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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Scott Walker urges professors to work harder. “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, defending proposed budget cuts for higher education, took a swipe at university professors who he said could be ‘teaching more classes and doing more work.'”

I’m disappointed that he’s not focusing more on cutting administration, which represents the largest part of academic bloat in recent years.

ROGER SIMON: Big, Bad Bibi. “Meanwhile, lost in Goldberg’s posturing, and the funfkeying by such great State Department intellects as Jen Psaki, is the subject of Netanyahu’s putative speech. What was it? Oh, yes… Iran. Now I remember. That country that has its hand in nearly every piece of Islamic mayhem from Buenos Aires to Sanaa.”

WHY ARE LEFTY INSTITUTIONS SUCH HOTBEDS OF RACISM AND SEXISM? Female, Minority Professors Are Paid Less Than White Male Professors at UC-Berkeley.

ASHE SCHOW: Vanderbilt gang-rape case shows why justice system must handle campus sexual assault.

Two former Vanderbilt University football players were found guilty on Tuesday of gang-raping an unconscious woman back in 2013. The case provides a clear example of why the criminal justice system is better suited to handle such cases. A jury was able to convict the perpetrators quickly, whereas the university’s parallel investigation had been unable to make a strong enough case. . . .

Further, universities wouldn’t have been able to force the accused students to hand over their pictures and video they had taken of the incident. The victim reportedly didn’t even know she had been raped until she started hearing about the pictures and video. She had continued to date Vandenburg after the alleged incident because she didn’t believe she had been assaulted.

While the police were investigating the matter, the university did conclude its own investigation, which found insufficient evidence against Vandenburg to prove he had “non-consensual sexual intercourse” with the victim. This report was concluded after police had already charged four men (the other two still await trial) with rape.

Though activists continue to demand colleges and universities create an alternate court system to adjudicate sexual assault, the fact remains that, imperfect as it is, the American justice system is still best-equipped to handle this crime. In this case, men who committed a felony are going to jail, not being let loose on the streets with other potential victims.

But turning investigations over to the police wouldn’t create more campus jobs for angry feminists who are unemployable elsewhere. Related: New W.H. campus sexual assault guidelines: Still pretty terrible, but a step in the right direction.

ROLL CALL: Cruz Says Fate of ‘Dangerous’ Lynch Up to McConnell.

Sen. Ted Cruz called attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch’s immigration views “dangerous” Wednesday and questioned whether Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., should even have the chamber consider her nomination.

“That is the decision the majority leader is going to have to make. I believe we should use every constitutional tool available to stop the president’s unconstitutional executive action. That’s what Republicans, Republican candidates all over the country said over and over again last year,” the Texas Republican said in a brief interview with CQ Roll Call as the daylong Judiciary Committee hearing on Lynch’s nomination neared conclusion.

Given that Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said that committee members will have a week to submit questions in writing once the hearing portion with outside witnesses concludes, it’s unlikely Lynch would be lined up for time on the floor before the Presidents Day recess next month. The timing could coincide with the expiration in funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is also caught up in Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s action on immigration.

“For several months now, I’ve called for us to use every constitutional check and balance we have to rein in the president’s illegal action. That includes using the confirmation power given by the Constitution as a direct check on the executive,” Cruz said. “In my view the majority leader should announce the Senate will not confirm any executive or judicial nominees in this Congress, other than vital national security positions, unless and until the president rescinds” the executive actions granting deferred action to almost 5 million of undocumented individuals.

While the attorney general position is exempt from that proposed blockade, Cruz nonetheless sounded skeptical that Lynch in particular should be allowed to advance.

Trouble is, pretty much anybody Obama would nominate would be just about as bad.

PETER SUDERMAN: How Obama’s 529 College Tax Plan Debacle Proves the Welfare State is Doomed: Someone has to pay for it—but no one wants to foot the bill.

To understand just how bad the politics of Obama’s now-withdrawn plan to tax 529 college savings were, think about it this way: Obama, under heavy pressure from both Democrats and Republicans, made a public show of pulling a proposal that already had no chance of passing.

Even as an inert fantasy proposal, it was so widely disliked that the White House had to back down.

It’s a minor but revealing political fiasco—one that shows how distant the White House is even from the interests of its own party while offering a preview of economic policy debates and welfare-state fiscal challenges for decades to come.

The political optics of the plan were flat-out terrible for Obama, who put forth the proposal in the context of a State of the Union address built around the theme of Middle Class Economics. The gist was that Obama proposed taxing the wealthy in order to pay for new middle class benefits, like free community college tuition.

But, somewhat awkwardly, given the president’s chosen theme, 529 plans are tax-advantaged savings vehicles that currently benefit an awful lot of middle class people. In particular, they benefit middle and upper-middle class families in high-tax blue states.

Maybe the GOP should pass it, and put him in the uncomfortable position of having to veto his own proposal. . . .

But here’s the real point: “In the bigger picture, the existing welfare state is unaffordable. Either it will have to be cut, or reformed, or paid for—by someone, somehow. The administration and its allies would like to reassure you that the someones who will pay for all of this will be limited to the richest of the rich, but in practice there’s only so much money that can be squeezed out of the extremely wealthy.” Sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.

