THOUSANDS LINE UP AT TYSON’S CORNER for Mark Levin’s Ameritopia book-signing.

Video. Note the officious security guard.

EUROPE: We’re On The Brink, Warns Greece.

YOU CAN HELP OUT INSTAPUNDIT READER MARK MARTIN by voting for his presentation.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “I missed the State Of The Union. I was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with my daughter, and decided that that was more important.” Ah, seems like yesterday. Now we watch Big Bang Theory while she does statistics and chemistry homework.

IN FLORIDA, an epidemic of Mitt-Mania. “Attention young conservatives: Your grandma loves Mitt Romney. The phenomenal shift in the polls here in the Sunshine State — which has provoked much commentary and analysis about ‘strategy’ and ‘messaging’ — may in fact be little more complicated than that. And the massive crowd that turned out in downtown Naples today to hear and see Mitt was certainly evidence of how real Romney’s Florida surge is.”

Plus this: “If you set aside mere politics long enough to see the two Florida frontrunners as the average Republican voter sees them, it is hard to miss the contrast between Mitt — the tall, lean multimillionaire entrepreneur with dark hair and chiseled features — and Newt, the pudgy intellectual. Maybe you don’t judge presidential candidates by such standards, but it makes a lot of difference to Republican grandmas, and there are lots of Republican grandmas in Florida.”

ANTI-GUN SHERIFF CAUGHT IN GUN-CONTROL NET HE HELPED CAST:

Although San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was a strong advocate of gun control while on the Board of Supervisors, he surrendered 3 handguns when police recently booked him on misdemeanor domestic violence charges,” KCBS reports. “If Mirkarimi were convicted on the domestic violence charge, he would not be able to carry a gun as sheriff,” reporter Joshua Sabatini claims.

True, but it would entail more than that. If convicted, “thanks” to the infamous Lautenberg Amendment, he would be a prohibited person under federal law, forbidden not only to carry a gun, but to own or even touch one—forever.

And a protective order is enough to disenfranchise him from his fundamental right to keep and bear arms prior to being convicted of anything.

While it appears corroborating information of a pattern of previous abusive behavior against female partners is emerging, along with documentation of his “well-known temper” and his own lawyer calling him “a bit of a tyrant,” it’s important to remember Mirkarimi is innocent until proven guilty, and also to keep in mind partners in failed relationships sometimes lash out motivated by revenge.

But even if convicted, a prohibition of a fundamental natural right over a misdemeanor is overkill.

True, but sauce for the goose. Michael Petrelis is calling for him to resign.

UPDATE: Reader Susan Harms emails:

EVEN THOUGH this seems like poetic justice, I cannot side against him — women have all the cards when it comes to claims of “violence”. A woman can do ANYTHING short of killing a man and when he acts in kind, she screams “he’s violent”. This is a war on men, and I cant take part.

Sadly, that’s fairly accurate. And as the Mary Winkler case shows, sometimes even murder generates a mere slap on the wrist after rather unconvincing claims of abuse.

IN TENNESSEE, a real common-sense gun law. New York needs something like this. . . .

IT’S GETTING CROWDED UNDER THAT BUS: College presidents alarmed over Obama’s cost-control plan.

Fuzzy math, Illinois State University’s president called it. “Political theater of the worst sort,” said the University of Washington’s head.

President Obama’s new plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition or face losing federal dollars is raising alarm among education leaders who worry about the threat of government overreach. Particularly sharp words came from the presidents of public universities; they’re already frustrated by increasing state budget cuts.

Academia has been a major source of money and footsoldiers for Obama. This kind of talk won’t help. And while he could bash Wall Street in public, then cut sweetheart deals in private, the academic world is too diffuse for that approach to work, I suspect.

Plus this: “At Washington, President Mike Young said Obama showed he did not understand how the budgets of public universities work.”

It’s not at all clear that Obama understands how budgets work in general.

