TOM MAGUIRE: Trayvon Martin and the Silence of the Times.

The NY Times maintains its eerie silence on the Trayvon Martin case. On April 1 they delivered a comprehensive review and impressive diorama of the Martin killing, which culminated a week of extensive coverage and commentary.

Since then they have had zero bylined original reporting and one column, by Charles Blow, on the story which fascinates America and especially the left. Why the shift?

From a different tack, let’s check the four bylines from the comprehensive April 1 piece and ask, ‘where are they now’? . . . Eventually the meta media watchers who report on the processes that deliver the stories will take up the question of why the Times’ coverage of Trayvon Martin is flatlining.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader M. Simon writes:

I think the reason they are cooling it is that it has come to their attention that a race war is not in their interest. I notice Sharpton is cooling it as well.

From what I’m seeing it is too late.

Idiots.

#DRUDGEFAIL: Matt Drudge is still running the bogus neo-Nazis-in-Sanford_Florida story a day after Prof. Jacobson debunked it. Jacobson even forced an update on the original source.

Jacobson emailed Drudge. Why hasn’t Drudge updated?

I love Drudge, but he’s really dropped the ball here.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Glad you called out Drudge, as much as I love him, too. This morning my wife excitedly reported, on seeing Drudge: “Did you know there are neo-Nazis in Sanford?” Having Jacobson on RSS, I was like, “that is so 24 or 48 hours ago.” As awesome as all of you are, something’s wrong with this country if I have to keep up on you, Jacobson, and Althouse to have much of a clue of what’s really going on.

Well, nobody’s perfect, but this is an unforced error.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Several readers say that maybe Drudge took Easter off. I thought of that, but the page seems to have been updated yesterday. But perhaps it didn’t get his full attention. Lots of people took yesterday off, for Easter or Passover or whatever.

LES JONES: NBC fires editor for altering Zimmerman 911 call; when will MSNBC fire the writer who did the same?

More from Tom Maguire. “The bylines for that story are Christina Hernandez, Jeff Burnside and Edward B. Colby.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “To a certain class of people, ‘racist’ has become a synonym for anything they don’t like. Thus, a war that they don’t like must be racist. The lameness and desperation of these protesters is kind of sad. No wonder they seem so frustrated. It must be like working for Ford when the Fairmont came out: ‘They used to buy our stuff, and it’s still the same. So why don’t they like it anymore?’”

FAST AND FURIOUS UPDATE: White House Blocking Access To Fast And Furious Witness Who Wants To Testify. “White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler sent a letter Thursday to Republican lawmakers Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, refusing their request to speak with Kevin O’Reilly, a former National Security staff member whose emails place him in the middle of the unfolding scandal. Issa and Grassley had written to Ruemmler on March 28, asking the White House to step aside and let O’Reilly talk to investigators.”

REMEMBERING MIKE WALLACE: “Wallace was none too happy when the techniques employed by 60 Minutes were turned on him.”

ROUND THREE IN The Trial of Lars Hedegaard.

MICKEY KAUS IS HOSTING AN OBAMA SLOGAN CONTEST: “Politico says Obama is ‘a brand in search of a slogan.’ Hmm. How about ‘We Can Do Better’? That would at least stop Romney from using it.”

ANOTHER READER KINDLE BOOK: Affairs of Malice, by Gail Randall.

THE IMPORTANCE OF finding the right father.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Men’s Jewelry.

JEFFREY ROSEN: The President Should Finally Fight For Civil Liberties.

Har-de-har-har. As I’ve said before more than once, what kind of sucker expects a Chicago Machine Democrat to support civil liberties?

In the words of Rocky Rococo: “First class!”

FINALLY! Bacon On A Stick.

JENNY ERIKSON: I Want My Kids to Live in a Country Where They Can Shoot for the Moon.

KARL SMITH: What The “End Of Retail” Means For Young Workers. “Because teenagers are especially suited to shopping center employment they are dropping out of the labor force in response. That is, the End of Retail is causing a permanent shift in teenage employment because there are no substitutes for retail jobs.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Inez Nunez Punched Her Boyfriend In The Face Because He Wouldn’t Have Sex With Her, Cops Say.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Can This ‘Online Ivy’ University Change the Face of Higher Education?

AT AMAZON, markdowns on athletic and outdoor clothing.

