DATING ADVICE: “Well, for starters, what makes you think you ‘deserve someone great’? I’m not trying to be snarky; I really want to know. So often, most of us think we ‘deserve’ stuff — love, happiness, a great life — simply because we’re alive and breathing. Or because we aren’t, like, horrible, awful people. Or, because we had such crappy pasts, karma owes us something. Or … because we’re pretty.”

MARK TAPSCOTT: If you want to understand what the Tea Party movement is really all about, watch this short video about 9/12.

THEY CAN’T EVEN SELL JON STEWART on ObamaCare.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: 9/11, Islam and War. “The greatest victory we have won in this war came on one of its most questionable battlefields: in Iraq. It was not a military victory, though it opened the door to military progress. It was a moral victory. And it was not something that Americans imposed on Muslims; it was a choice that Muslims made. . . . What those Sunni Arabs in Iraq came to understand is the basic truth of this conflict. The war unleashed nine years ago is not a clash of civilizations between Islam and the west. It is a clash between civilization and barbarism, and in that clash the Americans and true Muslims are on the same side.”

A FAKE “TEA PARTY LEADER?”

UPDATE: Some actual Tea Party leaders weigh in.

HEH: Boehner as Don Draper.

A TURNING TIDE IN VENEZUELA? More people now talk about el Presidente Hugo Chávez like a dog. Woof-woof, big fella.

THE JOY OF slow cooker meals. Yeah, it’s about time to fire those up again. Here’s my lamb and Guinness stew recipe. And I recommend this cookbook.

CRYSTAL MORNING.

WELL, I’M SORRY THAT THIS turned out to be right, actually. But thanks.

“GO, CATS, GO!”

WHAT’S THIS: Separate restrooms and drinking fountains for gun owners?

ZOMBIE: Letters from the Muslim world; a 9/11 sampling from my inbox.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Clever Burglars Using Facebook To Learn When It’s Safe To Rob Your Home. Well, since if they break in while I’m here they’ll likely be shot, this is probably smart.

COMPARATIVE DISADVANTAGE: “I worry America has too many lawyers. I don’t want to spend time having people sue me every day.”

A PAEAN TO Hipster Dickheads.

I dunno, I prefer this video. But maybe it’s just me.

AN AUDIENCE WITH the Queen of Kitchen Gadgets.

ANDREW KLAVAN on September 11th.

Yeah, it’s a year old, but it’s worth repeating.

UPDATE: More here, with an invitation to share stories.

TIM CAVANAUGH: Krugman, the Doctor: I Meant to Say It’s Good We’re Turning Into Japan II, It’s Real Good.

WHAT DAVID BROOKS MISSED: “The middle class have sent their children into fields like real estate and finance in part because that’s where the jobs are. That might be a good thing or a bad thing (the economic period of 2001-2008 leaned very heavily upon those sectors for growth), but that’s how it is. There is an economic motive for some of these social changes.” Yeah, not a lot of steelworker jobs out there.

BING AND GOOGLE. READER JAMES FOX writes: “You may be interested in today’s cover pages of the two search sites – quite a contrast.” Well, Google has a ribbon, though it’s easy to miss.

TEST-DRIVING the new Kia Optima.

SOME GREAT PHOTOBLOGGING from Scotty Graham.

IN THE MAIL: The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law.

NEW YORK POST: Beyond Mourning. “The attacks were acts of mass murder, committed to advance political goals that were — and remain — antithetical to civilization itself.”