CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz Targeted for Identity Theft by Former Obama Staffer. Hmm. Here’s the story from the Des Moines Register. His bio seems to have vanished from his employer’s page though. But here it is via the Wayback Machine.

CHANGE: Anti-Semitism Has Some Re-Thinking Gun Ownership.

SUBVERTING THE CONSENSUS.

RACHEL ALEXANDER: An Open Letter To The Occupiers From Generation X.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Exactly 3 years in, Obama’s job approval hits lowest level yet.

Heading into reelection years, pols want to be at least at the 50% level. A new Gallup Poll just out reveals that the ex-state senator’s job approval for his third full year is 44%.

That’s down from 47% in his second year.

That’s down from 57% in his first year.

It’s also down from the 69% approval he enjoyed on Inauguration Day.

What’s amazing is that he’s doing even that well.

TUCKER MAX GOES TO THE NEXT LEVEL. Nice to see him grow. But really interesting are the reporter’s confessions of envy and resentment at the end. I think that offers a lot of psychological insight into journalism in general, these days. . . .

Somewhat related older post here.

MORT ZUCKERMAN: Barack Obama’s Mideast Miscalculation. “The White House completely miscalculated in Egypt, as it did in Gaza.”

Where’s that “smart diplomacy” we were promised?

SPACE WEATHER: Big Coronal Mass Ejection Headed Toward Earth.

SUSPICIOUS: Iranian women’s activist shot dead in Houston.

DAN RIEHL: Why I’m Backing Newt Gingrich.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “ANDREW SULLIVAN has been on a crusade where Paul Krugman’s money from Enron is concerned. I’ve gotten email from some folks who say he’s over the top. I’m not sure. I think that Krugman’s money scandal is comparable to, say, a sex scandal involving Gary Bauer or Bill Bennett. Somehow, I think that a smoking-gun sex scandal involving either of those guys would get more press than Krugman’s problem, though — probably, even from Krugman. But Krugman has been attacking greed of late just as intemperately as Bauer and Bennett attack sex.”

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SOPA UPDATE: Senate Delays Vote on Piracy Bill as House Balks, Too.

Okay. But why doesn’t that NYT news story have the word “Dodd” in it? This story the NYT put up last night had “Dodd” in it. Have you noticed the role of the former Senator in the SOPA fight? He’s kind of a lobbyist (for the movie industry), except that he can’t actually be a lobbyist, because it’s illegal for a former Senator to lobby Congress in his first 2 years out of office.

Indeed.

FACT CHECK: First Obama Re-Election Ad Filled With Fibs.

HEH: Mark Levin: Tell ABC’s Ross To ‘Find Out Who Obama’s Drug Pusher Was.’ “I want to know all about Gingrich’s love life, his wife, the cheating, this and that-you want to know about Obama’s drug dealer? No. Now he doesn’t want to know who Barack Obama’s drug dealer was…and we know Obama used drugs, he said so in his book.”

I don’t think we’ve ever even heard from any of his ex-girlfriends. They must be out there somewhere. Right?

UPDATE: Somebody should try to track down this woman mentioned in Dreams.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene writes: “When is Brian Ross going to interview Vera Baker?” Never. I have no idea whether there’s anything to those rumors — though for a variety of reasons I think it unlikely — but even if there is, I doubt she’d ever talk. While Newt’s angry ex can expect a lot of support for her complaining, a black woman who brought down Obama’s presidency could expect near-total isolation. Won’t happen even if — as I very much doubt — there’s a story there.

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STANDING UP AGAINST BARBARISM: Free Meredith Graves.

New York City may not be full of people who believe in American Exceptionalism, but it is stuffed to the gills with people who believe in New York Exceptionalism, and it maintains a firearms-regulation regime that may be unconstitutional and certainly is far more strict than the practice of most of the rest of the country. So draconian are its laws in the matter of concealed firearms that the plain dictionary meanings of words commonly are discarded: Ms. Graves stands to be convicted of a violent felony, even though she plainly had no criminal intent, much less violent criminal intent. Likewise, a person may be charged with carrying a loaded gun even when the gun is in fact unloaded and kept in a locked carrying case, if the ammunition is kept in the same case. Under New York law, up is down, unloaded is loaded, and an innocent error is a malicious crime of violence.

