NEWS YOU CAN USE: On The Scene At The Octomom Porn Video.

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE to be targeted. “For people like Aaron and myself, and so many others who’ve had their livelihoods disrupted simply for exercising their First Amendment rights, there is no other more important story than the progressive left’s campaign of political (and criminal) intimidation.”

And here’s more from Aaron Worthing, which I should have linked earlier.

As a famous man once said, punch back twice as hard. Plus, what Andrew Breitbart said.

MORE TROUBLES in Euroland.

PAUL MIRENGOFF: The long shadow of Barack Obama’s identity crisis.

THE PRESS DOES ITS BEST TO HELP OBAMA:

“Is GOP trying to sabotage economy to hurt Obama?”

That’s the headline on yesterday’s Associated Press story by Charles Babington. The headline appeared on the main Yahoo page, which is far more heavily trafficked than any newspaper, and was picked up, based on a Google News search, by several hundred newspapers. The article doesn’t conclude that Republicans are deliberately hurting the economy, of course. That wasn’t the idea: the idea was to attribute plausibility to what is in fact a laughable suggestion.

We see so much of this sort of thing.

HEH: “All liquored up & trashing the place. Like Led Zeppelin, except you don’t want to go to his shows.”

IN CUBICLE FARMS, a plea for “sonic privacy.” “In general, people do not like the acoustics in open offices. . . . The noisemakers aren’t so bothered by the lack of privacy, but most people are not happy, and designers are finally starting to pay attention to the problem.”

Plus this: “The original rationale for the open-plan office, aside from saving space and money, was to foster communication among workers, the better to coax them to collaborate and innovate. But it turned out that too much communication sometimes had the opposite effect: a loss of privacy, plus the urgent desire to throttle one’s neighbor.”

Bottom line: “You talk to more people in an open office, but I think you have fewer meaningful conversations.”

UPDATE: Reader John Muth writes:

I’m surprised no one has picked up the REAL reason for the spread of cubicles, even in the face ample scientific evidence that knowledge workers are more productive in hard-wall offices: cubicles don’t require government approval or inspection to build or reconfigure. You just bring in a crew and do the work. With hard-wall offices you have permit application and approval, inspections at various stages of completion (inspection timing is at the convenience of the inspector, meanwhile work stops until he/she deigns to show up), final occupancy permits, etc.

I’m not saying we should get rid of building inspections, but under current processes cubes are the only way to go, even though they suck as a working environment.

Another side effect of regulation.

ANOTHER UPDATE: John Tierney, the author of the piece, emails:

Thanks for linking to the cubicle piece. That’s an astute comment by your reader about cubicles being a reaction to regulation. In the course of talking to designers, I heard complaints about the difficulties in meeting building codes when they tried to include different kinds of rooms in an office.

And I was told that even high partitions in cubicles are taboo if a designer wants try to get their building certified “green” — the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating. To get the rating, you need to meet various standards for reducing energy use and increasing the amount of natural light throughout the office. The practical result, I was told, is that you can’t build tall cubicles that would block light from the windows.(I think 42 inches may be the max height for partitions.) Of course, it’s nice to have more natural light in an office. But I bet a lot of cubicle dwellers would trade the light for higher partitions and more privacy.

Yes.

A SMARTER WAY to water your lawn.

CUTTING THE CABLE: Roku boxes and other streaming media players.

CLARICE FELDMAN: Naked Came The Kenyan Cherokee.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Recovery? Just 16 States Have Gained Jobs Under Obama. “Just 16 states have seen job growth since President Obama took office, according to state employment data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The remaining states have lost a combined 1.4 million jobs since January 2009.” Rick Perry’s Texas has done best. Jerry Brown’s California has done worst.

ANOTHER READER BOOK PLUG: Reader Chris Remy writes: “Would you mention my novel, Fifth Column? It’s got Nazis, spies and Nazi spies!”

Done!

CONGRESSMEN SEEK TO END PROPAGANDA BAN.

An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.

The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.

The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.

Bipartisan stupidity.

ADVICE FOR NEXT YEAR’S college freshmen. Well, mostly for freshwomen, really.

WHAT PEOPLE WHO MAKE COMMERCIALS don’t bother getting right.

HOW TO GET GROWTH: Dan Mitchell: American Politicians Should Learn Some Policy Lessons From Hong Kong and Singapore.

