LEADING FROM THE BACK NINE: Feinstein: Obama ‘too cautious’ on ISIS.

The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that President Obama has perhaps been “too cautious” in confronting the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“I think I’ve learned one thing about this president, and that is he’s very cautious. Maybe in this instance, too cautious,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked if Obama admitting the U.S. doesn’t have a strategy yet for battling the group inside Syria projected weakness.

The senior lawmaker said she understood the Defense and State department have been busy hammering out a strategy, “so hopefully, those plans will coalesce into a strategy that can encourage that coalition from Arab nations” such a Jordan and Lebanon who are “at jeopardy.”

“So there is good reason for people to come together now and begin to approach this as a very real threat, that it in fact is,” according to Feinstein.

She also strongly disagreed with the president’s assessment from earlier this year that ISIS is a “JV team.”

“I think it’s a major varsity team, if you want to use those kinds of monikers. But I see nothing that compares with its viciousness,” Feinstein said.

Well, it hasn’t been major enough to move Obama to action.

Related: Kerry: Allies must help ‘stamp out’ ISIS.

WHEN LIBERAL DEMOCRACY LOOKS WEAK AND CORRUPT, FASCISTIC APPROACHES FLOURISH: Raw: Clashes at neo-Nazi rally in Sweden.

SO THE POLICE IN FERGUSON MAY HAVE BEEN HEAVY-HANDED, BUT THEY WEREN’T THE BIGGEST IDIOTS THERE: QuickTrip Mart Will Not Re-Build in Ferguson. “A QuikTrip official told TGP the company has no plans on rebuilding in Ferguson and that the looted store was barely breaking even.”

Sure a few people get free TVs and stuff, but riots and looting blight communities for years, even decades, afterward as they frighten away investment.

Next: Complaints that Ferguson has become a “food desert.”

Well, don’t blame the St. Louis Tea Party. They tried to help.

THE AMOUNT OF TREASURY-LOOTING THAT’S BEEN GOING ON IS STAGGERING: Five-year review of Recovery Act finds $5 billion misspent.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Common Core anger triggers homeschooling surge in North Carolina.

HEH: “The right-wing bloggers win in the end, and when they win, they look like this.”

SMART DIPLOMACY: Why Obama Backed Off More ISIS Strikes: His Own Team Couldn’t Agree on a Syria Strategy.

ISN’T THIS SOME SORT OF A HUMAN-RIGHTS VIOLATION? U.S. Hikes Fee To Renounce Citizenship By 422%.

Over the last two years, the U.S. has had a spike in expatriations. It isn’t exactly Ellis Island in reverse, but it’s more than a dribble. With global tax reporting and FATCA, the list of the individuals who renounced is up. For 2013, there was a 221% increase, with record numbers of Americans renouncing. The Treasury Department is required to publish a quarterly list, but these numbers are under-stated, some say considerably.

The presence or absence of tax motivation is no longer relevant, but that could change. After Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin departed for Singapore, Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey introduced a bill to double the exit tax to 30% for anyone leaving the U.S. for tax reasons. That hasn’t happened, but taxes are still a big issue for many.

To leave America, you generally must prove 5 years of U.S. tax compliance. If you have a net worth greater than $2 million or average annual net income tax for the 5 previous years of $157,000 or more for 2014 (that’s tax, not income), you pay an exit tax. It is a capital gain tax as if you sold your property when you left. At least there’s an exemption of $680,000 for 2014. Long-term residents giving up a Green Card can be required to pay the tax too.

Now, the State Department interim rule just raised the fee for renunciation of U.S. citizenship to $2,350 from $450. Critics note that it’s more than twenty times the average level in other high-income countries.

Gradually building a Berlin Wall made of paper? Well, some people say that this is a human-rights violation:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”, while the Expatriation Act of 1868 says that renunciation of citizenship is “a natural and inherent right of all people” and that “any declaration, instruction, opinion, order, or decision of any officers of this government which restricts, impairs, or questions the right of expatriation, is hereby declared inconsistent with the fundamental principles of this government”.

As of press time, the State Department has not yet commented on whether it sees “public benefit” in other human rights such as freedom of election or freedom of marriage, or whether anyone seriously believes that charging people a month’s salary to get a ballot paper or a marriage certificate would not restrict or impair those rights.

Hey, I’ve got a crazy idea: Let’s run our country along lines that would make high-achieving people want to stay here.

STUFF YOU SEE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Video of a Spaceship in Re-Entry Shot from A Space Station.

DAVID HARSANYI: The Left’s Ridiculous Burger King Freakout. I like the promises of a boycott from people who probably haven’t eaten at Burger King since they were 11.

MARK STEYN: The Reformation Of Manners. “Now, in the new multiculti Britain, the child sex trade is back, as part of the rich, vibrant tapestry of diversity – along with Jew-hate, and honor killings, and decapitation porn.”

Reform, hell. I’m buying more ammo.

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BRIAN CATES: The Brutal Truth: Feminists Are Here For Our Amusement.

SPYING: Boston Police Used Facial Recognition Software To Grab Photos Of Every Person Attending Local Music Festivals.

On Facebook, a friend suggests that he’d like one of these masks, only with Andrew Breitbart’s face on it. I’d buy that.

IF IT’S LIKE THE BAY BRIDGE IN SAN FRANCISCO, THE ANSWER IS BADLY, WITH INFERIOR MATREIALS, BUT AT GREAT EXPENSE. How New York is Building its Behemoth New Bridge.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopter Is Cryonically Freezing His Body to See the Future. Should’ve just done the head. Whole-body cryo is for suckers.

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21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: The Pressure To Breastfeed.

WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE ELECTED BUSH/CHENEY TO A FOURTH TERM: DOJ Pretends No Fly Guidelines Haven’t Been Leaked, Claims ‘State Secrets’ To Avoid Revealing Them To The Judge.

SPYING: Los Angeles cops do not need to hand over license plate reader data, judge finds.

THE PROBLEM WITH Academic Art.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: The Hillsdale Conspiracy. “I’m guessing not 1% of public school students in America receive the education my daughters are getting from their Hillsdale-model school. And that’s a damn shame for the 99%. This is the argument for school choice. Public education can save Western Civilization, if Hillsdale is providing the content.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Dear Dean Wippman. David Wippman was a couple of years ahead of me in law school. I had his old Kessler & Gilmore Contracts text.

IN 10 YEARS, IT WON’T BE LABOUR VS. THE TORIES, IT’LL BE UKIP VS. THE BNP: Douglas Carswell’s defection to Ukip is a seismic shock to the British political system.

MIKE MCNALLY: Rotherham: A Quintessentially Liberal Scandal. “In every case the same explanation for official inaction is offered: no one wanted to look too closely into complaints against ‘Asian’ men because they were afraid of being accused of racism, and because they were concerned about the effect of arrests and prosecutions on ‘community cohesion.'”