STRENGTH TRAINING: Ask Mark Rippetoe Your Questions About Strength Training — The nation’s premier strength coach and PJM contributor is chatting live from 2:00-4:00 p.m. EST today, at the PJ Lifestyle blog.

RECOVERY BUMMER: “Pain is coming to Nevada small businesses when Obamacare’s employer mandates take effect. And the ones to suffer will be their employees. And the pain will resonate throughout the state’s economy as it will in the rest of the states. And Nevadans can thank their Senator Harry Reid for their plights.”

And the unions who bankroll his campaigns.

NOT TOO BIG TO FAIL: In Great Britain Bank must burst housing bubble. Here the bubble was never even fully corrected but it hasn’t fully re-inflated either.

BELTWAY HYPNOSIS SYNDROME: “A fixation on presidential politics means the trivialization of everything else,” Stacy McCain writes, on the right ignoring so much of the culture beyond an (understandable) obsession with defeating Obama – who’s already a lame duck. Read the whole thing, then follow Stacy’s link to Larry O’Connor.

WHO LURED MONICA LEWINSKY OUT OF HER 10-YEAR SILENCE? I have 5 theories (and a poll).

WHAT WILL HISTORY SAY: Pam Geller and Robert Spencer as Andy Rooney.

FASTER, PLEASE: Richard Branson’s vision for NY to Tokyo in one hour, as explored at CNBC – which doesn’t seem to be losing much sleep over fellow NBC employee Chris Hayes’ take on fossil fuels as the equivalent of slavery.

THE REAL REASON THE LEFT HATES WORK: Liz Peek offers up a variety of actual, real-life, shovel-ready jobs just waiting for the otherwise-exhausted Obama administration to promote, and concludes:

Some on the right think this strategy is part of a grand plan. They see an increase in the number of Americans who are dependent on the federal government as beneficial to Democrats, who largely win the votes of those to whom they offer ever-higher benefits and welfare. I refuse to imagine that any such insidious thinking is behind the left’s refusal to embrace job creation.

I believe, instead, that it springs from a wide-spread lack of private sector experience. President Obama believes the government can right all wrongs – that’s the wellspring from which community activists derive their inspiration. It is a philosophy that has done great damage to this country in recent years – and we’re not out of the woods yet.

They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please, to coin an Insta-phrase.

DEMS’ BENGHAZI STRATEGY: DENY, DELAY, DISRUPT, DISCREDIT: With House Republicans convening a select committee to investigate the Benghazi scandal, Democrats can be expected to be totally cooperative, completely forthcoming and unusually public spirited … and we have this fabulous bridge in Brooklyn at special price just for you! Morning Examiner lays it out in detail. The mainstream media’s slashing  profiles of Rep. Trey Gowdy are likely being researched and written as this is posted.

THE COMEBACK OF “THE COMEBACK.” I’m thrilled to see that HBO is bringing back the cancelled-after-one-season show “The Comeback.” People not understanding why that show was great made me feel so alone back in 2005.

ADDED: I felt like I was the only person who loved Lisa Kudrow but never watched an episode of “Friends.” (Except that one time when Brad Pitt was on.) Anyway, supposedly people had trouble with the way the main character (played by Kudrow) was always getting into humiliating situations — as if we’d regressed from the days when everybody loved Lucy. Or had we progressed? Conceivably, we’d boringly gotten to the point where we couldn’t laugh at a female character who couldn’t understand the situation she got herself into.

AND: This is unrelated… but would you like to see what an Entlebucher Mountain Dog puppy looks like?

THE CHINESE AND THE JEWS: Michael Ledeen offers “a bit of advice for the Chinese quest for the secret of capitalist success.”

ALL OBAMA PROMISES COME WITH EXPIRATION DATES: “Obama’s Biggest Lie: The ACA Will Lower Health Care Spending,” from Ed Morrissey at the Fiscal Times.

I’VE GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS: The latest GLOP Culture podcast is now online at Ricochet, with Jonah Goldberg, Rob Long, and John Podhoretz.

SAVING BARACK OBAMA: Steven Spielberg’s revisionist look at World War II as nihilism gets co-opted in protest of America’s first nihilistic president.

NYC BOOK CLUB GOES TOPLESS ‘TO MAKE READING SEXY,’ SUCCEEDS (NSFW PHOTOS): The ink isn’t confined to the books, alas…

CHECK YOUR ARGUMENT: “If your underlying argument is flawed, you do need a force other than logic and evidence to sustain your position.  Political correctness is an admission of intellectual frailty.”

Read the whole thing.

BELTWAY HYPNOSIS SYNDROME, as diagnosed by Stacy McCain.

THE ANCHORESS: Belying Emily Letts’ “good abortion” Words: Her Face.

DOUBLING DOWN: MSNBC host: No, seriously, Animal Farm is about corporate plutocracy, sort of.

WATCHING THE NARRATIVE BEING FORMED: Oh, Brother! CBS News Prez: WH Saw Benghazi As Terror.

THIS DEPICTION OF ME AS A SUPER VILLAIN: Is by far the funniest way I’ve ever been thanked (?) for linky-love.  So, even though I don’t always agree with John C. Wright, go and take a look at his non-fiction book. (He is always worth it, as a word-smith.) While you’re at it, check out my friend Kate Paulk’s Con books — irresistible if you’re a science fiction fan.  Also, Kate is the other half of the world’s most evil person.  (I believe to deserve this we pointed out that SFWA should not be in the ideology-policing business. Which makes us worse than Caligula.)  Yes, I know, Kate needs better covers.  It’s actually on my to-do list. You could also do worse than checking out Dave Freer, a very good friend. Dave Freer is the originator of the saying “The Americans are terrible imperialists.  All they want to do is go home.”  He’s a newly-minted Australian — from South Africa — and this is his blog.

IT’S NOT SCIENCE.  IT’S A CHEAP CHINESE RESTAURANT: Let’s Call It ‘Climate Disruption,’ White House Science Adviser Suggests (Again).  Like liberalism, socialism, progressivism, this things keeps changing names when people catch on.  Also, and for the record “climate disruption” was something all my New Agey friends talked about back in the nineties.  If Al Gore starts chanting Age of Aquarius, I’m going to really freak out.

HAVING UNELECTED BUREAUCRATS RULE YOU FROM FAR AWAY IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA: UK anger over ‘secret’ EU financial transaction tax plan.