HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): MISERY:

The unemployment rate for Rhode Island fell by one tenth of a percent to 10.8%, but total employment dropped by 80 people. That’s not even a “mixed picture,” though. The only reason the unemployment rate moved in a seemingly positive direction is that 471 more Rhode Islanders just gave up looking for work.

So if the unemployment rate is a positive sign, then the state’s motto might as well be “We hope people leave faster than they lose their jobs.”

About the best that can be said for the Ocean State is that every other state in the union lost more employment than it did, except Utah, which saw a slight gain. That context is illustrated very well in an update to my chart showing labor force (employed plus looking for work) and employment for Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut as a percentage of each state’s January 2007 labor force.

It’s not pretty.

JOURNALISM: NYTimes ignores senior former AP journalists seeking correction on ‘napalm girl’ context.

AT AMAZON, bestselling books on survival skills.

Also, The Complete MacGyver Series, $85.74.

YESTERDAY, I MENTIONED THE DUSTUP AT U. GA’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER. Now the Board has backed down.

THEORY: Biden’s gaffes aren’t really gaffes — he wants Obama to lose in November.

“THIS IS NOT A PARODY.” Jim Treacher comments: “This guy is a clown. Morning zoo radio? Entertainment Tonight? Really? What, was SpongeBob busy?”

Also, Vladimir Putin is scared of girls.

You know, the Cold War wasn’t so great, but it does seem that the leadership was better on both sides back then. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Raphael Daly writes:

Yesterday, you said in your blog “Cold War wasn’t so great, but it does seem that the leadership was better on both sides.” With all due respect, I think you seriously misspoke. The church in which the band “Pussy Riot” staged their protest video did not exist during the Cold War, because Soviet leadership had it torn down. The clergy which served that church were imprisoned and sometimes murdered. The difference between Russian leaders before and after the fall of communism is the difference between leaders who have difficulty with free speech (Putin) and those who had no difficulty with it whatsoever (because it didn’t exist).

Fair point. By “better” I really meant “less pathetic,” not “less evil.”

ANDREW MCCARTHY: Huma Abedin’s “Muslim Minority Affairs” — It’s Not Just a Journal.

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RICHARD KAHLENBERG: Obama’s Affirmative-Action Brief. “Given Barack Obama’s mixed messages on affirmative action in the past—he has said his own daughters do not deserve a leg up in admissions and that he understands the resentment toward preferences by whites who do not feel particularly privileged—there was a modest hope that he would break with longstanding Democratic Party orthodoxy to promote a better kind of affirmative action that looks at gaping economic inequalities in our country rather than just counting skin color. He blinked, however, and filed a brief that is unlikely to do anything to change the minds of Supreme Court justices and may do real damage to the president’s own re-election chances.”

VIDEO BY SPEC OPS VETS UNHAPPY WITH LEAKS has over one million views on YouTube already.

#JUNKSCIENCE: Major Cracks In Study Saying Egg Yolk Consumption As Bad As Smoking. “This is very poor quality research that should not influence patients’ dietary choices.”

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, WE’D WIND UP WITH CRAZED RELIGIOUS FANATICS LITERALLY CRUCIFYING THOSE WHO OFFENDED THEIR BELIEFS. And they were right! “As the Muslim Brotherhood continues to solidify its ever-expanding power in Egypt, several Arabic news agencies — including Arab News, Al Khabar News, Dostor Watany and Egypt Now — are reporting that opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood were ‘crucified’ in Egypt last week.”

OLDEST COMMISSIONED WARSHIP: USS Constitution to sail under own power for second time in over a century.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, BRITISH EDITION: A-level students must be told the whole truth about the value of a degree: Mis-selling of higher education is one of the least remarked upon scandals of our time.

Least remarked upon? Some of us have been trying! And this sounds familiar:

From the moment that John Major started to abolish student grants, the British government has been in the business of selling (rather than simply providing) higher education. Yes, studying costs, runs the argument, but it is an investment: what students pay is a small fraction of what they will get back.

Then came the proliferation of courses and institutions, from BA (Hons) in Golf Management at the University of the Highlands and Islands to Trade Union Studies at Blackpool College. The definition of a degree has changed massively, but the financial argument used for getting one has not changed at all.

Costs have gone up, value has gone down. Plus this:

Of recent graduates, almost a third are in jobs that don’t require anything more than GCSEs. One in 10 recent graduates is now on the dole. All youth unemployment is tragic, but there is something especially scandalous about young people who have been sold a vision of graduate life, only to find it was a piece of spin to sweeten the bitter pill of student loans. The mis-selling of higher education is one of the least remarked-upon scandals of our time.

Indeed.

THE FOLKS AT LUCKYGUNNER.COM are hiring a Community Organizer.

UPDATE: Beretta is hiring, too. Guns and ammo: Growth sectors in the hopey-changey economy!

ROGER KIMBALL ON BARACK OBAMA’S FAMILY VALUES: “I’ve long known that abstract benevolence, a specialty of liberals, was eerily compatible with practical indifference or even cruelty. (I go into some of the reasons for this in ‘What’s Wrong with Benevolence’ in my new book The Fortunes of Permanence.) But this spectacle of callous familial neglect by, as Dinesh rightly describes him, the most powerful man in the world is something special. Forget politics. This is about simple humanity.”

HEH: Virginia Baker Swamped With Business Since Telling Biden “No!”

RUSSELL KOROBKIN: We Need A More Nuanced Standard for Determining What Constitutes Plagiarism. “That is, the question should be, to what extent was the expression specific and unique, but people are much more apt to employ a bright line rule based on the number of identical words. My high school English teacher taught me that copying more than three consecutive words from a source without attribution constituted plagiarism. This strikes me as privileging form over function.”

This is absolutely right. Peter Morgan and I argued for just such a standard in The Appearance of Impropriety. You can read that chapter online for free here. There’s even a defense of Joe Biden.

MR. PRESIDENT, CALL OFF YOUR ANIMALS: Video: Protester Disrupts Wisconsin Event, Spits on Romney Supporter.

MORE BRETT KIMBERLIN NEWS. If you support blogging freedom, consider a donation to the Bloggers Defense Team. I’ve donated.

STEPHEN KRUISER: Eat More Papaya! Plus, MSNBC Accuses Paul Ryan of Being a Family Man, and an Intellectual. Plus, Matt Lauer reporting from Obama’s lap.

IT’S NOT JUST RYAN RALLIES: Ben Cunningham sends this picture from the Nashville Tea Party meeting last night. “Glenn, we had to bring in extra chairs and turn down the air-conditioning.”

Is it me, or is there a 2010 vibe out there?

IF SO, THEN THEY CHOSE POORLY: Study: Men Paying For Sex From Prostitutes Looking For True Love. Or maybe I’m wrong:

Many of the female sex workers interviewed said they catered to the men’s emotional needs and described many of them as, “highly respectful” and sometimes “more caring than the other men in their ‘true’ personal lives.”

I would have tagged this “21st Century Relationships,” but I’m not sure there’s anything particularly new going on here. . . .

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Mark Perry on “The Academic Conference Racket.” Hey, don’t be too harsh — it’s not like we’re talking the GSA here.

PETRO-POLITICS: “News out this afternoon is that Obama is looking into opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a means to relieve pressure at the gas pump. Someone at the White House woke up and realized that the welcome springtime fall in gasoline prices has reversed course and retraced its steps, as shown in the first chart below of gasoline futures prices. I can tell you that out here on the Left Coast, the price of premium gasoline has reached $4.99 a gallon at my nearest station, but then California deserves it.”