Thursday morning roundup

Really? The State Department's housing allowance for families passing through DC is $5,400 for a two-bedroom? No wonder they're out of money for actual priorities. On another issue from that article: if your 13-year old's friends are asking people whether they "speak Egyptian," it's time to switch schools.

Speaking of interesting spending priorities, Milbank reports on funding what the military actually needs. He also comments on his Palin-free month.

Teachers are feeling the pain of the national verbal assault. Gail Collins offers another angle for looking at teachers' pay and childcare benefits.

Jennifer Rubin uses federal employees' comparatively inferior benefits against state employees (by way of Gov. Walker's words):

...most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I'm sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin.

I wonder whether she'll remember that when another round of fed bashing comes around. Scrolling through her posts, I had to move fast to not throw up in my mouth. Her writing is so sickeningly partisan and full of cheap shots, but that's how the Post likes its conservatives.

Even when I was a kid with an insatiable sweet tooth--which is when I spent a lot of time in Maine--I thought whoopie pies were nasty. If I were Maine and Pennsylvania, I'd be fighting to disown rather than claim them.