DEATH OF A DREAM: High speed rail from New York to LA isn’t feasible. It isn’t even desirable.

RAZIB KHAN: Jared Diamond And the Anthropologists. “I want to be clear that I think Jared Diamond is wrong on a lot of details, and many cultural anthropologists are rightly calling him out on that. But, they do a disservice to their message by politicizing their critique, and ascribing malevolence to all those who disagree with their normative presuppositions. Scholarship is hard enough without personalized politicization.” For some, it’s all about the personalized politicization.

THE AGE OF OBAMA: French Surpassing U.S. As Guardians Of International Human Rights?

Yeah, but our President has a Nobel Peace Prize. Stuff that into your Gaulois and smoke it, Pierre.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Avoid Getting Squashed By A Semi.

HMM: FBI Sources: Menendez Investigation HQ Moved To Newark, NJ. “The change of focus away from the bureau’s Miami field office indicates that the government is focused primarily on Sen. Menendez — and not on his longtime donor Dr. Salomon Melgen, as political observers have speculated.” The Dominican hookers aren’t the important part of this story.

NEW LEFTY COMPLAINT: The GOP Is Too Cheerful, Or Something.

RISKY SPORTS: Two high school students lose fingers during tug-of-war.

AT AMAZON, Gift Cards Galore.

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Crowd packs heat; Oak Harbor backs down.

It’s been three weeks since an Oak Harbor city councilmember started a national controversy by trying to kick-out a wounded Army veteran who was legally carrying a weapon during a council meeting.

Councilmember Rick Almberg then walked out.

The council was met by 160 people Tuesday night, many who were packing heat.

There were handguns in holsters and rifles slung over shoulders and an unknown number of people concealing their weapons as the Oak Harbor City Council met. Many attended the meeting to show support for veteran Lucas Yonkman who councilmember Almberg tried to have kicked-out of City Hall last month, including Joe Hawkins who openly mocked him. “Mr. Almberg I just want you to know that I have a concealed ham sandwich right here I don’t want you to get up and walk away,” he chuckled.

Most attended the meeting to oppose the city’s ban on guns in parks and the marina. The Second Amendment Foundation had threatened to sue if the ordinance wasn’t overturned.

Sandy Peterson spoke out against the ordinance. “If the city council members are intimidated by people exercising their Second Amendment rights to bear arms, perhaps they need to examine what it is about that that makes them uncomfortable,” she said.

Yes. Why are you afraid of the Constitution? The answer, of course, is that the political class doesn’t want citizens. It wants subjects.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Help, I’m Being Pursued By A Celebrity Cad! Should I Sleep With Him? Well, he’s been to jail and has a history of mistreating women — but he’s a celebrity! (Spoiler: She does).

SHOCKING NEWS: ATHLETES HAVE HIGHER SPERM COUNTS THAN COUCH POTATOES. Does that mean that we should be able to get HBO for free under ObamaCare if we call it “birth control?”

WE MUST BAN REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS: San Francisco’s Plastic Bag Ban Kills About 5 People A Year. If it saves just one child’s life, it’s worth it . . . .

PROTECTING PEDESTRIANS AND CYCLISTS BY EQUIPPING CARS WITH EXTERNAL AIRBAGS? “Using information from a camera mounted on the rear-view mirror, the system preps for a collision, and if the car strikes a bicyclist, the airbag will inflate and cushion the rider’s impact on the windshield.”

MICHAEL TOTTEN: The Superpower Takes a Breather. “American power hasn’t evaporated. Americans just don’t feel like using it at this particular second.”

AT AMAZON, Digital Deals.

NEWS THAT WON’T MAKE THE NEWS: Leftwing Domestic Terrorist Pleads Guilty in Family Research Council Shooting. “Floyd Corkins would be a household name by now if he attacked a liberal group. But since he was going after the Family Research Council (and Chick-Fil-a at the same time) last summer his name quickly disappeared from the headlines.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Ron Machen uses this as an excuse to tout gun control. He should perhaps apologize for the hate aimed at these groups by his boss.

NOW THAT’S JUST STRANGE-LOOKING: World’s Tiniest Car Is Terrifying, Fantastic, Makes You Look Like a LEGO Astronaut.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Drone Strikes, Waterboarding, and Moral Preening. “So what do you think Senator Barack Obama would have said if President George W. Bush had pursued these policies? And how do you think the press and the political class would have reacted?”

I’M SURE SOME PROFESSORS THOUGHT ABOUT QUITTING WHEN THEY LET BLACK PEOPLE IN, TOO. But I don’t think many did.

IT’S NOT A GREAT YEAR IN SOME WAYS, BUT IT’S A GREAT YEAR FOR BANJOS! “From a small Spring Valley factory, the Deering Banjo Co. is having its best year ever, defying the U.S. skills gap and California’s manufacturing doldrums. It has expanded and trained its own workforce and expects to top $4 million in sales for the year ending June 30.”

CONTAINMENT AND RADICAL ISLAM: A Rand Paul Foreign Policy Speech.

HOW’S THAT ARAB SPRING WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Eat Less, Egypt’s government tells its people. “According to the Post report, the government is telling Egyptians (almost half of whom live on less than $2 a day) to eat less. You can’t make this sort of thing up. Egypt lost another $1.4 billion in foreign exchange reserves in January, and probably is flat broke after figuring in arrears to oil and food suppliers, and it imports half its food, so something had to give. In response, Egypt’s Islamist government is emulating North Korea’s approach to food shortages. . . . We are watching something unique and terrible in modern history, namely the disintegration of a society of 80 million people, with the prospect of real hunger–a self-made famine brought about by social and political disaster rather than crop failure or war. It is horrific and dangerous.” The Gods of the Copybook Headings will have their due.

OR MAYBE LIKE AN ELDER MALE SIBLING: CHRIS ROCK: ‘THE PRESIDENT IS OUR BOSS… OUR DAD.’

SOME GOOD NEWS: From Bullets to Bistros: the Mexico City Miracle.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “Yale University may have an endowment in excess of $20 billion, but that hasn’t stopped it from suing some of its poorest graduates for unpaid student loans.”