HUBRIS-NEMESIS COMPLEX:

This complex involves a combination of hubris (a pretension toward an arrogant form of godliness) and nemesis (a vengeful desire to confront, defeat, humiliate, and punish an adversary, especially one that can be accused of hubris). The combination has strange dynamics that may lead to destructive, high-risk behavior. Attempts to deter, compel, or negotiate with a leader who has a hubris-nemesis complex can be ineffectual or even disastrously counterproductive when those attempts are based on concepts better suited to dealing with more normal leaders.

I wonder how the CIA must feel to know that the research they sponsored describes our very own President.

Linked via Instapundit.

Byron York's opinion piece on Obama's 'messianism' is here.

IF YOU’RE YOUNG, don’t give to charity.

P.J. O'ROURKE: Dear Mr. President, Zero-Sum Doesn't Add Up.

The solution to our problems, you said, is redistribution of the pizzas we've got—with low-cost, government-subsidized pepperoni somehow materializing as the result of higher taxes on pizza-parlor owners.

Redistribute your own damn pizza. I'm eating mine.

PENTAGON PREPARES stealth strike force to counter China.

2012: When Dreams Died.

DANIEL J. MITCHELL: Obama Announces New Federal Golf Rules.

GOLDEN SPIKE hopes to build 'railway' to the moon. Mmm. Private enterprise.

CONNECTICUT SCHOOL SHOOTING caused by excessive testing?

IN 2012, THE VOTERS FORGOT: "Politicians are a lot like diapers; they should be changed frequently, and for the same reason."

INTREPID MUSEUM, home of shuttle Enterprise, reopens after Hurricane Sandy closure. Luckily the Enterprise suffered little damage.

LIBERALS PANIC as they lose the gun narrative.

E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post ... had to “grope for words to describe the National Rifle Association’s proposal [to put armed police on school campuses],” yet he managed to find some: “Absurd, unbelievable, tragic, obscene,” as well as “insane.”

Note that Dionne’s righteous fury does not apply to the armed guards at the Post’s front door, surrounding President Obama, or to anywhere else other than in the vicinity of regular people’s children.

Particularly amusing are the liberals who transform into green eyeshades misers with the public purse when it comes to cops in schools. The folks who can’t spend enough dough on fudge-smeared, patriarchy-challenging performance artists suddenly become thrifty Scotsmen when it comes to doling out a few shillings to put a cop on campus.

It's not over yet, but I'm hopeful.

SPACE-X puts cowboy in orbit. Well, not exactly.

MIKE ADAMS: My Plan for Eliminating School Shootings. I actually like the part about replacing the teaching certificate with a concealed-carry certificate. Anything that gets colleges of education out of teaching is a good thing.

PETA WANTS a memorial to 5/22 cow victims. In Illinois, naturally.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF? No, Preener in Chief.

THE INTERNATIONAL TERROR GROUP known as Al Qaeda announced its dissolution today, saying that “our mission of destroying the American economy is now in the capable hands of the U.S. Congress.”

ADAM: Lockheed Martin's new battlefield laser.

SWITZERLAND: A Case Study in Consumer-Driven Health Care. My only concern with the Swiss system is the government mandating coverage. If a mandate is necessary, it should only be for catastrophic care (hospitalization, life-saving surgery, and the like). Coverage beyond the minimum mandate should be available if the consumer chooses to pay for it.

MOTHER OF SIX says school kids deserve to be protected by armed, trained guards. The easiest way to do exactly that is to allow concealed carry on school property. 'Armed and trained' is not synonymous with government-employed.

MEDIA CONTROL the right way. Sue the bastards.

CREATE YOUR OWN Thomas Friedman OpEd column. Thomas Friedman could be the next 'Professor' Irwin Corey, but alas, the 'Professor' is still alive.

Linked from Instapundit.

LAWYER FOR NEWTOWN SHOOTING SURVIVOR says $100M is about security. Bull. It's about money.

BETWEEN 3 AND 6 THOUSAND: How Much Will the Fiscal Cliff Cost You?

Much more here.

PAUL GREENBERG: Once There Were Giants. Now there are midgets.

SUPERSONIC FOR ME, but not for thee.

NEWT GINGRICH: The challenge confronting the Republican Party. Read it carefully; I see Gingrich as advocating a grassroots, Tea Party coalition model for 2014 and 2016.

GOING GALT: The Underachiever's Manifesto. If you don't like Big Government, don't support it.

PIERS MORGAN: Hey, let's amend the Bible. And while we're at it, let's legislate pi's value to 3. And to solve the debt crisis, legislate $1,000,000,000,000 to $1,000,000.

There. Problem solved.

TIME FOR some common-sense publishing controls.

When the Founders wrote the First Amendment, they could never have conceived a technology that would allow anyone to publish anything at any time, at almost no cost, and have it readable by millions instantaneously.

But surely the Founders never intended for every single citizen to be able to exercise such a right–in their wisdom, they would have known it would lead to chaos and unfettered thought. They couldn’t possibly have imagined the rapid-fire distribution of dangerous ideas made possible by twenty-first-century technology. Why, some people might have even put forth the absurd notion that free speech is the right of everyone.

If the Second Amendment means nothing, then why should the First?

