BECAUSE HIPPIES ARE LEFTIES? Why All The Hippies Morphed Into Campus Fascists.

SCIENCE: Scientists Find Form of Crispr Gene Editing With New Capabilities.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: He Had AIDS and I Had Hepatitis C: A Love Story.

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THE MUHAMMAD ALI/DONALD TRUMP CONNECTION:

From my perspective, as someone who was 13 years old in 1964 when Cassius Clay emerged in the popular culture, he seemed to have invented self-promoting bragging. My parents’ generation held values of modesty and sportsmanship. You shouldn’t verbalize your self-esteem, especially in a way that vaunted yourself over others. You should achieve and be admirable and then, perhaps, other people will praise you.

As my parents and their coevals saw it, Clay was teaching the young people the wrong values, including the idea that you can push beyond your area of actual achievement — in Clay’s case, boxing — and insult your opponents about something unrelated — such as the way they look. You could not only call yourself beautiful, but the other person ugly. To young people, like me, that seemed very funny and fun and liberating.

(I don’t really want to mention Donald Trump in this post, but the connection is too obvious. Who are we? How did we get here?)

Cultural devolution is fun, until it isn’t.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANFORMED: Is Not Recycling More Immoral Than Porn? Teens Say Yes.

Flashback: “Would you rather your teenager smoke or cheat?” Dennis Prager asked back in 2003:

Decades of lecturing around America and of speaking with parents on my radio show have led me to an incredible conclusion: More American parents would be upset with their teenage children if they smoked a cigarette than if they cheated on a test.How has this come about? This is, after all, an entirely new phenomenon. Almost no member of my generation (those who became teenagers in the 1960s), let alone a member of any previous generation, could ever have imagined that parents would be angrier with their teenage child for smoking than for cheating.

There has been a profound change in American values. In a nutshell, health has overtaken morality. Or, if you prefer, health has become our morality.

Which makes sense, given the age of moral relativity we live in. Prager’s article was written in the decade in which Gaia replaced God amongst American “progressive” elites, and concurrently, global warming was an infinitely more important battle for them than global terrorism.

And teenagers don’t “learn” that not recycling is more “immoral” than prØn without plenty of help being steered in that direction by school and pop culture.

NO THANKS. IN MY EXPERIENCE, THE PEOPLE ENTHUSED ABOUT PUBLIC NUDITY ARE NEVER PEOPLE I WANT TO SEE NAKED. Come Sail Away on This Naked Sex Cruise.

FLASHBACK: President Obama’s Wealth Destroying Goal: Taking The ‘Curley Effect’ Nationwide.

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: No Party Is Complete Without a Piñata Drone.

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GOOGLE’S SELF-DRIVING CARS LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF HONKS: The company says algorithms in the car are designed to mimic the behavior of a “patient, seasoned driver.”

SKYNET SMILES: Shot: Do We Want Robot Warriors to Decide Who Lives or Dies?

Chaser: Exoskin: a Programmable Hybrid Shape-Changing Material.

AT AMAZON, cellphones and service plans.

LIFE AFTER A STROKE AT AGE 30.

THE DEATH OF MUHAMMAD ALI REVIVES PAINFUL MEMORIES.

THIS ISN’T THE 21st CENTURY I WAS PROMISED: The Micropig Internet Mob Came After Me.

Idiocracy was never intended to be a documentary.

JOHN SCHINDLER ON HILLARY AND TRUMP: “As I’m a member of the #NeverHillary faction, The Donald will have my support this November if he is anointed the GOP’s nominee in Cleveland, which looks virtually certain to be the case. That support is not without certain reservations — Mr. Trump’s views on national security frequently seem half-formed while his reliance on advisers with ties to Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin troubles me, as I’ve noted many times on Twitter — but given the choice, it’s not a tough call for me. As I observed in my column yesterday, Mr. Trump may not be quite up on some key issues, but at least he’s not under investigation by the FBI for espionage and corruption.”

HEH: Salon Editors: We Should Have Let The Axis Win.

THAT’S OKAY, IT’S WELL-ESTABLISHED THAT DEMOCRAT-FRIENDLY MEDIA FIGURES GET A PASS: Under The Gun Director Admits Breaking Federal Firearms Laws On Camera.

WHAT MADE HELEN RUN? “The saucy life and times of Cosmo queen Helen Gurley Brown, more or less in her own voice.”

(Via Kathy Shaidle.)

PATIENCE AND OPEN EARS: How to listen to jazz.

FEEL THE BERN:  Sanders chooses two virulently anti-Israel activists to put on the DNC platform committee, Betsy Newmark writes, quoting extensively from Charles Krauthammer’s latest column, before concluding:

Sanders’ choices say a lot about him and what he believes. They also say a lot about what the left wing of the Democratic Party believe about Israel. Good is bad and bad is good. Terrorism is acceptable if it is aimed at Jews in Israel. That the DNC accepted these two men to be on their platform committee tells us where the party is headed and how it is abdicated the long-held support of Israel begun when Harry Truman, no Jew-lover, was the first national leader to extend recognition of the new state.

For the left, terrorism is also acceptable domestically if it’s aimed at opponents guilty of doubleplus ungood oldthink. Neither is all that new a development, but the clarity at least is a welcome change.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1122.

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-RUN INSTITUTIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF LAWLESSNESS? Katie Couric’s Anti-Gun Producers Repeatedly Violated Federal Gun Laws.