SAUCE FOR THE GANDER: ‘Cards Against Humanity’ Creator Vows To Buy And Publish Congress’s Internet History.

Temkin vowed on Twitter that if the anti-net neutrality bill was passed that he would personally buy the private browsing history of each and every Congress person and Congressional aide who voted for the bill and publish it online for the entire world to see. You know, so they would know what it feels like to have their personal data auctioned off like that.

Now that the bill has passed, Temkin promised people he’ll use his personal wealth to do it and warns against crowdfunding campaigns.

President Trump is about to add his signature to the bill, making this perfectly legal.

“I DON’T WANT THAT”: Ryan Opposes Trump Working With Democrats On Obamacare.

With House Republicans said to make another push to pass Obamacare, perhaps as soon as next week according to a Bloomberg report, some have speculated whether Trump will engage democrats this time to assure at least a few votes from across the aisle. Overnight, however, House Speaker Paul Ryan poured cold water on the idea, saying he does not want President Donald Trump to work with Democrats on overhauling Obamacare.

In an interview with “CBS This Morning” that will air on Thursday and which was previewed by Reuters, Ryan said he fears the Republican Party, which failed last week to come together and agree on a healthcare overhaul, is pushing the president to the other side of the aisle so he can make good on campaign promises to redo Obamacare.

“I don’t want that to happen,” Ryan said, referring to Trump’s offer to work with Democrats.

Carrying out those reforms with Democrats is “hardly a conservative thing,” Ryan said, according to released interview excerpts. “I don’t want government running health care. The government shouldn’t tell you what you must do with your life, with your healthcare,” he said.

A simple repeal ought to do the trick.

THE HILL: How Obama’s White House weaponized media against Trump. “Regardless of how the government collected on Flynn, the leak was a felony and a violation of his civil rights. But it was also a severe breach of the public trust. When I worked as an NSC staffer in the White House, 2005-2007, I read dozens of NSA surveillance reports every day. On the basis of my familiarity with this system, I strongly suspect that someone in the Obama White House blew a hole in the thin wall that prevents the government from using information collected from surveillance to destroy the lives of the citizens whose privacy it is pledged to protect. The leaking of Flynn’s name was part of what can only be described as a White House campaign to hype the Russian threat and, at the same time, to depict Trump as Vladimir Putin’s Manchurian candidate.”

UPDATE: Related:

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: 5-Year-Old Suspended from School for Pretending a Stick Was a Gun.

GET OUT: Tourists are warned to leave Sharm el-Sheikh and other Egyptian Red Sea resorts IMMEDIATELY over fears of an imminent ISIS attack.

Israel has warned citizens to immediately leave Egypt’s Red Sea resorts and cancel all future travel plans over fears of an ISIS attack.

The country’s counter-terrorism bureau said there is a ‘serious and current threat’ of a terror attack targeting the region, and in particular Israeli tourists.

The Red Sea region includes the tourist destinations of Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Luxor, which are popular with British holidaymakers.

Eitan Ben-David, the head of Israel’s counter-terror bureau, told The Telegraph: ‘We don’t want to cry wolf, wolf. We really believe that the threat is serious.’

“Israeli intelligence,” as Bibi Netanyahu once had to remind Mike Kinsley, “isn’t so bad.”

GEORGE LEEF: Loyalty Oaths Return with Faculty “Diversity Statements.”

One of the worst features of America in the 1940s and 50s was the persistent demand for national loyalty oaths. In those days, people were expected to declare their support for the U.S. and if they didn’t, they could be blackballed, expelled, or otherwise punished.

The ideological fervor for conformity abated for decades, but has recently returned on our college campuses in the form of mandatory “diversity statements” by faculty members and especially prospective faculty members. The difference is that instead of having to pledge adherence to America in its battle with communism, the new pledge is adherence to the “diversity” agenda in its battle against a color-blind, merit-driven academia.

