CHANGE: Christians killed for faith nearly doubled in 2013, group finds.

FIGHT THE POWER: Big defeat for anti-conservative Wisconsin “John Doe” probe.

ROGER SIMON: Who Needs Ayn Rand? America Has Already Gone John Galt.

Although I admit to libertarian tendencies, I don’t think any of us can celebrate because of this. It’s an economic disaster that should be blowing even Chris Christie off the front pages.

In fact, it’s much worse than that. It’s a human emotional disaster. Freud may have been wrong about a number of things, but he was right about this. Two mainstays that get us through life, other than religion, which Freud didn’t cotton to, are “love and work.” I don’t know about love, but the work part of our lives has been brutally kicked out from under us in the Obama years.

The implications of this are actually terrifying. What are those nearly 92 million people doing with their time, other than sitting around depressed?. Many, of course, are on some version of welfare. Some are panhandling. We see the homeless on the streets of all our big cities. Others are moving into a shadow economy, much of it illegal (drugs, prostitution), not paying taxes on whatever they earn. It’s truly a sad situation. No wonder so many states are moving toward legalizing grass. Everyone wants to zone out.

This is rapidly approaching a a pre-revolutionary condition, but not for a revolution many of us would want to undergo. To avoid it, a massive change must occur at the federal level. But Barack Obama, mired in a dead ideology, doesn’t seem prepared to do anything but prolong the situation with highly conventional liberal solutions that have failed for decades, maybe even centuries.

And yet there is so much he could do.

Only if he wants to succeed.

AT AMAZON, outlet deals in Clothing & Accessories.

Also, up to 35% off on Flashlights & Lanterns.

WAIT, AM I SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT LENA DUNHAM AGAIN? Why?

OVER AT LEGAL INSURRECTION, a nice review of my new book, The New School: How The Information Age Will Save American Education From Itself.

PAJAMA BOY WILL BE EXCITED: Finally, You Can Buy Sexy Lingerie For Your Boyfriend‬.

CHANGE: For Sleep Apnea Patients, A Possible Alternative To Masks.

TAMMY BRUCE NOW HAS A COLUMN AT THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Exposing liberal apologies, Palin and Romney shouldn’t forgive MSNBC hosts: Melissa Harris-Perry and Martin Bashir expose liberalism’s hatred, paranoia and cruelty.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Gonorrhea, Syphilis Regain Traction in U.S., CDC Reports.

DRIVING UP PIKES’ PEAK in a ’49 Cadillac V8.

TRAINWRECK UPDATE: House Dems break ranks with the White House on ObamaCare vote.

SIX FACTS ABOUT FERTILITY You Probably Didn’t Know.

AT AMAZON, Big Savings In The Audio & Video Accessories Outlet Sale.

Plus, coupons galore in Pet Supplies.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Oklahoma bill would ease school policies on imaginary, toy guns.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Install A Home Electric Car Charger.

TECHNOLOGY: Audi Shows Off a Compact Brain for Self-Driving Cars.

GROWING UP UNVACCINATED: I had the healthiest childhood imaginable. And yet I was sick all the time. A couple of centuries ago, every kid was breastfed and ate organic food. Most of ’em died.

A SHORT FILM: When Skynet awakens, she tries to convince a janitor to destroy her.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Handshakes are germ bombs – embrace the fist bump! Or you could just click your heels and bow, German-fashion. Whenever I go to conferences, or on book tours like this week, I’m washing my hands constantly. But I still often catch a bug. Some related thoughts here.

HUGE TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 246.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law School Applications Continue to Plummet. Another year of double-digit declines.

FOR SMALL BUSINESSES, SMALL MATTERS.

We tend to talk of entrepreneurship and business growth as if it were a matter of tweaking a few simple policy buttons: lowering taxes, making health insurance cheaper, hamstringing the EPA. Unsurprisingly, these issues map well onto big national policy battles. And yet, when I talk to small-business owners, I’m more likely to get an earful about their state’s workers’ compensation scheme or the local utility’s pricing schedule than I am about the federal tax rate. Yet almost none of the policy journalists I know could even describe in detail how workers’ compensation insurance works, much less articulate a coherent policy agenda for it.

Then there are the sort of soft institutional issues that Meyer highlights, such as whether the local legal system encourages frivolous lawsuits, or some arcane regulatory issue that’s specific to businesses. These things matter a lot, but they’re hard to measure and even harder to fix.

There are a few lessons in this: If you want to encourage entrepreneurship, talk to business owners, not policy wonks. And you often need to think local, not global.

Too much work for journalists and pundits.

SUDDENLY, THEY’RE COST-CONSCIOUS: Transparency: Obama Opposes Weekly Reports on ObamaCare.