Pun Salad

… saying "Jimmy, don't I know your name":

• Steven Hayward asks: Is There a Conservative Case for Higher Taxes? Read before you answer. Key query:

  [I]f you want to limit government spending, instead of starving the beast, serve the check.

• On a related topic, Smitty makes the case against the current nostrum of a Balanced Budget Amendment right in his own post's headline: "GOP Swears Balanced Budget Amend. Will Make Congress Serious About The Job They've Blown Off For Decades."

  Or: amending the Constitution is very difficult, and rightly so. How about, just… y'know… balancing the budget?. The most that would take is a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate, and that only in order to override a veto. An amendment requires that plus a 38-state OK.

• I don't watch network news shows unless they're covering an extraterrestrial invasion, but Peter Wehner does, and notes the national treasure that is George F'n Will. On Sunday's This Week, he asked his "progressive" co-panelists:

  The question is, has the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce been so loosely construed that now Congress can do anything at all, that there is nothing it cannot do. Let me ask the three of you. Obviously, obesity and its costs affect interstate commerce. Does Congress have the constitutional power to require obese people to sign up for Weight Watchers? If not, why not?

  Much babbling bafflement at the link. But a serious thought: If the Constitution is vague enough to allow such things, maybe we should start asking how to write an amendment to close the commerce clause loophole, rather than relying on the courts to "interpret" it the way we like.

• Apparently, those very little candy cylinders one can get on one's ice cream are called "jimmies" after Jimmy "J.J." Walker. Dyn-O-Mite!

  No, just kidding. Jack Fowler debunks the (surprisingly prevalent) notion that they are named after Jim Crow, and are inherently racist, unless you call them "sprinkles".

  I grew up in the Midwest, which means I've always called them sprinkles, and always thought they were pointless.

• And the title of this post is from a Dylan lyric that I've been (apparently) mishearing for the past 37 years or so. Check out the collection; I'm especially impressed at how many mishearings are actually improvements on the original.