Meanwhile, back in Madison...

where the government is already big beyond belief, the manufactured drama these days includes blood in the Capitol and balloon carcasses.

No, I don't make this stuff up. And remember, somebody's paying for this political posturing, which seems to entertain less and less of us as time marches on.

When do the grownup's move in?

Commentary:

If it is not undone, it creates a free-speech forum, and the state will need to tolerate future balloons representing the full spectrum of messages [ED. note: ie/ "Helium Whippet Hits for Jesus"?] , and the dome will become the world's most ridiculous gigantic, inverted pile of litter.

Except... as anyone who's treasured a helium balloon in the same way one treasures a beloved snowman has learned, after about three days (give or take the life span of a carnival-won goldfish) the helium looses its oompf, and the ... balloon carcasses, to use the proper Madison victimology language, will drop to the floor. Now I agree, our tax dollars need not go to continuing to maintain the property for inane "protestors", but let's not pretend the Capitol is going to become some giant balloon dumping ground, akin to the dead zones in the oceans where trash is accumulating, just because people practice "catch and release" on balloons, not fish, in Madison.

Don't give them any more power than they already have. Ditto the silly publicity these types crave.

ADDED:
Speaking of dramatics, sadly, she continues to use the inflated death numbers in Norway too, even after having been corrected in the comments. It's 68, not 86, now confirmed dead at the youth camp, plus 8 others killed in the bombing.

It's common for professional news media to overestimate the numbers of the dead in the immediate aftermath of tragedies, with so many unaccounted for (in this case, those who presumably swum to safety), but there's really no excuse to try and "hype" the numbers, as the professor is doing here. Especially not when somebody's called attention to the original error.

But speaking of views of reality that are very difficult to explain, for murdering 86 human beings, Breivik faces a prison sentence of merely 21 years. According to the linked article, prosecutors are considering charging Breivik with "crimes against humanity," and that would push the maximum sentence up to a big 30 years. *

Also, it's unlikely Breivik will ever be set free, says his lawyer today. If he's found to be insane, the courts there can continue to keep him incarcerated, so the "only 21 years for 86 deaths!!" melodrama rings a bit hollow.

The tragedy of innocents dead is bad enough, especially in how they were callously gunned down. No need to hype the thing with deliberate false facts.

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* I wonder if she even read the full article she linked to:

Police and court officials have said Mr. Breivik has admitted to detonating a large bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and then shooting and killing 68 mainly young people at a summer camp run by the ruling Labor Party on the nearby island of Utoya. The attacks on Friday amounted to one of the worst massacres in postwar Europe.