

INSTAPUNDIT on the IRS scandal: "Make the rubble bounce."

WELL, YES: Is Nancy Pelosi wearing the mantle of a leading American eugenicist?

“IT IS A PERVERSION of the English language that our so-called liberals are the least liberal faction in our polity.”

OBAMACARE: a fraud, top to bottom.

DEMOCRAT TO DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Please quit deporting our voters.

NO-O-O! not tic-tac-toe.

DWARF PLANET 'Biden' found beyond Pluto.

GUESS WHICH PARTY: "A Criminal Organization Masquerading as a Political Party".

EVEN THE RATS ARE DESERTING THE SINKING SHIP: UN panel scientist calls the UN global warming report crazy and demands his name be striken from the report.

OUCH! ‘We’d Rather Bet the Farm on Grassley Than a Bunch of Trial Lawyers from Texas.’

Looks like Texas trial lawyers won't be moving to Iowa soon.

INSTAPUNDIT: You f*cked up ... you trusted us.

Best comment: "What difference, at this point, does it make?"

POWERLINE: Did the Washington Post coordinate with congressional Democrats?

Of course. This could get interesting.

I’M JEALOUS of my dog’s insurance. And my vet has a much better bed table side manner.

"IF A POLITICIAN’S for gun control, it doesn’t prove he’s a crook. But it’s the way to bet."

THE ONION: Single Mother Hogging 2 Jobs. Outrageous....

Linked from Instapundit.

NEWT GINGRICH: Joshua, Ron, and a Destructive FDA. 'Medical ethics' is an oxymoron.

GUN OWNER CALLED A 'NUT' by a newspaper that can't properly identify the weapon. Bias, anyone?

THE EPA USES YOUR TAX DOLLARS to buy 'independent' scientific reviews to support proposed regulations. And you can't see them.

IF YOU HAVE a puddle in your back yard, it's now our puddle. But don't worry, we're from the EPA and we're here to help you.

HARRY REID: I don’t recall accusing Republicans of lying about ObamaCare horror stories. Listen to yourself, Harry:

BITCOINS: just a real as market bears.

HYPOCRITE is a synonym for 'progressive'. And they're comfortable with that.

WTF? Obama to kill Navy’s Tomahawk, Hellfire missile programs in budget decimation.

IT PAYS to be Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (until you're captured).

OBAMA WORRIES about a nuclear attack on Manhattan. Of course. That's where his contributors live.

MSNBC is in serious trouble. Their other viewer quit watching....

HARRY REID paying his granddaughter with campaign funds looks ‘horrific’. It only looks horrific?

HEADLINE OF THE DAY. Humbling: Obama must visit Pope Francis in prayer for popularity.

SKY & TELESCOPE: Have We Spotted Dark Matter in the Milky Way?

OBAMAFAIL (CONT'D): Critical part of ObamaCare website yet to be fixed.

Not surprised.

NORMAN BORLAUG on environmentalism: "(Most Western environmentalists) have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they’d be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists in wealthy nations were trying to deny them these things."

OBAMA TRIES TO RESET REALITY by dismissing Russia as a 'regional power'. And during his administration, Obama has made the U.S. into a 'sub-regional power'.

ROGER L. SIMON: "I have observed liberals to be vastly more racist than conservatives and libertarians."

Something I have been saying for a long time on this blog.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: "Beer brewed with brains? 100% Democrat-free." Scroll down.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. A few days ago, I posted this question: Is there a low IQ limit that liberal commentators must not exceed? In his ObamaCare response today, Harry Reid proved that even MSNBC's low bar is too high for him.

OBAMA TRAVELED TO BRUSSELS with 900-person entourage: "The naked emperor needs all his court jesters to reassure him his new clothes look fashionable".

Dutch PM Mark Rutte arrived for his meeting with President Obama a little less ostentatiously.

“THE 80′S CALLED ... they’d like their president back.”

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: You can cut government spending; Canada is proof.

HILLARY2016 BATTLESPACE PREPARATION: "It’s just #banbossy all over again, this time with saggy jowls."

MICHELLE MALKIN: My trip to the pot shop.

HEH: World-famous bear trainer encounters setback.

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Harry Reid, attempting to explain the Obama administration's latest decision to extend a key ObamaCare deadline, says people just 'are not educated on how to use the Internet.'

Especially Harry Reid. And, oh yes, these folks:

OBAMACARE: a kick in the gut.

THOMAS SOWELL: Republicans and Blacks.