PUBLIC EDUCATION UPDATE: N.C. Teacher Tells Student He Could Be Arrested for Talking Badly About Obama.

Well, Missouri prosecutors were singing a similar tune in 2008. But one wonders why we should support institutions that overwhelmingly see themselves as shock troops for one particular party.

THE WORLD’S MOST SCENIC workouts.

AT AMAZON, HDTVs for $500 and less.

SOMEBODY SHOULD’VE SHOT THEM: Suspects wielding hammers and batons attack diners at Tinley Park restaurant.

It was the middle of the lunch rush Saturday, and Mike Winston was working in the kitchen of his Tinley Park restaurant, the Ashford House, when a waitress screamed a fight had broken out in the dining room.

Police call the melee at the restaurant a targeted assault by a mob that Winston said wielded metal batons and hammers. Ten diners were hurt in the attack, and three of those were hospitalized.

Tinley Park police had five suspected assailants in custody, and Winston said 18 young men, all wearing hooded jackets and obscuring their faces with scarves and other coverings, stormed into the restaurant.

Seriously, people like this should expect to be shot. And in a civilized polity — which Chicagoland isn’t — they would have been.

UPDATE: Reader David McCune writes: “For truth-in-advertising purposes, the attackers really should have been using hammers and sickles.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Steven Den Beste forwards this story claiming that those beaten were white supremacists: “A law enforcement source Sunday said the group beaten at a Tinley Park restaurant Saturday was made up of white supremacists, and those who assaulted them were protesters attacking their beliefs.”

Not clear how they know that, but, well . . . They told me if I voted Republican people would be beaten by hooded thugs for their beliefs — and they were right!

I mean, I hate Illinois Nazis too, but I wouldn’t beat ’em just for their beliefs.

Plus this: “Mike Winston, who owns the restaurant, is facing $10,000 to $15,000 in damage to his business, as well as a loss of revenue as customers keep their distance.”

MORE: Reader DRJ writes: “The local edition of the Chicago Sun Times has a lot more detail than the link from Stephen Den Beste. Maybe they were white supremacists but they registered their lunch party as an Irish heritage group.”

And Moe Lane writes: “From my reading of the article, those asses at ARAG started up on bystanders after they finished whaling on their targets. I personally don’t give much of a sh*t if Illinois Nazis get pounded; but actual innocents were also apparently targeted, and that’s a big issue right there.”

Yes, note this:

The attack wasn’t a random act of violence, police said. But the attack apparently spilled over to others in the restaurant.

“Once they attacked the table, they went and started hitting random people,” Winston said. “Four or five people got knocked over the head pretty good, enough to require stitches,” he said.

He chased after one of the attackers “and had him on the ground, then five guys got out of a car and started kicking the (crap) out of me,” Winston said.

Winston said he was kicked in the back of the head and suffered several bruises, but he was the only restaurant employee who was hurt.

“They did a whole lot of damage,” he said. “They flipped over tables, they broke half the dishes.”

Like I say, somebody should’ve shot ’em.

CHANGE: Italian university switches to English for success. “The 149-year-old university, located in Italy’s business capital Milan, is set to become the first Italian place of higher learning to teach all its graduate courses in English when it kicks off its academic year in 2014. The aim is to kit out its students with the right stuff to gain access to the global jobs market. It’s also meant to attract top-class international students at a time when competition among universities worldwide is hotting up. . . . The university – one of the world’s top 50 engineering schools according to QS World University rankings – will offer all its Master of Science and PhD courses in English and will invest 3.2 million euros to attract international faculty.”

IS THIS REALLY A GOOD IDEA? In-the-know folks talk about reducing nuclear warheads — big reductions.

PROF. MARK PERRY: The Unsustainable Higher Education Bubble; It’s Showing Signs Of Stress, Has The Deflation Started? Hey, my book doesn’t come out until next month.

DIRECT DIGITAL: Novel casting process could transform how complex metal parts are made. “A Georgia Tech research team has developed a novel technology that could change how industry designs and casts complex, costly metal parts. This new casting method makes possible faster prototype development times, as well as more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing procedures after a part moves to mass production. . . . Suman Das, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has developed an all-digital approach that allows a part to be made directly from its computer-aided design (CAD).”

TOM FOLSOM: Finding Superman in Cyberspace. I am mentioned, along with Capt. Mal Reynolds, in footnote 5.