Morning Whip, Jan. 28, 2010

A (mostly) daily review of what’s out there that caught my attention. (Yeah, it’s possible I might have ADD . . .)

I surf the Web, so you don’t have to!

Section One: The Word:
An occasional comment, rant, or snark, brought on by the flow of events:
Special State of the Union Address Review:

What the hell was THAT?

Section Two: Things That Amuse Me:
2.1: Simians:
This space unintentionally left blank.

2.2: Travel:
This one, too.

2.3: Sports:
No. 21 Vanderbilt beats No. 14 Tennessee 85-76 [*1]
UMKC women’s coach juggles basketball and baby [*2]
NFL will go through Texas for two from SDSU [*3]
More after the “Read More” . . . 2.4: Science Fiction and Writing:
Re-Write Wednesday: Structural Rewrite of Death. [*4]
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Shows of the Past Decade (Part 1) [*5]

2.5: Miscellany:
Draft law to jail dog eaters whets debate [*6] — Related: Clumsily worded headline writer found in Chinese stew pot
Dog washed out to sea has lucky escape [*7] — No relation to the previous story . . .
Leader slaughters goats to ward off evil? [*8] — Hey! Who doesn’t?
Exercise and the Brain [*9]
State universities want more students to graduate [*10] — Uh . . . DUH? If you want more students to graduate, then get better at teaching them, you idiots! Quit using every single damn thing as an excuse to cry for more money. If South Dakota can do it on the shoestring they do it up there on, then California has nothing at all to whine about. Do your frickin’ job!

2.6: Science, technology, and space (Mostly iPad edition):
remarks by Brian Roberts of Comcast at State of the Net [*11]
The iPad iBooks App uses free, open-source ePub format [*12]
Apple unveils iPad, bets on new device class [*13]
The iPad has 3G through AT&T, $29.95 unlimited, cancel anytime [*14]
$499 iPad: Awesome Over-Sized iPhone At An Undersized Price [*15]
Apple.com’s iPad page is online: WiFi in March, 3G in April [*16]
Really big iPod to lend new meaning to human existence [*17] — snort —
Opinion: The iPad Will Kill the Kindle, Netbooks and Even the MacBook Air [*18]
iPay More For My iPad: Pony Up For The Extra Stuff [*19]
Surprise, Suprise: Huge Geek Backlash Against iPad (But They’ll Be Buying Them Anyway) [*20]
NASA sets shuttle launch with future in doubt [*21]
Apple pitches $499 iPad, takes on Amazon [*22]
The iPad: Revolutionary or just another waste of money? [*23] — My early guess is “semi-revolutionary” . . .
iPad Will Make The Most Of Cloud Computing [*24]
The Giant iPhone [*25] — Joe Posnanski gets the final word on the iPad, today . . .

Section Three: The News, featuring Liberty And Its Enemies:
3.1: Strategy and tactics for defending human freedom and liberty:
Mark Twain’s Radical Liberalism [*26]
President Obama Is Right, We Have A Spending Problem [*27]
The Tiny Wings of Liberty [*28] — a silly idea. I like it . . .
Video: Why The Tea Party Is Great For America [*29]
This Week’s Column: A Blow for Free Speech[*30]
Do Americans Expect Too Much from Politicians? [*31] — A better question: Why do Americans expect ANYTHING but greed and corruption from politicians? That’s why we tried to hamstring the bastards with the Constitution. It worked, too . . . for a while . . .

3.2: The State Of Obama and the Democrat leadership as blithering idiots:
The state of Obama’s dis-union [*32]
Democrats fall as fast as Nixon Republicans in 1974 [*33]
Barone: This Isn’t 1994, It’s Worse Than That — Like Watergate [*34] — And it could be worse than Watergate if they don’t soon pull their heads out–which they won’t do, of course. Because THEY’RE RIGHT, DAMMIT (in their own minds, anyway) . . .
Pelosi: no healthcare bill not a possibility [*35] — See? They’re right, they think . . . and they’re not going to let a little thing like a peasant uprising dissuade them from their Correctness . . .
White House pre-SOTU talking points [*36]
Top Democrats at war – with each other[*37]
The medium is the massage [*38]
Obama’s First STFU Address Erupts Tonight [*39]
Obamanomics in Six Words [*40]
Obamaporta-prompta; Symptom of Distress? [*41]
“Is Barack Obama headed for some sort of meltdown?”[*42]
SOTU open thread: Blame the lobbyists! Fund high-speed rail boondoggles! Spending freeze plan met with near-silence, laughter; disses SCOTUS in front of SCOTUS [*43]
“not now” [*44]
ZONATION: Arrogance Cost Left Massachusetts [*45]
The State of the Union Speech [*46]
AT SOTU Obama Gives Congress Good Laugh on Climate Change Junk Science (Video) [*47]
“Not true”: Alito mouths words as Obama hammers Supreme Court [*48]
Wow…Alito Says “Not True” As Obama Attacks Citizens United Decision [*49]
Alito, to Obama’s Supreme Court Call-out: “No, that’s not right” [*50]
Very Good Obama, You Got Me Again. [*51] — A President who depends on the gullibility of his subjects-er-citizens, is a President who’s in deep, deep political trouble . . .
Two sharp responses to Obama’s SOTU [*52]
SOTU: A View From Inside The Chamber [*53] — “President Obama never acknowledged that Americans have been sending him a message or that he had bothered to listen.” We’ll just have to send the message louder and more emphatically next time, I guess.
Zzzzz: Two not-so-sharp responses to Obama’s SOTU [*54]
Not a double-down but at least a down and a half [*55]
I Will Micromanage Your Life [*56]
SOTU Speech Analysis (from a Guy Who Didn’t Watch The Speech) [*57]
FACT CHECK: Obama and a toothless commission [*58]
The Lesson of an Affirmative Action President [*59]
Barack’s Blue Blanket [*60]
State of the Union–A Personal Reflection [*61]
Obama & the Mythological Narcissus [*62]
SOTU Reaction [*63]
It’s the Economy, Stupid: Understanding Obama’s plummeting approval ratings [*64]
McCain Seen Mouthing “Blame It On Bush” During Obama’s Hyper-Partisan Attack Speech [*65]
What Did Obama Say in his State of the Union Address? [*66] — “First, at no point did Barack Obama acknowledge that the promises that he made in campaigning for the so-called stimulus bill have gone unredeemed. . .”
What a Phony [*67]
AP’s ten whoppers from the SOTU speech [*68]
Feingold in real electoral trouble in Wisconsin? [*69]

