THE BACKPEDALING BEGINS: White House to Announce ‘Accommodation’ for Religious Organizations on Contraception Rule. My advice to the bishops: He’s on the run — don’t settle for his opening bid.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Can You Pass the ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ Test?

As someone known for writing defenses of chain stores and explaining Plano, Texas, to puzzled pundits, I agree that way too many smart people, particularly on the coasts, are quick to condemn middle-American culture without understanding why people value one or another aspect of it. But they were even worse in 1963. That’s the second problem with Murray’s fable: The cultural consensus was not just an illusion. It was an unhealthy one. Instead of promoting understanding, it fed contempt. . . .

With five decades’ distance it’s clear that books as seemingly different as “The Organization Man,” “The Lonely Crowd,” “The Feminine Mystique” and “Atlas Shrugged” were really all about the same thing: the alienation and discomfort of gifted, independent-minded individuals in a society in which the “normal” ruled. The “cognitive elite” felt left out of or oppressed by the country’s culture and, as a result, scorned it.

Now these people have one another.

And they’re out for payback.

NEW RNC AD: “FIVE YEARS LATER.”

PEW STUDY POINTS TO Obama’s Growing Youth Problem. “It’s fair to say that just about everyone has suffered the ill effects of Obamanomics, which has produced growth rates during the 31-month “recovery” that are far below any in modern times. But a new report out of the Pew Research Center shows that when it comes to economic pain, young workers trying to get a start in life have suffered the most. . . . More bluntly stated, Obama’s lackluster recovery is severely punishing an entire generation of workers. They’ll have a much harder time making ends meet today, and will find it much more difficult to save and invest for things they’ll need down the road.”

THE SECOND AMENDMENT CASES the Supreme Court refuses to hear.

PROGRESS: Nuclear Reactor Approved in U.S. for First Time Since 1978. More like this, please.

IN THE UNITED STATES, WE HAVE MEDIA MATTERS: Hacked Emails Reveal Kremlin Astroturfing.

HIT JOB: Guy who “glitter-bombed” Romney worked for Colorado Democrats.

CHARLES GASPARINO: A “Deadbeat” Bailout.

REMEMBER WHEN SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT “A CULTURE OF CORRUPTION” IN CONGRESS? Pelosi might have skirted House ethics rules on campaign solicitations.

BUSINESS AS USUAL IN THIS ADMINISTRATION: Obama Bundler Earmarked Stimulus Money For Donors.

IS INCOME INEQUALITY LIKE GLOBAL WARMING? As soon as everyone starts yammering about it, it goes away. “Trends like this come to seem inevitable because they have been going on for a long time–but since inequality cannot actually rise until the 1% own everything in the world while the rest of us suck on wood chips, the longer inequality has been growing, the closer that trend must be to slowing, or reversing. So the more you feel that inequality growth is a state of nature, the less likely this is to actually be true. And even very smart, knowledgeable people who have read a lot have an abysmal record at forecasting these things.”

JAMES TARANTO: “The symbol of radical feminism is a Venus sign with a fist. The most fitting symbol of mainstream feminism is a Happy Meal.”

RAND SIMBERG: Good News / Bad News On Human Spaceflight Regulation.

FASTER, PLEASE: Cancer Drug Reverses Alzheimer’s In Mice.

A widely available cancer drug has shown remarkable success in reversing Alzheimer’s disease in mice, raising hope of a breakthrough against incurable dementia in humans, US researchers said Thursday.

Mice treated with the drug, known as bexarotene, became rapidly smarter and the plaque in their brains that was causing their Alzheimer’s started to disappear within hours, said the research in the journal Science.

“We were shocked and amazed,” lead author Gary Landreth of the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio told AFP.

“Things like this had never, ever been seen before,” he said.

The drug works by boosting levels of a protein, Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), that helps clear amyloid plaque buildup in the brain, a key hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

Now if we can just find an Alzheimer’s drug that cures cancer.

RAND PAUL TO OBAMA: “Do You Hate Rich People, Or Just Rich People Who Don’t Contribute To Your Campaign?”

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: A NON-DEAL ON FORECLOSURES.

In Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, Doris Kearns Goodwin (just Doris Kearns in NR’s copy of the book — we’re old-school) has one interesting observation about LBJ: He never got out of the legislative mind-set, and his measure of success when crafting his hallmark programs, from Medicare to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was simply getting the bill passed. Never mind the contents of the program: Just get something signed into law. Tragically for LBJ, he didn’t have a Nancy Pelosi around to tell us that we had to pass Medicare so we could find out what’s in it.