STUDY: Surgery Not Always Necessary For Appendicitis. “The results favored initial treatment with antibiotics rather than immediate operation. The interpretation of those results was complicated slightly by the fact that if people with appendicitis did not improve within two days of antibiotic treatment, they went on to surgery regardless; nevertheless, at least two thirds of people with appendicitis were cured by antibiotics alone. Overall, they had a lower rate of complications than those who were operated upon straight away on diagnosis.”

HERE’S A BLOG REPORT ON my panel with Walter Russell Mead last week. I was sorry I had to leave as soon as it was done, but I had to go teach Roe and Casey all in one class.

A READER RECOMMENDS THIS PIECE: The Story Behind US Gas Price Pain.

FACIAL RECOGNITION lets apps guess your age.

SO DO ALL MY READERS HAVE KINDLE BOOKS NOW? It’s beginning to seem like it. Reader Travis Clark writes to ask me to plug his fantasy novel, Limbo’s Child. Done! And it’s only 99 cents.

Also only 99 cents, a book by Clayton Cramer’s wife, Rhonda Cramer: Running From Your Nineveh.

And, finally, also at 99 cents, from reader Bob Stock: Prayers, Commandments, and Psalms For Good Children to Share With Their Parents.

HMM: Black caucus chairman condemns Dem claims GOP is waging ‘war on women’. “The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), on Sunday condemned the charge by some Democrats that Republicans are engaged in a ‘war on women.’ . . . Appearing on CNN earlier, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), did not respond directly when asked whether the charge of a GOP ‘war on women’ crossed the line.”

This suggests to me that it’s not polling as well as they had hoped.

ANTI-GAY HARASSMENT ON THE WASHINGTON METRO? Pictures Don’t Lie!

CLARICE FELDMAN ON I.F. STONE: “I am not in a position to argue for or against the assertions that for at least some period of time he served as a KGB agent. I can say that he and his lovely wife Esther were my neighbors from 1976 to their deaths, and they were lively, interesting, and very nice neighbors.”

IN THE MAIL: Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future.

MICKEY KAUS: NAMELESS SCAPEGOAT WATCH: “WaPo‘s Erik Wemple wonders why NBC didn’t quickly come clean about its so-bad-it-seems-intentional mis-edit of the Zimmerman 911 call. Why not immediately “go into detail on exactly what had happened and what disciplinary measures would be taken”? I suspect the answer has something to do with the possibility of a libel suit from Zimmerman. . . . Also, did NBC offer a can-we-still-be-friends monetary… cushion along with the dismissal?”

BENJAMIN WITTES: The New York Times Editorial Page’s Bizarre Legitimacy Dance. “The Times seems to be suggesting—probably accidentally—that a trial’s legitimacy may not depend on its constitutionality.”

Well, that’s already their position on ObamaCare, isn’t it?

DEADBEAT: Bank wants Missouri Rep. Cleaver to pay $1.5 million on car wash loan.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s car wash headache is raging once again.

The bank that loaned the Kansas City congressman and his wife $1.3 million in 2002 to buy the Grandview Auto Wash at 12204 Blue Ridge Extension is now demanding payment of more than $1.5 million, after the Cleavers repeatedly fell behind on repaying the loan.

The suit, filed last week in Jackson County Circuit Court, said the demand for repayment came after three attempts to delay foreclosure. Bank of America also is seeking attorney’s fees and a receiver to protect collateral.

Actually repaying loans is for the little people. Duh.

UPDATE: Reader Charlie Gallo writes: “Notice it only takes to the eighth paragraph before they mention his party. Want to bet if he was a Republican, there would have been a (R) after the first mention, if not the headline.”

WERE THERE ANY WOMEN IN HIS FOURSOME? The Hill: Obama Heads To The Golf Course.

UPDATE: Several readers email that you never had to ask this question with Bill Clinton!

THANKS FOR ALL THE DOWNLOADS: My Second Amendment Penumbras piece, which just came out in the Southern California Law Review, is now #1 on SSRN’s top downloads list.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Kindle Deal Of The Day.

Also, today only: Weider 100-Pound Adjustable Speed Weight, $369.99. Adjustable dumbbells, though alas they don’t work via antigravity.

UPDATE: Reader Andrew Morriss recommends this: Robotech: The Complete Original Series for $35.99.

