US News reports on the urban/rural divide on guns. A lot of the interstate comparisons rely a lot on suicide rates. Which is not typically how it is portrayed. There is a similar disconnect on car deaths versus gun deaths.

Many laughs were had at the folks in North Carolina who objected to a solar energy installation for fear it would “suck up all the energy from the sun,” and it’s a pretty ridiculous argument. Dollars to donuts, though, it’s a NIMBY thing and they aren’t well-versed in the NIMBY lingo.

The GAO is accusing the EPA of covertly propagandizing the Clean Water Rule. The CWR got a lot of attention in Arapaho. Uniformly negative, which of course lead to some to wonder why westerners don’t want clean water.

The last of Britain’s coal pits have been shut down.

Monica Potts writes about the downsides to regional economic success, of course referring to pricing out existing residents. If San Francisco wants to help subsidize these folks, I can’t really object so long as they’re not just passing the bill on to landlords. Or asking people everywhere else to help people live in the most expensive part of the country.

Newish mother Bethany Mandel used to like SVU, but can’t really get into it like she used to. I’ve found that being a father has changed the way that I see a lot of TV programs. At some point there will be a post about it.

Are Michael Bay and the CIA conspiring? The comment about one of the Transformers movies being a critique of Obama is interesting. I’d heard it before, but I thought it was one of those cases of conservatives trying to find redemption where they can.

It turns out, legalizing pot leads to more pot-related hospitalizations.

The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at how student loans are subsidizing college athletics programs and its arms race.

Bethany Mandel looks at a study purporting to find that religious kids are less altruistic, and finds it lacking. {More}

How uncharitable is it of me to read this piece as a long, eloquent statement that “I love living in California and hate that other people are ruining it by living here, too.”?

Jason Russell writes of how charter schools may be helping Hispanic kids assimilate.

As we expand H2B visas, maybe we should consider helping relocate people to these sorts of opportunities?

The Alabama Supreme Court has declared void an adoption by a Lesbian couple. Unsurprisingly, this is going to the Supreme Court.

It’s unfortunate that this Kurt Schlichter piece is so hyperbolic and antagonistic, because underneath the tone is a really good point about the difficulty involved in any gun confiscation. As with unauthorized immigrants, it’s harder to take action when you consider when you consider what would have to be done. Of course, with guns, it becomes a lot easier with a registry.

Women who were fired for being pregnant scored a victory in the courts, though something of a modest one. Meanwhile, an MP in Britain is in trouble for threatening to fire a staff member for taking leave.

It’s hard to monetize being famous on the Internet, because people don’t want to pay for stuff and resent advertisements.

Rachel Lu argues that we no longer see children as regular people, and wonders when we might do so again.

Seattle’s rental market is weakening.

Meet the most bored prisoner in the world.

Gabrielle Glaser takes aim at Alcoholics Anonymous. I hear mixed things about its effectiveness, but I assume regardless it will endure because it makes for good television so it will probably always have popular culture at its back.

According to a new study, if we don’t want young people to smoke, we shouldn’t prohibit youth vaping. I’m… not quite on board with this (supporting an age limit), for what may just be kneejerk reasons or the internalized virtue of the compromise. Also, considering the ethics of ecigarette bans.

Steven Horwitz writes of the fragility of children… a hundred years ago.

Gothamists looks at the Bushwick Polyamory House.

I don’t know, this just doesn’t look accidental to me. At all.

The Facebook declaration by San Bernadino shooter Tashfeen Malik turned out to be mythical, but the prohibition on reading social media posts is in place and it’s honestly rather hard to defend.

Some want Scalia impeached for it, but John McWhorter says that he had a point about affirmative action and mismatch (at least, in certain disciplines). Meanwhile, Sigal Alon at The Nation argues that diversity destroyed affirmative action.

Vox Monday: Crap! Republicans and Democrats think that political identity is fair game for hatred! Vox Thursday: Science demonstrates conservatives buy into conspiracy theories because they’re paranoid cranks!

