KLINGON PARENTING TIPS: “Invent an older sibling that you killed shortly before they were born for their insubordination. i.e. ‘That’s how your brother died'”

HOW CONVEEEENIENT: Washington Post Blames Benghazigate On Petraeus.

A BILLY JOEL INTERVIEW:

A.G.: You know they have medication for that.

B.J.: Well, I used booze as medication.

Read the whole thing.

DAVID GERGEN: “This White House is so politicized that when it comes to a sort of a controversy like this, what they want to do is to get out a good story instead of getting out the real story.”

GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE: Northeast Frost, Freeze Concerns Tonight.

It’s a Fallen Angels world, we just live in it . . . .

MARK JUDGE: Marvel Comics’ Kung Fu Treachery.

IN FRANCE, A HUGE PROTEST AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE. On Twitter, someone was asking why we haven’t seen such big protests in the U.S. I think it’s because Americans are inclined to give the tie to individual freedom. The French, not so much.

IN TENNESSEE, CLAMORING FOR A CONSERVATIVE TO CHALLENGE ALEXANDER. Some Tea Party folks asked me if I was interested in running. Coincidentally, someone from Alexander’s office reached out to ask if I’d like to have coffee with Lamar. I told the Tea Party folks no. (Give up my gig to be a Senator? Are you kidding?). Coincidentally, I never heard from Alexander’s office again. My take: Alexander has good intelligence.

CORRELATION VS. CAUSATION IN A SINGLE GRAPH.

THIS MORNING, I talked about Jonathan Turley’s newfound appreciation for the dangers of Big Government, but noted that some people had noticed this problem already.

Mark Levin emails: “Turley might learn from this. An entire book on the tyranny of a ubiquitous federal Leviathan and its philosophical roots. It’s called Ameritopia. It sold 400,000 copies. Perhaps I’ll send him one.” Send him a copy of Liberty and Tyranny, too.

In the words of Moe from Bridget Loves Bernie, “It couldn’t hoit.”

BETTER LIVING THROUGH ELECTRICITY: A New Iron Age?

POLITICAL: Did The Pentagon Exaggerate The Effects of Sequestration? Why should they be different from the rest of the government.

My take: Since we’ve seen that the government can take a 2.3 percent cut without anybody noticing, why not go for a 5% across-the-board cut next year?

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And a reminder: InstaPundit is an Amazon affiliate. When you do your shopping through the Amazon links on this page, including the “Shop Amazon” tab at the top or the searchbox in the right sidebar, you support the blog at no cost to yourself. Just click on the Amazon link, then shop as usual. I thank you, and my family thanks you!

BLOWING THE DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE NARRATIVE: “The most comprehensive review of the scholarly domestic violence research literature ever conducted concludes, among other things, that women perpetrate physical and emotional abuse, as well as engage in control behaviors, at comparable rates to men. The Partner Abuse State of Knowledge project, or PASK, whose final installment was just published in the journal Partner Abuse, is an unparalleled three-year research project, conducted by 42 scholars at 20 universities and research centers, and including information on 17 areas of domestic violence research.”

Related: It’s heresy, I know. But not all women are victims. And not all rape is rape: It is a view that will outrage many, but Crimewatch creator NICK ROSS insists it is a debate we must not flinch from.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Comprehensive analysis of impact spherules supports theory of cosmic impact 12,800 years ago. “About 12,800 years ago when the Earth was warming and emerging from the last ice age, a dramatic and anomalous event occurred that abruptly reversed climatic conditions back to near-glacial state. According to James Kennett, UC Santa Barbara emeritus professor in earth sciences, this climate switch fundamentally –– and remarkably –– occurred in only one year, heralding the onset of the Younger Dryas cool episode. The cause of this cooling has been much debated, especially because it closely coincided with the abrupt extinction of the majority of the large animals then inhabiting the Americas, as well as the disappearance of the prehistoric Clovis culture, known for its big game hunting. . . . Now, in one of the most comprehensive related investigations ever, the group has documented a wide distribution of microspherules widely distributed in a layer over 50 million square kilometers on four continents, including North America, including Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands. This layer –– the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) layer –– also contains peak abundances of other exotic materials, including nanodiamonds and other unusual forms of carbon such as fullerenes, as well as melt-glass and iridium. This new evidence in support of the cosmic impact theory appeared recently in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.”

