FUEL ECONOMY: Wayne Gerdes hypermiles 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid to Guinness record with 64.55 mpg. “Kia’s 48-state challenge was completed in 14 days, with the Optima Hybrid averaging 564 miles a day and consuming just over 5.5 tanks of gasoline. Crunch those numbers and you’ll discover the Optima Hybrid averaged 1,418 miles between fill-ups. That, right there, is what hypermiling is all about.”

LARRY ALEXANDER on self-defense.

JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH MICHAEL YON, who called from Afghanistan via Satphone. He says that things have turned around and that we’re winning, though he wonders whether the country will stick with it long enough to make it stick. Still, a surprisingly upbeat take. On the other hand, he’s been there for months and he says that when he sees the news from back home, he worries about the United States more than about what’s happening in Afghanistan. I almost felt like I was in a John Ringo story there for a second, which is never a good feeling. . .

Anyway, if you haven’t checked out his site in a while, pay it a visit. He’s been posting a lot of new stuff, and he’s one of the few providing long-term coverage within Afghanistan. Amid all the disasters at home, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s going on over there, but troops are still fighting and dying. The least we at home can do is pay attention.

NOTHING, MY DEAR. NOTHING AT ALL. What’s wrong with being an Alpha Male?

I PREDICT THIS APPROACH WILL GROW CONSIDERABLY MORE POPULAR: Manchin’s Strategy For Surviving 2012 In A Red State: Bash Obama. As Democrats begin to see President Messiah as President Millstone, “distancing” and “localization of races” will be the new watchwords for candidates in all but the bluest areas — and maybe, given NY-09, even in those.

IT’S WORSE IF YOU CARRY AROUND ONE OF THOSE FLOWER-PRINT DIAPER BAGS: Study: Fatherhood Can Lead To Drop In Testosterone. “Testosterone, that most male of hormones, takes a dive after a man becomes a parent. And the more he gets involved in caring for his children — changing diapers, jiggling the boy or girl on his knee, reading ‘Goodnight Moon’ for the umpteenth time — the lower his testosterone drops. So says the first large study measuring testosterone in men when they were single and childless and several years after they had children. Experts say the research has implications for understanding the biology of fatherhood, hormone roles in men and even health issues like prostate cancer.”

ADAM KEIPER: Michele Bachmann’s Dangerous Flirtation With the Anti-Vaccine Movement. “With these remarks, Representative Bachmann has gone too far — irresponsibly aligning herself with the paranoid anti-vaccine fringe that has garnered so much attention in recent years for its celebrity-hyped lies about the dangers of vaccines.”

Also, Yuval Levin: “Whatever you think about the mandate debate, though, there is no excuse for Michelle Bachmann’s preposterously ill-informed assertion about the risks of the vaccine. . . . There is no evidence to support any link between this (or any) vaccine and mental retardation. None. Baseless assertions to the contrary about various vaccines have for years been piling needless guilt upon the parents of children with autism and other disorders, and driving other parents away from vaccinating their children against diseases that could do them great harm. A presidential candidate should not be engaging in such harmful nonsense.”

TODAY ONLY: 61% off The Pacific on Blu-Ray. “From producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks (‘Band of Brothers’) comes this 10-part HBO miniseries about the U.S.-Japan conflict in the Pacific during WWII, through the eyes of three Marines. ‘The Pacific’ won eight Emmys, including Outstanding Miniseries.”

HOWARD STERN exposes anti-semitism at NY Fashion Week.

BLOOMBERG: Poll: Obama Approval Drops On Skepticism Of Jobs Plan. So much for the Big Speech. Looks like President Millstone laid another egg.

BYRON YORK: New Report Cites “Regulatory Tsunami” Under Obama. It’s been as bad for our economy as Japan’s non-figurative tsunami was for theirs.

STEVE HAYWARD: Giving Up On Bachmann. The vaccine thing may have been a campaign-killer.

Yeah, there’s a double standard: “NBC Nightly News last night went to some trouble to attack Bachman’s views on the Gardisil vaccine. Fine; but why doesn’t NBC or the other major media perform the same service when anti-vaccine quackery comes from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Jenny McCarthy? No mystery here.” But that’s the environment Republican candidates have to operate in. And, really, is I’m no kookier than RFK Jr. or Jenny McCarthy a viable slogan?

UPDATE: Bachmann Stayed Quiet on Mandatory Vaccinations While Serving Minnesota.

HMM: Euro’s Crisis of Confidence: System May ‘Go Off the Rails.’

JOHN HAWKINS: Is The Arizona State Bar Targeting Conservatives?

MEGAN MCARDLE: Why Obama Was Never The Next FDR.

I’M NOT SURE IF THIS SHOULD GO UNDER “HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE” OR “HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA?” Study: College graduates driving increase in bankruptcy filings. “College graduates are the fastest-growing group of consumers who have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past five years, according to a new study by a financial nonprofit, which underscores the broad reach of the Great Recession.”

