READER HODGE GOLSON EMAILS:

Since you’re still a young turk, you probably haven’t had to deal with this yet. Having turned 65 recently, I’m going off our firm’s insurance program and replacing it with Medicare as the primary carrier. I’ve just spent more than an hour going back and forth from one website to the other and holding on the phone in IVR limbo. Just to FIND OUT if my registration is being processed. This is mind-numbing and totally depressing. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when Obamacare is launched and run by these same (overpaid) “servants.”

I’m sure it will be a delight.

AMERICA’S NEW SLOGAN: Submission to authoritarianism is freedom!

OUR MAN inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “If you look more deeply into the thought processes of the people controlling the government, these are people who strongly believe Islam will conquer the world. Every act they commit is in that direction. They don’t just want a nuclear bomb to make them untouchable. They think it will be the trigger for Islam conquering the world.”

ARE MEN THE MORE BELLIGERENT SEX? Men are more dangerous, but women can be just as aggressive. “Women are also just as likely as men to express hostility—in this case physically—in the context of a romantic relationship. The popular stereotype of a domestic abuser is a man who habitually hurts his female partner. Yet research by Archer and sociologist Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire calls this scenario into question. Surprisingly, their analyses demonstrate that men and women exhibit roughly equal rates of violence within relationships; some studies hint that women’s rates of physical aggression are slightly higher.”

STEVE CHAPMAN ON Obama’s nuclear arms control agenda. And more from Steve Schippert.

ROGER SIMON IS underwhelmed by Obama’s new nuclear-disarmament policy. “Now I detest nuclear weapons as much as the next person, but this approach seems — I hate to repeat myself, but I will — deranged.”

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

DID YOU GET YOUR MONEY’S WORTH from Congress last week?

I BLAME AL GORE for promoting this extremist culture of violence. Tofurky-eating arsonists?

CANADIAN DOLLAR hits parity with U.S. dollar.

IRA STOLL: After Climategate, Should Savvy Investors Short Carbon Credits?

THE HORROR OF iPad Snuff Videos.

LAUNCHED: Dave Weigel’s new WaPo blog.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Saving States From Themselves. “If the feds bail out these states, they’re assuming an ongoing obligation–and encouraging other states to let their fiscal problems get as big as possible, so Uncle Sugar will have to pay off. Leaving aside any ideological questions about robbing Peter to pay Paul, and the proper size of government, the federal government simply cannot afford to take on all these new obligations–and if it did, its ability to borrow money would rapidly become unsustainable. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with giving states temporary assistance to keep the recession from hitting too hard–but we’re approaching the point where that’s not really what we’re talking about. We’re talking about letting states make big promises without bothering to find sustainable sources of revenue with which to pay for them. That’s not something the federal government can afford to encourage.”

LOTS ON DRONE WARFARE from Kenneth Anderson.

HEH: It’s only 9 times longer than the Gettysburg Address.

LOOKING FOR WAR ON TERROR NEWS? Check out Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg. Also, Jim Dunnigan’s StrategyPage.

CHANGE: IRS chief: Buy health insurance or lose your tax refund.

DAILY BEAST: An Iranian Secret Agent’s Message to America.

THE MAN WHO ELECTED BARACK OBAMA: Karl Rove?

L.A. TIMES: Poll news for Nevada’s Democrat Harry Reid: 62% there don’t like incumbents or the healthcare bill.

CANADA HATEWATCH UPDATE: Machete used by attackers, students say. “A well-known student supporter of Israel at Carleton University and an Israeli engineering student at the university say they are counting themselves lucky to have survived an attack with what they say was a machete near a Gatineau bar early Monday. Nick Bergamini, 22, vice-president of the Carleton University Students’ Association, said he and roommate Mark Klibanov were leaving Le Volt bar on Promenade du Portage at 1:45 a.m. when a group of about 10 men began yelling in English and Arabic that they were Zionists and Jews.” So nice, these Canadians.

UPDATE: Reader Toren Smith writes: “I’m sure the Canadian Human Rights Commission will be right on this.”

AT POWER LINE: Several doses of pessimism on foreign policy. “Maybe if Obama could just pretend that Ahmadinejad, Assad, Nasrallah et al. are Republicans….”

L.A. TIMES: Good thing Obama says he disregards polls; He wouldn’t like these.

REP. PHIL HARE faces new PAC opposition.