I get the same feeling for President Obama’s new mortgage settlement: Never mind what it does, or whether it does any good, just get everybody’s signature on the deal.

Here’s what it does not do: It isn’t going to prevent a lot of foreclosures (and may in fact cause some), it isn’t going to assuage the terror in the mortgage markets, and it probably isn’t going to clean up the system that caused some number of homeowners to be foreclosed on without proper documentation.

Like the fiasco that was HAMP, this settlement will encourage homeowners to become delinquent on their loans: There’s $10 billion set aside for principal writedowns for delinquent homeowners, but paid-up borrowers only get $3 billion to encourage the refinancing of underwater mortgages.

As always a disincentive to productivity and thrift, an incentive to mooching and looting.

EUROPE’S German Future.

ADVICE TO POLITICIANS: If somebody throws something at you, deck him. You’ll pick up scads of votes.

Plus, from the comments: “PS, when are these courageous white gays going to glitter bomb the anti-gay marriage black bigot in the White House? Or is he too scary because he’s black?” Well, they don’t mind Obama’s opposition to gay marriage because they assume he’s lying.

JOHN HINDERAKER: “This is a year in which it was incumbent on conservatives to pursue, soberly, the overriding goal of evicting Barack Obama from the White House. We didn’t do that; in fact, it wouldn’t be far off the mark to say that we made fools of ourselves by chasing one will o’ the wisp after another. I fear that in November, we will pay the price.”

Do not take counsel of your fears.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT:

In late September, news agencies all over the world printed this concise cultural analysis made by Afghan mujahedin fighter Maulana Inyadullah, the Ricky Carmichael of eXtreme Musliming:

The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death.

Well, it’s January and I’m drinking a Pepsi and Mr. Inyadullah is probably dead. So, contrary to the dire predictions of the clerk at the food coop, the war had a happy ending for everyone.

The link in the post has succumbed to link-rot, but here’s the source.

LIST: Best books on lawncare.

Also: High-Yield Vegetable Gardening.

UPDATE: Reader Thomas Camp writes that this is the best gardening book.

BUCKING THE TREND: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Seeks Statewide Gun Registration in Illinois. Don’t they already have that?

They should register corrupt pols in Chicago, but that would be all of them, I guess.

DANIEL HENNINGER: A LESSON FOR THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS:

The American Catholic Church, from left to right, is now being handed a lesson in the hierarchy of raw political authority. One hopes they and their supporters will recognize that they have not been singled out. The federal government’s forcings routinely touch other groups in this country—schools, doctors, farmers, businesses. The church’s fight is not the whole or the end of it.

Since he appeared, no other word has been invoked more often to describe Barack Obama’s purposes than “transformative.” Last year, Mr. Obama began to be criticized by some of his supporters for being insufficiently transformative while holding the powers of the presidency—this despite passing the biggest social entitlement since 1965, an $800 billion stimulus bill, raising federal spending to 24% of GDP and passing the Dodd-Frank restructuring of the U.S. financial industry. Naturally an interviewer this week asked Mr. Obama why he hadn’t been more “transformative.” The president replied that he deserved a second term, because “we’re not done.” In term two, it will be Uncle Sam, Transformer.

Transformed into a place where what Washington wants matters more than what you believe.

Related: Eleanor Clift: Did Obama Pick The Contraception Fight To Fire Up His Base?

UPDATE: The Anchoress: You Bet It’s War.

Next: A requirement that mosques sell bacon.

MORE: Hispanics jumping Obama ship over contraception flap.

MORE STILL: A steaming pile of sexism from Hillary Rosen: “This public debate on whether or not the Obama administration’s sensible policy on covering birth control has turned into a boys against the girls fight. And the boys are out of touch and out of line.”

Shut up, boys. This issue is owned by women.

Related: Senate Democratic Women Are Boycotting Morning Joe. Join the club, ladies. Although for most of us, it’s not so much boycotting as forgetting it exists.

FINALLY: Another Rube Self-Identifies:

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan says President Barack Obama hasn’t kept his promise, when it comes to the new White House policy on contraception.

Sources told CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer that Archbishop Dolan feels betrayed after his meeting with the president on the issue late last year.

“All statements from Barack Obama come with an expiration date. All of them.”

CASSY FIANO: Accepting Down Syndrome.