THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: “The pace of expansion in the U.S. manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in March, according to an industry report released on Monday.”

IT WAS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MATH: Booker Cites ‘Thousands’ of Gun Deaths Per Day Instead of ‘Approximately 30.′ “Data matters.”

JENNIFER RUBIN: Rubio’s right: Don’t skip hearings on immigration reform.

NEW YORK TIMES: California’s doing really well if you ignore all those poor and jobless people.

Fittingly, the same day Egan’s hymn was published, the California State Auditor reported the state’s net worth – its assets minus its liabilities – at negative $127.2 billion. Also reported were $167.9 billion in long-term obligations, not including $60 billion in unfunded liabilities for retiree health care, or those for state employees’ future pensions. These are not just “bills.” These are benefits for public employees and services for the poor that won’t be delivered as promised.

California’s public school system, both one of the most expensive and one of the poorest performing in the country, is not improving. The state’s prison system is both so overcrowded and underfunded that the US Supreme Court deemed conditions “cruel and unusual punishment.” And despite 9.8 percent unemployment (tied for highest in the country), tax, regulatory, and zoning policies make blue-collar job creation in manufacturing and real estate development next to impossible.

Egan and other turquoise dreamers seem to look at tenured teachers, happy prison guards, and fleeced one-percenters and believe conditions are promising enough to move on to romantic dreams of the future. Over the heads of undereducated kids, the chronically unemployed, and the poor, they see a high-speed train zooming along the sparkling coast. This is not how progressives used to think.

It’s what passes for ideology now.

FOR ANDREW CUOMO, A HASTY LAW IS IN TROUBLE ALREADY: Gun-Rights Experts Call Local Challenge To “SAFE Act” Significant. “The federal lawsuit filed in Buffalo earlier this month raises serious constitutional questions about several of the new law’s provisions, according to legal scholars who specialize in studying the Second Amendment – which guarantees gun rights – and who are familiar with the New York measure. Most notably, legal scholars said, the Buffalo case might be the one in which the court determines whether the Second Amendment gives people the right to own the kind of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips that the SAFE Act seeks to ban. ‘This is a very significant case,’ said James B. Jacobs, a constitutional law professor and director of the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at the New York University School of Law. ‘It may go all the way to the Supreme Court.'” Oft evil will shall evil mar.

All I can say is, I told you so.

AT AMAZON, BESTSELLERS IN MEN’S WALLETS.

For years I’ve favored the Eagle Creek wallets. When I was young and single, the zipper pocket held condoms. Now that I’m older and married, it holds aspirin in case I get a headache or heart attack. . . .

Also, today only: Sony NEX-F3K Compact System Camera, $369.00 (39% off).

HEH: Angie’s Law School List. “The AALS, ABA, and LSAC announced today that they have partnered with Angie’s List to construct a new law school rankings based exclusively on student reviews — Angie’s Law School List. Beginning in Fall 2013, LSAC will provide funding for Angie’s List subscriptions to all law students, who will be asked to review all aspects of their law school experiences. Angie’s List will compile the reviews and create rankings of all 200 law schools.”

TO ELIMINATE THE “PAY GAP,” ELIMINATE THE EFFORT GAP: “Young women who want to be rich and powerful should major in economics or engineering and be prepared to work 60 hour weeks.”

NOT BAD: Tennessee #3 on list of states ranked by freedom. But I’d like to see us move up to #1, which we could do by improving in the “personal freedom” category a bit.

THE HILL: Bucking the trend: The House Democrats who oppose gay marriage.

CHANGE: UK Independence Party finds its voice amid growing anti-immigrant wave.

Well, given the scandal about Labour’s political abuse of immigration policy, they’re likely to get some mileage there.

POINTS AND FIGURES: The New Chicago Mob. “The entrenched interests make money off of the failure of the younger generation. With each succeeding failed generation, the entrenched interests cut themselves a new check. Economic incentives are in place that allow them to take cash out of a system that fails the masses over and over again. They are lining their pockets and pointing fingers everywhere else.”

HOPEY-CHANGEY: Government Fights for Use of Spy Tool That Spoofs Cell Towers.

The government’s use of a secret spy tool was on trial on Thursday in a showdown between an accused identity thief and more than a dozen federal lawyers and law enforcement agents who were fighting to ensure that evidence obtained via a location-tracking tool would be admissible in court.

At issue is whether law enforcement agents invaded Daniel David Rigmaiden’s privacy in 2008 when they used a so-called stingray to track his location through a Verizon Wireless air card that he used to connect his computer to the internet. Also at issue is whether a warrant the government obtained from a judge covered the use of the stingray and whether the government made it sufficiently clear to the judge how the technology it planned to use worked.

It’s all for your own good and not scary at all, as long as there isn’t a Republican in the White House, anyway.

ANOTHER BROKEN PROMISE OF THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY: Editorial: America needs racial healing.

THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG: The Hill: Hillary Clinton to give first paid speech since leaving State Dept. It’s expected to be “highly profitable.”

FUNNY HOW MANY VIOLENT FANTASIES THESE ANTI-GUN PEOPLE HAVE: One-punch wonder? Singer Duncan Sheik threatens to punch Greg Gutfeld in the neck; Gutfeld destroys.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Paying For The Party: “Research featured in new book suggests that, in effort to lure full-pay students, universities have shifted their institutional priorities to the benefit of the affluent and the detriment of everyone else.”

MITCH MCCONNELL: ObamaCare fails to keep promises. Well, yes.

STACY MCCAIN REPORTS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA: Bostic Campaign ‘Surging’ Before Runoff?

ROGER SIMON: The Economist Breaks with the Climate Orthodoxy.

#NARRATIVEFAIL: Report: Most Colleges Not Hit Hard By Sequester.

CRONY REGULATION: Tim Carney: To protect restaurants, D.C. may curb food trucks. “D.C.’s restaurant lobbyists, along with many local politicians and bureaucrats, seem to think the government’s job is to save the delis and diners, bistros and brasseries from the scourge of falafel trucks, barbecue buses and weenie wagons. . . . Barriers to entry are a great way to protect incumbent businesses and thus allow for higher profit margins, but you wouldn’t think politicians would actually put value on protecting the restaurants from competition. In D.C., though, the politicians do.”

CAN GAY MARRIAGE solve our adoption problem? “There are, to a first approximation, zero healthy adoptable babies in the US foster care system.”