EASTER THOUGHTS from Roger Kimball.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Obama Nails His Blue Colors To The Mast. “The past few years have seen a number of blue-state Democratic governors—from California to New York to Vermont—driven by dire fiscal situations to attack the blue model. Yet this tide of reform washing over the Democratic Party at the state level still hasn’t gone national. . . . The difference between national and local Democrats on this issue has a lot to do with printing presses. States don’t manage their own currencies and so can’t run up debts like the Feds. Governors and mayors have been disciplined by reality: when there isn’t any money, you have to learn to do more with less (and in some cases, you just have to do less).”

The Gods Of The Copybook Headings are still there. Printing money just puts off the reckoning, while interest accrues.

ELIE MYSTAL: The Baylor Law Data Dump, Now With Race And Scholarships.

On Wednesday, we reported on Baylor Law accidentally releasing personal academic information for its entire admitted class. It was a massive screw-up, and on Wednesday, we showed you the GPA and LSAT scores for Baylor’s admitted students (with the students’ names redacted, of course).

But there were other fields available in the accidentally released spreadsheet, including racial categorizations for each student and scholarship information. I didn’t include the race field earlier this week because, frankly, I didn’t want the entire news story (of the screw-up) to be overrun by a discussion about race and affirmative action.

But, I ain’t afraid of you people. Getting a complete racial breakdown of the class to go along with their grades and LSAT scores is a look inside the law school admissions process that we don’t often get to see.

So, let’s play our game. Looking at the Baylor numbers, you can see the affirmative action “bump” in LSAT scores, and to my eyes, it really shows how foolish the opponents of affirmative action really are.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader Steven Webb writes: “Looking at the range of data in their LSAT run, it goes from 156 to 173. If you cut off the top two and the bottom two outliers from this batch of 442 numbers, you get a range of 159 to 171, or 12 points of LSAT score. Contrary to the protestations of the author, a four point bump in a 12 point range is huge, and completely obliterates his point. A four point bump could vault you over literally hundreds of competing students.”

UNDER THE FEDORA: Thoughts on counterboycotts and more, from Da Tech Guy.

OBAMA APPOINTEE ACCUSES REPUBLICANS OF “Legislative Violence Against Women.” Debasing the moral currency, yet again. But then, debasing the currency is what these people do best, apparently.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Proper Etiquette When You’re Under Arrest.

RASMUSSEN: Only 15% Think Supreme Court Limits Government Too Much.

While President Obama cautioned the U.S. Supreme Court this past week about overturning his national health care law, just 15% of Likely U.S. Voters think the high court puts too many limitations on what the federal government can do.

In fact, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that twice as many–30%– believe the Supreme Court does not limit the government enough. Forty percent (40%) say the balance is about right, while 15% more are undecided.

Just one of many reasons why this is not 1937, and Obama is not FDR. If he picks a fight with the Court, he’s likely to lose, and they know it.

OUCH: Memo to WSJ: Thanks for the stereotype.

TRUTH: Van Jones: We’re in ‘a post-hope Democratic Party.’

I THOUGHT PAUL KRUGMAN SAID THESE STORIES WERE FICTIONAL: Sentenced to death for being old: The NHS denies life-saving treatment to the elderly, as one man’s chilling story reveals.

BALTIMORE: Crowd Beats, Strips & Robs Tourist On St. Patrick’s Day; Incident Caught On Camera.

ANOTHER 99-CENT KINDLE BOOK BY AN INSTAPUNDIT READER: The Last Eagle, by Michael Wenberg. Polish submariners in World War II — sounds very interesting.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: The Nobel Peace Prize: “You know, they could’ve given the prize to Arthur C. Clarke that year. I nominated him. It would have been a better choice. But I think they had issues with the fact that he’s gay.”

AT AMAZON, it’s the Spring Outlet Event.

ADVICE: 9 FIGHTS TO HAVE WITH YOUR HUSBAND. Of course, if you follow this advice you may not have a husband anymore.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to buy your first gun for defense.

AT AMAZON, bestselling cordless telephones. I’ve been very happy with my Panasonic system.

ECONOMY: Can The USA Save The World? “There’s a potentially big fiscal headwind coming and Congress is really going to have to face the music.”

