IT’S COME TO THIS: Woman Claimed Rape Because The Sex Was Bad. Looking at her mugshot, I’d say that . . . well, that would be mean.

THE FLAMIN’ GROOVIES WISH THEY’D BEEN THIS GOOD: Slow Death.

RETRONAUT: Into Space With Ace Brave.

THE ATLANTICS: Saturday Night. Quite a good Australian surf-rock band that I had somehow never heard of until a reader suggested I give ’em a listen.

THE REAL WOMAN behind 9 1/2 Weeks.

IS THIS BLOG INFRINGING MY TRADEMARK? OR IS IT MORE OF A TRIBUTE? Thinstapundit.

JOEL KOTKIN: The Blue State Suicide Pact. “Perhaps the greatest irony in all this is that the Republicans, largely detested in the deep blue bastions, are the ones most likely to fall on their swords to maintain lower rates for the the mass affluent class in the bluest states and metros.” I say, let the Dems have what they want, and add on a few additional revenue enhancements along the way.

Related: Top Effective Top Rates Will Exceed 50% In California, New York & Hawaii in 2013.

JOEL GEHRKE: Are Food Stamps A Perk For “Paid Government Volunteers?”

TIMOTHY CARNEY: Regulations protect entrenched businesses — and the New York Times is ON IT. No, really: “The Gray Lady is on a streak of good articles noting how big government accrues to the benefit of the special interests. After two days of in-depth pieces on state-level subsidies, the Times comes out with an item on how local governments are trying to protect their cabbie industry from the threat of consumer choice.”

It’s the same at all levels. Big business likes regulation — and, often, actually writes the regulations — for the purpose of keeping competition down.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Trouble In Coupon Land: Groupon and Living Social hit the skids. Why did we ever think this was going to work?

Coupons basically serve two functions for businesses–advertising, and price discrimination. Advertising means it brings in new customers by making them aware of your service, or giving them an incentive to try it. Price discrimination, on the other hand, is what food processors do with grocery store coupons: it lets them sell their products to customers who are very price sensitive, without lowering the price paid by people who are too busy or embarassed to clip coupons.

As far as I can tell, small businesses viewed Groupons largely as the former: you give away your product near cost, and gain new customers from Groupon’s huge mailing list. Anecdotally, Groupon’s salespeople in fact encouraged businesses to give their product away at a loss in order to attract new consumers. By lowering the cost of trying your restaurant or salon, the theory ran, you could win new business that you wouldn’t otherwise have gotten.

The problem is that for consumers, it seems mostly to have been about price discrimination; people used Groupons to buy something that they wouldn’t buy at full price.

Oops.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Videogames.

Also, today only: Foscam Pan/Tilt Network Camera, $62.99.

SUPPORT: More than 100 Nebraska Leaders Sign Letter Supporting New Route for the Keystone XL Pipeline.

THE CORRUPTION OF THE “HUMAN RIGHTS COMMUNITY” CONTINUES: Dancing Around Genocide. “Is promoting genocide a human-rights violation? You might think that’s an easy question. But it isn’t at Human Rights Watch, where a bitter debate is raging over how to describe Iran’s calls for the destruction of Israel. The infighting reveals a peculiar standard regarding dictatorships and human rights and especially the Jewish state.”

VOX DAY’S NEW NOVEL, A Throne of Bones, is now out at Amazon. Very nice cover.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The “Courage” Of Radical Thugs. “Contemptible and cowardly are hardly strong enough terms for the perpetrators of these acts. Bullies and thugs exist in all cultures and religions; the tragedy in Pakistan is that such people too often are praised and encouraged by fringe religious leaders.”

Make a few very public examples, and this behavior would fade out, I suspect. But who in an increasingly-barbarous country like Pakistan will do that?

STENY HOYER: Cuts in Entitlements Are On The Table.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG IN THE ATLANTIC: How do we reduce gun crime and Aurora-style mass shootings when Americans already own nearly 300 million firearms? Maybe by allowing more people to carry them.

And note this bit:

Universities, more than most other institutions, are nearly unified in their prohibition of licensed concealed-carry weapons. Some even post notices stating that their campuses are gun-free zones. At the same time, universities also acknowledge that they are unable to protect their students from lethal assault. How do they do this? By recommending measures that students and faculty members can take if confronted by an “active shooter,” as in the massacre at Virginia Tech.

These recommendations make for depressing reading, and not only because they reflect a world in which random killing in tranquil settings is a genuine, if rare, possibility. They are also depressing because they reflect a denial of reality.

Indeed.

PETER ORSZAG: Budget Deal Must Also Fix Entitlements.

A PLEA: I’m Socially Conservative, in College, and Need a Party.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Now That The Election’s Over, Press, White House Starting To Admit Economy Stinks.

A CRITICAL REVIEW of Jon Mecham’s Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.

SALENA ZITO: “Our political parties have an alarming problem with white middle-class voters. Both parties failed to connect with them in this presidential election . . . . Many pundits point to high turnout by minorities and young people as the key component of Obama’s victory. But Sean Trende, an analyst at RealClearPolitics, points to a problem that flew under the radar: White voters did not turn out, and they did not turn out in significant numbers.”

LAWS, LIKE TAXES, ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Survey finds most agencies ignore FOIA update orders. If you could sue agency officials for money damages, they wouldn’t. And why shouldn’t you be able to?

SHELDON RICHMAN: Rachel Maddow’s Blind Deference to Government Power.