CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: On Despair. “Weight is stalled, it’s been a rough week, and I want ice cream.”

KARMA’S A BITCH: The lawyers who denounced Bush’s claim of presidential war power were “uneasy” when it was their task to define Obama’s war power. On the upside, they’re politically immune from getting the John Yoo treatment.

THE PRICE OF MARRIAGE IN CHINA:

“This is a good place to hunt,” she told me. “I always have good luck here.”

For Ms. Yang, Joy City is not so much a consumer mecca as an urban Serengeti that she prowls for potential wives for some of China’s richest bachelors. Ms. Yang, 28, is one of China’s premier love hunters, a new breed of matchmaker that has proliferated in the country’s economic boom. The company she works for, Diamond Love and Marriage, caters to China’s nouveaux riches: men, and occasionally women, willing to pay tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to outsource the search for their ideal spouse.

In Joy City, Ms. Yang gave instructions to her eight-scout team, one of six squads the company was deploying in three cities for one Shanghai millionaire. This client had provided a list of requirements for his future wife, including her age (22 to 26), skin color (“white as porcelain”) and sexual history (yes, a virgin).

“These millionaires are very picky, you know?” Ms. Yang said. “Nobody can ever be perfect enough.” Still, the potential reward for Ms. Yang is huge: The love hunter who finds the client’s eventual choice will receive a bonus of more than $30,000, around five times the average annual salary in this line of work.

Ah, the progressive People’s Republic, where millionaires hire people to find them white-skinned virgins. But note this, too:

The marriage candidates on offer in the parks, she discovered, were often a mismatch of shengnu (“leftover women”) and shengnan (“leftover men”), two groups from opposite ends of the social scale. Shengnan, like her son, are mostly poor rural men left behind as female counterparts marry up in age and social status. The phenomenon is exacerbated by China’s warped demographics, as the bubble of excess men starts to reach marrying age.

Finding a Chinese spouse can be even more challenging for so-called leftover women, even if they often have precisely what the shengnan lack: money, education and social and professional standing.

That problem is everywhere, now.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Two Law Schools Offer Money-Back Guarantee to Students.

AT AMAZON, up to 70% off in the Designer Jewelry Clearance.

Also, up to 70% off on the Joss Whedon deal of the week.

THE PROFESSOR, THE BIKINI MODEL, and the suitcase full of trouble.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Pro-gun voters put heat on Democratic senators. “Baucus’ predicament is one that a group of Democrats like him in the West and South are facing. They hail from predominantly rural regions of the country where the Second Amendment is cherished and where Republicans routinely win in presidential elections. From Montana to Louisiana, these anxious voters have made at least six Democratic senators a little uneasy heading into next year’s election season. Both sides are aware that gun-owners’ rights are taking shape as a campaign issue that could shift the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. . . . Democrats control the Senate, but if Republicans pick off these seats they could take the chamber.”

Democrats lost the Congress over gun control in 1994. Are they dumb enough to repeat their mistake?

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Jim Rogers: We’re Wiping Out The Savings Class Globally, To Terrible Consequence.

TIM GEITHNER TAKE NOTE: Minnesota Department of Revenue Warns Taxpayers: Don’t Use TurboTax.

21ST CENTURY JOBS: “Lucrative Work-For-Free Opportunity!”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Dangerous ‘New Normal’ in College Debt.

As college tuitions rise and state and local funding for higher education falls — along with median household incomes — students are taking on staggering levels of debt. And many can’t find jobs that pay well enough to quickly pay off the debt. This has long-term implications for our society and our economy, as that debt begins to affect when and if young people start families or enter the housing market.

The student debt crisis may become a dangerous “new normal,” according to a report this week by the nonprofit State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. . . .

An analysis last month by Donghoon Lee, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found that “student debt is the only kind of household debt that continued to rise through the Great Recession” and is now the “second largest balance after mortgage debt.”

According to Mr. Lee, student loan debt is fast approaching a trillion dollars, up from less than $400 billion in 2004, and both the number of borrowers and the average balance per borrower have “increased by 70 percent between 2004 and 2012 (7 percent per year).”A September Pew Research Center report found that “a record one-in-five households now owe student loan debt.”

That report also found that student loan debt as a share of household income was 24 percent for families in the lowest income quintile. That was at least twice the share of any other quintile.

As the report put it, “The relative burden of student loan debt is greatest for households in the bottom fifth of the income spectrum, even though members of such households are less likely than those in other groups to attend college in the first place.”

And many of those graduates can’t find work or are underemployed, and they struggle to pay back their own personal mountain of debt.