UPDATE: Reader Kendall Gelner writes: “At some point, you are charging enough tuition.” Heh.

IT’S ESSENTIAL TO BE PRO-CHOICE, except when it’s not. “I vividly remember back around 1990, the progressive gay-rights-type people I knew were intent upon portraying sexual orientation as a choice. I won’t name the famous lefty who snapped at me for entertaining the notion that homosexuality might have a biological basis: If it exists at the biological level, it will be perceived as a disease and people will try to cure it. That was really the same point as Besen’s, oddly enough, in that it was about acceptance as opposed to treatment.”

Plus this: “Does he want truth to win out or something more like good policy or political pragmatism?” Or, as usual, my tribe.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Men’s Running Shoes.

Also, Women’s Running Shoes.

ELECTION PERSPECTIVE: F.A. Hayek on “The Great Utopia.”

TIM CAVANAUGH: How many public transit expert/advocates actually ride on public transportation?

I have met more than three folks, in and out of the establishment media, who speak with authority about mass transportation yet somehow can never get around to using it in the heat of their daily struggles. Judging by this storied Onion headline, I’m guessing others have met such people as well.

But how frequently, really, are we getting our fix of transit-solution bloviation from people with no practical experience of the “systems” they’re diagnosing and claiming to cure?

I wonder this every time an expert makes the case for more intelligently planned transit networks featuring smarter coordination throughout the hub or loop or grid. There’s one thing you learn by your second day of using transit when you actually don’t have a choice: For every transfer in your itinerary, you need to double the time allotted for the trip.

Yep.

UPDATE: Reader Donald MacQueen writes: “The Washington DC area public transit system is run by WMATA. WMATA’s board consists of elected officials from DC. Maryland, and Virginia, all of whom, you will be shocked – shocked! – to know, have reserved parking spaces for cars at WMATA headquarters. Public transit, like all the other things our elite betters say is good for us, is for the little people.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Greg Reihing writes: “As a former bus operator in Toledo,Ohio I know first hand of the inefficiencies in Public Transit. Only one board member ever used the bus regularly and even he rubber stamped the management ideas. I tired of explaining to the riders why it took 2hrs to get to their job when a car ride would take 20 minutes. The claims of energy savings and environmental benefit are all bogus. There aren’t enough seats available to make one iota of a difference in air quality. Safety? Public transit is a big target for litigation. The entire industry is influenced by the American Public Transit Association (APTA) who lobbies congress for funding. It’s a boondoggle-first rate.”

INFLUENCE: But for “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,” there’d have probably been no Grateful Dead.

NEXT ROMNEY CAMPAIGN TALKING POINT: 4 Reasons Why Space Sex Sounds Like An Awful Idea. Take that, Newt!

UPDATE: Jim Bennett writes: “Talk about speculation in advance of data! But seriously — those are arguments for a lunar colony, not against one. All of those potential problems apply only to zero-G on current facilities like the ISS. Lunar gravity might be the optimum tradeoff between acrobatic potential and useful anchoring forces. But I for one refuse to leap to conclusions before the issue is joined. So to speak.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns on Panasonic headphones and earbuds.

SCIENCE: Forget global warming – it’s Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again): Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years. “The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years. The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century. Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.”

Getting more and more like Fallen Angels every day.

UPDATE: Thoughts from Mike Stopa. “Suppose it turns out that CO2 has essentially nothing to do with the earth’s climate. How will the history of this colossal mistake be written?”

MORE: Don Surber comments. “Do not expect the American press to pay any attention to this story. The Associated Press offered no re-write of the London Daily Mail’s blockbuster story.” Doesn’t fit the narrative. But watch the polls, which already show vastly increased skepticism over just a couple of years ago. Nowadays, the truth gets out.

Bad news for bankrupt governments, though, which were hoping that carbon taxes to “save the planet” would save their balance sheets. Now voters and taxpayers will be unlikely to go along.

