TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 433.

GOOD: North Dakotan Shale Boom To Surge This Summer.

You just can’t keep a good boom down. Oil production from North Dakota’s Bakken formation has quintupled over the past five years as drillers employ the dual technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal well drilling to tap previously inaccessible hydrocarbons trapped in shale. This summer, it looks as if Gaia will cooperate, offering mild weather to spur what one official is predicting will be a “big surge” in output. . . .

The shale boom has been so sudden, and so unexpected, that we still lack the transportation infrastructure to deliver shale-sourced crude to refineries. Without pipelines to link North Dakota’s Bakken formation to Gulf Coast refineries, that crude is riding our nation’s rails and being transported by truck—more expensive and more dangerous options. Building new pipelines will cut down on bottlenecks, save money, and potentially save lives. This is a challenge, but it’s the kind we’d like to see more of: one of abundance, not scarcity.

And one that makes the barbarous nations of the Middle East — and Putin’s Russia, too — less powerful and less important.

MAYBE THEY SHOULD ALSO APOLOGIZE TO THE FALSELY ACCUSED?

A leading forensic consultant urged representatives from more than 60 colleges and universities gathered here Monday to acknowledge that they’ve made mistakes in handling campus sexual assaults and to apologize publicly to student survivors.

“We must apologize for causing that harm,” David Lisak, the consultant and clinical psychologist, said. “And that apology must mean something.”

I note that it ends with a call for . . . more money for administrators.

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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Virginia Postrel: Turning College Into A No-Thought Zone.

IT’S IN ROLLING STONE, NATCH: The Stupidest Article About Guns You Will Ever Read.

NEVER LET THE TRUTH INTERFERE WITH MESSAGING: Nope: Elizabeth Warren says the government shutdown was about birth control. “I have a question for Sen. Warren. If this law is essential to escaping the crushing force of the patriarchy and preserving modernity, why didn’t Democrats put it in ObamaCare? It’d be just as disingenuous and, frankly, more substantiated to argue that the absence of the birth control mandate from the text of ObamaCare—it was added after the fact in one of the thousands of blanks left for unelected regulators—means Democrats who crafted the law from start to finish were bent on limiting women’s access to birth control. After all, they very explicitly did not make it a law that every employer provide free birth control when the power to do so was in their hands. That action is equivalent to turning back the clock on women to a time when birth control was prohibited. Or, so I’ve heard.”

CHANGE: House Republicans take aim at EPA climate rules.

House appropriators on Tuesday approved a $30 billion spending bill designed to block a host of looming Environmental Protection Agency regulations viewed by the GOP as exceeding the agency’s authority.

Republicans on the Appropriations Committee pushed through the Interior and environment funding bill, sending it to the House floor over the objections of Democrats who described it as full of “veto bait” and handouts to big business.

The panel advanced the measure — the seventh, and potentially last for the year, of the 12 annual appropriations bills Congress is supposed to pass — by a 29–19 vote. Even if approved by the House, the bill is unlikely to become law. The Senate has yet to act on a single appropriations bill, and President Obama would likely refuse to sign it.

But they’ll attack the House as “do-nothing.”

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: TSA Agent Who Stopped Man From Boarding Plane Didn’t Know Where District Of Columbia Was. Demanded a passport because he thought it was another country.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: New Organization Founded to Promote Due Process on Campus. “FIRE is pleased to announce the launch of a new organization, Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE), dedicated to defending due process on campus.”

Related: The Trouble With Campus Rape Tribunals.

THIS HAS BEEN THE DEMOCRATS’ STRATEGY ALL ALONG: Is a fear of ‘getting Koch’ed’ hurting Republican super PACs?

Give to Dems and the media cooperates in protecting you. Give to the GOP and it cooperates in attacking you. GOP activists, if they want to get ahead, should be trying to make Dem donors radioactive, too.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: Washington Post: So our election model is pretty accurate and it predicts the GOP takes the Senate — but what the hell do we know?

