FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES BRINGS THE PAIN: Ex-Pentagon chief calls for ‘not-Obama’ as next president.

TOO DUMB FOR COLLEGE: Ashe Schow: Student protesters jump the shark: Can’t even handle the name ‘Lynch.’

Student protesters at Lebanon Valley College have managed to encapsulate everything outsiders see as wrong with the current campus “revolution”: privileged students finding outrage in mundane things.

Students are demanding that (among other things) LVC administrators remove or modify the name of the “Lynch Memorial Hall” — not because the man it was named after was a racist, but because these students cannot handle the word “lynch.” Lynch, of course, is a term that means to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal sanction. Thousands of African-Americans were lynched over three centuries.

But it is also the last name of about 130,000 people in the United States. Do these students faint when they come across “Twin Peaks” on Netflix (directed by David Lynch)? Do they have a panic attack whenever the U.S. attorney general (Loretta Lynch, who is also African-American) makes a statement? Do they crash their cars when they see a sign for a town named Lynchburg?

We mock the Victorians for their delicate sensibilities, but this is worse. And stupider.

TRUMP AND THE OVERTON WINDOW: “A boorish and crude demagogue, but useful for smashing the walls of the leftist prison all political debate is had inside.”

Speaking of which…

Shot: “Liberal Media Mock Europe’s Islamic ‘No-Go Zones’ Which Are All Too Real.”

—NewsBusters, January 24, 2015.

Chaser: “‘Trump’s not wrong – we can’t wear uniform in our OWN cars’: Five police officers claim Donald Trump is RIGHT about parts of London being so ‘radicalised’ they are no-go areas.”

—The London Daily Mail, yesterday.

MARK ZUCKERBERG OVERCOME BY URGE TO REASSURE MUSLIMS THAT FACEBOOK IS A SAFE SPACE: “Did I miss a recent national outbreak of violence against Muslims in America? I know about the terrorist attacks by the none-too-secret Jihadis in San Bernardino, but I’ve missed the massive backlash of ‘Islamophobia’ that the media is always warning us about.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, EXPLOITATION OF THE WEAK EDITION: As Adjuncts Proliferate, University Presidents See Rising Paychecks. As I keep saying, the reason why academics think that business is cruelly exploitative is because academia is.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Nat Hentoff: ACLU Silence Enables Campus Anti-Free Speech Movement.

The Radio Television Digital News Association recently presented its new First Amendment Defenders Award to Tim Tai, a student journalist who was hired by ESPN to cover the anti-racism protests at the University of Missouri.

“Tai was confronted by University students, faculty and staff, threatening him with violence if he did not abandon his efforts,” the award citation reads. “Instead, he stood his ground and patiently asserted his First Amendment Rights to stand in a public place and report on the events around him.”

One would hope that the ACLU of Missouri issued a statement of support for Tim Tai at the time the video of this highly publicized event went viral on the Internet. But the ACLU of Missouri didn’t even acknowledge that the incident occurred. Instead, they issued a statement that “the ACLU of Missouri honors the University of Missouri students and faculty who displayed courageous and creative leadership …”

The next day, when MU’s student body vice president suggested on national television that the exercise of First Amendment rights creates a hostile and unsafe learning environment, the ACLU of Missouri remained silent. Two days later, when a Christian street preacher was physically assaulted by anti-racism protesters while speaking inside MU’s designated “Free Speech Circle,” the ACLU of Missouri remained silent.

The same pattern repeated itself in Connecticut during the same month. When Yale University student protesters interrupted a free speech symposium on campus, and spat on attendees trying to leave the venue, the ACLU of Connecticut remained silent. When Yale instructor Erika Christakis urged tolerance of offensive viewpoints, and was verbally abused and harassed until she resigned her teaching position, the ACLU of Connecticut remained silent.

The ACLU, these days, is only about civil liberties for leftists.

AT AMAZON: Deal Of The Week: Outlander Season One: The Ultimate Collection on Blu-Ray. It comes with a flask.

Also, Deals Galore in the Holiday Gift Guide.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Choose The Form Of Your Destructor.

JAZZ SHAW: While we fight over Trump, France closes 3 mosques, finds hundreds of weapons. They’re a year or so ahead of us.

HE MEANS HORMONAL BIRTH CONTROL: Milo Yiannopoulos: Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.

SOME GOOD ADVICE HERE: 5 PR OPPORTUNITIES IN WAKE OF UT DIVERSITY CRISIS. The trouble is, the reason why people perceive diversity offices as havens of micro-controlling types akin to a left-wing version of the preacher in Footloose is because, well, they generally are.

FBI DIRECTOR: Obama’s Full Of Crap.

President Obama does not receive briefings about the FBI’s investigation into the personal email setup Hillary Clinton used as secretary of State, bureau Director James Comey said on Wednesday.

As a result, Obama should have no way of knowing how the inquiry is proceeding, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee, despite the president’s apparent dismissal of concerns about impropriety.

We all know that Obama says whatever he wants, without worrying about the facts. If the facts turn out differently, well . . . expiration date reached!

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Feminists don’t challenge radical Islam because real misogynists are terrifying.

WHAT IN THE WORLD is happening to Chipotle?

AUSTIN BAY: Finding The Assassin Dagger In The Haystack:

Six years ago, a retired FBI agent told me that some of the best sources for stopping a domestic terror attack are tips from citizens. American Muslims provide good tips on potential Islamist-inspired terrorists. They know their community. Counterterrorism isn’t cops on the beat, but there are similarities.

