OPERATION CHOKE POINT UPDATE: Firearms Sellers Say They’re Being Choked Off From Payment Processors.

Go to a gun show, and you won’t find many merchants using PayPal.

You’ll also find few vendors using popular payment processors such as Square, Stripe and Spark Pay.

That’s because some payment processors explicitly prohibit the use of their systems for online — and some in-store — sales of firearms, ammunition and certain accessories.

Retailers in the gun industry say they’re being discriminated against.

“Being shut out from mainstream payment processors makes us feel like we are part of some type of shady business when, in fact, there is more regulation and documentation required for federally licensed firearms dealers than most businesses,” said Trevor Blandford of Terminal Performance Associates in Caroline, Va. . . .

The Daily Signal previously published a series of articles exploring the relationship between banks and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is the governmental body responsible for regulating and auditing more than 4,500 U.S. banks.

Republican members of Congress have accused the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among other government agencies, of having undue influence when it comes to banks’ decision not to do business with firearms merchants.

The program, initiated inside the Justice Department, is known as “Operation Choke Point.”

I think we should have hearings where bank executives testify about this under oath.

Related: Operation Choke Point closes another gun store’s bank account, except this time the owner recorded the credit union telling him why.

More: “Recordings of Shuetz’s conversations with the manager and a bank teller, which were published online by the U.S. Consumer Coalition, make it clear that the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) examined the credit union’s books and forced it to close Shuetz’s account — a move he blames on a Department of Justice initiative called Operation Choke Point.”

Sounds like a conspiracy to deny civil rights.

Plus: Obama DOJ Caught Targeting Legal Gun Dealers – Threaten Banks to Close Their Accounts (Video).

BIG GUMMINT: Feds target fried food, juice at day cares.

MORE ON NORTH DAKOTA’S “HATE SCHOLARSHIP:” More problems with the ‘1 in 3 men would rape’ study.

Sarah Edwards — the lead author of a recent study purportedly showing that one in three men would rape if they could get away with it and so long as it wasn’t referred to as rape — really, really believes that one in five women will be sexually assaulted during college.

Despite significant flaws in the 2007 study that produced that one-in-five figure — as well as more representative studies showing the rate to be much lower — Edwards, a University of North Dakota assistant professor of counseling psychology, wholeheartedly believes the study. In an email to the Washington Examiner, she said that those who deny the higher rate just can’t handle the information. . . .

Edwards also provided the Examiner with the debriefing material that was supposed to address “rape myths.” Researchers were tasked with confirming that male participants’ “assumptions go in the right direction” following the survey. In other words, make sure those men believe what the researchers believe.

Some of the assumptions were innocuous, like telling the men they should respect a “no” (even though that’s no longer acceptable; men are now required by feminists to get a “yes” for every stage of potential sexual activity). Other dispelled “myths” conform to current politically correct wisdom — for example, ignoring men as sexual assault victims and infantilizing drunk women as if they were incapable of giving consent.

The more dangerous claim the researchers are spreading is that false accusations don’t happen. Researchers told the men that “most women who claim they were raped don’t make it up but were actually assaulted.” It’s not so much that women completely make up being raped (like Tawana Brawley or Crystal Mangum did) but more the idea that men are being branded as rapists over drunken hookups, misunderstandings and he said/she said situations. Perhaps a better term for these than “falsely accused” would be “wrongly accused.”

Further, Edwards readily admitted she hopes this study gets her grant money. Following this study, which was clearly designed to elicit eye-catching headlines, Edwards hopes to broaden her “research” by conducting the same study on a national scale.

Sounds like they’ve got a hostile educational environment going for male students there.

LIFE IN POST-CIVILIZED EUROPE: The new anti-Semitism: Majority of British Jews feel they have no future in UK, says new study.

More than half of British Jewish people fear Jews have no future in the UK, according to a new study which also reveals that antisemitic sentiments are more prevalent than widely believed.

British society is at a “tipping point” with Jewish families increasingly questioning whether to stay in the country, campaigners claim today.

The warning is bolstered by a new YouGov poll showing that 45 per cent of Britons agreed with at least one of four antisemitic statements put to them. Some 25 per cent agreed with the idea that “Jews chase money more than other British people” while one in five accepted as true that “Jews’ loyalty to Israel makes them less loyal to Britain than other British people”.

As I’ve said before, when Jews flee your country, it’s usually a bad sign for everyone else.

ROGER SIMON: What Romney Can Do.

ROSS DOUTHAT: Blasphemy Revisited. “So if you want to argue that Islam’s treatment at the hands of cartoonists and other critics deserves to be condemned, you need a stronger argument than, ‘self-censorship around people’s deeply-held religious beliefs is the normal Western way.’ It simply isn’t; what’s being invoked here is a special kind of protection for Islamic sensibilities, not a universal rule.”

