Politics and other nightmares

House Speaker John Boehner is announcing that Mitxch Daniels will be giving the Republican response to the State of the Union speech next week. From his remarks:

Another sign that end times are near. The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal editorial pages agree on the Keystone XL pipeline rejection. WAPO editors:

Wednesday’s rejection, TransCanada promised to reapply — so the administration has again punted the final decision until after the election.

Juxtaposition of the day.

First up, right to work:

If the right-to-work law can be called the "right to work for less" law, I think it's fair to call the practice of licensing the "right to work for more" mechanism:

A bill making its way before leaders in Indiana would eliminate the need for some professions, like hairdressers and barbers, to be licensed and it's causing outrage in the cosmetology industry.

This seems like a misguided protest, or at least a premature one:

LOS ANGELES — An anti-profanity crusader on Tuesday asked ABC to pull this week’s “Modern Family’’ episode in which a toddler appears to use a bleeped curse word.

The evil of two lessers:

Get ready for a "passionless presidential race," Robert Reich warned recently on salon.com. Liberals will support President Obama "without enthusiasm," conservatives will pull the lever for Romney only grudgingly, leaving the country "with two presidential candidates who don't inspire—at the very time in American history when Americans crave inspiration."

A state Senate committee has approved a bill to back away from the Indiana Supreme Court's assertion that Hoosiers have no right ever to resist unlawful police entry, and they seem to be on the right track. An amendment was offered to take out a line giving officers the right to enter "if there is suspected domestic or family violence" because the language was so broad that it could always be used to justify entry.

This story makes me feel as if I've stumbled unawares into The Onion site:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he is worried that a new District of Columbia law that governs how pest control operators must handle rats may result in entire rodent “families” being relocated across the Potomac River into Virginia by D.C. pest control personnel.

[. . .]

Yeah, well, I know newspaper endorsements are less important today, insofar as they ever really did have much of an impact, but I wouldn't like to think we're the kiss of death. From an endorsement Jan. 15 in The State, the largest newspaper in South Carolina, extolling the virtues of Jon Huntsman:

Is there no effect from right-to-work laws?

A new Ball State University study shows right to work has no meaningful impact on job growth in the manufacturing sector. Economist Mike Hicks says the study examined the manufacturing sector in states where right to work became law.

Hicks says the study finds that manufacturing wages, employment and economic growth remained virtually unchanged in states after right-to-work laws took effect.