GUNS SAVE LIVES: Video: Security Guard at Tax Prep Office in MI Uses AR-15 to Defend Himself, Customers and Owners.

AT AMAZON, Newest Stuff in DVD & Blu-Ray.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: “Morning Joe” panel: Second look at instituting a public-service draft for young Americans?

SHELDON RICHMAN: Don’t Trust The Government On Drones: Obama’s targeted killings set a dangerous precedent.

FEMALE MURDERERS: Agents Of Gender Equality.

IN COLORADO, separate-but-equal education survives.

MARKDOWNS AT The Amazon Dress Shop.

I BELIEVE YOU MEAN RACIST BIG MEDIA: Big Media is hot to wreck Ted Cruz. “Attacking the aggressive Ted Cruz when Liz Warren simultaneously hits the Senate in full aggression mode.”

A double standard between a white woman and a Latino man. The overwhelmingly white Big Media has a double standard.

UNITED NATIONS REVIEWING asteroid impact threat.

ED DRISCOLL: At last, one magazine’s fantasy Obama cover comes true.

ASTEROID AFTERMATH: We’re On Notice To Plan For The Next Meteor.

WHY SO MANY RUSSIANS HAVE DASH CAMS.

ADVICE: How To Know If You’re On A Good Path.

WHEN PRESCRIPTION DRUGS FILTER INTO THE FISH: “In a paper published Thursday in Science, a team of Swedish researchers tried to provide at least part of an answer. They first tested various Swedish bodies of water for the levels of an anti-anxiety drug called oxazepam—like many drugs, oxazepam doesn’t get filtered out by sewage treatment plants. In a lab, the researchers then placed wild European perch in tanks with comparable drug levels. The researchers found that the drugs were, indeed, having an effect: Even at dosages at the lower end of what they found in the wild, the fish in the oxazepam tanks were less social than those in the control tanks. The drugged fish put more distance between themselves and other fish, and they ate faster than normal. At higher dosages, the researchers also found an increase in what they termed ‘boldness,’ the lack of hesitation with which the fish entered an unfamiliar area.”

What about hormones from birth-control pills?

LITIGATION: Chubby Checker sues HP over penis size app. “Chubby Checker, the musician best known for his 1960 hit recording of “The Twist,” is suing HP over a novelty app for Palm OS of the same name that claims to check the size of your ‘chubby.’ The sum sought is a mind-boggling half a billion dollars.”

I think this is a publicity stunt intended to remind people that Palm OS still exists.

A VERY SHORT FILM ABOUT YAWNING.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Reasons You’ve Gained Weight Since The Wedding.

IN THE MAIL: From Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Necessity’s Child.

JAMES TARANTO: Critical Condition: Conservatives were right about ObamaCare, a lefty website concedes.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: The New Frontier.

RETIREMENT: How To Live Like A Prince On A Pauper’s Budget. “A new movement is gaining steam in America: overseas retirement. Kiplinger, a personal finance and business forecast site, recently put out a list of eight great places to retire abroad. The attractions of these places are impressive. Bracketing off the one entry from Spain, the most expensive of the seven places was $2,700 per month per couple for comfortable, high-class living, and many were much less than that. That’s not to mention the other benefits: temperate weather, culture, history, beaches in some places and mountains in others, and even special state-backed perks for U.S. retirees. . . . This trend should be encouraged. The retirees benefit from high quality of life, and the host countries get new residents who are wealthy by local standards. A study by the Empire Center for New York State policy found that New Yorkers retiring to Florida alone brought $11 billion in new net income to the state from 2000–09. The effect on foreign countries would be similar, and the extra revenue brought in this way could be more effective than most development dollars. America also profits: By getting cheaper medical treatment abroad, expats would relieve some of the pressure on the U.S. health care system.”

REPORT: “Friends With Benefits” Relationships On The Rise.

AT AMAZON, Big Markdowns in TV & Video.

Also, today only: Sole Fitness E35 Elliptical Machine (2013 Model), $1039.99 (48% off).

CONNECTED: Facebook Gets A Multi-billion Dollar Tax Break.

Related: How a dream team of engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and Google built the software that drove Barack Obama’s reelection.

ROGER SIMON: Benghazi: The Motion Picture.

One story, however, cries out for cinematic dramatization — Benghazi.

