OBAMACARE FUN FACT #4:  With an out-of-town trip and a editor’s deadline, it’s been a few days since I shared any Obamacare Fun Facts.  Now, I’m back at my desk, with the giant 2-volume bill on my desk, so I’m ready to start posting them again.  Here we go, fun fact #4:

$1.25 billion– yes, that’s “billion” with a “b”– for “centers of excellence for depression.”  [section 10410 of the Affordable Care Act]  These centers will engage in research and treatment of depression.

Wow– really?  $1.25 BILLION to universities and other entities to do something–treat and conduct research on depression–that they already have every incentive in the world to do? Indeed, there’s already a National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC)–consisting of 21 large institutions–that has functionally being doing this type of work since 2007.

What a boondoggle.  Makes me depressed.  Think I can get a grant?

Good to know my tax dollars aren’t being squandered in these tough economic times.

I MAKE A GUEST BLOG APPEARANCE: in my guise as Elise Hyatt, author of the Daring Finds Mysteries.  (Lighter than air and completely non-political.)  A Fatal Stain is the newest book in the series.

BBC SCANDAL CREATES WAVES FOR INCOMING NEW YORK TIMES CEO: More than a Pinch, I’d say. But why is this this headline written in the single case?

HOSTILE WORKPLACE: Obama’s Female Debate Coach Complained About ‘Hostile Workplace’ at White House.

Really? Where would she get that impression?

At the exact moment Jon Favreau is receiving high praise in pre-inaugural media puff pieces, the 27-year-old chief speechwriter for President-elect Barack Obama (not Jon Favreau, the Hollywood actor/ director) finds himself in a minor mess over a photo from a recent private party showing him groping the breast of a cardboard cutout of Hillary Rodham Clinton as an unnamed pal wearing an “Obama staff” T-shirt kisses and feeds her beer.

If you haven’t seen it, imagine the early stages of the barroom rape scene of “The Accused” with Jodie Foster. Or think prosecutor Mike Nifong’s graphic (though false) descriptions of the Duke lacrosse party. Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson danced to a similar tune at the 2004 Super Bowl.

Fraternities have been closed for less.

(And has anyone told Obama’s campaign co-chair about this issue? She may be laboring under a false consciousness.)

RELATED: Heh, indeed.™

FRANK J.: Obama is helping income inequality since a woman without a job earns a 100% the same as a man without a job.

MAN ARRESTED IN PLOT TO BLOW UP FEDERAL RESERVE BANK IN NEW YORK:

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested for allegedly attempting to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan, the Department of Justice and a U.S. attorney’s office said in a press release.

He will be charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda, the press release said.

Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals quips, “I blame the Tea Party” — if past performance is any indication, that was likely Mayor Bloomberg’s first reaction as well.

(Incidentally, if a 1000-pound bomb constitutes a WMD, by that definition, Iraq must have been crawling with the stuff.)

SAFETY: Computer Viruses Are “Rampant” on Medical Devices in Hospitals. The near-total inattention to computer security displayed in so many areas is going to come back to bite us sooner or later.

LIZ PEEK: Obama’s Auto Bailout Was Really a Hefty Union Payoff. Ya think?

UPDATE: Timothy Reed emails: “The auto bailout was, to my mind, a newspaper bailout–the first of many to come I fear. Just buy your local rag and look at the percentage of auto space. Without GM and Chrysler related ads, already sick newspapers would have gone on the respirator the next day. Sure, the auto unions got help, but the bailout also protected many hundreds of non-union (and ad buying) dealerships. Why were union friendly bailout proponents so generous to all of those non-union businesses? Newspapers.”

NICK GILLESPIE: Obama, Romney Debate: Who Speaks for the Majority That Wants Gov’t to Do Less, Not Promote Trad. Values?

MICKEY KAUS: Here’s Why Candy Crowley Was Out Of Line. “Crowley did not let viewers draw their own conclusions. She didn’t let the candidates make their arguments about what Obama’s statement did or did not mean–obviously the right course to take. She flatly intervened to declare that Obama’s interpretation was right. I’ll let readers draw their own conclusions. … Hint: Carole Simpson!”

Bylined Democratic operatives. With no consequences.

ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION, the richest man in human history. “With an inflation adjusted fortune of $400 billion, Mansa Musa I would have been considerably richer than the world’s current richest man, Carlos Slim, who ranks in 22nd place with a relatively paltry $68 billion.” Yeah, but it was hard to get your Gulfstream serviced back then.

The nice thing about this list is how many people at the top made their money through free enterprise, rather than through being kings or dictators. The sad thing is how many are kings or dictators.

THIS MADE ME LAUGH ALOUD: The H.P. Lovecraft Institute of Software Design

MESSAGING FOR 2012: Take This Economy And Shove It.

FIVE FOR FIGHTING’S JOHN ONDRASIK: Putting on a Romney concert in Denver tomorrow.

USING FOOTAGE FROM LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE: New Romney Ad: “The Choice.”

Erika Johnsen comments: “So much of Barack Obama’s manufactured campaign image centers on being some big champion of the middle class, but so many of Obama’s both enacted and proposed policies — from the costs and taxes inherent in ObamaCare, to energy policies that boost utility and gasoline prices, to tax hikes and red tape that make it more difficult for small-business owners to operate — are direct hits on middle-class prosperity. As Romney points out, median incomes have fallen, and Obama’s utter failure to even attempt major entitlement reform to make solvent demonstrably unsustainable programs like Social Security is a boon to exactly nobody.”

COPYRIGHT: “Again, it’s really surprising that Apple isn’t a lot more careful about this kind of stuff.”

I’M NOT FEELING IT: The New Face of Chanel No. 5.

THE OBAMA ENERGY FACEPLANT: It’s as Easy as A123.

AND I THOUGHT THIS ONLY HAPPENED IN PUBLISHING: Suit claims looker snooker I wonder how many industries depending on freelancers are rotten all the say through.  With the new tech encouraging freelancing in everything, I wonder how it will shake out.