MORE STILL: Maybe the Daily Mail’s willingness to report what the New York Times won’t explains why it has passed the Times to be the #1 newspaper in the world.

WASHINGTON TIMES: Obama’s Twisty Light Bulb Logic. “Some critics have charged that hyping mercury poisoning in MATS was just a cover for the EPA to ramp up its regulatory assault on the coal industry. Trace amounts of mercury from coal-fired power-plant emissions affect a small number of Americans, chiefly those who live near the emissions sources. At the same time, however, the Obama administration has been trying to force Americans to accept even greater mercury risks by insisting that traditional incandescent light bulbs be replaced with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). The mercury vapor in CFLs is at a much more dangerous concentration than anything coming out of power plants.”

The incandescent phaseout is underway, but it’s still not too late to stock up!

CHANGE: It’s Working in Walker’s Wisconsin: The governor’s controversial labor reforms are already saving taxpayers millions.

THIS WEEK in the future.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Girl, 19, disguises herself as a boy on Facebook to trick two girls into sex.

WAIT, I THOUGHT “UNILATERALISM” WAS BAD: California breaks rank again, demands over 15% of cars sold be non-polluting by 2025.

IN THE MAIL: From Eric Flint, Grantville Gazette VI (Ring of Fire).

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Is it unfair to compare the Obama and Reagan economic recoveries? No. I disagree. It’s well-established that any comparison that makes Obama look bad is per se unfair. This comparison makes Obama look bad. So . . .

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What We Do Not Want To Hear Anymore. His conclusion: “Human nature and the laws of physics, not technocratic liberalism, are still the best guides to the madness around us. Money borrowed has to be paid back or the debt eaten by someone, period. Poverty is defined by a want of material necessities, not by lacking the appurtenances that someone else better off enjoys. Gas and oil are miracle fuels and it is very hard to find alternate energies at comparable costs and reliability. And as a rule, the green class of environmental elites usually uses more fossil fuels per capita than do the muscular classes who mine and drill them out of the ground — and who do not jet, drive, or live in the comparable fashion of their critics.”

MARCO RUBIO: Obama Made Everything Worse.

The Florida Republican, considered one of the GOP’s brightest rising stars, said that while Obama inherited a high national debt and a troubled economy when he took office, he had exacerbated both crises.

“This president didn’t talk about his record for one simple reason; he doesn’t want you to know about it. But you do know about it, because you feel the failure of his leadership every single day of your life,” Rubio said.

“The bottom line is this president inherited a country with serious problems. He asked the Congress to give him the stimulus and Obamacare to fix it. The Democrats in Congress gave it to him. And not only did it not work, it made everything worse.”

Yep.

IS SPIKE LEE THE NEW BILL COSBY? “Your generation, they now equate intelligence with acting White and ignorance with acting Black, and they wear it like a badge of honor. They say, ‘I’m ghetto. I’m gangster.’ What they are is ignorant.”

AT AMAZON, MARKDOWNS ON GROCERIES.

Plus, gift cards for every Valentine.

And, today only, markdowns on ProForm power treadmills.

VIDEO: Anna David On Sex And The Single Girl: 2012.

RAND SIMBERG: New Space Policy Questions and Advice for Mitt: In the interest of continuing to improve him as a candidate should he get the nomination. “There is no one more fervent than me in their desire to see that Barack Obama is a one-term president, but your space policy behavior, so far, is the first time I’ve seen any reason to give him another term.”

POLITICO: Dems bash, bank secret cash.

Democrats have seized on a new attack line: Republicans as the party of unlimited secret money.

The only problem: so are the Democrats. n recent days, Obama released an ad blasting “secretive oil billionaires” for attacks on him, Nancy Pelosi unveiled a campaign slogan, calling for “a new politics free of special interest influence,” and the Democratic National Committee released a Web ad accusing Mitt Romney of lying about his ties to a super PAC that’s spent millions supporting him.

