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A new, conservative friend cracks up when she hears my phone message. As a therapist, I'm required to state, "If this is a psychiatric emergency, please call 911." Roaring with laughter, she says, "Robin, the whole country is having a psychiatric emergency!" And she's right, because people running this country are off: off balance, off-world, off-putting, off their meds. Gallows humor, a knot in your stomach when Obama speaks, poor sleep. Your body is telling you that something is wrong. Even out here, things are starting to feel spooky. While it's always weird central in Berkeley, now there's a malaise...

Barry Rubin notes there is a very wide variance between the Administration's view of what happened in Geneva and what it's "negotitaing partner" Iran said went on. And now it's official! Iran's Supreme National Security Council has announced that the main "concession" it supposedly made in the Geneva meeting with the United States never happened. It has no intention of sending off its enriched uranium to Russia to be turned into someting fit only for medical research at all. This supposed pledge made by Iran was the alleged big development that set off so much optimism after Iran met with...

Last fall, when the American Federation of Teachers endorsed him for president, Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of 3,000 union members and promised that "we will change education in this country; and we will bring about a better future for our children..." One way to build that better future, Obama has said, is to increase the number of hours children spend in school, both by lengthening the days themselves and by shortening vacations to extend the school year. But now, as President Obama pushes for more hours in school, some of his staunchest supporters are moving in the other...

At a time of tension between their organizations, White House senior adviser David Axelrod met with Fox News chairman and chief executive officer Roger Ailes two weeks ago The two met privately in Manhattan during the president’s visit to the United Nations. The two discussed news coverage and the relationship between the organizations. Ailes is the founder of Fox News. A key part of Axelrod’s portfolio is the president’s image and broad message White House officials have expressed pique with what they consider heavy coverage of Obama critics by opinion shows on the news channel.

DEVELOPING: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that it will be difficult to meet the administration's Jan. 22, 2010, deadline to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Prior to the implementation of the surge by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress demanded that General Petraeus appear before them and testify about his plans and strategy for Iraq. The Bush administration complied with Congress’s demands because they believed in the surge and knew that General Petraeus was a man of integrity and professionalism who could testify with authority. But, most importantly, they believed in the change in strategy that was being advanced by him and supported by the president. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the president -- who claimed he wanted his legacy to...

The "moderate" Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has started to take a page from the playbook of his old partner, Yasir Arafat, and is moving away from diplomacy to violence to achieve his objectives. He is lighting the fuse for a third intifada. It all began on Sept. 27 -- the eve of Yom Kippur when Arab rioters threw stones at French tourists on Temple Mount. Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall also became targets. Abbas's Palestinian Authority, instead of helping to restore order, hailed the rioters as defenders of a holy Muslim site -- Al Aqsa atop the mount. It...

Playing the classic puzzle game Tetris can boost your brain power, according to a new study. The three-month study, by the Mind Research Network, found adolescent girls who played Tetris not only displayed greater brain efficiency, but developed a thicker brain cortex, a sign of increased grey matter. Clinical neuropsychologist Dr Rex Jung said one of the most surprising findings of brain research in the past five years was that juggling game play increased grey matter in the motor areas of the brain. Study co-author Dr Richard Haier said Tetris had proved useful for brain researchers. "Tetris for the brain...

In yesterday’s article, UN Climate Reports: They Lie, we discussed the problems associated with a chart that appeared in the UN’s most recent climate report. One such issue was that the graphic, which claimed to establish a “correlation between temperature and CO2,” used a temperature plot immediately recognizable as the infamously debunked “Hockey Stick Graph.” But as now reported by Anthony Watts at Watt’s Up With That, UNEP has replaced the embattled graphic, which was taken not from peer-reviewed journals but rather a 2005 Wikimedia posting by an unknown Norwegian research biologist, with a more traditional (and carbon free) chart...

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Delaware Republican congressman Michael Castle is announcing that he's running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Democrat Joe Biden last year after Biden was elected vice president. In a brief, exclusive interview with The Associated Press before his news conference, Castle said he's running because he can do more for Delaware in the Senate than in the House.

Turn on any network last week and you saw famous people making excuses. It didn’t matter if it was Hollywood morons defending a rapist, David Letterman pretending he was a victim for treating his staff like a harem, or Barack Obama denying responsibility for the failed Olympic bid. It looked like some nightmarish recast of an awful "Family Circus" cartoon with all of the major characters shouting “not me” with their hands fully in the cookie jar. And the traditional media celebrated the excuse-filled comic atmosphere.

Today, October 5th, three Americans were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. This continues the strong showing of US medical research, with US researchers counting for eighteen of the last thirty winners. US institutions where the research was conducted accounted for 19 of the 30 last prizes. If this was a sporting contest, commentators would be talking about an "American legacy of dominance" in the field. Instead of talking about the tremendous success the US has had, all we hear from our politicians and left wing talking heads is how the medical system is broken. The media talks about the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - The United States is the most admired country globally thanks largely to the star power of President Barack Obama and his administration, according to a new poll. He believes that during the previous administration of George W. Bush the United States suffered in the world ranking with its unpopular foreign policies but since Obama was elected, and despite the recent economic turmoil, the country's status has risen globally. "There is no other explanation," Anholt said in an interview, referring to the impact of Obama.

Nearly two dozen House liberals have signed onto a bill introduced this past week that would prohibit an increase of troops in Afghanistan. A bill introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Thursday would bar funding to increase the troop level in Afghanistan beyond its current level. Lee and 21 lawmakers -- largely from the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus -- introduced the bill, H.R. 3699 on Thursday. The legislation comes as President Barack Obama and leaders in Congress weigh a request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of troops in Afghanistan, for as many as 40,000 new troops to bolster...

Of course Barack and Michelle Obama failed in Copenhagen. Their strategy could not possibly succeed. In their academic arrogance, they thought they could sell a product they clearly do not believe in (the United States) and moreover, they could do so by stressing the benefits to the seller (Chicago) and not the buyer (the IOC). And to top it off, they committed the faux pas of talking too much about the sales force (themselves) and not about the product or the buyer. Gee, what could possibly go wrong? Anyone who has had to succeed in the real business world --...

Speaking on the semiofficial Obama news channel MSNBC, David Axelrod manifests the unbearable hubris and arrogance of the White House team. "I am proud of this president for going to make the case for this country," he said on MSNBC. "Anytime you're going to make the case for the United States of America, you're doing the right thing." [...] "I think it was well worth the investment of time and I have no regrets about that and I know [Obama] doesn't." Later on CNN: "It's the world's loss." It's the world's loss? Recall, Obama believes that no nation is superior...

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Thank-you, President Obama. I think of my favorite hymn, Amazing Grace - "I once was blind and now I see". I have lived a mostly apolitical life. Oh, I mourned the end of Camelot with the assassination of JFK, abhorred the arrogance of Richard Nixon, suffered the gas lines under Carter's reign, listened with hope to Ronald Reagan's speeches and despised the amorality of the Clintons. But still embraced no political ideology. In 2000 I voted for George simply because I admired Barbara and he is her son. Newly retired, I then had time to closely follow the coverage of...

The First Lady has once again uttered words that reveal her self-absorbed interior life. Speaking in Copenhagen, she referred to her trip as a "sacrifice." Byron York caught it yesterday: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days," the first lady told a crowd of people involved in the Chicago project, "so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home." "People say"? Who on earth has been telling Michelle that she is sacrificing something for the American...

A lesbian political activist who donated thousands to Democrats and homosexual causes is suspected of embezzling nearly $6 million from one of the world's largest insurance firms. Despite her $40,000 a year salary as an insurance compensation specialist, Phyllis Stevens purchased two homes valued at more than $550,000 and gave thousands of dollars in donations to Democratic Party political candidates and homosexual groups. The 58-year-old chairs the Midwest Chapter of Marriage Equality USA, a homosexual "marriage" advocacy group. She is accused of embezzling the money from health insurer Aviva over a period of five years. A civil complaint filed in...