R.I.P. MARVIN CHIRELSTEIN. I had Mike Graetz for Tax, and he was an excellent teacher, but Chirelstein’s book helped.

ASHE SCHOW: Protesting due process.

When author and history professor K.C. Johnson went to Ohio University to discuss due process rights for students accused of campus sexual assault, he knew what he was getting into.

Although due process is a central tenet of the American justice system, it has been attacked in recent years as an impediment to justice by those claiming to be the victims of sexual assault.

Johnson, who co-wrote the book about the false rape allegation against the Duke lacrosse team, has been trying to bring sanity back to the debate over how college campuses handle sexual assault accusations by explaining repeatedly that accused students should not be convicted based on an allegation, without the ability to defend themselves.

And that’s where the activists disagree.

Protesters showed up to his lecture with homemade signs and t-shirts that said “rape is real” (no one is saying it isn’t) and “sex without consent is always rape” (no one is saying otherwise). They stood up when he was about to speak and blocked the audience’s view of Johnson.

Shut up, they explained.

GOP ESTABLISHMENT LOOKING TO run Jon Huntsman against Mike Lee? “Lee stunned the GOP establishment by wresting the Republican nomination for a Senate seat in Utah from longtime incumbent Sen. Robert Bennett, and from that moment on has been a national tea party star. Now, the establishment is looking to return the favor. So far, no credible 2016 primary challenger has emerged despite frequent complaints about Lee from Utah business and GOP establishment figures. But CNN is told there is now an aggressive push to lure a onetime Utah GOP star back into the game.” Star?

But wait, here’s some late-breaking news: Establishment Strikes Out in Plans to Challenge Mike Lee with Jon Huntsman. “Huntsman was elected twice as Utah’s governor and was by far the GOP establishment’s best chance at beating Lee in state. He resigned from his gubernatorial post in 2009 after President Barack Obama named him his ambassador to China—a position from which he resigned to run for president unsuccessfully in 2012.”

HARVARD LAW PROF. JANET HALLEY IN THE HARVARD LAW REVIEW ON COLLEGE SEXUAL ASSAULT HYSTERIA:

I recently assisted a young man who was subjected by administrators at his small liberal arts university in Oregon to a month-long investigation into all his campus relationships, seeking information about his possible sexual misconduct in them (an immense invasion of his and his friends’ privacy), and who was ordered to stay away from a fellow student (cutting him off from his housing, his campus job, and educational opportunity) — all because he reminded her of the man who had raped her months before and thousands of miles away. He was found to be completely innocent of any sexual misconduct and was informed of the basis of the complaint against him only by accident and off-hand. But the stay-away order remained in place, and was so broadly drawn up that he was at constant risk of violating it and coming under discipline for that.

When the duty to prevent a “sexually hostile environment” is interpreted this expansively, it is affirmatively indifferent to the restrained person’s complete and total innocence of any misconduct whatsoever.

Women this delicate don’t belong in college. And colleges that behave this way deserve to be sued into bankruptcy. (Via Ann Althouse).

THE HILL: Axelrod quips irritate Clintonland.

The staunch Clinton supporters feel as though Axelrod, who is promoting his new book Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, has taken unnecessary aim at Clinton and her team.

“It’s not helpful, and it’s definitely not appreciated,” said one Clinton ally. “The last thing we need is another round of headlines about lingering tension, and this is doing exactly that.

“When he speaks, it gets picked up, and people listen,” the ally added.

Another supporter added: “I think a lot of us are scratching our heads. Why is any of that necessary?” A third added, “She’s been a great team player, she’s been very supportive of the president and she hasn’t gotten in front of him on a lot of issues so what’s he trying to do?”

Axelrod did not respond to a request for comment.

Well, see, he’s already keeping quiet.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student-Loan Delinquencies Rise in U.S. “Student-loan delinquencies increased at the end of 2014, a troubling sign that Americans are failing to keep up with payments as education debt climbs, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Data from the New York Fed released Tuesday showed 11.3 percent of student loans were delinquent in the final three months of 2014, up from 11.1 percent in the prior quarter.”

ASK SMITHSONIAN: What Would Happen If A Solar Flare Hit The Earth?

THAT’S OKAY, THEY’RE NOT A “PROTECTED CLASS.” The Middle East Is Red With The Blood Of Christians. “The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by forces sympathetic to Islamic State over recent days is sadly not an isolated case. On the contrary, it is the latest of countless outrages perpetrated against Christians in or near the Church’s Biblical heartlands over many years.”

You want to survive as a minority in a Muslim country? Try doing what Muslims do in countries where they’re in the minority: Kill anyone who speaks out against you. It just might work, and apparently you have nothing to lose. . . .

SARAH HOYT: No Excuses, No Regrets. “The chains of victimhood are insidious and will destroy your soul as well as your writing. Fortunately the key to freedom is in your own hands.” The problem with that approach is that it offers insufficient opportunities for graft.

IT’S A MYSTERY: Why Do Female Prison Guards Keep Having Sex with Inmates? I mean, everybody knows that it’s only men who are sexual predators, right? When female prison guards have sex with male inmates, they’re the victims! But when male prison guards have sex with female inmates the inmates are the victims.

