SEEMS LIKE THERE ARE A LOT MORE RACISM HOAXES THAN THERE ARE ACTUAL EPISODES OF RACISM: Racist dorm door writing was hoax, Grand Valley State U police say.

THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW: Hawaii Cops: Let Us Keep Having Sex With Prostitutes.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 317.

CHANGE IS BAD! Please Don’t Hate Me For Gentrifying.

Recently, I found myself engaged in a conversation that’s pretty common among certain segments of Washington society. Someone had moved into a neighborhood. A developer wanted to put up a tall building in that neighborhood. Longtime residents were vehemently opposed on the grounds that this would cause gentrification.

Cue the frustrated cries. “Don’t they understand that keeping buildings low causes more gentrification?!?!?!?!” We all solemnly agreed that this was very aggravating.

But later, riding the bus home, I got to thinking that maybe it isn’t so crazy. The gentrifiers who want to build up are right that forcing developers to chop floors off their buildings will restrict the available supply of housing, driving up prices and causing more gentrification in the long run. But in the short run, the longtime residents who are resisting — call them “the gentrified” — may be right that allowing a big building will accelerate gentrification in their immediate environs. The housing market, after all, is city-wide. But the building is going to be right there next to them.

Gentrification is a lot better than the reverse.

IT’S ALWAYS THE MAN’S FAULT, EVEN WHEN THE KILLER IS A WOMAN: Transgender Woman Claims Former Male Self a Murderer.

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MICHAEL BARONE: Hispanics souring on Obamacare — and Democrats too? “I think that Obamacare may be discrediting Big Government generally among Hispanic voters. They may have assumed that government in the United States was competent and functional. They have been finding out that Obamacare has been about as competent and functional as government in Mexico.”

Maybe they’ll become less enthusiastic Democrats, but I’d be surprised if they went Republican in large numbers.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Michelangelo’s David Has a Right to Bear Arms.

ArmaLite’s ads broke the unwritten rules. Instead of highlighting the hero’s body, they emphatically made him a warrior. Hence Franceschini’s objection to an “armed David,” even though every David is armed. “David famously used a slingshot to defeat the giant Goliath, making the gun imagery, thought up by the Illinois-based ArmaLite, even more inappropriate,” writes Emma Hall in Ad Age.

To the contrary, the gun imagery, while incongruously machine-age, was utterly appropriate. David did not use a “slingshot.” He used a sling. As historians of ancient warfare — and readers of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, “David and Goliath” — know, a sling was no child’s toy. It was a powerful projectile weapon, a biblical equivalent of ArmaLite’s wares.

Nor did Florentine patrons commission statues of David because he looked good without his clothes. They commissioned statues of David because he was a martial hero who had felled an intimidating foe. They made him a beautiful nude to emphasize his heroism, not to disguise his bloody deed. (Donatello’s David has his boot triumphantly on Goliath’s severed head.) Michelangelo’s giant was meant as an inspiration to locals and a warning to would-be invaders. He wasn’t an underwear model. He was a Minuteman. Putting a gun in his hand may look weird, but it’s a lot truer to his original meaning than a souvenir apron.

Indeed.

JAMES TARANTO: Another ‘Glitch:’ But don’t worry, ObamaCare is running smoothly.

The story in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer begins reassuringly: “Nearly six months after the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov, with the website running smoothly and more than five million people signed up as open enrollment heads to a close . . .”

But it turns out that’s just disclamatory throat-clearing. Here’s the rest of the paragraph: “. . . a new glitch has come to light: Incorrect poverty-level guidelines are automatically telling what could be tens of thousands of eligible people they do not qualify for subsidized insurance.”

Reporter Don Sapatkin writes that he and his colleagues discovered the error “while running scores of income scenarios through Healthcare.gov”–the sort of testing you’d think the developers would have conducted long before the launch last Oct. 1. The story observes that the finding “again raises questions about the site’s accuracy.”

It seems to us the Inquirer doesn’t give itself nearly enough credit. Its investigation doesn’t raise questions, it answers them.

Related: “Bizarre new enrollment procedure” at Cover Oregon exchange.