GREG GUTFIELD: Yes, publish gun owners' addresses so the burglars will know which homes not to burgle.


And publish their addresses, so burglars will know where it's safe. I tend to agree with Prof. Jacobson -- it's personally distasteful, but it's time to show the Left that bullying works both ways.

PIERS MORGAN: If America won't change its crazy gun laws ... I may deport myself.

Please do.

WE NEED to have a national conversation about 'nut control’.

Maybe committing journalism should be a felony offense.

MARK STEYN: Laws are for Little People.

A WARNING: Those who are above the law are unable to hide behind it.

FOCUS ON GUN CONTROL SELLS GUNS. Many, many guns. My son reported the same thing is happening in Georgia.

BOEHNER TO REID: "Talk less, legislate more."

HEH: "Yesterday, the Senate floor was reserved for farewell speeches from retiring senators. Each senator received a fitting gift: a gold watch that stopped working years ago."

Read the rest.

WHEE! We are going over the (fiscal) cliff.

Do it. And let the Democrats own it.

"IT MAY SOUND UNCIVILIZED, but so be it. When the Bad Guy shows up with a gun, there are just two questions to be asked: where is the nearest Good Guy with a gun, and how long will it take him (or her, as the case may be) to arrive, get a sight picture, and if necessary squeeze the trigger? Everything else is wishful thinking."

From a 30-year police veteran. Read it all.

VIRGINIA REP. JIM MORON MORAN on gun control. Fortunately he's not my representative.

WHY ALL THE COOL KIDS are reading Executive Order 13423. "[S]ay goodbye to '1984,' 'Animal Farm' and 'Brave New World.' No need for kids to be reading those books, anyway. They’ll be living them.

LIKE IT'S A BAD THING? Pay in Oil Fields Is Luring Youths in Montana. The New York Times seems to think it's better to have a high-dollar 'edjumakation' and no job....

MATH IS COMING! "... Math can’t be ignored and won’t compromise.... It’s a remorseless adding machine, and it will eventually balance its numbers and doesn’t care what it will have to destroy in the process."

"I'D RATHER have a gun owner as my neighbor then [sic] a journalist, one is far more responsible than the other."

Much more here and here.

WELL, DUH! Obvious science findings.

AN IDEA FOR TAX REFORM: Abolish the payroll tax.

IF JOURNALISTS could somehow control their emotions and their biases [on gun control], there might be a far more reasoned debate in the press.

THE CULTURAL IMPACTS of growing singlehood and childlessness.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Liberal Obsession With Race is Growing Old. But it won't stop simply because racism is a core liberal value.

THINKING THEMSELVES TO BE WISE, THEY BECAME FOOLS: Stanford Hires Atheist Chaplain.

A PARTY that doesn't think with its skin.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from Thomas Sowell. Here's one:

The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit — replacing what works with what sounds good.

Read the rest.

Instapundit also comments.

A PARTY that doesn't think with its skin.

GLENN REYNOLDS: Reflections on Newtown.

He's right.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Journalists used to be reporters; now they are emoters.

WHY THERE ARE only 12 days of Christmas.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT largest driver of income inequality? I'm not surprised.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

The lady is a class act.

A CHRISTMAS POEM:

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

My daughter beside me, angelic in rest

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love, I would sleep,

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,

Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,

Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!

Put down your pack; brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,

Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light.

Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,

That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before.

My Gramps died at Pearl on a day in December."

Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas Gram always remembers."

"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',

And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,

But my wife sends me pictures; he's sure got her smile."

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,

The red, white, and blue... an American flag.

"I can live through the cold and the being alone,

Away from my family, my house and my home

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,

I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,

Or lay down my life for my sister or brother,

Who stand at the front against any and all

To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "Harbor no fright,

Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least?

Give you money," I asked, "Or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,

for being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,

"Just tell us you love us, and never forget

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,

To stand your own watch, no matter how long

For when we come home, either standing or dead,

To know you remember we fought and we bled

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,

that we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

From my email.

SANTA ONE cleared for takeoff.

ON TRAVEL: posting will be intermittent until I return.

AS IF IT WEREN'T ALREADY OBVIOUS: Why Gun Control Can't Stop Another Newtown Massacre.

WE AREN'T QUITE AS STUPID AS THEY THINK, but they are easily as stupid as they think we are.

IT'S ONLY A GOOD IDEA if we on the Left propose it. A simpler and better idea is to do what some Texas schools are already doing: let teachers, if they so choose, carry concealed on campus.

PROGRESSIVE CANCER: highly infectious; no known cure.

THEM AGAIN:

Just how long does she think a mass-murder wannabe would last at a NRA gathering?

TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: License Plates, Cameras, and Vanishing Privacy.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN raising money off Sandy Hook victims. I think it's safe to assume that sometime during the next two years there will be a 'grassroots' effort to repeal the 22nd Amendment.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: What Difference Would Banning Guns Make? Apparently, not much.

IT HICCUPS OF THE WEEK.

MORNING EXAMINER: Conservatives choose irrelevance. I disagree. Compromise requires both sides to give. So far I see nothing at all from the Democrats.

The Obamaphiles don't seem to recognize that fully half the nation disagrees with their vision of America. If they're unwilling to compromise on their vision, then let them own the result.

