Washington's three most irrational arguments in 2013 | WashingtonExaminer.com

Washington's three most irrational arguments in 2013 | WashingtonExaminer.com: "Washington, they say, is Hollywood for ugly people. It’s also debate club for the logically impaired. The past year included its share of fallacies, sophistries, oversimplifications and utter absurdities.

But a few prominent arguments committed the worst offenses against rational thought. Below are the three worst arguments made in Washington in 2013. These weren’t illogical brain freezes or odd beliefs spouted by backbenchers. These arguments were deliberately devised, promulgated and repeated by prominent politicians, which makes them all the more embarrassing."

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The ‘Racism’ Wrecking Ball | National Review Online

The ‘Racism’ Wrecking Ball | National Review Online: "When basketball legend Charles Barkley appeared on CNBC after Zimmerman’s acquittal, Maria Bartiromo asked him, as an aside, what he thought about the case. “Just looking at the evidence, I agree with the verdict,” he said. Then he laced into the media for damaging race relations with their coverage. “It gave every white person and black person who’s racist a platform to vent their ignorance,” he complained. “Racism is wrong in any shape or form. A lot of black people are racist, too. I think sometimes when people talk about racism, they act like only white people are racist. There are a lot of black people who are racist. . . . I don’t think the media has clean hands.”"

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Researchers: People More Likely To Tell Secrets During Post-Sex Conversation « CBS Connecticut

Researchers: People More Likely To Tell Secrets During Post-Sex Conversation « CBS Connecticut: "The findings of a recent study indicate that people are far more likely to disclose secrets during “pillow talk,” or post-sex conversation.

According to an article that appeared in a recent edition of UConn Magazine, relationship researchers have learned why some people are inclined to feel more trusting post-coitus – and why others might still clam up.
“When individuals experience orgasm, profound physiological changes occur as a hormone called oxytocin floods their bodies,” the article, written by assistant professor Dr. Amanda Denes, indicated. “Increases in oxytocin have been linked to many pro-social behaviors – hence the hormone’s nicknames, ‘love hormone’ and ‘trust hormone.’”"

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Government Isn’t Santa | National Review Online

Government Isn’t Santa | National Review Online: "If ye had but faith in the measure of a mustard seed . . . and if the mustard-seed approach does not work, and the mountains we command to be uprooted remain stubbornly in place, then we are back to the old-fashioned problems of human existence: scarcity and production. That is what is so maddening about Pope Francis’s recent apostolic exhortation — which is, as much as my fellow Catholics try to explain it away, a problematic document in many ways. The pope’s argument, fundamentally, is that we can have capitalism on the condition that we feed the poor. This is exactly backward: We can feed the poor if we have capitalism. To give away wealth presumes the existence of that wealth, whether it is an annual tithe or Jesus’ more radical stance of giving away all that one owns. Giving away all that you own does not do the poor an iota of good if you don’t have anything. You can’t spread the wealth without wealth."

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John H. Cochrane: What to Do When ObamaCare Unravels - WSJ.com

John H. Cochrane: What to Do When ObamaCare Unravels - WSJ.com: "The unraveling of the Affordable Care Act presents a historic opportunity for change. Its proponents call it "settled law," but as Prohibition taught us, not even a constitutional amendment is settled law—if it is dysfunctional enough, and if Americans can see a clear alternative.

This fall's website fiasco and policy cancellations are only the beginning. Next spring the individual mandate is likely to unravel when we see how sick the people are who signed up on exchanges, and if our government really is going to penalize voters for not buying health insurance. The employer mandate and "accountable care organizations" will take their turns in the news. There will be scandals. There will be fraud. This will go on for years."

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The return of the Christmas-tree tax? « Hot Air

The return of the Christmas-tree tax? « Hot Air: "The domestic fresh-cut Christmas-tree industry certainly hopes so — and heck, who can blame them, really? So many other niche special interest groups, particularly in the agribusiness sector, have successfully managed to rent-seek for federal protection from consumer choice in the free market — be it in the form tax credits, or import quotas, or direct payouts, or what have you — why wouldn’t these guys try to get a piece of the action?

Back in 2011, the Obama administration announced that they planned to succumb to the Christmas-tree industry’s years of lobbying and implement a “fee” on growers that would pay for a specialized marketing program for American-produced Christmas trees. The industry really wanted the federal government to charge and collect the “fee,” rather than collect the money from amongst themselves, in order to thwart any tree companies that might not want to pay in to what the industry believed should be a group effort (even if they had to force it out of ‘em!) in promoting freshly-cut domestic trees over artificial and foreign-sourced trees."

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Like Clockwork, Joy Reid Is Annoyed About Glenn Greenwald Sniping at MSNBC | Mediaite

Like Clockwork, Joy Reid Is Annoyed About Glenn Greenwald Sniping at MSNBC | Mediaite: "One finds more vibrant political debate in the average conference room of the DNC than one does on Bashir’s show. It’s a staple of cable news that regular access to the show depends on one’s eagerness to agree with the host as much as possible, but Bashir lowers this dynamic to never-before-seen depths, where one is obligated not only to flatter all his views but he himself. Almost every segment is like watching parrots in a pet shop compete over who can more faithfully mimic the other. It’s really quite creepy.

And also, like clockwork, after reading this effective little bit of trolling, Reid will take to Twitter to lambast Mediaite as racist right-wing shills on par with Breitbart. Enjoy, Twitterverse."

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CNN and MSNBC Both Claim 2013 Ratings Victories over Each Other as Fox Remains #1 | Mediaite

CNN and MSNBC Both Claim 2013 Ratings Victories over Each Other as Fox Remains #1 | Mediaite: "There’s no denying it: When it comes to cable news in America, no one can touch Fox News. And it’s hard for CNN to spin their numbers into a victory over MSNBC. While it’s true that MSNBC saw the biggest drops in viewership compared to 2012, they still beat CNN where it counts in prime time.

Despite his best efforts to shake things up, Jeff Zucker was not able to turn the CNN ship around in just one year. MSNBC’s Phil Griffin admitted that his network is “not the place” for breaking news, but as long as there are enough viewers who want to see what MSNBC’s liberal commentators think about the politics of the day, they may not need to be. However, if Zucker spends 2014 encroaching on its biggest rival by injecting more “attitude” into CNN’s programming, next year could be an even more competitive showdown."

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WaPo Headline Frets About Possible Issa File Releases, Not Insecure HealthCare.gov | NewsBusters

WaPo Headline Frets About Possible Issa File Releases, Not Insecure HealthCare.gov | NewsBusters: "Major establishment press outlets ignored Friday's news that "Teresa Fryer, the chief information security officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ... explicitly recommended denial of the website’s Authority to Operate (ATO), but was overruled by her superiors." Fryer also "refused to put her name on a letter recommending a temporary ATO be granted for six months" In other words, HealthCare.gov should not have launched.

Brian Fung at the Washington Post's "The Switch" blog didn't consider the idea that HC.gov shouldn't even have gone live the most important story element. While failing to disclose Fryer's no-go recommendation and refusal to go along, he and his post's headline instead obsessed over whether Republican Congressman and House Oversight Committee chair Darrell Issa might "release files" that "could aid hackers." It wouldn't be a surprise to learn that hackers already have them, or at least have figured out how to work with or around them."

