A SKATEBOARD THAT WORKS ON BOTH WATER AND PAVEMENT.

IN RESPONSE TO YESTERDAY’S BLOOD-TRANSFUSION/ANTI-AGING POST, Sarah Hoyt emails:

Heinlein used the transfusion process for rejuv in Methuselah’s Children. Synthesizing the blood was the key to long-term rejuv for everyone, too. (Might as well put a link to it in, too. Wouldn’t hurt for people to read it again. There’s a great example of government persecuting a group they think is “hiding the stash.” Worse, they knew the group wasn’t, but needed to throw someone to the wolves to satisfy the populace.)

Luckily that could never happen here. And linked. Plus, it’s also on Kindle.

SEE, IF I GET KICKED OFF I WANT IT TO BE FOR SOMETHING BETTER THAN THAT: Bea Arthur’s Boobs Got Us Booted From Facebook.

VIDEO: World’s Tiniest Monkey Eats A Noodle.

OBAMA AIDE: Legality of IRS targeting conservative groups “irrelevant.”

Also “irrelevant” — where the President was during Benghazi attacks. Not a good day for the White House on the Sunday shows. . .

UPDATE: The relevance of “irrelevant.” Can I make an empty-chair joke now? “In talking about Benghazi, the interviewer, Chris Wallace, is trying to extract a specific fact about the events, a fact that has not yet come out and that Pfeiffer might know. Pfeiffer blows out a tirade of truly irrelevant verbiage to distract us from the question asked, including the notion that the fact isn’t important. Who cares where the physical body of Obama was as long as he was ‘in touch’? Well, some people would like to know, so tell us the fact and let us decide what use to make of it. To withhold the fact — on the ground that, in your opinion, we don’t need it — is to make us think it would be damaging. . . . It must be relevant, we think, at least for political purposes, or Pfeiffer wouldn’t strain so hard to suppress it.” What could that be? I can’t even imagine. An assignation at the Hay-Adams?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Lynda Bowen writes:

This is really strange. They absolutely don’t want to account for Obama’s exact whereabouts during the time in question. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were trying to cover up the fact that he was pulling a Clinton (that would be Bill … in the cloak room with Monica… not a Hillary).

Seriously, something else was going on that they don’t want ANYONE to know about…

They don’t want to talk about it. But it wasn’t nookie at the Hay-Adams. (Everyone goes to the W for that now in DC anyway). It was a special meeting on the alien invasion.

AT TAXPROF, A ROUNDUP: IRS Scandals, Day 10.

DAVE KOPEL REPORTS: Colorado Sheriffs file Second Amendment lawsuit against anti-gun bills.

WHEN I WAS IN LAW PRACTICE, WE HAD A CASE INVOLVING THIS PROBLEM: Those Generic Drugs May Not Have Been What You Thought They Were: Years of abuses at Ranbaxy raise worries about the FDA’s oversight of the generics market.

This is the week for arguments I have previously dismissed coming back to bite me. I’ve already admitted that I dismissed tea party complaints about extra IRS scrutiny because really, who would do that? Now along comes another story that is causing me to reassess my priors: it turns out that Indian generic giant Ranbaxy has been selling generic “drugs” that didn’t actually work.

Complaining that generic drugs from abroad are nothing but cheap fakes has long been a staple of free-trade opponents, and of course, pharmaceutical manufacturers trying to protect their products from foreign competition. While it’s long been clear that there was some truth to the horror stories–don’t buy drugs on the internet, okay?–I’ve been pretty dismissive of complaints about Indian generics giants like Ranbaxy and Cipla. These guys are huge companies with brands to protect. Moreover, they’re inspected by the FDA. Why would they risk it all by adulterating their product?

Well, the fact is they did, and the answer is presumably “to save money.”. . . Yes, Ranbaxy eventually got caught. But for years, they sold drugs of uncertain quality. It’s hard to say how many people they killed, but it’s unlikely that the number is zero, or even near-zero.

See, that’s a problem.

READER KIM SOMMER WRITES: “With all the president’s scandals it looks like Bloomberg is getting a free ride with his spying scandal.” I dunno, I’ve heard from some clients who are rethinking their dependence on his service. I think the damage will be in the marketplace.

But here’s something I’d missed: Bloomberg Terminal Spying Targeted Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner: CNBC.

Also: JPMorgan demands Bloomberg staff logs. “Lawyers for JPMorgan Chase have demanded that Bloomberg hand over five years’ worth of employee logs, as the bank considers whether to take legal action against the news and data group.”

THE REALLY BAD NEWS FOR THEM ISN’T THAT PEOPLE ARE CALLING IT A CULTURE OF INTIMIDATION, IT’S THAT THEY AREN’T BEING INTIMIDATED ANY MORE: White House defends IRS handling, McConnell asserts ‘culture of intimidation.’

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Must the Sky Cult and Earth Cult Always Make War Against Each Other?

