Earlier this afternoon, Dr. Helen Smith (AKA the Instawife) asked if “anyone out there” had

. . . seen this ridiculous commercial for “Forever Lazy” that advertises adult fleece pajamas made to keep you warm while you loaf in the house or even outside? I saw it this afternoon and really wondered about the future of Americans. Yeah, I know we already have the Snuggie but this just goes one step further and it is the ad and the way that people are portrayed that brings home the message that resting on your laurels and living the “lazy” way is the best method to dealing with the economy as it is today: by just throwing on your fleece PJs and tuning out the world.

Via her husband.  Well, you know, President Obama did say we were getting a little lazy.

Maybe the advertiser was marketing to the nation as portrayed by the president?

Perhaps the best moment yet of the entire GOP campaign…

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I guess the only “real gay bashing” is one that involves gays of a Leftist persuasion? (h/t – Peter Hughes)

Via The Daily Caller:

Apologies for slower than usual blogging, having finally returned to working on the proofreading of my dissertation.   Have a backlog of topic about wish I’d like to blog, including my concerns about the Republican presidential field and general and Mitt Romney in particular (may just excerpt this Roger Kimball post where that astute blogger pretty much sums it up), the notion of “equality”, liberal voting patterns among high tech entrepreneurs, media bias and a number of other issues, including the California economic crisis.

Just a few minutes ago, caught Wendell Cox’s most excellent article (via Instapundit) which helps us pinpoint the moment when California’s downturn began:

Economists usually see business start-ups as the most important long-term source of job growth, and California has long had a reputation for nurturing new companies—most famously, in Silicon Valley. As Chart 1 shows, however, this dynamism utterly vanished in the 2000s. From 1992 to 2000, California saw a net gain of 776,500 jobs from start-ups and closures; that is, the state added that many more jobs from start-ups than it lost to closures. But during the first eight years of the new millennium, California had a net loss of 262,200 jobs from start-ups and closures. The difference between the two periods is an astounding 1 million net jobs.

Emphasis added.   So, it seems the turning point was about the time of the turn of the century.  Were there any big changes in California about that time?  Well, starting in 1999, for the first time since 1982 (when the state’s once and current governor left office), the then-Golden State had a Democratic governor and Democratic legislature.  A year after the current governor’s one=time chief of staff took office, the state started hemorrhaging start-up jobs.

Coincidence, as the sage often says, “I don’t think so.” (more…)

President Obama thinks the bad actions of a few individuals in Penn State’s football program is some kind of national crisis requiring the “entire country to do some soul-searching“:

President Obama called for the nation to do some “soul searching” in the wake of a scandal at Penn State University that led to the firing of longtime coach Joe Paterno after it was revealed one of his assistants allegedly sexually abused eight boys and the team did little to stop it.

“Obviously what happened was heartbreaking, especially for the victims, the young people who got affected by these alleged assaults,” he told Westwood One Radio in a Friday night interview, making his first public comments on the scandal.

“And I think it’s a good time for the entire country to do some soul-searching — not just Penn State. People care about sports, it’s important to us, but our No. 1 priority has to be protecting our kids. And every institution has to examine how they operate, and every individual has to take responsibility for making sure that our kids are protected.”

One assistant coach behaved very, very badly and should be locked up for the rest of his life. And those who knew and did not report this matter to authorities also deserve censure (at minimum) and perhaps punishment (depending on the laws in the Keystone State).

But, why must all Americans engage in soul-searching for a handful of individual bad actors?  Is it this liberal mentality makes social problems of individual crimes?

This is a very revealing comment about the president’s mentality.  He would have been better served to respond as did Pennsylvania’s junior senator.  By all accounts, Joe Paterno was a first rate coach who handled this situation in a, well, less than professional manner.

Because this matter has received such prominence, perhaps it is appropriate for the president to comment, but to fault those at fault and express the disgust most Americans feel at the charges, but we’re not the bad actors here.  And we don’t need engage in soul-searching for misdeeds we haven’t committed.