PAYING FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM, with a “mommy tax.”

REMEMBER BOYS, ALWAYS PRACTICE “SAFE SPINACH:” Leafy Greens Top Risky Food List.

GALLUP: Approval of Congress Falls to 21%. My reaction: There are 21% who approve?

SCOTT OTT, BILL WHITTLE, STEPHEN GREEN: Trifecta: Obama Cracks Down On The Blogosphere. Plus, the three make full disclosure.

UH OH: Fiscal Storm in Caymans Is Set To Spread. “But the second reason why the Cayman tale is intriguing is that it reflects a much wider fiscal problem. Most other western nations are also beset by ballooning public spending – and a shrinking pool of tax revenues. (The UK has a net revenue to debt level of 115 per cent, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, or twice that of the Caymans.) Just as the Cayman Islands have been temporarily reprieved by a £38m loan, many western nations have also defied gravity by using oodles of central bank liquidity to keep bond markets calm. Yet, such measures are just sticking plaster solutions; in the future, painful choices loom about spending cuts and tax rises.”

Plus, HSBC chief Michael Geoghegan fears second downturn.

UPDATE: Anticipating a commercial real estate crash? Let’s hope these fears are overblown.

IS FRENCH CAPITALISM causing mass suicide?

BUREAUCRACY OR IRRADIATION: Which should you trust more? “My heart goes out to Stephanie Smith, a young woman who became paralyzed after eating a hamburger contaminated with the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7. Her sad story was featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times and is supposed to illustrate the need for more government food safety regulation. I read the story waiting for the reporter to write about another low-cost solution to the problem of bacterial contamination in food. It never came. What solution? Irradiation. That is, treating foods with gamma, electron beam or X-ray radiation to kill bacteria that might be found on food before it is offered to the consumer. It is no more dangerous than pasteurization of milk and would prevent tens of thousands of food poisoning episodes if widely adopted.”

But it provides no opportunities for graft or control.

THE POWER OF obsession.

THIS AFTERNOON I’LL BE INTERVIEWING “Five For Fighting’s” John Ondrasik about the new album, Slice. If you’d like to suggest a question you can tweet it to @pjtv.

NOT “RAPE-RAPE” OF A “NOT KID-KID”: Tom Shales: I’m Shocked To Be Told I Minimized Roman Polanski’s Crime. Here, Let Me Do It Again! “In Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old.”

UPDATE: Shales defends Letterman, too: Let’s Remember That Letterman’s a Clown, Not a Cleric or Congressman. And a Democrat, not a Republican . . . .

Transparent weasels.

WILL OUR ROBOT OVERLORDS BE FRIENDLY? Ron Bailey reports on the Singularity Summit.

REPUBLICANS DON’T WATCH KEITH OLBERMANN.

RICHARD COHEN: Does Obama Have the Backbone? Is it just me, or are the pundits starting to have doubts?

MEGAN MCARDLE: ACORN Story Gets Curiouser and Curiouser.

Related: Friendly reminder from ACORN chief Bertha Lewis: You’re racist.

HELLO? HELLO? California gubernatorial hopeful Gavin Newsom’s lonely town-hall meeting.

WE CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY OF THOSE! Another law professor goes to Washington!

A.P.: HIGHER TAXES IN HEALTH CARE BILL.

ANOTHER ACORN whistleblower?

A SALE ON men’s jeans.

ER, NO, ACTUALLY, WE DON’T: Google CEO: We Have a “Moral Responsibility” to Help Newspapers.