MARKDOWNS ON Swiss Army Knives and Multitools.

OBAMA’S DIPLOMACY: A matter of “neglect and disregard.”

STEVEN HAYWARD is guestblogging at Power Line.

Here’s his first post.

RADLEY BALKO: “Do You Want Me To Throw It on the Ground?” “What is clear is that the officers are harassing a man who is legally recording the incident from a distance that in no way physically interferes with what the police are doing. One officer threatens to destroy his camera if he doesn’t put it away. Toward the end, several more officers confront the man again. One of them then tells him he’ll be ‘locked up’ for disobeying an order unless he stops recording.”

HEH: NPR: Why Bacon Is A “Gateway Meat” For Vegetarians. Is there anything it can’t do?

DAILY BEAST: PALIN ROCKS THE HOUSE IN GUN COUNTRY, WARNS OF NEW GUN CONTROL EFFORTS FROM OBAMA. “Palin isn’t the first politician to address an SCI convention; George H.W. Bush and Tom Ridge, among others, have beaten her to the punch. But she may be the most zeitgeist-y.”

POPULAR SCIENCE: The Perils Of An “Internet Kill Switch.” What could go wrong? Plenty.

PNEUMONIA BACTERIA EVOLVE to resist antibiotics and vaccines.

IN THE MAIL: Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East.

POLITICAL WIRE: “A Wilson Research Strategies (R) poll shows two Republicans within striking distance of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).”

UPDATE: Reader Fred Nixon is troubled by the use of the term “striking distance” and writes: “Is there no end to the violent rhetoric at PoliticalWire?”

ADAPTING: Without Internet, Egyptians find new ways to get online.

USHA RODRIGUEZ: A Students = Academics; C Students = Billionaires? “So apparently there was a session at Davos’ World Economic Forum that pitted Larry Summers against Amy Chua, Tiger Mom. No, I am not making this up.”

DAILY CALLER: Why Dennis Kucinich’s Frivolous Olive Pit Lawsuit Matters.

ARE JAPAN’S PUBLIC FINANCES AT A TIPPING POINT? “By some measures Japan is in a worse mess than Greece and Ireland.”

AT AMAZON, up to 70% off on men’s boots.

ISRAELI REPORTS “friendly atmosphere” in Cairo. “The attitude towards us as Israelis and tourist is very friendly. Actually, they’re overly nice compared to my previous visits in Egypt. The Egyptians want to explain themselves, to tell everyone about their struggle. They speak Arabic over here so it’s easy to communicate with them. On Friday we went right past the demonstrations on our way back from the pyramids, and people helped us get though the crowd.”

TOOLS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD OWN. I don’t use my sledgehammer much, but when I do, it’s very satisfying.

UPDATE: Lou Dolinar emails: “1) Hand truck (ideally with caterpillar for going up stairs) and 2) furniture dolly. Moving large objects is an essential home improvement skill, and will inevitably wreck your back as you get older. Better to take care when you’re young.” Yeah. I’ve got a dolly; I’d rent the caterpillar thing because it’s not something I use much.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: A major diplomatic failure is underway.

TRANSLATED: The Egyptian Activists’ Action Plan. I think it’s safe for me to link this one now.

A TREADMILL WITH A BUILT-IN WEB BROWSER. That’s what I need!

CLINT EASTWOOD BACKS THE FLAT TAX.

CHANGE: The Squeezing Of The Middle Class.

Another sign of the coming middle class anarchy? If the middle class gives up on the rule of law, beware.

UPDATE: A reader who requests anonymity emails:

This is something I have thought about a lot, and is an important story. There are so many important stories, it’s easy
to miss a long term one, like this. Everyone agrees the possibility of a middle class, and its belief in the fairness of the system has been one of the main drivers, in differentiating America, maybe the most important.

We now have a system that increasingly, means you have to either work for or sell to the government, or have its blessing through interpretation of the rules and regulations to operate. We see the favored and connected moving forward regardless of actions. Here in TN, they are building a Volkswagen plant and Nissan USA moved to Nashville with private funds, but the favored were bailed out because of Big Labor. We see the out of favor not be allowed to drill for oil or receive permits for coal, as easy examples. We see the bond and shareholders of large financial firms protected by changes in accounting rules, and given liquidity using failing loans as collateral at 100 cents on the dollar, while community banks are closed or merged out weekly.