JUDITH CURRY: ‘Scientist’: the evolving story of a word. “The radical implications of the internet are acting to democratize science. Blogs are conducting post publication peer review and we are seeing the development of internet scientific communities on blogs that are acting as ‘clubs’ for independent scientists that focus on addressing scientific issues that are relevant to public debates. These developments are challenging traditional notions of expertise, especially as independent scientists are cited in the mainstream media and are invited to present evidence at government hearings. Scientists who belong to the right ‘clubs’ (universities, professional societies) regard this membership as conferring expertise in public debates involving science, and they tend to be dismissive of independent scientists. Independent scientists, in the mode of the 19th century ‘man of science’, are relegated by scientists who belong to the right clubs to a lower ‘amateur’ status.”

THE V.A. SCANDAL ISN’T GOING AWAY. IT’S GETTING WORSE. Veterans Affairs stonewalls, spies on people investigating it.

Congressional staffers investigating data falsification and whistleblower retaliation at the Department of Veterans Affairs regional office in Philadelphia were given a workspace there that was wired with activated audio microphones and video cameras, the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs said Monday.

Committee investigators also glimpsed a notebook used by the agency’s regional director that bore written instructions to ignore their requests for information, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said during a late-night hearing. Miller, chairman of the veterans committee, said he is “shocked” by the directives from VA officials to ignore congressional investigators.

“You will not ignore this committee anymore,” Miller said to Allison Hickey, VA’s under secretary for benefits, who testified at the hearing.

Well, she will if she can get away with it. Zero out the budget for bonuses and conference travel.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: 8th Circuit Orders New Trial in Unsuccessful Republican Faculty Candidate’s Discrimination Suit Against Iowa Law School.

This is bad news for Iowa, which can ill afford another round of bad publicity.

SOME KANSAS REPUBLICANS ARE OPPOSING BROWNBACK.

Meanwhile, in my own area, perennially controversial Republican State Senator Stacey Campfield — you know, the kind of State Senator CNN pays attention to — has a primary challenger. I don’t know anything about the guy, but all the excitement I’m seeing for him on Facebook comes from Democrats (“for the first time in my life I’m voting in a Republican primary!”) and the first car I saw his bumper sticker on was festooned with Obama and “Coexist” stickers.

JUSTICE: Father freed after a decade in jail as daughter admits she lied about him raping her when she was 11 as she was ‘disappointed in him.’ “A 23-year-old woman has told police she lied about her father raping her when she was 11 – accusations that put him behind bars for nine years. But Cassandra Kennedy, from Longview, Washington, will not be charged as prosecutors fear it could stop others from reporting sexual assaults.”

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Before Contract, Teachers Gave $350K To DeBlasio Charity. “Less than a month before Mayor Bill de Blasio struck a major contract agreement with the United Federation of Teachers, its parent union, the American Federation of Teachers, gave $350,000 to a nonprofit run by de Blasio advisers, which lobbies on behalf of the mayor’s priorities, newly released records show. The AFT’s $350,000 donation, on April 9, was the largest donation to the de Blasio-affiliated nonprofit, Campaign For One New York, since it was founded after the mayor was elected last November. Its timing raises questions about the ability of outside interests to advance their agendas before the city by supporting a nonprofit close to the mayor.”

It doesn’t raise questions, it answers them. Not that there was much of a question to begin with.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Benjamin Ginsberg: College Presidents — New Captains Of The Titanic?

After the Titanic struck the iceberg, the ship’s captain and senior executives were said to be unworried. How could their mighty ship sink? The hubris and arrogance of the ship’s captain and senior officers was astonishing. They seemed to believe that because they were handsomely recompensed, resplendent in their uniforms and saluted by their toadies, their little world would never end. While the passengers and lowly crew members were beginning to panic, the officers urged them to remain calm. They were confident that the ship was unsinkable and on course. The dining rooms remained open and the ship’s orchestra played on to soothe the foolish passengers and crew who prattled about an utterly impossible impending disaster. Unfortunately, more than a century later, the good ship Titanic remains at the bottom of the ocean. Some of her passengers survived but 1500 did not, victims of the captain’s decision to maintain course and steam full speed ahead despite numerous warnings from experienced crew members that there were icebergs in the vicinity.

I’ll bet these captains won’t go down with their ships.

JUSTICE: North Carolina police accused of making up phony 911 calls to search homes. Tar. Feathers.