[I]f Republicans can reduce the 90 percent of the black vote that goes to Democrats to 80 percent, that can be enough to swing a couple of close Congressional elections -- as a start.

Even to achieve that, however, will require targeting those particular segments of the black population that are not irrevocably committed to the Democrats. Parents who want their children to get a decent education are one obvious example. But if Republicans aim a one-size-fits-all message at all blacks they will fail to connect with the particular people they have some chance of reaching.

First of all, Republicans will need to know what they are talking about. There are books like "Race and Economics" by Walter Williams, which show that many well-meaning government programs have been counterproductive for minorities.

Sowell is right, of course, but it's not just blacks; it's all the Democrats' 'victim groups' the Republicans must aggressively address.

GETTING THE MESSAGE: Indiana becomes first state to scrap Common Core. More states will follow (well, except the blue ones).

LIBERALS FALL FOR PALIN SATIRE: Flight 370 ‘flew too high, got stuck in heaven’.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Loud + Weak = War. "Being weak is sometimes dangerous. Being loud, self-righteous, and weak is always very dangerous indeed."

If Obama cannot lead, can he at least keep quiet about it?

A 12-GAUGE SHOTGUN? US Army opens acquisition for counter-UAS weapon system.

CONCEALED CARRY to the rescue ... again.

POWER LINE: "Weakness doesn't get much weaker than this."

CALIFORNIA'S NINTH CIRCUIT encourages concealed carry.

BUT, BUT... there's no such thing as voter fraud.

RELATED: "Would it be unkind to suggest that the reason that Democrats oppose election security measures such as voter ID, is because those measures would prevent them from cheating — even against each other?"
No, it wouldn't.

THE STATE of progressive education. If you have children and can afford it, it's time to get out.

THOSE 'TOLERANT' DEMOCRATS: "Go f*** yourself."

IF THE KOCH BROTHERS were better known, Harry Reid would do even worse.

BEST CONSERVATIVE CAMPAIGN MESSAGE EVER.

OFFENSIVE AND DUMB:

Organizing for Action! has ripped off the Gadsden Flag to troll the Tea Party. Tea Partiers hate Obamacare, they love liberty, they respect history, they fly the Gadsden Flag, so OFA decided, 'Hey, let’s annoy the Tea Party and get in their faces!'

Dumb, yes. But offensive? Hardly. Laughable is a better description. The OFA thimblewits are self-mocking.

INSTAPUNDIT: "I remember when TPM [Talking Points Memo] was kind of interesting." That was when Josh Marshall was still a journalism graduate student and before he became a journalism tool.

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS OFFICE finds ideal applicant capable of subsidizing tuition of 3 low-income students.

Instapundit comments: "One of the weirdest things about the past few years is the way The Onion has gone from a parody site to hard-news...."

It's hard to 'satirize' progressives.

THAT DECEPTIVE KOCH CHART: Political spending is only bad when my opponents do it.

DAILY BEAST: MH370’s Pilots Behaved As They Should in an Emergency. Despite all the media theorizing, pontificating, and hype, I suspect this is closer to what actually happened. An earlier post postulating essentially the same scenario is here.

Occam's Razor.

THE TRUTH HURTS: Democrats slam Nate Silver for daring to predict they'll lose the Senate.

OBAMAFAIL: Administration to delay ObamaCare enrollment deadline for some. Unexpectedly.

UPDATE: Instapundit comments.

A POX ON SURVEYS: Survey says engineers don’t have what it takes to be CEOs. Then why are engineers in charge of so many large corporations?

PAUL GREENBERG: "I care not who writes a nation's laws but who writes its songs."

INSTAPUNDIT: "Based on recent evidence, I’d say that it’s hard to look upon our leaders with unjustified suspicion. And that most emphatically includes our leaders in the press."

IT'S TIME FOR THEM to sit down and shut up.

MSNBC HOST: There are studies that show you are 'literally' more likely to be beamed up by a UFO than find a case of voter fraud. I think MSNBC hosts are 'literal' proof that there are aliens among us....

ARE THESE PEOPLE INSANE? OR JUST NUTS? Girl barred from school for shaving head to support friend with cancer.

FAIR QUESTION: Is there a low IQ limit that liberal commentators must not exceed?

ONE LIBERAL WOMAN'S experience with ObamaCare. Anything for a free lunch with other peoples' money.

MARICOPA COUNTY [AZ] SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO has introduced a new jail unit specifically for inmates who served in the military.

