SHOOTING SUPPLIES INTO SPACE with a cannon.

L.A. TIMES: For California Democrats, GOP upset in Massachusetts is a cause for worry.

SALLY MANN ON PHOTOGRAPHY.

TEASE: The Kia Ray Plug-In Hybrid.

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX: Sarah Hoyt is guestblogging at Classical Values. I’m reading her Darkship Thieves now and enjoying it — it’s redone classic space-opera, with a somewhat Heinleinesque feel.

IN HAITI, setting up a plug-and-play inflatable emergency hospital. Plus, a photo gallery. Xeni Jardin emails: “Apart from the (to me, totally fascinating) technical details of how you go about assembling a giant blow-up hospital in a disaster zone, and how you balance the appeal of new technology versus the stability of what’s tried and true — the MSF guys in Haiti also spoke with us about continued frustration in getting aid in (airport turning away planes), current conditions in Port-au-Prince, and longer-term rehabilitation concerns (huge numbers of survivors are now missing limbs, how will they work and take care of themselves?). Additionally, they noted that one source of inspiration for this system was the US Army’s MASH units.”

PAUL HSIEH: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENTS. “What do independents want? In a word, limited government.” Technically, that’s two words, but, yeah.

COPENHAGEN ACCORD ON CLIMATE CHANGE, collapsing?

JOEL KOTKIN: A year into the Obama administration, America’s dominant geography, suburbia, is now in open revolt against an urban-centric regime. And that’s not surprising: “For the first time in memory, the suburbs are under a conscious and sustained attack from Washington.”

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT targeting the gun industry?

BOILING WATER in a paper cup.

THOUGHTS ON WHO SHOULD (AND SHOULDN’T) go to law school. Further discussion here.

PETER BERKOWITZ: The New Progressivism: Same as the Old Progressivism?

DOESN’T HAVE THE VOTES: Pelosi announces that she can’t pass Senate ObamaCare bill. “Brown’s arrival in the capital today carried a message that Democrats finally began to comprehend, after dismissing voter anger at town halls for months as meaningless.”

IN THE MAIL: From Joel Kotkin, The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050.

IF YOU MISSED IT LAST NIGHT, check out my interview with Michael Barone on the Massachusetts election and what’s next. Plus, advice for Tea Party folks.

FROM WENDI THOMAS, no love for Harold Ford, Jr. (Via Michael Silence). This suggests that Ford’s airport meltdown was in, not out of, character.

STEVE CHAPMAN: Health Insurance By Command: The Trouble With The Individual Mandate.

The nice thing about elections is that they give you a choice not only of people but of policies. In the 2008 primaries, for instance, Hillary Clinton offered a health care plan that required everyone to get insurance, while Barack Obama’s blueprint had no such mandate. That was about the only difference in their suggested solutions.

It was a big one, to hear Obama tell it. He aired a TV ad attacking Clinton because her scheme “forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can’t afford it, and you pay a penalty if you don’t.”

He, by contrast, stressed that he would encourage more coverage by offering federal help in paying for it, while trusting in the ultimate wisdom of individual Americans to make their own decisions.

Voters had a clear choice, and they chose Obama and his voluntary plan over Clinton and her compulsory approach. That settled that.

Or so we thought. But something happened after Obama arrived in the Oval Office. His deep faith in the free decisions of ordinary people soon evaporated. Last summer, after the House included a mandate in its legislation, Obama suddenly had a change of heart.

Well, his slogan was “change.”

WHAT’S NEXT? Here’s the complete 2010 Congressional Primary Calendar.

TAXES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE (CONT’D): Over a Dozen Georgia Lawmakers Failed to File State Tax Returns. Seems like they might be ripe for Tea Party challengers . . . .

SUPREME COURT rules on campaign finance laws. Strikes down distinction between individual and corporate expenditures, lets corporations donate directly. Link to opinion (which I have not read yet) is here.

UPDATE: Jennifer Rubin: Supreme Court Vindicates Political Speech, Pulverizes McCain-Feingold.

WHY HAROLD FORD, JR. Can Win.

CATO: The Libertarian Vote in the Age of Obama. “Libertarians seem to be a lead indicator of trends in centrist, independent-minded voters. If libertarians continue to lead the independents away from Obama, Democrats will lose 2010 midterm elections they would otherwise win.”

POLITICO: Dems Fret: “Every State Is In Play.”

UPDATE: Raw Story: Kucinich shreds Democrats for betraying promise of change.

ANOTHER UPDATE: RealClearPolitics: Hubris Is Ruining The Democrats. “Democrats in the present instance were on the receiving end of the public’s anger and exasperation due to their stubborn refusal to hear other people’s viewpoints about health care reform or to acknowledge that terrorists and suicide bombers qualify for the barest minimum of constitutional sympathy. Wise Republicans, should the GOP soon snatch back the power it lost in 2006 and 2008, will warn party members against the same kind of tone-deafness. The people won’t take it. Maybe you think they should. Well, they won’t. Don’t try it. . . . The love of power got to the Democrats: the love of big-shotting it before the cameras, as if senators were resident royalty rather than servants.”

ELIZABETH WYDRA: Has Chicago Gone Too Far In Defending Its Gun Laws?