Ross Douthat, ignoring all evidence to the contrary, as well as common sense and a humanity he must have lost in a tragic childhood accident, thinks the last decade was a failure of meritocracy:

For decades, the United States has been opening paths to privilege for its brightest and most determined young people, culling the best and the brightest from Illinois and Mississippi and Montana and placing them in positions of power in Manhattan and Washington. By elevating the children of farmers and janitors as well as lawyers and stockbrokers, we’ve created what seems like the most capable, hardworking, high-I.Q. elite in all of human history.

And for the last 10 years, we’ve watched this same elite lead us off a cliff — mostly by being too smart for its own good.

We can’t disagree with Douthat’s general point that humility is the cure for hubris — the idea goes back to at least Socrates, who argued that acknowledging your own ignorance is the path to wisdom.

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Title: “Dubs Goes to Washington: And Discovers the Greatness of America”

Authors: Dick Morris, Eileen McGann, Clayton J. Liotta

Rank: 8

Blurb: “Dubs Goes to Washington… and Discovers the Greatness of America is a book that teaches young children their first patriotic lessons. The star of the book is Dubs, our adorable golden retriever. Dubs has lost his beloved tennis ball in Washington, D.C. Your kids and grandkids — and, in fact, all kids from 4-8 — will love helping Dubs find it — and, in the process, will discover what makes America such an exceptional nation.”

Review: “Buying this book for your children is tantamount to child abuse.”

Customers Also Bought: “Sweet Land of Liberty” by Callista Gingrich, “We the People: The Story of Our Constitution” by Lynne Cheney, “The Children’s Book of Heroes” by William J. Bennett, “The Snow Angel” by Glenn Beck, and “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.

Footnote: The next generation of stand-up comedians is going to be hilarious.

Dubs Goes to Washington [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]

Our guest columnists currently reside in a Manhattan park.

46.1.2

Mic Check! Im Drew from internet. We would like to propose tonight the purchase of occupywallstreet.net for the use of all of us. It is time sensitive because the person who owns it desperately wants to sell it and will sell it to anybody but we have put a stop on that for the day. I realize that this is a weird situation, but we would rather that you own it than say the Koch brotherss. The amount is $8,000. Just so everyone knows, we are about to take a temp check, not on the proposal, but on having it being addressed now based on the time situation.

F: (temp check mixed)

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“Herman Cain[!]’s wife, Gloria, will not be appearing on the Fox News Channel on Friday night after all, a person close to the talks told the Caucus.” [NYT]

“Someone at the Chicago Board of Trade issued another message to the Occupy Chicago protesters by blanketing them with these McDonald’s job applications. The protesters are understandably offended by both the message and by the hundreds of pieces of new litter around them.” [Chicagoist, via ThinkProgress]

If our 78-year-old dad ever dropped the line “pocket tweet” on us, we wouldn’t hesitate to commit him to an institution.

[via @daveweigel]

Correction of the Day, from wingnut Pajamas Media: “A previous version of this story mentioned that a source witnessed Cain[!] and the woman entering a taxi together. This was incorrect. The previous version also mentioned that the woman awoke in Cain[!]’s bed — the source only claimed that the woman awoke in Cain[!]’s apartment. The previous version incorrectly attributed comments from one source to the other source.” [via Weigel]