WRIST, SLAPPED: IRS staffer suspended for Obama cheerleading. “An IRS employee has been slapped with a 100-day suspension for exhorting taxpayers seeking assistance to vote for President Obama. . . . The suspension marks the latest headache for the IRS, which still faces pressures from a wide range of quarters for its improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups.” Politicized and weaponized, the entire agency should be suspended.

I note that it doesn’t say whether the suspension is with or without pay. . . .

BUT OF COURSE: After saying he’s not interested in photo-ops, Obama concludes Texas trip with … a photo-op.

ROGER SIMON: Obama Talks To Netanyahu — Did Bibi Tell Barry To Stuff it? “Enough already. Bibi, it’s up to you. Western civilization’s last stand.”

THAT’S HIS JOB: RUNNING INTERFERENCE FOR CROOKS AND INCOMPETENTS. Elijah Cummings: The Democrats’ first line of defense against Republican attacks. And if you criticize him for that, you’re racist.

AND THE NEW YORK TIMES IS ON IT! Glamour Photos Replace Selfies For Personal Branding.

JACOB SULLUM: Obama’s ‘Third Way’ Looks a Lot Like the War on Drugs.

We know President Obama is committed to “drug policy reform” because he keeps telling us he is. Since April 2012, when the phrase first appeared on the White House website, it has been mentioned there 65 times. But what does it mean? According to the latest National Drug Control Strategy, which was released today by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), “we must seek to avoid over-simplified debates between the idea of a ‘war on drugs’ and the notion of legalization as a panacea.” Fans of Obamaspeak will appreciate the way that sentence poses a false choice while renouncing false choices. After all, legalization need not be a “panacea,” or anything resembling one, to be better than the disastrous war on drugs, which Obama himself once called “an utter failure.”

What is the president offering in its place? “Drug use and its consequences are complex phenomena requiring an array of evidence-based policy responses,” the ONDCP says. Understanding this reality, “the Administration remains committed to charting this ‘third way’ toward a healthier, safer, and more prosperous America.” But in practice, Obama’s “third way” looks an awful lot like the first way, because he refuses to renounce the use of violence to stop people from consuming politically incorrect drugs.

So, pretty typical, then.

FIGHT THE POWER: Lyft defies New York City taxi agency’s ban, to launch Friday.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: The U.S. Just Sent Thousands of Draft Notices to Men Born from ’93 to ’97—1893 to 1897.

Alternate headline: John Scalzi, call your office!

I LOVE THE WAY THE LEFT WILL DO ANYTHING TO TRY TO MAKE ITS TARGETS SEEM TOXIC: AFSCME Ends Support For United Negro College Fund After Fund Accepts Koch Brothers Grant. This exposes just how sour and petty they’ve become — and, possibly, also how financially pressed.

And speaking as a public employee myself, the grifters at AFSCME don’t speak for me. The sooner they’re all out on the streets selling pencils, the better for America. Including, quite clearly, black America.

THE HILL: IRS ordered to explain lost emails.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Missouri voters will consider strengthening state constitutional right to bear arms.

I’M SURE THE SPLC WILL BE ALL OVER THIS HATE-GROUP STORY: Felon, Former Black Panther Party Leader Hosts Fundraiser for Democratic Senate Candidate Michelle Nunn.

REALLY? “WE?” We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse by Cutting Down Forests. Well, I haven’t cut down any forests. But if you replaced “we” with “Africans,” some people might think you were racist or something.

JAKE TAPPER 1, PLO Adviser 0.

PEGGY NOONAN: Is A Nation Without Borders A Nation? “No one’s in charge! No one is taking responsibility. No one who wants to help has authority, and no one with authority is helping.”

TRUST US, WE’RE SCIENTISTS. “On July 8, scientific publisher SAGE announced that it was retracting a whopping 60 scientific papers connected to Taiwanese researcher Peter Chen, in what appears to be an elaborate work of fraud. This case is one of what appears to be a recent spate of scientific malfeasance. So what’s going on here? Is this just a uniquely bad run? Or does the recent spate of scientific misconduct point to a flaw in the peer-review process?”

MY LAW REFORM PROPOSAL: When police trespass on your property to stop you videoing them, you should be allowed to kill them, put their heads on pikes as a warning to others, sell their organs to Chinese organleggers, and use the money to buy billboards mocking their superiors for lawlessness.

It’s a modest proposal, but it would probably reduce misconduct.

THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: More probably-incriminating files “accidentally” destroyed.

STEPHEN GREEN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: 007 Had It Right with the Martinis. “Next time you order a martini, think shaken, not stirred. New research shows that shaken martinis not only taste better, but they may have some age-fighting properties.”

SO THIS PIECE ON PROFESSORS DATING GRAD STUDENTS misses the point. The real problem is the structure of PhD programs, which give people immense and unaccountable power over others’ careers. Forget dating — look at somebody wrong in the hallway or criticize their favorite movie and they might turn against you. And the reasons for approving or disapproving dissertations are extremely nebulous and difficult to assess. When the Insta-Wife was getting her PhD I was struck by how much warmer and friendlier a place the law school was than her graduate program in psychology. But I think that’s because we have (1) anonymous grading in most classes; (2) clear standards; and (3) litigious students who would be harder to push around. At the law school, if you take the classes and pass them you get your degree. In a graduate program, you can do everything you’re supposed to, only to have the rug jerked out from under you at the end. We adopted this system from the Germans in the 19th Century. Maybe it’s not a good one for the America of the 21st Century.

Also, note the sexism in assuming that such relationships are always between a senior male and a junior female. Not so. And one final question: If it’s okay to regulate relationships because they are “bad for the department,” not withstanding “the disingenuous guise of a ‘private life,'” would it then be okay to regulate relationships in general because they produce negative externalities for society? Because if so, then shouldn’t we be punishing single motherhood, which quite clearly does just that?

AT AMAZON, introducing new, curved-screen 2014 TVs.

Plus, deals galore at the Home Audio & Home Theater Store.

NEW ZEALAND’S PROPOSED RAPE LAW “REFORMS:” No “right to silence,” and burden of proof shifted to the accused.

ADAM BELLOW: 21 Conservative Writers To Read At The Beach.

By the way, they’re running a crowdfunding effort for Liberty Island. I’ve donated.

STEPHEN CARTER: Hollywood Should Give Women a Chance to Blow Up Stuff.

YEAH, PRETTY MUCH: The Audi A8 is the perfect car for the tech-obsessed plutocrat.

Here’s my review of the A8. And I’ll have a review of the lightning-fast Audi RS7 coming tomorrow.