THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: “You have been saving dutifully for your teenager’s education and, with college just a couple of years away, you have chosen what you think is a safe bond investment. Imagine your shock when, on opening your statement, you learn that your conservative, state-sponsored fund lost 38 percent of its value last year. If you’re astute enough to dig deeper, you learn the fund was using derivatives to increase its exposure to mortgage-backed securities. Yes, even as the housing market was tanking, someone thought it was a good idea to make a risky, leveraged bet on mortgage bonds. And they did it with your kid’s college fund.”

Well, happily, not my kid’s.

A RECIPE FOR homemade garden pizza.

HMM: Hollywood, RealNetworks square off on DVD copying. It seems to me that Hollywood has already solved this problem, by making so few movies that are worth stealing . . . .

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Jane Hamsher, get out your pitchfork.” Like that’s going to happen . . .

REP. JIM MORAN (D-VA) WANTS a 5-cent tax on plastic grocery bags.

POPULAR MECHANICS: Ethanol, Biodiesel, CNG and Propane Reality Check: Live from the Alternative Fuels and Vehicles Conference.

GO Trek Yourself!

INSTA-POLL: On the “Stimulus” approach to health care reform. (Suggestion from reader Stephen Skaggs).

IN BRITAIN, resisting the mandated shift to fluorescent bulbs. “Mr. Wright says that in the last two months he has sold 3,000 of the 100-watt bulbs — the traditional mainstay of British light fixtures — more than 30 times the usual. People are buying 10 at a time, the limit per customer, even though their price is nearly 50 percent higher than it was a year ago.”

I’M A FAN OF THESE: Athletic trainer saves football player with defibrillator. “The quick response of the 28-year-old athletic trainer, and a recently-purchased automated external defibrillator, saved the teen’s life when valves in his heart began to malfunction, causing him to faint and go into cardiac arrest.”

TOO MUCH Photoshop?

NICK GILLESPIE on Barney Frank’s Chutzpah. With an amusing illustration.

UPDATE: Took the pic down because it was slowing page loads for some reason. Follow the link to see it.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: The U.N.’s Epic Fail in Geneva.

PROPS FOR THE TEA PARTIES from Katrina van den Heuvel? “If even Nation editors are conceding the basic authenticity and potential power of the tea parties, and using them to remind progressives of their responsibility to organize effectively, isn’t the case closed on whether the movement matters?”

AN “ODD AD HOMINEM“ from Judge Wiener.

UPDATE: A response from the plaintiff.

Plus, a question. Bring back the rules against champerty and maintenance!

PJTV: Jon Voight takes on Ahmadinejad.

HMM: Swine Flu kills 60 in Mexico. “Dozens of people have died and hundreds of others have been infected in a viral outbreak in Mexico suspected to have been caused by a strain of swine flu.”

Plus, Mexico Shuts Schools Amid Deadly Flu Outbreak.

UPDATE: Can’t be contained, says CDC.

MARC AMBINDER: White House Worried About Johnsen Nomination. “Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel is in trouble, White House officials said today. Vote counters believe that she is several votes shy of the 60 needed to avert a filibuster. Some Democrats, like Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) are almost certain to oppose the nod.”

Johnsen opponents — including you, Sen. Nelson — should probably read this post of mine.

BARNEY FRANK IN 2005: Bubble? What bubble?

FACING THE QUESTIONS: “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, her first appearance before Congress since the firestorm errupted over a recent DHS report. . . Republicans have been calling for Napolitano’s resignation over an assessment the DHS issued warning of ‘rightwing extremism.’ Among other findings, the report concluded that returning veterans might become radicalized and violent.”

I wonder if she’ll also face questions from angry Canadians?

COOL PHOTOGRAPHY STUFF: On The Path of Walker Evans.

SPYING ON WASHINGTON from orbit.

PROFESSORS: Guns Make Colleges Safer. “As college professors, we want to reduce the odds of a Virginia Tech massacre happening on a Texas college campus. That’s why we encourage the Texas Legislature to allow concealed carry on the state’s college campuses.” Some earlier thoughts of mine are here.

SOME IN-DEPTH VIDEO REPORTING from the Chicago Tea Party.

TEMPERANCE CAMPAIGNER CHOSEN to head NHTSA. Plus, a return to 55 mph speed limits? Is it another Welcome Back, Carter moment? Heck, at least under Carter we hadn’t federalized the drinking age.