WHAT'S NEXT? CoffeeCare? This strikes too close to home....

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures: Selfie Edition. My favorite:

I had a very hard time picking a favorite, as there are so many good ones this week. Close runners-up include Leadership, Thomas Sowell, Santa, Hummer, and Math Lab.

NOT A GOOD IDEA: Chinese naval vessel tries to force U.S. warship to stop in international waters. Pissing off the U.S. Navy is never a good idea.

Unless, of course, the ship is the USS Obama....

BUDGET DEAL: If the progressives' belwether The Nation hates it so much (A cruel, irresponsible and dysfunctional budget deal), then it must have some redeeming value.

Rand PauL doesn't think so. Neither does Sarah Palin.

I agree with Paul and Palin that the budget deal leaves much to be desired, but within the art of the possible, it's a baby step in the right direction. Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and the rest of the Tea Party must keep the pressure on the Republican establishment stalwarts to keep moving the goalposts in the Right (pun intended) direction.

COCKROACHES TO THE RESCUE: Swarms of cyborg insects could one day map disaster sites.

"I'm a cockroach and I'm here to rescue you" is certainly a more appealing message than "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

HEALTHCARE.GOV: taking stupid to a new low. (Or is increasing stupidity taking it to a new high?)

ONLY 50 000 YEARS TO ALDEBARAN! Plotting the Destinations of 4 Interstellar Probes.

VIRGINIA CONGRESSMAN and California journalist embarrassed in defending Obamacare. Gerry Connolly, I'm grateful to say, is not my congressman.

YES. NEXT QUESTION: "Has our society reached a point where it is too stupid to survive?"

COMMON CORE: the worst math question in history. Is unanswerable.

If this is even somewhat representative of the Common Core curriculum, American education is in deep sh slime.

WHEN I SAID 'STOP' I MEANT STOP: Radio Pulse Gun Aims to Stop Modern Cars.

NEWT GINGRICH: Washington Wins, America Loses. As it has been in the past, so will it be in the future ... unless we vote to throw the bums out in the 2014 mid-term election.

WHILE SURFING CHANNELS last night, I tuned in to the Sean Hannity show (on Fox News) for a few minutes. He had one of his audience participation nights, with an audience of committed leftist activists and pundits. Asked why ObamaCare was such a great success, the most common response was allowing young people to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26.

I always wonder why no one ever seems to ask the obvious question: "How do parents feel about having to fund their child's healthcare expenses for an additional 3, 4, 5, or 6 years?" I would certainly pay for my child in the case of a job loss or something similar (in fact, I almost did), but as a matter of routine? No way.

SCHOOL NANNIES and the death of common sense. It's not just school nannies.

BITCOINS: space currency.

MARS ONE is one step closer to its dream of colonizing Mars: "Mars One announced it had contracted Lockheed Martin to develop a mission concept study for a Mars lander to be launched in 2018."

"NOW AND FOREVER, The Cheese Stands Alone."

NOW A geostationary spy satellite.

SEATTLE MACHINISTS UNION BEWARE: California to submit bid for Boeing's 777X production.

UPDATE: the Machinists Union is getting worried.

IMPRIMIS: The Case for Repealing Dodd-Frank.