Random thoughts for a wet Friday (but a Good one, I hope)

[As you might have noticed, I’m updating this as I go, with new links, and videos, added at the bottom of this post.]

It’s dripping today, weather I like, but that I also find slightly enervating.  My instincts are to grab my dog, a book and some chocolate, and to hunker down in a comfy chair under a warm blanket.  (Of course, that’s always my instinct.)  Still, I read a lot of interesting stuff today during my usual rounds of my favorite web sites.  Here are some links that may intrigue you:

Not everyone on Obama’s side of the aisle is as cagey as Obama when it comes to hiding belief systems.  One Illinois Democrat, who seems genuinely concerned about children’s health, would freely jettison all of our founding documents to achieve his political goals.

Now there’s another thing to be aware of when we try to protect our children from the profound ugliness that often permeates our modern world:  an internet game that has rape as its goal.

Rich Lowry lines up his sights on the canard that socializing America’s medical system is the new Civil Rights movement.

Apropos today’s better job numbers, it’s useful to remember that many (although not all, of course), are people who were hired for the Census.  With that in mind, Michelle Malkin’s post, which is part of an ongoing series, about a pattern in which census workers are being encouraged to be inefficient, is telling.  After all, efficiency means that these temporary workers go more quickly off the job roles, once more revealing more accurate unemployment numbers.

Lately, it seems that whenever some stupid idea emerges from the Obami about the market, Elizabeth Warren is sitting in the middle of it.  This time she’s one of a number urging the feminization of Wall Street.  I’m all for equal opportunity — always have been — but I can easily envision a government diktat mandating that any firm with any ties to Wall Street must hiring a female quota or see its officers and shareholders marched off to jail (no doubt to share cells with those who refused to be forced into buying unwanted health insurance).  As for Warren’s complaints about the difficulty of being a female professor, please note that, despite the fact that she’s a terrible teacher, she managed to end up at Harvard.

And speaking of Warren, would you be surprised to learn that she’s making it up as she goes along?

Yet another foul time bomb lurks within Obama Care, this one a short phrase that puts states on the hook for actually getting citizens into a doctor’s appointment.  One hopes that even Democratically run states are beginning to panic and are contemplating lawsuits as an alternative to complete fiscal collapse.

Michael Moynihan is as upset as I am about the Orwellian use to which the Democrats are putting the word “racism” in their efforts to stifle dissenting voices on health care.  I’m just wondering when ordinary Americans will start to rise up and challenge these assaults.  I think we’ve been opiated.

In an interview with Kenneth Levin, you can learn a whole lot of ugly details about Obama’s war against Israel and against Arab democracy in the Middle East, along with a few ideas about what might be causing him to go down this road (and to drag America in his wake).

To the Left, nothing is sacred.  Right now, the Churches for Middle East Peace, a hard-left organization, is using Lent as a forum to lambaste Israel.

As someone who enjoys romance novels, which are a lovely break from politics, history and real life, I suspect there’s much to what Dr. Helen says when she suggests that, until women give up their bodice rippes and Lifetime TV, they don’t have too much room to squawk if their men enjoy traditional pornography.  (I use “traditional” to distinguish it from the stuff out there that falls outside the parameters of human decency, such as the rape game I mentioned above, child pornography, snuff films, etc.)

Read the first section of Nordlinger’s Impromptus, and then you’ll understand why I want a bumper sticker that says “Bibi for President.”

When I caught Jason Reitman on Leno, I was taken aback.  He was charming, informed, self-deprecating and amusing.  I was not surprised to learn that he directed Juno, a movie that was also charming, informed, self-deprecating and amusing.  Apparently, though, I totally misunderstood the man.  According to those stunned by his refusal to embrace Hollywood’s lockstop Left thinking, he’s a Machiavellian agent, attempting to undermine the intellectual purity of the movie-making community.  S. T. Karnick explains.

And if you’re looking for a good read, Barbara Kay reviews a book about the history of antisemitism in England:  Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England, by Anthony Julius.  That’s always been an interesting subject for me, because England, for centuries had no Jews.  Not long after the York massacre in 1190, Britain expelled her Jews, which did not return until Oliver Cromwell invited them.  When Shakespeare created Shylock, he had almost certainly never seen a Jew, and Jews had no place in British culture.  After their return, Jews were shunned and maligned, but the British engaged in a passive condescension and malevolence that never rose to the level of German, Austrian, Russian, Polish, etc. hatred for Jews.  That’s all changed in the modern era, with a toxic combination of Islamism, Leftism, and traditional British antisemitism combining to make modern British one of the most dangerously antisemitic countries in the Western World.

Oh!  One more thing.  In honor of Easter, check out these Peeps dioramas.

It’s good to take lemon and make lemonade, to see the silver lining in every cloud, and to view the glass as half empty.  However, one should never confuse necessary optimism with economic reality (h/t The Corner):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQFhm4s_-Pk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I am becoming increasingly fond of Rep. Paul Ryan, who now tackles Progressivism.

Real journalists — and there are some left — are not pleased that the White House is treating the media the same way Hollywood PR flaks treat the media:  be nice to us, really nice, or lose access.

And the AFP, never known for its philosemitism, launches an exceptionally ugly attack against Israel this Good Friday.

Is it just me, or are words “marital” and “martial” very easy to confuse?

Something to think about:  Britain’s bizarre love affair with repressive Arab cultures, which the Brits dress up in their own minds as attractively exotic.

The Colossus of Rhodey writes about the ongoing downgrading of academic accomplishment in America’s school.