ANDY KESSLER: When Will Social Media Elect a President?

LAW VS. TECHNOLOGY: ‘Crowdfunding’ Supporters Look to Congress to Lighten Regulatory Load.

Here’s a lengthier piece on the subject from my colleague Joan Heminway.

JERRY POURNELLE: “My problem is that I still have no answer to questions I asked forty years ago regarding the global warming controversy.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Only 54% Of Young Adults In America Have A Job. “When it comes to young adults (18-24) in the US, the employment rate is just barely above half, or 54%, which just happens to be the lowest in 64 years, and 7% worse than when Obama took office promising a whole lot of change 3 years ago.”

IN GERMANY, a debate over gender quotas.

HILLARY CLINTON’S changed views on dissent.

THE END OF OWNERSHIP: Why Aren’t Young People Buying More Houses?

When older generations wonder what’s the matter with Millennials, they often judge their younger cohorts against such financial and social benchmarks as finding a job, getting married, and buying a home. These observations often come wrapped in weak science — “blame Facebook for their indolence” — or dripping with judgment — “blame their parents for making them weak.” The science is weak, but the observations are true. Fewer young people are finding jobs. Fewer young people are getting married. Fewer young people are buying homes.

Between 1980 and 2000, the share of late-twenty-somethings owning homes had declined from 43% to 38%. The share of early-thirty-something home owners slipped from 61% to 55% in that time. After the boom and bust were over, both rates kept falling. The rate of young people getting their first mortgage between 2009 and 2011 was chopped in half from just 10 years ago, according to a recent study from the Federal Reserve.

One headwind is student debt.

Yes, as I’ve noted in my higher education bubble update posts, it’s hard to take on a mortgage when you basically already have one.

JOURNALISM: The Atlantic, in Reporting on Libel of James O’Keefe, Libels James O’Keefe.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: What is the college graduation rate in this country? Correct answer: nobody knows.

All the statistics you’ve read about are at best partial truths. We basically track graduation only for “traditional” students. The problem is that these “traditional” students are no longer representative – most college students are now “non-traditional”: 38 percent of students enroll part time; some full-time students start again after some earlier post-secondary work; and a good many students who transfer to another institution are counted as dropouts. In fact some important news arrived today–one third of all college students transfer before graduating, so our statistics on college completion are even more unreliable than we thought.

The fact that we spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on higher education and can’t determine something as basic as a national graduation rate is a dereliction of duty.

There’s a lot of that.

WHAT OBAMA CAN LEARN from New Hampshire’s budget reform. “State Democrats called the spending cuts a ‘war on the middle class’ and predicted they would result in catastrophe. But the state’s unemployment rate continues to fall and currently stands well below the national average at 5.2%.”

ECONOMICS: “So, in effect, the free-condom program is a transfer of wealth from people who are not having sex to people who are. Shouldn’t it work the other way?”

POLL: Scott Brown 10 Points Ahead of Elizabeth Warren.

An earlier poll had Scott Brown 9 points ahead of Elizabeth Warren.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Howard University Pays Big Bonuses To Administrators, Then Announces Austerity Measures.

WHEN TEACHERS become bullies.

WELL, WE CAN HOPE: Pakistan, India May Reap Peace From Free Trade Deal.

DAVY JONES UPDATE: Reader Robert L. Crawford writes: “It’s too bad that none of the commentaries I heard and read about Davy Jones mentioned that pre-Monkees, he was nominated for a Tony for his performance in Oliver!” I did not know that.

OKAY, I POSTED LAST NIGHT ON THE STORY THAT Olympia Snowe may have withdrawn because of a fraud lawsuit involving her husband’s business, but I think it’s worth noting this in particular:

Originally filed in April 2007 by a pair of whistleblowers, the lawsuit alleges that the company violated a federal law that prohibits schools from paying admissions officers based on the number of students they recruit and enroll. Those numbers can affect a school’s revenues because more students mean a school is potentially eligible for more federal aid dollars. The whistleblowers alleged, and provided documents indicating, that they were paid bounties for the number of students they enrolled.

The Justice Department’s decision to intervene on Aug. 8 made the lawsuit, which had been under seal, public. In its complaint, Justice alleged that Education Management Corp. submitted “knowingly false, misrepresented, and/or improper certifications” to the Education Department, stating that it did not offer enrollment incentives to its admissions officers. Without those certifications, students enrolling at the the company’s schools, which include Argosy University, Brown Mackie College and South University, would not be eligible for federal financial aid. The complaint names Snowe’s husband, noting that in December 2006, while he was the company’s chief executive officer, McKernan personally signed certifications that Education Management Corp.’s schools complied with the ban on offering compensation to admissions officers based on the number of students they recruit.

Hmm.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Law Review Circulation Continues To Plummet. I blame SSRN. But I think there’s still a place for law reviews. They’re just not going to stay in business via subscription revenue.

CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS: Virginia: Gov. Signs Repeal of One-Gun-Per-Month.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: More colleges freezing tuition as parents balk at higher prices.

COURT: Chicago Police Liable For Waitress Assault Coverup.

DOG BITES MAN: Andrew Sullivan Goes Over the Line in a Delusional Blog Post. “Sullivan wonders why people have accused him of anti-Semitism, and then he writes stuff like this column which provides ample evidence for that charge. There was a time when distinguished columnists would not be allowed to produce such drivel and have it published, at least not since the 1940’s and the columns of Westbrook Pegler.” Maybe he’s angling for Pat Buchanan’s slot on MSNBC.

HOUSING: The true picture of the California housing market – 114,000 foreclosures listed on the MLS but 257,000 foreclosures are active. “Over 622,000 homes are in foreclosure or have missed at least one mortgage payment. 30 percent of California homeowners in negative equity.”

THAT’S RICH CONSIDERING THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN DOESN’T EVEN RUN ADDRESS VERIFICATION ON CREDIT CARDS: Obama campaign manager to Koch brothers: Disclose your donors.

And isn’t there something kind of, I don’t know, tacky and third-world about this demonization of people who aren’t even running against them? Pathetic. And unAmerican.

JAY LENO ON ANWR DRILLING: “Leno’s punchline: Democrats say drilling in ANWR wouldn’t produce any oil for 10 years ‘the same point they’ve been making for more than 10 years now.’ President Bill Clinton vetoed legislation in 1995 that would have opened ANWR to oil exploration.” It would be nice to have some extra oil coming on line about now.

Yeah, I’ve posted this video before. But it’s evergreen.