HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: My Degree Isn’t Worth The Debt! Numerous graduates weigh in. Here’s one: “My debt is a life-swallowing, all-consuming, hole in my life. No college degree is worth that.”

UPDATE: Reader Brian Alleman writes:

I am a drilling engineer for a large independent natural gas producer. We are currently working with our New Mexico based drilling contractor and an Edmonton based rig manufacturer to build us a custom, built-for-purpose, state of the art drilling rig. Many of the components will be manufactured in various and sundry parts of the world (engines in Austria, mud pumps in China, top drives in the US) but the rig fabrication and assembly will all take place in Nisku, Alberta. In talking to the manufacturer I was blown away by the wages they are paying to their workers.

Welders who have just been certified with no working experience start at $32.00/hour. The more experienced guys are getting upwards of twice that. Hell, the guy who sweeps the floor is getting $18.00/hour. And they are working 50-60 hour weeks.

Now tell me who made the better choice, the guy who took out $80,000 in debt for a BA in journalism (from a state school at that!) and has to work 2 jobs or the guy who get a welding certificate for $12,000 (and in 7 months!) and now can make $1,500-$2,000 per week?

But working with your hands has less cachet among those who decry the slopeheads in flyover country. Of course, who cares what a bunch of broke people think . . .?

PROFESSOR JACOBSON: We approach the end of the light bulb as we know it, unless the revolution succeeds.

It’s not too late to stock up!

MEDIA DEEP THINKERS grapple with the rise of the Internet. On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog — but everyone can tell when your story is. . . .

CLIMATE CHANGE: Global Hurricane Activity At Historic Low. “Since 2007, global tropical cyclone activity has decreased dramatically and has continued at near-historical low levels.” Wait, weren’t we going to see a bunch of Katrinas every year or something?

OKAY, I HAD AN INSTAPUNDIT INTERN ONCE — it was Kevin Deenihan of the late, lamented CalStuff blog — but . . . well, no, I don’t think I’ll start that up again, though the idea did cross my mind there just for a second.

GROWING LABOR CONFLICT in China. “The worker unrest in Guangdong is occurring at a time of protests across Chinese cities and a series of bombings directed against government offices. There has been a noticeable increase in social discontent, which seems to have been aggravated by the hardline policies of Hu Jintao, the country’s current leader.”

WELL, GOOD: In Third Circuit, Landmark Victories for Student Speech Limit Schools’ Ability To Censor Students Online.

INSPECTOR GENERAL: IRS Still Does Not Comply With 1996 Federal Financial Management Law. Laws are for the little people.

GREENING THE SAHARA, WITH CLIMATE CHANGE. “This desert-shrinking trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna some 12,000 years ago.”

I HAD HOPED AMERICA WOULD OVERCOME THIS SORT OF RACISM: CBS Makes Herman Cain Sit At The Back Of The Poll.

AN UNDUE BURDEN ON SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS: In NYC, A Gun License Costs More Than A Gun.

ANN ALTHOUSE NOTES more questions about that hit piece on Wisconsin’s Justice Prosser.

Plus, from the comments: “It is strange that a state that is normally so normal is now so…out there.” I think the ruling class is unhinged by status anxiety. And as often happens, their panicked reaction is making the loss-of-status worse. Or at least more rapid. . . .

ADVICE ON beating the customer-service robots.

HOW TO FAIL at a job interview.

THE INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE WINS a Supreme Court free-speech victory.

UPDATE: Related: Supreme Court rejects ban on violent video game sales to kids.

IN THE MAIL: From Richard Miniter, Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

MICHAEL BARONE: Gulf Coast on the rise–California set to decline more.

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Americans Spend At Weakest Pace In Nearly Two Years. “Americans spent at the weakest pace in 20 months, a sign that high gas prices are taking a toll on the economy. Consumer spending was unchanged in May, the Commerce Department said Monday. That was the worst result since September 2009. And when adjusted for inflation, spending actually dropped 0.1 percent. April’s consumer spending figures were revised to show a similar decline when adjusting for inflation. It marked the first decline in inflation-adjusted spending since January 2010.”

Plus this: “Neil Dutta, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, pointed out that inflation-adjusted, after-tax income is now slightly lower than it was in January.” Can you say stagflation?

And a reader points out that the word “unexpectedly” appears nowhere in this story.

UPDATE: Reader Antoinette Aubert writes:

I realize it is a cliche for a woman to say she has nothing to wear; but I have literally only bought one new item of apparel for myself in the past three years. I had a pair of shorts that was more patches than original cloth, so I determined I had to buy some new ones. But after three years of mall avoidance I found the idea of going to one to be impossibly fatiguing. So I checked Overstock and Landsend clearance and bought myself some new shorts for about $10 each.

But of course since I was online I just typed in women’s shorts and that’s all I bought. If I had been at a mall I would have found a cute top and an adorable little skirt and etc.etc. My shopping habits have been completely altered, and I think its a good thing.

The truth is my house losing 1/3 of its value almost overnight has turned me into a cheapskate. And I like it. Maybe there’s a song in that.

I think this may be a trend.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: There Are No Socialists. “The strangest things about the global statist crack-up are socialists’ unhappiness with their socialist utopia, and their subsequent efforts to avoid the consequences of the very redistributive state that they themselves once so gladly crafted. . . . Indeed, statism is not a desired outcome, but rather more a strategy for obtaining power or winning acclaim as one of the caring, by offering the narcotic of promising millions something free at the expense of others who must be seen as culpable and obligated to fund it — entitlements fueled by someone else’s money that enfeebled the state, but in the process extended power, influence, and money to a technocratic class of overseers who are exempt from the very system that they have advocated.”

He observes: “History is not kind to such collective states of mind. . . . What stops socialism? I fear bankruptcy alone.” Well, then, we’re pretty much there.

PRINCE: “It’s fun being in Islamic countries, to know there’s only one religion,” Prince told the British newspaper. “There’s order. You wear a burqa. There’s no choice. People are happy with that.” So I guess what he’s saying is that Tipper Gore was right all along. . . .

DAVID FREDDOSO: Demise Of The Suburbs. Some people have wanted to achieve that for a long time — I remember Jerry Rubin on the New Haven Green calling for his generation to “burn suburbia down.”

SMARTPHONE APPS THAT HELP YOU keep tabs on the cops. This is just the beginning.

ED DRISCOLL: The View Of The World From Pinch Avenue. “Today’s elite loathes the public.”

The feeling is increasingly mutual.

THE HILL: Debt Deal Now Up To Leadership.

TODAY ONLY: Up to 60% off on laptop bags and backpacks.