Most of the chatter from the punditcracy over the last few days has centered around the events happening in Egypt.

Ross Douthat weighs the unknowns that surround the issue.

The Israeli government meets to ponder the implications for their security.

Benny Avni says the U.S. can play a key role in any transition.

Bill Kristol says if Mubarak is fated to go, then he should leave sooner rather than later.

As for me, I see only two well organized and disciplined groups in Egypt...the Army and the Muslim Brotherhood. Traditionally, the Army has held a significant position in the Egyptian state. But if its officers prove unwilling to broker some deal for a new government, I expect the Muslim Brotherhood to come out on top.

I hate to be pessimistic about the unrest in the Arab world, as I am sure many of the people involved in the protests truly want some form of pluralistic, representative democracy. But I cannot shake the feeling that, in the end, when the smoke and the tear gas clears and the old leaders have been killed or chased out, the new governments will be run by Islamist fanatics. Revolutions just as often end with a Napoleon or a Stalin as they do with a Washington or a Mandela, and perhaps more often with the former.

Daniel Henninger says that the President is embarked on a voyage to nowhere, and he is taking the country with him. I say, "hope and CHANGE in 2012".

Still, the relevant political question is whether we are living in 1995 or 1979. In 1995, having seen the voters give Congress to the GOP in '94, Bill Clinton pivoted decisively to the center and, with the help of a good economy and a bad opponent, won reelection in 1996. In 1979, facing a bad economy and a hostage crisis, Jimmy Carter floundered around while he and his advisers, with encouragement from the mainstream media, convinced themselves that Reagan could not possibly win. Carter was crushed by a landslide Reagan win in 1980. As I look around today, I see a bad economy and a deteriorating situation in terms of foreign policy. So far, so good, for the GOP. But they need to nominate someone closer to Reagan than to Dole.

The Chinese manage to insult the President who, along with his advisers, remained clueless throughout.

Amir Taheri has some thoughts on the protests that are erupting throughout the Arab world.

Michael Barone says the old rules concerning the Presidential nominating process in the GOP will not apply in 2012.

Robert J. Samuelson points out that the President had an opportunity during the State of the Union Address to educate the American people about the tough choices that need to be made to "win the future'. Instead, he fed us the usual diet of platitudes.

E.J. Dionne was pleased that the President is politicking.

Michael Gerson is not.

Meanwhile, the head of the CBO projects a U.S. budget deficit of $1.5 trillion in 2011, the largest ever recorded. The politicians and pundits continue to fiddle while the country burns.

Is there a bigger waste of time and energy in Washington than the State of the Union Address? I don't think so, which is why I did not watch it. I'm not sure I will be able to watch the video, but I may have to force myself, as I am, at least ostensibly, a student working on a Masters Degree in Political Science.

Yuval Levin believes the President refuses to accept that a crisis is looming, at least based on the speech he delivered last night.

Stephen Hayes does not think it was a winning speech.

Paul Ryan gave the GOP response.

Michelle Bachmann gave the Tea Party response.

The political significance of a separate response by the self-identified congressional Tea Party leader is unclear at the moment, but could become more evident if the mainstream GOP fails to satisfy Tea Party goals.

Andrew McCarthy says President Obama and much of the political and media elites in the West continue to paint a false picture about Islam.

Meanwhile, the new Prime Minister of Lebanon is backed by Hezbollah. It appears as if the Cedar Revolution was really a false dawn.

Rahm Emanuel is thrown off the ballot for Mayor of Chicago.

Mort Zuckerman writes about how public employee pensions and benefits are strangling the states.

Why is Massachusetts growing so slowly, resulting in the loss of a congressional seat? This piece argues that it is because there is a housing shortage in Greater Boston (and in other parts of the state) driven by restrictive building regulations. I would also argue that the overall climate of taxes and regulations are a factor, and the proximity of a less heavily taxed and regulated state (New Hampshire, of course).

Meanwhile, tax increases in Illinois have some business leaders considering relocation.

Nicole Gelinas argues that the creation of a legal bankruptcy process for the states is not the solution to their fiscal woes. She does not offer an alternative, however.

Paul Krugman says the President is wrong to even give lip service to conservative ideology concerning competitiveness. Of course, Krugman does not have to get elected to anything.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that appeasement is the best policy to use with a growing and more bellicose China. Needless to say, I disagree strongly, but read the piece anyway.

