Your words are absolutely haunting, and the history of nations is strewn with the wreckage of nations which reached this point before us.  For example, this article by Niall Ferguson makes this case.

Beyond ghastly. And, "Hell hath no fury," and all that...

I have no caption, but I find it does remind me of the same junk seen in the first campaign. Here's one chilling example. And another...

Russ Roberts!  Of EconTalk fame?  Woot-woot!  Seriously, if you haven't discovered EconTalk, head immediately to the Library of Economics and Liberty (which hosts the EconTalk podcast) and check it out!

Blue Yeti, and whoever else is listening, another marvelous guest is Prof. Mike Munger, who is on EconTalk from time to time, and a marvelous raconteur.

Well, thanks be to God that Paul Begala was annoyed. Now, if we can just get the rest of the country even more irritated with the present administration...

John Murdoch beat me to it: I was going to point out that the infinitely benevolent and beneficient administrative state, ever mindful of the dangers our precious children face, is simply trying to protect them from all that dangerous farm equipment! Perhaps the other less-mentioned concern is that such injuries are expensive to treat, and whenever the feds end up providing a service, they start trying to eliminate demand for said services through rationing and corrosive regulation.

The Hunger Games books are good food for thought if you can read them and discuss them with your kids, which my wife and I have been able to do with our two daughters, 12 and 16. I was struck by the complete absence of any sort of religious commitment by anyone in the Hunger Games stories; poor Katniss has only herself, and a few others, to rely on. But the books can be an effective cautionary tale about the atrocities which inevitably result from unchecked government power.I have tried to get my eldest interested in J.R.R. Tolkien, with limited success thus far. Also, I commend to Ricochet readers C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy: marvelous stuff (the protagonist is said to have been based on Lewis's friend Tolkien.) The third volume of said trilogy is an especially cogent exposé of government gone awry, and explores the reasons for it, from a Christian perspective.

Good art, rigorously composed and executed, matters. That said, I hope that kid can find gainful employment when he finishes his degree. Based only on the quotes from the article, he may be struggling for awhile, especially in New Mexico, unless he moves to Santa Fe or Taos.My other reaction was to roll my eyes. I'm a UNM graduate, but my degree's a baccalaureate in computing science from the engineering school, which was a completely different world from Mr. Hooper's rarified world of interpretive dance! Hence my lack of surprise upon hearing such a story from the student paper produced in the hallowed halls of my alma mater.

Michelle Malkin, I think, did some yeoman's work on the Valerie Jarrett, Michelle Obama connection, and all of unsavory ugliness in which the two were engaged back in the city of the broad shoulders. That would be a good place to start such efforts.

Yeah, it will be interesting to watch, but I can't bring myself to use the adjective "fun." The costs (in every sense of the word) of losing are just too high.In my more morose moments, I have to ask whether or not we are merely choosing the size and scope of the impending calamity. Then, in the bright side, I have to think that Romney will certainly do a better job of managing the coming fiscal and military challenges than the incumbent...

I also find it very interesting that the same kind of reasoning that leads people to doubt the historicity of the Biblical text (I mean those parts of the Bible which claim to be historical accounts, especially the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus Christ) also seems to be used by those who wish to discard the text of the Constitution.

So, Rob Long, do you still feel like you did back in the New Hampshire primary days, that "We're going to lose this?"

Indeed, thank you, Mr. Robinson. I am compelled to say, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." Paul the Apostle said that first, in 1 Timothy 1.15, but it's true of me as well. The reality that God came in person in order to conquer sin speaks volumes about his just character and about the significance of every person to him.

I think that is precisely why this kind of thing is so disgusting: federal bureaucracies rarely do anything of value. Such gleeful displays of profligacy add insult to injury.

Oh. Wow. "...I mean, I don't have to waste a bunch of time researching where to go." I'm thunderstruck by such talk. I guess it's back-to-the-basics time, with tutorials about public choice theory and how the price system works, and... sigh. There's a lot of damage to be undone, isn't there?

Indeed, as David Williamson adroitly stated, the problem is truly one of energy density. Barring an extraordinary miracle, we will never see a battery-powered 737. I commend to you the work of physicist Robert Laughlin: he had a wonderful discussion about energy density and carbon-based energy at the Econtalk podcast (econtalk.org).We don't have a Luddite-in-chief; we have a naked emperor surrounded by equally naked advisors!