A random walk through the new administration. . .

-- President Obama has shaken the hand of Venezuela's commissar, America-detesting Hugo Chavez. The incident recalled the high moment when Obama idol Eleanor Roosevelt refused to shake the hand of the dread Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

-- Please note the purest hypocrisy in this datum: Four of today's most visible and vocal Washington champions of public education -- Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and the president himself -- all have their own children in private schools.

-- Administration spokesmen immediately cited the president's swift decisiveness in approving the SEALs' take-down of three Somali pirates. Decisive action would not have required endless bureaucratic back-and-forthing about rules of engagement and other esoterics. Swift action would have occurred not four days after the incident began, but 40 minutes after the SEALs' arrival aboard the U.S.S. Bainbridge.

-- The administration has (1) eased the nation's posture toward Iran and (2) lifted sanctions on travel to Cuba as well as remittances by exiles to relatives there. Both Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Cuba's Fidel Castro insist they will not reciprocate with warmth toward the United States.

-- The president has stipulated repeatedly his opposition to deploying weapons in space. A report by the Heritage Foundation and the George C. Marshall Institute cautions that without extending the nation's missile defense systems into space, the U.S. well could suffer the fate of China's Ming dynasty. After centuries of navigational and exploratory supremacy at sea, Ming maritime dominance dissipated because of domestic infighting -- and inaction -- regarding its own security. Continued...