AS THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE IMPLODES, IT’S A BAD TIME TO BE WRITTEN OFF BY HALF OF VOTERS: Academia’s rejection of ideological diversity has consequences.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Want To Reduce Inequality? Abolish The Ivy League!

BILL GATES’ TRANSFORMATION INTO A BOND VILLAIN NOW ALMOST COMPLETE: Huge Wealth, High Tech, Griping About Representative Democracy Being A “Problem.”

THE PUBLIC SECTOR: STANDING IN OUR WAY UNTIL WE PAY UP, Kevin D. Williamson writes:

When it comes to government, if you aren’t involved in the provision of actual public goods, you are involved in extortion. It may be legal. It may have the blessing of the mayor, the city council, and your union representative, but it’s still extortion. And you should be ashamed of yourself. If your only purpose is getting in the way until somebody hands you money, then you are part of a protection racket. And you might want to think about going into a more honorable line of work.

What and work in the private sector? They expect results, as Dr. Ray Stantz would say. Read the whole thing.

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF SAUL: Victor Davis Hanson demystifies the arcane arts of the community organizer.

IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE? Swedish Foreign Minister claims the country is ‘facing collapse’ because of the mass influx of refugees.

GOODBYE OL’ BUFF — A NEW AMERICAN LONG RANGE STRIKE BOMBER WILL SOON BE A REALITY:

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced that Northrop Grumman will be getting the contract for the Long Range Strike Bomber, the planned replacement for the B-52 Stratofortress. The contract will cover the R&D Funding (expected to be $21.4 billion, per an Air Force release) as well as the first 21 planes of a planned production run of 100 planes.

Hopefully by 2017 they’ll be joined by an even more crucial military upgrade — a Commander-in-Chief who doesn’t view the Middle East like it’s a game of Calvinball. Or as Iowahawk tweets, “The most exciting thing about going into war in Syria is solving the mystery of what side we’re on.”

HE WASN’T RICH: Caitlin Flanagan: The Real Sin of the St. Paul’s “Rapist.” “He had changed the trajectory of his life and hers when he got into St. Paul’s, but he forgot the first rule of being a scholarship boy at a prep school, which is that you don’t cause any trouble to the rich kids. When he singled out the younger sister of a girl with whom he’d already had a sexual relationship — when he created a situation that would either drive a wedge between the two girls or unite them in fury against him — he took his life in his hands.”

WELL, TO BE FAIR, IT’S NOT AS IF SHE CAN RUN ON HER RECORD: Clinton allies shout ‘sexism’ at Sanders.

The once respectful Democratic primary has devolved into a slugfest about gender, with Hillary Clinton surrogates expressing outrage over how Bernie Sanders is conducting his campaign — even calling for him to fire his staff over alleged sexist remarks.

The ugly dispute has knocked Sanders back on his heels, and placed him on the defensive — an unaccustomed position for a progressive who describes himself as a feminist. And it’s sent a signal flare to Republicans, who have been reminded of the pitfalls of using the wrong language when taking on Clinton — and also of her campaign’s ability to turn it to her advantage.

Meh. Anybody who’s a threat to Hillary will be called sexist. My advice to Bernie is to respond that . . . this is what you get from a failed establishment politician who can’t run on her record. Because, you know, it is.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Sen. Tim Scott: The IRS Has Created A Culture Of Discrimination.

U.S. TAXPAYERS BOUGHT $43 MILLION GAS STATION IN AFGHANISTAN:

A new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reveals that the Defense Department spent $43 million on a gas station that should have cost about half a million dollars.

The report studies the Department of Defense’s Task Force for Stability and Business Operations (TFBSO) project to build a compressed natural gas automobile filling station in the country.

But SIGAR didn’t have an easy time compiling the report, stressing that the review ended up being “hindered” by the “lack of cooperation” at the Pentagon.

And while the inspector general’s office said there were problems trying to get the full story of the fill-up station, they never did get an answer about why the project cost so much.

Steven Chu, Obama’s original “Energy” Secretary, committed a textbook Kinsley gaffe when he told the Wall Street Journal in September of 2008 that “somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” but this is ridiculous, even by the wacky standards of Team Obama.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

● Bill Gates says that capitalism cannot save us from climate change.

—Headline, the London Independent, as spotted last night by the Drudge Report.

● Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past.

—Headline, the London Independent, March 20th, 2000.

