BEST NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION EVER.

WHAT?! OBAMACARE ISN'T FREE? Only half of new ObamaCare enrollees in 17 states have paid first month of premiums.

CHARLIE MARTIN on 'Enlightened Meddling'.

FEMINIST BOVINE EXCREMENT: Read on, but don't say you weren't warned.

RED VERSUS BLUE STATES: A Divide Worth Having.

MARS ONE narrows list of wannabe Martians for 2025 colony. Seventy-year-olds need not apply....

TWO TALES of liberal insanity.

OBAMACARE: the solution to long-term unemployment.

Accidental truth-telling.

SKY SHORTS: Some mini space news.

MSNBC HOST sorry for racial Romney jokes. She's not really sorry; she's just sorry she got hit upside the head with the Get-A-Clue bat.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Good Ol' Boy, Inc.

CHINA’S LUNAR LANDER spotted by orbiting spacecraft.

DON SURBER: "Every health insurance agent in America should thank God for Sandra Fluke, who single-handedly made birth control coverage mandatory."

AN EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENT: On the Moon Landing, Nixon Was Prepared For A Worst-Case Scenario.

TOM COBURN: The Year Washington Fled Reality. They've been fleeing for years -- in 2013, they just made more progress than usual.

For 2014, something to remember: "If you don't like the rulers you have, you don't have to keep them."

HOW STUPID can the health/safety nannies be? This stupid.

Don Surber is back. It's about time.

THE YEAR OF THE ZOMBIES: Dave Barry's review of 2013.

Linked (with much laughter) from the PJ Tatler.

STEPHEN F. HAYES: [New York] Times Ignores Evidence of Al Qaeda Link to Benghazi.

DEMOCRATS turn to minimum wage as 2014 strategy. Republicans, if they had any common sense (a stretch, I know) would get ahead of this issue by initiating legislation increasing the minimum wage a modest amount, tying future increases to the inflation rate, and adding a second, lower tier for those just entering the workforce (teens, principally).

LA JOLLA COVE STENCH: the collapse of common sense. Common sense is an affront to the progressive mind, which alone is privy to the 'truth' of everything.

'BLACK SWANS' to watch out for in 2014. One can only hope that the Israelis and South Koreans will have our back until 2016....

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Class-action lawsuits produce big payouts --- for the lawyers. Ain't it the truth. I was the recipient of two class-action awards this year. In neither case was the 'award' worth the price of the stamp I'd need to deposit it. And in both cases, the lawyers' checks were in the millions.

THE CLIMATE CHANGE GODS must be crazy. It's time to drop Al Gore aboard to explain that the ship isn't trapped by ice -- it's really only frozen water.

Fox News explains.

OBAMACARE: paying more and getting less. So what's new?

PC MAKERS plan rebellion against Windows at 2014 Consumer Electronics Show. I should hope so. I'm so disgusted with my (almost) new Windows 8 desktop that I'm thinking seriously about ditching it for a Mac.

WEST VIRGINIA: A GOP "dam ready to break".

INSTAPUNDIT: "Antisemitism is a mark of barbarity, and one can’t expect much from barbarians beyond more barbarity."

HEH: Massachusetts, the model for Obamacare, has highest health costs in the United States.

ObamaCare is a triumph of stupidity over experience.

SAN FRANCISCO bans all fireplace use during Christmas. Smoking marijuana and freezing in the dark are still permitted.

JUST IN CASE YOU HADN'T NOTICED:

Mac's do support Windows.

I SUGGESTED earlier that Hillary's presidential aspirations are in trouble. Roger Kimball agrees.

NASA'S DEEP SPACE NETWORK (DSN) celebrates its 50th anniversary. It tracked (and still does) the Voyager 1 and 2 missions to Jupiter and Saturn when they launched in 1977.

POWERLINE: From Duck Dynasty to F**k Dynasty to Duck Responsibility.

Heh.

2013: the year in stupid. Hunter is wrong, I think, on one minor point: the illegals are employed; it's the citizens who prefer welfare who are unemployed.

FEDS SAY just one car out of 100 will be electric in 2040. Range and refueling are the killers, and neither is likely to be resolved in the forseeable future. Until they can be resolved, electrics will remain an urban niche market.

OBAMA MOVES to impose his vision of how we should live. The gist: Every 'community' should have it's fair share of thieves, thugs, druggies, pedophiles, and terrorists.

Except, of course, the ruling class....

HILLARY'S IN TROUBLE: the New York Times begins to revise Benghazi history.

Fox News isn't impressed.

I'M A VEGETARIAN because I don't believe in cruelty to animals.

Linked from PowerLine.

OBAMACARE: Everything is going sooo well.

SHILOH LAUNCH COMPLEX: Space Florida's plan to build a state-run launch complex on the environmentally sensitive fringes of Kennedy Space Center is ready for its federal and public vetting over possible environmental impacts.

It's interesting to note that the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge didn't exist until after the government started launching rockets from (then) Cape Canaveral. The original purpose of the refuge was as a buffer zone to keep housing and commerce away from the launch sites.

MINIMUM WAGE ACTIVIST: I want $15 per hour so I don’t have to work so much. The gist:

She’s looking for more money for less work. And that attitude, more than corporate profits or minimum wage laws, are to blame for her diminutive pay.

More cheese to go with the whine.

LIBERALS TO CONSERVATIVES: If you won't agree with us, you can't be allowed to speak.

They're panicking.

MORE NEW WORDS & PHRASES I'VE FOUND ONLINE:

DemocratCare
PotemkinCare
ObamaQueue
Hopium
Smokin' Hope
BarryCare

Liberalism is giving us a whole new lexicon.

VIRGINIA REP. FRANK WOLF retiring after 34 years. Wolf is my congresscritter. He's a reliable conservative, but still, it's past time for new blood.

POWERLINE: Ducks, Gays, and Mark Steyn.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. I just received my annual 'Summary Annual Report for Group Insurance Plans and Women's Health and Cancer Rights Notice' and I wonder (again) where my 'men's health and cancer rights' notice is....

THE PUSHBACK HAS BEGUN: Duck Dynasty Threatens The Left. And they're running scared....

