MCDONALDS POLLUTION: The Left mourns the possible end of Cuban poverty. "Keeping brown people in grinding poverty is a small price to pay for autenticidad, no?"

WHITE HOUSE AIDES: Obama feels liberated and ready to be the president emperor he always wanted to be.

There. The lede is fixed. Now go read about the new Emperor's (heh) 'legacy'.

INSTAPUNDIT: "[W]hile corruption may be bad for countries, it’s good for the political class."

ANDREW KLAVAN: Meh! to the Sony hack-attack.

GLOBAL WARMING: Another reason not to diet.

NEW POLL: Obama isn't getting the message from the mid-term election.

Oh, he got the message all right -- from the 60% of voters who didn't bother to vote.

SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM JAWS OF VICTORY: Obama is an expert at losing negotiations from a position of strength.

HOW TO BE STUPID in one easy lesson: read Paul Krugman.

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST: The European Space Agency’s ministerial meeting and the maiden flight of NASA’s Orion deep-space capsule capped a topsy-turvy 2014 — a year marked by controversy and failures — on a positive note.

NOTE TO WANNABE ROBBERS: Your next 'victim' may be armed.

LOSE WEIGHT: take deep breaths and exhale.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECURITY: How not to be Sony pictures.

THE CANDY BOMBER: Tom Brokaw narrates. Just in time for Christmas.

ASTRONAUTS NOT NEEDED: Russia confirms it is considering its own space station.

More here.

ME TOO! ME TOO!

[C]ould some InstaPundit reader who works on Capitol Hill insert language in the next debacle of a bill that retroactively frees me of income tax back to 2010, and gives me the right to commandeer federal jets for my personal travel? I’d kind of fancy taking Air Force One on one of my dive trips. Also, I’ll bet that would encourage better oversight in the future. . . .

I'll settle for the reduced tax liability. Instapundit can keep Air Force One (it's too high mileage to be worth very much).

JLENS [JOINT LAND ATTACK CRUISE MISSILE DEFENSE ELEVATED NETTED SENSOR] put on display ahead of a three-year test in the Washington DC area.

JLENS should be “five to seven times less” expensive than utilizing a fleet of aircraft to complete the same function.... [T]he American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland said that there are privacy concerns even though JLENS only has radar and no cameras.

And yet the ACLU has no concerns with the manned aircraft currently surveilling the area? Interesting comment, that.

JUST WHEN YOU THINK the Left can't possibly get any dumber ... they prove you wrong again.

FUR PERSONS: It's been a while, so I thought I'd post pictures of the cats who own us. Here's Shadow. He's the patriarch of the family, doing his 'Snoopy the vulture' pose.

This is Shadow's sister Daisy, on her favorite blanket.

And Diamond, doing what she does best, sleeping on our her bed.

And finally, Rusty, in his 'condominium' by the window.

Rusty is the 'baby' of the family, even though he is the largest of the four.

YES, AS A MATTER OF FACT I do own Hollywood.

Cowards.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Are drone strikes more defensible than torture enhanced interrogation techniques?

SO WHERE ARE those little green men hiding?

THE OBAMA RULE: Can I get away with it? Since Congress has proven to be spineless, sure.

RETIREMENT in the 21st century.

MYTH OF THE YEAR: The benefits of e-cigarettes outweighs the harms. Except that it's not a myth: it seems very likely that the benefits of e-cigs will easily outweigh the harms.

NO. NEXT QUESTION. Did Ted Cruz really bungle the lame-duck session for Republicans?

CLIFF MAY: America needs its rough men.

REASON TV: School choice and regulatory creep.

I PREFER TAR & FEATHERS: The bipartisan plan to end IRS stealing.

ANYONE BUT JEB BUSH? Pretty much. PowerLine is down on Jeb Bush's potential candidacy, and refers to this recent Instapundit post:

Jeb’s a nice guy, and would certainly be a better President than Obama — but, then, my cat would be a better President than Obama, and I don’t own a cat.

So I checked with Diamond, and she tells me she's still open to a draft movement.

'PRO-GOVERNMENT' MILLENNIALS take Government jobs, discover they suck and move to the private sector.

I realized that way back in 1970.

GOVERNMENT AT ITS FINEST: Die early.

PRIORITIES: Obama adminstration tasks healthcare facilities with focusing more on ... climate change.

How much more proof do you need to understand that our governing class is completely loony tunes?