Ramesh Ponnuru looks at the selective accountability of heated rhetoric and violence.

In the new economy, extreme fiscal responsibility apparently makes you a pitiable asshole.

When it comes to pushing for looser immigrant worker visas, Corporate America really is its own worst enemy. Fortunately for them, they will win out because we all know who opposes immigration.

Woodrow Wilson wasn’t racist despite being a progressive. The two were related.

Donald Trump may have been helped rather than hurt by his Muslim comments. His approvals went up… among Democrats.

Speaking of polls, that one about Agrabah was kind of stacked. Be that as it may, it was successful both in partisan advance and in getting everyone talking about PPP. I expect to see more of this sort of thing.

An anti-war site formerly associated with Jeremy Corbyn is taking a lot of heat for some incendiary articles, including the appearance of: Blaming the west for Paris, praising Daesh’s internationalism, and making an exception of their “no war” policy when it comes to Israel.

Once upon a time, gun control advocates commanded a popular majority. So what happened? Well, tactics and the political map changed. Also, even though the perception of crime is that it’s gotten worse, perhaps the lower crime rates have been internalized to some extent. Whatever the case, people are opposed to the Assault Weapons Ban for the first time in polling history.

This doesn’t sound like a bad deal for a lot of people: Taste whisky… for science!

YouGov looks at what went wrong with the UK election polling, determining that 2/3 of it was expecting energetic young people to actually vote.

A former Romney staffer decided to “troll” a Trump-based focus book, and was pretty stunned and dispirited at what he found. Nate Silver says Trump won’t fade until his coverage does.

Outback of Outback an Outback tows an Outback. pic.twitter.com/ZHiaSxFR4p

— Humblah (@PoguePhilosophy) November 30, 2015

Here’s an account of how critics felt about Star Wars when it first came out. I was a little expecting the reviews to be on the negative side, but they kind of run the spectrum.

Lyman Stone explains how Palpatine was a failed founder of the Galactic Nation while Paul D Miller and Michael Boyle explain the failures of the rebel counterinsurgency and what they should do next time.

It was certainly a mess, but some of these criticisms of the Galactic Senate actually seem kind of weak to me.

In Jacobin, Sam Kriss argues that there were no Empires and Rebellions, only the evil Force.

A documentary on The War Between The Stars, by Ken Burns. Starring Daniel Drezner and Sonny Bunch.

Scientists explain the Endor Holocaust. Fried Ewoks all around, apparently.

The Kernel looks at what SciFi movies before Star Wars were like, giving some insight into what made Star Wars so revolutionary.

Zachary Feinstein looks at the economics of Star Wars, and why the Rebels failed to capitalize on their success.

It has primary been argued by people on the right that the Empire was actually the defensible good side and the rebellion was full of terrorists, while the left dissented. Maybe this will flip things around. At least as far as Han Solo is concerned.

Stephen Hayes talks briefly of life on the terrorism watch list. Also, a four year old. And, perhaps less surprisingly, on terror lists go activists.

Like Marco Rubio, I also enjoy water. If you enjoy water as well, you should also consider voting for him.

Walmart is suing Puerto Rico over a tax targeted in their general direction.

If Trump or Carson wants to make a third party bid, they have until Spring to try. I’d been wondering this myself, but mostly from the opposite angle: In the unlikely event of a Trump nomination, when can the rest of the party find a John Anderson?

Germany and Facebook are teaming up to “put an end to “Hate Speech“. Some Brazilians, however, are taking matters into their own hands.

Don’t fear the brokered convention or anything, but there’s a secret plan to install Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee. Or will it be Ted Cruz?

Conspiracy-fodder: Not only is Donald Trump doing his best to destroy the Republican coalition, but his outbursts seem to be rescuing the Democrats. Honestly, I wonder if this isn’t like Wag The Dog, which for years left everybody believing every military action ever was a head-fake because it coincided with some scandal except that there was always some scandal whether there was a military action or not.

