WHEN KIDS ARE FAT, is it because parents are irresponsible?

Poor parents: They’ve got more responsibility, but less authority, than at any time in human history. It’s no wonder fewer people are bothering to have kids.

OBAMA damage control.

GEORGIA WOMAN VICTIMIZED by draconian sex laws. Tar. Feathers.

DEMOCRATS HIT ROUGH PATCH: “Over a period of fewer than 10 days, Democrats have seen their nominee go down in defeat in the Georgia Senate runoff – eliminating the prospect of a filibuster-proof majority – lost two winnable House races in Louisiana and witnessed House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) sink deeper into ethics trouble. Then there’s the still-unfolding Illinois Senate debacle, which exposed Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s tawdry attempts to auction off President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat and forced Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) to hold a press conference Wednesday denying any inappropriate discussions with the governor.”

And there’s still the Chris Dodd “Friends of Angelo” business simmering in the background. . . .

I’M CONFUSED: Via the miracle of Technorati (er, well, it’s a miracle when it works!) I find this post by Mark Kleiman accusing me of “hyper-masculinity.”

The two main features of glibertarianism, as far as I can tell, are hatred of government (cast as worship of the “free market”) and hyper-masculinity.

Gee, I thought, what hyper-masculine thing have I done now? But when I followed the link, I got this post, which reads, in its entirety:

HOT AIR looks at a murder in Knoxville.

So either extreme pithiness is hyper-masculine — in which case I plead guilty! — or Kleiman’s standards for hyper-masculinity are awfully low, to include a world-class dweeb such as myself. How low? So low he must be getting wedgies from the Chess Club . . . .

I don’t blog about Coase very much, either. The brown acid is bad, Mark. Don’t take the brown acid.

UPDATE: Kleiman responds with an update linking to an interview we did with Conn Iggulden, author of The Dangerous Book for Boys. I’ve been having archive issues since yesterday for some reason, and so his original link may have gone astray for a while — I should have thought of that, but all the problems I was aware of had to do with older archives, from 2001-02. But if you think The Dangerous Book for Boys is “hyper-masculine,” then, well, you’re still at risk from the Chess Club. Of which I was a proud member, as befits us hyper-masculine types!

Of course, maybe this interview on The Daring Book for Girls makes me “hyper-feminine.” I mean, why wouldn’t it? That’s okay — I’m comfortable in my androgyny, hypermasculine as it is!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader David Rowell thinks “Chess Club Wedgies” is a good name for a band. Yeah, it would have been a good song title for The Poindexters, a geek-rock band I was writing songs for a few years back, too. They never really got off the ground, despite a heartfelt tribute song aimed at ASCAP’s Courtney Hard.

MORE: Heh: “If Reynolds is hyper-masculine, he’s the nerdiest, most low-key hyper-masculine person you’ll ever find.” I prefer “nebbish overlord” myself . . . .

STILL MORE: Hard to top this commentary: “As a transgendered libertarian, I fail to see the problem here.” I’d like to think that I would have said that in my original post, if only I were transgendered.

But here I am in all my rampant hyper-masculine glory. View it and weep, wimps.

THE LEPETOMAINE PARTY IN CANADA: “Is it just me who thinks that actually the real reason why the three parties decided to band together so suddenly is the fact that Harper threatened to take their government gravy train away? Actually that’s what we call a rhetorical question. . . . Unless someone else has named it something else I propose the following to be called Harper’s Law: Never get between a politician and his source of funding.”

SO DOES THIS MEAN THE GOLD STANDARD IS A BAD IDEA? Switzerland may have to print money to stave off deflation.

JERALYN MERRITT: “So you think the new President will end our involvement in foreign wars? I never did.”

THIS IS PROBABLY A GOOD THING: Auto bailout talks collapse over union wages.

UPDATE: Liveblogging at Autoblog.

Related thoughts here. A pay raise for federal judges?

WHILE OBAMA TALKS, Tony Rezko sings!

UPDATE: Rahm Emanuel ducks questions.

Related item here.

MORE: A huge distraction at the worst possible moment!

CALIFORNIA UPDATE: The State Worker: Job cuts make unions rethink hard line.

Has California’s growing budget mess pushed public employee unions into retreat?

Take Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state workers in a wide variety of jobs. Last week local President Yvonne Walker told The State Worker, “There are going to have to be cuts. We’re going to have to raise taxes” to address the state’s cash crunch.

This was the same union leader who last month, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed furloughs and other measures to trim the budget deficit, said, “We’ll fight back with everything that we have.”

Between Walker’s two quotes, the governor threatened to detonate the labor equivalent of a nuclear bomb: layoffs. It’s one thing a California governor can unleash without negotiating with unions or legislators.

California’s going to have to lay off some people. So are a lot of other states.

MORE MEDIA FINANCIAL PROBLEMS: Staff, page cuts at Newsweek.

Maybe journalists’ “depression lust” is just a case of misery loving company?

WHAT’S THE MATTER with Illinois?

THE AUTO BAILOUT FAILS FOR NOW. More on alternative proposals here.

CAN COAL COME CLEAN?

Apparently so.

A BUNCH OF half-price cookware.

“THE MOST ETHICAL CONGRESS IN HISTORY.”

REASON TV: Killer Chic: Hollywood’s sick obsession with Che Guevara.

WHAT’S GOING ON in Greece?

FIGHTING DEATH WITH CRYONICS. Story includes the obligatory dumb remarks from Arthur Caplan. More intelligent commentary here.

HUGO CHAVEZ’S oil price problems.

A BUNCH OF toy pets and dinosaurs, some quite realistic.

THE INSTAWIFE TALKS TO GLENN SACKS, on the latest Ask Dr. Helen show on PJTV.

GEE, DO YOU THINK? Scandal Fraught With Political Risk For Obama.

MORE ON THE BENEFITS of a Mediterranean diet.