Dem Congressman: We Must Have Campaign Finance Disclosure To Stop Republicans From Getting Elected.

and

NPR LAMENTS the “tyranny of the constituency.” Stupid voters.

land on the moon, swiftly win wars against weak opposition and then control the defeated nation, secure national borders, discover “breakthrough” medical treatments, prevent crime, design and build to a tight deadline, educate people so they are ready to work before the age of 22, block an undersea oil leak…

Medical/psychiatric gadfly Bruce Charlton, professor of theoretical medicine at the University of Buckingham (in England), thinks he knows the answer: because the human spirit has been “overwhelmed by bureaucracy.”

Those quotes are from a striking entry on Bruce’s blog, headlined “Human capability peaked before 1975 and has since declined.” Read the whole thing here.

...

Maybe Charlton is right. Maybe this explains why subduing a bunch of goat-herds in the Hindu Kush is taking longer than it took to subdue the fully mobilized German and Japanese empires -- a lot longer. And why sending Mexican illegals back home was a breeze in 1954 but colossaly impossible in 2010, and why we could conquer smallpox but can’t cure Alzheimers, and why it takes 15 years to execute a murderer, and why we can’t stop the gulf leak, and why…

from No We Can't -- By: John Derbyshire

Part One:

"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works."

That's a "teary" Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), on the financial overhaul bill assembled by leaders in both houses this week. So Dodd, the chair of the committee with jurisdiction over the bill, has no idea how the bill work. Which also means he has no idea if it will work. Which also means he has no idea if the bill will do more harm than good. Nonetheless, he's certain it was needed, and is proud to have helped make it happen.

Part Two:

 In the comments section addressing Foreign Central Banks Going for the Gold

The election of Obama was really the penultimate expression of our social and political neurosis. Think about it. He was black so he allowed people to feel good about themselves voting for a black man. Racial neurosis check. He was young, so it allowed people to think they were going to relive JFK. Boomer nostalgia neurosis, check. And he was from the upper middle class uber educated doucheoisie. Status and class neurosis check.

It was really all there. A perfect storm of shallow stupidity.

Part Three:

In the comments section of On Being a 21st-Century Peasant

The other thing that amuses me is that we end up in some kind of subsistence peasant lifestyle either way. If we ignored these clowns, all of their gloom and doom predictions turned out to be true, we would end up in the same place that we would be in if we had followed their advice, except of course that they wouldn't be in charge.

I used to apply this to "gun control" but now it's applicable to the whole Gulf situation as well.  "Before we pass a bunch of NEW laws (regulations) lets try enforcing the OLD ones."

We keep hearing from the lef that the economy, the housing/banking meltdown, the Gulf situation are ALL the result of not enough regulations. 

And yet ...

Regulators Failed to Address Risks in Oil Rig Fail-Safe Device.

Federal Gov’t Halts Sand Berm Dredging: Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue.

Govt. Required BP to Use Flawed Models In Cleanup Planning

The EPA has gone mad cow disease: EPA classifies milk as oil

IDIOTIC PC SAFETY RULES: “Transocean’s ban on employee knife possession nearly killed several BP drilling rig survivors, by preventing them from cutting the rope that attached the life boat to the drilling rig.”

And Obama took the cash to look the other way: OSHA: BP Less Safe Than Other Oil Companies

especially the blue hat.

An up and coming pundit named Richard Cohen writes:

It can seem that at the heart of Barack Obama’s foreign policy is no heart at all. It consists instead of a series of challenges — of problems that need fixing, not wrongs that need to be righted. As Winston Churchill once said of a certain pudding, Obama’s approach to foreign affairs lacks theme. So, it seems, does the man himself.

For instance, it’s not clear that Obama is appalled by China’s appalling human rights record. He seems hardly stirred about continued repression in Russia. He treats the Israelis and their various enemies as pests of equal moral standing. The president seems to stand foursquare for nothing much.

This, of course, is the Obama enigma: Who is this guy? What are his core beliefs?

Who indeed. If only Cohen worked for an organization that had people paid to gather facts and…what’s the word I’m looking for — reported them to the public — yes, that’s it! — before going all in on a candidate. Perhaps someone should invent such a business. It could combine a mass audience with a veneer of… hmmm, what’s a word that rhymes with mass? Class! Yes, that’s it.

You could print it on paper for a retro vibe  and call it news on paper, a paper of news, something like that. I’m sure there’s got to be a catchier name for it, and it’ll come to me eventually. But in these days of media experimentation, such a venture could really catch on with elitist readers, particularly inside the Washington Beltway.

A few takes from Patreus' FIRST go round:

Media Promoted Military Criticism Of President Bush. Well, sure. Under a Republican President, it’s listen to the generals. Under a Democratic President, it’s all about civilian control of the military. 

As the Obama Replaces McChrystal with Petraeus story broke, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds noted that MoveOn.org had quickly removed its long-standing “General Betray-Us” ad, and snarked:

Have you noticed how these people are always airbrushing? It’s kind of an admission that their stuff won’t sell if they tell the truth. . . .

