A PHYSICIAN WRITES ABOUT AMERICA’S GROWING DRUG SHORTAGES:

Just got word that several additional medications have been added to the national list of “drug shortages”. Doctors better start learning more about wilderness medicine at this rate.

Read the whole thing.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: No Financial Aid, No Problem. For-Profit University Sets $199-a-Month Tuition for Online Courses.

Students are flocking to Western Governors University, driving growth of 30 to 40 percent each year. You might expect that competitors would be clamoring to copy the nonprofit online institution’s model, which focuses on whether students can show “competencies” rather than on counting how much time they’ve spent in class.

So why haven’t they?

Two reasons, says the education entrepreneur Gene Wade. One, financial-aid regulatory problems that arise with self-paced models that aren’t based on seat time. And two, opposition to how Western Governors changes the role of professor, chopping it into “course mentors” who help students master material, and graders who evaluate homework but do no teaching.

Read the whole thing.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: If The Court Dumps ObamaCare, Republicans Must Be Ready. “If the Supreme Court chucks ObamaCare entirely, which looks increasingly likely, Republicans will finally have a chance to redefine the debate. But only if they get educated and put together reform ideas now. . . . For too long, Democrats have defined the health care issue, depicting the U.S. system as an unfettered market where costs run wild, insurers rip off consumers and deny coverage to tens of millions, and big-government ‘reforms’ are desperately needed. None of it is true.”

CONFIDENCE IN SCIENCE BY CONSERVATIVES HAS DECLINED SINCE 1974: “That represents a dramatic shift for conservatives, who in 1974 were more likely than liberals or moderates (all categories based on self-identification) to express confidence in science. While the confidence levels of other groups in science have been relatively stable, the conservative drop now means that group is the least likely to have confidence in science.”

The reason is the use of science as an argument-from-authority for bigger government. If scientists want more trust, perhaps they should try not to be tools.

UPDATE: Reader Mary Ritenour writes:

I tracked back to the original paper (http://www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/asr/Apr12ASRFeature.pdf) to see what the exact survey question was.

“The GSS asked respondents the following question: “I am going to name some institutions in this country. As far as the people running these institutions are concerned, would you say you have a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at all in them [the Scientific Community]?”(page 172)

The confidence in “people running these institutions” was being measured, not “Science” itself. Huge difference. HUGE!

Maybe we should be skeptical of science reporting, too.

EUROPE: Two men torch themselves in Italy as hardship bites. “A Moroccan worker in Italy set himself on fire on Thursday in protest at not being paid for months, a day after an Italian businessman set himself alight over a tax dispute, police said.”

TOM BLUMER: The Green Jobs Boondoggle. “One thing at which the ‘green’ portion of the public sector has become particularly adept is burning through taxpayer money.” The “green” portion of the private sector has been doing pretty well at that, too.

NOW, A LOWER EDUCATION BUBBLE: People Are Taking Out Student Loans to Pay for Kindergarten. “Families are taking out tens of thousands of dollars worth of loans in order to pay for private kindergarten for their whelps. That is some f*cked up sh*t.”

WHY IS THIS THE FCC’S BUSINESS? FCC pushes for tablet computers in schools.

LEAKED: DOJ to Indict SC Gov. Nikki Haley on Tax Fraud Charges. I blame anti-Sikh racism for this persecution.

HARRY REID: No recess appointments this time.

PROF. RICK SANDER LOOKS AT the mismatch effect and law school affirmative action.

A. BARTON HINKLE: NOBODY LIKES A BULLY. I dunno, we elected one President. . . .

IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN, I SHALL ONLY BECOME STRONGER . . . MEDIA MATTERS FAIL: Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Increase By 60 Percent.

Video courtesy of Jim Treacher, who also mocks David Brock’s limp book sales.

And notes that the SEIU had to pay protesters $20 to show up at the Supreme Court. Nothin’ for nothin’ and damn little for a dollar. When that’s your motto, what do you expect? . . . .

JOHN PODHORETZ: “The panicked reception in the mainstream media of the three-day Supreme Court health-care marathon is a delightful reminder of the nearly impenetrable parochialism of American liberals. . . . The strength of the conservative arguments only came as a surprise to Toobin, Greenhouse and others because they evidently spent two years putting their fingers in their ears and singing, ‘La la la, I’m not listening’ whenever the conservative argument was being advanced.”

