2300 SHOW UP FOR ST. LOUIS TEA PARTY, only 30 show up for St. Louis “Coffee Party.” And that 30 includes the “tea party infiltrators.”

IT’S ABOUT TIME: Boosting economic competitiveness in the states.

FAILING UPWARD: Sulzberger’s Pay Doubles.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr.’s overall compensation as chairman of the New York Times Company “more than doubled to $6 million in 2009,” reports Dow Jones Newswires. That during a year during which many Times reporters and editors, who make about $100,000 a year, were subjected to a 5% pay cut, and reporters at the Globe, who make less than those at the Times, took a 5.9% pay cut. Something to remember the next time you read one of those New York Times editorials piously denouncing income inequality.

Indeed.

UPDATE: Maybe he just had a good diversity year. Oops — nope!

MEGAN MCARDLE: How Real Are The Defects In Toyota’s Cars? “Several things are striking. First, the age distribution [of drivers] really is extremely skewed. The overwhelming majority are over 55. . . . At any rate, when you look at these incidents all together, it’s pretty clear why Toyota didn’t investigate this ‘overwhelming evidence’ of a problem: they look a lot like typical cases of driver error. I don’t know that all of them are. But I do know that however advanced Toyota’s electronics are, they’re not yet clever enough to be able to pick on senior citizens.”

Note this Michael Fumento piece, too.

SCOTT BROWN: A year has been wasted while Democrats clung bitterly to ObamaCare.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ BLOGS on Muslim conversions to Christianity in the Third World. “One factor driving Islamic militancy in many nations is the sense that Christianity is growing. Outside of the West, evangelism and conversion are two of the most sensitive issues in the modern world.”

DAVID BROOKS flunks political history.

SHOCKER: Primary red light camera industry advocate in Florida fails to register as a lobbyist with the state.

IN THE MAIL: Disaster Law And Policy.

ADVICE TO POLITICAL SCIENTISTS, from Walter Russell Mead: “Rule to live by, folks: when your theory of how the world works starts sounding like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, it’s time to recheck those assumptions.”

HEH: WH Sources: Help Us Rahm, You’re Our Only Hope.

WINNERS: The National Book Critics Circle Awards.

JOHN FUND: Speaker Pelosi’s Treasure Hunt for Votes Isn’t Going Well.

LET’S HOPE NOT: “Today, in 2008, the price of 1 oz. of gold hit $1,000 for the first time. In future years, this may seem like the floor price.”

Plus, Uh oh. I’m not much of a fan of gold as an investment, though I bought a little bit a couple of years ago, and it’s done better than my stocks. But there’s no escaping regime uncertainty, even with gold.

DAILY MAIL: Congress should listen to states on the EPA. “THE governors of 18 states and two territories – including Democrats Joe Manchin and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear – have called on Congress to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency. The governors, in a letter to congressional leaders, cited the failure of the administration to weigh the economic fallout of EPA’s intention to regulate greenhouse gases.”

ALL THAT PRESIDENTIAL JAWBONING DIDN’T HELP: Las Vegas jobless rate hits all-time high of 13.1 percent.

UPDATE: More recent story here. “Men, minorities hit particularly hard.”

CLIMATEGATE: Senator Barrasso: Why Won’t Congressional Democrats Permit Science Oversight Hearings?

MICHAEL FUMENTO: Toyota Hybrid Horror Hoax.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: Is Foreign Ownership Of Our Debt A Threat To The United States? Plus this useful graphic.

PETER BERKOWITZ: Climategate Was an Academic Disaster Waiting to Happen.

What does this scandal say generally about the intellectual habits and norms at our universities?

This is a legitimate question, because our universities, which above all should be cultivating intellectual virtue, are in their day-to-day operations fostering the opposite. Fashionable ideas, the convenience of professors, and the bureaucratic structures of academic life combine to encourage students and faculty alike to defend arguments for which they lack vital information. They pretend to knowledge they don’t possess and invoke the authority of rank and status instead of reasoned debate.

Read the whole thing.

THE PRESIDENT IS NOT A BRAND.

From the comments: “President Edsel.”

MARCH 16TH: The People Surging Against ObamaCare. Marching on Washington Tuesday. I’m told PJTV will be covering it live.

FORCE OF NATURE? I think Sissy Willis kind of has a thing for Dan Riehl. At least a blog-crush, anyway . . . .

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

“WELL, THANKS FOR CLEARING THAT UP.”