STANDING UP against sexism: “That was actually more sensitive — more aware of stereotyping and apologetic for resorting to it — than what Coates did. And Coates, unlike Rush, is someone who’s main theme is spotlighting offhand/semi-conscious/unconscious racism. I’m calling him out for offhand/semi-conscious/unconscious sexism.”

WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK YOUR CAR.

SPYING: New documents: NSA provided 2-3 daily “tips” to FBI for at least 3 years.

JOHN MILLER TALKS TO RICHARD EPSTEIN about Richard Epstein’s new book, The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest For Limited Government.

OUCH: Mark Levin on Obama Imaginary Son Football Quote: ‘I Wouldn’t Let My Son Be an Ambassador Under You.’

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 257.

PAUL HSIEH: Federalizing Medical Conversations?

DER SPIEGEL: Green Fade-Out: Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals.

The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking — jeopardizing Germany’s touted energy revolution in the process.

The climate between Brussels and Berlin is polluted, something European Commission officials attribute, among other things, to the “reckless” way German Chancellor Angela Merkel blocked stricter exhaust emissions during her re-election campaign to placate domestic automotive manufacturers like Daimler and BMW. This kind of blatant self-interest, officials complained at the time, is poisoning the climate.

More here:

At the heart of the matter is the simple fact that renewable energy comes at a premium, and the costs for propping it up have been passed along to consumers, both industrial and residential, in the form of higher electricity costs.

Yet this turn towards green energy has produced a browner energy landscape. Germany produced more energy from coal in 2013 than it had in nearly a quarter century, and its emissions actually rose. . . .

German businesses are considering jumping ship for cheaper energy prices in the developing world or (gasp!) the United States. For households, these subsidies have acted like a particularly regressive tax: The poor feel the bite of higher electricity bills than do the rich. Germany’s new energy and economy minister Sigmar Gabriel is expected to announce a plan to cut renewable energy subsidies later this week in an effort to keep electricity prices down. That will be a step in the right direction, but significant damage has already been done.

Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON C-SPAN THIS WEEKEND, here’s video of my Manhattan Institute speech on The New School.

AT AMAZON, Top Deals on Valentine’s Day Gifts.

Also, deals galore on Kindle Accessories.

Plus, today only: 40% off Reebok RealFlex Advanced Training Shoe.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Obama’s Legacy: Paranoid Conspiracy Theories Aren’t Crazy Anymore.

MICHAEL TOTTEN IN CUBA: The Lost World, Part I.

“FUZZY FACTS” IS WHEN DEMOCRAT FAVORITES TELL LIES: WaPo: Wendy Davis Admits To “Fuzzy Facts” In Bio.

“My language should be tighter,” she said. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”

Note that she’s a Harvard-trained lawyer, but says she can’t express herself with precision. Is this what feminism looks like?

ED DRISCOLL: How the L-Word Was Won. “Rid society of the dictatorship of the middle class.”

ASHE SCHOW: Wendy Davis feminism vs. real feminism.

Davis was recently accused of “blurring” the facts surrounding her life, and while she did struggle as a child — working at 14 to help support her mother — what she has since come to stand for undermines what women around the world are fighting for.

Davis is of course a very bright woman. She received an academic scholarship to attend Texas Christian University and was accepted to Harvard Law School. That’s no small feat, and she certainly should get feminist credibility for that.

But what came to light in the Dallas Morning News on Sunday was that after Davis’ husband finished paying for her Harvard education, she left him, and he was granted parental custody of their 14-year-old daughter.

“She said, ‘I think you’re right; you’ll make a good, nurturing father. While I’ve been a good mother, it’s not a good time for me right now,’” Davis’ ex-husband, Jeff Davis, said.

Not a good time to be a mother? This wasn’t even during a pregnancy. Jeff Davis wasn’t talking about their conversation over a potential abortion. This was a conversation about child custody.

A former colleague of Davis’ told the Dallas Morning News that the gubernatorial candidate’s ambition played a role in the custody ruling.

