LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: 30 Wisconsin Homes Vandalized with Swastikas and Anti-Semitic Slogans; The police are unsure whether this constitutes a “hate crime.” “The neighbors felt a little more certain of the nature of the graffiti than the police. Jim Stein, an 18-year resident of the area, said that he awoke Saturday morning to see ‘F**k Jews’ spray-painted on a garage door across the street; later, when his neighbor had cleared the snow from his driveway, a swastika was found to have been spray-painted on the pavement.”

Buy a gun.

IT’S A ROBOTS’ UNIVERSE: WE’RE JUST LIVING IN IT. Why Superintelligent Machines Are Probably the Dominant Lifeforms in the Universe.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Scientists in US are urged to seek contact with aliens. In human history, contact between less-advanced and more-advanced societies has seldom gone well for the former. Some related thoughts here.

INEVITABLY: Hitler Finds Out About Brian Williams. “It’s like being unsure if you had a threesome with Sofia Vergara and Kate Upton! Some shit you just do NOT ‘misremember.'”

Related: Brian Williams’ SEAL Team 6 stories are the latest to come under fire.

Also: Brian Williams’ 2012 Gawker Email Should Have Been Early Warning Sign.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandals, Day 649.

ANOTHER FAKE HATE CRIME: Muslim UT-Arlington student admits making up claim that gunman followed her to campus, threatened her.

A UT-Arlington student who claimed she was threatened at gunpoint on campus this week admitted Friday that she’d lied, a university spokeswoman said.

The student told police she hadn’t even been at the school the day she said the incident occurred. . . .

The university had issued an alert Friday that the student told police she had been followed six miles by a man in a pickup before she reached the campus. She had reported that when she parked at the university, the man threatened her and pointed a gun at her before he left.

The student also posted on social media that the man might have targeted her because she is Muslim. In a Facebook post, she referred to the killings of three Muslim students this week in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Chapel Hill police say a long-running parking dispute between neighbors motivated 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks to kill Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, at a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina campus.

A Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization has asked authorities to address speculation about possible religious bias in the Chapel Hill slayings.

If the facts don’t support the narrative, make up some facts.

MOMENT? FOR SLOW JOE, IT’S MORE LIKE “LIFE.” Biden has his own Brian Williams moment. “During a CNN/YouTube Democratic debate in June of that year, Biden said he was ‘shot at’ inside the Green Zone in Iraq then later walked back the comment to say that a mortar round landed roughly a few hundred yards away from a structure where he was staying overnight.”

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SCOTT WALKER HAS THE POWER TO REACH BACKWARD IN TIME AND TO PARALYZE HIS ENEMIES IN THE PRESENT: So, yesterday I noted that this Gail Collins oped in the New York Times accuses Scott Walker of ordering teacher layoffs in 2010, when he didn’t take office as governor until 2011. And yet, as of this morning, the Times hasn’t run any sort of correction.

UPDATE: From the comments: “He’s got a TARDIS and a sonic? I’m in.”

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: IRS Chief Refuses to Apologize to Lawmakers on Missing Emails.

BUT OBAMA SEES THEM AS FRIENDS WE JUST HAVEN’T PROPERLY MET YET: Republicans Want Tougher Action Against Islamic Extremism.

Congressional Republicans are pushing for a broader, more aggressive approach to counter the threat of Islamist extremism against a White House strategy they see as too passive and politically correct. This is a risky political move after more than 13 years of war, but one they think may be necessary to confront a growing danger.

Concern about President Obama’s unwillingness to even describe the terrorist threat as “Islamist” colors nearly every national security debate on Capitol Hill, including consideration of his proposed authorization for the use of force against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and oversight of policies for combating extremist activity at home.

“Today we are at war. We’re at war with violent Islamist extremism, the perversion of a religion into a deeply insidious worldview,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Thursday in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

“For six years, the president has denied it and has put our nation on a path of retreat. This denial has allowed our enemies to surge.”

Ya think?

THE HILL: Five decisions Hillary can’t duck.

TO BE FAIR, MARVEL HAS ALWAYS SUCKED: Milo Yiannopoulos: Female Thor Is What Happens When Progressive Hand-Wringing And Misandry Ruin A Cherished Art-Form. “This has led to some questions from comic book fans. Questions such as: will Wonder Woman turn out to be a tranny? Is the Incredible Hulk only incredible because he endured cruel fat-shaming as a teen but didn’t let his size define him? And shouldn’t Spider-Man be a gay latino? . . . What sticks in the craw of the fans I’ve spoken to about female Thor is how utterly transparent the political posturing is behind the change. There is no good literary justification for making Thor a woman, they say–and the results have been execrable. You can write intelligent satire about masculinity without making a classic masculine icon into a girl, an observation that seems to have escaped Marvel’s writers.”

With Marvel, none of this should be a surprise. They’ve always been the “look at me!/we try harder” comics imprint. That their products have done so well in pop culture of late is a poor reflection on pop culture.

IT’S COME TO THIS: America’s New Aristocracy: The Hereditary Meritocracy.

WELL, TO BE FAIR, HE’S ALSO THE ONLY REASON ANYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT HER FOR THE PRESIDENCY: Bill Clinton’s libido threatens to derail Hillary — again.

Just a few weeks ago, reports broke that Bill Clinton had flown at least 11 times on “The Lolita Express” — a private plane owned by the mysterious financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. According to Virginia Roberts, who claims to have been one of Epstein’s many teenaged sex slaves, Clinton also visited Epstein’s private Caribbean retreat, known as “Orgy Island.”

“I remember asking Jeffrey, ‘What’s Bill Clinton doing here?’ ” Roberts said in 2011. The former president, she added, was accompanied by four young girls during his stay — two of whom were among Epstein’s regular sex partners. “And [Jeffrey] laughed it off and said, ‘Well, he owes me a favor.’ He never told me what favors they were.”

Clinton also spent years traveling and partying with Ron Burkle, a billionaire bachelor with a penchant for very young girls. Clinton spent so much time on Burkle’s private plane that it came to be known in Burkle’s circle as “Air F—k One.”

And what’s his relationship with Terry Bean?

MY BIG WORRY IS THAT THIS WILL LEAD TO AN ISLAMOPHOBIC BACKLASH: Synagogue Attacked as Terror Spree Continues in Copenhagen.

Will we see an #illwalktothesynagoguewithyou hashtag to show sympathy with Danish Jews?

UPDATE: From the comments: “Before the Danes get on their high horse let’s recall the many Viking atrocities.”

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: A woman fell from a stadium, a man saved her; here’s what happened next. Plus, the importance of thinking and acting like a Marine.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: I’m Married. I’m a Woman. I’m Addicted to Porn.