TAKE THAT, BARACK: Virginia Postrel: How Art History Majors Power The U.S. Economy.

GLITCH, TRAIN WRECK, WHATEVER: Yet Another Obamacare Glitch Was Just Discovered.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: House Republicans want Justice Department to provide details of IRS probe, possible interview with Lois Lerner.

Related: Power Isn’t Funny: Obama bombs when he jokes that he’ll sic the IRS or the Secret Service on his critics.

The president’s latest witticism was inspired by his much-debated appearance on Between Two Ferns, during which he traded carefully scripted barbs with actor Zach Galifianakis. “Zach actually was pretty nervous,” Obama explained to Ryan Seacrest in a postmortem interview. “His whole character is to go after the guest, and I think he was looking around and seeing all these Secret Service guys with guns and thinking, I wonder what happens here if I cross the line? But we had a great time.”

Gettit? Because if Galifianakis had said something that the president didn’t like, the president’s armed guards would have killed him. In consequence . . . and prepare yourself, because this is hysterical . . . the comedian self-censored, permitting Obama to get in a nice little barrage of prepared zingers and sitting by quietly while he hawked his vision for the federal government! Nice thing you’ve got going here, matey. Shame if anything were to happen to it. Funny or Die! Ha, ha, ha. . . . The joke in each case is simple and similar: I’m more powerful than you, and, if I want to, I can kill you. Is it funny?

Funny as an assassination joke. Likewise with the audits. As noted, I made a similar observation back in 2009. What’s interesting is that Obama hasn’t matured at all in the interim.

THE HILL: Departing White House Pastry Chef Denies “Butter War” With Michelle Obama.

ED DRISCOLL: And Speaking Of Sleeping With The Enemy. . .

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Judging Obama’s Economy By His Own Promises. I’m sure that’s racist, somehow.

REMEMBER, WE HAVE A SHORTAGE OF MALE TEACHERS BECAUSE PEOPLE THINK MEN ARE LIKELY TO BE SEXUAL PREDATORS: Ga. teacher accused of classroom sex assault on two students. “An arrest affidavit reveals investigators said Quigley had a sexual encounter in her classroom with two students in September and October of 2012, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A third encounter with one of the two students allegedly took place this past January at a Waffle House restaurant.”

AT AMAZON, take an extra 10-20% off on Automotive Performance Parts.

Also, up to 50% off in Kitchen Tools & Gadgets.

21ST CENTURY RACISM: Blacks with white friends are ‘less black.’

When Washington, D.C., councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry this week said that whites need to be “more open-minded” about African-American politicians, claiming “blacks are more open-minded than” whites, he was suggesting that whites can’t do what blacks do — embrace the other race.

But a new study of 212 black college students made available to Secrets found little open-mindedness: Blacks don’t like it when other blacks associate with whites, to the point of refusing help to an African-American experiencing “a run of bad luck” — just because they have white friends.

The study in the April edition of the authoritative journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found the so-called “black code” alive and kicking, prompting blacks far more than whites to frown on one of their own if they associate with the other race.

We need drastic action. Perhaps Obama should give a speech on this.

TRAIN WRECK UPDATE: Still uninsured? Beware Obamacare’s narrow network.

WE SEEM LESS INTERESTED IN SEA POWER THESE DAYS, BUT I SUSPECT THAT WILL CHANGE: Inside the USS Ford, America’s Newest Aircraft Carrier.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How Much Does Captain America’s Shield Weigh?

ANCIENT LINUX SERVERS: The Blighted Slum Housing Of The Internet?

NOT VERY NICE: Video of Renee Ellmers Berating Anti-Amnesty Constituents.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Meaning of Mireille Miller-Young, or Free Speech for Me, Theft, Battery, and Vandalism for Thee. “Dr. Miller-Young is a typical specimen of homo academicus (or perhaps I should say, mulier academica), circa 2014. The non-stop racial grievance mongering. The anaphrodisiac obsession with gutter sex. The bad prose. The cutesy nods to pop culture. The reflexive left-wing politics. The angry, intellectually nugatory posturing. It’s all a dime a dozen in the trendy precincts of the university today. Dr. Miller-Young is as dreary and predictable a representative of the low-wattage, affirmative-action branch of that enterprise as any cultural pathologist could wish for. Would you let her loose on your delicately brought up daughter? While you ponder that question, let me repeat that there is nothing out of the ordinary about Dr. Miller-Young. She is exactly what you can expect when you sign up for a course in the ‘humanities’ these days.”