CHANGE: GOP Senators Go On Offense On Women’s Issues.

And that’s not counting going after Democratic politicians who pay women less than men.

DOCTOR WHO: Jim Treacher Takes A Victory Lap.

COLORADO: The Big Snub: Did Udall Strategy Do More Campaign Harm Than Good?

HEAR ME TALK ABOUT POLITICS AND THE NEW CLASS on The Ed Morrissey Show.

FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION WORKER (AND LOIS LERNER ASSOCIATE): “I Don’t Understand How Anyone But Straight White Men Can Vote Republican.”

As a part of a settlement agreement with the [Office of Special Counsel], Ms. [April] Sands admitted to violating the Hatch Act by soliciting political contributions via Twitter, conducting political activity through her Twitter account, and participating in a political discussion ‘via webcam from an FEC conference room . . . while on duty,’” Issa and Jordan write in their letter. “The FEC [Office of Inspector General] sought to pursue criminal charges stemming from Ms. Sands’s solicitation of political contributions while on duty inside the FEC building. However, the FEC recycled Ms. Sands’s hard drive before the OIG was able to seize it, and therefore the OIG was unable to show that Ms. Sands’s solicitations and political activity were done from an FEC computer. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia thereafter declined criminal prosecution.

We might as well replace the civil service with the spoils system. Because right now, we’ve just got a one-party spoils system.

NO COVERUP HERE, I’M SURE: White House Clams Up. “The White House said Tuesday night that it would refuse to allow its director of political strategy to testify Wednesday before a Republican-led House committee investigating whether the administration had illegally conducted political activity in the West Wing.”

STACY MCCAIN: Sex Trouble: Radical Feminism and the Long Shadow of the ‘Lavender Menace.’

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MYSTERIOUS RASH? Might be your iPad. Or other device containing nickel.

DON’T LIKE WHAT SOMEBODY SAYS? Get the Bar to silence them. The South Carolina Bar has had a shady political reputation for a while, but this certainly isn’t helping. Plus, good advice: “Don’t just expect fireworks, folks. Create them.”

Words worthy of Kurt Schlichter’s new book, which is about doing just that.

VIDEO: From Weird Al Yankovic, “Word Crimes.”

OUT: “PLAYING DOCTOR” IS A NATURAL PART OF GROWING UP. In: 6-Year-Old Boy Charged With Felony Sexual Assault.

BEYOND BLACK: “To stare at the ‘super black’ coating made of carbon nanotubes – each 10,000 times thinner than a human hair – is an odd experience. It is so dark that the human eye cannot understand what it is seeing. Shapes and contours are lost, leaving nothing but an apparent abyss.”

IRA STOLL: The Latest Public-Sector Pension Scandal: The state-pension-industrial complex corrupts politics on multiple levels. “The current system takes rich money managers, who ordinarily might be a voice for lower taxes and restrained government spending, and makes them beholden, for business, on public pension boards that sometimes include union officials. Instead of arguing for less generous pensions, or for personal accounts that employees would manage individually, the money managers now have incentives to argue for more generous pensions and to avoid upsetting the system that is enriching them.” Then there’s the outright bribery.

AN EXPLANATION FOR THE ELIZABETH WARREN MEDIA BOOMLET: It’s time to look to the new generation, and Warren’s fresh-faced and 65.

CHANGE: Congressional Budget Office downgrades fiscal outlook, but not because of debt.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Mayor Bill de Blasio Sends a Video Love Letter to the Teachers Union. Kids and Taxpayers Get Jilted. He’s the unions’ guy. His sole purpose is to transfer money from taxpayers to unions.

MORE CONVENIENTLY DISAPPEARING DATA: “Recycled” hard drive at the FEC too? “A probe into Hatch Act violations at the Federal Election Commission ran aground when the electronic communications of the suspect — a former colleague of Lois Lerner — had her computer hard drive ‘recycled.’ Sound familiar?”

It’s a coverup. And what they’re covering up is a conspiracy to destroy political opposition, one that goes all the way to the White House. That’s the only reasonable inference from this chain of events.

UPDATE: Michael Lotus emails:

A conspiracy to destroy the political opposition.

