More here.

Victor Davis Hanson on the Obama administration’s lemming-like rush to duplicate all of Europe’s mistakes:

What is surreal is that, having been given the great didactic gift of seeing the Europeans go off the cliff ahead of us, this administration has hit the accelerator, not the brakes — almost as if it wishes to beat Europe down into the abyss.

Read the whole thing here.

For what it’s worth, Elena Kagan is an anagram for “An anal geek.” Perhaps she is an obsessively neat nerd.

My profound thanks to Stephen Mansfield for bringing this to my attention.

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

I’m finding myself experiencing zen-like calm about the upcoming confirmation hearings of for Elena Kagan–our president’s pick for the latest opening of the Supreme Court.

Why? First of all Kagan is replacing a ultra-liberal justice in John Paul Stevens. She doesn’t change the ideological balance of the court in any way. Second, there is no reason to believe that, had John McCain been elected, his pick for this opening would have been much better. “Moderate” Republicans have an appalling track record in picking nominees to the court. In fact, the out-going Stevens was a Ford pick.

Until Republicans start nominating the most electable principled conservative for president instead of whomever’s “turn” it is, it’s just going to be more of the same.

So . . . yawn . . . whatever.

(hat tip: Instapundit)

What we’re seeing in Greece is the death spiral of the welfare state. This isn’t Greece’s problem alone, and that’s why its crisis has rattled global stock markets and threatens economic recovery. Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven’t fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies.

Over at Reason magazine online Tim Cavanaugh has an interesting piece up titled, “California: The American Greece. It opens thusly:

What do Europe’s most bankrupt nation-state and America’s most bankrupt united state have in common, aside from being bankrupt?

In what is undoubtedly a coincidence noticed only by free-market fundamentalists, it turns out that Greece, that sun-drenched paradise on the Aegean, and California, that sun-warmed El Dorado on the Pacific, are the worst places to do business in their respective economic zones.

Check it out.

Europe is tottering on the brink and now the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland is spewing ash again. Flights across Europe are being canceled. Not helpful.

Of course, the challenges Europe faces are almost entirely a result of pursuing policies that the current American government would love to put in place here. Among them, the strengthening of labor unions, the massive expansion of jobs in the government sector, nanny-state regulation of virtually every realm of life, and daunting regulatory disincentives for hiring new employees.

All it takes is a couple of generations of cradle-to-grave government “security” promises to produce a population that will riot when the day of reckoning finally comes. It has come to Greece. It’s right around the corner for Portugal, Spain and Britain. A populace that has swallowed the lie that the government can and should control everything from the price of food to the wages ditch diggers and doctors deserve to receive is a mob that will turn ugly when market forces do what they inevitably and invariably do.

There are still plenty of folks in this country who claim we need to emulate the policies of the European nations. And they do so with a straight face. And so talk among liberals and Democrats of adding a VAT tax to our system of individual and corporate income taxes grows.

This oil spill off of Louisiana is a big deal. In any time or any context it would be a tragedy–both environmental and economic. But in this particular time and context–a fragile, reeling economy and the most inept and misguided national leadership since Jimmy Carter and Tip O’Neil were running the show in Washington–it is potentially devastating. It is therefore a near certainty that the government will learn all the wrong lessons and prescribe solutions with negative unforeseen consequences.

Here The Pragmatic Capitalist offers “Ten Reasons to Worry.”  I prefer to think of them as ten reasons to be glad I’m a Christian, in Texas, and out of the market.

First, thanks to all for the kind comments and emails regarding my post about my mother from a few days ago. Those comments put me in mind of something I’ve been meaning to do with this blog for while now. Allow me to explain.

A little more than three years ago, I staked a claim to this happy little corner of the wild, wild web and started cultivating organically grown blog posts. Five-hundred-ninety-four posts later, it is clear that my writing here can be classified into two broad categories:

1. Musings about family, life, and faith along with quirky humor centered on retro ephemera.

2. Analysis and commentary about politics and the culture.

Given the above, it’s not surprising that I seem to have developed two distinct groups of readers. There are those who come here primarily for category 1, and another group that values the category 2 content.

In other words, there are those who come for the heart-warming and those who come for the blood-boiling. Those who come for cheer and those who come for drear. Some for witticism, some for criticism.

There is, of course, a little overlap between the two groups. But not enough to keep me from wondering if I should split the content into two separate areas.

At some point in the next few days I’ll be splitting the blog into two zones and changing the home page to create two corresponding doorways. Going forward from there, you’ll be able to bookmark whichever side of my brain you find most interesting.

As always, I’m humbled and grateful that you find your way here at all. Thank you.

Michael Ramirez is arguably the most gifted political cartoonist to come along in a generation. If he were liberal he would have a shelf full of Pulitzer prizes at home. Here’s one of his latest:

More of his stuff here.