THE IPHONE HAS PASSED A SIGNIFICANT SECURITY THRESHOLD: “Technologies the company has adopted protect Apple customers’ content so well that in many situations it’s impossible for law enforcement to perform forensic examinations of devices seized from criminals. Most significant is the increasing use of encryption, which is beginning to cause problems for law enforcement agencies when they encounter systems with encrypted drives.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Virtually Decorated Dorm Rooms.

EMILY SMITH: Hope Springs and the True Love Myth.

I’m pretty sure that “hot sex” is important to a marriage. But I think it’s a big mistake to take your cues on anything from Hollywood romantic comedies.

ROGER KIMBALL OFFERS a self-help plan for disillusioned Obama voters.

First time around, these people voted for Obama, giving themselves a little frisson of self-satisfaction when they pulled the lever and, even more, when the emitted condescension about anyone who happened to vote for John McCain — they didn’t encounter such people often, but it always gave them a little thrill of self-satisfaction when they did. It wasn’t long, however, before doubts began to accumulate. The seas didn’t subside, as promised, nor did the unemployment figures. By now, they’re thoroughly depressed. Their man has clearly let them down, and the inadvertent comedy of Joe Biden screaming that Republicans are going to “put y’all back in chains” isn’t helping. Even worse is the news that team R&R, the Romney-Ryan express, is surging among young voters.

It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. The good “Liberals” (i.e., the illiberal liberals) who voted for Obama first time around, the mostly white, privileged products of elite schools and progressive attitudes: they were supposed to be on the winning side of all such controversies. They were the enlightened ones. Republicans, the people who voted for John McCain and —Ohmygod! — Sarah Palin: they didn’t go to the right schools, they didn’t ingest the proper balance of gluten free, free-range, macrobiotic, whatever: they wore the wrong sorts of cloths, had funny hairdos, owned guns and (often) were God-fearing people who took religion seriously. Such people were less objects of pity than of contempt, though when their politics were not on view they provided vast fodder for interventionist government programs aimed at transforming these unfortunates into consensus-chic, testosterone-free liberals.

The deep problem now is how to help the vast regiments of disillusioned liberals. As I’ve noted in this space before, momentum towards Romney is mounting. Soon, I predict, it will be all but irresistible. And then the consensus-chic liberals who had supported Obama in 2008 will be ideologically homeless. It is up to us to offer them a helping hand: a two-step program of recovery. Self-knowledge is the first step.

Read the whole thing. And it’s important to help them see reasons to vote against Obama that won’t make them feel like they’re on the wrong side of the culture wars. Hey, let’s run that graphic one more time:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Majoring In Free Content. “The Saylor Foundation has nearly finished creating a full suite of free, online courses in a dozen popular undergraduate majors. And the foundation is now offering a path to college credit for its offerings by partnering with two nontraditional players in higher education – Excelsior College and StraighterLine.”

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

ED MORRISSEY: Romney’s Gamble on Ryan Has Already Paid Off. “Romney took a big gamble with Ryan in two ways – in betting that Obama wouldn’t take the challenge for a substantive debate, and that voters will know the difference. A few days later, it’s clear that Romney won the first bet, and is at least ahead on the second.”

CELLPHONE PRIVACY: Bill Requires Police To Get A Judge’s Approval Before They Can See Your Texts Or Location.

AT AMAZON, special offers on Computers & Accessories.

Also, today only: Up to 60% off Back to School Essentials.

SHOCKER: City of Philadelphia violating Pennsylvania gun law. “If I were one of these people listed, I’d be filing the lawsuit right now.”

ROGER KIMBALL: Mitt’s Mea Culpa And Obama’s Waterloo.

BAD NEWS: Gonorrhea Is Winning. We really need newer, better antibiotics.

MF GLOBAL: No Criminal Charges. That’s certainly good news for top Obama bundler Jon Corzine.

“I STILL BELIEVE IN HOPE AND CHANGE, I JUST DON’T THINK OBAMA’S THE WAY TO GO FOR THAT.” Obama Voters Who Changed Their Minds.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Entering 1L Classes Shrink 19% – 33%.

ENGINEERING: The Smart Career Choice For People Who Love Psychology?

Hmm. There are lots of good reasons to consider majoring in engineering. But it’s not for everyone, and I think that enthusiasm for STEM education may be a bit overblown. I think some of it comes from a sense that the teaching of the STEM subjects hasn’t diluted their rigor the way that many humanities subjects have.

STUDENT EDITORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA’S NEWSPAPER have walked off the job and started a blog.

More here. “The student editorial staff of the University of Georgia’s The Red & Black newspaper walked out Wednesday evening after a non-student was named editorial director with final say on all editorial content.” You’d think that with higher education’s — and Georgia’s — budgetary problems, replacing student editors with permanent employees would be a bad idea. But as I’ve noted before, the tendency of universities to add permanent administrative employees willy-nilly is a major reason for the exploding costs in higher education. This empire-building is a natural tendency among bureaucrats, which is what university administrators are. If I were a Georgia taxpayer, however, I’d be pissed.

UPDATE: Several readers say the paper is financially independent. In that case, it’s their problem.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Loan Debtors May Not Be Able To Get Mortgages.

PROF. WILLIAM HENDERSON: The Changing Conventions of What Counts as “Serious.”

FINANCIAL FRAUD: Crime scene investigation: The premeditated assault on the prime mortgage. “When it comes to a government centered society and its deleterious consequences, our Government Mortgage Complex is the undisputed poster child. There has been no greater economic failure than the collapse of the housing market due to decades of government intervention and crony capitalism. Voters need to be reminded about how this disaster came about. It began with the premeditated assault on high-quality, credit-worthy prime mortgages. The perpetrators were Fannie Mae, community groups, and Congress, each of which had the means, motive and opportunity for undertaking this assault.”

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Democratic Rep. Caught Extorting Donations. “Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop (N.Y.) appears to have extorted a $5,000 donation from a wealthy constituent who needed help obtaining some government permits, according to Politico.”

Hey, the main reason for requiring government permits is so that politicians can demand money and favors in exchange for “helping” you with them.

ROGER SIMON: Fear and Shame on the Campaign Trail #2: The Week of the Dumb Democrats.

HEH: Ezra Klein says Paul Ryan is Obama’s golem, or something like that. “Ever since Romney picked Paul Ryan as his VP, there’s been an awful lot of even-stranger-than-usual stuff coming from the mouths/pens/computers of Democrats.”

SAD: China set to file treason charges against defector turned away by U.S.

IN THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, Robert Steinbuch reviews Brian Tamanaha’s Failing Law Schools.