PUNISHING A PROFESSOR FOR SUSPECTED KOCH TIES. Hey, it’s not like he’s Michael Mann or anything. Of course, the penalty for demanding my emails is that I’ll force you to read them all, and take a quiz. But if a student group came after me like that, I’d put them to the question about who was really behind it. And I’d enjoy the process much more than they would.

IT’S FUTILE TO ASK AMANDA MARCOTTE FOR THIS: “Show some empathy! Show some soul!”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Professor: Rape discussions don’t do enough to blame patriarchy.

A male professor at the University of Texas at Austin has found the missing ingredient when discussing sexual assault—the patriarchy.

In an essay that appeared for about a day on Waging Nonviolence, a social justice news site, before it was removed, Robert Jensen blamed—in great detail—his concern about the lack of discussion and blaming of men and the patriarchy when discussing sexual assault.

“Taking rape seriously requires a feminist analysis of patriarchy, and that analysis takes us beyond rape to questions about how patriarchy’s domination/subordination dynamic structures our intimate lives, an inquiry that can be uncomfortable not only for those who endorse the dynamic but also for those who have accepted an accommodation with it,” Jensen said in his essay, which has since been republished on his own website.

Jensen opined that when talking about rape, it is paramount to discuss the socialization of men and their understanding of sex, power, and violence.

“Rape is a crime committed by individuals, of course, but it is committed within patriarchy, and if we were serious about reducing the number of rapes, we would be talking about the roots of that violence in patriarchy,” Jensen said.

According to Jensen, defining—or “narrowing,” as he called it— rape and rapists “deflects attention from other questions about patriarchy’s eroticizing of domination and the resulting rape culture.”

He also blamed the “mainstream voices” for discrediting feminists’ analysis of rape as “too radical.”

Actually, the feminists themselves have done most of that.

TRIFECTA: Should They Stay? Jew-Hating Islamists May Be Chasing Jews from France.

OF COURSE HE DOES: Obama Backs Government-Run Internet.

THESE MEN HAVE BEEN CRUELLY ABUSED BY UVA PRESIDENT TERESA SULLIVAN, WHO HAS YET TO APOLOGIZE. Washington Post: U-Va. Phi Psi members speak about impact of discredited gang rape allegations.

Phi Psi members, speaking publicly for the first time since the allegations surfaced, told The Washington Post they went into hiding for weeks after their home was vandalized with spray paint calling them rapists and bricks that broke their windows. They booked hotel rooms to avoid the scrum of protestors who marched on their front lawn. They watched as their brotherhood was vilified, coming to symbolize the worst episode of collegiate sexual violence against women since the 2006 Duke University lacrosse team scandal — which also turned out to be false. . . .

After reading the article, Phi Psi leaders scanned archived e-mails and checked bank statements, determining that the fraternity did not host a party on the weekend of Sept. 28, 2012, the night of the alleged attack. They also determined that no Phi Psi members matched the article’s description of the attackers, calling into question one of the main elements of the account.

Most alarming to the members was the idea that a gang rape could be part of a hazing ritual.

“We vehemently deny that it would be plausible as a ritualistic tradition to join our fraternity,” Scipione said. Fontenot added: “It’s animalistic and totally unrealistic.”

But it was believed because it played into feminists’ patriarchal-rape fantasies.

SCIENCE: Ancient Viruses Altered Human Brains.

JOINT PAIN, FROM THE GUT: “Scientists don’t know what causes rheumatoid arthritis, but many suspect that the microbiome—the bacteria that live in our gastrointesntial tracts—may be to blame.”

AT AMAZON, Deals on Men’s Athletic Shoes. Also, Women’s Athletic Shoes.

Plus, 60% or more off on Cold-Weather Accessories.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: American University Law Prof Slams George Washington’s ‘Predatory’ Poaching of 54 of Its Students (Out of 97 Transfer Students).

Meanwhile, my Dean told me that our applications at Tennessee are way up this year. I don’t know if that’s reflective of a national trend, or just us.

EVILEST WEBSITE EVER: ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com. “Glitter as a Service: want to piss off someone you dislike for only $9.99? Let us send them some stupid fucking glitter that is guaranteed to go everywhere.”

A SAD STORY: My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward.

REMEMBER WHEN WE THOUGHT THAT ELECTING OBAMA WOULD MAKE EVERYONE LOVE US? FBI Arrests Ohio Man for Plot to Attack U.S. Capitol. ISIS-inspired.

IT’S NOT QUITE TOO LATE to apply for a Thiel Fellowship.

HMM: Antibiotics in Blood Can Make Malaria Mosquitoes Mightier: The drugs disrupt mosquitoes’ gut bacteria, which appears to make the insects more effective malaria vectors.

SCIENCE: How Squinting Helps You See Better.

AT AMAZON, deals galore in Home & Kitchen.

Plus, Up to 55% Off Select ProForm Cardio Equipment.

I DON’T TRUST THIS STUFF: An Internet of Treacherous Things: A zombie network of home routers highlights the importance of prioritizing smart appliance security.

TOMAHAWKS: “They’re really, really hard to throw properly.”