WHY THIS IS THE WORST RECOVERY EVER: Because we have the biggest government ever.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Not Getting What You Paid For:

Everyone knows there’s a reason the most expensive colleges in the country — generally private residential institutions — charge so much. The money they spend on hiring the best faculty members (full-timers of course) and on keeping student-faculty ratios low results in a higher-quality education. Right?

The crowd gathered here for a standing-room-only session at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities certainly wanted to believe. From a show of hands at the start of the session, the vast majority of attendees were administrators at those institutions. And the researchers who presented new data on the economics of liberal arts education threw cold water all over that conventional wisdom.

Research presented here by researchers from Wabash College — and based on national data sets — finds that there may be a minimal relationship between what colleges spend on education and the quality of the education students receive. Further, the research suggests that colleges that spend a fraction of what others do, and operate with much higher student-faculty ratios and greater use of part-time faculty members, may be succeeding educationally as well as their better-financed (and more prestigious) counterparts.

I do not find this surprising at all.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestsellers in Cell Phones & Accessories.

SAXBY CHAMBLISS OUT: Mediaite and Morning Joe Hardest Hit.

WHY WE’RE NOT SMARTER: Big brains vs. strong immunity: Genes hint at evolutionary tug of war. Plus, the value of miscegenation:

The genetic record indicates that the human species passed through a series of “bottlenecks” in prehistoric times that reduced population diversity to perilously low levels. That’s where interbreeding with Neanderthals could have played a part. “One way that modern humans replenished the genetic diversity lost in populations was through the selection of new variants … another, and possibly more effective, mechanism was to acquire old variants by mating with archaic humans,” Parham and Moffett write.

What’s Cro-Magnon for “Hey, baby, let’s replenish some genetic diversity?”

GOOGLE’S PRIVATE CELL NETWORK: “Filings made with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission reveal that Google wants to start operating its own, very small cell phone network on its Mountain View campus. It’s the latest in a series of hints in recent years that Google is unsatisfied with the way that mobile networks control the mobile Internet.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Don’t We Have Teleportation Yet? I’d settle for flying cars. But they need to be real flying cars with antigravity or reactionless thrusters, not ducted-fan kludges.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Delete Yourself From The Internet.

MORE PRAISE FOR HELEN’S PAGE: Reader Danielle Ivey writes: “Helen’s Page is good. I’m seeing stories there that I don’t see anywhere else with great information. I suspect the comments will pick up as more people discover it.”

CONFESSION TIME WITH OPRAH.

DAVE HARDY DECONSTRUCTS a widely-circulated email about the Dick Act. More from Dave Kopel.

2014 RACES WHERE GUN CONTROL MATTERS:

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., the politics of gun control turned upside down — or so the proponents of increased firearms regulations would like to believe. The reality, however, is the issue appears likely to affect only a handful of congressional contests this cycle. . . .

The argument can be made that all of the senators in tough 2014 races — Mary L. Landrieu, Mark Pryor, Tim Johnson and Kay Hagan among them — are in states that are typically pro-gun-rights. But Democrats are operating under the logic that Senate candidates have an easier time setting themselves apart from national figures such as Obama and the gun issue won’t be catastrophic.

Hmm. From “winning issue for Democrats” to “won’t be catastrophic.” That’s change you can believe in.

UPDATE: Chicago anti-gun panelist compares crowd reciting Pledge of Allegiance to Nazis’ beer hall conduct.

POINTS AND FIGURES: Fake It Till You Can’t Fake It Anymore.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: U.K. Referendum Call Rattles Europe’s Gilded Cage.

PAYCHECK POLITICS COULD BE HERE TO STAY: “Longtime Rep. Dan Lungren lost re-election last year in part because of redistricting that favored Democrats. But the California Republican said it didn’t help that his Democratic challenger, current Rep. Ami Bera, campaigned on the promise to support a bill known as ‘no budget, no pay’ while a deluge of TV ads charged Lungren with blocking the very same measure.”

AARON SWARTZ UPDATE: Hackers take over sentencing commission website. “The hackers say they’ve infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.”

AT AMAZON, Top Deals in TV & Video.

Also, today only: “The Godfather Collection (the Coppola Restoration)” on Blu-ray, $17.99 (69% off). All 3 Godfather movies.

OVER 9000 DOWNLOADS ON SSRN for my Due Process When Everything Is A Crime piece.

OVERCRIMINALIZATION: Web of environmental rules threatens Gulf Coast businesses with jail, steep fines.

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER GODDAMN THING ABOUT MY CARBON FOOTPRINT. “Clearly he’s concerned about the planet. Meanwhile, his mansion uses enough energy to power a small country.” Great plot for a novel: Underground group targets mansions, private jets of global-warming hypocrites for destruction; no one can figure which side of climate debate they’re on.

LOOKING BACK ON HILLARY’S CAREER AS SECRETARY OF STATE: NOT VERY IMPRESSIVE, REALLY. “American foreign policy under Secretary Clinton has been one disaster after another. She may not deserve blame for all of them — or even most of them — but it defies common sense to call her tenure a success.” Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader Dennis Mulcare writes: “When the mass media measures Hilary’s career as Secretary of State in miles traveled, 1,000,000, and the number of countries visited, 120, then you have a major confusion between mere activity and actual accomplishments. Now there is a difference for you.”

A BINDER FULL OF SPEECHES: Jon Favreau takes credit for Obama’s inaugural speech.

BRIAN HUGHES: Plummeting Union Membership A Bad Omen For Obama.

UPDATE: Reader Richard Rusk emails: “Union membership may be down but journalists and actors are still unionized: The Newspaper Guild, Screen Actors Guild.” Yeah, we’ve seen a real conflict-of-interest problem in press coverage of union disputes.

THE GENTRY ALWAYS ENJOYED THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IN WAYS THE COMMON PEOPLE DID NOT: Feinstein Gun Control Bill to Exempt Government Officials. Say, is this a Titles Of Nobility Clause violation?