A HOLIDAY WORKOUT

I can live with.

BLACK ON BLACK: This gentleman is unsparing in his criticism.

TRUTH ALWAYS RESIDES wherever brave men still have ammunition.

STOP SCHOOL SHOOTINGS.

The link is here. Read the (mostly bitter) comments.

A RANT on guns in the classroom:

This is why the Left hates guns with a screaming passion. If you and I can use a gun to make the world a safer place, then so can they. Yet people like Rosa Gill are too scared to take any responsibility for their own safety or for the safety of the children in their class. Rather than confront their own cynicism and cowardice they loudly proclaim that YOU are the problem. They demand that we accept that NOTHING can be done to cover up for the fact that they know in their hearts that THEY are too scared to lift a finger to defend their children.

Exactly right: somebody's gotta do it; just not me. At their very core, liberals know that they are moral and physical cowards. To feel good about themselves, they demand that others must be the same.

ANN COULTER: We Know How to Stop School Shootings.

But we're too damn cowardly to do what's necessary.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The New Racial Derangement Syndrome. A new pandemic is sweeping the country.

MADE ON THE MOON: Spare parts for future lunar outposts can easily be made from unprocessed lunar soil using 3-D printers.

THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING; NASA is on it.

CAN I SUE? The New York Times just called me racist.

Even if the Republicans managed to distance themselves from the thinly veiled racism of the Tea Party adherents who have moved the party rightward, they wouldn’t do much better among black voters than they do now. I suspect that appointments like Mr. Scott’s are directed less at blacks — whom they know they aren’t going to win in any significant numbers — than at whites who are inclined to vote Republican but don’t want to have to think of themselves, or be thought of by others, as racist…

The sign of true racists is their propensity to call everyone (except themselves) racist.

MISTAKES WERE MADE, but not by anyone who matters....

YES, LET'S CONTROL SPEECH:

[T]oo many reckless citizens using too much free speech - we need to limit speech by restricting the number of times people can publish books or stories, requiring a license to pen an article, limiting the number of websites that each citizen can own, with mental health testing and criminal background checks before being allowed to purchase a computer... feel safer? Don't the Feds realize how many people have lost their fortunes or committed suicide due to being victims of an internet scam? Bullied girls have killed themselves over website postings. We need to stop this madness, NOW! How many computers does a person REALLY need to own? How powerful a processor is enough? When will we learn; when will we ever learn?

Oh, you meant the Second Amendment?

BUT ... BUT Kansas is all white and there are no minorities to disenfranchise.

CLAYTON CRAMER on high-capacity magazine bans.

There is one other situation where a high-capacity magazine serves a necessary, even praiseworthy function. During the riots following the Rodney King trial, many shopkeepers in the Korean section of Los Angeles confronted mobs threatening to loot and burn the stores. Some of the shopkeepers used high-capacity magazines in rifles to avoid taking lives. Yes, you read that right. By firing two or three shots over the heads of the rioters, the shopkeepers were able to impress on these criminals that they should keep their distance or risk death. Because they had 30-round magazines in their rifles, they could afford to fire two or three warning shots. Had they been limited to three or five rounds per magazine, they likely would have had the choice of abandoning their stores or making every bullet deadly.

I've thought of that myself, which is why the rifle I keep in my home has a 20-round magazine capacity. I'd much rather fire several warning shots than a single killing shot.

OBAMACARE, taxing the poor.

HEH: "There is no ‘Trust us, changes are coming’ clause in the Constitution." Obama must rewrite contraception mandate to accommodate religious liberty.

NEVER LET A CRISIS GO TO WASTE: announce plans to do something (wrong).

BEWARE: the Emperor is arriving....

ONLY A SECULAR GOVERNMENT can do good works ... especially if it has no competition.

MORNING EXAMINER: Boehner's Plan B is the best possible outcome for America.

GOOGLE accidentally photographs military drone landing.

A START to the gun control 'conversation'. While I disagree with much of what is said, the post does at least begin to address the issues. Here is what I think is the crux of the argument:

... America would be safer if more people were armed. To me this is more "interesting" than convincing. I can see the appeal of such reasoning on the individual level. Jeff Goldberg describes the Long Island Railroad shooting in 1993 and says that if he had been on that train he would rather have been armed than not. "My instinct was that if someone is shooting at you, it is generally better to shoot back than to cower and pray." Undeniably. But ... I don't see how this scenario extends to a policy that makes us safer overall.

Liberals believe society is (better, safer, fairer) when individuals are limited; conservatives believe the converse, that society is (better, safer, fairer) when individuals are free. Those are positions for which it is difficult to find compromise.

BOEHNER SAYS House will pass 'Plan B' to avert tax hikes.

Tomorrow, the House will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every American. Then the president will have a decision to make. He can call on the Senate Democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history.

I'm not thrilled with 'Plan B' because it does not address the problems important to me -- ObamaCare, Medicare & Medicaid, and Social Security -- but it's a positive start. Let the Democrats block/veto it and make them own the ensuing crisis.

IDAHO HAS SPOKEN: With the world the way it is today, everyone is seeing images in their food - from Jesus on a piece of toast to George Washington on a chicken nugget. Now finally someone has found the image of Obama on a potato.....

