EMILY SMITH: In Relationships, Be Deliberate. “Traditionalists tend to think cohabiting before marriage is a bad idea, and progressives are more likely to embrace it, but new research says that’s not the best way to approach the question: The important thing is how couples make the leap into a shared life.”

PAUL RAHE: Ferguson in Perspective: Jason Riley Tells Hard Truths.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 468.

Note this from Laura Ingraham: “What do you think would have happened, guys, if tea party activists, right, came to Washington D.C. after the IRS scandal broke and decided to start smashing windows, rampaging through neighborhoods, throwing fire bombs. What do you think Eric Holder and Barack Obama would do? Would they start saying, ‘Well, we understand that people are angry, we really get your emotion here, but this isn’t acceptable. Do you really think there would have been this nuanced language, this emoting that has become the pastime of this administration?” Well, that’s not entirely off the table, these days.

LIZ PEEK: 6 Reasons Obamacare Can Win the Senate for the GOP.

YOU KNOW, THERE’S A REAL LYNCH MOB MENTALITY HERE. ‘Simply crazy’; TPM’s Josh Marshall thinks Gov. Jay Nixon, D-Mo., might be nuts. I’m glad to see Josh noticing this.

ANNALS OF ANTI-SEMITISM: Edinburgh a Sad Symbol of Anti-Israeli Intolerance.

Each August, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe puts on edgy cultural fare that draws capacity audiences from across the world. A play called The City, staged by the Incubator Theatre of Jerusalem, was hardly the most challenging production in the festival repertoire, a murder mystery sung in rhyme and inspired by hip-hop, hardboiled fiction, and 1940s detective films. Yet it became controversial in the wake of Israel’s forceful action in Gaza to neutralize rockets being fired into the country and destroy a labyrinth of tunnels used for terrorist attacks. The City had just one performance, and then was axed when the Fringe management became unnerved by the scale of protests provoked by the Israeli nationality of the company. The police were less surprised, and their impassive (some would say supine) response sealed the production’s fate.

I spoke to several members of the cast, liberal-minded folk who were surprised that Gaza should be such a potent issue in Scottish politics. In Scotland the Israel-Palestine dispute is currency used by two left-wing parties that are vying for supremacy: the ruling Scottish National party (SNP) and the Labour Party. They try to outdo each other in their radicalism on the issue in order to appeal to middle-class liberals and a growing number of Muslim voters, most hailing from Pakistan.

But according to Scotland’s Jewish leadership, “the disproportionate obsession with Israel in Scottish public life . . . has itself made many Jewish people very uncomfortable, whatever their views on the current conflict.” The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) issued a statement on August 10 claiming that it was adversely affecting everyday community relations. Scotland historically has frowned upon anti-Semitism, but the new situation reflects the mounting insecurity felt by European Jews from Manchester to Berlin. . . . Back in the 1930s, the Scottish media, at least, defied the agitators with scathing editorials. But this time none have appeared, news coverage has been patchy, and only several arts correspondents, such as Joyce McMillan, Tiffany Jenkins, and Brian Ferguson, have denounced the surrender to intimidation.

And yet most American Jews probably find the Tea Party scarier.

And those Pakistani voters are the fruit of Labour’s secret 1990s plan to lure immigrants to gain votes and dilute traditional British culture.

As Eugene Volokh says, in a democracy, when you let immigrants in, you are letting in your future rulers. Choose carefully. Most of the British Jews now concerned with growing antisemitism probably voted for Labour, because they thought it was progressive and caring.

DAN MARKEL UPDATE: One month later, FSU professor investigation continues.

LAW ENFORCEMENT: Gee, Officer Krupke, You’ve got Humvee, a Helo, a Drone and an M-16.

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WASHINGTON POST: Was Romney Right? His Most Spot-On Predictions.

SEEMS LEGIT: Mark Udall Spent Your Tax Dollars on A Wealth Advisory Firm. “According to reports released by the Secretary of the Senate, Udall used official funds to pay BSW Wealth Partners, a Boulder, Colorado-based independent wealth adviser that was founded by a campaign donor, each year between 2011 and 2013.”

ANDREW KLAVAN AND BILL WHITTLE: What Is Truth?

REPORT: Only 3 of 78 Arrested Protesters Were Ferguson Residents. The usual lefty idiots, I presume.

WHY IS THIS MAN SMILING? Rick Perry Booked At Texas Courthouse, Gets Mug Shot.