UPDATE: Chris Matthews: I’m pretty surprised to learn that the mandate might be unconstitutional. “I was totally unprepared because of the way people talked.”

WILL THIS BRING ON GLOBAL COOLING? Modified microbes turn carbon dioxide to liquid fuel.

JOHN HINDERAKER: “President Obama has fanned the flames of hatred in the Trayvon Martin case, and has not said a single critical word about the outrageous actions of the New Black Panthers, who offered a $10,000 bounty on George Zimmerman–the same New Black Panthers on whose behalf Eric Holder quashed a federal criminal prosecution; or of Spike Lee, who tweeted a wrong address for Zimmerman, presumably to facilitate harassment or even murder; or of the many liberals who have posted on the @killzimmerman Twitter feed; or of the many other Democrats and liberals who have indulged in an orgy of hate with respect to Mr. Zimmerman. President Obama’s interest in the victims of violence is selective: he cares if they look like the hypothetical son he doesn’t have.”

In other words, he’s a racist hatemonger. Just to be clear. So much for hope and change.

Hope is what he promised. Hate is what he’s delivering.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan has never heard of scheduled posts, apparently. I was happily asleep at 3:18. Funny that someone who’s been blogging as long as Sullivan has never heard of scheduled posts. He seems to live in an insular little world. But still, you’d think that one of the interns would have known.

As for “nutball,” well, I think it’s entirely fair to call a man whose political machine spreads racial and gender division for political advantage a hatemonger. Sullivan has his own reasons for feeling grateful to Obama, of course, and that may color his views.

But at least some people are showing some sense: Civil rights leaders condemn Sharpton’s call for escalated civil disobedience. But where was Obama?

CHINESE POWER PRODUCTION not screaming “recovery.”

Well, neither is U.S. power production.

DAN RIEHL: Does New Sanford PD Video Show Zimmerman With Broken Nose? As I keep saying, stay tuned.

OBAMA’S worst week ever? Nope. Just his worst week so far.

ANN ALTHOUSE TAKES ON Charles Pierce’s Racist Attack On Antonin Scalia.

Calling a man of Italian ancestry “Tony” when that isn’t his nickname? Isn’t that on the level of calling a Latino “Jose” or a black man “Leroy” (or some such stereotypical name)? . . . Pope? More anti-Italian (and anti-Catholic) stereotyping crap, which Pierce probably thinks is just fine, indeed hilarious, because it’s against a conservative.

Par for the course for Pierce. Plus, from the comments: “They never seem to see the racism that they and their friends tend to be guilty of. That’s why they smear Thomas in racist terms. Smeared Palin and Bachmann with sexism (apparently, they’re nailing the WI LG with the same kind of nonsense). It’s why we see Tom Hanks on stage with a guy in blackface at an event that had a remarkable lack of racial diversity.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Several readers write that since the French are upset that accused 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui might face the death penalty, perhaps we should have him jump out a window at police headquarters instead. Much neater, much less simplistic.”

NEWS: PHOTOS: Street fires, violence in Spain protest.

Related: Watching Spain, Uneasily. “Was it only yesterday that Italy’s prime minister announced that the crisis was ‘almost over’? Why yes it was. . .”

BUYER’S REMORSE: Peggy Noonan: This Obama character seems increasingly dishonest and devious to me.

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “My God, Glenn! Noonan? What next, a reconsideration from T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII?”

PROF. JACOBSON: Yeah, We Were Serious.

JIM TREACHER: Has Obama called David and Elaine McClain to make sure they’re holding up okay? “They’re the elderly Florida couple whose address Spike Lee tweeted because he thought it was George Zimmerman’s. Presumably because he wanted people to go there and discuss things calmly. . . . ‘Fearful for their safety, and hoping to escape the spotlight, the couple have temporarily moved to a hotel.'”

Plus: “Somebody please try to justify this. Seriously. Tell me why this is okay. Tell me why this doesn’t matter. Tell me how this helps. Tell me how anyone involved in this fiasco expects us to just forget what they’ve said and done.”

Also: “And remember Obama’s $35K-a-plate fundraiser at Spike’s house just two months ago? I’m sure they’d both prefer if you didn’t.”