From my email.

OBAMA REELECTED: Women, minorities, ‘progressive’ talk radio hardest hit. Heh.

MATTHEW BOWMAN: How ObamaCare Stole Christmas. Some thoughts on the intersection of religious and government authority.

The Obama administration seems to be trying to co-opt at least the first of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt have no other gods before me (other "gods" can include possessions, power or prominence). Their attitude seems to be render unto Caesar first; whatever's left can go to God (or charity, or...).

UPDATE: Hmm. Religious liberty seems to be winning.

DON'T THINK FOR YOURSELF. Let the Democrats not think for you.

INSTAPUNDIT: "The press is always happy to blame the NRA. Doing so unfairly just makes it more satisfying."

A CHALLENGE for advocates of stricter gun control laws: Put a “This is a gun-free zone” sign on your lawn or in a window of your home.

COMMITTING JOURNALISM is not a wrongful act. But committing biased journalism is.

"FRENCH CITIZENSHIP IS AN HONOUR." Apparently it's one he can do without.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:

One of the great, though inadvertent gifts of the Obama administration has been to remind us that the Rhodes Scholarship, the Harvard Law degree, the Stanford PhD, the Princeton BA mean, well, nothing much at all, if not perhaps a suspicion that a lot of intellectual branding and grandstanding came at the expense of two years on a tuna boat, or a year picking apples, or four summers at Starbucks, of anything to remind the young genius that he was not so smart after all, and that character is not created by getting an award or being stamped by an unworldly elite institution.

Read it all.

I KNEW I liked Southwest Airlines.

OBAMA ASKS CABINET MEMBERS for proposals to curb gun violence.

Let's see, now: there was Columbine (2009); then Tucson (2011); then
Aurora (2012); and now Sandy Hook (2012). The common thread is that in all four, the shooters were all young, white, male, and nuts!

So the solution is obviously (dripping sarcasm) gun control.

It's not about gun control. It's not even about guns. It's about control.

"THE SOLUTION TO THE GUN DEBATE would be for Congress and the White House to set an example for the country and declare the White House and all government buildings and workers to be 'gun free zones' to show us how confident they are in 'gun free zones'. If guns are the problem, they will be safer without guns, right?"

If the solution fits, wear it.

BRAVO, Gov. Perry!

Best comment: "The same liberals that swear it would be impossible to locate and deport 15 million illegal aliens believe it is possible to locate and confiscate 300 million guns."

ANGER ISSUES: "No wonder these people don’t want other Americans to be armed — they probably assume everyone has as many violent inclinations as they do."

UPDATE: Erik Loomis, professional hater.

BERKELEY (CA) to consider banning drones (aircraft, not humans). They don't want their privacy interrupted while defecating in the streets.

THE END OF UNIONS? Private sector unions, probably. Public sector unions? I doubt it; they don't have to compete....

THE COMPROMISE:

NORTH KOREAN SATELLITE is most likely dead. No loss.

WE HAVE FEWER SHOOTINGS, but more shootings by crazed shooters. So the obvious solution is gun control. Makes perfect (liberal) sense, since they are among the crazed.

KURT SCHLICHTER: Let’s Have That Conversation About Guns. A conversation, not a Leftist "shut-up-and-listen" shouting match.

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT JOURNALISM: You tend to believe it until it’s about something you actually know.

Fox Report's Shepard Smith is my personal bete noire -- every time he goes off-script and mouths something I know to be patently false, I have a powerful need to throw something big -- and hard -- through the TV screen.

Instapundit chimes in.

THOMAS SOWELL: Invincible Ignorance. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. Horses are dumb, but compared to the average liberal intellectual, they're geniuses.

WASHINGTON POST FACT CHECKER: No evidence right-to-carry laws increase crime.

Notice the subtle change of subject ... from this sweeping statement
(“The facts are every time guns have been allowed, concealed-carry has been allowed, the crime rate has gone down.”) to the contra-positive (" it appears such laws have not increased the crime rate....").

An honest assessment would have been that there is no definitive evidence to support such a sweeping assertion. Similarly, the available evidence does not support the contrary assertion. At best the data are inconsistent the assertions.

THE 'END OF THE WORLD' will be broadcast live online.

THE OUTRAGE is real because they are dumb.

Here's the thing about dumb liberals that really yanks my chain: "Shame on you! (because) I am offended!" If the liberal were honest (and self-aware), the statement would be "Shame on me! (because) I am offended!"

THERE MAY BE DUMB QUESTIONS, and then there are some really idiotic answers.

THE CORRECTIONS BEGIN. Next step; correcting the corrections. I don't believe a Glock handgun comes in a 10mm caliber.

SOME QUESTIONS to begin a national 'conversation' on gun control.

YOU, TOO, CAN BE A BULLY: Just sing a Christmas carol in public.

THE MEDIA is guilty of doing what they criticize big business for — putting money (in this case, ratings, newsstand sales, and web traffic) ahead of humanity and decency. Just as greedy businessmen put profit and personal gain ahead of ethics, so too do our media outlets.

Linked from Instapundit.

IS THERE ANYBODY in the world of tax-funded green energy who isn’t a sleazy thief or an incompetent idealist? Uh, no.