UPDATE: Congrats To Texas Dems For Turning Rosemary Lehmberg’s Drunk-Driving Conviction Into National News.

JUST ANOTHER CONVENIENT SCREWUP: Wisconsin union has no idea how that forged card got in there.

Dian Palmer, president of Service Employees International Union Healthcare Wisconsin, wants one thing to be perfectly clear: Her union takes its ethical responsibilities very seriously. So it’s just baffling to her how a forged signature was used to financially support the union’s political arm.

Palmer conceded in a Aug. 11 letter to a lawyer for Milwaukee-based Supportive Homecare Options Inc., that somebody apparently signed up one of the company’s employees to support the union’s Committee on Political Education without that employee’s knowledge or approval. But as far as who that was, well, the trail seems to have gone cold.

Until recently, I had no idea that Wisconsin was such a dirty state. It seemed so clean, until you looked under the covers.

BENTHIC TREATY RENEGOTIATION — TOP SECRET: The Hill: Obama Heads Back To Vacation After Unexplained DC Trip, Leaving A Puzzle Behind Him.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Should Everyone Consume Less Sodium?

USA TODAY EDITORIALIZES: Rick Perry’s Flimsy Indictment.

Politics as usual should not be a violation of criminal law. This ought to be obvious to anyone in a democratic society. But it does not seem to be well understood in Texas, where a special prosecutor in Austin persuaded a grand jury last week to indict Gov. Rick Perry, who was booked and fingerprinted on Tuesday.

Perry, a once and potential future candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has been charged with misusing his office and coercing a public official. Sounds serious, until you look at the flimsy, two-page indictment. . . .

Beyond Perry, two other potential Republican presidential aspirants also face investigations. One, involving New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, is a straightforward, legitimate focus of inquiry. But another, involving fundraising efforts on behalf of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, seems just as mired in politics as the Perry case.

It’s political lawfare, pure and simple.

HIGHER EDUCATION TENURE GAP: Sexism, Or Productivity? Well, the only women who didn’t get tenure at my school basically just never wrote anything. So in that case, at least, it was clearly productivity.

SOME HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE FROM TAM:

In the Twenties, cops had better guns than the military. Submachineguns and self-loading rifles were widespread in law enforcement before they ever were in the Army. People need to stop getting their history from Andy Griffith reruns. Frank Hamer didn’t gun Bonnie and Clyde down from ambush with a flintlock musket, you know.

In the Sixties, they’d have already turned the dogs and water cannons on the Ferguson protestors. In the Twenties, Andy and Barney would have broken the old Potato-Digger out of the armory and started mowing them down. The po-po used to be pretty quick to go weapons-free on unruly crowds, especially if such crowds were made up of black folk or commies.

Realistically speaking, the rate of police violence (like all violence) is probably at a low ebb, but in this age of social media, ubiquitous cameras, and the 24-hour news cycle, you get to hear about every bit of it. (And of course the media is 100% infallible when they report on police brutality, the way they are with gun-related stuff. We mock the “shoulder thing that goes up” utterances and then Gell-Mann our way across the page to nod in sage agreement at reported use-of-force abuses.)

Sure, in the old days, Officer Flatfoot walked a beat and said “Hi!” to the kids and helped people carry their groceries in. He also “tuned up” the occasional vagrant with some brass knuckles for giving him lip or helped a black guy ensure that the sun didn’t set on his back in Pleasantville, and everybody just shrugged and went on, because that’s how things were.

Let’s everybody be thankful that, so far, Ferguson 2014 hasn’t turned into either Los Angeles 1992 or Tulsa 1921.

True. What’s amazing about Ferguson is that, for all the sturm und drang, the casualty count is pretty light.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Pop Quiz: Who Skips School More Often, Students or Teachers?

SOME YES, OTHERS NO: Can A Liberal Learn To Shoot?

NEW YORK TIMES: Who Will Stand Up For The Christians? “Why is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? In Europe and in the United States, we have witnessed demonstrations over the tragic deaths of Palestinians who have been used as human shields by Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza. The United Nations has held inquiries and focuses its anger on Israel for defending itself against that same terrorist organization. But the barbarous slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Christians is met with relative indifference.”

REPORT: Officer Darren Wilson Suffered “Orbital Blowout Fracture to Eye Socket” During Mike Brown Attack. That would certainly challenge the media narrative, wouldn’t it?

Related: Report: More than a dozen witnesses say Brown attacked officer.