ON SALE TODAY: 43% off Russ Roberts’ How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life.

AN EASY FIX FOR VERTIGO. One of my students recently had this — she’d suffered for two years, and it was gone almost instantly.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Amidst 39% Enrollment Decline, Valparaiso Law School Offers Buyouts To 27 Faculty.

APPARENTLY, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS SECURITY ANYMORE: Red flags in NAVSEA case: Experts cite espionage patterns in engineer’s acts.

The case of the Navy engineer’s alleged double life seems as though it was ripped from the pages of a spy novel.

An Iranian-American engineer, naturalized in 1985, gets a job with the Navy and holds a secret clearance. All the while he’s allegedly maintaining a sophisticated web of intermingled identities to shuffle money from foreign bank accounts, hold addresses in at least four states and lie about hisIranian passport. And elements of that scheme evaded detection for 30 years.

James Robert Baker is alleged to have lied to the Navy about his continuing ties to Iran during his entire career, which started in 1985 at the Naval Surface Warfare Center and was suspended last summer when U.S. Marshalls raided his small Springfield, Va., home. He was indicted on fraud charges in early February.

Security experts said they were troubled by authorities’ repeated failure to thoroughly investigate Baker, especially after red flags like his return to Iran only days after Navy officials told him to prove that he had turned it in. Facts about what motivated Baker’s alleged three-decade ruse remain unclear, but several experts who reviewed the case said it bore hallmarks of espionage.

One big difference between this story and a spy novel: In spy novels, people are generally competent.

UPDATE: From the comments: “When the FBI was called for a comment on this article, a recorded message said that no one was available since all agents were out of the office surveilling and photographing attendees at a Tea Party rally…”

RYAN CALO: Robots In American Law.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1025.

BLOG PLUG: Reader Wes Fulton writes: “Hey, Glenn, you mentioned the other day that you try to support small blogs. I’ve been trying to get more readers. Can you give me a shout-out? :)” Sure. But I should warn you that you’re on the same page as Noam Chomsky with your latest post. But hey, maybe both of you are right this time.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Academia Is Losing Its Mind.

It’s not just right-wing populists who are worried that some academic humanities and social science fields are veering into irrelevance. The latest issue of the left-of-center magazine American Prospect has a depressing report by the leftist Occidental professor Peter Dreier on his experience submitting a bogus paper to a humanities conference and getting it accepted. . . .

Here’s one representative sentence: “Self-delusion and self-discipline inhibits the reflective self, the postmodern membrane, the ecclesiastical impulse forbidden by truth-seeking and sun worship, problematizing the inchoate structures of both reason and darkness, allowing knowledge, half-knowledge, and knowledgelessness to undermine and yet simultaneously overcome the self-loathing that overwhelms the Gnostic challenge facing Biblical scribes, folksingers, and hip-hop rappers alike.” He also includes examples of the type of real humanities work that led him to undertake this experiment (he saw sentences elsewhere like: “Given the attitudes generated by our sense of a place, critical perspectives that only target overt structures within city systems are incomplete” and “Theoretical, conceptual and methodological choices must be framed in relation to concrete explanatory and interpretive dilemmas, not ontological foundations.”)

To make matters worse, most of this “postmodern” analysis is taking place within the context of a hermetically sealed political bubble. As our friends at Heterodox Academy have pointed out, just four percent of American academics in the humanities identify as conservative. This total homogeneity may be one reason that so much work in the humanities has become utterly disconnected from what the general public might consider to be valuable scholarly exploration.

There is a good amount of anti-intellectualism and old-fashioned score-settling involved in attacks on the academy by right-wing pundits and populist politicians. But that reaction didn’t come out of nowhere. At a time when tuition and student debt are reaching crisis levels, the public is right to demand that the work it is funding (both directly, at public universities, and indirectly, at private universities, by subsidizing student loans) has some bearing on reality and some benefit to the rest of society.

Indeed.

OF COURSE NOT. ONLY REPUBLICANS HAVE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. Erik Wemple: The media aren’t telling you about ties of pro-Hillary Clinton pundits.

The nice thing about having Bernie in the race is that, for a little while at least, lefties care about this sort of thing.

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

Also, coupons galore in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

Plus, Kindle Daily Deals.

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

QUESTIONS ASKED: Did Trump Bankroll Planned Parenthood Abortionists? Is that why he refuses to release his tax returns?

ROGER SIMON: Has Rubio Hurt Cruz More Than Trump for Super Tuesday?

IT’S PATTY MURRAY, NATCH: Senator cites faulty statistic while sucking up to acting education secretary.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., used a flawed — and at this point, discredited — statistic to claim that one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college.

She used this statistic during her questioning of acting Education Secretary Dr. John B. King during his Senate confirmation hearing, which quickly became a slobbering lovefest for the department’s current actions on combatting sexual assault.

“Dr. King, I’ve been really impressed with this administration’s work over the years to protect civil rights — including promoting education opportunities for students of color, women and girls, students with disabilities, LGBT students — and I look forward to continuing to work with you on those issues, but I wanted to raise one specific issue with you today: campus sexual assault and violence,” Murray said.

She didn’t follow this up with any kind of critical question, instead devoting time to suggest that 20 percent of women are sexually assaulted in college.

“It’s a growing national crisis and depending on the survey, we know that at least one in five women are being sexually assaulted on our college campuses. That’s stunning. One in five of our daughters, granddaughters, sisters, loved ones are being sexually assaulted while in college,” Murray said. “That is by the way the lowest of the estimates out there, which is really appalling and unacceptable.”

First, it’s not a “growing national crisis” because it’s not a national crisis at all. Rape and sexual assault are terrible when they happen, but they are not occurring at the levels believers like Murray claim. The studies cited by Murray and others are self-reported surveys, possibly the least reliable method of studying something.

Also, the surveys use broad definitions of sexual assault to punch up the numbers, including everything from a stolen kiss to rape. They also have low response rates, are not nationally representative and can’t be applied to the population at large.

The biggest problem with the surveys, however, is the fact that those labeled as victims by the researchers don’t even see themselves as such. When asked why they didn’t report, more than 70 percent of respondents say it was because they didn’t think the situation was serious.

It’s a national crisis, it’s just not serious.

WELL, I’M DEFINITELY NOT STOPPING MY 19 YEAR* BOYCOTT OF MSNBC NOW: Melissa Harris-Perry ‘highly unlikely’ to return to MSNBC, claims CNN’s Brian Stelter:

Her MSNBC contract expires in October. Two sources agreed it is “highly unlikely” she will ever be back on the show.

This fight — fundamentally about editorial control — comes at a time when MSNBC and its rivals are trying to squeeze higher ratings out of the chaotic primary season.

At the same time, MSNBC has been undergoing a radical brand transplant, replacing left-leaning opinion shows with more middle-of-the-road newscasts. Progressives feel like the liberal MSNBC they loved is fading away.

“Left-leaning.” That’s a really charming touch. And note this:

“I show up on TV and say words because, at the moment, I have the cover of a powerful white man,” her boss at MSNBC, she said. “The moment that that powerful white man no longer wants me to sit on TV and say words, I will not be allowed to sit on TV and say words anymore.”

Why are Democrat-controlled corporations such bastions of racism and intolerance?

*I’ll always have a soft-spot for MSNBC’s earlier, funnier days as a sort of technology-oriented TV channel during the early days of the Web, with a pre-radicalized Soledad O’Brien and Max Headroom-ish virtual host “Dev Null.”

GOOD: McConnell, Grassley Will Tell Obama: No Action on Court Nominee In 2016.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, will meet with President Barack Obama next week on the Supreme Court vacancy, and they will relay their position that the next president should fill the vacancy.

“We look forward to reiterating to him directly that the American people will be heard and the next Supreme Court justice will be determined once the elections are complete and the next president has been sworn into office,” the pair said in a joint statement. “And we welcome the opportunity to further discuss matters of mutual interest, like the drug epidemic that’s tearing communities apart across our country.”