"They fought for our country. The least we can do is help them. When some came back, some had mental problems. We have drug prevention programs, alcoholism," said Arpaio.


He hopes segregating the veterans will help keep them on the right track.

Interesting, and worth watching.

BLUE MODEL GOES BELLYUP: "Politicians take note. Except that they won’t as long as opportunities for graft remain."

NO, NEW YORK TIMES, requiring proof of citizenship to vote isn’t ‘voter suppression’. The act of crying 'racism' should be proof that the crier is indeed racist.

UNITED NATIONS: Global warming causes freezing heat.

PAID YOUR OBAMATAX YET? Matt Drudge has.

THIS IS NOW, and that was then:

Snow happens; the search for spring continues....

BEST CONSERVATIVE CAMPAIGN MESSAGE EVER.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. All the network news organizations are covering President Obama and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a joint press conference in the Hague. Why anyone even gives that clown a respectful audience is beyond me.

BILL CLINTON (!) joins Republicans in criticizing Obama’s internet plans.

MAKING A MOCKERY OF HIGHER EDUCATION: "A high-ranking administrator at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), has responded to a professor’s violent attack on a 16-year-old pro-life demonstrator including a 16-year-old – by condemning the demonstration."

When my daughter's turn to go to college came, UCSB was on the short list. She chose wisely, going to the University of Nebraska instead.

WHAT HAPPENED TO IT BEING BUSH'S FAULT? Harry Reid: GOP May Have Helped Russia Annex Crimea.

GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS: Washington is headed for disaster.

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS: Guns and Rosaries.

RAMIREZ: the true meaning of drought.

WHOSE RIGHTS TRUMP WHOSE? Muslim barber refuses to cut hair of lesbian.

PLEASE DO: Democrat Wants His Party to Officially Come Out Against the Second Amendment.

"THAT’S THE OLD RACISM. The new racism is anything that might hurt a Democrat politically."

ARE VOTERS too sensitive to 'microaggressions'?

It's high time for 'macro-aggressive' mockery toward progressives' microaggressive whinery.

READY FOR RAND? Americans hate Rand Paul’s libertarianism. They just don’t know it yet.

I'm not convinced; I think Paul is making inroads for libertarian conservatism.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Of Pre- and Postmodern Poseurs.

Putin gets up every morning to annoy Barack Obama, piqued not just that he is weak, but that he is sanctimonious and weak.

I don't believe Putin is a poseur, but Obama most certainly is.

THE ARROGANCE OF SELF-IMPORTANCE: Former US president Carter uses snail mail to evade NSA. If he believes that he's important enough for NSA to monitor him, does he really believe that they wouldn't intercept and open his mail?

JEFF JACOBY: Public sector pensions are eating taxpayers alive. They're getting steak, we're getting hamburger. What a surprise.

SPRING LEAVES, Week Two:

Last week I posted the first week of my annual search for the arrival of spring's leaves. Here's week two:

No leaves yet, but at least the snow has gone (but according to the forecasters, it's due back tomorrow). Last week's photo is here.

JUST ANOTHER OBAMACARE HURDLE: Married couples filing separately. Incompetence squared, cubed, and cubed yet again....

ABORTED BABIES incinerated to heat British hospitals.

Soylent Heat, but not (yet) Soylent Green.

NO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CHARGES against Ohio woman who voted six times for Obama.

Via Instapundit.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Over 95% of the climate models agree the observations must be wrong.

COLORADO LEGISLATORS: How dare you taxpayers insist on keeping our money.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Listening to the radio this morning, I heard one commentator on WMAL say that the mainstream media are 'tools' of Democrat political operatives. That's factually incorrect; they aren't 'tools'; they are Democrat political operatives.

KURT SCHLICTER: "The problem liberals always face is that the world refuses to honor their preconceived notions."

ONE MORE REASON why the Obama administration is the least transparent ever.

A more transparent administration would be in jail.

A PREOCCUPATION WITH SAFETY has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer.

DEREK HUNTER on the Holy Church of Global Warming: "It’s a religion based on faith not in a higher power but in a better, smarter group of people who know better how you should live your life than you do."

JIMMY CARTER says Obama doesn't call him for advice. Maybe Obama should, given that Carter is a step above him on the 'worst President' list.