Robert J. Samuelson describes the nature of our difficulties with China. Essentially, China is a mercantilist power, using currency manipulation and other techniques to prey on the rest of the world's economies, especially ours. I believe the Chinese leaders are doing this because they know they must try to appease the great, poverty-stricken mass of their population. Failure to keep the wheels turning would, they are certain, lead to chaos, which is the historical pattern for China since the 19th Century. Therefore, I expect they will continue to pursue their predatory policies. I also expect their military complex will become more powerful over time, as the Japanese military did during that country's explosive period of growth and modernization from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries. Looking around the world, the parallels between our time and the 1930s continue. Of course, you know how that historical period ended,

Keith Olbermann is shown the door at MSNBC. Unless there is some misconduct issue that we do not know about, I suspect this is the first step in a significant programming realignment. Maddow, Schulz and the others should be polishing up their resumes.

As a GE stockholder I am pleased to see the CEO of the company is tight with the President. As a citizen, not so much.

The former head of the OMB says the U.S. must brace for financial turbulence. In the words of Han Solo, "I've got a bad feeling about this".

Lawrence Solomon writes this excellent piece about the coming chaos in China. He believes the growing disparity between the wealth of the 300 million, gained largely through corrupt means, and the 1 billion in poverty will inevitable lead to social breakdown and violent upheaval, which would fit within the historic pattern in China (which is why I am inclined to believe him).

Dan Baum writes this excellent piece about why the drive by Liberals/Progressives for more gun control is killing them politically by increasing the alienation of working-class white males, many of who are what he calls "gun guys". I think he is correct in his assessment that the Liberal embrace of gun control is a factor in the switch in political allegiance by that demographic, but it is not the only factor.

Here is a rather lengthy article, but well worth the read, concerning the great economic mystery of the first decade of the 21st Century; what happened to the 15 million jobs that should have been created here in the United States? Numerous economists were interviewed for the article, and most answer honestly that they just don't know. I have a theory (I always have a theory), but it isn't fully fleshed out yet. Some day I'll write about it in this space or elsewhere.

Andrew McCarthy lays out the reasoning behind the President's decision to re-start the military tribunal process for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

An interview with Walter Williams well worth your time.

Jeffrey H. Anderson writes about the three things we have learned from the Obamacare repeal effort, and tells us why the 2012 election is so crucial.

Bill Kristol comments on the Anderson piece and adds his two cents on the critical nature of the 2012 election.

Sean Trende analyzes the Senate seats that will be contested in 2012. In my opinion, it all boils down to how independent voters break. The electorate will be much larger than in 2010, but if independents break toward the GOP in similar percentages to 2010 it will mean the end of the Obama Administration and Democrat control of the Senate.

The New York Times has this front-page article on the possibility that Congress might create a legal path for states to seek bankruptcy protection. Clearly, the awful fiscal condition of many states, and the crushing burden of unsustainable pension and health care obligations, will continue to drive this discussion. Unlike cities and other municipalities, there is no legal way for states to go bankrupt. Public officials are reluctant to even discuss the matter for fear of spooking the bond markets and, thus, making things even worse for states trying to borrow money. But the discussion will not wait, and should not wait. Alas, I fear no serious action will be taken until one of our big, cash-strapped states like California faces imminent default on its debts.

Democratic pollster Douglas E. Schoen writes about how public employee unions threaten the future of the Democratic Party.

Charles Krauthammer points out the ridiculous accounting practices that allow the CBO to say that Obamacare reduces the deficit, and says that chicanery is just one of many reasons why everything starts with repeal.

George Will says the hubris of big government advocates is leading them to a big political fall.

The common thread running through all of these stories? While it may take a long time to happen, eventually you just end up running out of other people's money to spend.

Arthur Herman writes about China and America's 'Sputnik' moment.

The New York Times has this story about raising taxes in the states. In some states even raising taxes substantially would not be enough to cover their deficits.

The House passes a health law repeal bill, although it has no chance of passing the Senate.

Charles Krauthammer talks to Bill O'Reilly about the debate over health care and the politics of the effort to repeal the new health law.

Karl Rove believes the health law repeal issue is a winner for the GOP.

The housing market remains a trouble spot in the economy.

Richard Wolff says the mythical period of 'American Exceptionalism' is over, as wages have stagnated since the 1970s.

Michael Tanner makes an argument for the GOP to hold off on raising the debt ceiling.

Sally Pipes describes the damage already being done by the new health care law. Republicans in the House are making an effort to repeal it, which will almost certainly pass the House but fail in the Senate. Once they go through this process, I hope they will start trying to repeal or change the most onerous parts. They may fail on those as well, but it will keep the political pressure on.

Our high jobless rate will continue for years to come. Remember, the Great Depression lasted for ten years, so it would not be unprecedented for our Great Recession to last at least as long.

