NONSENSE. PRESIDENT OBAMA APPROVED IT, AND HE’S THE ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT: Oil Drilling In Alaska Is A Disaster.

But if you really believe that, then you support fracking as an alternative, right?

AT ANY RATE, BUDDHISM ISN’T AS NONVIOLENT AS MANY WESTERNERS SUPPOSE: “You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog. I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.”

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SCOTT OTT: The 7 Reasons Scott Walker Should Get the Republican Nomination for President.

HEH:  The Charlie Charlie challenge.  A modern-day Ouija board, only weirder.

SOUNDS REASONABLE TO ME:  Islamic televangelist rants: men who masturbate “will find their hands pregnant in the afterlife.”  So be sure to use condoms, gents.

TOP COMMENT AT THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Non-Muslims who work in the Middle East, are forced to wear ‘respectable’ clothing by their employers, or face disciplinary measures.

The Arab Muslims say that this demand is quite acceptable; and that this is to ensure that people adhere to local traditions and customs of the host country. So, with this same philosophy, why can’t Europeans set a similar standard for migrants?

If I owned shares in multiculturalism, I’d sell now.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Study: Women buying more sex than ever before.

NO, WE’RE WAY OVER THE EDGE:  Marco Rubio tells CNN:  “[W]e are at the water’s edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech.”

SOCCER ORGANIZATION COMMITTING A “WORLD CUP OF FRAUD”?:  That’s what the IRS head of criminal investigation claims, as the U.S. initiates a 47-count indictment in federal court charging 14 FIFA officials with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.  The charges stem from an alleged $150 million in bribes received by FIFA officials, as well as accepting kickbacks in return for granting lucrative media and marketing rights.

The most serious are the racketeering charges, which allege that the officials turned soccer “into a criminal enterprise,” according to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who spoke to reporters in New York. A conviction could command a sentence of up to 20 years.

“The idea of being shocked about bribery and racketeering at FIFA is like being shocked about jumping into a pool and finding yourself wet,” said Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation magazine.

“What makes this particularly different is the fact that this time it looks like the charges have real teeth. I mean, coming from the U.S. Department of Justice, that’s a first. That’s never happened before,” he said.

Well, I don’t know much about soccer, but ouch.

THE LINK BETWEEN antibiotic overuse and c. dificile infection.

1980s ARE CALLING:  The IRS believes the hackers who broke into the IRS system and stole information about 100,000 taxpayers are Russian. But hey, as President Obama said in the debate with Mitt Romney, “the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” so there’s no need to worry about Russia.

YEP, IT’S A RACKET ALRIGHT: Freedom Watch files racketeering (RICO) lawsuit against the Clinton Foundation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.  The lawsuit includes a request to seize and conduct a forensics evaluation of the Clinton’s private email server. I really admire the chutzpah of Freedom Watch and Larry Klayman. They know how to fight.

I LIKE HER. SHE FIGHTS. Fiorina v. Clinton in South Carolina: Fiorina Launches #AskHillary.

GOOD FOR HIM-CONGRESS NEEDS TO ASSERT ITS MUSCLE MORE:  Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Judiciary Oversight subcommittee, is threatening to subpoena Treasury officials to testify about their rulemaking process for Obamacare subsidies. Obama Administration officials have balked at testifying, citing the ongoing Supreme Court litigation in King v. Burwell, but Cruz (aptly) is having none of it.

Congress needs to issue more subpoenas to perform its oversight function appropriately.  And equally important, Congress needs to be prepared to enforce such subpoenas, including civil enforcement, criminal contempt, or even arrest and detention by the Sergeant-at-Arms (which hasn’t been used in years, but is still possible).

OF COURSE THEY ARE:  The Taliban 5– released from Gitmo in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl–will be free to travel as soon as Monday. The US agreement with host country Qatar restricting their movement expires June 1.  Great move, Sparky Obama!

I’LL BE ON FOX BUSINESS’S KENNEDY NATION TONIGHT IN THE 10PM ET SLOT, talking about higher education costs and administrative bloat.

FIRST LISA LOEB, NOW THIS: I Was a Proud Non-Breeder. Then I Changed My Mind. “It’s embarrassing to be such a cliché, to give so many people a chance to say, ‘I told you so.’ (And some people, I’ve learned, will say those actual words.) I fear I’ve let down other women who disavow children and who, because of my example, might face an extra smidge of condescending doubt. Worse, if I’m honest, when I hear younger women confidently describe how they’ll feel when they’re older, sometimes I feel a pinch of such condescension myself. Not because I think they’ll all necessarily want kids, or that they should have them, but because one tricky thing about your 20s is the need to make decisions for a future self whose desires are unknowable.” Actually it’s not entirely unknowable, or people wouldn’t be saying “I told you so.”

