WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Why The Blue Model Can’t Save Our Inner Cities.

I’VE BEEN SUGGESTING THAT CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS LOOK AT TAXES, and Prudence Paine found this Hollywood infomercial opposing the old excise tax on movie tickets. It was a job-killer, apparently!

But now that times are tougher, and the President is calling for “shared sacrifice,” well, maybe we should consider bringing it back. Just temporarily, until the deficit problem is fixed. You be the judge.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Theories Of The British Press:

I have been somewhat skeptical of the claims that the Murdoch scandals are going to jump the Atlantic, because my sense has always been that the British press really is different–far more aggressive and edgy than their American cousins. This sort of phone hacking has been widespread there for a long time. Scotland Yard has now expanded its investigation to 31 publications and hundreds of journalists, a fact that has gone largely unremarked by those who were extremely interested in the case right up to the point where the evidence started suggesting that this was a British problem, not a Murdoch problem.

If it is indeed a British problem, however, the question is: why? Some of the suggestions that have suggested themselves are obvious, others deliciously counterintuitive. British libel law, for example, is actually much stricter than US libel law. But a twitter correspondent suggests that this may, paradoxically, have encouraged hacking: you can’t take the risk of reporting something that’s false, so instead you go to illegal lengths to report things that are true.

Very interesting.

FAA HITS PARTIAL SHUTDOWN. Nobody notices.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Government Anthrax Flip-Flop Could Boost Victims’ Lawsuits.

NORWAY SHOOTER hated libertarians.

UPDATE: A mass-murderer with professional headshots?

Also, Stacy McCain reminds James Fallows of Trig Palin.

ANOTHER UPDATE: “The man knows about Machiavelli. What would Machiavelli post on Facebook before embarking on a massacre?”

TUMBLING DOMINOES: Libya, Europe, And Oil.

KEITH HENNESSEY: Why The Obama-Boehner Talks Fell Apart.

CHANGE: “Once upon a time, pornographers were king. Today, the business is dying.”

CHANGE: Pew Study: Democrats Losing Support Of Poor Whites. ““A seven-point Democratic advantage among whites under age 30 three years ago has turned into an 11-point GOP advantage today. And a 15-point Democratic advantage among whites earning less than $30,000 annually has swung to a slim four-point Republican edge today.”

Plus this: “The last time that Republicans had this level of support among young white voters was 2002-2004, which was, of course, the wake of the 9/11 attacks.”

ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN IN A SEX SCANDAL: Young woman accuses Oregon Rep. David Wu of aggressive, unwanted sexual encounter.

Related: Wu At Center Of Sex Allegation. “Rep. David Wu has been accused of an ‘unwanted sexual encounter’ with the teenage daughter of a longtime friend, the latest scandal to engulf the troubled Oregon Democrat.”

CHANGE: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy will end Sept. 20, Obama announces.

SYRIA UPDATE: “The new line of discussion on Syria is not whether the regime of President (dictator) Bashar al-Assad will survive but how long it will be before it falls. . . . Every day there are massive demonstrations throughout the country, despite the killing of peaceful protesters. There are now credible confirmations of large-scale defections from Syria’s army. There are two main defenders of the regime left: the Iranian and U.S. governments. Tehran’s policy is understandable; the Obama Administration’s isn’t.”

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): With Borders’ Collapse, What Will Happen To The Real Estate?

As for the 10 million square feet of empty retail space, Davidowitz predicts the big multi-level stores will likely lay vacant for some time, which will put pressure on small developers and community banks in those areas. Most of the smaller Borders’ stores will be gobbled up by retailers that are currently thriving, like Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), he says.

Reminds me of this iconic photograph from the early Obama Presidency:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Master’s Degree As The New Bachelor’s Degree.

William Klein’a story may sound familiar to his fellow graduates. After earning his bachelor’s in history from the College at Brockport, he found himself living in his parents’ Buffalo home, working the same $7.25-an-hour waiter job he had in high school. It wasn’t that there weren’t other jobs out there. It’s that they all seemed to want more education. Even tutoring at a for-profit learning center or leading tours at a historic site required a master’s. “It’s pretty apparent that with the degree I have right now, there are not too many jobs I would want to commit to,” Mr. Klein says.

So this fall, he will sharpen his marketability at Rutgers’ new master’s program in Jewish studies (think teaching, museums and fund-raising in the Jewish community). Jewish studies may not be the first thing that comes to mind as being the road to career advancement, and Mr. Klein is not sure exactly where the degree will lead him (he’d like to work for the Central Intelligence Agency in the Middle East). But he is sure of this: he needs a master’s. Browse professional job listings and it’s “bachelor’s required, master’s preferred.”

Well, a bachelor’s degree has become the new high-school diploma, so that makes sense. But how much actual value is being added?

Plus this: “While many new master’s are in so-called STEM areas — science, technology, engineering and math — humanities departments, once allergic to applied degrees, are recognizing that not everyone is ivory tower-bound and are drafting credentials for résumé boosting.”

Because that’s what we need most: more credentials for résumé boosting.

UPDATE: Reader Kenneth Willis writes: “When I entered law school at the University of Denver in 1974 the Dean gave a talk to the entering class in which he said the J.D. was the new B.A. I don’t think he knew then that so many bartenders would have both those degrees.”

VOX DAY: “Of course, Paul Krugman has no idea what he’s talking about. This is not a lesser depression, it is a larger depression. The full scale and scope simply isn’t apparent yet.” He could have stopped with the first sentence, really . . .

UPDATE: Moe Lane:

I’m honestly sorry to say this, but when you start your article with “Amanda Marcotte is right,” you’ve pretty much just taken your credibility, shot it in the back of the head, and are now frantically digging a hole to bury the corpse in before somebody comes to investigate the loud noise.

The ironic bit? Absent those Fatal Four Words, Krugman’s column might have been seen as a sign that the fever might be breaking: it can be summed up as Obama is actually… really, really uninterested in doing his job and isn’t any good at it, is he?

Indeed.

AT AMAZON, generators and portable power.

CHANGE: Sen. Ron Johnson on Obama: “His Performance Tonight Showed He Is Not the Adult in the Room.”

BACK ON PJTV: Afterburner With Bill Whittle.

SHOCKING NEWS: Report: Men And Women Do Similar Amounts of Household Chores.

THOUGHTS ON KEEPING POLITICS IN THE HIGHER ED CLASSROOM. Start denouncing affirmative action and see how long those arguments last.

RICHARD POLLOCK: Deficit Negotiations Collapse, And Progressives Break Out The Champagne.

L.A. TIMES: Deficit talks Act XXII: Boehner walks out and Obama complains.

UPDATE: Boehner: It’s Obama who walked away at the last minute. “It’s the President who walked away from his agreement and demanded more money. At the last minute. And the only way to get that extra revenue was to raise taxes.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Debating The Case Against Law School.

BRUCE BAWER: Norway’s Oklahoma City, Or Its 9/11?

UPDATE: Perpetrator identified? “In the space of a few minutes, Breivik already has his own wikipedia entry (!!??!!?!?!), which mentions that he is a freemason and a fan of ‘Norwegian anti-nazi World War II hero Max Manus.’ I’ll post more later when my head stops spinning.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: More from Jim Lindgren.