To the MEC and his remaining handful of true believers, this sort of thing makes him look like an enlightened being

. . . but to normal people, "asking for [the drone spy plane that Iran shot down] back" looks like weakness and incompetence that is guaranteed to elcit the mullahs' contempt in response.

The distinctly modern keenness to try to "fix" suffering

Worldviews from Christianity to Buddhism assert the inevitability of suffering. Why does the modern human being search for the elixir that will supposedly eradicate it forever? Michael Knox Beran at NRO looks at what happened to our species's perspective once it had begun to make some material progress, and its suffering was of a different order from what it had been when squalor was a given.

It's not the private sector that has the American public spooked

Per Gallup, the sense that big government is the greatest threat to the nation's well-being is one percentage point shy of the record - and almost half of Democrats feel that way.

How blatant do they have to get?

In case any of you are still being told that it's over the top to call the Most Equal Comrade a revolutionary socialist, the latest bit of evidence you can include in your arsenal of substantiation is his announcement of the formation of an Office of Manufacturing Policy.

Sounds like something wonky technocrats who don't think much about freedom would come up with

The American Society of Civil engineers has issued a report on the nation's infrastructure, and it's full of central-planning advocacy and not much consideration of the cost-benefit ratio.

College students with a clue

John Mearsheimer's own University of Chicago students call, in an editorial in the campus newpaper, for the anti-Israel Jew-hater to resign from the school's faculty.

The EPA has an objection to hydraulic fracking

So much so, in fact, that it is willing to release a draft of a paper that hasn't even been peer-reviewed and is full of "mays" and "probablys."

If your nose detects the odor of an agenda, you have a fine nose.

The high cost of propping up bad ideas

The latest deal to try to save the Eurozone is a classic example of the futility of laws, rules and policies that merely reiterate already-existing laws, rules and policies. ("Hate crimes" legislation here in America is another example of this.) A policy of "All you debt-ridden countries get your budgets balanced or else!" isn't going to do a stinkin' thing to turn Greece or Portugal into viable economies.

The Eurozone was a bad idea from the get-go.

HT: Sense of Events

The thunderous truth, plainly spoken

Representative Allen West R-FL on the MEC's obsesssion with "fairness."

An encouraging development

Bachmann and Perry are the latest Pub prez contenders to take a pass on the December 27 debate to be moderated by The Donald.

Here's the LITD take on the whole matter: Donald Trump is a vulgar, solipcistic huckster utterly lacking in a core set of principles beyond what he sees as the value of going through life in as hard-nosed a way as possible. He can't utter five sentences without promoting himself and talking about how fantastic and successful his empire is. He has no understanding of what really makes America great. He is the exception to the rule that allows leftists to trot out an Exhibit A example of a "greedy businessman." And the Republican party should avoid him like e boli.

Nihilism dolled up as unicorns and rainbows

Matthew Hennessey at First Things has penned a marvelously written and spot-on insightful essay on the darkness at the core of John Lennon's spirituality.

Here's how you deal with FHers

Darrell Issa puts Eric Holder on the hot seat and sears his tail end good and proper.

It's the whole way the Consumer Protection Financial Agency was fashioned that is the problem

And that's why Pubs gave a thumbs-down to Richard Cordray today.

The thunderous truth, plainly spoken

Representative Allen West R-FL on the MEC's obsesssion with "fairness."

How's this for chilling? - today's edition

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, ostensibly an impartial enforcement agency within the Department of Justice, ostensibly an impartial cabinet-level arm of the executive branch of the federal government, was, according to documents obtained by CBS (that Sheryl Atkisson is doing a heroic job of bringing all this to light), using Fast and Furious as a tool to sway Congressional and public opinion to favor a new gun regulation called Demand Letter 3.

The excitement level for this seems to be pretty much at the bottom of the graph

Tomorrow's EU summit to try to save Europe from economic collapse, that is. Merkel is dampening expectations, and Cameron is saying, "If you people want us to sign on to big changes, we will insist on a quid pro quo that will be outside your comfort zone." (My paraphrasing.)