RULE OF THUMB: IF AMANDA MARCOTTE IS BASHING YOU, YOU’RE NOT THE “DUMB GUY.” The conundrum of the monogamous bisexual. “As for bisexuals married to opposite-sex partners, do they have a special exception from the usual rule that a married person ought not to talk about his or her sexual attraction to persons who are not his or her spouse? If they do, is it because we think they have a more persuasive argument that there’s something they want that they’re not getting from their spouse, or is it the seemingly loftier goal of increasing visibility for a group that monogamy would otherwise erase?”

WISCONSIN: Anti-Republican Vandal Identified As Minion Of Deep State. “April Kay Smith, 38, a kindergarten teacher in the Germantown School District, was issued a disorderly conduct citation for tearing up and stomping on several signs on July 9 at the Jefferson County Republican Party booth after the fair had shut down for the night, according to a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department report obtained by Wisconsin Reporter.”

JUSTICE: UNSEALED: The US Sought Permission To Change The Historical Record Of A Public Court Proceeding.

VIDEO: Watch CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Treat Hamas Terrorist with More Respect Than GOP. CNN, of course, has a long history of providing dictators and terrorists with PR services in exchange for access. Just because they apologized for it doesn’t mean they stopped.

My advice to the GOP — since they treat you worse than terrorists, don’t allow them any access until they treat you at least as well as they treat Hamas. I mean, it’s not like being on CNN gets you much.

Related: How CNN Mainstreamed the Terrorist Organization Hamas.

HINT: BY CHEATING. How Berkeley and UCLA Law Schools Responded to Ban on Affirmative Action.

UCLA lawprof Tim Groseclose has a whole book about it. Here’s my PJTV interview with him.

TEN WAYS THE WASHINGTON POST HAS CHANGED SINCE JEFF BEZOS TOOK OVER: “Despite the loss of high-profile talent like Ezra Klein.”

IN CASE YOU’VE BEEN DISTRACTED BY EBOLA AND GAZA: Russia Weighs Retaliation as Poland Warns of Invasion.

IT’S COME TO THIS: So, this is the feminist advice on marrying smart:

Fake so many orgasms. Look, sex in your twenties is going to be horrible. For a long time you won’t even realize that sex can be more. You will take pleasure in giving pleasure. It is all the intimacy that you can take, for now.

Uh, okay. I think it was IowaHawk who said that 21st century feminism appears to have been designed by horny teenaged boys.

HEALTH: Meet the Tiny Company Behind the Experimental Antibodies for Ebola.

ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY: Joe Biden’s Latest Gaffe Is As Stupid As You Might Imagine. To be fair, lots of people think Africa is a nation. Most of them, it’s true, are in first grade.

BRING BACK DDT: A Key Malaria Drug Becomes Less Effective.

THESE ARE SOME REALLY BIG FISH: SoCal anglers score rare opah trifecta.

AT AMAZON, Back To School Deals.

Also, the Off To College Sale.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: Major General Killed in Attack on Delegation of Officers at Afghan Defense School. “A U.S. major general became the highest ranking American to be killed since the start of the war in Afghanistan when a shooter in an Afghan uniform opened fire on a delegation of coalition officials.”

WHY THE SECURITY OF USB is totally broken.

DON’T THINK OF IT AS SCARRING. THINK OF IT AS HELPING FUTURE ARCHAEOLOGISTS OUT: Will Mines, Tunnels and Drilling Scar Earth Permanently?

SO JOHN SCALZI’S OLD MAN’S WAR AND GHOST BRIGADES are being made into a series for the SyFy Channel.

BORED — AND STUPID. “Bored” California man sentenced to nearly two years for laser strike. While this is a stupid, juvenile and dangerous thing to do, it occurs to me that it would be a pretty good guerrilla-warfare tactic. I wonder if anyone’s given that much thought?

WELL, WHY SHOULD THEY? Court: Police officers have no constitutional ‘right of privacy’ in records of their official misconduct.

RACISM IN OBAMA’S AMERICA — AND OBAMA’S PARTY: Kentucky Democrat Race-Baits McConnell’s Wife; Deletes ‘Asian’ Tweets.

Democrats rushed to condemn the messages, but this certainly isn’t the first time Chao’s ethnicity has made her the target of Democrat race-card tricks in this campaign. They were doing this stuff last year, back when it was still rumored that movie star Ashley Judd was going to seek the Democrat nomination against McConnell.

Question: How is this different from “birther” attacks on Obama?

How is it that Democrats get a free pass for doing this kind of stuff to Republicans, yet object vehemently to anyone who dares mention that the president’s father was a Kenyan socialist? If “the personal is political” — as feminists have been insisting for more than four decades — why is it these kind of identity-politics arguments are only acceptable if they help elect Democrats and advance a left-wing agenda? Far be it from me to argue that one’s personal experience, including perceptions about ethnicity, are always irrelevant to politics. Dinesh D’Souza (who, last time I checked, wasn’t from Kentucky, either) was roundly vilified for arguing that Obama’s worldview was profoundly influenced by his father’s anti-British/anti-colonialist/anti-capitalist attitudes.

D’Souza’s argument was less “racist” than the arguments of liberals who routinely claim that anyone who opposes Obama is a racist.

When Democrats do this, they get a pass — or, if they don’t, they’re treated as outliers. When Republicans do it, they never get a pass, and they’re presented as representative of the true attitudes of the entire party. Journalism 101.

XCOR’S MOVING TO TEXAS, TOO: Texas, SpaceX Announce Spaceport Deal Near Brownsville.

I’M CONCERNED THAT WE DON’T SEEM TO KNOW WHY THIS OUTBREAK IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN IN THE PAST: Ebola outbreak could be much worse than thought. My worry is that this strain is more contagious, somehow. Perhaps more prone to spreading through airborne droplets? Or simply less lethal, giving people more time to spread it?

Some related thoughts here and here. “Ebola is a terrible disease. It kills many that it infects. It *can* spread fairly rapidly when precautions are not carefully adhered to: when cultural practices such as ritual washing of bodies are continued despite warnings, or when needles are reused because of a lack of medical supplies, or when gloves and other protective gear are not available, or when patients are sharing beds because they are brought to hospitals lacking even such basics as enough beds or clean bedding for patients. But if all you know of Ebola is from The Hot Zone or Outbreak, well, that’s not really what Ebola looks like. . . . I’m not saying there is zero chance of something going wrong. But it is low. As an infectious disease specialist (and one with an extreme interest in Ebola), I’m way more concerned about influenza or measles many other ‘ordinary’ viruses than I am about Ebola. Ebola is exotic and its symptoms can be terrifying, but also much easier to contain by people who know their stuff.”

WHEN HELEN AND I WERE COVERING THE MEN’S RIGHTS CONFERENCE IN DETROIT for PJTV, we hung out with the VICE folks some. Here’s a very well-done report and video that they did on The Women Of The Men’s Rights Movement.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 453.