HOW DO YOU SPELL 'HYPOCRITE'? President makes 'symbolic' enrollment in ObamaCare, picks least expensive plan.

Did he get a subsidy?

POWERLINE'S WEEK YEAR IN PICTURES: Auld Lang Syne Edition. My favorite:

A WORLD GONE MAD:

Lefties can call you a “racist,” try to get you fired, or threaten you with violence. But are we men, or are we Pajama Boys? Here on the right, we are still men. (That includes our women, of course, most emphatically.) In reality, the leftists are almost always impotent to carry out their threats. And, if it comes to that, I am generally carrying; you should be, too. The Second Amendment defends the First. So screw them: we have a right to free speech, as long as we claim it, and use it.

So we must reclaim our free speech, use it, and use it aggressively.

YA' DON'T SAY: Popularity of 'Don't Tread on Me' plates in Virginia suggests Tea Party still strong. My wife and I have two of the 20,000 plus plates, and we've seen them on the highways in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia.

CALLISTA GINGRICH: Remembering Our Patriots This Christmas.

YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS.

MERRY CHRISTMAS:

I love Christmas lights! They remind me of the people who voted for Obama...

They all hang together; half of them don't work and the ones that do aren't all that bright!

A Christmas card from my email.

APOLLO 8 ASTRONAUT JAMES LOVELL marks the 1968 Christmas broadcast to Earth from the Moon's orbit.

Here's the original broadcast:

VIRGINIA SEN. MARK WARNER: A pseudo-moderate flirts with moderation.

I watched Sen. Warner as well; he was not impressive. I hope the Republicans challenge him next year.

THE DELAY HAS BEEN DELAYED (AGAIN):

The Obama admininstration announced late Tuesday that people unable to obtain coverage by midnight through Healthcare.gov might still be able to get insurance by Jan. 1. The announcement comes after the administration already pushed back the enrollment deadline by a day.

Minnesota, one of the states running their own insurance exchanges, extended its Monday deadline to Dec. 31 amid problems with its website and extra-long hold times to reach its help center. Maryland pushed back its cutoff date to Dec. 27. New York extended its deadline to midnight Tuesday.

The collapse continues....

WE SHOULD "BOLDLY STAY" WHERE NO ONE HAS STAYED BEFORE. Six Reasons NASA Should Build a Research Base on the Moon.

OBAMA'S AVERAGE YEAR: worse than last year; better than next year.

MORE EXAMPLES of the Democrats' vaunted 'tolerance'.

NO MORE: 21 Things those '80s Kids' Did. And the 70's kids. And the 60's kids. And....

But no more.

THE FINE PRINT FOR OBAMACARE: State can seize your assets to pay for care after you’re forced into Medicaid by Obamacare. Forfeiture; it's not just for seniors any more.

HEH: Pajama Boy, take 2,052. To paraphrase Dan Rather, it's fake but accurate.

IT'S ALL PAUL RYAN'S FAULT I demanded cuts in veterans' benefits.

HORRORS! Secondhand smoke won't kill you. Not a welcome message to the environmental left, but common sense usually triumphs in the end.

IT'S EASIER TO BE YOUNG & STUPID when you're not facing be forced into ObamaCare.

END OF THE LINE FOR THE LEAD BULLET? Regulations, bans force switch to 'green' ammo.

Contrary to the alarums from the Right, this is not a grand Obama gun-control ploy; it is simply an economic decision resulting (a) from EPA overregulation and (b) environmental (over)activism.

ANN COULTER: Mental Health Laws are Trouble for Democrats. Institutionalizing your voting base is not a way to maintain power....

The larger question is one Coulter hints at, but is never properly addressed: Why don't the Republicans fight back?

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES: Pajama Boy Encore Edition. But this is my favorite:

FEDERAL EXPRESS ON DRONES: Beer and pizza, but not much more. (At least for the forseeable future.)

WHY DUCK DYNASTY MATTERS: "Is tolerance just a one-way street now? And if it’s a one-way street, is it really tolerance at all?"

INSTAVISION: What if they had socialism and nobody signed up? Watch as Glenn Reynolds and Mickey Kaus discuss great Obamacare mystery - why are conservative groups not suing?

PowerLine comments.

HOLIDAY GREETINGS from the NSA.

WE'RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND HERE TO HELP YOU: Stuck in the 'safety' net.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS TO SEN. HARRY REID: Pound sand.

Related article here.

SO SANTA CAN DELIVER THE BAD NEWS CHRISTMAS DAY: ObamaCare enrollment deadline extended until Christmas Eve.

RELATED: Panic time.

IT’S TIME to write the rules of cyberwar.

ON MSNBC, NO LESS: Watch Morning Joe rip a new hole in Pajama Boy's onesie.

MORE: an insufferable man-child.

MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY, ER, SOMETHING OR OTHER from the White House.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS from the retirement lane: A baby helmet?

Seen at breakfast this morning, an infant in a carry seat wearing a blue helmet covering most of the head. Was this a child with a medical condition, or just the latest in metrosexual infant care?

I'd like to believe the former, but I suspect the latter.

WASHINGTON STATE LAWMAKER calls Arizona 'racist wasteland'. If you're of the Left, everything has a racial component.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Pajama Boy Nation. The picture says it all, but here are some best quotes:

On Obama as Pajama Boy:

He is an arugula-eating man of the people who tries to bowl only during election season. Michelle rags on the 1%, but still hits Costa del Sol and Aspen. Obamacare for us; for congressional staffers and insiders something quite different. A Nobel Prize and a half a billion dollars for guru Al Gore; and dumping Current TV on a fossil-fuelled, anti-Semitic authoritarian Middle Eastern regime to fund more good work of our green Elmer Gantry. Amnesty for illegal aliens, but private academies for liberal kids far from the ensuing chaos of the public schools. Pajama Boys are fiercely liberal so that they can fiercely avoid the people they so champion and are so afraid to live among.

On the rest of us:

Millions are sick of being lectured, caricatured, and slandered for their supposed pathologies by the Sandra Flukes of the age and those in their pajamas who still grasp with two hands their hot chocolate. Add all their annoying Stalinist efforts up — to selectively going after Chick-fil-A or the Washington Redskins or Duck Dynasty — and the public is becoming tired of the shrill nerdocracy.

