Lightning Round: Let's Not Act Decisively, Like We Did in 1999.

• Perhaps the Obama administration thinks talking about reducing the deficit in next year's State of the Union address will win them political points. This is a mistake. Closing the gap between revenues and outlays can only be accomplished by taking policy initiatives that are currently very unpopular politically (slashing defense, entitlements, and raising taxes). And besides, it's the jobs picture that's really important, and if the government is to get involved with job creation, that's going to involve, you know, the government spending money. And that money is going to increase the debt. If all the options are unpopular, then why not do the right thing to begin with?
• Farhad Manjoo takes us on a trip down memory lane and asks why the world was able to decisively and forcefully organize to tackle the Y2k scare but can't get together on things like climate change. The U.S. economy sunk $100 billion ($9 billion by the federal government) into Y2k upgrades. Comparatively, Bradford Plumer informs us, the world will need to spend about $37 trillion over the next two decades in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• The problem isn't hack writers writing embarrassingly unpersuasive columns on how awesome the former governor of Alaska is and how much she'll be loved by Americans in the future (not worth linking to). The problem is that the non-ideological news media writes about the former governor of Alaska's every movement every single day. This despite not holding elected office, having nothing interesting to say about public policy, and being despised by two-thirds of the country. To put it another way, who cares what she's up to?
• Remainders: Demographics that like, dislike President Obama most; the administration cracks down on burrowing; the Federalist Society convention is little more than a genteel tea party; the real tea partiers continue to bring the power of reason to bear on our elected officials; and the lengths our public officials go to to express their contempt for homosexuals is astonishing.

--Mori Dinauer