TODAY IS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of the Apollo XI launch.

MEGAN MCARDLE: ObamaCare is all pain, no gain.

UPDATE: What’s in it for you: Pain and Discipline! “Who knew we were electing a national mother-in-law? And get a chance to endure increased taxes for the privilege. Obama’s supposed to be rallying support from voters, not castigating them. Outside the S& M parlor, most people do not enjoy paying to be disciplined.”

CHARLES RANGEL UPDATE: Politico: Rangel Paid Lawyers $928K In Last Year.

NEXT WEEK, PJTV will host members of Congress in a national healthcare forum. You can submit your questions on video here.

ANN ALTHOUSE:

Why aren’t the Democrats giving us a chance to see what is in the health care bill?

Since I have been given no time to figure it out, I will ram through my explanation: They don’t want us to see how terrible it is. My working theory must be it’s a horror. Therefore, I am vehemently opposed to it. Aren’t you?

They’ve obviously got something to hide — or they wouldn’t be hiding it . . . .

IS AMERICA ON THE RIGHT OR WRONG TRACK? Number Who Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction Slips to Lowest Level Since February. “Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters say the country is moving down the wrong track, up a point from last week and also the highest level since February.”

If you’re unhappy, don’t just tell pollsters. Call your Senators and Representative at 202-224-3121. Or, better still, phone their local offices.

THE CAPITOL HILL CARD: Who’s In Your Wallet?

REMEMBER, IT’S ONLY BAD WHEN COMPANIES DO IT: Social Security spends $700,000 on Phoenix conference. “Costs for the conference at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa included airfare, hotel entertainment, dancers, motivational speakers, and food, an administration official said.”

UH OH:

It didn’t take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House’s “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal. When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader Patrick Ying disagrees:

Investor’s Business Daily did not continue to read the bill to page 19. “Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan. ” It does not outlaw individual private coverage – you can still buy the plan on the Exchange where they will compete with the public option, not be replaced by it. The advantage of the Exchange, is that the coverage no longer has one of the problems of individual coverage – skyrocketing premiums should you become ill.

Hmm. We should have more time for all this stuff to be sorted out. Instead they’re ramming it through as quickly as possible. That makes me suspicious.

THEY’RE ALL WISE LATINAS, NOW.

BUZZ ALDRIN: Time to go to Mars. We could have a colony on Mars for what the “stimulus” package cost. And it would have provided more stimulus, too . . .

MEGAN MCARDLE: “I confess, I am surprised to find out just how little money you can raise by slapping a 5.4% surtax on incomes above a million. I also wonder at what point serious political resistance to taxes sets in. I know, it’s common to claim that Americans are tax haters. But actually, Americans, even the wealthy, pay their taxes at a rate that would shock an Italian. We grumble, but in the end, we pay. But at some point, that changes.”

Indeed. Especially when the tax system is also losing moral capital.

PJTV REPORTS FROM HONDURAS: How the Folks in Honduras Really Feel About Their Government.

THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: Los Angeles City College “Sexual Harassment” Policy Preliminarily Enjoined on First Amendment Grounds. It’s good that courts keep applying the First Amendment to these things, but it’s bad that colleges continue to ignore the First Amendment. What kind of example is that?

“OH, MY” INDEED: Obama drops nine points overall, 15 points among indies, in one month. Sooner or later, even Congress will notice.

HUCKABEE WARNS PALIN: Don’t Leave The GOP. After the way the GOP establishment has treated her, she should at least make ’em sweat a bit. And it looks like they are.

THE EMPATHY PARADOX: Sotomayor rejects Obama’s judicial philosophy. “You would expect someone who managed to get elected president to be at least as politically savvy as someone who’s spent the past 17 years on the bench. Why did Obama say he wanted judges with empathy–a statement so embarrassing that his own nominee was forced to repudiate it?”

HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS “SETTLED:” Could we be wrong about global warming? “Could the best climate models — the ones used to predict global warming — all be wrong? Maybe so, says a new study published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The report found that only about half of the warming that occurred during a natural climate change 55 million years ago can be explained by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What caused the remainder of the warming is a mystery.” Look, we should be switching to non-carbon power sources — like nice, clean nuclear power plants, or orbital solar — regardless. But this ought to deflate a few arrogance-bubbles. Though it probably won’t.

DAILY BEAST: THE LIBERAL SWEATSHOP: “The Fund for the Public Interest raises money for all kinds of liberal causes, but a lawsuit has forced it to pay millions of dollars in overtime to its legions of idealistic door-knockers. The nation’s largest fundraiser for progressive causes issued checks to thousands of former workers in the last several weeks after settling a $2.15 million class-action suit alleging it subjected workers to grueling hours without overtime pay.” Like the PIRGs and ACORN, they talk the talk better than they walk the walk . . . .

SITE’LL BE DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE LATER TONIGHT. Shouldn’t last too long. Do not be alarmed.

IT’S NOT OVER: An Iranian Revolution roundup at The Berman Post.

PUTINISM: Russian rights activist kidnapped, found dead. “The murder is the latest in a series of killings of journalists and human rights defenders in Russia which has drawn international condemnation and led to questions about Medvedev’s pledges to uphold the rule of law and build a freer society.”

CONGRESS AND THE AUTO DEALERS: “This is the problem with the government owning new GM–it’s 99.99% certain that the government will not let GM make economically rational decisions that negatively impact politically powerful constituencies. Once that dam breaks, moreover, it will be harder and harder to prevent future political interference.”

UPDATE: Speaking of politics, reader Ron Shrewsbury writes: “What I’ve been wondering about is ‘who decides where GM advertises and how much money they spend on it.’ If Network X decides to criticize Obama are they going to get the ‘Senator Kyl treatment’ from GM?” Would this guy play politics?

KATIE GRANJU on promotion and mommyblogs.

RX-8 UPDATE: Okay, it’s now been, believe it or not, nearly 6 years since I bought the Mazda RX-8. Since it’s a second car, to be driven to the mountains on nice days, etc., it’s still low-mileage, but it still drives like new. (Actually, slightly better, since I like the Kumho Ecsta tires I bought last year better than the original equipment Bridgestones.) I’ve had no mechanical problems other than a bad battery that was replaced under warranty. Gas mileage isn’t anything special. I’m well into my second set of tires, but the brakes still have a lot of life in ’em — that probably says something about my driving style . . .

Recently I had Mazda retrofit an iPod adapter, which works fine with the existing stereo. That’s a big plus — the FM adapter I’d been using sucked, because there’s almost no open frequency in Knoxville. Would I buy it again? Yes. Especially since Mazda has extended the powertrain warranty to 8 years, 100,000 miles. Lots more background here.

UPDATE: Total cost for the iPod adapter? $280, installed. The dealer had it in stock, and the whole thing, together with the scheduled maintenance, only took a few hours. Controlling the iPod from the stereo works fine, and the cable is generously long.