UPDATE: A reader emails:

The yearend fiscal wall is a “known known”. What’s NOT known is how the federal government will look after election day. Will Harry Reid have a last chance to roll a hand grenade into a GOP White House? Will a lame duck Obama let the economy hit the wall, handing the GOP an economic disaster? Will Boehner look to sabotage a second Obama term? Global capital markets have no way of knowing what incentives the executive and legislative branches will have.

And by the way, it’s even-money the US hits another debt ceiling just as the fall campaign goes into overdrive.

Happy Easter!

Oh, goody.

JOHN DERBYSHIRE CANNED BY NATIONAL REVIEW. This does not come as a complete surprise, even to someone like me who didn’t really follow him very closely. Here’s a link to the piece he was canned for, though when I clicked it I got “connection reset.”

Related: M.J. Rosenberg out at Media Matters.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED! Food activists proved wrong about fat are now setting their sights on sugar. Yeah, but how can you trust an article written by a guy named Bacon?

OBAMA TO THE IRANIANS: If you like your nukes, you can keep your nukes. “US President Barack Obama has signaled Tehran that the Washington would accept an civilian nuclear program in Iran if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can back up his recent claim that his nation ‘will never pursue nuclear weapons.’”

Let’s hope it’s as big a lie as the one about keeping your health insurance. . . .

TODAY ONLY: Up to 50% off on women’s denim.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Jobs Of The Future. “In my father’s childhood, people shot their dogs when they got sick. In my childhood, we took them to the vet to have them put down. Now they get bone marrow transplants. Like all infant industries, pet health care on this scale is developing and will develop further as the economy changes, but it’s just another of the many new niche industries with the potential to offer good pay at many different skill levels.”

PROFESSOR JACOBSON: DOING THE JOB THE ALLEGEDLY PROFESSIONAL MEDIA WON’T:

The latest wildfire spreading through the media and blogosphere is that armed neo-Nazis are patrolling Sanford, FL, in anticipation of trouble if George Zimmerman is not charged in the killing of Trayvon Martin. In what has become a prime example of media malpractice, none of the major publications spreading the rumors bothered to check with local law enforcement. I did, and the Sanford Police deny any indication of neo-Nazi patrols. . . .

For The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Mediaite, and The Daily News to spread such thinly-sourced claims without verification at a time when racial tensions already are high is irresponsible in the extreme.

Remember when people were saying that if we left news reporting to the blogosphere we’d just get a bunch of unsubstantiated rumors and spin?

HOME INVASIONS FAIL in the face of armed homeowners. But there’s no press coverage to speak of, because it can’t be turned to the service of the preferred narrative.

TOM BLUMER: The Administration’s Press. And Its Propagandists.

IS THE NEW SPACE ENTREPRENEURIALISM GETTING READY TO TAKE OFF? Maybe.

While winding down the program, the agency has laid off 9,200 prime contractors, who in turn laid off thousands of subcontractors. Most staffers have been spared, although some have left NASA to pursue dreams no longer achievable at a diminished government agency. Many of these astronauts, scientists, and technologists are entering the startup world. “They are very bright and used to working on projects on a very large scale,” says Ted Schlein, a managing partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has funded three companies led by NASA vets, including Kemp’s.

But that’s not the really big news. This is:

The simultaneous rise of Silicon Valley and decline of state-sponsored space exploration could affect the career paths of a generation. More than 40 percent of the students attending one of the nation’s premier space programs, at Georgia Institute of Technology, now want to work for space-related startups instead of large NASA contractors such as Lockheed Martin (LMT), says professor Robert Braun, who left his post as NASA’s chief technologist last year. “The NASA brand is still pretty strong,” he says. But more and more students “want to work for a startup and get their hands dirty.”

That seems like a very, very good sign to me. Related item here.

THINGS THAT WORK: So the Mazda sits a lot, especially in the winter: I don’t like to drive it when the weather’s bad, especially when there might be salt residue on the road. And now that the Insta-Daughter is driving, her car often blocks it in. That means that the battery sometimes gets low. I don’t really worry, because I’ve got a jumpstarter, but since that can’t be good for the battery, I bought a NoCo Genius charger to keep it on trickle-charge. Works like a charm. Also good for reviving dead batteries.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “I got the Duracell model from Amazon about a year ago when my stepdad stopped driving his car regularly. Does a nice job and under $20 bucks.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Ladies: You’re Not as Good in Bed as You Think. “The bottom line is that if your sex life is bad, you bear at least some of the blame — maybe even an entire half of it.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Adding To The Toolbox For Making Complex Molecular Machines.

