WHY ARE BLUE STATE LEGISLATURES SUCH CESSPITS OF SEXUAL COERCION? Report: Several men accuse spouse of Senate President Stan Rosenberg of abuse.

Democratic Senate President Stan Rosenberg said Thursday he was taking seriously a report that his husband sexually assaulted and harassed several men, including some with business before the Legislature.

The Boston Globe reported it spoke with four men who said Bryon Hefner sexually assaulted and harassed them over the past few years.

Three of the men told the Globe that Hefner grabbed their genitals and one said Hefner kissed him against his will. The Globe said it found no evidence Rosenberg knew about the alleged assaults.

Hefner said in a statement to the Globe through his lawyer that he was “shocked to learn of these anonymous and hurtful allegations.”

“To my knowledge, no one has complained to me or any political or governmental authority about these allegations which are now surfacing years afterward,” Hefner, 30, said in the statement. “As one can imagine, it is incredibly difficult to respond to allegations by unnamed and unidentified individuals that involve an extended period of time, particularly in the current environment.”

Rosenberg, 68, a state senator since 1991, assumed the top leadership post in January 2016. He is the first openly gay leader of either legislative chamber in Massachusetts.

Shortly before his election as president, Rosenberg responded to reports that Hefner, his then domestic partner, had used social media to boast of his influence in Senate affairs.

In a December 2014 letter to 33 Democratic senators, Rosenberg vowed to create a “firewall” between his personal and professional life.

Oops.

ROPE DESCENT FROM A HOVERING OSPREY: If an infantryman can do it from a helicopter, why not do it from a MV-22B? The photo was taken November 28 in Okinawa.

THIS WOULD DO THE PROFESSION A WORLD OF GOOD:

Stephen adds, “I’m a firearms instructor and teach a gun safety class to the interested reporters at the Free Beacon as a perk.”

RIP: Co-founder of Ice Bucket Challenge dies after ALS battle.

IT’S LIKE A WRECKING BALL THROUGH THE MEDIA: Vice fires three employees amid investigations into sexual harassment.

What new broom is sweeping clean through the cesspits of misogyny that are the media? Donald Trump, Feminist Hero. “Honestly, I trace everything back to the election of Donald Trump. I think that without him being elected, if it had been Hillary Clinton, this would’ve never happened.”

HENRY MILLER: Scientifically Illiterate America.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: City Official Reportedly Spent $8,000 of City Money Buying Himself Guns, Tracking Devices. He allegedly used the purchases to stalk his former mistress.

D’OH: Donald Trump’s ‘working visit’ to UK dropped as tensions with Theresa May grow over president’s far-Right retweets.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Jack Goldsmith & Adrian Vermeule: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them.

First is the obvious progressive tilt in universities, especially elite universities. At Harvard, for example, undergraduate students overwhelmingly identify as progressive or liberal and the faculty overwhelmingly gives to the Democratic Party. Even Harvard Law School, which has a handful of conservative scholars and a new conservative dean, is on the left end of law school faculties, which are themselves more progressive than the legal profession.

Second, the distinctive progressive ideology of elite universities is relentlessly critical of, to the point of being intolerant of, traditions and moral values widely seen as legitimate in the outside world. As a result, elite universities have narrowed the range of acceptable views within their walls.

Third is the rise of anti-conservative “mobs,” “shout-downs” and “illiberal behavior” on campus, as New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt describes it. Conservative speakers of various stripes are being harassed and excluded with increasing frequency. “Today, on many college campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas,” noted former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg at a Harvard address a few years ago. Harvard is actually somewhat better on these issues than many universities — it hasn’t had anti-conservative mobs, and it has been relatively respectful of conservative speakers. But even at Harvard, the pervasive progressive orthodoxy chills conservatives’ speech in the classroom and hallways.

Fourth is the public contempt of so many university academics for those who fund their subsidies. Paul Krugman, an emeritus professor at Princeton University now at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, as well as a New York Times op-ed columnist, offered a self-described “deep thought” in reaction to a Washington Post article about rising conservative anger at American universities: “Maybe conservatives are turning against learning because learning is incompatible with modern conservative ideology.” Krugman’s statement was a mere tweet. But in our experience it reflects an attitude that is widespread at elite universities.

Yep. Plus: “Conservative politicians and their constituents hear, on the one hand, that government owes universities a continuance of largesse and, on the other, that conservatives are ignorant, unworthy or corrupt. This sounds suspiciously like special pleading by an intellectual elite that wants to indulge in social criticism at the expense of the criticized, in both figurative and literal senses.”

THIS INTERVIEW WAS OVER A YEAR AGO: Meredith Vieira Found A “Huge Bag Of Sex Toys” In Matt Lauer’s Office.

