GENERATIONAL THEFT: How Washington Really Redistributes Income.

Stan Druckenmiller makes an unlikely class warrior. He’s a member of the 1%—make that the 0.001%—one of the most successful money managers of all time, and 60 years old to boot. But lately he has been touring college campuses promoting a message of income redistribution you don’t hear out of Washington. It’s how federal entitlements like Medicare and Social Security are letting Mr. Druckenmiller’s generation rip off all those doting Barack Obama voters in Generation X, Y and Z.

“I have been shocked at the reception. I had planned to only visit Bowdoin, ” his alma mater in Maine, he says. But he has since been invited to multiple campuses, and even the kids at Stanford and Berkeley have welcomed his theme of generational theft. Harlem Children’s Zone President Geoffrey Canada and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh have joined him at stops along the tour.

Mr. Druckenmiller describes the reaction of students: “The biggest question I got was, ‘How do we start a movement?’ And my answer was ‘I’m a 60-year-old washed-up money manager. I don’t know how to start a movement. That’s your job. But we did it in Vietnam without Twitter and without Facebook and without any social media. That’s your job.’ But the enthusiasm—they get it.”

Even at Berkeley, he says, “they got it. There is tremendous energy in the room and of course they understand it. I’d say it’s a combination of appalled but motivated. That’s the response I’ve been getting, and it’s been overwhelming.”

They should be appalled. But be warned: “This president, despite what he says, has shown time and time again that he needs a gun at his head to negotiate in good faith. All this talk about, ‘I won’t negotiate with a gun at my head.’ OK, you’ve been president for five years.”

HISTORY: When Computer Power Was Measured In “Kilo-Girls.”

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CHARLIE MARTIN: A Year Of 13 Weeks: And what have I learned? It’s complicated.

ON NEXT GENERATION TV, I talk with Michelle Fields and John Phillips about soaring law school tuitions, dumb zero tolerance policies, and more.

JAMES TARANTO: Does Obama Know? Does Obama Care? America needs an accounting of the health-care debacle.

Last night on Twitter, your humble columnist observed: “There’s only one thing that can save ObamaCare now. AN OBAMA SPEECH.” We were kidding, naturally–alluding to President Obama’s endless series of speeches in 2009 and 2010 in which he tried, unsuccessfully, to sell “health-care reform” to the public, and to subsequent laments like this one from Drew Westen in August 2011: “Nor did anyone explain what health care reform was supposed to accomplish . . .”

But then it occurred to us that the American people really do deserve a presidential address on ObamaCare. No, not as punishment for re-electing him, or at least not mainly for that purpose. Rather, because 2½ weeks after the launch of the “exchanges” that are supposed to be ObamaCare’s operational centerpiece, it is clear to almost everyone that they are an administrative disaster. In this crisis, there is an opportunity: to recognize an impending economic and humanitarian disaster, and to act in time to avert or at least minimize it.

That requires a willingness to face reality and a capacity for leadership. So far Obama has shown little evidence of either. CNN reports that in an interview with an Iowa TV station Tuesday, the president said: “I am the first to acknowledge that the website that was supposed to do this all in a seamless way has had way more glitches than I think are acceptable.”

Let’s let longtime ObamaCare enthusiast and Journolist founder Ezra Klein answer that: “So far, the Affordable Care Act’s launch has been a failure. Not ‘troubled.’ Not ‘glitchy.’ A failure.” A language note: One suspects the ObamaCare debut will make it impossible for anyone ever again to use the word “glitches” unironically.

It’s a disaster.

ILYA SOMIN: The Superiority of Democracy Over Dictatorship is No Reason to Ignore the Problem of Political Ignorance.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Four Things We Think We Know About ObamaCare: “I’ve been seeing a few things floating around the blogosphere about Obamacare that aren’t true. They’re not really conservative or liberal talking points; they’re just misconceptions that people may have about how the health-care law works. So it seems worth pointing them out, especially because relying on some of these ‘facts’ could get you into big trouble.”

GAY TALESE: “If I was editor, I would get people after Obama. I voted for the guy, but he’s a disaster as a president. . . . And a disaster most through his Justice Department and muzzling the press. Succeeding. And nobody’s — there’s no [Harrison] Salisbury, [David] Halberstam to bust ass in Washington anymore. That Washington bureau is a wimpy place right now and has been since Obama’s election, or since 9/11 actually.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “Left unsaid is that immersion in the OneTaste community also offers proximity to lots of sexually liberated women.” Possibly NSFW.

