“THIS STUDY IS A PARADIGM-SHIFTER:” Mind-Altering Cat Parasite Just Got Linked to a Whole Lot of Neurological Disorders. “While the protozoan invader poses the greatest risk to developing foetuses infected in the womb, new research suggests the parasite could alter and amplify a range of neurological disorders, including epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, and also cancer.”

PETA’S MONKEY BUSINESS: The animal rights group has moved to moved to vacate the district court’s ruling that only humans can own copyright in the infamous Naruto “monkey selfie” case. The poor photographer whose rights PETA contested settled with them earlier this week. As part of the settlement, PETA demanded the court ruling be thrown out. My colleague Ted Frank, no fan of idiotic law suits, has filed a brief with the court demonstrating conclusively that the demand should not be met as a matter of law. There’s some nice commentary on the brief for non-lawyers at Techdirt.

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: ATF Ran Illegal Mixed-Money Slush Fund For Years With Zero Oversight, Auditing, Or Punishment.

ART IMITATES LIFE: Books about Russia are red-hot right now.

Russians are hot in the publishing world these days, and leading the pack is “A Legacy of Spies” by John Le Carré, his first George Smiley novel in 25 years.

The latest book finds Smiley protege Peter Guillam retired from the world of spies, enjoying some rest and relaxation on a farm in southern Brittany. But his Cold War past gets dredged up again as he and other colleagues are called back to London to account for past misdemeanors, actions taken during a time when the methods used against the Soviets mattered less than winning the ideological war.

Other recent and upcoming diplomatic thrillers — and you’ll know one when you see it: blocky font, red type, Kremlin on the cover, hammer and sickle optional — include “The Defectors” (Atria, out now) a page-turner by Joseph Kanon involving the KGB, the CIA and two American brothers caught between the two; and “The Shadow List” (GP Putnam’s Sons, out Tuesday) by Todd Moss, formerly the top American diplomat in West Africa, which deals with a Nigerian e-mail scam, a married couple that works for the US State Department and the CIA, and a Russian master criminal nicknamed The Bear.

I’m less sure about the others, but the Le Carré just went to the top of my Kindle stack.

MARY KATHARINE HAM: Can Trump Shoot The Wall In The Middle Of Fifth Ave And Get Away With It?

WHY WAS A U.S. SUBMARINE FLYING THE JOLLY ROGER? “In Navy tradition, the flying of the flag typically signifies a successful mission of some sort. As the Washington Post points out, the practice for subs began in World War II, when Royal Navy submarines flew the flags as a means of signaling a successful mission. Legend has it the flag, traditionally considered the flag of pirates, was adopted after a British admiral in World War I compared submarine warfare to piracy.”

SPENGLER: Germany’s refugee crisis through the looking-glass.

NASA HAS A TUMBLR of photos and animations of Cassini’s best discoveries.

PATRICK POOLE: Two Separate Terror Attacks in France Today, One Suspect Still on the Loose.

BATTLESWARM BLOG: Clinton Corruption Update.

It’s been almost five years since a Clinton last held public office, but these corruption stories go on and on.

ONE YEAR AGO: Colin Powell: Bill Clinton Is Still ‘Dicking Bimbos.’

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH: Canada’s Competition Bureau investigated climate science groups for “making false and misleading claims.” The investigation has now been dropped, but ties into the failed attempt here by leftist Attorneys General to use law enforcement investigations to advance their policy agenda and silence debate.

TRUTH, JUSTICE… ALL THAT STUFF: Superman Protects Undocumented Workers From Armed White Supremacist in Latest Comic.

Kate Steinle could not be reached for comment.

ANDREW KLAVAN ON THE SURREAL BLESSINGS OF DONALD TRUMP: “When Trump was elected, I predicted his would be a mediocre moderate Democrat presidency. Right now, he’s on track to achieve exactly that and it’s so much better than what went before and what might have come after, that it really does seem a strange little basket of blessings.”

Read the whole thing.

JOHN BOLTON: ‘There Is Simply No Argument About Continuing This Iran Deal, Period.’

REPORT: Trump Called AG an Idiot, Told Him to Quit.

Whether or not there’s any truth to the report, Sessions has not proven himself to be the Attorney General this administration needs.

STEPHEN CARTER: Equifax Bungles the Details Over and Over Again: The fine print on its consumer protection website is befuddling even to a professor of contract law.

LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF DONORS: UVA President takes credit for removal of “shroud” from Jefferson statue. Video evidence suggests otherwise.

JOSEPH BOTTUM: What explains the sudden mania for toppling statues?

The glory of the Internet is that it allows like-minded people to find one another. And the horror of the Internet is that it allows like-minded people to find one another. Coin collectors, baseball-card enthusiasts, and used-book readers have all benefited from the opportunities offered by online connection. So have neo-Nazis, child-pornographers, and Communist agitators. Where they were once connected only by the sickly sweet smell of the ink from the mimeograph machine clumping away on the kitchen table, the forces of anger now have instantaneous links.

And that instantaneity allows a radicalizing more rapid than the world has ever seen. Back in a 1999 study called “The Law of Group Polarization,” legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein suggested that discussion among people with similar views causes a hardening of opinion. “In a striking empirical regularity,” he wrote, “deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments.” It hardly matters whether the groups are pro-gun, pro-abortion, or pro-anarchy. With sufficient group discussion on one side of an issue, everyone involved takes a step toward the extreme: The mildly supportive become strongly supportive, the strongly supportive become wildly supportive, and the wildly supportive become fanatical psychopaths.

These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.

YES, THE NAZIS WERE VERY BIG ON PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED: Joe Biden compares supporters of due process to ‘Nazis’ who marched in Charlottesville.

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WE MAY NEVER KNOW HIS MOTIVATION: Knifeman shouting ‘Allah’ attacks a soldier on patrol in Paris.

BUCKET BOMB: Explosion Rocks London Underground During Rush Hour Commute.