This recent paper by the Oregon Association of Scholars illuminates the problem of mandatory diversity statements. While the paper focuses chiefly on schools in the Oregon higher education system, it observes that more than twenty major universities and systems across the nation now require diversity statements for hiring or promotion, including the University of California, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Virginia Tech.

Traditionally, faculty candidates have been evaluated on the basis of four documents: a cover letter, their curriculum vitae, research statement, and teaching statement. Now, a fifth document is being added—a statement in which the individual expresses his or her commitment to “diversity.” That is, how important it is to the individual, how he or she acts to further diversity, and so on.

This is not merely idle curiosity, of course. The diversity statement has a purpose. That purpose, writes the paper’s author, Professor Bruce Gilley of Portland State University, is to weed out non-leftist scholars.

At many universities, he explains, there is an unspoken ideology that “emphasizes group identity, an assumption of group victimization, and a claim for group based entitlements.” On the other hand, “Classical liberal approaches that emphasize the pluralism of a free society, the universalism of human experience, and the importance of equality before the law have been regarded as invalid.”

Scholars who don’t demonstrate enough zeal for the former or any sympathy for the latter are put under a great disadvantage. The ideological purists who often dominate in hiring and promotion decisions don’t want dissidents in their schools if they can be kept out.

What they want, of course, is to absolutely eliminate intellectual diversity. Fortunately, there’s a solution:

The Higher Education Act is currently before Congress for reauthorization and quite a few good amendments have already been suggested. (Here, for example, are several suggested by the National Association of Scholars.) We could end the use of “diversity statements” if Congress amended Title IV to say that no school that receives federal funds may require any current or prospective faculty member to declare his or her position on or actions regarding any political or social issue.

After that, perhaps the Department of Education could send out a “Dear Colleague” letter explaining what that means: no ideological screening for faculty members and a commitment to enforcing it.

Endorsed.

VETTING: Fingerprints of Refugee Admitted To U.S. Were Found In An Iraq Bunker Used To Hold Hostages In Terrible Conditions.

Based on the fingerprint match found in the Iraqi bunker, Yousif may have been involved in holding hostages with Mashhaadni. As noted, one of those hostages was an American citizen.

Hasan’s wife, Enas Ibrahim, was also arrested and charged “attempting to obtain naturalization contrary to law.” All three individuals live in Virginia. More from the release:

According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Yousif, Hasan and Ibrahim are lawful permanent residents and have applied to naturalize and become U.S. citizens. On various applications and forms throughout their respective immigration processes, each has provided an extensive list of family members and information of their respective family trees; however, none listed any reference to Majid.

According to the affidavit, Hasan and Ibrahim also falsely represented their income level while on welfare to obtain an automobile loan.

Katie Pavlich has the entire affidavit at the link.

MIKE RIGGS: Donald Trump’s Opioid Commission Is Stacked With Prosecutors and 12-Steppers. Will any drug policy experts sit on Trump’s drug policy commission?

CHANGE. MAYBE. Abe Scraps Japan’s 1 Percent GDP Defense Spending Cap.

English-language resources hardly address the subject, but the 1 percent policy (which is not law) was, next to the constitution itself, one of the most tenacious obstacles restricting meaningful defense reform in Japan. Like the glacial five-year Midterm Defense Plan system Japan currently utilizes for defense spending, the 1 percent restriction was an antiquated feature that needed to go. Its origins, stretching back to 1976 and reflecting a Japan seeking to halt runaway Cold War defense expenditures, worked for Japan’s own particular situation and era; that of a Japan which turned toward a Japan-based U.S. forward presence as a main deterrent to the Soviet Union, abstaining from both expensive standing armies and pricey nuclear forces. Times have clearly changed.

There is only one immediate implication of this policy adjustment: we can expect Abe to raise the defense budget as high as he and his administration dare beyond 1 percent of GDP. Despite the removal of this significant barrier, Japan’s emaciated defense budget still faces multiple hurdles if it is to grow in order to meet East Asia’s rapidly changing defense environment. First and foremost of these hurdles is the power and entrenchment of the Ministry of Finance. While the Japanese constitution clearly gives the Diet the role of passing a budget, whether or not that budget survives the process is up to the Ministry of Finance.

