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Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? A whole month of wingnut hijinx, abetted by a near vacuum of response from what passes for our national leadership. Just ignore them, maybe they’ll go away.

And if they don’t, you can always schedule a grownup indoctrination session primetime speech to have the last word. Try not to say anything this time about police profiling in tony Boston suburbs. It’s very distracting.

Which brings us to another Open Thread/Día de los Muertos Festival to mark the historic occasion of the Fall of Hope. 9/9/9: Never forget.

John J. Jingleheimer Schmidt Pitney Jr. at the Corner:

The text of the president’s speech to schoolchildren is largely inoffensive. But it contains at least one political gaffe. If you quit school, he tells the kids, “You’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.” Among Americans between ages 65 and 74, 20.7 percent quit before finishing high school. For those 75 and older, the figure is 27.4 percent. The latter group includes some who quit in order to enlist in the armed forces after Pearl Harbor. And yet the president seems to be calling them unpatriotic.

At first we thought this was yet another example of high school debaters taking over the conservative movement. But then we realized: the cynical intellectuals at NRO are all highly educated. In saying it’s okay to drop out, they’re really trying to eliminate their competition. After all, somebody has to clean their drains.

Obama in the Classroom [NRO, via Sully]

If we read the colonic bag correctly, the “public option” is dead. Even if it passes the House, it won’t survive the conference committee. Instead, some future public plan will be “triggered” if certain standards aren’t met after a suitably long period of time.

Long enough, that is, for those standards to be suitably weakened. Or for whatever public option eventually emerges to be suitably hobbled.

None of which matters, since it has no more basis in reality than a campaign promise. Much like the promise that led us to hope something worthwhile might be accomplished this year.

Instead, the immediate, practical question is this: How much will the healthcare “reform” fuck us over?

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Poor Ben Alexander. A World of Warcraft enthusiast, he had to drop out of the University of Iowa after spending “16 or 17 hours a day” playing online, instead of, you know, studying. Or attending classes. Or taking tests. “School wasn’t interesting,” he says.

But Ben found help — at ReSTART, a “residential treatment center for Internet addiction” near Seattle. Now instead of blowing away opponents or otherwise obsessively indulging in “pathological computer use,” Ben is baking cookies.

Good for Ben! Free at last from oppressive MMORPGs! And all for the low, low price of only $14,000 for a 45-day stay. But no cheating — “Internet addiction” isn’t an official shrink-wrapped disorder, so insurance doesn’t cover treatment.

Poor Ben’s parents.

Internet addiction center opens in Fall City [Seattle P-I]

Here, enjoy some Boohbahs. And please ignore the melting Arctic.

Title: “The Prince”

Author: Niccolo Machiavelli

Rank: 3,214

Blurb: “Its essential contribution to modern political thought lies in Machiavelli’s assertion of the then revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena.”

Review: “this book has imensely inspired my life and moral. i haven’t changed myself for the books sake, but merely incorporated the books ‘principalities’ into my life as i best see fit to encourage a better life. the package came in ample time and was boxed safely”

Customers Also Bought: “The Prince (Cliffs Notes)”, by Stacy Magedanz

Footnote: Stinque Book Chat doesn’t give a damn about your holiday weekend.

The Prince [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]