A FISH, A BARREL, A SMOKING GUN: Mocking Naomi Wolf. She has a new book out. It’s about her vagina! I’m pretty sure this is a sign that vaginas have jumped the shark. Well, okay, maybe this is the sign.

UPDATE: Reader Larry Tomasson emails: “From the comments: Who’s afraid of Vagina Wolf?”

ROGER SIMON: Fear and Shame on the Campaign Trail #6 – Who’ll Stop the Rain? “At some angles from the convention perimeter, Tampa resembles a military encampment. . . . This intense security was not instituted by the RNC or by the Romney campaign, but by the federal government that has declared Tampa a national security area. In other words, Obama’s people are in charge of the stringent security here. They instigated it. What do they fear?”

ROMNEY HAS GOT MICHIGAN IN PLAY.

Well, just ten days ago, Obama was ahead in Michigan by 5 points. Now they’re tied, 47-47.

Guess that birth-certificate joke worked. I told you it would.

UPDATE: Nationally, this WaPo/ABC News poll has Romney 47, Obama 46 among registered voters. Among likely voters, Romney would likely have a statistically significant lead.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Pennsylvania Universities Expect Declining Enrollment. “The projected loss of roughly 1,500 students is modest for a system with more than 118,000 students, and not every campus says it expects to see a decline. Still, it is a significant departure from a trend that over 14 years lifted State System enrollment by 28 percent, from 93,711 to 119,513 students. And it is adding uncertainty to campuses already dealing with rising costs and a state appropriation that is 20 percent smaller than two years ago. Student tuition and fees, along with state funds, are the two principal sources of State System revenue. If both take a hit simultaneously, there is only so much schools can do to offset the loss.”

Who could have seen this coming?

UPDATE: Sallie Mae Survey Highlights Changing Marketplace, Students.

College administrators are justifiably worried about whether they’re going to be able to balance their budgets in a changing economic landscape, and a survey released by Sallie Mae last month didn’t do much to put them at ease.

The report’s headline finding is that spending on colleges — a number that includes parent and student income and savings, federal and private loans, grants and scholarships, and money from friends and relatives — by traditional-aged students and their families dropped over the past two years, a 13 percent decrease between 2009-10 and 2011-12.

A 13 percent drop in spending across all institutions types would represent a dramatic shift in the market indicating that large numbers of students and families had chosen less-expensive institutions over costlier ones, opted to live at home instead of on campus, or made other choices that cut their own spending — and, in turn, colleges’ revenues. That is revenue that tuition-dependent institutions of all types would have a hard time replacing. . . .

Despite its headline-grabbing nature, the Sallie Mae survey doesn’t paint quite as dramatic picture as it seems on first read. That’s partly because the two-year drop begins after a large spike in spending in the 2009-10 school year that coincided with the recession. The study’s findings are also tempered by other trends such as increases in college-going rates and shifts in who pays for college. While the findings of the Sallie Mae study still portend financial difficulties for some colleges in the years ahead, they don’t signal quite the sea change that they seem to at first glance.

Hmm. Well, possibly.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Applications are up at Illinois, though.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: You Call This A Recovery?

Real median household income has fallen 4.8% since the so-called recovery officially began in June 2009. That’s a steeper decline than occurred during the recession itself, when incomes dropped 2.6%, according to a new report from Sentier Research.

Almost every demographic group has seen incomes drop during the alleged Obama recovery, Sentier found. Even those who report being continuously employed watched their real incomes drop nearly 5% over the past three years.

A separate report last week from the Pew Research Center found that over the past decade, the middle class has “shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some … of its characteristic faith in the future.”

Meanwhile, there are 800,000 more long-term unemployed than when the “recovery” started, and the ranks of those who aren’t in the labor force at all have swelled by nearly 8 million.

How’s that hopey-changey stuff workin’ out for ya?

HOPEY-CHANGEY: FCC eyes tax on Internet service. “The FCC issued a request for comments on the proposal in April. Dozens of companies and trade associations have weighed in, but the issue has largely flown under the public’s radar.”

I remember the good old days when taxes were passed by Congress.

