Medary.com

Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests.
In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still and pursue the same object. The last one of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all.

-- Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Henry Lee, 1824)

Via PJ Tatler

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

--Robert Heinlein

In case you hadn't noticed . . .
As of right now, a huge swath of the country is under some kind of winter weather statement or advisory (shown in white).

From Weather Underground

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

No, not the President's "Win The Future," whatever the hell that means. The other one.

The West Wing, Season II. Via Instapundit. "Obama didn’t know what he didn’t know, yet his self-confidence was so stratospheric that once, in the context of thinking about Emanuel’s replacement, he remarked in all seriousness, “You know, I’d make a good chief of staff.”" The words idiot savant come to my mind whenever I seriously consider Barack Obama's intellectual capacity . . .

Dunning–Kruger effect. Also via Instapundit. "The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to realize their mistakes." Yeah. Barack Obama. And, actually, most of the people who think themselves the rightful rulers of this (and most other) countries.

Democrat tries to boot Giffords from committee assignment. Via Hillbuzz. California Democrat Loretta Sanchez is a nasty piece of work.

Royals are on the clock. Kansas City, we're told, has the best minor league system in all of baseball. They'd better.

NASA Press Conference: We Found a Galaxy Formed Only 500 Million Years After the Big Bang.

The Battle Over the DSM-V (Or "DSM-5," Since Roman Numerals are Getting the Axe Too). Is psychiatry suffering from its own Dunning-Kruger effect? If everyone can be diagnosed with some psychiatric problem of one kind or another, is it time to perhaps look at psychiatry itself as the problem?

Two More Cruise Lines Cancel Mazatlan Calls; Reports of Increased Violence to Blame. Princess and Holland America bail on the Mexican Pacific coast port.

The President as Micromanager. Via Instapundit. "While watching the speech, I tweeted that "Obama sounds remarkably similar to the CEOs I used to listen to on earnings calls: the ones with mediocre EPS and a failing business model." This wasn't a crack at Obama, or Democrats; it was a reaction to the content. And after watching the responses, the impression lingers--indeed, maybe it's strengthened. "

Ancient body clock keeps all life on time: studies. "The studies also suggest that the 24-hour circadian clock found in human cells is the same as that found in algae, and dates back millions of years to early life on earth. . ."

A tyranny of the heavily armed? Glenn Reynolds once again attempts to acquaint the "Reality-Based Community" with reality: "It’s not like the “bitter clinger” line is anything new. The trouble is, these folks liked the idea of a dictatorship of the proletariat, so long as it wasn’t actually, you know, proletarian. ‘Cause those proles are just icky.
. . .
"Hooded protesters. Molotov cocktails. Three dead by fire, four hospitalized. This is Piven’s idea of a proper “people’s movement.” This is the kind of violence she (Frances Fox Piven) was advocating. This is what she’d like to see happening in America, to Americans. And this is what her allies are trying to minimize, or distract attention from, by making false accusations aimed at innocent parties. Just for the record."

And, for those of you who remember the Seventies: "Whip Inflation Now!"

W T F ???

The TSA and the Department of Homeland Security look like good places to start. Other departments can do what these Keystone Cops are supposed to, but aren't.

Via Insty.

Then we can move on to other monstrosities and clusterf*cks like the Department of Education, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Elections Commission, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts, . . .

Not with a scalpel, but with an axe . . .

Where is the offended outrage from our friends on the left at this ridiculously incivil outburst, where a Congressmen accuse his fellow House members of being, essentially, members of the German Nazi party of Adolph Hitler? Surely anything that pegs the Godwin's Law meter is a textbook example of incivil discourse, isn't it?

Of course, there will be no expressions of disapproval from the leftist mainstream media or the socialist Democrats. This guy is just saying what they all really think.

The only appropriate, civil response is: BITE ME.

Playtime is over, dickweeds. You've been taking advantage of the better nature and, frankly, the superior morality of your political opponents and victims for far too long.

Guess what? You've gone too far.

You have sown the wind, and you shall reap the whirlwind. Dickweeds.

You want civility?

You first.

See, there's a very, very popular saying and sentiment among the regular people, the Country Class, the just-plain-folks that you self-styled leftist/"progressive"/elitists so clearly despise. It is:

"Never start a fight. But always finish one."

Now, my fellow Americans who have nothing but contempt and disdain for so many of your own countrymen . . . would any--ANY of you care to "revise and extend your remarks?"

“We’ve had some incidents where TSA authorities think that congresspeople should be treated like everybody else,” he said. “Well, the fact of the matter is, we are held to a higher standard in so many other areas, and I think we need to take a hard look at exactly how the TSA interact with members of Congress.”

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), assistant minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Can't you just feel the sense of entitlement oozing from this guy?

Back of the line, buddy.

I couldn't have said this better myself:

For a decade, from the election of Bush 43 forward, the Left has lied and cheated as it tried to return to power. Al Gore made a mockery out of the American electoral system by being a spoilsport over Florida, which Bush indeed won by 537 votes. Dan Rather forged a document to try to derail Bush’s re-election. Twice Democrats stole U.S. senators from the Republicans. After voting to support the war to get by the 2002 election, many Democrats quickly soured on the war. The profane protests were cheered by liberals who misattributed “dissent is the highest form of patriotism” to Thomas Jefferson; the words belong to the late historian Howard Zinn.

Once in power, liberals were the opposite of gracious.

For two years now, I have been called ignorant, racist, angry and violent by the left. The very foul-mouthed protesters of Bush dare to now label my words as “hate speech.”

Last week, the left quickly blamed the right for the national tragedy of a shooting spree by a madman who never watched Fox News, never listened to Rush Limbaugh and likely did not know who Sarah Palin is.

Fortunately, the American public rejected out of hand that idiotic notion that the right was responsible.

Rather than apologize, the left wants to change the tone of the political debate.

The left suddenly wants civil discourse.

Bite me.

The left wants to play games of semantics.

Bite me.

The left wants us to be civil — after being so uncivil for a decade.

Bite me.

Oh, there's more where that came from. Go and read it here. Don Surber, the guy who wrote it, works for a newspaper. In Flyover Country, of course.

Why were t-shirts handed out?

What is going on here? I mean, what is really going on here?