IS HIGHER EDUCATION the next bubble? I sure hope not!

But how likely is that? It’s not like prices have outrun inflation because of easy credit that people can’t afford anymore. That’s what it takes to have a bubble. So, no worries.

MAD MAGAZINE going quarterly? I’m not surprised. I picked up a copy a few months ago, and it just wasn’t very funny.

UPDATE: Bill Quick agrees.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Alex Bensky writes:

I can’t say I care one way or the other if Mad goes quarterly. I use it as one of the significant signs of the cultural collapse, and I’m serious about this.

I can still remember articles and parodies from back in the sixties. I don’t find it funny anymore but that may well be me. However, what is interesting is how they approach their target audience, which I assume is still pre-adolescents, adolescents, and post-adolescent adolescents like me.

I recall one parody of the Kennedy family, a mock musical that used tunes from “HMS Pinafore.” Notice the assumption that at least some of the audience would get it. They did a parody of Mark Antony’s funeral oration (“For Brutus wails that Ceasar had big eyes, And Brutus is a cool cat. So are all of the cats in that combo, cool cats…”) It was no spot on that my mother, who either had a refined sense of humor or no sense of humor at all, actually chuckled at it.

In other words, they assumed a level of cultural literacy substantially higher than they do today, except for pop culture. There is virtually no reference to any cultural milieu except that and certainly little, if any, to books. I would guess the reason why they don’t have parodies of famous poems now (the Don Martin version of “The Highwayman,” using Noyes’s poetry with biker gang illustrations, is priceless) because their target group wouldn’t get it and, more, would resent knowing that they don’t.

The language and subject matter is much coarser, it’s more overtly political. We do need a national humor magazine but it’s been years since this was it. Sad, and I don’t think my view is just a function of my age.

Yes, that’s what I noticed, too.

C-SPAN: Steve Halbrook testifying against Eric Holder on Second Amendment grounds. Written testimony is here.

Plus, this: “Incredibly enough, in reporting on the hearings in his January 21st article, ‘Clinton Is Approved, but Vote on Holder Is Delayed,’ David Stout of the New York Times not only fails to mention Dr. Halbrook’s testimony but actually makes the flatly erroneous claim that ‘No one has questioned Mr. Holder’s qualifications.'”

Full disclosure: I blurbed Halbrook’s book on the Second Amendment. Judging by the Amazon ranking, it’s still selling very well.

25 YEARS OF MACINTOSH HISTORY.

Plus, the spread of viruses on Macs. I do, in fact, run extra security software on my Macbook Pro, and my sense is that Mac owners have an excessive sense of invulnerability on this front.

IRAN IN SCRAMBLE FOR fresh uranium supplies. Well, Hillary, how about making sure they don’t get them?

DON SURBER HAS his own list of most influential media liberals.

MICHAEL SILENCE: Obama Has Already Raised Taxes.

UPDATE: A commenter at Silence’s place says Politifact has backed off that claim.

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND puts Obama on hold. Well, she won.

UPDATE: I like her already: Gillibrand: Loves the NRA and NARAL in Equal Measure.

HEY, IT WORKED BEFORE, DIDN’T IT? Firms that got bailout money keep lobbying.

“YOU CAN’T ASK QUESTIONS IN HERE! THIS IS THE PRESS ROOM!”

BAILOUT BLUES: Small Business to Get Short Shrift from Obama Administration. “Entrepreneurs will face a slew of new taxes, a stifling regulatory environment, and politicians who bail out the well-connected.” Sounds like a formula for economic success!

AT POPULAR MECHANICS, AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEX ROSE, author of American Rifle: A Biography. “To be a good rifleman—to be a good shot—you have to be able to hold your breath, be calm and in control. These are all manly virtues.”

BLOGGING A SPONTANEOUSLY RUPTURED SPLEEN. My spleen-rupture required another kid to push me off a wall. The push — I think — was spontaneous, but the rupture, well, not so much.

HEH: “Did you hear the one about how after Barack Obama became president this week he found out the economy was worse than he thought—so he had to lay off 17 journalists.”

WILL OBAMA PUSH TO revive the fairness doctrine? Worries based on Eric Holder’s “evasive” statements.

HEY, MAYBE HE CAN GET AN AIR AMERICA GIG IF THIS PRESIDENT THING DOESN’T WORK OUT: Obama Zings Rush Limbaugh. It’s good news for Limbaugh, anyway. If he can get Obama to do this a few more times, he’s set for the four years . . . .

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Glenn, if Rush can bait Obama into mentioning him a few more times, the revival of the Fairness Doctrine will be impossible, as it will seem petty and reminiscent of Nixon’s enemies list.” We may already be there.

IS CALIFORNIA past the tipping point?

UPDATE: Compare Houston.

FOR SOME IN EURO ZONE, dream turns nightmarish. “Now, in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the euro’s birth, a new view is emerging — especially as the creditworthiness of Greece, Spain and Portugal, one after the other, has been downgraded. The view is that the balm of euro membership allowed these countries to gloss over serious economic problems that have now roared to the fore.”

FUNNY, HE DOESN’T LOOK NEOISH: Obama the Neoconservative?

HOPE AND CHANGE! Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case. “The Obama administration fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday when it urged a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.” Meet the new boss, yada yada.

UPDATE: A reader points out that not long ago the warrantless eavesdropping program was a sign of incipient fascism. But now it’s hope and change!

BUT WILL IT TASTE LIKE GIN? Ethanol fuel from pine needles.

YOU CAN SEE THE INSTAWIFE ON THE BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL TONIGHT AT 8 PM, talking about serial killers.

CAR LUST: THE JOYS OF THE Porsche 959.

“I WON.” In Bush, this would have been troubling hubris. In Obama, fortunately, it’s just manly self-assurance.

UPDATE: Reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s “I am the President?”

APTERA UPDATE: “Aptera Motors has rolled out the first pre-production model of the 2e, an all-electric three-wheeled two-seater that gets the equivalent of 200 mpg and goes 100 miles on a charge. It’s a significant milestone for the Southern California startup, which plans to put the first cars in driveways by Halloween and looks like a contender to win the $10 million Progressive Automotive X Prize.” I’d like one.