For those interested in the relevant historical details, I recommend William F. Buckley's The Fall of the Berlin Wall.  WFB  manages to convey much of the drama and background of the Cold War in this single slender volume.

On my run this morning along the former route of the Berlin Wall, I had another opportunity to reflect on the vital importance of America's military and moral triumph in the Second World War and the Cold War that followed.

Everywhere around me peaceful, prosperous Germans were going about their business, enjoying the fine weather and brilliant early morning light.  

Truly a "fundamental transformation" worthy of praise.

Perhaps President Obama, following up on a recommendation from Professor Yoo, is coming here to enjoy a delicious McRib sandwich at the Checkpoint Charlie McDonalds.  

Of course, EJ.  That's the connection!  

Carsten, I hope that President Obama recalls those who died attempting to escape into West Berlin.  This memorial stands on the fence of the Tiergarten, just across the street from the Reichstag.

The phone company cannot audit my tax return, fine me, or imprison me.  But other than that, I suppose corporate and government information-gathering are essentially the same thing.

The notion that immigrants create jobs--at the very least by supplying services to one another--is correct in a free market for labor.  

We do not have a free market for labor, or much else.

Myriad laws and regulations make opening a new enterprise legally risky, time-consuming and likely impossible without the assistance of an attorney.

Unskilled laborers cannot legally offer their services for the market price due to minimum wage laws.

A web of legally required fringe benefits (e.g., Obamacare, worker compensation, unemployment insurance) increase the cost of employment still further, encouraging the substitution of capital for labor, and the movement of labor-intensive activities, such as manufacturing, to other jurisdictions.

As the CEO of Carl's Jr. notes, iPads and automated kiosks do not incur these mandated labor costs.

Finally, the availability of relatively attractive public assistance benefits offers a competing way for the low-skilled to "earn" a living, albeit one that does not result in the accumulation of human capital that can be parlayed into higher pay over time.  

Recording "only" metadata is a staggering privacy breach.  Courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

• They know you rang a phone sex service at 2:24 am and spoke for 18 minutes. But they don't know what you talked about.
• They know you called the suicide prevention hotline from the Golden Gate Bridge. But the topic of the call remains a secret.
• They know you spoke with an HIV testing service, then your doctor, then your health insurance company in the same hour. But they don't know what was discussed.
• They know you received a call from the local NRA office while it was having a campaign against gun legislation, and then called your senators and congressional representatives immediately after. But the content of those calls remains safe from government intrusion.
• They know you called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local Planned Parenthood's number later that day. But nobody knows what you spoke about.

I found Source Code  surprisingly well done, but I think it sank without much notice.

I have a rule of thumb that seems to serve when applied to the Star Wars prequels:  Any film that is actually the backstory of an original hit is bound to be a stinker.

Just a few more items for the I-will-not-rest president to "get to the bottom of."  

However, given Mr. Obama still hasn't gotten to the bottom of his whereabouts on the evening of September 11, 2012, it may be a while yet before he can focus on these newer questions of ethical dysfunction within his administration.

And by then, I expect, this will all be too old and stale to warrant further attention.

The mainstream media, after standing by and watching the Obama administration trash the Second Amendment, the Appointments Clause and the separation of powers, to name just a few, have at long last rediscovered the Constitution.  Bracing.

Great video.  Thank you, Blue Yeti, for posting it.

I love the HD view from LEO and all the weightless tricks.  And this will no doubt turn out to be the ultimate keepsake for Commander Hadfield's family.

I am willing to bet that there are plenty of women of every hue who would like to give Mr. Ramsey a hug right now.  

Extremely fun to visualize something so subtle.  Thanks!

I distinctly remember the day in 1992 when I chanced upon some guy on the radio with the strange name of "Rush."  Miraculously, this Limbaugh fellow agreed with me and my worldview--pretty amazing then and now for the San Francisco area.  I instantly became a dittohead.

Nowadays, Mark Levin is far and away my favorite, primarily because he is the only national host who routinely presents information that is news to me.  Levin brings deep knowledge of constitutional law, history and political philosophy to every show; always arguing from first principles.  He is personally kind-hearted but politically pugnacious--for those of you unfamiliar with Levin, imagine a full-on Reagan conservative version of Chris Christie.  

Like Prager, Levin is more than a talk show host, in his case heading up Landmark Legal Foundation, which is fighting the good fight in favor of school choice and against Obamacare.

Levin often becomes verbally combative with liberals phoning in to needle him or deliver talking points, but is reasonable with those open to an actual back-and-forth. 

Clearly,  the litigator hosting style is not to everyone's taste, so it is great that we have choices.

"Ineptitude" is an essential component, but I think its highest and best complement is "deceit," giving us "deceptitude."