INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Is The EPA’s Lisa Jackson Trying To Dodge A Federal Probe? “EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced Thursday she’s leaving her post. Is she getting out just ahead of an investigation into the illegal use of private emails for official government business?”

THE ATLANTIC: Higher Taxes for All: The Dems’ Terrible Fallback Plan for the Fiscal Cliff.

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ROLL CALL: Pessimism Abounds as White House Calls Cliff Meeting.

MAKING THE RUBBLE BOUNCE: Log Cabin Republicans release ad attacking possible Hagel nomination.

You know, somebody — Dave Weigel or Matt Yglesias, I think — was tweeting the other day that the GOP was doing worse post-election than in 2008. Well maybe; at this point, after all, Bush was still in the White House. But Obama is definitely doing worse than in 2008. First the Susan Rice debacle, then the departure of scandal-plagued EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and now the stalled Hagel nomination. Definitely not as well as in 2008.

MICHIGAN: Gov. Rick Snyder Takes On Unions Again. “Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder kicked up a storm by signing legislation this month that turned the former Big Labor stronghold into a right-to-work state. So what does he do as an encore? Sign a new municipal emergency manager bill that undos the one modest victory that state unions could claim in the November election – repealing the old municipal emergency manager law.”

GUN BANS AND MANDATORY REGISTRATION OF EXISTING WEAPONS: Feinstein’s Assault-Weapons Proposal. In the unlikely event that such a proposal passed, it would meet with massive civil disobedience. As it should.

I recommend contacting your Senators, with particular emphasis toward those on Moe Lane’s list of vulnerable Senate Democrats for 2014. The last Assault Weapons Ban cost the Democrats the Congress. Feinstein doesn’t care, because her seat is safe. Others are likely to feel differently.

ARIZONA: Attorney General To Offer Marksmanship Training To One Staffer At Each School.

THAT’S GOING TO LEAVE A MARK: Gallup: NRA Much More Popular Than The Media.

Related: Even after shootings and media attacks, most Americans like the NRA. “Politicians, gun control activists, and media personalities have attacked the National Rifle Association in the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Conn., but a majority of the American people have a favorable view of the pro-gun organization. . . . The NRA’s image thus seems fairly resilient, as the poll shows they retain their support despite negative media attention.”

Well, to be fair, the NRA has an advantage: It’s not trying to take away anyone’s’ rights.

VARIOUS STRATEGIES for “Going Galt.”

It’s not so much a movement as “Irish Democracy.”

MICKEY KAUS: The Kama Sutra Of Corporate Smarm. “It’s all praxis now, comrades!”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Heather MacDonald: A Blow To The College-Industrial Complex.

The New York Times seems concerned that teens in the fracking belt of eastern Montana are opting to work in the new oil-field economy right after high school rather than going straight on to college. A front-page story warns: Taking a job is “a lucrative but risky decision for any 18-year-old to make, one that could foreclose on his future if the frenzied pace of oil and gas drilling from here to North Dakota to Texas falters and work dries up.”

Let’s see. Where is a teenager more likely to learn the basic and transferable virtue of showing up every day and on time, not to mention how to get along with a boss and fit into an organization — as a communications and binge-drinking double major at Missoula State University, or as a mechanic fixing broken rig equipment? Too many high-school graduates are reflexively going to college as it is, without a clue what they are doing there or how to take advantage of higher education. Mandatory stints in the private economy before college enrollment could do wonders for study skills. If, by deferring or maybe even skipping college entirely, students were foregoing their one hope for immersion in Western civilization, there would indeed be grounds for regret. But colleges’ own curricular decisions have long since destroyed their right to present themselves as a gateway for precious knowledge of the past.

Also: “It is unlikely, of course, that if some subset of teens were regularly interning at Planned Parenthood or Marriage Equality after high school, the Times would point out the risks of not attending college right away.”

WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW about your neighborhood.

