Book: The Screwtape Letters

by CS Lewis

I read this classic about 25 years ago, long enough to forget everything about it except that it deserves its reputation.

Here's an excerpt on the gift of free will:

"Merely to override a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve." (from chapter 8)

(A recycled post bumped to publish while I'm out of town.)

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Book: You Know Me Al

by Ring Lardner

Still hilarious. Lardner ever-so-skillfully allows our hero, rookie pitcher Jack Keefe, to unwittingly reveal himself and his acquaintances in his letters home to his pal Al.

This book works on several levels. You can read it for the baseball, or for the humor, or just as a great piece of writing. For the baseball lover it's red meat. Jack Keefe plays against Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, and other greats of Lardner's time. Charles Comiskey, owner of the Chicago White Sox, is a prominent character. I was happily struck by the many respects in which baseball hasn't changed since 1914.

But one needn't love or even understand baseball to enjoy the book. My old Scribner's paperback includes an introduction by son John Lardner, who quotes Virginia Woolf: "With extraordinary ease and aptitude, with the quickest strokes, the surest touch, the sharpest insight, he lets Jack Keefe the baseball player cut out his own outline, fill in his own depths, until the figure of the foolish, boastful, innocent athlete lives before us."

Can Lardner be viewed as the American counterpart of P G Wodehouse? Discuss. :-)

Favorite quote, this one from friend AS:

[Speaking of Walter "The Big Train" Johnson, one of the greatest fastball pitchers of all time] . . . he asked me what I thought of Johnson. I says I don't think so much of him. . . . He says What was the matter with Johnson's work? I says He ain't got nothing but a fast ball. Then he says Yes and Rockefeller ain't got nothing but a hundred million bucks. (p. 57)

My favorite:

Babys is great stuff Al and if I was you I would not wait no longer but would hurry up and adopt 1 somewheres. (p. 156)

SPOILER ALERT *** Yes, Keefe has a fastball, but he's immature and ignorant, a rube, and arguably a sociopath, always blaming someone or something else for his failures, and frequently on the verge of busting someone in the jaw. Redemption comes about two thirds into the book, when little Al arrives, and it's love at first sight for Keefe. ***

(I bumped this previously published item to appear while I'm out of town.)

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Music: Buddy Greco

From the era of martini glasses, baby doll pajamas, and George Maharis, here's Buddy Greco in what can only be called a music video:



I want to know who wrote those lyrics.

If you can take anymore, here's Buddy doing She Loves Me. If anyone can find video of Martin Short doing this as Jackie Rodgers, Jr., please send along the link and I'll add it.

Eternal gratitude to Col. Neville from whom I lifted this video.

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Cute move

From the CMR: Father Cutie to join Episcopal Church. He's training to be an Episcopal priest. Patrick Archbold thinks it's "so 1970's."

You know how, when a husband cheats on his wife (or vice versa), and then marries the person he/she cheated with, and you wonder why the new spouse would trust him/her? It's like that.

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Douglas Kmiec's "very bad idea": ditch civil marriage altogether

He turned himself into a pretzel trying to justify a Catholic vote for the abortion candidate, now abortion president, Barack Obama. Latest great idea: he thinks we ought to ditch marriage as a legal institution.

From the Catholic News Service:

Doug Kmiec, a prominent Catholic who backed Barack Obama’s presidential bid, has endorsed replacing marriage with a neutral “civil license,” a proposal law professor Robert P. George called a “terrible idea” that would make the government neglect a vital social institution.

Speaking to CNSNews.com, Pepperdine University law professor Doug Kmiec said that although his solution to disputes over the definition of marriage might be “awkward,” it would “untie the state from this problem” by creating a new terminology that would apply to everyone, homosexual or not. “Call it a ‘civil license’,” he said.

“The net effect of that, would be to turn over--quite appropriately, it seems to me, the concept of marriage to churches and a church understanding,” he said.

"Awkward"? What's awkward is Kmiec's employment at a reputedly Catholic institution. One has to seriously question his Catholic identity and beliefs. Or his sanity.

Read the rest for his reasoning. More Kmiec-ish ideas: let's pave over our lawns so we won't have to cut the grass, and call everyone Bruce to avoid confusion.

Robert George, noted defender of the unborn, says this:

George told CNSNews.com that marriage is not like baptisms and bar mitzvahs but has “profound” social and public significance.

“It’s a pre-political institution,” he said. “It exists even apart from religion, even apart from polities. It’s the coming together of a husband and wife, creating the institution of family in which children are nurtured.”

“The family is the original and best Department of Health, Education and Welfare,” he continued, saying that governments, economies and legal systems all rely on the family to produce “basically honest, decent law abiding people of goodwill – citizens – who can take their rightful place in society.”

“Family is built on marriage, and government--the state--has a profound interest in the integrity and well-being of marriage, and to write it off as if it were a purely a religiously significant action and not an institution and action that has a profound public significance, would be a terrible mistake,” George told CNSNews.com.

“I don’t know where Professor Kmiec is getting his idea, but it’s a very, very bad one.”

h/t: K-Lo

Cross-posted and updated in the Green Room. There are some comments over there.

RSM links and comments, contra-Kmiec. Ed Morrissey goes with Kmiec. Unfortunately I won't be around to follow the argument today.

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Sotomayor: Her race to the top

There's a deluge of analysis out there on Obama's affirmative-action Supreme Court pick. Below, a few good ones (if you're not already sick to death of the subject).

But first let me note that Liz Torres was born to play the lead in The Sonia Sotomayor Story: The Rich Life Experience of a Wise Latina.


Commentary (but not on the biopic, which will air on Lifetime: Television for Wymmyns):

From Michelle Malkin [acidic Asian-American columnist - in the Obama-time, we must never lose sight of ethnicity and sex]:

The selective elevation of hardship-as-primary qualification demeans the entire judiciary. If personal turmoil makes one “incredibly qualified to pass judgment on some of the most important cases in our country,” let’s put reality-show couple Jon and Kate Gosselin on the bench. Millions of viewers tune in to watch their “compelling personal story” of life with eight children on television. It’s a “richly, uniquely American experience” of facing obstacles and overcoming the odds. Get them robes and gavels, stat.

Read the rest. Sotomayor is being held up as a token and neither she nor her supporters find it the least bit demeaning.

Now for a word from [Asian-American male, I guess] John Yoo (just trying to balance things out!):

The White House chose a judge distinguished from the other members of that list only by her race. Obama may say he wants to put someone on the Court with a rags-to-riches background, but locking in the political support of Hispanics must sit higher in his priorities.

Jonah Goldberg [white male - sorry] on putting empathy in its place:

President Obama prefers Supreme Court justices who will violate their oath of office. And he hopes Sonia Sotomayor is the right Hispanic woman for the job.

[. . .]

When Obama voted against Chief Justice John Roberts’s confirmation, he said that Roberts didn’t have the “heart” to vote the right way in those 5 percent of cases. Rather than Roberts the Cruel, Obama explained, “we need somebody who’s got the heart — the empathy — to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old — and that’s the criteria by which I’ll be selecting my judges.” Cue Sotomayor the Empathic.

The reasoning here is a riot of dubious assumptions. Obama and Sotomayor both assume that a firsthand understanding of the plight of the poor or the African-American or the gay or the old will automatically result in justices voting a certain (liberal) way. “I would hope,” Sotomayor said in 2001, “that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” This is not only deeply offensive, it is also nonsense on stilts. Clarence Thomas understands what it is like to be poor and black better than any justice who has ever sat on the bench. How’s that working out for liberals?

Of course, liberals say that if you don’t agree with their policy prescriptions on, say, racial quotas or abortion, it’s because you don’t care as much as they do about minorities or women. Which is why they’ve demonized Thomas as a villainous race-traitor. This, too, is aggressively stupid. But even if it were true, why are we talking about policy preferences and the courts? Judges aren’t supposed to have policy preferences, despite Ms. Sotomayor’s insistence that the courts are “where policy is made.”

Read the rest.

Slublog [ethnicity unknown -- please report in so we can pigeonhole you] in the Green Room on the selective importance of "life experience." He quotes the NYT's dismissal of Clarence Thomas's [see above] "life experience" as well as his talent:

As the nation waits to learn more about Clarence Thomas, the questions will concern not so much his talent but his character. Even his rise from poverty and racial isolation will be less interesting than how that experience has affected his regard for other Americans and whether he understands how their lives and rights are affected by law and official action.

Read the rest.

Meanwhile, Gingrich [well, we all know about Newt: white male and a Southerner to boot!] thinks her racist tendencies disqualify her, and calls for her to go (figures):

On Wednesday, Gingrich tweeted: "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman.' new racism is no better than old racism."

Moments later, he followed up with the message: "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw."

(How's "Gingrich tweeted" for cognitive dissonance?)

Donald Douglas [male, probably white] discusses whether to Bork [white male] or not to Bork the wise Latina.

Wake Up America [again, no data. sigh] has a Sotomayor linkabration.

Tons more at Memeorandum, here and here.

Anecdote: Pundit once worked at a university that requested he fill in his ethnicity on a form. He refused and had several telephone discussions with the human resources rep, who couldn't for the life of her understand his objections. He told her if she wanted to know his race she'd have to come over to his office and look at him. I don't think she ever did.

Cross-posted in the Green Room, with racial/ethnic clarifications in the comments.

Linked by Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)

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While I'm gone

Life will be interfering with blogging over the next week while I:

a) try to recover from a horrifying case of poison ivy (I'd post a picture but it's not that kind of blog);
b) go shopping for something to wear to a wedding, in spite of the horrifying case of poison ivy;
c) travel, disfigured by a horrifying case of poison ivy, to the wedding. (I'm now on steroids and hoping for a miraculous recovery.)

Since I won't be around much I've scheduled some odd posts just to keep the gears turning.

I'm not gone yet, though.

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Daniel Hannan promoted to "Blogger"

Daniel Hannan: I'd rather be known as a blogger than an MEP.

I've always regarded the letters "MEP" name as a kind of leper's bell. When I meet people at weddings, I never volunteer what I do for a living. But blogging? That's another matter entirely: bold, questing, new wave. Thank you, Newsnight: I feel I've finally made it.

Read the rest. Very short.

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The obvious next step: A national sales tax

The title is telling: "Once considered unthinkable . . . " That perfectly captures the many "achievements" of the Obama administration thus far.

It is all working so beautifully. You borrow and spend at unprecedented, astronomical levels. You expand government exponentially, insist that our health care (and every other) system is broken. Then you wring your hands, declare it all unsustainable, and bleed the country dry with a national sales tax.

Washington Post: Once Considered Unthinkable, US Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look [emphasis added]

With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.

Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.

At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.

"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."

A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is borne by the consumer. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But VAT advocates say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American -- a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.

Liberals dispute that notion. "You could pay for it regressively and have people at the bottom come out better off -- maybe. Or you could pay for it progressively and they'd come out a lot better off," said Bob McIntyre, director of the nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice, which has a health financing plan that targets corporations and the rich.

A White House official said a VAT is "unlikely to be in the mix" as a means to pay for health-care reform. "While we do not want to rule any credible idea in or out as we discuss the way forward with Congress, the VAT tax, in particular, is popular with academics but highly controversial with policymakers," said Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for White House Budget Director Peter Orszag.

Still, Orszag has hired a prominent VAT advocate to advise him on health care: Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and author of the 2008 book "Health Care, Guaranteed." Meanwhile, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, chairman of a task force Obama assigned to study the tax system, has expressed at least tentative support for a VAT.

"Everybody who understands our long-term budget problems understands we're going to need a new source of revenue, and a VAT is an obvious candidate," said Leonard Burman, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, who testified on Capitol Hill this month about his own VAT plan. "It's common to the rest of the world, and we don't have it."

By all means, let's follow the European example. Just try to ignore that swishing, sucking sound.

And in a paper published last month in the Virginia Tax Review, Burman suggests that a 25 percent VAT could do it all: Pay for health-care reform, balance the federal budget and exempt millions of families from the income tax while slashing the top rate to 25 percent. A gallon of milk would jump from $3.69 to $4.61, and a $5,000 bathroom renovation would suddenly cost $6,250, but the nation's debt would stabilize and everybody could see a doctor.

&%$@#&?!

"I think interest is quietly picking up," Graetz said. "People are beginning to recognize that the mathematics of the current system are just unsustainable. You have to do something. And a VAT has got to be on the table if you want to do something big and serious."

And you know the Obama admin is into BIG.

Read the rest.

Linked by Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)

And linked by RS McCain, who is running out of obscenities to shout at his computer.

Also linked by Grandpa John, who invokes the massive Hogzilla.

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What is the Office of Social Innovation?

And who is Sonal Shah, who heads up the fund? I don't speak Obama and am having trouble getting a handle on this. "Office of Social Innovation" has an ominous ring.

From WhiteHouse.gov on May 5:

The Social Innovation Fund was authorized in the recent Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The Fund will focus on priority policy areas, including education, health care, and economic opportunity. It will partner with foundations, philanthropists, and corporations which will commit matching resources, funding, and technical assistance.

The White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation will coordinate efforts to enlist all Americans –individuals, non-profits, social entrepreneurs, corporations and foundations – as partners in solving our great challenges. Located within the Domestic Policy Council, it will:

• Catalyze partnerships between the government and nonprofits, businesses and philanthropists in order to make progress on the President’s policy agenda
• Identify and support the rigorous evaluation and scaling of innovative, promising ideas that are transforming communities like, for example, Harlem Children’s Zone, YouthVillages, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Citizen Schools.
• Support greater civic participation through new media tools

What are "Youth Villages"?

I'm reassured by the dollar figure, though. How much trouble can they cause with a mere 50 million?

Creeping Sharia has background on Sonal Shah.

*Update: Linked by RS McCain, who declares that Big Brother is here.

*And linked by Paco, who thinks Barry might want to dial back the social engineering.

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Senator Burris in trouble

From Marathon Pundit: IL Senator Roland Burris is implicated (on tape) in pay-to-play. He promised to make a campaign contribution to Blago, and declined to mention this fact in a sworn affidavit.

From the SunTimes:

Burris did not mention a promise of a check in a Feb. 4 sworn affidavit that Burris submitted to an Illinois House panel investigating Rod Blagojevich's impeachment. That affidavit sought to supplement Burris' testimony before a House panel, where Burris only mentioned having contact with Lon Monk with regard to the appointment.

