GLEICHSCHALTUNG! Cuomo: Pro-life people have “no place in the state of New York.”

THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Acoustic lens generates tunable ‘sound bullets’ for ultrasound applications.

THE ECONOMIST has a nice review of my book, though I’m a bit puzzled at the assertion that I don’t include enough numbers to demonstrate the existence of a higher education bubble. Perhaps I’ll include this graph from Peter Thiel in future editions:

A COURTROOM WIN FOR EUGENE VOLOKH: Bloggers = Media for First Amendment Libel Law Purposes. “The protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist, formally affiliated with traditional news entities, engaged in conflict-of-interest disclosure, went beyond just assembling others’ writings, or tried to get both sides of a story. As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable.” That’s absolutely right, but it’s always nice to see the courts agree.

HMM: How Technology Killed The Future: Presidents—and the rest of us—can’t get anything done anymore.

This is just a tech-themed version of the “America has become ungovernable” columns I predicted some time ago. It’s not that Obama’s incompetent! It’s that technology has made us ungovernable! All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

Of course, some people think it’s good to be ungovernable.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: How I Learned Carrie Bradshaw Was Full of Sh*t. “What I didn’t ‘get’ in my younger days wasn’t the secret to Carrie’s coolness… it was that Carrie Bradshaw is an idiot. And a sucker. And—this is the part that hurts me most—a really shitty modern woman.”

AT AMAZON, Big Game Deals in TV, Audio & Video.

Plus, coupons galore in Automotive.

“I WOULD LOVE TO PUT A BULLET IN HIS HEAD:” America’s Spies Want Edward Snowden Dead.

“I’M A NEGATIVE, HATEFUL PERSON. WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT IT?”

TECHNOLOGY: Meet the Man Google Hired to Make AI a Reality.

I’LL BE ON BOOK TV ON C-SPAN2 AT 5 PM ET TOMORROW, talking about, well, you know.

FASTER, PLEASE: Manufacturing Organs: Harvard Bioscience spin-off is stepping up its production of synthetic tracheas to supply clinical trials.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

Also, Back To Business: Everything Your Company Needs.

JOE PAPPALARDO: The Nuke Silo Cheating Scandal, Explained. “Some of the airmen who watch over America’s nukes are accused of cheating on their proficiency tests. Why would they do that, and what’s going on at America’s remote ICBM bases? . . . In this case, the root of the problem is probably low morale in the missile fields.”

YOU COULD DO WORSE THAN SIMPLY TAKING THE OPPOSITE APPROACH TO ANYTHING AMITAI ETZIONI RECOMMENDS: Why Representative Democracies Can’t Write Off Transparency. “According to Etzioni, transparency is vastly oversold because it implicitly relies on a ‘naïve’ theory of direct democracy in which voters learn about, evaluate and signal their preferences on specific government programs and outcomes.”

I’M INTERVIEWED IN THE ATLANTIC, about education and my new book. Say, did I mention I have a new book out?

THE DANGERS OF SITTING. There’s always a treadmill desk. Or a FitDesk.

OBAMA’S NSA SPEECH NOT PLAYING WELL WITH THE TECHIES: 53 Years To The Day That Eisenhower Warned Of The Military-Industrial Complex, Obama Will Further Its Cause.

Related: 57% of Americans Regard Edward Snowden As A Whistleblower. That’s why Obama didn’t address Snowden much — this speech was an effort to reassure his base, and his base likes Snowden.

UPDATE: Bruce Schneier: Today I Briefed Congress On The NSA.

ANOTHER UPDATE: What’s Missing From Obama’s NSA Reforms. Don’t worry. He’ll stop the spying like he closed Gitmo.

THE RISE OF THE BARISTAS: The Growth of College Grads in Dead-End Jobs (In 2 Graphs).

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 253.

TAMMY BRUCE: Bombastic arrogance or humble determination? Chris Christie’s choice. “Christie seemed to have been drawn in by media attentiveness, and his attitude showed it. He now has a unique chance to escape that abyss of false praise and manipulation. All he has to do is turn on the television to see what all those supportive liberals are saying about him now.”

A BAD CHRISTMAS FOR BEST BUY:

Best Buy’s shares plunged this morning on news of its brutal holiday season. Yet Chief Executive Officer Hubert Joly says he’s going to continue the cost-cutting strategies that helped margins last year.

As I say, this is understandable, but ultimately, it’s hard to see how endless cost-cutting is going to keep Best Buy in business. It’s never going to get down to Amazon’s cost structure — especially because Amazon has other businesses, such as the third-party marketplace and its cloud computing services, that could be tapped for revenue to see the consumer electronics side through a price war. As I argued in a 2012 Newsweek feature, Best Buy is more likely to succeed by focusing on the areas that Amazon can’t match, such as top-notch service and carefully curated stock.

To be fair, that’s not an easy strategy to carry off. Getting the internal support to try would be hellishly difficult; a lot of jobs would be significantly changed, or eliminated, in the switchover. Then there are the stores to think about: A high-service, curated collection probably implies a very different retail format than the “giant box” stores Best Buy currently occupies. Unfortunately, Best Buy still has years to run on a lot of leases for giant boxes.

The last time I went to Best Buy, it was for a cable that I needed right away. They didn’t have it, and referred me to their website.

THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW: Settlement in § 1983 colonoscopy case. “David Eckert, who was subjected to an escalating series of medical procedures by police officers searching (unsuccessfully) for drugs, has settled his § 1983 action for $ 1.6 million. I previously wrote about the case and have been using the complaint in my Civ Pro class. I must admit to being slightly disappointed that we never got to hear the officers trying to argue that the law prohibting state-imposed colonscopies without probable cause was not clearly established.”

DANA LOESCH’S RADIO SHOW goes national.