NICK ROSENKRANZ: There Is No Basis In Constitutional Text For the Claim That A Treaty Can Increase The Legislative Powers of Congress.

WHY MEN STOPPED WEARING HIGH HEELS:

A recent episode of the BBC’s “The Why Factor” explored the history of high heels. Of interest is the background of men wearing high heels, which they originally wore as a form of riding footwear.

“Good horsemanship was essential to the fighting styles of Persia – the historical name for modern-day Iran …When the soldier stood up in his stirrups, the heel helped him to secure his stance so that he could shoot his bow and arrow more effectively,” said Elizabeth Semmelhack of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

I’m so enjoying the visual of a man on horse in stilettos. From there, interest in Persian fashion spread to Western Europe where the high heel became a way for men to flaunt their status. The more impractical the footwear, the more privilege it displayed. The higher a man’s heel, the less distance he had to walk. . . . By 1740, high heels were seen as too foolish and effeminate for men to wear.

Except for a brief return during the Disco era.

FOREIGN CHEESE: Threat, Or Menace?

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Is Spider Silk Five Times Stronger Than Piano Wire?

AMUSING AMAZON REVIEWS ON THIS PREDATOR DRONE MODEL. My favorite: “This is the best toy ever. Finally, I can pretend that I’m a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize!”

SUB SHOP CHAIN IS HIGH ON BOSTON:

“Nugs,” “pinners” and “blunts” soon will be openly sold near Boston college campuses.

No, not the marijuana cigarettes — though those may be already. Cheba Hut will be marketing its herb-themed subs in the Hub under those names. Though no pot plants are harmed in the making of these sandwiches, they are totally “toasted.”

“The core to our theme is certainly cannabis-driven and counterculture-driven,” Cheba’s chief operating officer Matt Trethewey said. “We think it’s funny that a plant is legislated, and there’s laws around it.”

It is kind of funny.

MICKEY KAUS: The Fox News Immigration Plan.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Viagra As A Diet Pill. “The drug, generically known as sildenafil, helped convert undesirable white fat cells to energy-burning beige fat cells in laboratory mice, researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany report in The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. It was already known that mice fed Viagra became less prone to obesity when fed a high-fat diet. What was not clear was why.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES’ NEMESIS, SmarterTimes, is back. Here’s why.

GUN CONTROL ON RAHM EMANUEL’S WATCH: Chicago murders top Afghanistan death toll. “The death toll by murder in Chicago over the past decade is greater than the number of American forces who have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to a police analysis. In addition, police reports in Chicago – where President Obama once worked as a community organizer and where his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now serves as mayor – show most of the city’s massive murder mayhem is black-on-black crime.”

NOW IF HE’D ORGANIZED A TEA PARTY EVENT, THEY’D HAVE BEEN ALL OVER IT: Convicted rapist organizes gun control demonstration at Dayton gun show; Media fails to note his sex offender status.

A SEEMINGLY EVERGREEN HEADLINE: NBC ‘Reviewing’ How Its Editors Created a Lie that the Network Aired.

WILLIAM RATLIFF: Cuba After Fidel.

RANDY BARNETT: Gun Control Fails Rationality Test.

So, when considering the constitutionality of bans on so-called military-style assault weapons, or restrictions on the capacity of magazines, senators should begin by asking whether the weapons being banned are in common use by civilians. When it comes to so-called assault weapons, like the AR-15, or 30-round magazines, the answer is clearly “yes.” Millions of such weapons and magazines are in private hands.

That should settle the matter, but senators can go a step further and ask whether these or other measures are actually rational — to articulate the end they are seeking to accomplish, then assesses whether the means adopted actually match up with the purported end. Would they actually have prevented a mass shooting or ameliorated real crimes?

This heightened “rationality review” could help ensure that the reason being articulated is the real reason for the law.

For example, “assault weapons” are a made-up category of weapons that is based solely on cosmetic features that make them look like the fully automatic weapons used by the military. Banning them leaves other rifles that are functionally identical in their lethality and rate of fire completely legal. Moreover, far more powerful hunting rifles are left untouched by the law, as are shotguns. This is simply irrational and therefore unconstitutional.

The same can be said for New York’s law limiting handguns to seven rounds, while allowing both active and retired police officers to keep their handguns that hold up to 15 rounds. If retired cops need 15 rounds to effectively protect themselves and others, then so do other citizens. Arbitrarily discriminating among Americans in this way is irrational and unconstitutional.

Yes. Likewise the proposals to tax ammunition, which would punish target shooters — who shoot a lot — to a vastly greater degree than criminals, who only shoot when committing a crime.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG’S LEGACY: Massive Spending Increases.

ALLEN WEST: We Need The Next Generation of Guardians.

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH: The Fact that Brad DeLong Doesn’t Understand Conservative Jurisprudence Doesn’t Mean the Rest of Us Have to Pretend.

CREATING JOBS: Help Wanted: Qualified Death Panelists. “Are you a nationally recognized health finance and economics expert willing to work for beans on a political lightning rod of a project? Do you enjoy being the subject of Senate confirmation hearings? If so, apply to be a death panelist today…because it doesn’t look like anyone else is. . . . It isn’t hard to see why nobody is clamoring to take a job that offers low pay and lots of regulations and will make everyone in the country hate you. But it’s been clear from the beginning that this is the kind of thing you get with a massive, centralized health care ‘fix’ like Obamacare: 15 unhappy people in a room making enormously important but impossible to predict decisions affecting a broad and diverse industry (not to mention the lives and health of millions). It’s hard to imagine a centralized approach getting all the nuances of health care right—and we certainly haven’t stumbled onto the miracle cure here.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): GDP Actually Shrunk in Fourth Quarter of 2012. Funny, as I recall the news reports it seemed like we were in an Obama-driven economic boom. . . .