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST: 1966 Chevrolet Impala SS 427 Convertible reminds us of days long gone.

WORST WEDDING GUEST EVER: Attacks Bride, Slow Dances with Groom, Leaves in Cop Car.

IN THE MAIL: Black Site: A Delta Force Novel.

DAVID GOLDMAN: Short Supply, Not Middle East Tensions, Push up Oil Prices. If only we had, I dunno, a friendly country nearby that was willing to sell us oil or something.

GENERATIONAL WARFARE: GERMANY SET TO TAX YOUNG. “Germany is proposing to levy extra taxes on the young to pay for the costs of the country’s growing numbers of old people, under government plans for a ‘demographic reserve’ levy.” I’m guessing that emigration rates will climb, not just because of the taxes but because of what the taxes portend.

BOB OWENS: Bunkers, Food, Armor: Disaster Prep Hits Mainstream.

I didn’t realize how mainstream it had become until Costco sent me an e-flyer: “Get Your Home And Garden Stocked For An Emergency And Save!” It promoted emergency preparedness, the top suggestions being a month of food storage supplies and emergency garden seeds.

Modern prepping has come a long way from the survivalists of the late 1990s.

As I wrote a while back, we’re all soldiers of fortune now. And if this stuff interests you, you might want to check out Bill Quick’s disaster-preparation forum. Also, here’s a list of some key supplies, and here are some bug-out bag recommendations.

FAST-FOOD SUICIDE? Arby’s Is Messing with the Wrong Slice of America. This kind of misstep is what happens when your corporate leadership is a different demographic than your customer base.

Related: Prof. Jacobson: Teaching @Arbys about responsibility.

JOHN NOLTE: Targeting George Zimmerman: Edit-Gate Worse Than Rathergate.

UPDATE: A Tipping Point For The National Media?

The editing was not a technical issue of production. It was a substantive issue of content, and the “error” happened to fit a thesis of racist homicide while making the network look like a watchdog hero. It seems to me to have been error with a purpose. . . .

What happened is a terrible tragedy, and it is understandable that many would react emotionally. But many have also seen journalistic unfairness in all of this. Jack Pitney, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, recently told the Christian Science Monitor that the story “undermines public confidence in mainstream news media, which is already pretty low.” He noted PEW already says 77 percent of Americans think the press is generally unfair.

News is in a stage of dramatic transition. Newspapers and broadcast networks are in decline as new media — cable TV, blogs and more — are making themselves felt in ways both scary and encouraging. No one knows where it will end. This much we can bet on: If mature media forsake reasonable standards, it will end badly.

For them, certainly. And there’s not much of an “if,” here. It’s been clear since RatherGate, at least, that they’re willing — indeed, happy and, among their peers, even proud — to lie in the service of promoting Democrats. It’s only embarrassing when the public catches on.

Related: Uncorrected: Charles Blow Finally Returns To The Scene Of His Journalistic Crime. “So we have moved past a grieving family and on to a national cause for racial justice. And of course Trayvon Martin’s death is now an illustration the Largerer Narrative of America’s lack of racial justice. Hence the media enthusiasm to enhance the narrrative (ABC, NBC, CNN, NY Times) at the expense of tedious facts relating to the loss of one young man’s life and the destruction of another’s.”

SO MUCH FOR DIVERSITY: Law school refuses to hire professor who embraces politics the rest of the faculty “despises.”

Alternate tagline: What’s the matter with Iowa?

UPDATE: A reader notes that this is a pattern at Iowa.

THE PUBLIC HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW! “Seasoned” NBC News producer fired, still anonymous. “So. NBC News has eagerly joined in and put George Zimmerman and everyone around him on trial for weeks — even people who have nothing to do with him, like the McClain family — but now NBC is protecting the identity of whoever faked evidence against Zimmerman. . . . MSNBC went to battle stations when James O’Keefe committed a misdemeanor. They called it ‘Watergate Jr.’ But when one of their own manufactures evidence in a racially charged shooting that’s become a nationwide scandal? Crickets. Guess they don’t want to step on Al Sharpton’s toes.”

UTAH TEA PARTY FOUNDER DAVID KIRKHAM IS RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR: Here’s his first campaign video. Here’s his campaign website. If I were in Utah, I’d be voting for him. But I did donate to his campaign.

