WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Boomers Stick Next Generation With The Gas Bill. “This story is about more than just high gas prices or taxes. It’s yet another case of the boomer generation stealing from younger generations. Besides promising themselves fat pensions that they refused to save money or tax themselves to pay for, the boomers let the country’s infrastructure run down. The next generation is already staggering under a rising tax burden, student loan debt, and retirees’ massive health care bills. On top of all this, they now have to pay through the nose just to keep the roads, bridges, and tunnels in good repair after years of neglect and deferred maintenance. Are the boomers just incompetent narcissists, or are they the worst generation in American history?”

UPDATE: Reader Juan Paxety writes: “With regard to boomers letting the infrastructure decline, remember that neither Harry Reid nor Nancy Pelosi are boomers. I’d submit that their generation, The Silent Generation, still maintains a lot of political control and is at least equally culpable.”

ROGER KIMBALL: The New York Review of Books at 50.

NEW YORK TIMES: Menendez’s Ethics Problems Mean He Shouldn’t Chair Foreign Relations. “Instead of trying to protect Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, needs to remove his gavel, at least pending credible resolution by the Senate Ethics Committee of the swirling accusations of misconduct.” One assumes that there are behind the scenes talks about replacing him in the Senate. This may explain why David Axelrod has been so nice to Chris Christie on Twitter the last few days. . . .

BILL QUICK: Send The Bodies To Piers Morgan.

FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Find New Strategy Against Drug-Resistant Superbugs.

Scientists may have found an effective new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They did not create a new drug to kill these microbes; instead, they found a way to interfere with the metabolism of the extra-hardy bacterium – E. coli in this case – so that the germs became more vulnerable to existing antibiotics.

Scientists believe they have discovered the so-called superbugs’ Achilles heel, a biochemical weakness in the bacteria that makes it possible – in effect – to “kick them while they are down.”

Like I said, faster, please.

THOUGHTS ON ORIGINALISM AND DRONE STRIKES. “In sum, the original meaning of the due process clause is that the President cannot unilaterally kill U.S. citizens he thinks are potentially dangerous.”

Related: Dick Cheney’s Revenge. “Will the author of the Obama administration white paper on killing U.S. citizens please report for his war crimes trial right away?”

CONSUMER REPORTS: Gun Accidents Down As Other Home Accidents Rise. “Contrary to what you might expect from all the news about gun violence, accidental deaths from guns in the home are relatively uncommon, and have actually gone down slightly in recent years, according to a new study. But other deadly accidents at home, including poisonings, falls, and burns, are far more common, and on the rise.” Maybe the Eddie Eagle program should also cover ladders.

AT AMAZON, up to 40% off on women’s clothing and lingerie.

Also, today only: Dyson DC41 Upright Ball Vacuum (Refurbished), $299.99 (29% off).

TIM CARNEY: Obama assails special-interest tax breaks, offers special-interest tax breaks.

President Obama spoke three days ago about ending “loopholes and deductions that aren’t available to most Americans.”

The Obama administration yesterday, however, “announced the availability of $150 million in Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for clean energy and energy efficiency manufacturing projects across the United States.”

These tax credits have gone, in eight-figure amounts, to politically connected companies like Cree, GE, and Siemens. Have you gotten one?

By the way, let’s repeal the Hollywood Tax Cuts! It’s time for Hollywood to pay its fair share!

BYRON YORK: With public focused on jobs, Washington fights other fights.

A new survey on the effects of the economic downturn shows many more Americans than previously reported have been profoundly touched by joblessness and its related hardships.

In addition, the survey, by scholars at Rutgers University, shows more Americans than previously thought blame illegal immigration for the problem of unemployment — more than blame Wall Street bankers, or George W. Bush, or Barack Obama.

So what is Washington doing amid these deep economic anxieties? Working on a bipartisan plan that would begin with the mass, immediate legalization of illegal immigrants, before any border security or enforcement measures.

That those two facts exist simultaneously — deep fears about the economy and a political fixation on immigration reform — is just one illustration of a disconnect between national political leaders and the people who elected them.

Read the whole thing.

JOURNALISM: Wi-Fi “as free as air”—the totally false story that refuses to die.

