WHY WON’T KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND NAME THE MEN SHE SAYS HARASSED HER? Ann Althouse offers numerous theories — pretty much all unflattering to Gillibrand — but I favor this one:

She wants to protect the men she hasn’t named. They’re her political allies, perhaps quite well-known characters. I think we can assume that they are all Democrats, since we haven’t heard otherwise and she probably would have taken the opportunity to ding Republicans, and since Republicans would be more likely to maintain formal politeness with her and not to assume that they could take liberties.

Of course, there’s also this possibility: “Maybe it didn’t happen. There are no names named because there are no names to name.” She could have just been pulling a Neil deGrasse Tyson.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Whistleblower calls IG report clearing VA of deaths a ‘whitewash’ or cover up.

Attempts by the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general to absolve the agency of blame in patient deaths are either a whitewash or a cover-up, the whistleblower who first revealed falsified appointment lists in Phoenix said in written testimony released Tuesday.

Dr. Sam Foote, a former doctor at the Phoenix VA facility, also called for an independent investigation into patient deaths and the use of phony appointment lists to hide long delays in care. . . .

“At its best, this report is a whitewash,” Foote said in his written testimony. “At its worst, it is a feeble attempt at a cover-up.”

Foote added the IG’s final report, issued Aug. 26, appears to be “designed to minimize the scandal and protect its perpetrators rather than to provide the truth along with closure to the many veterans and their families that have been affected by it.”

Foote first went to the IG in October 2013 with allegations that hospital administrators in Phoenix were using secret waiting lists to hide long wait times patients faced when seeking care. IG investigators seemed uninterested, he said.

At that time, 10 patients on the list had already died while waiting for appointments, according to Foote. They asked Foote to fax patient information to a phone number that did not work.

The office also did not respond as Foote sent emails asking for further instructions in December.

Government healthcare.

WASHINGTON POST: Obama, The Divider. “The most troubling number for President Obama in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll is this one: Americans say 55 percent to 38 percent that he is more of a divider than a uniter.” Given that he’s seized every chance to sow division since entering office, that’s not really a surprise, is it?

DAVID SOLWAY: The New Colonizers: When prayer space is really occupied territory. “Every immigrant group in this country has variously adapted to the heritage culture, integrating more or less seamlessly by the second generation. However, second-generation Muslims are increasingly being radicalized, some going off to fight with jihadist militias in the Middle East and Africa, others plotting terror attacks on the very country that has offered them freedom, health care, education and the opportunity to prosper. The common denominator along this spectrum of cultural invasiveness is the sentiment of vested ascendancy and pre-eminence minus the obligation of having to earn them.” Democracy, immigration, multiculturalism. Pick any two.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Troubled Law School Defaults On Its Bonds, May Be Forced To Cease Operations. It’s Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

UPDATE: “Thomas Jefferson’s latest available Form 990 lists the Dean’s salary as $528,430.”

AND RIGHTLY SO: Federal Appeals Court Rebukes Florida Cops for Using SWAT-Style Raids to Check Barbers’ Licenses. Strip ’em of immunity and let people sue them and this will stop.

WELL, THAT’S COMFORTING: Official: Rogue state could weaponize Ebola.

A rogue state could turn Ebola into a weapon of mass destruction, a federal health official acknowledged Tuesday.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it would take a “state-type” actor to successfully weaponize the disease, noting that the Soviet Union stockpiled similar hemorrhagic fevers during the Cold War.

“Theoretically, you can manipulate almost any virus to change it in any way you want,” said Fauci, whose agency is part of the National Institutes of Health.

“The only trouble is, it wouldn’t be easy for somebody to do that in their backyard laboratory. They would probably kill themselves doing it. It would take a state-type [actor].”

See, this is why I wish the CDC and NIH would focus on actual diseases, and not political science like gun-control.

HOW OUR RULING CLASS THINKS: After 2-Year-Old Emails Detailing Impropriety Surface, Los Angeles School Board Votes To Limit Retention To One Year.

DO NOT TRUST CONTENT FROM NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Yet another Tyson anecdote fails analysis, this one about the “Space Pen.”

At this point, maybe someone should go back and check his astrophysics papers?

I WISH I COULD CALL THAT CRAZY: Canadian News Outlet Warns Canadians That US Law Enforcement Officers Will Pull Them Over And Seize Their Cash.

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TRIFECTA: The Great Unraveling: Can the Threads of the American Tapestry Be Rewoven?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Loan Debt Increasingly Burdening The Elderly. “A]n estimated two million Americans age 60 and older … are in debt from unpaid student loans, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Its August Household Debt and Credit Report said the number of aging Americans with outstanding student loans had almost tripled from about 700,000 in 2005, whether from long-ago loans for their own educations or more recent borrowing to pay for college degrees for family members. . . . While older debtors account for a small fraction of student loan borrowers, who have accumulated nearly $1 trillion in such debt, the effect of owing a constantly ballooning amount of debt but having a fixed income can be onerous, said Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.”

