IF STACY MCCAIN INSULTS YOU, pray to God he doesn’t apologize. You’ll be reading for days.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Yep. Enron’s failure is a success — at least compared to a state bailout or coverup.” Truer than I knew. . . .

#OCCUPYFAIL: How ‘Occupy’ went wrong: A trashed house in Brooklyn has become a symbol of a movement that failed to capitalize on popular anger. “Their efforts have actually made the neighborhood worse — because what used to be an empty house is now a hovel of squatters and probably should be condemned.” Gosh, who could have seen that coming? Oh, well. Add it to the syllabus.

UPDATE: Reader Clifford Grout writes: “If he’d let Tea Partiers move in instead, his house would have been vacuumed, the dishes washed, and there’d be clean towels in the bathroom. Hell, there would still be a bathroom.”

THE CASE FOR DYING BROKE. Well, it’s easier than it used to be in the Obama era!

HISTORY: It was exactly 1 year ago today, at the Wisconsin protests, that UW doctors stood on the street corner, writing excuse notes for the teachers who had called in sick to go to the protests.

THIS IS WHY your boss hates you.

SARAH HOYT: Dispatches From Different Wars. “Over the last few days it’s been impossible for me to log on to the Face Book without being assaulted by postings on the ‘Republicans War On Women’ from my female Face Book Friends most of whom are educated and many of whom work in a profession that, at least in broad theory, requires them to have the capacity for original or individual thought. . . . But no one is discussing banning contraceptives or even abortion. The contraceptive issue was introduced in a Republican debate by George ‘Supine’ Stephanopoulos as a means of painting Republicans as being against contraceptives. . . . What kind of enormous, unyielding, painful daddy issues have you got to have to think that Uncle Sam has to force a CHURCH to pay for your contraception?”

Democrats are worried, so they’re playing the Republicans Will Steal Your Ladyparts!!!! card. And the knees are jerking as hoped. Women, you’re being played. Again.

CAN EMAIL WORDING BE A TIPOFF TO who’s the boss? “The ‘Enron corpus,’ as the database of employee emails revealed during investigations into Enron’s massive fraud in the early 2000s became known, has turned into a gift that keeps on giving to researchers. For Eric Gilbert, assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, the email database has shed light on which words are used most frequently in messages going up and down the corporate hierarchy (and yes, a conservative approach and many filters were used to ensure the types of messages examined would apply to a typical organization, not just a fraudulent one).”

AT AMAZON, an outlet sale on Bedding.

THOUGHTS ON statism, psychology, and scholarship.

FEDS URGE COURT TO reject laptop decryption appeal.

The government is urging a federal appeals court not to entertain an appeal from a bank-fraud defendant who has been ordered to decrypt her laptop so its contents can be used in her criminal case.

Colorado federal authorities seized the encrypted Toshiba laptop from defendant Ramona Fricosu in 2010 with valid court warrants while investigating alleged mortgage fraud, and demanded she decrypt it.

Ruling that the woman’s Fifth Amendment rights against compelled self-incrimination would not be breached, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ordered the woman in January to decrypt the laptop by the end of February. The judge refused to stay his decision to allow Fricosu time to appeal.

The Colorado woman’s attorney appealed anyway, and the government on Thursday asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the petition that asserts the woman’s constitutional rights would be breached by being forced to hand over evidence against herself.

I think the District Court was wrong, and I hope the Court of Appeals goes ahead, hears the case, and agrees with me.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “What is runaway prosecutors’ next idea, that it’s obstruction of justice to get a lawyer?”

ANN ALTHOUSE ON THE LATEST INVENTION: “Birth-Control Moms.”

But it’s distractingly oxymoronic: if you use birth control, it’s to avoid motherhood.

Except… soccer moms don’t play soccer. And security moms — is that really a famous term? — aren’t providing the security. The “mom” part of the term is about… well, what is it about? It’s what patronizing politicos call the women who they imagine don’t think, but emote and intuit their way through elections. Or perhaps, in part, it’s that women who are mothers are concerned about the children. In that light, a “birth control mom” isn’t a woman who wants her birth control devices. As a soccer mom likes to see the kids playing soccer, a birth control mom likes to see the kids using birth control, when they fuck, which they will do… you can’t stop ‘em… or if you think you can, you might already be a Santorumite.

