NOT FOR AT LEAST TWO MORE YEARS: Is there any hope for our civilization?

Hinderaker summarizes: "Our best hope seems to be that everyone realizes that academia is hopeless, and should just be ignored."

Not just academia; progressivism in general.

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: FAA can regulate small drones. What concerns me is the "careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another" rule. It's judgmental and an open invitation for abuse.

More here: Your backyard is national airspace.

SO THEY'RE TRUE: White House officials will neither confirm nor deny reports of rumored sanctions against Israel.

WHITE HOUSE urges body cameras for police after Ferguson. I suspect they're hoping body cameras will show more police malfeasance; I also suspect that their hope will backfire.

But $75M to purchase 50,000 cameras? That's $1500 each; the government's overhead rate is phenomenal.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: War Clouds. This is one of the few times I hope he's wrong in his prediction.

WHAT'S NEXT: helicarriers?

NEW YORK TIMES: With robots, are humans necessary? We already have robots; they're called progressives....

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: The moral case for fossil fuels.

Are doomsayers immoral? No, but they don't lack for hubris.

ECONOMICS PROFESSORS: Ninety percent income tax rate would help the rich.

[A] rate “between 85 and 90 percent” makes everybody better off, including people in the 1 percent. “High marginal tax rates provide social insurance against not [Huh? -ed.] making it into the 1 percent.” ... [T]hey would primarily fall upon “celebrities, sports stars, and entrepreneurs — people with innate talents that are hugely rewarding, but only for a short period of time.”

Uh, right. So what happens to those 'hugely rewarding for a short period of time' earners for the rest of their lives?

If marginal rates are ratcheted sky-high for top earners and low for everyone else, then there is a better than average chance that a typical American will pay very low tax rates.

Yes, there's a better-than-average chance that a typical American will remain poor.

POLICING AS A numbers-driven shakedown scheme.

PEARL HARBOR SURVIVORS reunite in Hawaii to mark 73rd anniversary of attack.

The survivors on Tuesday also watched a live-feed of a dive along the Arizona's sunken hull, which still holds the bodies of more than 900 of about 1,177 men who died on the battleship.

Ashes of 38 survivors are interred there.

National Park Service Historian Daniel Martinez, moderating Tuesday's discussion, seemed overcome with emotion when he announced that Arizona survivor Lauren Bruner, 94, of La Mirada, Calif., last year signed paperwork for his intentions to be interred there. Conter plans to do the same, he said.

Rest in peace, all who are interred there.

JEB BUSH navigates the Common Core tripwire ahead of 2016. He'll fail.

Actually I'm somewhat sympathetic to a national common core curriculum, properly done. This travesty failed because the progressives took control of the implementation and attempted to turn it into a 'progressive propaganda' curriculum.

SHOULD REPUBLICANS embrace the Obama non-enforcement doctrine? Maybe, but I'd rather Americans enforce an Obama regulation non-compliance doctrine.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY: Staffers linked to 'alleged serious misconduct'.

I'd suggest that 'staffers' could be removed from the headline and it would still remain accurate.

ERIC GARNER PROTESTERS 'shut down capitalism' because ... capitalism! They're not protesting Eric Garner's death, or police 'brutality'; they're protesting because they can.

WHEN WHITES JUST DON'T GET IT, they write articles like this. Let me paraphrase: "I got mine, now you've gotta give yours to those less 'privileged'."

The bigotry of the man is astonishing.

SUCKERS: Media furious with Rolling Stone's mishandling of UVA rape story.

It's getting obvious that the mainstream media are just apologists for progressives.

I HELPED BUILD THAT: A look inside a secret US Air Force intelligence center.

'TIS THE SEASON for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to continue its war on Christmas fun.

FROM MY EMAIL: A trifecta.

Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democrat Congressman Mel Reynolds to Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's payroll. Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused in President Clinton's last-minute forgiveness spree.

Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud, and lies to the Federal Election Commission. He is more notorious, however, for concurrently serving five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.

This is a first in American politics: An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate!

His new job? Ready for this? Youth counselor.

Count on Democrats to push the limits of decency....

I'M WITH STUPID: Which is the Republican and which is the Democrat?

NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED: Obamacare is tearing the Democratic Party apart.

Good. Put on some more popcorn.

ONE BEAUTIFUL AIRCRAFT: the XB-70 Valkyrie. I've been to Dayton where the one remaining aircraft is on display. The pictures don't do it justice.