THAT’S THE LAST TIME I WORK OUT AT THE HARRISON BERGERON FITNESS CLUB: Gym Tells Hot, Fit Woman to Cover Up Because She’s Intimidating Others. “Hot-shaming really is a thing now.”

Well, it’s Planet Fitness, where they don’t want you to be too fit. I mean, the woman in this picture is in good shape, but she’s no bikini model. Clearly, I’m not in their target demographic.

VALUE OF UNIVERSAL PRE-K “not empirically validated.”

As California discovered when it tried, and failed, to replicate class-size reduction results from the relatively small Tennessee STAR program, scaling presents big challenges such as getting enough good teachers to staff all the new positions.

Or consider Head Start and Early Head Start, federal early childhood programs that have undergone random-assignment scrutiny. They have demonstrated very few lasting benefits, and some negative effects.

To be fair, Salins argues that Head Start “was never designed to be a true preschool program,” but is instead “a well-meaning daycare program.”

Well, it depends on what you mean by value. If your goal is to produce more unionized public employees. . .

“IRISH DEMOCRACY:” The boom in smuggling to avoid cigarette taxes.

More than half of the cigarettes sold in New York State are smuggled in from other places to avoid the Empire State’s taxes on smokes, which have soared nearly 200 percent since 2006, according to a report issued by the conservative Tax Foundation.

New York is the highest net importer of smuggled cigarettes — illegal smokes account for 56.9 percent of the state’s total market. New York’s cigarettes tax is $4.35 per pack, the country’s highest. The situation there isn’t unique. The Tax Foundation also cites a study that found that 58.7 percent of discarded cigarettes found in five Northeastern cities lacked proper tax stamps.

You’ll see more of this kind of thing, as government has squandered its moral legitimacy.

REMEMBER, MALE TEACHERS ARE RARE BECAUSE PEOPLE THINK MEN TEND TO BE SEX PREDATORS: Anna Areola-Hernandez Allegedly Lures Child Into Sex, Gives Him STD. “In a call set up by officers, Areola-Hernandez allegedly told the boy’s mother that she was pregnant, though police have yet to confirm if this is true. . . . Court documents said Areola-Hernandez showed no remorse when talking about the allegations, and admitted to preferring younger boys, according to My Fox Phoenix.” If she’s pregnant, the boy may be on the hook for child support, despite being underage.

MESSAGING: The Gadsden Flag: Too Racist for Government Buildings, But Just Right for Obamacare Propaganda! Only a historical illiterate — which is to say, pretty much all modern lefties — would think there’s anything racist about the Gadsden Flag. As for the ObamaCare version, well, that’s just pathetic.

RANDY BARNETT: “The distinction between ‘economic’ and ‘personal’ liberty was devised by progressives to justify the pervasive regulation of the economy, while attempting to preserve some domain of judicially protected liberty. Reading that distinction into the text of the Constitution protecting ‘the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States’ is an act of judicial creativity, rather than interpretation.”

PATTERNS OF PERSECUTION: Raymond Ibrahim: Why the Media Doesn’t Cover Jihadist Attacks on Middle East Christians.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Appalachian Law School to Lay Off 63% Of Its Faculty?

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SO ARE WOMEN JUST too fragile for coeducation? People used to mock the old ladies who said that putting the sexes together would lead to trouble, but . . . .

AMAZING, CONSIDERING THAT SHE’S NOT A REPUBLICAN: Theft, assault, and vandalism charges filed against UC Santa Barbara professor.

CRONY CAPITALISM: The Government Is a Hitman: Uber, Tesla and Airbnb Are in Its Crosshairs.

ANNALS OF SEXISM: When the U.S. Government Preyed on All Men’s Fears of Obsolescence and Failure.

SOME OF US LESS SO THAN OTHERS: Sharyl Attkisson: ‘People Would Be Surprised At The Level Of Cooperation Reporters Have With Politicians.’

USUALLY WHEN YOU BUILD A MOCKUP OF ANOTHER COUNTRY’S MILITARY FACILITIES, IT’S FOR PRACTICING ATTACKS: The Hill: Why is Iran building a fake US carrier?