I’m feeling better than I have in weeks, and awoke all rarin’ to blog–but couldn’t seem to force the political gods to generate much real news.

Here’s what I have for midday snacking:

* Mark Pryor has now led Tom Cotton in four straight polls of Arkansas voters, despite massive CW that he is toast.

* Iraq, Somalia, the Phillipines, Sri Lanka and now Syria comprise top five on Global Impunity Index of countries where journalists murdered and killers stay free.

* Oklahoma public school district adopts “secular” curriculum for study of Bible–developed by president of Hobby Lobby. Now what sort of intoloerant atheists could object to that?

* At The Atlantic, Emma Green wonders if new Tennessee law protecting “religious expression” in schools will actually protect bullying of gay kids.

* IRS considering new rules to treat employer-sponsored “perks” like job-site food and gym memberships as taxable compensation.

And in non-political news:

* AC/DC retirement rumors shot down.

As we break for lunch, here’s some 60s trippiness from Small Faces, with “Itchycoo Park.”

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.