Yes, the higher education bubble has increased income inequality, burdened lower- and middle-class families with excessive debt, and made social mobility harder by requiring a college degree even for entry-level jobs that don’t really require it. This isn’t news if you’ve been reading my stuff, but it’s nice to see other people noticing.

ELEPHANTS NEVER FORGET: The Real Reason McCain-Graham Attacked Ted Cruz.

THE CARNIVAL OF CARS IS UP!

HOPEY-CHANGEY: Woodward and Chrysler meet Obama’s ‘Chicago Way.’ And this isn’t me, but I agree:

Michael Barone called the auto task force tactics “gangster government.” Financial analyst Glenn Reynolds called it “waterboarding bondholders.”

Read the whole thing.

LIKE A CONSERVATIVE PREACHER VISITING A HOOKER: Gabby Giffords’ Husband Buys AR-15. But he’s just trying to save her soul not planning to keep it, now that word has leaked out.

UPDATE: Reader James Durso writes: “Hah! Reminds me of the old Onion article “Peace Activist Has To Admit Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Is Pretty Cool.”

SO IN OUR POWER OUTAGE THE OTHER NIGHT, I used a couple of these Ray-O-Vac lanterns. They’re fairly bright (adjustable to two intensities), last a long, long time on 4 D batteries, feel quite sturdily made, and have a nice handle, and a hook on the bottom for hanging upside down. There’s also a nifty LED blinker that blinks once every 5 seconds or so to make them easier to find in the dark.

Afterward, I thought it would be nice to have a couple more, but I decided to try out something different. I ordered this Coast LED lantern which puts out 375 lumens to the Ray-O-Vac’s 240, and I ordered this Energizer solar-rechargeable LED lantern.

The Coast is noticeably brighter than the Ray-O-Vac at full intensity, and the light is a bit more pleasing, probably because of the much bigger diffuser. It’s adjustable, and there are also settings to make it a steady or flashing red light. It doesn’t feel quite as solid or sturdy as the Ray-O-Vac, but build quality seems quite adequate. It’s easier to open and install batteries than the Ray-O-Vac or the Energizer.

The Energizer is the least bright, at 66 lumens. The light quality is fine, and it can be opened for 360-degree light, or closed with a semi-mirrored surface behind the lamps for somewhat brighter 180-degree light. The angle of the solar panel is adjustable. It can operate off of either 3 D batteries or the rechargeable solar battery, and the choice is switch-selectable. There’s a nightlight setting either way. I didn’t test the solar-charging, but it’s supposed to give 2.5 hours of light on a 5-hour charge. At 66 lumens, it’s noticeably dimmer than the others, and is mostly useful, I think, for general area lighting at a low level — a don’t-bump-into-things lamp, not something you could easily read or work by much except maybe in a small tent. But for those purposes it’s good, and the solar power angle means it’ll work even if you don’t have batteries, so long as you can expose it to some sun first.

Of the three, I think the Ray-O-Vac is the overall winner for sturdiness and light. The other two are useful, and the solar angle on the Energizer is kind of cool and likely to find favor with preppers. Although I love flashlights, I do think that these area lanterns are more useful for extended power outages, since they let you do something without holding a flashlight all the time. People who are made nervous by power outages seem more comforted by area lighting, too.

That said, the single best thing to have is several of these emergency lamps, which come on instantly when the power goes out, and which can be placed in hallways, at the bottom of stairs, etc. so that you can easily navigate to the place where you keep the flashlights and lanterns. You might also consider this model, which I haven’t tried but which looks good.

THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF INDIA’S YOUTH BULGE: “As China, Japan and many other nations face an aging demographic profile, the youth segment of India’s population is growing rapidly, and is projected to continue to do so for the next 30 years. Provided India can act quickly on health, education and employment, this demographic dividend has the potential to inject new dynamism into its flagging economy. Failure to do so, however, will result in demographic disaster.”

THOSE 2700 ARMORED VEHICLES BEING BOUGHT BY DHS? Somewhat overstated.

AT AMAZON, specials and markdowns in the Easter Shop.

ED DRISCOLL: The Most Popular TV Show Is. . . . The Bible? “To put that in perspective, those are higher ratings than American Idol drew on Fox in the same week. Higher ratings than the premiere of Celebrity Apprentice on NBC. And it officially made The Bible the number one scripted cable broadcast of the year.”

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Obama finds ‘our democratic debates messy and often frustrating.’

If only he could be King.

ALMOST AS BAD AS THEIR HYPOCRITICAL STANCE ON MONEY AND POWER: Hollywood’s Hypocritical Stance On Women And Guns.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Do People Say “Nope” Even Though “No” Is Shorter?

22 PRODUCTS that actually do last a lifetime.