POPULAR MECHANICS: How To Escape A Sinking Car. “Rule 1. Don’t Call 911 until you’re out of the car. You’re going to need every second to get out of that vehicle. . . . Break that window. Since most vehicles these days have electronically controlled windows, the circuits probably will short before you have a chance to roll them down. In that case, you’ll need a tool to break the window open.”

They recommend the Lifehammer or the Res-Q-Me, both of which have been discussed here before.

“WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS.” The gay-pride flags were a nice touch.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, BLUENOSES WOULD BE OUT IN FORCE. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Woman wearing “thong” in public arrested in Myrtle Beach.

AT AMAZON, MP3 Albums at $2.99 and up.

Also, the TV Deal of the week: Arrested Development: Seasons 1-3, $24.99.

ED DRISCOLL: “Pro tip: If you look like anything at all like this when you reach the apex of your vacation, you are definitely doing it wrong.”

And given the bad press that cruise lines have gotten lately, Royal Caribbean should appreciate this report from Ed’s wife Nina.

JENNY MCCARTHY, MASS MURDERER: Grieving parents speak out against anti-vaccination extremists.

As Toni held her tiny baby, she couldn’t comprehend the loss, or how they would survive the sorrow.

Little did they know then that Dana’s death from whooping cough, and the media coverage that followed, came to represent a very inconvenient truth to the anti-vaccination lobby – and thus began an extraordinary campaign against this grieving family.

The McCafferys are today breaking their silence on the cyber bullying,the anonymous letters and the cruelty of some members of the anti-vaccination movement.

The couple has been accused of being on the payroll of drug companies; they have had their daughter’s death questioned and mocked; they have even been told to “harden the f . . . up” by an opponent of vaccination.

“The venom directed at us has just been torture and it’s been frightening, abhorrent and insensitive in the extreme,” says Toni, who has not had the strength to talk about this until now.

Disgusting.

READER BOOK PLUG: Reader Ron Herrington asks a plug for his Instead of School: Why Our Schools Do Not–And Cannot–Work. Done! It’s 99 cents on Kindle.

THAT LOOKS LIKE FUN: Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: ’90s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Cover Models: Where Are They Now?

MICHAEL WALSH: How Does Eric Holder Survive? Because AG is Obama’s alter-ego — his fall would be a defeat and an insult. Holder is also protection.

SEXISM AT SAMSUNG: In Today’s America, the ‘Evolved’ Man Is the Metrosexual.

REMEMBERING RAY MANZAREK.

IN THE MAIL: From Robert Heinlein, Starman Jones.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 17. Including this from Jay Leno: “White House officials insist that President Obama knew nothing about the IRS scandal until we all heard about it in the news last week. They said because there was an investigation under way, it would have been inappropriate to tell him. And besides, he was too busy not knowing anything about Benghazi.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Michael Barone: More than all past presidents put together, Obama uses 1917 Espionage Act to go after reporters.

Related: Ross Douthat: On terror, Obama’s “policies are basically the same” as Bush’s, but “more fundamentally dishonest.”

ONE O’ THEM NEWFANGLED SURRENDERED-WIFE TYPES . . . Patti Smith?

Would she like a new Mr Patti Smith? She looks shocked. “I would never have a Mr Patti Smith. To me, I’m happy to have the man as king. I would never consider a man in that position.”

Now it’s my turn to be shocked. After all, this is Patti Smith, rocker extraordinaire and feminist icon. “I wouldn’t care if he was a gardener or plumber or physicist, he wouldn’t be in second place in our household.” She’d happily be subservient? “I don’t mind. I have no problem with a man being in first place. I know who I am. If a man would need to be in first place, what of it?”

Well, punk was always about being transgressive. And nowadays, as I’ve noted, there’s nothing more transgressive than old-fashioned values.

UPDATE: Reader Paul Butzi emails with this quote:

“He had some measure the infuriating trait that causes a young man to be a noncomformist for its own sake, and found that the surest way to shock most people, in those days, was to believe that some kinds of behavior were bad and others good, and that it was reasonable to live one’s life accordingly.”

-Neal Stephenson, page 20, “The Diamond Age,” written in 1995

Stephenson is such a great storyteller, and tells stories of such complexity and length, that people tend to overlook his deep insight into human nature and culture.

Indeed.

TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS: Swedish Citizens Take to Streets to Defend Property From Rioting Immigrants. If the responsible authorities fail to act, other forms of authority will assert themselves. They may not act responsibly, but they will act.

