I Missed Bruce Springsteen's Birthday

So have some human interest stuff (that is, interesting if you study humans.  Less so if you are a human.    Mildly offensive to fans of the restoration of the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs):

• Comrade Misfit notes that Senator Feinstein, who used to be against oversight of the NSA, is now in favor of some, and makes some suggestions toward reform, with a warning:

  The intelligence community is also ignoring history by their repeated assurances that they can be trusted not to abuse their powers. History teaches us that power corrupts, period. Power, both large and small, can be counted on to be abused by the person holding the power. The only way to stop such corruption is to have watchdogs, both inside and outside the government.
  
  The "outside the government" watchdogs are supposed to be our free press. They have fallen down woefully on the job.

• Via Zandar:  the governor of Kentucky champions Obamacare.  (Extensive quote from the New York Times, in case you've used up the 10 articles.)  [ETA:   And maybe someone should talk to neighboring Tennessee...]
• Interesting article at Walk On, referring to an essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  Yes, they both need to be read.  Also, see this video of James Baldwin debating William F. Buckley in 1965.