And yes, it’s nice of Bill Gates to make it official and announce that he is indeed moving into liberal fascism territory as he looks to bypass democracy and jump start the revolution via top-down government control. (Which curiously, he fought and tooth and nail to prevent the government imposing on his business in the 1990s.)

THE PERVASIVE SEXISM OF THE MODERN WEST: Why does no one care when boys fail at school and middle-aged men kill themselves?

Many of us have previously written on the shockingly poor educational attainment of poor white boys, yet there has been no governmental enquiry nor emergency think-tank set up. Instead, high-profile pushes for more girls in STEM subjects attract ticker-tape fanfares.

Most tragically of all, absolutely nothing is being done about any of this – yet when men do speak up about it, we are ridiculed, ignored or even called misogynists, simply for having the temerity to care about men dying or boys failing.

Men and boys are regarded as expendable. If you don’t like that, punch back twice as hard.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Unconstitutional war against ISIS expands to include ground combat by US forces.

This expansion of the US role further underscores the reality that we are waging a real war against ISIS, one that, under the Constitution, requires congressional authorization. It is no longer possible (if, indeed, it ever was) to describe this as just a few small-scale air strikes. Yet, even after more than a year of combat operations, no such authorization is in sight.

The Obama administration has offered a variety of legal rationales for its policy, including claims that it falls within the president’s inherent executive authority, or that it is authorized by the 2001 Authorization for Use Military Force against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, or the 2002 Iraq AUMF. But each of these theories has serious flaws. Other, perhaps even more questionable, rationales of the administration’s action have been put forward by controversial Berkeley law professor and former Bush administration official John Yoo. I criticized Yoo’s here, though I do give him credit for consistency in defending Obama using the same logic that he endorsed during the Bush administration. Yoo, in fact, epitomizes the kinds of broad Bush-era theories of presidential power that then-Senator Obama denounced when he first ran for president in 2008.

Yes, Obama’s the hypocrite here. But that’s hardly a surprise, given the many 2008 Obama statements that have passed their expiration date.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: OOPS: Watch Obama Promise That He’d Never Send Troops To Syria.

Jim Geraghty really needs to update his already lengthy 2010 post, The Complete List of Obama Statement Expiration Dates.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Florida state college to make potential faculty hires bid for jobs.

Putting a project out to bid is typically part of the public works process, since competitive bids tend to drive down the price and ensure fair opportunity for contracts. But should that process be applied to faculty hiring in public higher education? A member of the Board of Trustees for the State College of Florida at Manatee-Sarasota thinks so, and he’s set to brief the board on his proposal at an upcoming meeting. Even without details, the idea is causing already beleaguered faculty and staff members to shake their heads. . . .

Earlier this year, State College’s board voted to make it the only one of 28 Florida public colleges to do away with a tenure-like system based on continuing contracts for long-serving, high-performing faculty members. Instructors and administrators alike protested the idea, saying it would put the college at a competitive disadvantage in terms of faculty recruitment, and ultimately affect educational quality. The argument fell mostly on deaf ears, however, as the notion passed with a single dissenting vote.

Leading the charge against continuing contracts is Carlos Beruff, a trustee since 2008 who owns a local home construction business. Beruff argued that any competitive disadvantage could be countered by offering merit pay or bonuses to high performers, and said that the U.S. was “based on the freedom of work.”

That was in September. Between then and now, Beruff was reportedly working on a second proposal that would ask potential college employees, including faculty members, to quote their fee for services on job applications. That information would then be used in the hiring decision.

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Clinton campaign attorney represented voting group now charged with registering dead people.

LIARS, D*MN LIARS: And statists. NYC Then And Now, How much Impact Did Government Pollution Laws Have?

WE DIDN’T EITHER: Kids aren’t spending enough time just going outside.  In fact, right after we climbed down from the trees, we invented language to say “Kids just not getting out of cave enough.”  “Hey, kids, get off my lawn!” took more sophistication.  And lawns.

THIS IS THE OBAMA PATTERN: Denial, delay, disarmament and defeat.  All of which make him a “D” student. China takes over the sea and ‘Bamlet’ dithers — again.

ALAS, NOT LONG NOW: How Long Can Europe’s Welfare States Welcome Refugees and Migrants?

IT MIGHT TRIGGER THEM OR SOMETHING: San Francisco neighbor says don’t call thieves ‘criminals’.

THE CLINTON BAG MAN: Hillary Clinton’s rogue agenda: Why Sid Blumenthal matters.

YOU CAN’T OFFER UNLIMITED GOODIES TO THE WHOLE WORLD: ‘In the long run our system will collapse’.