“Santorumite?” Sounds suspiciously like “sodomite.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Plus, from the comments:

Headline at Politico today: Voting Rights Act under siege.

It’s all so 1964!

Down in the eighth frickin’ paragraph:

Despite the misgivings, the final vote for the bill was a lopsided 390-33 in the House. And in the Senate, critics of the law couldn’t pick up a single no vote. It passed, 98-0.

Oh, sure, but let’s do a scare headline anyway.

Black people: no vote for you!

Women: no birth control!

Politico is getting frantic.

If the Dems were confident, would they be making such frantic efforts to shore up the core of their base?

EXPLAINED: A Home Generator Setup.

PERHAPS WE’VE FOUND A SOLUTION TO LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT: Human Hibernation.

AMERICA FACES A SERIOUS ICEBREAKER SHORTAGE. “The United States has just one functioning icebreaker. While the Arctic region is of increasing strategic importance, the U.S. is falling behind Russia, China, Canada, and other countries in its ability to operate there.”

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

AT AMAZON, new releases in Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D linked to children’s language issues. “Mothers who had low vitamin D levels while they were pregnant are more likely to have a child with a language impairment than mothers who had higher levels of the vitamin, according to an Australian study.”

Also: Vitamin D deficiency epidemic among Black people. “A white person will make enough vitamin D by getting exposed to the sun for only 10 minutes. It can take more than two hours for a Black person to get the same quantity of vitamin D.” Note that however pale you are, if you slather sunscreen on every time you go out, you’ll have similar problems.

UPDATE: Patrick Cox sends this piece: Death By Scientific Consensus.

And they’ll be talking about this at Chris Peterson’s Personalized Life Extension Conference later this spring.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader DRJ emails: “I was diagnosed with cancer last year and I asked all my doctors to test the Vitamin D levels for myself and my family. (Only one agreed to do it and I had to pay for it myself. The rest claimed I didn’t need the test.) Well, guess what? My Vitamin D levels were very low, as were those of 3 other members of my family. After my test results came back, several of my doctors had their Vitamin D levels tested and they were low, too. As someone I admire likes to say: Heh!” My doctor has been testing patients, with similar results. I try to get reasonable amounts of sun when I can, but I also take 2-4000 units a day.

MORE: From Johns Hopkins: Vitamin D and prostate cancer: “Vitamin D may turn out to be a ray of hope for men with prostate cancer. Laboratory and population-based research suggest that adequate levels of vitamin D reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer and may help suppress the growth and spread of prostate cancer cells in men who already have it.”

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? The Simpsons at Episode 500.

Older episodes here.

WE’D BETTER DESIGN THEM TO: Will Artificial Intelligences Find Humans Enjoyable?

EASTERN EUROPEANS FIGHT FOR INTERNET FREEDOM:

A grassroots protest movement erupted last month in Poland and spread quickly across the former Eastern Bloc and beyond. The growing opposition against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has raised questions about the fate of the treaty, which is important to the governments of the United States and other industrialized economies.

There have been street protests across Eastern Europe, attacks on government websites in the Czech Republic and Poland, even a heartfelt apology from a Slovenian ambassador who signed it and then decried her act as “civic carelessness.”

In a region where people remember being spied upon and controlled by oppressive communist regimes, the treaty has provoked fears of a new surveillance regime.

They’re right to be angry, and Americans are wrong to be complacent.

POLICE MILITARIZATION: Small town up in arms over armored transport vehicle purchase.

The Keene, NH, police department was going to get its own Lenco BearCat, a vehicle the town’s mayor reportedly described as a “tank.” However, citizens in the town of 23,000 revolted, according to the article, with nearly 100 of them packing a city council meeting in opposition. Critics said the vehicle promoted violence, and cited a promotional video for the BearCat that shows gun-wielding cops using one of the armored trucks to knock down the door of a house and spray tear gas inside. The issue is scheduled to come up again at next month’s meeting.