WHY DID FOOT-BINDING PERSIST SO LONG IN CHINA? Don’t blame the “Patriarchy,” blame Chinese women. “The truth, no matter how unpalatable, is that foot-binding was experienced, perpetuated and administered by women. Though utterly rejected in China now—the last shoe factory making lotus shoes closed in 1999—it survived for a thousand years in part because of women’s emotional investment in the practice. The lotus shoe is a reminder that the history of women did not follow a straight line from misery to progress, nor is it merely a scroll of patriarchy writ large.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Meet the New, Self-Appointed MOOC Accreditors: Google and Instagram. “Nineteen colleges now work with Coursera to offer what amount to microdegrees—it calls them Course Specializations—that require students to take a series of short MOOCs and then finish a hands-on capstone project. The serialization approach has proved an effective way to bring in revenue to support the free courses—to get a certificate proving they passed the courses, students each end up paying around $500 in fees. By helping develop MOOC-certificate programs, companies are giving a seal of approval to those new credentials that may be more important to some students than whether an accredited university or a well-trained professor is involved.”

Plus: “The strategy has already worked well for Udacity, says its founder, Sebastian Thrun. Udacity has decided not to involve universities at all, and works only with industry to develop its courses and nanodegrees. ‘We’re discovering that there are a huge number of willing and eager lifelong learners that are underserved’ by higher education, he says. ‘We’re getting to the point where we’ll be profitable as a company.'”

There are a lot of people — including currently enrolled students — who are underserved by higher education. I think that accreditors should compete with one another based on value to students and employers.

FUNNY HOW THESE LEFTY BASTIONS ARE ALWAYS SUCH HOTBEDS OF DISCRIMINATION AND INEQUALITY: Systematic Inequality and Hierarchy in Faculty Hiring Networks.

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MOE LANE: Tweet of the Day, SOMEBODY Just Got A Reality-Mugging edition.

Sorry, honey. He lied to you and now you’re stuck holding the bag. Some men are like that, you know.

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT WORK! AND DID! This African Country Was Once the World’s Third Poorest. Here’s How It Turned Things Around.

When Botswana gained independence from the British in 1966, the new country’s insightful leaders did what so many others in the post-colonial world didn’t: they embraced democracy, free markets and the rule of law. In other words, economic freedom.

The results speak for themselves.

While so much of the continent has remained mired in poverty and corruption, Botswana became the world’s fastest growing economy for three decades. Foreign direct investment and new construction can be seen everywhere in the capital city of Gaborone. Tourism to world-class destinations like the Okavango Delta has taken root and is expanding. And after starting off as the world’s third-poorest nation, with a per-capita GDP of $70 in 1966, today it has expanded dramatically to $16,377.

Free markets and the rule of law work whenever and wherever they’re tried. The reason they’re not tried more often is that they offer insufficient opportunities for graft.

KNOWING what’s in your supplements. “For one, you can look for products that receive a seal of approval from the United States Pharmacopeial Convention, an independent, nonprofit organization of scientists that sets high standards for medicine, food ingredients and dietary supplements. The United States Pharmacopeia has a voluntary program through which supplement companies can have their products and facilities tested and reviewed.”

TECHNOLOGY MARCHES ON: Virtual-Reality Porn Is Coming, and Your Fantasies May Never Be the Same.

SCIENCE: Weights keep brain nimble, research suggests. “The University of Sydney study shows resistance weight training could be crucial in keeping the ageing brain nimble, as working out with weights was found to boost the mental agility of older people with mild cognitive impairment – a common precursor of dementia that is not treatable with drugs. Geriatrician Maria Fiatarone Singh, the study’s chief investigator, said weight training stimulated hormones that promoted muscle growth. ‘It’s possible these hormones are also having similar benefits for brain function,’ Singh said.”

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POPULAR MECHANICS: Driving the Tesla P85D on Ice and Snow Is As Awesome As You Think. “Because it has an electric motor in the front and the rear, the car can distribute torque as needed in a split-second. Riding through a puddled chicane and some slick turns at a decent clip, the P85D remained balanced and composed. Once, when I goosed it a bit too much (easy to do in this car) and felt a wheel slip on a patch of ice, the car immediately found itself, no steering corrections required. On the last stretch of the course, which was covered in snow, the P85D had zero traction issues, even when I tugged the wheel back and forth.”

WELL, WHAT’S THERE TO APPROVE OF, REALLY? Poll: Most disapprove of Obama handling of ISIS.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Western Leaders Imprisoned By Their Own Lies. “Both the Obama administration and the Franco-Germans are as trapped as the Ukrainians in Debaltseve. The Ukrainian troops are surrounded by the Russian troops, while the Western leaders are imprisoned by their own lies. The soldiers are invested by encroaching lines. The statesmen are trapped in a high wall of political bricks comprised of their own falsehoods. Having led their nations forward with false assurances of safety, both the EU leaders and the Obama administration are struggling to find an escape without admitting error.”

VOLS HELPING VOLS: Sex in the press box: Couple recorded using Neyland space. “College students sneaking into football stadiums is not all that new. But an adventurous couple spiced things up apparently on Valentine’s Day at Neyland Stadium at the University of Tennessee. A photo that appears to show two people having sex in the stadium’s press box was posted to Snapchat, a popular picture messaging app, on Saturday. The image was distributed to followers of an account called “Volnationsnaps,” unaffiliated with the university, which shows students partying.” I saw people talking about that on Yik Yak the other day. Should be good for recruiting. . . .

I’M NOT SAYING THAT IT’S ALIENS. BUT IT’S ALIENS. ‘Cloud’ over Mars leaves scientists baffled.

We’ve been over this before. Wake up, sheeple!