A NEW YALE MOTTO: Timiditas et Deditio.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “When I wrote the other week about why I am opposed to national health care, a number of people angrily demanded to know why I was writing about something that ‘no one is proposing’. Now, this is clearly a lunatic statement. I was writing about something that many people were proposing. I just wasn’t writing about the nebulous bills currently wending their way through various committees. . . . I have voiced my various practical objections to the particular options on the table at various moments. But the main thing is that I don’t want to give the government a greater role in health care markets. Nay, not even if all the other countries . . . well, all the cool countries, anyway . . . are doing it. To the liberals proclaiming that, unlike those of us in the conservative or libertarian camps, they are practical people just seeking the best way to make us all better off, I say: I think your utilitarian calculus is badly wrong.”

SHANNON LOVE: The dangers of decompartmentalized health spending: “The elderly consume 70% of all health care spending. That means that when it comes to cost control, they will bear the brunt of the burden. If we don’t cut spending on the elderly we can’t reduce cost without simply denying care for everyone else. When it comes down to choice between spending on old people and children, the elderly know full well who we are going to pick.”

SHOCKINGLY, IT WASN’T SANDY BERGER: Former Clinton aide Betsey Wright accused of smuggling knife and needles into prison. Why would she do that? Is this some kind of setup?

UPDATE: Reader Stephanie Key writes: “Silly Pundit… he only smuggles stuff out of places not into them… besides stuff Sandy burgles is unusable once he’s done.”

NEW JOBLESS CLAIMS RISE. Retail Sales fall.

DESPERATELY SEEKING SWASTIKAS: “We’re not sure that describing LaRouche as a ‘communist’ is fair to communists; our sense is that his ideology is eclectically extreme and nutty, drawing elements from left, right and directions we haven’t heard of. On the other hand, if it’s fair to tar normal citizens for taking the same position on ObamaCare as LaRouche, it’s equally fair for us to link to this statement from the Communist Party USA backing ObamaCare.”

SALENA ZITO: Rasmussen poll: Toomey crushing Specter, Sestak.

UPDATE: Obama at record low: “Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That’s the lowest level of total approval yet recorded. The President’s ratings first fell below 50% just a few weeks ago on July 25. Fifty-two percent (52%) now disapprove.”

NOT SO HAPPY with Government Motors.

INSTAVISION: I talk with Virginia Postrel about organ donation and ObamaCare.

By the way, if you haven’t read her The Future And Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress, well, it’s even more relevant than it was when it first came out. . . .

UPDATE: I’m wearing a tie in this one at the suggestion of reader John Steakley. So what do you think? Tie? Or no tie? (Bumped).

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Edward Tabakin writes:

Yes on the tie. I thought you might have put the tie on because Ms. Postrel writes about glamor.

Last night, I watched her Booknotes interview about The Future and Its Enemies. Transcript here, and here’s the link to video.

Thanks.

MICKEY KAUS: “Death Panels” not looking so fictional after all.

DROWNING in debt?

DEMOCRATIC CULTURE SHOCK: “The Democrats are understandably stunned. They and those sympathetic to them do control everything—the White House, Congress, the mainstream media, the popular culture, and elite education. And they still—despite all that power—can’t get the public to pipe down and go along quietly with their planned takeover of health care. What is wrong with everyone? You can sense the anger, the resentment. And the panic.”

UPDATE: The White House is “feeling victimized.”

Plus, from David Freddoso:

White House spokesman Bill Burton’s statement on television earlier today that people are showing up at health care town halls dressed up as Hitler was outlandish enough that I had to call the White House and ask if there is anything to substantiate it.

As of this evening, the White House has offered no explanation for this bizarre claim.

All that would prove is that some people think the President is Hitler, a position that was recently quite mainstream. . . . Plus, from the comments: “I swear I saw one of the White House staffers dressed in a SS uniform with a can of black spray paint in front of David Scott’s district office in the dark of the night.” Heh.

THIS SEEMS UNWISE: NASA’s Plan For Detecting Potentially Threatening Asteroids Is in Financial Jeopardy. Seems like we could forego a Congressional Gulfstream or two to pay for this . . . .

THE HILL: Climate bill could cost 2 million jobs.

FEARLESS SCHOLARSHIP: Yale removes Mohammed cartoons from book about … Mohammed cartoons.

IS THIS A FIRST AMENDMENT VIOLATION? Illinois Bans Social Network Use By Sex Offenders.

SURGEONS amputate Obama’s statement on reimbursements.

Meanwhile, Investor’s Business Daily owns up to an error. Will Obama apologize for his?

I’M NOT A DOCTOR, but I play one at Town Hall meetings. Background here.