I had an article on police militarization in Popular Mechanics a while back.

IN THE MAIL: From Tony Daniel, Guardian of Night. I’ve quite enjoyed his earlier books.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Is Iowa A Nest of Vicious Racists?

ORBITAL DEBRIS UPDATE: For Space Mess, Scientists Seek Celestial Broom.

The most obvious sign that there is a lot of junk in space is how much of it has been falling out of the sky lately: a defunct NASA satellite last year, a failed Russian space probe this year.

While the odds are tiny that anyone on Earth will be hit, the chances that all this orbiting litter will interfere with working satellites or the International Space Station are getting higher, according to a recent report by the National Research Council.

The nonprofit group, which dispenses advice on scientific matters, concluded that the problem of extraterrestrial clutter had reached a point where, if nothing was done, a cascade of collisions would eventually make low-Earth orbit unusable.

“NASA is taking it very seriously,” said Mason A. Peck, chief technologist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

There is a straightforward solution: dispose of the space junk, especially big pieces, before they collide and break into smaller ones

Here’s a piece on the legal issues involved that Rob Merges and I wrote for The Environmental Law Reporter a couple of years ago.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH RICK SANTORUM? Jennifer Rubin is happy to tell us.

But here’s my question: Back in 2008, the social-cons were all-in for Romney, to the point where Hugh Hewitt’s take became a running tagline (“You know who this is good for? Mitt Romney!”) that’s still used by by bloggers from time to time. Now, not so much. So what changed about Romney since 2008 to make him un-conservative?

UPDATE: Reader Allen Covert writes: “When he stopped running against McCain. Standing next to McCain will make almost anybody look conservative.”

DEMOCRATS PLAY DEFENSE in U.S. Senate Races. “Despite a lower jobless rate and a recent uptick in President Obama’s approval ratings, Democrats are poised in November to lose their Senate majority and hand over control of Congress entirely to the Republican Party.”

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Sporting Goods.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Ten Commandments For Our New Century. “Owing in our new millennium shall be less stressful than saving. The man with a little money in the bank is more worried that he thereby will be taxed more, earn no interest, or have his small sum expropriated, than the borrower is worried that he will have to pay back the full amount of quite a lot that he borrowed for his mortgage, credit card, or student loan. The saver is suspect of doing something bad to the borrower; savers are always active-voice beneficiaries, debtors passive-voice victims. An American without debt or a federal program to relieve it, is not really an American.”

HISTORY: Project Mercury workers gather 50 years after John Glenn’s orbital trip, visit old launch pad.

Glenn and Scott Carpenter, the only other survivor of NASA’s original Mercury 7 astronauts, spent nearly an hour being photographed with the retirees, posing in front of a black curtain with a model of a Mercury-Atlas rocket. Glenn is 90; Carpenter is 86.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Mercury brigade traveled by bus to Launch Complex 14. That’s the pad from which Glenn rocketed away on Feb. 20, 1962.

Some retirees were in wheelchairs, while others used walkers or canes. Most walked, some more surely than others. But they all beamed with pride as they took pictures of the abandoned pad and of each other, and went into the blockhouse to see the old Mercury photos on display and to reminisce.

Sad that so many of these people have grown old without seeing lunar colonies and Mars missions. That would have been hard to believe back then, when progress was so swift.

SWING STATE UPDATE: “President Obama’s national approval numbers have risen steadily with the brightening economy, but he may be vulnerable in the swing states that will be critical in determining the outcome of the 2012 election.” Not sure either the improvement or the brightening are all that significant, but read the whole thing.

YA THINK? Insurance Industry Could Take Hit From Birth-Control Mandate.

HMM: Friday Night Doc Dump: Did WH economic advisers raise red flags on Solyndra as early as March 2010?

MISCONCEPTION: With his mandate that all employers, including religiously affiliated institutions such as Catholic hospitals and charities, provide workers with health insurance that covers contraceptives, President Obama handed Republicans a terrific opportunity to talk about the growing intrusiveness of government.

THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: Teacher, 39, jailed for 10 years after having sex with 15-year-old student in her car.

A teacher has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with one of her former students, who was just 15 at the time.