MORE SURBERISM'S:

From Fox News: "The first phase of a three-year plan by Arizona wildlife officials to bolster herds of bighorn sheep has resulted in the death of half the population, after the 31 sheep were transplanted at a cost of $150,000 into the Catalina Mountains where mountain lions killed 15 of the protected species within a few months. Some animal welfare groups are pushing for an end to the project, but wildlife officials say the conservation effort is not a failure and expect the projected $600,000, three-year plan to result in greater numbers of bighorns in an area where they once co-existed with mountain lions for centuries." 

So we are going to spend 600 grand to feed mountain lions. Brilliant! 

New Latin name for bighorn sheep: Mountainlion Chow.

The post is here.

ED DRISCOLL: Sleeping with the enemy? I wouldn't say 'enemy'; the relationship is more like incest.

OUT OF WORK? Out of luck. And if you're at or near retirement age, you're SOL.

WHEN BUREAUCRACY GETS TOO BIG: How a 29-year-old Austrian buzzed the statue of Liberty, built a business, and beat U.S. regulators in court.

POPULAR MECHANICS: Inside America's newest aircraft carrier.

Via Instapundit.

WE HAVEN'T FOUND any wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 because of ... global warming.

THE WORLD OF PI.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY to open a center for the study of bad science. Penn State climate 'researcher' Michael Mann to be first candidate studied....

As Instapundit usually says, "Heh."

BREAKING NEWS: The Koch brothers are living rent-free in Harry Reid's head. On the bright side, there's plenty of room....

SENATE DEMOCRATS join House in pressing Obama again about final Iran nuclear deal. I suspect the Boy Emperor is not happy that his minions are crowding his turf.

BECAUSE THEY CAN: Why do weak nations like Russia provoke stronger ones like the United States? "Putin defines power not by tanks or GDP, but by a state’s willingness to gamble to use whatever power it has. He assumes that others less reckless than he would rather rationalize their unwillingness to use their superior economic and military assets than run the risks of employing them."

With Obama, Putin's probably right.

BUS DRIVER blames gin-soaked raisins after driving kids back to school.

[A] Pennsylvania bus driver who took children back to school instead of driving them home after classes ended has acknowledged eating gin-soaked raisins.

Police in Columbia County say they've filed charges including DUI and reckless driving against [the] Benton Area School District driver.

The grapes of wrath.

WE'LL FIND OUT IF HILLARY DOESN'T RUN: What Happens If Mutant Killer Space Bunnies Switch Off Gravity?

A REPORT on the Arrogance of Power. PJ Media has more, including video clips.

AS DREARY AND PREDICTABLE REPRESENTATIVE of the low-wattage, affirmative-action branch of that enterprise [academia] as any cultural pathologist could wish for.

DON SURBER'S Daily Scoreboard:

From the Los Angeles Times: "Electric cars can go only half as far in freezing weather, AAA finds."

So we cool the Earth's temperatures in these buggies so we can get stuck in the snow.

And we're the intelligent species?

Read the rest -- and the comments.

SPOILED, WEALTHY COLLEGE STUDENTS more likely to support terrorism.

Bill Ayers, anyone? Bernadine Dohrn? Kathy Boudin? Diana Oughton? All spoiled, wealthy brats, Weather Underground terrorists, and current heros/heroines of the Left.

WESTBORO CHURCH founder Fred Phelps dies.

The original is here.

Interestingly enough, here's a Westboro church counterprotest.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Black market thrives with high cigarette taxes.

PAUL GREENBERG: Of Sex, Age and Politics.

"AMERICANS RODE in wagon trains across this country, tossed the Brits’ tea in the Boston Harbor, outfought the superpower of the 18th century to get our freedom, pounded the Indians, Mexicans, and Spanish into the ground to fulfill our Manifest Destiny and then for an encore, we saved the planet in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War."

So why is America creating a generation of wimps?

HEH: Barack Obama banned in Moscow.

WITHOUT FURTHER COMMENT:

HISPANICS souring on Obama? "They have been finding out that Obamacare has been about as competent and functional as government in Mexico."

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES: Reset edition. My favorite:

OBAMACARE ARCHITECT: Law will cause ‘the end of employer-sponsored insurance’. Well, that is the plan ....

Our ruling class knows what is best for you 'little people'.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Another state extends ObamaCost (formerly ObamaCare) deadline.

POWERLINE'S JOHN HINDERAKER rips the Washington Post a new ... uh, well, you know what.

FROM INSTAPUNDIT: Michelangelo's David Has a Right to Bear Arms. Actually, an obligation.

SOLVING THE COLLEGE TUITION CRISIS: just make it free. Other people's money is so-o-o easy to spend.

