MILO YIANNOPOULOS: The Wacky World of Brianna Wu: The Tortured History of GamerGate’s Self-Styled Feminist Martyr — Who Used To Be A Man. “Yet Wu was not until relatively recently a woman at all, and her legitimacy as a speaker even for the transgender community is in doubt since, as we can also today reveal, she was banned from a transgender forum after less than a year for unacceptable behaviour–not an easy thing to accomplish in a community well-known for its aggressive online conversations. . . . Wu has published unhinged op-eds in a number of online outlets that are seemingly not fact-checked or even subjected to basic common sense examinations. The increasingly hysterical tone of her recent writing, in which she makes direct appeals to President Barack Obama, has led some concerned observers to speculate she may be a danger to herself or those around her, especially when viewed alongside a Twitter account that is also spinning off the rails into ludicrous claims and grandiose language about imaginary attackers and her own bizarre self-image.”

HERBERT LIN: How Companies Can Ward Off the Hacker Hordes: Given the Sony and Anthem hacks, the corporate cybersecurity summit is long overdue.

In November Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked, a lot of the company’s data were made available on the Internet, and many of its computer systems were wiped clean. Last week hackers hit Anthem, the health-insurance giant, and potentially compromised 80 million records containing personal information, including Social Security numbers, that could be used to steal identities.

Modern life increasingly depends on information technology, and this dependence is for the most part irreversible. The networks and systems of the digital world are also unavoidably complex. Internet service providers, software vendors, credit-card companies, computer manufacturers, content-delivery networks, certificate authorities all work together to make the Web function for the benefit of society—but every one of these elements is a potential target.

The complexity of information technology has technical significance, because complexity is one of the greatest enemies of good security in system design and development. But it also has policy significance: Complex systems are very difficult to manage properly through a top-down, government-driven approach.

Yes, but distributed and decentralized approaches produce insufficient opportunities for graft.

THIS IS WHY LOOKING INTO GENEALOGY IS RISKY: When a black German woman discovered her grandfather was the Nazi villain of ‘Schindler’s List.’

THAT SEEMS ENTIRELY SENSIBLE: Ginsburg: ‘I Wasn’t 100 Percent Sober’ For State Of The Union Address. I mean, you need to fortify yourself before listening to that guy talk.

THE HILL LETS YOU KNOW RIGHT UP FRONT THAT HE’S A DEMOCRAT; OTHER ORGANS AREN’T AS FORTHCOMING: Oregon governor resigns amid scandal. “Oregon Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber will resign effective next week amid a bizarre scandal involving political activities by his fiancee, he announced in a press release on his website.”

MEANWHILE, PICARD IS PROBABLY OFF HAVING HIS LEGS WAXED: Kirk Battles Darth Vader In This Fan-Made ‘Star Wars vs. Star Trek’ Trailer.

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SPYING: Proposed bill limits reach of US search warrants on overseas servers.

WELL, GIVEN GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE LATELY, THE LATTER GROUP SHOULD BE GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS: Rand Paul Preaches to Techno-Libertarians and the ‘Leave Me Alone’ Coalition.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: William Mitchell and Hamline Law Schools to Merge.

LEONARD DAVID: Two Years Ago: Aftermath from Russian Chelyabinsk Sky Blast.

BOBBY JINDAL’S MESSAGE TO REPUBLICANS: Don’t Just Become Cheaper Democrats.

WELL, WELL: Argentine President Cristina Kirchner charged for alleged cover-up in AMIA attack.

SPEED: The 13 Fastest Cars You Can Buy In 2015. Though, technically, I think they really mean “quickest,” as the list seems to be about 0-60 times, not top speeds.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO . . . OH, HELL, WITH A SCHOOL NAMED “HEFNER,” IT’S PRACTICALLY NOT EVEN HER FAULT: A Hefner Middle School teacher accused of sending sexual messages, photos and videos to a 14-year-old former student surrendered to authorities Wednesday afternoon.

THE INSTA-WIFE: Interesting Data On Male Suicide: “We always hear that it is the proliferation of guns that causes much of the male suicide in the US but if the guns are the problem, why is there also a high incidence of male suicide in the UK but the method is just different?”

My question: If “male privilege” is real, why do so many more men commit suicide? And why are the majority of gender-change surgeries male-into-female?

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 645.

