DAHLIA LITHWICK NOT FEELING THE LOVE: Cowardly, Stupid, and Tragically Wrong: The Obama administration’s appalling decision to give Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a military trial.

ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCHERS have five new genes to ponder.

PILOTS REPORT ON the air war over Libya.

THE “OTHER” PENSION CRISIS.

THE RYAN PLAN: Not bold enough?

FROM TOM DAVIES: Can You Handle the Truth? The Framers Preserved Common-Law Arrest and Search Rules in ‘Due Process of Law’ – ‘Fourth Amendment Reasonableness’ is Only a Modern, Destructive, Judicial Myth.

POPULARITY: Politico: Parody Obama Campaign Launch Ad Gets More Views Than Real Obama Campaign Launch Ad.

SALMAN KHAN’S TED LECTURE: Let’s Use Video To Reinvent Education.

TOP GEAR PRESENTS its side of the Tesla story.

SPACEX HAS ANNOUNCED ITS NEW ROCKET, the Falcon Heavy, and it sounds rather ambitious.

HOPE: House Republican Budget Calls for 25% Top Individual and Corporate Tax Rate.

Plus, comparing Paul Ryan’s budget and Barack Obama’s. More (including helpful charts) here.

IN THE MAIL: Life Without Oil: Why We Must Shift to a New Energy Future.

CHANGE: Inflation inflicting pain, as wages fail to keep pace with price hikes. “It’s not just that prices are rising — it’s that wages aren’t. Previous bouts of inflation have usually meant a wage-price spiral, as pay and prices chase each other ever upward. But now paychecks are falling further and further behind. In the past three months, consumer prices have been rising at a 5.7 percent annual rate while average weekly wages have barely budged, increasing at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent.”

DAVID LETTERMAN is missing the Bush Administration.

GEITHNER: U.S. To Hit Debt Ceiling By May 16. Well, if there’s a government shutdown that should extend the date considerably.

DAVID FREDDOSO: Nice Ruling — So Does This Mean I Can Opt Out Of Social Security? Don’t count on it.

FEEL THE HOPE, FEEL THE CHANGE! America May Be Involved In Libya For Many Years, Experts Say.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Great College Degree Scam.

NEXT WEEK: It’s Yuri’s Night. The 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.

Xeni Jardin is into the spirit. Plus, art and video contests.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

THE INSTA-WIFE ON PRINCE WILLIAM’S DECISION NOT TO WEAR A WEDDING RING, and the reaction thereto. Is a man’s decision not to wear a ring a gesture of liberation, like a woman’s decision not to take her husband’s name?

ROBERT FARAGO: Calderon’s Silence on ATF Gunrunning Scandal Explained: “Mystery surrounds the ATF Gunwalker scandal. Who authorized the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ stingless sting operation that allowed, indeed enabled thousands of U.S. guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels? Why is the Obama administration stonewalling the Congressional investigation of Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious? What else are they hiding? And here’s another one: why has Mexican President Felipe Calderon remained on the sidelines of this story, continuing to cozy-up to President Obama when it’s clear that Uncle Sam supplied weapons to the narco-terrorists plaguing his country? Well, it looks like we might have an answer. . . . Anabel Hernández has made quite the charge: the Sinaloa cartel has bought the Mexican government lock, stock and Calderon. What’s more, the DEA knows about the corruption and plays ball with Calderon to catch other cartels, giving the Sinaloas a pass. Which would account for Calderon’s lack of indignation on the whole Gunwalker deal.” Well, stay tuned.

WASHINGTON POST: Obama Administration Moving Ahead With Government Shutdown Plans.

I HATE ILLINOIS RACISTS: Racial slur led to fight with Illinois trooper, student says. “The politically connected head of Gov. Pat Quinn’s Southern Illinois security detail used a racial slur against a black college student in a Carlinville bar, starting a fight that preceded the officer’s resignation, the student says. . . . Snider, one of Quinn’s top security people and a well-connected member of the region’s Democratic power structure, resigned shortly after what officials have described as a barroom ‘altercation.’ The following day, Snider also resigned without explanation as head of the Macoupin County Democratic Party and president of the Carlinville School Board.”

HISTORY: “Today, in 1933, FDR signed an Executive Order prohibiting the private ownership of gold.” You know, you sometimes hear people talk about how Americans have lost the sturdy individualism of past generations, but I rather doubt that you’d see the kinds of actions taken by FDR — or, worse, Woodrow Wilson — accepted as meekly today.