THE CRUZ BIRTHERS.

TOM GOLDSTEIN ON TODAY’S PROP 8 ORAL ARGUMENT. “But Justice Kennedy seemed very unlikely to provide either side with the fifth vote needed to prevail. He was deeply concerned with the wisdom of acting now when in his view the social science of the effects of same-sex marriage is uncertain because it is so new. He also noted the doubts about the petitioners’ standing. So his suggestion was that the case should be dismissed.” The audio and transcript are not yet available. I want to form my own opinion. I’m not surprised that Kennedy performs public agonizing over the judicial role and seems entirely different from the Ginsburg-Breyer-Sotomayor-Kagan set. That doesn’t mean he won’t join them in the end.

MAURICE STUCKE: Is Competition Always Good?

PUTTING THE CUR IN CURTILAGE.

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ASHLEY JUDD UPDATE: Hey, Maybe I’ll Run My Campaign For Kentucky’s Senate Seat From My Mom’s Garage… One Problem, Her Mom Lives In Tennessee…

Meanwhile, in the video at the top of the post, Matt Walsh delivers what “seems like a pretty airtight case,” for Judd’s campaign Mollie Hemingway quips at Ricochet.

Perhaps I’m simply being nostalgic for the stillborn John Cougar Mellencamp run for the Indiana Senate in 2010 — if only because I miss his deep, deep thoughts on American foreign policy in a time of war.

SURVEY REVEALS What Makes Men Husband Material.

THE PARANOID PEACOCK: “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.”

LIZARDS WILL TEACH ROBOTS to swim through sand. “Scientists at Georgia Tech develop a model called terradynamics to predict how an animal like a -lizard—or a machine modeled after a lizard—will move through a loose granular material such as sand.”

REMEMBERING OPERATION LINEBACKER II, at In from the Cold:

For once, we agree with Bob Beckel.

The veteran Democratic operative and panelist on Fox News Channel’s “The Five” was outraged over a recent segment on the CBS’s reality show, “The Amazing Race.”  And rightfully so.  On a swing through Vietnam, someone thought it would be a swell idea to have the contestants pick up a clue in front of the wreckage of a U.S. B-52 bomber, shot down by an SA-2 battery during the war.

From The New York Post:

In the episode, the twisted metal of the downed plane is treated as any other prop, with a bright ‘Amazing Race’ ‘Double-U-Turn’ signed planted in front of it, signifying to contestants the next phase of their scavenger hunt.

The show also had contestants learn a song that was performed for them by children in front of a portrait of North Vietnam communist leader Ho Chi Minh, with subtitled lyrics that included “Vietnam Communist Party is glorious. The light is guiding us to victory.”

“It’s like One Direction,” one contestant said of the performance, referring to the popular boy band.

[snip]

Apparently few viewers understood the symbolism of that “memorial.”  But one Vietnam vet did, and he sent an e-mail to “The Five” co-host Greg Gutfeld, who mentioned it to one of the show’s producers. That, in turn, led to a segment on the FNC program, which generated this response from Mr. Beckel:

“I’m so outraged by this I can’t believe it. CBS is idiotic; they’re stupid,” Beckel said. “To have people go to a memorial where Americans died, then you ought to get off the network.”

Read the whole thing. And then check out Orrin Judd’s review of Lewis Sorley’s 1999 book, A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam, for the aftermath of the Linebacker II missions, including this provocative quote from British counter-insurgency expert Sir Robert Thompson: “In my view, on December 30, 1972, after eleven days of those B-52 attacks on the Hanoi area, you had won the war.  It was over.”

Yeah, you should probably also read Orrin’s whole post as well.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on heart-rate monitors, pedometers, and more.
Also, the Gold Box Deal of the Day: “Tomb Raider” is 30% off.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Waiting Periods For Laws, Not Guns.

VIDEO: GUY IN BLOOMBERG GUN-CONTROL ADS BREAKS ALL THE MAJOR RULES OF GUN SAFETY: “I really do hate to be a stickler, but if there’s one thing to be a stickler about, the basic rules of gun safety while you’re in an ad for alleged advocates of gun safety is a pretty good choice.”

VIDEO: A TRIBUTE TO MEN AND WOMEN WHO DESIGN: “The definitive Populuxe film on 1950s automotive, industrial, interior and architectural design. A tribute to the American designer presented by Chevrolet.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Disagreement with my “hotel college” approach. “I would take the separation the other way. My cost-conscious college of the future would be purged of every educationally irrelevant amenity, beginning with the dorms. No student center, no intercollegiate athletics, no gourmet cafeteria, no library, no labs, no student services staff, no health-club gym.”

Hey, there’s room for lots of experimentation.

NASSIM TALEB: How Debt Ruins Systems. “Debt leads to fragility. We’ve discovered since the Babylonians that debt has systemic consequences whereas equity doesn’t. Let’s say that you have two brothers. One of them borrowed and they both had predictions about the future—forecasts. One brother borrows. The other issues equity. The one who borrows will go bust if he makes a mistake. The one who issues equity will fluctuate but will be able to survive a forecast error.”

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GUTENBERG’S RIFLE: The Downloadable Firearm Is Almost Real.

Well, this is the 21st century, you know.™

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: What To Look For In A Husband, Post-Divorce.

EVERYTHING SEEMINGLY IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL: Sharpton’s MSNBC Show Sponsored By Manufacturer Of ‘Big, Brutal’ Rifles.

Video at link.

RELATED: Speaking of fiery, anti-Second Amendment cable TV hosts, hey, why does Piers Morgan have photo with gun-loving, violence-glorifying Snoop Dogg as Twitter profile?