It is concise and highly dramatic. And mysteries abound – just where was the president of the United States that night our ambassador and others were under terror attack in North Africa? Why wasn’t Obama directly involved? Why did the secretary of State pay so little attention? Just what was our ambassador to Libya doing in Benghazi that night anyway? Why were the perpetrators allowed to escape? Why did the president lie for weeks about what transpired, trying to make a hopeless video nobody saw seem the cause of the event? And why were his lies covered up by CNN’s Candy Crowley? Why was no attempt made to save our people in the first place? (I could go on, but you get the drift.)

Though I could guess (and the Daily Mail has some theories), I don’t know the definitive answer to any of these questions, but I do know one thing: If I did… if anybody did… know the truth, Benghazi would be one helluva movie. And a commercial one.

But would anybody make it?

Good question.

MARCO RUBIO: Reported Obama immigration plan ‘dead on arrival.’

GREEDY POLITICIANS ARE ALL THE SAME: Argentina Stiffs Pensioners. “The U.S. is no stranger to these problems, particularly as politicians try to force pension funds to ‘invest’ in pork belly projects. Proposals now on the table to reduce the degree to which social security pensions are topped up for inflation will have the effect of transferring money from pensioners back to the government, where it will be used again for whatever purposes politicians want. What’s needed is an actuarially sound, adequately financed, conservatively invested pension system. Anything else is a gimmick. Unfortunately, there are lots of gimmicks floating around these days.”

MARK STEYN: ACHIEVE YE THIS GOAL:

“I’m also issuing a new goal for America,” declared President Obama at his State of the Union on Tuesday. We’ll come to the particular “goal” he “issued” momentarily, but before we do, consider that formulation: Did you know the president of the United States is now in the business of “issuing goals” for his subjects to live up to?

Strange how the monarchical urge persists even in a republic two-and-a-third centuries old.

Indeed.

GREG LUKIANOFF: “The state should no more pay to defend a university president who ignored the Constitution than it should pay to defend a university president who committed a crime.”

WHEN PROFESSORS BAN FOX NEWS.

OBAMACARE UPDATE: Will young adults face ‘rate shock’ because of the health-care law?

Meanwhile, my former colleague Colleen Medill, an ERISA expert, writes:

I don’t know if you will see this in your volume of email, but you might.

I am deeply into studying the impact of Obamacare on employers, and I have been communicating with highly sophisticated ERISA lawyers who are advising employers, from Fortune 50 companies to small firms under 50 employees, on whether to keep or drop or modify their employer group health plans.

It has become very clear to everyone involved who is analytical and not ideological that the rational strategy, for both large and small firms, is to cease providing health care insurance to employees.

No company wants to admit that they are considering eliminating health insurance as an option, or be the first one to drop their health insurance plan, but once a competitor does so, the preference cascade will begin. The clear sentiment is “We will not be the first one to drop our health insurance plan, but we would be a close second.”

The coming preference cascade for employer group health plans is what the Democrats fear the most, because Obamacare was sold to the masses as “if you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it.”

The people who really know the law, and who have been following the avalanche of regulations, have already figured this out. It will take a while for this specialized knowledge to seep downward, because right now only $800+ an hour ERISA attorneys and the most sophisticated HR people understand how Obamacare really works.

Hopey-changey!

CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: Two Weeks in, I See Some Real Results.

MICKEY KAUS: Why I Hope Hagel Wins.

Why? Because immigration reform–i.e. amnesty–is by far the most important issue facing Congress this year. Obama’s aides and advisers certainly seem to know this. Tax and spending decisions can be reversed, after all. Same for whatever mild gun controls Congress might pass. “Climate change” initiatives could have a big impact–but they’ll never get through the House.

“Comprehensive immigration reform” just might. And the decision to legalize 11 million illegal immigrants, plus whatever equal number of relatives they bring in–and the potential to attract yet another fresh wave of illegals–would cause huge changes to the nation and the labor market. These changes, unlike tax increases, will be irrevocable. Once people become legal Americn residents they aren’t going to be made illegal. Certainly not if they’re on a “pathway to citizenship.”

If you support an “enforcement first/amnesty second” approach, as I do, you would understandably be feeling a bit beleagured right now. It’s not just that the Obama administration is against you, cooking up statistics showing “record deportations.” The press is against you. The elder statesmen are against you. The juiceboxers are against you. Even Fox News is against you. Practically all the Democrats are against you and the Hispanicked Republican elite is against you too.

Read the whole thing.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Sporting Goods.