That made sense to me. In 2003, I had a cup of coffee with an Arab Muslim friend of mine. I asked him for an update on The Quest — his long pursuit of a permanent resident green card. He sighed and then said, softly, “There are 25,000 Arab Muslim men in my group (green card applicants), (and) 24,991 of them are like me, Austin. We know what it is like — to live in fear of terrorists, criminals, dictators. We left to come here … to get away from them. But the other nine? They are very dangerous people.” He paused and then added, with unmistakable resignation, “I guess that’s just my lot in life.”

I heard the resignation and told him I could vouch for him. No need. His attorney told him to continue to work hard and wait.

I asked him where he got the number “nine.” I knew he meant potential terrorists and spies. He thought for a moment and then replied: “Well … it seems about right. There are not many (violent Islamist extremists). … They’re crazy, you know.” We explored his gut estimate. If nine out of 25,000 is right, then we’ve got 90 in 250,000. Ninety heavily armed fanatics can seize a city. Yes, “very dangerous people.”

He eventually secured his green card. Then he went to Iraq as a translator. He is very proud of that service. A few weeks ago, he wrote me an email and said he expects to become a citizen at some time next year.

We need to do a better job vetting immigrants. That isn’t bigotry; that’s sanity. However, loyal, responsible immigrants strengthen America. Americans who happen to be Muslims are — like my friend — a key line of defense in stopping Islamic State-influenced terror attacks.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing much about this administration — or the Homeland Security administration generally — that inspires the necessary confidence.

“NO SECRET REMAINS FOREVER:” Wired seems to have identified the mysterious creator of Bitcoin as Australian polymath and autodidact extraordinaire Craig Steven Wright, in part using documents he may have leaked himself. (Gizmodo, which also received some documents, concurs.) No sooner had the Wired story hit the web than Australian police hit Wright’s house, in what they said was an ongoing tax investigation. Read the Wired story here.

SCOTT WEILAND’S EX-WIFE IN ROLLING STONE: ‘DON’T GLORIFY THIS TRAGEDY:’

We don’t want to downplay Scott’s amazing talent, presence or his ability to light up any stage with brilliant electricity. So many people have been gracious enough to praise his gift. The music is here to stay. But at some point, someone needs to step up and point out that yes, this will happen again – because as a society we almost encourage it. We read awful show reviews, watch videos of artists falling down, unable to recall their lyrics streaming on a teleprompter just a few feet away. And then we click “add to cart” because what actually belongs in a hospital is now considered art.

It’s a powerful article — and I wonder if the editors at Rolling Stone understand what a rebuke it is to the entire culture they’ve been promoting since their launch, from former contributors and drug fiends Hunter Thompson and William S. Burroughs to regular cover stories on self-destructive poster children such as Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse and Keith Richards (who’s staggeringly lucky to still be alive and performing) to covers in which rock star looks and death wish urges combine to glorify something far worse than mere self-destruction:

It’s Jann’s world; we’re just living (and in Weiland’s case dying) in it.

DOES EXERCISE help keep our brains young?

The fittest men showed little or no activation in their right hemispheres; they needed only their left hemisphere for the task.

In terms of attention and rapid decision-making, their brains worked like those of much younger people. They also were quicker and more accurate in their keystrokes, indicating that they attended and responded better than the less-fit volunteers.

Over all, Dr. Soya said, the results suggest that “higher aerobic fitness is associated with improved cognitive function through lateralized frontal activation in older adults.” Fit older people’s brains require fewer resources to complete tasks than do the brains of older people who are out of shape.

Of course, this study was observational and does not prove that fitness changed the men’s thinking, only that fit men had different brain activation patterns.

The study also did not look at exercise habits, only aerobic fitness.

Next, do a correlation with leg strength.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Former U.S. State Department Employee Pleads Guilty to Extensive Computer Hacking, Cyberstalking and “Sextortion” Scheme.

FASTER, PLEASE: George Church Aging Reversal Prediction and the costs and capabilities of genetic treatments are nearing levels for effective human treatments.

JERRY BROWN: ‘NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE COERCIVE POWER OF THE CENTRAL STATE:’

PARIS—One of the goals of Californians who traveled to Paris for climate talks this week was to showcase green-energy businesses that are succeeding in the state.

But on Monday it was the “coercive power” of government for which Gov. Jerry Brown was seeking credit. . .

“You do have to have, at the end of the day, a regulation, a law,” he said. “Progress comes from well-designed regulatory objectives that business then follows.”

Because government is always so much smarter than everyone else.

It gets better:

Later, at the site where world leaders are meeting to negotiate a climate pact outside of Paris, Brown urged a small crowd to “never underestimate the coercive power of the central state in the service of good.”

“You can be sure California is going to keep innovating, keep regulating,” the Democratic governor said. “And, shall I say, keep taxing.”

Controversially, many green-energy businesses benefit from government subsidies or policies to reduce greenhouse gases.

At a news conference Monday evening, business owners chuckled when asked if their companies would be viable without government support.

K.R. Sridhar, chief executive officer of the fuel cell company Bloom Energy, said, “There’s almost nothing in the post-industrial age, no business, no industry that ever got started or ever flourished without policy support, without subsidy and without federal support.”

Remember: You didn’t build that.

But at least for now, you can flee: