SHOCK VIDEO: U.S.-Backed, ‘Moderate’ Free Syrian Army Threatens To Kill U.S. Special Forces. “Regime change in Syria sounds really terrific until you consider that even the most moderate rebels are threatening to kill Americans.”

REALLY? I THOUGHT IT WAS ANTIMATTER TORCHSHIPS: Putting Humans in Stasis is the Best Way of Getting Us to Mars.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Can Colleges Just Ban Everybody Already? It’d Save A Ton Of Time And Money.

Political correctness grew out of the Marxism of the first half of the 20th century, particularly via the “critical theory” obsessions of the Weimar-era socialist Frankfurt School. Similarly, with their purges, speech codes, and purity tests, college campuses in the 21st century are essentially a recreation of the internal terror wars of the Soviet Union under Stalin, without the left-on-left body count. At least not yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KECWeI8mW28

THE PENDULUM SWINGS: Teenagers oppose gay marriage and shun tattoos. “Teenagers born since the turn of the millennium are the most socially conservative and thrifty generation since the Second World War. The newly classified Generation Z are much less likely to approve of gay marriage, transgender rights or the legalisation of cannabis than Baby Boomers, Millennials or Generation X, a study has found. They also have a much more prudent approach to saving and spending than any generation, except those born in 1945 or before.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 5 Ways to Make Smoother Cuts With A Circular Saw.

STANFORD PROFESSOR ON CONSTITUTION DAY: FOLLOWING THE FOUNDERS IS ‘DUMB.’

Ahh, the return of the Raj Koothrappali approach to Constitutional Law. I hope he’s thought through the implications of how that could end.

HEADLINES FROM 1789, 1917, 1933, 1950, 1959, 1975, ETC.: Why Is Socialism So Damned Attractive?

QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING: Are you showering wrong? Dermatologist reveals the most common mistakes we all make – and how to scrub up the right way.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1226.

“TEEN” CHARGED WITH PLOTTING ELTON JOHN CONCERT ATTACK: “19-year-old Haroon Ali Syed is being charged with preparing acts of terrorism for supposedly planning to construct a nail bomb and to kill civilians at a Sir Elton show Sept. 11 in London’s Hyde Park. Syed applied for loans a number times in the past month, citing a motorbike, a wedding and home improvements as different reasons, and spent that time watching a large number of ISIS beheading videos The Sun reported.”

THEY CHOSE…POORLY. The Terrorism Tax hits Europe: “Singular terrorist events (black swans), like 9/11, do not impact city viability.  The costs of a singular event dissipate quickly.  In contrast, frequent attacks (even small ones) on a specific city can create a terrorism tax of a level necessary to shift equilibriums.”

Read the whole thing.

BEN BARTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Start-Up Takes Aim at BigLaw:

Could the armies of lawyers needed to close billion-dollar deals soon be a thing of the past?
That’s what Invoke Capital, the London-based venture firm run by former Autonomy Plc Chief Executive Officer Mike Lynch, is betting with its latest project financing. Invoke said Wednesday that it’s making an investment in Luminance, a U.K. startup using artificial intelligence to process legal documents and automate due diligence in mergers and acquisitions.

Plus:

Over the last several decades, the bulk of the dislocation wrought by globalized finance capitalism and technological innovation has been concentrated on less-skilled workers, who have faced downward wage pressure from automation and outsourcing, while sectors like law, banking, and consulting have reaped a disproportionate share of the benefits. But as computer technology continues to cross new frontiers, even high-skilled professional jobs may be affected.

Big law firms are especially overdue for disruption. Hourly rates for corporate clients have been soaring, raising prices for consumer goods. And the cartel-like American Bar Association has actively shielded firms from competition at the public’s expense. Enter algorithms, exit lawyers: The next stage of the information revolution may end up looking more egalitarian than the last.

Well, that’s what my colleague Ben Barton has been writing about. I’m somewhat less optimistic than him about how things will turn out for lawyers, though I certainly hope he’s right.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Hey You Guys – You Can’t Say “You Guys” Anymore:

On campus, political correctness has become the Santa Claus who offers no presents. It sees you when you’re sleeping. It knows when you’re awake. It’s definitely making lists and checking them twice, and you’d better be correct for correctness’ sake. Otherwise you won’t even get a lump of coal, just a letter informing you how really sorry everyone is that they had to expel you for your own good.