HOPEY-CHANGEY TRANSFORMATIONS (CONT’D): IRS witch hunt targeted Ohio educator and bystander.

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Also, today only: $1.99 Kindle Classics.

HEH: Leno–Obama tells Morehouse College grads their future is great. Unless, of course, they want jobs. Then, they are totally screwed.

ACADEMIC CORRECTNESS: “[T]he government is blurring the distinction between physical assaults and ‘sexually themed’ speech in order to justify censoring and punishing the latter.”

They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney, prudes would be censoring academic speech. And they were right!

OUR FOREBEARS CROSSED THE OCEAN IN LEAKY SHIPS, AND THE PLAINS IN COVERED WAGONS. Motorists Can’t Face Fears, Get a Lift Across Bridge. “The Mackinac Bridge in Michigan spans five miles and is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world with the roadway soaring more than 200 feet over Lake Michigan. The bridge’s dimensions provide stunning views of the surrounding landscape, but those vistas can be stomach-churning for people with gephyrophobia, or an abnormal fear of crossing bridges. Between 1,200 to 1,400 calls are made every year to the bridge’s Drivers Assistance Program that provides motorists with a crew member to drive them across if they’re too afraid to drive themselves.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: This Is a Blog Post. It Is Not a “Blog.” “The No. 1 reason to make this change—and I’m not going to sugarcoat this—is that calling a post a blog makes you sound stupid. That may seem harsh, but I’m doing you a favor. Every time you make this mistake, it sounds like you don’t understand this newfangled thing, the World Wide Web. Even if you think all those who might judge you are just being superficial, that’s not going to stop them from judging you.” Yes, saying “I made a blog” when you mean “I wrote a post” makes you sound like an idiot.

HOW THE SMARTPHONE KILLED THE WEEKEND. “A three-day weekend? We can barely get through three waking hours without working, new research shows. The average smartphone user checks his or her device 150 times per day, or about once every six minutes. Meanwhile, government data from 2011 says 35 percent of us work on weekends, and those who do average five hours of labor, often without compensation — or even a thank you. The other 65 percent were probably too busy to answer surveyors’ questions.”

JONATHAN TURLEY: The Rise Of The Fourth Branch Of Government. Rise? It’s more like a takeover. But that’s also being deployed as an excuse:

There were times this past week when it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand.

Clearly, there was a degree of willful blindness in these claims. However, the suggestion that someone, even the president, is in control of today’s government may be an illusion.

There’s more to Turley’s piece, though folks on the right are likely to find it kinda familiar, so read the whole thing. I will note, though, that I predicted the rise of this “ungovernable” argument years ago.

BAD NEWS FOR KNOWLEDGE WORKERS? The age of smart machines: Brain work may be going the way of manual work. Elwood P. Dowd’s strategy of going from being ever-so-smart to being ever-so-pleasant may be an important career move . . . .

MORE PHONE FUNNIES: The Justice Department Investigated a New York Times Reporter, Too. “The New York Times reports the Department of Justice investigated national security leaks given to Times reporter David Sanger over his story last year about the Stuxnet virus by pulling all the email and phone records of government officials who communicated with the reporter. . . . The Times’ Ethan Bronner, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane report the FBI requested for any phone and email logs from the White House, the Defense Department and other “intelligence agencies” that showed any contact between employees and Sanger. It does not appear they went so far as to seize Sanger’s telephone records or emails, as they did with the Associates Press and Fox News reporter James Rosen. They at least got creative this time. Instead of looking at his communication records, they looked at the communications between him and every government employee by looking on their end.”

FROM THE ADMINISTRATION’S STANDPOINT, THAT’S NOT A BUG, BUT A FEATURE: Press Sees Chilling Effect in Justice Dept. Inquiries.

Related: Obama Whistleblower Prosecutions Lead To Chilling Effect On Press.

GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE: A Wet And Miserable Start To Memorial Day Weekend: Business Owners On Jersey Shore, Coney Island Curse Mother Nature. “And remember, it can always be worse. Upstate, some areas were seeing light snow on Saturday morning, Murdock reported.”

Hey Fallen Angels is just science fiction. Nothing to worry about.

WHAT INDIA NEEDS: A Sexual Revolution?