Read it all.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS from the retirement lane. On the drive up to Connecticut for Christmas, I note that New York state no longer has rest stops along the interstate highways -- they have 'text stops'.

OBAMACARE: A Law or a Shakedown? Nice insurance company you have there. Be a shame if something happened to it.

The Chicago way.

HOT AIR: Did conservatives get trolled by Pajama Boy?

Nope. Let's face it; past history clearly shows OFA is not smart enough to think this strategically.

WE'RE FROM OBAMACARE & HERE TO HELP: "Beginning Jan. 1, regulators expect it will be literally impossible for an individual to buy a new [health insurance] policy in the Northern Mariana Islands [Guam], and difficult in other territories."

Coffins are one-size-fits-all.

NATURE: NASA funding shuffle alarms planetary scientists. I'm not terribly concerned; this is why. I'll have some sympathy when political science returns to just science.

WHITE HOUSE delayed enacting rules ahead of the 2012 election to prevent them from interfering with Obama's election to a second term. Surprised?

And the current chaos is merely the administration trying to soothe the electorate and move the ObamaCare dissatisfaction past the mid-term elections and prevent a Republican takeover of Congress.

THE FEDERALIST: Necessary Elitism And The Demise Of Higher Education.

Gist: Elite is good. Funnel the masses to "more targeted educational pathways that will enable them to find decent employment with a minimum of debt." A liberal education should be "the domain of a relatively small group of people. Young people who are eager and intellectually capable should be encouraged to get a serious liberal arts education, and rewarded with opportunities that justify the investment."

The problems that Lu identifies are real, but she and the academic elites fail to recognize that they have poisoned their own well by becoming liberal, dogmatic, and wrong.

TOP OBAMACARE OFFICIAL wanted HealthCare.gov shut down over security risks — and was overruled. The disclosures never end.

At least until ObamaCare is killed and a stake driven through its heart.

"I'M NOT GOING TO VOTE AWAY MY OWN PENSION." So he'll vote away his own job. Smart move.

ALMOST HUMAN: The Surreal, Cyborg Future of Telemarketing.

Question: How do you tell a liberal from a cyborg?

DEATH FROM 1,000 CUTS: Federal judge deals another blow to ObamaCare contraceptive mandate.

A&E GOES DUCK HUNTING, shoots self in foot.

Heh. I was out yesterday, doing a little last-minute Christmas shopping (where left-wing liberals dare not tread) and Duck Dynasty gear could be found in every store.

The A&E television network has two choices: apologize, or fail.

BILL WHITTLE: The End Of The Beginning.

IMPRIMIS: A Rebirth of Liberty and Learning. A must-read for anyone with Tea Party leanings.

For liberals, too, except that they are probably incapable of learning....

HOW PAJAMA BOY'S DEFENDERS missed the point. He's a laughingstock because, well, he's a laughingstock.

OLD NEWS: Dianne Feinstein admits: You could have kept your health care plan.... Until ObamaCare came into effect.

CAN YOU feel the hope'nchange yet? No, but I can feel the hope for change.

OH, THAT DEATH OF THE GROWN-UP:

The post is here.

A WARNING TO LIBERAL MALES: "Take a look in the mirror, liberals. Are you beginning to see Pajama Boy in there? Take it as a warning. Side with the left long enough, and your genitals fall off. As well they should."

BEST COMMENT: "If Pajama Boy had been on the Titanic, I doubt anyone would have questioned his getting on a lifeboat that was reserved for women and children, although they may have had some problems figuring out which category he fit into." Now guess the subject of the PowerLine post.

JONAH GOLDBERG: 'Real' rednecks must be politically correct.

OBAMACARE: Another day, another broken promise. And I suspect that many of those people who choose the 'catastrophic care' option aren't going to want to give it up in 2015.

ObamaCare's complete collapse is only months away. The job of the Republican 114th Congress will be to manage the clean-up and recovery.

DUCK DYNASTY: No Phil, no show.

TRIUMPH OF THE ELOI:

Among the many appalling traits of the modern Left — and they are legion — their fatuous air of unearned moral superiority has got to be among the most annoying. Sheltered, protected, coddled from birth, shepherded through a credentialing system along with thousands, perhaps millions, of like-minded clones, they are the children of the bubble, swathed in their footie pajamas, cuddling their cups of hot chocolate, and dreaming of that well remunerated regulatory job in the imperial capital that surely awaits them. Grow up? Why bother? Life is so much easier when you know absolutely nothing of it.

"It’s enough to make you root for the Morlocks."

NEW YORK TIMES NOTICES HOT NEW TREND: County sheriffs are ignoring gun control laws.

But they haven't yet noticed that President Obama has been ignoring his own ObamaCare legislation....

Strange.

WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR thinks Republicans are 'a cult worthy of Jonestown'.

John Podesta needs to be reminded that Jim Jones was a committed Leftist.

LASER WARFARE GETTING CLOSE: Army Truck Shoots Drones, Mortars With Lasers.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, all you insurance companies who were dumb enough to believe me: Insurers fume as ObamaCare mandate, rules relaxed.

MORE FAILURES IN GREEN TRANSPORTATION: Even electric bicycles and tricycles aren't garnering much support.

Worldwide, Team Hope'nChange is having trouble competing in the marketplace.

LOST IN SPACE: China just landed on the moon. Is the United States losing its edge? Not yet, but if I were a wannabe astronaut, I'd be learning to speak Mandarin....

WHY ARE LIBERAL MEN UNHAPPY?

[T]he liberal male often spends his relational life walking on eggshells, dating women and living in cultures that are constantly calling out any kind of behavior subjectively perceived as “male” or oppressive. So if a man gets angry at a woman, he’s just “mansplaining.” A man who asks for fidelity is “slut-shaming.” Assertions of will are subject to “privilege checks.” To enter the world of academia, for example, is to enter a world of social rules and customs that are impossibly complex because propriety is always dictated by the subjective feelings of the most traditionally powerless person in the room. The language of equality is a mere mask for a new hierarchy that explicitly seeks to place the male (especially the white male) at the bottom.

Heh.

