† Nationalized Healthcare Always Leads To Rationing: Because of a “coding error,” more than 1,200 Gulf War veterans mistakenly received a letter from the Veterans Affairs Department informing them that they had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease – a progressive, fatal neurological disorder), reports The Associated Press:

Former Army Sgt. Samuel Hargrove cried Sunday after opening his letter.

"I can't even describe the intensity of my feelings," said the father of two from Henderson, N.C. "With so many health issues that I already have, I didn't know how to approach my family with the news." …

Hargrove later discovered the mistake after talking with fellow veterans in the resource center and online, and he became angry. …

Denise Nichols, vice president of the National Gulf War Resource Center, said her group has received calls and e-mails from panicked veterans in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

"Our fear was this could push somebody over the edge," said Nichols, who was worried the news could lead already fragile veterans to commit suicide. "We don't want that to happen."

Nichols’ fears are hardly misplaced, as the VHA’s end-of-life planning booklet, "Your Life, Your Choices," is specifically designed to push an emotionally and physically fragile veteran to conclude that (s)he is better off dead.

† Is Obama Already A Lame Duck?: The original - British - definition of “lame duck” is “one that is weak or that falls behind in ability or achievement.” In that sense of the term, not long after he took office, President Barack Hussein Obama was perceived as a lame duck by world leaders. He is increasingly being perceived this way at home, too, frets Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland:

Shortly after the Group of 20 summit concluded in London in April, Nicolas Sarkozy blurted out to a small group of advisers a question that weighed on him as he watched President Obama glad-hand his way through the gathering: "Est-il faible?" (Is he weak?) …

Sarkozy[’s] question was abruptly dusted off as Obama began hitting resistance to some of his most ambitious goals, including health-care reform, Middle East peacemaking and engagement with Iran. Is Obama making tactical retreats to gain better position on these hard cases - or is he, well, weak? …

In Washington the old saw about perception being reality is all too true. And all too final, once an impression of unsteadiness has been etched onto public opinion.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard and a FOX News political analyst, observes that “Obama did himself no favors by pushing policies far more liberal than voters wanted” and that “[w]hat the GOP has done best has been to make and win arguments”:

By making the case against Mr. Obama's policies, Republicans have given themselves a chance to again win favor with voters.

Better yet, they've stopped bad policies in their tracks. …

Barnes crows that, “Republicans are 40 votes short of a House majority, yet they're thwarting Mr. Obama's chief domestic priority [the healthcare overhaul]. That's effective opposition.”

† The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II: State Sen. R.C. Soles (D) shot one of two would-be intruders attempting to break into his home, reports The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC):

The victim, Kyle Blackburn, was taken to a South Carolina hospital, but the injuries were not reported to be life-threatening, according to Rex Gore, district attorney for Columbus, Bladen and Brunswick counties.

The State Bureau of Investigation and Columbus County Sheriff's Department are investigating the shooting, Gore said. Soles, who was not arrested, declined to discuss the incident Sunday evening.

"I am not in a position to talk to you," Soles, 74, said by telephone. "I'm right in the middle of an investigation." …

Blackburn was accompanied by another man, B.J. Wright, a former client of Soles, who is a lawyer. …

Over the past year, former clients have been involved in a trespassing incident at Soles' house and an alleged confrontation in which Soles pepper-sprayed former client Allen Strickland, known as "Frog" in Tabor City.

The Stiletto has no idea why former clients of Soles keep trying to get into his home uninvited, but knowing that he’s armed may deter further such incidents.

† Sotomayor And The Supreme Court: It’s Not The End Of The World For Conservatives: The Associated Press reports that in her first public decision as a Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor - surprise! – as predecessor David Souter would have, joining the court's liberal bloc -  Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer - on the losing side in OH death row inmate Jason Getsy’s bid to delay his execution. The high court’s new term doesn't begin until October 5^th, but the justices will convene for a special hearing on a campaign-finance case September 9^th.

† Sometimes, Nanny Knows Best: In his new book, "The Flaw of Averages" (John Wiley & Sons Inc.), statistician Sam Savage argues that "plans based on average assumptions are wrong on average." The Washington Times reports that Savage’s book explains that the flaw of averages “causes businessmen, engineers, generals and others to underestimate risk in the face of uncertainty” and underlies “the subprime-mortgage crisis [and] General Motors Corp.'s bankruptcy, among countless other disasters”:

To make his point immediately clear, Mr. Savage … cites the apocryphal example of the statistician who drowned while wading across a river that was, on average, only three feet deep. …

The housing bubble relentlessly inflated during the first half of this decade, and subprime mortgages flourished across the country, especially in bubble areas. In those regions, such as California and Florida, middle-income families with decent credit histories could not qualify for prime mortgages given the prices of the houses they were buying and the down payments they were offering.

No problem. Regression lines, based on the trend of average home prices and extended into the future, projected uninterrupted increases in home values. Subprime adjustable-rate mortgages were especially popular because of their initially low "teaser" interest rates. After home prices continued to soar, providing the homeowners with substantial equity, they could easily refinance into a 30-year fixed-rate prime mortgage.

"Astonishingly," Mr. Savage notes, the possibility that home prices could decline "was not even considered by some of the risk models monitoring the economy," including, reportedly, a model used by Standard & Poor's, which rated as AAA thousands of securities backed by subprime mortgages.