Wish I could be there for his Track Day tomorrow today. (Bumped).

JAMES TARANTO: Women write dirty books for other women to read. Bill Bennett blames men.

How does an essay about “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Girls” turn into an anti-male screed? Both are written by women for women. Dowd notes, but Bennett omits, that the real first name of author E.L. James is Erika. As for “Girls,” Bruni points out that Lena Dunham “is not only its star but also its principal writer and director.” And if it’s anything like “Sex and the City,” no heterosexual man will ever watch it except as a favor to someone of the opposite sex. . . . Bennett seems to shy away from confronting the fact that this degradation amounts to female pornography–produced by women for the entertainment of other women. In postfeminist America, it’s so much easier and safer to scapegoat men. . . . With some exceptions such as the late Rep. Smith, women have been the driving force behind these revolutionary social changes. It won’t do to blame men for the decline of marriage and the degradation of sexual culture, except perhaps to the extent that they have taken the path of least resistance and acceded to feminist ideology rather than challenging it. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much what Bennett does in his essay.

Read the whole thing. Bennett really seems out of touch. Again.

ANN ALTHOUSE: The Democrats’ War on Women in Wisconsin:

The recall primary is one month away and suddenly, Scott Walker is not the enemy, and there’s a Democrat-on-Democrat fight between former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk — who declared her candidacy back in January — and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett — who just announced. . . .

Rahm Emanuel teams up with Barrett to push out the woman?! Remember the accusations about Rahm in relation to women working in the White House? (Ron Suskind’s book “Confidence Men” said that “women occupied many of the West Wing’s senior positions, but felt outgunned and outmaneuvered by male colleagues such as former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and [Larry] Summers.”)

It’s a Boys’ Club in the Democratic Party, just like it was with Bill Clinton and John Edwards. And just as with Clinton and Edwards, the press is busy flying cover for them.

ED DRISCOLL: “I tend to think of The Hill as being establishment liberal, but sane. Until I start reading headlines there such as this.”

TOM MAGUIRE: Why trying cases in the media may not be such a bad thing. “In an earlier day, the FBI experts would make their pronouncements, the rest of us would nod agreeably, and off to trial Zimmerman would go, if Eric Holder et al. so decided. With CNN’s democratization of expertise we all know that any FBI assertion of a decisive result is absurd. In the ongoing zero-sum struggle between prosecutors and defendants, this is a win for defendants. And in the ongoing balancing act between The People and The Power, this is a win for the people.”

JIM TREACHER: Even the Today Show is joining in the Olberfreude. “When they’re not editing 911 audio to defame a guy they’re convinced is guilty, they like to take a minute to laugh at the misfortune of a former colleague.”

THE HILL: Weak March jobs report could spell trouble for Obama’s reelection bid.

The Labor Department reported that the economy added 120,000 new jobs in March, falling well short of the more than 200,000 that had been expected. The unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent to 8.2 percent, but that decline came mostly from people giving up on their job searches.

Whether the March slowdown in hiring indicates a momentary blip or a long-term trend is unknown, but Federal Reserve officials have expressed concern that the job growth logged in recent months is an illusion.

The pace of job creation is central to Obama’s chances in November, when the economy is likely to be the top issue for voters.

Ya think? You don’t create jobs by yammering on about hoodies or golf courses or birth control, though.

“NO, MR. BROOKS, THAT’S THE REAL OBAMA.” “You assume it was his ‘Keith Olbermann mask’, when in actuality Obama and Olbermann are cut from the same mold.”

EXTREME SPORTS NEWS: Gravy-wrestling model suffers horrific facial injuries after being hit with monkey wrench when she interrupted a friend having sex. Some “friend.”

Is it sad that I’m now craving Bisto?

INDEED: “It is likely that, if not for conservative new media, the misleading edit, which inflamed racial tensions in the Martin case, and which was repeated by Stetler’s own New York Times, would have gone unnoticed and uncorrected. As it is, the producer responsible for the edit at Today has been fired, but the individual who made the same edit to the earlier MSNBC story (since corrected) has not been identified or disciplined. Nor has anyone at any other outlet or network — many of which made similar selective editing choices — been punished.”