THE EPA’S JOB KILLING AGENDA IS NOT AN ACCIDENT: “Many analysts — including yours truly — have made the mistake of arguing that the Obama administration has no energy policy. But the evidence increasingly reveals that the administration does indeed have an energy policy, one that is designed to reduce access to fossil fuels by raising their price, thereby making ‘alternate’ or ‘green’ energy sources more attractive.”

UPDATE: Ric Locke emails:

Since that’s exactly what Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Chorus (“coal makes us sick!”) were saying during the campaign, it’s hard to be sympathetic to those who act surprised.

Pundits like Owens based their support on the assumption that Obama was lying, because nobody could possibly be that stupid. Woops.

Well, you have to admit, it did seem improbable that anyone could really be that stupid. And yet . . . .

THIS SEEMS UNDESIRABLE: Poll: Americans trust military, but not Congress. A country whose military is vastly more respected than its political branches is in a dangerous situation.

MICKEY KAUS: WHAT REALLY TERRIFIES DEMS ABOUT NY-O9.

It’s not that Obama’s ratings are so low that even this historically Democratic district decided to send a message of disapproval. Obama’s ratings may pick up, after all.

It’s not that Israel and gay marriage emerged as medium sized ”wedge issues” (translation: issues) that drove some Democrats in a quirky district heavily populated by Orthodox Jews to vote for Republican Bob Turner. Few other districts look like NY-9. ….

It’s the possibility that the Democrats favorite issue–-Social Security-–didn’t work to save them because Obama, too, has embraced cutting Social Security and Medicare in “some undefined ‘everything on the table’ entitlement reform,” as Weigel puts it. Could it be that the differences between Obama’s Medicare cuts and GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare cuts–differences that seem so significant to policy analysts in Washington (and to me)–don’t have much salience in the crude argumentation of direct-mail electioneering? Now that’s scary for a Dem. After decades of pledging not to touch the two sacred programs, it’s beginning to look as if Democrats can’t just suddenly agree to pull trillions out of Social Security and Medicare and expect voters to maintain their reflexive loyalties.

Yep.

UPDATE: Obama Falls Below 50% — In California.

Related: GOP Candidate Wins By 20 Points In Nevada Race. Not a great pair of special elections for the Dems.

More: Politico: Twin defeats spark Democratic fears. “In New York, Republican Bob Turner soundly defeated Democrat David Weprin in a House contest that – in the view of party leaders, at least — featured an anemic urban machine, distracted labor unions, and disloyal voters. In Nevada, a consequential state for the president’s re-election strategy, Democrats suffered a runaway loss rooted in a weak showing in Reno’s Washoe County, a key bellwether. . . . In a high-level campaign conference call Tuesday afternoon, Democratic donors and strategists commiserated over their disappointment in Obama. A source on the call described the mood as ‘awful.’”

New 2012 slogan: Re-elect President Millstone!

JAMES TARANTO: The Phony War On Unemployment: Even Robert Reich admits Obama’s so-called jobs bill was “never really serious.”

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ IS TRYING TO SPIN IT, but the Dems’ defeat in NY09 is a big f—in deal, to coin a phrase. And other Democratic officeholders have to be worrying if Obama will be an electoral millstone around their necks next year.

Well, here’s a hint: Obama got no bounce from job speech, disapproval rating peaks.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The War Against The Young: Detroit Edition. “Chrysler is experimenting with a two-tier pay system – high wages for experienced older workers and about half that salary for new, young recruits. Economists are excited because it brings in jobs without overburdening the company’s payroll; Via Meadia, on the other hand, sees the arrangement as just another battlefield in the war against the young. . . . When it comes to adjustments, the union movement and the older generation at large makes sure that the pain falls on the young rather than spreading it around. It’s a shame, especially since the young workers will also be paying taxes into Medicare to fund health care for seniors today that the country won’t be able to afford when today’s twenty-somethings want to collect. One of the big questions in American politics: will America’s young people realize they are being systematically scammed and organize to stop it, or will the older generations continue to pull the wool over those adorable little eyes?”

I KNOW NUSSINK . . . NUSSINK! Napolitano denies knowledge of Fast and Furious gun-tracking program. “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told senators Tuesday that she had no knowledge of a botched federal gun-tracking program while it was in operation. In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Napolitano said she was first made aware of the Fast and Furious program after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in the line of duty in Arizona in December 2010.”

ANOTHER LAW-SCHOOL REPORTING SCANDAL: University of Illinois investigating whether College of Law fudged figures. “The University of Illinois has launched an investigation into the accuracy of information about the median grade point average and LSAT scores disseminated by the College of Law about its incoming class.”

We need Law School Transparency.