THE REAL NEWS HERE IS THAT PEOPLE ARE USING GOOGLE+! Chinese Netizens Flood Obama’s Google+ Page:

Google+ — the US Internet giant’s social networking site — has been unavailable in China since it was launched last year, apparently blocked by the nation’s strict censorship system, dubbed “the Great Firewall of China.”

But over the past few days, Chinese netizens say they have unexpectedly managed to get onto the site, and have decided to concentrate their presence on Obama’s page.

“Many people don’t understand the meaning why all Chinese are coming here. We envy American people their democracy and freedom!” one netizen said in English under Obama’s latest posting about his campaign’s bumper stickers.

The comments centre on freedom of expression and human rights, as well as more mundane issues such as how to get US green cards.

“We are not barbaric people, we are just suppressed,” one netizen wrote, while others called on the US president to “come and liberate China.”

Sorry, folks, but Iran is next on the list, I believe.

DISASTER PREP AT THE STATE LEVEL: Wyoming House advances doomsday bill.

State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States.

House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government.

Ann Althouse comments: “Frankly, I think all the states should have made plans like this a long time ago.”

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “That Wyoming ‘doomsday bill’ strikes me not only as prudent, but subversive: When SHTF states matter more than the federal government. If you accept that, then…”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Customize Your AR-15 For 3-Gun Competition.

LOOKIN’ SEX-E: Infiniti’s Electric Supercar.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Howard Lovy: Yesterday’s ‘Impossible’ Nanobots are Taking Flight Today. “I enjoy it because it was just about a decade ago, when I first began to write about nanotechnology, that nanobots were derisively dismissed as impossible by many leading scientists. As a result, just the fact that I gave the possibility any ink at all in commentaries at Small Times magazine and on my old nanotech blog made my life as a reporter and editor a bit more difficult.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Postal Implosion Gathers Force. “The Postal Service death spiral continues. Delivery time is slowing, service is worsening, and postal rates keep going up. The WSJ reports that the USPS is planning cuts to more than 260 mail processing centers nationwide, which will eventually result in the loss of roughly 35,000 jobs. Oh, and it will need to charge five cents more to mail a letter. (When I was a kid, it costs three cents to mail a first class letter, and same city delivery was often faster than it is today.) This is what failure looks like: getting less and less done while sucking in more and more money. Yet Congress can’t help itself; led by Bernie Sanders it is trying to make a bad situation still worse.”

That’s what they excel at — especially when led by Bernie Sanders.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: 62 Colleges Meet 100% of Students’ Financial Need. So if you’re paying full-price there, you’re a sucker.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Algae, European Gas Prices, and Born in the U.S.A.

As gas nears $5-a-gallon out west, the president, who has cancelled a key pipeline and frozen federal leases from Alaska to the East Coast, teaches us about American algae potential, in the way he used to emphasize the importance of tire pressure and “tune-ups.” He castigates the opposition for making political hay out of bad news, in the way he routinely did as a senator in compiling the most partisan voting record in the Senate. Energy Secretary Chu cannot and will not say a word about soaring gas prices, since he is on record not so long ago hoping that they might double — that is, get to $8- to 10-a-gallon as they are in Europe. The Energy Department can do almost everything Americans don’t want, but not the single thing they do want.

That’s because what Americans want isn’t important to them.

FAKEGATE UPDATE: Ed Driscoll: Of ‘Nature Fakery,’ Eco-Destruction, and the Nature of Fakery.

TODAY ONLY, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on Blu-Ray for $49.99.

BUT OF COURSE: Obama Hires Academy Award Winning Filmmaker To Direct A Movie About . . . Barack Obama.

ANOTHER REVIEW of Professor Bainbridge’s Corporate Governance After the Financial Crisis.

SPACE UPDATE: Suborbital Space Research Conference Launches Monday. “The 2012 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC-2012) will take place from Monday to Wednesday (Feb. 27 to 29) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Resort in Palo Alto. Just before the meeting begins, one lucky attendee will be chosen at random to receive a free trip to suborbital space aboard XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx vehicle.”

STRIKINGLY SEXUAL IMAGERY in a law review article? And from a mild-mannered colleague of mine, at that. Well, I suppose I haven’t exactly set a good example.

FAKEGATE UPDATE: Peter Gleick and America’s Dumbest Criminals.

POLL: Two Thirds Support Keystone XL Pipeline.

VIDEO: Man keeps nodding off during Biden speech.

ONE-SIDED LAW ENFORCEMENT: Senate Candidate Calls for Investigation of IRS ‘Assault’ on Tea Party.

JUST IN TIME FOR THE ELECTION RUN-UP: Authorities rank “sovereign citizen” movement among greatest threats. And the Southern Poverty Law Center — ever eager to help the Democrats paint the right as violent — chimes in.

Notice that there’s never any “why do they hate us?” agonizing where these groups are concerned.

ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM of perverse incentives.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Remind me again why TV executives are more ethical than Enron executives.”

TRYING TO HELP A VICTIM:

I posted about a guy in Des Moines who spent about 4 months in jail waiting for trial in a self defense shooting. They stuck him with such a huge bail amount that he couldn’t possibly pay it. He was evicted from his apartment and everything inside was put on the curb to be stolen. He got exactly the sort of treatment you’d expect in a state that doesn’t have a Castle Law.

Here’s your chance to give him a little something to get him back on his feet.

I’d like to see some accountability for the prosecutor.

WORD CLOUDS for Romney and for Reagan.

THE INSTAWIFE: “Intelligence minus judgment equals intellect.”