ERIC S. RAYMOND: Love doesn’t scale.

UH OH: Rapidly Collapsing U.S. Foreign Policy. Let’s hope it’s not as bad as it looks.

GEORGE WILL: Repeal the 17th Amendment! I don’t think you could call it a “groundswell,” but there’s definitely a wave of interest in that proposition these days.

VISIBLE WORDPLAY.

THERE’S A NEW “AMERICAN TEA PARTY” SITE AND FACEBOOK PAGE UP, and you can also email information in about events you’re planning to . Plus this:

Please indicate:
– Date, Start Time and End Time, Location
– Purpose
– Who is sponsoring this event
– Photo is optional (198 x 126 pixels are ideal)

Although American Tea Party and PJTV will list some of the planned events and protests, we cannot vouch for their legitimacy.

Video at the site.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg thinks that “American Tea Party” would be a good name for a third party. Well, maybe.

Plus, a salary cap for Congress? Now there’s change I can believe in!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rand Simberg emails: “Congressional pay is pretty low on the scale of my concerns. As I’ve noted in the past, I’d be happy to triple their pay, if they just wouldn’t come in to work…” Well, yeah. (Bumped).

WHY BANK NATIONALIZATION is so scary.

BRITAIN FACES “SUMMER OF RAGE:” “Middle-class anger at economic crisis could erupt into violence on streets.”

HEADLINE OF THE WEEKEND: The White House Rick Rolls Rick, But Rick Rolls Back.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: “Larry Summers is being blamed for encouraging Harvard to make a bad bet in the financial markets. . . . The interest-rate swaps Summers reportedly urged Harvard to get into have contributed to a cash crunch which has forced the university to cut spending, freeze hiring, and float new bonds to borrow money.”

UPDATE: Stacy McCain marvels at the breadth of my knowledge.

HERE’S A SCHEDULE OF “TEA PARTY” PROTESTS around the nation.

STILL MORE ON THE SINGULARITY, from J. Storrs Hall.

CAR OF THE (LAST) CENTURY: Remembering the 1958 Edsel. “The front-end styling was intended to be instantly recognizable. You were supposed to be able to tell an Edsel from any other car from a block away. They sure accomplished that objective, all righty.” Lots of pics at the link.

JOHN HINDERAKER POSTS some cool space photos.

PRACTICING SAFE MARSHMALLOW ROASTING, with Reel Roasters. Heh.

SEEKING ALPHA: Santelli’s Chicago Tea Party: The Quest for Our Nation’s Soul.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I attended a brunch in the Oakland Hills this morning and, other than me and the children under the age of five, there was not a single person who had not voted for President Obama. Someone asked me what folks thought of the mortgage bailout and while my answer was predictable, the level of distaste for it was enormous. This included a couple (each a state worker) I know to be underwater on their mortgage. “We’re paying our mortgage because we agreed to do it. But maybe we should stop.” was what that couple said and most seemed to agree. A crowd of state workers, college professors, practicing psychologists and the like in up-rent, deep blue Oakland (the precinct went 254-37 Obama over McCain) – and they all thought it was crap.

I think a lot of people feel this way.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Joshua Dixon writes:

I had my “something in the air” moment this weekend.

My father-in-law, a life-long Minnesota Democrat, visited our house for the first time since the election. When he walked into the kitchen he looked sick. After greeting the family, he hesitated and said, “The Democrats are doing everything they can to ruin this country. My grandchildren won’t live long enough to pay off that stimulus bill. I may as well become a Republican, because there’s not going to be another Democrat elected to national office while I’m alive.”

It’s one thing to read blogs or watch videos about a supposed rebellion building among the population. It’s something else to see an old man you’ve known and respected for years be heartsick and broken from the actions of a party he’s supported his whole life.

Well, heartsick, maybe. But instead of “broken,” suggest he try “determined to fix things.” And, you know, it wouldn’t take a lot of Congressional Democrats changing their minds to make a difference.

MORE: Reader Kurtis Fechtmeyer writes:

I can certainly attest to your earlier email report from Oakland Hills, which is where I also live.

The Oakland Hills is the heartland of affluent support for the Obama brand, and yet no one is interested in the least in defending his mortgage plan (or any of his economic policies for that matter).

The problem for the next generation of Republicans if they are to take advantage of this disaffection is: (a) developing simple, yet intelligent, counter-solutions and (b) getting those solutions heard through the left-liberal media fog.

