HAVE YOU NO DECENCY? NO DECENCY AT ALL? The Democrats Continue Their Smear of Paul Ryan.

THE POLITICAL RISKS OF GUN-HATRED: NRA opposition may sink Obama’s surgeon general nominee. “Facing a potential high-profile setback for the president, the White House is not pushing for a vote to confirm Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, a Harvard- and Yale-educated internist and former emergency room doctor who has advocated for stricter gun control laws, the officials said. Democratic leaders in the Senate have begun surveying senators to determine whether there is enough support to save the troubled nomination. Few Republicans are expected to back Murthy, and as many as eight Democrats also could be opposed.”

WAR ON MEN: Map: which sex receives more education worldwide?

BIG TENT: Rand Paul: Republicans must agree to disagree on social issues in order to grow the party.

PHILIP LARKIN SAW CLEARLY: Verse For Sunday: When Russian Tanks Roll Westward.

They said if I voted for Mitt Romney, we’d be plunged into a new cold war. And they were right!

HMM: Salt-buster drug cuts sodium absorbed from food.

WELL, THERE’LL ALWAYS BE A PLACE FOR THE HUNGRY MAN: America Is Falling Out of Love With TV Dinners. And they’ll always have their core constituency.

I ALWAYS SAID THAT IF AIDS WAS GOD’S PUNISHMENT, THEN IT MUST ALSO BE PROOF THAT GOD LOVES LESBIANS: The first confirmed case of lesbian transmission of H.I.V. was reported on Thursday by federal health officials, who said the event was exceedingly rare.

AT AMAZON, Spring Clearance Deals in Men’s Shoes. Also in Women’s Shoes.

Also, Kindle Daily Deals. Get ’em before they’re gone.

SCIENCE: Rumors Flying Nearly as Fast as Their Subject: Have Gravitational Waves Been Detected?

UPDATE: Oops. I think I killed ’em. Here’s an alternative link.

THE ATLANTIC: The Democratic Party’s Foolish Koch Obsession: Led by Harry Reid, the party has declared its midterm strategy will revolve around bashing the conservative bankrollers. But do voters really care?

It’s not about voters. It’s about scaring off other rich people who might be tempted to donate to Republicans.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Billionaires With Big Ideas Are Privatizing American Science.

American science, long a source of national power and pride, is increasingly becoming a private enterprise.

In Washington, budget cuts have left the nation’s research complex reeling. Labs are closing. Scientists are being laid off. Projects are being put on the shelf, especially in the risky, freewheeling realm of basic research. Yet from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, science philanthropy is hot, as many of the richest Americans seek to reinvent themselves as patrons of social progress through science research.

The result is a new calculus of influence and priorities that the scientific community views with a mix of gratitude and trepidation.

“For better or worse,” said Steven A. Edwards, a policy analyst at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, “the practice of science in the 21st century is becoming shaped less by national priorities or by peer-review groups and more by the particular preferences of individuals with huge amounts of money.”

They have mounted a private war on disease, with new protocols that break down walls between academia and industry to turn basic discoveries into effective treatments. They have rekindled traditions of scientific exploration by financing hunts for dinosaur bones and giant sea creatures. They are even beginning to challenge Washington in the costly game of big science, with innovative ships, undersea craft and giant telescopes — as well as the first private mission to deep space.

Prior to World War II, this was the way science worked. And we made faster progress then. . . .

SPACE: SpaceX Set to Launch the World’s First Reusable Booster: SpaceX’s reusable booster rocket, the first of its kind, could pave the way for radically cheaper access to space.

CHARLIE MARTIN on that missing Malaysian airliner.

YOU SAY “CRAZY,” I SAY “AWESOME.” Inside the Crazy Lab Where the Army Spikes Its Rations With Caffeine.

AT AMAZON, deals on XBox One Games.

Plus, coupons galore in Electronics.

PRACTICALLY STEAMPUNK: Ride London’s abandoned underground “Mail Rail:” Before e-mail, London had a different kind of network.

An underground railway that was formerly used to transport post across London is to be converted into a ride for members of the public.

The Post Office Underground Railway—AKA the Mail Rail—was the world’s first driverless electric railway. It launched in 1927 and was used to transport tons of post from one side of London to another, with stops at large railway hubs such as Liverpool Street and Paddington Station, where post could be collected and offloaded for transportation around the rest of the country.

It would be a nice setting for a Charlie Stross story.

SCIENCE: The Future Of Brain Implants: How soon can we expect to see brain implants for perfect memory, enhanced vision, hypernormal focus or an expert golf swing? We’ll need to see advances in antivirus technology before I’ll try one.

READER BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Reader Richard Kelty recommends his brother’s book, Ragged Point. “A mystery thriller set on the Central California coast.”

THE GM RECALL SCANDAL: Who Knew What, When?

HOW A CHEAP SONY RADIO took over the prison market.

AT THE NEW YORK TIMES, airbrushing an embarrassing error by Maureen Dowd.

INSIDER DISHES ON the horrors of life in the New Media business. Here at InstaPundit, there are no click-farms, and no exploited employees. Obviously, I’m doing something wrong.

NEW YORK TIMES: Obama Becoming “Poisonous” To Democrats.