MOCKERY: The Greatest Weapon Against The Tyranny Of “Very Serious People” – Laughter. “Never forget, the ‘Achilles heel’ of anyone who’s driving aim in life is to CONTROL the lives of other people is his or her aching need to be taken ‘seriously’.” Most of them make it easy by being so laughable.

ELECTION FRAUD IN A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: “The mastermind behind the ballot-petition fraud was one Butch Morgan, then the Democratic-party chairman of St. Joseph County. With the help of three other employees of the county board of elections, Morgan faked names and signatures on ballot petitions that qualified Obama and Clinton for the May 6 Democratic primary.”

IS IT HELPFUL, IN POLITICS, TO BE MEAN-SPIRITED? “People who don’t regularly communicate with the Democratic Party have no idea what a cesspool of hatred that organization is. It has one means, and one means only, of rallying its supporters to contribute money and to vote: that is to personalize every issue, and to demonize every opponent with smears that would make an honest man or woman blush.”

DON’T WAIT FOR THE CAVALRY; SADDLE UP YOURSELF: The Good Guys Are Not Coming To Save Us.

ARE PEOPLE REALLY linking to each other less? I think I’m linking to other bloggers about as much as always, but maybe I’m a dinosaur . . . .

CAPITAL CITY PARTIES WHILE DISTRICT 13 SUFFERS: “It’s so dull watching the complacent folks in formalwear lolling about chuckling at the boss’s jokes. . . . Do they not realize how they look? It’s an anti-advertisement for the services they’d like to sell us. They seem utterly unprepared to confront power. I’m thinking: This is something that should be done in private, like masturbation. Then I realize: This is the public show. Imagine what they do in private.” I wonder if you can.

NOT OVER: FBI Searching for “Persons of Interest” In the United States Related to Boston Bombing.

RESISTING A ROBBER who points a gun.

NUKE ‘EM: Cancer Gene Study Identifies Hundreds of Targets.

OBAMA AND THE 7%: “So under class warrior Obama, the rich have gotten richer?”

AT AMAZON, it’s the PC Games Store.

JOURNALISM: The Revolving Door Spins Again: Obama Adviser Plouffe Joins Bloomberg TV, Stays in Campaign Mode.

THE ECONOMIST: Time To Scrap Affirmative Action: Government Should Be Colour-Blind.

20 POUNDS: Not Too Bad For An Extinct Fish.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN ONE MAN pinged the Internet. “A home science experiment that probed billions of Internet devices reveals that thousands of industrial and business systems offer remote access to anyone.”

AT AMAZON, 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or less.

Also, 100 Albums for $5.

COMING: $200 Notebook Computers Powered By Android.

I BLAME JENNY MCCARTHY: Measles Epidemic in Wales Has Roots in Antivax Movement.

QUESTIONS ABOUT a New York Times story of accidental shooting.

UPDATE: Further research in the comments suggests that the story is true, if poorly recounted.

STACY MCCAIN: Where Were You in 2002?

READER BOOK PLUG: In response to yesterday’s post on personal finance, reader Walt Pimbley asks me to plug his brother’s book Simple Money. “Joe reads you almost as much as I, and his book is great for 20-somethings. Says we can ALL be rich, and not to measure rich by comparison with neighbors or percentages (phony 99 vs. 1). He says you’re rich when you’ve banked ten times your annual pay, and he lays out a program of savings (don’t use credit to buy anything but a house!) and investment to do that by age 50. Joe’s a risk management guy – derivatives expert. Says lots of Wall St. guys want people to think finance is arcane, but that MONEY is SIMPLE.”

32 LESSONS from a Saudi prince’s Instagram.

TEST DRIVE: The New Nissan Sentra Is No Fun.

ED DRISCOLL ON spotting the “haters.”

IN THE MAIL: Escaping the Endless Adolescence: How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old.

UPDATE: I’m reading this now and just realized that one of the authors is someone I went to law school with.