MICKEY KAUS: “We must be winning against ISIS. We have body counts! And John Kerry is pushing them. Next: Jane Fonda sees the light at the end of the tunnel …”

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, THAT’S NOT A BUG, BUT A FEATURE: Pelosi warns Netanyahu: Speech to Congress will hurt Iran talks.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) this week warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his coming speech before Congress threatens to sink the nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, the Democratic leader said Wednesday.

“I think that such a presentation could send the wrong message,” Pelosi told reporters during the Democrats’ annual issues retreat in Philadelphia. “That’s my view, and I shared that with the prime minister today.”

The nuclear talks are a fraud. Pelosi knows that, but she doesn’t mind. She just objects to it being made apparent.

I AM STRONG, I AM — AUGGHH! TRIGGER WARNING! Women Are Helpless Victims, Say National Sororities. “It’s not enough to punish men for things they haven’t done. Women must be kept away from men, for their own good, because of the crimes those men haven’t committed. This isn’t happening in Saudi Arabia or some other third-world hellhole. This is happening right here. . . . All because of a fraudulent story in a pathetic, outdated music magazine.”

ACE: “It is becoming impossible to avoid the conclusion that Obama has a visceral hatred of America and its middle class which has largely (and positively) shaped its civic culture for 200+ years.”

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PAGING DR. FREUD: Neurasthenic Woman Panicked By Sight Of Man’s “Bulge.”

CHARLIE MARTIN: Be The Boojum!

I think Charlie can pull it off. Me, I’m too snarky. . . .

THIS IS SMART: So I’m watching Rand Paul, DVR’ed from last night on Kennedy’s new show on Fox Business, talking about the debacle of “Hillary’s war in Libya,” which he calls “a huge disaster.” We talked Qaddafi into giving up his nuclear program, he notes, and then we invaded his country and killed him, which doesn’t help negotiations with Iran.

I think we’ll be hearing more about Hillary’s failed war in Libya. It was a war of choice, we were promised a quick and easy victory, and it left a country in shambles that’s now full of Islamists and a growing terrorist threat.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Prynt Wants To Be A Polaroid For The Smartphone Age. “Prynt is a case that incorporates a little inkless photo printer and connects to your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy smartphone, thanks to a modular system that lets you swap out connectors. Pick a shot from your camera roll, or shoot it with the Prynt app, and you can instantly print out a two-by-three inch photo. Up to 10 pieces of paper fit in the case, which has a battery designed to let you print out 20 prints, each in about 30 seconds. . . . There’s also a nifty, if somewhat gimmicky, augmented reality feature. Take a video while you’re taking your photo, and Prynt can link the clip to your photo. Later on, when you point the app at the printed out version of the photo, it can play back the video on your phone, letting you relive the moment; and since the video is stored in the cloud, anybody you give the photo to can use the Prynt app to view it.”

HEH: Reaction to Jonathan Chait’s Essay on Political Correctness Instantly Proves Chait’s Thesis Correct. It’s interesting how all these critics respond by invoking their minority- or female-privilege rather than engaging his claims.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: CBO Projects Tepid Economic Growth, Rising Deficits Despite Rising Revenues. Yeah, too much spending and regulation will get you that.

COMMUNIST COUNTRIES TRADITIONALLY HAVE BIGGER ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS: Dystopian Reality of China’s Smog Captured in ‘Airpocalypse’ App.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Man’s Desert Sex Costs Him $250K. He says it was worth it.

IN JOHN CARTER’S WORDS, I STILL LIVE: Andrew Sullivan is going to stop blogging. No, blogging isn’t dead. And InstaPundit gets more pageviews than pretty much everyone who’s calling blogging dead. But I can understand Andrew quitting. For me, the real strain isn’t the blogging, but having to pay close attention to the news all the time. The news is usually depressing, when it’s not angering, and that’s doubly true for the Obama years. But I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.

UPDATE: A commenter points out that I’m the last of the Four Horsemen Of The Ablogalypse still riding. My, how time flies. Oh, well. Giddyup!

AN INTERESTING NOTE BY ALEXANDER KASNER IN THE STANFORD LAW REVIEW: National Security Leaks and Constitutional Duty. The argument that the Oath Clause protects leakers who expose illegal or unconstitutional conduct is interesting. I wish I’d thought of that for my Don’t Fear The Leaker piece. (Bumped).

VIDEO: Watch Dodge prove the Charger Hellcat’s 204 mph top speed. “Yes, an American family sedan, recognizably similar to the ones populating rental fleets across the country, and priced within reach of folks who don’t decorate their houses with exotic animal furs, will willingly cannonball you and four other humans well and truly past the 200 mph mark. These are terrifyingly good times to be alive.”

UPDATE: Some people in the comments say the video’s not working for them, but it’s working for me. Try again.

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JERRY POURNELLE: Abolish The Air Force. “The purpose of military forces is to win wars. The purpose of the Air Force is—well, they no longer know. When we had SAC we knew – ‘Our profession is peace’ was not just a slogan – but that too is neglected in the Modern Air Force. . . . As to the rest of the Air Force, it is more interested in the Air Force than winning wars, and considers supporting the field army as beneath contempt. A slow old Warthog does a much better job, but there is no glory in that.”