LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: 90% of Recent Grads Say Law School Was Worth It (But Only 56% Have Jobs).

UPDATE: Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!

AT AMAZON, it’s the Holiday Toy List.

TOM WOLFE DRAWS FIRST BLOOD: Unfortunately, it’s upon himself, as he gets a bloody nose near the end of his interview this week with the London Telegraph, on his new book, Back to Blood. He finishes the interview with his necktie off, perhaps the most shocking detail of all.

DOUBLE-SECRET PROBATION: Student threatened with punishment after filming Democratic congressman’s abortion answer.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Higher Ed Costs Now Rising Faster than Financial Aid. Walter Russell Mead comments: “Higher ed should take this warning sign very seriously. It has become clear that the byzantine system of government loans, tax credits, and financial aid designed to offset the skyrocketing cost of college is no longer working. We need something new. When all else fails, it’s time to think.”

Well, I’ve tried.

SEPTEMBER SURPRISE: Noemie Emery writes:

On Sept. 15, 2008, Barack Obama was behind in the polls, caught off balance by the Sarah Palin selection and in trouble for the first time since his nomination. Then the financial collapse blindsided his rival, caused a huge civil war in the Republican Party, and dropped the presidency into his lap.

“It wasn’t the first time blind luck seemed to help Obama,” Emery adds.

No doubt given the saturation coverage it received, that Romney’s 47 percent clip was intended to be a September gift to the president by his MSM surrogates, designed to once again leave Obama’s opponent dead in the water. But it’s tough to generate righteous indignation on a mass scale when over half the country thinks you’re right.

(H/T: OJ)

WELL, OBAMA SUPPORTERS — IS THIS WHAT YOU VOTED FOR IN 2008? Obama moves to make the War on Terror permanent: Complete with a newly coined, creepy Orwellian euphemism – ‘disposition matrix’ – the administration institutionalizes the most extremist powers a government can claim.

But he’s not a Texan or a bald white guy like Cheney so it’s okay. Expect more anti-Mormon bigotry to cover the cognitive dissonance.

OBAMA’S AURA OF DEFEAT: It’s not quite a pre-postmortem, given that Ross Douthat was hired to play the role of the New York Times’ token conservative, but still:

Now this is not a normal re-election campaign. When incumbent president win, they usually expand their original majorities, but barring a completely unexpected polling shift, Obama’s 2008 majority will shrink no matter what. He’s been running a heavily negative campaign from the beginning, and the late-game approach has only accentuated aspects of the White House’s strategy (the focus on social issues, the quest for “shiny objects” — hey, bayonets! — to change the subject from the economy, etc.) that have been present all along. What the press has read as signs of “Joe the Plumber”-esque desperation over the last few weeks may not be signs of an impending defeat; it may just be the way that Obama has to win, if win he does. But if so, it won’t look like the winning re-election campaigns we’ve seen in the recent past, and that reporters have grown accustomed to covering.

Meanwhile, at Power Line, Paul Mirengoff writes, “If President Obama loses this election, the Democrats will need a scapegoat.” And he’s got one in mind — thanks to the pre-postmortem by the liberal Times journalist that Douthat references in the above link.

RELATED: From Ron Radosh: How Liberals and Democrats are Spinning a Possible Romney Victory, Before the Election!

THEY CALL THEM “REVENUE CAMERAS” FOR A REASON: Single District speed camera: 116,734 tickets worth $11.6 million.

JAMES TARANTO: In Defense of Richard Mourdock: It is his Democratic opponent who is engaging in Akin-style sophistry. “Mourdock gave a straightforward and thoughtful answer, if an impolitic one, to the question that was posed, one that made clear he appreciates its (albeit only hypothetical) moral gravity. Akin, by contrast, attempted to avoid the question by arguing that it was irrelevant.”

MICHAEL BARONE: AFFLUENT SUBURBS SWING TO DEBATE-TESTED ROMNEY: “What we may be seeing, as we drink from the firehose of multiple poll results pouring in, is a slow-motion 1980.”

HOW THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN IS ILLEGALLY ACCEPTING DONATIONS FROM FOREIGN CITIZENS: PJM’s man in the UK, a British citizen, proves how easy it is for non-Americans to donate to Barack Obama.

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Boeing Has Perfected A Missile That Wipes Out Electronics And Leaves Everything Else Intact. “We hit every target we wanted to. Today we made science fiction into science fact.”

THE MYTH OF DEPRIVATION AND INJUSTICE:   Kevin Hassett and Arpana Mathur of the American Enterprise Institute report on their new study of the consumption habits of Americans across the economic spectrum.  Their findings are contrary to the progressive myth.  Specifically, they find that consumption rates across income levels have remained relatively stable over the last several decades, and that today’s poor consume relatively more “luxury” goods– computers, air conditioning, washer/dryers, microwaves and cell phones–than in years past.  They conclude:

The data suggest the following picture. Over time, Americans have constructed a vast safety net that has adequately served the poor and helped them—as well as the middle class—to maintain significant consumption growth despite the apparent stagnation of cash incomes. The notion that a society that has accomplished such a feat is rigged or fundamentally unjust is ludicrous.

Turns out America is a pretty great place, and being poor here is not only much better than being poor elsewhere, but even better than the America of the past. Put that in your progressive pipe and smoke it.

LIBERALISM: IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN WE DO IT: Chris Matthews, Who Used the Phrase ‘Shuck and Jive,’ Now Calls Sarah Palin Racist for Saying ‘Shuck and Jive.’

UPDATE: Palin punches back twice as hard, to coin a phrase.

(Headline inspired by a running leitmotif of Kathy Shaidle.)

WHY LIBERTARIAN LAW PROFESSORS tend to support Romney.

ROGER L. SIMON: If You Believe in this Country, Send a Check to Ty Woods’ Family. The former Navy SEAL who died in the Benghazi terror attack leaves behind a widow and a baby son.

CHANGE: Bill Clinton — from savior to potential scapegoat in less than two months.

MORE ON German doubts about their gold holdings. It doesn’t suggest extreme faith in the Euro, or the future.

THE BITTER PILL OF OBAMACARE:  Get ready to bend over unless repeal occurs.

BECAUSE THAT’S WHO HE IS: Why Did Obama Run Left?

MICKEY KAUS: Is Obama Deluded On Amnesty?

FASTER, PLEASE: USA May Soon Become World’s Top Oil Producer.

MAKE HIM EAT HIS WAFFLE:  Is This Why Obama Wanted that Des Moines Register Interview Off the Record?

DIGITAL CAMERAS: The early years.