TAR. FEATHERS. Operation overkill: Armed cops swoop on Action Man looking for a mortar after owner posts picture of TOY weapon on Facebook. I’d like the names of the person who complained, and the superiors who took the complaint seriously.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD MEN GONE?

Related: “Being a man is now intriguing and ironic.”

TAR, FEATHERS: Elderly couple pulled over after their Buckeye car decal is mistaken for a marijuana leaf. Of course, there’s nothing illegal about having a marijuana leaf decal on your car, anyway.

I want to know the names of the cops involved, and their superiors. I have some remedial education in mind.

EGYPT: Diesel shortage pushes Egyptians to the brink.

THE SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE: This College Student Founded A Startup Delivering Emergency Condoms On Campus.

REPORT: X Prizers Storm Into Mojave in Style — With Seth Green!

AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Estimates raised for nuclear-sized asteroid blast that hit Russia. “Scientists have raised their estimates of the size and power of what turns out to be the most widely witnessed asteroid strike in modern history. The size estimate puts the object that caused Friday’s meteor blast over Russia in a troublesome category of asteroids: big enough to cause damage, but small enough to evade detection. The new estimates, based on additional readings from a sensor network built to detect nuclear blasts, suggest the meteor released the energy equivalent of nearly 500 kilotons of TNT. That’s about 30 times the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.”

UPDATE: A reader emails:

The relative lack of ground-level damage from a explosion equivalent to 30 Hiroshima bombs is due to its occurence about 25 miles above ground. And the reason it exploded so high up is that it came in at a shallow angle (20 degrees). If the approach had been steeper (less time in the atmosphere), it would have gotten closer to the ground before exploding. The folks in Chelyabinsk were very lucky.

True. And we were all lucky, in that if something like this had happened at the height of the Cold War it might have ignited a nuclear exchange.

And another reader writes: “Don’t forget in all the worry about asteroids, that a Carrington event could be devastating as well.” True enough.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER ASTEROID: Another Meteor Flashes Across Bay Area Skies.

More here.

UPDATE: Charlie Martin, Late-Blooming Athlete: Week 2 – ‘Quality of Life’ and ‘The Un-Calloused Butt Mystery.’

LESSONS FROM THE RUSSIAN METEOR STRIKE: “When a small piece of rock would fall on the Earth 100 years ago it could have caused minimal damage and would have stayed largely undetected, but Friday’s accident fully demonstrated how vulnerable the technological civilization of today has become.”

ALSO, RACE FOR FUNDING: Scientists unveil new detectors in race to save Earth from next asteroid.

FASTER, PLEASE: The U.S. Just Got Its First Bionic Eye. “A game changer in sight-affecting diseases.”

STACY MCCAIN: “Times change. Back in the day, the Washington Post exposed corrupt cover-ups. Nowadays, they’re active participants in the cover-up. Meanwhile, the guy who originally broke the story, Matthew Boyle continues covering the Menendez scandal at Breitbart.com.”

Plus, an illustration.

THAT’S KIND OF SWEET: Reclusive fan wills estate worth up to $1 million to two ‘80s-era actors he never met.

Maybe I should start putting up those “Remember InstaPundit In Your Will” notices. . . .

WHY VIDEOGAME CONSOLE SALES ARE PLUMMETING.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in office & school supplies.

RAND SIMBERG ON WHY protecting us from asteroids shouldn’t be NASA’s job.

THE END TIMES ARE HERE: This Woman Covered Herself In “Twilight” Tattoos–And You’ll Never Guess Why.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Fast Food Workers Reveal The Most Underrated Menu Items.

Plus, what to avoid.

READER BOOK PLUG: From David Carter, Che! The Lost Diaries.

THE FUTURE IS NOT EVENLY DISTRIBUTED: Japan has some of the fastest internet connections in the world, but physical media such as books and DVDs still remain popular.

IN GERMANY, A One-man bank keeps German village business running.

IN THE MAIL: How Dark the World Becomes.

KEY DEMOCRATS TURN ON OBAMACARE:

Powerful Democrats who helped write and pass Obamacare subjected the new law’s chief administrator to withering criticism at a Senate hearing yesterday. Gary Cohen, the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, testified before the Senate Finance Committee, and the Democrats on the committee—from its Chairman Max Baucus to Senators Ron Wyden, Bill Nelson, and Maria Cantwell—tore into him. . . .

