OUT: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. In: Same-Sex Divorce.

WHY AREN’T FIREWORKS getting any better?

WHEN FOOD IS FRIGHTFUL: This Woman Looks Like A Pinup But Bakes Like Tim Burton.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 421.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Die, Ex-Im Bank, Faster, Faster!

The most interesting, and puzzling, political development of the last month has been the impending demise of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Puzzling, because the Export-Import Bank is basically small beer — the sort of government agency that usually achieves immortality through obscurity. It’s surprising to me that this has actually become a hot political issue. Interesting, because reform conservatives look like they may well claim a genuine scalp: eliminating a long-standing instrument of corporate welfare. . . .

But if the economic impact is slight, the symbolic impact is huge: Conservatives are taking a run at a major dispenser of corporate subsidies, while Democrats have suddenly discovered a deep love of government-financed corporate expenditures. It just got a little bit harder to argue that Republicans are the party of big business.

On this issue, I’m with the symbolists. The government should not be directly subsidizing purchases of American goods, and no, I don’t care if all the other kids at the World Trade Organization get to do it. The principle involved is not whether there’s an explicit taxpayer expenditure, but whether corporate welfare is within the proper scope of the federal government’s duties. Conservatives say it isn’t, and I agree.

It sets a precedent, which needs to be followed through on.

IT’S A BAD WEEK FOR COOLEY: 6th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Thomas Cooley Law School’s Defamation Complaint Over Statements About Its Placement and Loan Default Rates.

AT AMAZON it’s the Kindle Daily Deal.

Also, this week’s featured 99-cent songs.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! Make Mine Freedom!

KIRSTEN POWERS: Obama’s Imperial Overreach. “Notice that the former constitutional law professor did not make a substantive legal case in defense of his executive power grabs. He merely stated that what he did was popular, ergo his extra-constitutional actions are fine. A more reassuring answer would include explaining how his actions are consistent with the Constitution.”

If illegal actions are okay if they become popular, what happens when running Obama out of town on a rail becomes popular? Judging by the polls, the trend is not his friend. If only Obama had seen A Man For All Seasons. Or at least picked up a famous quote somewhere.

AND THE DOOR REVOLVES ONCE MORE: Ex-White House Flack Jay Carney To MSNBC? Yet another argument for my revolving-door surtax.

ROGER SIMON: America At The Crossroads This Fourth Of July.

We are living under the administration of a president that is now the least popular since World War II. A full one-third of those polled by Quinnipiac rate Barack Obama the worst president since 1945. (Reagan is rated the best.)

What accounts for this? There are dozens of reasons that have been detailed on these pages and many others. The man has lied to us multiple times – and to himself as well, no doubt – and many people now apparently sense this. But I think the deepest reason, the motivating cause, stems from a time Barack Obama actually didn’t lie, but told an important truth.

Back on July 27, 2004, a then obscure Illinois senator made himself famous by standing in front of the Democratic National Convention and speaking these words: “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is a United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America, a Latino America, an Asian America, There is a United States of America.”

Did he believe those words? Maybe. Once upon a time. But evidently not very deeply. The fact is he betrayed them completely and almost everything he has done wrong has stemmed from that betrayal. He has acted in the most partisan and deceitful manner , surrounding himself with a tiny group of yes-women and men, making a mockery of his self-proclaimed transparency, shamelessly exploiting interest groups in a way that could only divide our society while diminishing America’s place in the world, and allowing evil forces to grow across the globe.

All of this while being convinced he is always doing the right thing. The rest of us are wrong. He is not the Commander-in-Chief. He is the Moral Narcissist in Chief. It’s not “I think, therefore I am.” It’s “I believe – therefore it is.”

The American electorate’s fit of perversity is exacting a high price, and it will be higher before this is over.