ASTEROID'S EARTH FLYBY CAUGHT ON VIDEO:

The asteroid Toutatis video combines 64 radar images taken Wednesday and Thursday (Dec. 12 and 13) by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, CA.

THEN WHY DID THEY VOTE FOR OBAMA? Gloomy voters say US on wrong track, kids will be poorer.

THE ECONOMIC AND FISCAL EFFECTS of the Obama Tax Plan.

Read the details here.

PLAIN & SIMPLE: The "coverage" of Newtown's sorrow is [MSM] voyeurism....

THEY NEVER SAY tax the successful:

"They never say 'tax the hard-working' or 'tax the successful.' They say 'the rich' because it's easier to deal with their inability to be successful by attributing others' success to luck."

Think about it.

GUN CONTROL: "[M]y instinct was [is] that if someone is shooting at you [me], it is generally better to shoot back than to cower and pray."

IT'S TIME reasonable public safety laws were passed - to ban progressives.

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES are overpaid, underworked, and ... unhappy. As someone who has been 'retired' -- a euphemism for unemployed, by the way -- for over two years, my sympathy meter is completely underwhelmed.

IN WASHINGTON, the goal is control of private wealth.

[E]conomic growth and prosperity ... is not the agenda of President Obama and his party. By taking more money away from “rich” people and by spending more money on “stimulus projects,” the President is able to control more wealth that is currently in possession of private individuals, and then re-distribute that wealth to people whom he believes are deserving of it and spend it on things that are important to him.

Read it all.

DO CIVILIANS ARMED WITH GUNS ever capture, kill, or otherwise stop mass shooters? Er, yes.

HOW TO DECIDE if space tourists are fit to fly.

How do we decide if aircraft passengers are fit to fly? One would think the person paying the bill ought to have some say in the matter....

TWEET OF THE WEEK.

TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT will let teachers carry guns.

THIS SHOULD BE ENOUGH to cause any atheist to rethink his position. There's no joy in atheism.

IT ISN'T GUNS, it's the moral decay of society.

As I wrote.

IS OBAMACARE REELING? Well, yes. More examples:

Blue Cross/Blue Shield premiums to rise.

Aetna premiums to rise.

Thirty-five states refuse to set up ObamaCare exchanges.

The long-term drivers [of the fiscal crisis] are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and subsidies for the health-care exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act.

But other than that, everything is just fine.

A DARK AND GLOOMY DAY: Pictures from around the neighborhood.

But it's not cold.

HOPE & CHANGE: Broadening the misery base.

Linked from Instapundit.

A QUESTION FOR THE LEFT: Have you no decency?

To the Left, violence -- or threats of it -- are the only answer.

FROM MY EMAIL:

WHY THE CLACKAMAS MALL SHOOTER killed so few people. Uh, why didn't this make it into the MSM?

IT'S NOT THE SYSTEM; it's the servers.

MARK STEYN on why the doctor won't see you now:

The Yellow Pages lists more health insurers than physicians, which would not seem to be an obvious business model [for medical care].

Read the rest.

TARGET PRACTICE.

I was shooting at 6 specific areas while sighting in my handgun: head, heart, left shoulder, right shoulder, left abdomen, right abdomen. Only a wee correction is still needed.

"EXPERIENCE" -- What we’re really shopping for. Really? I think I'd rather just wear my jeans than experience them.

CLEARLY WE NEED a nationwide discussion about hammer control.

THE WONDERS OF MAKEUP:

SANTA may be a bit late this Christmas.

He's converted his sleigh to rear deer drive.

EXPLAINING why there is a Post Office.

ARE GUNS, TWINKIES, AND BIG GULPS really a major public health threat?

REPUBLICANS should make the middle-class tax cuts permanent.

This strikes me as a good idea, for several reasons. First, I think it would good, especially for small business, to give some long-term stability for tax planning. Second, it would be difficult for Obama and the Democrats to back away from now that they've turned away from 'tax the rich' to 'save the middle class tax cuts'. Finally, by taking taxes off the negotiating table, it should strengthen the Republican case for spending cuts when the next debt ceiling crisis begins.

ZOE'S STORY: ObamaCare and my daughter.

THE MEDIA should be ashamed of its Connecticut coverage. Correct. My daughter was in Newtown earlier today to pay her respects. According to her, there were more media than residents, and in her brief visit she was asked several times for an interview.

I'M PRETTY SURE Democrats didn't contribute.

AN EXAMPLE of dripping sarcasm.

MAYBE THE ISSUE isn't gun control.

WILLING TO LEARN? Of course not.

OBAMACARE: "More paperwork. More waste. Less accountability. Less care. Government malpractice."

There is, perhaps, a bright side to ObamaCare. More and more physicians are opting out and moving to 'concierge care' (essentially cash only services). My wife's internist has done so, and I'm seriously considering asking her to make that a 'family plan' instead of opting for Medicare Part B when the time comes.

MORE LIBERAL MYTHS.

NEWS FOR MEN: Chivalry is now 'benevolent sexism'. If you're so accused, the best defense is "I'm sorry, I thought you were a lady."

NEWT GINGRICH: After the cliff.

ANOTHER OBAMACARE LAWSUIT: Do the religious have any rights?

