ROLLING BLACKOUTS IN JAPAN due to reactors being offline.

UPDATE: Death Toll Estimate in Japan Soars as Relief Efforts Intensify.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Danger Posed by Radioactivity in Japan Hard to Assess. Indeed.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOT MUCH: 7th Fleet repositions ships after contamination detected. “For per­spec­tive, the max­i­mum poten­tial radi­a­tion dose received by any ship’s force per­son­nel aboard the ship when it passed through the area was less than the radi­a­tion expo­sure received from about one month of expo­sure to nat­ural back­ground radi­a­tion from sources such as rocks, soil, and the sun.”

OBAMA: “He is in over his head and he knows it.”

THE GREAT TRACTORCADE that wasn’t. If it had been organized by Tea Partiers, the Times et al. would be calling it a “pitiful handful.”

ARE WE LIKE THE GREEK VASE PAINTERS? “This is the length of time it usually takes for a people, after a far-reaching social change, to get habits which are no longer relevant thoroughly out of their system; for the first generation of survivors are still people brought up under the old order, and the second generation are people brought up by people who were brought up under the old order.” I suspect that a lot of social virtues now are practiced more out of habit than for any other reason. Will they persist down the line?

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, PEOPLE WHO SPOKE OUT ON PRISONER TREATMENT WOULD BE PUNISHED: P.J. Crowley out at State. “P.J. Crowley is out as chief spokesman at the State Department after he publicly criticized the Defense Department’s handling of WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning, a senior administration official said Sunday.”

Plus, Mark Kleiman agonistes. Ah, remember the fierce moral urgency of change? Me neither.

CHANGE: On April 1st, U.S. Will Have World’s Highest Corporate Tax Rate. Note how everyone else’s rates have been going down.

THE PERILS OF SELF-SATISFIED CONDESCENSION: Gawker Misspells ‘New Hamshire’ [sic] in Article Slamming Bachmann as Ignorant.

TWO CHOICES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: LIBYA, AND MOROCCO?

AT AMAZON, markdowns on DVD and Blu-Ray.

WISCONSIN: Unions plan more protests and a recall effort, as authorities ID death threat sender.

EXPERTS: Mega-quake, tsunami could happen here. And already have.

MANAGING THE NARRATIVE: ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NBC and NPR Ignore Death Threats to Wisconsin Republicans. Disgraceful, but they’re no longer the least bit ashamed to be in the tank.

ANN ALTHOUSE has more on the Wisconsin happenings.

And reader Hal Crawford writes: “Just so you know, I know I have written to you before suggesting that I thought that Ann Althouse was a bit overexposed on your blog. But I have to say, never has she been more relevant than now, keeping us posted on the Wisconsin political scene. Wisconsin is truly holding the front lines for what are going to be huge union battles over the coming years.” Yes, she and Meade deserve a blog-Pulitzer, or whatever the equivalent is.

WHY IS IT SO EASY for Lila Rose and James O’Keefe? “Why has this been so easy? Because until now Planned Parenthood, ACORN, and NPR have not experienced real media accountability or real journalistic scrutiny — at least not to the extent that conservative politicians and organizations do. The mainstream media (and NPR is obviously part of the MSM) is sympathetic to their goals and purposes, and reporter calls tend to come from friendly voices seeking talking points rather than skeptical reporters demanding answers. In the MSM’s eyes, those organizations were the good guys, part of the home team. . . . Thus, they enjoy the casual confidence and sometimes-startling honesty that comes when one feels they’re ‘among friends.’ They fall for the crudest of tricks and don’t bat an eye at the incongruity of slamming the alleged intolerance of Christian conservatives while courting funding from self-described members of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

OBAMA SPEAKS on gun control.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Union mobocracy drowns out democracy in Wisconsin. “Worst of all, many credible death threats were received by Republican legislators and are now being investigated by Wisconsin law enforcement authorities. Union mobocracy is what we get with gangster government, whether it’s practiced in Washington, D.C., a state capital, or the county where you live.”

WISCONSIN: A firsthand report on the drive to recall a “fleebagger” state senator.

PEOPLE ARE ASKING ME WHERE TO DONATE TO HELP JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS: Clarice Feldman is recommending AmeriCares.

UPDATE: Reader Robert Crawford emails: “Not sure about AmeriCares, but my wife and I just donated to the Red Cross, which has a specific fund for Japan on its website. An ABC website has some suggestions. Those poor people need help.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns on patio furniture. Plus, top-rated grills.

BILL CLINTON: These delays on oil drilling permits are ridiculous. “Bill Clinton sounds a lot more like George W. Bush these days than Barack Obama. In fact, that comparison was easy to make, thanks to Bush’s presence at the conference, and Clinton himself made it. . . . I’ve been missing George Bush for more than two years. Who knew I’d be missing Bill Clinton by this time? Let’s hope we don’t get to the point where we’re missing …. Jimmy Carter.” As I’ve said before, Jimmy Carter now represents a best-case scenario.

UPDATE: Reader Patrick Kelly writes: “I really miss the days when I could believe that your ‘Jimmy Carter is the best case scenario’ was hyperbole.” What’s worse is, I’m generally regarded as excessively optimistic. . . .

THINGS THEY THINK YOU’RE BETTER OFF NOT KNOWING: Video of Friday’s slaying of Jews by Palestinians banned by YouTube and Facebook.

THE INSTAWIFE ON THE RADIO, talking about male-bashing.

HOW TO SURVIVE A PIRATE ATTACK.

CHANGE: Congress blocks military orders that restrict gun rights.