USA Today has an analysis of what it calls "the dramatic realignment of the nation's economy" over the past decade: "The economic winners of the last decade are states that focus on raw materials, government and senior citizens. The big losers are places that make things." [Emphasis ours.] If Washington D.C. were a state it would be sixth in the nation with 29.9% GDP growth from 2000 to 2010, according to the chart the newspaper runs along with its article. "The federal government-fueled suburbs" led Virginia "and neighboring Maryland to a decade of prosperity," the paper reports, without exactly mentioning that that prosperity is fueled in part by taxing the residents of other states.

The Associated Press does some accountability journalism on President Obama's promise to install solar panels on the White House roof:

In last fall's announcement, at a conference of government officials and environmental groups, Energy Secretary Steven Chu was specific. "I'm pleased to announce that, by the end of this spring, there will be solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House," he wrote that day on his departmental website.

Yet, the AP says, "Spring has come and gone, and the promised panels have yet to see the light of day."

Environmentalist Bill McKibben has some fun with it: ""Nine months is a pretty long time. You can have a baby in that time...On the list of things that get done, this isn't all that hard. It doesn't require SEAL Team 6. It just requires a good-faith effort. You can just open the Yellow Pages and get page after page of solar installers."

The American Medical Association, at its annual meeting in Chicago, discussed the full-body scanners that the Department of Homeland Security has deployed — also known as "nakedness machines." From the AMA press release: "This weekend at its annual meeting, the AMA discussed the public health safety and efficacy of airport security scanners and determined there is currently little evidence to suggest one way or another if these scanners have adverse health effects on travelers, and more independent research needs to be done."

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The New York Times has a totally ridiculous front page news article about the effort by American companies to get the government to cut taxes on bringing cash back from overseas. Let's take it from the top.

The Times article begins: "Some of the nation's largest corporations have amassed vast profits outside the country and are pressing Congress and the Obama administration for a tax break to bring the money home."

This isn't news to anyone who has been paying attention; "60 Minutes" did a similar story in March.

The Times article goes on:

Corporations and their lobbyists say the tax break could resuscitate the gasping recovery by inducing multinational corporations to inject $1 trillion or more into the economy...

But that's not how it worked last time. Congress and the Bush administration offered companies a similar tax incentive, in 2005, in hopes of spurring domestic hiring and investment, and 800 took advantage.

The New Yorker's George Packer has a long piece on the Galleon trial and prosecutor Preet Bharara, including a memorable email from Raj Rajaratnam's lawyer, John Dowd, to Chad Bray of the Wall Street Journal: "This is the worst piece of... journalism I have read in a long time...What a disgrace for an otherwise great paper."

Overall it's sort of a strange article in the New Yorker because it implies that Goldman Sachs or its leaders are criminals without actually coming out and saying that and without producing any evidence of it. Instead it's just innuendo.

From a New York Times book review by Christopher Hitchens of David Mamet's book The Secret Knowledge:

Eschewing irony, Mamet prefers his precepts to be literal and traditional. In case by any chance we haven't read it before, he twice offers Rabbi Hillel's definition of the golden rule and the essence of Torah: "What is hateful to thee, do not do to thy neighbor." As with Hayek's imperative of choice, the apparent obviousness of this does not entirely redeem it from contradiction. To Colonel Qaddafi and Charles Manson and Bernard Madoff, I want things to happen that would be hateful to me. Of what use is a principle that is only as good as the person uttering it?

From ABC's "This Week" program, on which Senator McCain criticized what he called the "isolationism" of the Republican presidential candidates:

MCCAIN: I wonder what Ronald Reagan would be saying today.

AMANPOUR: What would he be saying today, if he had heard, for instance, Michele Bachmann or Mitt Romney?

MCCAIN: He would be saying that's not the Republican Party of the 20th century and now the 21st century. That is not the Republican Party that has been willing to stand up for freedom for people for all over the world, whether it be in Grenada, that Ronald Reagan had a quick operation about, or whether it be in our enduring commitment to countering the Soviet Union.

Add video game manufacturers to the list of job-creating American industries, from Wall Street to oil and pharmaceuticals, that President Obama is casting aspersions on. From Mr. Obama's Father's Day email: "We know that every father has a personal responsibility to do right by their kids – to encourage them to turn off the video games and pick up a book."

Nothing against books — I'm an author myself, and we review plenty of books here. President Obama has made most of his multimillion-dollar fortune from the book-publishing industry, so it's easy to understand why he likes books.

Giving fatherhood advice isn't of the president's constitutional responsibilities, and it's an open question whether Mr. Obama ought to be doing it at all. This particular piece of one-size-fits all advice helps to make the case that the president should stick to other issues.

Secretary of State Clinton has an op-ed out calling for a transition to democracy in Syria: "A speech, no matter how dutifully applauded by regime apologists, will not change the reality that the Syrian people, despite being told they live in a republic, have never had the opportunity to freely elect their leaders. These citizens want to see a real transition to democracy and a government that honors their universal rights and aspirations."

This is pretty funny, if you (like me) have a dark sense of humor. The president of the Kansas City Fed, Thomas Hoenig, writes in the Financial Times about reports that UBS is considering moving its headquarters out of Switzerland: "Recent news reports, however, suggest that Swiss regulators may even favour UBS moving its investment banking activities abroad, so that their government no longer would face the risk of bailing out a company that is twice the size of the Swiss economy."

Mr. Hoenig says America shouldn't accept it under the current rules.

The Vineyard Gazette has a news article on what it calls "the sudden crackdown in Tisbury on businesses flying 'open' flags." From the Gazette's account of a selectmen's meeting:

A long discussion then explored the arcane details of the rules for signs in general, and flags in particular.

A formula allows signs proportionate to the size of a business's frontage; flags are considered advertising and are included in the calculation. The formula varies according to the zoning of the area in which the business operates. But a national flag, of any size and of any nation, is exempt.

This explains why the Scottish Bakehouse — which also was told by Mr. Barwick to take down its "open" flag — now flies the flag of Scotland. And why Rocco's Pizza, in the Tisbury Marketplace, now flies the flags of Italy and the United States.

It also explains why the owners of the Little House had to get out the scissors and prune their flag to eight square feet, so it became legal....

China reportedly wants a naval base in Pakistan for its new aircraft carrier.

"How about a law that says no federal money can be used to name anything for a politician until the politician is dead?" — FutureOfCapitalism.com post, June 28, 2010.

"Let me propose that Congress adopt the following rule: No institution receiving government funds should be able to name itself (or any part of itself) after any government official who had a hand in providing those funds." — Harvard Professor of Economics Greg Mankiw post, June 15, 2011. Professor Mankiw was writing about the UNLV Harry Reid Research and Technology Park.

Columnist Johna Goldberg writes about Cree, the Light-Emitting Diode firm where President Obama and his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness met earlier this week: "Under the supposedly jobs-boosting stimulus, Cree received $5.2 million. According to Recovery.gov, that $5.2 million created 3.02 jobs. That's $1,716,171 per job."