CREDENTIALISM AND MORE: Charlie Stross on Britain’s higher education bubble.

UPDATE: Related: Finishing schools for gilded youth?

Interesting discussion in the comments at both places. I note that Clay Shirky says he’s reading Seeing Like A State, a book that I think pretty much everyone should read. It would have been enormously helpful if Barack Obama had read it.

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF SLUTTY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES. Those seem to be the only kind anymore, but maybe there’s a reason: “Holloway says he knows a woman who went to a party wearing a great zombie costume and didn’t meet anyone because she didn’t look attractive.”

Shoulda gone with the Slutty Zombie costume, obviously. . . .

CHANGE: New Gallup Poll Shows Discretionary Spending At All Time Low, Backs Double-Dip Theory.

COOL: A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945. Except for North Korea’s.

WISCONSIN JUDGE RULES STATE CONCEALED-WEAPON BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL: “In light of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago, attorney William Poss filed a motion to dismiss the case on constitutional grounds. Judge Jon Counsell obliged Wednesday, ruling the law is overly broad and violates both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution.”

BARACK OBAMA: ECONOMY STOKES TRIBAL ATTITUDE.

Of course, some people are counting on us-and-them attitudes.

And some people are really counting on us-and-them attitudes. “Rich Whitey?” Really? Well, hell, it’s a pretty accurate description of the Greens . . . .

MEAN, BUT ACCURATE: “Shrieking harridans Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walk off set.” That’s from Jim Treacher, who can be counted on to be both.

HERESY: VALERIE JARRETT HAS TO APOLOGIZE FOR CALLING HOMOSEXUALITY “A LIFESTYLE CHOICE.” Ann Althouse comments:

I remember back in the 1980s, in the radical enclaves of the University of Wisconsin Law School and similar places, when it was heresy to say that sexual orientation was inborn. I remember getting snapped at by a very prominent left-wing lawprof for referring without scorn to research that showed some evidence that sexual orientation was innate. It was all about choice back then, and the choice model was deemed to be the framework upon which gay rights would be built.

It’s not merely important to have the proper views. It’s important to have the proper views when everyone else has them.

WSJ: The 2010 Spending Record: In two years, a 21.4% increase. And we’ve gotten sooo much for our money . . . .

CHANGE: Michelle Obama electioneering in polling place? “You kind of have to drop the standard for the first lady, right?”

Election laws, like taxes, are for the little people.

RINO-HUNTING IN UTAH: Stephen Green Interviews David Kirkham.

CHEESEBURGERS FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE. Dietary supervision, like taxes, is for the little people.

WOW: Ruth McClung has raised $77,000 today in her “Goodbye Grijalva” Moneybomb campaign. She’s trying to get to $100K before the end of the night.

Around here, I notice that the NRCC is running ads against Rep. Lincoln Davis, who’s had Tea Party opposition for quite a while.

RESEARCHER: Claims of Tea Party racism bogus. “A new analysis of political signs displayed at a tea party rally in Washington last month reveals that the vast majority of activists expressed narrow concerns about the government’s economic and spending policies and steered clear of the racially charged anti-Obama messages that have helped define some media coverage of such events.” You don’t say.

SHOWDOWN: Best Food Processor: Cuisinart or Kitchenaid?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Anatomy Of Petulance.

I was fascinated watching the recent Obama campaign stops, particularly the contrast with 2008. Gone are the faux columns and classical backdrops. There are no more vero possumus seals (now they fall off the podium). All pretense of “no more red states, no more blue states” nonpartisanship has long ago been dropped. Even the shrill, boilerplate evocation of “Bush-Cheney did it” sounds strained. The blatant divisive appeal to unions, young people and “black folks” is now unapologetic. Them versus Us is the new theme. Gone is the pretense of inclusivity. Even the fainting now seems rigged rather than spontaneous, the faux-cadences forced and more Rev. Wrightish rather than inspired. The eyes of the crowd roll, and have lost their glazed zombie look of 2008. It all reminds me of the failed comeback tour of the proverbial fading rock star, the desperate promos for the sinking supposed blockbuster Hollywood movie, or perhaps something akin to Jerry Ford’s WIN buttons, or the Carter desk thump.

Read the whole thing.

HOW THE MEDIA created the Tea Party.

MATT WELCH: The Democratic Way of Prohibition, Redux.

ROGER SIMON: Is California Insane?

DEFLATING THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE by making lenders share the risk that graduates won’t earn as much as advertised.

IF HISTORICAL EVENTS had Facebook statuses.

ANNOUNCING THE 2010 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NOMINEES.

PHYSICS SAYS cellphones can’t cause cancer. “Cell phones cannot cause cancer, because they do not emit enough energy to break the molecular bonds inside cells. Some forms of electromagnetic radiation, such as x-rays, gamma rays and ultraviolet (UV) radiation, are energetic enough to break the bonds in key molecules such as DNA and thereby generate mutations that lead to cancer. Electromagnetic radiation in the form of infrared light, microwaves, television and radio signals, and AC power is too weak to break those bonds, so we don’t worry about radios, televisions, microwave ovens and power outlets causing cancer.”

BRIAN MICKLETHWAIT: Who Are The Real Islamophobes?

“MEANWHILE, CHRIS MATTHEWS IS AN IDIOT.” One of those evergreen headlines.