MAYBE BECAUSE HE KEEPS TELLING US THAT A SMALL, INSULAR MINORITY CONTROLS EVERYTHING AND MUST BE PUNISHED? Why Do the Super-Rich Keep Comparing Obama to Hitler?

Anyway, I don’t recall so much concern back when all the lefties were calling Bush Hitler, despite a distinct lack of persecution aimed at his critics.

UPDATE: See, for example, Andrew Sullivan’s declaration in 2007 that Bush was the Weimar President. (If so, who does that make Obama?)

Related: Ed Driscoll: Two Atlantics In One! “Incidentally, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers quickly distanced themselves from its co-founder’s original remarks, presumably in the hopes that should Occupy Wall Street rise up again, it will devour them last. It’s vaguely reminiscent of the Occupy-friendly appeasement tactics of the Oakland Mens Warehouse in November 0f 2011, before their own storefront windows were shattered, during what might be described as an evening of wanton socialist violence and destruction characterized by million of crystalline shards of broken glass. For lack of a better term, of course.”

Also: Perkinsnacht: Liberal vituperation makes our letter writer’s point.

While claiming to be outraged at the Nazi reference, the critics seem more incensed that Mr. Perkins dared to question the politics of economic class warfare. The boys at Bloomberg View—we read them since no one else does—devoted an entire editorial to inequality and Mr. Perkins’s “unhinged Nazi rant.” Others denounced him for defending his former wife Danielle Steel, and even for owning too many Rolex watches.

Maybe the critics are afraid that Mr. Perkins is onto something about the left’s political method. Consider the recent record of liberals in power. They’re the ones obsessed with the Koch brothers and other billionaires contributing to conservative causes, siccing journalists to trash them and federal agencies to shut them down.

President Obama’s IRS targeted conservative political groups for scrutiny in an election year and has now formalized that scrutiny in new regulatory “guidance” for this election year. Democratic prosecutors in Wisconsin unleashed a special prosecutor to target conservative groups allied with Governor Scott Walker. A judge threw out the subpoenas as baseless but only after months of legal harassment and dawn police raids.

Or take New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said in a recent radio interview that, “If they are extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York.” He said he meant people who oppose gay marriage or abortion, or favor legal assault weapons. He didn’t say they were wrong. He said get out of the state.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio then chimed in to say Mr. Cuomo was “absolutely right,” throwing in a riff about “crippling inequality” for no extra charge. Like Mr. de Blasio, Mr. Obama doesn’t merely want to raise taxes on the rich to finance the government. He says “millionaires and billionaires” simply make too much money and deserve to be punished. Or as they say at the New York Times, NYT -1.78% they are “the undeserving rich.” By the way, does that include the third-generation rentiers in the Sulzberger family?

The liberals aren’t encouraging violence, but they are promoting personal vilification and the abuse of government power to punish political opponents.

Meh. They’re encouraging violence, too. All of this “othering,” to use a lefty term, serves that purpose: To dehumanize the political opposition, and to make nasty tactics seem less nasty.

AVIK ROY: On Inequality, Obama Fails His Own Test.

During President Barack Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address on Tuesday night, one section stood out. “After four years of economic growth,” said the president, “corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled.” But Obama left unstated the most important point of all: Under his watch and thanks to his policies, those at the bottom of the ladder face fewer and fewer opportunities to get ahead. Worse still, most of the policies he proposed during his address would make social and economic mobility even harder.

I just returned from a three-day trip to Austin, Texas. Spend a few days in Austin and you feel as though you are in a different America from the one described by the president. In the next two years, downtown Austin’s hotel capacity will increase by 57 percent. In the last 20 years, Austin’s population has increased by an astounding 71 percent. The state of Texas hosts four of the 11 largest cities in the country: Houston (4), Dallas-Fort Worth (5), San Antonio (8) and Austin (11). The biggest problem in Austin is not the economy or unemployment — it is the traffic.

Texas is booming and drawing opportunity seekers from all over North America who want a better life. According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, Texas ranked 10th nationwide in a measure of states with the lowest costs of living. That is because the state has a predictable and relatively light regulatory regime that drives down the cost of doing business, and thereby the cost of consumer goods and services.

