Playing catch-up *UPDATED*

I needed to take care of family business this morning, and am only now indulging myself with news and blogging.

As a wonderful place-holder, please read Soccer Dad’s take on a subject I’d actually asked him about:  the belief amongst Democratic, but pro-Israel people (such as Jeffrey Goldberg, at the Atlantic) that Obama isn’t just picking a pointless fight with Israel but is, in fact, trying to drive Netanyahu from office so that a candidate more to Obama’s liking (Livni) will take over.  UPDATE:  Yossi Klein Halevi on the Obama approach to Israel.  My feeling is that Obama has a four-fold motive:  He hates Israel, which by Jewish association stands for justice, a concept antithetical to a nascent tyrant; he has a deep affinity for Muslims, which has less to do with religion, I think than with being a nascent tyrant; he’s playing the bully to prove himself to doubting Muslims who see him (rightly) as ineffective; and he wants to destroy Netanyahu.

Also, check out Threats Watch, which brings to light the fact that Holder thinks there’s no difference between Charles Manson and Bin Laden.  I’ll concede that both are evil men who have killed Americans, but there is a difference between a citizen who commits murder, and a foreign national who launches war against America.  But honestly, trying to teach that point to the left is precisely like trying to explain the sun to someone who has only lived in a cave.

But if you want a little uplift, the Anchoress has something for you.

UPDATEAnn Coulter hits a home run with a simple plan that would genuinely lower the cost of medicine, even while continuing to provide America’s expected high level of health care.  I’ve been saying forever that a major part of the problem with insurance is the fact that states force insurer’s to provide only premium plans when many people, for whatever reason, don’t want, or need, to pay for all the bells and whistles.