“I went into your office once. Do you remember this?” asked Vieira. “Snooping. And you had a huge bag of sex toys–do you remember this?” Lauer immediately tried to shift the narrative, asking “if we can explain what happened” before launching into a ridiculous story about having a sex therapist who gifted the hosts sex toys after her appearance on Today.

As you can tell from the video below, Guthrie and Vieira didn’t buy his story. Guthrie shook her head and had a “can you believe this guy?” smile on her face the whole time, and Vieira repeatedly contradicts him, telling viewers that she remembers a very different version of the day’s events.

After Variety reported yesterday that Lauer once gave an NBC employee a sex toy as a gift, we have to wonder if what Vieira actually found is something much less innocent than Lauer would have us believe.

In Lauer’s defense, you never know what a young intern might agree to once you’ve locked her in your office.

ED DRISCOLL COVERED MARK HEMINGWAY’S VITAL “Why Liberals Have Such A Hard Time With ‘Monstrous Men’ And Their Art” essay last night, but this bit still sticks out:

Frankly acknowledging this might suggest that the liberals have endorsed ideas — e.g. oxymoronic notions of “sexual liberation” — that have been deeply harmful to women, all for the sake of knocking down obstacles to political power. I wonder how much betrayal [Woody] Allen must feel now. He did his part to push a liberal sexual and political agenda, was celebrated for it, and now he’s being drummed out of polite society for enjoying the fruits of these efforts?

I’d just add that perhaps the saddest part about Woody Allen et al. is that they never understood they’d become disposable once they were no longer useful to the cause.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Churches shouldn’t be allowed to engage in politics. Also: That rule shouldn’t be too strictly enforced.

When evangelicals turned out en masse to vote for Donald Trump, seculars gaped. The serially divorced self-proclaimed groper who talked glibly of “Two Corinthians” hardly seemed like the sort of fellow to attract the admiration of every-Sunday churchgoers.

But evangelicals had a blunt response: Trump might be less than ideal, but he was also the lesser of two evils. Trump might not be a role model for them, but he would at least not pursue the sort of policies that had convinced Christians they were under an existential threat from the Democratic Party, like forcing Christian businesses to bake cakes for gay weddings. He would not use the power of the office to advance the continuing sexual liberalization of the culture. And of course, they expected that Trump would appoint judges who would help chip away at Roe v. Wade, if not overturn it entirely.

And so far, Trump has delivered. He appointed the impeccably conservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. He announced he would reverse the military’s decision to allow transgender soldiers. And now Republicans have shoehorned one of his campaign promises into the tax bill: overturning the Johnson Amendment, which requires that churches abstain from political activity if they want to maintain their tax status.

This has long been on the wish list of conservative churches.

The thing is, after Lois Lerner et al., you can’t trust enforcement to be anything but politicized.

IN THE EMAIL FROM R D MEYER:  Salvation Day.

LET’S PLAY ‘IF IT SAVES ONE LIFE’:  Sanctuary “Justice”.

OH, PLEASE, BY THIS DEFINITION HERCULES WAS THE FIRST “BOY PRINCESS” AND LET’S NOT EVEN MENTION LOKI:  One of the problems of the left is that they’re so tedious when they think they’re being “transgressive.”  They’re like young kids who think they invented sex.  Disney Debuts ‘First Boy Princess’ in ‘Star vs. the Forces of Evil’.

YES, AMANDA S. GREEN IS STILL READING HILLARY: Look, she’s an adult.  I can’t stop her.  I just think we might as well enjoy the results.  HRC: Turning Mourning into a Movement – by Amanda S. Green.

I AM ANXIOUSLY WAITING FOR THE BOOK HE JUST FINISHED:  EXPLOITS: In the Eyes of a Painter-and a Major Announcement.

THE LEFT DOESN’T GET US.  THEY REALLY, REALLY, REALLY DON’T GET US:  Director Scott Derrickson blasts an entire group of religious people on Thanksgiving Day.

NY TIMES HITS BOTTOM SENDS FOR SPELUNKERS:  ‘The New York Times’ Ramped Up Its War On Men This Week.

BECAUSE TWITTER IS TWITTER.  NEXT:  Why Do My Social Media Accounts Keep Getting Suspended After Rush Reads My Articles?

AS IN PUBLISHING, THE EXPLANATION OF OUR ABSENCE IS EASY:  The left took over those institutions long ago, and they’re a jealous cult.  Conservatives and Higher Education.

IS PUTTING SPYWARE ON YOUR LOVER’S COMPUTER ONLY WRONG WHEN GUYS DO IT?  Bestselling author accused of using spyware to plagiarize ex.

SEASONAL AND POLITICAL.  WHO KNEW?  Anthony Pacheco’s Libertarian Eggnog Recipe.

WELL, THAT’S NICE: Trump to donate part of his salary to combat opioid addiction.