JEFF JACOBY: Shut up, they explained. I’m somewhat sympathetic to the concept, but until someone can clearly define what constitutes a ‘negative ad’ I’ll continue to support free speech.

PRESUMPTIOUS IGNORANCE:

This may be the golden age of presumptuous ignorance. The most recent demonstrations of that are the Occupy Wall Street mobs. It is doubtful how many of these semi-literate sloganizers could tell the difference between a stock and a bond.

Yet there they are, mouthing off about Wall Street on television, cheered on by politicians and the media. If this is not a golden age of presumptuous ignorance, perhaps it should be called a brass age.

[snip...]

One of the reasons for so much presumptuous ignorance flourishing in our time may be the emphasis on "self-esteem" in our schools and colleges. Children not yet a decade old have been encouraged, or even required, to write letters to public figures, sounding off on issues ranging from taxes to nuclear missiles.

Our schools begin promoting presumptuous ignorance early on. It is apparently one of the few things they teach well. The end result is people without much knowledge, but with a lot of brass.

Read it all.

PENTAGON TO CUT Air Force Global Hawk drone program; Navy version will continue. A Global Hawk is a Global Hawk is a Global Hawk; this simply punts the acquisition cost down the road a bit.

THE STATE OF THE ELECTION speech by the Redistributor-in-Chief was not well received. In my view Obama’s SOTU speech can easily be summarized in eight words: “obey me or I’ll tax you to death.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA: 'The state of our Union is getting stronger'.

THE IDEA that our universe is embedded in a broader multidimensional space has captured the imagination of scientists and the general population alike. Of course. Who wouldn’t want to ‘jump ship’ to a parallel universe that didn’t contain President Obama?

CLEARLY THEY’RE NOT BEING PAID ENOUGH: Federal employees owe $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes.

THOMAS SOWELL on Newt Gincrich’s candidacy: “Sometimes caution can be carried to the point where it is dangerous. When the Super Bowl is on the line, you don't go with the quarterback who is least likely to throw an interception. You go with the one most likely to throw a touchdown pass.”

MYSTERY SURROUNDS Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane.

“MORE AMERICAN ADULTS lacked health insurance coverage last year than in any year since Gallup and Healthways started tracking it in 2008. The uninsured rate has been increasing since 2008, climbing to 17.1% in 2011.” Isn’t that what happens when people become unemployed?

GOVERNMENT: protecting the consumer from competition.

PREPARE YOURSELF for the State of the Union address tonight.



The GOP SOTU web site is here.

WHY WOULDN’T business owners ‘go Galt’? They are ... just last night my wife and I talked to a (now part-time employee) of a small excavation business that used to be located on property a quarter-mile or so from our house. The owner closed his business, sold all his equipment, leased his home, and moved back to southern Virginia to reopen as a much smaller operation with a few part-time employees. Keeping a bigger operation simply wasn’t worth the effort.

WHY SHOULD WE? Obama officials say we don’t trust government enough.

ON A CLEAR DAY you can use your smartphone.

HEH: “Chuck Norris is a columnist and impossible to kill.” More seriously, he endorses Newt Gingrich for President.

THOMAS SOWELL: “Intellectuals have all too often promoted these envy and resentment ideologies. There are both psychic and material rewards for the intelligentsia in doing so, even when the supposed beneficiaries of these ideologies end up worse off. When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

WHITE DRESS SHIRTS are racist -- if worn by a Republican.

DEMOCRATS’ ENERGY POLICY: “reasonable profits” boards for energy companies. OK, let’s ask two questions: (1) Are “reasonable profits” the same for green energy companies as for conventional energy companies? And (2) if green energy companies fail to make “reasonable profits”, will they be subsidized so they do?

CRONY CAPITALISM: gouging citizens one regulation at a time.