* Liberals seemed to have settled on one description of people who want the government to spend less than it takes in: Terrorists. Perhaps Obama has a special speech ready for the 10th anniversary of 9/11: “While what happened ten years ago wasn’t… well… optimal, we have to remember that the real terrorists are people who impose the rules of basic math on the rest of us.”

How did we let something of such basic common sense — that one’s budget should add up — become such a radical, progressive notion? And it’s so basic, it’s hard to explain to liberals why it’s important because it’s such a truism. Do we have to explain to liberals why rape is wrong (oh yeah, Roman Polanski) or why murder is wrong (oh yeah, Ted Kennedy)? I don’t even know where to start with a liberal who doesn’t think we should spend less than we take in; I guess you start with explaining why negative numbers are bad.

ME: “See, you now have negative three apples. That means when you finally get three more apples, I’ll also take those away.”

LIBERAL: “Terrorist!”

ME: “Now I’ll give you positive three punches to the face. Count them out loud.”

* I hate hearing people in the government — especially Obama — say they have a solution for creating jobs. If they knew how to create jobs, they’d be in the private sector and not in government. Here’s my jobs plan for the government: We hand Obama an iPad loaded with Angry Birds and say, “You’re not to do anything else until you get three stars on every level.” That’ll keep him out of our hair for a while. If the country is to recover, we need to get Obama to stick to the golf course.

* So it looks like the U.S. gets to keep its AAA debt rating a while longer. Moody’s was all worried with our out of control spending and slow growth, but now that we have still out of control spending but slightly less than before, everything is good for now. I almost kind of want us to lose our rating, though; that will give us something to work for. Balance the budget, and then we can get to AAA again. As we’ve learned, Democrats only respond to al Qaeda-like terrorist threats such as “You no longer get a blank checkbook.”

* Self-identification of conservatives is at an all time high, with more people saying they are conservative than say they are moderate and almost twice as many people saying they are conservative than saying they are liberals. I know liberals are hoping this whole “we have to control spending” thing is just some terrorist fad, but it’s starting to look like it has the makings of a permanent movement, which is probably why we’re seeing the people whose time has passed lashing out so hysterically. There’s already a new status quo on the raising the debt ceiling, and we should expect the next time it comes up — whether with a Democrat or Republican president — to be an interesting time. The only thing is making the hard cuts in entitlements. That will be painful thing, but it would help if the liberals act so hysterical and condescending that hatred of them trumps the short term pain. I think they can manage it. Thanks, guys, we couldn’t get anywhere without you.

* Looks like the FBI has figured out who D.B. Cooper is from that unsolved plane hijacking from 1971. So for those saying the country is making no progress, there you go.

* When I posted about the countries that like America most yesterday, I didn’t realize this but a commenter pointed it out: The country that likes us the most is the one we once nuked. So that’s a lesson for you: If you stand up to a country, they’ll eventually respect you for it.

Hey, we’re pretty unpopular in the Middle East; what could we do to turn that around?

Hey! I’m kidding!

Maybe.

* It’s looking like the days of $50-$60 video games are coming to an end. It seems like video games have always cost $50 new all the way back to NES, but in the recent PS3 and XBox 360 generation that’s gone up to $60 (and sometimes with the PC release too). I’ve yet to pay that for a video game because that just seems insane to me (and I rarely pay the $50 — I’m old; I can wait for a price drop). But now that’s all competing with the iPhone and iPad, where a game has to be pretty special to ask for more than $5. So the new strategy may be to have a small price up front (or be free) and then slow bleed you on extra content ($5 here and $3 there until you get to real money). That’s capitalism; always changing stuff. Do you know of any other economic system that results in cheaper video games? No, because all the others are evil.

* Here’s a number of clips from RiffTrax celebrating their five year anniversary:

I love RiffTrax, and if you don’t, I hate you.

* Wisdom of the Day: “So we’re terrorists for ‘holding the country hostage’? Okay, then: For what you’re doing to future generations, you are pedophiles. Own it.” –Jim Treacher