MEDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: You Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash than Click a Banner Ad.

YOUNG PEOPLE ARE FAILING CIVICS, and it’s a crisis for the nation.

IN THE MAIL: Spinning the Law: Trying Cases in the Court of Public Opinion.

THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR LIBERTY: My Sunday Washington Examiner column is up!

UPDATE: Related thoughts here.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “It would be great for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to figure out a way to look like… a court.” It would certainly be a change!

UPDATE: In the comments, a discussion of Shirley Abrahamson’s “Grandma Game.” Seems to be slipping.

ALEX NUNEZ: “Fortune joined this weekend’s parade of all things USA with its list of ‘100 great things about America.’ Be forewarned: the list itself is exceedingly dopey. After all, Clif bars, 60 Minutes, GEICO commercials, and LeBron James are among the things that Fortune somehow manages to rank ahead of the men and women collectively serving in our armed forces.”

FOR FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND, let me plug these thoughts on constitutional reform one more time.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: George Will on Reckless Endangerment.

MICHAEL BARONE: Replacing Property As A Source Of Wealth Creation.

LUCY STEIGERWALD: Pyongyang Students Probably Weren’t Learning Anything Anyway. Students are being sent into the fields for manual labor. Why? This masterstroke:

Last week someone put a piece of graffito on the wall of a Pyongyang College which called the Dear Leader “a dictator who starved people to death.”

For North Korea, this is more or less the equivalent of setting the White House on fire with a Molotov. Pyongyang was locked down (more than usual) for three days in a vain search for the culprit. Hopefully he or she is well-hidden, or followed the seven folks who triggered a border security crackdown when when they defected to the South a few weeks ago, joining the 21,000 other former North Koreans who have had that same great idea since 1953.

He is, of course, just that: a dictator who starves people to death. The truth hurts — especially in a one-party state with a cult of the leader as messiah.

“SO, WHO PAID FOR BIDEN’S TRIP TO VEGAS.”

SOME QUESTIONS ANSWER THEMSELVES: Politico: Gas prices to blame for Obama administration releasing oil reserves?

WANT UNLIMITED SMARTPHONE DATA FROM VERIZON? Better move fast.

TODAY ONLY: A fireproof, waterproof 2-terabyte hard drive for $199.99. That’s kind of cool.

YEARS AGO A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER SAID THAT E.U. SUPPORT FOR THE PALESTINIANS WAS A “PROXY WAR” AGAINST AMERICA via America’s ally Israel. So what do we make of this? Europeans Are Major Force Behind Second Gaza Flotilla:

The flotilla has considerable public support in Europe, where opposition to Israel often crosses the line into anti-Semitism. Although a handful of Americans, Canadians, and Middle Easterners (as well as a few Aussies and Kiwis) are among the 500 pro-Palestinian activists hoping to sail with the flotilla, the majority of its organizers, supporters and actual participants are from Europe, which has become “ground zero” in the global campaign of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. . . .

The irony of all the Gaza activism in Europe is this: The European single currency is on the verge of collapse. Many European countries are on the brink of bankruptcy. The European social welfare state is crumbling. Millions of Europeans are out of work and many are losing their homes. Europeans are losing the war they started with Libya. Muslim immigration to Europe is out of control. Islamic Sharia law is becoming increasingly common (here, here, here, and here) in many parts of the continent. Considering all the problems besetting Europe today, the issue many Europeans care about most is … the Gaza Strip.

Read the whole thing.

COULD CHINA BE THE NEXT GREECE? “The Chinese government, which just produced its first national audit of local finances, announced this week that local governments could owe as much as 30% of China’s GDP. That’s a good deal more than the government’s official debt load of less than 20% of GDP. And some analysts are putting China’s real debt levels at three to four times those levels.”

Financial transparency hasn’t been a hallmark of the regime.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI: You Just Can’t Make Some People Happy.

CAN A WOMAN WHO BELIEVES IN SUBMITTING TO HER HUSBAND BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES? “Won’t JFK just do whatever the Pope tells him to?”

What about a man who believes in submitting to his wife?

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D HAVE TROOPS IN MORE COUNTRIES THAN I COULD COUNT. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! American Boots Hit the Ground in Somalia After Drone Attacks.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on building supplies and equipment.

THE HIGH PRICE of being a bridesmaid. Filed under “things I don’t have to worry about.”

“THEY TOLD ME THAT IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, THE FEDS WOULD HUNT DOWN MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS. AND THEY WERE RIGHT!”

FOUNDING MOUSE. Part two.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Hollywood Auction Ends Myth of Zaftig Marilyn.

We should never again hear anyone declare that Marilyn Monroe was a size 12, a size 14 or any other stand-in for full-figured, zaftig or plump. Fifteen thousand people have now seen dramatic evidence to the contrary. Monroe was, in fact, teeny-tiny.

The 15,000 were the visitors who turned out over eight days to oooh and aaah at the preview exhibit for the June 18 auction of Debbie Reynolds’s extraordinary collection of Hollywood costumes, props and other memorabilia. . . . In fact, the average waist measurement of the four Monroe dresses was a mere 22 inches, according to Lisa Urban, the Hollywood consultant who dressed the mannequins and took measurements for me. Even Monroe’s bust was a modest 34 inches.

That’s not an anecdote. That’s data.

The other actresses’ costumes provided further context. “It’s like half a person,” marveled a visitor at the sight of Claudette Colbert’s gold-lame “Cleopatra” gown (waist 18 inches). “That waist is the size of my thigh,” said a tall, slim man, looking at Carole Lombard’s dress from “No Man of Her Own” (a slight exaggeration — it was 21 inches). Approaching Katharine Hepburn’s “Mary of Scotland” costumes, a plump woman declared with a mixture of envy and disgust, “Another skinny one.”

The claim that movie stars were heftier in the 1950s is apparently an invention.

ALPHECCA: Dems Use ATF Fiasco to Push Gun Control. How about instead we have a bill to abolish qualified immunity for law enforcement personnel. It’s a creation of judicial activism anyway, and it has led to much mischief . . . .