NEWT GINGRICH: Waste Beyond Belief.

In my new book, Breakout, I describe three kinds of breakdown in government: the breakdown in simple competence, the breakdown in common sense and defined purpose, and the breakdown in the rule of law. We see all of them in this report.

The failures of Big Government are nothing new; it's simply that the astounding incompetence of the Obama administration has made it obvious to even the most casual observer.

IT'S NOT ABOUT HEALTH CARE, IT'S ABOUT CONTROL: Smoking, obesity, other health issues could mean paying more under ObamaCare.

It's always been about control.

THE 'CREATIVE CLASS': Kick 'em while they're down (and keep kicking).

CHRISTMAS DAY SPACEWALK? Astronauts will go outside to fix space station.

THE MOCKERY CONTINUES:

A woman was playing golf when she took a big swing and fell.

The party waiting behind her was a group from Washington DC that included Barack Obama.

Barack quickly stepped forward and helped her to her feet.

She thanked him and started to leave when he said,

"I'm Barack Obama and I hope you'll vote Democratic in the next election.”

She laughed and quickly said, "I fell on my ass, not my head!”

From my email.

MODERN CENSORS: 'Tolerance for me, but not for thee.'

RAND SIMBERG: Is an Obsession With Safety Stifling Space Exploration? The answer is 'yes'.

THE OBAMACARE GENERATION: The young have been had. When you're young and stupid, you get taken advantage of -- that's a fact of life. But the young and stupid don't worry me, for the most part they'll grow up sadder and wiser.

It's the old and stupid I worry about, for they never grew up.

GET ENROLLED: Based on this video, I'd flee ObamaCare as fast as I could. It's been obvious to almost any thinking person for at least the last two years that ObamaCare is nothing more than PanderCare with the rest of us funding it. The video is just icing on the PanderCare cake.

Linked from Hot Air.

IT'S GOOD NEWS if it leads to fewer politicians.

MORE MOCKING PAJAMA BOY OBAMA: "After all, the president is the ultimate socially conscious young(-ish) male progressive and he doesn’t dress in a onesie for bed. Right?"

I wouldn't be too sure of that....

IF ONLY this ad (or something very similar) could have aired in October of 2012....

BARBARA WALTERS: We expected Obama to be the ‘Next Messiah’.

PEGGY NOONAN: What you got was the 'Most Incompetent'.

MEDIA MATTERS: "The war on Fox [News] is over." That's because Megyn Kelly won.

NASA ORDERS URGENT SPACEWALK to make repairs at the International Space Station.

FROM THE WACKY TO THE INFURIATING, Sen. Tom Coburn's annual Wastebook catalogs government waste in lean times. The Wastebook is embedded in the Examiner post.

LOLCARE OBAMACARE SUCCESS STORIES: the farce is strong in ObamaCare.

Maryland May Have to Scrap Its Obamacare Exchange.

What’s Going on in Minnesota’s Healthcare Exchange?

Cover Oregon bans criticism of Obamacare. Wait… what?

If ObamaCare were ice cream, it'd be Rocky Road.

NEW SCIENTIST: Infrared reveals stunning colours of asteroid's crust.

WHEN YOU'RE OUTSTANDING, you can afford to wait. (Snicker....)

MOCK HIM: The photoshoppers' revenge.

ADDED: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joins in the mockery.

MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Why we will need genetically modified foods. Instapundit suggests that the environmental movement would rather see mass starvation; I suspect they'll demand it.

From the comments at Instapundit, this: "Good news on the climate change front, greenies! There's been a scientific breakthrough where a process has been developed to make tofu out of beef, pork, lamb, and chickens."

POWERLINE'S (MID)WEEK IN PICTURES Pajama Boy edition. My favorite:

Original PowerLine comment here.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Obama administration misuses rules to punish enemies and reward friends. If you're surprised, you haven't been paying attention.

WHAT GOES AROUND, comes around:

Republicans will eventually retake the Senate majority and when they do, don't be surprised if something like the following are their first three rules changes (which will only need 51 votes, thanks to Harry Reid):

— Senate committees will each include only one member of the minority party and the minority staff for each Senate committee shall consist of one individual whose hourly compensation will equal the District of Columbia's minimum wage (not to exceed 29 hours in any one week).

— Senators representing the minority party shall have speaking privileges on the Senate floor on alternative Tuesdays and Thursdays, with each individual minority party senator's total speaking time not to exceed five minutes for any 24-hour period and only for the purpose of introducing commemorative resolutions of interest to residents of their respective states.

— Two-thirds majorities of both the majority and minority party caucuses shall be required to change any Senate rule.

The first two would bring welcome silence from the Democrats; the third is actually somewhat sensible.

GREG GUTFELD on the difference between charity and government: "It a war between the private choices of the individual and those who know better in thee government. One embraces charity; the other, coercion.... One works, the other shirks."

Andrea Tantaros had an insightful observation that government is the liberals' charity; they prefer to give our money than their own.

And Dana Perino made note of something that I think deserves more attention: that is, that private charity is more efficient because the giver is more directly invested in the efficacy of the gift. Since it's my hard-earned money I've giving away, I've got a vested interest is seeing that it's spent well and wisely. The government, not so much....

"WHAT OBAMACARE MEANS to the uninsured who were not uninsurable is higher prices for a product they already were disinclined to buy, along with a punitive tax on not buying it. That seems more like a mugging than a benefit."

Linked from Instapundit.

FOR A PREVIEW OF OBAMACARE, check out Britian's National Health Service.

If NHS doesn't encourage you to stay well away from ObamaCare, nothing will....

THE 'CREEPIEST OBAMA STORY YET' just got creepier.

Banana republic narcissism.

YOU'VE BEEN OFFENDED (OR OFFENSIVE) and probably didn't even know it.

I think it's time for a wholesale shutdown of some universities. Let these academics try to find real work; it'll do them a world of good.

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS:

One day, a very gentle Texas lady was driving across a high bridge in Austin. As she neared the top of the bridge, she noticed a young man fixin' ('fixin' in Texas means: has the means or abilities to take action) to jump....

She stopped her car, rolled down the window, and said, "Please don't jump! Think of your dear mother and father."

