BYRON YORK on reasons for the GOP to not fear a government shut down. My take is that the government is so damn dysfunctional now that no one would even notice.

NEW YORK'S UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS spends millions on dinners, parties, parking, coffee as thousands of teachers face layoffs.

Layoffs are for little people.

MICHAEL BARONE: Voting for the national interest, not self-interest.

I think the whole thesis is wrong. It's not about national interest, or self interest. It's about control. Americans are fed up with the government's increasing involvement in every facet of our lives.

[More] Related post here.

GEORGE SOROS "is launching a new investment fund that plans to profit off of the 'green energy' boom, which is entirely dependent on government subsidies supported by the groups [that] Soros funds."

It's always easier to make your fortune using someone else's money.

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME: Liberals plan astroturf version of Tea Party town-halls. If they try, I suspect it'll backfire.

Click through to the original article here.

FROM MY EMAIL: We all have to make sacrifices.

President Obama ordered the cabinet to cut $100 million from the $3.5 trillion federal budget.

I'm so impressed by this sacrifice that I have decided to do the same thing with my personal budget. I spend about $2000 a month on groceries, household expenses, medicine, utilities, etc, but it's time to get out the budget cutting axe, go through my expenses, and cut back.

I'm going to cut my spending at exactly the same ratio, 1/35,000 of my total budget. After doing the math, it looks like instead of spending $2000 a month; I'm going to have to cut that number by six cents.

Yes, I'm going to have to get by with $1999.94, but that's what sacrifice is all about. I'll just have to do without some things, that are, frankly, luxuries.

Did the President actually think no one would do the math? (Well, yes. After all, that's one of the benefits of a government education.)

THE U.S. AIR FORCE wants to "hold contractors more responsible for missing development targets" for military space projects by using more fixed-price contracts.

It’s was tried before, when I was working in the industry. It failed then, and it’ll fail again. Cost plus fee contracts are standard in the defense industry for a reason - the development risk is so great that no sane contractor would dare bid on a fixed price basis

And remember, too, that Congress allocates money one year at a time. Would you bid on a 10-year, multi-billion dollar fixed price contract knowing it was funded only one year at a time? Not if you’re sane.

‘BABY JOSEPH.’ Fox News’ Dr. Manny Alvarez comments.

The government should must butt out.

[Update] The hospital has agreed to kill the boy at home.

CHARLIE SHEEN is in an acute psychiatric emergency. So? If he's so intent on killing himself, let him.

COMING SOON TO A DOCTOR NEAR YOU: British doctors told to advise women abortion is safer than giving birth.

National healthcare - bending the cost curve down. Is this the change we’ve been hoping for?

NOVEMBER HAS COME - and gone, so now it’s time for a new bumper sticker.

HOW TO MAKE the Oscars less boring. That’s easy. Turn off the TV set.

THE BOILING OVER OF THE LIBERAL MIND is on full display these days, and it is not a pretty sight.

ENTITLEMENT NATION: ”It [entitlement] is... so ingrained in how we live and think -- somebody else is to blame and must pay -- that we no longer think twice before demanding total satisfaction and expressing outrage when we don't get it.”

Read the full article.

SO MUCH FOR CIVILITY. Call ‘em what they are -- thugs.

DEPRIVATION NATION: Deindustrialization is not a bug, it’s a feature.

FLEEBAGGERS: cut-and-run Democrats. There’s no decision too hard to run from.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party.

The complete article is here.

HOW ABOUT THAT: a porky porker. There’s no obesity problem in government.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Wisconsin and the rise of the adolescent mind.

Adolescents hold adult notions of consumption: they understand the comfort of a pricey car; they appreciate the status conveyed by a particular sort of handbag or sunglasses; they sense how outward consumption and refined tastes can translate into popularity and envy; and they appreciate how a slogan or world view can win acceptance among peers without worry over its validity. But they have no adult sense of acquisition, themselves not paying taxes, balancing the family budget, or worrying about household insurance, maintenance, or debt. Theirs is a world view of today or tomorrow, not of next year — or even of next week.

So adolescents throw fits when denied a hip sweater or a trip to Disneyland, concluding that it is somehow “unfair” or “mean,” without concern about the funds available to grant their agendas.

Read it all.