Well, a conservative by New York Times standards. This exchange was filmed while Brooks was a student at the University of Chicago (when he characterized himself as a “Social Democrat,” lol).

Brooks described the interaction as, ”essentially me making a point, and he making a two-sentence rebuttal which totally devastated my point.”

College is a time to experiment with things such as really stupid political beliefs, and David Brooks took full advantage.

So the government can’t force you to obey its every whim, but it can penalize you for not complying.

A true victory for limited government and the American experiment…

I hadn’t heard much about an actual Fat Tax until reading this article from an ABC affiliate in Indianapolis. The reporting was so poor it was impossible to tell who intends to implement the tax. Perhaps the state of Indiana. Evidently “Who, what, where, when, why, how” is a thing of the past in journalism. Progress.

But this wouldn’t actually be a “Fat Tax”, would it? Healthy, skinny people can and do eat unhealthy food. If they stuff their face with french fries once a month, is that reason to impose a government penalty on them? So it’s not a Fat Tax, it’s a Food Tax, and one which is ultimately nothing more than the pet project of an idiot.

The proposed(?) tax will add 20% to “unhealthy” food and drinks. What exactly that means is anyone’s guess, but one Hoosier opined:

I’d pay 20 percent. It’s worth it. I would eat a lot more healthy just to save more money.

Just let that statement sink in for a minute… 

We disappeared for a few weeks while I tried to restore Missourah after we were hacked. I tried so many different things so many different times that I barely even understand what eventually succeeded. I do know this– the automatic WordPress back-ups that were emailed to me daily were essential to resurrecting the site.

We are glad to be back!

What conception of capitalism do you have if you are attacking your opponent for entering what is the risk-taking of capitalism?

Via Breitbart.tv.

UPDATE (12/14): George Will: Newt Gingrich commits a capital crime

Romney, while at Bain, performed the essential social function of connecting investment resources with opportunities. Firms such as Bain are indispensable for wealth creation, which often involves taking over badly run companies, shedding dead weight and thereby liberating remaining elements that add value. The process, like surgery, can be lifesaving. And like surgery, society would rather benefit from it than watch it.

Romney surely anticipated that such an attack would come — but from Democrats, in the general election, not from a volatile Republican. He now understands Rep. Paul Ryan’s response when Gingrich attacked his entitlement reform as “right-wing social engineering.” Said Ryan: “With allies like that, who needs the left?”

An L.A. conservative invites members of the “Occupy L.A.” movement to ask him questions. He answers with a combination of humility, sensibility and candor that seems to endear the crowd to him– several of them are happy to invite him back.

Obama has been relentlessly scolding the American public for our failure to embrace high-speed rail for over two years. He seems particularly upset that China has obtained something that has eluded the U.S.A. for nearly 120 years. Obama lamented in his jobs speech Thursday,

Building a world-class transportation system is part of what made us a economic superpower.  And now we’re going to sit back and watch China build newer airports and faster railroads? At a time when millions of unemployed construction workers could build them right here in America?

The man is absolutely obsessed–