But Wright said the amount of the check was to be $1,500. The conversation with Robert Blagojevich happened when Burris was interested in the U.S. Senate. Wright said Burris’ answers to the House panel have been consistent, and he has made repeated efforts to be as complete as possible to the public.

Wright scoffed at the notion that a promise of a check was part of any pay-to-play scheme.

“Fifteen hundred dollars? Come on” Wright said. “Burris had been a fund-raiser in years past. This had nothing to do with pay-to-play.”

Mr. Burris appears to be in deep yogurt.

This has national ramifications and needs to be made right (if such a thing is possible). The people of Illinois have been cheated. A special election is a must.

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Sotomayor good fit for Obama

From various accounts, they have a lot in common: over-rated intellect, bullying temperament, inflated ego, promotion beyond competence level, and an obsession with race.

The best-and-brightest administration rolls on, though this Obama pick will wield power for life:

From The New Republic, May 4:

But despite the praise from some of her former clerks, and warm words from some of her Second Circuit colleagues, there are also many reservations about Sotomayor. Over the past few weeks, I've been talking to a range of people who have worked with her, nearly all of them former law clerks for other judges on the Second Circuit or former federal prosecutors in New York. Most are Democrats and all of them want President Obama to appoint a judicial star of the highest intellectual caliber who has the potential to change the direction of the court. Nearly all of them acknowledged that Sotomayor is a presumptive front-runner, but nearly none of them raved about her. They expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative.

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue." (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, "Will you please stop talking and let them talk?")

[. . .]

Her opinions, although competent, are viewed by former prosecutors as not especially clean or tight, and sometimes miss the forest for the trees. It's customary, for example, for Second Circuit judges to circulate their draft opinions to invite a robust exchange of views. Sotomayor, several former clerks complained, rankled her colleagues by sending long memos that didn't distinguish between substantive and trivial points, with petty editing suggestions--fixing typos and the like--rather than focusing on the core analytical issues.

Some former clerks and prosecutors expressed concerns about her command of technical legal details: In 2001, for example, a conservative colleague, Ralph Winter, included an unusual footnote in a case suggesting that an earlier opinion by Sotomayor might have inadvertently misstated the law in a way that misled litigants.

Read on. To be fair, some people do think she's smart and able.

She's a brilliant choice in that she's got a short paper trail on abortion. Whether she is still a practicing Catholic is not only unclear but mostly irrelevant: being Catholic doesn't stop public officials from supporting abortion. But Kathryn Jean Lopez points out that she might "be at least Catholic enough to add to Team Obama's FOCA cover."

Liberals would like more proof that she's pro-abort:

Pro-choice groups may feel a bit queasy on this because she actually hasn't ruled on the constitutionality of abortion but you would think they have to feel that her liberal leanings will point her in the "right direction".

Pleeze. They'd have to be certifiably insane to imagine her anything but pro-abortion. I don't think the left needs to lose much sleep over that.

That she's committed to judicial activism is indisputable. Her decisions have a high rate of being overturned. And some of her statements about ethnicity and gender are downright shocking:

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

And she suggested that "inherent physiological or cultural differences" may help explain why "our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging."

You don't have to be a white male to be offended by those statements. If I didn't know that liberals can't be racist, I might get a racist vibe from them. The "physiological" statement begs for explanation. Will our senators question her on that?

Wendy Long sums it up:

Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one's sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench.

NB: Verum Serum was the first to publicize Sotomayor's statements, quoted above.
Links here:
Court is Where Policy is Made Video
Speech at Berkeley

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NYT: It's Sotomayor

The NYT via American Power says it's Sotomayor.

From the Corner: Ed Whelan on Sotomayor's selective empathy. He quotes Stuart Taylor from the National Journal. Excerpts from Mr. Taylor:

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life." -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor, in her Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law in 2001

The above assertion and the rest of a remarkable speech to a Hispanic group by Sotomayor -- widely touted as a possible Obama nominee to the Supreme Court -- has drawn very little attention in the mainstream media since it was quoted deep inside The New York Times on May 15.

It deserves more scrutiny, because apart from Sotomayor's Supreme Court prospects, her thinking is representative of the Democratic Party's powerful identity-politics wing.

Sotomayor also referred to the cardinal duty of judges to be impartial as a mere "aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others." And she suggested that "inherent physiological or cultural differences" may help explain why "our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging."

[. . .]

Any prominent white male would be instantly and properly banished from polite society as a racist and a sexist for making an analogous claim of ethnic and gender superiority or inferiority.

Imagine the reaction if someone had unearthed in 2005 a speech in which then-Judge Samuel Alito had asserted, for example: "I would hope that a white male with the richness of his traditional American values would reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman who hasn't lived that life" -- and had proceeded to speak of "inherent physiological or cultural differences."

The double standard has evolved to astonishing proportions.

But don't worry: the RNC is asking the GOP to adopt a demeanor of neutrality on the nominee. From Kathryn Jean Lopez:

SCOTUS Nominee Response: What Not to Do

Over the weekend, I was forwarded a request from the Republican National Committee from someone who was being asked to be a surrogate for the RNC on the Supreme Court pick — that is, talk on TV and radio on behalf of the RNC. The request included the guidance that the RNC is "looking to come out very neutral on the subject."

Neutral? The Left sure isn't "neutral" on the Court or on Republican presidential nominees for the Court. By all means, be reasonable. But the RNC wants to be "neutral"? If the RNC is neutral is there anyone left in America to join the likes of Cheney and Gingrich (as Bill Kristol puts it; scroll down) to oppose Obama-administration moves?

I was thinking more along the lines of fighting the nomination with tooth and nail. Conservatives are being betrayed by the RNC.

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Save money -- ditch cable

This is a story from Canada but it may apply to the US as well.

Viewers are discovering that they can get over-the-air, digital television stations that proponents say come through even better than on cable and satellite, where signals are compressed.

"And the magic word is 'free,"' says Jon LeBlanc, Canada's antenna guru.

Cable providers dismiss the idea that fewer than 100 channels has appeal beyond the lunatic fringe:

"The notion that a linear television offering, whether through rabbit ears or a digital receiver, is somehow going to meet the customer's needs is completely not reflective of the world we live in," Purdy said.

"People want to be able to watch what they want, where they want, when they want."

But sales of antennas are brisk in Toronto:

LeBlanc says the over-the-air audience numbers are outdated, and points to antenna dealers who are seeing a surge in business.

Karim Sunderani, co-owner of Toronto's Save and Replay store, says he's been selling 1,000 antennas a month, and he feels he's at the cusp of something big.

Sunderani's been getting orders from condominiums, motels, nursing homes and boarding houses to put up antennas.

It's cost-effective and the picture quality is to die for:

"It's hard to believe, we're in 2009 and it's something you expect your grandfather to have," says Sunderani, who gets a dozen channels in his store with a $50 set-top antenna.

"It's mainly the picture quality. If you look at the difference between the old VHF, the UHF is stunning, we're actually getting high-definition and obviously no monthly bills once you put the antenna up."

Confession time: The P&P family hasn't had cable or satellite for five years. Now, with the digital converter, jokes about the World Series getting snowed out are a thing of the past; the picture is perfectly clear. And we get some bonus channels, too: cooking, oldies, etc. (Note: we still don't want to watch The A-Team.)

Advantages to broadcast TV:
It saves us buckets of money.
It keeps some noxious stuff out of our home.
It prevents me from wasting my time overindulging in cable news.
The children read more than they would if there was always something to watch on TV.
It makes for a quieter family room.

LeBlanc has a forum for current and prospective over-the-air viewers.

h/t: Walker

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Lovely Donna Reed

“It has been a long time since any of us boys have seen a woman, so we are writing to you in hopes that you’ll help us out of our situation,” Cpl. Frank J. Gizych lamented in a letter posted from the fog-shrouded Aleutian Islands. “Since we know that it’s impossible to see a woman in the flesh, we would appreciate it very much if you could send us a photo of yourself.”

[. . .]

After nearly 65 years in a shoebox inside an old trunk long stored in the garage of her home in Beverly Hills, Calif., the letters have at last been read and made public by the actress’s children. Ms. Reed died in 1986 at age 64.

Read the rest, and see the very cute pic of her. She really was lovely. Here's another photo of her that just happens to include a certain well-known singer.


Donald Douglas transcribes pictured letter.

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Girls make their fathers liberal?

Fascinating: Why having daughters makes fathers more likely to agree with Left-wing views

The study has yet to be published, but seems to be based on studying politicians' voting records and correlating them with the births and sexes of their children. The article cites lots of irrelevant anecdotal evidence.

In an unpublished article to be submitted to an economics journal, the researchers wrote: ‘This paper provides evidence that daughters make people more Left-wing, while having sons, by contrast, makes them more Right-wing.’

Professor Oswald said: ‘As men acquire female children, those men gradually shift their political stance and become more sympathetic to the “female” desire for a larger amount for the public good.

I get it. The premise is that men don't care about "the public good" (unless they're influenced by daughters). And conservative principles aren't based on what is good for society. They're based on a lack of empathy. Ouch.

If the study is valid, I guess it would mean that men's minds somehow turn to mush when they have daughters. More studies are clearly needed.

h/t: Hot Air

*Updated: Here's a better post than mine on this story.

Cross-posted in the Green Room.

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More rampant right wing extremism

Why judges and prosecutors now receive more threats:

The threats and other harassing communications against federal court personnel have more than doubled in the past six years, from 592 to 1,278, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Worried federal officials blame disgruntled defendants whose anger is fueled by the Internet; terrorism and gang cases that bring more violent offenders into federal court; frustration at the economic crisis; and the rise of the "sovereign citizen" movement -- a loose collection of tax protesters, white supremacists and others who don't respect federal authority.

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Obama meets with Rolling Thunder

"The country that forgets its veterans is the country that's going to be forgotten."



Washington Times:

It's the same message every year; sooner or later, I hope it gets out," he said. "I'd rather be home celebrating with my family and grandkids, but not before we bring home all our POWs and MIAs."

Obama, who at first was too busy to meet with RT representatives, surprised them with a personal visit:

"The president stopped by while members of Rolling Thunder were meeting with administration officials about veterans' issues," said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro.

"He was very happy to meet with them," he added.

The group included Rolling Thunder founder Artie Muller, national vice president Lynne Jenks and national president Gary Scheffmeyer.

The situation has been somewhat of a cliffhanger.

In past years, former President George W. Bush welcomed Rolling Thunder members Harley Davidson choppers and all in the driveway of the White House. The event became somewhat of a ritual; last year Mr. Bush was inducted into Rolling Thunder as an honorary member and accepted a cowhide biker vest. Bush administration officials and top military brass made a regular practice of riding with Rolling Thunder, tricked out in biker gear.

Things did not seem quite so friendly with the new administration, however. The culture of the White House appeared to have changed.

Last week, Mr. Muller told The Washington Times that he received word from the White House that Mr. Obama would not follow suit.

"They said he was too busy," Mr. Muller said at the time.

But the situation began to evolve. Mr. Muller a Vietnam-era Army veteran and Harley rider learned a few days later that "someone" from the White House would at least be there to accept a letter from Rolling Thunder that outlined the group's concerns about veterans, soldiers and POWs.

Who was this "someone?" An official? A Cabinet member? Bo, the White House pooch? No one knew.

In the end, it was the president. Mr. Obama came through at the close of a busy week that included a meeting with wounded soldiers, several major policy speeches and commencement ceremonies at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

The meeting was brief but cordial.

"This is an unbelievable, great, wonderful start to our weekend. We are excited, and elated," said Rolling Thunder spokeswoman Nancy Regg.

The 22nd-annual Rolling Thunder event includes three days of activities this Memorial Day weekend, capped off by a "Ride for Freedom" Sunday, from the Pentagon to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Possibly half a million motorcycles will roar down the route.

"We're here for the veterans, for our military, for America. And we want them to know we will never forget them," Ms. Regg added.

As for Mr. Obama, he'll get a rest with the wife and children at Camp David this weekend.

Related: Medal of Honor recipients

Most recent posts here.

Quoteworthy

-----------  2012  --------------

The establishment never fails to choose the more liberal of two leading candidates. The boys from the yacht club have once again decided to lose with a semi-reformed RINO. George Neumayr

If you look at the swing in the electorate in Florida, it’s just amazing these mood swings. Two weeks ago, Romney was up by 20 over Gingrich and now it looks as if he’s down by ten. That’s a 30-point swing. If you get that in a patient, you pull out the lithium. Charles Krauthammer
Over the next few weeks, or months, Gingrich will argue that Romney isn't conservative and isn't as electable as the establishment will have you believe, while Romney will argue that Gingrich isn't electable and isn't as conservative as he'd have you believe. And they'll both be right. Philip Klein

This is a lovely speech. There is no bitterness. No spite. It's all humility, grace, acceptance. Perry goes out with class. Drew Cline

While basic human decency vs govt mandate isn't a zero-sum equation, it is pretty damn close. Increase one, decrease the other. Steve Eggleston
Whenever I write about these subjects, I receive a lot of mail from men along the lines of this correspondent:
"The feminists wanted a gender-neutral society. Now they've got it. So what are you complaining about?"
And so the manly virtues (if you'll forgive a quaint phrase) shrivel away to the so-called "man caves," those sad little redoubts of beer and premium cable sports networks.
We are beyond social norms these days. A woman can be a soldier. A man can be a woman. A 7-year-old cross-dressing boy can join the Girl Scouts in Colorado because he "identifies" as a girl. It all adds to life's rich tapestry, no doubt. But I can't help wondering, when the ship hits the fan, how many of us will still be willing to identify as a man. Mark Steyn 1/20/12

Don’t call me a hero. I just did my duty, the duty of a sea captain – actually the duty of a normal man. I and the others with me just did our duty. We looked each other in the eyes for a second and then we Just got on with it. Capt. Robert Bosio 

He’s not able to warm a room immediately or make an audience feel like he is speaking to them. You’d have to put a new card in him for that to happen. Doug Gross, Romney's 2008 Iowa state chairman

Bain and Romney made millions off of this steel mill below. They did not kick any of it back to support the failed pension fund. No, we the taxpayers were left to take care of that. Dan Riehl

Romney’s campaign is all technique and no music. His speech in Exeter was schmaltz piled on top of saccharin in a perfect storm of substanceless sentimentality. First, he said he believed in America. Then, he said he loved America. And in conclusion, he quoted verses from “America the Beautiful.” Rich Lowry

Romney the Republican establishment businessman is telling us with his limited, crabbed policy kowtowing to Obama's class warfare rhetoric that he feels, like Bush I and Republican RINO moderates generally, that he cannot explain and defend good supply-side policy to the public. Given his background and who he is as a rich Wall Street takeover artist, he personally may be right about that. Who is going to take seriously a Wall Street millionaire calling for tax cuts for millionaires? That is why he personally is not a good vessel for carrying the Republican standard this year. He is actually a perfect caricature for the neo-Marxist class warfare arguments of Obama and the Occupy Wall Street rabble. That is one reason why Romney, in fact, is the least electable. Peter Ferrara
 
While basic human decency vs govt mandate isn't a zero-sum equation, it is pretty damn close. Increase one, decrease the other. Steve Eggleston

Bain and Romney made millions off of this steel mill below. They did not kick any of it back to support the failed pension fund. No, we the taxpayers were left to take care of that. Dan Riehl

Romney’s campaign is all technique and no music. His speech in Exeter was schmaltz piled on top of saccharin in a perfect storm of substanceless sentimentality. First, he said he believed in America. Then, he said he loved America. And in conclusion, he quoted verses from “America the Beautiful.” Rich Lowry

The Dems have already telegraphed a good deal of their playbook — they’ll paint him as a nervous, grinning, stuttering, heartless capitalist who’s also a “weird” social-issues nut — and hope to scare the hell out of the electorate, which by now has grown used to the dull pain of the Obama administration. Michael Walsh

The short life of Gabriel Santorum would seem a curious priority for political discourse at a time when the Brokest Nation in History is hurtling toward its rendezvous with destiny. But needs must, and victory by any means necessary. In 2008, the Left gleefully mocked Sarah Palin's live baby. It was only a matter of time before they moved on to a dead one. [. . .]
Santorum's respect for all life, including even the smallest bleakest meanest two-hour life, speaks well for him, especially in comparison with his fellow Pennsylvanian, the accused mass murderer Kermit Gosnell, an industrial-scale abortionist at a Philadelphia charnel house who plunged scissors into the spinal cords of healthy delivered babies. Few of Gosnell's employees seemed to find anything "weird" about that: Indeed, they helped him out by tossing their remains in jars and bags piled up in freezers and cupboards. Much less crazy than taking 'em home and holding a funeral, right? Mark Steyn  1/6/12

But the problem is not just that some leftists can’t understand the love that some people feel for their unborn children — or for their children who (like Sarah Palin’s son Trig) were born with disabilities. What really infuriates is the contempt they show for parents who make different choices than they would . . . and the smug arrogance with which they pronounce judgment on the most intimate aspects of others’ private lives.
What Robinson has done, and what Colmes did the other day, is indecent. These men would never say such a thing to Santorum’s face. (Or maybe they would — which is possibly even worse.) What sickness has invaded our body politic that people feel free, not only to act the cretin, but to do so on national television while sporting insufferable, supercilious, self-satisfied smirks like those we have seen on the mugs of Colmes and Robinson in recent days?
In short: how dare they? How dare they?! Patterico


You learn that Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) is awful at small talk. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a ham, breaking into funny voices and goofy faces. And former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is . . . not like that at all. “Like talking to your doctor,” one voter remembered. And, as it turns out, former Utah governor Joh Huntsman Jr. is surprisingly calm after he’s been bitten by a goat. Washington Post

Is the president going to have the authority to decide if the Supreme Court has deliberated too little on a case? Does Congress have the right to decide whether the president has really thought hard enough about granting a pardon? Under Obama’s approach, he could make a recess appointment anytime he is watching C-SPAN and feels that the senators are not working as hard as he did in the Senate (a fairly low bar). John Yoo

. . . but I thought in the debates she punched above her weight, and she got the urgency. She understands that this November is the last chance for serious course correction. I’m not sure how many others do. I’m grateful for the times she cited my book, while obviously regretting that the frequency of citations proved to be inversely proportional to her poll numbers. Funny how that works. Also, I find her rather hot, which is more than I can say about Ron Paul or Newt, or even Jon Huntsman when he does that open-necked shirt thing. Mark Steyn


For those of us who take an interest in the vagaries of the Roman Church, the virtuoso performances of Ms. Collins and Ms. Dowd as earnest, questing papists, almost heartbroken at the failure of the last two popes to undergo sex-change operations and turn the Church into a polling organization, and at other, less glaring illiberalities, are like the concluding number in Chicago of Catherene Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger. Conrad Black

-----------------  2011  -----------------------

I certainly hope Mitt Romney is as insincere as he appears to be. Kevin Williamson

It was true in the trenches of 1916. It remains true now. The dark forces of Mordor are on the march. We really might wish it otherwise but such is life, such is fate. Are we going to stay cowering in the false security of the Shire, waiting for the Orcs to arrive? Or we going to screw up our courage, seize that ring and venture all on the perilous journey to Mount Doom? James Delingpole

Much of the developed world climbed out of the stream. You don’t need to make material sacrifices: The state takes care of all that. You don’t need to have children. And you certainly don’t need to die for king and country. But a society that has nothing to die for has nothing to live for: It’s no longer a stream, but a stagnant pool. Mark Steyn

Can you name one important positive thing that Romney accomplished as governor of Massachusetts? Can anyone? Thomas Sowell

. . . absolution of sins does not eradicate all the effects and consequences of those sins on the shaping of one’s character. This requires ongoing conversion, including detaching oneself from those things that may provide an occasion for sin. It seems to me that a man whose sins arose as a consequence of the pursuit of political power and the unwise use of it after he became Speaker of the House should not be seeking the most powerful office in the world. Francis J. Beckwith

For this the Tea Party spent three years organizing and agitating? Mark Steyn

Take Willard. If he sweated more, he’d be this generation’s Tricky Dick Nixon in golden underpants: shifty, evasive, a guy trying to pick your pocket even though you’ve grabbed his other hand and are yelling for the cops. David Kahane

We should all envy Newt Gingrich’s vitality that he has been capable of such youthful indiscretions in his mid to late 60s. Rich Lowry

Gingrich, who would have made a marvelous Marxist, believes everything is related to everything else and only he understands how. George Will

The “New Newt” surging in the Republican polls overlaps so significantly with the former version that the “Old Newt” should be suing for copyright infringement.

“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date.” Let’s translate that Jon Corzine quote into Latin, engrave it in stone, and make it the official motto of Congress. Kevin Williamson

When citizens are taking pictures of couples with children because it is so rare to see such a sight you know the country has failed. In Europe, if you have three or more children, it is common to be stopped and asked to pose for a picture. Strangers will sometimes even swoop the youngest out of a stroller, holding the baby to pose for the camera as if they might never see such perfection again. Amy Owen

Yet, a constant theme of Gingrich’s career is a desire to use government to fix the culture. Indeed, there’s no Republican in the field with a more robust faith in the power of government. Jonah Goldberg

US airport “security” serves no serious purpose except to accustom free-born peoples to behaving like a compliant bovine herd. America is now a land where 85-year old grannies are strip-searched without probable cause. You’re extremely naive if you think that, once government acquires a taste for that, it will remain confined to the airport. Mark Steyn

And yet, underneath the attitudinal swagger, Americans are — to a degree visiting Continentals often remark upon — an extremely compliant people. Mark Steyn
So this is my choice now? Newt or Mitt? Wow, life sucks. Patrick Archbold

Enjoy the turkey, count your blessings, and then start reclaiming your glorious inheritance: Mark Steyn

The knock on Gingrich is that he has ten ideas a day, five possibly good, five obviously bad, and can't distinguish between the two types. (Actually I'd complain differently: He has ten ideas a day, one possibly good, four that sound good on a superficial level but in fact are just campaign-trail chum without substance or usefulness, and five which are bad.) Ace

This year's Christmas miracle will be Washington borrowing more money from itself so it can bail out Europe. Eat your heart out, Santa! John Hayward

The disease: Entrenched incumbency. The cure? Fresh fiscal conservative blood. Remember in November. Michelle Malkin

Do you know how much parents pay to send their kids to that pervert Quaker school? $27,400 in annual tuition, for high school. For a middle-aged weirdo to stand up there and corrupt their children. Rod Dreher

If social workers and judges can take your child away without due process, the Constitution is nothing more than a piece of paper the powerful can continue to ignore with impunity. Barbara Hollingsworth

Taking a sledgehammer to Washington is a line that Perry’s been rolling out since day one: this reform plan is the real fulfillment of that, and it will be instructive to see the reactions to this regardless whether Perry is the people's champion this time around. It is based on a fundamental belief that government is a problem, not a solution, to what ails the nation. This used to be a widely accepted conservative idea. I expect the reaction to Perry's proposals will tell us if it still is. Ben Domenech

Jordan and her fellow “revolutionaries” like to assure us that they’re the future. And in the sense that, in a post-prosperity America pox-ridden encampments of the homicidal, suicidal and narcotically inept will not seem that unusual, she may have a point. Mark Steyn


Somewhere in either my current book or the previous one (or possibly both), I cite the line Gerald Ford used to use to ingratiate himself with conservatives: “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.” That may be true, but there’s an intermediate stage: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn’t big enough to get you to give any of it back. That’s the problem Mr Papandreou’s ministry has in Athens, and the Kasich administration in Ohio, and many other governments around the western world.

So it’s easy for reformers to get voted in, and easy for their opponents to make sure their reforms get voted down. I’m afraid things are going to get a lot worse before that dynamic shifts. Mark Steyn

Are America's revolting youth so totally pathetically moribund they can't even invent their own hideous fashion statements? Mark Steyn

First, as an historian with a passion for medieval history, I have often wondered what odors would assail the senses if one was among a large group of individuals who had only a passing acquaintance with concepts of hygiene. I no longer have to wonder. Jim Lacey

Yet for the first time in decades I feel a sudden craving for nicotine, possibly while making non-sexual gestures of an uncomfortable nature. Mark Steyn

There's nothing wrong with lower revenue. I think Americans are ready for Washington DC to quit spending money that they don't have. Gov. Rick Perry

An able-bodied man paid by the government of the United States to lie in a giant crib, wetting his diaper week in week out, is almost too poignant an emblem of the republic at twilight. Mark Steyn

When “youthful idealism” is an implausible euphemism for mopey solipsistic passivity (“I am a first semester college student, I have no idea where I will be in 4-5 years“), it’s hardly surprising it degenerates into party time for crack dealers, granny-preying thugs, statutory rapists, and transgenderphobic looters. What else is there? The slogans, the drum circles, the D.O.A. gig, and the endorsements of opportunist celebs like the Rev Jackson and Michael Moore is like a Starbucks compilation CD of revolutionary chic. Mark Steyn

Emoticons are coerced emotion, unearned communication. They are a prefab cheat-sheet for those too lazy or sub-verbal to say what they mean. And they are as propagandistic as anything out of Mao’s smiley-faced Great Leap Forward, which featured posters of agricultural workers laboring with forced cheer under headers such as, “We sell dry, clean, neat selected cotton to the state.”

Unlike Mao, Yahoo! has not murdered millions. It is, however, helping millions of its customers murder the English language. For its emoticons are not the primitive colon-dash-parenthesis :-) type that requires you to look sideways to decipher it, as though staring at an optometrist’s eye chart designed by M.C. Escher. No, this is the hard stuff—fully formed, animated glyphs—the heroin of emoticons. There are 12,000 in all, and they cover just about every emotion you’ve had, and probably several you haven’t. Matt Labash

There's nothing wrong with lower revenue. I think Americans are ready for Washington DC to quit spending money that they don't have. . . . I don't want more revenue in Washington DC's hands. I want more revenue in the private sector job creators' hands and in American citizens out there. I guarantee you they'll make better decisions about how to spend that money than Washington DC will. Gov. Rick Perry

Shoot, I might be a good debater before this is all over. Rick Perry

Nobody Messes With Joe. Except Jason Mattera, Who Now Lives in His Head Rent-Free Bryan Preston
In moving into the White House -- a very fancy address -- Obama bought a lot more house than he could afford, based on his ability and experience. James P. Gannon
It’s like Walmart for rats. Wayne Yon

. . . all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones. . . . Barack Obama
You embarrassed me on the senate floor and if you ever do it again I will kick your ass. Barack Obama

I say to myself, ‘You did well.’ Were they to come to life, I would do it again. Mohammed Shafia

But to my knowledge, no country has ever whined its way back into prosperity. Matt Labash

Go ahead, GOP. Nominate this health-care regulating, pro-abortion, flip-flopping, liberal, phony, RINO stiff. But believe me when I say that I will NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, EVER vote for him. Jay Anderson

If it's not narcissism, what explains President Obama's habit of demanding something against the people's will, being rejected, refusing to take no for an answer and berating the public he is pretending to represent? David Limbaugh

Here is something I don’t understand. Why is it the Tea Partiers were able to clean up after themselves at all of their gatherings, no matter how large, but the Wall Street “occupiers” have to be told to leave the park so the city can clean up after them, at which time they will be able to re-enter the park and mess it up, again, without responsibility or accountability? Is this what we’ve come to? Treating adult people like infants in need of a diaper change? Elizabeth Scalia

We don’t know where it comes from. It just appears, and we eat it. OWSer Tom Hintze

Which is another way of saying he’s sawed the lady in half and her corpse has been carted away. He tried to pull a rabbit out of the hat and came up with a handful of lint. He’s tried to escape from strait jackets in chains and is still trying, long after the audience went home. Like Goldberg says, “where is the magic?” Richard Fernandez

Back at the OWS encampment at Zuccotti Park, it’s a hygienic disaster area: greasy hair, stained shirts, crusted trousers—and that’s just the journalists. Matt Labash

It’s not clear if Mrs. Obama took her own taxpayer-funded private jet to the store or perhaps three jets to accommodate her entourage, as she did for her European vacation. Milton Wolf

Doesn’t the New York Times care about dead Mexicans? Mark Steyn

go away, Kinsley, and take your tofu curd with you! Mark Finkelstein

Friedman’s gut is a terrifying thing. Jonah Goldberg

I think they will have difficulty “saving themselves.” I have many in-laws and friends in delightful corners of village England, where as the sun rises on ancient hedgerows and thatched cottages it is easy to believe the paralytic chavs and incendiary imams and all the rest are somewhere far away and always will be. As leftie columnists in their Hampstead redoubts began (privately) to calculate as the rioters moved in from the less fashionable arrondissements, on a small island the mob doesn’t stay beyond the horizon for long. Mark Steyn

Mr. Martin now asks customers to prove their heritage and residency. "You get real smart after they come to your house and arrest you and make you feel like Charles Manson," he says. WSJ via Backyard Conservative

It has also been learned that the last Chicago Cubs world championship team was not been honored with a White House ceremony either, however attempts to arrange for a reunion photo-op featuring Barack Obama and members of the 1908 Cubs have encountered certain insurmountable difficulties. Phil Boehmke

On the merits, Romney’s attempt to differentiate his plan from Obama’s doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. He is consistently making a series of blatant lies. Will any of his opponents hold him accountable? Philip Klein
As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. Under Obama, America’s foreign policies are a mixture of confusion and costly impotence. Rex Murphy

After finishing reading the book I wasn't sure whether to get pregnant or kill myself. Wendy Sullivan to Mark Steyn

And Milbank notes that it wasn't only Republicans who made a mockery of Obama's travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham of a speech to a joint session of Congress. James Taranto

Moreover, a nation of children who get dropped off each morning as they kick and scream for their mommies can hardly be described as a net positive. Suzanne Venker

The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done. The One is dancing on the edge of one term. Maureen Dowd

Unlike the other, and fake, men of the people running (this issue doesn’t apply to the women), he doesn’t roll up his damned sleeves. Anonymous
They are the children of dependency, the product of what Sir William Beveridge, the father of the British welfare state, called a world without want. And certainly these ski-masked bandits do not want. They do not want to work, they do not want to marry and raise children, they do not want the responsibilities of adulthood, they do not want to live productive lives of any kind. Mark Steyn

Self-indulgence is the common thread that runs through most culture war issues. From marriage to divorce to cohabitation to abortion, the desperate desire to satisfy the longings of our heart collides with a Judeo-Christian moral tradition that calls for children to be raised in faithful, married mother-father households. And so we make endless accommodations to our desires — protecting as a legal right the quest to satisfy every personal whim — and our culture cracks and crumbles. David French

It’s not true that kids grow up fast. What is true is that it seems fast if you’re paying too much attention to other stuff. Joel Achenbach

I, for one, am trying to determine which of my children to love less in order to make more room in my heart to love Paul Ryan more. Christian Schneider

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to Western Civilization's descent into barbarism. Mark Steyn

Permanence is always an illusion.
Mark Steyn, After America, p. 190.

If you haven't already read America Alone, you simply must. It will make you want to have kids and buy guns. Dr. Milton Wolf

In short, Obama is a fighter for the progressive cause. Progressives are upset with him because he is a loser. James Taranto
I’m scared that the police and the government will attack us if we defend our businesses. London shop owner

What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass. Lord Melbourne via John Derbyshire

It’s not hard to understand Obama once you grok that the only thing he cares about is himself and his continued residence in the White House through 2016 — after which he’ll be free to make millions and millions of dollars (maybe even trillions!) doing that post-presidency thing. The man is riding the greatest gravy train in the history of both trains and gravy, and you can’t blame him for not wanting to get off any sooner than he has to. Michael Walsh

The secret of Mr. Obama is that he isn't really very good at politics, and he isn't good at politics because he doesn't really get people. Peggy Noonan

When Obama spoke at the University of Maryland on Friday, student Jerome Lincolns explained how his attitude toward the president had shifted since Obama last visited the campus in 2009. “He’s like a new car: First it’s really awesome, and then you realize it’s a lot like the other cars,” Lincolns told USA Today. Elise Jordan

Charm is no substitute for substance. And they aren’t that charming.  Jennifer Rubin

She won't get headaches, she'll give them. Tom Maguire

Come on, geezers of America: Take one for the kids. John Derbyshire

When did it become the primary function of the federal government to send millions of Americans checks? Michael Walsh

That’s yet another small peep into an alternate universe in which, to paraphrase Steven Chu, Americans need guidance on how to spend their money, and need government to adjudicate what is fair compensation — sort of taking from those who are arbitrarily paid too much and don’t “need” “hundreds of thousands of dollars in income” to give to those who deserve it. Victor Davis Hanson

It's a dead parrot economy. The media are loyally doing their best for the Flatline Administration by insisting that the dead parrot economy is not deceased but merely resting for an "unexpectedly” longer period of time than had been expected. Mark Steyn

Isn't it ironic that I find pretty much everything written at CNN's "Belief blog" unbelievable? Matthew Archbold
 
June 29 was the day that Wisconsin was to be no more. The streets were going to be deluged with sewage. Children would begin pouring bleach into their cereal, as they would cease to learn otherwise in school. The state would devolve into a fiery Mad Max–style wasteland, where people feast on squirrels and barter their pelts. For it was the day that Governor Scott Walker’s plan to scale back public union collective bargaining took effect. Christian Schneider
 
And then here’s my favorite. I worked it out in the car on the way here. If you collect the corporate jets and the oil tax together — get all the bad guys and the fat cats at once — and you collect it for 100 years, it covers the amount of debt Obama added… in February! Charles Krauthammer

That’s great news! Somewhere on page 273 of the handbook, there’s a graphic detailing the precise point on the upper thigh where the licensed state groper is obliged to invert his paw. Mark Steyn

“We don’t estimate speeches," Elmendorf shot back. "We need much more specificity than was provided in that speech for us to do our analysis." Douglas Elmendorf

Careful - or I might pick Macca's "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime" for my Yuletide single this year. And that's no idle threat.  Mark Steyn

No - the real outrage is that Anthony Weiner has a cushy athletic club, paid for by us, as a backdrop for his stupid photos. I pay money every month to work out on weight machines at our local gym while these do-nothing gas bags in Washington hang out in their very own taxpayer funded gym. Now, that's outrageous. Adrienne
I don't think Congressman Weiner should have a federal bathhouse to auto-snap his towel in. In fact, I believe there's a direct line between the existence of a House gym and the likes of Anthony Weiner. When the people accept that the political class has the right to send them the bill for an activity that every other American has to make private provision for, it's telling you something about the relationship between the citizenry and their rulers. Mark Steyn

And why is it that when Sarah Palin talks about "death panels", she's an idiot, but when a psychologist does (because isn't that what is implied by restricting care to the elderly?), his ideas are printed up in a journal? Dr. Helen


The governing class are not “high functioning men”. Function-wise, they’ve been abysmal: Collectively, they’ve beggared the nation. While you low-functioning types were busy going off to work every day and providing for your family like a bunch of saps, lifetime politicians like Weiner – the Emirs of Incumbistan – comprehensively wrecked everything they touched, squandering this country’s inheritance and lining it up for an imminent existential crisis those on the receiving end will have to figure some way out of. Ceasing to think of time-serving mediocrities and opportunist creeps like Weiner as some kind of “high-functioning” elite leadership class is a good place to start. Mark Steyn

So, to one degree or another, is any healthy political culture. Whether or not Tweeting your privates hither and yon is something sophisticates like David Gelernter are cool with, the malevolent toad Weiner has spent the last ten days lying to his constituents and to the American people on radio, TV, the Internet and in print, trashing anyone who got in his way, from ideological foes like Andrew Breitbart to those CNN producers and ABC reporters who couldn’t quite bring themselves to swallow his guff. Those who did, such as George Soros’ head stenographer Eric Boehlert and Salon’s Joan Walsh made fools of themselves. They’re at least private-sector rubes. But Weiner also deployed his vast retinue of taxpayer-funded staffers in service of his lie.
Whatever one feels about the pants on fire, the liar ought to be an issue. Why would any sentient being believe a word the right honorable Weiner says about anything ever again? The debt ceiling, Libya, Medicare, anything? Look at what this thuggish narcissist grotesque was prepared to do over the last week, and ask yourself. If Weiner is fit for “public life”, who isn’t? Mark Steyn

For me, when the mass of lies equals the mass of apologies, the whole package congeals into some new sociopathic form for which there is yet no name. (Weinerite, perhaps?) That he was caught lying about his personal life, and not about public policy, doesn't really matter to me. By demonstrating that he's as good a liar as he is an apologizer, Weiner tells us everything we need to know about him. Jack Shafer

According to Christopher Hitchens, politics is show business for ugly people. If Anthony Weiner is anything to go by, it seems more like high school for ugly people. Mark Steyn

What the hell is wrong with Weiner and everyone? The guy deserves a rap in the mouth for that, doesn't he? Where are the feminists? Matthew Archbold
What makes Sarah stand out in the national GOP field is that she is beholden to no one and controls her own destiny. She doesn’t need media kingmakers to make her. They need her. She doesn’t need newspaper or TV producers to drive her story. She drives them. Crazy. Michelle Malkin

Cut him some slack. Hey look, Rep. Weiner’s a busy guy. Who can possibly expect him to keep track of every picture of his own crotch he’s ever taken? Sure, it could be his junk. But how can he possibly know with any certainty? I mean it’s not like he has an elaborate filing and labeling system for his penile photography. He’s not some weirdo. This looks like one of his many, many bulge shots, it might even be one of them. But how can he be expected to be definitive? Jonah Goldberg

". . . speaking on behalf of myself as a hoity-toity, cocktail-swilling elitist . . ."
Charles Krauthammer

Supposedly, this young, devoutly religious woman, whom Fox’s sources describe as “a model employee with a pristine work record who doesn’t drink or smoke and rushes home after work to take care of her children,” was simply overwhelmed with lust at the sight of this aging troll waddling towards her? Allahpundit

I was interested to discover recently that Nathan DeWall of the University of Kentucky has conducted a survey of “linguistic markers of psychological traits and emotions” in popular music from 1980 to 2007, and concluded that we are in (to use the book title of two of his co-authors) a narcissism epidemic. Once upon a time, love songs were about other people: “Me, Myself, and I (Are All in Love with You)” — Billie Holiday, 1937. Seventy-odd years later, Fergie sings in unconscious echo that she needs more time to be with herself; Beyonce sings about how hot she looks when she’s dancing; and, on the increasingly rare occasions when a vocalist directs her attention to an object of her affection other than herself, it sounds more like self-esteem boosterism than a love ballad. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Pink’s current blockbuster hit, “F**kin’ Perfect”:

Pretty, pretty please
Don’t you ever, ever feel
Like you’re less than
F**kin’ Perfect.

Mark Steyn


Like health itself, the loss of such a thing can’t be imagined until it occurs. Christopher Hitchens

I mean, I don’t know what’s to complain about. I’d love to be that funky. Mark Steyn

In fact, this weekend was such a tense time in the White House that Obama only got in nine holes of golf. But he still managed to deliver his joke script to the White House Correspondents Assn. dinner Saturday evening.
Sunday was, Brennan revealed to his eager audience, "probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of times in the lives of the people assembled here." Poor poor bureaucrats. Extra Tums all around. Did someone order dinner? Andrew Malcolm

Any joy one might feel in the intelligence of our analysts and the bravery of our door kickers was significantly diminished by Obama's malignant narcissism. The first part of the announcement, evoking 9/11, was vulgarly overwritten as per Obama's view of himself as some kind of gifted orator. The adjective bloated compote was unworthy of the subject, banal and self-indulgent. Stephen Hunter

Obama's historical ignorance could be a full time beat for somebody who does this work for a living, and it tells us something truly important about Barack Obama. His ignorance is as broad as it is deep. Not that you couldn't deduce that on your own from his performance on the job. Scott Johnson

Seriously, the future of the nation hangs in the balance and some morons want to saddle up with a rich, self-promoting, rodeo clown? Please just turn in your voter registration, or join the idiots on the progressive side, now. That's precisely who you would be helping with this nonsense. Dan Riehl
 
Sinatra sounded as if he’d actually had some very good years. When the Kingston Trio did it in their usual upbeat jingle style, they sounded like eunuchs who wouldn’t know a good year if it fell on their heads. As for "Michael, Row The Boat Ashore", my advice is jump ship in the first verse. Mark Steyn

If [Itzhak Perlman] was thirteen years old today he'd probably play X-Box instead, be systematically starved and hounded because he's "obese," and be drugged into oblivion because he won't pay attention to drivel in class. Gregory Sullivan

There’s something sad about a man so carelessly revealing himself as entirely inadequate to the moment. Government spending is an existential threat to the United States. Whether or not anyone at the White House knows this, the viziers decided to shove the sultan out on stage with a pitifully unserious speech retreating to all his lamest tropes – the usual whiny, petty and unpresidential partisan snippiness, and the ponderous demolition of straw men even he barely bothered to pretend he believed in: Mark Steyn

That’s the problem, and whichever hack speechwriter put those ridiculous words in the President’s mouth surely knew it. As did the President. We spend more than anyone but the Swiss on education, and by any rational measure at least half of it is entirely wasted: That model is why this country is dying, and the President just went on TV and bragged to the world he has no plans to change it.

The whole speech was like that, a litany of brain-dead slapdash rhetorical questions that for sentient beings are no longer rhetorical: My fellow Americans, do we want an America where our most lethargic and mediocre youth are denied a leisurely half-decade acquiring a fraudulent six-figure credential in some worthless pseudo-discipline simply because we can’t afford it?

Well, it’d be a start. Mark Steyn

At some point, you have to close a cabinet department just to show you’re serious. Instead, the governing class is sending the message that the political institutions of the United States are so diseased they do not permit meaningful course correction. Mark Steyn

As was revealed yesterday re the sham budget “cuts”, the government class’s response to its fiscal fraud is to obscure it via political fraud, a sleight of hand that demonstrates utter contempt for the citizenry. If this is the best they can do, they’re ensuring that everything is going to get worse. Real worse, real poor, real fast.
The entire Western world is institutionally committed to living beyond its means in perpetuity. The expiry date on “perpetuity” is looming. Mark Steyn

“It makes it tough to win the future when you haven’t passed the budget from last year.” Barack Obama

“We did everything that was asked of us,” the aide said, referring to the president’s proposals on health care, bank regulations and, in the House, global-warming legislation.