Earlier on Thursday, Grassley said he was willing to listen to the president. “I think when the president wants a meeting, I’ll give him the opportunity to make the first statement, find out what he wants to know,” Grassley told Roll Call in the Senate basement. “But I think that it’s pretty clear that we will tell the president — we’ve said that the people should decide. It’s not about one individual.”

The White House confirmed Obama will meet Tuesday with Senate leaders and the top Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia this month.

Related: Only Eight Justices? So What? A Supreme Court vacancy doesn’t make the justice system grind to a halt. History shows that it merely delays rulings in a small number of cases.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s death leaves the Supreme Court in a tough spot, but it is one for which the institution is prepared. Due to death, retirement or resignation—or recusal in individual cases—the high court has often been short-handed. Since World War II there have been 15 periods when the court had eight justices, and each time the court managed its docket without a hitch.

Even in the rare cases when eight justices split evenly, 25 times the court affirmed the lower-court judgment without opinion (or precedential value) and 54 times the court set the case for reargument. The former approach allowed the issues to be raised again in similar future cases. The latter allowed for proper resolutions once the ninth justice joined—and only 25 of those cases ended up 5-4, meaning the new justice made no difference in over half of the reargued cases.

In other words, rather than making the judicial system grind to a halt, a Supreme Court vacancy merely delays rulings in a small number of cases. A study of the past 60 years of eight-justice rosters reveals that today’s Roberts court can easily handle the current vacancy, however long it lasts.

So no hurry.

RON RADOSH ON ROBERT KAGAN’S PREMATURE AND WRONGHEADED DECISION TO ENDORSE CLINTON.

Will the last of the liberal hawks please turn the lights off?

JUST THINK OF THEM AS DEMOCRAT OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES AND YOU WON’T GO WRONG: Media Pundits Often Fail to Disclose Financial Ties to Hillary Clinton.

LIKE NIXON PICKING JOHN MITCHELL: Black Democrats to Obama: Pick Loretta Lynch for Supreme Court.

I’m actually in favor of this for several reasons. First, it will make it easy for the GOP to hold together on not having hearings. Second, it will provide an excuse for a detailed look at Lynch’s miserable career as Attorney General.

NOBODY TRUSTS $TWTR ANYMORE: Twitter accused of shutting down Hillary critics. “Bernie Sanders supporters are saying their Twitter account was ‘censored and locked down’ after they criticized Hillary Clinton.” Stacy McCain smiles.

UPDATE: As I think von Mises said, the worst thing that can happen to a socialist isn’t living under capitalism, but living in a country run by socialists who aren’t his friends.

IT’S TOLERABLY CUTE: A Tumblr Has Been Imagining Kylo Ren Living At Home With Han And Leia And It’s So Perfect.

MAKING THE CASE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: Ex-CIA chief: Armed forces would have to disobey Trump.

See, if a black (or female) Democratic president gave an unlawful order, they’d follow it anyway so as not to be called racist or sexist. So if you’re worried about executive misbehavior, you’ve got to vote for the white male Republican.

UPDATE: Here’s the exchange:

Maher brought up Trump’s pledge to kill family members of Islamic State terrorists. “That never even occurred to you, right?” Maher deadpanned.

“God, no!” Hayden exclaimed. “Let me give you a punchline: If he were to order that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act.”

Maher responded incredulously, “What? Well, that’s quite a statement, sir.”

“You cannot—you are not committed, you are not required, in fact you’re required to not follow an unlawful order,” Hayden replied. “That would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict.”

“You’ve given us a great reason not to support Trump. There would be a coup in this country,” Maher cracked.

Hayden said he was not sure about “a coup.”

“I think it’s a coup that you said it,” Maher said.

It’s certainly something.

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Black Wealth Barely Exists, In One Terrible Chart. Well, when people get lousy K-12 educations, and are then steered into low-paying “social justice” jobs, it’s not a big surprise that they don’t end up wealthy. But this pattern does generate a political army for the Democrats, so there’s that. It’s just that footsoldiers don’t get paid that well.

WATCH: CHAOS ENSUES WHEN MARINE CONFRONTS BILL CLINTON ABOUT BENGHAZI.

FASTER, PLEASE: Asteroid-Fighting Russian Scientists Come Up With New Way To Save The Earth.