Maybe that would have sounded better in 2008, when Obama put the kibosh on the Democratic outside money infrastructure — or even in 2010, when Obama led a chorus of Democrats assailing Republicans’ outside spending.

But this year, Democrats are playing the same game. Obama’s team has blessed a network of super PACs trying to raise the same seven-figure checks as Romney’s. And Obama’s allies have gone even further than Romney’s, setting up nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors at all.

In fact, top Democrats are so adament about the need to raise unlimited — and sometimes secret — cash this year that some operatives aren’t pleased about the recent attacks. It’s a whole lot tougher to get wealthy liberals to fork over mega-checks when the politicians who’d benefit are ripping Republicans for taking the same types of contributions.

Forked tongues.

BYRON YORK: In NASA-land, Romney, Gingrich battle over space. It’s nice to see people debating space policy. It’s odd to see Republicans picking one of the few areas where Obama has a pretty good approach in place already.

IN THE NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN TODAY, I argue against the latest proposal from Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-gun group.

I couldn’t resist adding this bit: “A recent study found that mayors belonging to Bloomberg’s group have been arrested at a much higher rate than Tennessee handgun-carry permit holders, for crimes ranging from perjury and embezzlement to child sexual assault. But there’s no background check for politicians.” Maybe there should be . . . .

#NARRATIVEFAIL: New York Times: Mitt Romney Paid More Taxes Than He Owed.

MORE PRAISE FOR THE MAGIC ERASER: Reader Eugene Dillenburg writes: “Saw it at the store last week, after you had mentioned it. Thought I’d give it a try. Wow! Not only have cleaning the tub and shower never been easier, but it cut right through the build-up on the shower curtains. Once again, Instapundit has changed my life!”

Glad to help. And yeah, it’s nearly as cool as the Bar Keeper’s Friend.

UPDATE: Another reader emails: “The Magic Eraser cleans the creosote build-up on fireplace glass like a warm knife cuts through soft butter–it just melts it away! Haven’t tried it yet but wonder if it will work on the nasty pine-sap globs on my deck.”

A LOT OF BIG NAMES IN THE SPACE WORLD ENDORSE ROMNEY. Some of these people are my friends, and I don’t doubt their sincerity, but I am unpersuaded. In particular, I think their assault on Obama’s space policy — which is one of his few positives, in my opinion — is completely misguided.

CHANGE: Twitter’s new censorship plan stirs global furor.

HERMAN CAIN endorses Newt Gingrich.

CHANGE: Japan, Russia Build Ties As Asian Balance Shifts. “Estrangement between Russia and Japan has been something China could count on since 1945. The thaw in relations between energy rich Russia and technology rich Japan is no doubt ringing some alarm bells in Beijing where, lately, almost all of the geopolitical news has been bad. Chinese fears of hostile encirclement will be reaching fever pitch as the US, India and Japan deepen relations with Myanmar, Japan and Russia make nice, and the US moves to increase its presence in the Philippines and Singapore — on top of its earlier announced plans to station marines in Australia.”

MOONBASE NEWS: Newt plans for moon base and using ten percent of NASA budget fo spaceflight milestone prizes.

Related: Space technologies that would help enable a more affordable Permanent Moon Base.

BANKRUPTCY: Why Isn’t Illinois A Bigger Deal Than Greece?

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS: THOUSANDS Turn Out For St. Louis Iraq War Heroes Parade (Video).

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “It wasn’t just pundits and politicians who were getting Enron money. According to this story, enviro groups were getting bucks, too. Enron, it says, was at the center of a huge ‘baptist-bootlegger’ coalition.” Some things don’t change.

THE BEHAVIOR OF A MAN CAUGHT IN A LIE? Warren Buffett: Shut Up, He Explained. Show us the tax returns, or shut up yourself.

AT AMAZON, 70% or more off on diamond jewelry.

FUNNY, he doesn’t look Neoish.

