PAPER: CAN LAWYERS STAY IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT? “If history is a guide, cheaper alternatives will evolve into higher-quality alternatives, at which point the law firms most invested in the status quo are likely to suffer greatly. While the significance of this disruption is often viewed in terms of how it will affect lawyers, in fact it should be assessed mainly from the perspective of consumers and society: does the quality of legal services rise or fall at any given price point?”

HOW’S THAT SMART DIPLOMACY WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Obama Buries the Reset.

The “reset” policy with Russia that was one of the Obama administration’s signature endeavors in its first term came closer to death this week, as the United States pulled out of a key working group on civil society in Russia. The decision came after weeks of heightened tensions between the two countries, beginning with the passage of the Magnitsky Act last month. Since then, Russia has increased crackdowns on civil society groups at home, and inflamed tensions with the US by measures like the ban on American adoptions of Russian kids.. . .

Like their predecessors in the Carter years, the Obama team has been torn between the demands of the international realpolitik they think America needs and the attachment to human rights they cannot live without. Maximizing cooperation with Russia on issues like the war in Syria and the Iranian nuclear issue demands that we shut up as Putin jails his opponents, cracks down on civil society and generally consolidates authoritarian rule as best he can. If we don’t pay Russia’s price on human rights, the Kremlin retaliates by making life as difficult for the United States as it conveniently can. That makes it harder for the Obama administration to achieve its goals in the Middle East without the use of force and with the blessing of the United Nations Security Council.

This is another version of the problem that the United States faced in the 1970s when the policy of detente with the Soviet Union led to what many people on both the left and the right considered an immoral tolerance for Soviet human rights abuses. For Carter, the struggle ended unhappily; he was unable to get another nuclear deal, the human rights situation in the Soviet Union and its satellites did not change, and the Cold War heated up when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

Tell me again how successful Hillary was as Secretary of State? Remember, even the original reset-button prop was bungled. Which, in retrospect, was a pretty accurate omen.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Tuition squeeze — “the likely impact is doubly ominous.”

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO REDUCE POST-HOSPITAL SYNDROME? “Hospital is a dangerous place, especially for the old and very sick — which is one reason why a measure of a hospital’s efficiency is the speed with which it discharges patients home after treatment. Another reason for this measure is, of course, economy. Long stays in hospital are hugely expensive. However, aiming to discharge patients as quickly as possible may be neither humane nor efficient.”

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THE EDITORIAL CARTOONS SEEM TO BE GETTING LESS FRIENDLY.

CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: Week 12 — In Which We Get Cross and Fit. “It’s week 12 of 13, and time to start thinking about the next thirteen weeks. I’ve taken to calling it my ‘second season’, indulging my fantasy of writing for TV. As I’ve been saying for a while, I’m going to emphasize the fitness part of the training for the next thirteen weeks. This is in addition to the dietary changes that turned out to be the focus of the first 13 weeks, so let’s summarize the whole: overall motivation and what I’ve been doing.”

CHARLES RANGEL’S ARGUMENT FOR bringing back the draft and including women.

CARBON-TRADING MARKET IN EUROPE IN DANGER OF COLLAPSING.

STEVEN GREENHUT: How Big Government Undermines Freedom and Prosperity.

Why is it assumed by these moralistic Affluence Police that the rich are mainly greedy people who spend their money on luxury goods? Charities and non-profits are funded by wealthy people. Real capitalists invest millions of dollars into ideas and often create good jobs in the process. I have no idea what Mickelson does with his money, but it isn’t any of my business. Given California governmental attitudes, one can’t blame him for looking elsewhere.

For instance, during a recent Capitol press conference, the Orange County Register’s Sacramento reporter asked Gov. Jerry Brown about the spending increases in his supposedly austere budget. Brown joked about there being no hope for Orange County readers, according to a Register editorial. Then he mocked “this doctrine that government is the problem,” which he said is promoted by the “Orange County Register or whoever all these people are.”

At the Capitol, the free market is viewed as an arcane joke. Yet I look at everything government does—at all those programs and bureaucracies and entitlements that Brown and Obama prefer. I see enormous debt, corruption, abuses of power, union-enrichment schemes, shoddy services, terrible attitudes, and an endless sea of scandal and greed. Just read the newspapers.

Indeed.

CALL ME A CYNIC, but I think this will bear down harder on innocent people in actual pain than on drug abusers. F.D.A. Likely to Add Reins on Painkillers. “Trying to stem the scourge of prescription drug abuse, an advisory panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration voted on Friday to toughen the restrictions on painkillers like Vicodin that contain hydrocodone, the most widely prescribed drugs in the country. The recommendation, which the drug agency is likely to follow, would limit access to the drugs by making them harder to prescribe, a major policy change that advocates said could help ease the growing problem of addiction to painkillers, which exploded in the late 1990s and continues to strike hard in communities from Appalachia and the Midwest to New England. But at 19 to 10, the vote was far from unanimous, with some opponents expressing skepticism that the change would do much to combat abuse. Oxycodone, another highly abused painkiller and the main ingredient in OxyContin, has been in the more restrictive category since it first came on the market, they pointed out in testimony at a public hearing. They also said the change could create unfair obstacles for patients in chronic pain.”

THE NEXT STAGE IN HEALTH CARE “REFORM:” Let smokers, obese die.

JIM TREACHER: Ladies and gentlemen: the great Nick Searcy.

HEH: “When you are a liberal blog and Glenn Greenwald calls you those names, you need to reconsider your blog strategy, and your life.”

OBAMA’S HOME STATE: Illinois Credit Rating Now Worst in the Nation.

IF WE DO, WOMEN AND MINORITIES WILL BE HARDEST HIT: Can We Shame Our Way To Thin?

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: New York Gun Owners Flip the Bird to “Assault Weapons” Registration Law. “Assault-rifle owners statewide are organizing a mass boycott of Gov. Cuomo’s new law mandating they register their weapons, daring officials to ‘come and take it away.'” In the original Greek, ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ.

UPDATE: Reader Bayard Rucker notes that even in orderly Canada (which, of course, lacks any Second Amendment tradition) the rifle registry was a failure: “Not everyone complied. An estimated 65% of firearms owners registered at least one rifle or shotgun, and no more than half of all long guns ended up in the registry. Opposition was intense and has never abated. Grassroots anger helped to fuel the rise of the Reform Party, and contributed to the elimination of the Liberals as a political force in the West.”

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: The Crisis Of The Black Middle Class.

The Clinton and Bush administrations set policies to encourage Black home ownership, but these made things worse. . . . So when the real estate bubble burst, it hurt Blacks much more than whites: 25 percent of African-Americans who purchased or refinanced homes from 2004 to 2008 have lost or are losing them, compared to 11.9 percent of white Americans. According to Sugrue, “the median black family today holds only $4,955 in assets.”

This is what happens when you violate Reynolds’ Law.

FLU NEWS: 1 in 5 infected in H1N1 pandemic. “At least one in five people in countries for which data are available were infected with influenza during the first year of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, according to a new study.”

MORE ON WHAT I THINK IS A BIG DEAL: IBM’s Warmth-Activated Gel Can Break Up Tough Bacterial Biofilms And Kill Superbugs. And it is not vulnerable to evolved resistance. Like I said before: faster, please.

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LOOKING FOR WAR ON TERROR NEWS? Visit Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg.

ARE DRIVERLESS CARS REALLY IN OUR NEAR FUTURE? “The technology is great. The legal environment, maybe not so much.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: My master’s wasn’t worth it. Profiles of students who bought educations that aren’t paying for themselves.