HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Amid co-op’s money trouble, director’s pay hit $750,000.

It’s been a tough few years for the University Co-op.

Sales have plunged by more than 25 percent since 2010 at the nonprofit bookstore that sells everything from textbooks to T-shirts. Its contributions to University of Texas programs have plummeted from $2.3 million a year to $10,000. And this year, for the first time since 1990, the century-old Co-op ran in the red. . . .

But despite the continuing decline in revenue, the Co-op’s chief executive has continued to receive generous salaries. Between 2011 and 2013 — the years in which the Co-op’s sales dropped — George Mitchell was paid more than $1.6 million. In 2011, Mitchell made $753,000, about $90,000 more than UT President Bill Powers did that year.

More than I make, too.

DAMAGED BRAND: Oprah Winfrey gave ‘unequivocal no’ to selling Obamacare.

THE HEALTHCARE.GOV SITE IS FIXED! JUST CLICK ON APPLY NOW!

KURT SCHLICHTER: What If They Gave a Shutdown and No One Cared? “The shutdown/debt limit imbroglio wasn’t a defeat. Defeats leave the losers feeling defeated. But the designated losers, the conservative base of the GOP – which, more accurately, now is the GOP – is more eager and excited than it has been in a long time. Why? Someone fought. Finally.”

MAC RUMOR ROUNDUP: A 12-inch MacBook, cheaper iMacs, OS X Mavericks ready to go.

CLAYTON CRAMER: Why This Country Is Doomed. “What is really tragic is how easy it would be to fix this. Here is a spreadsheet from the White House Office of Management and Budget that shows budgets in inflation adjusted dollars from 1940 through estimated 2018. If the federal government would spend what it did in 2006 (you know, while we were fighting a costly war in Iraq), $2.655 trillion a year, combined with the 2013 estimate for receipts (2.712 trillion a year), we would have a balanced budget — actually, a slight surplus. Sure, we have more people out of work today than in 2006, and the government spends more on unemployment and various support programs — but we are not fighting a war in Iraq, either.”

BYRON YORK: President leads a surreal pep rally for ailing Obamacare.

There was a lot of speculation about what President Obama would say when he made his first extended remarks about problems with the Affordable Care Act. Would he apologize? Would he crack the whip on his own administration, pledging that no more mistakes would be tolerated? Would he attempt to deflect blame to the Republicans who have long opposed Obamacare?

What few observers expected, given the ongoing failure of the Obamacare exchanges, was that Obama would hold a pep rally for the troubled system. And yet that is what he did. . . .

The president made a few more brief mentions of Obamacare’s technical deficiencies during his 28-minute speech, but in the end his Rose Garden appearance bore a great resemblance to the campaign-style speeches he made selling the health plan when Congress was considering it back in 2009 and 2010. (Minus, of course, the now-discredited promise that anyone who has coverage and likes it can keep it under the new system.)

Nothing about the event seemed to go smoothly. For example, Obama said anyone having trouble with the Obamacare website could call an 800 number to apply for coverage. “You can get your questions answered by real people, 24 hours a day, in 150 different languages,” Obama said. But a short time later, the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein tried the system and tweeted what he learned: “Can’t make this up. Got through to 800 number, followed prompts, and got referred to Healthcare.gov.”

Then there were the people Obama used as backdrops for his speech, people he said have “benefited from the Affordable Care Act already.” It turns out that was a stretch. One was a man who works in a Philadelphia restaurant, does not have health care through his employer, but has, according to a White House press handout, “recently used Healthcare.gov to process his application and is waiting for the options for potential plans.”

Another was a man just out of graduate school who has no health coverage but “is planning to enroll after he explores his coverage options on the D.C. exchange.” Yet another was a Tennessee small business owner who “was able to register through Healthcare.gov and now plans to comparison shop for the best plan that meets her budget and needs.”

As success stories go, they didn’t represent much success.

A short time after the president’s event, White House spokesman Jay Carney was either unable or unwilling to offer background on the website’s problems, on the testing that took place before the rollout, on the contractor involved, or on whether the administration will penalize Americans for not buying insurance when the website on which insurance is sold doesn’t work.

Talk about a bad day at the White House.

Even the traditional media are noticing.

GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE: Surgery Caps In Canada:

“There’s even more demand and they’re cutting back,” he said, adding he doesn’t blame the hospital or the surgeon, opthalmologist Dr. Barry Emara. But he believes people who’ve paid taxes to the Ontario government all their lives should get prompt access to health care now they need it. “It’s like a car insurance company saying ‘We’ve had two many accidents this year, we’re cutting everyone off.’”

The problem, according to hospital CEO David Musyj, is that the number of procedures – when it comes to cataracts, hips replacements and knee replacements – is capped by the Health Ministry. And hospital officials (up until October, cataracts were done by Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, which has since transferred cataracts to Windsor Regional) were scheduling surgeries based on the previous year’s cap of 5, 022. Then in September, they learned the cap for the fiscal year that started April 1 would be 4,849. In 2010, there were 5,412 procedures, he said. In a guest column published in today’s Windsor Star, Musyj said the cuts are due to the continuing rise in health care costs and governments looking for ways to cope with them.

When the government runs health care, it gets worse, but more expensive. Kind of like health care websites. A move in the free-market direction would accomplish the opposite, but presents fewer opportunities for graft.

UPDATE: Reader John Koisch writes:

What most people don’t realize about Canadian healthcare is that it is a three tier system. The first two are in Canada, but the third is here in the US. Border states perform a lot of elective surgeries and treatments that cannot or will not be handled in Canada.

Where exactly is our third tier coverage going to be? Cuba?

Costa Rica. And when I was on Cayman last year, they were talking about building a big medical-tourism facility.

SMELLS LIKE HOME COOKIN’: Obamacare Enrollee in Web Ad a Computer Science Major, Managed Local Democratic Party Website. “The News-Press (Ft. Myers, Fla.) identifies him as the webmaster of his local Democratic party in a June 10, 2012 article. According to other articles in the same paper, he also served as the chairman of the Young Democrats of Lee County and as a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. That said, his personal website leaves a little to be desired.”

WHY “ANTIBULLYING” IS A CROCK: “We don’t give the good kids a fair chance to stand up to the bad ones.” Punch the bully in the nose. Why did that go out of style, exactly?

NARRATIVE SHIFT: Baby Steps: Media Matters Upgrades IRS Targeting From ‘Manufactured Scandal’ To ‘Controversy.’

REVOLVING DOOR: Another Journalist Joins the Obama Administration. “Former Washington Post writer Laura Blumenfeld on Monday became the latest in a long list of journalists who have joined the Obama administration when she took up an appointment in the State Department’s Middle East office.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: How My Divorce Made Me A Better Mom.

WELL, THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH PRISM AND OTHER SPYING-ON-PEOPLE PROGRAMS MAKES THEM AN IDEAL PARTNER: HHS brings in Verizon to help HealthCare.gov.

Ironically, Verizon’s own website kinda sucks.

ORIGINS OF HAGGIS: Neanderthals May Have Eaten Stomach Contents of Their Prey.

DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE MISSION CREEP: Florida woman arrested for squirting a water gun at her boyfriend.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Cyborg gel implant fights diabetes with light.

AT AMAZON, Coupons Galore in Baby Supplies.

Also in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

Plus, fall Warehouse Deals in Grills & Grilling Gear.

RALPH BENKO: “While America was distracted by the theatrics of the government shutdown and threat of default something of much greater importance occurred. Niall Ferguson undertook a public flogging of Paul Krugman. Krugman’s horns now forever will show under his dislodged faux halo. For this the world will prove a safer, and much more decent, place.”

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Psychology Today: Schools will become moral institutions only when children are free to quit.

IN JAPAN, the military is sexy again.

RELATIONSHIP ADVICE FROM A 98-YEAR OLD WOMAN: “I like when a man has money and he can take me places and buy me things. All women do. Don’t let anybody tell you differently, okay? . . . you have to be sexually compatible. That’s very important. If anyone tells you different, they’re nuts.”

COMFY-CHAIR REVOLUTION: Co-working spaces in Bangkok.

AT AMAZON, the latest Fall athletic shoes, for women & men.

Plus, deep discounts on open-box and used PCs.

Also, Deals on blockbuster movies on Blu-Ray and DVD.

I HAD FAITH THIS DAY WOULD COME: Math Proves Bacon Is A Miracle Food.