AT AMAZON, coupons galore in Groceries & Gourmet Food.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: I Don’t Want to Date a Man Who’s Better-Looking Than Me. “I think every woman likes to stand out a little bit. When I’m walking down the street with my significant other, I sort of want the eyes to be on me. Call me selfish or self-centered, that’s fine.”

REMINDER: Barack Obama “Joked” About Auditing His Enemies In 2009.

AMONG OUR CREDENTIALED-BUT-NOT-EDUCATED ELITE, SOMETIMES EVEN THE CREDENTIALS ARE PHONY. “The 233-year old American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced that its longtime President and Chief Executive, Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, has agreed to resign effective at the end of this month following an investigation of charges of resume embellishment and other misconduct. Berlowitz falsely claimed to have received a doctorate from New York University, and has also been criticized for her behavior towards scholars and subordinates, and for her compensation package ($598,000 for 2012) relative to the size of the non-profit organization she led.”

From the comments: “She is clearly a victim of the patriarchy’s obsession with facts and evidence.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Popping the Myths: Hard Truths about Education. “The education bubble will really pop once we understand not only that there is too much education bureaucracy and too many useless majors, but that the efficacy of classroom education is wildly overrated.”

READER BOOK PLUG: From husband-and-wife team Michele & Richard Bledsoe, The Secret Kingdom.

21ST CENTURY SELF-IMAGE: Jenny Lee, ‘Oprah’ Guest Addicted To Plastic Surgery, Talks About Life After 59 Procedures.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Boyfriend Asks: Should Her College Debt Be A Deal-Breaker?

KYLE SMITH: The Greatest Food In Human History.

ANGELO CODEVILLA: The Domestic Roots Of International Contempt.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 81.

STEPHEN L. CARTER: How To Get Obama Out Of His Bubble. I don’t think it’ll work. Fundamentally, Obama’s entire life has been a bubble.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: We’re Richer Than We Think We Are:

We are still using blue model industrial age statistics to measure a post-blue economy. Increasingly, the world described by our statistical models (which are in turn used as a basis for planning by government agencies and business and used as a proxy for reality by commentators and pundits) does not match the actual world we live in. In general, the real world is significantly better than the statistical one—and offers more ground for optimism about American prospects in the 21st century. The economy is bigger and more dynamic than the conventional statistical picture, and America’s global strength is significantly understated by measures that concentrate on the old economy that America is leaving behind rather than the new one that we are busily creating. The changes being discussed here are just one step down an important road: we need to get much better at measuring and assessing the state of our increasingly information-based economy.

The central observation in the piece is certainly true: GDP significantly understates the value of the intellectual property formation that is a key to the knowledge economy now taking shape. This is not likely to be the last revision. Productivity in services is hard to measure but increasingly important, and getting this right will matter more over time.

On the other hand, I’m suspicious that changes in measurement will be driven by a political desire to make things look better, to the political benefit of the powers-that-be. But maybe I’m just cynical that way.

HOW THE WESTERN WAS LOST: “As superheroes, sequels, and international appeal influence Hollywood studios, films from the frontier are riding off into the sunset—just when America needs them most.”

BUT WITHOUT ANY IRS PROBLEMS: ObamaCare NonProfit Educates Democrats Only.

GOVERNING LIKE HIS OLD BOSS: “Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed the books on 2012 with $33.4 million in unallocated cash on hand — down from $167 million the year before — while adding to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers, year-end audits show.” Everywhere these people are in charge, it’s the same.

UPDATE: Related: America As Detroit.

THIS IS WHY YOU NEED A GUN: Subway Stabbing Victim Can’t Sue NYPD For Failing To Save Him.

A man who was brutally stabbed by Brooklyn subway slasher Maksim Gelman two years ago had his negligence case against the city dismissed in court yesterday, despite the fact that two transit officers had locked themselves in a motorman’s car only a few feet from him at the time of the attack.

Gelman stabbed Joseph Lozito in the face, neck, hands and head on an uptown 3 train in February 2011, after fatally stabbing four people and injuring three others in a 28-hour period. Lozito, a father of two and an avid martial arts fan, was able to tackle Gelman and hold him down, and Gelman was eventually arrested by the transit officers. Lozito sued the city, arguing that the police officers had locked themselves in the conductor’s car and failed to come to his aid in time.

The city, meanwhile, claimed that the NYPD had no “special duty” to intervene at the time, and that they were in the motorman’s car because they believed Gelman had a gun.

They want you to be unable to protect yourself, they should be insurers against any harm they don’t prevent. It’s only fair.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Indiana Tech’s Class of 24 1Ls Is 76% Below Target; On Plus Side, 2:1 Student/Faculty Ratio Will Be #1 in Country.

JACK LEW: There’s No IRS Scandal, But I Won’t Say Whether I Talked To Wilkins About Targeting.

Those who keep saying there’s no scandal here need to acknowledge that the IRS admitted targeting conservative groups months ago.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Unisex Uniforms Debut As Army Opens Units To Women.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Arkansas Dean: Law School Critics Are ‘Flat-Out Wrong.’

WITH PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SCOPES TRIAL, let me just note that what you think you know about it is probably wrong — especially if what you think you know about it comes from watching Inherit The Wind. I highly recommend Ed Larson’s excellent treatment, A Summer For The Gods. And here’s a Court TV special on the case from some years back, featuring me, Larson, John Seigenthaler, and Arthur Miller.

REMEMBER THE “FLYPAPER STRATEGY” IN IRAQ? I wonder if the Obama Administration has adopted something similar. Syria A Lure To Many Radicalized Western Muslims.