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Exercise Equivalent of a Cheeseburger? New Research Says Endurance Running May Damage Health. “Heart disease comes from inflammation and if you’re constantly, chronically inflaming yourself, never letting your body heal, why wouldn’t there be a relationship between over exercise and heart disease?”

Well, I’m not taking any chances. I still take my diet-and-exercise advice from Gary Taubes and Mark Rippetoe.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Detoxify A Cow Fart.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN sex and creativity. Is it different for men and women?

AT AMAZON, up to 30% off on TV & Video.

THE JOY OF QUILTING. I have a quilt that’s much older than I am; my grandmother made it out of scraps of my mom’s little-girl dresses.

THE INSTA-WIFE’S BOOK, MEN ON STRIKE, GETS MENTIONED IN THIS DAILY MAIL ARTICLE on women wondering why men are less interested in having kids these days.

In Asia there’s a new tendency for men to go their own way – with thousands shunning marriage and kids for a life of independence and control, which no family court can destroy. The same thing is happening across America and Canada.

In fact, author Helen Smith PHD recently published a book entitled Men on Strike, where she notes that: ‘America has become anti-male. Men are sensing the backlash and are consciously and unconsciously going on strike. They are dropping out of college, leaving the workforce and avoiding marriage and fatherhood at alarming rates.’

Now, it’s happening here in Britain. This isn’t because men are ‘selfish’ or commitment-phobic pigs (as women frequently like to suggest). Rather, it’s because they’re tired of being ousted from families, of being shafted by sexist divorce rulings and being denied the most basic paternal rights.

These guys know that any child they have with a woman would be her baby, not their baby.

Lesson of the decade: People respond to incentives, even perverse incentives.

THOSE RIOTOUS “YOUTHS” AGAIN: Sixth Night of Violence in Sweden.

HOMELAND SECURITY: Even Politicians Tire of Failure-Prone, Freedom-Threatening Fusion Centers.

The Department of Homeland Security’s pet fusion centers, intended to “serve as focal points within the state and local environment for the receipt, analysis, gathering, and sharing of threat-related information between the federal government and state, local, tribal, territorial (SLTT) and private sector partners,” have instead managed to enrage people across the political spectrum by finding bogeymen under every conceivable bed. They’ve targeted Occupy protesters and Ron Paul supporters as threats to the republic, and even listed the American Civil Liberties Union on a map detailing “terrorism events and other suspicious activity.” Just about the only people they haven’t targeted are actual terrorists — an omission that has drawn criticism for the Massachusetts franchise of the DHS network. No wonder politicians are starting to question whether the money dedicated to these factories of Fail are well-spent.

I was opposed to the creation of the Homeland Security department from the beginning. Nothing has happened since to suggest that I was wrong. And while we’re reliving the past, read this, and this. And this. Not much progress over the past decade. . . .

I JUST RAN ACROSS this Cathy Seipp piece from 2002. “Big-government fans like The American Prospect and The Nation seem to imagine that blogs, which are by definition creatures of the free market, ought to be pre-approved by some sort of official bureaucracy. The tongue-clucking reminds me of the teacher’s pet who was always raising her hand to protest, ‘Miss Jones! Miss Jones! Johnnie’s reading ahead again! Unsupervised!'”

I still miss her.

AT AMAZON, Digital Deals.

Also, what everyone needs: Star Trek Into Darkness Starfleet Phaser Limited Edition Gift Set, $79.99. Plus the film in Blu-Ray.

THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER REPORTS that Hillary’s new book will be the occasion on which she comes out as a bisexual. Hillary hopes this will make her seem cooler; bisexuals everywhere fear it won’t do anything for their image. Plus, going after Valerie Jarrett?

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Pricey Beef Puts Heat on U.S. Grilling Season. “As Americans prepare for Memorial Day—the official kickoff to a summer grilling season of burgers and T-bones—rising beef prices have some consumers balking in the grocery aisles. Retail beef prices are widely expected to set new records in coming weeks after wholesale prices, or the amount meatpackers charge sellers for beef, hit an all-time peak this past week.”

You might want to consider strategic shopping. Related: Lessons From Extreme Cheapskates.

DEREK THOMPSON: The Falling-Bridge Lesson: The U.S. Infrastructure Failure Is Still Totally Inexcusable. Well, as I’ve noted before, the stimulus was supposed to go for fixing bridges, but feminists complained that it would produce too many jobs for burly men, and Obama wilted under their fierce glare.

