TWO ADMINISTRATIONS IN ONE: Kathleen Sebelius says Paul Ryan’s fiscal plan would cause seniors to “die sooner.” But based on his earlier writing, (which he’s since backpedaled slightly from), John Holdren, President Obama’s Dr. Strangelove-esque “science czar,” might think that’s not such a bad idea.  He certainly seemed rather infatuated with reducing the size of the population using extreme measures in the ZPG-obsessed 1970s, at least.

(Nowadays his obsessions aim a bit higher.)

On a less snarky note, as Jennifer Rubin notes:

By attacking Ryan’s plan as one that have seniors “die sooner,” the Obama team is demagoguing and deflecting attention from its own top-down rationing plan. Why aren’t the liberal pundits, who are so concerned about seniors’ health care, hollering about that?

Good question.

PAUL KRUGMAN, AMERICA’S LEAST PLAUSIBLE POPULIST:

In his column today he goes after “policy elitists” whom he describes as “self-appointed wise men, officials, and pundits in good standing” who go around “lecturing the rest of us.”

I thought that use of the word “us” was the funniest thing I’ve read in a while.

Pshaw — who amongst us hasn’t sighed wistfully to himself and said, “What? You’re driving me back to the airport in Sao Paulo, in all that traffic? Don’t I rate a helicopter?”

SUNDAY MORNING TALKING HEADS talk about the end of OBL, as drawn by the wonderful Crack Skull Bob.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Home & Garden outlet sale.

THIS IS FOR ABBY LINDBERG:  Who plans to study engineering and build our new robotic overlords.

GLOBAL WARMING: IT’S EVERYTHING YOU WANT IT TO BE — AND MORE: In 2008, we were told that the Internet, in the form of air conditioned server farms can cause global warming.

In 2011, we’re told that that global warming threatens the Internet: “Study into impact of hotter, stormier weather on UK infrastructure finds threat to wi-fi range and signal strength.”

Fortunately, Ace is taking this latest climatic crisis as super-serial as Al Gore would: “New Attempt To Scare You: Global Warming Will Destroy Your Access To Internet Porn:”

Do you realize what this means?

If we don’t destroy our economy immediately, we all could be plunged, temporarily, back into the Dark Ages of 1991-1993.

You might have to sign up for America Online again, people.

America. On. Line.

Get with the program, wingnuts. The porn you save could be your own.

Still, look at the upside: once we emerged from the New Dark Ages, we’d get to watch a whole new crowd of Old Media types asking, “What is Internet, anyway?”

A REMINDER… in case you’ve forgotten how great kissing is.

JONATHAN SWIFT’S ADVICE ON WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE OLD: By way of Execupundit.  This is very good advice, I think – I mean, not that I’m there or anything, and certainly I’m never peevish, suspicious, or morose.  I’ll check into this again in several decades and see what I think.

HANGING WITH HEZBOLLAH, Part I.

WHY PEOPLE DON’T LOVE THE OFFICIALLY MOST LIVABLE CITIES: Financial Times blogs on the curious phenomenon that those on the lists of “most livable towns and cities” are not necessarily beloved.  (H/T Tyler Cowen)

RE: “DEMOCRATS SEE HIGH GAS PRICES as a good occasion for raising taxes on oil companies.”

To follow-up on Ann’s post earlier today, as far as the NYT and gasoline is concerned, it really is always a good time to be taxing.

INDEED: Michael Young to the Obama White House: “The last thing [Syria’s Bashar al-Assad] will ever do if he manages to repress his own people is undermine this by negotiating with Israel.”

The White House, though, is hardly the only place in the American government where foreign policy makers don’t understand this. As our Secretary of State recently said, members of both the Republican and Democratic parties believe Assad is a “reformer.” It doesn’t take more than a decade for an absolute dictator to reform his own system, and reformers don’t shoot hundreds of unarmed kids in the back while calling them pawns in a Jewish conspiracy.

RAFFI KHATCHADOURIAN: The rules of engagement in the attack on Bin Laden.  Quite good short piece on the legal issues in the New Yorker blog.  I discuss it a bit here at Opinio Juris, where you can also comment.

“THIS NEW ROOMMATE IS DRIVING ME NUTS:” Since guestblogging is all the rage this week, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi checks in after a long absence with a new post at Iowahawk, via whatever Internet service Hell offers (presumably WebTV, or an eMachine on dial-up running Windows Me ).  The Z-Man discusses his very special new roommate, and how things are working out in their new and remarkably hostile hostel: “Just like that infidel movie of yours, Groundhog Day, except you really don’t want to know what they use the groundhogs for. Trust me.”

Needless to say, a strong language warning applies. Hey, it’s not like he’s blogging with the angels, you know.

PROTECTING US OUT OF THE DRUGS WE NEED: Amy Alkon on “Why There’s A Ritalin Shortage.”

LAST WEEK, I blogged about whether we should redistribute grades the way we redistribute income. Over at The Economist, Matt Steinglass argues that we already do.

BAMBOOZLED — Two Recent Biographies Shed New Light on Liberal Icons: “Why are we startled to learn the real truth about Gandhi and Malcolm X? Because journalists are remarkably adept at seeing only what they want to see when a liberal dreamboat comes floating along on a river of lies.”

A MUST-READ: High Noon in Pakistan, by Walter Russell Mead.

LILEKS ON A FILM UNFINISHED: “It’s not a doc on the Ghetto, but a documentary on a Nazi documentary on the Ghetto.”

Read the whole thing, including — shudder — how the trailer is playing with YouTube commenters.

RELATED: From 2010, when the film played in theaters, “Should the Holocaust Be Rated ‘R’?”

2012 AND THE REPUBLICAN RESCUE FANTASY: “In the back of their minds, many Republicans are hoping that somewhere, somehow, a superhero candidate will swoop down out of the sky and rescue them from their current lackluster presidential field,” Byron York writes. “They know it’s a fantasy, but they still hope.”

REMINISCENCES OF CALIFORNIA, from Howard Nemerov at the PJ Tatler, who decamped to Texas a few years ago: “People in CA chided me about moving to redneck-land. I decided to be polite to most of them and hold my silence. But if you want to live with angry, intolerant, narrow-minded, mean-spirited people who act aggressive if you don’t agree with their views, move to California.

LET’S NOT GET TOO EXCITED about GM profits.  It’s certainly better than making losses–but the government is still going to lose a great deal of money on the deal.

DO REAL ESTATE BUYERS NEED AN AGENT?  These days, more people seem to be doing without.  When we bought our house, we knew exactly where we wanted to live, and I ran the comps we used.  But it was still useful to have someone to negotiate the paperwork.

IN THE MAIL: Surviving Hell: A POW’S Journey.

THEY TOLD GLENN REYNOLDS that if he voted for John McCain, we’d be getting four more years of a president who “reveals on 60 Minutes that he’s more of a cowboy than Bush” and they were right!