WHY I LOVE THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON (CONT’D): Andrea Mitchell Conducts Foreign Policy Interview with Chicago Slumlord:

Andrea Mitchell on Friday landed an exclusive interview with Chicago slumlord Valerie Jarrett to discuss terrorist threats against the United States, as well as the resignation of her close friend Attorney General Eric Holder. It was a very enlightening interview.

“I have nothing new to report,” Jarrett said when asked about reported threats to U.S. subway systems.

Mitchell asked about President Obama’s speech at the United Nations earlier this week. It was a very important speech, Jarrett said.

“It was a very strong, powerful speech,” she said. “It was a very constructive and important week, and the speech sent a very strong signal.”

Jarrett, who is one of the president’s closest and most ruthlessly loyal advisers, said she had “tears streaming down my face” when Holder announced his resignation. She will “miss him on a very personal level,” but will also lead the team to find his replacement.

Jarrett has also been involved in a number a shady real estate dealings in her hometown of Chicago, using political ties to make millions off the controversial privatization of public housing projects.

Heh. If only the traditional media were this truthful.

EVEN ON THE LEFT, NAOMI KLEIN’S LATEST NOT GETTING A WARM RECEPTION. “Unfortunately, the result is a garbled mess stumbling endlessly over its own contradictions. Her understanding of the technical aspects of energy policy — indispensable for any serious discussion of sustainability — is weak and biased, marked by a myopic boosterism of renewables and an unthinking rejection of nuclear power and other low-carbon energy sources. Having declared climate change an ‘existential crisis for the human species,’ [15] she rules out some of the most effective means of dealing with it.”

I’ll believe it’s an existential crisis for the human species when the people who keep telling me it’s an existential crisis for the human species start acting like it’s an existential crisis for the human species.

JOURNALISM: Chicago Tribune Reporter Mocks Republican Candidate In Phone Conversation [Audio].

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: MUSLIM CONVERT BEHEADS WOMAN IN OKLAHOMA TERROR ATROCITY. That’s not quite how most of the press is presenting this story, though. . . .

OH, FUCK OFF: Chicago Police Detective: Encryption Makes The iPhone The “Phone Of Choice For The Pedophile.” John J. Escalante, you’re a sorry excuse for a putz, if that’s the best you have to offer. The truth is, we think you, and your colleagues, are all too likely to be cheats and liars. And the evidence — especially in Chicago, of all wretched hives of official scum and villainy — seems to support that.

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TAMARA TABO: When The Confirmation Of The Next Attorney General Gets Political, Thank Eric Holder.

So, how did Holder generate so much bad blood?

Well, few signs indicate contempt for — and on the part of — Congress like being held in contempt of Congress. Unwilling to fully account for the Obama administration’s participation in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal, Eric Holder became the first sitting member of a U.S. President’s Cabinet to be held in contempt. The confrontation and the issues surrounding it guarantee that the next AG nominee will face a tough crowd during Senate confirmation hearings.

In the background, there’s Operation Fast and Furious, the now-infamous Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in which the President’s administration intentionally allowed guns to wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The operation aimed for the guns to be later found at crime scenes, a consequence that might help ATF to better target future gun-control policies. Guns from the Fast and Furious operation were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and others, drawing attention to the Fast and Furious scheme. While the initial investigation into the operation sparked controversy, the administration’s response ignited more.

Appearing before the House of Representatives, Holder refused to turn over documents about why the administration has been stonewalling — and possibly lying to — Congressional investigators. Judicial Watch attempted to get hold of important Fast and Furious documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act request, which the DOJ denied. The DOJ continues to fight the subsequent FOIA suit. This week, a federal court ordered the administration to produce what is known as a “Vaughn index.” The Vaughn index must identify each document that the administration has withheld, the statutory exemption from FOIA the administration has claimed, and an explanation of how disclosure would be damaging. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the DOJ must submit the Vaughn index by October 22.

No wonder Holder resigned when he did. If he remained in office, he would face bitter fights with both the judical and legislative branches. Even once Holder himself no longer occupies the AG’s office, his successor is likely to adopt a similar attitude toward members of Congress and the courts. After all, Holder was not simply acting on his own behalf when getting snippy with Congress. He was representing President Obama’s administration. Why think the next person representing the president will do differently?

Of course, nastiness with congressional investigators is not the only way that Holder ensured that finding his replacement will be especially political. Many members of Congress want to be sure that the next AG is considerably less comfortable with the term “selective enforcement” than Holder has been.

Worst Attorney General ever, which is saying something.

MARK OBENSHAIN: ‘Four Pinocchios’ for Washington Post on Photo ID.

IF THIS UPSETS YOU, IT’S BECAUSE YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION: Men of All Ages Want Women in Their Mid-20s, Study Says; Whereas women tend to prefer men of the same age or slightly older.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Woman Drowns After Cops Threaten Rescuers With Arrest, Reportedly Fail to Attempt Rescue Themselves.

BILL WHITTLE: It’s Time To Talk About Some Good News.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Online Learning is Just as Effective as Traditional Education, According to a New MIT Study. Also a K-12 implosion update, I guess. All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

I DON’T KNOW IF THIS WILL TAKE OFF: The New Style: Black Kitchens.

Why black? I’m reading between the lines here, but the consensus of designers seems to be that “all the other colors were taken.” Glowing natural wood has been done. Bright primary colors? HGTV seems to have cycled through all of them over the last decade. White? Every 30-something family in every detergent commercial seems to be glowing in a dazzling white kitchen mysteriously unmarred by the cherubic toddlers dashing around its oversized island. What’s left is black, color of death, funerals and, apparently, Cameron Diaz’s kitchen floor. . . .