KOREA: Plastic Surgery Capital Of The World?

PROGRESS IN IMMUNOLOGY: The Magic Molecule of Immunity? “It isn’t often that an entire field of medical science gets turned on its head. But it is becoming clear that immunology is undergoing a big rethink thanks to the discovery that antibodies, which combat viruses, work not just outside cells but inside them as well. The star of this new view is a protein molecule called TRIM21. . . . The significance of the group’s finding is just sinking in. It gives medicine a whole new angle on infection, and it just might crack the hitherto almost insuperable problem of how to cure viral infections, rather than just prevent them by vaccination.” Faster, please, as we like to say around here.

JOURNALISM: Male Reporters Harden Stance In Defense of Weiner.

Also, Is Joan Walsh Racist?

DAVID MOSHMAN: Sexual Harassment And Academic Freedom. “The topic of sexuality, then, is subject to the same principles of academic freedom as any other topic. Sexual harassment is wrong because it is harassment, not because it is sexual.”

AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, thinking small.

EDUCATIONAL: Wait, Schools Require a Doctor’s Note for Sunscreen?

UPDATE: Reader George Milonas writes:

We pediatricians are being inundated with permission slips all day long. My paperwork has doubled over the last ten years in no small part because of idiotic school rules requiring parents and docs to sign off on virtually every common sense OTC item. They range from Tylenol and ibuprofen to hand lotion, sunscreen, and bug spray. Each requires its own special form. This is in addition to the actual prescription meds we prescribe like antibiotics and inhalers. It’s absolutely ridiculous when you consider these kids can literally sign for their own abortions without their parents’ permission.

Yes, it is.

IT’S NOT OFFICIALLY OUT UNTIL NEXT MONTH, but the Insta-Wife’s book, Men On Strike, has been shipping from Amazon and it’s already piling up positive reader reviews. Buy two: One for yourself, one for your local library!

HOPE THIS PANS OUT: Breakthrough on Huntington’s disease. “We are the first to show that it is possible to prevent the depression symptoms of Huntington’s disease by deactivating the diseased protein in nerve cell populations in the hypothalamus in the brain. This is hugely exciting and bears out our previous hypotheses.”

HERE’S A FULL-LENGTH REVIEW of Bill Ardolino’s Fallujah Awakens.

TAXPROF: Roundup: The IRS Scandal, Day 16.

IN THE MAIL: From Thomas Doherty, Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939.

BUT THERE ARE WHOLE INDUSTRIES AND BUREAUCRACIES AIMED AT PREVENTING THAT: Joe Fitzgerald: Don’t Be Afraid To Call Evil By Its Name.

RYAN LIZZA IN THE NEW YORKER: How Prosecutors Fought to Keep James Rosen’s Warrant Secret.

The Obama Administration fought to keep a search warrant for James Rosen’s private e-mail account secret, arguing to a federal judge that the government might need to monitor the account for a lengthy period of time.

The new details are revealed in a court filing detailing a back and forth between the Justice Department and the federal judges who oversaw the request to search a Gmail account belonging to Rosen, a reporter for Fox News. A 2009 article Rosen had written about North Korea sparked an investigation; Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department adviser who allegedly leaked classified information to Rosen, insisted that the reporter should not be notified of the search and seizure of his e-mails, even after a lengthy delay. . . . The new details indicate that the government wanted the option to search Rosen’s e-mails repeatedly if the F.B.I. found further evidence implicating the reporter in what prosecutors argued was a conspiracy to commit espionage.

According to recently unsealed documents in the case, the Obama Justice Department sought an extensive amount of information from Rosen’s e-mail account. In addition to Rosen’s correspondence with Kim, the government wanted to know about Rosen’s contacts with other government officials, including “records or information relating to the Author’s communication with any other source or potential source of the information disclosed in the Article.”

The government, which accused Rosen of being an “aider, abettor, and/or co-conspirator” in the Kim case, cast a wide net in its search of Rosen’s e-mail.

Feeling the hope and change yet?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Judge Posner explains how Yale professors became Upper Class.

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ME ON BLOOMBERG LAW TV: America’s IP Laws Need to be “Pruned Back.”

WASHINGTON POST: The Press Must Have The Ability To Ask Questions. Want to preserve your ability to ask questions? Try asking questions. ProTip: Pretending that this is a Republican administration will help you overcome initial reluctance, shyness. Like imagining audience in their underwear. . . .

