A second spindle post for the day *UPDATED MORE THAN ONCE; INDEED, UPDATED OFTEN*

I love the days when a perfectly formed essay springs into my mind, one that really tackles a single issue (or a fusion of a few issues).  Those days, however, happen only when I prime the pump, and that pump priming occurs only if I read tens or even hundreds of articles.  I’m in the process of doing so this week, hoping for lightening to strike.  Until it does, though, allow me to pass on to you more of the articles that are currently seeding my brain with ideas.

Orwellian language works by bypassing the analytical, high-functioning part of our brain, and occupying our lizard brain.  We accept the ideas behind Orwellian language, without understanding them.  For example, take the phrase “occupied West Bank.”  Take it and throw it into the nearest garbage can.

Over at The New Yorker, one person has figured out that ObamaCare is a giant ponzi scheme (an appropriate term to apply to all liberal government programs).  I posted this one on Facebook, since it’s a source my liberal friends trust.  Maybe it will get them to think seriously about what’s really going on here.

Ours is a metrosexual military, one that is deeply in touch with its mother instinct.  How else to explain the Navy’s concern that graduating plebes might get hurt engaging in a decades’ old tradition?  After all, aren’t we training these grads for warfare — and as I understand it, people get hurt during wars.  To be fair, this is not a new trend.  I’m reading a fascinating book called Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, and it talks about the fact that in the early 1960s, the military already began putting safety over battled preparedness.  I appreciate.  Training shouldn’t be more deadly than war itself.  However, it strikes me that, when the bullets start flying, only the best trained people have a chance.  Otherwise, you start ending closer to a situation such as the siege of Leningrad, which saw the Soviet military use unarmed, untrained Soviet men as targets to exhaust the German bullets.  It worked, but at a staggering cost in human lives and suffering.

China is a behemoth, but is tight government control so stifling to true growth and innovation that it can never be more than an fat cat, as opposed to a dynamic economic tiger?  And should that fact give people pause about the U.S. government’s increasingly strident efforts to direct American businesses from the top down?  (The answer, of course, is yes.)

The Folks/Haley story is getting sleazier and sleazier.  I continue to disbelieve that any person in her right mind would have an affair with Folks.  If she did, it definitely calls her judgment into question, never mind her honesty and fidelity.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!  When I saw Russel Brand on the Jay Leno show swanning about in high heels, I thought it was just because he’s a weird comic who thought it would be a joke to raid the women’s dressing room before appearing on stage.  But no, it’s a fashion trend.  No, no, no, no, no!

Really, was there any doubt but that the Manhattan Community Board would greenlight a mosque to be built on Ground Zero?  This is what 40 years of New York liberalism does not common sense and human decency.  This is how a culture voluntarily commits suicide at the feet of its conquerors.  These idiots should be strapped to a chair and made to watch Rick Barber’s campaign video again and again and again.  “There is a difference between tolerance and surrender.”

In an earlier post, I called Peter Beinart a wife beater for using “love” as a way to justify beating to death someone dependent upon you (in this case, Israel).  Noah Pollak goes into greater detail.

UPDATE:  I’m baaack!

I’ll warm you up with a funny picture, on the subject of “plug that damn hole.”

Mark Steyn’s monomania is demographics.  And he’s definitely got a point.

A Marin town goes Arizona:  The great virtue of local, as opposed to even federal or state government, is that it deals with local problems.  In Novato, California, near my home, the local problem is a broken budget and the deep suspicion that illegal immigrant cheaters are scamming that fragile economic system.  Novato is therefore contemplating citizenship verification rules.  I’m sure the Obami will be up in arms should that happen.  I say to Novato:  “You go, guys!”  And if it works, I bet other communities will follow.

In California, the Democrats want to raise taxes by $5 billion and borrow almost $9 billion.  I am sure that these same Democrats, if their plans come to fruition, will be surprised at an exodus that leaves them without the taxpayers to pay the taxes or service the bonds.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, just by a spending freeze, Gov. Christie (my new hero), has managed to make new taxes unnecessary.   Progressives:  let me give you a little “cause and effect” lesson.  Governments do not create wealth.  All they can do is print money and, if they are smart, create circumstances conducive to the creation of private wealth.  If you have a lot of wealth, a small tax will still bring substantial sums of money into government coffers.  (Think of California in the 1950s and 1960s.)  If you suck the life out of the private sector, destroying wealth, even large taxes will bring only small sums of money into government coffers.  (Think of California right now.)  Lesson is over, children.  Go play with your navels and think about this one a bit.

For so many years, Britain had a casual antisemitism that was distinct from the European version that showed up in Pogroms and Holocausts.  While you certainly might not have dinner with a Jew, you’d let him earn a living and go unmolested in your country.  Given this history, it’s somehow unusually tragic that Britain has become Ground Zero for a virulent antisemitism that is a perfect storm of Leftism, traditional British class beliefs, and Islamic antisemitism.  Here’s a perfect example of the truth-killing effects of this perfect storm.

We interrupt this program for a special announcement:  Please doff your caps and bow your heads.  Sadie just sent me an email informing me that Art Linkletter has died.  I used to adore his show when I was a child, even though most of the humor didn’t connect for me, since the children’s logic was my logic too.  It was only later, when I got hold of a copy of the side-splittingly funny Kids Say the Darndest Things!that I finally got the joke.  Nevertheless, his persona was so endearing that I just felt comfortable watching him interact with my peers.  A friend I met in later years who was a member of the Bohemian Grove with Linkletter told me this wasn’t an act.  Linkletter was every bit as pleasant in person as he was projecting himself on the TV.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

My friend John Graham attacks the ugly specter of the yet more government overreach, this time when it comes to parents’ decisions about their children’s food.

James Lileks gives Joe Biden the treatment he deserves.  You should read the whole thing, not only because it’s funny, but because the last line is priceless.

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.

I agree with AllahPundit that Djou should oh-so-graciously release his birth certificate.  This is a time when it’s useful to turn the other cheek to make a point.

What the heck are they drinking in Alabama?  And can I have some too?  Wow!