YEAH, PRETTY MUCH: Rolling Stone: Now that states have started legalizing recreational marijuana, will the president continue the government’s war on weed?

A 25-YEAR RECESSION in legal employment?

JIGGERY-POKERY: Jobs Data Remain At Recessionary Levels: “And by the way, remember those big payroll gains in September and October, right before the election? Forget it. The Labor Department has revised down its job estimates for those two months by 49,000. . . . And it may get worse. The quarterly Wells Fargo/Gallup small-business survey found that 21% plan to cut jobs over the next six months — a surge from 10% last June and a record high.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Bankruptcy, Not Forgiveness, for Student Loans. Yes, but make the institutions pick up part of the tab.

HOW WISE IS THE SAGE OF OMAHA? Megan McArdle Checks Warren Buffett’s Numbers. Meh. These days I just think of him as another crony capitalist.

SPECIAL FAVORS: A waiver for Hollywood on the Animal Welfare Act. Introduced by a Republican. Why is the GOP doing favors for Hollywood, again?

SHELDON RICHMAN: Romanticizing Taxation: The irresistible temptation to spend other people’s money.

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: The Media Mogul Protection Racket: Want a pass from negative coverage? Fund the liberal press. “What is most remarkable is that these moguls are exactly the type of characters liberals would otherwise despise and delight in cutting down. Take for example the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim, a Mexican national of Lebanese descent who is insanely wealthy thanks to the endemic cronyism of the Mexican telecommunications industry. He also bailed out the New York Times Company with a $250 million loan in 2009 and as of October 2011 owned a little more than seven percent of the property. What do you know, the Times is not exactly flooding-the-zone with reporting on Slim’s treasure chest, his interconnectedness with global politics, and the outer limits of his ambition. When Slim visited Washington, D.C., in February to huddle with Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano, Ron Kirk, Gene Sperling, Julius Genachowski, John Bryson, John Kerry, and others, only Univision and the WFB deigned to mention it.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months.

They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.

CLIMATE CONFERENCE ENDS IN DISGRACE. “Climate negotiators at the most recent conference on global warming were unable to reduce expectations fast enough to match the collapse of their agenda. . . . The only real winners here were the bureaucrats in the diplomacy industry for whom endless rounds of carbon spewing conferences with no agreement year after year mean jobs, jobs, jobs.”

JOHN HINDERAKER: An Administration That Will Live In Infamy.