SHOCKER: Chicago Still Disrespects Second Amendment.

REPORT: Rupert Murdoch physically attacked at Parliament. Amazing that he’s the target of such hatred that he can’t be protected even at the center of government. It’ll be interesting to find out how the attacker got access.

UPDATE: Video.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Bryan Ferris emails: “I wonder if Obama, MediaMatters, Jon Stewart, indeed the rest of the media at large, will accept personal responsibility for creating a ‘culture of hate’ that led to this attack the way they demanded Palin do after the Giffords incident.”

Well, it’s hardly in Giffords territory, but the security lapse is shocking — a pie is much harder to smuggle than a gun or a knife. It makes me wonder if the assailant got the kind of wave-in that Code Pink protesters get on Capitol Hill.

FROM PETE HEGSETH, a first-hand report from Afghanistan. Key bit: “We have to deal with Pakistan in this matter because they have nuclear weapons. If they didn’t, the entire U.S.-Pakistan dynamic would be different. Instead, the most violent and dangerous Islamic insurgents in the world preside in Pakistan, and we are forced to tap dance around the Durand Line.”

ABSOLUTE MORAL AUTHORITY: Gunwalker: Family of Slain Federal Agent Demands Answers.

MICKEY KAUS ON redistricting in California.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON ANTI-SEMITISM. “When Hitler wrote, it was still socially OK to be an anti-Semite. In some circles it was mandatory. As a consequence of Hitler’s life’s work, it is now as unfashionable to be an anti-Semite as it is to name your child Adolf. The truth is that anti-Semitism is alive and well and not even particularly rare; it’s just that many of today’s anti-Semites like to think of themselves as enlightened, modern people and get all huffy and hissy if anyone accuses them of prejudice in any form. Many who in past times would have been open and honest about their anti-Semitism, now try to hide the truth even from themselves. . . . In Nazi Germany people were imprisoned and even killed for trying to fight anti-Semitism. In America we are free to fight it, but too many of us choose to ignore this hate that dares not speak its name. Anti-Semitism is real, it is murderous, and it is very much with us today. Speak the truth and shame the devil.”

SENTIMENT: Gallup: Lack of spending cuts biggest worry for Americans in debt debate.

TIME FOR ANOTHER THRILLING INSTA-POLL, this time on the debt/spending/taxes fight. Don’t like these choices? Discuss in the comments.

CHANGE: House to vote on tea party-backed debt plan.

ARE STATE BUDGET SURPLUSES “UNEXPECTED?”

I BLAME THE KINDLE: Borders Says It Will Shut Down All of Its Stores for Good. “The company said in a statement Monday that it was unable to find a buyer willing to keep the company in operation and will sell itself to a group of liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources. Borders’ roughly 400 remaining stores will close, and nearly 11,000 jobs will be lost, according to the company.” That’s about 2/3 as many jobs as the whole country created last month.

CUTTING HIGHER EDUCATION EXPENSES with Kindle Textbook Rentals. “Kindle textbooks can typically be rented for any length between 30 to 360 days – you pay only for the time you need and can extend or buy anytime.”

THE ABJECT FAILURE of the age of bailouts. “We have already spent far too much in the rewarding of failure.”

WHY IT’S A GOOD THING to have a gun around the house. “By the way, although a Democrat, Boswell has an ‘A’ rating from the NRA.” Home invaders might want to check that kind of thing out in advance . . . .

RICHARD EPSTEIN: A “Debt Limit” Compromise: Republicans Must Reconsider “No New Taxes” Pledge.

Well, I’ve been proposing all sorts of new taxes here at InstaPundit, with no takers from either party.

UPDATE: “Hockey sticks galore” as Euro bond yields climb. Is the United States next?

FASTER, PLEASE: Mice receive artificial human liver for drug testing. “When the researchers implanted the liver tissue into a mouse, it became integrated into the circulatory system within a week. As a result, drugs can reach the liver, and human proteins produced by the liver can enter the bloodstream. This gives researchers more of an idea of what will happen inside the human body in reaction to drugs being tested.”

WISCONSIN UPDATE: Wisconsin recall wars continue: Dems aim to ensure an ideal date for Walker recall election. With help from Greg Sargent.

BYRON YORK: Republicans’ Next Step In The Debt Fight. “While they continue the message war, Republicans are moving the real war to another level. After weeks of useless negotiations with the White House, they’re taking the debt issue into their own hands with the passage of cut, cap and balance, in defiance of Obama’s veto threat. Republicans know the president and Senate Democrats can stop it, but they believe it’s important to stake out their ground.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Explaining Obama’s Tax-Hike Obsession.

POLITICO: DEBT CEILING DEBATE TURNS “SCARY.”

MICHAEL BARONE: Things Are Worse Than I Said. “We may already be at the danger point, rather than heading there fast.”

ELECTIONS: RNC Calls For Investigation Into Obama Fundraising. “In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus cited a fundraising video President Obama appears in that seems to have been taped in the White House. Federal law makes it a crime for the president to solicit political contributions in a place of official government business.”

RICHARD MINITER: “Like it or not, Obama is not the new FDR, but the new Gorbachev: a man forced to preside over the demise of a political system he desperately wants to save.” “Democrat champions in the punditocracy confidently predict that the future of the world’s oldest political party is bright. But in fact, the coalition that is the modern Democratic Party is doomed. Every pillar upholding its heavy roof is crumbling. . . . This crisis comes at a very bad time for Democrats. Their coalition is either dying off or going broke.”

STEVE WYNN not so happy with Obama these days. “I’m afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what’s going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President . . . I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime.”

Related: Another rube self-identifies.