When Stone Cold Steve Austin gave The Donald the stunner. Turns out – not surprisingly, I guess – Trump was a good sport.

Mark Begich makes the case for allowing oil exports. Paul Ryan is working on it.

Eric Holthaus is really, really excited about the new climate deal. Reading things over, well, if existing projections are accurate I still think we’re looking at less of this and more of this. Also skeptical: James Hansen. Not skeptical: Vox. Also not skeptical: journalists.

Also, Holthaus really likes Bernie Sanders’s climate change plan, except one thing.

Men, it turns out, are lazy.

Scott Weiland’s family would like to ask you not to romanticize his tragedy.

Unlike Jonathan Last, I have no strong opinion on the fact that the new Hulk is Korean-American other than being vaguely glad he’s American, but I don’t think I like the whole “retains is faculties while The Hulk” thing.

Dog 911: what's ur emergency? Dog: THEYRE PUSHIN THAT LOUD THING AROUND ON THE CARPET AGAIN Dog 911: OMG Dog: OMG Dog 911: OMG Dog: OMG

— Reverend Scott (@Reverend_Scott) August 21, 2015

Bernardo Aparicio Garcia writes about live in Pablo Escobar’s Colombia.

Adam Ozimek takes issue with the idea that macroeconomics is all about the confirmation of priors.

Michael McShane looks at Tiny Schools. The questions about scalability seem valid, but I would love for us to have a regime to enable them.

Contrary to my view a decade ago, I think there may be a justification for public spending on stadia and the like (at least, so long as we allow professional leagues their extortion), but according to a new study it really isn’t so.

Noah Feldman talks about how the Soviets stole a Van Gogh.

Here’s a year-long road-trip you can take if you are insanely passionate about 70-degree weather.

The Greeks say “No Smoking sign? I don’t see no No Smoking sign.”

Fewer Americans are getting married in churches.

Oooh, and annotated map of Middle-earth!

Maybe we would have better infrastructure if it didn’t cost so much.

If you walk a mile in someone’s shoes, you will… become judgmental as hell.

Creepy-arse stuff like “spiders the sizes of puppies” are supposed to be in Australia, not the Americas!

Norwegians are all about ghost-hunting.

David Frum says that the trade-off between security and liberty is a false one. As does Reason’s Ronald Bailey, though in markedly different ways.

How prisons fleece prisoners and their families.

We just can’t secure the Mexican border. Well, I mean, unless we decided we needed to.

What are you hiding? Kathryn Watson reports that our private medical records are not as private as we might hope.

The iTunes EULA, in graphic novel form…. {via}

“That’s what the terrorists want.”

So… they’re remaking Memento. Perhaps they’ve forgotten that the first can’t really be improved upon, and are doomed to re-do what has already been done to no effect.

Facebook is adopting a new feature to hide your ex after a breakup.

Presumed dead for years, it turned out that she just wanted to game and hang out.

How representative or reasonable we should consider the actions of student protesters aside, Millennials have a more jaundiced view of free speech compared to their elders. And not, as I had initially hoped, merely as a product of age.

The American President, the Aaron Sorkin film that sort of laid a blueprint for The West Wing, is twenty years old. I enjoyed the movie greatly. Especially the part where the president sabotaged his re-election prospect for bills that won’t pass to impress a girl.

The planet Mars is goin’ to the chapel and maybe gonna get married. (It’s okay, the moons were problematic anyway.)

The story of a man who was bilked for over $700,000 by psychics.

Jared Fogle is blaming the Subway diet for his sex crimes.

A gun ban is most popular among educated whites in DC, and least popular among blacks.

In New Orleans, a medical student took a bullet to prevent a girl from being absconded. Also, Doo Doo the clown.

Los Angeles is considering using license plate readers to send men who drive into the wrong part of town nasty letters.

