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<br /> trol.But nothing in the bill would change that requirement or fracking and conventional petroleum drilling(and coal min-
<br /> prevent insurance companies from covering non-prescription ing),in which case natural gas is an attractive option.As we
<br /> birth control. It would,however, save women from unneces- have heard in another context:The debate is over,and the sci-
<br /> sary doctor's visits and likely drive down the cost of the drugs. ence is settled.
<br /> It also dramatically undercuts the Democratic case that Re-
<br /> publicans are hell-bent on banning birth control,which seems • One week after the Supreme Court tightened the rules gov-
<br /> to be the real objection. erring the,prosecution of those who make threats online, the
<br /> Department of Justice decided that it would be a swell idea to
<br /> •It is being called"Cyber Pearl Harbor."Sometime in early go after the commenters at Reason.com for having"threatened"
<br /> 2014 (or possibly earlier), Chinese hackers breached the a federal judge.Certainly the offending comments are unpleas-
<br /> information systems of the Office of Personnel Manage- ant."Its[sic]judges like these that should be taken out back and
<br /> ment, the federal government's HR department. For more shot," one example reads. Another, in response, asks, "Why
<br /> than a year they were able to peruse OPM's systems unde- waste ammunition? Wood chippers get the message across
<br /> tected,collecting mountains of data—among which are SF-86 clearly.Especially if you feed them in feet first."But unpleasant
<br /> forms. The 127-page Standard Form 86 is,the questionnaire does not mean illegal, and the two should not be mistaken.
<br /> filled out by anyone applying for a national-security clear- Indeed,not only does existing"true threats"doctrine make it
<br /> ance. Gambling habits? Trouble paying bills? Adulterous clear that hyperbole such as this is protected by the First
<br /> liaisons? It's all in SF-86 forms—along with a whole lot of Amendment,but,even if these remarks were deemed to cross
<br /> other precious data: Social Security numbers, health insur- the line, there would be no feasible way that the DOJ could
<br /> ance, life insurance, pension information, address, etc. J. demonstrate that their progenitors were serious.What the fed-
<br /> David Cox, president of the American Federation of eral government can do, however, is to tie up everybody
<br /> Government Employees, suggests the magnitude of the involved in months of legal discovery and hit anybody it dis-
<br /> hack:"We believe. . .that the hackers are now in possession likes with a series of grand jury subpoenas. Once again, the
<br /> of all personnel data for every federal employee,every fed- process will serve as the punishment.
<br /> eral retiree, and up to 1 million former federal employees."
<br /> And John Schindler, a former NSA intelligence analyst and ■ The College Board has established a new framework for
<br /> counterintelligence officer, writes: "Whoever now holds Advanced Placement U.S. history—a framework grossly
<br /> OPM's records possesses something like the Holy Grail skewed to the left. A formidable roster of historians and
<br /> from a counterintelligence perspective."How has the White other scholars have made clear their opposition to this shift.
<br /> House responded to this unprecedented attack? Said The roster includes those Harvard veterans Stephan
<br /> President Obama, "We're going to have to be much more Themstrom and Harvey Mansfield. They want a"warts and
<br /> aggressive, much more attentive than we have been." The all"presentation of U.S.history.The College Board is inter-
<br /> president,with his enthusiasm for centralization,has some- ested in warts only.
<br /> times been compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the wake
<br /> of Cyber Pearl Harbor, the president would do well to be ■ Until recently, aspiring schoolteachers in New York State
<br /> more like him. took an exam called the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test
<br /> (LAST).The first version of it,in use since the early 1990s,
<br /> • The Environmental Protection Agency has spent years was deemed racially discriminatory, so a second one was
<br /> looking for a reason to throw a wet blanket over hydraulic introduced in 2004, and now that, too, has been ruled
<br /> fracturing, or"fracking," the modern oil-and-gas-extraction invalid."Instead of beginning with ascertaining the job tasks
<br /> technique that turned the United States into a net exporter of of New York teachers," a judge explained, "the two LAST
<br /> petroleum and fueled an energy renaissance in Texas,North examinations began with the premise that all New York
<br /> Dakota,Pennsylvania,and everywhere else the business has teachers should be required to demonstrate an understanding
<br /> been permitted to thrive. (New York,under the feckless gov- of the liberal arts."Who came up with such a crazy notion?
<br /> emment of Andrew Cuomo, has banned the technique.) But The regulations on which this ruling is based not only
<br /> in its long-awaited report on the matter, the EPA came up assume that teaching skills can be specified precisely and
<br /> with bupkis, concluding that fracking has "not led to wide- measured with a test;they effectively assume that all demo-
<br /> spread,systemic impacts on drinking water." Other studies graphic groups have these skills in equal measure, so any
<br /> have found that fracking is in fact less likely to cause ground- variation in scores between groups proves that the test is
<br /> water contamination than are conventionally drilled wells, biased. The judge should reflect that condemning a test
<br /> which is not entirely surprising inasmuch as there is often a because the results are undesired is exactly what bad stu-
<br /> mile or so of rock between groundwater and fracked wells, dents do.
<br /> which generally are quite deep. All petroleum extraction
<br /> brings with it an environmental impact,but the main challenge ■ An FDA advisory panel recently voted, 18 to six,to rec-
<br /> of fracking—the disposal of contaminated wastewater—has ommend approval of Flibanserin, a drug designed to help
<br /> little to do with drilling per se, and drilling companies have women with chronically low libido. Flibanserin, which is
<br /> worked closely with regulators to address that issue through made by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has already been
<br /> recycling. Reasonable adults—a set that excludes Governor twice rejected.In 2010,an advisory committee unanimously
<br /> Cuomo—understand that as an environmental question the vetoed the drug,and in 2013,the FDA,citing concerns about
<br /> choice is not between fracking and butterflies, but between potentially dangerous side effects, asked Sprout to conduct
<br /> 10 NATIONAL REVIEW I www.nationalreview.com JULY 6, 2015
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