POLITICAL ONANISM: Sandra Fluke’s biggest donor is … Sandra Fluke. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

TWEET OF THE DAY FROM WILL COLLIER: “Never been a Romney fan. I actively dislike John McCain. Good grief, we’d be in so much better shape if either of them had been elected…”

SO, BASICALLY, ALL THE STUFF OBAMA’S OPPONENTS PREDICTED IS HAPPENING NOW: DIA Chief: Al Qaeda Ideology Rapidly Expanding. “That theology has spread at an alarming rate due in large measure to the fact that al Qaeda is winning the propaganda war, and the U.S. is seen as weak and compliant.”

Obama is the “weak horse.”

UPDATE: From the comments: “Too big for his britches, too small for his job.”

UNHAPPY WITH THE POLITICAL SYSTEM? WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Read Kurt Schlichter’s new book for ideas and inspiration.

UH OH. The DEEP SEVENs are extending their explorations of the surface. Two new mysterious giant holes found in Siberia, scientists puzzled.

RECENTLY LOOKED THROUGH MY ARCHIVES FOR “HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT.” Kind of interesting juxtapositions.

GEE, DO YOU THINK? CNN: Is foreign policy a liability for Hillary Clinton?

SO LOOKING IN THE ARCHIVES FOR STUFF ABOUT ROBERT FOGEL, I found this still-interesting interview by Arnold Kling.

JIM TREACHER: “They’re not even pretending anymore.”

GAZA 2014: 14 Ways Hamas Weaponizes Palestinian Women, Children and Animals Against Israel.

SO LOOK AT THIS STORY ON WOMEN IN TECH. Now imagine a story on men being underrepresented in, say, university race-and-gender offices or corporate HR offices. I can easily imagine someone defending it by saying that women are more comfortable with feelings, while men’s thinking is “too linear.” Can’t you?

YOUR FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: A class for government workers on how to sound less Southern. Cancelled due to complaints of prejudice. “We’ve offered accent reduction training to foreign nationals for years. . . but this one obviously surprised some folks.”

CLAIM THAT LOWER-INTENSITY EXERCISE IS BETTER FOR FAT-BURNING probably not true.

PHOTO: Here’s What “Thigh Gaps” Looked Like In 1945. Back then, after a depression and a world war, people wanted to look well-fed. Now, when everyone is obese, people want to look super-fit. Whatever’s hardest. . .

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ANN ALTHOUSE ON JOSH MARSHALL ON OBAMA AND ISRAEL: “Marshall won’t say it directly, but this feels like desperation about the 2014 elections.”

Plus, from the comments: “The other day we read that with the defeat of Eric Cantor, American Jews don’t have a Republican they can go to. Today we are told the Republicans are working for the Israelis. Anyway, it’s all absurd. After all, the Israelis have no better friend than John Kerry; what do they need Republicans for?”

And: From “Smart Diplomacy” to “Smarm Diplomacy.”

THE TRUTH IS, IT’S NOT THE TRUTH: The Truth Behind that 1-in-5 College Women are Raped Statistic. “The problem is, the statistic is flimsy and unsubstantiated at best – and maliciously manipulated as a means to an end at worst.”

YOU KNOW, I’M BEGINNING TO GET A BIT CONCERNED: Ebola Fears Hit Close To Home. Usually, Ebola outbreaks burn out because it’s so fatal that it kills off its victims before they have time to do much spreading. I wonder if this is a new, longer-incubating strain or something. I couldn’t find any such reports, but this does seem to be an unusually widespread outbreak.

PSYCHEDELIA WITH DUCT TAPE: What it looks like when you tape a GoPro to a wheel.

SINGULARITY UPDATE: Could A Computer Persuade You To Serve It? I’ll be back in a minute . . . got to go plug my phone into the charger before it dies.

The bit about how it’s easier to pass a Turing test if the listener thinks you’re a non-native speaker of English explains the Terminator’s Austrian accent, I guess.

I’M SURE OBAMA AND HAGEL ARE ALL OVER THIS: A New Arms Race In Space. “In the age of communications and information technology, the safety of satellites is crucial. As an arms race in space begins to look a little more likely, it is important to remember that the cost of establishing missile defense for satellites would be yet another burden for the already overstretched U.S. defense budget. Anyone hoping that the U.S. will enjoy a ‘peace dividend’ after the end of the war in Afghanistan may be sorely disappointed.” It seems as if people who hoped for peace dividends over the last century either didn’t get them, or later wish they hadn’t.

ARE THE DEMS PUSHING AN IMPEACHMENT NARRATIVE NOW, so that when Obama does something really awful they can say it’s just politics, the Republicans were talking impeachment all along?

President Obama has long treated Congress with contempt, and has on many occasions taken executive actions that have bent or broken the limits of the executive’s discretion in our system. Perhaps above all, he has enforced Obamacare selectively — ignoring some clear requirements of law and conjuring up others that do not exist. These have been serious violations of his obligation to see that the laws are faithfully executed, and have caused serious problems for our system of government. They will leave the next president with a lot of damage to undo. But what the administration appears to be contemplating here is of a different scale and character. It is not selective enforcement of a new statute but rather just an action outside the law, in an arena in which the president himself has said unilateral action is beyond his authority and in which there is no case for extreme urgency.

White House officials clearly understand that such a move would invite a firestorm of opposition and criticism, and they appear to see that as an advantage. Maybe they’re right that such a step and its aftermath would work to their political benefit, and maybe they’re not. But surely it would all harm the country — dividing the public and debasing our system of government. It seems like just the sort of thing that a national leader would seek to avoid, rather than work to invite. Let’s hope the reports aren’t true.

They manifestly don’t care about the division and debasement, but rather see it as a feature — division and debasement of the political system make it easier to rule, if you don’t care much about the well-being of the country you’re ruling.

SORRY, I’M CHANNELING SEINFELD. CATFIGHT! The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism. “First, the organizers hoped to refute charges that the desire to ban prostitution implies hostility toward prostitutes. Then they were going to try to explain why, at a time when transgender rights are ascendant, radical feminists insist on regarding transgender women as men, who should not be allowed to use women’s facilities, such as public rest rooms, or to participate in events organized exclusively for women. . . . Anyone born a man retains male privilege in society; even if he chooses to live as a woman—and accept a correspondingly subordinate social position—the fact that he has a choice means that he can never understand what being a woman is really like. By extension, when trans women demand to be accepted as women they are simply exercising another form of male entitlement.”

Is that superficial reaction mean of me? No, actually, under the circumstances, I think it’s fairly kind. . . .

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 446.