“Wendy is tremendously ambitious,” he said. “She’s not going to let family or raising children or anything else get in her way.”

Is that feminism? The ability to shirk one’s responsibilities in order to get ahead in life?

Then there’s the part where she got her husband to pay for her law school, then divorced him the day after the final payment was made.

ROGER SIMON: The Duranty Prize Is Back — With An Addition. Last time, the prize went to “reporter Joan Juliet Buck and editor Anna Wintour of Vogue magazine for their nauseating whitewash of the Assad family (‘Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert’). Subsequent events in Syria have shown that we chose well.” Follow the link to see how to submit your nominations.

THEY DOUBT HIM BECAUSE THEY’RE RACIST: Poll: 73 percent say Obama NSA reforms won’t boost privacy.

OUCH: Rex Murphy on Neil Young.

IN THIS VIDEO INTERVIEW I talk about how leakers can actually build trust — or, more accurately, how the possibility of leakers can build trust.

THE HILL: Poll: Public turning against NSA practices.

MICKEY KAUS: The Coming GOP Amnesty Sellout Push.

The coming weeks will see the formal start of the GOP House leadership’s attempt to sneak an immigration amnesty through the Republican caucus and into law. We don’t know the exact details of the proposals, but we know enough. . . .

It takes some chutzpah for Boehner to make his amnesty push now, given the sour jobs news, falling measured support for amnesty, and the need for party unity in the coming midterm elections. You’d think the employment news alone–almost 3 unemployed Americans for every available job–would cause savvy lobbyists to postpone any attempt to push for a massive addition to the unskilled and skilled workforce. (The Senate’s bill would add about 6 million extra immigrant workers by 2023 – in addition to the current illegals who’d be legalized.) Maybe that could fly in a boom. But now?

Democrats used to push for tighter labor markets–they’re the best proven way to lower poverty, boost wages and curb income inequality. Today, the job of pointing that out has fallen to Republican Jeff Sessions, who has been fighting the battle Democras like Byron Dorgan and Barbara Jordan used to fight. Do we want to give less skilled Americans millions of new competitors, inevitably bidding down wages at the bottom? (“Did they repeal the law of supply and demand and not tell me about it?” asks Jim Cramer.) The groups most marginally connected to the labor market–e.g, teenage African Americans–would be the biggest losers. Democrats used to understand this.

It’s a sellout. That’s a term I don’t use lightly. Certainly there are plenty of idealistic, principled advocates of “comprehensive immigration reform” — including true believers in open borders, advocates of immigrants’ rights, and ethnic champions. Even the employers who are providing the financial muscle behind the amnesty push may sincerely think spoiled American workers just aren’t cutting it anymore, that the economy needs better, cheaper, hungrier immigrants — heaven forbid responsible corporatist roundtablers should have to actually train those spoiled Americans.

But why are the politicians abandoning the economic interests of the country’s basic laborers, and the strong anti-amnesty convictions of their own constituents (in the case of most Republicans), and doing it at such an objectively inauspicious time? It’s hard to deny that cash is doing much of the swaying here. “[A]ll the money is on the side of pushing it,” one pro-amnesty Democratic Congressman boasted–money in the form not only of direct campaign contributions, as promised by Mark Zuckerberg ($50 million) and the Chamber of Commerce, but also future consulting contracts and lobbying positions for those who echo the line that Republicans just have to do this to remain viable.

Actually, I don’t think they can remain viable if they do. It’s (another) big push in the direction of a massive base-walkaway from the GOP, and quite possibly the formation of a third party.

IRA STOLL: Tech Innovation Outstrips Government Obstructionism.

ANNALS OF THE .0001 PERCENT: White House imposes secrecy rules on first lady’s lavish, celebrity-filled birthday party.

THE EXODUS IS HERE: Sean Hannity to Leave New York After Andrew Cuomo’s Anti-Conservative Rant. Let’s get together, before we get much older.