HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: No Such Thing As Free Tuition.

When an advertisement says “No money down,” an asterisk and some fine print typically follow. And it’s probably wise to look for that.

That seems to be the case with an Oregon proposal that has generated headlines such as “Plan would make tuition free at Oregon colleges,” “Oregon is doing free higher education the right way,” and “Oregon looking to eliminate tuition and loans for higher education students.”

Despite the headlines, the state didn’t suddenly abandon all plans to charge tuition. Last week the Oregon legislature took the first steps toward possibly implementing a plan that would allow public college and university students to forgo upfront tuition payments in exchange for paying a portion of their wages back to their alma mater for about 25 years following graduation. While it may mean no money down, it could still add up to large tuition bills.

Yale tried something like this in the 1970s and it didn’t work out very well.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: By exploiting some exotic acoustic techniques, researchers have built a window that allows the passage of air but not sound.

COMMERCIAL SPACE UPDATE: SpaceX’s Reusable Grasshopper Can Now Fly to 1000 Feet.

WHEN TRUTH IS NOT A DEFENSE: Philippe Karsenty: No First Amendment Here: French Court Finds Me Guilty in Al-Dura Affair. “I’m guilty of defamation … even though the court concurs that I was proven right.”

SHOCKING NEWS FROM SCIENCE: Men and Women Often Expect Different Things When They Move In Together.

JOHN TIERNEY: What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit, Research Shows. “Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders. Couples feel closer and look happier when they’re sharing nostalgic memories. On cold days, or in cold rooms, people use nostalgia to literally feel warmer.”

RICHARD EPSTEIN: The Myth Of A Pro-Business SCOTUS.

BRENDAN LOY: Tropical Storm Chantal Could Threaten Southeast United States — If It Lasts That Long.

“SMART DIPLOMACY” UPDATE: Pakistan Report on Abbottabad Raid: Never Let The US Do That Again.

A couple news agencies released leaked copies today of the Abbottabad Commission Report, the Pakistani government’s investigation into the May 2 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. The report is scathing. It slams the Pakistani government on two fronts: for allowing an international fugitive to hide, ostensibly without anyone knowing, in Pakistani territory for nine years, and for allowing the US to conduct the raid without any defense or retaliation.

The report, available here in full, attributes bin Laden’s ability to escape detection to the government’s ”gross incompetence,” and finds that the “collective failure” of the military and intelligence agencies allowed the US to carry out an ”act of war”: “Culpable negligence and incompetence at almost all levels of government can more or less be conclusively established….this [was] a case of nothing less than a collective and sustained dereliction of duty by the political, military and intelligence leadership of the country.”

Among its recommendations, which include police reforms and increased intelligence cooperation, the report also seems to focus heavily on preventing the US from conducting another deadly raid on Pakistani soil. “The alarming expansion and reconstruction of the US Embassy in Islamabad may pave the way for deeper US penetration in Pakistan,” the report reads. It urges a fundamental rethink in the relationship between the two countries.

Richard Armitage’s nuclear threats on 9/11 seem to have worn off. Plus, from the comments: “Here’s an idea: let’s dump the wretched hellpit known as Pakistan and support India instead. Thriving, much more prosperous, a genuine (if troubled) democracy, and most importantly, not run by crackpot Islamic loonies.” In 2001 I regarded Pakistan as a reasonably civilized country. I was misinformed.

UPDATE: Reader Mike Churchill has a different view:

Hi Glenn … I run a hedge fund and research shop in Virginia and Pakistan is my second-largest country position. The stock market is booming – up 31% this year. I’ve been to both Karachi and Lahore over the past two years. They are grungy, difficult cities – but they are not crazy or downright scary cities. I was in Cairo once three years ago and that WAS a crazy and scary city.

I find the Pakistanis to be reasonably normal people. Company managements are good – and very, very honest. IQs and literacy rates both are rising sharply in Pakistan, too, which also is helpful.

So, personally, I think the whole notion that Pakistan is a cesspit is out of date. The country is actually improving.

Let’s hope.

PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS THE NSA DOES, I’D IMAGINE: What Gmail Knows About You.

