UPDATE: Related: Two House Dems demand Lerner resignation after using lobbyist to stage modified limited hangout.

Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure “good” government, it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare — most people want to run things, but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the “backseat driver” syndrome.

Still timely, in an era where things don’t work, but it’s nobody’s fault.

Also from Heinlein: “Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.” Ya think?

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste emails: “If you believe the Hygiene hypothesis, then drinking it might well be good for you.”

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I did wake up one night, though, and there were two mosquitoes at the foot of my bed.

One said: Should we take him home, or eat him here?

The other replied: We’d better eat him here. If we take him home, the big guys might get him away from us.

Thanks, I’ll be here all weekend. Try the veal!

Plus: “I have to tell you that is exactly the approach that the Nixon administration took. They said, ‘These are all second-rate things. We don’t have time for this. We have to devote our time to the people’s business.’ You’re taking exactly the same line they did.”

Heinlein used the transfusion process for rejuv in Methuselah’s Children. Synthesizing the blood was the key to long-term rejuv for everyone, too. (Might as well put a link to it in, too. Wouldn’t hurt for people to read it again. There’s a great example of government persecuting a group they think is “hiding the stash.” Worse, they knew the group wasn’t, but needed to throw someone to the wolves to satisfy the populace.)

Luckily that could never happen here. And linked. Plus, it’s also on Kindle.

Also “irrelevant” — where the President was during Benghazi attacks. Not a good day for the White House on the Sunday shows. . .

UPDATE: The relevance of “irrelevant.” Can I make an empty-chair joke now? “In talking about Benghazi, the interviewer, Chris Wallace, is trying to extract a specific fact about the events, a fact that has not yet come out and that Pfeiffer might know. Pfeiffer blows out a tirade of truly irrelevant verbiage to distract us from the question asked, including the notion that the fact isn’t important. Who cares where the physical body of Obama was as long as he was ‘in touch’? Well, some people would like to know, so tell us the fact and let us decide what use to make of it. To withhold the fact — on the ground that, in your opinion, we don’t need it — is to make us think it would be damaging. . . . It must be relevant, we think, at least for political purposes, or Pfeiffer wouldn’t strain so hard to suppress it.” What could that be? I can’t even imagine. An assignation at the Hay-Adams?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Lynda Bowen writes:

This is really strange. They absolutely don’t want to account for Obama’s exact whereabouts during the time in question. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were trying to cover up the fact that he was pulling a Clinton (that would be Bill … in the cloak room with Monica… not a Hillary).

Seriously, something else was going on that they don’t want ANYONE to know about…

They don’t want to talk about it. But it wasn’t nookie at the Hay-Adams. (Everyone goes to the W for that now in DC anyway). It was a special meeting on the alien invasion.

This is the week for arguments I have previously dismissed coming back to bite me. I’ve already admitted that I dismissed tea party complaints about extra IRS scrutiny because really, who would do that? Now along comes another story that is causing me to reassess my priors: it turns out that Indian generic giant Ranbaxy has been selling generic “drugs” that didn’t actually work.

Complaining that generic drugs from abroad are nothing but cheap fakes has long been a staple of free-trade opponents, and of course, pharmaceutical manufacturers trying to protect their products from foreign competition. While it’s long been clear that there was some truth to the horror stories–don’t buy drugs on the internet, okay?–I’ve been pretty dismissive of complaints about Indian generics giants like Ranbaxy and Cipla. These guys are huge companies with brands to protect. Moreover, they’re inspected by the FDA. Why would they risk it all by adulterating their product?

Well, the fact is they did, and the answer is presumably “to save money.”. . . Yes, Ranbaxy eventually got caught. But for years, they sold drugs of uncertain quality. It’s hard to say how many people they killed, but it’s unlikely that the number is zero, or even near-zero.

See, that’s a problem.

But here’s something I’d missed: Bloomberg Terminal Spying Targeted Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner: CNBC.

Also: JPMorgan demands Bloomberg staff logs. “Lawyers for JPMorgan Chase have demanded that Bloomberg hand over five years’ worth of employee logs, as the bank considers whether to take legal action against the news and data group.”

Also: Deal of the Day: Bioshock Infinite.

Following the House’s opening investigative hearing into the IRS’s revelation that it gave extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, Crowley was asked if he believed Douglas Shulman lied to Congress.

“I think Mr. Shulman did,” said Crowley in an interview with Fox News. “My understanding is that it was common knowledge if they were going after political groups back then.”

