JIM TREACHER: What’s With All The Death Threats, Libs? My theory is that they’re all about displaced anger at Obama. He’s been a failure, but they can’t bring themselves to hate him, yet. So they turn the hatred elsewhere.
Also, they’re idiots: “Sending somebody a death threat is dumb to begin with, but doing so via a Twitter account with your name and location on it? That takes a special brand of stupid.”
MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVERGENEROUS PUBLIC PENSIONS: Report: SF Pension Crisis Much Worse than City Claims: Adachi-commissioned analysis puts gap at $6.8 billion–not official figure of $1.6 billion. “The city’s pension fund is officially underfunded by $1.6 billion. Nation’s study argues that the pension fund is relying on a 7.75 percent annual rate of return that is unrealistic over the long term. The study argues for 6.2 percent, which it says was the average rate of return in the capital markets from 1900 through 1999.” Frankly, that “conservative” number looks overoptimistic to me. 4% is probably more realistic.
TRANSPARENCY: CBO: Obama understates deficits by $2.3 trillion. Well, in fairness, you can see right through them.
PROGRESSIVE: DoJ To White Male Bullying Victims: Tough Luck. “DOJ will only investigate bullying cases if the victim is considered protected under the 1964 Civil Rights legislation. In essence, only discrimination of the victim’s race, color, religion, or sex will be considered by DOJ. The overweight straight white male who is verbally and/or physically harassed because of his size can consider himself invisible to the Justice Department.”
UPDATE: Eugene Volokh emails with what I believe is a correct criticism:
I read the Washington Times story linked to in the post below, and it seems to miss the perfectly sound justification for the Justice Department’s position – it’s not clear that the Justice Department has the statutory authority to deal with non-race/religion/sex/etc.-based bullying, nor is it clear that such statutory authority makes sense as a matter of federalism. Enforcing the Equal Protection Clause, by making sure that states aren’t denying children equal education based on race, religion, sex, etc. is within the federal government’s Section 5 authority. But I’m not sure that protecting small kids is, at least under any sort of substantive more-than-rational-basis view of federalism. At the very least, it would be much more of a stretch, and, as I said, I’m not sure there’s any statutory basis for it in any event; so I would think that the Justice Department should be praised rather than condemned here. Or am I missing something?
I think that’s right, and I should have picked up on that myself — though I’ll add that given the history of this Justice Department, I’m not at all sure they’d even protect a straight white male who was bullied because of his race.
UPDATE: A reader emails:
The whole point that everyone seems to be missing is the creeping expansion of the Federal government into even the most minuscule events in our daily lives. Plus the whole bullying horseshit has to be one of the most pathetic attempts at a diversion of John Q Public’s attention from problems the present administration has absolutely no idea or competence on how to resolve.
It’s another political sleight of hand just like smoking was for Clinton. After all who will stand up and say “I support school bullying and think it should be expanded and supported in our public schools!” Well, aside from me, nobody. When are you people as a nation ever going to get your heads out? The fact that you and Volokh are even considering the legal technicalities and dicta of this pointless drivel shows how much Kool-Aid you people have been kicking back.
Well, if it were up to me there’d be about 50 lawyers at DoJ. But it’s not, is it?
STEPHEN GOLDSMITH: Progressive Government Is Obsolete. “The rule-based civil service was a step forward from Tammany Hall. But today’s regulations stifle government workers at a time when getting value for tax dollars is more important than ever.”
LIST: Some bug-out bag recommendations.
Related: A bug-in bag. “Basically a bag to get you home should SHTF while you’re away from your house.”
Plus, survival on the cheap. Still more here.
MICHAEL STOPA: Community Security First. He has a blog, too.
UPDATE: Walter Russell Mead: Obama’s War. “Military assisted regime change as a solution to humanitarian abuses perpetrated by a government with a history of terrorism linked to a firm belief that more democracy in the Arab world will lead to a more stable region: this is much more Paul Wolfowitz than Colin Powell. . . . I hope the Iranians are paying close attention, by the way. This President is much more likely to pull the trigger than they may think.”
IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE? (CONT’D): USA Today: Unemployment rises in nearly all metro areas.
Also, check out the job growth forecast map and see where the growth is. Hint: The “blue state model” doesn’t do well.
BOB ZUBRIN: Rising Oil Prices Threaten Economic Crash.
MICKEY KAUS FACES outrage on the right.
AN IMPORTANT BLOOD-CLOT DISCOVERY.
DEROY MURDOCK: Death Threats By The Dozens In Wisconsin.
HOW DEBT MAKES CRISES WORSE: Japan reminds strapped officials they need buffer. “When your credit card is nearly maxed out, dealing with emergencies can be tricky. A massive rebuilding effort may stretch Japan to its financial limits. Politicians in Washington and other overspending capitals should take note of the warning.”
Debt limits flexibility in a crisis. So do “entitlements” that can’t easily be changed. But our political class wants to control it all now. The future is someone else’s problem. Japan isn’t much different, because this is characteristic of the sorts of people who go into politics. It’s also a reason not to give those people — who are, by nature, morally and intellectually inferior in many respects — too much control over people’s lives or resources.
WISCONSIN PROTESTS veer far left.
ANDREW SULLIVAN, who once complained that Bush wasn’t interested enough in invading Iraq, is now unhappy with Obama on Libya. Yeah, I know, who cares — but it’s worth recording for posterity.
WHAT THE NAVY is doing for Japan. (PDF).
HEH: Exclusive: Secret Envoy To Libya To Be Named. An envoy with a lot in common. An idea so crazy it just might work!
WISCONSIN THUGGERY UPDATE: Shankman Warns of ‘Serious’ WI Actions to Come, Denies Issuing Death Threat.
JAMES TARANTO REALLY KNOWS HOW TO HURT A GUY: “An uncredentialed Brian Leiter.” I mean, Jim Shankman’s scum, but does he deserve that?
SO IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE? Leftists Protest, Firebomb US Consulate in Brazil Ahead of Obama Visit. Remember how an Obama presidency was going to make everyone love us? Me neither.
FASTER, PLEASE: After Earth: Why, Where, How, and When We Might Leave Our Home Planet — Humanity may have millennia to find a new home in the universe–or just a few years. The Earth is too fragile a basket for all of our eggs, as Robert Heinlein noted.
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.