He replied, "My mom and dad are both dead; I'm going to jump."

She said, "Well, think of your sweet wife and precious children."

He replied, "I'm not married, and I don't have any kids."

She said, "Well, then you just remember the Alamo."

He replied, "What's the Alamo?"

She replied, "Well bless your heart ... just go ahead and jump, you little Yankee Democrat Bastard!"

From my email.

Historical Note: The 'Don't mess with Texas' slogan was initially part of an anti-littering campaign. Back then I thought it was over the top. Now that it's morphed into an anti-PC slogan, I'm all for it.

FRAUD, WASTE, AND ABUSE OF AMERICANS:

From my email.

I KNEW Harvard's grading standards were tough, but I didn't know they were this tough.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Liberals take aim at freedom of speech and religion.

RELATED: First major victim of Harry Reid's tyrannous Senate majority could be separation of church and state.

BEST NEWS YET: 2014 not likely to be a productive year for divided Senate.

PLAN 'B'? WHAT PLAN 'B'? Top Navigator official was surprised by healthcare.gov's problems, had no contingency plan.

Hell, there's never been an ObamaCare Plan 'A' beyond hope and speeches.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! US Air Force Band Flash Mob Performance At The National Air And Space Museum.

I wish I could have been there for it.

THE LIES OF OBAMACARE: universal coverage.

WE'RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND WE'RE HERE TO HELP YOU: California health exchange shares consumers' data without permission.

Whether you want it or not.

JUST SAY NO: Doctors boycotting California's ObamaCare exchange. I doubt that very many doctors go into medicine to get rich, but surely they don't go into medicine to go bankrupt. There are much easier ways to accomplish that objective.

BB GUN CONTROL: In New Jersey, kids’ rite of passage could mean felony. If that were the law when I was a kid, I'd probably just now be getting out of jail.

COLLEGE PROFESSORS ARE CONFINED TO IVORY TOWERS FOR A REASON: University sends email to alumni equating the tea party with the KKK.

People like this shouldn't be allowed outside the ivied walls without an escort. I tend to suspect that the reason gun control advocates shy away from mental health issues is that they fear too many of their base would be caught in the screenings.

POWERLINE: Guns, Glocks, Shooters, and a Day at the Range. My thoughts exactly. I need to spend more time on the range.

GO TO MARS, get hit by a comet.

REMINDER: The President's ObamaCare lies.

SATURN MOON'S COLOSSAL METHANE SEAS:

Measurements of a big sea on Titan ... show that it contains about 9,000 cubic km of mostly liquid methane. This huge volume is equivalent, say scientists, to about 40 times the proven reserves of oil and gas on Earth.

"What you're talking about here is essentially liquefied natural gas," explained Randy Kirk from the US Geological Survey (USGS).

"People ask me if you could bring it to Earth, and that's a dumb idea on many levels. But what you might not realise is that there simply wouldn't be enough oxygen here to burn it all," he told BBC News.

So if we do manage to mine Titan (and eventually we will), we may be on the verge of an oxygen shortage. Environmentalists will be delighted.

MEDICAL JOURNAL: Agent 007 is an impotent alcoholic. Yes, I realize it's tongue-in-cheek, but there are some things the health nannies should leave unspoiled.

FIVE LAWS that made sense on paper (and disasters in reality). Sense in the reality world inhabited by liberals, and disaster in the real world inhabited by the rest of us.

Cracked is a comedy and satire website, but it's correct on the facts.

WHAT'S NEXT? CoffeeCare? This strikes too close to home....

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures: Selfie Edition. My favorite:

I had a very hard time picking a favorite, as there are so many good ones this week. Close runners-up include Leadership, Thomas Sowell, Santa, Hummer, and Math Lab.

NOT A GOOD IDEA: Chinese naval vessel tries to force U.S. warship to stop in international waters. Pissing off the U.S. Navy is never a good idea.

Unless, of course, the ship is the USS Obama....

BUDGET DEAL: If the progressives' belwether The Nation hates it so much (A cruel, irresponsible and dysfunctional budget deal), then it must have some redeeming value.

Rand PauL doesn't think so. Neither does Sarah Palin.

I agree with Paul and Palin that the budget deal leaves much to be desired, but within the art of the possible, it's a baby step in the right direction. Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and the rest of the Tea Party must keep the pressure on the Republican establishment stalwarts to keep moving the goalposts in the Right (pun intended) direction.

COCKROACHES TO THE RESCUE: Swarms of cyborg insects could one day map disaster sites.

"I'm a cockroach and I'm here to rescue you" is certainly a more appealing message than "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

HEALTHCARE.GOV: taking stupid to a new low. (Or is increasing stupidity taking it to a new high?)

ONLY 50 000 YEARS TO ALDEBARAN! Plotting the Destinations of 4 Interstellar Probes.

VIRGINIA CONGRESSMAN and California journalist embarrassed in defending Obamacare. Gerry Connolly, I'm grateful to say, is not my congressman.

YES. NEXT QUESTION: "Has our society reached a point where it is too stupid to survive?"

COMMON CORE: the worst math question in history. Is unanswerable.

If this is even somewhat representative of the Common Core curriculum, American education is in deep sh slime.

WHEN I SAID 'STOP' I MEANT STOP: Radio Pulse Gun Aims to Stop Modern Cars.

NEWT GINGRICH: Washington Wins, America Loses. As it has been in the past, so will it be in the future ... unless we vote to throw the bums out in the 2014 mid-term election.

WHILE SURFING CHANNELS last night, I tuned in to the Sean Hannity show (on Fox News) for a few minutes. He had one of his audience participation nights, with an audience of committed leftist activists and pundits. Asked why ObamaCare was such a great success, the most common response was allowing young people to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26.

I always wonder why no one ever seems to ask the obvious question: "How do parents feel about having to fund their child's healthcare expenses for an additional 3, 4, 5, or 6 years?" I would certainly pay for my child in the case of a job loss or something similar (in fact, I almost did), but as a matter of routine? No way.

SCHOOL NANNIES and the death of common sense. It's not just school nannies.

BITCOINS: space currency.

