21 EMOTIONS for which there are no English words.

OUT OF AMMO: “One of the striking features of the current debate over gun control is how tired the liberals’ ideas are.”

Related: NRA gains 100,000 new paid members in 18 days. “Our goal is to get to 5 million before this debate is over.”

PETER SUDERMAN: Jack Lew: Architect of Fake Spending Cuts, Defender of Entitlements.

100 KINDLE BOOKS for $3.99 or less.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: 4 Spaceships Vying to Send Crews to the ISS.

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Shale Gas Will Fuel a U.S. Manufacturing Boom: Chemical producers abandoned the U.S. in droves. Cheap natural gas is luring them back. Unless excessive regulation and taxation chases them away again. . . .

COMPETENCE: NBC: Say, this 2nd-term transition has really been an “unforced error,” huh? Update: Rangel calls it “embarrassing as hell.”

SEXIST BRAWL ERUPTS between Morning Joe anchors.

HENRY MILLER ON BIOTECH: Politics And The Poor Man’s Plate.

SO MUCH FOR THAT OVERPOPULATION PROBLEM: Research suggests we may actually face a declining world population in the coming years.

No, this isn’t news to those who have been paying attention. Plus: “As a less scientific but still useful, rough rule of thumb on demographic matters, I would recommend taking any prediction made by Paul Erlich in the first half of the 1970s and assuming the precise opposite has happened since.”

UPDATE: Reader Bart Hall writes: “The historically important aspect of this story is that stable or declining population leads to the utter mathematical destruction of the very sorts of social welfare and pension programs currently held to be ‘normal’ by those calling themselves ‘progressive’.” Well, most of them are basically pyramid schemes, and those don’t work when the pyramid is upside-down.

AMERICA THE INDEPENDENT: OIL IMPORTS REACH NEW LOW.

America is about to reach a new energy milestone: According to recent government forecasts, oil imports will will drop to the lowest level in more than 25 years in 2014. The FT reports that imports will fall to six million barrels per day, half of the 12 million barrels per day we imported from 2004–07, putting America well on the road to energy independence.

Our increasing energy independence has a lot to do with the new drilling technologies changing the domestic oil production landscape. Because of new extraction techniques like fracking and horizontal drilling, the International Energy Agency now believes that the U.S. will become the world’s largest oil producer by the end of the decade, perhaps even cutting net imports down to zero. . . .

Still, energy independence won’t free America to disregard the role of the Middle East in the world economy, but it will give us much more flexibility in dealing with the difficult problems this region presents. The tax revenues from greater oil and gas production at home, plus the beneficial results of the hundreds of thousands of new energy jobs that stand to be created will materially help our long term budget picture.

Unless the Greens — perhaps with help from mideast petro-money — manage to shut things down.

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Top dog in New Jersey and in 2016? Christie has some chops, but I think that Republicans are going to take some persuading before they nominate another northeastern governor of dubious conservative bona fides.

AT AMAZON, up to 75% off on clothing — for men, women, kids, and babies.

Also, today only: Up to 45% Off Strength and Balance Equipment from Gaiam, SPRI, and Reebok. The Insta-Wife has the pictured ball-chair and likes it — it’s what she wrote her book on — though now that she’s switched to using a Macbook Air as her main computer she moves around more.

REASON TV: 5 Facts About Guns, Schools, And Violence.

WAR ON PHOTOGRAPHY: Arrest for “HIPAA Violation” Based on Citizen’s Recording of Encounter Between Police and Another Citizen. It’s a violation of due process.

WELL, THERE’S CERTAINLY ONE INDUSTRY THAT OBAMA HAS SUCCESSFULLY STIMULATED: The folks at LuckyGunner.com are hiring.

JAMES TARANTO: Are the bizarre debt-limit workarounds just a distraction?

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): The Psychological Toll and Economic Fallout of High Unemployment. “Two features of the recovery have inflicted harsh burdens on the nation’s unemployed. First, an exceptionally high proportion of unemployment has been long-term, that is, has lasted six months or longer. Second, since reaching a peak of 10% in October 2009, unemployment has fallen at a glacially slow pace. Unemployment and the burden it imposes are very unequally distributed across the population. Young workers, employees in cyclically sensitive industries like construction and manufacturing, and members of historically disadvantaged minorities are more likely to suffer layoffs than other workers. The labor income of most unemployed workers falls to zero, and only part of it is replaced by unemployment.”

IT’S NOT TOO LATE to get a flu shot.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Hipster Facade. “The nexus of big government, big money, and globalization has created a new creed of squaring the circle of being both liberal and yet elitist, egalitarian-talking but rich-acting, talking like a 99 percenter and living like a 1 percenter.”

THE ATLANTIC: ‘Forsaken by the West’: Obama and the Betrayal of Democracy in Bahrain. “The use of torture by Bahraini security services against detainees has been widespread and systematic, aimed at punishing, humiliating, and breaking the spirit of the protest leaders. . . . The AJ’s of Bahrain were our natural partners in the quest for freedom in the Arab world, and we have failed them. We expected something better of Barack Obama after he declared in Cairo in June 2009 that freedom, democracy and the rule of law ‘are not just American ideas; they are human rights. And that is why we will support them everywhere.’ In Bahrain, and in too much of the Arab world, those remain mere words.”

How’s that Nobel Peace Prize workin’ out for ya?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Don’t Go To Business School! “It strikes me as a real problem that more people are paying a lot for degrees that don’t necessarily boost their earning potential. It’s a symptom of two worrying economic trends: the relentless push for ever more educational credentials, and the stagnant labor market. . . . The last two decades have witnessed an aggressive expansion of graduate programs, particularly in areas like business and law. Schools love them because they’re cash cows: low cost, high price. But they don’t provide good value to their graduates.”

ROGER SIMON: Who’s Worse — Al Gore, Or Bernie Madoff?

GUN-RIGHTS ACTIVISTS: Call Wal-Mart To Express Your Displeasure About Their Meeting With Biden’s Gun-Control Team. “I would tell them that if they cave, they lose a customer and that customer’s family. And you’ll tell anyone likeminded that you know. So, get on it. Also, contact your federal representatives. If everyone who bought an AR-15 magazine since 2004 called their reps, these bills would never get out of committee.”

Plus, from the comments: “I plan to tell them that if they cave, I’ll set aside my principles too. I’ll campaign for every proposed anti-big box ordinance, sign union petitions, make myself a constant presence at zoning/planning hearings, etc. My family will do just fine without crappy Chinese sneakers, but is WalMart prepared for the level of pain we’re willing to bring?”