SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

APPROPRIATE? – Michelle Obama gave an address at Oberlin College in Ohio today, delivering a fairly standard liberal message.  Oberlin is one of the most reliably left-wing colleges in the country.  What struck me, though, was that Oberlin's graduation was held on Memorial Day.  Entirely inappropriate, in my view, but the kind of insensitivity we've come to expect from liberals.  I'm sure the trendy college could have given out diplomas on some other day.

HOLLYWOOD DIVES – From showbiz411:  "This weekend’s box office will be the worst for a Memorial Day since 2001. 'Tomorrowland,' a bad movie, narrowly edged out hold over 'Pitch Perfect 2.' An unnecessary remake of 'Poltergeist' was a close third. Surprisingly, 'Mad Max: Fury Road' has not proven to be a blockbuster, although it’s doing ok. Theaters are living on the dribs and drabs of 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' and 'Furious 7' for audiences.  The movie business is now consumed with Marvel and DC comics movies. And sequels to things no one liked in the first place. Instead of the potentially great new filmmakers being encouraged to make new films, brave new worlds, the money is entrapping them in this stuff. What a shame. What happened to originality? The studios are too scared to get involved in it. And the movie audience has other things to do, apparently."  Good analysis of a fading industry. 

NO BRAVE NEW ROAD – From Daily Caller:  "President Obama’s promise to have 1 million electric or hybrid cars on the road by 2015 has been an abysmal failure, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg, as private and government purchases of such vehicles have only reached 31 percent of the president’s original goal.  Obama made his promise in 2009, but as it became clear electric and hybrid car sales would never reach one million units the president scaled back his ambitions in March. Though, Obama has failed to even meet his scaled back goals, according to Bloomberg.  'The U.S. bought about 24,816 electric and hybrid vehicles during Obama’s presidency, or about 7 percent of government purchases in that time,' according to government data obtained by Bloomberg. 'U.S. consumers bought about 286,814 of those models from 2009 to 2014, or 3 percent of overall sales.'"  Watch.  They'll try to make it mandatory for us. 

May 25, 2015