TWEET OF THE DAY? “This week is so bad that an Elvis-impersonating conspiracy theorist sent poison to Obama and THAT’S LIKE THE TENTH BIGGEST STORY.”

LAW ENFORCEMENT: FBI interviewed Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, for possible extremist ties two years ago but found no incriminating information. “The FBI revealed on Friday that they had interviewed Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, after a foreign government alerted officials that he had possible ties to extremists. Federal officials vetted Tamerlan Tsarnaev but their probe not produce any ‘derogatory’ information and the matter was put ‘to bed,’ a U.S. law enforcement source said.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDITION: How Much Must Law Grads Earn to Pay Their Student Loans? $236,850.

FOX REPORTING SHOTS FIRED, SUSPECT DOWN. Via Twitter, sounds like he was hiding under a cover in a boat, found via bloodstain. Saying he’s “alive, surrounded, but still moving.”

UPDATE: Fox now reporting that “the suspect is in custody.”

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in military history.

UPDATE: Reader Anne Korin emails: “I just saw the military history books link and thought I’d plug a GREAT military history book by my colleague Gal Luft, titled Beer, Bacon, and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq.”

Here’s a review.

JAMES TARANTO: Back-Alley Abortion Never Ended: The Kermit Gosnell murder trial challenges a traditional defense of Roe v. Wade.

IT’S NOT THE KIDS WHO ARE “WASTING SCARCE POLICE RESOURCES,” it’s the dumbass adults, including the censorious police. I’d like to see the names of the people who called cops over Nerf guns made public.

DANA MILBANK WANTS TED CRUZ TO SHUT UP, ISSUES SLOPPY SMEAR: “Cruz is 42, the same age Joe McCarthy was when he amassed power in the Senate.”

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Calvert emails:

Can I play? “Obama is 51, the same age Joseph Stalin was when he called for the liquidation of the kulaks.”

This could be fun!

You’re now qualified to write for the Washington Post.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Christopher Arfaa writes: “Dana Milbank will turn 45 next week, the same age as Walter Duranty was in 1929, when he secured an exclusive interview with Josef Stalin.”

MORE: Reader Jay Brinker emails:

May I play?

How about: John Kerry is 69, the same age as Neville Chamberlin when he signed the Munich Agreement.

Or more Obama:

Obama is 51, the same age as Ho Chi Minh when he returned to Vietnam to lead the Viet Minh.

Heh. And reader Janna Blanter writes: “Nadezhda Krupskaya and Michelle Obama were both 28 when they got married – To V.I. Lenin and B.Obama, respectively.”

MORE: Reader Joel Mackey wonders why Dana Milbank is so racist: “His column generates one huge question in my mind, i certainly did not see him write anything of this nature about John Edwards’ or Barack Obama’s rise thru the Senate and into Presidential politics. So why does Dana Milbank hate HIspanics so much?”

And reader Ken Waggoner writes: “Dana Milbank will be 45 years old this year. The same age as Adolf Hitler in 1934 when he ordered ‘The Night of the Long Knives.'”

CHANGE: Homebuilders Dumping Term ‘Master Bedroom’ For Supposed Racism, Sexism.

STEPHEN GREEN ON BOSTON: Grozny By The Bay.

STEPHEN GREEN: Eau de Desperation: “I didn’t think Boehlert could stoop any lower than he does every two weeks, just cashing his paycheck. I was wrong.”

Say, didn’t his boss have an illegal Glock or something?

CBS’S SHARYL ATKISSON: “Unlike Boston, with Benghazi the govt never released the promised surveillance video. And no suspects identified or arrests to date.”

IOWAHAWK: Quick, To The Journalismobile!

AT AMAZON, DEALS ON SHOES. For men, women, and children.

AS WE PONDER THE K-12 IMPLOSION, AN IMPORTANT QUESTION: What Do Kids Really Learn From Education Tech?

A LANGUAGE REQUEST FROM READER DAN MENES:

I am a long-time reader, and I was hoping that you could help me with a project. I am trying to revive a word: “aristagogue.” At first I thought I might have invented the word, but it appears occasionally in Google (sometimes in the alternative spelling “aristogogue”).

I use the word to describe those who gain power or prestige by playing upon the vanity, prejudices and insecurities of those who see themselves as our best and brightest, or who wish to be so seen by others. Used in a sentence: “The demagogue who holds forth from the pulpit of the Westboro Baptist Church would be an irrelevant nobody were his antics not found to be useful propaganda by the aristagogues who hold forth from the pages of the New York Times.”

Done!

WELL, THE PRO-JOS HAVEN’T BEEN COVERING THEMSELVES WITH GLORY THIS WEEK: Who’s More Responsible — Reddit, Or Professional Journalists?

Related: MSNBC comes perilously close to Brian Ross-level blunder.

GUESS WHICH MOMS are staying home with the kids. “I have noticed the phenomenon in my daughters and their friends: Highly educated women from elite schools who decide to take a break from their careers to stay home and raise their small children.”

DOING THEIR BEST WORK AT NIGHT: Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, and other artists. If I had my way, I’d still keep my student schedule of staying up until 3:30, and arising at noon.

ED MORRISSEY: Could Obama’s gun-control push cost Democrats the Senate? That would be a useful lesson. “Obama lost because he miscalculated the mood of the nation, and the danger to Democrats in pushing gun control. And that may make him a very lonely Democrat in DC by 2015.”

Plus: “The fact that 90 percent of Americans favor something is largely irrelevant. Most Americans probably favor chocolate over vanilla, but that doesn’t mean they are intent on doing anything about it.”

STANDING UP AGAINST SEXISM: Why I’m suing my gym over their sexist women-only hours. “I’m suing the gym for gender bias. Not simply because their policy is unfair, but because it pathologises masculinity while simultaneously repressing it.”

GUN-CONTROL BILL FAILED BECAUSE THERE WASN’T ENOUGH MONEY TO BRIBE SENATORS. “Bribery isn’t what it once was. The government has no money. Once upon a time you would throw somebody a post office or a research facility in times like this. Frankly, there’s not a lot of leverage.” Now, no earmarks. Another PorkBusters success story!

POLITICO: GUN DEBATE TRIGGERED NEW HIGHS IN MEDIA BIAS:

If you thought President Obama was outraged after the Senate killed the plan to expand background checks on guns, you should have seen some members of the press.

Even by the standards of today’s partisan media environment, the response has been noteworthy. Television hosts, editorial boards, and even some reporters have aggressively criticized and shamed the 46 Senators who opposed the plan, while some have even taken to actively soliciting the public to contact them directly.

Conservatives are doubly frustrated because amid all this cheerleading, the media largely turned a deaf ear to one of the right’s central substantive arguments: There is little evidence that the Manchin-Toomey plan could prevent another Aurora or Newtown — a fact many reports glossed over. Indeed, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently stated on the Senate floor that universal background checks, while “very important… would not have been prevented the tragedy in Newtown.”

Nonetheless, leading media figures and outlets still tried to shame the Senate.

It’s pretty irritating, being shamed by people who have none themselves. And if you’re going to act as agitprop operatives for one party, don’t be surprised if people no longer give you the respect you feel you deserve as professional journalists.

Plus: “The media institutions of the Acela corridor are so disconnected from American society that Americans no longer pay attention.”

ROGER SIMON: Boston: It’s About Islam, David Sirota. “Sirota and his ilk are contemporary dupes of our 1960’s lie. We all pay the price for it.”

THE AMERICAN ATHENS BECOMES A PRISON CITY.