THE VERDICT IS IN: Americans are certifiably nuts. At least half of them anyway.

And they elected one of their own as President.

GUNMAN KILLS 20 children, 6 adults at Connecticut elementary school.

As I write this, it's less than 24 hours after the shootings and already the search for something to blame (guns; video games; etc.; etc.) is well underway.

Personally, I blame liberals, especially those of the progressive variety. For at least the last 30 years, liberals have done their best to 'dehumanize' humanity. Only 'designated' victims have worth. Everyone has rights, but none have responsibilities. Morals are defined by circumstance. Contempt is the only acceptable response to disagreement. Violence is the only acceptable response to failure.

With a culture steeped in those values, is Connecticut any surprise?

Donald Sensing has more.

IT'S TIME for the GOP to push Obama off the fiscal cliff.

IS IT PATRIOTIC to pay excess taxes? Only if you're not the one paying them.

TV’S FUTURE: The Broadcast Empire Strikes Back.

A NATURAL TEACHER.

CALIFORNIA JUDGE says victims' body can prevent rape. Since it was also reported in the Washington Post, we can safely infer that the judge was a Republican.

MICHAEL BARONE: Are blue states beginning to turn red?

PROPOSED ARMY MANUAL tells G.I.s not to insult Taliban or speak up for women. If we're not allowed to support American values, then why in hell are we there?

A CHICKEN COUP: Eggshells for energy storage. And if you used eggshells in the battery of your electric car, it would be a 'chicken coupe'.

YES, DAMMIT, let's tax the rich.

It would be much better to get 'em where it really hurts -- deductions and loopholes, but if Republicans must, let the Democrats have their tax hikes and make sure the Democrat brand is nailed solidly to the hike.

MORNING EXAMINER: The not-so-emergency Sandy spending bill. As usual, it's not about helping; it's about controlling.

CAN WE HAVE a liberal America without unions? No, liberalism requires thugs to do its bidding.

SORRY, UNIONS: the 'right to freeload' is a myth.

IRS ENDS ITS MIGRATION FLOW DATA PROGRAM, one of the few data sets in existence showing where Americans are moving to and from each year. It's "as if the federal government cancelled elections and the counting of actual votes and told us to use opinion polls to pick our leaders instead."

Can't have the little people make their own informed choices....

DOES OBAMA want to go over the fiscal cliff? Well, yes:

Obama prefers a more equal income distribution. The Depression of the 1930s did a great job of increasing economic equality.

Remember: it's all about control.

JUST A REMINDER: People don't stop killers. People with guns do. Twenty innocent children were killed in an elementary school classroom this morning. What if just one of the adults in the room had been armed?

GUN RIGHTS find a new home in Illinois.

REPUBLICANS HAVE THE RIGHT.

Democrats have the left ... and uppercuts ....

HARRY BELAFONTE should be shipped (one way) to a third-world dictatorship.

THE NILE isn't just a river in Egypt.

INTERESTING: skateboarding video shot from a camera-equipped hexacopter.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STIMULUS: White House Sees Fiscal Cliff Deal As Last, Best Hope.

"Most of what you're talking about -- it's keeping your foot where it is on the accelerator, which makes a lot of sense if you are thinking about the underlying economy," said Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden's former top economist and a leading proponent of addition stimulus. "You don't want to take your foot off right now."

Right. If we just accelerate, maybe we can make it to the other side of the fiscal Grand Canyon.

CAN, MEET ROAD: the 'doc fix' economy. The fiscal cliff is just the 'doc fix' writ large -- and there's every expectation that the outcome will be the same.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: taxing the poor. Are they really unintended? Or is it government cheese?

BIG GOVERNMENT AND BLACK BOXES: It isn't about privacy; it's really about control.

GLENN REYNOLDS: Where big GOP bucks could matter. Okay, I tend to agree that the way to get to the 'low information' voter (male or female) is through the popular soft media....

But I'd really rather just prevent them from voting in the first place. All Americans have a right to vote -- but they also have an obligation to exercise that right responsibly. The irresponsible should be encouraged to inform themselves; they should not be encouraged to vote.

JEFF JACOBY: freedom from (union) compulsion.

OPTION C: another alternative to the fiscal cliff. There are two important points for Republicans: (1) whatever the outcome of the fiscal cliff, the Democrats must own any tax rate increases, and (2) the Republicans must hold the Democrats' feet to the fire when they start looking for loopholes when their allies start squawking.

HOW TO TELL if you're a sanctimonious narcissistic liberal.

AMERICANS LIVING LONGER despite unhealthier habits. Contradictory? I suspect not; the apparent contradiction is more likely result of the measures of 'healthiness' being employed.

YES, marriage is best left to churches.

IRONY

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever, to 46 million people.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." Their stated reason for the policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves...."

This ends today's lesson.

From my email.

TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS; or why I dislike Windows 8.

A NEW MEDICARE BENEFIT:

You're a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing home available for you. So what do you do? Our plan gives anyone 65 years or older a gun and four bullets. You are allowed to shoot four politicians. Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get three meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating, air conditioning and all the health care you need!

Need new teeth? No problem. Need glasses? That's great. Need a new hip, knees, kidney, lungs or heart? They're all covered. As an added bonus, your kids can come and visit you as often as they do now. And who will be paying for all of this? It's the same government that just told you that they cannot afford for you to go into a home.

