CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson confirms his misunderstanding of the Constitution.

The far-right ideologues in the House seek to starve the federal government to the point where it can no longer fulfill its constitutional duty to promote the general welfare.

And with that simple statement, Robinson finally comes close - no cigar, but close - to understanding the Tea Party objections to the tenets of progressivism. Those "far-right ideologues" - myself included - simply don't believe that promoting the general welfare includes controlling the most minute details of every individual's life.

WHY I LIKE MY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Personal protection is “good and sufficient reason” for carrying a gun to church.

WE SCREWED UP; now take your punishment.

If politicians in Washington spend too much and cause more red ink, which happens on a routine basis, Obama wants a provision that automatically would raise taxes on the American people.

Politicians play, taxpayers pay.

ACTUALLY IT'S 'POSEUR' but, well, yeah.

POLITICS, PROPAGANDA - and control. We’d be much better off as a nation without all the damned “public service” announcements.

USE THE DEBT CEILING to 'punish our enemies'. The Washington Examiner's David Freddoso thinks the idea is tongue-in-cheek, but I’m not so sure. The Obama administration has been willing to use gangster tactics in the past.

LOCALLY gasoline is up over $4/gal for premium; regular is $3.82. Could that be why the inflation rate is nearing 10%?

It looks more and more like a Jimmy Carter rerun is a best-case scenario.

DRINKING ALCOHOL primes certain areas of our brain to learn and remember better. It's a study from The University of Texas at Austin. I'm sure they would like to believe that they learn and remember better.

JOHN RANSOM responds to email, hate mail, and comments from readers. My favorite: “Truth is always just a point of view ....”

THROW GRANDMA FROM THE TRAIN - it’s too crowded under the bus.

JOHN GALT IS A LIBRA

(April 13) You like your drama with popcorn. As for the real-life show that’s going on, you didn’t buy a ticket, so you don’t have to watch ....

So am I.

BRYAN PRESTON explains why he and I didn’t - and won’t - vote for Obama.

I don’t want the government doing everything for me, I just mostly want it out of the way. I don’t want a president who’s sensitive, I want a president who will defend our country and not go around apologizing for it. I want a president who understands federalism, not one who attacks states for trying to uphold the rule of law. I want a president who understands economics in the real world, not just in the halls of academia. I want a president who has held down a real job, who has met a payroll, and who has achieved something on his own or met failure trying. I want a president who loves liberty, not one who is constantly finding ways to curb liberty. I want a president who appreciates our allies and stares down our enemies, and doesn’t hug our enemies and alienate our allies. I want a president I can trust, and I don’t trust Barack Obama at all, on any issue. I don’t trust his judgment or his instincts or his intentions.

Well said.

NOW THEY TELL US: hope is not a strategy.

WILLIAM McGURN: Economics, the "dismal science" isn't. Progressivism is.

"A NEW SPACE AGE is dawning now, a private one driven by profit and adventure, rather than national prestige and fickle politics, so the next half century is likely to be more exciting than the past one, with opportunities for all to go into space, and not just a few privileged government employees, whether Russian or American.” I hope so.

TAX, TAX, TAX ... AND TAX SOME MORE: the ‘People’s Budget’. “Perhaps the most extraordinary [part of] the caucus plan [is] to raise the Social Security tax to cover nearly all of a taxpayer's income.” Just to add some perspective to the ‘People’s Budget,’ when I started work in 1972 the FICA tax for Social Security (only) was 4.6% of the first $9,000 of income. Today it is 6.2% of the first $106,800 of income. That’s only a 1600% increase.

REFORMING YOUR WAY TO RICHES:

Remember how the health-care bill was about "standing up to the special interests" and the lobbyists? Tell that to Democrat Bart Stupak, perhaps the single most important rank-and-file House member in passing the bill, who just got a fat new gig on K Street.

Enough said.

THE NEXT OBAMA STIMULUS PROGRAM: Cash for Foreclosures. Of course, you'll have to have the house razed ...

Uh, no, it's not real. The idea came while waiting for today's deficit speech and perusing the comments here.

WHY BRAZIL HATES US: it's the environmentalists.

It's only partly tongue-in-cheek. Linked from Instapundit.

INSTAPUNDIT calls for shared sacrifice. Follow the last link to his earlier post.