— and that might strike some bitterclingers — whose plastic beer helmets and vinyl carry-along Bible covers are cravenly beholden to Big Oil, it bears pointing out — as a bit regressive. But it’s not all ‘regression’ in Europe. For instance, leftist academics are taking a hard look at political violence. And they’ve progressed in their thinking to such a point where they’ve done away with left-wing political violence altogether.

WSJ, “Indiana Democrats Come Home”: Indiana House Democrats ended a nearly six-week boycott of the legislature Monday after Republicans agreed to shelve three bills opposed by unions, including a measure that would have forbidden labor contracts requiring private-sector workers to join unions. House Republican Speaker Brian Bosma downplayed the political deal, saying “these accommodations were really relatively minor, and most of them were given weeks ago.” Indiana House Democratic Leader

I was struck by a singular observation that puts Obama’s soaring paean to freedom in its proper context. Sayeth Obama, “Born as we are out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move […]. Because wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States.” — to which I silently appended, “Unless those

WSJ: The Environmental Protection Agency debate lands in the Senate this week, amid the makings of a left-right coalition to mitigate the agency’s abuses. Few other votes this year could do more to help the private economy—but only if enough Democrats are willing to buck the White House. This moment arrived unexpectedly, with Majority Leader Harry Reid opening a small business bill to amendments. Republican leader Mitch McConnell promptly introduced

Look → I don’t think there’s any doubt that Ayers was involved in the writing of Dreams. The book was an essential part of the fashioning of the candidate, “Barack Obama,” and so, though presented as a memoir, it is more a foundational document upon which the Obama mythos was to built. As I noted back when this story was hot and Cashill was pursuing it in earnest, it could

Freedom? Choice? High-minded claptrap. The government knows what’s best for you, and the courts agree: All or nothing. At least that is what a federal judge says about government entitlements. Judge Rosemary Collyer recently ruled that Social Security recipients must take the government’s form of health care—Medicare. […] This recent ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2008 by several senior citizens challenging the federal government to allow

I mean, throw in 2012 (can we really count on John Cusack to save us?), and it’s like, hello! — you might want to stock up on canned goods, batteries, bear traps, and high-powered rifles. Maybe invest in a kayak. Squirrel away some fishing poles. And hide your hooked noses and circumcisions. Devils.*

The House GOP establishment celebrated its hard-fought $6 billion budget cut on a day in which the US government spent $72 billion. Optics and conservative-pitched rhetoric remain all that is important to these elected show ponies — and at least the GOP House leadership believes we’ll be satisfied that they are doing all they can to satisfy the mandate Americans gave them in November. When of course they are not.

Just a guy Obama knew from the neighborhood. Who also happened to write the book that so many in the political class, both left and right, swooned over on their way to helping install the least vetted — and most demonstrably leftist — “historical” President in US history. Jack Cashill: Last Thursday evening at Montclair State University, with a video camera rolling, Bill Ayers volunteered that yes indeed he had