A FAVORITE Mother’s Day gift.

DANIEL HENNINGER: There may be good reasons for Obama to go negative, but doing so could wreck his presidency.

Even Achilles had a heel, and Mr. Obama’s may be his decision to be his own Saul Alinsky. Defining, demonizing and making a mockery of one’s opponents was one of Alinsky’s main rules for community organizers. But community organizers, though often charismatic, can also be annoying jerks.

The only Barack Obama the American people have ever known is the one presented to them from January 2007 onward—the amazing, improbable fellow in “Dreams from My Father.” Candidate Obama was about as perfect as it ever gets. The best since JFK.

JFK, an imperfect man, worked hard to stay perfect in public. So did FDR and Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. For Barack Obama to believe that any persona he offers the public will be OK with them is hubris. Showing voters a side of him that he enjoys, but many of them may not, is flirting with disaster. If all the positive vibe that held up his presidency on its first day ever breaks, the fall could be fast.

This kind of reminds me of Apple’s thuggish behavior in the iPhone case, and I think it’s unwise for the same reasons. Like Apple, Obama’s strength is mostly in the image department, and this behavior seems to undermine that.

PETER INGEMI: “One of the things that people don’t seem to realize about the tea party movement is that although it is a fiscally conservative movement it is not a Republican movement.” With some PorkBusters history. Funny how people who ask why no one was complaining about spending during the Bush era keep forgetting PorkBusters — even though some of them, like Andrew Sullivan, were deriding PorkBusters back then as some sort of distraction from whatever it was they were pushing at the time.

Related: Noemie Emery: Media Still Clueless About Tea Parties.

PETER SUDERMAN: Why Waxman Canceled the Health Care Write-Down Hearings. “The broader point I’d draw from all of this isn’t so much that the Affordable Care Act is going to cost big corporations billions—though it certainly is—but that the health care sector is so thoroughly dominated by government regulations and subsidies that exercise far, far too much influence over how decisions about health care and its associated costs get made. So rather than argue over the tax treatment of drug subsidies, we ought to be pushing to get rid of the subsidies entirely.”

You also avoid the Knowledge Problem that way.

DESIGNING GREENHOUSES for Mars.

SO IS IT JUST THAT all immigration laws are racist?

SOLAR-SAILING AWAY: Japan to Launch Solar-Sail-Powered Craft Out Beyond Orbit for the First Time.

EUGENE VOLOKH ENDORSES John Eastman for California Attorney General.

AMERICA’S FUTURE IN SPACE, with an asterisk.

Foreigners now make up 40 percent of the visitors at the space center, and Mr. Larson said they often knew more than Americans about the benefits of space exploration, from satellites to research on antibiotics.

As he prepared for another countdown, and another presentation about the future, Mr. Larson added, “The thirst for knowledge just isn’t there anymore.”

Decadence.

CHINA MIEVILLE wins Arthur C. Clarke award.

REASON TV: Should Obscenity Be Illegal?

CHERRIES: Good for obese rats, and probably for humans.

GREAT MOMENTS IN FINANCIAL REGULATION: Apple IPO Deemed “Too Risky.” But Congress wants to make this the rule. Here’s a hint: Deals for and by the politically connected will never be considered “too risky.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: Greece: Deja Vu All Over Again?

Plus, Will a Greek bailout stop the contagion?

UPDATE: David Boaz:

Greece has a budget deficit of 13.6 percent. We’re not in that league — ours is only 10.6 percent, the highest level since 1945.

Greece has a public debt of 113 percent of GDP. We’re not there yet. But the 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the combined unfunded liability of these two programs has reached nearly $107 trillion.

Under President Obama’s budget, debt held by the public would grow from $7.5 trillion (53 percent of GDP) at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion (90 percent of GDP) at the end of 2020. It could rise to 215 percent of GDP in 30 years. Welcome to Greece. . . .

It was a good idea to get science and democracy from the ancient Greeks. It’s not such a good idea to get fiscal policy from the modern Greeks.

Indeed.

HEY, WAIT: Weren’t we supposed to be boycotting California for its homophobia?

JACOB SULLUM: Free Speech for Us: The Gray Lady’s inconsistent defense of the First Amendment.

RASMUSSEN POLL ON THE DEFICIT COMMISSION: “Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.”

But here’s the money quote: “Most Americans view the commission as cover for Congress to raise taxes.” You think?

HUTTAREE HOOPLA UPDATE: Judge asks feds to show militia did more than talk. “A federal judge challenged prosecutors Wednesday to show that nine members of a Michigan militia accused of plotting war against the government had done more than just talk and should remain locked up. . . . Roberts pressed that point more than once as Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet argued in favor of keeping the nine in jail. The judge suggested she didn’t hear or read in the transcripts any indication that violence was imminent. ‘Mere presence where a crime may be planned is not a crime. … How does this add up to seditious conspiracy?’ Roberts said.”

APPLE WANTED A “PUBLIC EXECUTION” in the iPhone case? This seems quite unwise to me. While they want to send a signal — don’t screw with our trade secrets — the fact is that brand-image is most of what Apple has going for it, and this thuggish approach isn’t going to help them. To me, the Droid is looking better and better . . . .

Related: Jon Stewart: “Appholes.” “You guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes. What the f**k is going on?”

TEST-DRIVING THE NEW BMW X5.

“TEACHING THE PIG TO DANCE:” An evocative title for Fred Thompson’s new memoir.

IN THE MAIL: The book you’ve been waiting for: Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH fights a civil war over Israel. And some dirt appears that may surprise those who haven’t been paying attention.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE:

Maybe Goldman sold investors some rotten eggs. Maybe not. So what? Goldman argues that it is being “railroaded by Congress for performing a normal market function—pricing risk and providing investment opportunities for grown-up investors,” which strikes me as precisely right. It is a central tenet of the federal securities laws that you’re allowed to sell rotten eggs, so long as you disclose that they’re rotten. So long as Goldman fully disclosed all material facts, the fact that Goldman thought the securities being sold were “shitty,” as one scatological email reference by an unwise trader put it, is not a breach of the securities laws. . . . It would behoove the US Senate to learn this history before they conduct their next perp walk.

I say hold Congress to the same kinds of standards they want to hold business to. They’d all be in jail — which, likely as not, would work no substantial unfairness . . . .

MY BELLSOUTH / AT&T INTERNET SERVICE has been particularly bad lately — slowdowns, dropouts, and general funky behavior. Kinda disappointed, as it’s been pretty good until recently.

UPDATE: Judging from my email, a lot of folks seem to be having this problem with AT&T lately. Anybody from AT&T want to weigh in?