The frenzy began Monday morning when the Washington Post reported that “the federal government wants to create super Wi-Fi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.” Best of all, network access would be free. “If all goes as planned, free access to the Web would be available in just about every metropolitan area and in many rural areas,” the Post reported. The clear implication: this was a bold—and entirely brand-new—plan.

Unfortunately, the piece was basically nonsense. What had really happened was in fact unbelievably boring: the Post simply observed an incremental development in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) at the Federal Communications Commission over the issue of incentive auctions that might free up some additional unlicensed spectrum for so-called “White Space Devices” (read our explainer) operating in and around the current over-the-air TV bands. (I told you it was boring; in addition, the basic debate over White Space Devices was actually settled in 2008.)

From this thin material, which basically consisted of Internet service providers and tech companies sniping at each other in long legal documents, with no decisions being made by anyone and no new proposals of anything, the Post then reported—on the front page, above the fold of the country’s eighth-most highly circulated newspaper—that the FCC plan could lead to free Internet for most US residents.

So much for all those layers of editors and fact-checkers.

UPDATE: Reader Drew Kelley writes: “Another demonstration that the media-class is basically composed of moochers, who want everything on somebody else’s dime.”

WELL, THERE ARE SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM: Syria, Not Benghazi, Is Obama’s Big Security Failure.

CUPID’S ARROW: The Dating Market Really Is A Market. “McClintock’s study shows that just as good looks may be exchanged for status and financial resources, attractiveness may also be traded for control over the degree of commitment and progression of sexual activity.”

Interestingly, the more attractive the woman, the fewer sexual partners.

FALSE FLAG:

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, on November 30, 2012, Llaneza met with a man who led him to believe he was connected with the Taliban and the mujahidin in Afghanistan. In reality, this man was an undercover FBI agent. At this initial meeting, Llaneza proposed conducting a car-bomb attack against a bank in the San Francisco Bay Area. He proposed structuring the attack to make it appear that the responsible party was an umbrella organization for a loose collection of anti-government militias and their sympathizers. Llaneza’s stated goal was to trigger a governmental crackdown, which he expected would trigger a right-wing counter-response against the government followed by, he hoped, civil war.

Well, the media would have done their part.

SHOCKING DISCOVERY: College tuition can’t keep going up faster than grads’ earnings, which are going down. “The real issue is simply that people can’t spend money they don’t have on tuition, nor will banks want to lend people money that they aren’t going to have.”

Gosh, I think there might be a book or something in this idea.

TORTOISE TRAPPED IN RECORD-PLAYER BOX FOUND ALIVE AFTER 30 YEARS. From the comments: “Turtles makes the most awesome pets. Very low maintenance. And this is proof.”

LEGALIZED ROBBERY: The DEA Wants to Use a $37 Pot Sale to Seize a $1.5 Million Anaheim Building. Cut their budget.

MESSAGING: Eric Holder: Obama Decides Who’s ‘Entitled’ to Second Amendment Rights.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Judge Lets Baby With 2 Lesbian Moms & 1 Gay ‘Dad’ Have 3 Parents on Her Birth Certificate.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION EXPERIENCING BLOWBACK ON ITS CAYMAN CAMPAIGN ISSUE: Cayman Islands investment snags Jack Lew nomination. “An investment Jack Lew made in the Cayman Islands has been flagged as an issue in the Treasury secretary nominee’s vetting by the Senate Finance Committee, according to multiple sources close to the confirmation process.”

Hey, the campaign’s over. You’re not supposed to take that stuff seriously. It’s just for the rubes!

WELL, THAT CONTRADICTS THE NARRATIVE: Romney Won White Women Over Obama, 56-42.

UPDATE: Oops, somehow I had that as 52-46, but it’s 56-42. Even more impressive. Sorry for the error.

And note these thoughts.

HELEN’S PAGE: Where you can promote your career as an Online Weight Loss Specialist and Personal Trainer.

VIDEO: Dr. Benjamin Carson Addresses National Prayer Breakfast, Criticizes Obamacare.

WASHINGTON POST: Publication of hacked George W. Bush e-mails raises journalism ethics questions.

“Journalism ethics” is now a code phrase for “whatever helps the Democrats,” so not really.

GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: English Hospital Report Cites ‘Appalling’ Suffering. “This is the story of the appalling and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people.”