A FOLLOWUP ON FOOD PRICES, from Insta-Reader Deb Call:

I just wanted to weigh in on the food inflation issue with a local data point. I live in Southern Iowa and have a small flock of sheep (12) that I use for weed control in my vineyard. I feed grass/alfalfa hay in the winter months (roughly early November through mid-March), and typically start planning in early summer, for how much hay I’m going to need to have on hand to get the sheep through the winter. I have a hay field that my neighbor cuts and bales for me, and we split the hay (he has the big equipment needed for this job) so I don’t have to go searching for hay, fortunately. Anyway, I was chatting with him the other day and we were discussing the impact of the drought and the small hay yield compared to last year. Last year, I had roughly 36 big round bales (about 1400 lbs each), and solely due to the lack of rain this year, the yield this summer was only 18 bales. That’s a pretty drastic drop and pretty standard for this area under the current conditions. People are scrambling everywhere to get hay lined up for this winter, and not just cattle operators. Craigslist is loaded with horses for sale at fire sale prices because people are having trouble lining up enough hay for this winter, at a price they can afford.

Many farmers in this area are chopping their almost-dead cornfields right now and baling it for winter cattle feed, instead of waiting to harvest it because the ears have not filled with kernels, but the stalks are still useful to feed their cattle. I asked my neighbor what he was doing about the hay issue, and he said he was downsizing his cow herd (sending some of his breeding cows to auction) and a lot of people he knows are doing the same because between the scarcity/cost of hay, and the cost of feeding grain through the winter, he wouldn’t break even. This is an ongoing issue in this area because more and more pasture ground is being planted in corn; even marginal cropland that previously would have been used for grazing cattle. The lower yield of this marginal cropland previously would not have produced enough bushels to justify the per-acre cost of the inputs (fertilizer, fuel, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, etc), but with corn at $8+ a bushel and soybeans over $17, it’s tempting for farmers to put even marginal ground into production, leaving a lot less ground for grazing. That does not bode well for long-term beef prices, particularly if a lot of cattle are dumped on the market before the end of this year. In spite of the news coverage lately, I’m not sure most people have any idea how widespread the crop losses due to this drought are going to be out here, or the wide range of food items that will be impacted by it.

I’m not happy.

UPDATE: Reader Robin Tilling writes:

I just wanted to second Deb Call’s comments on food prices. I too have a small flock of sheep in upstate NY, which I use for the fleeces (I spin and knit) and meat for my family. I have a hay delivery coming this morning and my provider told me to be prepared for the huge increase in price this year. Upstate NY has also been saddled with a very dry summer, bringing production down significantly, and many farmers are shipping what they have out west as they can command a higher price.

It’s going to be a terrible year for anyone with livestock. I was lucky enough to sell off 60% of my flock at the beginning of the summer, so we’ll be okay, but I am getting emails from the woman I bought my flock from desperate to unload some sheep before winter.

I plan on stocking my freezer this fall in hopes that it will get us through much of next year, otherwise it’s beans for us!

Good luck! But I’d prepare for the worst.

PROF. JACOBSON NOTES THAT lefties are already accusing his new website, College Insurrection, of getting secret funding. He comments: “If only it were true.”

After observing all the astroturf — remember the Coffee Party? — and following up on how the lefty money works in more detail, I’ve come to believe that they hold such suspicions because “secret funding” for apparent grassroots organizations is the norm in their circles.

GOING JEAN GALT? Patrick Carroll writes:

I decided to take six months off this year. I sold stock and did what I wanted for a blissful six months. I read books, drank good wine, watched my garden, got out my high-powered binocs and looked at the planets, hiked, cooked, ate well, just lived. I did so because I expect the crowd in power to destroy everything, so I thought I’d take a break before the deluge. Oh, and BTW, I balanced things so I can claim on losses when I do start actually earning again.

I see it as a sort of South-of-France John Galt Living-well approach to dealing with the current crowd. I’ve denied them current and future taxes, while enjoying an extended vacation.

Oh, I also bought guns (rifle, shotgun, pistol each for the wife and I), and have contracted with a local landscaping company to build a highly-defensible, nice-looking (fence/hedge combination) perimeter for my property.

Oh, and I bought water barrels. And a propane tank. And a generator.

All good stuff to have.