PREDICTING BOX OFFICE SUCCESS with Twitter?

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Despite Harsh Criticism, Tea Party Slips Into The Mainstream. “The release of the top three ‘tea party’ issues this week gives a glimpse of a small-government movement growing, maturing, and looking increasingly more like middle America. . . . Moreover, polls show that the anger at big government exhibited by tea party protesters is shared by many, if not most, Americans.”

Related item here. “The conventional wisdom about the Tea Party has not yet settled on any one definitive portrayal of the movement, but the data tell a fascinating story – over four out of 10 self-identified Tea Party members aren’t Republican, and a third don’t consider themselves conservative. . . . But what truly sets the Tea Party apart from even Republicans or conservatives broadly is its commitment to economic conservatism. Tea Party members, like voters overall, are very focused on the economy and jobs; some 36 percent say it is their top issue.”

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: The Greatness That Is Top Gear.

REX MURPHY: Please don’t call it “Human Rights.” “The core concept of human rights is the protection of the irreducible safety and dignity of the individual from the massive and arbitrary power of the state. Not, the state wandering in, with its apparatus and procedures, its boards and tribunals into the doings, or speech, of the individual.”

IN THE MAIL: From David Ignatius, The Increment: A Novel. About Iranian nukes.

STUDENT FEARS IN A “jobless America.”

LISTEN MY FRIENDS: A Tea Party report from Omaha. “It is telling that the organizers expected hundreds and instead got thousands.”

UPDATE: Reader Ernest Gudath writes: “No problem. The media, seeing thousands, will report dozens.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Eric S. McErlain applauds the Golden Palominos reference. But it was really a Moby Grape reference, though the Palominos’ cover is a creditable one.

WELL, TO BE FAIR, IT’S NOT LIKE THEY’D HAVE SAID ANYTHING DIFFERENT IF THEY HAD READ IT: Media Matters Criticizes Study Without Even Looking at It.

THE MANDATE: A fun hypothetical. This really isn’t a hypothetical, and it’s one with its own Constitutional clause.

FROM IOWAHAWK: Journo-politico Violence: Deadly Threat or Menacing Trend?

At the Media Violence Project, our charter is to protect public safety by researching, documenting and raising awareness about the ever-increasing wave of violent, disgusting crimes perpetrated by members of the American news media. It is a largely thankless task — often requiring a cast iron stomach — but if our work has prevented one more American child from falling victim to a criminally insane anchorman or newspaper reporter, it will all have been worth it. . . .

In the two years since the MVP issued our first report, another tidal wave of media-related bizarre or violent crimes has come to light, each more shocking than the last. Like CNN reporter Richard Quest, arrested in New York’s Central Park in 2008 brandishing a noose or ABC Miami reporter Jeffrey Weinsier, charged with entering a school with a firearm. Or New Hampshire Union Leader sports writer Kevin Provencher, charged with operating a prostitution ring. It is unknown whether Provencher’s alleged activities were related to WABC New York sports anchor Marvell Scott, who was arrested earlier this year for allegedly raping a 14-year old prostitute. It is also unclear whether this Granite State “mack daddy” used a “strong pimp hand” with his “bitches,” but he might have shared tips and techniques with fellow journalists like Jason Scott Kidd, charged in 2009 with hitting a woman in the face at a Mexican restaurant, Gawker editor Richard “Date Rape Tips” Blakely, arrested for domestic violence, or Boise anchorman and alleged wife beater David Tester.

Shocking as they are, these incidents scarcely scratch the surface of the global crime wave caused by rampaging journalists. Our in-depth biennial 30 minute Google search uncovered a seemingly endless catalog of journalist-related crimes, astonishing as much for their depravity as their number.

I sleep better knowing IowaHawk is on the job.

THIS IS COOL: Apps that provide better iPhone pics.

PHOTOS FROM BEN CHERTOFF: Good Friday at an Orthodox Cathedral. Ben emails: “I stumbled upon a stunningly beautiful Greek Orthodox Good Friday service (at 10pm) at a cathedral I never noticed existed, and the two church ladies in the back were publicists to the max; gave me full access to shoot the mass.” Another reason to have a camera with you all the time. . . .

ON NEIL CAVUTO, BLOGGER ADAM SHARP explains why I’m always encouraging people to have small cheap videocameras.

Here’s his blog, Sharp Elbows.

NO CRIMINAL CHARGES in AIG collapse?

MORE ON PRESS FRIENDLINESS.

TIM CAVANAUGH: Anti-Deadbeatism: Not Just For Heartless Libertarians Anymore!

CORY DOCTOROW: Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either). “I think that the press has been all over the iPad because Apple puts on a good show, and because everyone in journalism-land is looking for a daddy figure who’ll promise them that their audience will go back to paying for their stuff.”

UPDATE: A response. “Now, now, you boys. Moms may not care about fiddling with the inner workings of technological devices, but that doesn’t mean we’re not mentally sharp. And — mom-o-phobia aside for a second — in general, smart people are not interested in paying attention to computer stuff. We just want tools to get to and engage in the things we’re interested in. Maybe, you’re missing that because computers happen to be one of the things you’re interested in.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Lee Willis writes: “Can I point out that Cory Doctorow’s criticism of the iPad and Apple applies equally to ObamaCare? Both the description of the problem of a top-down, closed system, and of the sycophantic press.”

STATING the obvious.

HEADING TOWARD THE CARTER ZONE? Actually, I think this is the exploitative sequel: Attack from Beyond The Carter Zone. With a cast of unknowns, and unconvincing special effects.