Add to that the fact that Texas has no state income tax. Immigrants to the state know that every dollar they make goes much further in the Lone Star State than it would in places such as California, New York or D.C. For four straight years, Texas has led the nation in job growth. From 2001 to 2011, it added 732,800 jobs to its economy. No other state topped 100,000.

The president likes to think of himself as an empiricist, a nonideological believer in what works. So why is it that his policy approach is the opposite of the one that has worked in Texas and elsewhere?

Because he really cares about control, not economic growth or reducing inequality.

CHANGE: The incredible, shrinking blue-state advantage.

The Democratic Party’s advantage in the states was halved last year, continuing a dramatic multi-year decline.

In 2008, Democrats had a 30-state advantage in party affiliation over Republicans, according to state-level Gallup surveys. Last year, that advantage among states fell to just three.

I think the GOP can thank President Obama for this shift.

SNOWPOCALYPSE: 13 Examples Of People Being Awesome In The Middle Of The Atlanta Traffic Jam.

ED DRISCOLL: The Dangerous Men Of New York Politics.

While Grimm threatened violence and mayhem, elsewhere in the dangerous world of New York and politics, ABC’s Brian Ross accidentally delivered the real thing. The New York Post reported yesterday that “ABC correspondent Brian Ross smashed his BMW into a jaywalking pedestrian outside the network’s studios on the Upper West Side Sunday evening, authorities said.”

Which got more press?

OF COURSE THEY DID: Chick-fil-A May Not Be Welcome in Chicago, but It Just Fed Thousands of Stranded People in Alabama.

WHY THE SOUTH FELL APART IN THE SNOW.

There’s a simple explanation for that one, too. Birmingham is one of those cities that shuts down at the faintest hint of snow. Again, this isn’t because we are rubes who wonder why God’s tears have turned white and fall slower. It’s because the city does not have the infrastructure in place to handle snow, and is self-aware enough to realize it. If you don’t know how to swim, just stay out of the pool. Easy.

This time, though, the city did not shut down. Schools were open. Places of business kept businessing. That’s because as of Tuesday morning, we were being told that all that was coming was a light dusting.

That’s no disrespect to James Spann, who is a wonderful weatherperson and a bit of a local legend. But reports like that meant that when the snow actually started in earnest—and it became clear that it was going to stick—people were in offices and kids were at school, instead of being at home like they normally would.

That, in turn, meant that everyone was trying to get home at the same time, on snowy, icy roads that had not been treated, in cars that do not have four-wheel-drive (why would they?). These are, for the most part, people who do not drive in snow very often, which means that accidents like this one were common.

We got off much lighter here in Knoxville, but it was the same thing, basically: When I went into work, my weather app showed a 30% chance of light snow. By late morning it was already getting icy. I canceled my class and wound up being glad I did. Personally, I have four-wheel drive and snow-rated tires (they’re only all-seasons, but they’re good ones) and I know how to drive in the snow. I got home okay, but a lot of people had problems — and, of course, it doesn’t matter how good your car is, or your driving skills are, if you’re stuck behind jackknifed semi.

PROFESSOR JACOBSON: Phase 2 of the pushback against the anti-Israel academic boycott: Ensuring that non-discrimination laws and university rules are enforced.

CHART: Divorce Rates And Female Income.

I’VE BEEN LAUGHING AT THE COLD WEATHER, THANKS TO FLEECE-LINED JEANS. Mine are from L.L. Bean, but these should be even better.

IT SHOULD COME OUT OF THEIR DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET, OR BETTER STILL THEIR OWN POCKETS: Govt. Must Pay Attorney Fees To Woman Whose Money Was Illegally Seized In Traffic Stop.

SKIP THE ORGANIC AISLE: Conventional fruits and vegetables are perfectly healthy for kids.

AT AMAZON, deals on Oscar nominees and Oscar winners.

Also, Digital Deals galore.

NOW WRITING FOR PJ MEDIA, I’M HAPPY TO SAY: Mark Rippetoe: Strength vs. Endurance: Why You Are Wasting Your Time in the Gym. “The fact is that a properly designed strength training program constitutes a much better use of the same amount of time a ‘cardio’ workout takes, and provides far more benefits to your quality of life. This is especially true if you are older. . . . The loss of muscle mass means the loss of strength, which means the loss of physical capacity. An old weak person is not nearly as much fun to be around — or as fun to be — as an old strong person. As we grow older, one of the primary regrets is that we can’t do the things we used to be able to do. Staying strong solves many of these problems. Staying strong also prolongs life, which is a good thing if you’re strong enough to enjoy it.”

I promise you this: If you do the squats and deadlifts at proper levels of weight, your heart will beat plenty fast.

And here’s his book.

FASTER, PLEASE: Stem cell ‘major discovery’ claimed.

Now a study shows that shocking blood cells with acid could also trigger the transformation into stem cells – this time termed STAP (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) cells.

Dr Haruko Obokata, from the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology in Japan, said she was “really surprised” that cells could respond to their environment in this way.

She added: “It’s exciting to think about the new possibilities these findings offer us, not only in regenerative medicine, but cancer as well.”

The breakthrough was achieved in mouse blood cells, but research is now taking place to achieve the same results with human blood.

Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, said if it also works in humans then “the age of personalised medicine would have finally arrived.”

Like I said, faster, please.

CHINA: A Rare Visit With Ai WeiWei, China’s Loudest Rebel.

EXERCISE: GOOD AT ANY AGE. “Offering hope and encouragement to the many adults who have somehow neglected to exercise for the past few decades, a new study suggests that becoming physically active in middle age, even if someone has been sedentary for years, substantially reduces the likelihood that he or she will become seriously ill or physically disabled in retirement.”

NATIONAL SECURITY: Things Obama Left Out Of The State Of The Union.

SCIENCE: The Older Mind May Just Be a Fuller Mind: It’s not so much that the mental faculties of older people are rapidly declining, it’s that their databases are fuller, a new study suggests.

AT AMAZON, Valentine’s Day Gifts Galore.

Also, 25% or more off at the Dockers Store.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SALMAN KHAN: It All Started With a 12-Year-Old Cousin. “In 2008, Salman Khan, then a young hedge-fund analyst with a master’s in computer science from M.I.T., started the Khan Academy, offering free online courses mainly in the STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Today the free electronic schoolhouse reaches more than 10 million users around the world, with more than 5,000 courses, and the approach has been widely admired and copied. I spoke with Mr. Khan, 37, for more than two hours, in person and by telephone.”

My favorite bit: “I gave it try. Soon my cousins said they liked me more on YouTube than in person. They were really saying that they found my explanations more valuable when they could have them on demand and where no one would judge them. And soon many people who were not my cousins were watching. By 2008, I was reaching tens of thousands every month.”

Plus, on how Khan is different from MOOCs:

They tend to be regular courses transplanted into the virtual world. They tell you what to do in Week 1, Week 2. You take a final exam. Some people pass. Some don’t.

That’s not what we want. We don’t want to see who can keep up with an M.I.T. course and who can’t. We want to get everyone to the point that they have the knowledge that the M.I.T. course is trying to teach them. When you go to the site today, you get a test to evaluate where you are in math. You determine your own pace. And you don’t go to the next level until you’ve mastered the previous one.

Another difference between us and many of them is we have a platform where people can get personalized suggestions. Our software tracks your progress and customizes your lessons. You can take as long as necessary to get to a high level.

We’re more like a highly enriched, personalized textbook, a tool for you on your own or your teacher or tutor.

I think that’s the right direction.

SPYING: How App Developers Leave the Door Open to NSA Surveillance.

FASTER, PLEASE: Finding points to possible new Parkinson’s therapy.

AMERICA’S OLDEST WORKING INFRASTRUCTURE.

I WOULDN’T BRING UP EGYPT IF I WERE YOU. IT’S POOR SALESMANSHIP. Egypt Was Not Mentioned Once in Last Night’s State of the Union.