ROGER KIMBALL: A Cheery Message From Big Brother.

WHEELS ALREADY COMING OFF OBAMACARE? “Not one of its major programs has gotten started, and already the wheels are starting to come off of Obamacare. The administration’s own actuary reported on Thursday that millions of people could lose their health insurance, that health-care costs will rise faster than they would have if the law hadn’t passed, and that the overhaul will mean that people will have a harder and harder time finding physicians to see them. . . . This is an objective report by administration actuaries that shows this sweeping legislation has serious, serious problems.” Maybe next time they’ll read the bill before passing it. Nah, who am I kidding?

WELL, THESE DAYS HE’LL ENDORSE ANYTHING FOR A PRICE: Ben Stein carries water for Obama on Wall Street bill.

A PUBLIC PENSION SOLUTION? A reader writes:

I had a thought about how to tackle the impending pension tsunami that so many states are facing: Why not invoke “prevailing pension”? I live in Massachusetts and for decades municipalities have been saddled with paying the “prevailing wage” in contracts (i.e. pay union wages, even for non-union work). As we’ve heard recently, the average government pension is a good deal sweeter than the average private sector pension (if it exists at all). So, why not limit the average municipal pension to the average private sector pension?

What do you think?

UPDATE: Reader James Doherty writes: “That’s genius. How about we also institute Prevailing Unemployment? We could randomly fire legislators based on the current unemployment rate. Who wouldn’t want to see 41 Congressmen tossed out of office next week?” One step at a time.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE is about to become hip again.

FRANCIS CIANFROCCA: What the Tea Party Movement Is Really About:

Here’s what the TP itself really fears, in an inchoate way that for most of its members doesn’t rise to the level of clear understanding, but is still intuitively very powerful: the US is embracing central planning as a governing theory, as fast as our legislative processes will allow. . . . Central planning has two primary flaws, when compared with economic freedom: it misallocates resources, and it magnifies the impact of corruption. I could write a decent-sized book explaining both of those mechanisms, but because I’ve never been busier in my life than I have been these past few weeks, I’ll cut to the conclusion.

The endpoint of central planning, if not outright failure, is a much deeper and more intractable division of society into haves and have-nots. After promising a better world for everyone, the progressives will end up creating a society that is more polarized than ever. . . . And we’re already seeing everywhere, from David Brooks to Noam Chomsky, the signs of how the elites will have to deal with the polarization: by loudly proclaiming in their captive media that the have-nots are stupid and, eventually, evil.

Indeed. Related thoughts here: “Money can be used to create value, or it can fuel the exercise of power, but not both. . . . Free people multiply. The all-powerful State is only good at division.”

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: The Corporate Governance Provisions of the Dodd Wall Street Reform Bill: What Others Are Saying.

SMART DIPLOMACY: Obama Signs Comprehensive Agreement between U.S. and Utopia.

WORRY ABOUT CARBON FOOTPRINTS IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: U.N. Environmental Ambassador Builds 20,000 square foot house. “What kind of U.N. environmental ambassador builds a 20,000 square-foot home with a six-car garage, an elevator and a lagoon?” Sadly, the usual kind . . . .

PONDERING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS: ““You ever think about how in, like, a Tom Hanks movie, everyone lives in a reality in which there’s no such person as Tom Hanks? Because otherwise, people would be mistaking the main character for Tom Hanks all the time? So either Tom Hanks doesn’t exist in the world the movie takes place in, or he does exist but he looks like someone else?”