THOMAS SOWELL: The danger of choosing a symbol to be president.

People who are disappointed with Mr. Obama have no right to be. It is they whom others have a right to be disappointed with. Instead of taking their role as citizens seriously, they chose to vote on the basis of racial symbolism, glib rhetoric and wishful thinking.

Moreover, many are already talking about choosing the next president of the United States on the basis of demographic symbolism — to have “the first female president.” If she is elected on that basis, will any criticism of what she does in the White House be denounced as based on anti-woman bias, as criticisms of Mr. Obama have been repeatedly denounced as racism?

What if we have the first Hispanic president and then the first Jewish president? Will any criticism of their actions in the White House be silenced by accusations of prejudice?

We may yet become the first nation to die from a terminal case of frivolity. Other great nations in history have been threatened by barbarians at the gates. We may be the first to be threatened by self-indulgent silliness inside the gates.

What really worries me is this:

Many wise and decent people assume automatically that Mr. Obama was trying to serve the interests of America. From that standpoint, he has failed abysmally, both at home and abroad. That should legitimately call his competence into question.

What if his vision of the world is one in which the wealth and power of those at the top, whether at home or internationally, are deeply resented, and have been throughout his life, under the tutelage of a whole series of resenters? And what if his goal is to redress that imbalance?

I believe Mr. Obama is merely incompetent, but what I fear is that mere incompetence may be sufficient to succeed at his larger goal.

MORE ON THE U.S.S. OBAMA: A Sudden Realization.

The cornerstone of liberal of the liberal self image is the belief that they can sup with the devil and hold their own. They say ”I’m not stupid. I know when to stop.”

[snip]

They’re a bunch of authentic geniuses on a runaway train wondering what went wrong. The blindspot that fooled them was basic. They took the terms of the train journey at face value. That made them highly vulnerable to the one man who boards the train for whom ... agreement means nothing at all....

[snip]

And so the train thunders down the track. Conservatives by themselves can’t put the brakes on a runaway. To accomplish this they need a coalition with elements of the left; to make common cause among intelligent liberals.

But it won’t happen yet — won’t happen for a long time — despite the evidence of their senses, because they have an almost religious attachment to the Cause. The Left is a religion. It looks away from the obvious sins of its leaders the way earlier generations of churchgoers sometimes averted their gaze from the misdeeds of their own.

It is so central to them that life without it would be meaningless. Leaving the Left is like being a man without a country.... The reason people on the Left can’t rebel isn’t because they cannot bring themselves to doubt Obama. It’s because they can’t bring themselves to stop going to cocktail parties.

The place to get off a runaway train is before it leaves the station ... or better yet, never get on.

BUT OF COURSE IT WAS STRICTLY LEGAL AND ABOVEBOARD: IRS gave FBI 1.1 million pages of taxpayer data to encourage prosecution of conservatives.

COLLECTIVIST DATA-MONGERS: keep your hands off my womb. But, but ... you don't understand. It takes a village government to raise a child.

WHY ISN'T OBAMA BEING IMPEACHED? Americans being evacuated from Iraqi air base.

Arrogance, narcissism, and stupidity aren't impeachable offenses -- but the consequences of arrogance, narcissism, and stupidity should be.

NOEMIE EMERY: Obama's being pretty stupid for a smart guy.

[...] "stupid" has been the byword of his administration thus far. It was stupid to push health care through Congress on a party-line vote and a loophole in the teeth of fierce public resistance, stupid to announce a surge in Afghanistan and then say he'd be leaving, stupid to leave Iraq without an American presence, stupid to draw a red line and let Syrian President Bashar Assad cross it, stupid to blunder into and then out of Libya, and stupid to pull missiles out of Eastern Europe just as Russia, in spite of his "reset," was beginning to stir.

It was stupid to push mandates and job-killing measures in the face of serious underemployment. The one thing he’s done that showed any brains was to time the most odious parts of his health care fiasco to detonate after he won re-election. In fact, it’s hard to think of anything he’s done that hasn’t been stupid....

Where did this 'smart guy' meme get started, anyway? All the objective evidence accumulated over at least the last 5-1/2 years suggests that Obama is dumber than dirt and more arrogant than Ivory Snow is pure.

GOVERNMENT UNION wants 'Duck Dynasty' fans fired.

Another reason to shut down government unions.

AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY: Will robot cars find their way with laser eyes? Citing the complexity of robotic guidance, there's this:

Today's robotic cars depend on a lot of overlapping sensors—lasers, radar, ultrasound, standard cameras, stereocameras, GPS, inertial guidance, even WiFi.

Which leads me to this more interesting question: with all the radiation endemic to modern life, how much longer will it be until cities become health hazards?

CHRIS MATTHEWS SCOLDS: Liberals need to stop looking down on tea partiers.

Read the comments. The general consensus seems to be that either (a) his meds are finally working, or (b) he's preparing himself to search for a real job.

TO DEMOCRATS, Republicans are ‘terrorists,’ but the Taliban is legitimate. Is there anyone left in the Democrat party who isn't a bat-shit crazy moron?

HEH: Works for me.

Linked from Patterico.

GUN CONTROL: "Intentions ... are the only things that matter in liberal ideology." Effectiveness is irrelevant.

RELATED: When intentions aren't enough, lie. Linked from Instapundit.

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Bye-Bye To The Home Of A Favorite Internet Conspiracy Theory. Without HAARP, what will the conspiracy theorists do with their tinfoil hats?