WELL, TO BE FAIR, THAT WOULD HAVE SPOILED THE NARRATIVE AND COST HIM CLICKS: N.Y. Times’ Charles Blow cried racism, said nothing about cop who arrested his son being black. “Blow did not return a request for comment on why he omitted the race of the officer in his column or whether the race of the officer matters.” But we all know, don’t we?

UPDATE: On Twitter: “What Charles Blow was upset about was a slight against his son’s class. Not his race.”

HISTORY: Take a Tour of a 1964 Underground Fallout Home.

LAMB AND GUINNESS STEW: Reader Merrill Guice emails: “Decided this was a good week to try this recipe I’d saved. Just wow! I feel like I under seasoned, though. What rough measures did you use for the Rosemary, turmeric, paprika, red pepper, and garlic?”

You know, it’s just “to taste,” and it’s been a while since I’ve made it so I’m not sure the measures. My advice: When in doubt, more! Here’s the recipe. Good for a cold winter night.

AT AMAZON, 20% off Select Gladiator Products. My garage and workshop are all Gladiator stuff, and it’s good.

Plus, Winter Cleaning Deals Galore.

THEODORE DALRYMPLE: Looking Away from Europe’s Muslim Problem: It’s easier to condemn Steven Emerson than to confront issues of assimilation and culture.

SPACE: Hoping to Set Sail on Sunlight. “The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that promotes space exploration, announced Monday that it would send the first of two small craft testing the technology of solar sails into orbit this May, tagging along with other small satellites on an Atlas 5 rocket. . . . When photons — particles of light — bounce off a shiny surface, they impart a tiny bit of momentum, an effect that comes directly from the equations of electromagnetism published by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in the 1860s. In his 1865 novel, ‘From the Earth to the Moon,’ Jules Verne appears to have been the first to realize that this force could be harnessed for space travel. The bombardment of sunlight over a large area can gradually but continuously accelerate a spacecraft.”

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: A Turbo-Diesel Snow Blower. Well, maybe not everyone.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: 3-D Transistors Made with Molecular Self-Assembly.

AT AMAZON, deals on Top Valentine’s Day Gifts.

Also, markdowns on Athletic Shoes. Spring is coming.

LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: The DEA Is Spying on Millions of Cars All Over the U.S. “The primary goal of the license-plate tracking program, run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is to seize cars, cash and other assets to combat drug trafficking, according to one government document. But the database’s use has expanded to hunt for vehicles associated with numerous other potential crimes, from kidnappings to killings to rape suspects, say people familiar with the matter.” Also, one suspects, Tea Party members and law enforcement critics.

SPYING: Feds Spied On Wikileaks’ Journalists’ Emails.

WHY SHOULD POLICE, IN PUBLIC, HAVE A RIGHT OF PRIVACY WHEN CITIZENS DON’T? Cops decry Waze traffic app as a “police stalker.” “The app, used by some 50 million people in 200 countries, is a free service that provides real-time traffic data about accidents, congestion, traffic cameras, and weather among other information. It also allows Waze users to report a police presence, which then appears on a traffic map for others to see. The app provides no other data about the police’s public presence.”

MONEY FOR LAWYERS! YAY! Here come the settlements over lack of due process in campus sexual assault hearings.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Cutbacks Are Looming for Law School Income-Based Repayment Programs. I certainly would not borrow money for law school — or any education — in the expectation that the income-based repayment plans will be there later. They are likely to run out of other people’s money.

I’M NOT INSURING THEM: These Guys Drove A 2000 Horsepower Lamborghini Into A Lake.

HMM: Romney, ahead of 2016 run, now calls Utah home, talks openly about Mormon influence. Prediction: The presidential talk is a headfake, he’ll actually pivot and run against Mike Lee for Senate.

GOOD: Scott Walker forms committee in preparation for 2016 presidential bid.

JE SUIS UN HYPOCRITE: Two weeks after Zuckerberg said ‘je suis Charlie,’ Facebook begins censoring images of prophet Muhammad.

WAIT, I THOUGHT AL QAEDA WAS ON THE RUN: General Tells Senators al-Qaeda Has ‘Grown Fourfold in Last Five Years.’

INDIANA HAS ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH EASTASIA: Governor proposes his own media coverage. Though to be fair, “professional” journalism is so in-the-tank for its favored party that there’s not much difference.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: The Sad State Of The Union. Hopey-Changey!

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 628.

CHANGE: Teachers Take Union Dues to Supreme Court: Teachers unions ‘have done more harm than good,’ one plaintiff says.

PUSHBACK: Russia Threatens SWIFT.

It is important not to underestimate the amount of bluster and bluff in Russian talk about its friendship with China and its turn to the east. Repeated failures to build an effective Russia-China partnership date back to the era of the Soviet Union and Mao. But both countries, and they are not alone, are deeply and seriously concerned about what they see as the excessive power that the present day SWIFT system gives the U.S. and its Western allies; essentially, the ability to cut a country’s banks off from the global financial system. These are the sanctions that have been so effective against Iran. Russia and China, and a number of other countries, would like very much to break this weapon, something they see as one of the chief props of American world power.

It isn’t easy to build an alternative, and countries like China which depend on large flows of both investment and trade with the rest of the world, and whose financial systems are pointed toward greater rather than less integration with the global system are somewhat less eager about building an alternative than countries like Russia. Furthermore, lots of ne’er-do-wells like Venezuela, Argentina, or perhaps a Syriza-led Greece would love to join an alternative system thinking that it offers them new chances to stiff a new set of creditors.

Still, the more powerful the sanctions weapon becomes, and the more we try to use it, the greater the incentive we create for other people to challenge it. This should at the least cause the West to think twice before slamming sanctions down when somebody jaywalks; this is a tool that should be reserved for great dangers, not pesky annoyances. Yet there’s a longstanding tendency in the West to use sanctions as a substitute for military action—public opinion demands action, politicians don’t want to send troops (and think the public demand for action will cool rapidly when the body bags start coming home), so sanctions become the way to look tough while staying cool.

Which calls for courage and self-discipline among politicians, both, alas, in short supply these days.