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U.S. News Outlets Ignore 'Appalling Patient Care, Bureaucratic Cover-ups' at UK's 'Too Powerful to Criticize' NHS | NewsBusters

U.S. News Outlets Ignore 'Appalling Patient Care, Bureaucratic Cover-ups' at UK's 'Too Powerful to Criticize' NHS | NewsBusters: "Two weeks ago, the UK Daily Mail reported on three just-released "damming reports" on Great Britain's government-run National Health Service. A separate December 20 UK Telegraph dispatch reports that the NHS is "on the brink of crisis" because it has been "treated as a 'national religion' while millions of patients receive a 'wholly unsatisfactory' service from GPs and hospitals." A scroll through supposedly U.S.-based news results from December 11-26 in a search on "national health service" (in quotes" at Google News returns precious little actual coverage here; the few exceptions are at conservative-leaning outlets like Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog."

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Topless German Feminist Tries to Ruin Christmas Mass With Altar-Jumping Protest | NewsBusters

Topless German Feminist Tries to Ruin Christmas Mass With Altar-Jumping Protest | NewsBusters: "Did you ever notice how the liberal media can obsess for days over a Koran-burning stunt, but ignore feminist groups that have a serious hatred problem with the Catholic Church? Via Chicks on the Right, we learned that the bratty anti-Catholic leftists of FEMEN have pulled their latest stunt. A woman with the message “I AM GOD” painted on her body jumped up on the altar and screamed in the middle of a Mass on Christmas at Cologne Cathedral, the home of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne and one of the tallest cathedrals in the world."

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Poll: GOP lead in generic ballot still growing despite ObamaCare website improvements « Hot Air

Poll: GOP lead in generic ballot still growing despite ObamaCare website improvements « Hot Air: "There’s a late uptick there too but it doesn’t track with the monthlong climb in the two other poll averages above. So what’s going on? Three obvious possibilities. One: The relatively cheery early December numbers for O and the Democrats were just a bounce created by the “we fixed it!” announcement. Life goes on and the bounce fades. The new normal may not be the depths that Dems saw in November, but it ain’t their pre-ObamaCare numbers either. Two: CNN’s poll is an outlier, nothing more. Click the last link above and you’ll see why that might be true. Most polls have net disapproval of O-Care in the mid-teens; CNN has it at … -27. If they’re way off on that, they might be way off on the generic ballot too. Three: Maybe public opinion on O-Care has settled a bit (at least until the next round of horror stories about shrinking provider networks) but opinion on O himself and his enablers in the Senate is still deteriorating."

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Lack aid? Many counties have only pricey plans

Lack aid? Many counties have only pricey plans: "More than half of the counties in 34 states using the federal health insurance exchange lack even a bronze plan that's affordable — by the government's own definition — for 40-year-old couples who make just a little too much for financial assistance, a USA TODAY analysis shows."

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$50M Obamacare-Fix: 'Literally a Life-or-Death Situation' | The Weekly Standard

$50M Obamacare-Fix: 'Literally a Life-or-Death Situation' | The Weekly Standard: "Since the situation was deemed to be an emergency by HHS, the contract was awarded without the usual competition, as explained by the Justification and Approval document, which cited the likelihood of "unacceptable delays."  A process that normally takes three months was accomplished in less than a day. QSSI's previous work with HHS on Healthcare.gov, as well as experience with "problematic program start-ups" such as the Medicare Part-D Prescription Drug program seven years ago.  HHS foresaw dire consequences if Healthcare.gov was not repaired in a timely manner, warning of "literally a life-or-death situation.""

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U.S. Sends Arms to Aid Iraq Fight With Extremists - NYTimes.com

U.S. Sends Arms to Aid Iraq Fight With Extremists - NYTimes.com: "The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria."

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Ugly Stuff: The Year's Best MSNBC Clips | Washington Free Beacon

Ugly Stuff: The Year's Best MSNBC Clips | Washington Free Beacon: "It was another grand year for the “Lean Forward” gang at MSNBC.

Where else would a TV viewer go to see Lawrence O’Donnell get Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s autograph, Karen Finney call out the “crazy crackers on the Right,” Chris Matthews declare President Obama “the perfect American” and Morning Joe‘s Mika Brzezinski smack herself in the face over the Affordable Care Act’s failures?

To get coverage of “Black Santa,” Marco Rubio’s water bottle and Ed Schultz’s conversations with God about Obamacare, look no further on your TV dial."

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Coming up next: ObamaCare taxes and fees « Hot Air

Coming up next: ObamaCare taxes and fees « Hot Air: "That means that consumers will pay more for their medical care than ever, thanks to the tax limitation.

That’s nothing new about ObamaCare, though. We’ve been pointing out for years that this is just a wealth-transfer system, not a cost-containment system. It manipulates price to disguise the increased costs, but those are becoming more and more apparent, as USA Today reports today in a piece about the lack of choice for middle-class consumers throughout the country."

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Wind industry performing their traditional pre-tax credit expiration scramble « Hot Air

Wind industry performing their traditional pre-tax credit expiration scramble « Hot Air: "Last year, Congress threw in the extension of the PTC as a last-minute inclusion to the fiscal-cliff deal, but with a slight twist on the credit’s usual provisions: Normally, a wind project would need to be in commercial operation by the time the provision expires in order to qualify for its lavish benefits, but as of the last extension, a wind project need only have begun construction in order to qualify. That means the wind industry has a little more cushion afforded to them, and they’re taking full advantage of it by getting a bunch of projects going just in the nick of time."

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Dear ‘Duck Dynasty’ Fans: You Do Know It’s All Fake, Right? | Variety

Dear ‘Duck Dynasty’ Fans: You Do Know It’s All Fake, Right? | Variety: "Other websites, some with way too much time on their hands, have meticulously detailed the staging that goes into the show. But suffice it to say that the Robertsons have thrived in part because they and their producers have been adept at making themselves seem authentic. As one reality TV producer suggested when discussing the show, even if the situations are all phony, you couldn’t create those guys."

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Kim Jon Un & The Myth of the Reformer Dictator - The Daily Beast

Kim Jon Un & The Myth of the Reformer Dictator - The Daily Beast: "For reasons that will forever confound me, Cuba has—and always will—maintain a dedicated following of fellow travellers and dim-witted sycophants; those who believe that preventing free elections and a free press is a reasonable price to pay for universal, undersupplied, and substandard health care. But it appears that the only person left on Earth who believes North Korea is on the precipice of change is former basketball star Dennis Rodman. On his latest visit to Pyongyang, Rodman told reporters that despite the summary executions, drumhead courts, labor camps, and frequent bouts of mass starvation, “it’s all love, it’s all love here.”

And reform is just around the corner."

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When Will Reporters Tire of Obama’s Tedious Blame-Shifting for His Failures? | Mediaite

When Will Reporters Tire of Obama’s Tedious Blame-Shifting for His Failures? | Mediaite: "This further indicates, possibly, just maybe, that Republicans can be moved to support legislation that is framed in such that the GOP believes they are advancing their own interests. A chief executive who led and proposed compromises to that end may actually have an achievement or two to tout by now. Instead, this White House chooses to send out aides to give friendly reporters theatrically overburdened quotes centering on how gravely they have been wronged.

After a while, this White House’s governing strategy — consisting entirely of stoking the base’s belief that they are on the receiving end of an unprecedented level of disrespect — becomes extremely tiresome."

