The House Republicans released a ultimatum of all the things they'd need before even thinking about raising the debt-ceiling. It was a beautiful exercise in wishful thinking. As Jonathan Chait notes , "It is, uh, rather extensive, and really needs to be read in full to appreciate its megalomaniacal ambition," but the Cliff Notes version: delay Obamacare implementation for a year, approve Keystone XL, obliterate Dodd-Frank, cut spending here and there and everywhere, etc. Please. The White House's response was basically, "LOL." And this was the list of demands they painstakingly whittled down to the essential and acheivable! We can only imagine what the first draft of their wish list demanded... Like, more history on the History Channel , perhaps. Replace the House Budget Committee office with a P90X workout room. Update Earth Day to include celebratory "environmental acupuncture" events. Give Thomas Friedman's seat at The New York Times opinion section roundtable to Chuck Norris. Make...

Since the invention of dynamite in 1867, ideological radicals on both the left and right have used the awful spectacle of explosives to draw attention to political causes, to protest policy, and to inspire fear.