[C]olleges and universities can 'produce the musicians, writers, philosophers, scientists, and visionaries ... of tomorrow' without encumbering them with high tuition or massive debt.

Uh, huh: Remember Nancy Pelosi on ObamaCare freeing 'musicians, writers, philosophers, etc.' to pursue their dreams without having to worry about paying for their healthcare? Or paying for this loon to pursue a Ph.D.?

Sorry, but I prefer this approach.

UNEXPECTEDLY: NYC bike-share program in financial trouble. The Left cannot seem to come to grips with the fact that their 'do-good' schemes are almost always certain to fail.

POWERLINE: Why the Alarmists’ Climate Models Are Worthless.

Or as I've always said, if you can't explain it on the back of an envelope, it ain't science.

GADSDEN FLAG: Too Racist for Government Buildings, But Just Right for Obamacare Propaganda!

Instapundit comments: "Only a historical illiterate — which is to say, pretty much all modern lefties — would think there’s anything racist about the Gadsden Flag."

SHOE:

The original is here.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Technology is not wisdom.

When wind-chill temperatures fell to 40 degrees below zero in the frigid Midwest this winter and there were occasional storm-related power outages, was it better to have a computer-controlled central heating system or an ax, some wood and a cast-iron stove?

Wisdom is knowing how to use the axe.

INCOMPETENCE: Cover Oregon video explains bizarre new enrollment procedure.

Here's the interesting point: in entering the ObamaCare site, you will be qualified and enrolled in Medicaid first, whether you want to or not. You will not be given a choice.

Linked from another ObamaCare story on Instapundit.

CRONY CAPITALISM GOVERNMENT: Union representatives join federal government safety inspectors on site visits to nonunion businesses.

NEWT GINGRICH: Rand Paul is right.

ILLINOIS GOV. PAT QUINN: A $10/hour minimum wage is a principle as old as the Bible.

I didn't know a 40-hour workweek was standard in Biblical times....

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SANTA BARBARA feminist professor Mireille Miller-Young charged with one misdemeanor count each of theft, battery and vandalism in a confrontation with pro-life teen. Now it time for the UCSB administration to step up (but they won't).

RAMIREZ: a well-deserved honor.

SATURDAY MORNING:

Shadow, Daisy, and Diamond sleeping in.

OBAMACARE: The individual mandate is weak -- and unenforceable.

DAVID FRENCH: A win for academic freedom. A solid shot across the bow, but it will take some direct hits to dissuade the academic Left.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Leftist groups now offering young people cash prizes to enroll in Obamacare. And if you win, you can almost afford the premium for the first few months.

THE LATEST DIY CRAZE: brain hacking. I don't know whether to laugh or cry....

WE NEED more of this in politics.

HEH: Green 'gasholes' wage war on American natural gas.

DIPLOMAS VS. DIRTY JOBS: TV host Mike Rowe on the educational bias against unglamorous, good-paying work.



The video is a bit long; if you'd rather read the transcript, it's here.

OH, SWELL: Teaching Cars To Feel Your Pain. As if I didn't have enough problems already....

LA CITY COUNCIL: Yeah, that earthquake was probably caused by fracking.

Dopes.

IN JAM OVER OBAMACARE, Democrats don't know which way to turn.

THE FCC SNOOPING SCANDAL has mostly disappeared from the media spotlight after nearly everyone not in the Obama administration erupted in outrage and caused the program's cancellation.

What was the FCC's newsroom 'survey' really about? Byron York of the Washington Examiner, via PowerLine, offers an explanation. (York's article is here.)

What really disturbed me is the inane blather about the American public's 'critical information needs'. Here are the eight 'critical information needs' as identified in the proposed study's Executive Summary:

1. emergencies and risks, both immediate and long term; 

2. health and welfare, including specifically local health information as well as group specific health information where it exists; 

3. education, including the quality of local schools and choices available to parents; 

4. transportation, including available alternatives, costs, and schedules; 

5. economic opportunities, including job information, job training, and small business assistance; 

6. the environment, including air and water quality and access to recreation; 

7. civic information, including the availability of civic institutions and opportunities to associate with others; 

8. political information, including information about candidates at all relevant levels of local governance, and about relevant public policy initiatives affecting communities and neighborhoods.

Some questions:

a. Who are these arrogant assholes who believe they have the right to define for me what my information needs, critical or not, are? (The answer to that question, at least, is here -- see slides 2 and 3.)  

b. Are they aware that anybody with enough cognitive ability to walk and chew gum at the same time can find every whit of those 'critical information needs' with a newspaper, radio, telephone book, or internet connection and 2 minutes time? 

c. Why is my hard-earned tax money being wasted on these airheads?