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George Will: ‘ObamaCare a Tapestry of Coercions Mitigated by Random Acts of Presidential Mercy’ | NewsBusters

George Will: ‘ObamaCare a Tapestry of Coercions Mitigated by Random Acts of Presidential Mercy’ | NewsBusters: "GEORGE WILL: You used the word “quietly,” and that’s exactly it. This is a, ObamaCare now is a tapestry of coercions mitigated by random acts of presidential mercy announced in the most bizarre ways. Months ago, when they announced the suspension of the employer mandate, it was an assistant secretary of the treasury - of whom there are twelve - posted it on the treasury website. Then when they a few days ago suspended the individual mandate for certain preferred people, that was announced in a letter from secretary Sebelius to six Democratic senators, as though this law of the United States was their private property.

This change today wasn't even announced. It was sort of discovered by the Washington Post, and it was made on the pretext that they’re gearing up for an expected surge of traffic, which is kind of interesting because the one person we know who signed up today, the President, doesn't even get his health care from anything associated with ObamaCare."

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Obamacare’s First Deadline Already a Public Relations Disaster | Mediaite

Obamacare’s First Deadline Already a Public Relations Disaster | Mediaite: "The fact that the website seems to be struggling even as the first of many dubious deadlines has been reached was confirmed on Monday by none other than President Obama. Even as reporters observed the president’s photo-op enrollment was a mere display in order to inspire confidence in the ACA’s product (the president receives health care through the military), it would be difficult for the average person to replicate the president’s experience.

According to reports, the president –- on vacation in Hawaii –- was able to register for a “bronze plan” through the Washington D.C. exchange. Further, Obama’s advisors completed the task for him “in person,” meaning that they traveled during a weekday to a local ACA navigator’s office and enrolled the president by themselves.

“Like some Americans, the complicated nature of the president’s case required an in-person sign-up,” an unnamed White House official told POLITICO. “As you’d expect, the president’s personal information is not readily available in the variety of government databases HealthCare.gov uses to verify identities.”"

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Fallon, Timberlake Team Up for 'The Barry Gibb Talk Show'

Fallon, Timberlake Team Up for 'The Barry Gibb Talk Show': "Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake team up once again for "The Barry Gibb Show," interviewing Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly (Cecily Strong), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) (Taran Killam) and Madonna (Madonna) on this weekend's broadcast of "Saturday Night Live."

Then the real Barry Gibb joined them to end the sketch."

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Jimmy Fallon Loses it Over Justin Timberlake’s Jimmy Fallon Impression on SNL | Mediaite

Jimmy Fallon Loses it Over Justin Timberlake’s Jimmy Fallon Impression on SNL | Mediaite: "On this week’s Saturday Night Live, an already-funny Family Feud spoof became entirely too much for host Jimmy Fallon. Kenan Thompson presided over the show as Steve Harvey, mediating a Feud between NBC and CBS, with Fallon playing Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons, and musical guest Justin Timberlake playing Jimmy Fallon. Timberlake got the ultimate validation of his comedic chops when, toward the end of the sketch, his Fallon impression caused Jimmy Fallon to lose it onstage."

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George Will: 'New Biggest American Entitlement Is To Go Through Life Without Being Offended' | NewsBusters

George Will: 'New Biggest American Entitlement Is To Go Through Life Without Being Offended' | NewsBusters: "What we do see here, and this goes to the viewers' question about political correctness, the new biggest American entitlement is the entitlement to go through life without being offended. People think they have a right not to have their feelings hurt, not to have their sensibilities in any way exacerbated. I'd refer them to Jefferson who said, it does me no harm if my neighbor believes in 20 gods or one god, it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. We have forked for millennia to get to a point where we say the law will protect our possessions and our persons, but not our feelings and people just have to get over it."

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Ultraliberal 'Die Quickly' Rep. Alan Grayson Loses Millions to Stock Scammers | NewsBusters

Ultraliberal 'Die Quickly' Rep. Alan Grayson Loses Millions to Stock Scammers | NewsBusters: "It might be easy to forget, but ultraliberal Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla) is one of those dreaded "greedheads" who deal in millions of dollars of stocks. A story on the front of The Washington Post business section on Sunday reports Grayson “got burned twice by ‘stock loan’ schemes that have cost him nearly $50 million.”

Dina El Boghdady reports Grayson is ranked 21st in the House for wealth, with a net worth of “at least $16.7 million, in part due to the value of his stock portfolio.” Grayson lost about $18 million in transactions with Virginia businessman William Dean Chapman, who was just sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding Grayson and 121 others. The Post didn't seem to rifle through any of Grayson's recent tax returns, like they wanted to do to Mitt Romney."

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Kanye West: I Was Complimenting Jews When I Said They Have More Money Than Blacks | NewsBusters

Kanye West: I Was Complimenting Jews When I Said They Have More Money Than Blacks | NewsBusters: "Anyone who believes that was a compliment must also think it's funny to say Jews have more money than black people ESPECIALLY coming from a man estimated to be worth $100 million."

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Manchin on more gun control: This could be “difficult” « Hot Air

Manchin on more gun control: This could be “difficult” « Hot Air: "Manchin said gun owners didn’t oppose background checks in theory but were concerned that government wouldn’t stop with checks.

“What we found out is that people couldn’t trust government that they would stop there,” he said.

That’s exactly right, Senator. And the people who sent you to Washington feel the same way in large numbers. That might be something you’ll want to keep in mind next year before you try to crank up this particular machine again. You’ve still got several years before you need to run another campaign, but the voters in West Virginia probably have a pretty keen memory for this sort of thing."

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MONSTER PORN: Amazon’s Crackdown On America’s Latest Sex Fantasy - Business Insider

MONSTER PORN: Amazon’s Crackdown On America’s Latest Sex Fantasy - Business Insider: "In October, the online news site The Kernel published an incendiary story called "An Epidemic of Filth," claiming that online bookstores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, WHSmith, and others were selling self-published ebooks that featured "rape fantasies, incest porn and graphic descriptions of bestiality and child abuse." The story ignited a media firestorm in the U.K, with major news outlets like the Daily Mail, The Guardian, and the BBC reporting on the “sales of sick ebooks.” Some U.K.-based ebook retailers responded with public apologies, and WHSmith went so far as to shut down its website altogether, releasing a statement saying that it would reopen "once all self-published eBooks have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available." The response in the U.S. was somewhat more muted, but most of the retailers mentioned in the piece, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, began quietly pulling hundreds of titles from their online shelves — an event Kobo coo Michael Tamblyn referred to last month as "erotica-gate." "

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Pajama Boy, Home for the Holidays | National Review Online

Pajama Boy, Home for the Holidays | National Review Online: "Pajama Boy’s place in Internet infamy was secured as soon as the insufferable man-child was tweeted out by Organizing for America.

He is the face of a Web ad that is the latest effort by the Obama team to leverage the holidays for conversation about Obamacare. “Wear pajamas,” the ad reads. “Drink hot chocolate. Talk about getting health insurance. #GetTalking.”

And, sure enough, Pajama Boy is wearing pajamas — a zip-up onesie in classic Lamar Alexander plaid — and drinking hot chocolate. He is in his 20s, sporting hipster glasses he could have bought at Warby Parker and an expression of self-satisfied ironic amusement."

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The Trouble With Populism? It Isn’t That Popular - Bloomberg

The Trouble With Populism? It Isn’t That Popular - Bloomberg: "Actually, some things would be more disastrous for Democrats -- a few more months like the last two, for instance. Nonetheless, Cowan and Kessler are right that going full-populist is a bad idea. In modern politics, populists struggle to win elections. Why? Because they underestimate the people.

