Oh wow! You must've been at Westmont w/my fiance. It's a beautiful campus in an amazing neighborhood. I'll send you a message...

I'd thought of that earlier too and was bemoaning the fact that we have a President who sets such a bad example for American children and adolescents in this regard.

It's nice when he instructs us how to get under his skin, isn't it?

In all seriousness though, I for one appreciate knowing that even a successful guy like Peter feels self-conscious now and then.  Makes my own self-consciousness seem appropriate.

And the California Alliance for Retired Americans' super lame response:

CARA President Nan Brasmer tells POLITICO, in reaction to the letter: ”Alan Simpson’s mean-spirited comments insult the intelligence and dedication of retiree activists who worry about their children and grandchildren’s future. Sen. Simpson sounds an awful lot like Mitt Romney and others who will use the recent Social Security Trustees report as political cover for their radical changes. They would put seniors at risk while enriching Wall Street and the big health insurance companies. For instance, increasing the retirement age - one of their suggestions - would be extremely unfair to workers, particularly those in blue-collar and service sector jobs. And privatizing Social Security would let Wall Street firms profit while gambling workers’ Social Security savings on the roulette wheel of the stock market.”

One thing my mom is struggling with is a frustration as she feels the need to reenter the work force to help my dad with the bills, but lacks work experience since she stayed home to be a full-time mom for the past 20 years.  Sure she has skills: she can cook, bake, care for children, sew, interior decorate, clean, keep the books, paint, garden, etc., but she feels that the only things these qualify her to do are to be a nanny for other peoples' kids, or a maid, or some similar job that will only fetch a minimum wage.

She tries hard to stay positive, but I've never seen her so unhappy as she is now that she finds herself willing but unable to contribute financially to the household.  Even though I'd like to stay home when I have little ones, I'm afraid to find myself in a position similar to hers in the future.

Thanks for this lucid explanation, King.  In the Ricochet support box yesterday, we received an e-mail from a supporter of the President's citing this article. He writes:

President Obama spending has been the lowest by any President since
Ike? (Source: Rex [sic] Nutting, "Government outlays rising at slowest pace
since 1950s" Rex [sic] Nutting, MarketWatch.com, May 22, 2012.)

[...]

Ask 'em. Don't just take it from a stranger or pundit with an agenda.
Do a search for the facts. No one Party has it all right. Collect
facts for each issue.

We need facts and some discussion of what might be best for the masses
of voters, which, of course, includes employees and officers of
corporations.

You will sell a lot of subscriptions because of the adrenaline you
stir up with your hot, fearful, and confrontational rhetoric. Did you
know that adrenaline is part of sexual arousal?

Unfortunately, fear reduces morale; reduced morale reduces
productivity; reduced productivity reduces the wealth of the 1%. Read
Aesop's fable "The Hen Who Laid the Golden Egg." It is less than 300
words long. You may come to understand why the worker is so precious.
(Use Google.)

Ugh.  I completely overlooked Mollie's post from this morning.  Embarrassing.

There's a difference between a year ago when the possibility of Romney outraising Obama was contingent upon a large number of factors (i.e. Romney first becoming the nominee, the economy continuing to falter, etc) and today now that Romney is the presumptive nominee and has demonstrated a few good months of fundraising since he achieved that status.

Maybe Rubio or Jeb Bush could have outraised Obama too.  Or maybe not.  Who knows? And at this point who cares?

By the way, there's even more to the story than meets the eye. The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis has some more insight into who exactly it was who won the $20 million contract to promote Obamacare.

I need to get my hands on The Joke and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  I hardly ever read two novels by the same author in a row, but Kundera is just too good.

I think that liberal politicians would certainly be fond of the idea for the reasons you state, but that a self-professed centrist like Norman Ornstein, who is a Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, should propose such a thing is befuddling to me.  It leads me to believe that there must be some merits to the idea.  But I'm having trouble identifying them.

Thank you for your kind words.

I was similarly affected by this post.  Yesterday, I went down to the only taqueria in Pac Heights (which isn't even very good) because I had to have a burrito.  I got carnitas as well.

Says the man with a French poodle.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The cuteness of that pup is unbearable.

I find it amusing that you tied the Obama Kenya booklet news to Elizabeth Warren; that's where my own thinking went as well.  It doesn't surprise me that Obama allowed himself to be represented as foreign born to get ahead, just as Elizabeth Warren milked her alleged 1/32nd Native heritage for all that it was worth. 

Glad you guys had a solid turnout! Looks like a fun time was had by all.