AT AMAZON, outlet deals in Camera, Photo & Video.

Also: Deal of the Day: Bioshock Infinite.

CHARLIE MARTIN: The Question For My Next 13 Weeks: Pivot or Persevere?

DEMOCRAT: Ex-IRS Chief Lied To Congress.

Following the House’s opening investigative hearing into the IRS’s revelation that it gave extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, Crowley was asked if he believed Douglas Shulman lied to Congress.

“I think Mr. Shulman did,” said Crowley in an interview with Fox News. “My understanding is that it was common knowledge if they were going after political groups back then.”

Crowley was referencing a 2012 House Ways and Means Committee hearing in which Shulman, in response to questions from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), held that the IRS was not targeting specific groups applying for tax-exempt status.

“There’s absolutely no targeting,” said Shulman at the time.

The encounter raised suspicions for Boustany as well, who recounted the incident during the same interview with Crowley.

Some of us have been suspicious longer than that.

M.D. KITTLE: The IRS Abuse Scandal Keeps Growing: An audit of the agency’s behavior unearths disturbing new information.

MICKEY KAUS: When will Krugman endorse the Gang of 8 amnesty?

BIG BROTHER ONLY WANTS WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU: Feds rooting out ‘unwelcome speech’ on campus: But what is that?

IAN JACK: On masculinity: My father’s generation were better at being men. For me, I’d say it’s more like my grandfather’s generation. . . .

MICHAEL BARONE: Question: What do female medical students think of abortion? “They’re about half the student body in medical schools these days. Most are single college graduates–a hugely liberal segment of the population. Do they favor abortion rights? Do they believe late-term abortions should be allowed? Do they study how to perform abortions? Do they intend to perform abortions when they go into practice?”

MARK HEMINGWAY: Ideological Revenue Service.

Some 471 conservative groups seeking 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status were harassed by the IRS over a period of years, and our self-styled watchdog media played no role in bringing this injustice to light. It only became a scandal after the IRS publicly admitted its wrongdoing.

Attorney Cleta Mitchell represents a number of Tea Party and conservative groups—including many that sought and still haven’t been granted tax exempt status. Mitchell notes that overwhelming evidence of the IRS’s political targeting had long been public. The IRS was so brazen that last year “80 or 90 groups all got letters that are virtually identical, that are oppressive, with 30, 40, 50, 70 questions with parts and subparts and sub-subparts,” Mitchell told The Weekly Standard. “The Ways and Means [subcommittee] on IRS oversight held a hearing, and they asked about all this. Did the press do anything about it? No.”

They’ve been a bunch of Nina Burleighs.

STUART ROTHENBERG: Will Obama Administration Controversies Affect Democratic Recruitment? “There is no doubt that the three major controversies on which President Barack Obama finds his administration on the defensive — Benghazi, the IRS targeting of conservatives and the subpoenaing of AP phone records — have changed the political narrative of the day. Instead of mobilizing all of his resources to promote his agenda, the president and administration officials are having to spend time and energy answering and rebutting Republican charges. . . . So far, Democratic strategists say that they have not heard from potential candidates who are worried about a deteriorating political environment or showing greater hesitancy about taking the electoral plunge this cycle. But at least it is worth watching over the next couple of months to see if often-mentioned potential candidates start jumping into races or removing themselves from consideration. Candidate recruitment, after all, can determine which states and districts are in play in November 2014 and which races have simply vanished from everyone’s scorecard.”

THE HILL: Complaints of IRS targeting by religious groups on the rise.

The number of religious groups reporting they were improperly targeted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is increasing.

At least a half-dozen conservative groups say they received an unusual degree of scrutiny from the IRS, according to the Religion News Service, a non-profit news service operated out of the University of Missouri’s journalism school.

Earlier this week Rev. Billy Graham’s son made headlines with a letter to President Obama accusing the administration of targeting the Samaritan’s Purse charity and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in an attempt to intimidate the group.

Since then, the Catholics United Education Fund and the Christian Voices for Life have reported significant delays in their applications for tax-exempt status from the IRS.

The Coalition for Life of Iowa also said that it took unusually long to receive their tax exempt status, according to the Thomas More Society, a non-profit group focused on supporting pro-life causes.

At a House hearing investigating the IRS abuses on Friday, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) called attention to The Coalition for Life of Iowa’s complaint, citing one particular question that the group was asked by the agency.

“Their question, specifically asked from the IRS to the Coalition for Life of Iowa: ‘Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers. Would that be an inappropriate question to a 501 c3 applicant? The content of one’s prayers?” asked Schock of the IRS’s former acting commissioner, Steven Miller.

Render unto Caesar . . . . But what if what Caesar needs is a swift kick in the ass?

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Pentagon’s Special Operations Chief Sees 10 To 20 More Years Of War Against al-Qaida.

BAN ASSAULT CARS: Up to 60 injured after car drives into Va. parade.