Yet another sense-demolishing instance of campus lunacy was reported last week in The New York Times, which informed readers that their children off at college are being sternly warned not to say “you guys” (it might make women feel excluded), not to “show surprise” if a feminine-looking woman says she is a lesbian (acting ability now being as essential as learning ability) and to be very very careful about singing along with rap lyrics, even when alone in a car.*

Oh swell – I guess PBS will either have to Memory Hole its old Electric Company series from the 1970s, or put trigger warnings on each episode. Why does the left hate Rita Moreno so?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p08p2qBN80&feature=youtu.be&t=1m59s

* “A Party member lives from birth to death under the eye of the Thought Police. Even when he is alone he can never be sure that he is alone. Wherever he may be, asleep or awake, working or resting, in his bath or in bed, he can be inspected without warning and without knowing that he is being inspected. Nothing that he does is indifferent. His friendships, his relaxations, his behaviour towards his wife and children, the expression of his face when he is alone, the words he mutters in sleep, even the characteristic movements of his body, are all jealously scrutinized. Not only any actual misdemeanour, but any eccentricity, however small, any change of habits, any nervous mannerism that could possibly be the symptom of an inner struggle, is certain to be detected. He has no freedom of choice in any direction whatever.”

A SUFFICIENT DEGREE OF PARANOIA WOULD EMBRACE THE POSSIBILITY THAT OLIVER STONE IS KNOWINGLY COVERING FOR A RUSSIAN AGENT: Snowden Isn’t Paranoid Enough.

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TRUMP NEEDS “THE CRAP BEAT OUT OF HIM JUST ONCE,” JAY LENO TELLS THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:

Sitting in the Mercedes-Benz Lounge at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance last month, Leno, leaning on his self-deprecating humor that captivated decades of NBC viewers, singled out Trump. “I think this is the problem with Donald Trump. I don’t think anybody has just ever beaten the crap out of him, so he has this attitude of ‘whatever.’ When you have the crap beat out of you, you learn how to negotiate, you learn how to deal with people,” Leno explains. “You learn that kindness is the greatest virtue you can have.”

I’m old enough to remember when the American left (and Jay has admitted that’s his political worldview) at least pretended to frown upon bullying and eliminationist rhetoric. But then, we live in an era when someone who attempted to assassinate a Republican presidential candidate is let off with two years and deportation. As Glenn wrote earlier this week of Trump’s would-be assassin, it’s “hard to imagine someone who went after Obama or Hillary getting this kind of treatment.” Similarly, it’s impossible to imagine Leno saying that smug leftists such as Obama or Hillary should have the crap beaten out of them. And it’s a particularly fascinating admission given that Leno had Trump on as a guest of the Tonight Show at least ten times without coming to blows.

The timing of Leno’s quote also recalls similar language in the air during the fall of 2008, such as when Reebok decided it would be a good idea to politicize their heretofore apolitical mascot “Terry Tate Office Linebacker,” by issuing a clip in which he’s depicted violently ramming Sarah Palin, that year’s Republican vice presidential nominee, to the ground:

A HACK’S EMAILS HACKED (WITH POTENTIAL HILLARY BOMBSHELL):

The most interesting content in the Powell emails I’ve seen reported on comes, via hearsay, from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. He is said to have informed a donor that Hillary Clinton’s health is so bad she “could barely climb the podium steps” during an event they both attended. Here is the email from Jeffrey Leeds to Powell:

Sheldon Whitehouse, who is a huge Clinton supporter, said they were both giving speeches at the same event a few months back and she could barely climb the podium steps.

This may be the only email of potential significance in the batch. Indeed, it may be a bombshell. (I’ll have more to say about this in a post that will appear later today.)

Not surprisingly, Powell didn’t write it.

Heh. Also among the “18 Things We Learned From Colin Powell’s Leaked Emails,” was the detail that “Powell blamed Ambassador Christopher Stevens for the Benghazi attack,”  Ashe Schow writes at the Washington Examiner:

This one’s pretty sick. Powell said the Benghazi investigation against Clinton was “a stupid witch hunt” and that the “basic fault” for the attack “falls on a courageous ambassador who thought Libyans now love me and I am ok in this very vulnerable place.”

