BEFORE OR AFTER THEY MADE PROTEST SIGNS AGAINST BOKO HARUM: White House on lockdown for second time in 3 days. Why is it democrats in the white house always feel the need for extra protection and incite alarms of the most ridiculous kind? Do they feel like the aristos, insecure in their palaces? (Actually what this reminded me of is when schools go into lockdown at the first ridiculous thing.  Is this the image our president wants to project?)

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL: The passing of the Age of Obama, from Peter Ferrara at the American Spectator:

Conservatives need to wake up and start thinking past the rapidly passing age of Obama. Increasingly likely every day is that voters this November will remove Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader. By electing a new Republican Senate majority, the voters will also render Barack Obama a lame duck, one of the lamest in history, as he will have no prayer of getting any of his legislative proposals — increasingly recognized as hard left — through Congress. (Despite his early national rhetoric, Obama doesn’t do bipartisanship.)

That new Republican Senate majority will also be a new check and balance on Obama’s appointment of federal judges, reversing the effect of the Reid rule change eliminating Republican judicial filibusters. That is especially crucial given that the five remaining Reagan/Bush appointees on the Court constitute the slimmest of majorities, with a couple of occasionally weak sisters among them. If just one of these five is replaced by another Elena Kagan or Sonia Sotomayor, the resulting shift from a Reagan majority on the Court to an Obama one would mean a longer-term Obama transformation of America.

Given the long-term cycles of American political history, Obama’s second midterm this year should be even worse for Democrats than the disastrous Obama first midterm in 2010. And the polls are bearing out that possibility.

If so, does that really position Hillary as the next George H.W. Bush, as Hugh Hewitt recently suggested?

THEY BELIEVE THEY CAN FLY: Now you can fly like a BIRD: Flapping Oculus Rift machine makes humans feel as if they’re soaring across the skies. Because, really, what we need is more delusional people, right?

THIS IS CNN: Anderson Cooper drops f-bomb, flips bird on television.

WHEN HIGH TAXES CHASE COMPANIES AWAY: Close “loopholes” that allow them to move.  That will totally work.  Just ask any Worker’s paradise, from Zimbabwe to Venezuela.

THE CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE NAVIES got into a bit of an altercation yesterday, and Walter Russell Mead says the battle for the South China Sea is officially on.

It is. And it won’t be resolved any time soon as Robert Kaplan makes clear in his worthwhile new book, Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific.

MSNBC ON HILLARY: “Don’t Cross Them, Otherwise a Door in the Floor Opens Up.”

That’s a far cry from Keith Olbermann’s infamous “Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out,” crack when the network was looking for Hillary to leave the race in mid-2008.

LIFE AFTER LIBERATION: Triumph and Tragedy in South Africa, at Reason TV.

THE VIEW FROM THE BUBBLE: Obama Tells Bel Air Donors ‘We’ve Got Public Opinion on Our Side on Every Issue.’

WELL, HE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MILITANT NATIONALISM:Putin Warns of Growing Militant Nationalism, Nazi Ideology in Europe.  Once more, the rotten idea that pro-Russian ideologies are somehow “international” and therefore the opposite of Nazi ideology raises its ugly head.

TWO WAPOs IN ONE:

● North Korean screed against Obama illustrates ‘race-based’ worldview.

— Headline, the Washington Post, today.

● WaPo’s Insanely Racist Attack on Tim Scott

— Headline, Commentary, today.

VIDEO: CONFUSED SENIOR CITIZEN CAN’T DECIDE IF HE HATES RIGHT-WING BILLIONAIRES OR NOT: Making sense of the latest ramblings from Senator Pat Geary.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Corona del Mar High School Cracks Down on NFL-Style ‘Prom Draft.’

POINTING OUT THE SOCIAL COCOON OF THE PROGRESSIVE ARISTOCRACY: From Jim Geraghty at NRO’s Campaign Spot blog:

Progressive aristocrats don’t like it when you call them an aristocracy for two reasons. First, it asserts that they think they’re better than everyone else; they often do think that, but they recognize the potential risk in saying so openly. But secondly, it suggests they don’t really deserve that high perch that’s so central to their sense of identity.

Read the whole thing.

FASTER, PLEASE: Could the North Korean regime’s days be finally numbered? “North Korea’s leaders, as well as the entire global community, have been put on notice that China is fed up,” Fay Voshell writes at the American Thinker.”

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THE DEBATE IS OVER, Andrew Klavan insists in his latest video for Truth Revolt.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Washington University Law Prof Declines ‘Experiential Professor of the Year’ Award, Calling it ‘Offensive and Marginalizing.’

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE BEST OF HANDS — BUT YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO SHAKE THEM:

“When we have an employee who is looking at over 600 porn sites in a four day period — and it’s there in black and white – fire them!” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). At the hearing, investigators detailed for lawmakers how a six figure EPA employee had admitted watching large amounts of porn on the job; he remains on the payroll, but his case has been referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. “So this guy is making $125,000, spending two to six hours a day looking at porno,” said Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who was told by officials that the worker had been given performance awards — despite one time spending four straight hours on a website called, “Sadism is Beautiful.” “How much pornography would it take for an EPA employee to lose their job?” asked a frustrated Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

(Via the American Energy Alliance.)

THE STUPID IT BURNS: And this woman is a teacher. It burns but doesn’t surprise, not since I heard a colleague of mine, on a panel talk about the clash of Hitler and Stalin as the clash between capitalism and socialism… I think the distorted teaching has gone on a long time.

A TRIBUTE TO 83 YEARS OF ONE-PARTY LEADERSHIP: Rahm Admits Reality: Chicago is In Decline: “Years ago, people referred to LaSalle Street because it was a financial center. Chicago had a lot of banks that were Chicago-based. There’s only one left. They’re all gone,” the mayor said.

“Imagine that. It’s not like we didn’t say it back in 2008,” Steve Bartin adds at Newsalert.

What can Rahm do to encourage new business in the city? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

HMM: Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu says Turkey has “substantially” overcome its problems with Israel.

ANOTHER SICKENING CHARLIE CRIST LIE:  Republican-turned-Democrat Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist says he left the GOP because of race:

“I couldn’t be consistent with myself and my core beliefs, and stay with a party that was so unfriendly toward the African-American president, I’ll just go there,” Crist said. “I was a Republican and I saw the activists and what they were doing, it was intolerable to me.”

As Chris Cilliza points out in today’s Washington Post, “Um, not exactly.”  Christ is pandering to his new Democrat constituency, which demands at least one prominent, public confession of guilt about racism.  Crist is the epitome of what’s wrong with politics today, and Democrat politics in particular.  He’s just yucky.

THE COLLEGE FIX: “I Don’t Need Affirmative Action To Succeed — And Neither Do You,” Crystal Hill writes. “How can we truly move toward racial equality if we are treated as less than capable?”

(H/T: RLS)