JUST OUT: PolitiFact Tennessee.

PISSGATE: Rep. Allen West on the reaction to the Marines incident: “Shut your mouth; war is hell.”

UPDATE: Brian Dunn writes:

I think West has it right. What the Marines did was wrong–and possibly a symptom of problems in unit leadership–but let’s keep some perspective as punishment is weighed.

But a bigger question is how do we handle all the video footage we have of the battlefields when what is normal in war can be scrutinized by someone far away in space and time who is looking for crimes to punish? I asked this question 7 years ago and still have no answer. The Greatest Generation’s reputation wouldn’t have withstood this level of scrutiny for their conduct on the battlefields of Good War II.

Certainly not.

ANTI-SEMITISM AT THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: “The ‘Israel-firster’ slur was not used in ‘mainstream’ discourse until the last few years.”

UPDATE: Look who else is on board. Natch.

PETER WEHNER: The Role Of Sympathy and Trust In American Politics. “Barack Obama ran for office promising to heal the breach that divides Americans. It was at the core of his candidacy. What we have gotten instead is, according to polling data, the most polarizing president in our lifetime.” At least, he’s trying to be.

JAMES TARANTO: The Phony Class War: Is “conflict between rich and poor” really on the rise?

In fact, Pew does not claim to have found, as the AP falsely asserts, that “tensions between rich and poor are increasing.” It finds, rather, that “perceptions of class conflict” and “the belief that these disputes are intense” have become more prevalent, especially since 2009.

It isn’t hard to understand why that might be the case. After all, what have Americans seen when they turned on the news over the past few years? In the White House, a president who, for want of political or managerial competence, has nothing to offer but bitter partisanship and ideologically driven class resentment. In public parks around the country, professional protesters and ignorant college kids ranting about their grievances against “the 1%.” Now, in New Hampshire and South Carolina, even Republicans, led by nonsensical old Newt Gingrich, are getting in on the act.

The perception of “class conflict” has grown because the media have paid the putative conflict so much attention. They have done so in part for ideological reasons–lefty journalists have had a weird preoccupation with “income inequality” for as long as we can remember–but also in part because it’s newsworthy, especially when the president of the United States is trying to foment class war.

It would also be newsworthy if he succeeded–and that is the story the AP is trying to peddle. But Pew’s findings show it is a phony war. If underlying “tensions between rich and poor” were really rising, the survey would have found some evidence of actual hardening of attitudes across socioeconomic lines.

As usual, Obama is mostly convincing to the press.

GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: Woman, 23, died of cervical cancer ‘because doctors said she was too young for a smear test.’ “Government legislation was changed in 2003 to mean regular smear tests are only given to women aged over 25, where previously all women over 20 were given the tests.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): As Streetlights Vanish, A Return To A Darker Age.

IN the wake of widespread violence during the New York City blackout of 1977, a newspaper columnist quipped that just one flick of a light switch separated civilization from primordial chaos.

Leaving the hyperbole aside, artificial illumination has arguably been the greatest symbol of modern progress. By making nighttime infinitely more inviting, street lighting — gas lamps beginning in the early 1800s followed by electric lights toward the end of the century — drastically expanded the boundaries of everyday life to include hours once shrouded in darkness. Today, any number of metropolitan areas in the United States and abroad, bathed in the glare of neon and mercury vapor, bill themselves as 24-hour cities, open both for business and pleasure.

So it is all the more remarkable that, in what appears to be a spreading trend, dozens of cities and towns across America — from California and Oregon to Maine — are contemplating significantly reducing the number of street lamps to lower their hefty electric bills.

Well, it’s either that or lay off some drones working in City Hall. Guess which one they pick . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Jay Langan writes: “I seem to recall a president who told us that our electric bills would necessarily rise. This is just another consequence, though I’m not sure it was unintended.”