Huh — I’m old enough to remember when liberals frowned on victim blaming.

I THINK TIM KAINE’S NAZI SALUTE ON THE COVER IS PROBLEMATIC: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine wrote a book, and almost no one wants to read it. “Too bad for Clinton and Kaine, but it seems almost no one wants to read their book of dry policy proposals and life lessons. After a week on the shelves, the book has sold fewer than 3,000 copies. Generally, first-week sales account for about a third of total sales. No New York Times bestseller or Oprah’s Book Club for this kindling, apparently. Clinton’s 2014 memoir, Hard Choices — the book whose title and cover photo looked suspiciously similar to Carly Fiorina’s 2006 memoir Tough Choices — sold 85,000 copies in its first week, though it was expected to do better.”

FIRST JIMMY CARTER AND HIS KILLER RABBIT, NOW THIS: “Mrs. Clinton takes on a cartoon frog,” and James Taranto is there to observe every painful moment of the encounter — for the frog:

Poor Pepe! He’s just a make-believe frog, and he stands falsely accused of being ‘racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it.’ Which means that, according to the definition we set forth yesterday, he qualifies as a Deplorable. That meme [Trump adviser Roger Stone and scion Donald Trump Jr.] tweeted might have been silly, but damned if it doesn’t pass the fact check.

Heh. Read the whole thing.

THIS WILL END WELL: Millennials Are Picking Pets Over People.

GOVERNOR CUOMO (D-NY) USES ENVIRONMENTALISM TO EXCUSE CRONY CORRUPTION.

How could he not? Environmentalism in the Obama era is the very definition of crony corruption.

“Unexpectedly” Related: Taxpayers are fleeing New York in droves.

ARE THESE THE TWO BEST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES EVER, OR WHAT? It Was Easier To Cure Trump Of His Trumpiness Than Hillary of Her Hillaryness, Ben Shapiro writes:

Trump had to stop being Trump in order to gain in the polls; Hillary has to stop being Hillary in order to do the same. But it was easier for Trump to stop being Trump. That’s because Trump defined himself as a borderline nut job, a crazy man willing to do or say anything. To stop being Trump merely required him to start reading a script. So, like Shia Lebeouf, he got on message during the filming, and saved his actual cannibalism for his off-hours.

For Hillary, the problem runs deeper. People think she’s corrupt and dishonest. That’s because she’s corrupt and dishonest. To stop being Hillary, she must stop being corrupt and dishonest. It’s easier to feign sobriety than it is to feign truthfulness. Even when Hillary tells the truth these days, it sounds like a lie. And there’s no way for her to escape herself.

You can find DNC-MSM columnists asking “When will the real Hillary emerge?” dating back to at least 1999, during her carpet-bagging New York Senate run. But as Jonah Goldberg wrote immediately after the 2016 Democrat convention, “Considering how much I’ve gotten wrong this year, indulge me for a moment to say I got this one exactly right. For years now, I’ve been writing that there is no new Hillary, that she’s the woman who tells you “there’s no eating in the library,” and that no matter how many times we’re told she’s been “reinvented” and “reintroduced” the dog food still tastes the same. It’s Hillary all the way down.”

TWEET OF THE WEEK:

PRINTING MONEY GOES HAYWIRE IN VENEZUELA, Megan McArdle writes:

The core thing to understand about inflation as a policy tool is that in general, steady-state inflation doesn’t do you any good; what you need is accelerating inflation. A little bit of inflation is actually OK — it allows the economy to naturally cushion economic shocks that would otherwise lead to unemployment. In the dark ages of economics, some people got the idea that if a little bit of inflation was good, more must be even better: Set the printing presses to “full stun” and enjoy perpetually higher economic growth. (You still see this folk economics circulating on the Internet from time to time.) But this doesn’t work. People start to expect the inflation, and the economy returns to its natural level of output, except that everyone’s savings are now worth less. To get more growth, you have to inflate even faster than you did before.

Unfortunately, once inflation starts to accelerate, it’s kind of hard to stop because people also start pricing the acceleration into their expectations.

“Hyperinflation has all sorts of bad knock-on effects,” McArdle adds. Well, it certainly has in the past.