SOMETIMES I SHOW MY CONSTITUTIONAL LAW CLASS THE FILM SEPARATE BUT EQUAL, ABOUT THE BROWN CASE. It’s really, really good, and it’s available on YouTube now. Here’s part one, and here’s part two. The film’s pretty closely based on Richard Kluger’s Simple Justice, an oral history of the Brown case. I heard some of these stories — the bedroom-key joke, for example — direct from Charlie Black when I was in law school.

CRACKING YOUR KNUCKLES DOESN’T CAUSE ARTHRITIS: It might even be good for your joints.

JONATHAN LAST ON TOWING COMPANY ABUSES. They do often tow legally parked cars and demand ransom. I think they should be treated as thieves. Back when I was in college, there was a problem with legally parked cars being towed on Old Fraternity Row, that ended when a mob of frat guys chased off a driver and wrecked his truck. When you tow someone’s legally parked car, you’re breaking the law while relying on the victims to be peaceable and law-abiding in how they respond. That sort of reliance shouldn’t be encouraged.

VIDEO: Watch the Incredible New ‘Star Wars’ Teaser Trailer. It looks good. But. . .

FARHAD MANJOO ON why TurboTax is not your friend.

ANOTHER 2002 POST THAT SEEMS RELEVANT TODAY: Feminists Wishing For A World With Fewer Men.

AT AMAZON, deals galore in Sports & Fitness.

Also, 50% or more off in TV & Video.

LIFE IN THE OBAMA ERA: Ramadi could fall as ISIS militants lay siege, Iraqi official warns.

WAIT, I THOUGHT CALIFORNIA’S DROUGHT WAS DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING: In California, a Wet Era May Be Ending. “Scientists say that in the more ancient past, California and the Southwest occasionally had even worse droughts — so-called megadroughts — that lasted decades. At least in parts of California, in two cases in the last 1,200 years, these dry spells lingered for up to two centuries. The new normal, scientists say, may in fact be an old one.”

My advice: Build big nuclear plants, and use them to power desalination facilities.

MY OLD DIVE INSTRUCTOR LIZ PARKINSON IS NOW AN UNDERWATER MODEL. Here she is in a pic from a set done with a rather large Tiger Shark.

FASTER, PLEASE: Experimental drug that may repair nerve damage in MS moves forward.

JOHNNY ONE-NOTE: Charles Blow: If you oppose Hillary, it’s because you’re sexist. And probably also racist. To be fair, he actually mentions that the Republican field is more diverse, which must have hurt.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT WAS MORE ENLIGHTENED THAN I REALIZED:  Polish archaeologists find an 18th century sex toy made of leather and wood (and I must say, judging by the picture, rather large).  Hope the ladies (or men?) didn’t get splinters.

PARENTS: Don’t get so carried away with teaching kids to share.

FASTER, PLEASE: Researchers believe a biological revolution enabling humans to experience everlasting youthfulness is coming.

AT AMAZON, big savings on Spring Cleaning gear and supplies.

Also, get money back with Amazon Trade-In.

WELL, SHE DID SUFFER A HEAD INJURY A WHILE BACK: Hillary Parks in Handicap Spot.

FINALLY, A CHAMPION FOR ORDINARY FOLK AND A CRUSADER AGAINST POLITICAL CORRUPTION!:   . . . which is (more than ironically) what Hillary Clinton is billing herself as.  In her recent Iowa appearance, Clinton revealed these two themes as the basis upon which she’s shaping 2016 presidential bid.

She complained that chief executives make too much money, and of the horror that has befallen politics after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United–which stands for the unremarkable position that groups of people organized in a business (e.g., corporations)  or association (e.g., unions or neighborhood associations) form still have a First Amendment right to free speech.

All of this is coming from a woman whose persona is defined by whose massive political fundraising, multiple ethical lapses, and laughable claims of poverty.  I would call Clinton a hypocrite, but somehow this word fails to capture fully the Orwellian nature of her behavior.  How do Democrat voters let her get away with such obvious doublethink? In the Words of Orwell, in the novel 1984:

In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.

Ignorance is strength, I guess.

RELATED:  Liberal/progressive groups are urging President Obama to issue an executive order to require government contractors to disclose their donor lists, in direct contravention to the Supreme Court’s decision in NAACP v. Alabama (1958), which held that compelled disclosure of the NAACP’s membership lists was unconstitutional because it created a chilling effect on the First Amendment right to free association.  And we know what liberals/progressives like to do when they find out the names of conservative donors, and it ain’t pretty.

This is all part of the liberal/progressive campaign against so-called “dark money,” which is an incredibly misleading phrase (there’s Orwell again) that refers to political spending by outside groups (i.e., not the political parties or candidates themselves).  An FEC rule requiring broader disclosure was tossed out of court in November, with the federal judge calling the FEC’s attempt “arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.”

So much for liberals/progressives belief in “privacy” or “free speech”– that stuff doesn’t apply to other people.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Are Fast-Food Restaurants Hiding Their Condiments Behind the Counter?

HMM: Scientists Warn of Hormone Impacts from Common Solvents.

ER, BRING BACK DDT? Man sets rental car, self on fire trying to kill bedbugs.

SARAH HOYT: If This Goes On. . .

A 30-DAY FREE TRIAL OF AMAZON PRIME. I’ve actually started to take some advantage of the free TV and music offerings, which are surprisingly decent.

I’VE DONE IT BEFORE, but let me offer one more plug for Michael Cottone’s Rethinking Presumed Knowledge of the Law in the Regulatory Age. I really think this addresses a key problem — maybe the key problem — in current overcriminalization issues. (Bumped).

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Flexible supercapacitor from stacked nanomaterial.