I have to agree with PowerLine's John Hinderaker and NRO's David French: this is nothing more than the IRS scandal writ large -- an attempt to marginalize conservatives in politics and the media.

AUSTRALIAN ANCHORWOMAN: Stop blaming men for your problems. Look for the Left to have an apoplectic fit.

ANOTHER GLITCH: Newly discovered HealthCare.gov error giving bad information on premium aid. I think you can safely bet it's not in the customer's favor....

NEWT GINGRICH: An [ugly] Window into the [Federal] Bureaucracy.

FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

IEEE SPECTRUM: How do you see gravity waves?

QUOTES OF THE DAY: Yes, I am grateful for my ObamaCare....

EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN: Unless you're a Democrat woman. And still employed....

WARREN BUFFETT: You pay more taxes so I can pay less.

ARE THE GLOBAL WARMISTS losing?

More from Judith Curry here.

FIVE REASONS not to bother retiring. The nut graf:

[T]he Social Security bulletin from 2011 notes that many fail to accurately predict how happy they will be in retirement. When you combine the high unemployment rate for older workers with the chance you might not be as happy as expected in retirement, it may be better to slowly back off your hours rather than quit cold-turkey.

Unless, of course, you're involuntarily 'retired' by the Obama economy....

SUNSHINE WEEK looking dark for Obama's 'most transparent administration in history'.

THE MOCKERY CONTINUES about the Obama administration's Ukraine 'policy'.

NEW TEXAS A&M STUDY: Obama 5th best president in American history.

JEFF JACOBY: This is no time to go wobbly on Ukraine.

If you discount finger-wagging, wobbly is all the Obama administration knows how to do. We can only hope the U.S. can survive the next two years.

LIES, DAMNED LIES, and the Washington Post.

SUBARU engages is a battle of wits with the unarmed....

THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU is more interested in protecting its own finances than your finances.

SO ... which political party is in the pocket of big business?

SPACE THIEF OR HERO? One Man's Quest To Reawaken An Old Friend.

HEH: SEIU Hit With Second-Biggest Campaign Finance Fine in Michigan History. 'Inadvertent', my ass. The fine should have been much larger.

IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID! The real lesson of Florida race.

STATISTICS? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' STATISTICS. It's true if Michelle Obama says it's true.

'FRUVE', WASTE, AND ABUSE: Feds spend millions dressing creepy students up as fruits, vegetables. On (I guess) the bright side, college is their natural habitat.

REPUBLICRATS LOSE: Tea Partier wins write-in race for Pennsylvania state Senate seat. Good news.

A PILOT EXPLAINS what probably happened to the Malaysian airliner. The comments are excellent.

SO MUCH for 'the most transparent administration in history.'

MARCH MADNESS: Putin annexes Crimea; Obama picks his Final Four.

Jeez. How can gross incompetence not be an impeachable offense? Biden may be dumb as a sack of hammers, but a sack of hammers certainly cannot do more damage than Obama has already done.

NEWT GINGRICH: Sorry, you can't buy this car in New Jersey (or many other states, for that matter).

THOSE DAMNED UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES AGAIN: Pilots complain of brightness from huge solar farm. Will (can?) environmentalism ever learn?

JEFF JACOBY: President, or punch line? Our 'president' doesn't know the meaning of the term dignity.

FLAT STANLEY TO FLAT LANDERS: Sensor-laden 'napkins' to explore other worlds.

DISMANTLING FUKUSHIMA: The World's Toughest Demolition Project.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? Putin's Crimean adventures could hasten Eastern European energy independence.

YIKES! Naked truths about wearable electronics.

I'M THE PRESIDENT: Laws are for the little people. And I will change them as I need.

INSTAPUNDIT: Former Politico reporter discovers that working retail is hard. Ruling class 'wannabe' gets his well-deserved comeuppance.

Read the comments at Instapundit as well.

OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY: Speak Loudly and Carry a Small Stick.

More realistically, the article's title should just read 'Speak Loudly'. That would encompass all of Obama's policies, foreign and domestic.

MORNING EXAMINER: Federal dietary guidelines are really about climate change.

Washington D.C. is a bozo magnet.

