WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST Anne Applebaum on the rise of an anti-elite-education "populism."

She's right about the resentment, but wrong about the source. It's not the meritocracy; it's the smug arrogance of the self-appointed "that 'we' are the best and brightest while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained."

THE REPUBLIC OF PAPERWORK: "[T]he short history of the post-war western democracies is that you don’t need a president-for-life if you’ve got a bureaucracy-for-life."

Read it all.

THE GOVERNMENT'S SOLUTION TO EVERY PROBLEM: more mental health "professionals."

SMUG IS UNBOUNDED: "It's no surprise that atheists know more about religion than most Americans. The simple truth is this: the more someone knows about religion, the more likely they will reject it as mythology."

That assertion is bound to surprise most theologians.

WHY I MISS GEORGE W. BUSH: he's a man, not a messiah.

IN PRAISE OF MODERATION. Washington Times columnist Jeff Birnbaum counsels compromise.

Nuts. “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” – Henry Louis Mencken

These are those times.

ONLY 77 EMPLOYEES ... have submitted their benefit elections for 2011 so far--three weeks into Open Enrollment. That means about 500 of you still need to finalize your benefits for 2011 by November 30 in order to have benefits next year!

From an internal office email. Looks like ObamaCare isn't going over too well....

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: the junk man's revolt.

When you've lost the junk man ....

YOUR PAPERS -- or your testicles.

RESIDENT JOKESTER DANA MILBANK claims the Republicans are no longer interested in national security; Power Line responds.

Milbank is a joke, not a jokester.

BARNEY FRANK: "[I]t was Republican policies under George W. Bush that caused this terrible recession, and now they are resisting our efforts to get out of it."

And to think Massachusetts reelected this idiot.

ARE WE CITIZENS? Or subjects?

WHICH DO YOU PREFER? Sarah Palin's Alaska or Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco?

[Warning: Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco is not safe for work - or small children.]

THE WORLD WE READ OF increasingly does not resemble the world we see about us. When watching or reading the news, I ask myself if what I watch or read has any correspondence with what I see every day as I go about my life. More and more frequently it does not.

A SUGGESTION FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA: " Let go of a now-smiling and relatively rehabilitated Bush -- before such a fixation consumes you and your presidency.

Too late, I'm afraid.

GEORGE WILL on life in the T.S. of A.

What the TSA is doing is mostly security theater, a pageant to reassure passengers that flying is safe. Reassurance is necessary if commerce is going to flourish and if we are going to get to grandma's house on Thursday to give thanks for the Pilgrims and for freedom. If grandma is coming to our house, she may be wanded while barefoot at the airport because democracy - or the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; anyway, something - requires the amiable nonsense of pretending that no one has the foggiest idea what an actual potential terrorist might look like.

Read it all.

MALL RALLIES IN A MEET-UP AGE: Getting the numbers right.

I didn't see this level of concern after Glenn Becks's 'Restoring Honor' rally, which was roughly twice as large. Nor did I see it at any of the prior Tea Party rallies, most of which were about equal size.

I wonder why?

HOW TO GET UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: force doctors, hospitals, and insurers to merge, then take over the remaining one when it goes bankrupt.

Linked from Instapundit.

THE FORCE IS STRONG at the Washington Post. More Palin hatred in the book reviews.

My favorite: Palin's book (American Idol) is well-written, so she must have had a ghost writer; Obama's book (Of Thee I Sing) "has no melody;" so it must really be "a letter from a very busy dad-president."

No bias here. Nope. None. Move along now.

FROM THE EMAIL: another TSA stupidity.

A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience. He, unlike most of us, was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.

As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.

Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through.

After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.So we’re in line, going through one at a time.

One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.

TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.

Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?

TSA Guy: [awkward silence]

Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.

Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.

True? I dunno - but based on recent TSA news about scanners and 'intimate' patdowns, I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Update: We're not going to change.