IF ONLY THE GOVERNMENT COULD DO AS WELL: The great deleveraging event – household debt has fallen 4 percent since recession hit. On the other hand, there’s this: “This is good news right? Well yes but the reality of this ‘good news’ is that two-thirds of this debt reduction came from home loan foreclosures and default on other debt.” So maybe not.

I’D GO WITH “DISGRACE,” MYSELF: Reuters Staff Call Rubio Story Fiasco, Disgrace. But will anyone be fired?

#GREENFAIL: Maybe This Explains It?

MICHEL GURFINKIEL: Why Wasn’t France Downgraded Sooner?

ANOTHER HAPPY READER: David Ringelman emails:

Just wanted to shoot a quick email and say thanks for the recommendation on the Bar Keepers’ Friend. That stuff really works. I have some 10 year old white plates from Pottery Barn with knife and fork scratches all over them and it took them right off. Nice work!

It’s good stuff.

UPDATE: Reader John McGuire writes: “Thanks for the tip on Barkeeper’s Friend. I thought I was going to have to dump my stoneware dishes because of all the black marks. Now they look like new. Is there no area of life that reading Instapundit can’t improve?” Probably not your golf swing.

And reader John Steele emails: “Just got home from a trip and saw the item about Bar Keepers Friend. I used to use it to clean the stainless steel fittings on my sailboat — its magic.” Yep.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Robert Marshall writes: “On the other end of the spectrum (from china), after your post I used it on the exhaust tips on my car, which had carbon buildup I couldn’t remove, and I had tried everything. That stuff took the black off with just a few swipes of the sponge. Terrific!”

Yep, it’s good stuff. Of course, all this swapping of cleaning tips is going to undermine my reputation for rampant hypermasculinity. . . .

MORE: Reader Lawrence Faria writes:

In a response to your Barkeeper’s Friend post, one reader asked, “Is there no area of life that reading Instapundit can’t improve?” You answered, “Probably not your golf swing.”

Well, years ago, when I had a VCR (remember those?) I recorded a round of the Masters Tournament, and began counting frames in several golfers’ swings. I noted Raymond Floyd needed 21 frames from takaway to the top, seven frames on the downswing to impact, and seven more frames from impact to the finish of his swing. Floyd did it EVERY TIME – and won the tournament.

I checked Tom Watson, who finished in the top three, and his swing was a bit faster, 18 frames back, six down and six through to the finish, and he did it every time too. The ratio seems to be 3:1:1 by every pro out there, so I started paying attention to that tempo and I lowered my handicap from 18 to 12!

If your golfing readers try it, I think in no time you’ll agree, instapundit can even improve your golf swing!

Give it a try.

MORE STILL: Further hypermasculine cleaning.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: I’ve slept with 1,000 men so far – I don’t care if people judge me!

NOTE THAT THEY’RE DEMOCRATS. I’M JUST SAYIN’. Hawaii may keep track of all Web sites visited. “Hawaii’s legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit. . . . Mizuno’s proposal currently specifies no privacy protections, such as placing restrictions on what Internet providers can do with this information (like selling user profiles to advertisers) or requiring that police obtain a court order before perusing the virtual dossiers of Hawaiian citizens. Also absent are security requirements such as mandating the use of encryption.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Will German Politicians Wreck Europe To Save Their Own Skins? “It takes some truly talented screw ups to come up with a worse plan for Greece than the one the Greeks have developed for themselves, but the Germans have risen to occasion in fine form.”

MICKEY KAUS: “Obama’s State of the Union bounce does not appear to exist. His approval actually went down in the Rasmussen poll, stayed flat on Gallup. It was a dud.”

Related: State Of The Dead Cat Bounce.

BRIAN WANG: What are the near and long term advantages of a Permanent Moon Base?

ROGER SIMON: In Memoriam: Zane Greyhound.

A NEW LAW BLOG: The Legal Whiteboard. With Bill Henderson and Andy Morriss.

