THE “SMOKING GUN” of the Wisconsin Teachers’ Union Sickout. “Now there is proof that the sickout was a premeditated, union-authorized job action — a phone tree of teachers calling other teachers to close down the schools. This kind of activity is prohibited by the union’s own contract and illegal in WI Statute Chapter 111.84(2)(e).”

ONE TIME HE DIDN’T VOTE PRESENT, AND GUESS WHAT: WH: Obama regrets vote against raising debt limit. “The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama regrets his vote as a senator in 2006 against raising the debt limit — the same kind of increase he’s now pressuring Congress to approve.”

UPDATE: Reader Gary Petersen writes:

Wouldn’t That Be More Like “Another Rube Self-Identifies”?

I’m just sayin’.

Heh.

CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL bans homemade lunches. “Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.” More and more, it seems like parental malpractice to let your kids go to public schools, where they seem to be viewed as state property, and guinea pigs for social experimentation.

BATTLESPACE PREPARATION: Donald Trump: Obama Is To Blame For High Gas Prices.

ROBERT FARAGO: HBO “Gun Fight” Documentary Sounds Like a Sandbag Job. “Of course, Koppel’s audio appearance on NPR, rather than, say, Fox News, tells us pretty much all we need to know about her target audience (so to speak). But not everything. We’ll be watching.” Meh. I won’t.

MISSOURI’S DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEY GENERAL breaks ranks to oppose ObamaCare law.

You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind’s blowing.

NARRATIVE FAIL (CONT’D): “According to the caricature, the tea partiers elected a group of freshmen Republicans who want government slashed right now, can’t compromise, and are ready to let the heavens fall for the sake of ideological purity. They are, to use E. J. Dionne’s unfortunate phrase in his column today, ‘fire-eaters.’ In reality, most freshmen voted for the continuing resolution. Most of them voted for the last one, too–the one that the Club for Growth, Heritage Action, and other conservative groups were whipping against. Maybe you’re disappointed by the way the freshmen are behaving, or maybe you’re pleased, but either way they’re not conforming to the storyline.”

I wish that E.J. Dionne were right — but, really, how likely is that?

A ROSY FUTURE for the iPad? I like mine fairly well. It’s best for reading Kindle books — I like the dual-page landscape display — and for watching PJTV and other video. It’s barely functional for blogging, and only okay for checking email; it’s okay for Facebook but not as good as an iPhone, really.

ADVICE: Have More Kids, Pay Less Attention To Them. Bryan Caplan, in an excerpt from his new book.

DAVID BOAZ: Not Actually the Biggest Cut In History: “The fundamental point here is that federal spending rose by more than a trillion dollars during Bush’s first seven years, and then by almost another trillion in barely three fiscal years. And then we had a titanic battle over whether to trim $38 billion.”

THIS WEEK in the future.

REGULATORS AND the “Tommy Boy Problem.”

HOW SAFE IS YOUR ROTH IRA? It’s got money in it. The government wants money. “I don’t advise not saving. But I’ve started thinking about saving in ways that Uncle Sam won’t be tempted to touch–like paying off your house early, maybe buying a vacation home (for cash) if you know where you’re likely to want to spend a lot of time, and doing the kind of renovations that save you money in the long run–better insulation, higher-end energy-efficient appliances, etc.” Or maybe buying a vacation home overseas, the way inhabitants of third-world kleptocracies have done for years to avoid desperate grabs by debt-ridden regimes.

HEY, RUBE! Paul Krugman Wonders Where The President He Thought He Was Voting For Went To. “Krugman seems to think that he voted for Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman in November 2008 rather than Barack Obama. This, I suppose, is the problem with hooking your trailer onto a guy who was only in the United States Senate for a year and a half before he started running for President.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Take A 100% Tax Write-Off For A New Porsche, BMW or Cadillac.

MARKDOWNS ON handheld radio scanners.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFUSENIKS: “When you run down the list of issues the Oath Keepers are worried about, it reads a lot like a bill of particulars from the American Civil Liberties Union.” Well, they were organized by a Yale Law School graduate . . . .

PROF. JACOBSON: A Massachusetts Miracle In Wisconsin: “What happened is that the histrionics of the unions and national Democrats awakened the Republican, conservative and Tea Party bases both in Wisconsin and nationally. The Supreme Court election did become a proxy fight over Governor Walker, and that proxy fight ended in a failure for the unions and Democrats.”

Related thoughts from Beldar.

INSTEAD OF REQUIRING DISCLOSURE, how about requiring that campaign donations be anonymous?

DAN MITCHELL: The IRS Running Amok: Forcing Americans Banks to Put Foreign Tax Law Above U.S. Tax Law.

SPACE TOURISM: The New Space Race? “If Virgin and other companies succeed, space could soon become one more conquered frontier, with rocket rides to space becoming as accessible as plane rides across the Atlantic.”

ROBERT SAMUELSON: Suicidal Government On The Brink.

TARRED AND FEATHERED: Hey, he said it, not me. But maybe I should go long on tar and feathers futures. Er, how do you invest in those, anyway?

KEITH HENNESSEY: Why the Debt-Limit Fight Will Be Different.

YES, THIS DOES SOUND RATHER GHOULISH: “Why can’t Gabby Giffords run for the Senate? ‘We’ve had congressmen in Arizona who didn’t even have a brain’.”