A hyper-sexualized society becomes, paradoxically, sexless, and certainly joyless.  [. . .]
I was aware, as I was talking to Milt, that I sounded like Mister Squaresville, and so be it. Because, getting on for half-a-century in, there's not a lot of cool left in the Sexual Revolution. In fact, there's not a lot of anything left other than wreckage. Mark Steyn

The collapse of the Entitlement State is not going to be pretty. Mark Steyn

Breaking News: President Obama to visit the United States of America this week and is expected to be here for several days nugy

Go ahead, Mr. President, play golf. But you should never take it for granted that you’re a president playing golf, not a golfer playing president. Jonah Goldberg


Of course our armed forces will again perform brilliantly, and Qaddafi and his repellent mafia clan will be hanging from piano wire in no time. But everyone knows we’ll end up staying to pacify the country, trying in vain to reconcile one gang of cretinous barbarians with the neighboring gang of cretinous barbarians. Mark Krikorian


The strange shrunken spectator who serves as president of the United States
Mark Steyn

I don’t mind the union bruisers, Marxist social engineers and lockstep zombies of the Democrat identity-group plantations voting for Obama: They knew what they wanted, and they got it. But I find it harder to understand the preening metrosexual nincompoop ObamaCons besotted with fantasies about his “temperament” (mentioning no names). His “temperament” would seem to be one of his more obvious failings. Mark Steyn

Sell icky some place else Newt, we're not buying. Patrick Archbold

But Kim Kardashian’s positions makes more sense, I guess. After all, what have Muslims ever done to Armenians? Daniel Foster

There are so many of these "lone wolves" and "isolated extremists" you may occasionally wonder whether they've all gotten together and joined Local 473 of the Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves and Isolated Extremists, but don't worry about it: As any Homeland Security official can tell you, "Allahu akbar" is Arabic for "Nothing to see here." Mark Steyn

Good rule of thumb in politics: Find out what side of the issue feminists are on, and get on the other side. (If feminists ever bothered to denounce Islam’s brutal oppression of women, I might have to consider joining the Taliban. But feminists are too busy whining about “pay equity” to notice that Muslims are still stoning women to death under sharia law and forcing girls into arranged marriages.) Stacy McCain

Now there is a question you’ll never see in a New York Times poll: “Do you favor forcing all state employees to join a union and empowering government unions to take union dues directly from employee paychecks?” Conn Carroll

When you're pregnant, especially for the first time, there are a lot of amazed and awed moments in between the heartburn and insomnia. But is motherhood really a greater role than being secretary of state or a justice on the Supreme Court? Is reproduction automatically the greatest thing Natalie Portman will do with her life? Mary Elizabeth Williams

To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets cakes. and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness. GKC

That's what "collective bargaining" is about: It enables unions rather than citizens to set the price of government. It is, thus, a direct assault on republican democracy, and it needs to be destroyed. Unlovely as they are, the Greek rioters and the snarling thugs of Madison are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a spoiled overclass, rioting in defense of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government. Mark Steyn


This administration enjoys breathtaking latitude to respond to foreign-policy issues with defensive triangulation. One of its principal allies is the modern public’s unfamiliarity with history; another is the sense of the post-post-colonial era that, while everything may still be the West’s fault, nothing is now its problem. Opinion media and the public know instinctively that something is missing, but they can’t quite name what they expect to be different.
What’s missing is leadership. Having a plausible explanation for everything is the opposite of leadership; it’s defensive navigation through situations shaped by others. [. . .]

But it’s increasingly clear that regardless of what Team Obama fails to do in foreign policy, it won’t be because of principle or priorities; it will be because of the ravenous, homework-eating dog that prowls the State Department. JE Dyer

This is like watching your parents do the Macarena: It’s embarrassing and it’s dated. Mark Steyn

One of the most disturbing features of the protests in Madison is the involvement of President Obama. He may have dithered, sicklied o’er with the pale cast of political calculation when Egypt exploded, but when his own political fortunes are at stake he is Mr. Decisiveness. Roger Kimball

 . . . you just have to have the spine to say I'm gonna take the risk. But I think that's what we elect leaders for. Hence the name. Right? Like if you're waiting midway back in the pack and call yourself a leader it seems to me that that isn't consistent. So you wanna be a leader, lead. I'm not saying it doesn't involve some measure of risk. Everything does that's worth something. Gov. Chris Christie

This is a remarkable moment in American life: A man is killing actual living, gurgling, bouncing babies on an industrial scale - and it barely makes the papers. Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn:

The back alley is back, and supersized: The above New Jersey clinic performs 10,000 abortions a year. When the pro-choice rally ends and Cameron Diaz, Ashley Judd and other celebrities d'un certain age return to Hollywood, and the upper-middle-class women with the one designer baby go back to their suburbs, a woman's "right to choose" means that, day in, day out, the blessings of this "right" fall disproportionately on all the identity groups the upscale liberals profess to care about - poor women, black women, Hispanic women, undocumented women, and other denizens of Big Government's back alley.

A government back alley, licensed and supposedly regulated, is worse than the old kind, because it implies the approval of the state, and of society. That's what Gosnell thought he had, when he murdered those babies and mutilated those teenage girls. That's what Planned Parenthood think they have, when they facilitate the sexual exploitation of Third World children. And, given the silence of the PC media, maybe they're right. Aside from the intrinsic evil of not only Gosnell but a state that knowingly colludes with him, these "little" abortion stories reveal an almost totalitarian mindset in the "pro-choice" movement's determination to brook no intrusion of reality upon the official myths. You may be one of those wealthy suburban "feminists" or "new men" indifferent to the fate of eight-pound "blobs of tissue" or 14-year old "women", but the gulf between propaganda and truth, between the fatuous feelgood bumper stickers and the rusty crochet hooks, is profound - and, in a world where statists and social engineers serve as ruthless enforcers for the prevailing ideology, its deep moral corruption will eventually swallow you, too. America should be at the very minimum deeply disquieted by these revelations. That it is not - that it is dismissed as a "little thing" - is even more disquieting.  Mark Steyn

To begin with, the aggression on social issues today emanates mostly from the left, whose preferred vehicle is a willing judge inflicting his private social preferences on the law. Anyone who believes that a Republican call for a truce will end this is living in dreamland. William McGurn 

Only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding their own destiny, in benefiting from their own risks, do societies prosper, grow, and remain free. Ronald Reagan

We have an alarm clock. It's around here somewhere. It might still be in a cardboard box from last March. I work almost all the time I'm awake, and my wife does, too. But we don't need two sinks in the bathroom to allow us to leave for cubicleville on identical schedules. Our kids aren't rousted like vagrants and put on buses before the sunrise because it suits the public school teachers.
We go to bed when we're tired, and we sleep until the sunlight wakes us up. Our kids sleep until they're not tired anymore, then their mother starts school. Ambien for dinner and Paxil for breakfast makes you an extra in a zombie movie.  Gregory Sullivan

The point Ezra misses -- by a country mile -- is that the threat to liberty, if any, comes not so much from the individual mandate itself, but from the other things Congress might do if it gets away with claiming authority for this measure under the commerce clause. Charles Lane

After the media acclaim dies down, I think history will record that Obama’s State of the Union was abjectly derelict. With another $1 trillion–plus deficit on the horizon, he offered no meaningful way to reduce the debt but instead many ways to add to it.

He does not seem to get that he is facing in 2011 a perfect storm of sky-high energy prices, rising food prices, more 9.4 percent unemployment, astronomical budget deficits, the looming nightmare of the implementation of Obamacare, and a sinking dollar, and yet is still offering the old boilerplate about green this-and-that and the nefarious top 2 percent of the country. It is almost as if he is some sort of automaton that keeps up the preprogrammed sound bites even as the batteries weaken and it sputters out. Victor Davis Hanson

His mind is set in concrete. Richard Epstein

Seriously, does 30 years of calling babies “blobs of tissue” have no effect on the culture? Matthew Archbold

[Kermit Gosnell's] actions perfect the logic of the mainstream of the pro-choice movement. He has followed premises shared by the president and by four Supreme Court justices to their unavoidable conclusion. National Review

Stop and pray for this man. I fear he will go to hell. Fr. Z

Or maybe Hulse and Zernike are old hacks in the pocket of certain political interests that feel threatened by populism. A member of the populace​—​however deranged​—​has shot a liberal​—​albeit one who is independent and selective in her liberalism. Even this most pathetic of excuses will serve. Ordinary Americans skeptical about the powers, prerogatives, and expense of certain political interests shall be execrated. PJ O'Rourke

But liberalism, as personified by the New York Times, became a dotty old aunt sometime during the Johnson administration. She’s provincial, eccentric, and holds dull, peculiar views about the world. Still, she has our fond regard, and we visit her regularly in her nursing home otherwise known as Arts and Leisure and the Book Review. Or we did until Sunday, January 9, when she began spouting obscenities and exposing herself. PJ O'Rourke

The solution isn’t to “tone it down” and turn the other cheek, but to confront them forcefully with the facts — and to fight back unapologetically against insidious efforts to diminish the law-abiding, constitutionally-protected, peaceful, vigorous political speech and activism of the Right in the name of repressive “civility.” Michelle Malkin

The origins of Loughner's delusions are clear: mental illness. What are the origins of Krugman's? Charles Krauthammer

The Statue of Liberty should be the symbol of this city, not the grim reaper. Archbishop Dolan

There is a lesson here both about modern liberalism and for Republicans who will soon have more power in Congress. For today's left, the main goal of politics is not to respond to public opinion. The goal is to impose the dream of an egalitarian entitlement state whether the public likes it or not. Sooner or later, they figure, the anger will subside and Americans will come to like the cozy confines of the cradle-to-grave welfare state. WSJ editorial

In August 2009, Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel suggested that they turn away from health care to spare the party a political disaster. Obama refused, telling some of his aides, “I feel lucky.” A month later, according to David Paul Kuhn of Real Clear Politics, Virginia Senator James Webb visited President Obama in the White House and “told him this was going to be a disaster.” As Webb described it, Obama somewhat blithely “believed it was all going to work out.” In retrospect, the preternaturally calm-in-a-crisis Obama celebrated in best-selling books like Game Change seemed less calm than bizarrely oblivious. Tevi Troy

Darling pjHusband this morning: What do you want to do to ring in the New Year?
Tired Mom of sick toddler: I don’t care as long as it doesn’t involve vomit.  Fever-free would be grand, too.
Dare to dream. PoliticalJunkie Mom

Of Obama's 712 days in office, just 45 days have passed without a presidential public appearance or statement of some sort, according to Knoller. Byron York

-------------- 2010 ------------------

As distressing as they are, the parents’ mundane declarations in this article articulate tremendous loss: the death tolls of those parent-child relationships. They indicate great naïveté, and yes, selfishness. Tragically, these parents have speciously placed their hope and trust in an institutionalized “education” system that gradually but resoundingly destroys the very fabric of their family life and, consequently, the future role of family in our nation. Sam Sorbo  (12/31/10)

With nothing much to do, I began to really look at the thing. I was struck by the cultural confidence of it. Nothing was done derisively or defensively, no trying to be anything but genuine. No apologies were offered. Nothing was edgy. No one tried to be sophisticated at the holiday’s expense. Gregory Sullivan

But what else could we better spend our money on but our health and our very lives and those of our loved ones? The progressives in the Ruling Class have their own dark answer to that question. Peter Ferrara

Yet, if this mandate stands, any political group need only cobble together a majority of elected officials, find some open-minded judges dedicated to "doing the right thing" rather than upholding their oath, and government can be handed unlimited power to control not only what we can buy but what we must buy. David Harsanyi

If you're after sperm from Jewish doctors or biracial men of African American and Caucasian descent, act fast — these samples sell the quickest. Maia Szalavitz, TIME
 
We can't just leave it up to the parents. Michelle Obama

In his post-defeat November press conference, he said that the American people failed to view his socialism as only temporary. But as his promise of class warfare at a later date shows, it's only his minor suspensions of socialism that are temporary. It pains him to let the productive keep their own money, and he expects his spared victims to feel grateful for not having been mistreated more. George Neumayr

Ghosts of the Democratic past—Hubert Humphrey, Al Smith—have been known as Happy Warriors. Barack Obama is a Class Warrior with every fiber of his being. And he isn't happy.  Daniel Henninger

I’m so insulted when people say that lawmaking is like sausage making. Stanley Feder, sausage maker

Finally, we come to the basic argument used by the administration, which was that the stimulus was intended to prevent joblessness from going above 8%. Now that we’re heading back towards 10% having never gotten below 9%, that should certify the program as a flop. Ed Morrissey

You might want to consider having a broken baby bird trampled on the ground and the happy parents celebrating their freedom and choice above their dead child, which would reflect your mission and purpose.  Politicaljunkie Mom


When a person chooses a career predicated on meddling in the lives and baggage of citizens, he doesn't deserve thanks any more or less than the Internal Revenue Service agent deserves your appreciation. The assertion that TSA agents keep us safe is also debatable.  David Harsanyi


It appears that Obama is literally driving us crazy. According to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20% of Americans had some form of mental illness in 2009. Which they attribute to unemployment, not the accumulated effect of listening to Barry's teleprompter speak almost daily.  Jed Babbin



When a reporter asked what kind of complaints he was hearing from fellow leaders, Mr. Obama laughed it off, asking, “What about compliments?” As to whether the elections at home have weakened him overseas, he served up a one-word answer: No. NYT



Helping enforce your wacky laws will be Lt. Gov-elect Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor who flouted state law by allowing same-sex marriage. On the plus side, he has nice hair and loves you just the way you are.  Allysia Findley


The Republicans won by default. And their prize is nothing more than a two-year lease on the House. The building was available because the previous occupant had been evicted for arrogant misbehavior and, by rule, alas, the House cannot be left vacant.
The president, however, remains clueless. In his next-day news conference, he had the right demeanor - subdued, his closest approximation of humility - but was uncomprehending about what just happened. The "folks" are apparently just "frustrated" that "progress" is just too slow. Asked three times whether popular rejection of his policy agenda might have had something to do with the shellacking he took, he looked as if he'd been asked whether the sun had risen in the West. Why, no, he said. Charles Krauthammer


This is not an election on November 2. This is a restraining order. Power has been trapped, abused and exploited by Democrats. Go to the ballot box and put an end to this abusive relationship. And let’s not hear any nonsense about letting the Democrats off if they promise to get counseling.  PJ O'Rourke

Opening a whole new branch of cognitive science — liberal psychology — Obama has discovered a new principle: The fearful brain is hard-wired to act befuddled, i.e., to vote Republican. . . . Faced with this truly puzzling conundrum, Dr. Obama diagnoses a heretofore undiscovered psychological derangement: anxiety-induced Obama Underappreciation Syndrome, wherein an entire population is so addled by its economic anxieties as to be neurologically incapable of appreciating the “facts and science” undergirding Obamacare and the other blessings their president has bestowed upon them from on high. Charles Krauthammer

All the evidence screams out for the new Republican Congress to embrace polices that dramatically favor monogamy, family formation and fertility over such risky and economically draining behaviors as divorce, single parenthood, cohabitation, promiscuity and abortion. Robert W. Patterson

Feldt wants women to tell other women to “cut it out” and get back to work rather than spend their time nurturing their children. Feldt worries that women opting out confirms a stereotype — that many women actually want to spend time raising their children after they are born — that the feminists have been working so hard to shatter.  Carrie Lukas

It helps a bit if a person’s arrogance is at least tied to real merit and achievement. In this case, we have vanity and incompetence melding together. It’s not a pretty sight to behold. Peter Wehner

To someone who lives in the slums of Karachi you're rich. I don't care if you're driving a 1990 Geo Tracker, haven't had a job since Cher was a babe, and your trailer home just burned down because your wife's boyfriend's meth lab exploded, you're rich. PJ O'Rourke

Jon Stewart on Obama: “I thought he’d do a better job.” You did, huh? Based on what, his extensive experience? Rube. Glenn Reynolds

Are we really such an advanced nation that even an extreme "staunch social conservative" has to deny opposing pornography? There's something depressing about that. If not Christine O'Donnell, who? ... Mickey Kaus

Woodward Shock Expose: Unqualified Community Organizer With Teleprompter Dependency Makes Surprisingly Lousy Commander-in-Chief Doug Ross

If Obama can’t bend the cost curve, maybe God can. Allahpundit

Rumor has it Christine O'Donnell also loved horses and once played with a Malibu Barbie dunebuggy. Kathy Shaidle

Even at this late date, Barack Obama speaks as if he’s still waiting to take over from President Bush. Jim Geraghty

“Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!” Bruni says Michelle Obama told her after being asked about life as the wife of the president during a Sarkozy family visit to the White House in March.

