MICHAEL BARONE: The Damning Contradictions Of Obama’s Attack on Libya. I’ve got no problem with taking down Khaddafy, which has been a U.S. goal for decades. I just think we’re bungling it. Waging war halfheartedly, on the cheap, and by committee is not a formula for success.

UPDATE: Who’s in charge? Germans pull forces out of NATO as Libyan coalition falls apart. Like I said. So where’s that “smart diplomacy” we were promised? I guess in the same place as the “fiscal sobriety.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson weighs in. Under Bush, we were the world’s policeman. Under Obama, the world’s Keystone Kops.

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Sports and Outdoors.

SHERROD BROWN: Card Check Is Dead.

HEH: Joe Biden: War Without Congressional Approval Warrants Impeachment.

DANA MILBANK: Obama’s Quick Trip From Tyrant To Weakling. It’s not really a trip. He’s always been thuggish at home and ineffectual abroad. The two faces of Obama are just more clearly juxtaposed, lately.

ERIC POSNER: Has Obama Taken the Imperial Presidency to a Greater Height than Bush? Well, unlike Bush he didn’t seek Congressional approval before starting his war. And then there’s his heavy-handed domestic policy.

THE REBELLION IN SYRIA: Still strengthening.

SO IS THIS THE HOPE OR THE CHANGE? Gary Shilling: House Prices Will Drop Another 20%. In my neighborhood, houses that sold were going for 15% less than in 2005-2006. Now they’re at that price and not selling.

MORE ON ACADEMIA’S DIVERSITY PROBLEM: “So, if I understand this, self selection is AOK when it results in a predominance of liberals on campus, but it is not OK when it results in a shortfall of women in science?”

NEWS: DOJ Memo Confirms Terrorists Have Crossed the Border. The Mexican border with the U.S., that is.

PENTAGON RELIEF EFFORTS also rebuild U.S. / Japan relations. Interesting story. The consensus-based Japanese bureaucracy doesn’t seem to deal with emergencies as well as with peacetime.

JOHN JUDIS IN TNR: How The Left Got Libya Wrong.

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: “We are at war.” I thought people weren’t supposed to use that kind of language. You know, because it might encourage some nut to be violent.

MICHAEL KINSLEY: Obama’s Libya Policy: How Did This Happen? Plus this: “If Qadhafi is still in power a year from now, even if he is obeying the ‘no fly’ rules, it will be regarded world-wide as more evidence of America’s decline as a great power and regarded in America as evidence that Democrats in general and Obama and Hillary Clinton in particular are not ready to play foreign policy with the big children.”

THE HILL: President Obama Struggles To Define Mission In Libya.

Here’s some guidance for free: “If you strike at a king, you must kill him.”

JOURNALISM: “The New York Times paywall is costing the newspaper $40-$50 million to design and construct, Bloomberg has reported. And it can be defeated through four lines of Javascript.”

TAXES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Citizen Journalist Confronts Claire McCaskill — Air Claire Takes Flight.

CHANGE: Portugal braces for govt collapse over debt vote.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Public Employees Rush To Retire. “The forces driving the retirements, government officials say, can’t be helped. Many states have record budget gaps due to decreases in tax collections and pension obligations they can’t meet. They have responded with layoffs and furloughs, and lately have been pushing to reduce the amount of money they promise future retirees. The moves are motivating many public employees to retire sooner than expected, as public employees take the opposite approach of many workers who have put off retirement to recoup personal wealth lost during the recession.”

BUSH ON IRAQ, OBAMA ON LIBYA: A study in contrasts.

THE ANCHORESS LOOKS AT OBAMA’S BUSH-LIKE APPROACH TO LIBYA AND COMMENTS: “I guess what I’m wondering is, how much further along would the Iraq government’s stabilization be — how much further along would the quest for democratic governance be, in the Middle East (and how much less reluctant would tyrants be to try to stop it by killing their own people), if only the Democrats hadn’t wasted 6 years politicizing our efforts and another two years bowing and scraping and restarting and gasbagging and doing everything they could to say, ‘we’re not Bush,’ only to become all they said they hated?”

CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Failing Upward.

MORE ON UNIVERSITY FACULTIES’ SERIOUS DIVERSITY PROBLEM: “I don’t know any serious conservative who disbelieves that self-selection plays a significant role in creating our current, left-dominated faculty. After all, we’re now dealing with several generations of leftist dominance, including — dating back from at least the Sixties — the perception that the universities represent the national headquarters of leftist, counter-cultural dissent. The university faculty, from students’ first substantial exposure to it, looks and acts like a closed shop. The topics they study don’t interest conservatives, and the culture they’ve created is often repellent to conservatives. And because the university culture doesn’t value conservative voices — and only wishes to cleanse itself of the stain of overt bias — it will trumpet studies like these as evidence that disparities are entirely the fault of conservatives.” But who, really, is buying that? And, more seriously, who will be interested in paying to continue such a culture, now that money is gettting tight?

OKAY, I’D BE TEMPTED TO BUY THIS UNDERWATER SCOOTER, except that I don’t think I’d like checking it as baggage. Also, alas, I don’t get to go diving that often anyway. And my experience with scooter diving in the past has been kinda mixed. But I still want one — it’s a gadget! For diving!

A TEXTBOOK LICENSE THAT demands you be a good person.