THIN-SKINNED AND INSECURE: WaPo: Obama exchange with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer reveals his testy side. If he were a Republican, he’d be sexist, too.

JAMES TARANTO: Alternative Certification and ‘Colorblind Racism’ — The sooner the higher-education bubble bursts, the better.

The higher education industry’s credential cartel is under financial threat owing to the necessity of state and local (and eventually federal) budget cuts and the increasing sense that a degree isn’t worth incurring a mountain of debt. It is under legal threat, too. There is a strong likelihood that the Supreme Court will abolish or severely curtail the use of racial preferences in college admissions sometime in the next few years, a possibility that led to gnashing of teeth at the New York Times editorial board. Thanks to the senescence of white guilt, explicated here Monday, it is also under cultural threat.

Now, as Vedder reports, there is a competitive threat as well. We can expect that the higher-ed industry will do whatever it can to crush this threat. The obvious point of attack would be to claim that the new skills tests have a racially disparate impact.

No industry loses market share without a fight.

FLACK ALERT: Media Matters solicits lawmaker ‘allies’ to steer media coverage.

OUTRAGE: Vice President Joe Biden Owes An Apology To Indian Americans.

I’m blaming his low IQ.

USING BOOK-MENTIONS OF BACON TO PREDICT WARS: Two observations: (1) Is there anything it can’t do? (2) Uh oh.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Historically, there may well be a co-relation to the phrase ‘to save one’s bacon.’ That, and traditionally bacon as a preserved food was a common military ration. Curiously, the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam do not register on the bacon-o-meter, possibly because ‘bacon’ in the modern era has largely been replaced by the word ‘ass.’ And because the Cold War otherwise lacked sizzle. The current spike in bacon references is probably a confluence both of the religious particulars of our current conflict, and this happy time of culinary liberation in which we dwell, when bacon is being embraced and celebrated in new and exciting ways.”

Meanwhile, reader John Scanlon writes: “Google Ngram on ‘liberty’ is pretty depressing.”

True, although “freedom” is somewhat better. Still dropping off, though.

FUEL ECONOMY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Obama Leaves Event Promoting Clean Energy in Motorcade of 22 Fossil-Fueled Vehicles (Video).

WELL, THAT’S PRETTY MUCH THE KISS OF DEATH, ISN’T IT? Biden visited DOE-backed, bankrupt green company.

Just as President Obama toured Solyndra LLC before that taxpayer-funded company declared bankruptcy, so Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech at Ener1, an electric car battery company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today despite $118.5 million in stimulus money from the Department of Energy (DOE).

“We know what’s coming — you don’t have to be a fortune-teller to see where the automobile industry has to go,” Biden told Ener1 employees last year. “So why not? Why not have it made in America? That’s why we went out there and came up with $2.4 billion for battery technology.”

House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., recalled Biden’s visit and the failures of Solyndra and Beacon Power earlier this year. “One bankruptcy may be a fluke, two could be coincidence, but three is a trend,” Stearns said in a statement today. “Our investigation continues, and we are working to ensure taxpayers never are never again stuck paying hundreds of millions of dollars because of the administration’s risky bets.”

Risky bets, payoffs to cronies, whatever.

Plus: Advice To Companies: “Don’t Let President Obama Notice You.”

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK ASLEEP: ‘Dozing’ security officer admits violations, resigns; WSI says photos taken in unclassified area at ORNL.

SHOCKER: Poll: Most Say High Court Should Reject Health Insurance Mandate. “A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that more than half of Americans say the Supreme Court should rule that the health overhaul law’s requirement to have health insurance or pay a fine is unconstitutional. The poll by the nonpartisan foundation found that 54% of those surveyed said the Supreme Court should rule against the mandate while only 17% said the court should uphold it and 29% either didn’t know or didn’t answer.”

HMM: China’s very mysterious data. “I could not help noticing that China’s imports from Japan fell 16.2pc in December. Imports from Taiwan fell 6.2pc. The Shanghai Container Freight Index fell 1.4pc to a record low of 919.44 in November, after sliding relentlessly for several months. It has picked up slightly since. The Baltic Dry Index measuring freight rates for ores, grains, and bulk goods, has fallen 44pc over the last year. Kasper Moller from Maersk in Beijing said weak Chinese demand for iron ore was the key culprit.”

#PBSFAIL: The NewsHour on PBS Tonight Jumped Right On the U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Controversy.

THE YEAR IS YOUNG: Worst News Story of 2012? “That’s right; Reuters wrote that Rubio voted against Obamacare, but, as with Sotomayer’s nomination, he wasn’t in the Senate yet. This kind of journalistic incompetence is stunning. How can any reporter–here, David Adams of Reuters–write that Rubio voted a certain way, without even checking to make sure he was in office at the time? And where did the false idea come from in the first place?”

Um, Media Matters, maybe? Just a wild guess . . . . Of course, calling this “incompetence” is charitable.

MICHAEL MANN’S climate emails.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Krugman says that ‘conservative columnists and newspapers’ have made a ‘concerted effort’ to smear him. But, as Virginia Postrel points out, they haven’t. The whole thing has come from one guy’s website (and Andrew Sullivan, a gay man who used to edit The New Republic, isn’t a credible front for the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.)” Well, that was true.

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals in Television.

BRYAN PRESTON: Debate Score: Lots of Heat, Little Sunshine in Florida’s Republican Debate.

Plus, Space Policy:

Gingrich should never have talked about a colony on the moon. His idea of loosening regulations and offering prizes to encourage private enterprise in space makes a great deal of sense, but it wouldn’t lead to a commercial colony on the moon, at least not for a very long time. The market would be primarily space tourism, satellites, commercial use of orbital space. He looks like a geek surrounded by grownups, not really a fair characterization but one that Gingrich invited.

On the other hand, Romney — who should have said the above — came across like a know-nothing on space policy, yet again.

UPDATE: Coming: A space-based anti-Romney ad featuring Burt Rutan?

THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: Sales of U.S. New Homes Unexpectedly Decline in December. “Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in December for the first time in four months, capping the slowest year on record for builders.” And note that November was revised down.

CHARLES MURRAY ON Elite Ignorance of Ordinary Americans.

It’s not just ignorance. It’s oikophobia. Coupled, quite frequently, with eleutherophobia.

MINTER’S RING: The Story of One WWII POW.