They are very busy bees. Over at Ann Althouse’s site, one comment began the arduous work of re-writing history on the internet with this forehead-slapper:

The same guy who the right wing dubbed “General Betrayus”…that same guy. I do wish I was born with the short life memories possessed by the neuvo-recht.

Hmmm and Hmmm.

It is very difficult to airbrush or re-write history in the age of the ‘nets. Unless, of course, you manage to increasingly regulate media until you have have ultimate power over it.

Just One Minute has more about airbrushing

UPDATE:
For another side to this coin, go back to Instapundit and catch the links on how the left responds to judges who thwart their will

Podesta and his wife Heather aren’t just any lobbyists. Tony’s brother John — who now heads the liberal think tank Center for American Progress — led Obama’s transition team and has been dubbed the “shadow president” because of his close ties to the White House. Tony and Heather Podesta each have visited the White House seven times, according to public visitor logs.

Venezuela to nationalize U.S. firm's oil rigs 

Last week Barack Obama told Politico that the BP oil spill was like 9-11–
But, it’s been over 60 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and he’s only sent 20 of 2,000 US oil skimmer boats to the coast of Florida.

Senator George LeMieux of Florida told the Shark Tank that there are only 20 skimmer boats off the coast of Florida out of 2,000 available skimmer boats in the United States. Lemieux says that Obama is afraid to move them to Florida because there won’t be any in place in case there is an oil leak somewhere else.

While the White House really, really wants you believe that they have their boot on the neck of BP, it turns out that a key Administration official had his head inserted somewhere else just three short years ago. Do you think NOBEL LAUREATE (and Secretary of Energy) Steven Chu still thinks BP is going to help save the world?

The TV series ... it's been harsh on W but has pulled no punches over Nagin, Blanco and the rest of the local Donks responsable for the tragedy.  Watching last week's episode I was reminded of one of President Obama's Inauguraion Day promises to the people of the Gulf:  Obama’s Broken Inauguration Day Promise to Gulf Coast: ‘Never Again Such Failures.’

How's that workin' out for all y'all?

At some level, I’ll agree, this is not our business. North of five million people have been slaughtered in the Congo this past twelve years, and nobody much (no, not me—how about you?) has lost a wink of sleep over it.

. . . [But] the Congo is nothing to me. Israel is something to me. It’s an outpost of my civilization, organized on principles I agree with, inhabited by people I could live at ease with. They defend themselves, their borders, their interests, with the kind of vigor and thick-skinned determination I’d like to see my nation display. (If only!) I admire them and wish them well.

There’s an affinity. In some tenuous sense, they are me, and I am them. The Gazans? I’ll care about them right after I start caring about the Congo.

were about soccer?

From the good folks at

Hoosiers

A small-town high school struggles to adapt to a new soccer coach who demands a defensive style. The townsfolk want a more open, offensive-style that will feature the talents of the town's one-name star: Jimaldo. Despite the struggles, the team starts to win and peaks in the final match of the season with a 12-0 victory over an inner city school that doesn't have the funding or interest to support a soccer program.

Rudy

A boy named Rudy Ruettiger grows up in Charlottesvile, Virginia, home of the Virginia Cavaliers, a premier college soccer program. He dreams of playing one day for the Cavaliers. However, he has one problem: he is 6-foot-5 and a muscled 265 pounds -- way too big for soccer. However, the coach lets him join the team as a walk-on and, thanks to hard work, he eventually gets into a game and even records a successful slide tackle during a blowout victory over lowly Notre Dame.

Field Of Dreams

After hearing a voice tell him "If you build it, he will come," an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella decides to build a soccer field in the middle of a corn field. Everyone tells him he's crazy because, well ... soccer in Iowa? Who cares about hearing voices, soccer in Iowa is way crazier. But despite nearing bankruptcy, the farmer refuses to sell his farm because he can see greats from soccer's past playing on his pitch ... including his father as a young man. In the final dramatic scene, the farmer and his father kick a soccer ball back and forth and then trade shirts. As the camera pans away, a line of cars is seen approaching the field because Kinsella was able to book an appearance at the field by Posh Spice, the wife of David Beckham.

The Natural

A top soccer prospect, Roy Hobbs, is shot by a deranged fan (who is probably Colombian). After years away from the sport, he gets a roster spot in the MLS in his late 30s. With the help of a leather cleat made from a steer that was struck by lightning, he leads his terrible team into contention. However, the team owner wants the team to lose in hopes it will fold and end his embarrassment over owning an MLS team. As the playoffs near, the old gunshot injury opens up and puts Hobbs out of action. Yet he bravely returns for the final match and takes a clutch dive, convincing the ref he is truly injured thanks to the blood seeping out of his old wound. The free kick leads to a goal and, during the opponent's last-second attempt at an equalizer, Hobbs heads the ball away from the goal mouth and into a light standard, causing it to explode.

A League Of Their Own

A women's professional soccer league launches in hopes of catching the interest of soccer fans. The league features a no-nonsense star who just wants to play the game, as well as another player who is sexually-charged and not afraid to show her bra. The league eventually folds because no one cares about professional women's soccer. This one would be a documentary about the WUSA.