ALTITUDE GENES: Tibetans didn’t get their genetic advantage from Homo sapiens. “Tibetans don’t seem to have adapted over the millennia, nor is a genetic mutation responsible for their ability: Researchers have discovered they share a gene with our hominid cousin the Denisovans, who went extinct some 40,000 years ago; their study was published in Nature yesterday. Known as EPAS1, the gene allows Tibetans to absorb scarce oxygen without creating extra red blood cells—something the rest of us mortals must deal with at altitude, and which can lead to dangerously high blood pressure, cardiac arrest, and lower birth-weight babies.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Is America the Greatest Nation on Earth? Fewer Americans Say Yes. “The survey finds that the share of Americans who think America is exceptional, standing above all other nations, has fallen 10 percentage points since 2011, to 28% of Americans.”

I think the answer is that it’s proceeding as planned.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: LA Schools Realize Giving Every Kid an iPad Was a Costly Disaster, Will Give Every Kid a Laptop Instead.

BENDING THE COST CURVE: Vaccine Prices Are Soaring. “Childhood immunizations are so vital to public health that the Affordable Care Act mandates their coverage at no out-of-pocket cost and they are generally required for school entry. Once a loss leader for manufacturers, because they are often more expensive to produce than conventional drugs, vaccines now can be very profitable.”

ZUCKERBERG UNBOUND: “The most obvious scandal here is that Facebook is willing, just to see how strong it really is, to experiment with its users’ happiness and sadness. But what is most troubling about the PNAS study is the simple fact that a new force for social control has emerged.”

A SMALL VICTORY FOR TRANSPARENCY: Ethics Committee will reverse travel disclosure rule change. “House Ethics Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, Texas Republican, said Thursday the committee plans to reverse its controversial change to disclosure laws requiring lawmakers to report free trips on their public annual disclosure reports. . . . The news agency first reported the scandalous rule change earlier this week, revealing that the committee had made a closed-door decision to delete the requirement that lawmakers report their all-expenses paid travel, without any public announcement of the change.”

ISN’T THIS QUAINT? Computing In The Dark Ages.

NEW FEDERAL SCHOOL-LUNCH RULES SO ONEROUS THAT school systems are saving money by opting out of the program.

Some district officials are saying they’re all for healthy food, but they have to sell enough hot lunches to break even on their program — and that won’t work if the kids shun the food. They also are a little prickly about federal officials telling them what to do.

“We believe that proper food nutrition and meal portion guidelines are best decided at a local level,” said Rick Petfalski, School Board president for the Muskego-Norway School District.

Opting out of the program means Muskego-Norway will no longer receive federal money for its meals, but it also means the district is free to serve whatever it wants.

Already losing money because fewer kids were buying the meals, the district will now have to cover the cost of free and reduced lunches on its own. It will do this partly by spending less on foods that students don’t eat and — they believe — increasing the number of kids buying lunches by providing tastier meals.

Under the school lunch program regulations, Petfalski said, the district’s food service was projected to be headed toward a $54,000 deficit. By opting out — and presumably selling more food — he expects about a $7,100 surplus.

I suspect that more federal programs are like that than people realize.

SPENGLER: Why Do Terrorists Target Children?

BY “PARENTS,” THEY MOSTLY MEAN FATHERS: Who’s your daddy? Study on genetic testing says parents don’t need to know: New paper argues that universal nondisclosure of child’s biological information causes less harm and confusion. I think this is playing God. People should have access to the truth. I’m not certain I’d favor mandatory paternity testing at birth, but I’d favor that before I’d favor keeping secrets.

AT AMAZON, soak up Summer Deals.

Plus, last chance to shop the Fourth Of July Sale.

ANNALS OF GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: Veteran Finally Gets VA Appointment, Two Years After His Death. “As if adding salt to the wound, her Vietnam veteran husband was denied veterans funeral benefits because he was never actually treated at a veterans’ hospital.”

NOBLE SAVAGES, AS USUAL, MORE SAVAGE THAN NOBLE: Evidence Of Torture At 1,200-Year-Old Massacre Site.