JUST WORDS? Obama Transforms Tax Hikes Into Spending Cuts.

PROF. JACOBSON: Another Misleading Think Progress Attack On Koch and Walker, and Prosser Too. Or, for brevity’s sake, you could just say “Another Think Progress Attack.”

Related item here.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Gales Of Creative Instruction. “The Think Tank world of free education is a separate topic that deserves a separate column in and of itself, but suffice it to say that you and your iPod (or desktop) can listen to the smartest people in the world give interesting lectures on the most important topics for free, or you can pay lots of money to hear an inarticulate and resentful grad student ladle out early 1960s French intellectual fads in one of collegedom’s cavernous freshman lecture halls at a time of his, not your, convenience.”

FEAR AND LOATHING in the Revolutionary Guard.

TODAY IN TECH HISTORY: Malfunctioning Toilet Sinks U-Boat.

RAND SIMBERG SPOTS SOME EARMARK CHICANERY: “Unfortunately, the current CR compounds that error with what seems to be the only earmark in the entire CR (which was supposed to be an ‘austerity’ measure), rumored to be by the request of the minority leader. The CR contains an ‘anomaly’ — language specifically appropriating three billion of NASA’s exploration budget to these activities — $1.8B for the SLS and $1.2B for Orion, in the current fiscal year, an increase over the authorization (something that had been supposedly sacrosanct).”

AT AMAZON: Best of 2011 in Movies and TV.

KEITH HENNESSEY: The President’s Budget Strategy.

Related: James Taranto: “Why did Obama give this appalling speech?”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: No Repayment Plan, No Student Loan: “Tidewater Community College, in Virginia, will soon require students to go above and beyond Education Department requirements to receive federal loan funds. Starting next fall, students who want the college to certify their eligibility for student loans must complete personal budget worksheets, outlining a ‘realistic picture of their financial situation” both before and after graduation, and a student loan repayment plan estimating how their monthly payments fit into those budgets.'” If this were to catch on, it would have devastating effects on certain colleges and majors.

PAUL RYAN IN THE WASHINGTON POST: A Budget For The 21st Century. “Now comes a deficit speech that doesn’t even rise to the level of a plan. Missing was a credible way to curb out-of-control spending. Instead, the president called for greater reliance on government price controls, which would strictly limit the health-care options of current seniors while failing to control costs. The president would couple this approach with $1 trillion in tax increases, which would destroy jobs and hurt the economy. We cannot accept an approach that starts from the premise that ever-higher levels of spending and taxes represent America’s new normal.”

CHANGE: “China is rapidly making its presence felt in virtually every nook and cranny of the science landscape and that includes high-performance computing.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U.S. History, as taught at Bowdoin.

MICHAEL WALSH: Washington’s Leadership Deficit.

OLDER BRAINS NOT AS GOOD AT PROCESSING INTERRUPTS: “Basically, after processing an interrupt and resuming an interrupted task older brains show they did a poorer job of restoring context.” I wonder, though, if it’s really because of aging per se, or because they formed habits in times where there was less multitasking. Perhaps younger brains have simply adapted to a different environment.

TRUMP/WEST 2012? Allen West Says He’s Open To The Possibility.

OBAMA LIED, CREDIBILITY DIED: False pretense for war in Libya? “Evidence is now in that President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya.”

They told me if I voted for John McCain, we’d have a president who’d lie us into another war against an Arab country. And they were right!

CHANGE! More Americans Leaving Workforce.

I DON’T THINK SHE’S A VERY NICE LADY: When Nancy Pelosi Snaps.

YEAH, I’M POSTING A LOT: The Insta-Daughter had her wisdom teeth out, and the Insta-Wife had a medical appointment and a TV interview scheduled, so I’ve stayed home. She’s doing fine — I think the pre-removal prednisone really made a difference, though on the other hand I recovered pretty quickly from having mine out, too.

SYRIA UPDATE: March 23 Syrian intelligence document details strategy to counter rebel sentiment, create links between rebels, “Zionist regime.”

HOT SECTOR: Ultracapacitors.

IF THIS WERE A FOR-PROFIT SCHOOL, IT WOULD BE A DAMNING INDICTMENT OF THE WHOLE INDUSTRY: Kindergarten Teacher Has Kids Oink At Student For Being Messy. “A Roane County kindergarten teacher who reportedly told students to encircle a classmate, call him a pig and make pig noises because the boy is messy, received a one-day unpaid suspension and had a letter of reprimand placed in her file. . . . Another educator walked into Hayes’ classroom March 16 and saw kindergarteners encircling their crying classmate.” Note the 38 years of public-school teaching experience.

THE WAR AGAINST THE YOUNG (CONT’D): Teenage Wasteland: Jobless Rate For Young Is 25%—and Rising. “A quarter of teenagers were jobless in March, representing a surprising increase from February, even as the unemployment rate for the rest of the population decreased. This figure may only get worse if budget-strapped states raise the minimum wage, and it could also be a sign of greater structural damage underlying our economy, analysts said.”

UPDATE: Reader Tom Scott writes: “A surprising increase? Well, that’s certainly unexpected.” And reader John Eschenbrenner emails:

I can attest first hand to what the article said. My 17 year old son works at a fast food joint. Since getting hired almost a year ago, they have worked him as much as possible. He averages close to, but not quite at, 40 hours a week. The reason being, most kids they hire don’t show up when they scheduled, don’t work when they are there, and they mouth off to the management. And at 10 months or so, he has seen dozens of new people come and go.

The company doesn’t want to pay over $7/hr now for people who are not going to pan out. Raise the minimum wage any more than it is and you can expect the teenage unemployment to double or triple.

Lowered work ethic plus increased minimum wage = less interest in hiring. Unexpectedly!

EUGENE VOLOKH OFFERS MORE PRAISE for Farnsworth’s Classic English Rhetoric. “I think any lover of great writing and great oratory will enjoy this.”

SHIKHA DALMIA: Unhealthy Politics.