The One is great at math!

The One is great at math!

He divides the country,
He subtracts jobs,
He adds debt,
He multiplies misery.

The man's a regular four-function calculator!

Via my lovely bride...

Scottie pinwheel...

Scottie pinwheel...  Puppies are involved.  Blow it up to full screen!

Via my lovely bride...

It's embarrassing!

It's embarrassing!  The Washington Redskins have been embroiled in a controversy over their name.  They have resolved the controversy by dropping “Washington” from their name. 

Via my lovely bride...

Dying wish...

Dying wish...

Washington , D.C. an old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital and was well known among the elected officials. He motioned for his nurse to come near.

"Yes, Father?" asked the nurse.

"I would really like to see Obama and Senator Reid before I die," whispered the priest.

"I'll see what I can do, Father," replied the nurse.

The nurse sent the request, and waited for a response.

Soon the word arrived; President Obama and Harry Reid would be delighted to visit the priest.

As they went to the hospital, Obama commented to Reid, "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images." Reid agreed that it was a good thing.

When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Obama's hand in his right hand and Reid's hand in his left hand. There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest's face.

Finally, Obama spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?"

The old priest slowly replied, "I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

"Amen", said Obama. "Amen", said Reid.

The old priest continued, "Jesus died between two lying thieves; I would like to do the same."

Tribute to a fallen farmer...

Tribute to a fallen farmer...  Kyle Hendrix, a farmer in Monticello, Illinois, recently died of cancer.  He was just 31 years old, and left behind his wife, two young kids, and a community of farmers who loved him.  Those farmers set up a roadside tribute to Kyle, and photographer Matt Rubel captured some beautiful images of it.  Via friend, former colleague, and Idaho mogul-of-everything Doug S...

“Senate Leaders in Striking Distance of a Deal”

“Senate Leaders in Striking Distance of a Deal”  Now there's a scary headline!  Translation: soon we'll know exactly how they're going to screw us this time...

Worser and worser...

Worser and worser...  Megan McArdle is learning more about the ObamaCare implementation, and she's not liking what she's seeing (below are some cherry-picked pieces of her much longer, much more detailed post):

...
This is stunning. It’s far worse than I imagined, and I am pretty cynical.
...
Federal contracting codes, so far as I am aware, do not emit intoxicating gases that might have caused senior HHS officials to decide that it was a good idea to take on the role of lead contractor -- a decision equivalent to someone who has never even hung a picture deciding that they should become their own general contractor and build a house. Nor can those rules explain their lunatic response when they were told that the system was not working -- “failure was not an option."...
Nor can you really blame the Republicans -- an argument that makes sense only if you don’t examine it very closely. It starts by assuming (but never stating) that the administration passed a law that didn't work as written, and then posits a civic duty for the opposition not to oppose laws that they oppose, but instead to help the majority party turn an unworkable law into something more to said party’s liking. This is absurd. Moreover, it’s not even a very good explanation for most of these problems. Maybe CMS turned lead contractor because they couldn’t get more funds to hire private help, but lack of funds does not explain why HHS took so long to write regulations and specifications, keeping insurers at loose ends until as late as this summer, and preventing their biggest contractor from writing code until spring. It does not explain why officials decided to launch a system that was so badly behind schedule, or to keep insisting, against all evidence, that it wasn’t broken. What explains this long train of poor decision-making is some combination of bureaucratic inertia, a desire to hide what they were doing from voters who might not like it and a terrifying insouciance about how easy it might be to build a system of this size and complexity.
...
But given that they didn’t even announce that they were taking the system down for more fixes this weekend, I’m also guessing that it’s pretty bad. Bad enough that it’s time to start talking about a drop-dead date: At what point do we admit that the system just isn’t working well enough, roll it back and delay the whole thing for a year?

Yes, I know what I’m suggesting is a major, horrible task. And I’m aware that since I opposed the law in the first place, people will take my suggestion with a huge grain of salt. Fair enough, but hear me out.

If the exchanges don’t get fixed soon, they could destroy Obamacare -- and possibly, the rest of the private insurance market.
...

Megan McArdle is noteworthy for her calm and sober analysis.  If she's this riled up, it must really look bad to her.

Go read the whole thing...