Winer Olympics are upon us.  And I don't care.  I used to be able to care a little when the Soviets and East Germans loomed on the horizon.  And ice hockey.  But the winter olympics are sports I can't/don't relate to.  Didn't participate in.  I skied a little in HS and didn't put on ice skated until I was a junior.  And most of the events contested now didn't even EXIST when I was growin' up.  In MY childhood the best part of the winter olympics was the fact that the pertended the coming of the SUMMER Olympics. And my ONE "WO Memory" is being in a van with a bunch of other memebers of the ONU track team, somewhere north of Atlanta, when the Miracle on Ice happened.

Many "elite" colleges have "quarter abroad" programs.  The Boy spent a summer in Prague on such a program.  They need more options.  How about a quarter working in the oild fields of North Dakota?  How about a quarter of waiting tables at a Denny's in Omaha or a working a McDonalds in suburban Indianapolis?  Real world lessons there.

Feminism confuses me.  Kevin Wilson recently defined it as

the words ‘I Want!’ in the mouths of three or more women, provided they’re the right kind of women.” Feminism must therefore accommodate wildly incompatible propositions — e.g., (1) Women unquestionably belong alongside men in Marine units fighting pitched battles in Tora Bora but (2) really should not be expected to be able to perform three chin-ups. Or: (1) Women at Columbia are empowered by pornography but (2) women at Wellesley are victimized by a statue of a man sleepwalking in his Shenanigans. And then there is Fluke’s Law: (1) Women are responsible moral agents with full sexual and economic autonomy who (2) must be given an allowance, like children, when it comes to contraceptives.

Went to the theater last night to see a show that I'd done 30 years ago.  I rarely see shows I've done.  Last night reminded me of why.  I kept seeing me doing my part (better than the actor trying to do it) and hearing the other actors in "my" production delivering lines with a MUCH better line reading than the one I was watching.  The actors on stage deserved better from me, but I just couldn't deliver it.  They were unable to overcome a much better production.

First we have his Veep, Crazy Uncle Joe, starting to get a little more face time: Joe Biden: LaGuardia Could Be Mistaken for '3rd World Country' I'm NO fan of LGA but it ain't Botswana!

Second, even Donks are noticing how bad O-care is (and I'm gonna start calling it that because that's how much "care" went into it and that's how much care most folks are now getting): Falling Through ObamaCare’s Floor? A Mess At The Bottom Of ObamaCare. “The President may decry the lack of economic mobility in America–but he better hope there’s not much mobility up and down around the $20,000-$25,000 level, or else lots of people will be discovering that they’ve been signed up for the wrong health care program. Obamacare’s designers seem to have assumed we really are a corporatist society, with different classes assigned to stable economic levels for life.”  That "corporatist" theme will appear again soon in another post.

Then there's the IRS: Trey Gowdy: Why would Obama prejudge the IRS investigation?  Can you hear Nixon saying "There's not even a smidgen of corruption in Watergate?"

and finally - the smart diplomacy.  We've covered a few of these already but today brings us

The top U.S. diplomat for Europe apologized Thursday for comments about the European Union that were — to put it lightly — undiplomatic.

“F— the E.U.,” Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said in a private telephone call that was intercepted and leaked online. . . . State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged that the recording was authentic and said Nuland had apologized to E.U. officials.

The Obama Administration.  A class act, top to bottom.

through Obamaland.

White House: Americans out of Workforce No Longer 'Trapped in a Job'  I feel so liberated!

Awkward: CBO More Than Doubles Estimate of Negative Employment Effect of “ObamaCare”  So THAT'S why I'm no longer trapped.

If Bush/Romney/Palin had said this: While interacting with a seventh grade math class at Buck Lodge Middle School in Maryland during a discussion about the Mars Rover, a student told Obama that there were tornadoes on Mars.  

"They've got storms there? Now that I did not know," Obama said, according to pool reports.

The Obamacare Jobs Plan: Turn On, Sign Up, Drop Out. Why not, since I'm no longer trapped.

and not on point but: New Cover Oregon allegations: ‘If it’s true, someone’s going to prison.’ “Former Republican state Rep. Patrick Sheehan told the KATU Investigators he has gone to the FBI with allegations that Cover Oregon project managers initiated the design of dummy web pages to convince the federal government the project was further along than it actually was.”

It's Potemkyn Villages as far as the eye can see.

Haven't visited this topic in a while.  May have hit this one before but it popped up on my radar again (due to Hamline's new helmet.)

Knights.  The only boring one on the list.  Johnnies and Tommmies (remeniscent of the Johnnies and Freddies here in central Ohio.)   Then the GOOD one:  Augies, Cobbers, Pipers (the aforementioned Hamline), Royals, Gusties and Olies.

 Ladies and Gentlemen, YOUR Minnesota Inercolegiate Athletic Conference!

I use the phrase too much.  But some Donks are abusing the privledge.  There are half a dozen Senate races that will dictate who controls the upper chamber in DC after 2014.  Louisiana and Alaska are two of them.  The incumbent Donk Sens are trying to hold on and are bragging.  

Both Begich (AK) and Landrieu (LA) can brag they are on the list of the 10 Senate Democrats who opposed Obama the most last year – even though each of them broke with the president on only 3 percent of the roll calls where he made clear in advance the outcome that he wanted.

[We] are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all man are…

A man is accountable to no person for his doings.

