Politics and other nightmares

John Malone, like Ted Turner a cowboy-hat-wearing cable TV pioneer, has vaulted past Turner's 2 million acres to become America's biggest landowner with 2.2 million acres. He says real estate "is a pretty decent hedge on the devaluation of currency" and that now is the time to buy land "because of low borrowing costs and land prices."

We're just starting our great charter school experiment in Indiana. We could do worse than study what New Orleans did right with charters:

I was about to say, "Well, you're certainly welcome!" but on second thought I don't think he was thanking me:

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer suggested Tuesday that voters are to blame for the partisan bickering and standoffs that have defined Congress this year.

Of course he does:

Obama Tells Advisers To Find How To Approve Stimulus Projects "Without Additional Congressional Authorization"

A couple of points on federalism, if I may. The first comes courtesy of Romneycare:

Newly obtained White House records provide fresh details on how senior Obama administration officials used Mitt Romney's landmark health-care law in Massachusetts as a model for the new federal law, including recruiting some of Romney's own health care advisers and experts to help craft the act now derided by Republicans as “Obamacare.”

And the winner of the annual stick-up-the-butt award for the complete absence of a sense of humor goes to Tracy Warner of The Journal Gazette, who says a tweet from Republican city clerk candidate -- five months ago! -- is so urgently "callow" and "shallow" that the public flogging should begin immediately. This is the tweet: “Saw parking Nazi on the corner, so I quickly went and fed every meter on the block. Got the stink eye but it felt so good! ” Tracy:

I didn't think it would take this long for the keepers of the faith to decide that Herman Cain must be evil because his tax plan is nothing but a well-disguised way to help those filthy rich people:

Herman Cain has a plan to radically reform the nation's tax system and make things a lot simpler for taxpayers.

Finally, a serious issue we can argue passionately about: Set our drunken spring-breaker dwarf-tossing people free!

Calming down the askeert Californians:

California Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that he signed into law a measure that bans handgun owners from openly carrying their weapons in public.

Previous regulations had allowed the open carrying of unloaded handguns in public, but police chiefs and sheriffs objected to the rule because people felt frightened when they saw handguns in public places.

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Last week I referenced George Will's takedown of Elizabeth Warren's tribute to the joys of liberalism: