Senator Durbin says the debt agreement is "the final interment of John Maynard Keynes."

"He normally died in 1946 but it appears we are going to put him to his final rest with this agreement."

"You're Gonna Pay."

Everyone's talking about the anthem of the ages. ADDED: The Crack Emcee is talking about it. And not in a nice way.

In the Stairwell Café...

... we can climb higher.

"A physician was to drop acid... into the eyes of Majid Movahed... to punish him for throwing acid in the face of Ameneh Bahrami seven years ago."

Bahrami, who was blinded, had insisted on the eye-for-an-eye punishment, under Islamic law: "However in the last minute, Ameneh changed...

"I am worried. Where is India going? Now our women are fighting for their right to wear less?"

"Women cannot wear tiny clothes and go out at night and expect men to worship them. They cannot then blame the police and the governmen...

Theater in Madison: "The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker."

At the Broom Street Theater: The script itself is breathtaking -- rapid-fire wordplay, a laugh-out-loud moment in nearly every line, and a s...

Therapists who flooded NYC to help 9/11 survivors didn't help too much.

But these "trauma tourists" did feel good about themselves.

"There is caution on Capitol Hill about a tentative deal being reached."

"As the mantra here goes, 'nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.'"

"[A]t a time of great environmental change and uncertainty, weeds may soon be all we’ve got left."

"Tolerate them, he advises; celebrate their exuberant resilience, adjust your perspective. Fight them, and we may end up with nothing....

"What if the people who hate government are good at it and the people who love government are bad at it?"

Maureen Dowd observes that "Obama and John Boehner have been completely outplayed by the 'hobbits'": Consider what the tow...

At the Auditorium Café...

... we'll listen to anything .

El Bulli — reputedly the best restaurant in the world — is closing.

"Dinner consisted of a set menu comprising some 40 small dishes costing about 250 euros (£220)." I've never been there — or ev...

Eugene Volokh finds evidence that Asians are now white.

On the occasion of Gov. Nikki Haley identifying herself as white (when her ancestors come from India), he says: "I first noticed this e...

"Lessons From Wisconsin: What happens when you take on the public sector unions and win? You get a better state."

An interview with Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch , who's impressively articulate. I was watching this video with Meade,...

Why should Obama think in terms of what the Supreme Court might say about his power to single-handedly raise the debt ceiling?

Jeffrey Rosen wonders, noting that the Supreme Court would probably not hear the case. And even if the justices did agree to hear it, the co...

Pelosi: Boehner "chose to go to the dark side."

"It’s time for us to end this theater of the absurd... It’s time for us to get real." That doesn't sound very civil. Or compro...

"Walker approached the site in his usual sinister looking Yukon XL SUV with black tinted windows along with a few look-alike vehicles."

"It was surreal: 3 black SUVs speeding by [perhaps 45 mph], tires ka-thumping over railroad tracks one after the other. Protesters begi...

Rush Limbaugh: "The Tea Party is putting country before party."

"They can't be bought off with committee assignments or with campaign re-election funds. They can't be bought, and Washington c...

"Whom will the public blame for debtageddon?"

Asks Ezra Klein , with prissily correct grammar and a neologism that reminds us of the recent Armageddon that wasn't: Carmageddon . I...

Why Gov. Scott Walker isn't talking about the Milwaukee streetcar project.

You need to understand the history of Milwaukee urban transit and the role Walker played in it before he became Governor. That story started...

Wisconsin recall elections are overwhelmed by so-called "outside" spending.

Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) complained about it: "For the first time in the history of Wisconsin politics - and you can prin...

"President Barack Obama takes debt battle to Twitter, loses more than 40,000 followers in one day."

Obama spammed us.

"Apple has more cash on hand than the US government."

"The Treasury reported a total operating cash balance of $73.768 billion, while Apple is reported to be holding $75.876 billion accordi...

"Cambodians... refused to believe anything bad about the United States."

Writes Terry McCoy, in the new issue of Isthmus... I vividly recall failing to explain to a young boy that some things aren't wonderful ...

Democrats criticize Gov. Nikki Haley for identifying herself as "white" on her voter application form.

Her choices were: ""white, black/African-American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American or other." The [State Election Commission...

At the Tall Corn Café...

... you can aspire to anything .

The chant in Tahrir Square today: "Islamic, Islamic. Neither secular nor liberal."

The NYT reports: Tens of thousands of Egyptian Islamists poured into Tahrir Square on Friday calling for a state bound by strict religious l...

"After all the wind and storm, what’s going on with the high-speed train?"

"It’s crawling slower than a snail. I hope nothing happens to it."

"The house on Friday passed a debt-limit bill after it was recrafted to appease tea party-allied conservatives..."

"... but President Obama said the plan has 'no chance of becoming law' and instead urged Senate Democrats and Republicans to re...

On the Capital City Trail today...

... I stopped to photograph the Queen Anne's lace and (especially) the gayfeather: Enlarge to see the gayfeather, the spiky purple wild...

Kody Brown lawsuit challenging Utah's anti-polygamy law "is a nightmare for liberals and conservatives alike."

Says Monica Potts in The American Prospect (a liberal publication): [The lawsuit is based on Lawrence v. Texas , which] was a groundbreakin...

"Old Mr. Brown, a man I knew in Oakland, Calif., never ate anything but sandwiches."

"Ask him to a meal, pass the breadbasket. He put everything, from soup to nuts, between two slices. Evidently it was a lifelong obsessi...

"Obama Approval Drops to New Low of 40%..."

Gallup. Obama's job approval rating among Democrats is 72%, compared with 34% among independents and 13% among Republicans. In the prior...

Divers' faces photographed mid-dive...

...  fascinating!

What Obama is "getting absolutely no sleep" — and he has a secret plan.

Morsels of info... from Valerie Jarrett and William Daley. BLITZER:  So what you're saying is the president did present a plan to the sp...

"Pregnant Woman Takes Bar Exam While in Labor, Delivers Baby Right After!"

David Lat writes: Before the start of the afternoon session on day two of the Illinois bar exam (Wednesday), the very pregnant [“Mother Bar ...

"Where is the 9,000-foot cow?"/"What do you think about Satan?"/"What did James Madison think about video games?"

Justice Ginsburg lists the strangest questions asked last term at oral argument. "From the foregoing samples, you may better understand...

"If it wasn't for race, if it wasn't for class, do you think [Nafissatou Diallo] would be treated this way?"

Actually, I don't. But not in the way that Diallo's lawyer thinks we shouldn't .

Isthmus picks up Meade's confrontation with the state worker arrested in the balloon-popping incident.

Hmmm. It will be interesting to see how the comments play out over there (where Meade has been a long-time gadfly and I am pretty much hate...

"Recall campaigns aren't focusing on collective bargaining."

Reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The plan to eliminate most collective bargaining for public employees may be the issue that sparked ...

Is kindness really this extraordinary?

"We couldn't believe what we were seeing?"

LIVE now on FoxNews: The latest on the debt ceiling crisis.

Note the time stamp: 9:44 CT. To be fair to Fox News, they did carry the President's latest speech before they went to the potted plant....

"This is the size I wanted them to look at 19!"

There should be more stories like this about regretting breast implants. A very young woman is making a decision that binds the much older ...

"The entire two-income trap... is actually a two-income tax trap..."

Explains Todd Zywicki , correcting Christopher Caldwell, who was explaining Elizabeth Warren. ... Caldwell’s interpretation of what Warren a...

At the Copse Café...

... lean back and let your hair down.

"And if atheists could put a symbol in the museum, what would it be?"

"Perhaps an atom, Mr. Silverman suggested, 'because we’re all made out of atoms,' or maybe a depiction of a firefighter carryin...

The global warming "consensus" is cracking up.

2 stories on Drudge right now: 1. "Alaska researcher who documented polar bears demise in Arctic placed on leave..." Just five ye...

Does this Wisconsin recall ad sound like it's narrated by Morgan Freeman?

There's a big controversy about whether this is a deceptive ad. Morgan Freeman's representative confirmed to The Huffington Post th...

"A state employee was arrested on suspicion of endangering safety with a dangerous weapon Thursday in relation to an argument over a balloon in the Capitol."

"Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne could not be reached to say how long it would take to decide whether to charge the employe...

Blogger's back!

Things hadn't been working here since early this afternoon, but I wrote an email and it seems to have resulted in a restoration of all t...

"When I was lonely, I hid my emotional reality and lied outright."

"I fudged facts and did everything necessary to make my isolated life look full. I hinted that I hadn’t been single for as long as I ha...

At the Café Café...

... let's settle in for some good conversation about anything you like.

"The heart-shaped balloon community must have heard about the loss of one of its own because it was out in force Tuesday at the Capitol."

"I counted a dozen trapped at the top of the dome and dozens more held fast by some of the 150 or so participating in the 'Solidari...

"Conceding that a culturally diverse society raises knotty and complex social and political questions is one thing."

"It is quite another to state that a multicultural society is impossible, or that Islam is incompatible with democracy. Yet the blogosp...

"Smoke juice."

A Wisconsin-made product. "Traditional cigarettes don't actually taste like anything... They taste like cigarettes. What we hear ov...

American Atheists sue to keep the WTC cross out of the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

The cross, you may remember, is not something human beings constructed intentionally. It is steel that remained standing after the buildings...

What really happens to your clothes at the dry cleaners?

It's really quite awful. Your clothes are dumped — along with everyone else's dirty things — into a giant machine full of perchloro...

"It’s All Over but the Face-Saving?"

Says Nate Silver? The only real difference, instead, is that Mr. Boehner’s bill would require Congress to approve another increase in the de...

"Detailed Paper-Cut False Eyelashes Depict Entire Scenes On Your Eyelids."

See? It is possible to think of something new.

"I think I've answered the question. I mean, I know you're creating a thing here for Fox..."

Jay Carney gets testy (as he's asked again about the specifics of Obama's plan on the debt ceiling).

Who gets into an exclusive NY club? "Christians are our favorite."