Just because the people’s representatives pass it doesn’t mean the bureaucracy does it — sound familiar?

MATT STOLLER: On Mocking Dying Working Class White People. “I’m just going to cut and paste comments from this story at the Huffington Post on white working class people dying of despair. Keep in mind, the suicide, alcohol, and drug abuse is causing deaths at the level of the AIDS epidemic at its height. This sentiment is common, I just picked comments from one thread on one article.”

BOB MCMANUS: Silencing an American hero: the shame of the Naval Academy.

AT AMAZON, save on Herbs, Spices, and Seasonings.

Plus, deals on Digital Music.

DON SURBER: “Folks, this is fun. I am having the time of my life.”

BUT IF PAM GELLER HAD BEEN SHOT, PEOPLE WOULD HAVE SAID IT WAS HER FAULT FOR BEING PROVOCATIVE: That Time an Undercover FBI Agent Told One of the ‘Draw Mohammed’ Shooters to ‘Tear Up Texas’ — And then showed up on the scene right before the attack. “In the best-case scenario, the text was just one irresponsible but ultimately uninfluential remark to a man who was already ready to shoot people. But that would still raise the question of just why exactly anyone thinks this sort of encouragement should be a part of any police investigation. In the meantime, it wasn’t an undercover G-man who stopped the plot; it was the local cops in Garland, who were there because they realized that this was the sort of event someone might try to attack.”

FASTER, PLEASE: “Groundbreaking” technology restores movement in paralyzed man.

THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC: Trump to Set Up Commission on Addiction Crisis.

HIGHER EDUCATION HAS CHOSEN SIDES: She called Trump’s election an ‘act of terrorism.’ Now she’s faculty member of the year.

UPDATE: Link fixed.

WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS? Fake Butt Doctor Sentenced To 10 Years For Patient’s Death. “A Florida woman who botched cosmetic butt injections using tire sealant, rubber cement and superglue has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a patient’s death.”

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Scientific Studies Show Women Really Do Like Guys With Dad Bods More.

DON’T JUDGE XIM! ‘Large Burly Man’ Lurking in Disney Ladies’ Room Should Make Everyone Stop and Think.

THEY TOLD GLENN REYNOLDS THAT IF TRUMP WERE ELECTED, THE MACHINERY OF THE GOVERNMENT WOULD BE TURNED AGAINST JOURNALISTS — AND THEY WERE RIGHT!

BLESS HIS HEART — LEFT-WING ‘HISTORIAN’ ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘TREASON,’ ‘ASSAULT’ ON ENVIRONMENT:

Appearing on MSNBC’s 3 p.m. ET hour on Tuesday under the guise of being a “presidential historian,” left-wing pundit Douglas Brinkley accused President Trump and his associates – without evidence – of committing an act of “treason.” He went on rant that the President’s new executive order rolling back onerous Obama-era environmental regulations was “an assault on the public lands.”

Anchor Kate Snow started off the discussion by inviting Brinkley to elaborate on recent comments he made to the Washington Post about the administration betraying the country: “You told the Washington Post last week that, quote, ‘There’s a smell of treason in the air,’ when it comes to this [Russia] investigation. Why did you say that and has anything changed about your view in the last week?”

As a reality check on the “smell of treason in the air,” Brinkley is the author of the 2004 hagiography, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War. As the Weekly Standard noted back then:

Brinkley’s “not worried” about appearing biased, he tells the New Orleans Times-Picayune in a “wide-ranging interview in the soaring lobby of his Uptown home” published August 27. Sure, he says, “I’m sympathetic to Kerry in his 20s.” And “it’s no secret I think he would make a first-rate president.” And, okay, Brinkley’s “angry” about “false accusations made against Kerry’s military record.” Also, Brinkley cohosted a fundraiser for Kerry in February 2003. Plus which, he spoke at a rally for Kerry in New Orleans this past March. . .