MARS ONE is one step closer to its dream of colonizing Mars: "Mars One announced it had contracted Lockheed Martin to develop a mission concept study for a Mars lander to be launched in 2018."

"NOW AND FOREVER, The Cheese Stands Alone."

NOW A geostationary spy satellite.

SEATTLE MACHINISTS UNION BEWARE: California to submit bid for Boeing's 777X production.

UPDATE: the Machinists Union is getting worried.

IMPRIMIS: The Case for Repealing Dodd-Frank.

IF YOU LIKE GOOGLE, you'll love the NSA: NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking.

THE INSTITUTE: Everyday nanotechnology. Food for Luddites to chew on.

TREE TRIMMING THE EASY WAY:



But precision it ain't.

ALTHOUSE: "Without any training or experience, this guy applied for the job, got the job and fooled people for years by just putting on an elaborate show...." And you thought it was about the sign language interpreter.

CURIOUSITY ROVER: ancient Mars lake may have supported life. Only 3.5 billion years ago....

OBAMA’S FUNERAL SELFIE won’t be shared, as Danish PM says it didn’t turn out to be a good picture.

Of course not, Obama was in it....

YOU CAN WALK through the ocean of his supporters without getting your feet wet.

Hat tip: Deteriorata.

THOMAS SOWELL on books for Christmas. Given the rampant epidemic of political correctness on college campuses, I would second Sowell's choice of Choosing the Right College for those whose children are college-bound.

RAPID RESPONSE. Republicans desperately need to follow Ted Cruz's lead.

Via Instapundit.

PRESIDENT NARCISSISM: two views.

THE REAL LIFE OF JULIA, now that ObamaCare is in effect.

PEELING THE ONION OF FAIL: Another ObamaCare deadline slip-slides away. Just when you think they can't dig any deeper, they bring out the dynamite.

MSNBC: a peek into the Left's alternative universe.

NEWT GINGRICH on the life of Nelson Mandela.

FROM MY EMAIL:

"I'LL GIVE HIM CREDIT: [H]e's coming up with new ways to make me embarrassed for my country."

REP. ALAN GRAYSON (D-FL) swindled out of $18 million. Couldn't happen to a nicer jerk.

UPDATE: Instapundit comments: "Well, he fell for ObamaCare so he's obviously gullible."

ANOTHER REASON to study mathematics.

POWERLINE"S WEEK IN PICTURES, media overdrive edition. My favorite:

THE JOLLY HOLIDAYS CAROLING COMPANY: 'Twelve Days of ObamaCare'.

IN LUNACY, VERITAS.

TOM BLUMER: Nobody's This Stupid and Incompetent. I wish; I'm afraid we've only seen the beginning.

NEVER FORGET: December 7, 1941.

DOES A CHIMPANZEE deserve to be called a ‘person'? I should think a more relevant question to be addressed by the "Personhood Beyond the Human" conference should be "Does a progressive deserve to be called a 'person'?"

HEH: A Pearl Harbor Day ouch. But FDR was a competent Democrat.

72 YEARS LATER: Remembering Pearl Harbor.

More here.

TEAM OBAMA’S ‘Underpants Gnome’ theory of economics.

Makes perfect (non)sense.

YESTERDAY I wondered how many ObamaCare enrollees have actually paid up. Here's the answer:

Picture via PowerLine.

HARD TO BELIEVE: Even Californians disapproving of Obama.

Pre-Christmas miracle.

FINALLY: End presidential term limits. A bit late, this; I was expecting it last January, just after Obama's second inauguration.

Linked from here.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE is supposed to work for America, not for Big Green.

To be fair, NPS doesn't work just for 'Big Green' -- as nanny-staters, they're also in it for themselves and the control they can exert on the 'little people' entering their fiefdoms. "We'll (just barely) let you look, but don't touch anything, don't step off the path, and whatever else you do, don't look behind the curtain!"

FIGURES DON'T LIE: There is no poverty in America. Unless, of course, a very large percentage of that $1 trillion is siphoned off by our ruling controlling class. Which it is.

IF IT’S WRONG TO USE slavery as a metaphor, what about all those SEIU types going on about “slave wages?”

GO TO MARS, get hit by a comet.

A SHORT COURSE on driving in Russia.



Only for those with nerves of steel and loaded up on vodka.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: Young Americans Expect Obamacare to Be Repealed. Nonetheless, I hope they're right.

LUNA -- the first real Death Star?

HOW MANY PEOPLE “enrolled” in ObamaCare have paid their first month of premiums?

Obama voter: "Hey, I signed up. I have to pay, too?"

COMING SOON: ObamaCare Burns Down Volunteer Fire Departments. Volunteer associations have no place in Obama's America.

HE HAS RISEN: Chris Matthews on his Obama interview: “He came to us. He came amongst us.”

INCREASE THE MINIMUM WAGE so I can work less.

THE MINIMUM WAGE AND OBAMACARE: a common denominator. In the 'reality' world where the claim is taken for the deed, they both guaranteed to work.

HEALTHCARE.GOV: So easy even a kitten can do it.



But Democrats are still having trouble.

THE AIR FORCE'S mysterious X-37B space plane nears one year in orbit. (I don't recommend the video or picture gallery -- very annoying commercials.)

DEMENTIA EPIDEMIC looms with 135 million sufferers expected by 2050. They're called 'Democrats'.

BUT GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOVERNMENT WORK:

By any standard but the [government] bureaucracy’s, a website that functions 80 percent of the time is a failure. But for the 130-year-old civil service system, the ObamaCare website is practically a success.

Read the whole thing. With 'successes' like these, failure is beginning to look like a good option.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S 'grassroots' (heh!) advocacy group Organizing for America needs interns to advocate for increasing the minimum wage. The internships are unpaid.

LET THE COMPETITION BEGIN: SpaceX succeeds in launching a satellite into geostationary orbit.

LAST MONTH I posted a parody of Jean-Claude Van Damme's Volvo commercial. Now Georgia Republican Congressional candidate Mike Collins has posted a similar parody intended to showcase "the dangers of ObamaCare."

Collins is a keeper. Vote for him.

BOEING LOOKING TO MOVE 777X ASSEMBLY LINE?

Where will it be built?