The about-face of these Democrats is a phenomenon worth pausing over. Many formerly supportive constituencies have grown wary of Obamacare in recent weeks as we’ve learned more about the effects it will have on the health care system. But these Senators’ 180-degree turns are something more severe.

The fate of the Democratic party in America over the next decade is tied to Obama’s healthcare reform. If it is seen to be a success, America could trend Democratic for the foreseeable future. If it fails, liberalism as we’ve known it will take a massive hit. But, so far, support for Obamacare has been waning instead of waxing. Even a recent piece by Talking Points Memo that placed the blame for Obamacare’s potential failure on Republicans noted that the law’s unpopularity with the public at large was the number one threat to its success. Democrats are getting nervous and consequently are trying to put some distance between themselves and the ACA.

Good luck with that.

HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE MINIMUM WAGE:

It’s obvious who benefits from a higher minimum wage: people who get minimum wage jobs. In theory, it may also boost the incomes of people who are making near the minimum wage, as employers raise those wages to ensure that these are “better than minimum wage jobs”—though in this labor market, I wouldn’t bet on it.

But who are the people in minimum wage jobs? This is primarily being sold as a poverty-fighting tool, so it would help to know how many of the people making it are poor.

The answer seems to be no; most of the people making the minimum wage are not living in households below the poverty line. Over half the people earning minimum wage are below the age of 25; for them, this is not likely to be a permanent condition, but a first rung on the income ladder. Many are students or entry level workers who are part of established households with higher earners.

Older minimum wage workers are probably more likely to be poor, but on average, they’re not. To be sure, they’re unlikely to be wealthy–this workforce will be predominantly drawn from near-poor and lower-middle-class households. Undoubtedly, they have uses for the extra money. But it will not specifically lift people out of poverty, because most of the people earning minimum wage aren’t in poverty now.

That’s who it helps. Who does it hurt?

Ironically, minimum wage workers.

Indeed.

WAPO: Who had the worst week in Washington? Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel.

WOULD SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS THAT Spitfires aren’t “Fighter Jets?”

UPDATE: Reader Michael Blum emails:

Amusingly, WaPo has corrected their headline and the article removing the mentions of “fighter jets”.

Of course, they also don’t bother mentioning any corrections to the article itself anywhere.

Would hate to have people think that journalists and “layers of fact-checkers and editors” don’t know what they’re writing about.

Indeed.

PLANETARY PROTECTION: NASA Must Do More To Prepare for Catastrophic Asteroids. Much More.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “Hey Glenn, nice job on Fox. You appear to have dropped 20+. Presuming that was intentional, nice work.” Well, it’s more like 10-12 lbs, courtesy of a mixture of Gary Taubes and Mark Rippetoe. And when you lose weight that way, I think you get more bang for the buck.

Hey, it worked for Marilyn Monroe.

UPDATE: Reader Tim Moncur writes:

The email of the day reminded me that I owe you a big thanks. I have always been active and concerned about my diet, but time was catching up with me (or so I thought). I had packed on extra weight, was tired a lot, etc.

I picked up Taubes’ WWGF and Rippetoe’s SS a few months back, based on your recommendations. Today, I am down nearly 40 lbs and, at 45, I’m in better shape than I was at 25. Simply amazing.

I really appreciate the information. Keep spreading the word!

Doing what I can!

AT AMAZON, Digital Deals.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: 8 College Degrees with the Worst Return on Investment.

A MARTIAN DREAM: Here’s What the Red Planet Would Look Like With Earth-Like Oceans and Life.

One reason I liked Kim Stanley Robinson’s Blue Mars was its moving descriptions of a terraformed Red Planet.

MORE ON PROSECUTORIAL OVERREACH: Win at all costs? Suicide of computer whiz prompts look at federal prosecutors’ tactics.

IS SOMEONE TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING? “Killer asteroid” and “Earth-like planet” stories always seem to congregate around one another. Ever notice that?

RUSSIAN METEORITE INJURY TOLL over 1100. Mostly flying glass. Remember — if you see an unexplained bright light, duck and cover!

ZOMBIE REPORTS: One Billion Rising: San Francisco. “Trust me on this: If the Tea Party had stood in a circle and made a little black boy dance for them, it would have been The Racist Event of the Century. But here — it’s perfectly OK. Move along, nothing to see.”

