WHY HAVE WE ALL FAILED OUR WONDROUS LEADER SO BADLY? Obama at Mosque: ‘Betrays Our Values’ to Say ‘Islam Itself’ at Root of Terrorism.

Huh — I can remember when Obama thought American values were so evil, he was all for “fundamentally transforming” them.

Good to see though that Obama is now perfectly fine with one group of Americans bitterly clinging to their God and weapons. I guess he’s “grown in office” that way, to borrow from the old MSM cliche.

UM, REALLY? Obama compares his work on the economy to his gym routine.

Because I’ve seen his workout video.

HOPE AND CHANGE: Number Of Americans Renouncing Their U.S. Citizenship Hits All-Time High: Up 25% From 2014, 560% From Bush Administration High.

OBAMA TO PROPOSE UNDERMINING OBAMACARE?: Yep, you read that right. The Washington Examiner is reporting that President Obama’s budget proposal is expected to include a narrowing of Obamacare’s so-called “Cadillac tax” of 40 percent on benefits-rich health insurance plans.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman and chief economist Matthew Fiedler wrote that the budget, to be published next week, will propose raising the threshold for the cost of plans affected by the tax.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Aetna Joins Growing Chorus Warning About ObamaCare Failing.

WHAT ARE NEW YORK OFFICIALS HIDING ABOUT THE FAILURE OF THE BIGGEST OBAMACARE CO-OP? Richard Pollock of the Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has been all over the 23 Obamacare co-ops established in 2011 at a cost of $2 billion since their inception. Health Republic, the largest of the tax-funded health insurance co-ops intended to compete with for-profit commercial health insurers, has been a particular Pollock focus because founder Sara Horowitz is a long-time political ally of President Obama. Horowitz got $355 million for Health Republic and more millions for co-ops in New Jersey and Oregon.

When Health Republic failed last Fall, it left 210,000 New Yorkers scrambling for new coverage during the holiday season. Pollock has been after documents explaining why the co-op failed but has run into brick walls. The latest one is a rejection by the New York Department of Financial Services. Doctors and hospitals in the Empire State could lose nearly $300 million in unpaid bills for services rendered to Health Republic policyholders. The DFS was established in 2011 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. One of his political proteges ran DFS until last May when he abruptly resigned. The stench here is getting stronger.

with the passing of J Scalia LOTS of things are up in the air.  I'll be addressing them over the coming days.  I want to make sure my info is correct and semi-organized.  Don't wanna rush into it.  Who do you think I am, the NYT or MSNBC?  For now, we'll stick withthe tried and true. 

Poynter: The Guardian misfires with gun show exposé. “While the video makes for interesting viewing, in my judgment, the story isn’t fair. It was theatrics masquerading as even-handed reporting. From the very beginning of the video, it was clear the journalists counted on causing a stir on the convention floor. . . . But many of the more than 1,000 comments attached to the story are not critical of gun advocates. They are critical of the reporter who broke key safety rules and by doing so revealed a lack of expertise on the subject he was covering. In one instance, he aimed a weapon at someone. He also put his finger on the trigger of another rifle. Even novices learn the first rule in handling a gun safely is to treat it as if it were loaded and never point it at anybody.”

Jackson, Mississippi, City Council member Kenneth Stokes is calling for an investigation of a local gun dealer who posted a sign saying that people who vote for Stokes or President Barack Obama are too stupid to own a gun. "If this gun dealer feels that it’s legal for him to display negative images of the president of the United States, keep in mind that he must have some kind of license," Stokes said. "We’re asking the attorney general of the United States to do an investigation and let’s see whether the rules and regulations have been violated."

SHOCKER: Anti-Gunners’ Predictions of Chaos, Mass Death Wrong Again. “For the first time since 1871, Texans are permitted to openly carry their firearms. Beginning January 1, Texas joined the majority of the country by allowing open carry, reports The Star-Telegram. Some predicted that the law would lead to a surge of 911 calls, but according to Cpl. Tracey Knight, spokeswoman for the Fort Worth Police Department, not much has occurred.”

Best quote, from Texas Sheriff Dee Anderson: “I said before this became law that I thought it was going to be much ado about nothing, but I didn’t know it was going to be this much nothing.”

Just finished Candide by Voltaire.  Fun, light and an easy read.  Not at all what I expected.  Grab a copy and read it just so you can SAY you've read it.  Lit Street Cred.

Always working The Federalist Papers.  Started at #1last month,

Since it's Black History Month I'm hitting King's letters from the Birmingham jail and Frederick Douglass' What to a Slave is the Fourth of July.

About half way through Ovid's Metamorphosis.  Last touched Bullfinch's Myhology a dozen years ago so it's nice to get a fresh take on some of the stories.

Nietzsche's Between Good and Evil:  still in the early pages.  Convoluted but readable in small bites.

 Rawls Theory of Justice.   Taught the damned thing for five years.  Figure I'd better read the original.

Finishing up Rosseau's Social Contract and Aristotle's The Politics.

Y'know.  Just light stuff here and there.

I've been saying this for weeks: “There were portions of Trump’s Plymouth speech that sounded like Bernie Sanders, if Sanders had Trump’s sense of showmanship.”

OUCH: John Lewis on Sanders’ Civil Rights Activism: ‘I Never Saw Him.’

VA reverses demotion of second disgraced official.

But don't worry, the Progs will get it right THIS time: Margaret Sanger’s Eugenics Heyday in the Federal Government

But don't worry, the Progs will get it ri.....oh who are we kidding?!  Even More Evidence BMI Isn’t a Good Measure of Health

Will Environmentalists Force California to Choose "Dirty" Energy Over Clean Nuclear?

Hottest year ever update: El Niño effect in 2015 was 20 times larger than the global warming signal

An Inconvenient truth: Electric-car battery materials could harm key soil bacteria

Amnesty Report: Green Battery Technology Built on a Foundation of Child Abuse

Campus silliness continues apace.

“It’s really scary that values other than truth have become sacred.  And what I keep trying to say – this comes right out of my book The Righteous Mind – is that you can’t have two sacred values.  Because what do you do when they conflict?  And in the academy now, if truth conflicts with social justice, truth gets thrown under the bus.”

At least until the grownups return to clean up the mess.

a bit long but worth it imho: THE MOROZ FAMILY – FROM THE SOVIET UNION TO THE LIBERAL GULAG:

Unexpectedly: Federal Student Aid, Not Faculty Salaries, Is Primary Driver Of Escalating Tuition.

More Ivy League Racism: Harvard med students demand diversity, but no more Asians please.

At NewsBusters, Tom Blumer writes:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin referred to Madeleine Albright’s somewhat well-known saying, found on a Starbucks coffee cup, that “There’s a special place in Hell for women who don’t help other women.” At the time, Albright, who served as Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, huffed: “Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics.” She naturally followed that statement with an intense political attack on Palin and GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

Now that Democrat Hillary Clinton is running for president and is in danger of losing the New Hampshire primary by a substantial margin, Albright has decided that her statement has everything to do with politics, and that women who don’t support Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy and vote for her deserve that “special place in Hell.”

IDENTICAL HEADLINES, EIGHT YEARS APART:

WHEN HISTORY RHYMES AT SALON:

● “Hillary’s race against time.”
—Headline, Salon, March 12, 2008.

● “It’s almost over for Hillary: This election is a mass insurrection against a rigged system.”
—Headline, Salon, this past Sunday.