KELO VS. THE CITY OF NEW LONDON, NINE YEARS LATER: "The desolation that is Fort Trumbull is a grim reminder that where property rights aren't secure, neither is freedom — and without freedom, there is nothing the government can't destroy."

HOW PRETTY IS THAT? A 'glory' on Venus.

FLOWERS BY DRONE?

HEH: down the slippery slope.

SCIENTISTS FIND cosmic ripples from birth of universe.

Astronomers have discovered what they believe is the first direct evidence of the astonishing expansion of the universe in the instant following the Big Bang -- the scientific explanation for the birth of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago.

But who (or what) 'kicked the ball' to get it rolling?

PROPERTY OWNERS DO HAVE RIGHTS: Supreme Court victory vindicates property owners beset by Big Green's 'rails-to-trails' movement.

VERTICAL TAKEOFF/VERTICAL LANDING ROCKETS ARE REAL. Here's Morpheus, a NASA prototype, and Grasshopper, the SpaceX prototype.

JUST THINKIN': During the Bush administration almost every nightly news broadcast kept a running total of the number of U.S. and NATO casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With the advent of the Obama administration, that running total has mysteriously disappeared. How many Americans know that six U.S. soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on March 4 of this year? Or that

Before Tuesday's crash, there had been 149 NATO fatalities in Afghanistan this year, 119 of them US soldiers, according to the independent icasualties website.

The annual total peaked in 2010, when 711 NATO troops died.

Little people only count when there's a Republican administration.

LIFE IN A BANANA REPUBLIC: Obama Refuses to Deport Fugitive Brothers Who Funneled $90,000 to His Campaign.

JIM GERAGHTY: Why Liberals Can't Govern.

THOMAS SOWELL: If liberals cared about minority children, they would embrace charter schools.

But they don't: "Charter schools take power from politicians and bureaucrats.... That is obviously offensive to those on the left, who think that our betters should be making our decisions for us."

THE OFFICIAL first day of Spring is March 20th this year, but given what happened today I'm starting my official annual 'signs of spring' watch a couple of days early. Here's what it looked like outside early this afternoon:

I'll be posting pictures every week about this time until there is a full, green, leaf canopy over our house. Hopefully next week we'll at least be able to see the yard.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LIBERALISM: the final proof that modern liberalism is all about hating people, not helping people.

THE BEST 'DEAR ABBY' EVER:

Dear Abby,

My husband has a long record of money problems. He runs up huge credit card bills and at the end of the month, if I try to pay them off, he shouts at me, saying I am stealing his money. He says pay the minimum and let our kids worry about the rest, but already we can hardly keep up with the interest.

Also he has been so arrogant and abusive toward our neighbors that most of them no longer speak to us. The few that do are an odd bunch to whom he has been giving a lot of expensive gifts, running up our bills even more.

Also, he has gotten religious. One week he hangs out with Catholics and the next with people who say the Pope is the Anti-Christ, and the next he's on his knees 7 times a day with Muslims.

Finally, the last straw. He's demanding that before anyone can be in the same room with him, they must sign a loyalty oath. It's just so horribly creepy! Can you help?

Signed,
Lost
------------------
Dear Lost,

Suck it up and stop whining, Michelle. You're getting to live in the White House for free, travel the world, and have others pay for everything for you. You can divorce the jerk any time you want. The rest of us are stuck with the idiot for 3 more years.

Signed,
Abby

From my email.

DRONE tases intern. I'll bet they're looking for another intern....

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Lois Lerner stays silent to protect someone outside the IRS. I suspect she was either paid off or threatened, and predict it won't end well for her in either case.

NEWT GINGRICH: Regulating your health. Actually I'm less worried about the FDA regulating these apps that I am about them mandating them.

ANOTHER FINE EXAMPLE of liberal projection. Notice that there's not a single factual statement about 'climate change' in the article; it's all about opinion (we're right) and motive (you're evil).

ROBERT ZUBRIN: Putin Adviser Publishes Plan for Domination of Europe. For what it's worth, Stage 1 seems to be right on shedule....

IT HAS TO BE YEARS OF PRACTICE ... Why are liberals so gullible, hypocritical, and dumb?

PUT DOWN THOSE CHEETOS unless they've beein picked from an organically grown environmentally sustainable cheeto bush planted along your bicycle path.

REPUBLICAN TAX PROPOSAL: Flawed, but a step toward a substantial debate. It's a first step, but I still prefer a flat -- or fair (consumption) -- tax.

ERIC HOLDER: State Attorneys General not obligated to defend laws they disagree with (as long as it’s ones banning gay marriage).

