OBAMA MOTORS FAIL: “What we do know is having the steering wheel fall off the car created by Obama and Government Motors is the most perfect analogy for this administration ever.”

Instapundit comments.

CHICAGO SCHOOL TO KIDS: You can’t bring lunch from home. I wish I could say “You gotta be kidding” but unfortunately it’s just another manifestation of the progressive superiority complex.

WHAT A WASTE OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION: the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein writes on economic policy. The Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein slices and dices Ezra’s argument.

WHAT PARTS OF THE GOVERNMENT should be permanently furloughed?

Foreign Policy magazine tends to be a liberal domain, so there’s lots to quibble about in the first 8 items, but they generally come off as reasonably thoughtful. But the ninth? The best that can be said is that Michael Lind, of the New America Foundation, has come unglued. Here is his contribution (in italics):

[T]the federal government is too small, not too large, and should be expanded. At the price of inefficiency, things which could be done more simply and efficiently by the federal government have been delegated to the states or subsidized private corporations.

Name one thing - just one - that the federal government has ever done more simply or efficiently.

For example, hybrid federal-state programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance are threatened by unstable state revenues, unlike purely federal programs like Social Security.

Uh, Social Security is stable? Only Harry Reid doesn't recognize it is destined for eventual bankruptcy.

Tax-favored private retirement savings programs like IRAs and 401k's are riskier than Social Security and allow brokers to fleece unsuspecting clients with their fees. These programs should be shrunk and Social Security should be expanded.

Not so. My social security check is not nearly as big as it could have been had I been allowed to invest privately what I paid in FICA taxes.

Medical cost inflation threatens both the efficient Medicare program and the dysfunctional, employer-based health insurance sector.

Employer-based health “care” is dysfunctional because of government interference, not in spite of it.

The solution is cost controls, not rationing access to health care by Americans.

Wrong again. Cost control is a means of rationing access.

In a rational country, the federal government would take over functions that never should have been shared with the states or off-loaded onto the private sector.

Only if “rational” and “insane” are synonyms.

Higher federal taxes would be offset somewhat by lower state taxes and the abolition of tax subsidies for private insurance and private retirement savings.

It’s sufficient to just say “higher federal taxes.”

OBAMA REGRETS not voting ‘present’ in 2006.

WHY WOULD ANYONE PAY FOR BIAS AND INACCURACY? NY Times traffic down 11-30% since paywall went into effect.

HELL TO FREEZE OVER: Senate to vote to defund Planned Parenthood on Thursday. Urge your Senator to vote in favor of defunding. This isn’t about abortion; it is about getting a $1B behemoth off the government teat and getting government out of healthcare.

GEE, THAT 'GOING GALT' THING has worked out pretty well. In 2010, I “went Galt” - retired and started working part-time. My income has decreased 42%, my taxes decreased 65%, and my standard of living has hardly changed. Tough luck, Mr. Obama - you’re going to have to remake America without my help.

OBAMA LAUNCHES 2012 CAMPAIGN.

FROM AN EMAIL: With their country in the midst of a colossal disaster, the Japanese can teach plenty of lessons to the world.

CALM. Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

DIGNITY. Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture. Their patience is admirable and praiseworthy.

ABILITY. The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn't fall.

GRACE. (Selflessness) People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

ORDER. No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

SACRIFICE. Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

TENDERNESS. Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

TRAINING. The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

MEDIA. They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage. Most of all - NO POLITICIANS TRYING TO GET CHEAP MILEAGE.

CONSCIENCE. When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.

Better us to learn from them than them to learn from us.

INSTAPUNDIT: You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind’s blowing.

Unless you’re a Democrat (and then you won’t listen).

CONTINUING RESOLUTION IMPASSE: Do the Democrats dare risk voting 'no'?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER senior political analyst Michael Barone on the changing tide.

D.C MAYOR VINCENT GRAY arrested and jailed for Capitol Hill protest. The city would be better off if the police had kept him.

HOW SAFE is your Roth IRA? My son’s response to the LA Times article can only be described using the keyboard’s “special characters.”

Author Gerald E. Scorse is typical of the progressive mindset: it's the government's money, just loaned to you provided that you use it "rightly."

APRIL SHOWERS bring May flowers. Well, it’s raining - and we could use it. But I do wish it was a warm rain.

GET READY FOR WEDNESDAY: Obama to outline plan to confront long-term debt crisis -- and this time he really, really, means it.

ANGER, SADNESS among GOP over $39B continuing resolution: "The amount of cuts extracted from the President and his Senate Democrats was a step in the right direction, but the American people expected, deserved, and needed much, much more.”

My sentiments as well.

VIRGIN GALACTIC hiring pilots to fly both the air-launched SpaceShipTwo and its multi-engine WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.

Oh, to be young - and dream - again.

50 YEARS AGO TODAY: Space station crew marks big space anniversary.