OBAMA USES the language of capitalism and the tools of government.

Obama has brilliantly framed the same vision the opposite way: We can't let China or Europe beat us on green energy or biotechnology! This touches our patriotic hearts and plays to our competitive spirit.

But it also undermines our free market and, in the long run, stultifies our economy. Rather than investors and entrepreneurs trying to anticipate and meet consumer demand, we now have GE or made-for-subsidy startups trying to lobby for and receive subsidies.

Lobby for and receive subsidies. That’s ‘new capitalism’ for you.

WANT TO SAVE $500 BILLION THIS YEAR? Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has a way to do it.

It’s a beginning.

RUSSIAN SPACE PROGRAMS are underfunded. But not China: "As for China, it has sufficient resources to undertake space programs on its own."

WILL THE TWO-WAIVER-A-DAY RULE make Obamacare obsolete? Hopefully, yes.

CHRIS MATTHEWS losing battle against obsession. To be more accurate, change "obsession" to "insanity."

WHO KNEW? Thinking requires effort.

FROM THE EMAIL: Congress has announced they intend to make it more difficult to claim unemployment benefits. Starting next Monday, the forms will be printed in English.

MATH DISPUTES are serious.

I'm reminded of the old joke that college faculty disputes are so vicious only because the stakes are so low.

OUCH.

OBAMA WAS RIGHT: “The fact that we are here ... to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.”

I’m not convinced we can avoid raising the debt ceiling, but if we must, Republicans must demand spending cuts to reduce the deficit to as close to the $400 billion difference between current spending and the current debt ceiling as possible before voting to raise the current $14.3 trillion limit.

RETURN OF the ’Beast of Kandahar.’ The drone is apparently a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel.

WITH THE SNOW IN DC, I predicted power outages. Unfortunately, it happened to us; we're in a hotel awaiting return of electricity ... and water, and heat ... which hopefully should be sometime Friday. Here's a photo from last night.


The branches you see barely above the deck are normally 12 feet or more above the deck. Lots of power lines came down from fallen branches. At the peak, there were something like 140,000 homes without power.

JOHN STOSSEL’S ‘STATE OF THE UNION’ ADDRESS: brief, to the point - and right.

SARAH PALIN: "The President’s State of the Union address boiled down to this message: 'The era of big government is here as long as I am, so help me pay for it.' He dubbed it a 'Winning The Future' speech, but the title’s acronym seemed more accurate than much of the content."

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH is suing the House cafeteria service providers for $150,000 for allegedly selling him a sandwich wrap with a stray olive pit in it that caused him to chip his tooth.

And these are the clowns we elect to Congress. What’s the matter; can’t he steal enough just by virtue of his office?

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: ObamaMath needs remedial work.

iPHONE AND oBAMA: two expensive new models. The iPhone’s cheaper.

IT’S OUR MONEY: The Most Offensive Line in the State of the Union.

Linked from here.

THE WASHINGTON POST’S RICHARD COHEN confirms his political myopia. It can’t be important if he doesn’t know about it ....

THE WAYBACK MACHINE: on Thanksgiving and capitalism. I had meant to post this last year after visiting the Pilgrim Plantation and the Mayflower II at Plymouth Rock over Thanksgiving vacation.

Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. But the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn't happen.

Long before the failure of modern socialism, the earliest European settlers gave us a dramatic demonstration of the fatal flaws of collectivism. Unfortunately, few Americans today know it.

The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share the work and produce equally.

That's why they nearly all starved.

Here are some photos from our visit:


The village arrangement tends to corroborate Reason's assertion that Plymouth Colony was communal. The houses are small, identically built, and closely spaced. The work areas - except for small gardens at each house - are separated from the homes, and the communal areas are larger and more solidly built.


The homes are little more than cooking/sleeping quarters.


The Mayflower II is a replica of the original ship, built in 1955 using original tools and plans.

The original rock fragmented in a years-ago move; this part of the original was set in concrete back in the original location. The date (1620) is barely visible.