And you can get rid of four useless politicians while you are at it. Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don't have to pay any income taxes anymore.

The downside is that range time isn't covered....

THE FIRST KING-SIZED BED:

Obama doesn't fit....

CHRISTMAS BOOKS: Read while you still can. In both senses of the phrase.

WILL ROBOTS replace surgeons? Once ObamaCare is fully implemented, they may be our only hope....

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and 'voucherize' Christmas. I like the idea, but it's harder to execute than it sounds.

SOUNDING THE ALARM about the importance of technology and innovation for US competitiveness: thoughts from former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine.

Some tidbits:

China is now graduating more English-speaking engineers than the United States.

The only countries with fewer engineering graduates than the United States include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, Madagascar and Swaziland.

The 35 largest U.S. companies are creating three times more jobs abroad than they are in the United States.

Not a pretty picture, is it?

SINCE WE CAN'T BAN GUNS, let's ban ammunition.

While we're at it, let's also ban non-armor-piercing (e.g., lead) bullets. Face it; if you don't die outright, lead poisoning could kill you later.

WHEN YOU RUN THE NUMBERS, the U.S. already has a flat tax.

Play with the calculator. The value of tax credits (read deductions and loopholes) is stunning.

THEY AREN'T ALONE: House Republicans Lack Faith in Obama Promises of Future Reform.

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE: The Golden Spike Company announced that they have plans to fly manned crews to the moon and back for a price of $1.5 billion per flight by 2020. When you realize that their intended customers are nations (and possibly multi-national corporations), that's probably a fair price.

More here.

MOMENTUM GROWING for a Republican Plan B. Republicans need to (1) let the Democrats pass their 'tax the millionaires and billionaires' proposal; (2) hold them to it when they inevitably seek loopholes for their contributors; and (3) start working (publicly and transparently) on health insurance legislation, medicare/medicaid legislation, social security legislation, immigration legislation, and -- most importantly -- comprehensive tax reform for introduction in the 2015 Congress.

THAT'S A LONG WAY TO GO just to get ice: "Scientists are developing a mission concept that would snag icy particles from Saturn's moon Enceladus and return them to Earth...."

SANTA DAD.

PASSIVE RESISTANCE: Coersion only works when states allow themselves to be coerced.

The same applies to individuals.

FOOD NANNIES RETREAT: Let them eat meat.

MORE: "By the time these kids grow up they may well have forgotten who exactly stuck them with trillions and trillions worth of debt, but they will always remember who made them eat s#*tty pizza."

THE PIONEER ANOMALY.

SHIT HAPPENS. Media ignores.

READING IS FUN:

I like reading. I love reading. I always have. I read recreationally still. I read on buses, in planes, while crossing streets. My entire apartment is covered in books. And now, through some strange concatenation of circumstances, I write for a living.

And it’s all because, as a child, my parents took the time to read me “Recommended Levels of Insulation.”

The road to Hell is paved with progressive reading pedagogy.

NEWT GINGRICH: a Republican strategy for 2013 and beyond.

IF YOU HAVEN'T GUESSED ALREADY, it's all about control.

HUNT THEM DOWN and kill them. Make examples.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: ABC, NBC and CBS ignore union thugs' attack on Fox News contributor.

SEMPER FI:

“THIS IS PAINFUL FOR A LIBERAL TO ADMIT, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in soul-crushing dependency.”

Like his fellow editorialist at the New York Times, Nick Kristof is living proof that liberals are from Oz: there's no need for a brain if one has a certificate.

HEH: Washington Post pays 2013 dividends now so investors can avoid tax increases championed by president the paper endorsed.

Do as I say, not as I do.

DEMOCRAT SENATORS ask to delay ObamaCare medical device tax. Taxes are for little people, not us.

ABOUT TIME: An ObamaCare mandate loses a round in court.

MICHAEL BARONE: Mexican Migration May Be Over. Well, yes. Soon-to-be third-world countries are not particularly attractive destinations for immigrants....

NEW INSURANCE FEE in health overhaul law likely to hit consumers. Likely? Only likely? Try certainly.

DOHA OR D’OH!-A? "These people and these methods couldn’t make a ham sandwich, much less save Planet Earth."

WELL, THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S THE ONE THING they've showed no interest in: Obama's free market space exploration success.

GOVERNMENT JOBS.

THE AMERICAN DREAM is fading. "Like an old photograph from a Polaroid instant camera, it is slowly disintegrating."

This is where we have come in this country. It is now a better option to take a lower paying job, rent a home or live with mom and take government benefits than it is to climb up the ladder to success.... It is a sad fact that a head of a household of four making minimum wage has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.

Our entitlement society is out of control.

OF COURSE the Air Force may be developing stealth drones in secret. There's no special 'inside knowledge' required to come to this conclusion -- just keep your eyes and ears open, and (the most difficult) apply a modest amount of common sense.

STUDY: Fox News viewers have average IQ of 80. Hmm. Both MSNBC viewers must be watching Fox News to drag it that low....

INSTAPUNDIT: "No, it’s not about generosity. It’s about power. They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please."

Where have I heard that before? Oh, yes ... here, here, here, here, here and here.

