EMILY EKINS: George Washington Would Beat Out Romney as Richest President; John Kerry Would Have, Too.

TEDX AMSTERDAM: Guns For World Peace. “The gun may be one of the most important instruments of peace and stability that we have in this world.”

UPDATE: Various readers object that he’s not talking about guns in the hands of citizens, which is true. But what he says is shocking enough to contemporary Euros, even if it is in accordance with their traditions. As Sanford Levinson has noted, though, their traditions are not ours:

Such analyses provide the basis for Edward Abbey’s revision of a common bumper sticker, “If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns.” 67 One of the things this slogan has helped me to understand is the political tilt contained within the Weberian definition of the state — i.e., the repository of a monopoly of the legitimate means of violence 68 — that is so commonly used by political scientists. It is a profoundly statist definition, the product of a specifically German tradition of the (strong) state rather than of a strikingly different American political tradition that is fundamentally mistrustful of state power and vigilant about maintaining ultimate power, including the power of arms, in the populace.

In this, as in many things, of course, American elites often take their cues from the Germans.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: Downsized: What I Learned After I Lost My Job a Year Ago. “Here’s a fact: I have three regular part-time jobs now, and the reason I have each one of them is because of a white man.”

SCHTICK WEARING THIN: Jon Stewart on Obama: ‘You Opened With I Killed Bin Laden?!’

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INSTAVISION: The State Of The Tea Party, with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler.

SO MUCH FOR ALL THAT “FAIR SHARE” TALK: 36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes. Well, as Tim Geithner demonstrated, taxes are for the little people.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Universities Not Happy With Obama’s Tuition Criticism. “Even the suggestion of using federal financial aid to force colleges to lower prices drew criticism from many higher education experts Wednesday. . . . In his words, several experts in the economics of higher education heard an echo of a short-lived proposal from 2003: Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon, a California Republican who was then chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce’s 21st-Century Competitiveness Subcommittee, proposed penalizing colleges that increased their cost of attendance by more than twice the rate of inflation for two consecutive years, including cutting off federal aid.”

HYPOCRISY: Obama attacks handouts — and then adds handouts. He’s only against handouts to the wrong people.

RAND SIMBERG: A Twinkle of Hope: Obama has moved space policy in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go. Read the whole thing.

CHANGE: Army budget cuts will trim 8 brigades, reduce troop force by 80,000 soldiers. “The Army’s force reduction has been expected by analysts, but the cuts are now getting finalized as part of the Pentagon’s 2013 budget, which is the first that will deal with a $487 billion reduction over the next decade.”

JOHN HAWKINS INTERVIEWS MARK LEVIN about his new book, Ameritopia: The Unmaking Of America.

MEDIA SUCKUP ALERT: In The Hill, which is usually more professional:

A relaxed, confident Barack Obama hit a pitch-perfect high note last week at the famed Apollo Theater in New York.

President Obama sang, “I’m so in love with you” — from Al Green’s hit “Let’s Stay Together” — and showed the world just how comfortable — if not sanguine — he is as he heads into the election year.

At Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, the same gravitas was on full display as a combative Obama took to the House lectern and told lawmakers in no uncertain terms that he would not “back down” in moving ahead with his agenda. Both public appearances illustrate the assuredness and moxie the president has exhibited in his quest for another term.

You get more objectivity from Tiger Beat.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Congress Doesn’t Want to Give Up Its Insider Trading Privileges.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Coming Crash In Legal Education.

MICHELLE OBAMA’S WAR AGAINST SCIENCE? Study Finds No Childhood Obesity Link To School Junk Food.

THE ECONOMIST: The Zero-Sum President.

MEGAN MCARDLE: The President’s Nostalgianomics.

MEDIA COMMANDMENT: Thou Shalt Not Write Bad Things About Obama.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “Yeah, it would be bad to set up a big, centralized European superstate and then have it run along fascistic lines, wouldn’t it? But then, how likely is that, based on history?”

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SUMMING UP the SOTU.

WINNING SOTU COMMENT:

Let me be clear, O is and always has been an ordinary political hack who was picked up by a brilliant campaign because he happened to be in the right place at the right time. This brilliant campaign ran him, and ever since he’s been trying and failing to lead the country. He’s been a failure from the beginning because he’s been a fraud from the beginning.

Pretty much.

HOPE: Obama’s SOTU ratings tank 12%, worst of presidency.

CHANGE: UK heading for first double-dip recession since 1975.