Morning Whip, Feb. 23, 2010

SECTION ONE: The Word:
I had a chest/head cold the past couple of days, so I decided to blow off the Whip. Sorry about that. I”m better now. Coughing up a lung right now, but that’s probably TMI, isn’t it.
SECTION TWO: Things That Amuse Me:
Simians and other aminals*:
Dolphins Smart Enough To Deserve Better? [*1]
Island of dwarf dinosaurs [*2]
Thousands pay last respects to esteemed whale known in Vietnam as ‘Your Excellency’ [*3]
*Yes, I know it’s “animals,” it’s just that I always found the childhood mispronunciation really, really cute . . .

Travel:
U.S. warns about travel to two more Mexican states [*4]
India’s Kingfisher announces intent to join oneworld alliance [*5]

Sports:
Jackrabbits post sixth consecutive win [*6] — SDSU 76, IPFW 65, women’s basketball.
No. 1 Kansas beats Colorado 94-74 [*7]
UMKC loses at Western Illinois but clinches Summit League tourney spot[*8]
Samurai Zack Greinke plans to limit distractions, build on success[*9]
SDSU men’s rally falls short against IPFW [*10]
Bannister showing early signs of strong recovery from arm trouble [*11]
Jackrabbits fall at Oakland, 81-68 [*12]
Cain gets school-record 12 blocks as Lady Vols prevail [*13]
Jayhawks clinch share of Big 12 with win over OU [*14]
K-State announces cuts to athletic budget [*15]
SDSU women fall to third place [*16]
Tuesday Tidbits [*17]

Science Fiction and Writing:
Ten of the best monsters in literature [*18]
Ten rules for writing fiction [*19]

Science, technology, and space:
Head Case: Can psychiatry be a science? [*20]

Miscellany (amusing things not fitting above, or below):
NCBI ROFL: Did Gollum have schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder? [*21]
AMERICAN FOOD AND DRINK DAYS [*22] — For your future gustatory planning . . .
It’s come to this: California town to charge $300 for … 911 calls [*23] — We’re used to jaw-droppingly stupid from California, but this?
Mo. Family Says Energy Drinks Hurt Teen [*24]
Would you dump a woman for using a coupon? [*25] — Or would you marry one who used a coupon on the first date, like mine did?
Family Moves After Getting ‘Makeover’ Home: Iraq War Veteran Patrick Tutwiler Got New Home After Chapman Tornado [*26]
Are we reaching the end of Hip Hop and Rap as dominant musical genres? [*27]
My Top 10 Least Anticipated Movies for 2010 [*28]
When It Comes to Salt, No Rights or Wrongs. Yet. [*29]

SECTION THREE: Politics: The neverending battle against blithering idiocy:
IT’S A TRAP!!!:
Up Next! On Live TV! A Battle Over … Health Care? [*30]
Teaming Up with the Democrats? [*31]
House Republican Leader John Boehner: Obama’s Health Care Proposal Jeopardizes Summit [*32]
The Coming “Health Care Summit” Ambush [*33]
Mark Levin vs. Glenn Beck (And Some Other CPAC-Related Musings)

People doing potentially good things (including sightings of politicians doing something less than totally idiotic):
CNN Poll: Majority think government is broken [*34] — Identifying the problem is the first step towards solving the problem . . .
Clarence Thomas: The Pen Is Mightier Than the Microphone [*35]
Pin the Bogeyman On the Tea Party [*36]
A Real Role Model [*37]

The cure for blithering idiocy: freedom and individual liberty (yeah, I know–ooh, ick, philosophy!):
Tea-Party Power to Solve the Debt Problem [*38]
Guns: Not Just for the Home Anymore [*39] — The reason we have the Second Amendment ain’t to protect ourselves from muggers. It ain’t for duck hunting. It’s to enable the people to protect ourselves, in the extreme, from politicians who stop being representatives and start being tyrants.
Our Movement: A Time For Renewal [*40]
Plus ça change . . . [*41]
Recovery via Spending Cuts, Low Taxes, and Cheaper Government [*42]
The Politics of Giving [*43]
The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… Very Poor [*44]
Do Soldiers Drink Tea? [*45] — “For now at least, many Tea Partiers seem to want a populist coalition that focuses on economic and government reform while moving more slowly on social issues.” Amen, brother.
The story of the armed community organizers [*46] — The Second Amendment is not about duck-hunting . . .

The reality of President Obama and his entire Administration as blithering idiots:
Americans Believe Business Leaders Make Better Economic Decisions… Obama Disagrees [*47]
Rasmussen: Obama Sinks Again; His Healthcare Summit is Going to Flop [*48]
Everything Obama Thought He Knew About Health Cost Control Is Wrong [*49]
Wrong Again… Barack Obama Lectures America About Rising Sea Levels (Video) [*50]
Removing All Doubt: Obama the Socialist [*51]
Biggest sign that White House deficit panel is a joke: O wants to appoint Andy Stern [*52]
New Climate Agency Head Tried to Suppress Data, Critics Charge [*53]
White House Contradicts CBO, Misleads on Insurance Rate Increases [*54]

The reality of Washington Democrats (and Independents, and Socialists) as blithering idiots:
Harry Reid pretty excited about Obama’s bill despite not knowing how much it’ll cost [*55]
Harry Reid: Men, When They’re Out of Work, Tend to be Abusive [*56]
CNN Poll: Three-fourths think federal officials not honest [*57] — And I invite you to speculate on what political party most federal officials belong to . . .