We read monthly of large firm “settlements” of civil fraud, and other deeds, that would make any smaller business close their doors, because of shame, lawsuits or being barred from any new business, But those firms pay some money, and are valued guests at the White House and mainly at fundraisers.

We read that large multinationals through overseas subsidiaries, pay single digit US taxes, keeping the money overseas. While the smaller companies I am associated with, pay the full rate. We have no Irish solution to taxation. We read that a repatriation holiday probably will be allowed. We know that Hedge funds pay at the Capital Gains rate, while we pay at regular rates.

We have 10-20 million “guest” workers, that have to work off the books, which means all their employers, have to pay “off the books, so everyone is learning to break the law together. Unless the government needs a headline and an arrest, all are fine, so, why not do the same with Non Guest Workers ?

Anyone of us can go on and on with examples, probably better ones. The point is, the people and companies that do everything “by the book”, are like the Redcoats in the revolutionary war, using an old system, matching down the middle of the economic battlefield. The people that are connected, or simply ignore the rules are hiding behind the trees and rocks, shooting at the system.

Now the middle class knows, we do not have the money, lawyers and connections, to get away with as much as the larger firms, so most people will not attempt as much. But the belief system is being eroded, and quickly, like the banks of a full river, iT takes some time, but the water is brown with the eroded soil.

But more and more, I feel stupid for playing by the rules, and I know I am not alone. Because the rules are no longer what I thought they were all my life.

The new system is get what you can, and throw away the old fashioned economic moralities.

Everybody loses in such a system, but at least they don’t feel so much like suckers. As I’ve noted before, while Obama has been accused of not appreciating the role of financial capital, he’s even more ignorant — or unconcerned — about the importance of moral capital. But you cannot run a prosperous, civilized country without it.

However, if the middle class asserts itself it can change things for the better instead. That’s why so many fear the Tea Party movement.

UPDATE: A high-school friend emails:

Had to chime in on this one.

In the 80’s a thought struck me. The extraction of resources and creation of wealth in our country had produced the middle class as a by-product, not as a desired goal. The new “natural resource” available for plunder was now the wealth accumulated by the middle class.

I assumed that robber barons and snake-oil salesmen would arise to attempt this feat, but it never occurred to me that a collusion of our own government, unions and financiers would organize to kill the golden goose. I also never thought the voters would line up in sufficient numbers to be lambs for the slaughter.

I sure love my country. I would never do to her what this collection of S.O.B.s has done.

I’m hanging on to hope that we can ride out this storm. I think we can.

Me too. Some additional effort from our so-called leaders would be nice, though.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Some somewhat-related thoughts from Jerry Pournelle.

WHEN HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLES EXPLODE:

So if it isn’t politics or economics, what is it that lead the people of Tunisia to rise up and overthrow their government?

Tunisia’s big problem is said to be unemployment. But unemployment there is running at somewhere between 13 percent and 14 percent, which isn’t really so bad. The real problem is that Tunisia cannot create suitable employment for the huge numbers of college graduates it creates every year.

That’s right: the education bubble popped in Tunisia.

Tunisia has a gigantic education apparatus that has earned it plaudits for years. Free university education is guaranteed to anyone who passes the government’s exams at the end of high school. As a result, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 university graduates enter the job market every year. Fifty-seven percent of young Tunisians entering the labor market are college educated.

It turns out that creating a large class of college-educated workers is not necessarily a recipe for prosperity. Tunisia has discovered it can be a recipe for political unrest and mass unemployment. For Tunisia’s recent college graduates, the unemployment level reaches to at least 30 percent. If you count in various forms of under-employment, it’s safe to say that as many as half of Tunisia’s recent college graduates are losing out in the jobs market.

Tunisia has clearly over-invested in higher education. It is spending 7.2 percent of its GDP on education, more than any European or North American country that isn’t Denmark (which manages to spend 7.9 percent of GDP on education) or Iceland (7.5 percent). It’s a very typical malinvestment bubble: keep spending based on expected returns that don’t materialize, and suddenly find yourself with a worthless asset. Whether it’s dot com sites selling pet food, homes near Las Vegas, or really well-educated Tunisians the results are the same.

Luckily, nothing like that can happen here.

HEH: Photo: Two Retail Stores With Sexual Tension.

“PENNSYLVANIA IS NOT A THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY.”