Amanda Watkins’ mother asked for leniency, saying: ‘My daughter is not a bad person, but she is a sick person.’

Watkins, 39, was a teacher at Sheffield Junior High School in Alabama when she was found having sex with the teenager in the back seat of her car in December 2009.

She admitted to police that the pair were engaging in sexual activity, according to the Times Register, and was fired the next month.

You know, some people might think this suggests a problem with public schools.

IS THE GOVERNMENT scaring Web businesses out of the United States? “With the JotForm situation unfolding, where the U.S. government shut down an entire website with no notice or explanation, people are beginning to recognize that the U.S is not safe for internet startups. Lots of folks have been passing around [a] rather reasonable list of activities for U.S.-based websites.”

DEATH THREATS? I blame the President’s violent, eliminationist rhetoric.

Threats of the sort described by Charles Koch go with the territory if you are a conservative. We have gotten threats, harassing phone calls, etc., over the years–although none lately, as far as I know–and anyone active in politics on the conservative side has had the same experience. With the bizarre campaign of hate that the Left has orchestrated against the Koch brothers over the last year or two, one can hardly imagine the vitriol they must get from liberals.

Of course, that is of little concern to liberal reporters. The civility campaign of 2011 is so…2011. Thus, the Associated Press picked up the story yesterday, but the only thing the AP reporter added was a note of skepticism.

As usual, the “have you no decency?” crowd has none.

BRITAIN: Boy, 7, branded a racist for asking schoolmate: ‘Are you brown because you come from Africa?’

The mother of a seven-year-old boy was told to sign a school form admitting he was racist after he asked another pupil about the colour of his skin.

Elliott Dearlove had asked a five-year-old boy in the playground whether he was ‘brown because he was from Africa’.

His mother, Hayley White, 29, said she received a phone call last month to say her son had been at the centre of a ‘racist incident’.

She was then summoned to a meeting with Elliott, his teacher and the deputy head of Griffin Primary School in Hull.

Britain is overdue for a revolution against such. But then, so are we.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “I thought we were supposed to celebrate diversity.” No, that’s for the powers-that-be. We’re supposed to just live in fear of arbitrary and unpredictable punishment, and stay appropriately docile.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: A hint as to the EU’s future:

Mr Lipponen said during his lecture in the London School of Economics that the EU must not develop into a military superpower, but should become a great power that will not take up arms at any occasion in order to defend its own interests.

Heh. I’d forgotten that one.

PROF. JACOBSON: All of Your Children are Belong to Us.

IS THE REPUBLICAN FIELD WEAK? Maybe, but Obama is trailing Ron Paul in Iowa. “The president defeats only Newt Gingrich, 51 percent to 37 percent.” So, you know, the strength of the Democratic field is probably overstated. . . .

MIKE RAPPAPORT ON ANDREW BREITBART, LIBERTARIANS, AND CONSERVATIVES: “Alas, I think there is quite a bit to say for what Breitbart is claiming. Certainly, libertarians — even those who are hostile to conservatives — must recognize that Obama and the progressives are the great threat now. And I think, as compared to 2008, libertarians tend to get this. . . . Libertarians are in a tricky situation. Being neither liberal nor conservative, they must navigate in a world in which they are a small minority. For those in the academy, there is a strong temptation to emphasize the distinction with conservatives, so that they can ‘pass’ for non-conservatives. Back in the day, which I was less conservative than I am now, I was invited to a wedding of a guy I knew in law school. His bride admitted to me at the wedding itself, that I would not have been invited, had I been a conservative. A libertarian could pass, but not a conservative.”

A BREATH TEST FOR CANCER enters clinical trials.

NICE WORK: Georgia Tech develops braille-like texting app.

AT AMAZON, Deals & Bargains in Home Improvement.

Plus up to 50% off on power and hand tools.

U.S. TAX CODE IS more progressive than France, Germany, Belgium, or the UK.

LIVING IN “the foreskin of America.” We’re not circumcised?

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Despite Safety Worries, Work on Deadly Flu to Be Released. “The full details of recent experiments that made a deadly flu virus more contagious will be published, probably within a few months, despite recommendations by the United States that some information be kept secret for fear that terrorists could use it to start epidemics.”