LIFE IN THE AGE OF OBAMA: ‘What Do America’s College Students Want? They Want to Be Oppressed.’

EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINED HERE: Tyrone on why the government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis were brilliant Republican strategy. “Look where we stand. In real terms government spending has been falling. Sequestration appears to be permanent, or it will be negotiated away by Republicans in return for preferred changes in tax and spending policy. Leading Democratic intellectuals are talking about future fiscal bargains with no new taxes. The American public polls as increasingly conservative.”

BUY A GUN: Dem Rep. Steve Cohen: Tea Party Republicans Are ‘Domestic Enemies’ We Took Oath To Defend Against.

As Virgil said, it is human nature to hate someone you have hurt. But still. And as Virgil also said, fortune is ally to the brave. Take note.

And Steve? I’ve cut you some slack because of those great John Fogerty tickets you scored me back in 1986. But there are limits.

LAW ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.: D.C. police help get firearms to National Cathedral for event to promote gun control.

The highly-restrictive firearms laws in Washington, D.C. are enforced differently depending on your status and political position on gun control.

Once again, the D.C. police are using their resources to provide illegal guns for a public relations stunt intended to pressure politicians to pass federal restrictions on the Second Amendment. Outside the Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, blacksmiths will “forge firearms into garden tools as a symbolic enactment of this year’s theme, “Swords into Plowshares.”

The Children’s Defense Fund, which is cosponsoring the event, said in a press release that blacksmiths will be using “illegal guns confiscated by the police.”

The dramatic scene will follows a children’s church service in which the organization’s president Marian Wright Edelman will speak.

It is illegal in the District to possess a firearm that is not registered. When asked about the event, Police Chief Cathy Lanier’s spokesman said that, “These are not firearms. They are scrap parts only and they are inoperable.”

That’s actually legally irrelevant. According to the District firearms laws written after the Supreme Court’s Heller decision in 2008, even a non-functioning firearm must be registered and can result in criminal liability.

The chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police for D.C., Kris Baumann, disagrees with the department participating in this event.

Firearms scofflaw David Gregory was unavailable for comment.

LOWER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The ‘Universal Pre-K’ Fallacy: Free school for 4-year-olds? Sounds great. Too bad it is of no educational value and the cost would be staggering. Meh. This isn’t about education. It’s about jobs for unionized teachers, and government-paid daycare for single moms. I discuss the underlying dynamics in my forthcoming book.

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SCIENCE: Precise Measurements Reveal That This Is The World’s Fluffiest Bunny.

SCIENCE: Math Proves Bacon Is A Miracle Food.

SCIENCE: Rich People Love Diversity, Until They Have Kids. But why do they feel different when they have kids?

And note that if schools weren’t dependent on geographic location, residential patterns wouldn’t matter as much. That’s a point I make in my forthcoming book.

ON NEXT GENERATION TV, I talk with Michelle Fields and John Phillips about soaring law school tuitions, dumb zero tolerance policies, and more.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: EPA Stacks Review Board With Federal Grant Recipients.

PRIORITIES: 19 Puzzling Differences Between “Time” Magazine U.S. And International Covers.

SECURITY: Researchers uncover holes that open power stations to hacking: Hacks could cause power outages and don’t need physical access to substations.

TRAIN WRECK UPDATE: Video: HHS took Healthcare.gov down for repairs … again. “NBC News reported it last night on their national prime-time broadcast, which means that even the media can’t ignore this, or at least not all of the media. In more late-Friday news, the expected rollout of the Spanish-language website and tools has been delayed — with no definite new launch date.” I’m sure it’s all George W. Bush’s fault, somehow. Or maybe Ted Cruz’s.

SCIENCE: Women Prefer Men With Low-Pitched Voices. “If you have a low-pitched voice like Mad Men actor Jon Hamm, you will have much more success attracting women, according to a McMaster University study. If your voice is squeaky like that of soccer megastar David Beckham, your chances of sexual conquest are less likely. Yet while men with baritone voices are judged to be more attractive, they are also perceived as more likely to cheat and are not considered to be suitable marriage material.”