WELL, GOOD: Genital Mutilation Charges Spark Bill to Keep Foreign Laws Out of Michigan Courts.

BLAST FROM THE DISTANT PAST: Mitchell’s Folly, the “Barling Bomber.” It was an experimental strategic bomber built in the 1920s. The StrategyPage photo caption quotes Hap Arnold, who said it influenced later bomber designs.

DISTANTLY RELATED: If you believe General Arnold.

HEH: The New York Times Style Guide to Alternative Cultural Practices.

ACTUALLY, IT’S DATED AND CHILDISH: No, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Is Not ‘Unexpectedly Timely.’

We are all necessarily prisoners of our own place and time, and thus, I was in my youth necessarily a fan of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I read it; I discussed it very earnestly with like-minded friends; I copied author Margaret Atwood’s muted style and dystopian preoccupations in my own, less competent fiction.

But that youth has fled, alas; it has been two decades since I last waxed indignant about the drinking age, or picked up my copy of the book. Even that copy — paperback, dogeared and waterstained and threatening to come apart at the spine — has been left behind somewhere, presumably the same place I lost my velvet chokers and my Suzanne Vega CDs.

However, a new television show has been made out of the book, and is attracting rave reviews, less for its acting, script, or stunning visuals than for its “unexpectedly timely” message.

Nonsense.

Whatever future we should fear Donald Trump will usher in, it will bear precious little resemblance to Atwood’s Gilead.

But people keep saying the TV adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is “unexpectedly timely” in this age. Perhaps I had forgotten some Trumpian intimations from the text. So I reread the book again. To try to get as close to the original experience as possible, I listened to Suzanne Vega on Spotify. Alas, my household does not contain anything that may safely substitute for a velvet choker.

It’s mostly “timely” because it supports left-wing women’s organizations’ fundraising schedules, I suspect.

BREAKING: ESPN to lay off about 100 employees today, including on-air talent.

It’s a safe bet that plenty of blameless people are losing their jobs today, which is a real shame. But this news is probably no surprise to anyone outside of ESPN’s SJW management.

“Q” COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: Defense Intelligence Agency’s ‘Shark Tank’ Helps Startups Pitch Spy Apps.

Roy stands in front of a digital projection of a map of Syria. Green and red areas show where his proprietary neural network has determined that unrest or violence is likely imminent. Analysts at DIA can use the tool to look at “precursors to instability,” he explains to a small audience.

The analysts can refine the results by adding or subtracting variables — local economic factors, ethnic and religious makeup, even fresh water availability or food price inflation. This, he explains, is a huge improvement over previous models that relied on just four variables computed by humans. Rhombus’s cloud-based neural net can draw in much more information to help analysts make better predictions.

“It doesn’t give directions. It suggests to help override cognitive bias,” he says.

Fine, but users need to remember that data-driven decisionmaking doesn’t have a perfect track record, either.

NEWSFLASH: Howard Dean’s First Amendment Is Really Just About Banning Criticism of Democrats and Leftists. Democrats and leftists have weak egos, and weak arguments. Thus, they have to ban criticism.

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QUESTION ASKED: Why does CBS News hate peace, love, and understanding?

MARC THIESSEN: Forget the critics, Mr. President. Your first 100 days have been just fine.

UPDATE: Scott Adams: President Trump’s First 100 Days.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Temperature Rises In Debate Over Closure Of Whittier Law School; Are 5-25 Law Schools In A ‘Death Spiral’ Leading To Closure Over The Next Five Years?

NORTH KOREAN NUKES AND THE OSIRAK PRECEDENT: My latest Creators Syndicate column.

21ST CENTURY INVESTIGATIONS: Cops use murdered woman’s Fitbit to charge her husband.

BEN DOMENECH: Bill Nye and the Politics of Grievance.

When I was much younger, my siblings and I would routinely tune in to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy on PBS. He was a fascinating instructor bent on helping kids achieve a basic understanding of science. When he engaged in politics, it was only very briefly if at all. He has recently returned to Netflix to, as so many of their products attempt, play on the nostalgia of older Millennials. Sadly, he spends most of his new Netflix show yelling at the audience. He also collaborated with Rachel Bloom on this bizarre video on transgenderism which has nothing to do with science, and is as cringeworthy a thing as you will see all year. The whole thing manages to be unfunny, tone-deaf, and hectoring – it mangles the real issues involved and disrespects the audience at the same time.

