MORE PUSHBACK FROM THE GOOD GUYS: Ga. Lawmakers Stress Due Process In Campus Assault Cases. “State lawmakers are sending a loud demand to Georgia colleges and universities about the way they should handle sexual assault or discrimination cases: more rights for the students facing the accusations. . . . ‘I just can’t, in good conscience, appropriate funds that the taxpayers of Georgia trust me with to people who can’t even do a due process policy to protect the kids who are in their care.'”

It’s sad, though, that WABE’s Lisa Hagen repeated the thoroughly-debunked one-in-five sexual assault figure in the course of reporting this story.

PAGING JANET RENO: FBI Surrounds Malheur Wildlife Refuge — Media Crews Told to Leave Oregon Standoff.

VIDEO: Watch This Dauntless Scientist Shoot at Himself Underwater to Prove a Point. Well, the point is that water is much denser than air, which wasn’t really a sharply-contested point, but the video is kinda cool.

CULTURAL SUICIDE UPDATE: Danish girl fends off attacker with pepper spray, faces fine.

The teenager told police that she was attacked in central Sønderborg on Wednesday at around 10pm by a dark-skinned English-speaking man. She said the man knocked her to the ground and then unbuttoned her pants and attempted to undress her.

The girl was able to save herself from further assault by using pepper spray on the attacker, but now she may be the one who ends up in legal trouble.

“It is illegal to possess and use pepper spray, so she will likely be charged for that,” local police spokesman Knud Kirsten told TV Syd.

Numerous readers wrote in the comments section on TV Syd’s story about the incident that they would be willing to pay the girl’s fine, which will most likely be 500 kroner.

The man who attacked the 17-year-old fled from the scene and has not been charged.

Had the girl not broken the law by purchasing and using pepper spray, she likely would have been raped — or worse.

The story goes on to note that “Sønderborg is now barring guests from entering if they cannot speak Danish, English or German.”

REMEMBER: IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN THEY DO IT…

BEWARE: Sneaker wave near Coos Bay caught on video: ‘It would have taken anybody in its path.’

Many years ago my brother and his then-girlfriend were picnicking on the Maine coast, atop a rock 10-15 feet above the beach. My brother said he noticed a wave in the distance that looked bigger than the others. Then he looked up and it was closer and looked much bigger than the others. It nearly washed them both off the rock, and they did lose their camera and all their gear as they barely managed to cling to each other and the rock that seemed so high above the waves. This kind of thing happens occasionally, and it’s worth bearing in mind whenever you’re on the coast.

FIRST AMENDMENT COVERS EVERYBODY … EXCEPT DONORS TO CONSERVATIVE AND TEA PARTY NON-PROFITS: That’s apparently the view of California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is trying to force non-profits in the Golden State to disclose the names of their donors to state officials. “It’s a violation of both the organizations’ First Amendment rights to solicit donations, and the donor’s right to be solicited,” said Washington, D.C. super-lawyer Cleta Mitchell, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s Katie Watson.

TWO DAYS IN JANUARY: “Jan 28 marks the [30th] anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and her crew. [Today] on Jan 27, 19 years earlier a fire broke out in the Apollo 1 command module during a launch test that killed the three crewmembers scheduled to fly that mission a month later. Two dates next to each other on a calendar separated by almost 2 decades.”

TO BE FAIR, MAYBE DESPERATE WILL SUFFICE: Uber-progressive Dana Milbank confesses, “Democrats Would Be Insane to Nominate Bernie Sanders“:

I adore Bernie Sanders.

I agree with his message of fairness and I share his outrage over inequality and corporate abuses. I think his righteous populism has captured the moment perfectly. I respect the uplifting campaign he has run. I admire his authenticity.

And I am convinced Democrats would be insane to nominate him.

Hillary Clinton, by contrast, is a dreary candidate. She has, again, failed to connect with voters. Her policy positions are cautious and uninspiring. Her reflexive secrecy causes a whiff of scandal to follow her everywhere. She seems calculating and phony.

And yet if Democrats hope to hold the presidency in November, they’ll need to hold their noses and nominate Clinton. . . .

Watching Sanders at Monday night’s Democratic presidential forum in Des Moines, I imagined how Trump — or another Republican nominee — would disembowel the relatively unknown Vermonter. . . .

It doesn’t speak well of Clinton that, next to her, a 74-year-old guy who has been in politics for four decades is a bright and shiny object

Ouch. You know your party is in deep trouble when apologists like Milbank call your presumptive nominee “dreary,” “uninspiring,” “calculating,” and “phony,”– while simultaneously admitting that it would be “insane” to nominate the next most likely alternative.

If/when Hillary finally gets indicted, it will likely be too late for Uncle Joe Biden or any other “savior” of the Democrats to ride in on a white horse. The filing deadline for appearing on the presidential ballots in most states will have expired by mid-March 2016–about 6 weeks from now.

So if Hillary implodes, the Democrats will most definitely be #feelingtheBern. #NoAlternative

DISPATCHES FROM THE HIGHER EDUCATION APOCALYPSE, POLAR FEDERATION DIVISION: Yoga returns to Ottawa U after being banned for ‘cultural appropriation’, but with white teacher replaced by Indian one.

