THE INSTA-WIFE: Is Pornography the Cause or the Effect of Men on Strike?‏ “Men go where they are wanted, needed and have autonomy. If they can’t find it in the real world, a virtual world might just work too.”

UH OH: Dystopian Fiction’s Popularity Is a Warning Sign for the Future.

Well, I recommend Neal Stephenson’s edited volume, Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions For A Better Future. I talked with him a couple of years ago when he was planning this, and it turned out really well.

WE NEED A FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAW, ABOLISHING QUALIFIED IMMUNITY AND PROVIDING STATUTORY MINIMUM DAMAGES OF $10,000 FOR EACH INSTANCE: Cops Still Threatening Citizens, Breaking Laws To Shut Down Recordings.

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WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Doctors Can Now Successfully 3D Print A Knee Joint.

DANIEL DREZNER IS betting against a Higher Education Bubble.

UPDATE: Brannon Denning emails: “Interesting, but isn’t his bet flawed? First, why those schools? Wouldn’t it be better to compare tuition at relatively non-selective public and private schools? Second, what the declared tuition is has little to do with what people are actually paying in tuition. Seems like looking at the average discount rate would be a better measure. Third, because the federal government essentially drove out private lenders, it can continue to lend money to people to go to college at taxpayer expense. Why would anyone expect the feds to turn off the spigot? Also not sure why 2020 is the date it should burst.”

Yeah, top schools — as I’ve said — will be the last to go, and may (as top law firms have, during the indisputable bursting of the legal bubble) still survive and get top dollar even as everything further down the totem pole collapses. Also, there’s a lot of tuition discounting now (disguised as scholarships and financial aid) even at top schools. You’d have to take that into account.

I THINK WE NEED A CLASS-ACTION SUIT: Major Chicago study finds red light cameras not safer, cause more rear-end injuries: “This entire program is strictly to generate revenue and always has been,” alderman says. If you’ve been involved in a rear-end collision at a camera-controlled intersection, I think you should be compensated by the city, and by the contractor operating the cameras.

OKAY, SO MAYBE this whole bacon thing has jumped the shark.

ISLAMIC STATE’S SECRET WEAPON: The Waddle Squad.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How Tires Work.

MICHAEL WALSH’S NEXT BOOK sounds good.

IT’S ABOUT TIME: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand removes debunked sexual assault statistic from website. “Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., one of the most prominent lawmakers working to curb campus sexual assault, has removed from her website the debunked claim that one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college.”

Of course, that’s bad news for some.

UPDATE: Gillibrand’s bill and “rape privilege:” “But the truth is, young women who don’t go to college are more likely to be raped. . . . In other words, these women are victims of sexual violence at a rate around 30 percent greater than their more educated counterparts. The focus on sexual violence against some of our most privileged young people has distracted us from the victimization of those enjoying less social and economic advantage.” Feminism is always about the concerns and well-being of upper-middle-class white women.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 592.

ROGER SIMON: Racism Right and Left: One Man’s Opinion.

GOOGLE: Hollywood Is Trying To Secretly Censor The Internet.

Google is going after the major movie studios with guns blazing after learning of a secret legal campaign against it.

Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said in a blog post Thursday that he is “deeply concerned” about recent reports that the Motion Picture Association of America is leading a “secret, coordinated campaign” to revive the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and block access to websites.

He noted that defending free expression is a founding principle of the MPAA. “Why, then, is it trying to secretly censor the Internet?” he asked.

The allegations are based on recent news reports and leaked Hollywood executive emails from the hack of Sony Pictures.

Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the MPAA, called the blog post “shameful,” and argued that free speech is not a “license to steal.”

The MPAA is a bunch of dishonest thugs, and I say — repeal the Hollywood Tax Cuts!

HACK BACK: Open Up North Korea’s Information Curtain; Private individuals can send news of the outside world to North Koreans locked in the Hermit Kingdom. “The Human Rights Foundation’s ‘Hack Them Back’ program will employ balloons but will also work with North Korean defectors to smuggle DVDs, USB sticks, and leaflets across the Chinese border into North Korea.”

PRIORITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: Professors Mobilize Against “Offensive” Posts On Yik Yak. To its credit, the response was of the “more speech” variety, rather than the usual censorious campus reaction. But the thing about offensive posts on Yik Yak is that . . . they’re posts on Yik Yak. Who cares?

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CHARLOTTE ALLEN: Top 10 feminist fiascoes of 2014. The UVA “gang rape” hoax leads the list, unsurprisingly. But read the whole thing.

BYRON YORK: In Cuba deal, why did Obama back down on political prisoners?

Barack Obama has long believed United States Cuba policy should change; he so when he first ran for president in 2008. Back then, though, Sen. Obama stressed that the U.S. should hold Cuba to a number of stringent conditions before even beginning to normalize relations. The first of those conditions was freedom for Cuba’s political prisoners.

Obama laid out his proposal in a May 23, 2008 speech in Miami. Noting the “unanswered cries of the political prisoners heard from the jails of Havana,” Obama said his policy toward Cuba “will be guided by one word: libertad.”

“The road to freedom for all Cubans must begin with justice for Cuba’s political prisoners,” Obama said. The value of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Obama went on to explain, is that it “provides us with the leverage to present the regime with a clear choice: If you take significant steps towards democracy, beginning with the freeing of all political prisoners, we will take steps to begin normalizing relations.”

Beginning with the freeing of all political prisoners. It was a pretty clear demand. Only after freedom was granted would Obama begin normalizing relations.

Fast forward six and a half years. In an address from the Cabinet Room Wednesday, President Obama announced that he would “begin to normalize relations” with Cuba through “the most significant changes in our policy in more than fifty years.” But the president did not insist on freedom for all political prisoners, which had once been a requirement for even the first steps toward normalization.

I wish that Senator Obama fellow were President. He seemed fairly sensible. This President Obama guy, on the other hand, isn’t so into free speech.

FALLOUT: Obama’s ‘propaganda’ pushed people to ‘hate the police,’ Giuliani says.

Plus: Graham: Dems’ tone ‘incites crazy people.’

But: NY Democrat: Unfair to blame mayor, Holder for NYPD shootings.

However: Will Dems who blamed Palin for Giffords attack refuse a ‘conversation’ about NYC shootings?

BARACK OBAMA’S PRESSER PROBLEM — NOT THAT HE JUST TOOK QUESTIONS FROM WOMEN, but that he took so few questions at all.

VARIETY: How Obama Took Sony’s Crisis From Bad to Worse.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What Obama’s Cuba Deal Means for the Future of Cuban Cigars: Don’t stop hoarding those Cuban cigars just yet.