BUDGETING: You’re probably doing your household budget all wrong. The Dave Ramsey “envelope” method works for people who need structure, and there are a lot of people like that. I take a lazier approach, which works for me, but wouldn’t work for people who need more structure.

IN POPULAR MECHANICS, A LIONFISH REPORT FROM CAYMAN: Yes, You Can Fight Invasive Species by Eating Them. (Bumped).

“JUST A BLOGGER:” Judge rules Union County blogger is protected by the state’s shield law. “In a decision that could impact bloggers across New Jersey, a Superior Court judge ruled today that a self-declared citizen watchdog who writes stinging critiques of Union County government has the same legal protections as a professional journalist.”

MARK STEYN: “A generation on, the Thatcher era seems more and more like a magnificent but temporary interlude in a great nation’s bizarre, remorseless self-dissolution.”

What has happened to Britain is what happens when a nation falls into the hands of a ruling class that doesn’t much care for the nation it rules. Luckily, that could never happen here.

AT AMAZON, up to 60% off on Men’s Athletic Shoes.

Also, today only: Philips HF3510 Wake-Up Light, $59.99 (57% off).

VOTING WITH THEIR FEET: As Jerry Brown Touts California In China, Its Citizens Pack Their Bags. “While Governor Jerry Brown is in China touting the state’s rebound and recovery, many Californians are busy packing their bags for a move to Texas, Nevada or Arizona. Why? Because it appears that the once-Golden State may finally be overpriced, underperforming and ungovernable.”

THE HILL: House GOP shows little appetite for Senate gun control measure.

ROSS DOUTHAT ON THE GUNS VS. GOSNELL COVERAGE CONTRAST, AND MEDIA BIAS. “As the last example suggests, the problem here isn’t that American journalists are too quick to go on crusades. Rather, it’s that the press’s ideological blinders limit the kinds of crusades mainstream outlets are willing to entertain, and the formal commitment to neutrality encourages self-deception about what counts as crusading.”

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes:

When I read op/ed’s like those of Douthat, I can’t help but think that modern journalism is the very antithesis of Mother Jones’ dictum that they so like to imagine themselves fulfilling: To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Rather, they seem to aspire to that which Finley Peter Dunne, through his character Dooley, warned against – a passage from which Jones and many others have uncritically borrowed: “Th newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward”.

Modern journalists are very far from being the rabble rousers and muckrakers they imagine themselves to be. They are merely courtiers to the political and cultural powers incumbent in society.

It’s not surprising that when journalism started recruiting from the apparatchik class, it became part of the apparat. Or maybe it’s the other way around. . . .

ADVICE: For A Sick Friend, First Do No Harm.

ONLINE JOURNALISM REVIEW: Journalists should wake to Obama’s free speech record.

Goodale points to the administration’s use of the 1917 Espionage Act to sedate American journalism. “The biggest challenge to the press today is the threatened prosecution of WikiLeaks, and it’s absolutely frightening,” he said. During Obama’s two terms, the Espionage Act has been used to prosecute more alleged leakers than all former presidential offices combined.

Goodale said journalists don’t seem to consider this much of a problem. “They don’t believe it,” he told CJR. “I actually have talked to two investigative reporters who are household names, and I said, ‘Do you realize what’s happening to you if this goes forward?’ And I talk, I get no response, and the subject shifts to other parts of the book. No one seems to care.”

Meanwhile, nobody believes that a YouTube video was behind Benghazi, but filmmaker Nakoula is still in jail.

HE’S “PIVOTED TO JOBS” SO MANY TIMES HE’S LIKE A WHIRLIGIG: Andrew Malcolm: Obama’s perennial budget vow on jobs; So, how’s that going so far?

THIS IS QUITE UNUSUAL: 7th Circuit OKs $25K student-loan discharge for ‘destitute’ paralegal.

NEWS FROM ANDREW CUOMO’S NEW YORK: Judge Orders Guns Returned to Man After Finding “Error” by State Police.

