MORE ON EDUCATION: “A ProPublica analysis of previously unreleased federal data shows that Florida leads the nation in the percentage of high-school students enrolled in high-level classes—Advanced Placement and advanced math. That holds true across rich and poor districts.” The reason? Gov. Jeb Bush: “Bush introduced a combination of measures to foster AP courses, including a partnership with the College Board, the national nonprofit group that manages AP courses and exams. The partnership kicked off in 2000 and was later written into state law.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: Emily Mills responds to my criticism of her unsubstantiated accusation that I went to “great and terrible lengths” to defend Justice Prosser.

GARNER, N.C. UPDATE: Police say no burglar shooting. Technically, of course, you can certainly be acting in self-defense while outside of your yard, but . . . .

GEERT WILDERS takes a victory lap. As he should.

IF ONLY THIS HAPPENED TO CONGRESS: Failure to pass budget forces Louisville government to shut down. Note to Kentuckians: Don’t worry, it’s the one in Tennessee. . . .

REPORT: The California Dream Is Fizzling Out. On Facebook, Virginia Postrel comments: “There’s a lot going on, both in the article and in the state, but it’s a rather large oversight not to connect the high price of housing and the largely successful efforts of people like the woman in the lead to restrict new construction.”

GONE WITH THE WIND was published 75 years ago today. (Link is SFW, but the rest of Fred Lapides’ blog is not.)

BILL QUICK IS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS WHOLE AMAZON THING: Leftist Wreckers In California Just Stole $3500-$5000 A Year Right Out of My Pocket.

Meanwhile, a different take via Joy McCann.

CHANGE: Bleak View of Economy Spreads to Wealthy Americans: CNBC Survey. “Nearly two-thirds of the nation (63 percent) is pessimistic about the current state of the economy and its future, with just 6 percent optimistic about both.”

AT AMAZON, top deals in Electronics.

ANDREW KLAVAN: Why Do Blacks Vote for Democrats?

LAUREN RAE ORSINI: How to be a journalist in 2011.

DAN SAVAGE: You know what’s wrong with straight marriage? Monogamy. Bill Clinton agrees.

DIET SODA not all it’s cracked up to be.

Just how does diet soda make you fat? The other study may hold the answer. In it, researchers divided mice into two groups, one of which ate food laced with the popular sweetener aspartame. After three months, the mice eating aspartame-chow had higher blood sugar levels than the mice eating normal food. The authors said in a written statement their findings could “contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans.”

But how?

“Artificial sweeteners could have the effect of triggering appetite but unlike regular sugars they don’t deliver something that will squelch the appetite,” Sharon Fowler, obesity researcher at UT Health Science Center at San Diego and a co-author on both of these studies, told the Daily Mail. She also said sweeteners could inhibit brain cells that make you feel full.

So if sugar soda is no good, and diet soda isn’t either – what should we be drinking?

Dr. Hazuda told the Daily Mail, “I think prudence would dictate drinking water.”

Coffee’s good. Prevents Alzheimer’s, too. Just don’t add sweetener . . . .

RAPIDLY SPREADING WHOOPING COUGH IN NEW YORK. Contra the story, however, I think it’s a bacterial disease, not a virus. Either way, the key is vaccination. You really don’t want it, and you really don’t want your kid to have it.

THE CONTINUING APPEAL of coupons.

RETIREE TAX HEAVENS and hells.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestselling men’s sneakers.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: Why Blogs For Women Are Bad For Women. “If blogs for women existed in the real world, rather than a virtual one, what would they look like? Giant pink bubbles in which women floated through life, peering through the see-through pink walls at the big, bad confusing world out there in which men exist, things are complex, and not everything has to do with whether or not you have a pair of ovaries. You don’t learn how to live in the world by withdrawing from it.”

WHEN I MENTIONED THIS SYMPOSIUM ON ADVANCING LIBERTY at Broadside Books, I should have mentioned that I have a contribution, too.

RANDY BARNETT: Eight Things To Know About Yesterday’s Sixth Circuit ObamaCare Decision.

OH, GOODY: The Navy Bought Fake Chinese Microchips That Could Have Disarmed U.S. Missiles. “Last year, the U.S. Navy bought 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders and all of them turned out to be counterfeits from China. Wired reports the chips weren’t only low-quality fakes, they had been made with a “back-door” and could have been remotely shut down at any time. If left undiscovered the result could have rendered useless U.S. missiles and killed the signal from aircraft that tells everyone whether it’s friend or foe.”

UPDATE: Maybe not quite so bad after all.

BAD BOYS! Mark Halperin And the Growing List of MSNBC Suspensions.

SKADDEN ASSOCIATE DIES of overwork?

WHAT IS UP IN GARNER, NORTH CAROLINA? Burglar shoots at homeowner, homeowner shoots back, gets ticket for “unlawful discharge of a firearm.”

UPDATE: Police say otherwise.