A BLEAK OUTLOOK ON THE FUTURE, but not bleak enough?

AT AMAZON, a roundup of new cameras and camcorders.

MICHAEL MUKASEY ON the decline of the Justice Department under Eric Holder. I’m quite surprised to see this from the mild-mannered Mukasey; things must be even worse than I thought.

MORE ON what happened to the antiwar movement.

HOW TO SET UP multiple computer monitors.

VIOLENT RHETORIC: Is Chris Matthews “A Ticking Time Bomb?”

GETTING AROUND CHINA’S RARE-EARTHS CHOKEHOLD by designing motors that don’t need ’em.

MORE ON THE DECLINE AND FALL OF BORDERS:

Borders was a major force in redefining Americans’ reading habits, selling millions of books in places where they had once been scarce and helping scores of novels to become movies and subjects of national conversation. Now, Borders faces a pool of potential customers who quickly spread culture themselves, one viral video or status update at a time.

Somebody should write a book on this phenomenon.

CASUALTIES OF OVER-REGULATION? The Phantom 15 Million: Taming unemployment starts with solving the mystery of the jobs that were supposed to have been created in the past 10 years but weren’t. Or is it illegal immigration and outsourcing? Or something else?

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I saw that National Journal story the other day (on the mysterious lack of new jobs this last decade) and it contains its own answer: Look at the graphs of investment in plant and equipment, and national job gains. The investment graph is pretty spiky, but average the (down) slope from ’99 on and it’s a good match for the jobs downslope.

We’ve been getting fewer new jobs in the US these last ten years because we’ve been investing less in plant and equipment in the US these last ten years. QED.

Presumably we’ve been investing less here because the US is no longer the best place to invest. The whys of that are left as an exercise for the student. Hints: Sarbanes-Oxley, EPA, OSHA, roving packs of feral lawyers (no offense), ever lousier schools, an ever more uncertain tax regime… And we’re shocked – shocked, I say – that structural unemployment here is rising to European levels.

No offense taken.

AS PEOPLE LOOK AT BUDGET CRISES, these thoughts on “shared sacrifice” from 2008 are worth noting.

OWEN BRENNAN’S Keith Olbermann prediction seems to have been pretty close.

IN THE MAIL: The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr.

LAW SCHOOL BUBBLE BURSTING? LSAT Test-Takers Down 10%, Law School Applications Down 12%. I suspect that potential applicants are beginning to react to the stories of law-school grads with heavy debt and no jobs.

Or maybe they’re seeing things like this.

UPGRADING THE WORLD: Andrew Klavan reviews Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.

ALAN BOYLE: Don’t get too scared by this California Superstorm talk. “We don’t really have to wait until 2012 for a wakeup call on the threats posed by severe storms: All you have to do is look at what’s been happening in Australia and Brazil this month.” If that’s supposed to make me feel better, it’s not working.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Did Obama dye his gray hair away? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

TODAY ONLY: A sale on the Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer. Like a poor man’s iPad? Well, sorta I guess. Anyway, it’s a lot cheaper.

UPDATE: Reader Tim Gee emails: “We gave our 13 yo son a Chumby a few years ago. He listens to it every night, and has had fun using and trying out all the widgets. I’ve just ordered the Sony Dash for his birthday as an upgrade — thanks for the heads up.”

“POLITICS:” ProPublica: Why a Gruesome Pennsylvania Abortion Clinic Had Not Been Inspected for 17 Years.

According to the grand jury report [2][PDF] released this week by Philadelphia prosecutors, Pennsylvania health officials deliberately chose not to enforce laws to ensure that abortion clinics provide the same level of care as other medical service providers. . . .

The grand jury report said that one look at the place would have detected the problems, but the Pennsylvania Department of Health hadn’t inspected the place since 1993. Here’s the grand jury report, in surprisingly strong language:

The Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions.

“Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety,” the report states. “Without regular inspections, providers like Gosnell continue to operate; unlawful and dangerous third-trimester abortions go undetected; and many women, especially poor women, suffer.”

I’m surprised to see the lefty outfit ProPublica pick up on this.

JOURNALISM: Washington Post Organizes News Boycott of Sarah Palin; Starts Twitter Campaign Against GOP Star.

JESSE WALKER: Unpacking Jared Lee Loughner: If you’re the Southern Poverty Law Center, the media will mistake your guesses for gold. Even when they turn out to be crap later.

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING TAMPON BRAND. “Drugstore shelves have been mysteriously empty of o.b. nonapplicator tampons since late fall, leaving the feminine hygiene product’s devotees puzzled and peeved. The popular product is in such short supply that eBay users are bidding up to $76 for three packs, which usually sell for just $8.79 a pack.” This reminds me of the Seinfeld “spongeworthy” episode. Well, sort of.

A. BARTON HINKLE: CIVILITY IS NICE, NONVIOLENCE IS BETTER:

The frenzy surrounding Jared Loughner’s rampage in Tucson this month has finally died down. As tempers cool, perhaps distance could turn reflection toward some bigger questions. Many Republicans and Democrats have lamented the frequency of violent rhetoric in politics. Fewer seem to have regrets about the actual use of violence itself.

I’m not referring here to death threats, terrorism, assassination attempts, and similar heinous acts. Nobody considers those violent deeds by non-state actors legitimate. But what about violence by the state? Liberals and conservatives alike often embrace it as a means to an end they desire. . . . The debate over the size and scope of government, then, is an argument over when to use violence to change things and circumstances consensual activity cannot. . . .. Force is sometimes necessary. We must have police and courts and national defense and environmental protection and so on. But government at all levels does much more nowadays than is strictly necessary, because both liberals and conservatives delight in using it to make other people do what they would not do through mutual consent.

In the wake of the butchery in Tucson, it has been nice to hear many people say we should not speak so well of violence. It would be even nicer to hear more say we should not vote for it quite so often, either.

Read the whole thing.

USAID MONEY: Part of our national security budget.

TONY BLAIR ON IRAQ; Stop with the whining apologies, you pathetic wimps. “Be sure to spend a few minutes watching the video in the Guardian’s report. Blair responds with barely-concealed disdain to the notion that he hid his policy decisions from his cabinet, almost laughing aloud at one point.”

LISA MURKOWSKI proves the Alaska Tea Party right.