The reality of Washington Republicans as blithering idiots:
McCain: I was misled into supporting TARP [*58]
Perils of Populism [*59]
Oh my: Scott Brown to vote with Dems on Obama’s jobs bill [*60] — Well, he is a Massachusetts Republican . . .

Other blithering idiots at large making life difficult for regular folks:
Colin Powell’s Endorsement of Barack Obama Will Live… in Infamy [*61]
If massive surveillance does not stop Money Laundering, why do we have it? [*62]

Opposition Research: because blithering idiocy can be dangerous, especially when organized into idiotic groups with idiotic ideologies:
“They have no right to tell me what to do.” [*63] — “An opinion enforced at gunpoint has ceased to remain merely an opinion.”
Dem Precinct Worker Admits Stealing Votes [*64]
The War on Truth [*65]
The Fraud of Progressive Nobility [*66] — It is not a virtue to be generous with somebody else’s money.
Question: Does the Left’s hatred manifest differently when aimed at a man versus a woman? [*67]
Progress Into Entropy [*68] — “Progressives” aren’t.
The Dangers Of Reactive Populism [*69]
ACORN Crime Family Shutting Down Nationwide: Launching Renaming Effort [*70]
Who Cares About Race? [*71] — People on the right, in general, don’t. People on the left, on the other hand, seem obsessed with skin melanin content . . .
Entitled to a Job [*72]
Price Controls by Any Other Name [*73] — “Now, nearly two millennia later, President Obama seems determined to demonstrate how little we’ve learned.”

The Keith Olbermann Memorial “Special Comment” on blithering idiots in the Media:
Breitbart Gets Hit, Punches Back Twice as Hard [*74]
Correction Request: Keith Olbermann, MSNBC [*75] — I’ll take the alpaca in this one . . .

SECTION FOUR: Case Studies in Blithering Idiocy
“Global warming” aka “Climate change” — or should that be “Climate Reform?”:
Where Did the Global Warming Go? The President Explains It For You… [*76]
Bringing Skillful Observation Back To Science [*77]
Fudged Fevers in the Frozen North [*78]
2009 paper confirming IPCC sea level conclusions withdrawn, mistakes cited [*79] — So, we scare the hell out of the Maldivians on the basis of incorrect science! Nice.
Obama’s Clean Energy Ploy a Sucker’s Game for GOP [*80] — It’s ANOTHER TRAP!

Health care “reform” aka health insurance “reform” — or should that be health care “change?” Perhaps “Global healthing?:
Obama Declares Legislative War [*81]
Harry Reid Says He’ll Ram Obamacare Through in 60 Days With 51 Votes [*82]
Cook: Health Care Is Obama’s Iraq [*83] — “it’s very hard to come up with a scenario where Democrats don’t lose the House. It’s very hard.”
Here come government health care price controls; Update: Obamacare 2.0$$ unveiled [*84] — Price controls are only advocated by economically illiterate people . . .
White House Promises to Ram Obamacare Through Congress Via Reconciliation Process [*85]
Obama Unveils His Health Care Plan: More Expensive, More Controlling [*86]
Meet the New Plan, Same as the Old Plan [*87]
Obama: Socialize Health Insurance [*88]
Top Dem Says House Will Pass Obamacare With More Votes the 2nd Time Around [*89]
CBO to White House: We can’t score your health care crap sandwich [*90]
ObamaCare, the Upgrade [*91]
Democrats’ Divisive Politics of Health Care “Reconciliation” [*92]
Targeting Health Insurance Companies Not the Answer to Healthcare Reform [*93]
Obama’s Plan In Two Words [*94] — “Balloon Mortgage.”
Voodoo Obamanomics: More Creepy Tales of the Undead Zombie Health Care Plan — “When the White House proposes a massive new entitlement program and then requires its spokeswoman to claim that the administration can provide no estimate of the cost because the plan hasn’t yet been scored by CBO . . . Well, my dear Doctor Watson, this could be an important clue.
41% Favor Obamacare; 56% Oppose — Dems Plan to Ram It Through Anyway [*95]

The Economy (Can the blithering idiots bring down the most productive economy the world has ever seen? Yes, They Can! Will they?):
Are the Democrats Coming After Your Savings? [*96]
Today is The First Day of The Rest of Your Life Under The Credit CARD Act. Which Means, Get Ready For All Sorts of New Fees. [*97]
The ‘Stimulus’ Actually Raised Unemployment [*98]
Prepare for the Next Bubble…For a Made Up Commodity [*99]
This is what happens when government meddles in the market [*100]
What, Me Worry? Credit Default Swaps on US Treasuries [*101]
FDIC on its knees [*102]

Foreign affairs and National Security (Will blithering idiots get us all killed, or make us all speak Spanish–or Chinese–or Arabic–or all three?):
What If We Won A War And No One Cared?[*103]

The Morning Whip is a (mostly) daily review of what’s out there that caught my attention, sometimes but not always posted before 11 am Central time in the U. S. of A., unless I just don’t feel like it that day, am out doing something more important or more fun, or I’ve been abducted, detained, arrested, or otherwise flummoxed by the agents of blithering idiotry.

I surf the Web, so you don’t have to! (which would be a trademark, but come on, who am I kidding?)