But I’d rather see the tea parties go too far here and there while shooting for the moon than see them go not far enough everywhere. And I’m glad the message coming out of Delaware to everyone in the tea parties’ way, Republican and Democrat alike, is: Watch out. Jonah Goldberg

Has the Tea Party done more harm than good for Republicans? Um, no. It has done far more good for the Republican Party than anything Republicans could possibly have done on purpose. Yuval Levin

Just a note first. The abandonment of principle for expedience has a very unhappy history, politically and otherwise, and is uniformly looked back upon with regret, often in sorrow. Chris Horner

If people vote in the Republicans on a tide of revulsion at what the Democrats have done, and the Republicans just settle back and we’re back to 2004 all over again, I think the Republican Party will have blown their last chance, and we will, I have to be cautious here, because I believe it’s a condition of my Green Card that I’m not allowed to foment armed insurrection against the government of the United States. . . . But with that stipulation, I think we will be pushing the temperament of the people in a revolutionary direction, and that is something that the Republicans ought to understand. Mark Steyn

Damn him and his awesomeness. The Hyacinth Girl

Radical Islam and relativism take different routes of irrationality -- the former adopts "faith" without reason while the latter adopts "reason" without faith -- but come out on the same trail of blood: a culture of death, with daily abortions in the west, suicide bombings in the east, and a "leader of the free world," who reads secularist propaganda at the Huffington Post with memory's ear cocked to the "call of the azaan," blind to both. George Neumayr

As a rule, the greener the home, the uglier it will be. I went into the process thinking that green homes were ugly because hippies have bad taste. That turns out to be nothing but a coincidence. The problem is deeper. Scott Adams
He belongs neither to the United States, nor to the Muslim world; he is a gifted outsider with a talent for persuasion who profiled Americans the way anthropologist profile primitive tribes, and in a variant of the old adventure-movie script, made himself our king. Daniel P. Goldman

Anybody who would pay thirty-grand to watch Nancy Pelosi eat can’t possibly have the ability to understand the size and scope of government waste — hence their misguided endorsements. Doug Powers

CONNOLLY: So I don’t think there’s reason to really doubt his believing what he said on Friday.
BAIER: Other than the statement on Saturday.

Is it just me, or have President Obama’s birthday celebrations gone on longer than Mardi Gras? Jim Geraghty

It is the only time I can recall the Ruling Class ever being in favor of placing a religious manifestation anywhere. R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Hitchens is a stubborn cuss, and God knows him well, but the rest of us do not. Elizabeth Scalia

But the first lady isn’t considering a lot of newer research on childhood obesity. Just a few months ago, Ohio State University released a major study that found that children are at a lower risk for obesity if they observe three easy rules: eat dinner with their families, get adequate sleep at night, and watch less television. All of these activities fall under the control of parents — not schools, and not government. Julie Gunlock

There is no “moderate” sharia devotee, for sharia is not moderate. Andy McCarthy

We have a national debt exploding so rapidly, by deliberate design of the president, that one almost believes he is trying to implement the Cloward-Piven strategy of manufactured crisis. Cause a political and economic cataclysm; use it as an excuse for radical executive orders and proto-martial law; that sort of thing. Again, I did say "almost." But we are getting to a point where it almost doesn't matter what the motivations are; the reality being created could have the same effect whether by intention or by autocratic reaction to the fruits of the leader's own incompetence. Quin Hillyer

We are sort of a mongrel people. I mean we're all kinds of mixed up. That's actually true of white people as well, but we just know more about it. Barack Obama

And to think that this unfortunate situation could have been avoided: there's a teleprompter app for the iPhone. Doug Ross

Clearly, I had stepped on some very sensitive toes, and the journothugs didn’t like it. Therefore, to not be a victim of their thug tactics, I ask that you all read my original column that lit their fuse. Lenny Ben-David
The only salutary response available to a congressional majority intent on upholding separation of powers among three equal and coordinate branches is to exercise the most basic power given to the House by the Constitution - the power of the purse, to decide how federal money will be spent through appropriations. Presidents can appoint but the House has no obligation whatsoever to fund positions held by individuals whose views are clearly noxious to the maintenance of the constitutional morality that insures republican stability. Mark Tapscott

Vilifying Dr. Berwick alone for his views is in a way beside the point. Within Mr. Obama's circle they all think like this. Defeat Dr. Berwick, and they will send up 50 more who would pursue the same goals. Daniel Henninger

I think we need a post-post-racial commander in chief who doesn’t assume that the rest of the world is populated by dolts. Jennifer Rubin

But the brute fact remains that even enormous government spending can’t revive an economy when government threatens to take away anything you earn. Michael Barone

The border’s too big. The hole in the Gulf is too deep. The recession is too stubborn. Maybe we should find the president a smaller, easier-to-manage country to govern. You know - send him to the minors for a few years. Michael Graham

Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. Me in an army uniform, air force uniform, and me in my suit. They can make toys of me and my vehicle, especially for the holidays and Christmas for the kids. That’s something that would create jobs. Alvin Greene

It's time to call Obama what he is: The Great Jobs Killer. With his massive spending and tax hikes -- rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners -- Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. Wayne Allyn Root

Life is precious, not perfect. Retriever

Yet the Obammyboppers who once squealed with delight are weary of last year’s boy band. Mark Steyn

Such responses of competently and faithfully exercising existing authorities without ideological corruption are insufficiently sophisticated for the Statist, who instead prefers to watch things turn really lousy followed by a lecture that more government and less freedom is really what you need. Strike out that "global warming" thing at the top of your plan and scribble in "no more spills" and you've got a winner, a new gusher of revenue. Chris Horner

Do you know a clearer thinker, a sharper speaker, a bolder official than Bolton? The times could use a guy like him, frankly. And in debate against Obama — wow.
Jay Nordlinger

Like most multiculturalists, he’s passed his entire adulthood in a very narrow unicultural environment where your ideological worldview doesn’t depend on anything so tedious as actually viewing the world. Mark Steyn

Who did he not have time to talk to during this critical period? The CEO of British Petroleum, presumably because he was not an ex-Beatle. Viking Pundit

But there is good news. Any day now, after thorough interagency review, the Standing Committee for Posterior Selection will have given provisional approval for a working list of asses for POTUS to kick with an OSHA-approved shoe. Alas, final environmental-impact statements are pending. But once that hurdle is cleared, the president will focus like a laser on ass-kicking Jonah Goldberg

"Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough," said John Huston in the movie Chinatown. To that list we can add White House correspondents. Thirsty McWormwood

The other is of the consultant himself, who isn’t what I pictured when I heard that some guy was alleging a one-night stand with Nikki Haley. From one beta male to another, buddy: Nuh uh. Allahpundit

Maybe Nikki Haley actually is an Insatiable Punjabi She-Devil, or maybe not. I just don’t care anymore. RS McCain

That's it -- I wholeheartedly endorse Nikki Haley, if only because it will make monsters cry. Ace of Spades

Their will to defend us defies the conventional amorality of modern selfishness. When they not only liberate but succor, in spite of their own long campaigns and bitter deprivations, emaciated Jews imprisoned in Hell, like my wife's parents, these Americans do only what is natural to them. Bruce Walker


The commander-in-chief’s mumbling, diffident tone contradicted the “I CARE” message of urgency that drifted across the teleprompter screen and rolled languidly off his tongue. Michelle Malkin

I don’t have a degree in psychology, but I think lies are like lies. Jennifer Rubin
And then, even worse I think, is to see our president refusing to stand up for his own country, joining in the attack on Arizona. Charles Krauthammer

We can't eavesdrop on his cell phone without a court order, but we can blow him up. Troubling. And interesting - picking up the Times is almost like reading a newspaper sometimes. Tom Maguire

Do you ever get the idea that our government is a bunch of left-wing undergraduates come to power? Jay Norlinger

To think I once had a “Happy Days” lunch box fills me with shame. Joseph Lindsey
This is a small man. Jim Hoft

Because once you establish the principle that the state has the right to police ideas, sooner or later one of yours will catch their eye. Mark Steyn

The Obama White House is on an insatiable control binge. No private space has been left behind — not your grocery aisles, not your children’s TV shows, not even your refrigerator. Michelle Malkin

More generally, The Pill fostered a prevalence of the belief that sex without pregnancy is normal. This utterly unnatural idea is the foundation of the Contraceptive Culture.
RS McCain

Ain’t that a kick in the head, ladies? The Pill has not only increased your potential for STDs and infertility, but also increased the chances you’ll marry a loser. RS McCain

Dude, how fat is your finger? Joshua Brown

As though millionaire ball-bouncers who live in gated communities and depend on illegal-alien pool cleaners are in any position to render judgment on the insecurities of ordinary Arizonans. Not to mention a foreigner, Nash, lecturing Americans on their laws; if this were Mexico, he'd already be on a plane back to Canada. Mark Krikorian

The crack reporters at the Washington Post couldn’t figure out that the conservative blogger they hired wasn’t conservative. Well, that’s what they get for listening to Ezra Klein. Jennifer Rubin

But community organizers, though often charismatic, can also be annoying jerks. Daniel Henninger

I don't think it's a good idea to call voters bigots. Andrew Russell

In the spirit of the times, though, the pact would become the law of the land before those details are finalized, while its authors either don’t know what it says or are lying about it. Administration officials told Arizona Republican Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain — who will be central to the Senate’s ratification debate — that the treaty referred to missile defense only in the hortatory, non-binding preamble. Yet when the senators looked at the treaty’s binding terms, they found, right there in black and white, a provision (Art. V, para. 3) that would require the United States to refrain from placing “defense interceptors” in existing missile launchers — a severe compromise of American national security. Andy McCarthy

One sometimes gets the sense that you are watching Margaret Mead reporting on the newest tribe to appear in the wilderness. They seem to have primitive communication! One wonders what the emblems on their native garb are for! Jennifer Rubin

"It is the drink of fascists," wrote Travis Nichols in Chicago. JWF

Frankly, it’s not even clear that the senators fully understood the transaction or were aware that there’s nothing illegal or unusual about investments between sophisticated players who are taking opposing bets in the marketplace. I was reminded of Rep. Louise Slaughter, who invoked the tale of an uninsured woman reduced to using her dead sister’s dentures. That had about as much to do with the merits of health-care reform — and revealed the paucity of lawmakers’ understanding of the subject – as a flaky fraud charge against Goldman Sachs does with financial reform. The hunger for anecdotal evidence of Wall Street greed — with little understanding of the anecdote — makes for good TV and poor reform. Jennifer Rubin

"It didn't go without being noticed that only two of the elected officials in the room had never filibustered a Supreme Court nominee," says one Republican Senate aide. Those two, of course, were McConnell and Sessions. So at the moment, the only lawmakers who are being criticized for even being open to the possibility of a filibuster are the ones who have never, in fact, taken part in one. Byron York
All he was doing, he added, was “raising awareness” — you know, like folks do on Earth Day. On Earth Day, lame politicians dig a hole and stick a tree in it. But aggrieved Muslims dig a hole and stick a couple of comedy writers in it. Celebrate diversity! Mark Steyn

The bottom line: history doesn’t just “happen.” Presidents make choices. Pundits make miscalculations. Voters exact revenge. It’s not that complicated — if you are honest about who did what to whom. Jennifer Rubin

Does our President Barack Obama parse his words? How Clintonian. And there are tapes. How Nixonian. Backyard Conservative

Lindsey Graham getting hot for cap and trade is like watching your parents do the twist. It’s embarrassing, and it isn’t half as hip as they think it is. Mark Steyn

It doesn't matter who Obama appoints, because they'll be a Democrat and that means under the robes either a wild eyed radical (Ginsburg) or thick dullard (Sotomayor). Michael Tomlinson

It’s worse than you thought, Victor. It’s not confusion at all. It’s a campaign to cut America down to size. Ed Whalen

Now, I hate people who are richer than I am as much as the next guy, but how long can we keep relying on the wealthy? David Harsanyi

Obama's powers of persuasion and debate are vastly overrated. All the opposition needs is the right spokesman. If only he (or she!) would show up. Matthew Continetti

A government that expands beyond its high but limited mission of securing our natural rights is not progressive, it’s regressive. It privileges the powerful at the expense of the people. It establishes the rule of class over class. Paul Ryan


