† People Who Live In Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Bricks: Vulgar and vituperative voter protests over Obamacare is a bipartisan phenomenon, with a nearly threefold increase in the number of serious threats members of Congress have received at their homes and offices, reports The Washington Post:

The lawmakers reported 42 threats in the first three months of this year, compared with 15 in the last three months of 2009, said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance W. Gainer, who had information about threats involving both chambers. …

Nearly all of the recent threats appear to come from opponents of the health-care overhaul, said Gainer, who also served four years as chief of the U.S. Capitol Police. And, he said, there have been "significantly more" threats against House members than against senators.

The threats, which have led to at least three arrests, have not abated since President Obama signed the measure into law March 23. …

Some lawmakers say the real change in recent weeks has been that members aren't keeping such incidents private anymore. "Normally, we don't give publicity to this," said Rep. Dan Lungren (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House committee that oversees the Capitol Police.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) have received threatening messages, along with Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

Alexander, who has handled threats against him "quietly," tells the WaPo: "There's simply more anger out there about the direction of our country. I see it and feel it in the public meetings I go to. But I'm going to the same places and doing the same things I always have."

† Media Irrelevancy – A Self-Inflicted Wound: Just as in August 2008, 55 percent of U.S. voters think media bias is a bigger problem in politics today than big campaign contributions, with 32 percent having the opposite opinion, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey:

Voters ages 30 to 49 are the most wary of the media’s influence on politics today.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republicans and 62% of unaffiliated voters say media bias is the bigger problem in politics, a view shared by just 37% of Democrats. The plurality (46%) of Democrats says campaign contributions are a bigger problem.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of Mainstream voters and 54% of the Political Class agree that the bigger problem facing politics is media bias.

BTW, amongst the voters surveyed, “liberal is the most unpopular of five common political labels.”

† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: Talx Corporation, which helps Fortune 500 firms process unemployment claims, is “a boom business in a bust economy, reports The New York Times: 
 

Talx, which emerged from obscurity over the last eight years, says it handles more than 30 percent of the nation’s requests for jobless benefits. Pledging to save employers money in part by contesting claims, Talx helps them decide which applications to resist and how to mount effective appeals. …

[C]ritics say the company has undermined a crucial safety net. Officials in a number of states have called Talx a chronic source of error and delay. Advocates for the unemployed say the company seeks to keep jobless workers from collecting benefits.

“Talx often files appeals regardless of merits,” said Jonathan P. Baird, a lawyer at New Hampshire Legal Assistance. “It’s sort of a war of attrition. If you appeal a certain percentage of cases, there are going to be those workers who give up.”

When fewer former workers get aid, a company pays lower unemployment taxes.

† Not Your Father's (Or Your) Sex Education (second item): Juneau County, WI, DA Scott Southworth (R), an evangelical Christian,  sent a letter to five school districts warning that sex education teachers could face charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor if they teach students known to be sexually active about contraceptives, reports The Associated Press:

Southworth also argued that teaching contraceptive use encourages sexual behavior among children, which equates to sexual assault because minors can't legally have sex in Wisconsin.

"Depending on the specific facts of a case ... this encouragement and advocacy could lead to criminal charges," Southworth, a Republican, wrote to districts in his county. …

Wisconsin school districts aren't required to teach sex education. But the new law, which took effect March 11, lays out requirements for those that do, including teaching the benefits of abstinence, criminal penalties for having underage sex and the benefits and proper use of contraceptives.

In WI, contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a misdemeanor punishable by as much as nine months in prison and a $10,000 fine, and 17-year-olds having sex with each another can be convicted as adults of a misdemeanor (children under age 17 can be prosecuted as juveniles).

† Pundits To The Left! Pundits To The Right!:  Politico notes that “[r]eflecting a mix of desperation and determination to reinvent themselves for a new media era, legacy publications are recruiting and lavishly rewarding a new breed of journalists”:

They offer an edgy style and expertise in a particular field but have never spent a day covering cops or courts or county boards - traditionally the rungs of the ladder all reporters had to climb.