To be more exact, the difficulty lies with an excess of populism -- which is what Krugman and others recommend for the Democrats and what the Tea Party wants to impose on Republicans. In healthy democracies, a diluted dose of populism is vital for any political project or party, liberal or conservative. Even technocrats have to get elected, and if they feel no empathy for ordinary voters, they had better fake some. But modern voters are offended by too much populism. As they should be, because it insults their intelligence."

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Manchin: Hey, let’s delay all ObamaCare enforcement for a year « Hot Air

Manchin: Hey, let’s delay all ObamaCare enforcement for a year « Hot Air: "Here’s the problem with that approach, and also with the latest change from HHS and the Obama administration.  This year’s premium prices were predicated on forcing everyone to buy comprehensive policies, even those who don’t really need them. Not only did Thursday’s change remove the moral argument that non-comprehensive plans are inadequate under all circumstances, it also gave millions of Americans a free get-out-of-comprehensive-insurance-jail-free card. Delaying the mandate will mean that insurance companies will be forced to escalate premiums even more sharply in the fall of 2014 for the 2015 year, and the dynamic that Manchin describes will be even worse than it is now.

ObamaCare is already collapsing under the weight of its own mandates, as anyone who understands risk pools predicted when the bill was being debated. The web-portal issues are just the icing on the cake."

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Bags of heroin labeled 'Obama Care' seized - CNN.com

Bags of heroin labeled 'Obama Care' seized - CNN.com: "What do heroin and Obamacare have in common?

Nothing -- save for more than 1,200 packets of heroin that had the words "Obama Care" and "Kurt Cobain" printed in red on the packaging that Massachusetts State Police say they uncovered in a drug bust.

State police said the labels are nothing more than marketing ploys."

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Krauthammer to Inside Washington Host: I Stand By Every Time I Savagely Attacked You For Bias | NewsBusters

Krauthammer to Inside Washington Host: I Stand By Every Time I Savagely Attacked You For Bias | NewsBusters: "This was met with laughter from Peterson and the entire panel who all knew Charles was saying this with great esteem and affection.

For myself, I have to express my sadness about this final installment.

I’ve been watching IW since day one, and watched its predecessor Agronsky and Company which most people aren’t aware actually created this format of political talk shows."

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WaPo’s Colby King Predicts Paul Ryan Will Be Elected President in 2016 | NewsBusters

WaPo’s Colby King Predicts Paul Ryan Will Be Elected President in 2016 | NewsBusters: "On the final installment of PBS’s Inside Washington Friday, host Gordon Peterson asked his panelists who they thought would be elected president in 2016.

Rather surprisingly, the Washington Post’s Colby King said, “Paul Ryan because the Democratic nominee will never be able to replicate what Barack Obama has done, never bring out that base.”"

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Army’s New Laser Weapon Can Shoot Down Mortars and Drones - ABC News

Army’s New Laser Weapon Can Shoot Down Mortars and Drones - ABC News: "The Army has successfully tested a futuristic laser weapon capable of shooting football-sized mortar rounds and unmanned drones out of the sky.  The truck-mounted weapon, known as the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) is still about a decade away from becoming an operational part of the Army’s arsenal, but gives a hint at what a weapon of the future could look like.

The Army tested its HEL MD laser at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for nearly six weeks starting in mid-November.  The device was equipped with a 10-kilowatt solid state laser and a radar system mounted atop a heavy truck."

If one of the first people to test this didn't say "I'm a' firin' mah lazer!" in their head, they didn't do it right.

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Six Problems with the Latest Obamacare 'Fix' | National Review Online

Six Problems with the Latest Obamacare 'Fix' | National Review Online: "Last night, the Obama administration announced two big changes to Obamacare, for people who have seen their individual-market insurance plans canceled this year: They won’t have to comply with the individual mandate, meaning they can go without insurance and not pay the not-insubstantial fine (1 percent of their income, basically); and if they do want insurance, they can buy a “catastrophic” plan on the exchanges, which is cheaper than any of the other plans available.

This will make life easier, in the short term, for some number of Americans — millions have seen their plans canceled, though the White House suggests just half a million of them still haven’t signed up for new plans, gotten Medicaid, or enrolled in an exchange plan. But as Ezra Klein bluntly put it, these changes could be “a very big problem for the law.”"

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NYT: So, this healthcare law is turning out to be kind of a pain for the middle class, huh? « Hot Air

NYT: So, this healthcare law is turning out to be kind of a pain for the middle class, huh? « Hot Air: "Between Obama’s two presidential election campaigns, I wonder how many times we’ve had to endure various iterations of him insisting that he absolutely, unequivocally, sincerely would never raise taxes on the middle class, and that his entire economic mission would center around making the lives of the middle-class more prosperous and reasonable. Funny how, through all of that, he mysteriously failed to mention that the entirety of his crowning legislative achievement directly relies upon crushing market signals and intentionally, forcibly, and significantly increasing the middle class’s health insurance premiums in order to pay for the new redistribution system it created. I’m sure the truth about the system’s real nature just accidentally but rather conveniently got lost in the translation somewhere, along with that pesky little “if you like your plan, you can keep it” line currently causing him so much vexation."

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CNN reporter to Obama at press conference: What’s your New Year’s resolution? « Hot Air

CNN reporter to Obama at press conference: What’s your New Year’s resolution? « Hot Air: "Even that’s a lie, of course. This was unquestionably the worst year of his presidency. The only one that compares is 2010, the year he and Pelosi got wiped out in the midterms. But 2010 was also the year they passed ObamaCare, his great legacy-building … uh, accomplishment.

Actually, yeah, maybe 2010 was worse."

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12 questions the White House press corps could have asked Obama about Obamacare « Hot Air

12 questions the White House press corps could have asked Obama about Obamacare « Hot Air: "It is rare that the White House press corps asks exactly what I want it to ask, but today’s display, with a few notable exceptions, was truly irresponsible. Not only would critics of Obamacare like to know how Obama proposes to fix it, but I’m sure the law’s liberal champions would appreciate some more information and assurances as well. Real people are losing their real coverage in real life, and the press corps is wasting the bulk of its questions on this pitifully rare opportunity on how the president feels about this rolling calamity. Well, if the president’s mind-numbing self-reflection can cure your kids when they get sick, you’re in luck, America. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the next meeting of the White House Encounter Group for a shot at more answers from the man in charge."

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Punish Phil Robertson but Defraud Amazon: The Dubious Ethics of the Left | Mediaite

Punish Phil Robertson but Defraud Amazon: The Dubious Ethics of the Left | Mediaite: "But Robertson is not an evangelist. He was not proselytizing his beliefs – nor is that a feature of his A&E program. But Barro is proselytizing, as is Yglesias. They are demanding acceptance of this ethically suspect behavior.

It is important to maintain a moral compass in this world. There is a reason why viable anarcho-libertarian societies do not exist. Behavioral moderation in order to comport with norms that maintain basic order is a routinely undervalued trait in effete circles. But no matter how many blog posts are written to the contrary, common courtesy is virtuous and trustworthiness is noble."

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Piers Morgan Dubs Sarah Palin the ‘Woman Who Drove Out Martin Bashir’ | Mediaite

Piers Morgan Dubs Sarah Palin the ‘Woman Who Drove Out Martin Bashir’ | Mediaite: "Palin didn’t “drive” anyone out of MSNBC. The network determined that Bashir’s comments were so offensive that, in spite of the fact that their audience is trained to consume such commentary, he could no longer represent the network. In this case, she was a victim. To attack Palin as somehow being an instigator in that circumstance is nonsense."

