HMM: Male birth control gel is safe and effective, new trial findings show.

UPDATE: Link was bad. Fixed now. Sorry!

HAVE WE BECOME MORE PRUDISH? YES. “In the last 10 years we have become … I don’t know that I would say puritanical, but less connected to touch.”

EVERYONE NEEDS A HOBBY: Building Your Own Home Defense AR-15: Building your own AR-15-pattern rifle is an excellent way to learn your rifle thoroughly while getting exactly what you want as a finished product.

THE NATIVE AMERICANS HAD TO GO, FOR THE SAKE OF THE PLANET: Carbon dioxide dropped after colonial contact wiped out Native Americans.

FOLLOW THE MONEY AND YOU’LL FIND THE SCIENCE: Study shows most doctors endorsing drugs on X are paid to do so.

WELL, GOOD: Cancer patients often do better with less intensive treatment, new research finds.

SAFETY FIRST: Medlines recalls 1.5M adult bed rails after 2 die by asphyxiation.

IT’S ALL JUST ANOTHER CASE OF HISTORY REPEATING, I GUESS: Hunter Biden’s Trial May Hinge on What the Meaning of ‘Is’ Is.

YOU CAN’T QUESTION A JURY VERDICT, OR AN ELECTION, WHEN IT GOES THE DEMOCRATS’ WAY: And note the phrase “jury denial.” It’s like “election denial.”

It’s funny that Democrats have appropriated that “X denial” phrase from “Holocaust denial,” even as Democrats are, you know, busy cozying up to actual Holocaust deniers.

TO BE FAIR, MOST SCHOLARLY RESOURCES HAVE DETERIORATED SINCE THE 1960S: “It’s often instructive to compare entries in older and newer versions of Black’s Law Dictionary—and on subjects I work on, the older ones are usually better.”

READER BOOK PLUG: From Ward Farnsworth, Farnsworth’s Classical English Argument.

ILYA SHAPIRO: The Trump Verdict Is a Travesty of Justice: Not just the conviction but the entire process should offend any lover of the rule of law.

Someone should release a bunch of live kangaroos into the courthouse.

THEY’VE DENORMALIZED AMERICA, AND THEY’RE FINE WITH THAT:

Ever since Donald Trump emerged as a presidential contender nine years ago, America’s most esteemed scholars and journalists have argued that he was violating democratic norms. Trump, they said, was ignoring the stabilizing, unwritten rules and values of American politics. This… pic.twitter.com/IYPvlJLFuz

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 2, 2024

WHY IS ACADEMIA SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACIST, SEXIST BIGOTRY? Journal rejects ‘white’ ‘male’ author’s pro-life article.

FIGHT THE POWER: Students sue University of Oklahoma, say school offers financial aid based on race.

WHY SHOULD ANYONE CARE WHAT THEY THINK? Over 30 Anonymous Federal Law Clerks Issue Statement Decrying Biden Administration’s Complicity In Genocide In Gaza.

LEFTISTS RUNNING INTERFERENCE FOR LEFTISTS: Over 30 SUNY-Buffalo Law School Faculty Press University To Drop Charges Against Pro-Palestine Protesters.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: White House Report Card: Backstabbing rages in plots to replace Biden.

HEH:

Pro-Palestine protesters clash with Philly pride parade participants.

Who you rooting for? 😂🍿pic.twitter.com/Of9Iz7Dw8G

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 2, 2024

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The University of the Arts in Philadelphia announces sudden closure: In a letter obtained by Action News, the university says it will close for good on June 7.

It’s funny — a few years ago, lefty students at UA wanted Camille Paglia gone. Now UA is gone.

Related: Official closing statement. Apparently they just ran out of money. That’s what happened to Birmingham-Southern, which also just closed — but then kept winning in the College World Series.

If only there had been some sort of warning.

MATT TAIBBI: A Sham Case, and Everyone Knows It: Even Donald Trump’s detractors know they shouldn’t be celebrating this conviction, and some are admitting it. “Not one of these people recognized the obvious: that of all the things Donald Trump has been accused of, none are as serious or system-imperiling as abusing the courts to dispose of a political rival. If Trump was caught buggering a corpse while smoking joints rolled in rubles, it wouldn’t approach the offense of ‘concocting’ a charge to put away someone you want to ‘nail’ for ‘something.'”

Our ruling class lacks seriousness, self-awareness, and competence.

Related: Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything is a Crime.

And, as a reminder that I was writing about this stuff back in the 1990s: Crime Follies: Overcriminalization, Independent Prosecutors, and the Rule of Law. “In the old days, we would refrain from ringing up the cops until after there was fairly clear evidence of a crime, such as Professor Plum lying in a pool of blood in the conservatory. Off everyone would go looking for clues, with the concrete fact of Professor Plum’s corpse to focus their energies. Today, though, we frequently summon our sophisticated investigative technicians before there is evidence of a crime. We run to the phone as soon as someone suggests Colonel Mustard might have committed some impropriety. We then try to solve the mystery of whether this or some other past indiscretion of Colonel Mustard just might constitute a crime. Nowadays, it is more remarkable when the ethics crime laboratory cannot come up with a viable theory of criminality than when it can.”

JOEL KOTKIN: Red Pills in Blue States: “Democrats have ample reason to ‘freak out’ about their incoherent and doddering leader. But they would also be well-served to realise that voters do not like to live in a failed state. After all, the deep blue bastions now lag behind the red states in nearly every conceivable category.”

OPEN THREAD: Thank God it’s Sunday, only one more working day until Monday.

THERE WAS AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM:

imagine rolling a combined arms mechanized infantry attack with armor in support against a single outpost and some airman steps out like "no" and just deletes your entire force. unparalleled L. https://t.co/NRbQuGesQu

— matthew. (@iAmTheWarax) June 2, 2024

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China conducts three launches inside two days.