HOW’S THAT GUN-CONTROL STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA, BRITS? Shopkeeper says Iraq is safer than Birmingham after fighting off two armed robbers. “A shopkeeper who fought off two armed robbers said the streets around his inner city Birmingham store were ‘more violent’ than his native Iraq. Kochar Rasul, 30, made a new life for himself and his family in Britain after fleeing from Kurdistan to escape Saddam Hussein’s evil regime. But he was forced to defend himself using a shop sign when two gunmen pounced as he locked up his shop in Handsworth, Birmingham, just before midnight on Monday.”

YOU CAN SEE VIDEO OF MY SEGMENT ON BRET BAIER’S SPECIAL REPORT ON PROSECUTORIAL OVERREACH HERE.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Would You Ever Rent a Date? What If it was Pretty Cheap?

HEY, WAIT, WEREN’T THEY STANDING UP FOR INTERNET FREEDOM NOT LONG AGO? Iceland Considers Internet Porn Ban.

AT AMAZON, automotive & motorcycle markdowns.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: NASA: Meteor exploded with force of 20 Hiroshima bombs.

HOW NAPOLEON CHAGNON BECAME AMERICA’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL ANTHROPOLOGIST: I think, actually, that the field of anthropology nearly self-destructed with its attacks on him, as illustrated here:

At an open-mike A.A.A. session, attendees, few of whom had read the book, weighed in on the controversy. Thomas Gregor and Daniel Gross later described the event in a damning article in American Anthropologist: “Virtually every aspect of [Chagnon’s] behavior, relevant or otherwise, was open for public dissection. One participant took the microphone and claimed that Chagnon had treated her rudely in the field during the 1960s. A colleague from Uganda praised Tierney’s book and suggested that Westerners manufactured the Ebola virus and disseminated it in his country, just as Chagnon and Neel had started the measles epidemic. Members of the audience applauded both speakers.” For Gregor, who recently retired as an anthropologist at Vanderbilt, the session was “a watershed moment.” “These are people who are supposed to be scientists,” he told me. “This had the look of an emotionally charged witch hunt.” . . .

As Gregor and Gross put it, what the inquiry most clearly demonstrated was not Chagnon’s guilt or innocence but rather anthropology’s “culture of accusation,” a “tendency within the discipline to attack its own methods and practitioners.”

This is what happens when science is politicized. On the other hand, the Yanomamo understand: “They fight, and this makes them happy.”

DAVID KIRKHAM EMAILS:

All Instapundit readers are invited to our Annual Open House at Kirkham Motorsports.
Tomorrow Feb 16 from 10 am – 3 pm at our shop.
Kirkham Motorsports
2575 West 1680 North
Provo, Utah 84601

We will debut our new Coupe.

Wish I could be there.

WHEN THE PERSONAL is political.

SOMETIME IN THE NEXT HOUR, I’ll be on Bret Baier’s Special Report on Fox, talking about my Due Process When Everything Is A Crime piece.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: George Leef: The Spirit of Adam Smith Returns: At one time, professors were independent contractors paid by students; that relationship may return.

Adam Smith, perhaps the most perceptive observer of human action of his time, pointed out from experience that incentives mattered to professors. At Scottish and English universities in the 18th century, some professors were in the main paid directly by student fees, while others were paid entirely by the university, thus putting a middleman between the customers and the providers of teaching services.

In the former case, Smith wrote (in Book V of The Wealth of Nations), a professor’s reputation is important and depends “upon the affection, gratitude, and favourable report of those who have attended upon his instructions; and these favourable sentiments he is likely to gain in no way so well as by deserving them, that is, by the abilities and diligence with which he discharges every part of his duty.”

In universities where professors were paid entirely by the institution, however, their incentives were markedly different. Smith observed, “if his emoluments are to be precisely the same whether he does or does not perform some laborious duty, it is certainly his interest…either to neglect it altogether or…to perform it in as careless and slovenly manner as authority will permit.”

Would this promote grade-inflation and easy assignments? Possibly — but, of course, we have those under the current system, too.

JAMES TARANTO: The Rules of Attraction: Science illuminates the differences between the sexes.

PERHAPS THE “PUBLIC HEALTH” PEOPLE SHOULD FOCUS ON ACTUAL DISEASES INSTEAD OF TRENDY POLITICAL CAUSES: ‘Ongoing, severe epidemic’ of STDs in US, report finds. “. In 2008, there were 20 million new incidents of infection in the United States, and a prevalence (new infections plus ongoing infection) of 110 million, according to CDC estimates. (Because one person may have more than one infection, the 110 million figure does not mean 110 million people have a sexually transmitted disease.) As a result, the United States incurred estimated direct medical costs of nearly $16 billion. Previous such estimates, for years 1996 and 2000, estimated approximately 15 million and 18.9 million new incidents respectively, though these reports used somewhat different data sources and methodology so the CDC cautions against making direct comparisons.”

