TED CRUZ: End Planned Parenthood funding: Accounting gimmicks can’t hide the fact that federal support ultimately pays for abortion.

Over the past few weeks, Americans have seen a series of videos come out of Planned Parenthood that are nothing short of horrifying. The footage shows senior Planned Parenthood officials laughing, swilling chardonnay and casually, callously, heartlessly discussing killing unborn children in order to sell their body parts. These videos also force Americans to face the grim reality of what happens to the babies’ remains.

While the sheer candor of these Planned Parenthood officials has shocked most, what is more disturbing is the admission that these barbaric actions are standard practice in some abortion clinics. Worse still, Americans are currently forced to fund the organization that commits these acts. This must end. An organization that generates a large part of its revenue from terminating innocent human life should not receive one penny of taxpayer money and those who engage in what may be criminal activity must be held to account.

For this reason, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should not schedule or facilitate the consideration of any legislation that gives federal money to Planned Parenthood. Instead, the Department of Justice needs to investigate and prosecute Planned Parenthood for any potential criminal actions of commercial trafficking of fetal organs.

Cruz is really hitting on this issue.

THE HILL: Poll: Majority want Congress to reject Iran nuclear deal.

Most Americans say Congress should reject the international deal brokered by the Obama administration over Iran’s nuclear program, according to a CNN/ORC International poll released Thursday.

A majority, 56 percent, want lawmakers to reject the deal, up slightly from the 52 percent who voiced that position in the same poll last month. Forty-one percent say Congress should accept the deal.

Six in 10 Americans, 60 percent, disapprove of how President Obama is handling relations with Iran, up from 48 percent back in April shortly after a framework agreement with Tehran was unveiled.

The rest haven’t been paying attention.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Guys are still picking up the tab, while some women offer but don’t really mean it. “Even with changing gender roles in the 21st century — more women have high-powered jobs and are becoming the breadwinners in their families — there’s one role that’s stayed the same. And that’s who pays for dates.”

UNPRECEDENTED VERIFICATION MEASURES INDEED: Nuclear Inspections Farce Puts Democrats to the Test.  But only because no one else has been stupid enough to agree to this before.

WHAT SOCIALISTS DO: Mayor de Blasio’s war on the best public schools in New York.

ETHICAL STEM CELLS: Grow Human Brain.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Here’s why student loan delinquencies are so high.

Related: Use of special student loan repayment plans jumps 56 percent.

JUDGE EMMET SULLIVAN: HILLARY CLINTON’S PRIVATE EMAILS VIOLATED POLICY.

A TOUGHER PROBLEM THAN FACE RECOGNITION: FBI Wants Better Automated Image Analysis for Tattoos.

NOW WE KNOW WHY REPORTERS WON’T COVER THE PLANNED PARENTHOOD VIDEOS: “Last night, BuzzFeed’s senior health editor Casey Gueren received an award from Planned Parenthood for ‘media excellence.’”

Mencken and Finley Peter Dunne weep.

L.A.’S LITTLE SHADE BALLS PROBLEM: To be fair, the one thing I’ve learned from reading Jack Dunphy’s column over the years is that L.A.’s ultra left administration’s problem with balls isn’t exactly a new one.

KASICH: WE LIVE WITH THE FACT THAT ROE V. WADE IS THE LAW OF THE LAND: “Is Sean Davis right that this amounts to Kasich signaling a Mitch Daniels-esque ‘truce’ with Democrats on social issues once he’s elected president? Or, in his attempt to consolidate moderates, is he actually trying to disguise the fact that he’d firmly oppose abortion as president so that the centrist voters he needs right now don’t get cold feet? You tell me.”

VODKAPUNDIT: Your Thursday Clinton Email Scandal Roundup.

It looks like you’re going to need a bigger blog — and plenty of Vodka for Hillary.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: ‘Pink Viagra’ Approved by FDA: 5 Things You Need to Know.

AT AMAZON, Fall Deals on Denim.

