CENSORSHIP: Hydrogen Bomb Physicist’s Book Runs Afoul of Energy Department.

For all its horrific power, the atom bomb — leveler of Hiroshima and instant killer of some 80,000 people — is but a pale cousin compared to another product of American ingenuity: the hydrogen bomb.

The weapon easily packs the punch of a thousand Hiroshimas, an unthinkable range of destruction that lay behind the Cold War’s fear of mutual annihilation. It was developed in great secrecy, and Washington for decades has done everything in its power to keep the details of its design out of the public domain.

Now, a physicist who helped devise the weapon more than half a century ago has defied a federal order to cut from his new book material that the government says teems with thermonuclear secrets.

The author, Kenneth W. Ford, 88, spent his career in academia and has not worked on weapons since 1953. His memoir, “Building the H Bomb: A Personal History,” is his 10th book. The others are physics texts, elucidations of popular science and a reminiscence on flying small planes.

He said he included the disputed material because it had already been disclosed elsewhere and helped him paint a fuller picture of an important chapter of American history. But after he volunteered the manuscript for a security review, federal officials told him to remove about 10 percent of the text, or roughly 5,000 words.

Hmm.

THAT’S A PRETTY BIG SOFTWARE UPDATE: Tesla Model S: Summer Software Update Will Enable Autonomous Driving. “Let’s be very clear about one thing, though: no matter how fancy your Tesla’s autopilot is, you are still legally required to be in control of the vehicle. This means that if you decide to use the autonomous highway driving capability, you’d better be sitting there paying just as much attention to the road as you would be otherwise, because if anything goes wrong (like, if the autopilot gets confused), a resulting accident is your fault. Just the same as if you’d lost control of the vehicle yourself.”

I WANT A WORKING FORCE FIELD, DAMMIT! THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY! That Boeing Force Field? It Probably Won’t Ever Work.

AT AMAZON, Duracell 600 Watt Powerpack Pro, $153.20 (30% off).

Also, Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, $29.99 (75% off).

IS IGNORANCE OF THE LAW AN EXCUSE? No, but Michael Cottone argues that maybe it should be, in his Rethinking Presumed Knowledge of the Law in the Regulatory Age. I think this is a very important topic and an important piece. As he notes, it expands (significantly!) on some of the ideas touched on in my Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything Is A Crime piece.

REMINISCENCES FROM A World War II B-17 Pilot.

FROM BMW, a plug-in X5 hybrid. “Taking into consideration the considerable extra heft and the expected higher cost, drivers of all stripes—eco-minded, performance-minded, and everyone in between—might conclude that they’re better off with a nonhybrid gasoline or diesel X5. But as we know, it’s government regulations that are providing the impetus behind automakers’ rush to plug-ins, not consumer demand—at least not yet.”

READER BOOK PLUG: From Raymond Jelli, Zugzwang.

ROGER SIMON: Krauthammer For President. No, but maybe Secretary of State.

STACY MCCAIN: After Police Review: UVA Should Expel Rape-Hoaxer Jackie. “This is it, you see? Jackie is a serial liar. She was a freshman having trouble in school, and so she lies. She tells the dean a vague story about being a rape victim. The dean asks police to investigate, but the liar won’t cooperate with the police because she knows her story is a lie. Jackie’s rape tale in May 2013, however, didn’t match the rape tale she told Rolling Stone in fall 2014. Why is this? The vague story she told the UVA dean was utilitarian, a deception meant to explain her problems in school, to depict herself as deserving of sympathy. The story Jackie told Rolling Stone, however . . .”

ONE YEAR LATER: Lessons From The Ebola Outbreak.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Would the Media Allow ‘Cruz Crushing’ if He Were a Hispanic Democrat?

The whole point of the “White Hispanic” designation, and the Canada-talk, is to make clear to the appropriate Dem constituencies that they can say whatever they want about him without fear of being called racist. It’s a species of excommunication.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: Barack vs. Bibi.

DONATED BLOOD TODAY, at the U.T. College of Law blood drive. Plenty of students and faculty turned out, which was nice.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 684.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Wrong Time To Coddle.

Our classrooms have become more and more like cocoons just as the real world has become harsher. A piece in the NYT this weekend highlighted how sensitive students have become to anything that challenges their beliefs or makes them uncomfortable—and how far colleges have gone to accommodate them. . . .

These pieces, and others like them, are signs of a pushback against the infantilization of the university. But there’s still a long way to go before the cocoon culture rebalances itself—and the forces of prudish repression and PC lunacy remain strong.

But at the same time, some new studies paint a dark picture of the global trends. After a long period of time during which the world was getting less violent, world events are now going the other way. More people are being displaced and more are dying in wars as the world becomes a nastier place to live in. For instance, an Australian think tank called the Institute for Economics and Peace argues that violence has been rising globally since 2007, and that the world’s worst conflicts saw almost 30 percent more deaths in 2014 than the year before.