This isn’t about persecution – it’s disrespect. And the fundamental basis of healthy politics is respect. Real persecution is only a small part of what conservatives object to about the current state of the campus or the public square – the occasional group that is shut down, the florist or cake baker whose livelihood is threatened, the religious group that is berated into breaking their faith – these are the exceptions. The overall issue is a disrespect that now views words as weapons, fueled by an academic culture which has transferred the language of PTSD to simple day-to-day existence.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): On Twitter:

HMM: Full Senate heads to rare classified meeting at the White House on North Korea.

Congressional aides told Reuters that the meeting was originally scheduled to take place at a secured room at the Capitol, but President Trump asked to move the meeting to the White House.

Salon reported that the meeting will occur in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building auditorium. It will reportedly be made into a “sensitive compartmented information facility”—which means top secret information can be shared. The briefing will take place at 3 p.m. ET.

Some aides on the Hill have expressed confusion about the circumstances of the meeting. Salon wrote, “this could be a preparation for war—or just a forced attempt at a pre-100 days photo op.”

The meeting will be attended by some of Trump’s top cabinet members, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson—who will chair the meeting– and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

The fact of the meeting itself should send a message overseas, but that still leaves the question of which Senator will be the first to leak.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: Eugene Volokh Unpacks Still More Constitutional Illiteracy From Howard Dean.

BIRTHPLACE OF THE FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT: Riots Expected to Greet Ann Coulter at UC Berkeley Thursday.

LONG TIME COMING: EU Ankara Negotiator Calls for Suspension of Turkey Accession Talks.

The European Union should formally suspend Turkey’s long-stalled talks on membership if it adopts constitutional changes backed at a referendum last week, a leading member of the EU parliament responsible for dealings with Ankara said on Wednesday.

Kati Piri said ahead of a plenary debate on the matter that if President Tayyip Erdogan implemented his new charter, giving him even more powers, Turkey would close the door on membership.

Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey would not wait forever to join the bloc, just a day after the EU executive’s top official for membership talks asked Europe’s foreign ministers to consider other types of ties with Turkey when they meet on Friday.

Ataturk’s westward-aspiring Turkey is gone.

WELL, I WASN’T INVITED, SO I CAN’T BE DISAPPOINTED: Conservative media figures disappointed with Trump meeting.

GOOD MORNING: Liz Sheld has your Morning Brief with everything you need to get you started.

Everything but coffee, that is.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO: China Launches First Home-Built Aircraft Carrier, Boosting Naval Power.

The new carrier, festooned in red flags and ribbons and with a bottle of champagne smashed over its bow, slid from a dry dock into the water in a shipyard ceremony in the northeastern port city of Dalian on Wednesday, state media reported. About two years of sea trials are expected before the still-unnamed ship becomes fully operational, Chinese and Western military experts say.

“We aim to safeguard our sovereignty and state interests and world peace by developing our military forces including maritime forces,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman at a regular news briefing on Tuesday.

China has been rapidly modernizing and expanding its naval operations over the last two decades, partly to ensure military superiority over Asian neighbors, some of which contest Chinese territorial claims, and to prevent the U.S. from intervening in regional conflicts.

There’s more to it than just a flight deck, however:

He said that other evidence of China’s long-term plans included constructing a new class of supply vessels modeled on leading U.S. counterparts, a new class of cruisers designed in part to protect carriers, and its first overseas naval facility, in the east African nation of Djibouti.

China “appears to be priming other ports to support its growing seaward presence,” Mr. Erickson said.

China is getting serious about power projection for the first time since Zheng He’s fleet was called home 600 years ago.

ON THE OTHER HAND, A LOT MORE OF US NOW OWN AR-15s: The anniversary of the LA riots shows that some of us haven’t learned a damn thing.

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THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T WORKING OUT THE WAY I HAD HOPED: “Behold Bill Nye, supposedly the ‘science guy,’ bucking to become Bill Nye the Weimar Guy…with this effusive embrace of Rachel Bloom’s rendition of ‘My Junk Sex.’”

Related: Pre-WOKE vs Post-WOKE? Before and after of Bill Nye discussing gender is social justice MAGIC.