Today is January 27th. On this date in 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, thereby laying the ground work for Falco to top the charts 230 years later. (Which I’m sure was his reasoning in being born.) Today is also the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces. I would also like to note that this week was National School Choice Week. I attended a school choice event here in Charlotte last night and will have a post up later today on that. As always, consider this an Open Thread.

Elliott Abrams Caught Misleading on Newt | American Spectator
“I can only say that what Elliott Abrams wrote in NRO about Newt Gingrich based on this long ago speech is not worthy of Elliott Abrams. Specifically, Abrams implies that Newt Gingrich was spewing mindless vitriol about Reagan on the House floor. Not only not so, it was quite to the contrary.”

Alternative Certification and ‘Colorblind Racism’ | WSJ
“So IQ tests are racist, except when they’re used to ‘prove’ that people with ‘socially conservative ideologies’ are racist and intellectually inferior.”

President Opts For Small-Ball Demagoguery | Charles Krauthammer
“This is redistribution for its own sake — the cost be damned. It took Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels about 30 seconds of his State of the Union rebuttal to demolish that idea.”

NYT Quotes ‘Retired Cuban Leader’ Castro on ‘Idiocy’ of GOP Field | Newsbusters
“They even suggested the dictator (who they merely called ‘the retired Cuban leader’) ‘had reason to be annoyed’ at threats voiced by Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.”

Today’s word of the day comes from Wordsmith.org.
gascon (GAS-kuhn): noun A braggart. adjective Boastful.