THE JETS BOMBING ISIS AREN’T AMERICAN, REPORTEDLY, but Turkish.

However: Obama authorizes limited airstrikes in Iraq: ‘We cannot turn a blind eye.’ A day late and a MOAB short, but better than nothing.

JOURNALISM: British journalism student gang-raped in Calais.

The woman was reporting on illegal immigration from France to Britain and police believe the attack was carried by some of the men she intended to write about in the northern France port.

Detectives described the attack as being of a “particularly brutal nature”.

Some 100 would-be immigrants to Britain were rounded up by a force of French riot police and are being questioned as potential witnesses.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was described as “a London student who had travelled to France to highlight problems surrounding clandestine immigration.”

Well, I think she succeeded in that, at least. I hope she fully recovers.

UPDATE: Via InstaPundit in 2002, a story about refugees in Calais.

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: When Regulation Kills: Release The Experimental Ebola Drugs.

FOLLOWING KEY TENNESSEE RESULTS AT Ace Of Spaces HQ Decision Desk.

PREMATURE CONCLUSION: How do we know there isn’t life on the Sun? Perhaps not “life as we know it,” but that hoary exobiological phrase was created precisely because we have knowledge of life on only one planet.

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BARBARISM: Genocide Is Back, And Who Has The Will To Fight It?

JOEL KOTKIN: Democrats Risk Blue Collar Rebellion.

In some senses, this budding blue-collar rebellion exposes the essential contradiction between the party’s now-dominant gentry Left and its much larger and less well-off voting base. For the people who fund the party – public employee unions, Silicon Valley and Hollywood – higher energy prices are more than worth the advantages. Public unions get to administer the program and gain in power and employment while venture capitalists and firms, like Google, get to profit on mandated “green energy” schemes.

What’s in it for Hollywood? Well, entertainment companies are shifting production elsewhere in response to subsidies offered by other states, localities and companies, so high energy costs and growing impoverishment across Southern California doesn’t figure to really hurt their businesses. Furthermore, by embracing “green” policies, the famously narcissistic Hollywood crowd also gets to feel good about themselves, a motivation not to be underestimated.

This upside, however, does not cancel out hoary factors such as geography, race and class. One can expect lock-step support for any proposed shade of green from most coastal Democrats. Among lawmakers, the new Democratic dissenters don’t tend to come from Malibu or Portola Valley. They often represent heavily Latino areas of the Inland Empire and Central Valley, where people tend to have less money, longer drives to work and a harder time affording a decent home. Cap and trade’s impact on gasoline prices – which could approach an additional $2 a gallon by 2020 – is a very big deal in these regions.

Many of these same people historically have worked in industries such as manufacturing and logistics, industries that rely on reasonable energy prices.

Omelettes, eggs, whatever.

COMPARISON: SEALS vs. AALS. I like SEALS, but seldom go to AALS. I think it’s because it’s harder for people, even law professors, to be as pretentious with people who’ve seen them in a swimsuit. Related thoughts here.

STORM CHASING ON SATURN.

YOUR HOME INTERNET ROUTER: “Critical Infrastructure” — that the Feds should control?

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And remember, when you buy through Amazon links on InstaPundit, you’re doing me a favor. I appreciate it.

MOTHERS FOR DUE PROCESS: Mother Of Falsely Accused UND Student Caleb Warner Speaks Out On Campus Sexual Assault Legislation.

K.C. JOHNSON: How Yale Brands Innocent Males As Rapists. Rapists with a six-figure tuition tab. “A Yale student is now being investigated as a serial rapist, with the possibility of sanctions—even though none of the females he allegedly raped have filed a complaint, or have even been identified. How any student could defend himself against such a charge is unclear.”

A CAR FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: The Simple Tweaks Mercedes Used to Turn a Sedan Into an Armored Beast.

NOW THAT’S SOME PRETTY GOOD SHOOTING: A 1000-yard shot with a 9mm.

REVIEW: The Amazon Fire Phone tries hard to impress, but often ends up just being annoying. Yeah, I was interested but decided to wait. Hey, even the first iPhone wasn’t that great.

I WANT TO BELIEVE: “Impossible” Space Engine Gets Pushback from Scientists.

ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Daily Beast Targets Rand Paul with Violent Imagery. “Is the Daily Beast calling for the assassination of Rand Paul?”

I’D SAY RATHER THE LIBERTARIAN “DO OR DIE” MOMENT APPROACHES: New York Times: Has The Libertarian Moment Finally Arrived? Don’t think the grunge-band comparison works, though.

I have to say, though, that “The Independents” is now my favorite show to do. I was on it last night talking about my USA Today column this week, and also this unfortunate incident.

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 455.

ED MORRISSEY: Watergate and the Abuse of Power: A Lesson Unlearned.

The familiarity of these events, coupled with the increasing impulse of Obama to abandon constitutional limits, shows that America largely ignored the lessons of Watergate. It’s not enough to be wary of executive power when the opposition party controls the White House, as Republicans belatedly learned in 1974; to defend and protect constitutional government and the rule of law, that vigilance has to exist at all times.

Some of the same voices that shrieked with horror at the threat of the “unitary executive” under George W. Bush seem perfectly comfortable now with Obama ruling by executive fiat rather than governing under the rule of law, as long as it’s only their bêtes noires that get targeted.

Perhaps it’s fitting that the anniversaries of Watergate and the Great World War are so close together, as we seem to have difficulty learning from either.

Apparently so.

I CALLED THIS OBAMA’S RWANDA, BUT ACTUALLY SYRIA IS OBAMA’S RWANDA. SO I GUESS THIS IS OBAMA’S SECOND RWANDA? The Islamic State’s bloody campaign to exterminate minorities: ‘Even Genghis Khan didn’t do this.’ “We are being exterminated! An entire religion is being exterminated from the face of the Earth. In the name of humanity, save us!”

But it’s not like Bill Clinton suffered any consequences for Rwanda. I guess all that “duty to protect” stuff was just the usual self-serving crap.

I THINK THE WORLD’S BETTER OFF IF HE JUST KEEPS RIDING THAT PINK BICYCLE: What John Kerry Did While The World Burned Last Weekend. “As usual with these annual summer photos on Nantucket, Kerry looks surprised that someone just walking along happens to have a cellphone camera. It’s happened to Liveshot how many times now, just on Nantucket, and he’s still astounded that it’s happened again. Apparently, he still believes it’s 1984, and the only photographers are from the Globe, and if they take another embarrassing shot, he can just call Mr. Winship or Mrs. Winship and get it killed.”