So, what could possibly have motivated former Haitian dictator 'Baby Doc' Duvalier to return to his earthquake ravaged homeland? I don't have an answer.

More problems in the Eurozone as Portugal's borrowing costs rise to unsustainable levels and the Germans complain about having to bail them and other 'spendthrift' nations out.

The Economist calls for Plan B to deal with the Eurozone problem, which is to restructure the debt of the countries, like Portugal, that are currently in the most trouble.

Con Coughlin says revolutions in North Africa could pose a problem for the West if the secular, family-run, money grabbing governments are replaced by Islamist ones.

An argument is made that China's currency manipulation is not a problem.

David Brooks says Amy Chua is a wimp. I have met Amy Chua, and she seems pretty tough to me.

Some thoughts on the mental health system and why it allows people like Jared Loughner to walk free until they start shooting.

Chris Matthews recalls the friendship between Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill.

In an effort to sell Obamacare, as Republicans try to repeal it, the government releases a report that says almost half of all American adults under 65 have preexisting conditions that might deny them insurance coverage.

Charlie Gasparino writes about the coming meltdown in the 'muni' market. Investors are justifiably getting spooked by the possibility that politicians in some states will be unable to come to agreement on balancing their budgets. While it is my understanding that there is no current legal process for a state to go bankrupt, it does seem possible that a state could fall into a grey area of being unable to pay its bills. That could lead to a collapse in the value of that state's bonds, and make it unable to issue new ones at any interest rate.

Robert J. Samuelson points out to those who insist these are the worst times in America since the end of World War II that there was a period, we call it 'the Sixties', when things seemed much worse. From the assassination of JFK in November of '63 to the resignation of Nixon in August of '74, America seemed to be coming apart at the seams. A bloody war in Vietnam (averaging 150 American dead a week), assassinations of our leaders (JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr.), race riots in our major cities, anti-war sit-ins and demonstrations shutting down our universities, a huge upsurge in violent crime, and the collapse of the U.S. Army by the early 70s (not as well documented, but I heard some hair-raising stories from veterans of the Army during that time who saw a total breakdown of discipline, including racial animosity, brawls and riots, rampant drug use, even rape and murder on post). Our current era is tame by comparison.

Robert Kagan writes about the necessity for maintaining our military presence across the globe, and the dangers we face should we succumb to the call for retrenchment and isolation.

Daniel Henninger explains why leftist pundits like Krugman and Alter sincerely believe that rhetoric from the right leads to violence from lunatics like the Tuscon shooter.

Arthur Laffer says the GOP can extract concessions for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling.

While many commentators are ruminating about the symbolic meaning of the test flight of a Chinese stealth aircraft, here is a piece that reveals the potential military value of the aircraft.

Is there another market bubble forming that will potentially burst?

Accuweather meteorologist Joe Bastardi is betting that the global climate will actually cool down over the next ten years. I wonder if any of the global warming scientists will take the bet.

Charles Krauthammer writes about the Tucson shooting and the response from the left. I believe that the hysterical and libelous response from the left to the shooting rampage of a madman has driven another nail into their political coffin.

Jay Cost compares the new Republican House to the one elected in 1946. By making the comparison he shows how the New Deal coalition has finally collapsed.

Prior to the Civil War it was commonplace for Congressmen to carry weapons into the chamber, and those weapons were sometimes drawn in anger. Here is a piece describing the situation, although the author tries to make the claim that overheated rhetoric incites violence, which can be true under certain circumstances, but is still so obviously not the case with a severely mentally disturbed person like the Tuscon shooter.

Lawmakers in New Hampshire are once again being allowed to carry weapons in the State House.

If you want a picture of true social breakdown and near-anarchy, just read this story about a small town in Mexico.

The latest judicial decision about foreclosure procedures could produce a meltdown in the housing market, or at least slow any recovery to a crawl.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann believe laws should be altered to allow states to enter into a voluntary bankruptcy process. They believe this would allow the states to get their finances in order and break the backs of public employee unions.

MORE MADNESS

Yesterday I wrote that I would respond to all of the columns being written about the Arizona shootings by reading them and discarding what I found useless. Alas, I am so sickened by the politicization of the tragedy that I cannot even bring myself to reading even a small portion of what is being written. If you want to read about why the "climate of hate" is responsible for the tragedy, why Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are at fault, why guns are the real problem, etc., you can go to RealClearPolitics or Instapundit or The New York Times, the editorial pages of The Washington Post, the Drudge Report and the like to find all that you can handle.