3.3: The reality of the Republican leadership as blithering idiots–Watergate II? Or Stupid Prank? Edition:
Standing Up For James O’Keefe [*70] — The possibility exists that the O’Keefe Affair was little more than a juvenile prank . . .
Washington Post Writer Makes Assumptions About O’Keefe That the Facts Don’t Cash — Again [*71]
Jawa’s Theory on O’Keefe: He Wanted to Discover if Landrieu Had Shut Off Her Phones to Prevent Her Office From Receiving Calls From Angry ConstituentsClose But Wrong; Real Intent Revealed (?) [*72] — Sometimes, stupid things are just stupid, and sometimes stupid things are against-the-law stupid . . .
Can Bobby Jindal now forever be forgotten as a presidential contender? Compare Bob McDonnell’s FANTASTIC speech to Jindal’s weird awkwardness. [*73] — No, not completely. I thought Clinton was finished after his disastrous DNC speech in ’88. I was wrong. (I know, you’re amazed. But it does happen.)
Was James O’Keefe Victimized By Tyrannical Government Police? [*74]
Obama Perpetuates the Myth of Bush as Free-Marketeer [*75]
CBS News and the L.A. Times Owe O’Keefe Corrections and Clarifications [*76]

3.4: Opposition Research: The enemies of human freedom and liberty:
Figures. Obama’s Socialist Advisers Are Behind His Push For Immigration Reform [*77] — Look, there’s good immigration reform, and there’s bad immigration reform. Given the track record of the people in power right now, which one do you think they’ll go for?
The Marxist Roots of Obama’s Economic ‘Pivot’ [*78]
Idiots: Oregon Voters Approve Income And Business Tax Hikes [*79] — There are moments when the people themselves are the enemies of human freedom and liberty . . .
LF and the Historians (and the “Historians”) [*80] — You can be a historian, or you can be an ideologue. Not both. Many in academe are the latter.
US Communists Admit Obama Win Was a Turning Point in Our History [*81]
“Trying to stifle debate on an important issue” [*82]
The state provides all [*83]
A Dangerous Dissent on Citizens United [*84]
UPDATE on today’s latest attacks on us at Daily Kos [*85]
QUESTION: WHAT IS SHE UP TO? [*86]
It’s official. We have our own gremlin, assigned to us by the DNC. His name is Eamonn and he likes watching Simpsons in his underoos while eating macaroni [*87]
Stunned Wall Street Firms Don’t Want War With Obama (Update1) [*88] — Unfortunately for them, it only takes one side to make a war, and the Democrats need a villain . . . again . . .
TROLL DISSECTION 101: How to break apart a concern troll’s posting like it’s made of astroturf and Legos [*89]
BARACK THE VOTE: A Who’s Who of Those Targeting Our Youth [*90]
Bagged by the Food Police [*91]
Wall Street shocked, shocked that former community organizer demonizes wealthy [*92]

3.5: Media bias–and incompetence:
Chris Matthews: “I Forgot He Was Black Tonight For an Hour” (Video) [*93] — Why does this guy have a job on a national cable TV network?
The McClatchy Co., the owner of The Kansas City Star, reports better earnings[*94] — When you’ve got (at least) $875 million in debt and you managed to earn $25 million in the fourth quarter, I can see that you have a problem . . . but at least you earned money . . .

3.6: Fear The ‘Cuda–A spotlight on Citizen Palin, who really needs to find a better phrase than “Common-sense conservatism” to describe her philosophy:
Conservatives 4 Palin [*95] –Semi-permanent link for Palinmania . . .

3.7: “Global warming” aka “Climate change” — or should that be “Climate Reform?” Whatever it is, this theory’s dead. It just doesn’t know it yet:
More Global Warming Claims Debunked [*96]
Heading for the exits [*97]
Obama Is No Kennedy: Redefines NASA’s Mission As Global Warming [*98] — Space exploration? That’s sooooo Twentieth Century!
Floating Islands [*99] — Or, No, CO2 is NOT responsible for Tuvalu and the Maldives “sinking.”

3.8: Health care “reform” aka health insurance “reform” — or should that be health care “change?” Perhaps “Global healthing?:
Health Care Reform Vaporizes Obama Presidency [*100]

3.9: The Economy:
It’s Time to Turn to Innovation, Competition to Spur Economy [*101] — Government programs won’t turn it around . . . the guy or gal in your mirror every morning will . . .
CBO Baseline Shows Staggering Debt [*102] — Maybe I should start a “We are Well and Truly Screwed” section . . .

3.10: Foreign affairs and National Security:
The Pundits Join the Revolution [*103]
U.S. Military Operations in Haiti: A Brief Synopsis [*104]