MEGAN MCARDLE: When Will Housing Hit Bottom? “The National Association of Realtors is (quelle surprise!) quite bullish on the future of the housing market. Not so fast, says Lance Roberts of StreetTalk Advisors.”

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals on video games.

Also, a sale on Duracell coppertop batteries. Be sure to hit the “coupon” button.

PATRICK RICHARDSON: Pipeline Politics Derail More Than Jobs. “By killing the Keystone project, Obama has delivered a blow to the entire economy.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “My Husband Cockblocks Me.”

ROGER KIMBALL: The Suicide Club.

UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

BOOK PLUG: Reader E.C. Williams writes:

I’m a long-time reader – not quite from the beginning a decade ago, but close! Congratulations on the most interesting blog in the Interwebs!

I notice you mention books from time to time – how about a plug for my novels “Westerly Gales” and “Cruise of the Albatros”, the first two books in the Sci Fi series I call the “Westerly Gales Saga”? They’re both on Amazon Kindle, and only ninety-nine cents apiece – cheap at twice the price!

Thanks, Glenn. And keep up the good work — I’ll keep reading you faithfully whether you give my books a plug or not!

I help out readers when I can. Good luck!

ARE INTELLECTUAL INTERESTS genetically predetermined?

ARIZONA REPUBLIC: How Dare You Rely On Our Reporting? They make a good point.

NISSAN LEAF UPDATE: A word on Nissan Leaf Sales, Orders, and Reservation Numbers.

FOR A MOON COLONY, technology is the easy part. “Could the United States establish a moon colony and develop a new propulsion system for going to Mars? All within eight years of a Newt Gingrich presidency, as Mr. Gingrich promised this week? The answers seem to be technologically yes, economically iffy and politically very difficult.”

IN THE MAIL: From Robert Heinlein, Sixth Column.

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS: How The CDC Is Overstating Sexual VIolence In The U.S.

In fact, what the study reveals is the devastating impact that careless advocacy research can have on truth. The report proposes an array of ambitious government-sponsored “prevention strategies” and recommends “multi-disciplinary service centers” offering survivors psychological and legal counseling as well as housing and economic assistance. But survivors of sexual violence would be better served by good research and sober estimates — not inflated statistics and sensationalism.

The agency’s figures are wildly at odds with official crime statistics.

But perfectly aligned with funding prospects. Me, I’d rather see the CDC work on controlling actual diseases. rather than redefining behavior as a disease. But I was pointing out the politicization of public health back when InstaPundit was new.

UPDATE: Reader Mike Voncannon writes: “As someone who has been in Law Enforcement since the 70s, I know rape and sexual assault are under reported to Law Enforcement (for a host of different reasons). But for the CDC to claim that they are under reported by a factor of 93 hurts their efforts more than it helps. I know that the Sexual Assault Center in Knoxville and Safe Harbor in Sevierville who offer treatment and counseling to victims are struggling to fund their operations; but if anyone thinks this CDC study will help, they need professional help themselves.”

MAJOR BLOW TO INSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY: 35 pounds of cocaine found in U.N. mailroom.

UPDATE: That link quit working for some reason, but this one does.

STEVEN HAYWARD on Newt and Reagan. “The real question concerning Newt is not whether he has changed his mind or conveniently forgotten about his occasional distemper with Reagan, but whether he perceives or has acquired the same kind of prudence we now recognize Reagan to have had much more clearly than many of us did at the time. Elliott, Pete, John, and everyone else are right to raise the question of whether Newt’s peripatetic speculations and outbursts give us ample cause to doubt an affirmative answer; certainly his opportunistic attack on Bain Capital a couple weeks back was deeply imprudent. But let us also have the whole picture and complete context in mind, and give the man his due.” Read the whole thing.

KENNETH ANDERSON: Anxiety Is Not a Policy for Drones and Targeted Killing.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on Big-Screen HDTVs.