UPDATE: InstaPundit readers are invited to discuss this issue here.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Incestuous Twin Brothers Wonder If They Should Reveal Their Secret Relationship.

AT AMAZON, the President’s Day clothing sale.

LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS: Greg Packer Snookers the L.A. Times in a Big Way.

THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB INTERVIEW QUESTION YOU CAN ASK.

Related: Thomas Edison’s Eccentric Job Interview Questions.

COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT and political equality.

TOM MAGUIRE FACT-CHECKS CHARLES BLOW: “When is a tie not a tie? And when is a tie-breaker not a tie-breaker? When our friends in the liberal media are reporting on Obama. . . . So Michelle and Barack win the ‘Most Charitable’ title because they contributed a higher proportion of their Gross Income to a tax-advantaged retirement plan? I understand that charity begins a home, but really?”

MORE THOUGHTS ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE REPLICATION OF HIERARCHY:

To the Marxian idea of the “reserve army of the unemployed” is added the notion of the “reserve army of wannabee elites”. Ironically, calls by the OWS to expand tertiary education — to make it a “right” — and the Presidents stated intention to increase the percentage of college degreed students will have the effect of making the competition even more desperate; and just as those who would fight inflation by printing more money unintentionally make their plight worse, so would the preferred strategy of the current credentialed elites. But it wasn’t always like that. . . .

All elitisms run the risk of inbreeding and sterility. The real benefit of a perceived equality among citizens, as driven by the rough and tumble of economic competition, is not only that it expands the wealth pie but also continuously changes the diners at the table. That means that some at the head table may never have the proper politically correct manners, but that is the price of vitality. The problem with socialism and its near cousins is that it places the selection of winners and losers (even if called “industrial policy”) in the hands of the status quo, who quite naturally will put their friends and family first in line.

Indeed. Plus this: “Perhaps the biggest damage that the modern cult of the elite has inflicted on American culture is to turn it into some kind of Third World class culture where certain endeavors are reserved only for the right people.”

Related: When The Paper Chase Becomes A Mobius Loop.

FRACKNATION: raising money for an honest documentary on Fracking.

CHANGE: New Evidence That Retirement Is A Thing Of The Past.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Do Women Flash at Mardi Gras?

NANNIES: Feds Push New York Toward Full Ban On Electronic Devices In Cars.

So Ray LaHood’s retreat was purely tactical. My thoughts on the subject are here.

SHORT TELOMERES associated with earlier death.

BARISTA REVENGE: “Be nice, or we might ‘decaf’ you!”

IN THE MAIL: The Crucible of Empire.

CHANGE: Gas Prices Are Highest Ever For This Time Of Year.

PLAYING GAMES with the Export/Import bank?

SCIENCE: Fracking Doesn’t Harm Drinking Water, Study Says.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: High Real Unemployment Data Reflect Poorly On Obama.

Sure, the jobless rate is falling. But according to the Congressional Budget Office, we are going through the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Depression. The rate has been higher than 8% since February 2009, the month after Obama took office.

And, says the CBO, it is expected to stay above 8% through 2014.

Even worse for an administration straining to make the case that it deserves to be around for another four years is the real unemployment rate. It’s not 8.3%, but closer to 15%, a figure that reflects those who “would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part time but would prefer full-time work,” says the CBO.

I believe that’s what the media like to call the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

UPDATE: Ten Depressing Charts About Long-Term Unemployment.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD on America, China, and Asia. “China isn’t rising in a vacuum; the rise of China, while significant, is less threatening to U.S. interests than either the appeasers or the containers think. If you think about the question regionally, the option of a middle course emerges with greater plausibility: we can promote a regional environment that makes a Chinese bid for regional hegemony impossible without embracing a policy of containment. Especially given India’s rise, but also taking account of the growing power and capabilities of countries like Vietnam, Asia is just too big and too complicated for China to hope to dominate its hood the way that other powers have tried to dominate strategic geopolitical theaters.”

AT AMAZON, New Releases on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Instant Video.