Between the infantilizing of campus culture and the growing global harshness, something has to give and—hint, hint—it won’t be the real world. The worst thing about the current climate of PC stupidity and mandatory cocooning on campus isn’t the ugly repression it entails. The destruction of free speech and free debate in the institutions that ought to be the citadels of intellectual liberty is a terrible thing and a horrible betrayal of everything universities are supposed to be about. But there is yet a worse consequence: the catastrophic dumbing down and weakening of a younger generation that is becoming too fragile and precious to exist in the current world—much less to fight the real evils and dangers that are growing.

Yeah, creating that kind of a culture, especially at such a crucial moment, sounds like something a civilizational enemy would do.

WITCH HUNTS: Student accused of sexual assault: Like being at the ‘bottom of this pit.’ “

AT AMAZON, fresh deals on bestselling products, updated every hour.

Plus, Kindle Daily Deals.

And, Today’s Featured Digital Deal. The deals are brand new every day, so browse and save!

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: CULTURAL ILLITERACY FROM THE MASTERS OF DIVERSITY. George Washington University Makes Racist Mistake, But Blames and Bans Student Anyway.

Remember, they charge students well into the six figures to attend. . . .

OBAMACARE — THE PLAN THAT’S SO AWESOME, NO POLITICIAN WANTS IT TO TAKE EFFECT UNTIL AFTER THEY’RE RE-ELECTED! Democratic Senators Beg For Another Obamacare Delay.

WHEN “WAR ON WOMEN” RHETORIC JUMPS THE SHARK: Think Progress claims Ted Cruz is anti-woman because he supports a flat tax.

The liberal website Think Progress is out with a hit piece claiming Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas is the most anti-woman politician in America … because he supports a flat tax.

No, really.

In an article titled “Ted Cruz just laid out the most anti-woman agenda yet,” TP author Kay Steiger sought to begin the “war on women” chant against Cruz by attacking policy positions few would think of as specific to a gender.

Steiger achieved this by looking at certain polls showing women split on issues or less enthusiastic than men about certain issues, as if that makes Cruz’s stance anti-woman.

Steiger lists the repeal of Obamacare as somehow being anti-woman — not only because of the contraception mandate, but also because “Women have decidedly mixed views on Obamacare, but some recent tracking polls have shown approval of the health care law getting a slight edge among women.” (Of course, if women are that closely divided on the issue, couldn’t Obamacare itself be considered “anti-woman?”)

Steiger also claims that Cruz’s agenda is anti-woman because he’s for the flat tax and abolishing the IRS. After admitting that “There’s little polling” on these matters, Steiger found one poll from 2012 that showed the flat tax was 10 points more popular with men than with women.”

Steiger uses similar polls showing women support a path to citizenship and gun control to show that Cruz’s views are somehow harmful to the gender.

Note to Think Progress: Just because you don’t agree with someone doesn’t mean they are actively trying to hurt you.

Well, to be fair, Think Progress spends its time actively trying to hurt people who don’t agree with it, so it’s an understandable mistake.

HOW DASTARDLY OF ISRAEL: Telling the Congress what the White House was up to.

WHY THE MEDIA CAN’T COVER SEXUAL ASSAULT: A concerned journalist who asks anonymity writes:

You might be interesting in this Tip Sheet from Columbia’s Dart Center:

Note how from the very first paragraph the tip sheet assumes that anyone making a complaint is a “survivor,” not an “alleged victim” or other neutral language.

Nowhere do these guidelines say “Be sure to give the alleged perpetrator or his/her representatives a chance to respond to the allegations.”

But they do say:

“Listening is important. Make sure to allow ample time for the source to tell you their story. Don’t rush them. Don’t press for details if they are not willing. Allow them to tell you what they feel comfortable talking about.”

The closest the document comes to saying “Check the facts!” is this:

“Corroborate information. Be aware that accounts of what happened may not be entirely accurate as trauma can impact a person’s memory. A person may forget details or misremember due to the psychological effects of the trauma. Be sure to corroborate your information with other sources to the extent possible.”

But note how any discrepancies in an account of an assault are pre-judged to be the result of that assault, the reality of which is not to be questioned.

One could argue that Sabrina Rubin Erdely followed these guidelines in her Rolling Stone piece. She only corroborated the facts in the story to the extent that they would not upset her “survivor.”

Columbia Journalism School is the institution investigating that Rolling Stone piece. Fortunately, Steve Coll, dean of the school, is a first-rate journalist. Hopefully, they will produce a solid report—and then circle back to take another look at their own guidelines for reporting these stories.

Well, we’ll see.

YEAH, PRETTY MUCH: USA Today: U.Va. rape report exposes failed U.S. policy: Federal rules have put universities in a damned if you do-damned if you don’t position.

It wasn’t much good for those innocent, falsely accused frat guys who suffered mob violence and vandalism — with, more or less, official University of Virginia sanction — either.