The last time black cabinets were in vogue, in my formative years, all of these disadvantages rapidly became obvious, and black kitchens fell out of fashion as quickly and thoroughly as they had come in. So as soon as you walked into an apartment and saw all that black enamel, you could practically pinpoint the month of the renovation. As “fashion forward” rapidly downshifted into “Pity they can’t afford to do something about that eyesore,” people became frantic to get rid of the stuff. You can walk into probably millions of kitchens in the greater New York City area and still find the pebbly white melamine that was fashionable around the time of the Great Glossy Black Craze of 1985. But the black is practically a collector’s item, because most of it was ripped out scant years after it was put in.

Truly, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But it’s hard to see why, in this case. “People don’t like dark, enclosed spaces” is not the kind of insight that should require a trained archivist to ferret out.

Well, stainless steel, granite, and natural wood have been the style for a long time now. Planned obsolescence isn’t working, so we need to give people a reason to redecorate, or move. They’ve tried this on several fronts with no success over the past few years — getting rid of granite, getting rid of stainless steel for “polar white” — but nothing’s budged people much. Money remains tight, and the old kitchens still look good.

OKAY, HOLLYWOOD’S JUST TROLLING US NOW: Justin Bieber to voice KITT in new Hasselhoff film, confirming apocalypse; Gen X, this is the deathblow to your childhood.

TEST DRIVE: 2015 Ford Transit Prisoner Transport Vehicle: Designed for Discomfort.

IN BALTIMORE: Man shouts ‘Jews, Jews, Jews,’ fires on group walking near private school. “The suspect is described as a white male, brown hair, dark complexion, possibly of Middle Eastern descent.”

USA TODAY: Police: Suspect in Okla. beheading was Muslim convert.

YOU MEAN THAT POLITICO STORY WAS JUST CRAP? Milt Wolf: Sorry to disappoint the media, there’s no meeting with Greg Orman and I don’t have any plans to make an endorsement. That’s kind of embarrassing to Politico’s Manu Raju and Alex Isenstadt, I guess. Also to Kyle Cheney, who “contributed” to Politico’s report.

FASTER, PLEASE: Why The Heyday Of Credit Card Fraud Is Almost Over.

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VIRGINIA POSTREL: Frat Boys, Drunken Girls and Paternalism.

Given the mounting concern about sexual assault on college campuses, you might expect activists to welcome a fraternity adviser’s message that Greek houses should take positive steps to protect inebriated women from potential dangers.

You’d be wrong. Apparently it’s not enough to watch out for the welfare of drunken young women. You have to do so without suggesting that they, rather than the diabolical forces of fraternity life, have any responsibility for their intoxication — even if they arrive at a party plastered. Judging, or even acknowledging, the risky behavior of female college students has become a cultural taboo.

Hence the fate of Forbes.com contributor Bill Frezza, who briefly published a column — under the deliberately provocative headline “Drunk Female Guests Are The Gravest Threat To Fraternities” — warning fraternities to watch out for female party guests who show up intoxicated. “I don’t care how pretty or flirtatious a young lady is; if she’s visibly intoxicated, don’t let her in,” he wrote. The consequences, he warned, could be grave. . . .

The column was almost immediately jerked from the site, and Frezza, who has written for Forbes since 2011, was summarily fired. . . . Commentators were outraged that Frezza — a man! — appealed to the self-interest of fraternity members, and addressed the subject from their perspective rather than tackling broader issues of morality or condemning the decadence of Greek life. . . . The reaction to the piece was entirely overwrought. You’d think Frezza had called for getting women drunk and raping them rather than suggesting that fraternity members escort intoxicated women out of the party and put them safely in cabs.

Campus sex hysteria is an engineered moral panic. Its purpose is to justify targeting, punishing, and isolating the people the panic-engineers don’t like. Nothing that counters the chosen narrative, however sensible, can be tolerated. Because it’s not about helping women. It’s about demonizing and marginalizing men.

Let me be clear, as a great man likes to say: This is not a case of good intentions gone wrong. It is a case of bad intentions given free rein. Forbes should be ashamed to play the role of useful idiot here. But read the whole thing for Virginia’s somewhat more nuanced approach.

UPDATE: From the comments: “I had no idea Forbes was so cowardly.” It’s not the magazine it used to be, which is too bad.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: No, you probably can’t bend the iPhone 6 Plus. Unless you’re a bodybuilder.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE (CONT’D): Recent incidents ignite sexual assault discussions.

Recently at Oswego State, a male student headed to the bar on Thursday night with his friends. There, he saw the female teacher assistant for one of the courses he was taking and began to have a friendly conversation with her.

During this time he was belligerently drunk. After spending time talking with his TA, he left for a calzone, only to be followed by the TA and her friend.

“Maybe I was too drunk to tell them where I live,” he said. “Then it became very apparent that she wanted to have sex with me. Her friend was hinting that we were going to have sex, kind of like a wing woman. So we were doing a tour of the house, so she was asking me to take off my clothes, to show off. Her friend showed me the bed where I was going to sleep. Her friend made the bed and I got in it, and then my TA came to the bed and got in it.”

The night left a bad taste in the victim’s mouth. When he woke up, he got his clothes on and she drove him home.

“I could taste cigarettes in my mouth for the rest of the day,” the victim said. He did not attend the following class and slumped in bed for some five days.

I wonder if the university would entertain his complaint, or send him packing in a shameful sexist double standard. Note that this story opens with a male victim, but goes on to talk about self-defense classes for women.

JOURNALISM: Aussie Teenager Fearful For His Life After Newspaper Misidentifies Him As A Terrorist With Wrong Facebook Photo.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Tapes showing meek oversight of Goldman are about to rock Wall Street.

Hey, they don’t call him President Goldman Sachs for nothing.