MENENDEZ: We Don’t Have Enough Votes To Pass Gang Of Eight Immigration Bill.

SHAKEDOWN: The H Street Project.

JAMES TARANTO: See You in the Funny Papers: A tribute to an anti-mentor. “That, it seems to us, is the central story of our time. The left-liberal elite that attained cultural dominance between the 1960s and the 1980s–and that since 2008 has seen itself as being on the cusp of political dominance as well–is undergoing a crisis of authority, and its defenses are increasingly ferocious and unprincipled. Journalists lie or ignore important but politically uncongenial stories. Scientists suppress alternative hypotheses. Political organizations bully apolitical charities. The Internal Revenue Service persecutes dissenters. And campus censorship goes on still.”

MARS: What We’ve Learned In Five Years.

PRIORITIES: Reason-Rupe Poll: Congress Should Cut Spending, Forget Gun Control. “Fifty-four percent of Americans say Congress should cut spending from current levels and 62 percent say Congress should forget about gun control and move on to other issues. Social Security is widely popular, with 65 percent having a favorable view of the retirement portions of the program. But it’s also widely misunderstood as an individual retirement account rather than a transfer payment financed by current tax dollars.”

ONE CHARISMATIC ORATOR TO ANOTHER: How JFK secretly ADMIRED Hitler: Explosive book reveals former President’s praise for the Nazis as he travelled through Germany before Second World War. A lot of influential Americans of the political class admired Hitler at some point.

Related: Cornelius Vanderbilt IV meets Hitler:

Vanderbilt toured Europe with two French cameramen, and managed to interview the day’s notorious newsmakers, including Benito Mussolini and Josef Stalin. But the plutocrat-cum-journalist set his sights on a man even more dangerous. When he had a chance to sit down with the former Crown Prince of Germany, in Berlin, he asked, “Strange, isn’t it, that you Hohenzollerns are so much easier to see than Hitler?”

On March 5, 1933, the day elections gave the Nazis a parliamentary plurality, a triumphant Adolf Hitler addressed a hysterical crowd at the Sports Palace in Berlin. From the wings of the stage, Vanderbilt managed a brief audience with the new Reich Chancellor. According to Vanderbilt’s account, he introduced himself, in German, and then Hitler, with a motion to the throngs that awaited, began speaking: “Tell the Americans that life moves forward, always forward, irrevocably forward. Tell them that Adolf Hitler is the man of the hour, not because he has been appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg but because no one else could have been appointed Chancellor instead. Tell them that he was sent by the Almighty to a nation that had been threatened with disintegration and loss of honor for fifteen long years.” Vanderbilt, an all-American blue blood, risked a final question. He shouted, “And what about the Jews, Your Excellency?” Hitler brushed it off—“My people are waiting for me!”—and pointed Vanderbilt toward Dr. Ernst Hanfstaengl, his Harvard-educated (and Anglo-acclimated) foreign press chief. “He will tell you about the Jews and all the other things that seem to bother America.” Hanfstaengl proved mostly interested in Vanderbilt’s money.

The old-money Vanderbilt seems to have been more discerning about Hitler than the new-money Kennedy. Tragedy that he didn’t shoot him.

UPDATE: Reader Matt Gilbert emails:

Hi Glenn – I laughed out loud at this: “pity he didn’t shoot him”.

My German-speaking grand-dad was the AP reporter based in London who was sent to cover Hitler’s election. He met him twice. I never knew this (neither did my mother – his own daughter) until I asked him what his biggest regret in life was. He told his story then reached out his hands and said, “my biggest regret was not strangling that man when I had the chance….” I’d never seen my no-drama Grand-dad so animated. He died two years later. His best friend was the AP photographer sent with him to the event. Afterwards they took 2 weeks and toured the continent. We found those sepia photographs in my Granddad’s things after he passed…pictures of pre-ww2 Europe, pre-destruction Germany and then right there: my granddad standing next to the most notorious man of the 20th century. It was bone chilling.

Some people just need killin’, as the Scots-Irish used to say. Okay, still do.

DO TELL: Petraeus Biographer Regrets Affair.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Loan Problems: One Third Of Millennials Regret Going To College.

Here’s an indication of how burdensome student loans have become: About one-third of millennials say they would have been better off working, instead of going to college and paying tuition.