ANALYSIS: Press Largely Ignored Incendiary Rhetoric at Bush Protest. Gee, do you think?

When Bush visited Portland, Ore., for a fundraiser, protesters stalked his motorcade, assailed his limousine and stoned a car containing his advisers. Chanting “Bush is a terrorist!”, the demonstrators bullied passers-by, including gay softball players and a wheelchair-bound grandfather with multiple sclerosis.

One protester even brandished a sign that seemed to advocate Bush’s assassination. The man held a large photo of Bush that had been doctored to show a gun barrel pressed against his temple. . . . Although reporters from numerous national news organizations were traveling with Bush and witnessed the protest, none reported that protesters were shrieking at Republican donors epithets like “Slut!” “Whore!” and “Fascists!”

Yes, I remember the Bush-assassination chic. But it was different. All in good fun, you know.

Related item here. “It’s interesting though, when discussing responsibility and accountability, that STILL nothing is said about Kenneth Gladney on the left – oh, aside from the same ol’ same ol’ racist uncle Tom comments from people who are more eager to defend a liberal black man than an independent one. I guess that independence is what gets them. They excuse the bad behavior for the advancement of liberalism but freak when things exponentially unequal to those offenses occur on the right. Because their silence and ridicule condones that action, their credibility on other issues is compromised. . . . Yes, LET’S have the discussion as to who has been statistically more violent and rabble-rousing at protests. I think what you find may shock you. Or not. Listen …. crickets.”

Plus, from Victor Davis Hanson:

At one time not so long ago, those on the Left, and mainstream Democrats as well, apparently believed inflammatory language, Hitler parallels, and perverse expressions of real hatred were acceptable means to the noble end of discrediting the Bush presidency.

During the bleak days of Iraq, demonstrators carried swastikas and Hitler portraits of Bush habitually. Nicholson Baker wrote a novel in which characters are contemplating killing Bush. Films were praised imagining the assassination of the president. Michael Moore, courted by the Democratic elite, lamented that bin Laden on 9/11 had hit a blue state — and once compared the killers of Americans in Iraq to Minutemen.

Al Gore customarily used excessive language like “brown shirts.” Senators Durbin, Kennedy, and others compared our soldiers to Saddamites, Pol Pot’s killers, and Nazis. Ward Churchill compared the victims in the Twin Tower to “little Eichmanns.” Sen. Robert Byrd likened Pres. George W. Bush’s policies to what transpired in Nazi Germany. Linda Ronstadt, Harold Pinter, Scott Ritter, Ted Rall, and George Soros agreed with Fidel Castro, the Iranians, and North Koreans in comparing Bush to Hitler.

Jonathan Chait wrote in the New Republic on why “I hate George W. Bush.” Garrison Keillor likened Bush’s Republicans to “brown shirts in pinstripes.” Even old hero Sen. John Glenn said of the Bush agenda: “It’s the old Hitler business.”

There’s more.

UPDATE: Reader Julie Carlson thinks the townhalls are tame:

I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but it occurred to me with all the media wetting themselves over the tenor of the town hall meetings, haven’t they ever watched Question Time on C-Span? I realize the ones doing the questioning are other politicians, but the whole atmosphere is hardly polite. Lots of jeering, laughing, shouting out, and the Prime Minister has to stand there and take it and dish it out as well. And these are the Brits! I thought we Americans are the ones who were supposed to be so rough around the edges. Our politicians act like a bunch of hot house flowers at these meetings. My son does middle school debate – one of the time-honored traditions during your opponent’s speech is to knock on the desk and shout “shame!”. If a bunch of middle-schoolers can handle it why can’t a seasoned Congressperson?

Our guys aren’t used to being challenged.

IS HILLARY ON SOME funny anti-malaria medicine for her Africa tour? No, really, it’s an excuse.

RUSH AND WOLCOTT, SITTIN’ IN A TREE. . . .

SORRY, I DON’T BELIEVE THIS: White House Says Girl With Campaign Ties Chosen at ‘Random’ to Speak at Obama Town Hall. Do you?

UPDATE: Reader Tim Maguire says there’s an innocent explanation: “When virtually everyone at your Town Hall Meeting has ties to your campaign, the odds are pretty good that someone chosen randomly will have ties to your campaign.” Good point!

FOUR SIGNS YOUR HOME IS ABOUT TO LOSE VALUE. Plus number five: “Frank J. moved in next door.”

UPDATE: Frank J. is not amused: “Hey! I did just buy a new home, and values are down in the neighborhood, but I really don’t think it’s my fault.” Of course you don’t, Frank . . . .

HEALTHCARE VIDEO: Congressman Emanuel Cleaver’s Coffee Talk.

MICKEY KAUS THINKS THAT Marc Ambinder needs to get out more.