STATE OF THE TEA PARTY: My interview with Mark Meckler is now on YouTube.

TODAY ONLY, Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on Kindle for 99 cents.

WHY REPUBLICANS need to chillax. “Here’s the bottom line. I have no dog in this fight. My candidates either didn’t run or imploded on impact. I’m not comfortable with Romney’s apparent weaknesses, and despite his ability to articulate conservatism my gut tells me that a Gingrich nomination and subsequent Presidency would end in heartache as well. But the main point is this, neither one of these men, whether they’re really conservative or not, whether they’re a rino, liberal, progressive, or just opportunistic, is Barack Hussein Obama. And that’s enough for me. Certainly it would have been nice to have a strong, conservative candidate with populist appeal to take the fight to Obama. But who the challenger in this race ends up being may mean less than perhaps it ever has in history for the simple reason that the incumbent will be Barack Obama. That one fact in itself may be our biggest asset.”

#HIGHSPEEDFAIL: Tea Partiers Rallying Against California’s High-Speed Rail Boondoggle. “If California’s Gov. Brown is looking for a legacy, perhaps we should take up a collection and have a statue made and placed on the Capitol grounds.”

Plus, an online poll at HuffPo.

SHE’S WORTH 8 FIGURES, but Elizabeth Warren Says She’s Not In The 1%.

Hard to see how Warren wouldn’t be, by most standards, wealthy, according to the Personal Financial Disclosure form she filed to run for Senate shows that she’s worth as much as $14.5 million. She earned more than $429,000 from Harvard last year alone for a total of about $700,000, and lives in a house worth $5 million.

She also has a portfolio of investments in stocks and bonds worth as as much as $8 million, according to the form, which lists value ranges for each investment. The bulk of it is in funds managed by TIAA-CREF.

Warren would not, of course, be particularly wealthy by the tony standards of the Senate. But she’s also unlikely to draw the sort of popular identification with her financial status that might attach to Marco Rubio, whose home is underwater.

And efforts to pass herself off as one of the 99% for whom she aims to speak appear likely to backfire.

Scott Brown should just keep pointing out that she’s a blue-blooded Harvard type.

K.C. JOHNSON: “The dysfunctional world of the Durham DA’s office continues. A hearing on her case will take place on Feb. 13, assuming she does not resign first. Given Cline’s delusional approach to affairs over the past several months, I’m not counting on an early resignation.”

JAMES TARANTO: Happy Enroniversary! Did the company’s collapse turn out to be a “greater turning point” than 9/11?

“I predict that in the years ahead Enron, not Sept. 11, will come to be seen as the greater turning point in U.S. society.” It’s one of our all-time favorite quotes, and it was published 10 years ago this Sunday. As former Enron adviser Paul Krugman might say, this statement is false.

It was, of course, Krugman who wrote that statement, in his Jan. 29, 2002, New York Times column. It took chutzpah, considering that, as Glenn Reynolds reminds us, his column just four days earlier had been a testy defense of Krugman’s past position on Enron’s advisory board. While serving in that capacity–before joining the Times, whose strict ethics rules prohibit such moonlighting–he had written a puff piece about Enron, “The Ascent of E-Man R.I.P.: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” for Fortune. . . . That of course raises the question: Was Krugman deceived, or was he a deceiver? Possibly both, but the absence of any introspection in the Jan. 29 column was the second most striking thing about it.

The most striking thing, of course, was the 9/11 comparison, obviously designed to be provocative, even offensive. This was a scant 4½ months after the attack, and it seemed, at the time, churlish to diminish a national wound that was very far from healing. Time heals all wounds, and the comparison no longer seems invidious, just false.

Like a lot of what Krugman says.

THE SOPA FIGHT IS OVER, but the ACTA Fight is still on.

MEET THE MARRIAGE KILLER: It’s More Common Than Adultery and Potentially As Toxic, So Why Is It So Hard to Stop Nagging?