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The Ad Hoc Presidency vs. the Constitution | Mediaite

The Ad Hoc Presidency vs. the Constitution | Mediaite: "Lawlessness. It’s not a pleasant word. While it is an accurate description of how this White House has conducted itself, the word offends the sensibilities of both the president’s supporters and the civility crowd. So let’s abstain from using that word. Instead, let’s settle on discussing the ad hoc way in which president views his responsibility to faithfully execute the laws duly passed by a legitimate and coequal legislature.

Late Thursday night, less than a week before the Christmas holiday, the administration unilaterally delayed a Supreme Court-approved tax for a group of people deemed by unelected officials to be special. It is a violation of law. It may very well violate the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment. It will create chaos in the insurance industry. It is, as has been widely reported, a maneuver of service to the president’s political goal of ensuring nervous Democrats in the Senate are placated."

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Breaking Fad: Alligators becoming the new pit bulls for drug dealers, cops say - Washington Times

Breaking Fad: Alligators becoming the new pit bulls for drug dealers, cops say - Washington Times: "Looking for more bite than bark?

Drug dealers, long associated with aggressive dogs like pit bulls, are of late opting for a more cold-blooded accomplice to protect their business interests: the alligator.

The scaly version of the guard dog isn’t showing up just in drug dens near its native Southern swamplands, police are finding the reptiles in raids from Oakland to Philadelphia.

Last month, during a raid in Baltimore, police found three small alligators while searching the apartment of a suspected dealer. That case was among a smattering of reports linking alligator ownership to drug dealers seeking to guard their stashes or simply send a message."

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Mandela Tribute Billboard Uses Picture of Morgan Freeman, not Late Leader

Mandela Tribute Billboard Uses Picture of Morgan Freeman, not Late Leader: "Actor Morgan Freeman earned kudos for his portrayal of South African leader Nelson Mandela in the Clint Eastwood drama Invictus.

Perhaps Freeman's performance in the 2009 was too good as it lead to some confusion for an Indian-based billboard artist.

An owner of a billboard dedicated to Nelson Mandela was red-faced on Thursday after the discovery that a photo of actor Morgan Freeman was used instead of one of the anti-apartheid hero.

The billboard was erected on the side of a road in Coimbatore as part of memorials across India and the world to Mandela, who died on December 5."

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Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson suspended by A&E for comments on homosexuality « Hot Air

Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson suspended by A&E for comments on homosexuality « Hot Air: "To the Left, it doesn’t matter how Robertson actually treats real people. The thought that homosexual acts are wrong is enough to make him a bad person who should be fired. He’s literally guilty of a thought crime against humanity even if he is literally tolerant of gay people every day of his life. There is no room for tolerance of him.

I don’t agree with Robertson’s remarks, but this is clearly an overreaction. Even those who are more critical of Robertson than I think this was a bad move by A&E. Maybe if he had talked about someone defecating in a specific gay political figure’s mouth, he could have gotten a few more weeks on the air. (For the record, I wasn’t a huge fan of Martin Bashir or that Martin Bashir got fired for saying something dumb, as I think we should allow room for people on both sides to say things that offend people without getting fired.)"

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War on Moms: MSNBC pundits plot to fraudulently claim our Amazon benefits « Hot Air

War on Moms: MSNBC pundits plot to fraudulently claim our Amazon benefits « Hot Air: "But whatever happened to owning your privilege, guys? We’re lectured constantly by the Left about how white people, particularly white men, cannot possibly understand all the benefits that accrue to them by virtue of simply being white men in our society. They must therefore contemplate this institutional advantage and repent of it by assuming an ostentatious pose of white guilt, “owning their privilege,” and lecturing others who have not yet recognized and repented of their privilege.

And, yet, here are two affluent white men of the Left, who instead of owning their privilege and contemplating how not to oppress women and minorities by virtue of existing, pose as women to stack our 20-percent discount on top of their white dude privileges. Now, if a bunch of other white men take their advice, defraud Amazon, and Amazon Moms becomes no more, what of the middle-class moms who were using it to help their families?"

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Obamacare Escapes the Chains of Law | The Daily Caller

Obamacare Escapes the Chains of Law | The Daily Caller: "Megan McArdle notes that Obama’s HHS has “reached the limits of its November strategy of using last-minute rule-making to implement on-the-fly changes to the law.” No more rules! Now insurance companies are being “encouraged” and “strongly encouraged” to extend deadlines, accept late payments, pay for some out-of-network doctors and out of plan prescriptions. Many of these things violate the formal terms of the deal the government had made with insurers and will cost the latter money. “They’re asking insurers to pay for the mistakes” the administration made in the launch of the program, complains Avik Roy. The key word is “asking.” But, as Roy notes, there’s a club HHS is holding behind its back–the threat that if insurers don’t play along HHS will be “considering” that factor in the “renewal process.”"

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Ugh: Senate Democrats pushing for an eleventh-hour extension of wind’s all-important tax credit « Hot Air

Ugh: Senate Democrats pushing for an eleventh-hour extension of wind’s all-important tax credit « Hot Air: "As ever, all of this special treatment is hardly doing the renewable energies these Democrats claim to love any favors. Wind has been on the receiving end of this heftily generous subsidy for over two decades — hardly the way to encourage the price efficiency that could actually make these technologies viable in the long run, is it?"

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Marriage Experiment: Better to Be Right Than Happy | TIME.com

Marriage Experiment: Better to Be Right Than Happy | TIME.com: "The researchers concluded, shockingly, that humans need to be right and acknowledged as right, at least some of the time, to be happy. In politics, people often note that there can be no peace without justice, and that’s true of the domestic sphere as well. The researchers also noted that this was further proof that if given too much power, humans tend to “assume the alpha position and, as with chimpanzees, they become very aggressive and dangerous.”"

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In post-nuclear Senate, Obama nominee Jeh Johnson thumbs nose at lawmakers | WashingtonExaminer.com

In post-nuclear Senate, Obama nominee Jeh Johnson thumbs nose at lawmakers | WashingtonExaminer.com: "During his confirmation process, when minority Republican lawmakers made routine requests for information -- the kind of requests a nominee would have wanted to satisfy in the past, just to avoid trouble -- Johnson had no worries. On Nov. 15, several Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- Charles Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz -- sent Johnson a list of more than 50 questions, most of them about immigration, that had not been answered during Johnson's confirmation hearing. "We appreciate your pledge of 'transparency and candor with Congress,'" the senators wrote, "and look forward to your prompt response."

In a Dec. 12 letter, Johnson essentially blew them off. "I note that your letter contains about 57 specific questions including subparts," Johnson wrote. "Respectfully, given that I am a nominee and private citizen, and not part of DHS, I am unable to respond to your letter question-by-question, but can instead provide you with my more general views, as they exist at this stage.""

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Coburn: This is what $30 billion in government waste looks like « Hot Air

Coburn: This is what $30 billion in government waste looks like « Hot Air: "Sen. Tom Coburn’s office has been compiling a report on some of the most egregious examples of government waste for a few years now, and the “nearly $30 billion in questionable and lower-priority spending in Wastebook 2013 is a small fraction of the more than $200 billion we throw away every year through fraud, waste, duplication and mismanagement.” Whatever other hand-wringing our elected representatives may do over the billions of dollars that should-or-should-not be cut from food stamps, or sequestration, or what have you, there is plenty of federal waste there for the axing if politicians could just get their collective act together and make a priority out of it. The instant classics from last year’s Wastebook included $27 million for Moroccan pottery classes at the Agency for International Development and a university grant to the tune of several hundred thousands dollars for experiments with robotic squirrels, and sadly, some of this year’s headliners are just as facepalm-worthy."

