Gangster Government...

Michael Barone is not happy with Kathleen Sibelius – and Michael Barone is well-armed with a wit and a podium:

"Congress shall make no law," reads the First Amendment, "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."

Sebelius' approach is different: "zero tolerance" for dissent.

The threat to use government regulation to destroy or harm someone's business because they disagree with government officials is thuggery. Like the Obama administration's transfer of money from Chrysler bondholders to its political allies in the United Auto Workers, it is a form of gangster government.

Mr. Barone is a well-known conservative voice, one I've often cited before. Most of the time he's quite detached from the political fray, more a reliable and well-informed observer than a participant. But this year, for whatever the reason, he's been more and more a participant – to the Republican Party's great advantage. Go read the whole thing.

Jerry vs. Meg...

I don't know enough about Meg Whitman to know whether she's someone I'd really like to have for governor.  In particular I don't know how likely it is that she could be a Christie-like reformer in the Golden State.  But one thing I do know: in a choice between a re-run of Governor Moonbeam (aka Jerry Brown) and her, voting for her is a complete no-brainer.  I'd vote for Nancy f'in Pelosi over Gerry Brown, and I'm not kidding. 

So when I saw this Meg Whitman ad on YouTube, I couldn't help but smile...

On the Other Side of the Pond...

My flight to the U.K. took me first through O'Hare (Chicago), then to Heathrow (in London).  The last leg was a redeye, which normally I dread for the simple reason that I can't sleep.  This time, for reasons I'll probably never know, I actually did sleep – I got four hours or so of body-nourishing, honest-to-goodness sleep.  So when I arrived in Heathrow at 8 am, I was only about 50% dead, instead of the usual 90% dead.  A huge improvement!

After a long taxi ride to my hotel, I staggered into the lobby to get my room, where I planned to take a shower and sleep for approximately 20 hours.  This was not to be, as at 8 am the hotel doesn't actually have any rooms available.  Ack!  I had to wait until after noon before one was ready, and I had a 6 pm dinner with colleages.  Oh, well.  I got a little sleep before we all went out for a fine dinner at a Malaysian restaurant.  That was yesterday.  Today I slept in until almost 10 am, had a nice big British breakfast, and set off to do some work (I had to make the presentation I'll be giving on Thursday).  Now that's done, it's 7 pm over here, and I'm headed for bed again.

The photo above is of my room.  In the background is a very large piece of art (at least, I think that's what the hotel would assert it was) that I'm still struggling to decipher.  You can't really see it, but below that wig-looking thing is something that appears to be a glass vase.  There's also some sort of a projection near the top of the wig-looking thing that goes off out-of-picture to the left.  My current theory is that it's a picture of a rather bad wig sitting on a bracket projecting from an unseen wall to the left, and the wig just happens to be draped over a glass vase.  But I'm open for better suggestions, should you have them.

In the foreground is my Kindle DX, with one of it's “screen-saver” portraits showing (in this case, Virginia Woolf).  Thanks to my Kindle, my travel reading on this trip did not require me to carry 20 pounds of books with me (I read quickly).  Just my little Kindle, small and easy to carry, the perfect size for reading on the plane or in the terminal.  Or in the hotel, for that matter.  I love my Kindle!