MARK LEVIN’S AMERITOPIA: THE UNMAKING OF AMERICA is #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list for another week. Congratulations, Mark! I’m guessing there’s not a lot of overlap between the purchasers of Levin’s book and the purchasers of #2. . . .

SHOULD YOU SUE AN AUTOMAKER over bad fuel economy?

SO, YESTERDAY I PROPOSED A SYLLABUS FOR AN “OCCUPY” SEMINAR, and now Jason Fertig wants to take the class: “Sign me up. In fact, this idea is a prime candidate for an open, web-based course along the lines of Hillsdale’s Constitution 101 course or anything on Udacity.com. We just need to get that ball rolling.” I’m available, for a suitable lecture fee!

TAR. FEATHERS. 2nd N.C. Mother Says Daughter’s School Lunch Replaced for Not Being Healthy Enough.

Diane Zambrano says her 4-year-old daughter, Jazlyn, is in the same West Hoke Elementary School class as the little girl whose lunch gained national attention earlier this week. When Zambrano picked Jazlyn up from school late last month, she was told by Jazlyn’s teacher that the lunch she had packed that day did not meet the necessary guidelines and that Jazlyn had been sent to the cafeteria.

The lunch Zambrano packed for her daughter? A cheese and salami sandwich on a wheat bun with apple juice. The lunch she got in the cafeteria? Chicken nuggets, a sweet potato, bread and milk.

Yeah, that’s an improvement.

RON BAILEY: Bioconservatives vs. Bioprogressives: Opposition to the technologies that make life longer, healthier, and happier creates strange bedfellows.

MARK STEYN: Brokest Nation In History Fusses Instead About Sex.

Ten thousand Americans retire every day, and leave insufficient progeny to pick up the slack. In effect, Nancy has rolled a giant condom over the entire American economy.

Testifying before Congress, Timmy Geithner referred only to “demographic challenges” — an oblique allusion to the fact that the U.S. economy is about to be terminally clobbered by 100 trillion dollars of entitlement obligations it can never meet.

And, as Chart 5-1 on page 58 of the official Obama budget “Analytical Perspectives” makes plain, your feckless, decadent rulers have no plans to do anything about it.

Instead, the Democrats shriek, ooh, Republican prudes who can’t get any action want to shut down your sex life! According to CBO projections, by midcentury mere interest payments on the debt will exceed federal revenues.

For purposes of comparison, by 1788 Louis XVI’s government in France was spending a mere 60% of revenues on debt service, and we know how that worked out for His Majesty shortly thereafter.

Not to worry, says Barry Antoinette. Let them eat condoms.

This is a very curious priority for a dying republic.

Barry Antoinette? I’m sure that’s somehow racist.

NEIL MUNRO: White House economic report hides sharp drop in number of working Americans.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Don’t Let the Bedbugs (or Lice) Bite.

REPLACE MILITARY RETIREMENT WITH 401K PLANS?

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Ethics committee recusals latest saga in bungled Waters investigation.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “These polls are self-selected, of course, but I’ve noticed that online polls usually go this way. At the very least, this means that pro-gun folks are a lot better organized online than antigun folks (something that has been noted many places in the past), and that alone is an interesting datum. The other interesting datum is the way these online polls tend to disappear without a trace when they turn out differently than their sponsors hope.”

PROF. JACOBSON: Pro-Walker signature verification effort needs your help this weekend.

THREATS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE are okay when they’re from women, right? A reader emails: “Something like this by itself doesn’t bother me, but the double standard does. I can imagine the uproar if a male candidate, especially a GOP, made a crack like this about kicking a woman.”

If you don’t like Martha McSally’s threats against Rick Santorum’s genitals, she’s got a primary opponent.

CITIZENS SHOOT DOWN PRIVATE SURVEILLANCE DRONE.

HOW TO MANAGE independent contractors.

PHOTO REPORT: Tea Party and OWS Protest Side-By-Side Against Obama in San Francisco. “The unthinkable finally happened last night in San Francisco: the Tea Party shared a protest with the Occupiers, both groups angry with the same person.”

Meanwhile, look what’s planned for next month.

UPDATE: More from San Francisco.