Yes. Of course. These guys are Chicago and Cook County Democrats. That is how it is done there. 50 out of 50 Democrat aldermen, forever. No GOP at all, or merely a front opposition, forever. Government power used to exterminate political opposition and keep it from ever reviving. To Obama and the people around him this is all normal, and is the obvious goal. There is no reason to expect anything else from them.

A fair point. So how to arrange suitable payback/deterrence?

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is the federal personnel system ‘viable’?

I’m beginning to think that the entire Civil Service system should be scrapped.

HMM: Puerto Rico Preparing To Default? Guess I shouldn’t have put my entire retirement portfolio in their bonds. But the Governor promised they were safe! . . .

KINDA MAKING ME WONDER ABOUT THE 2012 ELECTION: Leaked documents reveal online manipulation, Facebook, YouTube snooping. And maybe 2008.

“OUTRIGHT FAILURE.” ShotSpotter Gunshot Detector Produces Hundreds of False Alarms, Misses Actual Shootings.

IT’S ABOUT TIME — NO, WAIT, THAT WAS A DIFFERENT SPACE PROBE: After 10 Years in Space, This Probe Is About to Catch a Comet.

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#WARONWOMEN: How the FBI Is Enabling Violence Against Women While Silencing Speech.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: If You Think 3D-Printed Guns Freaked People Out, Get Ready for 3D-Printed Vaginas.

HMM: Genome-wide analysis reveals genetic similarities among friends. “On average, we are genetically similar to our friends. We have more DNA in common with the people we pick as friends than we do with strangers in the same population.”

Does this have implications for multiculturalism and diversity theory?

MATHEMATICS IS THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE: The Advanced Metrics of Attraction.

#WARONWOMEN: Diane Ravitch: Campbell Brown Shouldn’t Worry Her Pretty Little Head About Education Policy. “Paul Farhi profiles Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor turned education-reform activist, who is working to end strict teacher tenure protections. Naturally, this enrages teacher-union evangelist Diane Ravitch, who not only disagrees with Brown’s position, but expresses offense that anybody should listen to Brown at all.”

Haters gonna hate, hacks gonna hack. Meanwhile, some remedial reading for Ravitch.

JOE PAPPALARDO: Everything You Need to Know About the Air Force’s New Bomber.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER DIP NET: Fisherman Describes Reeling In 482-Pound Halibut.

WELL, IT’S AN UPPER-CLASS AFFECTATION, SO THAT MAKES SENSE: People Who Claim To Worry About Climate Change Use More Electricity.

Related: Greenpeace executive flies 250 miles to work: Environmental group campaigns to curb growth in air travel but defends paying a senior executive to commute 250 miles to work by plane. I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: VA Office Tried To Bug Congressional Investigators.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law Schools And The Lost Generation.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Five Questions With Zephyr Teachout.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: When Government Violates Contracts.

IN THE MAIL: Game Changers: Energy on the Move.

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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 432.

WHAT WILL CROOKS DO WHEN CRIME DOESN’T PAY?

Obviously, the bright e-future is not going to make crime impossible. Some late-model cars do still get stolen. And of course, the Internet has created new ways to commit crimes like credit card theft.

The teenagers who used to boost cars, however, won’t simply segue into new forms of crime. Hacking a credit card network is a different skillset from hot-wiring a car; the person who does one can’t necessarily transition easily to the other. The low-skilled young men who choose crime as an alternative to low-wage work may simply find themselves with fewer viable ways to make money through criminal activity. So what happens to them? . . .

As I say, I’m all for it.

I still wonder, though: Are the criminals better or worse off?

I can tell the story either way. Crime doesn’t pay very well, but for teenagers who don’t see much in the way of life prospects, it may seem more enticing (and attractive to the opposite sex) than popping chicken tenders into the deep fry at Popeyes, even if the earnings are the same. Over the long run, of course, working steadily at a low-skilled job probably offers a better payoff than stealing cars until you get sent to jail. But since when have teenagers been good at considering the long run?

Reducing the monetary rewards of crime might force more teenagers to focus on jobs that deliver a steady, legal paycheck. That ultimately means fewer people struggling to find steady employment while dragging a felony conviction behind them.

Of course, that assumes that those at-risk teenagers will choose the fast-food job. They might just turn to another form of crime.

I’m planning to organize a Fight-Club-like cult that will absorb many and direct their energies toward productive tasks like destroying my enemies and ensuring world domination.

IT’S MOSTLY OTHER PEOPLE’S POVERTY THAT’S ROMANTIC: When Teachers Romanticize Their Students’ Poverty.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Five Questions With Zephyr Teachout.

VIDEO: Jon Karl lists all the things going wrong with Obama’s foreign policy. It’s not a short list. “Good news, though. The White House’s action item on the above list is to … consider a principle.”

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Year Four: The Arab Spring Proved Everyone Wrong.

PJTV: PJTV Special: Roger L. Simon Sits Down with Israeli Consul General David Siegel.

POINTS AND FIGURES: Who Is Right — Santelli or Liesman?

IMMIGRATION BECOMING A BLUE STATE ELECTION ISSUE: Charlie Baker faults Gov. Deval Patrick on immigration crisis.

WELL, WHAT’S THERE TO APPROVE OF, REALLY? WaPo Poll: Obama, Republicans face broad disapproval over handling of migrant crisis. Though in the Republicans’ case it’s fair to ask, Handling? What handling?

UPDATE: Leaked Intel Report: Violence in Central America Not Primary Factor in Border Crisis. Nope. Just a compassion-exploiting talking point.

WHAT LIBERTARIANISM ISN’T: “Journalists cover complex things they don’t know about all the time, and this is usually okay because they research and talk to people who do know about it. Unless, of course, they’re writing about libertarians. Not only do you not have to know the first thing about libertarianism to cover it for major news outlets, it is perfectly fine to a) decline to ask anybody who does know, b) make up your own version of what it is, and then c) lament the terribleness of this terrible philosophy or people you have just created. Cases in point: approximately every 10th article published by Salon, this piece by Damon Linker at The Week.”

WELL, GOOD: Egyptian Deal a 100% Israel Victory, Israel Acceptance Puts Hamas in a Box.

SOME STATISTICS on marriage.

ERIC HOLDER’S REAL RECORD: “Animus” Toward His Critics.

JOHN FUND: ObamaCare’s Biggest Legal Threat: In Halbig, the courts may finally force Obama to work with Congress if he wants to rewrite the law.

A SHOCKING TURN OF EVENTS, AND THE NEW YORK TIMES IS ON IT! NY Times: Obama ‘weary of the obligations of the White House and less concerned about the appearance of partying.’

MICKEY KAUS: The Lie at Heart of “Immigration Reform” Exposed.

“Trust” is for Con Men: The reaction to the border chaos in Texas has accomplished one thing: It has exploded the lie at the heart of current “comprehensive” immigration reform plans. The basic structure of those plans is a swap of a) near-immediate legalization for b) increased border security in the future. The appealing idea is to let current illegals stay while taking the steps necessary to prevent further waves. The lie is the assumption that, once current illegals get their legalization, pro-immigrant activists in both parties will continue to support the second half of the bargain, the increased security.

The chaos in Texas shows they won’t. Faced with a clear hole in the border — with a wave of tens of thousands of undocumented Central Americans crossing into the U.S. in order to get in line for hearings years from now, which they likely won’t attend while they continue to live here – pro-reform activists have scrambled, not to show their border security bona fides, but to generate arguments and outbursts designed to let the new wave stay. As National Journal‘s Major Garrett reported, when President Obama, met with activists at the White House, he proposed that he make it clear that new migrants who don’t qualify for humanitarian relief won’t get in. The activists would have none of it.

Of course not.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Border Tsunami: Has GOP Forgotten How to Play Offense? “The first step to leading is understanding what you are up against. This border crisis isn’t incompetence. It isn’t bungling. It is a calculated effort to crash the immigration system and fundamentally transform the nation. It is an effort to accelerate demographic trends and forever alter the nation’s culture.”

ROGER KIMBALL: The “obvious and commonsense conclusion” about the IRS scandal. “On the whole, we have to draw the obvious and commonsense conclusion that documents destroyed or hidden probably were embarrassing or incriminating, and that the effort to blot out or falsify the record was undertaken in order to deny responsibility for the IRS’s criminal activity in persecuting opponents of the Obama administration.”

