A READER EMAILS: “I WONDER WHEN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WILL STOP ENFORCING THESE STATUTES?” Tax Court: Parents Cannot Claim Dependency Exemptions, Credits for Children Who Are Not U.S. Citizens.

THE WRONG MAN: Colorado tea partier describes ‘surreal’ day of wrongly being linked to theater massacre.

UM, NOT LYING? The Difference Between A Network Reporter And A Blogger.

PAUL MIRENGOFF: The Political Uses of Mass Murder.

INCITING HATRED: HuffPost stands atop Colorado corpses to falsely smear NRA, et al. What, Brian Ross wasn’t available?

CHINA’S “UNWANTED” SINGLE WOMEN FEEL THE PRESSURE. But they still have standards: “I just want someone with whom I share things in common, but who is also in a better financial situation than me.”

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Fascinating that a man shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ as he mows down 35 people on an army base isn’t motivated by Islam… but a guy who has the same name as hundreds of others—and says nothing as he fires—is obviously a Tea Party zealot.”

It’s all about the narrative.

YOU KNOW, MAYBE IT IS RECKLESS DISREGARD JUST PUTTING BRIAN ROSS ON THE AIR: I had forgotten this libel case involving Brian Ross until reader Rich Andrews sent the link. Key bit:

Judge Crocker said Wednesday that he was convinced the NBC News reporters, Brian Ross and Ira Silverman, had ”serious subjective doubts as to the truth of the broadcasts” but went ahead anyway.

Frankly, at this point, just hiring the guy should send your libel insurance carriers into a frenzy. And would you want to be deposed about why you went ahead and hired him, after such a record of untrustworthiness? . . .

UPDATE: How bad is Brian Ross? Even Wonkette is calling for him to be fired:

Jesus fucking Christ on a hotplate. Brian Ross and his BLOTTER INVESTIGATIVE TEAM googled for a few minutes and didn’t bother trying to confirm anything and wow, huh, look at that, he was wrong. . . .

Tea Party people on the Internet are furious over this, and they have every right to be, because it’s an egregious, early error that will color the impressions of people no matter how frequently or aggressively it’s retracted. Can Brian Ross! Put him in the goddamn street. He is constantly wrong, at reporting on national television.

Would you write a libel policy for an outlet that employed him?

ANOTHER UPDATE: More anger.

MORE: Is ABC News’ Brian Ross Trustworthy? No. Next question?

STILL MORE: Reader Chad Hunter points out that the libel verdict was overturned. “In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that there was insufficient evidence to show that NBC News reporters had either deliberately lied or recklessly disregarded the truth, the legal standard that applies when libel suits are brought by public figures.” Hmm. Some people would nonetheless be chastened by such an experience. Ross not so much, apparently.

MORE BLOWBACK: ABC NEWS MUST FIRE BRIAN ROSS.

ER, ALL OF IT, I’D SAY. How much income will you need in retirement?

OTHER THAN THAT, MR. PRESTON, HOW WAS THE MOVIE? Bryan Preston reviews The Dark Knight Rises.

ARE WARNINGS ABOUT DRUG SIDE EFFECTS making us sick? “One of the most interesting findings in the new report from Germany is about the underappreciated — and under-studied — role of nocebo effects in clinical trials. If you tell a group of trial volunteers that they’re testing a new drug that may relieve the pain of migraines, a significant number of volunteers will experience pain relief after taking the drug — even if they’ve been randomly assigned to the placebo group and are receiving nothing but sugar pills. The placebo effect in action. But here’s where it gets interesting. If you tell the volunteers that the side effects of this new medicine may include dry mouth, tingling in the hands and feet, and slight dizziness, some volunteers will experience precisely these side effects — in both groups. In fact, some volunteers who are taking nothing but sugar pills will be made so uncomfortable by these symptoms that they will choose to drop out of the trial early.”

LONGEVITY UPDATE: Mice Study Shows How Aging Slows Immune Response.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Biographies and Memoirs.

FORMATION OF AN OXBOW LAKE as seen by Google Earth.

PETER WEHNER: Brian Ross and Politicizing The Aurora Massacre.

THE “FIVE SECOND RULE” IS CRAP: “A dropped item is immediately contaminated and can’t really be sanitized.”

HMM: Algal Blooms Could Have Caused Last Ice Age. “At various points in Earth’s history, dust fell into the ocean and fed algae, which gobbled up carbon dioxide and sank to the bottom of the sea, taking greenhouse gas with them and cooling the world. That’s a key conclusion scientists are drawing from an unusual 2004 experiment in which they grew a massive algae bloom in the Southern Ocean. Data from the experiment may also tell researchers whether seeding the seas with iron is a good way to curb global warming.”

What if, a la Fallen Angels, the Earth is already in an Ice Age but human CO₂ emissions are masking that fact — until we stop them in an effort to combat global warming?

Nah, that’s silly.

THE ANCHORESS WRITES ON THE PRESS’S TOXIC ENTHRALLMENT, and Kevin Drum says it’s “time for Brian Ross to find a new job. I don’t normally call for people’s heads for making a mistake, even a bad one, but this is really beyond the pale. What kind of reporter says something like this on national TV despite knowing full well that he has no idea if he’s pegging the right person? Is there really any good reason Ross should still be employed by ABC News by the close of business today?” Hey, when you’re getting this kind of treatment at Mother Jones. . . .

UPDATE: Colorado Tea Party Member Smeared by ABC’s Brian Ross: “What kind of idiot makes that kind of statement?” First class.

ANOTHER UPDATE: “Breathtakingly reckless.” And that’s from . . . Gawker. “OK then! There’s some guy on the internet with the same name. That is literally all Ross had—no other connection, not one reason to even remotely suspect that it’s the same Holmes. Just that there is a guy with that name, on the internet.” Reckless disregard? If I were the Tea Party Holmes, I’d have my lawyer talking to ABC right now. My terms: Groveling apology to be repeated on at least two national newscasts, plus This Week and all Colorado affiliates. Plus $250K in damages. No apology by tonight, and the demand goes to $5 million. Oh, and guys, be sure to preserve all records, browser histories, etc. for litigation. . . .

And Brian Ross’s track record might support an argument that it’s reckless to have him on the air at all . . .

CHANGE: Commercial Fishing Returns to Lake Tahoe, to Combat an Invasive Species.

DANIEL MITCHELL AND JULIA MORRISS: The Remarkable Story of Chile’s Economic Renaissance. “The lesson from Chile is that free markets and small government are a recipe for prosperity. The key for other developing nations is to figure out how to achieve these benefits without first suffering through a period of socialist tyranny and military dictatorship.”

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Lawn & Garden.

REASON TV: How the Government Makes You Fat – Gary Taubes on Obesity, Carbs, and Bad Science.

I like his books.

MATT WELCH: Half-Assed Media Speculation About the Batman Shooter.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Unemployment rates rise in 27 states as more look for work. Plus: “Retail sales fell in June for the third straight month, the government said this week. That led many economists to downgrade their estimates for growth in the April-June quarter. Many think it will be even slower than the first quarter’s scant 1.9% annual pace.”