OOPS: Former Top Hillary Aide Accidentally Tells The Truth About Libya War:

It takes a tough person, and a tough nation, to accept the reality of limited power. It is so much easier to pound our chests and declare that the United States bestrides the world like a colossus and should be able to dictate any outcome it wants. That is no longer true, if it ever were. We found that out the hard way by launching a war in Iraq that we could not win. By prolonging a war in Afghanistan in ways that often made the domestic political situation worse rather than better. By toppling a government in Libya without any idea of what might come next.

Hillary 2016: Because Poor Judgment Is Still Judgment.

ANDREW KLAVAN: Conservative Pundits Gone Wild: Why are conservatives currently launching vicious personal attacks against … other conservatives???

CHANGE: The Flash Storage Revolution Is Here.

BOBBY JINDAL PUNCHES BACK TWICE AS HARD: Jindal to screen Planned Parenthood videos outside mansion.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will try to counter a pro-Planned Parenthood rally scheduled to take place outside his mansion on Thursday by running a loop of the secretly recorded videos that they plan to protest.

Jindal announced Thursday that he is setting up an outdoor movie screen and speakers outside the governor’s mansion to show the controversial videos, which he said too many of Planned Parenthood’s supporters have refused to watch.

The showing will take place at the exact time of a scheduled protest by Planned Parenthood supporters.

“Planned Parenthood has a right to protest today, but Governor Jindal’s office will ensure that anyone who shows up will have to witness first-hand the offensive actions of the organization they are supporting,” Jindal, who is also a Republican presidential candidate, wrote in a statement.

“We hope the protesters will take a minute to watch them so they’ll have an opportunity to see first-hand our concerns with Planned Parenthood’s practices,” he added.

Planned Parenthood dismissed Jindal’s move as a political “stunt.”

Yeah, and a better one than a tired protest march.

DON’T BLAME ME, BLAME THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM: Hillary’s latest defense: What is classified information, anyway?

EXPLANATIONS: Lagrange Points: Parking Places in Space.

FROM CURIOSITY, a stunning Martian panorama.

DEMOCRATS AND THE ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS: The Democrats are increasingly looking like a political Island of Misfit Toys, where nothing is “quite right,” and everyone is just a little “off.”

An increasing number of the Island’s occupants–evidenced by progressive activists Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King–outwardly appear black, though they are genetically white. Some of them are genetically one gender, but believe they are another “inside.”

Still others espouse respect for choice and “women’s rights”, yet oppose GOP lawmakers’ attempt to make birth control pills over-the-counter, support brutal, murderous late-term abortions (that kill female babies, too), oppose attempts to educate women about alternatives to abortion, and want to force people who oppose abortion–including female health care providers and taxpayers–to provide/pay for abortion against their conscience. They also routinely demean female pundits and politicians on the opposite side of the aisle, calling them *itch, *unt, whore, twat, etc.  If you’re going to go around making “women’s rights” one of the defining planks in your political platform and fighting an imagined “war on women,” you might want to start supporting and respecting all women, including those that disagree with you.

Democrats uniformly proclaim fidelity to “diversity,” tolerance, and cry out against even “micro” aggressions against other individuals. But they have no tolerance whatsoever for diverse ideas, particularly when they emanate from minorities who wander away from the Democrats’ plantation. Black conservatives, for example, routinely are the subjects of macro-aggression by being labeled  “Uncle Toms” and “Oreos.”

Today’s Democrats are like the Jack-in-the-box on the Island of Misfit Toys: they appear to be a Jack-in-the-box (and maybe they really want to be), but they’re really a messed up Charlie-in-the-box, and that’s just not the same.

Now, if only we had an Island where we could send them, so they could think for awhile and (hopefully) become more self-aware before they’re ready to be re-integrated into society.

AT AMAZON, 20% off New Arrivals in Luggage.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: With the Iran deal in the works, it’s time to revisit “Duck and Cover.”