Jame Taranto: "The government treats Americans like terrorists--and terrorists like Americans." Why are so many people like Susan Estrich oblivious to this?

The Southern Poverty Law Center has $190 million in assets including a bank account in the Cayman Islands. Think of how poor they'd be if there weren't any poor people for them to raise money for and profit from.

Do animals go to heaven?

Unsurprisingly, religious opinions vary. But is this true? "This is a widespread question on the Internet, with more than 4.3 million sites trying to address the issue in some fashion."

I searched for animals in heaven with Google and Bing. Google reported nearly 21,200,000 matches, but I suspect that many of them are duplicates. Bing only reports 1,690,000. That's a lot of people worrying about the eternal destiny of their pets.

The Democrats' New Narrative

The GOP is trying to prevent economic recovery. Yeah, that's the ticket. They couldn't be right about the effects of liberal policies; it must be a conspiracy!

On further reflection, however, the left has always been based on paranoia for its appeal. Marxists blame capitalism for all poverty and suffering. Pacifists think that wars are driven by rich industrialists. Environmentalists take it to the point of accusing the rest of us of destroying the planet. Socialists think private property is the root of all social injustice. I know that there are plenty of conspiracy theorists on the right, too, but they don't have the numbers to be concerned about.

I've always thought that the TSA was about the dumbest answer to 9/11 there could be. They are using brute force when they really need intelligence, imagination and being more clever than the terrorists. Janet Napolitano should resign for starters.

I don't know if the other primary candidates could have defeated Reid, with his hold on gaming companies and unions, but there's a hazard in previously untested candidates like many backed by the tea partiers in Senatorial elections: Harry Reid is not popular enough in Nevada to win simply on his merits, but his campaign apparently operated with precision to get out his voters, while Angle's sank her. Note to the tea party, Karl Rove is not your enemy. You should take his advice when offered, even when you don't like it. Getting people elected is his profession. This is probably why so many tea partiers succeeded in state elections and in House races, while they fell short in the Senate races that could have been won with better candidates and organizations.

Politics, as the saying goes, ain't beanbag. The higher the office, the tougher your opponents, especially if you're running for a principle like smaller government and less spending. They're running for power, offering new benefits to be paid for by . . ., well, someone else. This is and always has been the Achilles heel of democracy, the susceptibility of the average man to demagogic appeals. Thus it's also the difficulty that confronts conservatism. The benefit of smaller government and less "spreading the wealth" is not as direct as having federal contract sent your way.

This should be challenged and blocked by the courts. If Obama takes Podesta's advice, he would circumvent Congress's role in the system of checks and balances provided for in the Constitution. It would be a direct violation of the President's oath of office, and an impeachable offense, although I doubt that would ever happen after the Clinton impeachment. Nevertheless, American's should remain attentive and make their outrage known.

This is at the center of what drives the tea party movement the usurpation of our rights, the saddling of Americans with unconscionable taxes and debt and a huge bureaucracy that is becoming ever more bold and tyrannical. This may seem like a technical issue to some, but it is one of the "innovations" that make the FDR administration so harmful in the long term. In his Oath of Office, the President promised to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Circumventing Congress would nullify its legitimate powers of oversight and authority to determine policy.

This is an extremely serious matter, and nobody on the right should let it go unopposed. This administration is the most bold and bald-faced threat to destroy the United States in my lifetime.