Time for New York to catch up with the rest of the country and adopt sensible gun laws that do not punish innocent people for nonviolent acts.

PRESS NOT VERY INTERESTED IN COVERING Gingrich’s standing ovation for standing up against the press. Go figure.

ROGER KIMBALL: MONKEYS WITH CLUBS.

A BUNCH OF NEW PRODUCTS from this year’s SHOT Show.

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Also, today only, a JBL 6-Piece Home Theater System for $399.99.

HOW NOT TO report a fire at a nuclear weapons plant.

BOB OWENS HAS MORE ON THE LATEST JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SCANDALS: Recall that invoking the Fifth Amendment is only allowed to avoid self-incrimination. “Patrick J. Cunningham, chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, is invoking his Fifth Amendment rights and declining to testify about Operation Fast and Furious in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. . . . Cunningham’s defense seeks to portray him as an innocent man caught in a conflict between the legislative and executive branches of government. He also seems to be the designated ‘fall guy’ in the Obama administration’s recent tactical shift.”

DAVID KIRKHAM’S CAMPAIGN FOR GOVERNOR OF UTAH is up and running. Looking at the photo, I can see that the CrossFit has worked for him. . .

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Hitting your Sex Occurrence Quotas.

Well, that’s one approach to maintenance sex.

UPDATE: I’m leaving out the names even though they didn’t request it. But a female reader emails:

Let me tell you, the “quickie” saved my marriage. I read about it in the book “Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus” years ago where the author explains how important the sex act is to the man and that the woman should give into the quickie.

Best…I mean BEST…sex advice I ever received!!! Long live the quickie!!

Meanwhile, a male reader writes:

While our “N” of 1 (or, more accurately, 2!) can hardly prove or disprove the authors’ thesis, I completely concur with their view, as does my wife.

We are both psychiatrists, who started out as family doctors, and have been together for 38 years, happily married for 36 of those, and have raised our four male children, all of whom turned out healthy, prosperous and well (thank God!).

We have been blessed throughout with a gloriously happy sexual relationship, where the male partner clearly “needs it” more often that the female partner, but far from creating tension or dissatisfaction, coming to grips (as it were!) with this difference has enriched the relationship, and both of us could not be happier.

We both agree that our relationship has also, as a sort of bonus, made it possible for us to help couples in our work who are having conflict in their sex lives.

I doubt that many people get divorced because they’re having sex too often.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, she actually asks that I not use her name:

Yep, you helped our marriage, too. After seeing the book that you mentioned, my husband bought it for me (us?). Then, maybe six months ago, you also linked to some guy who blogged about having sex like every day of his fifteen year marriage, or something. Anyway, it hit me that his wife just never said no. So I thought, as an experiment, I’d just not say no. Not necessarily be the initiator, but never say no. I have to tell you my husband is probably the happiest man I know. I’m not exactly unhappy, either. I have come the the conclusion that women vastly, vastly underestimate the good they can do for the men they love by just saying yes.

It’s funny–you don’t blog about sex too much, but it is very effective when you do! Keep up the good work, on all fronts.

Doing my best here.

MORE:

Please withhold name, of course!

Hi Glenn,
My husband and I assume that we’ll have sex every night (he’s an early riser, so this means that if I have any project to do in the evening, I do it after we have sex and he falls asleep). That’s one of the “big rocks” in our daily jar. If a day is missed here or there, it’s ok because there is plenty of opportunity. I think it has a very positive effect on our overall well-being, and keeps a close, affectionate bond between us.

Needless to say, his first wife maintained an “artificial shortage” to keep up the imagined value of sex with her. That’s hell on a man with a strong drive.

Perhaps that has something to do with her status as first wife.

STILL MORE: Related thoughts here.