IS IT SMART TO hoard cash?

What about canned goods and ammunition?

UPDATE: Reader Bart Hall emails:

“In the house of a wise man are stores of food, wine, and oil, but the foolish man devours all he has.” Proverbs 21:20It hasn’t really changed in three thousand years except for a growing number of fools in the population.

Well, being a fool pays off more than it used to.

TALKING SECESSION IN CALIFORNIA.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS WOULD BE UNDONE. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Sixth Circuit Strikes Down Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

THE TEEMING CITIES of Mars.

AT AMAZON, Photo And Video Services.

REASON TV: Q&A with Farmageddon’s director Kristin Canty. “Guns drawn, a SWAT team kicks in the door of a private business. Are the cops there for drug dealers? Mafia mobsters? Terrorists? No, the long arm of the law is out for the real dangerous contraband: raw milk and grass-fed chickens.”

ON THE PJTV REPORT, I talk with Danika Quinn about the Supreme Court, violent videogames, and the meaning of original intent.

POPULAR MECHANICS: THE BEWILDERING WEB OF U.S. FIREWORKS LAWS. I like it that they’re mostly ignored.

WHEN A RELATIONSHIP IS “Pre-Exclusive.”

GOOGLE GETS HAMMERED by monsters it created.

WHAT? LIBYA? OH. . . RIGHT: Air Force, Navy Still Flying Hundreds Of Libya Missions.

TRANSPARENCY: 49 House members demand probe of Kagan involvement in ObamaCare. “Did Elena Kagan mislead the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing when answering questions about her level of involvement in ObamaCare? Forty-nine House members have signed a letter to the House Judiciary Committee demanding an investigation of that question, as new documents suggest that the now-Supreme Court Justice helped the Obama administration craft legal defenses for the law. The signatories argue that this should require Kagan to recuse herself from considering the appeals that will likely arrive at the Supreme Court from three different appellate circuits.” I assume all the recent attacks on Clarence Thomas were just an attempt to preemptively muddy the waters here.

THADDEUS MCCOTTER TO ENTER PRESIDENTIAL RACE: I’m glad. He’s sharp, and as any RedEye viewer can attest, has a terrific dry sense of humor.

PHIL BOWERMASTER ON AVOIDING DOUBLESPEAK: “I bought a new plan for my mobile phone earlier today and had an interesting conversation with the customer service rep about what the word “unlimited” means on my unlimited data plan. (I’m still not 100% sure.) The thing is, this is not something there should ever be any confusion about.”

THE HILL: Republican Video Mocks Obama’s Golf-Playing During Crisis. “The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, released a Web video that spliced images of Obama playing ping pong, drinking beer in Ireland and hitting the golf course over audio of him lashing out at congressional Republicans Wednesday for not working hard enough to hammer out a debt-reduction deal. ‘Actions speak louder than words,’ the ad says.” That’s a refudiation of the entire Obama credo. . . . Video at the link.

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Why Only One In Four Teens Is Employed.

POLL: Most Jamaicans Think Jamaica Would Be Better Off As A British Colony. “Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence from the United Kingdom, but a new island-wide poll suggests most residents of the tiny Caribbean nation believe they would be better off had the country remained a British colony. The survey, conducted for the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper by Johnson Survey Research, found that 60 per cent of Jamaicans think the country would be better off today if it was still under British rule. A mere 17 per cent said they believed the country would be worse off. The remaining 23 per cent of respondents said they didn’t know.”

BUT OF COURSE! States Hunt For Ways To Tax “The Cloud.” “Most states still don’t know how they are going to tax cloud computing. But one thing is certain, they are going to definitely try.”

RECOVERY BUMMER (CONT’D): Construction falls in May, down 6.3% year-to-date.

CORY MAYE UPDATE: SOME EXCELLENT NEWS: “After 10 years of incarceration, and seven years after a jury sentenced him to die, 30-year-old Cory Maye will soon be going home. Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Prentiss Harrell signed a plea agreement Friday morning in which Maye pled guilty to manslaughter for the 2001 death of Prentiss, Mississippi, police officer Ron Jones, Jr. Per the agreement, Harrell then sentenced Maye to 10 years in prison, time he has now already served. Maye will be taken to Rankin County, Mississippi, for processing and some procedural work. He is expected to be released within days.”

While personally I don’t think that Maye should have served time in prison at all for what seems to have been a tragic mistake in the course of a botched no-knock raid, this is about as good as could realistically be expected. Some background here. And here’s a collection of InstaPundit posts on the case going back several years.

IN PICTURES: 10 Disappearing Middle-Class Jobs.

IN THE MAIL: From James P. Hogan, Migration.

MARY KATHERINE HAM: Meet The Real ATM.

AN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION MARIJUANA FLIPFLOP: “The Department of Justice sent out a memo Wednesday instructing the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and leading officials in the U.S. Attorneys Office to treat medical marijuana shops as top priorities for prosecutors and drug investigators. . . . The memo, authored by Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, ‘clarifies’ a memo released in 2009 that declared medical marijuana sales in states that have legalized it to be a low priority for law enforcement and prosecutors.”

More here. “Some will argue that the administration has no choice but to enforce these laws. However, prosecutorial discretion gives the executive the power to decide not to pursue these cases if the president so chooses. Indeed, the federal government can only prosecute a small fraction of the numerous violations of today’s overbloated federal criminal law. The average American commits about three federal felonies every day. Every administration must inevitably prioritize some federal laws over others. There is no legal obstacle preventing the president from keeping his campaign promise. The problem is lack of political will. The hesitation is remarkable in light of the fact that polls show that some 81 percent of the public supports legalization of medical marijuana.”

CAN WE AT LEAST GET SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY PAID HIS TAXES THIS TIME? After Geithner, The Speculative Short List For Next Treasury Secretary.