THE LAST REFUGE from scoundrels:

Texas ... grew by almost half a million and accounted for 18 percent of the nation's total population growth. [It] had above-average immigrant growth, but domestic in-migration was nearly twice as high.

There may be lessons for public policy here. Texas over the decades has had low taxes (and no state income tax), low public spending and regulations that encourage job growth. It didn't have much of a housing bubble or a housing price bust.

Under Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry, it has placed tight limits on tort lawsuits, and has seen an influx of both corporate headquarters and medical doctors.

As a soon-to-be Texan again, I’m not sure I’m pleased with this development.

GOVERNMENT WORKERS OPTIMISTIC; private sector workers not. Of course. With the Democrats in power, the opportunities for government 'controllers' are endless.

ON NEWSPAPERS and spectator sports: “The news story ... was written like it was a sporting event. There were a few facts and then there were reactions from Democrats and Republicans as if their contests were what mattered.”

Yep. What I want from newspapers are the facts. I can supply the opinions myself.

Link via Instapundit.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on his expectations for 2010. I’m not that optimistic.

DAVE BARRY’S 2009: ”Washington, rejecting ‘business as usual’, finally stopped trying to solve every problem by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at it and instead started trying to solve every problem by throwing trillions of taxpayer dollars at it.”

Read it all.

Link via Instapundit.

HMM .... From the Fox News website this afternoon.

Best Virtual Breadcrumbs for the Lost Traveler: Bushnell BackTrack Handheld GPS.

Couple Stuck in Oregon Snow for 3 Days After GPS Leads Them Astray.

I KNEW CONGRESS was full of clowns ...



... so this must be a sign of an advanced civilization.

SO TELL US how you really feel.

What I’d really like to know is David Michael Green’s solutions to the problems he’s listed.

Link via Instapundit.

OBAMISM DEFINED: "Votes are bought with hundred-million-dollar earmarks; the attorney general predicates judicial action on the political ramifications of indicting or not indicting; federal bureaucracies are devoted to the new Caesar rather than the letter of the law.”

SO DRUNKENNESS IS A REQUIREMENT FOR CIVILIZATION? “A secure supply of alcohol appears to have been part of the human community’s basic requirements much earlier than was long believed.”

MARK STEYN on ObamaCare: “[W]hat matters is to get something, anything across the river, and then burn the bridge behind you.”

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

"I’LL BET ... American students have better self-esteem. They come from an educational process that values self-esteem; the other students from one that values performance. Both have produced as designed."

Yes.

AIRLINE PASSENGERS - 1, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) - 0. And our government’s response, once again, is to further punish the innocent.

Maybe, just maybe, the government should consider empowering its greatest asset rather than restricting it.

It could be called an army of Davids.

“WHAT A GOOD THING Democrats are the party of logic and reason. [Otherwise] they might tell their critics to ‘Shut the f--k up.’"

A LESSON FOR LIBERALS: “The free market is a harsh mistress, but a fair one. Big Government, on the other hand, is always for sale to the powerful.”

But liberals won’t – can’t – learn. Liberalism is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting that this time, the outcome will be different.

OBAMA: NOT ONE DIME in new taxes. No, more like a thousand dimes.

A PREDICTION. The 2010 mid-term elections will be the worst on record for voter registration fraud, vote manipulation, and voter intimidation.

TOO MUCH competition from Congress.

DON SURBER has the worst pun of the day. The comments are good, too.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE a rain day makes. Yesterday before the rain started, there was still over a foot of snow on the ground. Today, the front along the drainage swale is just water.



The roof is nearly clear, as is the driveway.



But from the street, it's still a picture-perfect winter day in the fog.