Ultafuckingobamabadness! Leader of the free world checks out a new Czech AK-47 that he will use to shred GOP gang leader Dick Cheney

Weary of the taunts of GOP gang leader and war entrepreneur Dick Cheney, President Barack Obama is in training at a secret military encampment in the Smokey Mountains with a number of special forces personnel and martial arts masters, honing his fighting skills to prepare for the final confrontation with this murderous, profiteering dog.

“Cheney’s working with his own fifth column in Defense and BushCo’s long-time allies in Saudi Arabia to direct attacks against the United States to discredit my administration, to re-establish the GOP junta and, finally, to reinvigorate the war-driven gravy train that has bolstered his Halliburton stock and fattened his offshore accounts with no-bid contract kickbacks. Clearly, it’s time to rip the treasonous motherfucker’s throat out,” President Barack Obama said.

Reporters, spirited to the training camp blindfolded earlier in the day for the press conference, looked stunned for a moment and then burst into applause shouting, “Death! Death! Death to the traitorous dog, fearless leader!” Obama grimaced briefly and silenced the ink-stained wretches by firing a burst into the air.

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CATO scholar Arnold Kling (whose economic views seem to vary a lot depending on who is president) reacts to a piece by Ezra Kline by writing:

“My view of the American health care system is that it hardly rations health care at all. That is why we spend so much more than other countries. I wish we put more responsibility on individuals. Instead, we have this delusion that we cannot possibly afford health care if we pay for it individually, but of course we can afford it if we pay for it collectively.”

What’s the fallacy in Kling’s logic? The fallacy, quite simply, is that Kling does not understand the idea of shared risk. He does not understand the purpose of insurance. He does not understand why the collective might want to pay for services that are rendered, at any given time, only to a subset of that collective.

Medical treatment is expensive, and in many cases, treatments may prove too expensive for any one individual to afford. But accidents and illnesses are also somewhat random in their distribution across a population. Therefore, by creating a risk pool and having all members of that pool pay into it, society can ensure that the unlucky few who are stricken by disease or who are injured in an accident can pay for the medical treatment they need by drawing from that pool.

The question is not whether a “collective” can afford medical treatments that individuals cannot (this issue has been settled beyond dispute, and it is embarrassing to have to explain a concept so basic and trivial as “insurance” to an economist like Kling) the issue is whether a scheme of private, non-mandatory insurance coverage can do the job more effectively than a public, government-run, single-payer system.

Tuesday’s award for Best Harbinger of Apocalypse goes to Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, who in the wake of the Vermont veto override coughed up a holy hairball:

Vermont legislators’ futile attempt to replace God by vainly redefining marriage eerily follows how that first man and woman acted on the first temptation — and the root of all temptations — to act as if they were gods. That one decision by Adam and Eve to believe that they could ‘be like God’ separated them from God, destroyed the peace that they had experienced, and ushered in what some would call ‘unintended consequences’ of pain and destruction.

We’re fascinated by her choice of Genesis 3 as the scripture du jour. Among other things, that’s where the Lord created Zombies, since he cast Adam and Eve from the Garden before they could nosh on the Tree of Life. No death, no undead.

But we’ll save the Zombie Exegesis for Sunday.

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Read, but you should go listen to the story – it’s pretty amazing.

All Things Considered, April 7, 2009 · An ammunition shortage in the U.S. is affecting police and sheriffs’ departments all over the country, as well as gun dealers, from big retailers like Wal-Mart to smaller family-run businesses and online operations.

Ammunition suppliers say the shortage is due to several factors, including the sheer volume of ammunition heading overseas to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they also say the shortage — as well as a sharp rise in gun sales — coincided with the election of President Obama, fueled by fears his administration would usher in more restrictive gun laws.

He’s coming to take your guns snakehandlers!

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Via Sully, a YouTube clip of Antwerp’s rail station making the rounds. We’d let it pass, except for this in the comments:

I think i’d laugh at first then be worried it’s contageous and it was the first sign of a zombie apocalypse and then bail… (hottubmolly)

The world is seeking answers, and we’ll provide them Sunday.

Centraal Station Antwerpen gaat uit zijn dak! [YouTube]

There’s a theory about Bill Kristol and his brief tenure as columnist for the New York Times (and before you object to my use of the adjective “brief,” please note that a root canal typically only takes about a half hour to an hour even though it feels like an eternity, and that William Safire, by contrast, spent 32 years as a Times columnist). The theory is that Kristol actually viewed his Times column with contempt; that he put little if any effort into his writings, “phoning them in,” as it were, and picking up a handsome paycheck for an average of fifteen minutes of work per week. Let’s call this theory the “laughing all the way to the bank” theory of William Kristol.

But there’s another theory about William Kristol’s output during that time, that I’d like to call the “no, you see, Kristol really is that stupid” theory. According to this theory, William Kristol did, in fact, devote himself to his column with an admirable sense of dedication and due respect for the position he had filled as one of the Times two regular conservative columnists. It’s just that he’s really, really stupid.

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Back when we were first introduced to America’s Talibunny, there was an anecdote making the rounds about Sarah Palin’s first run for Wasilla mayor. Wasilla, you’ll recall, is a small town, only 5,500 lost souls in 2000. And the anecdote came from the famous Anne Kilkenny email about Sarah Barracuda before the fame:

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor.

The New York Times followed that up with a long story and telling summary:

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance.

And then there was Troopergate, but we’ll pass over that and head straight to the statement issued in Palin’s name Friday:

“We’re disappointed that Levi and his family, in a quest for fame, attention and fortune, are engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion of their relationship.”

We’re enjoying the trailer-trash soap opera as much as anyone, but let’s get some facts straight.

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