MICKEY KAUS LOOKS AT the true sordid heart of Washington sexuality.

HAVE YOU NO DECENCY? Wisconsin Union Protesters Disrupt Special Olympics Ceremony. “Quite aside from the unbelievable rudeness, how can the protesters be so blind about their own public relations?”

UPDATE: More here. “Coming soon, presumably: SEIU crashes Walker’s appearance at a local retirement home, then AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka shows up to heckle him as he visits the ER of a children’s hospital. Keep fightin’, guys. Don’t let any handicapped kids stand in the way of ‘income equality.'”

ANOTHER UPDATE: So the Wisconsin unions are now taking style pointers from the Westboro Baptist Church?

MARKDOWNS ON Braun Electric Shavers.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE ONE UNDECLARED WAR AFTER ANOTHER: And they were right! “The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.”

FROM ALEX TABARROK, more on the Mancession. I think that more women work for the government and other entities insulated from the market.

KINDA SUGGESTS WHO’S CALLING THE SHOTS THERE, DOESN’T IT? Arab-American group blocks musician over ‘freedom’ song.

RAND SIMBERG ON yesterday’s Coronal Mass Ejection.

YOUNG ADULTS GET SELF-ESTEEM BOOST FROM DEBT. Key bit: “The effect was strongest among those in the lowest economic class.”

THE WEINER STORY: Who was stalking whom?

UPDATE: Related: Feminism and the ‘Friendly Stranger.’ “Guys who make a big show of being on board with the feminist agenda are just doing it to ingratiate themselves with women, perhaps with the worst sort of ulterior motives.”

CORRUPTION: Jon Stewart has put his friendship with Anthony Weiner above comedy. From the comments: “If anybody thinks Stewart just put ideology above comedy now – like this is a break in form – then they haven’t been paying attention. I can barely watch him, or Colbert, because they’re so ideologically driven. The funniest thing I’ve seen? Salon.com’s Joan Walsh claiming the Weenie made her look stupid. No, sorry Joanie, but you did that all by yourself – and long before Anthony was even on my radar.”

Speaking of Joan Walsh, let’s flash back to her dismay over learning that George W. Bush had the same SAT score she did.

JEFF CARTER: I wish we were using more oil. “The question we should be asking ourselves is not how we can conserve, but how can we best produce energy at the lowest marginal cost? There are three ways to do that: Nuclear, coal, and natural gas. They are cheap, abundant, and for national security bugs they are in our own country. Without new sources of them, we won’t expand our economy as fast as we could. Existing supply chains will become constrained, driving up the cost.”

SHOULD SICK PEOPLE BE PAID to risk their lives? “The ends aren’t supposed to justify the means, and people shouldn’t be unnecessarily risked for the sake of medical progress. But if paying patients to risk themselves would accelerate progress, is it okay? That dilemma is raised in a solution proposed by two University of Chicago health policy experts to a paradox of drug development: If moderately effective drugs are already available, patients will have little reason to volunteer for tests of drugs that could be better, but might not work at all.”

FEDERAL RESERVE: Economy falters because of slower manufacturing and weaker consumer spending.

TAX COURT: Attorney Can Deduct Some, But Not All, Expenses of Caring for 70-80 Foster Cats. I note that carpet cleaning was a big item.

SURE, WE’RE BROKE, BUT HEY, let’s bail out the Greeks!

ILYA SHAPIRO: The Obamacare Lawsuit: From the Courtroom in Atlanta.

FLIRTING ON TWITTER: “Micro-Infidelity?”

REASON TV: 3 Reasons Not to Fund Art with Taxes (& Yes, There’s a Weiner Connection!)

UH OH: Top teaching hospitals fall from grace with high infection rates. “They may be known for possessing leading minds and excellent service, but the well-known academic centers may not be the safest places for patients. A new Consumer Reports Health hospital ratings lists reveals that some of the most renowned hospitals did not perform well in preventing healthcare-acquired infections.”

UNEXPECTEDLY! Visits to ER rise despite health law. “Emergency room visits have been on the rise in Massachusetts since the passage of the 2006 health care law, much to the chagrin of supporters who projected that the opposite would happen as more people had insurance and were connected with primary care providers.”

MARTIN FELDSTEIN: The Economy Is Worse Than You Think.

THE LAW IN JAPAN: Waltzing Into Bedrooms And Brothels.

Judges may also go far beyond their brief to comment on social mores, In one instance, in 1991, a judge decided that modern appliances are partly responsible for failed marriages because they “give women time to contemplate”. In that particular case the judge rejected a wife’s request for divorce after years of physical abuse, living separately and even a suicide attempt because her husband did not cheat or gamble, and looked so forlorn in court. “They should search together for the bluebird they were unable to find before,” the judge ruled. The reference to a “bluebird” is as jarring in Japanese as it is in English.

Judges use a multi-part test, that does not include love, to approve a contested divorce. Yet love plays a part in cases where it is perhaps less relevant. For instance, sexual relations with a minor is sometimes excused if the court rules there is love. Judges set out to decide whether the defendant is “earnest”, which means either in love or contemplating marriage.

In the case of rape, Japanese courts consider factors that American and European ones would not. Being drunk is a valid defence. One 1992 ruling suspended the sentences of two men out of compassion for what they “must have faced when the victim told them no”. A 1994 trial led to an acquittal in part because the victim’s “chastity is questionable”: she had slept with her boyfriend after a second date.

It’s a review of Mark West’s Lovesick Japan: Sex, Marriage, Romance, Law.

HMM: Bank Not Responsible for Letting Hackers Steal $300K From Customer.

JAMES DELONG: DC influence peddlers should consider whether it is really in the interests of their principals to flatten all the protections for sunk capital, and make everything into a contest of political influence. I don’t think it’s their principals’ welfare they’re thinking about.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SENDS S.W.A.T. TEAM TO WRONG HOUSE over defaulted student loans. Everyone involved should be tarred and feathered. But in fact, there will be no consequences to speak of.

On the other hand, if Congressional Republicans are looking for some budget cuts, how about a rider banning any funding for armed agents at the Department of Education?

UPDATE: Education Department says it wasn’t about a student loan. But they won’t say what it is about. I agree with this commentary:

This will certainly come as a relief to Millenial deadbeats, but the notion that “bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds” is all it takes to get a paramilitary squad to bang down your door at 6 a.m, handcuff you in your boxers, and throw your three pre-teen children into the back seat of a squad car, all in the service of a warrant aimed at someone who no longer lives in your home, is frankly every bit as terrifying.

Unless and until we hear that this “criminal investigation” involves some kind of imminent threat of violence, there will be no margin of excuse for it, only new opportunities for bureaucrats and commentators to demonstrate that they are perfectly content living in and even contributing to a police state.

Tar. Feathers. And defunding.