HEH: Does Joan Rivers look like a terrorist? Well, she does look suspicious.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN OFFERS advice to Obama on air security.

UH OH: Underfunded Public Pensions as “Stranded” Costs? Two Trillion Dollars? “One question about these obligations is whether taxpayers will stick around to pay them, or instead will vote with their feet. . . . Many of these pension obligations have been incurred by municipalities and others by states, and in some cases the obligations are intertwined. But what happens if voters-taxpayers move out? The assumption has long been that taxpayers are stuck, on account of jobs and other circumstance. But query whether that is necessarily true as the baby boom generation retires.”

UPDATE: Reader Eileen Cameron writes:

My aunt lives in Nevada. Her neighborhood is essentially a community made up of retired police and firemen from California. Why did they move to Nevada? The high CA taxes!!! They reap the benefits but won’t stick around to pay the costs!

Well, who’d want to? . . . .

FDR: Some spot questions. Was there a melanoma coverup?

CHANGE: Number of cars in the U.S. dropped by four million in 2009.

RAY KURZWEIL: The H+ Interview.

MICHAEL YON ENCOUNTERS BORDER SECURITY: Posts on Facebook.

Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from the border bullies. . . . When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect that can be expected from our border bullies.

They can’t stop skivvie-bombers, but. . . .

IN THE MAIL: From George Melloan, The Great Money Binge: Spending Our Way to Socialism.

BLOGGINGHEADS: Megan McArdle explains why the healthcare bill is a policy failure.

IN DER SPIEGEL, The West Is Choked By Fear.

THE SPIN FACTORY goes haywire.

JOEL KOTKIN: The Limits Of Politics: “Since the 2006 elections – and even more so after 2008 – blue-state politicians have enjoyed a monopoly of power unprecedented in recent history. Hardcore blue staters control virtually every major Congressional committee, as well as the House Speakership and the White House. Yet they still have proved incapable of reversing the demographic and economic decline in the nation’s most ‘progressive’ cities and states.”

LOSING THE FANNIE AND FREDDIE CAPS: WHERE’S THE OUTRAGE?

Sometimes I’m amazed at the speed with which highly provocative information like this GSE business can be converted into distracting propaganda in this country. In the right hands Pinto’s analysis of the GSEs — just like the revelations in the past few years about practices at AIG, Moody’s, Countrywide, Goldman Sachs, the Fed, and, hell, let’s add the offices of Senator Chris Dodd — would have been a starting point for a deeper investigation into a financial system that is clearly a complex and intimate symbiosis of state and private corruption.

I’m noticing an increasing overlap in themes from people on the left and the right here.

MORE DEALS ON THAT SCOTT BROWN RASMUSSEN POLL mentioned below:

* “Twenty-one percent (21%) of those likely to vote in the special election have a very favorable opinion of Coakley, while 22% have a Very Unfavorable view. For Brown, the numbers are 25% very favorable and 5% very unfavorable.”

* “Special elections are typically decided by who shows up to vote and it is clear from the data that Brown’s supporters are more enthusiastic. In fact, among those who are absolutely certain they will vote, Brown pulls to within two points of Coakley. That suggests a very low turnout will help the Republican and a higher turnout is better for the Democrat.”

* “Brown leads 65% to 21% among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties.”

Very interesting.

DAVID BROOKS: “The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year. . . . A year ago, the Obama supporters were the passionate ones. Now the tea party brigades have all the intensity.”

MICKEY KAUS: What happens if Dems pass health care?

Look at the way various groups can be expected to react to the health care victory::

A–Will old people be happy? No, they’re kind of pissed off.

B–Will young people be happy? Well, they’re getting targeted by the mandate to buy insurance and milked by community rating to make the system solvent. So maybe not.

C–Will opponents of the bill like it? Obviously not. They will turn out.

D–Will supporters of the bill like it? Two subgroups here: i) Those who wanted more (like a public option or single payer) are disappointed and maybe angry and demoralized. But at least they have a good reason to show up at the polls (to elect liberals who will help them achieve what they want). ii) Those who didn’t necesarily want more–who are happy with the Pelosi/Reid product–have far less incentive to show up. For them, the deed is done. Unless, that is, Dems can somehow bait the Republicans into making repeal of Reid/Pelosi a hard-core pledge. …

I still expect the Democrats will hold the House and Senate, simply because (in part thanks to the Feiler Faster principle) the entire health care issue will seem like less of a big deal by November. But when you think about it in this category-by-category way, the outlook is kind of grim for the Dems, no? ….

But he sees a silver lining, of sorts.

SCIENCE: Men Know When They’re Aroused, Women May Not. “Men’s subjective ratings of arousal were in agreement with their body’s level of sexual arousal about 66 percent of the time, while women’s were in line only about 26 percent of the time.”

THOUGHTS ON THE UT/Starcom prosecution: If it amounts to bribery to pay for an overseas sightseeing trip, what does it say about our Congress, whose members regularly accept such trips?

YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT PUBLISHING PHOTOS THAT PERPETUATE RACIST STEREOTYPES? Check out the cover of Vanity Fair.

FLORIDA PANTHERS: A Puddy Tat, but Watch Out for That Bite. “Some biologists worry that at least part of the infatuation is predicated on the Florida panther’s impeccable record. In contrast with mountain lions in California and other Western states, which have been known to ambush, kill and partly consume the occasional jogger or hiker, there are no recorded cases of a Florida panther’s attacking a human being.” Let’s hope that record continues.

UPDATE: Some background here.

SCIENCE FICTION, JOANNA RUSS, and the Secret Feminist Cabal.

MASSACHUSETTS SENATE RACE HEATS UP: Rasmussen Shows Brown Within 9 Percent. This is huge given that it’s Massachusetts, and a Brown win would probably kill healthcare. I don’t know how his online fundraising is going, but so far he hasn’t gotten much (er, any?) help from the national Republican party. I imagine that will change, if only because people like William Jacobson are asking: ‘Will the national GOP, which has ignored Brown, get involved now? I’m not sure I care anymore.” Whatever else they do, they can’t afford to look irrelevant. . . . Outcampaigned by Sissy Willis?

UPDATE: Reader James Somers writes:

Thanks for your links to info about the Brown-Coakley race in Massachusetts. It motivated me to flip some cash to Brown. There’s no better way, right now, for those who are opposed to ObamaCare in particular, and the Administration’s economic bungling in general, to register their opposition than giving support to Scott Brown.

I think money to Brown will be better spent than money to the RNC, for any pondering that question.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More from Jules Crittenden. And reader Katie O’Malley sends this link to another Massachusetts blogger.

MOE LANE: Tim Robbins Gave Money To Michelle Bachmann? Well, he does favor hot older women. We’ll know he’s serious if he donates to Scott Brown . . . .

OIL AND GAS DRILLING to begin in Greenland this summer.

UPPING THE ANTE: N.H. Tea Party Coalition plans protests at N.H. homes of U.S. legislators. Well, when ACORN sent busloads — er, well, about half a busload — of protesters to AIG executives’ homes, it was evidence of genuine grassroots anger. And got sympathetic national coverage, with media outnumbering the protesters. Somehow I doubt that’ll be the story here.