NOAH ROTHMAN: ‘Phony scandals’ and an election year ‘demon’: Lois Lerner’s unconvincing defenders.

In fact, an objective assessment of the Republicans conduct over more the course of the 14 months since this scandal broke has been relatively apolitical, especially considering that the IRS is charged with executing a partisan vendetta against conservatives. By and large, members have avoided bombast and overreach in pursuit of the facts surrounding the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. The Republicans’ prudence in concert with the IRS’s improbable self-defense has resulted in a great majority of the country backing the GOP in this matter.

Republicans and Democrats, women and men, blacks and whites, the rich and the poor, the old and the young; according to a recent poll, the vast majority of the public across the political spectrum believe this matter deserves a thorough investigation – one which results in accountability.

Then you have President Barack Obama who joined Taylor in denouncing the “phony scandals” which plague his presidency. “It’s all geared towards the next election or ginning up a base,” he insisted. He and Taylor are speaking to the minority of the minority who are just partisan enough to convince themselves that it is the IRS who are the real victims here.

It sounds to me like it is the president and his allies who are in need an election year demon.

They seem to need a “demon” — an Emmanuel Goldstein — all the time, not just in election years.

THE INSTA-WIFE ON that Detroit Men’s-Rights Conference.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Brendan Eich was only the beginning.

LOOKING AT THE FRENCH INTIFADA. “And then there is anti-Semitism. Hussey was obviously stunned by its robustness among many French Muslims.” Interesting that the New York Times is reporting this so plainly, though of course the concluding paragraph tells us that the real danger comes from the “far right.”

ADVERTISING GENIUS: This billboard of Hillary Clinton has her supporters in full-on freak out mode.

SPENGLER: Is The Breakup Of Iraq Good Or Bad For America? “The intrusion of reality benefits the likes of Putin, because Putin is a realist. It hurts us, because we refuse to accept reality. Our leaders live in ideological bubbles; they are incapable of considering the consequence of their errors.”

WANT YOUR RELIGION PROTECTED FROM DESECRATION? ACQUIRE A REPUTATION FOR VIOLENCE. Teenage girl sentenced to a year in jail for throwing bacon on a Scotland mosque. Hey, I don’t create the incentive structures, I just point ’em out.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN IS UP: A Kinder, Gentler Turn To The Gender Wars?

THIS WAS TOTALLY MY PRODUCTION PHILOSOPHY, AND READING IT ALMOST MAKES ME WANT TO PRODUCE RECORDS AGAIN: This Letter Steve Albini Wrote To Nirvana Is Just Incredible.

STEP ONE: REMOVE DONOR ANONYMITY. Step Two: Wonder Why Donations Drop Off. “The UK is facing a major sperm shortage that may be tempting fertility clinics to accept poorer quality sperm, the British Fertility Society (BFS) warns. . . . Dr Pacey warned this was limiting patient choice and increasing waiting times, which led to potential risky practices, including DIY insemination with a friend’s sperm or seeking treatment in a country with less fertility regulation.”

Who would have thought that men respond to incentives?

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: A student told me she has sex with two senior faculty members for money. What should I do? Stop hating on sex work, bigot!

OBAMACARE DEATH SPIRAL? The Newly Insured Are Sicker.

THE BATTLE OVER vaccinating grandparents.

GOOD: Oral Vaccine for Cholera Found Effective in Africa. “Shanchol, which costs less than $2, comes in a vial smaller than an energy shot. It was developed with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and its maker, Shantha Biotechnics, has said that large orders could push the price below $1 a dose. It took until 2010 for the W.H.O. to accept the idea of fighting cholera with vaccines, ‘but now that seems mostly from the school of the overwhelmingly obvious,’ said Rebecca F. Grais, Epicentre’s epidemiology director and an author of the study.”

OBAMA’S MIDDLE EAST STRATEGY BEARS ITS PREDICTABLE FRUIT: ISIS declares creation of Mideast caliphate across Iraq and Syria. Remember when people who warned that creating a “caliphate” was the terrorists’ goal were laughed at and called alarmists?

SPYING: Researchers Find and Decode the Spy Tools Governments Use to Hijack Phones.

21ST CENTURY PROTEST: EFF, Greenpeace Fly Blimp Over NSA’s Utah Datacenter; Launch Campaign To Stop Illegal Internet Spying.

FIND OUT WHAT YOUR GADGETS ARE WORTH, with Amazon Trade-In.

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21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The Brave New World Of Three-Parent IVF.

DIRTY TRICKS: Russian goalkeeper, like many players before, struck by laser pointer. Fan is short for “fanatic,” but you’d have to be just that to risk inflicting permanent eye damage for the sake of a ball game.