Politics and other nightmares

Sen. Dick Durbin is nominated for the Dim Bulb of the Year award. When Congress was debating the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, he's the one who insisted on an amendment to limit what banks can charge merchants for debit card trnasactions. Critics warned at the time that banks would merely find another way to make up the difference, probably at the expense of consumers. And guess what? Think of it as "the Durbin fee" if you end up being one of the debit card users who has to pay a yearly fee for the privilege:

Yes, I know, drawing conclusions from a one-time event can be dangerous; it could be a statistical blip. But at the very least, this should earn us a moment of silence or two from the people who always predict a bloodbath when gun laws are relaxed:

Hey, all you bloggers out there, be careful when you're tempted to get creative with well-known apothegms. On this story about next month's closing of two Hammond library branches, they put this headline:

The Library in the Coal Mine?

Oh, swell, this will instill faith in the criminal justice system, won't it?

The government mental hospital where John Hinckley Jr. has spent most of the last 30 years since he shot and tried to kill President Ronald Reagan is asking a federal court to allow Hinckley's eventual release to live with or near his aging mother in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Leave it to a former NFL player to explain what's wrong with education. Fran Tarkington explores an alternate reality:

Here it is, the proof we've been waiting for of a further economic downturn, from a "courtesan" in Las Vegas:

It seemed like the beginning of this year was looking up. I was doing better than the previous start of last year, and people seemed happier with their quality of life and earnings. Customers seemed more like they were before the recession really hit, and it made me less stressed and enjoy my job even more. However, this summer seems to have taken a complete nosedive.

Too bad, so sorry. You're just too fat to be president, Mr. Christie.

Michael Kinsley:

But a passion for what?

EVANSVILLE — He was fiery, and he was funny, but when the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery got serious, he urged an Evansville audience Thursday night to be prepared to fight.

Speaking to the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission Annual Dinner and Mayor's Celebration of Diversity Awards, Lowery said the passion with which activists fought during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s is needed now.

The Atlantic turns to Indiana's GOP primary contest between longtime incumbent U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and tea party-backed challenger state Treasurer Richard Mourdock:

It has been said that when the founders of this country met, it was one of the greatest collections of smart people in one room ever. But a bunch of progressive yahoos now want to revisit all the principles our constitutional republic were based on, especially the ones involving separation of powers and other factors slowing down government. It's yet another lame argument that what we need is less gridlock and more on the federal government doing big things all the time: