You’ve heard me and others make these arguments, but it doesn’t hurt to hear them repeated with force and eloquence. Roger Pilon, vice president for legal affairs at the Cato Institute and publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review, writing in the WSJ: Thus the first question the new Congress should ask of any proposed law is: Does the Constitution authorize us to pursue this end? If not, that ends

FX has canceled “Terriers,” easily the best TV show of 2010. In fact, “Terriers” joins (what to me is) the celebrated pantheon of great shows killed before their time — even as, eg., “Two and a Half Men” continues to pump out scenarios in which Charlie never really grows up and Ducky’s various neuroses are pricked for “comic” effect; “How I Met Your Mother” goes into yet another season-long analepsis

Populist, “pragmatic” conservative Bill O’Reilly warns the GOP that trying to repeal ObamaCare is not what voters want (some of that 2700-page assault on personal liberty is, you see, “good for the folks”) — that instead, what voters want is for the new Congress to focus on the economy. Thus, per O’Reilly, a push to rollback ObamaCare is “a classic trap,” one that the GOP would do well to avoid.

I’m betting this is the kind of thing he liked so much… (h/t geoffb and IP. Whose DEATH THREAT I find entirely unhelpful as a way to begin the new year….)

Robert Romano, ALG: “Death panels” received renewed interest over the Christmas season in a New York Times piece by Robert Pear, “Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir.” The story outlines a new 691-page regulation that to puts into place end-of-life counseling, called “advanced care planning,” via the Medicare program. The regulation is provided for “in the case where an injury or illness causes the individual to be unable

…The New York Times evidently forgot to add, “no more baldfaced lying” to their own list of New Year’s determinations. Not that I expected otherwise. Just like pointing it out, is all. (Or, you know: linking to someone who has pointed it out. Tomato, tomahto.)

So tell me: 1. What are your resolutions for the new year? And — 2. What do you want to see the new Congress do, in what order, why, and how should they best go about it?

As I noted earlier, Jake Shannon paid to have my site messed with by a search engine optimizer, Ethane Technologies. Looks like he’s succeeded in getting posts from protein wisdom off the front page of a Google search. The post he managed to bump was this one, “Scientific Wrestling’s Jake Shannon: Polymath and autodidact? Or Just Another Crisis of Confidence?,” which I’m reprinting below, in its entirety. **** [November 26

Best to all of you. As a gift, my favorite of all the Christmas songs. Enjoy!

Ends, means — you know the drill. Video here. (thanks to GeoffB)