RANDY BARNETT: Out of touch law professor criticizes Judge Gorsuch and “originalism.” Good point here:

I have a question for the Brookings Institution that never seems to occur to nonoriginalists on the Left:

Why would you possibly want a nonoriginalist “living constitutionalist” conservative judge or justice who can bend the meaning of the text to make it evolve to conform to conservative political principles and ends? However much you disagree with it, wouldn’t you rather a conservative justice consider himself constrained by the text of the Constitution like, say, the Emoluments Clause?

Yeah, the Left’s worst nightmare is right-leaning judges who are as loose with the Constitution as lefties have been. In fact, back when we interviewed Richard Posner for the late, lamented Glenn & Helen Show, one interesting takeaway was that his book on terrorism and civil liberties, Not A Suicide Pact: The Constitution In A Time Of National Emergency, was basically a “living Constitution” approach to parts of the Constitution that lefties preferred to regard as fixed and unchangeable.

HOW LONG TO THE FORMATION OF ‘DOG LIVES MATTER’? This kitten is the NYPD’s friskiest officer.

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE:Obamascare: 60% of online Obamacare defenders ‘paid to post’ hits on critics.

HOW TRUMP’S ANTI-MEDIA-AUTHORITARIANISM CORRUPTED THE GERMANS! RETROACTIVELY! ELEVENTY! German secret service spied on journalists at the BBC, The New York Times and Reuters for more than a DECADE.

PERHAPS, BUT IN THE FORM THEY EXIST TODAY, THEY’RE REALLY JUST MARXISM AND THAT’S INDEFENSIBLE:Do the Humanities Deserve Defending?

WHEN YOU DON’T EXPECT TO EVER PAY, IT’S EASY TO RUN UP A RIDICULOUS TAB:Half of college students think their loans will be forgiven.

SHE HAS TO RUN.  INFLUENCE IS WHAT THE CLINTON’S PEDDLE:God help us if Chelsea Clinton runs for office.

OF COURSE THEY DO:EPA Employees Used Gov’t Purchase Card to Spend $14,985 on Fitness Memberships.

UNFORTUNATELY IN TERMS OF A FEDERAL BUDGET, THIS IS MONEY FOUND BEHIND SOFA CUSHIONS:  But this is still your tax dollars and not at work.  At least not on anything even remotely in the public interest.

IF THERE’S ONE THING W SHOULDN’T EVEN MENTION IS ANYONE’S HANDLING OF THE PRESS:George Bush Criticizes Trump.

TELL IT TO ALLEN DORFMAN: Drained pension fund has retired New York union workers pinching pennies to survive, as doom looms for reserves across U.S. But the final paragraph is the clincher:

“Municipal and state plans are the next to go down — that’s a pension tsunami that’s coming,” he said. “In many states, those defined benefit plans are seriously underfunded — and at the end of the day, math trumps the statutes.”

Yep.

ASTROTURF POLITICS: Leaked Audio Reveals Anti-Trump Group Plotting Hostile Town Hall in Louisiana.

AT AMAZON, save big on Certified Refurbished and Pre-Owned Amazon Devices.

Plus, big markdowns in the Audio and Video Accessories Outlet Store.

Also, 50 percent or more off Beauty Products.

FAKE NEWS, EXPOSED:

In an article on the Atlantic website, a former Obama White House staffer explains why she resigned from the Trump White House after only eight days. . . .

Hers was the second story in less than a week in which a government official explained that they’d resigned because of Trump’s policies. Ned Price, a CIA analyst who worked at the Obama White House, authored a cri de coeur for the Washington Post to explain why his disagreements with Trump’s policies prompted him to leave government service. “To be clear,” wrote Price, “my decision had nothing to do with politics.”

What a strange coincidence that Price and Ahmed worked for the same person in the Obama White House, national security adviser for strategic communications, Ben Rhodes. In fact, they worked in the same room, outside of Rhodes’ office, as the 2016 New York Times Magazine profile of Rhodes showed: “In the front office, [Rhodes’] assistant, Rumana Ahmed, and his deputy, Ned Price, are squeezed behind desks, which face a large television screen, from which CNN blares nonstop.”

Among their other duties, Price and Ahmed helped manage Rhodes’ “echo chamber” to market Obama’s policies.

And, apparently, they still are.

OUCH: “I don’t bother reading the editorial page of the New York Times because I get the opinions on the front page.”

UNEXPECTEDLY! YouGov survey: CNN drops to last place among the three cable news networks in brand perception.

WHY NOT JUST GO AT NIGHT? “The Solar Plus Probe will come within four million miles of the sun’s surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft has endured before.”

WELL, YES: Video: Truth Doesn’t Matter To The New York Times.

THE DEMOCRATS WHO DON’T DARE FACE VOTERS AT TOWN HALLS:

Recent weeks have seen a flood of media reports on Republicans facing angry constituents at town-hall meetings, so it’s nice to see the Associated Press point out that many Democrats have been dodging town halls altogether.

Specifically, AP’s Steve Peoples notes that Senate Democrats up for re-election in states that President Trump carried on Election Day just don’t want to show up.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), for one, sent a staff member rather than attend a Kansas City town hall last weekend. She will chat with voters this week via Facebook Live — a much more controlled environment, where angry mass shouting isn’t an option.

Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have also dodged town-hall gatherings, the AP reports — opting instead for teleconferences, e-mail surveys and speeches. . . .

The reasons are obvious: McCaskill, Manchin and the rest just don’t want to be pushed into any corners. They don’t dare stare down the left, or they risk facing primary challenges.

But they also can’t promise too much to these voters — for fear of angering the majority in these Trump states.

Confidence!

LISA, IN THIS HOUSE, WE OBEY THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS! The World Series, the election, the Oscars and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. What is going on?

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Second Muslim Takeover Plot Alleged at UK High School.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Hodge said he overheard plans to force female teachers at the school to start wearing the veil, and said he was ousted using a “Trojan Horse playbook”.

A similar plan was also mooted at nearby Clarksfield Primary School, which was subject to its own “Trojan Horse” accusations last week.

Hmm.

BACKLASH CAN BE A GOOD THING: A student was punished for filming professor’s anti-Trump rant. Then came the backlash. “When suspending Caleb O’Neil for recording his professor’s rant against then-President-elect Donald Trump, the dean of Orange Coast College said that the punishment should make the student ‘truly think through your actions and the consequences of those actions.’ But it was the college that rethought its actions — after two weeks of intense criticism that the California school was stifling a conservative student to protect a liberal professor.”

Let’s hope that similar incidents generate similar “backlash” in the future.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Higher ed’s prejudice problem: It’s bias against conservatives, Republicans and libertarians. But help may be on the way.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Oscar ratings hit 9-year low.

ONE OF THESE DAYS, ALICE… Elon Musk and SpaceX Announce Return to Moon.