Crowley was referencing a 2012 House Ways and Means Committee hearing in which Shulman, in response to questions from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), held that the IRS was not targeting specific groups applying for tax-exempt status.

“There’s absolutely no targeting,” said Shulman at the time.

The encounter raised suspicions for Boustany as well, who recounted the incident during the same interview with Crowley.

Some of us have been suspicious longer than that.

Some 471 conservative groups seeking 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status were harassed by the IRS over a period of years, and our self-styled watchdog media played no role in bringing this injustice to light. It only became a scandal after the IRS publicly admitted its wrongdoing.

Attorney Cleta Mitchell represents a number of Tea Party and conservative groups—including many that sought and still haven’t been granted tax exempt status. Mitchell notes that overwhelming evidence of the IRS’s political targeting had long been public. The IRS was so brazen that last year “80 or 90 groups all got letters that are virtually identical, that are oppressive, with 30, 40, 50, 70 questions with parts and subparts and sub-subparts,” Mitchell told The Weekly Standard. “The Ways and Means [subcommittee] on IRS oversight held a hearing, and they asked about all this. Did the press do anything about it? No.”

They’ve been a bunch of Nina Burleighs.

The number of religious groups reporting they were improperly targeted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is increasing.

At least a half-dozen conservative groups say they received an unusual degree of scrutiny from the IRS, according to the Religion News Service, a non-profit news service operated out of the University of Missouri’s journalism school.

Earlier this week Rev. Billy Graham’s son made headlines with a letter to President Obama accusing the administration of targeting the Samaritan’s Purse charity and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in an attempt to intimidate the group.

Since then, the Catholics United Education Fund and the Christian Voices for Life have reported significant delays in their applications for tax-exempt status from the IRS.

The Coalition for Life of Iowa also said that it took unusually long to receive their tax exempt status, according to the Thomas More Society, a non-profit group focused on supporting pro-life causes.

At a House hearing investigating the IRS abuses on Friday, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) called attention to The Coalition for Life of Iowa’s complaint, citing one particular question that the group was asked by the agency.

“Their question, specifically asked from the IRS to the Coalition for Life of Iowa: ‘Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers. Would that be an inappropriate question to a 501 c3 applicant? The content of one’s prayers?” asked Schock of the IRS’s former acting commissioner, Steven Miller.

Render unto Caesar . . . . But what if what Caesar needs is a swift kick in the ass?

UPDATE: More:

Police fired eight shots at the intruder, who authorities say was holding a gun to the head of 21-year-old Andrea Rebello during a home invasion robbery Friday at an off-campus house in Uniondale.

One of the shots hit Rebello in the head, killing her, police spokeswoman Maureen Roach said.

Also killed was the intruder, who authorities identified as Dalton Smith, 30, of Hempstead. He was struck seven times.

Authorities say Smith, who was wearing a mask, invaded the home Rebello shared with her twin sister and two others during the pre-dawn hours on Friday.

At some point, a female roommate of the twins was able to leave the home and call police, a police spokesman told CNN on Friday.

When a police officer arrived, Smith was holding a gun to Rebello’s head, Roach said.

He told the officer he was going to kill Rebello, and then turned the handgun toward the officer, she said.

The officer, fearing for his life, drew his gun and fired, Roach said.

Based on these facts, it doesn’t sound like the officer did anything wrong.

UPDATE: Prof. Joseph Olson writes:

Civilian “combat shooters” who participate in IPSC or IDPA competitions practice, practice, practice, head shots to the bad guy while missing the hostage. Sometimes they do it after 10 push-ups or a 50 yard run (designed to induce physical stress). 99% of the time they miss the hostage and get the bad guy.

Regular street cops are allowed to carry guns but don’t get this level of training.

The student was killed because the city is too cheap to provide adequate realistic training.

Well, possibly. And reader William Gasper writes: “I think this is simply a case of the police not getting enough tactical simulation practice. Likely due to the Obama administration trying to limit ammunition available to citizens. Obama has a lot of blood on his hands.”

Well, it’s no worse than blaming Bush for Benghazi.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Stephen Hamori writes:

Plus; after all the recent gun owner bashing, a lot of us are holding law enforcement up to the standards we think we are held to by the usual suspects / MSM. If someone took a hostage in a public place and a civilian fired at them… because the other guy started aiming at a crowd… you can image the press. Untrained gun nut kills hostage by ‘mistake’. Changed with manslaughter by DA. Add in that few law enforcement people are speaking out against taking gun rights away from the general public…

I see the point, but I still don’t think the cop here deserves the blame.