BILL QUICK: Prediction: Mitt Romney Will Not Be the GOP Nominee This Year, And Barack Obama Will Not Be Re-Elected.

THANKS TO EVERYONE who’s been shopping via the Amazon links on this page or the searchbox in the right sidebar. By doing so you help support this blog at no cost to yourself. It’s much appreciated!

THREE YEARS AGO TODAY: Protesting The Stimulus Bill in Denver, as the Tea Party movement is born.

THE COSTS OF LOUSY POLICY — SOME PERSPECTIVE: Senate Passes Payroll Tax Extension, Gas Price Increase Has Already Offset Benefits.

CHANGE: Obama Pushes for Cheaper Pennies and Nickels. “Time Magazine reports that hidden deep inside in the White House’s $3.8 trillion, 2,000-page budget that was sent to Congress this week is a proposal to make pennies and nickels cheaper to produce. Why? Because it currently costs the federal government 2.4 cents to make a penny and 11.2 cents for every nickel. If passed, the budget would allow the Treasury Department to ‘change the composition of coins to more cost-effective materials’ resulting in changes that could save more than $100 million a year.”

Various prepper types have been hoarding nickels for a while in anticipation of this change.

YOU CAN SELL YOUR OLD ELECTRONICS to Amazon.com. They even pay for shipping.

WHAT’S IT LIKE to work at Media Matters?

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS (CONT’D): “It’s understandable that you’d like a little more formal scheduling to your casual sex, but remember that the guy reads X-rays and MRIs, not minds.”

BRYAN PRESTON: Was the Killing of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata Linked to Fast and Furious?

MEGAN MCARDLE: Heartland Memo Looking Faker By The Minute.

SHOCKER: Government regulation leads to drug shortage, again. “To prevent hoarding of materials and their potential for theft and illicit use, the Drug Enforcement Agency sets quotas for the chemical precursors to drugs like Adderall. The DEA projects the need for amphetamine salts, then produces and distributes the materials to pharmaceutical companies so that they can produce their drugs. But with the number of prescriptions for Adderall jumping 13 percent in the past year, pharmaceutical companies claim that the quotas are no longer sufficient for supplying Americans with their Adderall. The DEA contends that their quotas do, in fact, meet demands, and that any shortages arise from pharmaceutical companies selectively producing only certain, typically name-brand and more expensive versions of ADHD medications.”

BLU-RAY DEAL OF THE WEEK: Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume One for $34.99.

Also, The Simpsons, Seasons 1-14 at up to 72% off.

AFTERBURNER WITH BILL WHITTLE: Han Shot First!

KEN ANDERSON TAKES MY WSJ COLUMN AS A JUMPING OFF PLACE, and makes a much more important point:

Strange as one might find it, I would put risk aversion as the primary behavior distinguishing today’s elites – in the college placement process, the university, the migration of top tier students to Wall Street jobs where they make good money but risk OPM, the assortative mating market that is quite possibly (as I remarked tongue in cheek at Valentine’s ) the raison d’être of the physical elite university, the intense reward of strategic behavior that is aimed less at maximizing gains than minimizing possible losses … today’s elites are well schooled in strategic behavior, but that strategic behavior is mostly about avoiding any error, and to the extent that our elites take risks, it is only with other people’s futures. . . .

All of this is very difficult for our elites to take up reflectively, for obvious reasons – conflicts of class interest, as well as in difficulty in confronting one’s own risk aversion as a social pathology, given how much success it has brought you. But, even more importantly, the master intellectual method that currently predominates in elite training and formation, economics, is remarkably ill-equipped even to see the issue, because its assumptions make it very difficult to see the “social” as an irreducible analytic category, rather than simply congeries of individuals. Until there is a recovery of social theory – and the conflict tradition in social theory in particular – and a greater willingness to see the discipline of economics within a centuries’ long trajectory of intellectual history, we will not have the tools by which to analyze the New Class in America.

Read the whole thing.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “He Stopped ‘Sexting’ Me!”

SAN FRANCISCO: Obama Holds Nob Hill Fundraiser… Massive Tea Party Breaks Out. Pics at the link.

Much more here.