One of the oddest features of the scene is attributed to the president’s “cool,” which seems to be the euphemism of choice for what, in less stellar executives, would be regarded as an unappealing combination of coldness and self-absorption. Mark Steyn

ObamaCare is a bludgeon with which Obama beats down capitalist instincts. Roger Kimball

The White House gloats: “Best week we’ve had in a long damn time.” Yes, it was quite a week — taking over 1/6th of the economy and beating up on Israel. Nothing quite thrills the Chicago pols like the display of brute political force. Jennifer Rubin

However, if the tax power means that Congress can order citizens to buy something they don’t want to buy, why does Congress not have the power to assess taxes on people who get too little sleep, or too much sleep, and thereby harm their own health and the public fisc? Or who wear hats so little that they increase their risk of skin cancer? Or who wear hats so often that they dangerously reduce their levels of vitamin D? David Kopel

Obama is government, and government is Obama. That’s all he knows and all he’s ever known. Mark Steyn

In ramming through an unpopular 2,700-page health care bill using brute force tactics, Democrats are in danger of passing what amounts to the longest suicide note in history.
John Fund

I guess if our government’s Democratic leaders don’t get their way on Obamacare, they would just as soon tear the country apart. Wesley SmithThey’re going to present a rule, issued by her committee as chairman, that says that the House already adopted the Senate bill when we know it didn’t? Mark Levin
Brooks is turning out to be like Big Bird to Obama's Snuffaluffagus! He's the only one who can see the real Obama and nobody believes him. Jonah Goldberg

Obama loses the support of Christopher Buckley. Apparently ObamaCare is not elegant enough or something. Backyard Conservative

The Romans hated Carthage above all because its people sacrificed their infants to Ba’al. For the Romans, who themselves were a hard people, that was a unique kind of wickedness and barbarism. As a nation, we might profitably ask ourselves whom and what we’ve really been worshipping in our 40 million “legal” abortions since 1973. Archbishop Chaput

The policy traffic jam that has resulted has caused the pro-health-care crowd to declare America “ungovernable.” What they really mean is that America is undictatable. Abe Greenwald

This is the new strategy of the Dems — to keep repeating out loud that they have the support and they have the votes (even as they urge their members to commit health care hara-kiri and go down with the ship against the will of their constituents).

Pelosi is looking into her mirror and into the cameras and repeating: I have the votes.

They are counting on wearing down their opponents, catching them off-guard, and taking their silence as consent. Michelle Malkin

Could it be none of that is really the problem – and rather that he’s just not very effective when it comes to getting things done? Jennifer Rubin

Almost every provision in Obama's new proposal will make it more costly than the Senate bill. Philip Klein

So when liberals wring their hands because the U.S. seems to be ungovernable, we conservatives chuckle. That's not a bug, liberals; that's a feature. Christopher Chantrill

America’s political tectonic plates are shifting in a fairly dramatic and rapid fashion; and the resulting dislocation will batter and crush many Democratic candidates, perhaps on a scale we have not witnessed before in our lifetime, at least in a midterm election. Peter Wehner

We could instill a tragic rather than therapeutic world view that would mean more responsibilities rather than endlessly more rights. We could do this all right — but too many feel such medicine is worse than the malady, and so we probably won’t and can’t. An enjoyable slow decline is apparently preferable to a short, but painful rethinking and rebirth. Victor Davis Hanson

The dogs don't like the dog food. He thinks it's the bowl or the advertising, or perhaps he didn't speak slowly enough in dog-ese in explaining it. But it's the substance -- [an idea] which he won't accept. Charles Krauthammer

What these presidential appeals for bipartisanship always mean is: do it my way. . . . When a sitting president calls for bipartisanship by the opposition – he really means surrender. And if they block his proposals, its "obstinacy" and not political views they hold as strongly as he holds his. Mark Knoller

It is what comes, I suppose, from electing someone we knew so little about and who had so little time on the national stage. Not all blind dates work out. Jennifer Rubin


She was Latina but not very wise, they now concede. Jennifer Rubin

This being a democracy, don't the Democrats see that clinging to this agenda will march them over a cliff? Don't they understand Massachusetts? Well, they understand it through a prism of two cherished axioms: (1) The people are stupid and (2) Republicans are bad. Result? The dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly. Charles Krauthammer


Let's give a shout out to our prolific Catholic brethren. I think Mr. and Mrs. Middle America need to take each other's hand and head to the bedroom. No joke. snaggles

Make no mistake: This is a budget aimed to advance the administration’s philosophy and ideology. By increasing taxes and letting the country spiral into debt, this budget is a firm step toward transforming America into a collectivist society overseen by a social-welfare state. Rep. Paul Ryan

Perhaps it would have been more politic if Justice Alito had managed to remain stone-faced during Obama’s demagoguery, but I find it encouraging and refreshing that, notwithstanding his years in D.C., he retains the capacity to be jarred by lies. Ed Whelan

"What turned this around was when Ray made a presentation to the Police Foundation," the source said. "Everyone went from thinking, 'Justice will be served' to thinking 'We are screwed.' " NYDN
He’s always in campaign mode because he doesn’t spend time thinking about how to solve policy questions, just political ones. Jennifer Rubin

Booo-hooo, Obama, put on your big-boy pants or get out of the White House. Weasel Zippers

Contrary to rumors that the first draft of tonight’s State of the Union address began with “fiat lux.” RS McCain
 
Is the choice Pam Tebow made not fit to be shared? Is her choice somehow less deserving than if she had decided to abort her baby? Doug Hagin

Mr. Obama’s self-regard is not only utterly unwarranted, especially given his failed first year; it is downright dangerous. He is a man whose wings are made of wax; if he’s not careful, a long fall into the deep blue sea awaits him. Peter Wehner

At the center is a young and talented celebrity whose worldview, we now know, is an incoherent jumble of poses and big-government instincts. His self-aggrandizing ambition exceeds his ability by so much that he is making a mess of everything he touches. Michael Goodwin

RS McCain: Contrary to rumors that the first draft of tonight’s State of the Union address began with “fiat lux.”

WSJ on the Andrew Young book:
Edwards’ hair: “Naturally thick and lustrous, his hair was a fixation with him. He insisted on using just one kind of shampoo — HairTec Thick & Strong Shampoo for Fine, Fragile Hair,” Young writes. He says that for years he or Edwards personally paid for the expensive haircuts rather than publicly list them as campaign expenses. He blamed the gaffe – Edward’s campaign committee picked up the tab for two $400 haircuts — on “new, inexperienced staff.”~~~

Shannen Coffin: You've Got the Magic Touch
Obama's losing streak continues. And now he's taking down college basketball teams with him. Yesterday, Obama phoned John Calipari, coach of the then-undefeated, top-ranked men's basketball program at Kentucky. He counseled Kentucky's players — only recently elevated to college basketball's number-one spot — not to lose their focus. It seems he had the same effect on them that he had on Martha Coakley and Jon Corzine. Kentucky went out last night and lost to unheralded and unranked South Carolina (who came into the game at 11–8). At this point, the New Orleans Saints should refuse his endorsement.

Obama complains of running into a “buzz saw” of opposition in Congress. Has no one ever disagreed with him? Did he expect everyone to simply sign on? I guess the presidency is really hard. Jennifer Rubin

Let’s get this straight: The antipathy to George W. Bush is so enduring and powerful that . . . it just elected a Republican senator in Massachusetts? Why, the man is omnipotent. Charles Krauthammer

It's different for Republicans, of course. I gather the Chief Obstetrician of The Atlantic Monthly is still rigorously combing through Sarah Palin's fallopian tubes. Perhaps, as his parting gift before boarding the express train back to obscurity, John Edwards could announce he fathered Trig, and allow The Atlantic to move on. Mark Steyn

"We did not invoke the HIG in this case; we should have," Mr. Blair said. "Frankly, we were thinking more of overseas people and, duh, you know, we didn't put it [in action] here."

Mark Steyn: You know, if the whole rap against you is that you’re the hack candidate of a discredited party machine, the answer isn’t to fly in Obama, John Kerry and miscellaneous, idiot princelings from obscure branches of the Kennedy family, and hold a so-called rally in a private school at which the President, having gone to the trouble to fly in and put his prestige on the line, can’t be bothered to string together a halfway coherent speech. I think that’s the arrogance of Obama. I think what this, what his appearance on Sunday had in common with the Olympic business in Copenhagen and the climate change appearance, too, is this arrogance that somehow, he can just fly in, and the sheer aura of Obama will transform the situation. And it doesn’t work anymore. He’s become a bore. And that little bubble he’s in with these dreadful, dreadful, tin-eared speechwriters, the ones the media were doing all the cuckoo profiles about, the guy, what is he, Favreau, or whatever his name is…
HH: Right.
MS: These guys are talentless. They can’t turn it around for him. I’m not persuaded there’s enough savvy people in the Oval Office to actually speak up in these meetings and tell him what Clinton was told in ’94.
"No more closed-door meetings, no more backroom deals. . . . We need to start fresh and do the job right. We can do better. . . . Let me say this, our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation. They do not grant rights and privileges to our enemies. . . . They thought you were all on-board with all their intentions. . . . Tonight you set them straight. . . . What happened here in Massachusetts can happen all over America." Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA)

He is a candidate deprived of a campaign. Jennifer Rubin

Then here comes Obama trying to sell her as some kind of outsider willing to take on the man. It's like he doesn't get it. He is "the man" now.
Charles Hurt

"I've got news for you, Scott: George Bush drove a truck, too, and look where it got us," Sen. Kerry said, continuing to poke at the campaign ad. "I didn't know it was a qualification for being in the Senate." John Kerry


I'm sure if asked who Tom Brady is, she'd guess he was the youngest son on the Brady Bunch. Duane Patterson

The system may not always work, but it does take its revenge.
Charles Krauthammer

What a travesty. So, if a Teamster and an unrepresented worker have the same high end policy, the Teamster won’t be taxed but the other fellow–poor sap–will. Obamacare is more malodorous than a poorly run tannery. Wesley Smith

This would amount to nothing less than a bill of attainder against on all constituencies that are not especially useful to the president and his party. Daniel Foster

Unfortunately one would not usually go to Rangel for the truth. If you want to be robbed, lied to or cheated, Rangel is your man. Chris M.

Now the only question, it seems, is determining which groups will hate the bill more: union members, seniors, young people (forced to buy insurance), the Left, the Right, good-government types, independents, or tax-hike opponents. So many groups, so many grievances. Jennifer Rubin

. . . the GOP is fortunate to have Steele in position to make the Democratic dishonesty on race apparent.
Ed Morrissey

As for dealing with his chairmanship, ousting him is probably out of the question for the time being and there is little hope that he will change his ways. The two ways I see of dealing with Steele's chairmanship are laughing and crying. Paul Mirengoff

Maybe his “eloquence” wasn’t eloquence at all but a short list of buzzwords and New Age window dressing meant to disguise a candidate with a thin resume and limited repertoire of executive skills. Just wondering. Jennifer Rubin

One wonders if Nelson is dim or thinks we are. Jennifer Rubin

Obamacare, Live! would be as toxic as MTV’s Jersey Shore: big egos, big arguments, and catty meltdowns.
Robert Costa

THE SYSTEM IS WORKING: Underwear Bomber’s Visa Now Revoked. So take that, Mr. Jihadi!
Glenn Reynolds

. . . just remember, if you criticize Obama’s White House Flickr feed, you’re a racist! Glenn Reynolds

. . .we get the sinking sensation that there is some bizarre set of priorities and some very cock-eyed worldview in operation here. Who are we assisting, and how does any of this make us safer? Jennifer Rubin

Most people seemed to be in denial of what I saw was evident. This guy wanted to kill all of us, he had wanted to blow up the plane. When I said this, they would just shake their heads; even those that had seen it happen didn't want to believe it. Roey Rosenblith, passenger on NWA 253

That’s why Nebraska’s grotesque zombie senator Ben Nelson is the perfect poster boy for the new arrangements, and not just another so-called Blue Dog Democrat spayed into compliance by a massive cash injection. Mark Steyn

Honestly, what is wrong with these people? My only consolation is that most of them aren’t breeding. Hyacinth Girl

Henceforward, the phrase “pro-life Democrat” should be accompanied by an asterisk explaining that it should not be taken to imply that the individual is, in fact, pro-life. Jay Richards

Is anyone stupid enough to think a “carefully designed system” is what the Democrats are about to drop on us? Doctor Zero

Here are the key ten words: "reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care." Bill Kristol, from the CBO

This bill is a monstrosity. This is not renaming the post office. Make no mistake — this bill will reshape our nation and our lives. Sen. Mitch McConnell
Give Obama what he wants or else we fall into the ocean. I wonder how many more times he thinks he has to repeat this to turn the polls around if they haven’t turned already. Allahpundit

We are on the precipice of an achievement that has eluded Congresses and presidents for generations. Barack Obama

The Obami really aren’t capable of being shamed by evidence that they have reneged on campaign promises or that positions are taken willy-nilly without regard to any coherent ideology or legislative scheme. They have a higher objective: getting anything passed. Jennifer Rubin
For months, Reid and Baucus and Dodd and all the others have been searching for a way to thread the 60-vote needle. Something. Anything. Incoherent, destructive, bankrupting, another shotgun blast at the young: It matters not a whit. If it increases dependence upon the federal government, it's a winner. Benjamin Zycher
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is “getting the living hell beat out of him, the living bejesus beat out of him.” Joe Biden

Currently, climate scientists are raccoons hip-deep in statistical garbage and you should approach them with caution because they are unarmed (with facts) and dangerous.
Dennis Miller
If the President has been in office long enough to get the Nobel Peace Prize, presumably he's been in office long enough to do something about the public debt or unemployment. Sen. Jon Kyl

Is Michael Scott now editing the New York Times?
Mary Katharine Ham

When a society loses its memory, it descends inevitably into dementia. Mark Steyn

When media organs fail to fulfill their basic responsibilities, they degenerate quickly into democracy's undertaker. Caroline Glick

So let’s not delude ourselves. The Obami’s share-the-wealth vision and indulgence of the “international community” (and the latter’s sense of entitlement) are far too important to let a little scientific fraud and some constitutional niceties get in the way. There’s real business to be done at Copenhagen. Jennifer Rubin
These e-mails show that what’s really at work is a very large clique of scientists attempting to excommunicate perceived heretics for reasons that have more to do with psychology and sociology than physics or climatology. Jonah Goldberg