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Charles Lane: Why do we even need a farm bill? - The Washington Post

Charles Lane: Why do we even need a farm bill? - The Washington Post: "Actually, Congress’s willingness to debate ag policy at length is a sign of political health. The farm bill long has been an irrational, subsidy-laden monstrosity. It’s about time somebody challenged the ag lobby’s hammerlock on Capitol Hill.

Why do we even need a farm bill, with its billions in subsidized crop insurance and definitions of “milk marketing orders” and “base acreage”? Is there something about farming, as opposed to other businesses, that makes market economics uniquely inapplicable?"

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Cover Oregon bans criticism of Obamacare. Wait… what? « The Greenroom

Cover Oregon bans criticism of Obamacare. Wait… what? « The Greenroom: "Defamatory? That covers a lot of territory. And “misleading” is pretty much open to the interpretation of the people writing the checks. In other words, if you even make a comment on that fact that the web site is a rolling disaster and some of the policies you’ll find (should you somehow get through) will be pretty expensive and not offer very good coverage… no money for you!

Free speech in America. Ain’t it grand?"

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Doctors attach man's severed hand to his leg to keep it alive – in pictures | World news | theguardian.com

Doctors attach man's severed hand to his leg to keep it alive – in pictures | World news | theguardian.com: "Xiao Wei lost his right hand in an accident at work but could not have it reattached to his arm immediately. Instead the hand was kept alive by stitching it to Xiao's left ankle and "borrowing" a blood supply from arteries in the leg."

WTF?!?  The pictures are even crazier than you'd imagine.

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Iowa poll: Christie leads Hillary by five, Rand Paul trails her by just one « Hot Air

Iowa poll: Christie leads Hillary by five, Rand Paul trails her by just one « Hot Air: "Laying aside the inconvenient fact that presidential polls this far out from 2016 are meaningless, what’s the biggest news here? That Christie’s strong enough to now lead Her Majesty in a state where she, er, finished third in 2008? Or that Rand Paul, who’s supposed to be a niche candidate, is competitive with her despite her near universal name recognition?

Actually, the biggest news is that Iowans are lukewarm about Hillary. Every Republican polled here draws a chunk of don’t-knows when people are asked how they’d do as president, but nearly everyone has an opinion about Hillary. She does well — more than half (53/42) say she’d make a good chief exec — but Republicans like Christie and Paul must be benefiting from considerable “Not Hillary” sentiment to some extent."

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Jennifer Lawrence: ‘It Should Be Illegal to Call Somebody Fat’ - ABC News

Jennifer Lawrence: ‘It Should Be Illegal to Call Somebody Fat’ - ABC News: "Jennifer Lawrence said  ”it should be illegal” to call someone fat and, in an interview with Barbara Walters, railed against people who bash the way women look.

“Because why is humiliating people funny?” the 23-year-old Oscar winner told Walters in an interview for the upcoming ABC News special, “Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2013.”

“I just think it should be illegal to call somebody fat on TV.”"

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Cuomo has zero plans to lift that New York fracking ban anytime soon « Hot Air

Cuomo has zero plans to lift that New York fracking ban anytime soon « Hot Air: "Never mind yesterday’s Energy Information Administration report that pointed to hydraulic fracturing as a major driver behind the United States’ spectacular oil-production forecasts and indefinite natural gas-production forecasts, and that without the recent shale revolution, our domestic economy might otherwise be almost running on empty — because that’s not important. The important thing is clearly to slow-walk and obfuscate on a study that may-or-may-not confirm the already-confirmed environmental- and public health-safety of a drilling technique that has been cleared by the many other states currently cashing in on its benefits, in order to assuage the powerful environmentalist interests who can help enhance your reelection prospects. You know how it is."

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The energy industry is preparing to move beyond Keystone XL — and that’s no eco-lobby victory « Hot Air

The energy industry is preparing to move beyond Keystone XL — and that’s no eco-lobby victory « Hot Air: "If there is one overarching lesson to be found in yesterday’s Energy Information Administration report on the United States’ relatively newfound and positively dizzying energy abundance largely unlocked by the auspices of the private sector and recent drilling innovations, it’s that fossil fuels are not going anywhere for quite awhile — which makes it rather unfortunate for the radically progressive eco-contingent that they have worked so very hard to manufacture the Keystone XL pipeline as the major politicized issue on which to hang their climate-change hats. The oil-and-gas industry is awash in resources, and while the Keystone XL pipeline would have been the most cost-effective, energy-efficient, safest, cleanest way for Canadian and North Dakotan companies to transport those goods, it is still perfectly profitable for them to find other ways around the bottlenecks that the relative lack of available pipeline infrastructure is creating — namely, railroad."

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A swimming pool is evacuated after an artificial leg is mistaken for a paedophile – Telegraph Blogs

A swimming pool is evacuated after an artificial leg is mistaken for a paedophile – Telegraph Blogs: "Artificial leg prompts ‘paedophile panic’ at swimming pool and evacuation of children.

An entire class of primary school children was evacuated from a swimming pool – because a prosthetic leg sticking out from underneath a cubicle was thought to be a paedophile.

The alarm was raised when staff noticed the foot poking out as the eight- and nine-year-olds got changed following a swimming lesson.

Teachers immediately took the children out of Larkfield Leisure Centre in Aylesford, Kent, but were stunned to discover that the foot was actually part of a prosthetic leg."

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Why Is Pope Francis Promoting Sin? - Bloomberg

Why Is Pope Francis Promoting Sin? - Bloomberg: "By dwelling on inequality, the pope is promoting envy. The Catholic Church, I had always understood, disapproves of envy, deeming it one of the seven deadly sins. I would have expected Francis to urge people to think of themselves in relation to God and to their own fullest potential. Encouraging people to measure themselves against others only leads to grief. Resenting the success of others is a sin in itself.

The first sin outside the Garden of Eden was Cain’s slaying of his younger brother, Abel, out of envy that the Lord had accepted Abel’s offering but not his. God told Cain: “If you act rightly, you will be accepted; but if not, sin lies in wait at the door.” (Genesis 4:7) Worry about your standing with God, not about what others have or don’t have."

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Best of the Web Today: (Almost) Everyone Loses - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: (Almost) Everyone Loses - WSJ.com: "Some no doubt do, and lacked insurance because a pre-existing condition made them uninsurable in the pre-ObamaCare regime. But some lack insurance because they don't want it, don't feel they need it, are completely indifferent, or think it costs too much. What does ObamaCare do for them?

"To" them is more like it. It jacks up their premiums to pay for all the mandated coverages--especially if they're young and healthy and thus least likely to think they need insurance to begin with. It then tells them that they must buy insurance, whether they want it or not. Imagine a law ordering everyone to buy a bicycle, or a periodic ration of meat. Even if the prices were deeply discounted, it would still be an unmitigated burden on noncyclists or vegetarians."

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Catholic groups win battle against HHS mandate in federal court « Hot Air

Catholic groups win battle against HHS mandate in federal court « Hot Air: "Let’s pause here to make an important decision.  This is not a “legislative mandate.” ObamaCare (or if you prefer, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) was a legislative victory for Barack Obama, but the HHS contraception mandate has never passed Congress — and was not proposed as law.  This is a regulatory mandate, promulgated by HHS thanks to a grossly expansive grant of power in ObamaCare by a lazy Congress intent on making fundamental changes to the relationship between citizens and their government — without doing the hard work of defining those changes itself."