But, hell, “I’m not a partisan” or anything, he points out. “I don’t have some ax to grind against President Bush. I try to be judicial.”

A judicial activist, you might call him.

Heh. So Trump is merely razing Obama’s legacy in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, you might say. In 2012, Brinkley wrote a fascinating biography of fellow lefty Walter Cronkite, in which he portrayed Mr. “That’s The Way It Is” as being a less than objective “just the facts, ma’am” journalist, who famously veered from reading the news to injecting his (invariably partisan Democrat) opinion on it during numerous occasions, not least of which were viciously attacking Barry Goldwater in ’64, declaring Vietnam unwinnable in ’68, and becoming an enviro-crank just in time for the first “Earth Day” in 1970, when the Gleichschaltung demanded that all good lefties embrace radical environmentalism and its related doomsday talk. (Here’s a look at some of the zanier predictions from the first Earth Day.)

In Cronkite, Brinkley noted:

Republicans had always liked the idea that Cronkite, even if liberal leaning, was pulling for the United States to whip the Soviets in the space race. But Nixon was now in the White House, and Cronkite’s promotion of the 1970s as the Decade of the Environment was a slap at petroleum companies, forest product industries, auto companies, and corporations seeking minerals. All his heroes in Eye on the World— Senator Ed Muskie (D-Maine), Dr. Barry Commoner, biologist Dr. Paul Ehrlich, and consumer activist Ralph Nader— were left-of-center political figures.

The Big Four villains of Eye on the World were Dow Chemical, the Florida Power & Light Company, Consolidated Edison, and Chevron Oil Company. It seemed that Union Carbide caught a break for sponsoring The Twenty-First Century for so long, as Cronkite took aim squarely at corporate polluters. With uncanny prescience, he scolded them for the damage carbon dioxide was causing the planet’s health. Long before Al Gore made global warming household words in his 2006 Academy Award– winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Cronkite sounded the alarm on CBS Evening News and in Eye on the World. “Every year American power plants pour more than 800 million tons of carbon dioxide into the skies,” Cronkite warned. “Some scientists suspect that carbon dioxide can turn the planet into a kind of greenhouse, sealing in heat so that temperatures gradually rise until the polar icecaps melt and a new deluge covers the lands of the earth.”

Of course, what Brinkley failed to add was the rest of Cronkite’s statement:

“Some meteorologists fear that dust is already filtering out too much sunlight, so that the world’s temperature already has started down toward a new ice age. And that pattern repeats: a science so far behind technology that it can’t predict which of two opposite catastrophes will occur.”

“Unexpectedly,” Brinkey’s book also doesn’t reference Cronkite’s prediction of global cooling, which featured in this memorable 1972 segment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hms8rggsMDQ

Five years later, Howard K. Smith, Cronkite’s rival at ABC was similarly predicting that “an ice age is returning to the Earth, with glaciers down to the Mason-Dixon line and freezing temperatures south of that.”

With nearly a half-century of enviro-doomsday crankery and not-so-final countdowns, no wonder Trump is taking a much more balanced approach between man, nature, and the economy. If this be treason, make the most of it – in much the same fashion as another legendary environmentalist, Genghis Khan himself.

I THINK OUR WHOLE SOCIETY IS LOW-T, THOUGH THAT MAY BE CHANGING: Testosterone Therapy Is Popular, but Studies Are Mixed.

CONGRESSMAN TOM EMMER: No, Conservatives Didn’t Bring Down AHCA.

IN THE FUTURE, DEMOCRATS WILL BECOME THE REPUBLICAN THEY LOATHED THE MOST FOR 15 MINUTES:

● Is Obama the Democrats’ Reagan?

—The Christian Science Monitor, September 6, 2015.

● Is [Hillary] Clinton a liberal Reagan?

—The Hill, February 17, 2015.

● Is Bernie Sanders the Democrats’ Ronald Reagan?

—The Week, today.

The “Is ________ the Democrats’ Trump?” headlines during the 2028 presidential election will be amazing to watch.