As for me, I am convinced that the elephant in the living room on this latest mass murder is the issue of mental illness. While it is true that the vast majority of mentally ill people are not dangerous (at least to others), it is also true that it only takes a small minority to create a good deal of mayhem. Responding to the abuses that resulted from an under-funded system of state mental hospitals in the first half of the 20th Century, policymakers decided it would be better to de-institutionalize the severely mentally ill and allow them to be treated in their communities to better integrate them into society. So, we closed many of the mental hospitals (which also saved money). The problem? We never built the required infrastructure to handle the people once served (however poorly) by those hospitals. Today, we find these people sleeping on the streets, living in shelters, or being cared for by their own families (which is often an expensive, debilitating and frustrating process, usually leading to family members giving up, resulting in homelessness for the mentally ill).

I hate to be a cynic about this, but I do not expect any action on this problem, even if more people become convinced, as I have, that it is the real problem. It is just too politically useful for liberals to blame these kinds of things on the rhetoric of the right or the lack of adequate gun control, rather than on our failure to create an effective infrastructure to identify and treat the severely mentally ill among us.

Mona Charen believes the contemptible opportunists on the left are obscuring the real problem, which is the failure to deal with mental illness.

Here is another column with specific recommendations on how to reform our current infrastructure regarding mental illness.

This blogger is trying to get a book published on the de-institutionalization of the mentally ill in the latter half of the 20th Century, and he has some thoughts on the issue.

MADNESS

It is all so depressingly familiar. A man commits a heinous act of violence, in this case a massacre of people at a meet-and-greet with their Congresswoman in Arizona. Innocents are killed, and the Congresswoman is gravely wounded. Almost immediately, people ascribe motivations to the gunman without waiting for additional information. Folks like Paul Krugman blame the Republicans and the Tea Party for fomenting an atmosphere of hate. Others like Glenn Reynolds and John Podhoretz push back. Can we not wait for a little while to get more information about the gunman? No. For people who are paid to provide opinions, or are in the political arena as activists or politicians, there is no waiting for facts. There is only the relentless push for a political narrative to achieve their political goals.

What should you do? I can only tell you what I do. I read them, I search for anything of value, and discard the rest. I wait to find out more about the gunman and then come to my own conclusions. I do not advocate for policies based on the isolated actions of deranged individuals, therefore, if this recent shooting is simply the isolated action of a deranged individual, I will not advocate any particular policy based on his actions, nor will I come to any particular conclusion about our political system or our current rhetorical climate based on those actions.

Political leaders are sometimes assassinated by deranged individuals (the historical list is too long to get into here). Those assassinations, while they can have momentous significance in terms of the course of history, have no more moral or intellectual significance than an earthquake or a bolt of lightning.

A Massachusetts court decision could have enormous implications for the way real estate foreclosures are done across the country.

The latest U.S. jobs report is an "utter mess" according to one analyst.

Ron Brownstein writes about exit poll data from the last election which shows white voters fleeing the Democratic Party in droves, especially white, working class men. While the Democrats may be able to win elections without those voters once minority voters become the majority, they will have a hard time in the interim. As for now, this points to something most of us who analyze politics have known for some time, that the old New Deal coalition is finally dead.

Kevin Williamson replies to Paul Krugman about Texas.

David Brooks writes about the plethora of problems with the new health care law.

The governor and legislators in Illinois are looking at big tax increases to get their budget in balance. Almost every state faces big budget problems and they will all have to raise taxes, cut spending, or do some combination of both to get those budgets into balance.

On the federal level, by contrast, the unbalanced budget just goes on and on. The current situation, with a need to raise the debt ceiling looming on the horizon, could be an opportunity for the GOP, or a disaster.

Toby Harnden believes Obama's Clinton makeover effort will fail.

Charles Krauthammer praises the new Constitutionalism.

Michael Lind blasts racist Southern Conservatives and all others who view the Constitution as a sacred document.

Ed Kilgore says liberals need to scale back their expectations, as he looks at the electoral landscape and concludes that the evil conservatives will be mostly free to destroy what is good about America at least until 2014.

Victor Davis Hanson writes about the new Sophists.

Paul Krugman says conservatives who praise Texas as the right model for state governance are wrong (0f course) because Texas, like almost every other state, is facing a budget deficit.

I have long believed that if the U.S. does suffer a decline and fall, like the British Empire, the Dutch Republic, and the Spanish Empire, all of which at one time or another dominated the globe economically and/or militarily, it would be for similar reasons. All overextended themselves beyond their ability to pay the bills. All were forced to renege on their international commitments and cut their military capabilities over time as their finances grew more and more precarious. This is happening now to us. As our politicians will be unable to cut the biggest and fastest growing part of our government spending commitments, the entitlement programs, they will be forced to cut defense spending. Count on it.

