Quickies

A round up of articles, news items and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.



With the President's approval numbers in the tank, we see a surge in Obama is a Muslim and Obama's not a citizen polling data. Outlets like the WaPo and New York Times circle the wagons and connect the dots: Of course the President is not going to be popular in a nation full of wingnuts.



2005: The President betrayed the country.
2010: For the sake of national unity, we should treat the President with more respect.

Dan Riehl on Mark Halperin's appalling double standard.



Paint it Blue: Top ten highest taxed states.



Antonio Cromartie of the New York Jets breaks down the duties and responsibilities of fatherhood. Well, he was before he decided to give us a taste of his rather prodigious fathering talents instead.



Just glad this degenerate is no longer with the Chargers.



Secular Apostate explains how to make a billion dollars of profit.... gummint style.


Color us among those that are baffled by BYU (Mountain West conference) going independent in football and leaving all their other Olympic sports to the WAC (not an unsimilar arrangement to that of Notre Dame who is an indy in football while Big East in all other sports). Alas, even Notre Dame considered joining the Big 10 in football this past spring and BYU is no Notre Dame. Maybe there is a vast Mormon Nation out there of which we were previously unaware that will tune in every Saturday on BYU.tv to watch the Cougars.

Conference realignment a' go-go will take more uneven twists and turns in the near future and all which leads us to believe that a PAC-10/Mountain West merger is in the 3-5 year future. Lock it up.



Hard hat strike?: it's going to be awfully difficult to build that mosque if every one refuses to build it.


Joel Kotkin on California's war on itself:

What went so wrong? The answer lies in a change in the nature of progressive politics in California. During the second half of the twentieth century, the state shifted from an older progressivism, which emphasized infrastructure investment and business growth, to a newer version, which views the private sector much the way the Huns viewed a city—as something to be sacked and plundered. The result is two separate California realities: a lucrative one for the wealthy and for government workers, who are largely insulated from economic decline; and a grim one for the private-sector middle and working classes, who are fleeing the state.

Though he does more essay style writing that is a tad different than the staccato bursts coming from both Capt. Ed and Allah Pundit on a daily basis, we believe Doc Zero to be one of the most talented writers on the web. His thoughts on pessimism, the state of the union, an inevitable American decline and what it is we can learn from the resourcefulness and resiliency of our armed forces now that we can reflect upon the end of combat operations and troop withdrawal in Iraq:

Inevitable? Like hell. The heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom heard that word a lot over the last few years, but they never paid much attention. They’re coming home to the early days of an amazing story about the resilience of liberty. I’m sure their Iraqi pen pals can’t wait to hear about it.