[O]ne of the most essential branches of…liberty is the freedom of one’s house.

A man’s house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ…would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom-house officers may enter our houses when they please…break…everything in their way; and whether they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court may inquire.

The end of government being the good of mankind…It is above all things to provide for the security, the quiet and happy enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. There is no one act which a government can have a right to make, that does not tend to the advancement of the security, tranquility and prosperity of the people…The necessity of a common, indifferent and impartial judge, makes all men seek one; though few find him in the sovereign power.

Taxation without representation is tyranny.

Can there be any liberty where property is taken away without consent?

Obama's been using, and threatening to use, executive orders a LOT.  After demonizing Bush for doing so.  His supporters are defend him with "well, Bush did it TOO!"  Really?  That's your defense?  The man you claimed to be the worst prexy EVAH did it so it's ok for the chosen-one-ligh-worker-Jesus-like Obama to do it?

Besides, there are three BIG reasons Obama's use is different.  Keep in mind there ARE good reasons to use EO's.  (Or, if using them on a farm bill, EIEIOs)  The current occupant of 1600 Pa Ave isn't relying on them.

The first is that Obama is using executive orders and actions to alter his own legislation. It's one thing to claim that you are forced to act because Congress will not. It's quite another thing to re-write the law after Congress has done what you asked--and after you have offered, time and time again, to entertain formal amendments to the legislation. Obama has simply invoked executive authority to cover up his own errors. That's unprecedented.

The second way in which Obama's abuse of executive power is different is that he has done it to prevent the legislature from acting. It is now widely acknowledged that the president issued his "Dream Act by fiat" in 2012 not just because Congress wouldn't pass his version of immigration reform, but to outflank Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was preparing his own version, embarrassing Obama among Latino voters. Such pettiness is rare.

The third way in which Obama's behavior is unusual is that he commands sweeping executive power on some issues while arguing, on other issues, that he has no power to act. The president's recent speech about the NSA surveillance programs is a prime example of such self-contradiction. There is no constitutional doctrine behind the president's executive orders, actions, and omissions: there is just pure, cynical political expediency.

A final note. Some apologists for President Obama's power grabs  compare his actions to those of President Abraham Lincoln when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It is an absurd comparison, one chosen to flatter Obama's failing pseudo-heroic image. If anything, Obama's executive excesses tend to make us less free. He is not governing in the tradition of Lincoln, but that of Woodrow Wilson--and doing far worse.

Because POTUS' repeating his version MUST not be allowed to prevail.

Over at the Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson takes on the rhetorical misuse of inequality and makes the entirely sensible point that...

...Economic inequality is usually a consequence of our problems and not a cause.

For starters, the poor are not poor because the rich are rich. The two conditions are generally unrelated. Mostly, the rich got rich by running profitable small businesses (car dealerships, builders), creating big enterprises (Google, Microsoft), being at the top of lucrative occupations (bankers, lawyers, doctors, actors, athletes), managing major companies or inheriting fortunes. By contrast, the very poor often face circumstances that make their lives desperate.

What kind of circumstances? Not graduating from high school and having kids before getting married.

A few weeks back, citing recent Congressional Budget Office data I explained "Why President Obama Is Wrong on Inequality":

Are the rich getting richer? Yes. Are the poor getting poorer? No. In fact, over the past 35 years most Americans got richer. Has income inequality increased in the United States? Yes....

...from 1979 and 2010, the last year for which data are available, the bottom fifth's after-tax income in constant dollars rose by 49 percent. The incomes of households in the second lowest, middle, and fourth quintiles increased by 37 percent, 36 percent, and 45 percent, respectively. The poor and the middle class got richer.

Burtless then divides the households situated in the top fifth of incomes into four groups: those in 90th percentile and below, those in the 91st through 95th percentiles, those in the 96th through 99th percentiles, and the top 1 percent. From 1979 to 2010, incomes for those fortunate households increased by 54 percent, 67 percent, 79 percent, and 202 percent, respectively. The rich got richer too, and they got richer faster.

Americans in the top 1 percent are convenient scapegoats. They don’t naturally command much sympathy, and their rewards sometimes seem outsized or outlandish. When most people are getting ahead, they don’t worry much about this economic inequality. When progress stalls, they do. There’s a backlash and a tendency to see less economic inequality as a solution to all manner of problems. We create simplistic narratives and imagine that punishing the rich will miraculously uplift the poor. This vents popular resentments, even as it encourages self-deception.

For more background see Reason.com editor Nick Gillespie's excellent column, "Why Obama Can't Solve Inequality" over at The Daily Beast.

Oscar Nominee:  Gravity.  Really liked it, even with the science flaws.  It, or rather She, was enjoyable and watchable.  Worth your time.

My list:  High Noon.  Gary Cooper and Princess Grace.  Altruism.  A bunch of cowardly citizns.  Thomas Mitchel.  Loyds Bridges.  Katy Jurado as the exotic one.  Lon Chany Jr as the father in law.  Harry Morgan.  Lee Van Cleef and Sheb Wolley as the bad guys.  Run time 85 minutes.  Takes place directly over 80 minutes.  Wonderful story telling and film making.  No big explosions.  No car chases.  Just people and situations and relationships.  Worth your time.

Flickchart list:  Goodfellas.  I enjoy it until the drugs start.  Good movie but not in my top 500.  

February .... Jasmine Blue, Fight Club and The Magnificent Seven.