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR QUALITY FIREARMS JOURNALISM, THE GUARDIAN ISN’T THE PLACE TO GO: Poynter: The Guardian misfires with gun show exposé. “While the video makes for interesting viewing, in my judgment, the story isn’t fair. It was theatrics masquerading as even-handed reporting. From the very beginning of the video, it was clear the journalists counted on causing a stir on the convention floor. . . . But many of the more than 1,000 comments attached to the story are not critical of gun advocates. They are critical of the reporter who broke key safety rules and by doing so revealed a lack of expertise on the subject he was covering. In one instance, he aimed a weapon at someone. He also put his finger on the trigger of another rifle. Even novices learn the first rule in handling a gun safely is to treat it as if it were loaded and never point it at anybody.”

I’M NOT SURE IF IKEA WOULD BE HARDEST HIT BY THIS, OR ITS BIGGEST BENEFICIARY: Simple origami fold may hold the key to designing pop-up furniture, medical devices and scientific tools.

OBAMA AND SANDERS TO HOLD PRIVATE MEETING JUST DAYS BEFORE IOWA CAUCUSES.

I’m sure Bernie will give Barry a serious piece of his mind over how badly he’s wrecked the economy and caused unemployment to skyrocket…

MATTE PAINTINGS MAKETH THE MUSICAL: The latest heavily illustrated post on the golden era of Hollywood special effects, at the excellent Matte Shot blog.

Plus a look at how the incredible close-up shot of a flying locust was achieved in the Exorcist sequel, decades before CGI.  Just keep scrolling.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: A Person Can’t Be ‘Diverse.’ My least favorite phrase is “persons who identify as diverse.” And yes, I’ve seen that in academic emails.

WELL, DUH: Disney confirms, Yes, Of Course There Will be More ‘Star Wars’ Movies After ‘Episode 9.’

AFTER YEARS OF FALSE ALARMS, THE ‘CONSERVATIVE CRACKUP’ HAS ARRIVED: “It’s hard to criticize Limbaugh & Co. for cynically questioning the motives of the establishment when party apparatchiks confess them in the pages of the New York Times.”

YEAH, THIS’LL HURT HIM: GOP Presidential Contenders Dump on Trump for Debate Ditch.

DISPATCHES FROM THE ONE PERCENT: Average Movie Ticket Price Hits All-Time High in U.S. (And We Have ‘Star Wars’ to Blame.)

Between that and the structural racism inherent within Democrat-controlled Hollywood, sounds like an excellent moment to — wait for it, wait for it! — repeal the Hollywood tax cuts.

CONNECTICUT POLICE MORE LIKELY TO TASE BLACKS AND LATINOS:

— Police reported 641 incidents involving stun guns last year, including 437 actual firings and 204 threats of use.

— Thirty percent of the people involved in the overall incidents were black and 21 percent were Hispanic.

— Within the overall number of stun gun incidents, officers fired at them 60 percent of the time in cases involving whites, 80 percent of the time in cases involving blacks and 69 percent of the time in cases involving Hispanics.

— Officers warned about firing but did not do so at white suspects 40 percent of the time, black suspects 20 percent of the time and Hispanic suspects 31 percent of the time.

— When state and municipal officers fired their stun guns in 2015, 43 percent of the suspects were white, 35 percent were black and 21 percent were Hispanic. But when officers only threatened to use stun guns and did not fire them, 61 percent of the subjects were white, 19 percent were black and 20 percent were Hispanic.

Why are Democrat-run states such hellholes of racism, violence, and corruption?

WHAT A BALLPOINT PEN TELLS US ABOUT CHINA’S MANUFACTURING WEAKNESS:

Premier Li Keqiang recently made a shocking revelation about the industrial capabilities of China on national television: despite the fact that the country is widely known as the “world’s factory” and produces everything from iPhones, aircraft carriers, high-speed railways to spacecraft, until now there is not a single manufacturer in China that is able to produce the tiny rotating ball fitted to the tip of a ball pen that disperses ink as you write.

Milton Friedman, call your office.

LAYERS AND LAYERS OF FACT CHECKERS AND EDITORS. Obiticide: People Magazine Killed ‘The Late’ Abe Vigoda In 1982 — 34 Years Before He Died.

Related: ‘Barney Miller’ star Hal Linden remembers the late, great Abe Vigoda: ‘We lost a great character today.’

FLASHBACK: Trump Tells Megyn Kelly That Mitt Romney Lacks Courage for Skipping a Debate.

And speaking of flashbacks:

On the other hand, as Jazz Shaw writes, “The conventional wisdom is that the candidates have to debate. Unfortunately for the rest of them, Trump has once again torn up the rule book and moved the game to his own turf. People will call him a chicken and all manner of other names, predicting all sorts of doom and gloom. Meanwhile, the number of Trump supporters who abandon ship over this decision will probably be exactly the same as the last twenty scandals and outrages we’ve covered: zilch. If anything, Trump’s numbers will tick up in the early states if history is any guide because let’s face it… it’s hard to beat somebody at a game of chess when they keep flipping the board over on you.”

SUPPOSE THEY GAVE A DEBATE AND NOBODY BUT MARTIN O’MALLEY CAME?

IS THERE NOTHING IT CAN’T DO? The incredible power of the Egg McMuffin.