WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Energy Revolution 2: A Post Post-American Post. “Forget peak oil; forget the Middle East. The energy revolution of the 21st century isn’t about solar energy or wind power and the ‘scramble for oil’ isn’t going to drive global politics. The energy abundance that helped propel the United States to global leadership in the 19th and 2oth centuries is back; if the energy revolution now taking shape lives up to its full potential, we are headed into a new century in which the location of the world’s energy resources and the structure of the world’s energy trade support American affluence at home and power abroad. . . . Since the 1970s, pessimism about America’s energy future has been one of the cornerstones on which the decline theorists erected their castles of doom; we are now entering a time when energy abundance will be an argument for continued American dynamism.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): JPMorgan just gave a calamitous economic forecast for Obama. It’s not so hot for the rest of us, either . . . .

ENGINEERED MICE with Elvis Presley’s DNA.

MICKEY KAUS: Keeping Up With The New, Rattnerized GM:

Remember all those new products that were going to save General Motors? There’s the new Chevy Malibu! Jack Baruth surveys the literature and concludes: “The media really didn’t want to let anybody know that the new Malibu sucks.” But now the press is giving up the charade. … Don’t forget the New Buick Verano (a fancified Chevy Cruze). It has surged to #118 on the sales charts for the first five months of 2012! … Meanwhile, there are signs of panic in GM’s European operations. The company’s stock is in record low territory. … Note to Obama: Wouldn’t a $4/hour wage cut be helping GM right about now? The pay would still be good–well over $20/hour. Too bad you didn’t want to anger the UAW.

It’s all about priorities.

BOOK PLUG: Reader Jonathan Rubinstein writes: “Well, how about plugging a marvelous thriller by a Yale Law grad, Alan Scribner, who worked for Frank Hogan for many years. His worst experience, arresting and prosecuting Lennie Bruce for == nothing really. Anyway, Mars the Avenger. A Mystery in Ancient Rome, which I reviewed at Amazon. Also co-wrote a wonderful book about old age, Anni Ultimi: A Roman Stoic Guide to Old Age, based on a close reading of Seneca and others.” Mars the Avenger is 99 cents on Kindle, so I bought it. Then I bought Anni Ultimi, because I’ve been rereading the Stoics, and Epicurus, lately anyway. I’m probably more of an Epicurean than a Stoic myself.

MARRIED VOTERS overwhelmingly back Romney. Single, not so much.

I’m guessing, though, that these married voters back Obama.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Confessions Of A Woman Who Won’t Date A Male Cat Owner.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Retail Purchases in U.S. Unexpectedly Decrease 0.5%.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Treasury Officials Solicited Prostitutes, Accepted Industry Gifts. Hard to believe that an agency headed by Tim Geithner could demonstrate such ethical laxity.

THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS A HOMELAND SECURITY FAIL: Port security: U.S. fails to meet deadline for scanning of cargo containers. “The Obama administration has failed to meet a legal deadline for scanning all shipping containers for radioactive material before they reach the United States, a requirement aimed at strengthening maritime security and preventing terrorists from smuggling a nuclear device into any of the nation’s 300 sea and river ports.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Report Documents Shifts in How Students Pay for College. “Students are shoulder an increased share of their own college tuition payments (with their parents picking up less of the tab), and more families are considering price when deciding where to send their children to college, according to an annual study by the lender Sallie Mae to be released today. The study, ‘How America Pays for College,’ found that the proportion of families that said they had stopped considering certain colleges had risen to 70 percent, up from 56 just three years ago. And the proportion of college expenses that students themselves paid for rose to 30 percent, the highest level in four years.”

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

EUGENE VOLOKH: “If you’re interested in becoming a law professor, you should consider applying for a two-year Stanford Constitutional Law Center Academic Fellowship; two fellowships are being filled this year, for July 2013 to June 2015. The Stanford Constitutional Law Center is directed by Professor (and former Circuit Judge) Michael McConnell, who is one of the top constitutional scholars in the country; and while the Center fellowship is fairly new, it promises to become one of the top such programs in the country.”

MICKEY KAUS: Will Republicans Take Advantage of Obama’s New Welfare Weakness?

The Obama Department of Agriculture has pulled the radio”novelas” that urged Spanish-speakers to wise up and get on the dole. (“In one of these, an individual tries to convince a friend to enroll in food stamps even though that friend declares: ‘I don’t need anyone’s help. My husband earns enough to take care of us,” says GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, describing the novelas. “The first individual replies back: ‘When are you going to learn?’”)

Why is the USDA’s retreat significant? Because it shows the administration is sensitive, in an election year, to being perceived as dismissive of the work ethic. Like a prize fighter who winces when you hit him in a sore spot, the Obamaites have revealed their weakness. If the Republicans’ have any strategic sense they will now hit that sore spot again by making a big fuss about the Health and Human Service regulations that renege on the work requirements imposed on welfare recipients by the 1996 welfare reform law (and its successors). If Romney, Boehner and McConnell can’t frame these regs as part (along with the food stamp push) of Obama’s cavalier disregard for the value of work–in embarrassing contradiction to the image he portrayed in 2008–they should really retire to Austria with Denise Rich.