That’s a according to a new Wells Fargo WFC +0.57% study which surveyed 1,414 millennials between the ages of 22 and 32. More than half of them financed their education through student loans, and many say the if they had $10,000 the “first thing” they’d do is pay down their student loan or credit card debt.

That’s no surprise when you consider student borrowing topped the $100 billion threshold for the first time in 2010, and total outstanding loans exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2011. Student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt in the U.S. which stands at about $798 billion.

Delinquencies are also on the rise. The number of borrowers who are at least 90 days late on student loan payments has jumped from 8.5% in 2011 to 11.7% today, according to a study by the New York Federal Reserve.

The problem sometimes is that not all college educations are worth their cost since they can’t guarantee a high-paying job to help pay off that student debt.

Do tell.

EMASCULATED, AS A MATTER OF POLICY: Britain: “We are admiring these women, but implicit in our admiration is the question — let’s speak it out loud — Where are the men?”

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Mark Steyn.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? The Government Wants A Backdoor Into Your Communications. “According to the New York Times, President Obama is ‘on the verge of backing’ a proposal by the FBI to introduce legislation dramatically expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. CALEA forces telephone companies to provide backdoors to the government so that it can spy on users after obtaining court approval, and was expanded in 2006 to reach Internet technologies like VoIP. The new proposal reportedly allows the FBI to listen in on any conversation online, regardless of the technology used, by mandating engineers build “backdoors” into communications software.”

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Americans Spent Less Per Student on Public Schools. “The amount of money spent per public school student fell in 2011 for the first time since the Census Bureau began keeping records more than three decades earlier, as economic woes finally caught up with educational realities. . . . ‘There (have) actually been declines in education employment, which is really different than in prior recessions, where state and local government has actually protected employment more.'”

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

MICKEY KAUS: Does welfare cause terrorism, Part XVIII.

How long before we find out that “alleged” Woolwich murderer Michael Adebolajo was on some kind of welfare? Or else his household was on welfare. The Tsarnaevs received various kinds of welfare too, of course, as have numerous other terrorists. This is not a coincidence:

“In fact, there’s a good argument that “welfare benefits + ethnic antagonism” is the universal recipe for an underclass with an angry, oppositional culture. The social logic is simple: Ethnic differences make it easy for those outside of, for example, French Arab neighborhoods to discriminate against those inside, and easy for those inside to resent the mainstream culture around them. [Update: See also, Sweden.] Meanwhile, relatively generous welfare benefits enable those in the ethnic ghetto to stay there, stay unemployed, and seethe. Without government subsidies, they would have to overcome the prejudice against them and integrate into the mainstream working culture. Work, in this sense, is anti-terrorist medicine. (And if you work all day, there’s less time to dream up ways and reasons to kill infidels.)”

If Adebolajo turns out to have earned his own living, I’ll be surprised and chastened. Will post update in this space.

You’re betting with the odds, Mickey.

JOHN HINDERAKER: The Inevitable Decline Of Great Britain (cont’d). “The average American household is better armed than a London policeman, and as a result, it was left to a few women from the crowd of bystanders to try to deal with cleaver-wielding murderers. But that doesn’t mean the British are entirely lax with respect to law enforcement. No, not at all: it just depends which laws you are talking about. If you mean laws against carving up innocent people on the street with knives, well, the Brits have a problem. But if you complain about such an outrage on Facebook or Twitter, you’re going to be crushed by the full majesty of the law.”

A BAD REVIEW FOR OBAMA’S SPEECH: “He’s actually getting worse. This president will not admit that we are in a war.”

UGH: “The child died because he was not fed. Period.”

IN RESPONSE TO MY EARLIER POST ABOUT TRUE THE VOTE SUING THE IRS AGENTS WHO HARASSED IT, READER BLAINE MILLER WRITES:

I believe you have a bit of hypocrisy here. Your comment on the thuggish campaign of Barack Obama in 08 and then you highlight a story of True Vote going to sue the IRS employees. Granted the IRS scandal is outrageous but suing the IRS employees is intimidation, pure and simple.

There’s no equivalence here. Punishing someone for wrongdoing — which is what True The Vote is doing — is not the same as punishing someone for political opposition, which is what the IRS was doing.