WELL, THAT’S NEWS: Obama Budget Calls for Privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority. I’m for that. Which is more than you can say for Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, apparently.

MICK JAGGER on Margaret Thatcher.

TOOLS SHAPE THEIR USERS: Stone tools helped shape human hands. “Around 1.7 million years ago, our ancestors’ tools went from basic rocks banged together to chipped hand axes. The strength and dexterity needed to make and use the latter quickly shaped our hands into what they are today – judging by a fossil that belongs to the oldest known anatomically modern hand.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestselling point-and-shoot digital cameras.

Also, grills & outdoor cooking. Summer is coming.

And a reminder: InstaPundit is an Amazon affiliate. When you do your shopping through the Amazon links on this page, including the “Shop Amazon” tab at the top or the searchbox in the right sidebar, you support the blog at no cost to yourself. Just click on the Amazon link, then shop as usual. It’s much appreciated!

HERE’S AN AURORA BOREALIS MAP. Anybody seeing anything?

UPDATE: So far, readers in the “good” zone report nothing.

UPDATE: Reader Micah Brown writes: “I’m in North Dakota right now, and I’d love to tell you about the northern lights — but I can’t, because as we speak the heavens are dumping 8-12 inches of snow on us, so I do not have a view of the sky. Here it is mid-April and spring still hasn’t arrived. If only the severe global warming which I was promised/threatened with in my youth had actually materialized, I might be outside, in a t-shirt, drinking a beer, watching the show.”

BIG DEAL. I DESERVE THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE MORE THAN PRESIDENT DRONEKILLER: Ron Paul: Bradley Manning Deserves Nobel Peace Prize More Than Obama.

JAMES TARANTO: “No one would be in trouble over this scandal if only David Corn had the news judgment to recognize a nonstory.”

SLAVE TO THE GRIND: 7 Coffee Grinders Tested and Rated. I had a Capresso burr grinder but it died. Now I drink K-cups almost exclusively so this doesn’t affect me.

UPDATE: Roger Simon emails: “In our house we drink exclusively N-cups. Always good to have some espresso before Old Europe dies. And you can also get on Amazon.”

JIM TREACHER: That Mitch McConnell audio must’ve been a bombshell after all, because the Democrats are scrambling to defuse it. “Just last Wednesday, Paul Farhi of the Washington Post declared that David Corn and Mother Jones had probably ‘struck gold.’ Now they’re all trying to scrape it off their shoes.”

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON E-BOOKS: When we read on dead trees, do we retain more? This wouldn’t surprise me. There’s a spatial element to reading a dead-tree book that’s absent with e-readers. I’ve noticed, in fact, that I have a strong preference for working from hardcopy when I’m doing scholarly writing.

POLITICS: Kermit Gosnell and Adam Lanza:

Jezebel points out the obvious, writing that “Gosnell doesn’t represent or stand for abortion care in any way. Abortion, done right, is a safe medical procedure.” But this idea of a high-profile case drawing an emotional response, and the attempt to use that emotional response to drive a policy debate, ought to be familiar. Jezebel’s statement, after all, could just as easily have read: “But Adam Lanza doesn’t represent or stand for gun ownership in any way. Gun ownership, done right, is a safe practice.” Jezebel notes that “fewer than 0.3% of abortion patients ever experience a complication that requires hospitalization,” according to a pro-abortion rights group. But even according to anti-gun statistics, there were only 33,000 gun-related deaths in 2011 for 300,000,000 guns owned in the country (fewer than .00012 percent). The violent crime rate in the U.S., in fact, is approaching a historical low.

The case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, horrific on its own, is not helpful as a stand-in or argument in the wider debate about abortion and reproductive rights (because what he did is already illegal), just as the case of Adam Lanza, horrific on its own, is not helpful as a stand-in or argument in the wider debate about personal safety and gun rights (because what he did is already illegal).

Hmm. Is that the right analogy?