It kind of sucks to have your Social Security check garnished for student loan debt.

ONCE YOU’VE HAD EIGHTY, YOU’LL NEVER BE SATED. Er, or something. 88-year-old Grandfather Busted For Prostituting Himself To Young Women. “His johns were all young women. Twenties, thirties. Most quite beautiful. Never really seen anything like this dynamic, but strange things do happen.”

UPDATE: Shockingly, this turns out not to be true.

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Also, 25% or more off on Software.

I DON’T FIND THIS SURPRISING AT ALL: Muscle Mass Predicts Longevity Better Than BMI.

SNAKE OIL ALERT: Another Day, Another Quote Fabricated By Neil deGrasse Tyson.

We’ve already established that a newspaper headline touted for years by Tyson likely doesn’t exist. We’ve also established that the exact quote he uses to bash members of Congress as being stupid also doesn’t exist. And then we established that the details within one of Tyson’s favorite anecdotes — a story of how he bravely confronted a judge about his mathematical illiteracy while serving on jury duty — seem to change every time Tyson tells the story.

In addition to those two highly questionable quotes and one highly questionable story, we now have another blatantly false quote peddled by Tyson. He has peddled this quote for years (including at a presentation on Sunday night at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle).

According to Tyson, in the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush uttered the phrase, “Our God is the God who named the stars.” According to Tyson, the president made that claim as a way of segregating radical Islam from religions like Christianity or Judaism. . . .

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s story has three central claims: 1) Bush uttered that precise phrase, 2) in the days immediately after 9/11, 3) in order to distance American religion from that practiced by radical Muslims.

As you have probably already guessed, every single claim is false. Every one! Then there’s Tyson’s aside that Bush’s quote was a “loose quote” of the book of Genesis. Yep, that’s false, too. Add embarrassing biblical illiteracy to Tyson’s list of accomplishments on his CV. . . .

Tyson’s falsehoods didn’t stop there, though. After deliberately slandering Bush by attributing to him a quote he never made, Tyson launched into another tirade about how he was selected, by Bush, mind you, to be on a committee to select recipients of the National Medals of Science and Technology. The point of that story? That Tyson is way smarter than Bush, who was too stupid to even read the citations of the awards. But if you watch the video of the event, you’ll notice that the reason he didn’t read the citations is because he was too busy personally awarding the medals and shaking the hands of the guests of honor. . . . At this point, I’m legitimately curious if any quotes or anecdotes peddled by Neil deGrasse Tyson are true. Over the last week, I’ve examined only four, and every single one appears to be garbage.

I’m beginning to think that this Tyson fellow may be a bit of a putz. And I used to just think he was a blowhard.

REMEDIES FOR FALSE ARREST: What are your options if falsely arrested? There are limited options for compensation.

Suppose a police officer finds an aspirin powder in your pocket and insists a presumptive test kit shows it is cocaine.

You are handcuffed and arrested. Maybe your neighbors or co-workers are watching, thoroughly embarrassing you and damaging your reputation. You are hauled off to jail, held for several hours and freed only after you post bail. Your mug shot is published online and in print in one of those “Just Busted” tabloids. You shell out money to get your vehicle out of the impound lot and hire a lawyer.

Then, weeks later, a test by a forensic chemist reveals that powder was exactly what you said it was — aspirin — and prosecutors drop the charge.

The officer was wrong. Your dignity, reputation and wallet paid the price for the officer’s mistake.

Lawsuit in the making, right?

Not under Tennessee’s Governmental Tort Liability Act.

If a citizen is wrongfully arrested, the tort liability law protects governments and their employees from legal action.

It’s that way most places. It shouldn’t be.

WELL, THAT’S ENCOURAGING: The Mathematics of Ebola Trigger Stark Warnings: Act Now or Regret It.

TEST-DRIVE: 2015 Mercedes Benz S550 Plug-In Hybrid. “The 114-hp electric motor is integrated inside the seven-speed automatic, and it is powerful enough to propel this S-class to 87 mph on electricity only. Using a light touch on the accelerator, it can go for 20 miles on a full charge before the direct-injected, twin-turbocharged 329-hp V-6 kicks in.”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT IT’S BLACK? Buy Johnny Cash’s Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

FOUR HARSH TRUTHS about dating and mating.

DISAPPOINTING, BUT NOT ENTIRELY SURPRISING: NASA asteroid defense program falls short: audit.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE (CONT’D): New Jersey High School Teacher Charged With Having Sex With Student. “She is charged with aggravated sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual assault.”

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: US Military’s Meteor Explosion Data Can Help Scientists Protect Earth. “The data contain a ‘potential goldmine of information,’ particularly regarding meteorite-producing fireballs and their pre-atmospheric orbits, as well as information that helps address the general question of meteorite-asteroid linkages.”