REFORM: Eric Cantor to introduce bill giving Americans right to record conversations with police.

Actually, they already have that right under the Constitution’s Due Process clause. But a statute recognizing that is nice.

AT AMAZON, Blu-Ray Deal of the Week: Best of Warner Bros 50 Film Collection (+UltraViolet Digital Copy), $184.99 (69% off). From Mutiny on the Bounty and Gone With the Wind, to Chariots of Fire, Full Metal Jacket, and The Lord Of The Rings.

Also, today only: “Alien Anthology” on Blu-ray, $19.99 (71% off). Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 61.

WHAT IS GOOD IN LIFE? My Texas Law Review piece, How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Second Amendment: A Reply to Professor Magarian (coauthored with the brilliant and famous Brannon Denning) is still ranked #1 on SSRN.

WELL, OKAY THEN: Obama: “The government is us, and we’re doing things right.” If by “us” he means “a collection of rent-seekers and power junkies,” and if by “doing things right” he means “sucking unmolested at the federal teat,” then he’s basically right.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Average Cost of Department of Energy Contract Employees In Washington? $247,000 Each.

HILLARY’S RECORD AS SECRETARY OF STATE AND HER CHANCES IN 2016: Apparently we’re not supposed to talk about that. Of course not. Anything that hurts Dem political chances is always either irrelevant, or somehow impolite to bring up.

And asking Hillary defenders to name a single foreign-policy success on her watch is right out. Because sexism or something.

MICKEY KAUS: Boehner Did … What?

Remember that Boehner is probably the key to whether or not the bill passes. If he wants to engineer a House floor vote, in defiance of his caucus, it might. Otherwise, not so likely. So a great deal of temperature-taking and tea-leaf reading has gone into figuring out which side Boehner is really on. Andrea Mitchell seems to be saying: He’s telling the President he’s trying to get a bill passed. Just give him time. And given an opening, he’ll make it happen.

Surely this bit of inside info is more significant than expressions of pessimism from Chuck Todd’s White House sources, who might be trying to a) lull the opposition to sleep b) scare up support for the bill from business backers, etc. and c) put pressure, including MSM pressure, on Boehner to deliver (especially if Mitchell’s reporting** is right).

Rather than being taken as a sign the bill’s in trouble, then, Sunday’s MTP should be a cautionary note for those who might be inclined to prematurely declare immigration “reform” dead.

Kaus adds: “I say this as someone who thinks the bill would be a disaster.”

UPDATE: Related: GOP Special Interest Groups Push House GOP to Cave on Immigration Bill.

A NEW IRS SCANDAL: IRS exposed ‘tens of thousands’ of Social Security numbers in online slip-up. But you can trust them with your healthcare information.

Also: IRS Paying Over 200 Employees to Work Full-Time For Labor Union.

BRYAN PRESTON: Does the Obama Scandal Machine Now Have Its Own Amateurish Break-In? “What if the State Department authorized someone to authorize someone to ‘find out what Fedensin’s lawyers know?’ Fedensin’s allegations touch former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton more directly than anyone else currently in the Obama administration. Clinton was SecState when the eight investigations that Fedensin alleges were scuttled by senior department members, were scuttled. The scandals even touch Clinton’s own security detail as well as her long-time fixer, Cheryl Mills. Exit question: Where’s Sandy Berger these days?”

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Patrick Howley: IRS supporters 0-for-3 on putting scandal to rest. “Since it was revealed in May that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly targeted the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups between 2010 and 2012, defenders of the beleaguered agency have offered three broad attempts to suppress the growing IRS scandal and put the matter to rest. However, each of these three attempts failed outright, and the scandal continues, with tenacious investigations underway by the House Oversight Committee and House Ways and Means Committee.”

OVERSOLD THREAT: Few Signs That Feared Sequester Has Hurt Job Growth. ObamaCare, on the other hand. . . .

ROLL CALL: Democrat-Controlled Senate No Closer To Answer On Student Loans. The GOP-led House has already passed a bill of course. I have some related thoughts here.

GOOD: Eliot Spitzer Heckled Mercilessly By Voters.