THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:

My Sunday Washington Examiner column: The higher ed bubble is bursting, so what comes next?

Related: Obama invites college presidents to closed-door meeting about college costs.

Climatologists not looking so good.

“If the the labor force participation rate were back at its January 2009 level, the U-3 rate would be 11.0 percent.” Good thing all those people got discouraged and quit looking, then.

It could be old age, or it could be a B12 deficiency.

Hope and change: America becoming a renter nation?

Victor Davis Hanson: The Ancient Virtues, And Modern Sins.

Are you saving too much for retirement? I doubt it, but that’s a convenient line of argument.

Justice Department’s convenient “mistake” kept Fast and Furious screwup off Congressional radar. For a while.

The Sacrament Of The Bulb.

Hot For Teacher.

FARHAD MANJOO: Fear Your Smartphone: It’s totally rational to worry that your phone is tracking everything you do.

QUOTE OF THE DECADE: “Incentives work. Even perverse ones.”

MARK STEYN: AMERICA HAS SQUANDERED ITS OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD:

I’ve been alarmed by the latest polls. No, not from Iowa and New Hampshire, although they’re unnerving enough. It’s the polls from Egypt.

Foreign policy has not played a part in the U.S. presidential campaign, mainly because we’re so broke that the electorate seems minded to take the view that if government is going to throw trillions of dollars down the toilet they’d rather it was an Al Gore-compliant Kohler model in Des Moines or Poughkeepsie than an outhouse in Waziristan.

Alas, reality does not arrange its affairs quite so neatly, and the world that is arising in the second decade of the 21st century is increasingly inimical to American interests, and likely to prove even more expensive to boot. . . . The short 90-year history of independent Egypt is that it got worse. Mubarak’s Egypt was worse than King Farouk’s Egypt, and what follows from last week’s vote will be worse still. If you’re a westernized urban woman, a Coptic Christian, or an Israeli diplomat with the goons pounding the doors of your embassy, you already know that.

We made a mistake by not continuing the democracy-promotion in 2005, when people were afraid of us and we looked like the strong horse. Now, not so much.

UPDATE: Here’s something The Anchoress posted back in 2005 making the same observation.

OY, VEY: The Face Of Al Qaeda.

SALENA ZITO: Obama Writing Off Pennsylvania? “The latest survey from liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling showed 59 percent of white Pennsylvania voters disapprove of Obama’s job performance, a rate usually found among Southern voters. . . . Six weeks ago, Obama visited Pittsburgh. The union crowd was thin. Enthusiasm was nonexistent; so were local elected Democrats, who opted to shake his hand at the airport rather than stand on stage with him while he talked about jobs.”

PAUL GREGORY: Russia’s Voters Have Spoken: Anybody But Putin.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Praise for a letter on terrorism. Plus, James Lileks catches a reference.

Also, a “Walk For Capitalism.”

SYRIAN AUTHORITIES arrest woman blogger.

HMM: Iran Showed Al Qaeda How to Bomb Embassies.

JEFFREY CARTER: Clarence Page Is Tone Deaf. “Clarence Page sees Newt Gingrich, and thinks the Tea Party is dead. I see Newt’s rise, and think the Tea Party is very much alive. How can two different people have such divergent views?”

STOP THE PRESSES: Study: More Exercise Could Make For Better Sleep.

THE NEW YORK TIMES ASKS IF POLICE ARE GETTING TOO MILITARIZED.

I said yes back in 2009.

UPDATE: Policing White People. “From the point of view of policing norms, these actions were totally appropriate. But the only way that our society has even come to tolerate these police norms has been with the tacit agreement that they would not be used on white folks.”

CITIZEN SCIENTISTS: “Ordinary people are taking control of their health data, making their DNA public and running their own experiments. Their big question: Why should science be limited to professionals?” No good reason.

PUSHBACK: Putin’s Party Suffers Election Blow. “Incomplete results showed Putin’s United Russia was struggling even to win 50 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election, compared with more than 64 percent four years ago. Opposition parties said even that outcome was inflated by fraud.”

Well, when you’re roughing up election monitors people will say that.

THANKS FOR SHOPPING AMAZON though the links on this page and the searchbox in the right sidebar. By doing so you support this blog at no cost to yourself. It’s much appreciated!

PUZZLING RESULTS on Dark Matter.

#OBAMAFAIL: Saturday Night Live Mocks White House Impotence.

UPDATE: Reader James Doherty writes: “I can’t believe you’re falling for this. As with the GQ article about Obama being among the ‘Least Influential,’ this is just a part of the upcoming 2012 narrative that Obama has had nothing to do with America’s woes the last three years. You are treating these pieces as if they are criticism of Obama, but they are aimed at defending him.”

That may be their strategy, but Don’t Blame Barack — He’s Impotent! isn’t a winning slogan.

MY SUNDAY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN IS UP: The higher ed bubble is bursting, so what comes next? (Bumped).

JIM MORHARD: Are Prosecutors Above the Law? Despite their shocking misconduct, federal prosecutors in the Ted Stevens trial may not be charged with criminal contempt. “The first duty of a prosecutor, as an officer of the court, is to uphold the rule of law. By withholding exculpatory evidence, these prosecutors failed to do so. A judge should not have to give a prosecutor an order to follow the law. Perhaps it will be argued that charging these prosecutors with criminal contempt of court could have a chilling effect on future federal prosecutors. A reasonable person might respond that charging them might have a chilling effect only on future prosecutors who think they are above the law.”

UPDATE: Related: Durham DA Wrote False Motions. “Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline presented motions with false information to a Durham judge to obtain confidential documents from the state prison system about two inmates challenging her prosecutions and ethics, according to interviews and records obtained by The News & Observer.”

First Nifong, now this? What’s up with Durham?

ROGER KIMBALL: Pilot, Co-pilot, and Gunner: or, Ending the TSA Tyranny. “The TSA is itself an admonitory tale whose toxic significance far transcends its quotidian inconveniences. It is a model of a certain form of bureaucratic tyranny. It should be resisted and dismantled wholesale at the first opportunity.”

HEH: InstaPundit is a clue in today’s L.A. Times Crossword. Thanks to reader Randall Current for pointing it out.

SO DON’T BE SO NICE IF THAT BOTHERS YOU. Five Reasons Why Women Don’t Like Nice Guys. Of course, there’s nice, and there’s Nice.

I THINK THEY WOULD HAVE PREFERRED TEA: Angry Taxpayer Dumps Snakes In Tax Office.

AT AMAZON, Christmas deals in Sports & Outdoors.

Also, a sale on men’s, women’s, and children’s denim.