Indeed.

LINDSAY ABRAMS: Calm Down About Propecia: Propecia Probably Isn’t Causing Your Erectile Dysfunction.

And reader Shawn Shadburn writes in response to an earlier post:

I read the article regarding Propecia’s side effects. I used Propecia for about 15 years. I never experienced a sexual side effect of any kind, and it has allowed me to keep most of my hair. I jokingly tell my kids that it’s my “hair vitamin”. As a note to your readers, my MD prescribed an alternative 5 years ago. I take 1/4 of a 5mg tablet of Finasteride daily. The Finasteride is covered by my insurance. The cost is $5/month vs. $75/month for Propecia.

Yeah, a lot of people have employed that approach. And drugs have different effects on different people. I think some doctors prescribe supplementary testosterone with Propecia, too. But how many medical risks are you willing to take for your hair?

UPDATE: Bill Whittle emails: “How many medical risks am I willing to take for my hair? ALL OF THEM!”

Well, sure, for that hair.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Blu-Ray Deal Of The Week.

Also, today only: Philips Norelco Men’s Shaving System, $48.99.

CONN CARROLL: WHAT WOULD AMERICA WITHOUT REPUBLICANS LOOK LIKE? Look At California And Find Out!

THE ESSENTIAL LESSON OF THE AUTO BAILOUT: “What do companies get when they act responsibly? Government-subsidized competition.”

SENATE RUNOFF IN TEXAS: It’s K Street vs. the Tea Party. “The Wall Street bailout of 2008 and the perception of Obama as a crony capitalist have ignited the Republican base’s distrust of lobbyists and big business. That wave of distrust could drown Dewhurst in the July 31 runoff.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): The twin lost decades in housing and stocks – baby boomers selling homes to a less affluent young American population. The impact of baby boomers on the housing market. “You have a wealthier generation that has seen their wealth decline trying to sell to a less affluent and smaller generation. Instead of household formation or even renting, over 2 million young Americans moved back home. Is it any wonder why we have now faced a lost decade in housing?”

And, of course, recent (and even not-so-recent) grads with heavy student loan debt can’t afford to pay top dollar for a house, if they can afford a house at all. Thanks, Higher Education Bubble!

SEE, THERE’S A REASON THE “MIDNIGHT KNOCK ON THE DOOR” HAS A BAD REPUTATION: Deputies shoot, kill man after knocking on wrong door.

In the early morning hours, deputies knocked on 26-year-old Andrew Lee Scott’s door without identifying themselves as law enforcement officers. Scott answered the door with a gun in his hand. . . . Residents said the unannounced knock at the door at 1:30 a.m. may be the reason why the tragedy happened.

“He was the wrong guy and he got shot and killed anyway. There’s fault on both sides. I think more so on the county,” Ryan Perry said. “I can understand why he [the deputy] did it, but it should have never gone down like that,” Perry said.

Nope. It’s police malpractice.

“JULIA” CHOSE POORLY: Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do.’ “Striking changes in family structure have also broadened income gaps and posed new barriers to upward mobility. College-educated Americans like the Faulkners are increasingly likely to marry one another, compounding their growing advantages in pay. Less-educated women like Ms. Schairer, who left college without finishing her degree, are growing less likely to marry at all, raising children on pinched paychecks that come in ones, not twos. Estimates vary widely, but scholars have said that changes in marriage patterns — as opposed to changes in individual earnings — may account for as much as 40 percent of the growth in certain measures of inequality. Long a nation of economic extremes, the United States is also becoming a society of family haves and family have-nots, with marriage and its rewards evermore confined to the fortunate classes.”

The only big news here is that the New York Times is catching up to things that Kay Hymowitz, et al., have been saying for years. And it’s a bracing change to read in the Times about the glories of “1950s style” parenting and the value of the Boy Scouts. Hey, the ending even suggests that it’s important to have a dad around the house. Who knew?

UPDATE: NYT link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!

JENNIFER RUBIN: July Panic For Obama — For Good Reason. “So the Obama team has shot its wad. Its opponent has more ammo and more money now. Romney hasn’t been mortally wounded. And there isn’t money from Obama to keep up the 4-to-1 spending barrage. In fact without it, Obama might well have fallen behind in the race. So the Obama team pleads for money and turns up the volume of the attacks. (After calling Romney a criminal in July, what’s left for September and October?)”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): The Hill Poll: Voters Say Wealth Is Now An Impossible Dream.

THE SHALE GAS SECRET: Why has drilling boomed in America, while it struggles in Europe? “What has given the U.S. its edge is that the early development risks were largely borne by small-time entrepreneurs, drilling a lot of dry holes on private land. These ‘wildcat’ developers were gradually able to buy up oil, gas and mineral leases from private owners while gathering enough geological data to bring in commercial producers.”

And by the time regulators noticed, they were already established. . . .

Plus: “In time, perhaps even the French will recognize their lost opportunity and lift their ban on fracking. But the deeper lesson is that this is a revolution that came about not through government planning or foresight, but through a combination of individual risk-taking and private property. Europeans could benefit by doing more to broaden the latitude for both.”