“THOSE WITH OCD WILL NOT GET THIS VISUAL JOKE.”

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SPLITTING THE SKYSCRAPERS IN RIO: Don’t try this at home, kids.

FINDING OUT WHAT’S IN IT: The IT Nightmare of Obamacare.

GOD AND STAN AT YALE: Badly Photoshopped illustrations of actual quotations from undergraduate essays in Western Civ courses.

(Via Betsy Newmark.)

AMERICA’S LONELIEST STATE SENATOR:  Hawaii’s Lone Ranger Sam Slom is the subject of the newest Reason TV interview.

IT’S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN THIRTEEN WEEKS: I try to explain my novel-writing method.  Or in this case, other people’s conflicting novel writing methods.

WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE OF THE IMPACT OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE?:  It’s an interesting question, given the relative newness of same-sex marriage.  Nelson Lund explores this in a WSJ op-ed.  Of course, as posted earlier, many–especially libertarians– argue that there should be  a “presumption of liberty,” and the government, not individual citizens, should have to prove that same-sex marriage harms children or society before exercising the power to ban such marriages.

WE MUST KEEP UP WITH THE CHINESE IN ORGAN HARVESTING, AFTER ALL: Redefining Sedation Into Killing.

SAY, HOW’S THAT ARAB SPRING WORKING OUT?  Egyptian mosque turned into house of torture for Christians after Muslim Brotherhood protest.

WELL, THAT’S NOT VERY REASSURING: Charles Krauthammer compares Cyprus bailout to assassination that led to World War I, in audio from his interview with Dennis Miller.

RELATED: “Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided if needed to preserve Europe’s single currency by propping up failing banks, a senior eurozone official has announced,” according to the London Telegraph.

HOW TO LIFT A NATION OUT OF POVERTY: Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries, by Columbia University professors Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya is reviewed by Diana Furchtgott-Roth in the Washington Examiner:

Bhagwati and Panagariya show how India’s economic reforms started in earnest in 1991 after a balance-of-payments crisis. Before 1991, India’s economy was characterized by extensive government intervention, with strict industrial licensing for capacity creation and utilization. The results were Kafkaesque. Bhagwati told me that the problem with India was that Adam Smith’s invisible hand was nowhere to be seen.

Before 1991, India’s inefficient public sector tainted not just natural monopolies but every kind of activity. Public-sector enterprises were often given monopolistic positions, with no private entry allowed and with import controls preventing foreign competition as well. When India produced inputs such as steel, the inefficiency undermined several user sectors in turn. Hence, India’s share in world trade and trade-to-GNP ratio declined. Direct foreign investment shrank, and in 1991 equity investment into India had fallen almost to $100 million — less than the annual budget of some major American universities.

Bhagwati and Panagariya show that the 1991 economic reforms swept away industrial licensing, reduced tariffs and opened the way to entry by private firms into industries previously reserved for the public sector, forcing all to compete.

New businesses such as Jet Airways entered private aviation, forcing Air India to raise its level of performance. The effect was a sharp rise in India’s growth rate, followed by a reduction of poverty.

In contrast, America has gone in precisely the opposite direction. Some call this “bad luck.”

TRACKING THE K-12 IMPLOSION: Major Victory for School Choice in Indiana.

YOU CAN’T SEE ME!:  Invisibility is getting closer to reality than science fiction, thanks to new methods tested by scientists at the University of Texas.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I blogwhore, therefore I am,” writes Stacy McCain.

THE PARANOID PEACOCK: Yesterday, New York magazine reported:

Ann Curry was gone but not gone, which created a situation of spectacular awkwardness. Any trust that had existed between Curry and Today was shattered. When Robin Roberts left Good Morning America a month later to get treatment for MDS, Curry asked NBC if she could tweet a note of sympathy for the ABC co-host. NBC said no, afraid she was trying to aid the enemy. In late July, when Curry was assigned to cover the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, she refused to appear on the air with Guthrie, believing Bell was trying to exploit the event for image repair.

Today, the London Daily Mail adds, “Matt Lauer ‘believes NBC set him up for a fall with airing of Sandusky interview and now trusts no one.'”

Can’t be much fun inside 30 Rock these days.

RELATED: Anderson Cooper Approached For Matt Lauer’s ‘Today’ Job.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG, THE GREAT LIBERAL ALLY? NOT SO FAST. “Progressives may love him on guns and big sodas but not so much when it comes to his staunch defense of stop-and-frisk,” National Journal claims.

Nonsense. I know from watching MSNBC that any complaints about Mayor Mike stem from rabid anti-Semitism.

KAUS: Not such a good week for amnesty?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS GIVE AWAY TAX DOLLARS FROM BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: Another $112 million handed out by HHS to fund new Obamacare co-op in Iowa and Nebraska headed by a politically connected entrepreneur with a spotty record of successful startups. Previously reported: New York/New Jersey/Oregon and Ohio. From the most transparent administration ever.

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BLUE ON BLUE: Media Matters Attacks NPR for Exposing Entitlement Abuse.

BE CAREFUL ONLINE!!:  The suicide of a Texas A&M professor has been linked to blackmail by a man who posed online as an underage girl.  Yikes.

PHOTO ESSAY: Girls of the Israeli Defense Forces (37 Photos).

JUSTICE KENNEDY’S 3 MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:  . . . during today’s Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of California’s gay marriage ban (Prop 8).  Here’s a great observation by Paul Barrett:  “When democracy intersects with constitutional jurisprudence, a mess is often what you get.”  Amen to that.

JUSTICE KENNEDY TALKS OF “THE VOICE OF THESE CHILDREN” — a striking phrase, which I tracked down to the amicus brief of the Family Equality Council. Is this the key to understanding the swing vote in the Prop 8 case?

WORLD’S FIRST: Bitcoin endowment fund.  Well, it is the 21st century!