CHIMPANZEES GET THEIR DAY IN COURT: Two research chimps at Stony Brook University got a hearing in a NY State court today, where their lawyers (for the Nonhuman Rights Project) argued that they are entitled to habeas corpus.  I’ve written about this case before.

Its lawyers said that personhood rights have already been applied to corporations, rivers and ships. If chimps are also eligible, they are then eligible for the writ of habeas corpus, which gives those who believe they are unlawfully detained or imprisoned the right to appear in court.

During the hearing, Nonhuman Rights Project’s president and animal-rights lawyerSteven Wise drew parallels to past court cases over the rights of slaves, prisoners and Native Americans.

Assistant Attorney General Christopher Coulston said these cases didn’t apply.

“There is simply no precedent anywhere of a nonhuman animal receiving the kinds of rights they’re talking about,” Mr. Coulston said.

But there is an understanding that law evolves, said New York Supreme Court JusticeBarbara Jaffe, based on scientific discoveries and social mores.

“Witness marital rights,” she said. “Isn’t it incumbent upon the judiciary to at least consider whether a class of beings may be granted a right or something short of a right, under the habeas statute?”

In a brief filed Friday, the attorney general’s office wrote that current animal-rights laws are sufficient, and to grant chimps additional rights was a slippery slope.

To extend the writ of habeas corpus “could set a precedent for the release of other animals held in captivity, whether housed at a zoo, in an educational institution, on a farm, or owned as a domesticated pet,” the brief reads.

It’s a slippery slope indeed, but that’s not the primary reason why this argument needs to be summarily rejected.  Humans are humans, and the law of  humans does not apply to nonhumans.  Period.  Any other approach leads to unprincipled line drawing among different animal species.  Why chimps but not dolphins or elephants?  What about cows, dogs, ants or roaches?  If humans wish to confer special statutory protections to certain animals–such as domesticated pets–that is perfectly appropriate.  But to apply a law that protects human beings–such as habeas corpus–to animals is the height of lunacy.

CHRIS CILIZZA: The Clintons’ Finances Are Way Too Complex For The Average Person To Understand.

The AP reported late Monday that Bill Clinton has a limited liability corporation — called WJC, LLC — that serves as a “pass through” entity designed to “channel payments to the former president.”

If you have no idea what the heck the sentence above means, you are not alone. And therein lies the problem for Hillary Clinton as she seeks to sell herself as the voice of everyday Americans in her bid for the White House in 2016. . . .

But, whether or not she is Romney 2.0, the reality is that the amount of money coming into the Clinton coffers ($25 million from speaking fees alone since the start of 2014) coupled with this WJC, LLC — not to mention the regularly revised donor policies of the Clinton Foundation — badly complicate Hillary’s pitch that she is able to understand regular folks.

Selling Clinton as in touch with “everyday Americans” was always going to be next-to-impossible. And revelations like this one about a “pass through” company to handle money being paid to her husband prove why. No family with a former president and a future presidential nominee in it are “regular” — in their life experiences, resumes or personal finances. No family with an income in the 10s of millions of dollars and setup like the one Bill Clinton has at WJC, LLC, are just like the rest of us. They just aren’t.

The more that idea gets reinforced to the casual voter — and stories like WJC, LLC, do just that — the harder it will be for Clinton to shake the image that what she says publicly doesn’t jibe with how she and her husband conduct their own business.

Yeah, they’re also crooks. This reinforces that, too.

ROAD & TRACK: Robot highway considered for autonomous trucks: The proposed corridor could let self-driving trucks go from Mexico to Canada along Route 83.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Pentagon: Live anthrax inadvertently distributed by Army laboratory.

LIST: 25 Forthcoming Cars Worth Waiting For, 2016-2019.

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ITS’ A VERY DANGEROUS WAR, AND IT’S REAL:  Michael Grunwald:  Inside the War on Coal.  It’s a long, annoyingly pro-“green” piece, but the very end is telling:

There will be no formal surrender in the war on coal, no battleship treaty to mark the end. But Beyond Coal’s leaders believe they can finish most of their work setting the U.S. electric sector on a greener path over the next five years. The next phase of the war on carbon would be to try to electrify everything else—cars and trains that use oil-derived gasoline and diesel, as well as homes and businesses that rely on natural gas and heating oil. Nilles hopes power companies like OG&E and DTE that Beyond Coal has spent the last decade fighting with—but then cutting deals with—can become allies in Phase Two. And allies will be vital, because if King Coal seems like a rich and powerful enemy, it’s a pushover compared to Big Oil.

“Once we’ve taken out coal, we’ll need to take on oil, and who better to help than our new friends in the utility sector who can make money from electrification?” Nilles says with a grin. “It’s a long fight. This is how we win.”

Yep–oil is next. They won’t be happy until we all drive Priuses.