READER BOOK PLUG: Arnold Kling asks for a mention of his The Three Languages of Politics. Done! It’s $1.99 on Kindle.

AS I SAY, IT’S ALL A PLOT TO MAKE HILLARY LOOK BETTER IN RETROSPECT: John Kerry, Secretary of Gaffes.

NEW RULES FOR the modern workplace.

FAA FURLOUGHS AND SEQUESTER SHENANIGANS: LaHood and Obama to America: Go Fly A Kite.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): “Most of those surveyed said the middle class today enjoys less opportunity, job security, and disposable income than earlier generations did.”

TOM MAGUIRE not impressed with latest TMAO research. “I don’t think vegetarians will be running from wheat germ, soy products, beans, cabbage or cauliflower. Yet somehow choline from eggs is dangerous, because it leads to TMAO. Of course, eating fish leads to TMAO and no one claims fish to be heart-unhealthy; quite the contrary. Which means we have a study with a lot more questions than answers.” Plus, “the absolute collapse of critical thinking at the Times” where nutritional stories are concerned.

If only it were just nutritional stories.

STEWART BAKER: Why wasn’t Tsarnaev searched at the border? “The lack of a ping upon Tsarnaev’s return to the United States suggests a gap in US border defenses. In general, the outbound ‘ping’ is not a big deal. It tells us that a terror risk is leaving the country, more a matter for celebration than suspicion. We don’t usually inspect or question departing passengers, so it would have taken a pretty unusual notice to earn Tsarnaev much scrutiny on departure. But his return should have been different. He was entering the country, and at the border the government’s authority to stop travelers, to question them, and to search their luggage, including their electronics, is at its zenith. If we have any doubts about the intentions of a returning green-card holder, this is the time and place to question him. When the FBI paid a visit to Tsarnaev’s home, Tsarnaev had complete control of the interview. He could throw the agents out whenever he chose, and he could certainly refuse to let them look at his computer and phone. At the border, though, he can’t. We could have learned a lot more about Tsarnaev’s journey into radicalism there.”

Yes, but he wasn’t a Tea Partier, so what were the odds he’d be a terrorist?

THE WELFARE ANGLE: “The Boston Herald seems to have struck a nerve in its efforts to uncover the public support that sustained Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his family over the years.”

ETYMOLOGY: Douchebags, Sluts & Boners: The Origins Of Some Of The Most Well-Known Slang Words & Insults.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: To Ease Internet Snooping, Feds Promise To Ignore Privacy Violations.

ROGER KIMBALL on SWAT Nation.

THEY’RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND THEY’RE HERE TO HELP YOU: Did The Government Cause Our Long-Term Unemployment Problem?

WELL, YES: It’s Time For Better Women’s Magazines.

Some people are trying.

JACOB SULLUM: Still Waiting for That Pro-Gun-Control Groundswell.

THE LATEST SIN IN ACADEMIA: “Doubt Mongering.” You can’t question the received orthodoxy here! This is a university!

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: On Gun Control, Blame Democracy, Not Obama.

Most of these dispirited Democrats take a more realistic stance towards politics than Mauren Dowd’s candyland vision of governance. They know what getting dirty means. But they share her belief that the president failed, perhaps in a way that will taint his whole second term.

But the problem might be less with Obama and more with democracy itself. To be a citizen in a mass democracy is to live in a permanent state of political frustration. There are so many people in the country with so many different views, and the institutions of a mass democracy are inevitably so clunky, that the political process isn’t going to give you what you want very much of the time.

But of course, where some lose, others win. And it’s becoming clearer and clearer that outside the Democratic mourning chamber, there are many Americans who felt like a defeat of gun control was a win for the country. A new USA today poll found that support for gun legislation has dropped from 61 to 49 percent.

That’s a far cry from the 90 percent figure the media widely cited in the run up to the vote. Welcome to democracy, folks, the worst form of government except every other.

Indeed.

POLL: Most voters — 61 percent — say Obama should have been more involved in response to Benghazi attack. President Emptychair.

WHAT WOULD YOU ADD TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS? I’m on record as favoring amending the Ninth Amendment by adding and we really mean it!

NO, THEY’VE BEEN TOO BUSY WORRYING ABOUT THE TEA PARTY AND SCRUBBING REFERENCES TO ISLAMIC TERROR FROM THEIR TRAINING MATERIALS: WaPo: Is The FBI Focused Enough On The Real Bad Guys?

Related: CIA pushed to add Boston bomber to terror watch list. “The CIA pushed to have one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers placed on a U.S. counterterrorism watch list more than a year before the attacks, U.S. officials said Wednesday.” Response: Which Tea Party group is he with? What? Well, thank you for your interest anyway.

UPDATE: Homeland Security department charged with oversight of fertilizer manufacturers in disarray. “A devastating Homeland Security inspector general report released in March lays bare an alarming pattern of poor planning and ineffective execution that beset nearly every aspect of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program, as well as the subsequent misleading of congressional overseers, who were told the program was making progress.” The country’s in the very best of hands.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on men’s, women’s, and children’s shoes. Also, handbags and sunglasses.

And, today only: 45% Off Saucony Progrid Kinvara 3 Running Shoes.

THE HILL: Rubio worried Boston will make immigration reform more difficult. “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that he was worried that last week’s bombing at the Boston Marathon would make it tougher to pass the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill.”

OBAMACARE FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME: Outrageous: Lawmakers negotiating Obamacare exemption for Congress.

FAST AND FURIOUS STONEWALLING: White House resists Congressional bid to see gun smuggling operation documents.

MICHAEL BARONE: As Bush stays silent, his reputation steadily gains. “Perhaps Bush’s name is not mud anymore. A Washington Post/ABC poll asked respondents to rate Bush’s performance for the first time since December 2008, when only 33 percent rated it positively and 66 percent rated it negatively. What the pollster found is that today 47 percent approve and 50 percent disapprove of Bush’s performance. That approval number is precisely the same as President Obama’s in the most recent Post/ABC poll.”