The good news-Dave Brubeck gets Kennedy Center honors

The bad news-Bruce Springsteen also does.

Bruce Springsteen? That semi-talented chronicler of life on the Jersey Shore? What in blazes is he doing there with a genius like Brubeck?

This is the culmination of a dumbing down of culture, a leveling, where we can't tell the difference, or don't even care about the difference, between someone who can stoke up a crowd at a hockey arena and one of the great composers of the 20th Century.

Was Madonna unavailable?

It's all about creating another entitlement, folks

Nobody really believes health care "reform" will cut costs. That is, unless we really do have death panels, by whatever name, deciding to cut off coverage as soon as "life not worthy of life" would need one expensive procedure too many.

One assumes this is politically impossible in the US. Then again, one might've assumed abortion on demand was also politically impossible a couple generations ago. The culture of death, given its ultimately demonic origins, is quite resourceful.

Having said that, I doubt that Obama, Pelosi, etc., really have anything in mind here other than creating yet another entitlement. We saw how well that worked with housing. I'm still not sure why we can't simply subsidize medical coverage for people who don't have it. Yes, that amounts to a new entitlement, but it would minimize the government's additional involvement in health care.

Great quote from the indispensable Mickey Kaus on the impossibility of cost controls:

If you believe [Peter] Orszag [OMB Director] will bend the cost curve you maybe also believe that Uri Geller bends spoons.

Yet another dissatisfied customer

But in this case, it's because the product (a cable) was too good:

Transmission of music data at rates faster than the speed of light seemed convenient, until I realized I was hearing the music before I actually wanted to play it. Apparently Denon forgot how accustomed most of us are to unidirectional time and the general laws of physics. I tried to get used to this effect but hearing songs play before I even realized I was in the mood for them just really screwed up my preconceptions of choice and free will. I’m still having a major existential hangover.

Would not purchase again.

Just another Hollywood right-winger

Well, there are a few conservatives in LaLaLand-Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper(!) among them.

Plus, there's Mary Tyler Moore, who, unlike one-time co-star Dick Van Dyke, turns out to be a right-leaning individual who would've campaigned for John McCain if asked. Interesting.

Crosby and Armstrong-"Now You Has Jazz"

Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby swing "Now You Has Jazz", from High Society. Great music, lousy movie. Oh well.

H/t: About Last Night. Terry Teachout has an acclaimed new bio of Armstrong on bookshelves even as I type.

Are you smarter than a microorganism?

Brain Palmer in Slate on the war against ever-evolving bacteria:

It's more than a little embarrassing to be decisively losing a battle of wits to unicellular organisms. At least the bacteria are smart enough to develop new strategies every now and then. We plodding humans have been fighting antibiotic resistance the same way for decades: by restricting access to antibiotics and developing new drugs to kill off problem bugs. It hasn't worked, and it's never going to. Until we make a tactical shift, resistance is going to become more common and more dangerous.

This pretty much explains everything you need to know about liberals...

...and why so few voters call themselves liberals nowadays: Chris Matthews calls West Point "the enemy camp." 

I thought the "enemy camp" was wherever it is bin-Laden and such are holed up. Then again, I'm not a lefty.

Matthews was referring to the President's war speech at West Point last night.


UPDATE: Matthews has since apologized.

Fark but accurate

Fark:

BBC angrily pulls shows off air after discovering that producers passed fake scenes off as real, saying that behaviour might be acceptable in climate change research but daytime television has higher standards than that. (dailymail.co.uk)

H/t: Dustbury.

Freaked out kitty

Who says you can't teach kitties anything? This adorable little slugger has a well-rehearsed response to some good-natured tickling.