LOU DOLINAR: Question Authority: Oppose High-Speed Rail!

$4.50 A GALLON: The tipping point for gas-price furor?

UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS: Assessing Governmental Responses to “Black Swan” Events.

CHANGE: Senate OKs measure to ban Tenn. income tax. “A proposal that would amend the Tennessee Constitution to ban an income tax has passed the Senate 28-5.”

This is more fallout from the Tennessee Tax Revolt of 1999. Which itself was something of a prototype for the Tea Party movement.

META-ANALYSIS: Mediterranean Diet Has Benefits.

HOW TO COOK LIKE A PRO AT HOME.

THE WAGES OF BIGOTRY: Ron Schiller now out at Aspen Institute.

FAKING FULLNESS with a gastric pacemaker. “An implant intended as a less drastic alternative to stomach stapling or stomach bypass surgery for the morbidly obese is now being sold in Europe. The device senses when a person is eating and generates a premature sensation of fullness by stimulating nerves that curl around the stomach.”

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Law of Unintended Consequences Hits ObamaCare. “It’s sort of appalling that this huge change came because one Senate staffer told an anecdote about how he would buy Prilosec instead of a prescription alternative.”

R.I.P., David Broder.

CRIME WRITER MAKES A KILLING with 99-cent e-books.

HOW DISCOVERY WILL MEET ITS DESTINY: “After the shuttle Discovery lands, it will almost certainly go on display at the Smithsonian — but not before it goes through a months-long round of technological taxidermy. NASA has already figured out how to pull out all the stuff on Discovery that could pose a health hazard, ranging from fuel tanks and plumbing to the thermal blankets that have soaked up toxic fumes for the past 26 years. The shuttle’s main engines will be removed, and replaced with mockups built out of replicas and spare parts. The crew cabin, on the other hand, will be preserved as is and spiffed up to look as if it’s ready for flight.”

NPR CEO VIVIAN SCHILLER resigns after scandal. Can we start calling it “the troubled network” yet?

UPDATE: David Folkenflik: She didn’t quit, she was fired.

TYRANNY’S ALLURE: Paul Rahe on Vogue’s shilling for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

IN THE MAIL: From Megan Shields, The Genesis (The Chronicles of the Naphtalene).

LARRY RIBSTEIN: Practicing Theory: Legal Education for the Twenty-First Century. “Law practice and legal education are facing fundamental changes. Many assume that these changes will force law schools to give up on theory and focus more on training students for the practice of law. However, this essay shows that the future may be more uncertain and complex. The only thing that is certain is that law schools may face, for the first time, the need to provide the type of education the market demands rather than serving lawyers’ and law professors’ preferences.”

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: ObamaCare Is A Mistake To Rank With Prohibition And The 55-Mile-an-Hour Speed Limit.

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE in theory and practice.

TODAY ONLY: An Infinity 6.1 home theater setup for $249.

UPDATE: As several readers point out, it’s a six-piece 5.1 system, not a 6.1 system. Caffeine must not have reached the math neurons yet when I posted this . . . .

TINY CUTS, BIG COMPLAINTS: “In the context of federal spending that will total something like $3.8 trillion this year, $61 billion is a rounding error. Yet the Democrats resisting that amount in House-approved cuts say it will wreck the economy while leaving children unschooled, taking food from the mouths of the elderly, and casting disabled people into the streets. Laughter is the only appropriate response to such predictions. In these absurd times, when both parties quibble over crumbs while the layer cake of debt rises higher and higher, laughter is a mark of fiscal seriousness.”

REASON TV: Cutting Government Spending-An Interview with Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño.

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WORKERS IN CHICAGO disciplined for porn at work.

NPR, PBS EFFORTS TO KEEP FEDERAL FUNDING CALLED ILLEGAL: “NPR and PBS stations nationwide are rallying their audiences to contact Congress to fight against Republicans’ proposed spending cuts, but some affiliates’ pleas may violate laws preventing nonprofits or government-funded groups from lobbying.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Anti-Faculty-Union Proposal in Ohio Came From Public-University Association.

THE EMPEROR FLIES THE CHOAM COMPANY FLAG: Obama to Nominate Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as Ambassador to China.

UPDATE: Yes, this is an obscure Dune reference.