MICHAEL WALSH: Of ‘First Amendment Areas’ and Jay Carney’s Commie Posters.

SCIENCE: How to Flirt — Backed by Scientific Research.

DICK MORRIS: Bill Clinton Hated Janet Reno But Couldn’t Fire Her Because Of Waco. See, this is funny, because Dick Morris was also central to getting Clinton to exploit the Oklahoma City bombing, which was a consequence of the criminal ineptitude at Waco. But now look how Morris is positioning himself.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Bullied Student Records Bullies, Gets Threatened With Felony Charges For Violating Wiretapping Law.

AT AMAZON, deals on Best-Selling Cookware.

Also, deals on Must-Have Handbags.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Obama’s War On White House Women: We’d be closer to pay equity if Democrats would stop cheating their own female staffers. “If I were the GOP, I’d start running attack ads in these legislators’ home states, quoting President Obama and asking why these Democrats hate women. It just might work — and it would certainly drive home a useful lesson about bogus statistics. Which President Obama — who is now even attacking unequal dry cleaning bills — could use.”

HEADLINES FOR THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Marc Ambinder: If a nuclear bomb exploded in downtown Washington, what should you do?

Well, the ground he’s treading has been treaded on by me before. See also this video.

But isn’t it funny that this is happening under a President who recently mocked Mitt Romney for a 1980s approach?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Nova Offering Buyouts To Senior Faculty. “Nova’s NSU Shepard Broad Law Center is not the only law school to offer buyouts to professors. Several law schools around the country, including Albany Law School, Vermont Law School and [SUNY] University at Buffalo Law School, have offered faculty members buyouts to shore up finances as enrollment continues to drop.”

I THOUGHT THEY JUST GAVE YOU $200 AND A NEW SUIT: Hacker “weev” demands bacon following prison release.

I’LL BET THEY’D WORK EVEN HARDER TO DEFEAT ANY SORT OF REAL TAX SIMPLIFICATION: TurboTax Maker Linked to ‘Grassroots’ Campaign Against Free, Simple Tax Filing.

A “STIMULUS” PROGRAM THAT LIVES UP TO THE NAME: The way drugs and prostitution boost the economy. Seems more like an effort by governments to mess up the figures so that it will be hard to tell that things are getting worse.

READER GUN-GEAR PLUG: Reader Kurt Vogel is selling fancy hand grips for 1911 pistols. Here’s the site for his company, Jackrabbit Grips.

FRUITS OF THE #DROPDROPBOX CAMPAIGN: UC Irvine Should Immediately Rescind Its Invitation to 2014 Commencement Speaker (and War Criminal) Barack Obama. “Unmanned drone strikes have increased rapidly under the Obama administration, killing at least 2,400 people over the last five years. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that as many as 951 civilians, including 200 children, have been killed by Obama drone strikes in Pakistan alone. Obama has authorized the assassination of multiple U.S. citizens via drone strike.”

HOW LONG can a message in a bottle last?

WE MADE A LOT MORE PROGRESS BEFORE THE FIELD WAS COLONIZED BY BUREAUCRATS: Suffocating Science Harms Everyone.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Do We Over-Invest In Non-Traditional Students?

GOVERNMENT: Stifling Commerce: How the Department of Commerce smothers what it’s supposed to promote.

WELL, HE WOULD KNOW: ‘Money just simply corrupts,’ Leland Yee said weeks before arrest. Though some people begin with a headstart.

VIRTUAL PRESIDENT BILL WHITTLE on Taxes. You know, if Bill and Barack would just switch their actual/virtual presidencies, I think the country would be better off.

And if I were rich, I’d buy time for these addresses on a regular basis. After a while, a lot of low-info voters would probably think Bill Whittle was actually the President.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 341.

THE FEDS BACK DOWN AGAIN: Social Security stops trying to collect on old debts by seizing tax refunds.

The Social Security Administration announced Monday that it will immediately cease efforts to collect on taxpayers’ debts to the government that are more than 10 years old.

The action comes after The Washington Post reported that the government was seizing state and federal tax refunds that were on their way to about 400,000 Americans who had relatives who owed money to Social Security. In many cases, the people whose refunds were intercepted had never heard of any debt, and the debts dated as far back as the middle of the past century. . . .

The suspension of the collection effort is “the right thing to do,” said Grice’s attorney, Robert Vogel. “It’s a first step. The next thing they have to do is stop collecting debts from children under any circumstances.”

Vogel filed suit in federal court in Greenbelt last week, alleging that the government denied Grice due process by failing to give her notice of the debt and by taking the money from her, even though she was not receiving government benefits at the time the debt was incurred.

Vogel and several members of Congress argued that the government should not be holding children accountable for the financial acts of their parents. The Federal Trade Commission, on its Web site, advises Americans that “family members typically are not obligated to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own assets.”

After The Post’s article was published late last week, many hundreds of taxpayers who had had their refunds intercepted came forward and complained to members of Congress that they had been given no notice of the debts and that the government had not explained why they were being held responsible for debts that their deceased parents may have incurred.

It was a reliance on brute power, and it’s nice to see it pushed back.

GOP ESTABLISHMENTARIANS NOT SO HOT ON RAND PAUL. I think he’s a very smart and talented politician. Whether he should be the 2016 nominee is, of course, to be determined over the next couple of years. But I keep having to lecture GOP establishment folks on this point: If you criticize GOP candidates more harshly than you’re criticizing Democrats, you’re doing it wrong. There are plenty of ways to say that someone wouldn’t be the best nominee without screeching. Because screeching alienates those candidates’ supporters. And you’ll need all of them to turn out in 2016. And in 2014. This sort of thing seems like Politics 101 to me, but apparently not to everyone.

UPDATE: Bill Quick points out problems with the “Rand Paul is weak” argument. That said, the Halliburton comment was dumb.

ELIANA JOHNSON: Bolton PACs Raise Big Money.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: “Unless they can get into an elite school, prospective students would be well advised to think twice before applying, much less going, to law school. Or, for that matter, before becoming an English major.”