THEY SHOULD BE: IRS Annoyed By Power Line.

WASHINGTON POST: More IRS “Smidgens” Show Up. “The coordination among the Democrats and Lerner is remarkably brazen, even by today’s standards. While she lies low taking the Fifth, her mouthpieces in the Democratic caucus recite talking points that only she could approve.”

SO I GUESS WE NEED MORE SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISM ON THIS: Why lobbying is a dud for most companies but benefits their CEOs.

THE DEEP STATE DOESN’T LIKE OPENNESS, AND DOES KEEP SECRETS: The place of secrecy within “Wisconsin’s Tradition of Clean and Open Government.”

The last couple of years have demonstrated that that “tradition” was actually pretty much a lie.

Plus, from the comments: “What does it say about the state of government and the justice system when the investigators have more to hide than those being investigated?”

STEPHEN HAYES: More Than A Smidgen.

The facts are simple. The IRS systematically targeted conservative and Tea Party groups after their activism proved decisive in the 2010 midterm elections—Obama’s famous “shellacking.” The effects of this targeting were widespread. Some Tea Party groups were neutered in the months before the 2012 presidential election.

Few of the explanations or justifications of this targeting provided by IRS leaders and Obama administration officials have held up. IRS officials at first denied that any targeting had taken place. That was false. They later claimed that the targeting had involved only low-level employees in the Cincinnati office. That was false. They argued that conservative groups weren’t singled out, that progressive groups were subject to the same level of scrutiny. That was false. They argued that the IRS has complied with all requests for information from Congress. That was false.

They lie a lot. And the press generally helps them out with that.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Number of LSAT Test Takers in June Falls to 14-Year Low. “Typically, June has the highest proportion of first-time LSATs (~70 percent between 2010 and 2012). This June low bodes ill for the number of applicants next fall.”

JUST THINK OF THEM AS DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: Becket Adams: This Washington Post puff piece on President Obama’s recent fundraising tour is really something else.

Juliet Eilperin at the Washington Post gained some amount of notoriety earlier this year after she penned an embarrassing and now-debunked attack on Charles and David Koch, the libertarian-leaning bogeymen of the left.

And now she has authored what may be this year’s silliest puff piece for the Obama administration.

To be fair, though, the year is nowhere near over.

ENTHUSIASM: OFA Donations Dip In Second Quarter.

IT’S ALWAYS NICE TO MAKE TWITCHY.

Meanwhile, background on the “sod off, swampy” line.

SARAH HOYT ON INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING: Why The Freed Tiger Sings. “You’re free. You’re not dependent on anyone to get your stories in front of the reading public. Whatever you want to imagine the bars are gone.”

DAVE SWINDLE: The 10 Most Obnoxious, Overrated Alien Cultures In Star Trek.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: European Effort for Computer-Simulated Brain Draws Fire.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Backyard Chickens For Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide to Raising Chickens in Urban Environments.

I have a friend on Cayman who’s raising chickens in her backyard. But she grew up on a farm in northern Australia where you have to shoot the snakes that are going after your chickens, so I don’t think she finds it a stretch.

INSTA-PUNDIT: AHEAD OF THE BLENDING CURVE AS USUAL. So a week ago, I mentioned the Nutri Bullet Blender. Now, it turns out that it’s royally popular.

UPDATE: But don’t use it for crushing ice.

BUMMER: Vasectomy linked to aggressive prostate cancer. But note this: “However, the absolute risk of developing deadly prostate cancer was small, the study authors noted — 16 of every 1,000 men.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Tech-Savvy Prostitutes Trade Pimps for Web Pages.

AT AMAZON, up to 90% off on Used Textbooks.

Plus, deals galore in Televisions & Video.

A NICE GESTURE, from the folks at Red Lobster.

BLACK AMERICANS: The True Casualties of Amnesty. “The black unemployment rate is almost 11 percent, far higher than that of any other group profiled by labor statistics. African Americans are disproportionately employed in lower-skilled jobs – the very same jobs immigrants take. As Steven Camarota asked in a recent column, why double immigration when so many people already aren’t working?”

When my local car wash let go of its illegals a few years back, most of the replacements — probably at a higher wage — were black.

UPDATE: Who’d be working at the car wash? Hollywood knows.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Owning A Supercar Is Just As Expensive As You Think.

SCIENCE: C.D.C. Closes Anthrax and Flu Labs After Accidents. “After potentially serious back-to-back laboratory accidents, federal health officials announced on Friday that they had closed the flu and anthrax laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and have halted shipments of all infectious agents from the agency’s highest-security labs.”

SALVAGE: How Engineers Will Make the Costa Concordia Float Once Again.

AT AMAZON, back-to-school shopping made easy.

Plus, soak up summer deals while they last.

THE TOP 10 THINGS TO DO in Cleveland.

This list omits my favorite thing that I did in Cleveland, touring the U.S.S. Cod, a World War II era submarine. But then, I was a big fan of Run Silent, Run Deep.

THE MORE WE KNOW, the bigger deal the Fermi Paradox becomes.