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Worries about Fourth Generation Thermonuclear Weapons.

LIFE AMONG THE .001%: Dylan Ratigan Hosts “30 Million Jobs Tour” From Glamorous Miami Beach 5-Star-Resort. “This, as Ratigan promotes his tome ‘Greedy Bastards’ — a book, about rapacious banks ripping off the common man.”

MICHAEL YON’S MEDEVAC STORY is getting more attention.

MARK LEVIN: Newt did more for the conservative movement than virtually all of his critics today.

MORE ON THE NEW CIVILITY: Obama fanatic threatens to kill Arpaio.

A “fanatical supporter” of President Barack Obama is the prime suspect in an investigation into an Internet death threat against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Adam Eugene Cox, 33, was arrested in Tennessee Friday on an unrelated warrant for assault.

Working with MCSO, deputies in Knoxville, Tenn., served a search warrant and seized evidence from Cox’s home on Friday after an investigation into the death threat came to light in October.

In that threat, Cox stated Arpaio and his family would be killed, according to MCSO. His postings read, in part: “I plan to kill Arpaio first. He will be filled with a thousand bullet holes before the year is out. I promise you this. He won’t [expletive] with Obama. He will be buried 10 feet under and his whole family will be murdered along with him.”

Well, given the President’s extremist, eliminationist rhetoric, this sort of thing was bound to happen, I suppose.

SPEECH: Twitter’s new censorship plan rouses global furor.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Fixing Student Loans: Let’s Give Colleges Some ‘Skin in the Game’. I’ve made a similar proposal myself.

EATING MCNUGGETS AT EVERY MEAL: Downside: Vitamin Deficiency. Upside: She’s Slim and Pretty.

AT AMAZON, up to 50% off on cordless drills.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Porn And Condoms: How Will The New Law Impact The Industry? “We’ll look for other areas that are more welcoming. And we’ll take the thousands of jobs we create along with us. If we leave the state, those dollars and the tax dollars will go along with us.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Free Courses, Elite Colleges.

Udemy, a company that allows anyone to create and sell courses through its online platform, has announced a new area of its site, called The Faculty Project, devoted to courses by professors at a number of top institutions, such as Colgate, Duke University, Stanford University, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia, Dartmouth College and Vassar College. While Udemy is a for-profit enterprise, the Faculty Project courses will be free.

The goal is to “elevate the brand,” according to Gagan Biyani, Udemy’s president and co-founder. The company says it has no immediate plans to monetize the Faculty Project, and would never do so without the input and permission of its faculty contributors.

Read the whole thing.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: AALS President: Law Professors Should Be “Cheerleaders” for “Our Way of Life.”

DIGITAL SPIES: The Alarming Rise of Digital Espionage.

RAND SIMBERG: Newt’s Lunar Base.

SCIENCE: Men can intuitively decode women’s menstrual cycles.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Self-Help.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO WIN AN IPAD in the PJ Media Nostradamus Contest.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A “Disrupted” Higher Education System?

The “disruption” of the higher-ed market is a popular refrain these days. Rising tuition prices and student debt have left many wondering if the current model is indeed broken and whether those like Harvard’s Clay Christensen are right when they say that innovations in course delivery will eventually displace established players.

What exactly those innovations will look like remains a matter of debate. One view from Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, envisions a future in which every industry will be disrupted and “rebuilt with people at the center.” . . . While amenities and services on campuses have been redesigned in the last decade with students clearly at the center, the core of the academic experience for students today is almost exactly the same as it was for their parents decades ago. While other industries have been able to find productivity gains without sacrificing quality, on most college campuses we still have professors at the front of a room or at a table with an average of 16 students in front of them.

The biggest — and fastest — savings, however, are to be found in reforming administration. Those will be politically more difficult, however, as higher education administration provides a lot of jobs for people who reliably vote Democratic, and who have a lot of free time for politics.