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Scott Brown puts MA home on market, heads for NH « Hot Air

Scott Brown puts MA home on market, heads for NH « Hot Air: "Brown wouldn’t exactly be a carpetbagger in New Hampshire. He already owns a home in Rye, and while it hasn’t been his primary residence, he spends quite a bit of time there.  The legal license issue is probably a technicality at best, or an annoyance of a few months at worst.  He will want to fully establish himself in New Hampshire before starting a campaign to represent the state, but this isn’t anything like Alan Keyes flying to Illinois as a last-minute replacement against then-state legislator Barack Obama for a Senate seat in 2004 — although Democrats will certainly make the case that it is.

The question will be whether New Hampshire Republicans will embrace Brown. He had to occupy the center pretty firmly in his attempt to remain viable in Massachusetts, but Granite State Republicans are more libertarian in their drift. John Fund notes that recent polling in New Hampshire shows Brown to be competitive in a general election, but facing some potential headwinds in the primary."

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Obama: I wish Washington was as ruthlessly efficient as it is in “House of Cards” « Hot Air

Obama: I wish Washington was as ruthlessly efficient as it is in “House of Cards” « Hot Air: "And he doesn’t even care about the education bill! If he spent 1/1000th of the energy he devotes to personal ambition to passing major legislation, America in “House of Cards” would already have single-payer and an 80 percent top bracket. But what fun would Frank be then? He’d basically be Lyndon Johnson. In fact, it’s a failing of the HOC writers that they had him angling to become VP instead of secretary of state, the job he was initially touted for. Watching Frank run the world by maneuvering various foreign leaders around on his diabolical chessboard would have been a blast. As it is, you can already guess the arc of season two: Frank will have to destroy Zoe Barnes before she destroys him and then he’ll plot the president’s assassination to clear his path to ultimate power. That’s fine, but it’d be nice if there was a smart alternative on TV (er, I mean Netflix) to Homeland’s “Carrie hearts Brody” take on foreign policy."

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Breaking: House Democrat Jim Matheson retires, clearing the way for Mia Love « Hot Air

Breaking: House Democrat Jim Matheson retires, clearing the way for Mia Love « Hot Air: "Here’s Matheson’s announcement. He’s only 53 years old. Either there’s some as-yet-unknown bad news that’s forced him out or, as a Democrat from Utah, he’s tired of fighting for his political life every two years. In 2002 he won his race by fewer than 1,700 votes. Last year, against tea-party favorite Mia Love and with Mitt Romney at the top of the ballot, he won by fewer than 800 — despite having trailed in one poll by 12 points heading into election day. Love already declared in May that she’d challenge him again next year; maybe he looked at the political landscape, especially with what’s in store for ObamaCare, and figured he might as well retire before the voters eventually retire him."

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Armed Guard's Presence Ended Arapahoe School Shooting in 80 Seconds

Armed Guard's Presence Ended Arapahoe School Shooting in 80 Seconds: "On December 15th Breitbart News reported that an armed guard saved students' lives when Karl Halverson Pierson began firing his shotgun inside Arapahoe High School.

As more details emerge, it has become evident that the guard -- a county deputy resource officer -- did this by running toward the shooter in a way that ended the entire incident in 80 seconds.

Speaking on December 14th, Arapahoe Sheriff Grayson Robinson told CNN that when Pierson entered the school his "intent was evil, and his evil intent was to harm multiple individuals."

While Pierson was able to critically wound one student, from his first shot to his last, the only life that was lost was his. Robinson said "a critical element" in this scenario was the deputy who ran toward "the noise of gunshot," when "many would run away from it." "

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The Ugly Mindset That Led Denver Post to Sanitize Arapahoe Shooter’s Political Beliefs | Mediaite

The Ugly Mindset That Led Denver Post to Sanitize Arapahoe Shooter’s Political Beliefs | Mediaite: "This was not an unsupported bit of reporting. The Associated Press backed up the Post’s findings. “Students said Pierson held communist views and liked to discuss current events and issues, offering his own solutions,” the AP reported. “None said Pierson was bullied for his beliefs.”

When confronted about the decision to stealthily cleanse the piece on this shooter’s politics, Denver Post senior editor Lee Ann Colacioppo revealed a particularly insidious mindset behind the decision: “We decided not to have another student apply a label to the shooter — a label the student likely didn’t even understand,” she wrote."

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Bloomberg Columnist: President Should Offer Pot to Get Young People to Sign Up For ObamaCare | NewsBusters

Bloomberg Columnist: President Should Offer Pot to Get Young People to Sign Up For ObamaCare | NewsBusters: "Now I really have seen everything.

On Monday, Bloomberg View columnist Caroline Baum actually said that to get young people to sign up for ObamaCare, in states where it's legal, the Administration should give them marijuana."

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Fine print: State can seize your assets to pay for care after you’re forced into Medicaid by Obamacare « Hot Air

Fine print: State can seize your assets to pay for care after you’re forced into Medicaid by Obamacare « Hot Air: "So, here’s the deal. There used to be a provision whereby the state could recuperate funds spent on a Medicaid patient post-55 years old from whatever assets he owned. So, a low-income individual in nursing home care after age 55 might pass away and his kids would find out the family home or car of whatever he had to his name had to be bought back from the state if they wanted it. It’s called estate recovery, and sounds pretty shady if it’s not boldly advertised as the terms for Medicaid enrollment, which is most definitely is not.

Before the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, there weren’t that many people in Medicaid who had much in the way of assets for seizing. But now that Medicaid enrollment requirements have been relaxed, more people with assets but low income are joining the program or being forced into it."

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If Detroit Cares About Its Future - and Art - It Will Sell its Museum's Masterpieces - Reason.com

If Detroit Cares About Its Future - and Art - It Will Sell its Museum's Masterpieces - Reason.com: "If you really want to make jaws drop in polite conversation, don’t waste your time suggesting that bankrupt Detroit merely stiff its pensioners and creditors harder than John Holmes did his costars in 1976’s Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here. Instead, suggest that the city unload its little-seen yet high-valued art collection hiding in plain sight at The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA).

Don’t get me wrong: In its attempts to deal with an estimated $18 billion in debt, Motown will absolutely be giving out buzzcuts worthy of an Army barber to everyone who has ever drawn a paycheck from City Hall or was stupid enough to lend it money. But with a collection valued at somewhere between $452 million and $866 million, the DIA’s collection—featuring pieces by Picasso, van Gogh, Matisse, and other masters—should absolutely be on the market."

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Boskin: ObamaCare's Troubles Are Only Beginning - WSJ.com

Boskin: ObamaCare's Troubles Are Only Beginning - WSJ.com: "The "sticker shock" that many buyers of new, ACA-compliant health plans have experienced—with premiums 30% higher, or more, than their previous coverage—has only begun. The costs borne by individuals will be even more obvious next year as more people start having to pay higher deductibles and copays.

If, as many predict, too few healthy young people sign up for insurance that is overpriced in order to subsidize older, sicker people, the insurance market will unravel in a "death spiral" of ever-higher premiums and fewer signups. The government, through taxpayer-funded "risk corridors," is on the hook for billions of dollars of potential insurance-company losses. This will be about as politically popular as bank bailouts."