Martin Wolf writes about the great convergence as the people of China and India see their productivity and incomes rise rapidly, thus drawing closer to the people of Western Europe and the United States. The social, political and economic consequences of this convergence are enormous, and Wolf promises to write about it in his next column.

Charlie Gasparino writes about the economic malaise in Europe being driven by the stifling of the private sector economy by the high taxes and tight regulations of the welfare state and warns that we are headed in the same direction.

An article about ESP in a prestigious scientific journal is causing outrage.

John Boehner takes on his new job as Speaker of the House, and at least one pundit is impressed with his opening speech.

The Republican super majority in the New Hampshire House repeals a ban on guns on the premises and looks to remove a Democratic Party official who is also a State Representative. I am not familiar with the constitutional issues that surround the contention that a party official cannot serve as a representative, so I will withhold comment for the moment. As to guns, I remember covering the State House as a reporter in the 90s and it was refreshing to be able to walk in and around the place without feeling like you were living in a police state. Certainly, if someone wished to bring a gun to the place to commit mayhem and murder he would have been able to do a great deal of damage, but that is true whether or not one allows other citizens to be on the premises with guns. In fact, I would argue that allowing others to be armed could result in an intruder being brought down more quickly, rather than less quickly.

Wisconsin is the birthplace of the modern Progressive movement. The people of Wisconsin recently elected a Republican governor and state legislature. These newly elected Republicans are going after the public employee unions, and at least one Progressive thinks they are right to do it.

More instability in Pakistan as the governor of the Punjab is assassinated by one of his own guards.

Birthright citizenship is under assault by those who are worried about illegal immigration. Count me as being in favor of encouraging more American babies, as they will grow up to be productive American workers and courageous American soldiers, whether their last name is Smith, Santelli or Sanchez.

Speaking of courage, it seems to be in short supply from Yale to the NFL.

The fornication lamp is lit.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has some dire economic predictions for 2011. I am not an economist, of course (although once I earn my Master's Degree I guess I will be able to call myself a political scientist), but I keep thinking about the parallels between the Great Depression and our current era. Two years after the Crash of '29 it appeared as if there was some light at the end of the tunnel, but by the end of '32 the wheels were coming off (which was the main reason why Roosevelt and the Democrats has such a smashing victory in November of '32).

Harold Meyerson, writing as always from his Liberal position, sees an America in economic decline because U.S. corporations invest more in workers overseas than here at home.

Ruth Marcus believes Democrats will rue the day that they change the filibuster rules in the Senate. I believe she is correct.

Some dire predictions for China's economy in 2011, with significant implications for the United States.

On the other hand, investors are showing confidence in the U.S. economy at the moment.

State lawmakers, at least Republican ones, are looking to scale back the power of public employee unions. This is absolutely necessary if they are to get a handle on their budget problems, and helps politically in their effort to cripple the Democrats going into the next election cycle.

Some thoughts on the incandescent light bulb ban.

House Republicans look at some big budget cuts in discretionary programs. An admirable start, if they follow through, but it still does not get to the heart of the matter.

Republicans are also looking at issues to investigate now that they have the House majority.

Andrew McCarthy does not have much faith in the GOP in Congress.

Daniel Foster thinks the Republicans can get a lot in exchange for agreeing to raising the debt ceiling. Bill Kristol is critical of those Republicans who believe it is possible to simply reject raising the debt ceiling, as he thinks it is not possible to go 'cold turkey' on spending.

Rich Lowry wonders if the spending can be stopped.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz believes it is a mistake for governments in Europe and the U.S. to launch austerity programs. He believes they should spend more to stimulate the economy. He implies that the wealthiest among us should pay more.

Strapped for cash, some European governments are looking to get their hands on private pensions.

Eugene Robinson relishes the idea of a Republican assault on the Obama health plan. He believes the public favors the program, or at least most of its constituent parts. We shall see. He may be right. If he is, Republicans will go down in the polls, Obama will go up, and Obama and the Democrats will make a big comeback in 2012.

Young people in Southern Europe growing less hopeful as the reality of a dying continent begins to take shape. Hyperbole? Europe is dying out. Low fertility rates combined with a cradle-to-grave welfare state that acts as a massive Ponzi scheme will lead to a collapse of civil society within the next few decades, unless massive changes are made.

Japan is in the same boat and is unwilling to allow foreigners in to take up the slack.

Victor Davis Hanson writes about the rage directed against 'them' by everyone from delusional Greek youths to California liberals. They are all being mugged by reality.

Robert J. Samuelson judges Obama's economics.

Israel is preparing for a large-scale war. That seems prudent to me.