ILYA SOMIN HAS A ROUNDUP on the future of “liberaltarianism.”

OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN SURGE: “This deployment was planned under Bush, but Obama will own it. His rhetoric about this region has always been aggressive (see Pakistan: bombing it) and he’s long talked of doubling down on troop strength in Afghanistan. Now Obama’s getting his wish and the wheels of war are spinning more quickly than they were just a few months ago. What happens this spring will set the direction and tone of Obama’s war.” But, of course, it’s our war — just as it was when Bush was President. (Via A.C. Kleinheider).

LIBERTARIANISM in an age of economic crisis. “It’s exactly when the so-called serious thinkers have decided that we’re all socialists now that the libertarian job of pointing out the problems with socialism becomes most important.”

AT RAND SIMBERG’S, QUESTION: “How come the Left always preaches ’sustainability’ or ‘it’s for the children’…until it comes to their economic plans?”

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Obama’s Doublespeak In Denver: Broken promises on going through the budget “line by line.”

ROLAND BURRIS: I’m no Rod Blagojevich.

REALITY INTRUDES on the Drug War.

CAN A MOKA POT beat Starbucks? It just might be possible.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: How Not To Fix Business:

Washington, which has run up a $10.7 trillion national debt, wants to punish Wall Street execs for running their companies into the ground. How ironic.

President Barack Obama proposed that the salaries of top executives whose companies seek federal assistance be capped at $500,000 a year. Congress went further, moving to restrict performance bonuses for more employees at those companies.

The bonus language was inserted in the federal stimulus package by Sen. Christopher Dodd. You might think Dodd was offering this as penance for the preferential treatment on mortgages he received from Countrywide Financial Corp., which has been caught up in the subprime lending mess. But with this legislation Dodd is asking everyone else to do penance.

That’s how it usually seems to work.

FREEDOM! Or at least some twittering on it.

“SHADOW BIOSPHERES” and alien life — on Earth.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT defends Bush rule on guns. “The Obama administration is legally defending a last-minute rule enacted by President George W. Bush that allows concealed firearms in national parks, even as it is internally reviewing whether the measure meets environmental muster.” Good for them. Hard to imagine a serious environmental objection to the rule, though.

J. STORRS HALL: The Nanotechnology We Were Promised.

UPDATE: Sorry, the server is overwhelmed at the moment. Try again a bit later.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S 2,000 POINT TUMBLE. I don’t think it’s really fair to blame Obama for that — though his intemperate rhetoric hasn’t helped — but this is certainly a fair observation: “Now, imagine if President Bush had presided over a 2,000-point stock market tumble in the same time period — during the first few months of his presidency.” Make that first month, singular. Yeah, now that would absolutely have been Bush’s fault.

IN THE MAIL: Threats in the Age of Obama.

COMFY-CHAIR REVOLUTION UPDATE: I’ve mentioned shared-workspace places like Workspace Vancouver before, but now they’re opening one in Knoxville, called Knoxville Overground.

REASON TV: Why Bail Out The Big Three? “Why does the United Auto Workers union and President Obama want taxpayers to reward Detroit—and punish her competitors—for making unprofitable cars?”

POLITICO: Mortgage deal may hurt Dodd in 2010. “The cratering approval ratings have caught the attention of the Connecticut Republicans who argue that Dodd hasn’t paid enough attention to the state. They point out that he spent an inordinate amount of time last year camping out in Iowa — going so far as to rent a Des Moines apartment with his family in tow — during his ill-fated campaign for the presidency. . . . National Republicans, eager to expand the opportunities to put Democrats on defense, also have gone after Dodd with relish. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has blasted Dodd for not providing adequate oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in his role as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.” The folks at DumpChrisDodd.com still need a web designer to bring them out of the mid-1990s, though . . . .

CALIFORNIA UPDATE: Legislature adjourns with no budget; governor prepares to lay off 10,000. Given the political situation there, that’s probably the best outcome . . . .

A “WARRIOR CODE” FOR autonomous military robots. I hope they think more BOLO than Terminator.

HINT: IF YOU’RE ASKING THAT, IT ISN’T YOU. Facebook’s Users Ask Who Owns Information.

IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS, fighting over a bill of rights. “The draft proposal of the bill of rights only provides those protections against the government. In other words, they would not apply between an individual and their employer, or an individual and their church.”

USA TODAY: The Burris follies (cont’d).

Plus, Transcript Has Burris Dancing Around The Truth.

WAL-MART PROFITS beat forecasts.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.