I think he's more a victim of the do-nothing (or worse, like his treatment of Ron Johnson) approach of Mitch McConnell. Tea Partiers are looking for people who aren't into "business as usual".

I think Mitch McConnell's "business as usual/don't rock the boat" approach is having an effect here. People are frustrated with the failure to deal with impending financial crises, and that's helping Tea Party types (sorry, Peggy Noon, but Lugar's experience is mostly "how to get along with the opposition") in the primaries.

I look forward to being one of those insurgent voters, as I vote for Ted Cruz on May 29th

Not only was The Dale a fraud, but so was Ms. Dale, since "she" was actually a "he" in drag.

A perfect metaphor for the Boy King, I think.

In other news, physicists have announced that - and I quote - "water is wet".

I don't care who you are - that there's NOT funny.

One patent was granted for a method of exercising a cat - by shining a laser pointer on the ground, enticing the cat to chase the light.
http://www.google.com/patents/US5443036

My attitude to SOPA/PIPA mirrors my attitude toward the Federal "drug war". If enforcement of a law requires outrageous actions, then it's time to end the law.

And your claim on that specific set of words and music denies my right to freedom of speech. Sorry, but IP is not REAL property, and the founders' approach reflects that - copyrights were intended to encourage people to produce easily copied works by letting them alone profit FOR A LIMITED TIME. They weren't intended to give the creators eternal control of those works.

"And all the world over each nation’s the same
They’ve simply no notion of playing the game
They argue with umpires, they cheer when they’ve won
And they practice before hand which spoils all the fun"

Brooks is being as intellectually honest as the people who said collective bargaining produced better educational systems, using the example of Wisconsin test results compared with Texas.

THAT claim was demolished by David Burge, who looked at the numbers per ethnic group (white, black, brown), and found that in the vast majority of NAEP tests (significant because they're taken by EVERYONE, not just a self-selected group as with the SATs), that Texas students did BETTER than their Wisconsin counterparts. (http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/03/longhorns-17-badgers-1.html)

So Brooks' stats are meaningless unless if he can give us a similar breakdown of the numbers, categorized by ethnic group.

And even THOSE are bad when actual powerplants (as opposed to generic cheerleading) are involved, like the cancelled solar power plant in California, and windmills off Nantucket.

"Only serious answer?"

So Parris is unfamiliar with the promise of thorium-based nuclear plants?  Where enough fuel is available for thousands of years of output?

Research fusion? Sure. But it's been "20 years away" for 50 years or more. Meanwhile, thorium CAN'T cause a meltdown, and it's so plentiful that it is currently a waste item, discarded after refining ores for OTHER metals.

So all you really need to do is:

1. Drill, baby, drill

2. Mass-produce thorium-based powerplants

You're not missing a thing, Mark, because you're quite right on the Supreme Court ruling.

No moral case. The political case is "we're old, we vote, and we'll vote you out if you won't steal for us".

Bachmann has earned a "no cash from me" award, good until (if) she wins the nomination.

Coming to a theater near you in 2015 - the Star Wars reboot!