In a decision with implications for the country’s top export industry, a dispute between Boeing and the machinists union at the company’s traditional base in Washington state has put the 777X up for grabs – not just among competing states, but among countries such as Japan with the expertise to build the plane’s most sophisticated components.

The Machinists Union in Seattle must be beginning to regret their rejection of Boeing's contract offer.

NELSON MANDELA DIES; Narcissist-in-Chief posts a 'selfie' in memoriam.

JEFF JACOBY: Majority rules on climate science?

Unfortunately for climate science's True Believers, when the final vote is taken they will find that Mother Nature always has 51% of the vote.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The suspension of disbelief.

[J]udging Obama on what he achieves is about as helpful as evaluating Miley Cyrus on her dancing ability, or Kanye West on his poetic talent, or Kim Kardashian on her acting prowess. A totem need not be real. It only requires a “suspension of disbelief.”

Read it all.

BARNEY & CLYDE:

When ObamaCare takes full effect, your veterinarian may actually be your better choice, not just your only choice.

THE ONLY CONGRESSIONAL LEADER to exempt staffers from ObamaCare is ... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But, trust him, ObamaCare is really, really good for you 'little people'.

DEMOCRAT GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE WENDY DAVIS attacks Texas’ Attorney General for ... following the law?

Laws are for 'little people', not liberal activists bent on reshaping the world. Broken eggs are a small price for their omlet.

HOLLYWOOD'S FRACKING IDIOTS: I have to give the Western Energy Alliance credit; they are far more polite that I would be....

WINNING ENTRIES in the ObamaCare 'educate & inform' video contest: "As near as I can tell, they’re saying we need Obamacare because they’re not smart enough to safely cross the street, play frisbee or operate a grill."

MORE OBAMACAREFAIL NEWS:

States are warning that they may not process Medicaid enrollments from people who have signed up for the health program through the troubled HealthCare.govsite, raising the prospect that several hundred thousand low-income people who thought they had obtained insurance actually may not have it....

"Which way did you come in?" We're from ObamaCare and we're here to help you out....

I DUNNO, I'd say signing up for ObamaCare is online gambling. The commenters agree.

HEH: "Government watchdog groups are criticizing the White House's decision to withhold the names and identities of 18 people who stood behind President Obama on Tuesday as he kicked off a new publicity campaign to promote Obamacare."

Would anyone be surprised to find out that the 18 are simply Organizing For America drones put there to fill space behind the President?

PEELING THE ONION OF FAIL: U.S. healhcare, now with smaller networks than ever.

YES, LET'S BRING BACK THE DRAFT -- for doctors.

LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN: Rough times ahead for Obama's political appointee at IRS.

What comes around usually hits the fan....

LIES OF OBAMACARE: False choice edition.

YOUNG WOMEN are driving record firearm sales. And they are. Every time I go out to the gun range, there are women there, shooting with their husbands, boy friends, fathers, and other women. It's a rare day when the range is occupied by only men.

WHY MILLENNIALS CAN’T GROW UP.

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, the tough ... get talking.

FORGIVE THEM, LORD, THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO: The Endless Supply of ObamaChumps.

WASHINGTON TIMES: Pentagon gives more room for deadly error in drone strikes.

They didn't vote for Obama as King of the World....

GONE? But not forgotten.

A TWIT TWEETS: This is directed to those Americans who were unceremoniously kicked off the health plans Obama said 'they could keep, period', right?

WELL, NO ONE ELSE WILL: President leads the cheers for himself.

OPERATION 'BIG RED ONE': NORAD clears Santa for Christmas Eve.

THE POTEMKIN VILLAGE has a new facade.

PEGGY NOONAN: The Hope is a dope.

[N]o one did anything. And the president went off and made speeches.

Because the doing isn’t that important, the talking is.

Read it all.

WAR ON MEN: Archie Comics CEO Accused of Referring to Male Employees as ‘Penis’. Hey, guys, don't get mad, get even: call her 'Boobs'.

THE WORLD OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:



Time lapse video from the International Space Station.

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES: Your ObamaCare Fail of the Day.

GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS: Abolish the Transportation Security Administration. And allow concealed carry.

SURE HE DID: Martin Bashir quits at MSNBC.

DID COMET ISON survive its close encounter with the sun? Scientists see sliver of hope that it may have survived.

A SWING ... and a miss. Liberals just don't can't get it.

NEW OBAMACARE HEADACHE: Is Your Enrollment Real? Short answer: No.

AND A Merry ObamaChristmas to you.

DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE: "HealthCare.gov is no longer a total disaster."

NOT BUYING IT: Young and uninsured passing on ObamaCare. Surprised? I'm not, which is why ObamaCare is doomed to self-destruct.

GEOSTATIONARY TRANSFER ORBIT ACHIEVED: SpaceX Launches Falcon 9 Rocket On High-Stakes Commercial Satellite Mission.

WHY DID THE STATE DEPARTMENT buy so much booze?

POWER STRUGGLE: Green energy versus a grid that's not ready.

The Los Angeles Times gets slapped in the head with the Get-A-Clue bat again. The obvious solution (which they would never approve) is to put the power generation as close as possible to the user. In other words, a nuclear reactor in every city square.

BIZARRE: Will the (lack of) state exchanges bring Obamacare down? No, ObamaCare will bring ObamaCare down long before the lawsuit can. At most it can deliver the coup de grâce.

BY A 78 PERCENT TO 7 PERCENT MARGIN Americans approve of random drug testing for members of Congress. Frankly, however, it seems pointless. Mere membership in Congress is -- or should be -- prima facie evidence they're eating, drinking, or smoking something.

BUT WHO'S GOING TO WATER THEM? NASA to grow plants on the moon by 2015.

MAKING USED CAR SALESMEN LOOK GOOD: The Bad-Faith Presidency.

Used car salesmen may be loose with the truth, but they rarely actually lie....

POTEMKINCARE. Remember, "It takes a village."

NOW AT HEALTHCARE.GOV, the ObamaQueue. Take a number ... and listen to the crickets.

THAT CROW flying above your house may be spying on you. Not to worry, it isn't armed -- yet.

SIGNS OF EZRA KLEIN'S lack of real-world work experience. Like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, Klein doesn't have a brain, he has a certificate.