Plus this: “The questions are only just beginning on Editgate. The release of the news of the firing just before the holiday weekend smacks of a cover-up; more than that, we know that the edit itself was not restricted to the Today show. Brian Williams and the brass at NBC News must provide answers. They are responsible for editorial output, not an unnamed producer. And they must be held responsible for an irresponsible and dangerous edit apparently deliberately designed to twist the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman story along racial lines.”

I remember when people who exploited racial tensions for political gain, and inspired crowds to lynch-mob levels of fury, were considered beyond the pale of civilized society. Personally, I think they still are.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Why Peace Activists Hate Israel — And America. And McDonald’s.

JOHN PODHORETZ: Mitt Hits The Bullseye: IDs The Issue Of The Election.

MORE ON THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE.

“JEWBAG” UPDATE:

What should have been a two-bit, one-day, not-really-scandal involving photos Dani Gilbert, the new DNC liason to the Jewish community, took a few years back is turning into something much more. By all appearances, Debbie Wasserman Schultz gave a payoff to big Dem donors by giving their daughter a job at the DNC to perform tasks already being done by others. . . . That’s the story, not the photos.

I’m shocked, shocked to see payoffs, nepotism, and logrolling at the DNC.

DECEPTIVE EDIT UPDATE: NBC Producer Fired, But Still Unnamed. Unnamed? Come on. The public has a right to know!

BRIAN DUNN ON NORTH KOREA: In Space, No One Can Hear You Steam.

THE REAL CAUSES OF INCOME INEQUALITY: “Any analysis of taxes paid in high tax-and-spend countries shows that the U.S. has the most progressive income tax system in the world.”

MATRIMONY: The Strange (and Formerly Sexist) Economics of Engagement Rings. “Once upon a time, diamond rings weren’t just gifts. They were, frankly, virginity insurance. . . . It’s no longer a security. It’s just about signaling nowadays. It’s anachronistic. But don’t try telling your girlfriend that.”

UP TO 55% OFF on select hunting knives and accessories.

ED MORRISSEY: Obama’s Big Spending Vision Gives Romney an Edge.

In contrast to his 2008 campaign theme of Hope and Change, Obama’s AP speech offered a defense of the status quo, as well as smirking attacks on his presumed foe in the upcoming presidential election. If anyone expected Obama to offer new directions for the US after a three-year period of economic stagnation and a seven-month strategy of class warfare, they would have come away profoundly disappointed.

One might have thought that the man who finally acknowledged over a year and a half ago the fantasy of his promised “shovel-ready jobs” would have a different economic plan for his second term. Instead, Obama offered more of the same.

From “Change” to “Same” in less than four years.

SCIENCE: The dress that can tell when you’re turned on! Clothing made of special fabric becomes transparent when wearer’s heartbeat increases. This reminds me of something from John Brunner’s Stand On Zanzibar. Nipicaps, I believe they were called.

NEXT TIME, LET HER GO: “Now, Penny has penned a lengthy, smug and anti-American explanation of her thoughts about the incident and the subsequent media meltdown over at Gawker. If the first two paragraphs alone don’t make you want to throw up in your mouth, we don’t know what will. . . . So basically, she nearly got hit by a cab because she was thinking about Super Important issues that the rest of us aren’t aware of. Penny then turns the fascination with the fact that Ryan Gosling kind-of-sort-of saved her life into an intolerable piece about feminism and how this exemplifies everything that is wrong with American culture.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why You Should Learn To Love “Pink Slime.” “If safety and nutrition aren’t a problem, then why shouldn’t we eat it? . . . Pink slime is seen as low status, and even though consuming it is not bad for our selves or our children, we would ban it to show that we care.”

POPULAR MECHANICS NOMINATED FOR MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR.

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals on video games.

WAR ON WOMEN: “Obama played 23 rounds of golf between January and October of 2009 before inviting a single woman to his foursome, the New York Times reported. This was emblematic of broader concerns over the president’s preference for the company and advice of men.”

THIS DOESN’T SOUND GOOD: As North Sails Subs, South Korea Gives Ships OK to Fire. “Pentagon officials are closely watching four North Korean submarines that recently went to sea, prompting South Korean commanders to give their navy a green light to retaliate if fired upon. Just days ahead of a controversial long-range rocket test and a major political conference in Pyongyang, North Korea reportedly quietly sent four of its diesel-electric submarines on deployment this week.”