DAVID GOLDMAN: Americans Play Monopoly, Russians Play Chess.

NEW HEART FAILURE SYMPTOM: Shortness of breath while bending over.

AT AMAZON, roll into Spring with deals on Lawn & Garden Essentials.

Also, new coupons in Household Supplies.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What I Learned Negotiating With Steve Jobs.

WELL, RETURNS HAVE BEEN MARKEDLY DIMINISHED SINCE SANITATION, VACCINATION, AND ANTIBIOTICS: The Diminishing Returns of Modern Medicine.

But anti-aging treatments would turn that around — and save the economy, too.

AT GRAPH TV, graph ratings of your favorite TV shows.

READER BOOK PLUG: From reader G.K. Masterson, Stolen Lives.

JOHN HINDERAKER: The Washington Post Responds To Me, and I Reply to the Post.

So in the Post’s view, it is acceptable to publish articles that are both literally false (Koch is the largest tar sands leaseholder) and massively misleading (the Keystone Pipeline is all about Koch Industries), if by doing so the paper can “stir and inflame public debate in this election year?” I can’t top Jonah Goldberg’s comment on that howler:

By this logic any unfair attack posing as reporting is worthwhile when people try to correct the record. Why not just have at it and accuse the Kochs of killing JFK or hiding the Malaysian airplane? The resulting criticism would once again provide “strong evidence that issues surrounding the Koch brothers’ political and business interests will stir and inflame public debate in this election year.”

Let me offer an alternative explanation of why the Washington Post published their Keystone/Koch smear: 1) The Washington Post in general, and Mufson and Eilperin in particular, are agents of the Left, the environmental movement and the Democratic Party. 2) The Keystone Pipeline is a problem for the Democratic Party because 60% of voters want the pipeline built, while the party’s left-wing base insists that it not be approved. 3) The Keystone Pipeline is popular because it would broadly benefit the American people by creating large numbers of jobs, making gasoline more plentiful and bringing down the cost of energy. 4) Therefore, the Democratic Party tries to distract from the real issues surrounding the pipeline by claiming, falsely, that its proponents are merely tools of the billionaire Koch brothers–who, in fact, have nothing to do with Keystone one way or the other. 5) The Post published its article to assist the Democratic Party with its anti-Keystone talking points.

Yep, that sounds about right. Plus:

And yet, a still deeper level of corruption is on display here. Juliet Eilperin is a reporter for the Washington Post who covers, among other things, environmental politics. As I wrote in my prior post, she is married to Andrew Light. Light writes on climate policy for the Center for American Progress, a far-left organization that has carried on a years-long vendetta against Charles and David Koch on its web site, Think Progress. Light is also a member of the Obama administration, as Senior Adviser to the Special Envoy on Climate Change in the Department of State. The Center for American Progress is headed by John Podesta, who chaired Barack Obama’s transition team and is now listed as a “special advisor” to the Obama administration. Note that Ms. Eilperin quoted Podesta, her husband’s boss, in her puff piece on Tom Steyer.

Oh, yes–one more thing. Guess who sits on the board of the Center for American Progress? Yup. Tom Steyer.

This kind of incest is common in Washington. You can’t separate the reporters from the activists from the Obama administration officials from the billionaire cronies. Often, as in this instance, the same people wear two or more of those hats simultaneously. However bad you think the corruption and cronyism in Washington are, they are worse than you imagine. And if you think the Washington Post is part of a free and independent press, think again.

Well, I didn’t know about Eilperin’s marriage before this. Now I’ll view her work with increased suspicion. I’d really like to see a list of who’s married to/sleeping with whom in the Washington press corp, rather than having this drip out scandal by scandal.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How Obama’s Economy Is Cheapening Your College Degree.

CHANGE: Hawaii’s Gun Restrictions Deemed Unconstitutional. “On the heels of two Ninth Circuit Court decisions striking down restrictions on concealed carry permits in California, the same court just put Hawaii on notice that some of its gun restrictions need to be changed as well.”