ANN ALTHOUSE ON RUTH MARCUS’S TED CRUZ COVERAGE: “He pontificates? You mean he’s uppity? The liberals need to pre-ruin any people of color on the GOP side. After Marco Rubio’s career went down in flames because he drank a glass of water, the appetite for destruction rages. Look! There’s another Hispano-Conservo! Get him!”

They’re not journalists. They’re Democratic operatives with bylines.

HMM: Bacteria boost fixes symptoms of autism in mice. “Replacing missing gut bacteria in a mouse model of autism reverses adverse social behaviours and gut disorders associated with the condition.”

RAND SIMBERG: Chelyabinsk: What, Exactly, Just Happened? “The jury should still be out on whether this was related to the other asteroid.”

Plus: Did Another Space Rock Crash in Cuba?

FASTER, PLEASE: Gene Therapy Cures Diabetic Dogs In Only One Shot.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestselling men’s sandals and beach shoes. Summer is coming.

Also, The Sims 3: Supernatural, $29.99 (25% off).

WILL E15 ETHANOL DAMAGE YOUR ENGINE? “This is a tricky question and the subject of a lot of hand-wringing right now.”

SCIENCE: Manuka honey opens door for effective treatment of chronic wounds. Is this big news? People were treating wounds with honey in ancient times.

ARE “EMOTIONAL AFFAIRS” REALLY “just as devastating” as physical ones? Color me skeptical.

MALWARE: Targeted Hacking Forces a New Reality on Antivirus Companies.

IS IT SAD THAT I WANT ONE? Behold The 900mph Ping-Pong Bazooka.

LAW SCHOOL CLASSES: How Big Is Too Big?

IN THE MAIL: From Steve White, Sunset of the Gods.

BACKPEDALING: Obama seeks to allay fears: ‘I actually don’t think we should ban handguns.’

ERDOGAN TAKES DOWN THE GENERALS:

Four retired Turkish generals were jailed today pending an inquiry into a “coup attempt” in 1997. This is yet another calculated maneuver by Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ensure that the Turkish armed forces are never again able to illegally take over the government. It was a stern reminder of who’s boss. . . .

Analysts in the West often celebrate Turkey for its economic success and relative stability in a tumultuous region. But this success does not mean Turkey is fully free and open. Hundreds of Turkish soldiers, including dozens of high-ranking officers, have been jailed under Erdogan’s administration over the past few years. More than 300 were jailed in September for allegedly plotting to overthrow Erdogan’s Islamist government 2003. An additional 300 or so civilians are awaiting trial on related charges. Forty-nine civilian reporters languish in Turkish prisons, making Turkey the world’s worst jailer of journalists.

In the post-Arab Spring Middle East, where Islamist led governments like Egypt’s try to tame powerful militaries and establish permanent civilian governance, Turkey often serves as a model. There, the Islamists conquered the generals and now rule unchallenged. Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi can only dream of bringing the military to heel like that. But take a look at Turkey today. Is this a good model?

No.

WHY THE LEFT IS DOWN ON DOWNTON ABBEY. “On second look, the left’s reaction is understandable. Julian Fellowes and they are on the opposite side of something. But it’s not that Fellowes is on the right, and they on the left. It is that Fellowes is in the middle and they on the far left. Downton Abbey is not an apologetic for the old order. It just gives them a fair shake. . . . It also shows something equally important to the future of our culture: that there is no inherent need for good TV to be left of center. Stories sympathetic to virtue, preservation of property and admiration of nobility and of wealth can be told beautifully and to wide audiences, and I suspect they will be more and more in the future.” Me, I’m more a House Of Cards guy.

TA NEHISI COATES: Christopher Dorner Was Not A Hero. “I don’t really know how anyone, with any sort of coherence, adopts Christopher Dorner as a symbol in the fight against police brutality, given how he brutalized those two human beings.”

WITH ALL THE BROKEN-GLASS INJURIES FROM THAT RUSSIAN METEORITE — 950 people according to this report — maybe it’s time to remind people to Duck And Cover upon seeing a bright flash of light. . . .

Related: Protecting Earth from Killer Asteroids.