Read the comments for a look at the differences between the 'reality' world and the real world. Best comment: "Punch cards are so old, they were used to write the Constitution, Ezra."

REPORT: MSNBC 'secretly suspends' Martin Bashir for his Sarah Palin rant. But they flat-out fired Alec Baldwin for his gay slurs.

Palin is a mere Tea Partier; gays are a favored MSNBC demographic.

DON'T LET nonwhite racists off the hook. Of the Washington Post's stable of editorialists, Gregory Kane is willing to acknowledge that not all racists are Tea Partiers. Note, however, that Kane conveniently ignored the most virulent racist demographic: the bigots in metrosexual clothing, wealthy urban white liberals.

PIANO SONATA IN FTC MINOR: Another example of the Obama administration, which talks so much about the evils of bullying while being so adept at the practice of bullying.

Linked from The Corner.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: the arctic ice cap is growing. Michael Ramirez comments.

MORE TAR & FEATHERS: Vandals spray racial and political graffiti on Space Shuttle Independence.

IT'S NOT WISE to be a Good Samaritan. There's probably more to this than meets the eye, but still....

THEY'LL TURN US ALL INTO BEGGARS 'CAUSE THEY'RE EASIER TO PLEASE. Oregon girl told she can't sell mistletoe, but can beg for money.

Tar. Feathers.

FUEL UP AIR FORCE ONE: White House to launch new push to sell ObamaCare after HealthCare.gov re-do.

It'd be cheaper to close the White House and have the Obamas move into the 747 .

HUGH HEWITT: GOP should focus on limiting government in 2014.

IS PRESIDENT OBAMA’S LATEST HEALTH CARE PROMISE – that his plan will offer “most” people a better plan for the same price or less than their current policy – actually true? Of course not.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: No, ObamaCare isn't fixed. Claims to the contrary, nothing much has changed.

RECORD CROWDS over weekend, but spending declined. And of course it had nothing to do with a failing economy and ObamaCare rate shock.

It was those evil Republicans....

IS IT FAIR to steer students into STEM disciplines facing a glut of workers?

I'm just posting this little bit of lunacy from IEEE to note that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is just a wee bit more than information technology (IT). And that even we have our fair share of short-sighted nutcases.

BUT OTHER THAN THAT, it works great! "ObamaCare applicants across the country are finding their premiums are tripling, their favorite doctors aren't available, the physicians they can see are often far away and many prestigious hospitals offering specialized care are off-limits to them, according to a Washington Examiner survey of health insurance agents and brokers across the country."

NEW YORK TIMES: Healthcare.gov is fixed! Just don't use it 'cuz it might break again.

But it sure is pretty....

OBAMA FLOWERS: Perhaps the still unenlightened masses who don’t get it yet will understand this!

(Receptionist) Hello, Welcome to ObamaFlowers, My name is Trina. How can I help you?

(Customer) Hello, I received an email from Professional Flowers stating that my flower order has been canceled and I should go to your exchange to reorder it. I tried your website, but it seems like it is not working. So I am calling the 800 number.

(Receptionist) Yes, I am sorry about the website. It should be fixed by the end of November. But I can help you.

(Customer) Thanks, I ordered a "Spring Bouquet" for our anniversary, and wanted it delivered to my wife's work.

(Receptionist Interrupting) Sir, "Spring Bouquets" do not meet our minimum standards, I will be happy to provide you with Red Roses.

(Customer) But I have always ordered "Spring Bouquets", done it for years, my wife likes them.

(Receptionist) Roses are better, sir, I am sure your wife will love them.

(Customer) Well, how much are they?

(Receptionist) It depends sir, do you want our Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum package.

(Customer) What's the difference?

(Receptionist) 6, 12,18 or 24 Red Roses.

(Customer) The Silver package may be okay, how much is it?

(Receptionist) It depends sir, what is your monthly income?

(Customer) What does that have to do with anything?

(Receptionist) I need that to determine your government flower subsidy, then I can determine how much your out of pocket cost will be. But if your income is below our minimums for a subsidy, then I can refer you to our FlowerAid department.

(Customer) FlowerAid?

(Receptionist) Yes, Flowers are a Right, everyone has a right to flowers. So, if you can't afford them, then the government will supply them free of charge.

(Customer) Who said they were a Right?

(Receptionist) Congress passed it, the President signed it and the Supreme Court found it Constitutional.

(Customer) Whoa.....I don't remember seeing anything in the Constitution regarding Flowers as a Right.

(Receptionist) It is not really a Right in the Constitution, but ObamaFlowers is Constitutional because the Supreme Court Ruled it a "Tax". Taxes are Constitutional. But we feel it is a Right.

(Customer) I don't believe this.

(Receptionist) It's the law of the land sir. Now, we anticipated most people would go for the Silver Package, so what is your monthly income sir?

(Customer) Forget it, I think I will forego the flowers this year.

(Receptionist) In that case sir, I will still need your monthly income.

(Customer) Why?

(Receptionist) To determine what your 'non-participation' cost would be.

(Customer) WHAT???? You can't charge me for NOT buying flowers!!!

(Receptionist) It's the law of the land, sir, approved by the Supreme Court. It's $9.50 or 1% of your monthly income.

(Customer) This is ridiculous, I'll pay the $9.50.

(Receptionist) Sir, it is the $9.50 or 1% of your monthly income, whichever is greater.

(Customer) ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? What a ripoff!!

(Receptionist) Actually sir, it is a good deal. Next year it will be 2%.

(Customer) Look, I'm going to call my Congressmember to find out what's going on here. This is ridiculous. I'm not going to pay it.

(Receptionist) Sorry to hear that sir, that's why I had the NSA track this call and obtain the make and model of the cell phone you are using.

(Customer) Why does the NSA need to know what kind of CELL PHONE I AM USING??

(Receptionist) So they get your GPS coordinates sir.

(Door Bell rings followed immediately by a loud knock on the door).

(Receptionist) That would be the IRS sir. Thanks for calling ObamaFlowers, have a nice day and God Bless America.

From my email. The only thing wrong with the analogy is in the very last sentence. No one in the Obama administration would ever say 'God Bless America'.