So, basically we are being asked to restructure the entire economy of the planet on the say-so of a few "scientists" whose work cannot be verified or even reconstructed. Is there any intellectually honest person who thinks that is a good idea? TigerHawk
Will it trickle down to the average consumer who has been coerced into buying crappy “efficient” lightbulbs that make their lives dimmer and more complicated? The Hyacinth Girl

The "Obama flavor" — let me guess, it starts out bold, but fades to a bitter aftertaste? Jim Geraghty


"Palin-bashing racial bean-counters in monochromatic houses shouldn’t throw stones." Michelle Malkin

'I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead.' Rom Houben

But Reid heartened suspicious liberals with his inclusion of a kind of public option in the bill he cobbled together from scraps of other plans and possibly parts from a 1987 Chrysler Laser. Chris Stirewalt

All the same players are lining up to put a good hate on Sarah Palin. She’s like an isotope designed to course throughout our politics and culture, lighting up press bias, self-congratulatory liberalism, Christianity-hating secularism, and intellectual condescension wherever they are found. Rich Lowry

Hot sauce and a comb were all an al-Qaida suspect in New York needed to nearly kill one of his guards nine years ago. AP

The message to nervous Democrats is that if they believe Obama's election was a transformational moment for American politics and not just a perfect political storm, then their belief will make it true. Chris Stirewalt

He Didn’t Want His Picture Taken with Any Female. No word on how he felt about getting shot by one—four times.
Thank you, Kim Munley. The entire nation is grateful. LMA

And I can certainly respond with sympathy if any or all of these incumbents responded to these numbers with a two-word comment of which I will relay only the first word which is, “Oh.” Michael Barone

For those of you keeping metaphorical score at home: Stalin's Great Purge (just to name his most famous one) included roughly 1,000 executions a day, over two years. The alleged Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin purge, meanwhile, has resulted...brace yourself...in a moderate Republican suspending her campaign for Congress to make way for a conservative independent. Yeah, totally the same. Matt Welch

When Obama inveighs against Wall Street greed and politicians beholden to Big Business, remember this: The Wall Street gamblers that Obama and his wife carped about on the campaign trail shoveled money to his campaign hand over fist.Michelle Malkin

Hold that thought: “They deal with every aspect of our life.” Did you know every aspect of your life was being negotiated at Copenhagen? But in a good way! So no need to worry. Mark Steyn


"I haven’t seen this section of the bill, but one thing is certain: It will be easier to get Michael Moore through the eye of a needle than for states to opt out of Obamacare." Doug Powers

"The old guys had style, even class; today’s crowd spends more on teeth-whiteners than on books." Victor Davis Hanson


"As surely as Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton allowed their personal flaws to erode the office of the presidency, Obama seems bent on allowing his own flaws (thin-skinnedness, hubris) to do potentially grave damage to the office as well. And over what? Not some grand policy matter or some key personnel matter, but over the desire to exclude a news network that has criticized him. For those who suggested that Obama’s main selling point was his “superior temperament,” we anxiously await an admission of grave error. It seems they were terribly mistaken." Jennifer Rubin

"Once again, he's proved himself to be an abject embarrassment to Central Floridians who want more than a circus clown for a congressman." NRCC Spokesman Andy Seré

"Mr. Gore is someone only a liberal could regard as an expert on climate change. He took exactly two science courses as an undergraduate at Yale, scoring a D in Natural Sciences 6, and a C in Natural Sciences 118." Jack Kelly

"My sources were amused by the flotilla of Air Force jets that brought him and his entourage to Moscow. They were also taken with (but not necessarily impressed by) the fact that Obama and his crew took over the Ritz Carlton hotel, where rooms start at around $1,200 per night and the presidential suite goes for $13,000. The Marriott had been good enough for Presidents Clinton and Bush. Rooms there -- described as similar to Marriott rooms in the U.S. -- can be had for around $350" Paul Mirengoff

"Perhaps things will start to come into focus for everyone that the disdain this White House has for Fox News and Tea Parties really isn’t the story. The truth is this White House has a problem with opposition in general." Another Black Conservative
"The Nobel Committee was not rewarding Obama. It was attempting to geld him."
David Frum

"So the 201 billion dollar question is when the Democrats are going to decide whether to soak seniors or their union base to pay for their government takeover of the US healthcare system." Karl

"So here’s an idea: Sit in that nice Oval Office of yours. Alone. Think about one issue for longer than ten minutes. (As an incentive, you’d look really moody and Kennedy-esque and someone might snap a picture of you Tackling the Problems of the Free World Alone in Your Office.)" Stephanie Gutman
"As far as I'm concerned, just take him out and shoot him."
Cokie Roberts

"Boo fricking hoo." Ed Morrissey
"It is a dye marker, “lighting up” a whole archipelago of morally wretched people. With their time, their money, and their craft, these very people routinely lecture America about what is right and wrong. It’s good to know that at the most fundamental level, they have no idea what they’re talking about." Jonah Goldberg
"Very small children, the mad, and certain extinct primitive tribes, have shared in this belief system, but only the fully college-educated liberal has the vocabulary to make it sound plausible." David Warren on Barack Obama

"It takes a crony-filled White House to raise a Chicago Olympic village. Daley and Obama will get the glory. America will get stuck with the bill." Michelle Malkin

"It is an Orwellian, farcical organization. The idea that we should be on it is regrettable, but the idea that we should be boasting about it as an American achievement is a scandal." Charles Krauthammer

"Just 40 months to go. God help us." Andy McCarthy

“Code language” is code language for “total bollocks.” “Code word” is a code word for “I’m inventing what you really meant to say because the actual quote doesn’t quite do the job for me.” Mark Steyn

"The only major flaw I foresee in all of this is that the doctors' hand-written signs will be completely unintelligible. I recommend as many non-doctors as possible show up a week from Thursday for a legibility assist." Smitty on the Million Med March

Mark Steyn: "If they had a care for their business, the Post wouldn't be "exposing" Breitbart, they'd be hiring him."

Mark Steyn:"It would be truer to say those five million Britons are not so much without employment as without need of employment: They exist in a world in which “work” is an increasingly foreign concept."

"We can either spend a trillion dollars and get a two-tier health system or not spend a trillion dollars and get a two-tier health system. To get a one-tier health system, you have to outlaw money." Denis Boyles, 7/30/09

Jon Stewart to state-run media: "You mean to tell me that two kids from the cast of High School Musical III broke this story with a video camera and their grandmother's chinchilla coat and you've got nothing?"

"I consider myself a Martin Luther King liberal, which is to say, I am now called a conservative. As a man who has co-authored four books with Ralph Nader, that still seems surrealistic to me. Nevertheless, I have reluctantly concluded that the Left (generally) isn’t interested in freedom today (with exceptions), as much as it is in wielding power." Wesley Smith

"What Team Obama offers is socialism lite, with fantasy plugged in where the realism used to be." Roger Kimball

"It was as if Democrats live in a utopian dream world, divorced from the daily demands and realities of organization and management." Camille Paglia

"Either way, under Obama nothing is certain but death panels and taxes — i.e., a vast enervating statism, and the confiscation of the fruits of your labors required to pay for it." Mark Steyn

"The ancient Greeks who started the Olympics treated women like property. Now we're letting women treat themselves like animals." David Whitley via Mommy Life
"Adolescents have received substantial education and parental care, investments that will be wasted without a complete life. Infants, by contrast, have not yet received these investments. Similarly, adolescence brings with it a developed personality capable of forming and valuing long-term plans whose fulfilment requires a complete life." Ezekiel Emanuel, et al.

"There is only one Vulcan-clad logical conclusion: Barack Obama was never born." Don Surber

"But a pink woman with curves that delivers kids about every two years? Come on!" Victor Davis Hanson
"The federal picture is so bleak because the Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. I would imagine that he would be the intergalactic champion as well, if we could gather the data on deficits on other worlds." Kevin Hassett

"If you're a Democrat and voted against the bill, you're a smart politician and to be forgiven. If you're a Republican and voted against the bill, you're a Neanderthal and to be ridiculed." Dana Perino

"But it seems to me that today, the divorced dad rushing to pickup his kids is generally seen as a family man but the father of six is often seen as someone who needs to get his priorities straight."
Patrick Archbold
"So here's how it's done: first, you need apparatchik secretaries of state and a lapdog MSM. You force through an enormous spending plan. Then you fire the overseers, see if Congress kicks, and when the answer is, 'not much,' you're good to go." Dan Collins
"If Obama keeps up with this “change,” we’ll be back to the Watergate era by Christmas." Michelle Malkin

“There’s nothing confusing about malfeasance and there’s nothing confusing about what appears to be the fact that they terminated me because I was doing my job because the White House wanted to protect people who proclaim they are friends of the White House.” Gerald Walpin
"At this point it's about as fresh as Mort Sahl doing a Khrushchev routine in 1976. Yet reserve some sympathy. Money aside, it can't be fun to deal flat, rote A-Rod jokes night after night and hear laughter you know the joke didn't earn." James Lileks

"It’s his own coinage, as nasty and awkward as the man himself. And like a two-year-old who’s just crapped on the carpet, he’s curiously proud of it." Allahpundit

"Outside, Sgt. Crowley's mama failed to show." Mark Steyn

"I'm about to leave for a family day trip to Sienna. I'm hoping to see the part they burn for the crayons." Jonah Goldberg
". . . you could probably give yourself a pre-frontal lobotomy with a screwdriver that's accidentally been dropped in the toilet and come off more coherent than Joe Biden." Mark Hemingway

"Seems like only yesterday that an unmanned drone on the 49th Parallel meant Nelson Eddy doing the 'Indian Love Call'." Mark Steyn
"People in yellow pants shouldn’t throw stones." Michelle Malkin
"Obama needs to get up off his knees. Foreign leaders have already pegged him as the wimpiest metrosexual this side of the men's grooming-products counter at Barney's." Ralph Peters
"I love Mark Steyn as well and consider him a god." Lacegirl
"A decade ago, she and Justice Michael Kirby, Australia’s most senior gay judge, traipsed from one gay-rights confab to another like the Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowall of the international judicial cocktail circuit." Mark Steyn

". . . the voracious federal timberwolf is coming down from the estates of the rich still hungry, and looking for prey anywhere he can find it. . . ." Victor Davis Hanson
Obama lied; the economy died. Tony Blankley

"I know it is heresy to mention Obama's name here. Obama's legion of gentle Hopium eaters will become enraged, like flesh-eating zombies in a video game, and trade in their cakes of Hopium for the chance to gnaw on my rather large and meaty head." John Kass
"President Obama chose to nominate Tim "Indispensable" Geithner and Tom "Home, James!" Daschle, men whose enthusiasm for the size of the federal budget is in inverse proportion to their own urge to contribute to it." Mark Steyn
"'A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe.' -- President Obama, Feb. 4. Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared 'we have chosen hope over fear.' Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill." Charles Krauthammer
And by then we’ll probably need a new round number. What’s the name for the avalanche of dough that comes after a trillion? I asked Senator-designate Caroline Kennedy, and she said: “Cotillion?” Close enough. By 2011, we’ll need a cotillion-dollar stimulus package to . . . um, “create jobs” and, er, “help middle-class families.” Mark Steyn
"If the Democratic Party wants it, it's 'stimulus.' If the Republican Party opposes it, it's "politics . . .'" Mark Steyn

Mark Hemingway on Sen. Dodd's call for 'getting back' corporate bonuses: "Yes, if there's anyone who knows how to extract money from C.E.O.s — it's Christopher Dodd."

"For the longest time I have personally tried to understand the psyche of Obama, the moniker of socialist, black liberation theology aficionado, or even to some degree, hyper-liberal, never fit. His description in my own mind, always started with self-serving, opportunistic, ________, the last word to fit that description I could never find, until today. It is, 'lawyer.'" Politics and Critical Thinking

"That’s the modest message I’ve set out to tell the world: you don’t have to be Ned Flanders to be a Christian." Orson Bean

"It isn’t called McCarthyism when it’s done by people on the left to people on the right." Orson Bean
"A society whose political class elevates "a woman's right to choose" above "go forth and multiply" is a society with a death wish. So today we're the endangered species, not the spotted owl. We're the dwindling resource, not the oil." Mark Steyn

"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?" GKC via IC

"No one looks good waving from behind the tinted windows of an automobile unless they happen to be Elizabeth II in a motorcade. Whether it is Paris Hilton or Blagojevich, the message in that familiar gesture of a raised hand and terse expression is always the same: I am a good person. I hate you. Get away from me." Robin Givhan

"If I were ever to write my own seasonal advice book, I would do so under the nom de plume (or, indeed, nom de plume pudding) of Persimmon Coxcomb." Mark Steyn

"Poor fellows. It's six weeks since the end of the election campaign, and they're still capitalizing abstract nouns." Mark Steyn

And imported from my Steyn collection:

I hang a shingle on the Internet mainly because these days for a writer not to have a website is like not having pants: It makes it difficult to get out in the world.

And finally I don't think this is any time for NR to be joining the Frumsters and deploring the halfwit vulgarity of déclassé immoderates like Palin. This is a big-stakes battle: If we cross this bridge, there's no going back. Being "moderate" is not a good strategy.

Government health care would be wrong even if it "controlled costs." It's a liberty issue. I'd rather be free to choose, even if I make the wrong choices.
Mark Steyn

"When a society loses its memory, it descends inevitably into dementia." The loss of societal memory
"Hamas is a mental illness masquerading as a nationalist movement." Nuts
"It's far worse to allow government the sole power to arbitrate what is acceptable speech or not. If a guy uses the "n-word" in a bar, I would rather somebody slugged him on the chin rather than him being dragged up before your tribunal." Toronto Sun, quoting Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2/10/09

"To live is messy but liberating: free societies enable the citizenry to fulfill their potential – to innovate, to create, to accumulate – while recognizing that some of their number will fail. But to attempt to insulate free peoples from moral hazard is debilitating and ultimately fatal." Obamanomics

"That's how great nations die--not by war or conquest, but bit by bit, until one day you wake up and you don't need to sign a formal instrument of surrender because you did it piecemeal over the last ten years." America Alone"Liberalism is the default mode of the culture - to the point where the left-of-center position is so pervasive it's no longer a position at all, but rather something uncontentious, received wisdom, part of the air we breathe." The Podium and the Odium

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