LIFE AMONG THE BARBARIANS (CONT’D): Bloomberg’s Law:

One of the most disturbing features of the US justice system is its ever more grotesque loss of proportion, at the federal level and in far too many states and municipalities. On his radio show this week, Derb discusses the case of Meredith Graves, the Tennessee nurse who, upon visiting the 9/11 memorial in New York and seeing the signs forbidding firearms, asked the staff if she could check her pistol (lawful and licensed in her home state). She was handcuffed, arrested, and now faces three and a half years in jail for firearms possession – for the crime of being unaware that the Second Amendment does not apply in New York City.

Asked about the case, New York’s thuggish mayor decided to add insult to injury:

Let’s assume that she didn’t get arrested for carrying a gun. She probably would have gotten arrested for the cocaine that was in her pocket.

There was no cocaine. The white stuff in her pocket was analyzed by Bloomberg’s cops and found to be, as the nurse had said it was, aspirin powder. So this loathsome slug of a man has slandered an ordinary American citizen on tape in front of the world. Why? Because he can.

Loathsome slug is right. New York should be ashamed of him, even before you get to his outrageous micromanagement of people’s lives, illegal out-of-jurisdiction investigations, and, of course, utter inability to get a handle on the bedbug problem.

UPDATE: Reader Dianna Shelton writes: “Sounds downright slanderous to me. With the shortage of work for lawyers these days, I bet there’s someone offering to try to make New Yorkers financially regret electing this big mouthed busybody.”

Hey, sue him personally. He’s a deep pocket!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Michael Schrage writes: “Don’t forget this was the mayor whose first impulse was to link an attempted times square bombing with opposition to Obamacare (!) This is his norm.” He’s a nasty little man, who gets a pass because he’s rich and liberal, despite his flag-of-convenience Republican affiliation.

HEH: “To paraphrase the great Glenn Reynolds, they told me that if I voted for John McCain that union-busting and right-to-work policies would become ascendant. And they were right!”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Discussing the chattering class’s hatred of fast food. Plus, memories of former Knoxvillian Dave Thomas.

Plus perhaps the first appearance by “Reader Matthew Yglesias.”

HOW CONVENIENT: Judge: John Edwards has serious heart condition. “Ex-presidential candidate John Edwards has a serious heart condition that will require a medical procedure next month and his illness limits his travel including for an upcoming court case over possible campaign violations, his doctor told a judge, who delayed the trial.”

UPDATE: Dr. Peter Grout writes: “I hear Scotland has already released him…….”

MAKE THE RUBBLE BOUNCE: Righthaven’s lawyers now targets of State Bar investigation.

HMM: Mitt Romney surges nationally, especially among conservatives. “So, the lesson in all this is that Romney maybe should chip in some of his own money to help broadcast Gingrich’s TV commercials accusing the front-runner of being a successful capitalist.” Yeah, that wasn’t one of Newt’s brighter ideas.

THE IMPORTANCE OF celebrating your partner’s gender traits.

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals in Grocery & Personal Care.

A NEW LAW BLOG: The Liberty Law Blog. By Mike Rappaport and Michael Greve. Worth looking at if you like liberty or law. Doubly so if you like both!

CANCEROUS WINDPIPE replaced with synthetic one.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Home Improvement value center.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Another ATF weapons operation comes under scrutiny. “Members of Congress want to see whether White Gun, like Fast and Furious, lost track of firearms that ended up with Mexican criminals.” Hmm. “White Gun.” That sounds kinda . . . racist.

MORE EVIDENCE THAT the legal job market is in terrible shape.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse deals on computers.

Plus, a today-only Kindle book sale: 90% Off on Ed McBain’s “87th Precinct Series,” $0.99 Each.

TOP GADGETS from the Consumer Electronics Show.

GOOD FOR THEM: Obama administration says Constitution protects cell phone recordings. “The Obama administration has told a federal judge that Baltimore police officers violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing a man’s cell phone and deleting its contents. The deletions were allegedly in retaliation for the man’s use of the phone to record the officers’ arrest of his friend. According to the Maryland ACLU, this is the first time the Obama Justice Department has weighed in on whether the Constitution protects citizens’ right to record the actions of police with their cell phones.”

That’s clearly right.

HOW TO CONCEAL A FULL-SIZED PISTOL while wearing a dress.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: How To Get Unstuck.