LOOKING AT capitalism on campus.

THE HILL: Republicans are ahead in 8 of 10 open House districts.

DAVID HARSANYI: “So, who’s left to demonize? The Girl Scouts? Rotary Clubs maybe?”

It might be time to rethink that strategy: White House attacks on Rove’s group lead to massive influx of donations.

SHOVEL-READY JOBS: Professor Jacobson was ahead of Obama by 22 months.

MARC DANZIGER: You Know How Obama Isn’t Out Front On That Whole Gay Thing? Maybe It Isn’t Just Politics. “If a whiteboy GOP staffer made a comment like that, I’m thinking the gay community would be out for blood.”

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: PJM Readers Knew Illinois Failed Military Voters, but DOJ Didn’t. DoJ didn’t want to know.

DAVID BROOKS WONDERS WHY THE GOVERNMENT CAN’T DO ANYTHING ANYMORE:

Why are important projects now unaffordable? Decades ago, when the federal and state governments were much smaller, they had the means to undertake gigantic new projects, like the Interstate Highway System and the space program. But now, when governments are bigger, they don’t.

The answer is what Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal once called demosclerosis. Over the past few decades, governments have become entwined in a series of arrangements that drain money from productive uses and direct it toward unproductive ones.

That’s exactly right, and Rauch’s book, Demosclerosis: The Silent Killer of American Government, remains just as timely as in the 1990s, when it came out.

Brooks is also right about this:

This situation, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, has been the Democratic Party’s epic failure. The party believes in the positive uses of government. But if you want the country to share that belief, you have to provide a government that is nimble, tough-minded and effective. That means occasionally standing up to the excessive demands of public employee unions. Instead of standing up to those demands, the party has become captured by the unions. Liberal activism has become paralyzed by its own special interests.

But there’s a lesson that he misses. Brooks calls for a political party that won’t be for more government or less government, but for making the right choices. The problem is that any party given the power to create more government will likely do so, and to hell with making the right choices. The web of special interests is very strong.

There is at least a partial solution, and I wrote about it in my Vanderbilt Law Review article entitled Is Democracy Like Sex? which got some attention back when it came out. It’s all about enhancing resistance to parasitism through turnover. We’re likely to see some of that in November, anyway . . . .

The other issue is headroom. In audio engineering, headroom is the difference between the level you’re at now, and the maximum level the system can sustain. In the old days, when government was small, there was lots of headroom. Now, government is huge, and there’s not much headroom at all.

UPDATE: Reader Charles Austin emails:

Perhaps it also has something to do with what the government is trying to do.

An Interstate Highway System is a concrete (no pun intended), easily definable thing with a clear cut measure of success and expected costs. A space program is something that can also have clear, defined goals and success criteria though admittedly the cost is a little more nebulous (pun intended).

Now the government wants to accomplish tasks which are oxymoronic (providing more health care for less money by fiat), utterly unobtainable (eliminating poverty — especially when the goalposts keep moving), and indicative of childish wishful thinking (every increasing public sector pensions and refusing to even acknowledge the Ponzi scheme nature of Social Security). And what’s more, they try to accomplish these goals by passing legislation they can’t be bothered to read while constantly telling us how much smarter they are than the hoi polloi, lecturing us little people on our excesses and sins while virtually flaunting the same behavior themselves, and living like royalty on the public nickel while the times get harder and harder for those outside their insulated, pampered, tax-payer funded existence.

Roads and space program exploits aren’t amenable to postmodern analysis, wealth redistribution, social justice or fairness. Besides how many of them could even get a job actually building a road or designing a satellite?

Yes, old-fashioned programs of tangible value are different from today’s redistributive efforts at social “change.”

UPDATE: Reader Dart Montgomery writes that I should provide a direct link to Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities. Done! Olson’s book is a must-read, and far more relevant to our current problems than, say, Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, though less stylish because it’s harder to turn Olson’s work in a specifically anti-military direction.

