ILYA SOMIN: Does the Supposedly Superior Expertise of Regulators Justify Libertarian Paternalism? They did such a bangup job regulating Goldman, Lehman, Fannie and Freddie. . . .

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON THE SUPREME COURT, and the difference between “Ivy League” and “Elite.”

THE worst coworkers ever.

POLIWOOD: James Cameron Goes Native.

PROF. KENNETH ANDERSON on Bill Clinton’s culpability at Waco.

An independent report on Waco written by the Harvard Professor of Law and Psychiatry, Alan A. Stone, for the then Deputy Attorney General Philip Heymann, says it “is difficult to believe that the US government would deliberately plan to expose twenty-five children, most of them infants and toddlers, to CS gas for forty-eight hours”. Unfortunately, however, that appears to have been exactly the plan. . . .

Professor Stone’s report is measured, careful and damning. It is hard to know whether Heymann’s courage in commissioning it was a reason for his subsequent departure from the Justice Department. In the mean time, questions about the performance of the Justice Department are treated by the Clinton administration not as serious allegations of criminal activity, but as little more than a below-the-belt salvo in the culture wars.

I was shocked to read in Stone’s report that the Justice Department had undertaken, and had defended in the press as such, activities which if conducted in wartime would constitute war crimes. Because exposing the children to CS gas was the point of the FBI exercise: no children exposed, no pressure.

And yet Janet Reno and Bill Clinton got a pass from the media at the time. Because, you know, they were on the right side of the culture wars. But Clinton’s re-opened this can of worms, and people are talking again.

ANN ALTHOUSE: Marc Ambinder would like you to conceptualize obesity as social inequity. “Ambinder is making an argument. It’s an argument about the unfairness of obesity, an argument designed to justify new government policies and spending.”

Funny how every problem seems to wind up as an argument designed to justify new government policies and spending. Probably including in-the-tank journalism: More subsidies for journalistic diversity! And a tax on FoxNews!

REVOLVING DOOR: Former WH Counsel Craig goes to Goldman Sachs.

DAVID BOAZ: Libertarians, Independents, and Tea Parties.

MICKEY KAUS: Obama to Save Boxer Like He Saved Corzine! “Do Obama and Boxer realize they are on the wrong side of a tsunami of voter discontent with a government run by and for the public employee unions?”

THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE is up!

VOLCANO FALLOUT: Michael Jennings is stranded and suffering in the Ukraine.

TIM CAVANAUGH: It’s not that things are bad, it’s that they’re not bad enough.

It’s not hard to persuade people these days that they’re doing worse than they were 10 years ago. My own career and financial prospects are in every way worse and more hopeless than they were in 2000, and I’m ready to join any revolution that will reverse my catastrophically bad decisions and foil the shadowy enemies who have kept me down. But Judson’s remedies turn out to be the same old recipe—new financial regulations, more spending on education, more accountability—that you hear from every politician.

This is the problem with the new declinism. With no compelling vision of the apocalypse that doesn’t involve zombies, cyborgs, or outlaw bikers, we tend to miss something obvious: The problem isn’t that things are collapsing. It’s that not enough things are collapsing. General Motors, AIG, and the government of California have committed enough errors to merit immediate extinction, but there they still are.

Yet the political establishment continues to argue that the market needs to be prevented from delivering rough justice to sinners.

Read the whole thing.

UNCLE JAY Explains Everything.

JIM TREACHER: How is Ashley Dupre Like The Terminator? “They’re both famous for having a governor in them.”

HERSCHEL SMITH on Michael Yon, McChrystal, and the Milbloggers.

BOB ZUBRIN: Obama’s Failure To Launch. I have to say, I’m more with Buzz Aldrin on this one, in favor of Obama’s approach, than with Zubrin. But Bob’s a smart guy, so read what he has to say.

CATERINA FAKE answers your questions.

MESSAGE TO SCHWARZENEGGER: Pay up, or Maria gets it.

AIR TRAVEL’S GOLDEN AGE: Not So Golden?

I have a copy of TWA’s flight schedule from June 1, 1959. The first jets were being introduced into the fleet, but the vast majority of flights were still on propeller-driven aircraft. There’s an ad in the timetable for TWA’s low coast-to-coast “excursion fares.” Los Angeles to New York was only $168.40 roundtrip, if you traveled Monday through Thursday in Sky Club Coach class. That bargain is roughly equivalent to $1,225 today, before tax.

These fares weren’t valid on the fastest aircraft, so you had only two options, neither of which went nonstop. There was the 10:10 a.m. departure from Los Angeles that arrived in New York at 11:41 p.m. that night or the 7:55 p.m. departure that arrived at 10:56 a.m. the next day — more than 12 hours in the air. This was on a Lockheed Constellation, which, while beautiful, bounced you around in the weather at about 20,000 feet, far below the 35,000 to 40,000 feet you’d cruise at today. Even when the weather was good, that trademark prop vibration left you feeling like you were sitting on a washing machine for hours after you landed.

So what exactly was so good about the old days? The service was excellent, and the meals in First Class were quite indulgent. But in Sky Club Coach, the timetable noted, “Box lunches must be purchased at airport before departure.” As in most cases, memories get better with age. Today, you can fly across the country in less than half the time for less than a quarter of the inflation-adjusted price, and you can watch TV or surf the Web along the way.

Read the whole thing.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: “Mike Allen’s account* of the grievance meeting between the White House Press Corps and Secretary Robert Gibbs feels like watching a once famous profession in a sad state of decline. At a 75 minute meeting the White House Correspondents Association begged for crumbs.”

TAILGUNNER JOE KLEIN: I have here in my hand, a napkin with the names of seditionists…

JAMES TARANTO: Why The Left Needs Racism: It Serves A Political Purpose.

The political left claims to love racial diversity, but it bitterly opposes such diversity on the political right. This is an obvious matter of political self-interest: Since 1964, blacks have voted overwhelmingly Democratic. If Republicans were able to attract black votes, the result would be catastrophic for the Democratic Party. Even in 2008, the Democrats’ best presidential year since ’64, if the black vote had been evenly split between the parties (and holding the nonblack vote constant), Barack Obama would have gotten about 48% of the vote and John McCain would be president.

To keep blacks voting Democratic, it is necessary for the party and its supporters to keep alive the idea that racism is prevalent in America and to portray the Republican Party (as well as independent challengers to the Democrats, such as the tea-party movement) as racist. The election of Barack Obama made nonsense of the idea that America remains a racist country and thereby necessitated an intensifying of attacks on the opposition as racist.

Read the whole thing.

HEH: Angry Teabaggers Heckle Mr. Wonderful. Amusing headline, under the circumstances . . . .

UPDATE: Related: Video: Obama Gets Testy With Hecklers.

ANOTHER MULTIPLE SHOOTING IN A “GUN-FREE ZONE:” Here in Knoxville.

ROGER SIMON: Guns, Religion, and NASCAR.