UPDATE: Reader Douglas Hufnagel writes: “Isn’t intimidating government thugs exactly what we want? Shouldn’t we use any methods possible to absolutely crush those who would attack us with such blatantly illegal methods?” I wouldn’t go so far as an “any means necessary’ approach. But accountability does matter.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Rod Sanders emails:

To the idea that suing the individual IRS employees is intimidation:

Maybe it is. But it is, nonetheless, the correct reaction.

There seems to be the idea among many government employees that invoking the ‘I was only following orders’ argument somehow magically insulates them from their bad behavior.

If the people on the ground are held much more accountable for their actions, it may become harder for those calling the shots to use them as foot soldiers in their political games.

A moral individual would refuse to follow an order that is illegal or unethical. Most, if not all, of the front line employees involved here did not refuse. In fact, they likely agreed with the goal.

They shouldn’t get off just because someone like Lerner called the shots.

Indeed.

MORE: Reader Andy Freeman writes: “If the IRS employees were ‘just following orders’ then they’ll be willing to document said orders and testify in court as to who gave them.” You’d think.

Plus, a longtime reader emails:

Since I am a federal employee please don’t use my name if you quote me.

In my branch of federal government I am reminded via mandatory annual training that I can be held individually accountable both criminally and civilly for violations of the law. So I reject that these lawsuits are intimidation. They are the proper response and a reminder of the law.

It is not bullying to hold people accountable.

No, it’s not.

BOB OWENS: Forget 3D Printing, Here’s The Real Threat To Gun Control.

BUY A GUN: 911 Dispatcher Tells Woman About To Be Sexually Assaulted There Are No Cops To Help Her Due To Budget Cuts. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away?”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How I Got A Date Worth Keeping (And Marrying).

BRITAIN: Two men arrested over ‘offensive Twitter comments about British soldier’s death.’ “Police say people should be careful about what they write on twitter as the ‘consequences could be serious’.” It’s not like they were just sawing off heads or something. These were offensive tweets. Probably racist or anti-Islamic or something. That’s serious.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Bedding & Bath.

KIMBERLEY STRASSEL: Conservatives Became Targets In 2008: The Obama campaign played a big role in a liberal onslaught that far pre-dated Citizens United.

The White House insists President Obama is “outraged” by the “inappropriate” targeting and harassment of conservative groups. If true, it’s a remarkable turnaround for a man who helped pioneer those tactics.

On Aug. 21, 2008, the conservative American Issues Project ran an ad highlighting ties between candidate Obama and Bill Ayers, formerly of the Weather Underground. The Obama campaign and supporters were furious, and they pressured TV stations to pull the ad—a common-enough tactic in such ad spats.

What came next was not common. Bob Bauer, general counsel for the campaign (and later general counsel for the White House), on the same day wrote to the criminal division of the Justice Department, demanding an investigation into AIP, “its officers and directors,” and its “anonymous donors.” Mr. Bauer claimed that the nonprofit, as a 501(c)(4), was committing a “knowing and willful violation” of election law, and wanted “action to enforce against criminal violations.” . . .

Also on Sept. 8, Mr. Bauer complained to the Federal Election Commission about AIP and Mr. Simmons. He demanded that AIP turn over certain tax documents to his campaign (his right under IRS law), then sent a letter to AIP further hounding it for confidential information (to which he had no legal right).

The Bauer onslaught was a big part of a new liberal strategy to thwart the rise of conservative groups. In early August 2008, the New York Times trumpeted the creation of a left-wing group (a 501(c)4) called Accountable America. Founded by Obama supporter and liberal activist Tom Mattzie, the group—as the story explained—would start by sending “warning” letters to 10,000 GOP donors, “hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.” The letters would alert “right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.” As Mr. Mattzie told Mother Jones: “We’re going to put them at risk.”

A thuggish campaign, foreshadowing a thuggish presidency.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

It’s Friday night and I’ve had a few drinks but…

I’m starting to think maybe these fuckers killed Breitbart, KGB style with a poisoned umbrella or something.

I don’t think so — I talked to Andrew a couple of months before he died and he was wearing a heart monitor — but I can see why you’d think that. And, of course, the kind of erosion of trust that goes with thug-government is highly destructive on its own.

FRED LAPIDES rounds up the good stuff. Along with rather a lot of weird stuff.

SLOWER, PLEASE: How A Tech Giant Proposes To Charge You For Having Friends.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Lessons of Operation Swill: Six Ways to Tell Your Bar Is Passing Off Cheap Liquor as the Good Stuff.