DON’T GET COCKY: GOP worries Blankenship surge will cost party W. Va. Senate seat.

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FIRE BREAKS OUT ON THE 50th FLOOR OF TRUMP TOWER IN MANHATTAN: Man, 67, is killed and four firefighters are hurt in huge blaze in 50th floor residential apartment at Trump Tower: Flames engulf several stories of president’s New York home as burning debris falls on Fifth Avenue.

UPDATE: Crosby, Still, Nash, Young, and Misanthropic. ‘Burn baby burn’: David Crosby quickly deletes tweet about Trump Tower fire.

SCRATCH A LIBERAL, FIND A FASCIST: “The bill will “require any person who operates a social media, as defined, Internet Web site with a physical presence in California to develop a strategic plan to verify news stories shared on its Web site. The goal of Senate Bill 1424 is “to mitigate the spread of false information through news stories, the utilization of fact-checkers to verify news stories, providing outreach to social media users, and placing a warning on a news story containing false information.”

OPEN THREAD: Make it your best ever.

SALENA ZITO: History Proves That Americans Can Unite Even When Torn In Two.

I had some similar thoughts quite some time ago. And note these from Virginia Postrel.

Meanwhile, it’s a bit troubling that social-media moguls Jack Dorsey and Ev Williams are touting this essay: The Great Lesson of California in America’s New Civil War: Why there’s no bipartisan way forward at this juncture in our history — one side must win.

THINK OF TWITTER AS A DEMOCRAT-RUN PARTISAN NEAR-MONOPOLY WITH A CONTROL FETISH AND YOU WON’T GO FAR WRONG: Twitter Not Too Concerned About Death Threats Against Republican, Apparently. “A 38-year-old man was arrested Friday for tweeting death threats against Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), but Twitter’s response has been nonexistent. Not only has his account not been suspended, the dozens of tweets he posted directed at Goodlatte have not been removed.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Justice Department Probes Colleges’ Early-Decision Admission Practices: Multiple schools received letters inquiring about possible antitrust violations. “The U.S. Department of Justice is looking into whether colleges’ early-decision admission programs violate antitrust laws, the latest in a series of investigations the federal government has launched into higher education practices in recent months. The Justice Department sent letters to a number of colleges and universities this week asking that they preserve emails and other messages detailing agreements with other schools regarding their early-decision policies, and how they communicate with one another about admitted students.”

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A FRIEND WHO’S A LANDSCAPER IS CIRCULATING THIS ON FACEBOOK: The Curse Of The Bradford Pear.

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO TRUMP: The New World Order failed, Don Surber writes.

A BETTER WAY to thread a needle. I haven’t tried this.

I LOVE A HERO 2:  Orintheus Buster saved a life.  Knowing CPR pays off.

CAM EDWARDS: “Seeing [Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter] endorse a one party state and [Dee Snider of Twisted Sister] remember the stifling of expression from the PMRC tonight reminded me of the story of the Klaus Renft Combo, East Germany’s most popular band…until it wasn’t allowed to exist. Let me tell you a story, Jack.”

APPARENTLY, THEY’RE DEMANDING SPACES THAT ARE SEPARATE, BUT EQUAL, TO COIN A PHRASE: Students Demand ‘POC-Only’ Spaces at New York’s The New School.

I’m pretty sure Michael Graham didn’t write Redneck Nation as a how-to guide.

I LOVE A HERO:  And Jason Falconer is a hero.

UGH: Second wave of flu season hits U.S.: Doctors say that even if you had an A strain of the influenza virus this year, you could still be hit by a B strain during during the end-of-season resurgence.

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SO, COMPARABLE TO THE MANDARIN ORIENTAL IN NEW YORK? You’ll soon be able to sleep in space for just $792,000 a night.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: G.K. Chesterton on the original “New Rebels” of Progressivism.

THEY’RE ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Newly Discovered Nazca Lines Have Been Hiding in The Desert For Thousands of Years. How Did We Miss Them?

It’s a mystery, and I know who can solve it.

FASTER, PLEASE: Trump Orders End to ‘Catch and Release’ Program for Illegal Aliens.

IT’S ROBERT HEINLEIN’S WORLD, we’re just living in it. Human head-body transplant is expected in 2018.

COVERING THE IMPORTANT STORIES: The Radical Freedom of Dungeons & Dragons. 

D&D is a deeply libertarian game—not in a crude political sense or because its currency system is based on precious metals, but in its expansive and generous belief in its players’ creative potential. It’s collaborative, not competitive. It offers a framework of rules, but no victory condition and no end. The world you play in, and how you shape it, are entirely up to you.

In the afterword to the original D&D manuals, Gygax encouraged players to resist contacting him for clarification on rules and lore: “Why have us do any more of your imagining for you?”

Plus a look at how the FBI was obsessed with D&D’s creator, the late E. Gary Gygax.