DOUG MATACONIS: The Julian Assange Case, Consent, And Rape. “There is a real danger that the ‘withdrawal of consent’ standard that Valenti and others like her would like to see implemented in the United States would result in laws that are so vague that it would be impossible for a reasonable person to know that they’re committing a crime, especially when the question of whether or not a crime was committed boils down to a ‘he said/she said’ scenario.”

That’s okay, we’ll only prosecute people who are unpopular, or that the authorities don’t like.

Related: “If Assange is convicted of rape, then we are all rapists now.”

And I’m claiming complete vindication regarding my statement about that woman who went around poking holes in condoms. Can I call ’em, or what?

GOOD NEWS: In Britain, bees are back.

TALKING CARS with the Car Lust guys.

EUGENE VOLOKH: “Cultural Defenses” and Incest. Is that Columbia’s culture?

NO MORE HIDE-AND-SEEK with the salt and pepper.

UPDATE: Reader Tom Brosz emails: “Well, for sure you wouldn’t lose that on a table. It’s one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. It looks like a Martian dildo.” I hope I never meet that Martian.

REASON TV: Meet The Female Libertarians.

ON THE TAX DEAL, it’s purists vs. dealmakers. But Jennifer Rubin asks: “Are we really going to see large numbers of Republicans voting against the bill, which amounts to a vote to raise taxes?”

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED OVER THE WEEKEND:

Blue-State Folks Embody Red-State Stereotypes.

Black Democrats in Georgia flip to GOP.

Political Class, Middle America Headed In Opposite Directions On Economy.

More embarrassment for the Minneapolis Police Department. Adult supervision needed?

The Education Bubble as a Debt Trap.

Shocking news about Birmingham.

Why it’s a mistake to gloat over Obama’s childishness.

Administration’s violent rhetoric produces violent violence from the violent.

The terrible toll of the “mancession.”

Don’t stop thinking about yesterday.

THE POLITICAL CLASS as copper thieves. “The squatters are still in there, furiously trying to pull the plumbing out of the fiscal walls before they’re evicted.”

STEVE HAYWARD REVIEWS Roger Pielke’s new book, The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won’t Tell You About Global Warming. “By conceiving the issue as a morality play, the climate campaign has done great damage to science and policymaking alike.”

CHANGE: Gas Prices On Track For Unseasonable Spike.

RICH GALEN: Another Failed Climate Conference.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: The Dems’ Crackup. “Given their overwrought reaction to President Obama’s tax deal, you’d think Democrats had no reason to compromise with the opposition. Have they already forgotten last month’s election? . . . Leftist TV talking heads such as MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and the Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel have excoriated Obama for what they see as political perfidy. In Congress, meanwhile, the anti-Obama language is getting downright nasty.”

Related: Dems Could Miss Last Chance to Pass Their Own Agenda.

TIM PAWLENTY: Government Unions vs. Taxpayers.

ANN ALTHOUSE: Bloomberg uses the quirk of phrase that shows he hasn’t absorbed the most basic message of the Tea Party movement.

BUT OF COURSE: Obama’s Problem – He’s Trying To Lead A Bunch Of Racist Whites.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What Do We Do Now?

CLAIRE BERLINSKI REPORTS FROM Weimar Istanbul. “There is a spookiness to living in a city at the epicenter of an impending political catastrophe, a mood of dread but also of astonishing vitality—economic, creative, artistic. It is a distinctive mood and, to anyone acquainted with history, a familiar mood. There is, it seems, such a phenomenon as a Weimar City.”