NO SHIT, SHERLOCK: Payroll tax cut raises worries about Social Security’s future funding. The 'lockbox' is empty; Social Security is in hock to the tune of ... well, big bucks, it's taking in less in taxes than it pays out, the taxpaying population is decreasing relative to the number of retirees, Uncle Sam Obama just cut the tax rate (again), and everything will remain peachy wonderful?

NOT AT WAL MART: light bulb standards will phase in on Jan. 1. I was in my local Wal Mart this morning, and couldn't afford to buy all the 100-watt incandescent bulbs they had on their shelves.

"THE CASE FOR LIMITED GOVERNMENT is becoming increasingly inseparable from the case for religious liberty." Increasingly, I'm seeing the 'social justice' movement as government-powered bigotry agaist the religious and successful.

RISK FACTOR: Are you safer with software?

LIGHTS OUT for the AirBorne Laser (ABL):

[In] February 2010, the ABL engaged and destroyed its first test target — a solid-rocket fueled Terrier Black Brant rocket. This was followed just more than a week later by another shootdown, this time of a liquid-fueled foreign missile target.

But

Despite finally shooting down its first target, ABL has cratered under the substantial funding required for its work, cost-prohibitive and improbable employment scenarios and, most recently, pressure on the Pentagon budget resulting from growing national debt.

Like many military developments, the technology problems are hard but soluble; the employment problems (getting close enough to fire without being close enough to be fired upon) are harder and sometimes insoluble.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The New Old Europe.

IF OBAMACARE is so good, why are doctors so skeptical?

THOMAS SOWELL picks Newt Gingrich for the Republican nominee. Ann Coulter picks Mitt Romney. Personally, I prefer Rick Perry, but I could vote for Gingrich or Romney.

SURPRISED? Federal Pay Rises Faster than Private Pay.

TEAM ROMNEY TO OWS: "Go to work!" It's in the last few seconds of the video.

OCCUPY DC DEMONSTRATORS bolstered by migrating NYC Occupiers. Good luck, guys; it's in the low teens here with the wind chill.

A REMINDER from Walter E. Williams: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

AFTERBURNER: Bill Whittle takes a look at the state of this country three years into Obama’s rule (registration required; it's free) and has amassed a breathtaking list of Obama administration failures.

CONCERNED:

I am really concerned about North Korea's appointment of the "dear leader" Kim Jung Il's youngest son to be the new leader of North Korea-- a nuclear power!

After all, Kim Jung Un had no military experience whatsoever before daddy made him a four-star general in the military. This is a snot-nose twerp who has never accomplished anything in his life that would even come close to military leadership: he hasn't even so much as led a cub scout troop, coached a sports team or commanded a military platoon. So, setting that aside, next they make him the "beloved leader" of the country. Terrific!

Oh, crap! I'm sorry. I just remembered that we did the same thing here. We took a community organizer who has never worn a uniform and made him Commander-in-Chief; a guy who has never led anything more than an ACORN demonstration and made him the leader of this country. I'm sorry I brought this up, never mind.

From my email.

2011: ANOTHER YEAR of Obama administration scandals.

UNDER THE OBAMANAUTS the quality of federal regulation is plummeting.

NO SURPRISE: Economic downturn good for the political class.

BARBEQUE? PETA wants a 5/22 Cow Memorial.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from Thomas Sowell. Here are two of my favorites:

If you don't like growing older, don't worry about it. You may not be growing older much longer.

What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice.

Read them all.

SCANDAL-FREE: the 2011 Obama admininstration. There are none so blind as those who will not see.