MORE PUBLIC-PENSION PROBLEMS, IN CINCINNATI:

City’s Pension Funds Tank.

Losses Drive Up Long-Term Deficits.

Generous Pensions In Deep Hole.

THE TEA PARTY PHENOMENON: Built around an idea, not an individual.

THE JOYS OF In-N-Out Burger. I heard people rave about these for years before I ever ate one, and I have to say they live up to the raves.

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY: Obama Too Inexperienced for Honorary Degree.

JULIAN KU: Ten Questions for Legal Advisor-Nominee Harold Hongju Koh.

TEA PARTY PROTESTS: DEADLY THREAT TO THE REPUBLIC? “In reality, their ‘movement’ is incredibly divisive, a mindset that stands in sharp contrast to Obama’s calls for bipartisanship in this time of great national need. Their arguments have the potential to divide the country along titanic lines not seen since the bloody days of the Civil War. . . . Can you imagine the potential for chaos if some of these ‘protesters’ decide to exercise the Second Amendment and bring their weapons to these rallies? There’s a thin line between peaceful protest and bloodthirsty patriotic fervor.” So shut up, already.

THE GLOBAL DOWNTURN didn’t start with America. Yeah, but everything’s our fault nowadays.

OBAMA’S NEXT HOSTAGE CRISIS? Pirates are flourishing because the world is letting them. It is, I think, a sign of the decline of the international legal system as it fails at one of its most basic tasks.

Meanwhile, Frank Warner is thinking outside the box.

VISCLOSKY UPDATE: Ind. Rep. Visclosky drops private firm earmarks. “U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky says he will not request any congressional budget earmarks for private, for-profit firms this year because of the ongoing federal investigation into a lobbying firm that had been his top campaign contributor.”

THOUGHTS ON blogs and integrity.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT JIM COOPER’S one-sided treatment of bloggers.

HAS THE RIGHT surrendered in the Culture War?

PJTV: Tea Party Poopers.

DAVID HARSANYI: The Fundamental Dishonesty of Arne Duncan: Why won’t the Department of Education stand up for D.C. school vouchers?

WSJ: Economists See No Job Recovery Until Late 2010.

“THEY’RE YOUR TRUE AUDIENCE — NOT THE MSM.” And all politics is local.

I’VE MENTIONED THE LEFTY COUNTERPOINT TO THE TEA PARTIES, Joe Trippi & Zephyr Teachout’s A New Way Forward. They’ll be marching this weekend to urge that banks that are “too big to fail” be broken up. This makes sense to me; I’ve said the same thing myself, as has Jerry Pournelle. Michelle Malkin is less supportive of their effort, and I’ll admit that there’s a bit of me-tooism here. But that kind of imitation is a mark of success — just as when the Beatles inspired the Monkees. . . . I predict, though, that the New Way Forward campaign will get more sympathetic, and probably just more, press than the Tea Parties even though by all appearances it will be much, much smaller.

AMBER ALERTS AND THE SPEED BUMPS OF DEATH. Plus this observation: “Gosh, it’s almost like we shouldn’t rely on sports analogies to build a criminal justice system.”

ALL-GIRL ROBOTICS TEAM TAKES HIGH HONORS.

NASSIM TALEB: 10 Ways to Avoid “Black Swan” Problems.

EUGENE VOLOKH ON bloggers demanding money from organizations whose policy proposals they promote.

PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: San Jose pension costs soar as stock market withers.

The projected increase in the city’s pension rates is substantially higher than what Santa Clara County officials expect to have to pay into the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which covers county workers and those of most other local cities. Deputy County Executive Luke Leung said CalPERS has told local agencies to expect increases ranging from 2 to 5 percent of payroll, which would cost an additional $3.8 million to $9.5 million beginning in the county’s 2011 budget year.

San Jose’s projected new rates are much higher, in part because the city’s investment strategy offers less time in which to make up for losses. The new report suggests the city’s contribution rate for police and firefighter pensions will increase from the current 22.5 percent of payroll to as much as 57.8 percent in the 2010 budget year.

By 2013, that rate could hit 70.1 percent. And those rates do not include the additional costs of retiree health care benefits. (Projections for the city’s other pension fund, which covers civilian workers, are still pending.)

I expect some other municipalities will face similar problems.

OBSCENE TOFU.

THOUGHTS ON power, prestige, and political messaging.

RASMUSSEN: Just 53% say capitalism is better than socialism. Hey, that’s a bigger percentage than Barack Obama got in November, and that was supposed to be a landslide! And capitalism doesn’t get the friendly press that Obama enjoyed . . . .

And note this proviso:

It is interesting to compare the new results to an earlier survey in which 70% of Americans prefer a free-market economy. The fact that a “free-market economy” attracts substantially more support than “capitalism” may suggest some skepticism about whether capitalism in the United States today relies on free markets.

Yeah, at least in the financial and automotive industries it’s more a kind of state capitalism. And, in fact, “Just 14% believe the federal government would do a better job running auto companies, and even fewer believe government would do a better job running financial firms.”