HIS TRACK RECORD IS LOOKING PRETTY GOOD: Washington Post: It’s official: Americans say Mitt Romney was pretty much right about Russia. But he was mocked by the press and the Democrats’ tame pundits at the time.

HMM: Suspect In Benghazi Attack Found Dead.

PHIL HAMBURGER IS GUESTBLOGGING AT THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY, regarding his new book, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?

THE HILL: House GOP group to recommend changes to immigration law. “Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), the working group’s leader, will argue that child immigrants from Central America should be subject to the same rules as those from Mexico. A source close to Granger said the group will also advise that National Guard troops be sent to the border, a longstanding demand from Republicans.”

USA TODAY goes viral. “Initiatives like these are part of a big digital push that has helped USA Today raise its average monthly mobile readership to 25.5 million, an increase of about 48 percent in the last year, according to the data company comScore. (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which both have paywalls, have fewer mobile readers. USA Today is free.)”

FALSE CHARGES: Conor Oberst’s Name Cleared; Rape Accuser Admits She Lied. “The statements I made and repeated online and elsewhere over the past six months accusing Conor Oberst of raping me are 100% false. I made up those lies about him to get attention while I was going through a difficult period in my life and trying to cope with my son’s illness. I publicly retract my statements about Conor Oberst, and sincerely apologize to him, his family, and his fans for writing such awful things about him. I realize that my actions were wrong and could undermine the claims of actual sexual assault victims and for that I also apologize. I’m truly sorry for all the pain that I caused.”

Will there be criminal charges?

NEWS FROM THE TOWN THAT GAVE US MIKE NIFONG: Durham cops lied about 911 calls.

Did you say there was a 911 hang-up? she asked.

Yes, he said.

But there was not a 911 hang-up?

No.

So you entered the house based on a lie?

Yes.

And this is your policy for domestic violence warrants?

Yes.

If they have contempt for the law, why shouldn’t we? And why shouldn’t we have contempt for them?

THE MORE I SEE, THE MORE I THINK JEFF BEZOS WAS RIGHT TO HANG ON TO HIS MONEY: Vox.com refuses to correct Max Fisher’s error re Hebron.

HOLLYWOOD FOR UGLY PEOPLE: Washington’s secret to staying relevant: a little Botox here, a tuck there.

I’M GUESSING MARK RIPPETOE WON’T BE WEIGHING IN ON THIS ONE: Vaginal Weight Lifting.

NOAH ROTHMAN: Eric Holder, America’s chief law enforcement official, tries to spark racial hatred.

Never forget that Bull Connor was a member of the Democratic National Committee.

NEW DRUGS to treat jet lag.

FASTER, PLEASE: The End Is Nigh For the Guinea Worm.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Self-Assembly Shows Promise for Extending Moore’s Law.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Five Questions With Zephyr Teachout. I’ve heard some social-media chatter about New York gun owners backing her in the primary just to get revenge on Andrew Cuomo for the SAFE Act.

CALL FOR DUE PROCESS AND PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE, get on feminist shit-list. But good to see someone standing up to the PC Nazis.

THE HAMAS GUYS ARE SUCH LOSERS, they’re even outgunned when it comes to humor.

THOUGHTS ON LONGEVITY OVER TIME.

WHAT THE FRAMERS OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT HAD TO SAY ABOUT HATS. Which explains the Ninth Amendment.

By the way, I highly recommend Dan Farber’s excellent short essay, Terminator 2 1/2: The Constitution in an Alternate World. He explores what might have happened had the Bill Of Rights never been adopted, and this article falls into that category of alternate-history stories that suggest a tendency for the timestream to “heal” after changes, returning to something similar to what originally happened. Thus, in the absence of a Bill of Rights, other provisions, like the ban on Bills of Attainder, wind up doing the work.

TAR. FEATHERS. Mom Jailed Because She Let Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Play in the Park Unsupervised.

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: The TSA’s Instagram Feed Is Terrifying and Totally Awesome. Most of this stuff isn’t particularly scary, really. And the TSA has still never caught a terrorist.

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