While still in their 20s and 30s, this new breed is winning TV time and book contracts and, in many cases, newsroom salaries that reporters in their 40s or 50s can only dream about. Hailed as prodigies by editors groping for a way to keep their institutions relevant, they are dismissed as pipsqueaks by an older generation still trying to play by the old rules. …

[I]t is particularly striking in the world’s news capital, where new media have developed slowly and where the Washington bureau or a Washington column has traditionally been the reward at the end of a climb up the journalistic ladder, with stops along the way at small-town papers, medium-sized city desks and local TV newsrooms.

The article goes on to chart the career trajectories of Washington Post bloggers Ezra Klein, Chris Cillizza and David Weigel; The Atlantic bloggers Marc Ambinder and Megan McArdle; and New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat.   

† Putrid In Pink?: Back in the ‘90s, Barbie thought math was “tough” but she apparently got over her innumeracy, because she has become a computer engineer. When Mattel Inc. ran a four-week social media promotion asking girls to vote on Barbie’s next career (architect, anchorwoman, computer engineer, environmentalist and surgeon) something surprising happened, reports The Wall Street Journal:

The voting was open to anyone, and nobody could vote more than once. But by the end of the first week, a growing flood of adult votes for computer engineer Barbie trumped the popular choice. Female computer engineers who learned about the election launched a viral campaign on the Internet to get out the vote and ensure Barbie would join their ranks.

"Please help us in getting Barbie to get her Geek on!" came the appeal from the blog GeekGirlCamp.com.

As Mattel puts it: Computer engineer Barbie "won the popular vote" and anchorwoman won the girls' vote.

The result is a ponytailed doll in black leggings and a top decorated in binary code that spells Barbie, and lots of pink accessories - geek-chic glasses, Bluetooth headset and shoes. …

Veronica Belmont, a San Francisco resident who has an online-technology video show and who says she snubbed Barbie as a girl in favor of toys she could take apart and reassemble, thought Barbie's sparkly leggings and pink accessories "were over the top."

"I found the pink condescending," Ms. Belmont says, "but if it will get little girls' attention and get them to play with computers, it's a good start."

Computer engineer Barbie will hit stores in the fall. So, will an anchorwoman Barbie. Mattel thought that was only fair.

† Sotomayor And The Supreme Court: It’s Not The End Of The World For Conservatives: The 39 entries in the Peeps in Law Part Deux diorama contest have been winnowed down to just five finalists -  including, “Supeep Court 2010 - Sonia Steps Out” by Frank Salamone, a 30-year-old lawyer in D.C., who told The Stiletto via an E-mail exchange exchange how he came up with the idea for his theme:  

“Everyone I know who's argued in front of her or met her in another context thinks very highly of her, without exception. More than a few described her as a "rockstar" or a "diva" (in a good way), so that inspired me to do put her up on a catwalk.”

Despite some gentle mocking from his boyfriend ("Good Lord, I'm dating a five-year-old"), Salamone kept tinkering with his creation “to make her look more like a Supreme Court Justice and less like Lady Gaga (hint: never put hair on a Peep)” until he was satisfied with his entry. 

You can vote for your favorite Peeps diorama until 5 p.m. CT on Monday, April 12th. 

† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Always Remember And Don’t Ever Forget): Slate columnist Christopher Hitchens calls April “the cruelest month for the people of Armenia, who every year at this season suffer a continuing tragedy and a humiliation”:

The tragedy is that of commemorating the huge number of their ancestors who were exterminated by the Ottoman Muslim caliphate in a campaign of state-planned mass murder that began in April 1915. The humiliation is of hearing that the Turkish authorities deny that these appalling events ever occurred or that the killings constituted genocide. …

The original crime defeats all efforts to cover it up. The denial necessitates secondary crimes. In 1955, a government-sponsored pogrom in Istanbul burned out most of the city's remaining Armenians, along with thousands of Jews, Greeks and other infidels. The state-codified concept of mandatory Turkishness has been used to negate the rights and obliterate the language of the country's enormous Kurdish population and to create an armed colony of settlers and occupiers in Cyprus. …

The dead of Armenia will never cease to cry out. Nor, on their behalf, should we cease to do so. … The grotesque fact remains that the Turkish parliament is forbidden by its own law to do so. While this remains the case, we shall do it for them, and without any apology, until they produce the one that is forthcoming from them.

† Updates To Previous Posts (The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II): The AZ House voted 36-19 to make it legal for most U.S. citizens aged 21 or older to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. If by Gov. Jan Brewer signs the bill or allows it to become law without action, background checks and gun safety classes will no longer be required to carry a concealed firearm, reports The Associated Press: 
 

If the legislation is enacted, Arizona would join Alaska and Vermont in not requiring permits to carry concealed weapons. Forty-five other states require permits for hidden guns, and two states - Illinois and Wisconsin - prohibit them altogether.

Supporters say gun restrictions only affect people who want to follow the rules because criminals will carry hidden guns regardless of the law. Nearly all adults can carry a weapon openly in Arizona, and they shouldn't face additional restrictions when they want to hide the weapon, supporters argue.

"What's dangerous is when they're in criminals' hands, not citizens' hands," said Rep. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, a bill sponsor. …

There are more than 154,000 active concealed weapon permits in Arizona. …

Under the legislation, permits still could be obtained on an optional basis so Arizonans could carry concealed weapons in states with reciprocity agreements. Permits also would be required to carry weapons in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

Earlier in the week, Brewer signed a bill exempting guns manufactured entirely in the state from federal laws restricting firearms sales or requiring them to be registered. However, both this law and the concealed carry still require Arizonans to undergo a federally-mandated background check when buying firearms.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Putting The “Boo” In Boomer): According to data from the National Health Interview Survey, more than 40 percent of people aged 50 to 64 have mobility-related disabilities - such as trouble climbing 10 steps or walking a quarter-mile – and/or use a cane or wheelchair to get around or need help with such daily activities as getting out of bed, reports LiveScience.com:

"This a disappointing trend with potentially far-reaching and long-term negative consequences," said Richard Suzman, director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging, which funded the study. "If people have such difficulties in middle age, how can we expect that this age group - today's baby boomers - will be able to take care of itself with advancing age? If it continues, this trend could have a significant effect on the need for long-term care in the future."

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, 10 Reasons Michelle Obama Should Be Proud – Really Proud – Of America): This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador focuses on Don Allen, who volunteers at the Phoenix Children's Hospital neonatal intensive-care unit as a hugger. The Arizona Republic reports:

After more than 22 years helping to hold, feed and bring comfort to the tiniest of newborns, Allen, 65, still finds it humbling. …

Nurse RoShann Colter chuckles at Allen's enthusiasm: "He really enjoys this."

She reaches into the incubator and gently picks up 1-week-old Gavin Crew. Allen places a blanket over his shoulder and settles into an adjacent recliner. After a fresh diaper, Colter transfers the infant - all 3 pounds, 12 ounces - into Allen's lap. Gavin flails his arms, squeals and opens his eyes to peer at Allen. …

His volunteering began by chance in the late 1980s after showing up at Phoenix Children's Hospital to donate a stuffed bear. When he read information about becoming a "hugger" of infants, he was intrigued. …

Allen knows the risk in his work. There is joy in seeing a tiny infant fight to stay alive, but there's also heartbreak when one doesn't make it home. …

Allen understands the frailty of life. In May 1993, he had a heart attack. Doctors used defibrillator paddles six times before he came around.

"But when I was out, it was the most peaceful experience," Allen says. "I'm not afraid to die."

He finds the same kind of peace in the NICU.