Indeed. But even the Boston Globe is noting the problem.

THE RNC IS LOOKING FOR GRASSROOTS IDEAS.

LIVEBLOGGING THE OSCARS TONIGHT, at Big Hollywood.

UPDATE: Also at Ann Althouse’s.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Althouse isn’t loving it: “Good lord, it’s deadly. This may go down as the most embarrassingly bad Oscars show of all time.”

THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE calls in the cavalry. ACORN to the rescue!

SOME ADVICE ON FUTURE “TEA PARTY” PROTESTS, from a media producer who attended the Overland Park affair:

I attended the invigorating protest outside Congressman Dennis Moore’s Overland Park, Kansas office yesterday.

I hoped 10-15 souls might show up. I was thrilled to see hundreds. Here are some suggestions. I don’t really want my name used. Sadly, it could really hurt my business, which is already hurting.

As a professional media producer, here are my concerns:

1. Incoherent message – the signs were all over the place. There were lots of agendas. That’s fine. The color and signage look good on TV.

But, when it came to the microphone – the overall message was tepid and unsure.

2. Create a theme – like “We want Senator So-and-So to resign for voting for this bill.” Or, “We want the Stimulus Repealed!” “Start Over.” Have a definitive purpose to your Assembly. A central theme will also help public speakers to focus. And don’t be afraid to personalize this. Put it on your Senators, Congress people, and the President. That’s what they are doing to anyone who objects.

3. Speakers not prepared for the media – the organizer was asked to name some specific objectionable items in the stimulus. She couldn’t do it. I doubt many of us could.

If you are an organizer, or the “face” of the event – take an hour to prepare. You don’t need to know everything about the stimulus. Just find 2 or 3 things – hard facts – you can point to and credibly say – these are wrong, wasteful spending items. Or, these items grow government, not the economy. It is critical.

4. Pass out talking points, just in case Joe or Jane Protestor gets buttonholed by a reporter.

5. This is all about image. If we don’t present the media with a professional, organized and, unfortunately, scripted image, they are going to make their own, and it won’t be favorable.

6. Recruit some help to pack the area around people being interviewed for background. God love the guy in the crazy Uncle Sam suit, and we certainly need the Minute Men, but these folks will quickly become THE story because they are colorful or controversial i.e., Good TV. Welcome their support. Maybe give them a minute on the mic. But I recommend trying to pack in mainstream, boring looking, and diverse Americans around the camera. No offense to anyone. Anytime a TV camera comes out, a certain number and type of attention seeker will flock to it. Now is the time for Grandma and Grandpa, the Plumber, the Young Executive, and the Homeschooling Mom to flock to the camera as background. Don’t be shy. Remember, how do you want your cause to be presented by the media? As crazies? Or as Concerned Neighbors?

7. Have an Agenda and a Time. We’re going to Assemble at this Time. We’re going to have a Sign-In Table. We’re going to have a Sign-Making Area. We’re going to have speakers at 10:30. We’re going to March to the Senator’s Office at this time and demand she resign. We’re going to end with Chants, and a Call-to-Action for the next Protest. That, and Protestors want to know what’s going on. If they become unsure, they leave. Organization wins, and it also intimidates the opposition. And the opposition is going to start showing up.

8. Share the Day’s Agenda with the Media. You have to create your own press. The event in Overland Park was HUGE, but only one news station came out to cover it, and there’s not even a photo in today’s Sunday paper. Sell it to them. They love good stories.

That’s it. I hope this helpful. These things are only going to get bigger, and people need to realize that a great responsibility comes with this wonderful opportunity. Get a Message. And Get It Out.

Sounds like pretty good advice to me.

NOW THERE’S A SURPRISE: Europe’s Politicians Don’t Pay Their Taxes Either. Taxes are for the little people.

“THEY’LL TURN US ALL INTO BEGGARS ‘CAUSE THEY’RE EASIER TO PLEASE:” 20% in Los Angeles County receive public aid.

“THE DEPRESSION PRESIDENT?” Let’s hope not.

FASTER, PLEASE: “Scientists on Sunday unveiled lab-made human antibodies that can disable several types of influenza, including highly-lethal H5N1 bird flu and the “Spanish Flu” strain that killed tens of millions in 1918.”

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Rick Santelli on his CNBC mortgage rant: ‘We really, really tapped into a nerve’.

SOME THOUGHTS ON GEORGE WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY, from Scott Johnson. I am a big fan of Richard Brookhiser’s biography.