ONLINE STARTUPS target rising textbook costs. Thanks to reader Adina Dabu for the link. This is progress, but of course — as outrageous as textbook costs are — they’re just a drop in the bucket.

ANDREW BREITBART: O’Keefe Owes His Supporters an Explanation. I think early success made him cocky. Don’t get cocky, kid.

ED DRISCOLL SAYS I TOLD YOU SO! And so did I!

SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION: Rahm Emanuel’s White House Visitor Trail.

I’M NOT SURE THIS SHOULD BE FILED UNDER “HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE,” BUT. . . . Investigators say dean made students do housework for scholarships. “Investigators say a former vice president and dean at a New York university forced students to cook, clean, wash clothes and chauffeur her family — and threatened that their scholarships would be revoked if they refused. An arrest affidavit unsealed by federal prosecutors this week alleges that Cecilia Chang required scholarship students at St. John’s University to take out the garbage, shovel snow and cook food at her home in Queens, New York.”

GLORIA ALLRED UPDATE: “Gloria, this is almost delusional.” Video at the link.

ARE ANGELS the new vampires?

SHOCKINGLY, NOT MICHAEL BELLESILES: Man Convicted Of Impersonating Scholar.

AND I REMEMBER BACK WHEN HE WAS NOT-MENTIONING BILL CLINTON: Al Gore fails to mention President Barack Obama during Democratic rally in Florida .

STANDING UP FOR “DIRTY JOBS.”

Rowe explained that “dirty” jobs, like those in manufacturing and farming, used to mean success, but now look like settling. He wants that to change.

“I don’t think the country is going to fall back in love with manufacturing and I don’t think these policies are going to change, until or unless we reignite a fundamental relationship with dirt, work, and the business of making things, as opposed to the business of buying them,” he said.

He said one of reasons this is occurring is because community colleges and vocational education have taken the backseat to four-year college degrees.

“It’s not happening because people hate community colleges, it’s not happening because people hate the trades, it’s happening because we’re promoting a very specific kind of education at the expense of the others,” he said.

Indeed.

UPDATE: Reader Stephen Clark writes:

To Mike Rowe’s comments: Bravo! Decreasing support for vocational education has been one of the great mistakes in secondary education of the last 40 years. My grandmother on my mother’s side was the oldest of five children: 4 sisters and 1 brother. Her father was a house painter and wallpaperer and taught all of his children the trade – in the first decades of the 20th century. He believed, no matter what they did eventually, that all his children should have a trade at which they could earn a living on their own. Not bad advice then … or now.

And another reader emails:

I am a Looong time reader but have never contacted you. This made me want to. I am a very smart woman from a book-smart but not blue-collar family and I am a plumber. I sought this job out about five years ago and I think that I love my job more than almost anyone I know. I need a combination of mechanical intelligence (Obvious), social intelligence (you have to communicate with customers), and independence ( I am an employee of a medium-sized company but am on my own in the field (though I can call if I run into trouble)). I know that there is not an infinite demand for everyone in the U.S. to repair their neighbors house problems but damn, the high efficiency natural gas boilers come with computer controls and a 100 page manual. No-one should be ashamed to be the one who can come and make someone’s life better (If my grammar or spelling is off, I never claimed to have verbal intelligence :) )

No problem.

And reader Hugh Donohue notes that Rowe has a TED talk on the subject.

THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG: Rick Sanchez fired from CNN.

PICTURES FROM THE Paris Motor Show.

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST TORNADO HUNT.

THE HORROR: “Is there anything more frightening than seas of grandmothers waving American flags and singing ‘patriotic’ songs? I don’t think so.”

MORE J STREET SCANDAL.

TRAGIC NEWS: Heidi Klum’s Victoria’s Secret Run Comes To An End.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

HOW FLORIDA TRIES TO block grassroots political activity. The Institute For Justice is suing them.

Related: Study: How State Campaign Finance Laws Erect Barriers to Entry for Political Entrepreneurs.

LOOKING AT interstellar space missions.

DO TRANS-FATS boost baby obesity?

A WAY TO ATTACK NUCLEAR PLANTS: Industrial computer systems are typically far less secure than they should be, experts say.

HOW THEY SAY GOODBYE: White House Staff Gives Rahm Emanuel Dead Fish as Parting Gift.

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: What A Radical Republican Looks Like.

COMMERCIAL SPACE UPDATE: US congress clears private space taxis for lift-off.

ECO-FASCISM JUMPS THE SHARK: “With No Pressure, the environmental movement has revealed the snarling, wicked, homicidal misanthropy beneath its cloak of gentle, bunny-hugging righteousness.” It always ends up as mass murder, real or fantasized, with these people. That’s what they do. Treat them with all the respect they deserve.

UPDATE: Eco-Anschluss.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Remember that cocktail party game, Who Goes Nazi?