MEGAN MCARDLE: Medicare is going to bankrupt us, which is why we need universal health care. “I hear this argument quite often, and it’s gibberish in a prom dress. Any cost savings you want to wring out of Medicare can be wrung out of Medicare right now: the program is large and powerful enough, and costly enough, that they are worth doing without adding a single new person to the mix. Conversely, if there is some political or institutional barrier which is preventing you from controlling Medicare cost inflation, then that barrier probably is not going away merely because the program covers more people.”

WELL, THIS SHOULD PREPARE THEM FOR THE NEW ECONOMY: Ijams teaches kids the value of eating bugs.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Does that worm in the bottom of a tequila bottle count?”

A BUNCH OF NEW BLU-RAY RELEASES.

GOING JOHN GALT, the ancient Chinese way.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: FACT CHECK: Data belie Biden stimulus anecdotes. “Capturing the full effect of the stimulus at this early stage is difficult, but the administration has set high bars for success. In championing those successes, however, the White House plays a little loose with the facts.” What — bogosity from Joe Biden? Say it ain’t so!

MICKEY KAUS: An Edwards Lie I’d Forgotten. With a guest appearance by Jennifer Palmieri.

JON BASIL UTLEY: Obama and the Alternative Energy Fiasco: The president is wrong to block oil and gas production.

ANOTHER TEA PARTY PLANNED, IN UTAH: David Kirkham, who organized the previous Salt Lake City Tea Party, emails that there will be another one next week, May 20, at the State Capitol building at noon.

SORRY, BUT YOUR dog’s soul just died.

ON PJTV, I talk to Nick Gillespie about Reason TV, why journalists tend to favor Big Government, and what alternative media can do to make a difference.

ANDREW SULLIVAN FIGURES OUT WHO THE RUBES ARE: “I have a sickeningly familiar feeling in my stomach, and the feeling deepens with every interaction with the Obama team on these issues. They want them to go away. They want us to go away. . . . Yesterday, Robert Gibbs gave non-answer after non-answer on civil unions and Obama’s clear campaign pledge to grant equal federal rights for gay couples; non-answer after non-answer on the military’s remaining ban on honest servicemembers. What was once a categorical pledge is now – well let’s call it the toilet paper that it is.”

In entirely unrelated news, Obama has also flip-flopped on releasing the “torture” photos. Meet the new boss, yada yada. All of this was entirely predictable. And yet, his election was a matter of fierce moral urgency about which there could be no serious disagreement. . . .

UPDATE: More hope and change! Indefinite Detention Weighed. “The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil — indefinitely and without trial — as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”

Previously: “You were expecting a Chicago machine politician to show an enthusiasm for civil liberties?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: In the comments at Politico, limited sympathy for Andrew’s plight. My favorite: “Gee, it seems like I’ve lived through this before.”

And this rings true: “Shoulda stuck with conservatives sully, we woulda kept ya around. Chicago style politics just uses you until you run out of use. You have run out my friend.” As Jim Geraghty notes: “All statements from Barack Obama come with an expiration date. All of them.”

I talk to the wind. The wind cannot hear. And I don’t look as good as Kirsty Hawkshaw when I do it. . . .

MICHELLE MALKIN: Why I’m not cheering Senate GOP’s blockage of Interior nominee.

MICHAEL BARONE: Obama offers security at the expense of liberty. Hey, isn’t that what they said about George W. Bush? Though at least Bush delivered on the security part. Obama, so far, not so much.

RESEARCH ON obesity and longevity. “While being too skinny puts one at some increased risk, and too fat increases your risk commensurate with the level of obesity, smoking no matter what is bad bad bad.”

ASK DR. HELEN: The Insta-Wife talks with Glenn Sacks about how the recession is affecting men, and why the press doesn’t care.

GET YOUR “INDIVIDUALIZED TAX RATE” HERE: White House Takes Revenge on Rick Santelli and Friends. I’d prefer the “Geithner rate,” please.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Spiral swimmer nanomachines.

IS IT RACIST TO “support your own” when shopping?

AN EXCELLENT MOVE (ER, NON-MOVE?) FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA: “Automotive News [sub] reports that the Obama administration has abandoned plans to nominate the CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to head the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA). Although neither the White House nor Charles Hurley’s MADD men (and women) are saying Jack about the decision, it appears Hurley ran afoul of . . . environmentalists.”

Okay, he did the right thing for the wrong reason. But while T.S. Eliot disapproved of that, I’ll take it any way I can get it. . . .

OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS slow eye aging?

MURTHA UPDATE: Bill Russell, an Iraq war veteran who served with the Army, says Rep. John Murtha’s chief of staff threatened to have him court-martialed when he ran against the Democratic congressman in 2008.

THE TRUTH ABOUT CARS: Should we ban cell phones?

WIL WHEATON on the joys of Sonos and Rhapsody.

PROFLIGATE BORROWING AND SPENDING puts America’s AAA credit rating at risk. “That warning from Moody’s focused on the exploding healthcare and Social Security costs that threaten to engulf the federal government in debt over coming decades. The facts show we’re in even worse shape now, and there are signs that confidence in America’s ability to control its finances is eroding. Prices have risen on credit default insurance on US government bonds, meaning it costs investors more to protect their investment in Treasury bonds against default than before the crisis hit. It even, briefly, cost more to buy protection on US government debt than on debt issued by McDonald’s. Another warning sign has come from across the Pacific, where the Chinese premier and the head of the People’s Bank of China have expressed concern about America’s longer-term credit worthiness and the value of the dollar.” (Via NewsAlert).

Meanwhile, here’s a flashback to Democrats in Congress cheering their success in blocking Social Security reform.

ONCE AGAIN, I’M NO RELATION TO THIS GLENN REYNOLDS, but he does seem to be on-target:

The current deal “can be seen as one that serves up bondholders on the altar of political self-interest,” CreditSights Inc. analyst Glenn Reynolds wrote in a report last week titled, in part, “Waterboarding Bondholders.” “The powers that be will not face any major constituency risks by screwing some mutual funds, insurance companies, pension managers, and hedge funds (who often manage pension and endowment money etc.) out of their fair and equitable treatment,” Reynolds wrote. Not that you’ll hear much about the rights of these investors if and when the fur starts flying over a GM bankruptcy filing. Instead, we’ll again hear talk about the “money people” — the label President Barack Obama pinned on debt investors at Chrysler LLC who refused to swallow the terms foisted on them by the company and government officials.

Expect the fight at GM to be cast in similarly expedient terms of “working man vs. evil money people,” Reynolds’s report noted. And those who raise objections to the government’s plans “will be dubbed Wall Street holdouts and obstructionists.”

Hardly ‘Money People’

Yet the “money people” label will be particularly unfair at GM. Unlike Chrysler, whose debt was concentrated in the hands of a small group of institutions, GM’s bonds are held far and wide. The holders include Fidelity Management and Research, Franklin Advisers Inc., and Pacific Investment Management Co., which manage the retirement savings of millions of Americans.

The Polish Beneficial Association, the Knights of Columbus, and the Grand Lodge Sons of Hermann in Texas were also recent owners of GM bonds. Not your typical Masters of the Universe. Then there are mom-and-pop investors, who may not be happy with the terms on offer. Some of them have gone so far as to create a Web site to air their grievances.

Read the whole thing.