Great quote , referring to a shoe brand. (Christian Louboutin.) The linked NYT article brings up what was a big issue here in Madison a few ...

"You're so far away. Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?"

This is the song chosen to end the funeral for Amy Winehouse.

At the Red Chair Café...

... you're not alone here.

"I mean, sorry to bring something so stupid into your courtroom."

Said the defendant. "This has to be the most phenomenally stupid case that I have seen. It's unbelievable what happened here,...

"Dow Jones plunges 74 pts on news that @ChuckTodd wanted to see Obama's plan in writing."

Ha. Via Legal Insurrection . Details on the Todd-Carney confrontation here .

"Being rich changes surprisingly little... You still have to have an absorbing interest in life, something to do to make you feel alive."

Said G.D. Spradlin , who "made a fortune, retired in 1960 and spent a year and a half sailing in the Bahamas with his family," bef...

A big NYT Magazine article about James O'Keefe — written by Zev Chafets.

Zev Chafets is that NYT contributor who wrote that book about Rush Limbaugh that Limbaugh was so pleased with. So let's read the new art...

"SlutWalk Toronto... has come and gone and spawned imitators. Already though, some feminists are questioning it's efficacy and impact on both men and women."

A Metafilter post linking to: "SlutWalk march planned for London." The movement started after police constable Michael Sanguinett...

Is there a cholangiocarcinoma researcher out there....

... looking for an object of study?

Paul Krugman denounces "the cult of balance, of centrism."

It's "a true moral failure," he says: We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and De...

"SwiftVets revenge."

Ben Smith reports: The Navy Times (no link) reported last week that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus stripped the Silver Star from a Vietnam swift b...

Mickey Kaus thinks it's "odd" that people aren't connecting “Obama” and “Boehner Plan” and “briar patch.”

He's got an argument that he thinks is so good, he's surprised no one has made it using the term "briar patch": [I]sn’t th...

Another creepy elevator guy, another feminist.

We've seen the Rebecca Watson incident — with the elevator guy who asked her (at 4 a.m.) if she'd like to have coffee and her respo...

"Fire From the Heartland" — a movie about the "reawakened fierceness" of American women.

It's by Steve Bannon, who made "The Undefeated" (that Sarah Palin) movie. It came out last September, but it's being pushe...

Harry Reid's office is "inundated" with 600 phone calls.

600 phone calls is an amazing number of phone calls? IN THE COMMENTS: Chip S. said: Here's a reference point: In March of 2010, the Con...

"Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories."

The winner of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a University of Wisconsin professor — Sue Fondrie (Oshkosh). (Discussed here .)

Wu...

... through. The Democrats can't have this tiger-suit-wearing target of accusatory phone messages attracting attention in the midst of a...

"Train station. My teeth are on edge every time I hear it. Who started it? Have they been punished?"

That's not from someone who hates trains. It's a British person complaining about "Americanism" that are infecting the spe...

"Wisc. Assembly Democrats Would Have Added $1.7 Billion in Spending, Created $1.4 Billion Deficit."

"A comprehensive analysis of Assembly Democrats’ proposed amendments to the recently passed state budget shows that had their amendment...

"Wisconsin weird: Cops probe balloon popping."

The balloon story — which we talked about yesterday — hits Politico . Pro-union activists have taken to releasing red heart-shaped balloons ...

How to comment at Instapundit.

Vote in (or view) one of his polls . You can comment at the poll results page. That link goes to today's GOP 2012 nominee poll. Yesterda...

"The White House is now on the sidelines."

I haven't felt like linking to David Brooks in a long time, but this column about Obama's negotiating on the debt is pretty useful:...

"A toddler was found wandering alone in Battery Park City yesterday -- hours after his troubled mother was taken to a hospital, cops said."

"It took nine hours before police realized Trevon Frazier, 3, was on his own, officials said. The tot was discovered at 9:30 a.m. insid...

Anders Behring Breivik says "the rest of the world doesn’t understand his point of view, but in 60 years time, they’ll understand him."

"He believes that he is in a war and in a war you can do things like that... He has a view of reality that is very difficult to explain...

"Why would a tiny woman with no criminal record, who worked 10 years on Wall Street..."

"... randomly hold up people at gunpoint at night dressed as a policewoman?" (This story is the perfect antidote to all the recent...

At the Capitol Café...

... we can gaze off into the distance.

Obama spoke on the debt crisis again tonight, and Boehner spoke too.

I'd say Boehner won. Here are the President's remarks. His favorite word was compromise : ... I’ve told leaders of both parties tha...

Rebecca Watson says she had "a weird time on Bloggingheads" with me.

I enjoyed the conversation and tried to keep it interesting and enjoyable, and I had the impression that she was enjoying talking too. We we...

Only human brains shrink with age.

"We are very weird animals... Among neuroscientists, the assumption has been that species are all the same, but this shows there is som...

Balloons and blood in the Wisconsin State Capitol.

"The incident allegedly involved a citizen, a state worker and a balloon..." Protesters have been releasing red heart balloons thr...