PAUL JACOB: Falling on Soft Times. Too true.

NORMAN PODHORETZ: Is America Exceptional?

READING IS not fun any more. Reading for fun is unhealthy or something....

HEH. MY SOCIAL SECURITY is depressing your wages.

THE TAXMAN: the lotteries' big winner. "Lotteries are designed to enrich the government. The really big winner is always the tax collector."

HEH. "Pass ‘em in the House, send ‘em to the Senate, and then make popcorn."

WHY ROMNEY LOST:

Romney said, "When I'm elected, I will put Americans back to work."

And 51% said, "F*^k that!"

From my email.

THE 'LIBERAL MIND' is an oxymoron.

LINDA CHAVEZ: The American Welfare State. It's not about the poor. It's never about the poor. It's about control.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: It's a long and well-executed post on income inequality. Here's the (condensed) conclusion:

[S]ince 1960, the level of income inequality for U.S. individuals as measured by the "fine" Gini index is nearly constant, but has increased significantly for U.S. households. What has changed over that time is the composition of U.S. households, with a steady increase in the percentage of single person households.

Without a corresponding increase in the measured income inequality for U.S. individuals, the increase in the measured income inequality for U.S. households has been almost entirely driven by the increase in the number of single person households over time.

So income inequality among U.S. households isn't increasing because the rich are getting richer. That means that policies intended to right this situation by going after the rich in the name of "fairness" are guaranteed to fail, because the real cause of the increase in income inequality among U.S. households over time is something that cannot be fixed by such actions.

If only the people pushing such policies could see that....

SVEN & OLE

Two Minnesota engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up.

A woman walks by asks what they were doing.

"Ve're supposed to find da height of dis flagpole, ?said Sven, "but ve don't haff a ladder."

The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple bolts, and laid the pole down on the
ground.

Then she took a tape measure from her pocketbook, took a measurement, announced, "Twenty-one feet, six inches," and walked away.

Ole shook his head and laughed. "Ain't dat just like a voman! Ve ask fer da height
and she gives us da length!"

Sven and Ole have since quit their engineering jobs and are currently serving in the United States
Senate.

And, as a professor of mine once said, "They improved both professions."

WHY BOTHER WITH A WIFE? Let your car nag you. The Wall Street Journal has more.

THE CASE for more guns. And rational gun control.

DON SURBER: Fight for the right to be left alone.

MARK STEYN on our royal Presidency: "Say what you like about a high-living, big-spending, bloated, decadent, parasitical, wastrel monarchy, but, compared to the citizen-executive of a republic of limited government, it’s a bargain."

Read it all.

HANG TOUGH, MR. SPEAKER: It’s time to stick it to the blue states.

FORMER VP DICK CHENEY takes aim at President Obama.

GIFTS FOR GEEKS: high tech gifts for Christmas.

EDWARD J. ERLER: Is the Constitution Colorblind?

EVEN OBAMA'S own (former) economic advisors recognize the need for entitlement reform. All the more reason for Speaker Boehner and the Republican House to 'hang tough' and insist that entitlement reform be part of any tax package.

UNSERIOUS PEOPLE. Tell us what you really think, Bill.

DAVID GREGORY? Who is David Gregory?

SO WHAT can I do at bedtime? Er, beside the obvious?

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME, not in the office of a government bureaucrat.

A minor hobby of mine has been debunking the myth that conservative Christians are simply obsessed with gays and abortion while the Left cares for the poor (given the defensive nature of the Christian struggle against the sexual revolution, the reality is in fact the opposite). The reality, of course, is that religious conservatives — those who voted by the most lopsided margins against President Obama — are America’s most charitable citizens, and we give far more of our charitable dollars to help the poor than to fight the culture war.

Read it all; then write a check to the Salvation Army.

FREE STUFF: Yes, let's vote our way to prosperity.

TINY HOMES: when Republicans are in office, they're called 'trailers'.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Improving the election system.

Voter ID: "[T]he cost of implementing a nationwide voter ID program that ensures all eligible voters have access to the polling place would cost hundreds of millions dollars."

Huh? Showing a driver's license would cost hundreds of millions of dollars? So offset the cost by charging each voter $1 to cast a ballot. How many voters in the last election do you think didn't have a buck in his/her wallet?

Modernize voter registration: "[V]oters are automatically registered when they turn 18 and the registration follows them when they move and expires when they die."

Absolutely not. In fact, I would argue that voter registration should be made harder. Frankly, I don't want you voting unless you consider the voting important enough to have put some time and effort in it.

CHARITABLE DEDUCTIONS: You can support government welfare or private charity -- but not both. And I agree that private charity is a much more efficient delivery system than is government bureaucracy.

That said, however, I do support limiting charitable deductions for tax purposes, for the simple reason that I believe that large donors tend to organizations that are, shall we say, less charitable than political.

ROGER SIMON AND DR. HELEN have an interesting pair of posts on the value (or lack thereof) of conservative 'bitching and whining'. After reading both posts, it seems to me that both are arguing in favor of Andrew Brietbart's philosophy: punch back, twice as hard. I agree. Speak up! Strongly, loudly, and as necessary, rudely (or as Instapundit would put it, 'mock them'.)