Here’s a short summary of Olson’s book, from a reader review forwarded by Montgomery: “Professor Olson describes a wide range of social/economic structures and processes (unions, big government, high and rising taxes, regulation, monopolies, etc.) that characterize most economies but more so the aging economies of Western Europe (This book was written before the unification of eastern and western Europe). He then proceeds to show us what these all have in common: They each, together and with time, contribute in increasingly slowing down and stifling a nation’s economy.”

CHRIS COONS: I love the Chamber Of Commerce! “That’s right. In order to establish his bona fides on the most important issue in the election — jobs — Coons wrapped himself in the mantle of the same organization that Obama and his spokesmen are attempting to demonize. Even the so-called bearded Marxist recognized that an association of job creators is the wrong bogeyman in this election.”

A SCANDAL FOR REP. CHARLIE WILSON?

“ARE THESE REPORTERS, OR PALACE GUARDS?” Palace guards would be more tactful. It’s part of their training . . . .

UPDATE: A reader emails that the real story isn’t the thuggery — it’s that Rahm Emanuel can’t draw a crowd of actual voters . . . .

FIRST NEW YORK, NOW THIS: Military ballots may not count in Illinois.

The great way to address this would be to dock states a percentage of their total federal funding to match the percentage of military ballots that are not counted.

SO DOES THIS MEAN THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE IS STILL EXPANDING? Arizona State University law school to go private. Well, if we did this at Tennessee we’d be ahead of the game — like most law schools, we’re a cash cow for the University. I’m sure that’s the situation at ASU, too. It’s a good place.

I WOULD EXPECT THAT MOST INSTAPUNDIT READERS ALREADY OWN IT, but reader Greg Joyce emails that Firefly on DVD is on sale for $17.49. A good price for the complete series, and it might make a nice early Christmas purchase.

UPDATE: Several readers email to preach the virtues of Netflix streaming. I don’t do that, but yeah.

INSTAVISION: Hamming It Up With Mary Katharine Ham. We talk about guerrilla video, the future of alternative media, and why people care more about blended puppies than tossed cats. Plus, advice to people who want to follow in her footsteps.

MOST ETHICAL CONGRESS EVER: BREAKING: Harry Reid Hit With Ethics Complaint.

MAYBE OBAMA IS A MIRACLE WORKER! He’s making Bush look good!

INCREASING DIVERSITY prevents tax increases?

THE COMPLICATIONS OF dual-earner households. “And so it would not be at all unusual to find households in which male construction workers have become unemployed with little chance at near-term re-employment, while the female earner has been able to increase hours worked in, say, a health care position. But this household is in a tricky position. Construction in Nevada may be a stagnant industry for years to come, and the male may have little hope of finding a new job. Elsewhere in the country, however, real estate markets are tighter and will recover, and begin adding employment, far sooner. But were the household to relocate, both earners would find themselves needing to find new jobs in a market in which the ratio of job seekers to vacancies remains quite high. The risk to relocation is significant. And so the household may stay put, essentially conceding that the male half will remain unemployed for the foreseeable future.”

REALLY? Yes, Paul Krugman, Spending Has Steeply Increased. Well, duh.

WHITE HOUSE BEWARE: Teleprompter hacked, hilarity ensues.

TAKING THE “SNUGGIE CONCEPT” way too far.

16 health and beauty benefits of sex.

WELL, THAT SUCKS: Red Bull Won’t Be Skydiving From Space. “Red Bull has pulled the plug on its plan to have daredevil Felix Baumgartner skydive from the edge of space, because it is being sued by a California promoter who says Red Bull stole his idea.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns on toys and games.

MASSACHUSETTS: Soon in a different column? “I was speaking with a prominent Tea Party member in the eastern part of the state — she has been doing the heavy work of going door to door on days off to talk to voters, passing out literature and pushing her candidates. The report I got was astounding. Over and over doors were about to be closed until the voter heard the Magic word ‘Republican’. When the voter heard that word, doors were opened, literature accepted and thumbs up given. Only one in four at best thought otherwise.”