A long time ago, in a galaxy (obviously) far away, the Attorney General was obliged to defend a state's laws in court whether or not he personally agreed with it. An honorable (a word which has no meaning now) Attorney General would resign rather than refuse to defend a law he disagreed with.

SUBARU FOR THE WIN: Dealership punches back at union protest with winning sign.

CAN THE FDA AND (THANKFULLY, EX) MAYOR BLOOMBERG BE FAR BEHIND? Saudi cleric issues fatwa banning all-you-can-eat buffets.

ALAN GRAYSON: Just because I abuse my wife doesn't mean the Republicans aren't guilty of a 'war on women'. More here.

OBAMA LAUNCHES “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative. Yes, to keep them on the Democrat's plantation.

WHITE HOUSE EMAIL suggests that most Americans still make the minimum wage. Which is easily proven to be utter baloney, but this is what sticks in my craw:

Raising the federal minimum wage will give millions of Americans a raise, and it’s long overdue — because no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.

Well, let's see. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour or $15,080 /year. According to the federal government's own poverty guidelines, a single minimum wage earner would not be impoverished; and a two-(minimum)-wage earner family with less than 4 children would not be impoverished. Now go to this post to see that when welfare benefits are added to wages, that two-(minimum)-wage earner family has total income and benefits closing in on $50,000.

Poverty stinks; we all know that. But it's time for an honest discussion, not a war by anecdote.

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE: Hey, let's muzzle political speech.

Not as long as 501(c)(5) organizations (labor unions) continue to get a free pass under the tax code. Treat them exactly the same as 501(c)(4) organizations; then perhaps we can talk.

UPDATE: Here's why.

AMERICA'S DUMBEST CONGRESSWOMAN? She's a pox on two states, as the University of Virginia granted her law degree.

OH, COME NOW: Colorado schools deny spike in applications sparked by marijuana law.

BREAKING:

Creatures that are spineless, brainless, and willing to attack anything that even touches them are proof that evolution does not necessarily improve the species.

WHY SHOULD REPUBLICANS SEEK TO REPEAL OBAMACARE? For all practical purposes, President Obama is doing it himself.

OBAMA TO YOUNG PEOPLE: If you can’t afford my healthplan, just cancel your cell and your cable.

Sign up now and NSA will provide you with a free ObamaPhone (that can never be turned off) and a subscription to ObamaTV will be provided at no added cost....

UPDATE: The White House responds, and gets shot down again.

SINK SANK: Republican David Jolly narrowly defeats Democrat Alex Sink in Florida special election. ObamaFail?

CLIMATE CHANGE: Is there nothing it can't do?

Genghis Khan owes his place in history to a sudden shift in the Asiatic climate from the cold, arid period that immediately preceded his ascent as leader of the Mongol empire, to the warmer, wetter weather that allowed his horsemen to expand out from Central Asia.

Well, I think we can safely attribute the election of Barack Obama to 'global warming'.

DRUG MAKER REFUSES charity offer to pay for 7-year-old's lifesaving treatment. I just wonder what Chimerix's lobbying budget is annually. And their advertising budget....

THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Obama's Fantasy-Based Foreign Policy.

“THE WHOLE LAW – from its name to its effects – is one bad joke.” No, it's much worse than a bad joke.

'HELICOPTER' MONEY POLICY: Free money for everyone.

[W]hat conservatives really objected to about the Obama stimulus and all subsequent Democratic proposals for fiscal pump priming was not so much the fiscal consequences, despite what they said.... What really infuriates them about Democratic stimulus measures is that it is spending by government, meant to achieve government priorities, and delivered through government channels in ways that enhance the reach and influence of the government.

The helicopter money policy, by contrast, keeps government almost completely out of the picture. It distributes resources directly to citizens, with no limits on how they can spend it, thereby strengthening individual choice and the private sector, not government bureaucracies.

Hell, it'd work at least as well as anything the Obama administration has tried. And there's precedent for it -- read Heinlein's Beyond This Horizon (1942).

BUT THE CAR IS FREE if you sign a 10-year no-cancellation contract: ObamaCar replacement batteries cost $34,000 according to General Motors.

PANDAGON: Diminishing a man’s pride by holding a door open for him. What is it about academics in the social sciences? Particularly feminist academics? Do they take daily stupidity pills, or is native stupidity an entrance requirement?

In my world (the real one), men hold open doors for other men all the time. And we hold them open for ladies, too ... just not for feminists.