WHY IS IT THAT “PUBLIC INTEREST LAW” AT LAW SCHOOLS ALWAYS SEEMS TO BE LEFT-WING? Ruling discredits UM law clinic’s involvement. “What provoked a widespread furor was not just that an environmental plaintiff was pursuing an adventurous long-shot case. It was that the citizens of the state of Maryland — including taxpaying families like the Hudsons — were helping foot the bill for it. The University of Maryland’s environmental law clinic had agreed to represent the well-heeled Kennedy group in suing Alan and Kristin Hudson. And that, in turn, touched off a controversy, still ongoing, about whether or not state-run universities like Maryland’s should properly insert themselves into controversial long-shot litigation aimed at the interests of some of the taxpayers who have to pay for it.”

ED DRISCOLL: Our Advocacy-Obsessed Apparatchik MSM.

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AT MEDIAITE: Gun Control Debate Exposed The Media’s Bias, David Gregory Exposed Their Hypocrisy.

The media’s argument in favor of treating Gregory differently from any other citizen who does not anchor a popular Sunday news broadcast is, essentially, “come on! Really?” . . .

L’affaire de Gregory has exposed an unseemly sense of entitlement in the elite media. If the post-Newtown debate over gun control has shown that the media is somewhat out of touch with average Americans, the Gregory episode has revealed that they do not see themselves as average Americans.

No, as oikophobes they most certainly do not.

UPDATE: Because I’m The Journalist And You’re Not.

Plus these thoughts from Jonah Goldberg:

Culturally, one of the things lots of Americans detest about the elite journalistic culture is the idea that reporters are above the law. Usually, this self-regard manifests itself in debates over revealing sources. Many journalists honestly believe they have special rights and privileges not enjoyed by all Americans. As a matter of law and logic, that’s not the case (which is why some journalists want to see the licensing of journalists). We all have the right to commit journalism.

This priestly caste attitude manifests itself in other ways as well. Hidden cameras were something to be celebrated when 60 Minutes pioneered them. When grubby bloggers do the same thing, it’s apparently repugnant.

Well, the First Amendment is for everyone, not people with degrees from the Columbia J-School. Likewise, the Second Amendment is for everyone. And what laws limit my constitutional right to bear arms, limit David Gregory’s too.

And here we have David Gregory breaking exactly the sorts of gun laws he’s advocating….

Yes, they think of themselves as part of the Ruling Class, with all the perquisites.

MORE: W.J.J. Hoge:

Of course, they can’t just come out and say it, but one of the reasons why the main stream media is pooh-pooh-ing l’affaire Gregory is that the idea that simple possession of an unloaded magazine being a crime is so mind-bogglingly stupid on its face that they understand the unfairness of it all at a gut level. Why should merely holding a metal box with a spring in it be punishable by a $1,000 fine and a year in jail?

Well, our betters passed that law, and now one of them has broken it.

And now we will see whether DC is a city ruled by laws or by men above the laws.

A warning: Those who are above the law are unable to hide behind it.

ALZHEIMER’S AND TOO MUCH IRON IN THE BRAIN? Possibly a good reason to donate blood.

Also, Higher Vitamin D Dietary Intake Is Associated With Lower Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease: A 7-Year Follow-up. And: Dementia and Vitamin B12 Deficiency.

15 SHAMEFUL post-breakup confessions.

AP: Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf dead at age 78. RIP.

UPDATE: Joshua Trevino tweets, “The hourlong Schwarzkopf postwar briefing on the 1991 victory is still a masterpiece of the genre:”

[jwplayer mediaid=”160462″]

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NEWS YOU CAN USE: You may be the problem in your relationship and not even know it.

ETHICS: Poynter Journalism Scholars Criticize Paper for Publishing Gun Owners’ Addresses.

IF ALLOWED, YES. Will California media ignore fracking’s long, safe history?

FLASHBACK: Michael Moore’s Bodyguard Arrested on Airport Gun Charge. Still no word on what kind of guns Mayor Bloomberg’s or Rupert Murdoch’s bodyguards carry.