The Democrats tried to make a run at Republicans on the terrorism issue and the gun issue by talking about how the Republicans don’t want to prevent guns from falling into the hands of “Suspected terrorists.” The problem with this argument is that there is no due process for “suspected” anything, which combined with this sort of thing (and Colorado Springs) makes it wise for them to be wary.

Woohoo! Seattle is moving back school start times.

Opponents to DST: Farmers, cows, and babies. (Also, right-thinking individuals everywhere.) Also, here are some helpful maps and charts.

A stupidity virus exists, apparently.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed churches and charities not to help refugees. As it happens, things don’t work that way.

David Frum, Agent of Daesh. I’m not sure people recognize how terrible the argument Frum is mocking actually is.

Hey GOP candidates, this here is some low-hanging fruit.

Some Montana ranchers are preparing for the Syrian invasion from Canada. (As opposed to a Canadian invasion from Canada.)

The Jewish need no longer fear, Chris Deerin says The Corbyn Show is over, though one way of looking at it he might be doing better than Miliband. Cameron doesn’t seem worried.{More}

Argentina turns to capitalism.

What it’s like in Marco Rubio’s classroom.

Gilmentum!

Calhoun County, Alabama, has a little over 100,000 people and two military tanks, but no more.

The latest in Pennsylvania: You do not have a right to see pornographic emails at the attorney general’s office, despite Kane’s efforts.

No slippery slope here. They just jumped right on down.

The “God Isn’t Fixing This” headline barely raised an eyebrow for me because it was mostly the highest-profile example of targeting pro-gun politicians who offered thoughts and prayers.

Tagging the NRA head as a terrorist is kind of old hat. And coming off the heels of the God headline, I shrugged.

I suppose it’s getting more and more difficult to get attention. Which is about the only explanation I can offer for why they would run a piece trying to equivocate between Syed Farook and one of his (hard right) victims.

Whether I link to it or not (you can click on it below), I suppose the fact that I wrote a post about the New York Daily News makes this a success?

#SanBernadino killers radical, #ISIS-loving monsters — but one of their victims was just as bigoted. @NYDailyNews https://t.co/QEQ55R1uDO

— linda stasi (@lindastasi) December 6, 2015

Jeffrey Taylor of Salon says “Hooray for Satan and Satanists!”

Eitan Hersh explains how Democrats suppress the vote! Okay, the headline is hyperbolic, to say the least, but off-schedule elections aren’t just for Republicans! (Neither is trying to disqualify potential voters by making voting more difficult, which you sometimes see Democrats do in districts with military bases.)

At some point the conversation seems to be shifting (according to some) from “An enduring Democratic majority is inevitable” to “an enduring Republican majority will be illegitimate.”

Freddie wants the Democrats to move beyond the Coalition of the Cool. I understand where he’s coming from ideologically, but tactically it seems to have worked pretty well.

Ardis E Parshall explains (sympathetically) the Mormon policy on children of gay parents.

Sarah Conly explains how China’s recently terminated One Child Policy was a good thing. Leaving aside the central question, I’m not sure how you can separate the enforcement mechanisms (which Conly opposes) with the policy itself.

Relatedly, we’ve recently discovered the best chance of life outside our solar system.

With the Fifth of November come and gone. Bradley J Birzer writes about how V for Vendetta represents the graphic novel at its best.

Karan Mahajan looks at the history of Asian America.

Katie Herzog reports on the decline of the alpaca in the US. Only tangential since they’re two different things, but one of the things I miss about the west is the llamas.

No more free rides for some gay couples.

Scott Sumner believes we owe Texas our thanks. Norway, on the other hand, thinks that “Texas” is shorthand for crazy.

Barbara McClay hates tipping. PEG dissents.

The perils of being casual about sex and serious about consent.

Relatedly, Rebecca Traister argues that we need to be talking about the ways that consensual sex can be bad.

Bjorn Lomborg thinks we’re focusing too much on wind power.