I'm taking a colleague this week who was planning to vote for Obama -- when I told him about Obama giving private briefings to Hollywood types after the Bin Laden killing, he was so mad he said he wouldn't vote for Obama this time, so hopefully the D'Souza film will be the final nail in the coffin of his Obama support.

Unsatisfying, yes, even irritating -- because the whole premise is that there is a meaningful analogy between a belief in cause and effect, reinforced in each sane human mind by literally millions of observations, and religious faith, be it a Cargo Cult, the divinity of Joseph Smith, or the tyranny of the Engrams. Such nihilistic sophistry is fun in college, as is pondering whether entire universes exist in each atom of your fingernail. It's pretty hard to get excited about it as an adult.

Also missing is stability and the rule of law. Factory owners need to know exactly how much they're going to be asked to pay and roughly what they will get in return. The bill keeps going up and the regulations keep becoming more oppressive, but the benefit, especially as it relates to the quality of the educated workforce, keeps going down.

Does it bother anyone else that Perry's main defense on the HPV vaccine question is that he did it for "life" and that he will always err on the side of life? I find that formula disquieting because it can be used on almost any issue -- it would serve equally well to defend Obamacare, for example, or putting obese children in foster care, or regulating salt in New York City restaurants. This sort of utilitarian argument should not figure in a GOP debate, especially a debate for the presidential nomination where adherence to the Constitution should be paramount

I appreciate the Turks more and the Turkish government less than if I didn't read Ricochet. I also tend to mostly ignore early primary stuff, which makes me easily swayed by the posts here.