WHY THE SAUDIS AREN’T CUTTING PRODUCTION:

With oil trading at less than half of what it was last June, plenty of market observers have been surprised by OPEC’s decision not to scale back output to set a floor to the price. One compelling reason is that the cartel’s largest member is well prepared to ride out this bear market. . . .

At current oil prices, the Saudis can only muster up funds for some 83 percent of their total budget. The expected $39 billion budget deficit will be paid off from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which today is worth more than $730 billion. In other words, at current budget levels and oil prices the Saudis could continue as is for another two decades before nearing the prospect of default.

OPEC hasn’t cut production in the face of plunging oil prices because the Saudis have decided to compete for market share rather than induce a price rebound. The above numbers tell us why Riyadh has been so seemingly fearless in that quest to squeeze U.S. shale producers. But while the Saudis comfortably weather the storm, other OPEC members, like Venezuela and Iran (which run budget deficits when the price of oil drops below $123 and $140 per barrel, respectively) are having a tougher time adjusting.

Yeah, I’m okay with that. It’s also putting the squeeze on Russia, of course.

CHANGE: Odd Couples Push Criminal Justice Overhauls. “John Cornyn and Sheldon Whitehouse. Mike Lee and Richard J. Durbin. Rand Paul and Harry Reid. Those three Senate odd couples have been spearheading the rollout legislation this week that, taken together, would affect prison sentences for convicted criminals, how long they might serve and what happens to them when they’ve paid their debt to society. That follows Paul teaming up with Judiciary Ranking Democrat Patrick J. Leahy earlier this month.” Personally, I’d like to see limitations on no-knock raids.

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IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: GOP Sen: We Have 16,000 Unique Lerner Emails with Potential Admin Contacts.

WHY ISN’T ELIZABETH WARREN CHALLENGING HILLARY? Too much baggage for Hillary to exploit, including this:

Then there is the scandal-in-waiting concerning her sleazy scholarship while a law professor. She co-authored a highly-publicized study in 2005 that claimed that 54.5 percent of all bankruptcies have “a medical cause” and that 46.2 percent have a “major medical cause,” telling interviewers that those findings demonstrated the need for national health care. In fact, the proportion of bankruptcies caused by catastrophic medical losses is more like 2 percent. Her numbers were inflated by including “uncontrolled gambling,” “alcohol or drug addiction,” “death in family,” and “birth/addition of new family member” as “a medical cause.” In addition, spending as little as $1,000 in unreimbursed medical expenses over the course of two years — hardly unusual for a family — was enough to get a bankruptcy classified as “a major medical cause” even when the debtor himself or herself did not list illness or injury as a cause of the bankruptcy. A number of scholars have criticized the study as intentionally misleading.

Nor was this the only blot on Warren’s scholarship.

What’s funny is, if Hillary’s campaign raises issues like this, or the fake-Indian issue, or Warren’s asbestos-related legal work — all things that people on the right have mentioned, and the press ignored, for years — suddenly they will be Big Important Concerns.

SO IT TAKES AN ACT OF CONGRESS TO STOP FEDERAL EMPLOYEES FROM WATCHING PORN ON THE JOB? GOP congressman introduces bill to stop feds from watching porn on taxpayer’s dime.

Rep. Mark Meadows introduced legislation Wednesday that would prevent federal employees from viewing pornography on the taxpayer’s dime.

The Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act aptly shares its initials with the government agency that drew attention to the problem of staff watching pornographic videos at work, the Environmental Protection Agency. An inspector general report released last year revealed an EPA official was caught with thousands of downloaded pornographic files on his government computer and had watched up to six hours of porn a day while on the job. The employee wasn’t fired.

“It’s appalling that it requires an act of Congress to ensure that federal agencies block access to these sites,” Meadows said. He is chairman of the operations subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The North Carolina Republican acknowledged existing rules prohibiting pornography at most federal agencies but noted their inability to stop officials like the unnamed EPA employee from keeping his job after being caught red-handed with the explicit material.

Meadows also pointed to cybersecurity concerns.

Red-handed, eh?

WELL, IF YOU DEPORT THE ILLEGALS AMONG THEM, THAT MIGHT HELP: Roll Call: Immigration Protests in Capitol Offices Strain Police.

Notice that the Tea Party never did anything like this, but was always portrayed as a dangerous, unruly mob. Of course, to be fair, these people aren’t really “unruly,” as they are thoroughly under the control of accredited Democratic interest groups.