IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Why Are Teen Pregnancy Rates So Low in North Dakota? Fracking.

JACK LEW, an object lesson in plutocracy.

THE HILL: House expected to pass Senate version of VAWA bill this week. “After a year-long fight over how to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), House Republicans are now prepared to allow a vote this week on the Senate-passed language. . . . House Republicans had proposed their own VAWA reauthorization bill, and seemed prepared to move it this week. But some House aides said they saw the delay in today’s Rules Committee meeting as a sign that Republicans were not able to coalesce around the GOP proposal.”

POLLS: Obama’s A Uniter: 48% Say So!

BRYAN CAPLAN: Why Are Asians So Democratic? The Respect Motive in Action.

NONSENSE. THAT GOOSE IS HOLDIN’ OUT ON US! Liz Peek: Another Tax Hike on the Rich Can Cripple the Economy.

HMM: Some countries may deploy nukes in space on pretext of countering asteroid threat – Deputy PM. The Outer Space Treaty prohibits placing nuclear weapons, or other weapons of mass destruction, in orbit. The dodge, I suppose, would be to claim that these anti-asteroids aren’t “weapons,” since they’re not aimed at people, but rather simply “explosive tools for planetary defense” or some such. Would that suffice? Depends.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Families Saving Less for College.

TEXAS CONSIDERING DRONES FOR BORDER SECURITY? “The drones are pilotless, silent and deadly when armed with Hellfire missiles. The discussion with Abbott did not address whether state-owned drones would be armed or unarmed.”

IN RESPONSE TO MY USA TODAY COLUMN ON BOYS IN SCHOOLS, a reader emails:

I currently work in education in Los Angeles as a researcher and grant evaluator. This often requires me to be at school talking to teachers and students, administering surveys to students, etc. I was actually a school in South Los Angeles (formerly known as South Central) today and I saw an instance of this exact problem: a fifth grade teacher (female) chastised a boy while she read a survey to the students. His crime? Being on question 12 while she was reading question 7. The boy was completing the survey faster than she was reading aloud, and was chastised because he was, in her words, “not with the rest of the class”. Something must be done.

I used to get in trouble for the same thing. Do female teachers want to keep the group functioning more as a group? It would be interesting to see some research on this.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Trigoboff writes:

I was a boy in school.

By the time I got to fifth grade, I was sitting in the back of the room reading science fiction most of the time. Every so often, I’d look up and see what they were up to, catch up on the concepts, and then go back to reading my book. I was doing fine in school, and it wasn’t as boring as it had been before I figured out I could sneak a book in.

One day in fifth grade the female teacher decided she wanted me not to read and to pay attention instead. She was teaching about the four-cycle internal combustion engine. The intake valve opens as the piston moves down, then it closes and the piston moves up to compress the mixture, etc.

Since I had to listen, I got curious about something. “What makes the valves move?” I asked.

You never saw such an expression of sheer terror. She had no idea. I’m sure it had never even occurred to her that there must be something that moves the valves.

I wasn’t trying to freak her out. I was just curious. But not in a way she could handle. After that, she let me read my book in the back of the room…

Heh.

STACY MCCAIN: By Any Means Necessary.

JOURNALISM: ABC defends editing Michelle Obama’s ‘automatic weapon’ claim.

A NUTRITION BLOG WITH RECIPES, from Krystal Goodman.

EMPIRES OF TRUTH.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals on mobile electronics.

WHY YOU SHOULD TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT SEX.

Don’t be shy about bringing up sexual pleasure and sexual difficulties with your health professional. Ask questions directly. Ask whether timing meds that cause difficulty with arousal or changing to different meds will get you feeling zesty again. If your doctor doesn’t know the answers to your questions, ask for a referral to someone who does.

If your doctor evades the topic or tells you, “It’s just part of aging,” get another doctor. Seriously.

Seems like good advice. There’s a book, too.

IN SEPTEMBER OF 2010, I WROTE “They’ll be going after ‘hoarders and wreckers’ next.”

And now this: In Connecticut, a “Hoarder’s Tax.” “Rep. Betsy Ritter, a Waterford Democrat, not only has sponsored a “combined reporting” bill, but she has also proposed a hoarder’s tax. This would place a levy on liquid assets — companies with a lot of money in the bank — and dedicate the proceeds to job creation programs.”

Gee, I wonder why businesses are fleeing the northeast?

UPDATE: Reader Dan Tracy writes:

If they are going this route, why not then go after university endowments?

I’m sure an annual assessment (1%? 2%, etc.) on the likes of Harvard’s, Yale’s, or Stanford’s endowment could do a lot to help underprivileged youngsters in nearby school districts. For example, East Palo Alto is a poor community in the Silicon Valley area and tapping into Stanford’s endowment could do a lot of good.

There are a lot of poor kids in the shadow of pretty much every well-endowed university. This is actually in motion already.

Meanwhile, reader Drew Kelley thinks the Hoarder’s Text sounds familiar: “Isn’t that the same as FDR’s tax on undistributed profits, one of the threats he issued against the business community that helped trigger the Depression Within a Depression?” Just because it’s a lousy idea doesn’t mean it won’t come round again.

THE FOOTLOOSE REMIX: In response to my NY Post column, reader Don Burton suggests: “How about the hypothetical conservative billionaire backing a remake of Footloose? Instead of the small town preacher, make him a small town mayor (small of stature also – maybe Armin Shimerman is available), who wants to ban lightbulbs, plastic bags, soda, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Chick fil-A, guns, and non-ethanol gasoline, but the townspeople have a dance where all of those items are featured prominently, fun is had, and no one gets hurt.”

Heh.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 7 Reasons Why Coffee Is Good For You.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: FDA Approves the First Bionic Retina.

CHANGE: Darpa Wants to Rethink the Helicopter to Make It Go Way Faster.

NEW EXERCISE FAD: Pop-Up Cardio.

AT AMAZON, tabletop markdowns galore.

BREASTFEEDING AND healthy gut bacteria in babies.

DISCOVERY: The Lost Continent of Mauritia. “The researchers propose that the minerals came from a long-submerged landmass that was once wedged between India and Madagascar in a prehistoric supercontinent known as Rodinia. The theory is that, as India and Madagascar began to drift apart some 85 million years ago, the landmass broke apart and sank, Atlantis-style.”