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The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder - NYTimes.com

The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder - NYTimes.com: "But Dr. Conners did not feel triumphant this fall as he addressed a group of fellow A.D.H.D. specialists in Washington. He noted that recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the diagnosis had been made in 15 percent of high school-age children, and that the number of children on medication for the disorder had soared to 3.5 million from 600,000 in 1990. He questioned the rising rates of diagnosis and called them “a national disaster of dangerous proportions.”

“The numbers make it look like an epidemic. Well, it’s not. It’s preposterous,” Dr. Conners, a psychologist and professor emeritus at Duke University, said in a subsequent interview. “This is a concoction to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels.”"

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Pink Floyd star Roger Waters compares Israelis to Nazis | Mail Online

Pink Floyd star Roger Waters compares Israelis to Nazis | Mail Online: "The former frontman of Pink Floyd has sparked outrage after comparing Israel's government to the Nazi regime.

Leading rabbis and Jewish writers have blasted Roger Waters as antisemitic for claiming the state's treatment of Palestinians is akin to the oppression of Jews between 1933 and 1946.

Waters, 70, who refuses to visit or perform in Israel, said he would not have played in France or Germany during the Second World War either."

Remind me not to listen to Pink Floyd.  Oh, wait.  I never have.

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Poll: The most popular 2016 candidate among Iowa Republicans is … Paul Ryan? « Hot Air

Poll: The most popular 2016 candidate among Iowa Republicans is … Paul Ryan? « Hot Air: "Seriously, though, of course it’s Paul Ryan. The earlier the presidential poll, the more the results are purely a function of name recognition. He was on the ticket last time so he’s the one guy more than any other whom even low-information Iowa GOPers could pick out of a line-up. No surprise that he’s got the highest favorables. Nor is it a surprise that Huckabee, who won the caucuses in 2008, comes second. Although given his flirtation with running again plus the fact that Ryan’s probably more likely to sit tight and run for Speaker when Boehner leaves than gamble on running for president against a strong field, Huckabee’s arguably the big winner here. If there was any doubt that his popularity in Iowa is durable, this should remove it."

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White House: These GOP attacks on navigators are just another effort to sabotage ObamaCare, you know « Hot Air

White House: These GOP attacks on navigators are just another effort to sabotage ObamaCare, you know « Hot Air: "In advance of another of the ObamaCare-related field hearings that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have been holding around the country throughout the past few weeks — this time on the thousands of “navigators” designated to help people sign up — the committee released a report detailing their concerns about the episodes of inefficiency, mismanagement, and possible fraud stemming from the program. Chairman Darrell Issa and Rep. Pete Sessions explained further in an op-ed they penned for the Dallas Morning News on Monday."

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France is on the brink of an official recession. Again. « Hot Air

France is on the brink of an official recession. Again. « Hot Air: "It wasn’t so very long ago that France’s Socialist ministers were making what sounded like such confident predictions about how it was only a matter of time before their economy would be back in the money (relatively speaking, of course — a day and age in which a few tenths of a percentage of GDP growth is something to celebrate… well, yikes), but the third quarter’s results brought them some bad news in the form of an “unexpected” return to economic contraction by 0.1 percent."

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Will any Democratic candidates run on single-payer in 2016? « Hot Air

Will any Democratic candidates run on single-payer in 2016? « Hot Air: "I think lefties will produce a progressive candidate who runs on “Medicare for all” even if they think he or she is a sure loser in the primary. Putting this issue front and center does two things for them: One, obviously, it puts pressure on Hillary to tack left on “fixing” ObamaCare, which means a public option at a minimum, and two, more importantly, it might help drag the Overton window back towards the center as O-Care struggles. Right now the only game in town politically for people who dislike the program is repeal courtesy of the GOP; if Democrats wait too long to push a more statist alternative, the debate could shift from “what should we do to repair the law?” to “which parts of the law should Obama agree to get rid of?”. It’s shifting that way right now, frankly. Getting 40 percent of the country onboard for the public option or single-payer could paralyze the argument over “solutions” to the point where the GOP would likely reduce its demands, which at least would protect O-Care. Even if only as a rhetorical device, they could argue that a Republican nominee in 2016 who opposes “Medicare for all” can’t be trusted to protect Medicare as it stands. I think all of this is a tough argument for lefties to make, needless to say, since the obvious lesson from President Bumblefark’s O-Care screw-ups isn’t “let’s give the government even more power.” But if ObamaCare proceeds as we all expect, it’ll be a lot easier than arguing that we should just leave the law alone."

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Video: The Mike Is Always On, Case 473 « The Greenroom

Video: The Mike Is Always On, Case 473 « The Greenroom: "Repeat after me: the first rule in broadcasting is that the mike is always on. Rule #2: Don’t ever, ever forget Rule #1."

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Blitz: Insurance companies ratcheting up their ObamaCare promotional spending into 2014 « Hot Air

Blitz: Insurance companies ratcheting up their ObamaCare promotional spending into 2014 « Hot Air: "Insurance companies have largely been holding off on running through their ad budgets during these past couple months of logistical disaster, but with the federal exchange site eking out painstaking improvements and the initial deadline for coverage coming in hot on December 23rd, they’re starting to get the promotional campaigns going again. The target of many of these incoming advertisements will, of course, be young people — those oh-so-coveted healthier, less pricey participants who will help to balance out the heightened costs of the new, riskier insurance pools. Should be fun, right?"

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Despite Staff Cuts, 25 Teacher Union State Affiliates Ran Deficits « The Greenroom

Despite Staff Cuts, 25 Teacher Union State Affiliates Ran Deficits « The Greenroom: "An Education Intelligence Agency analysis of Internal Revenue Service filings reveals 25 National Education Association state affiliates spent more than they earned in the 2011-12 school year, even though many of them instituted large-scale layoffs, staff cuts and early retirement incentives."

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Australian scientists grow mini-kidney in lab

Australian scientists grow mini-kidney in lab: "A mini-kidney has been grown in an Australian laboratory from what were originally skin cells, boosting hopes for the future treatment of kidney disease.

The study adds support to a science-fiction-like goal of taking skin cells from a patient, using them to grow a kidney and then implanting it into the same patient, circumventing problems with transplant rejection."

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Did someone order deep fried fish fingers? Chef draws crowds to street restaurant with ability to plunge his hand into a vat of 200C boiling oil | Mail Online

Did someone order deep fried fish fingers? Chef draws crowds to street restaurant with ability to plunge his hand into a vat of 200C boiling oil | Mail Online: "When Prem Singh was asked to lend a helping hand frying fish at his family restaurant he took it rather too literally.

The chef, 65, has become famed in the backstreets of Old Delhi for his unique ability to plunge his bare hands into searing cooking oil.

He regularly dips his fingers into a bubbling vat of oil, which is heated up to 200C, to pluck out the fried fish."

WTF?!?

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Revealed: EPA’s highest-paid employee did no work for years, told colleagues he was secret agent for the CIA instead « Hot Air

Revealed: EPA’s highest-paid employee did no work for years, told colleagues he was secret agent for the CIA instead « Hot Air: "Despite an internal investigation and looming prison sentence, some of Beale’s more slow-witted pals at the EPA — who are crafting America’s environmental policy as I write this — apparently still believe that he’s a spy and is simply choosing to “take one for the team” by accepting jail time in order to preserve the secrecy of CIA operations in the field. Don’t underestimate a fool’s willingness to protect his ego by willingly continuing to be fooled. And the punchline is, if Beale hadn’t pushed his greed to an even more absurd length, he’d probably have gotten away with it. He threw a big retirement party for himself aboard a yacht in September 2011; six months later, his boss discovered that he was still on the payroll and the resulting probe uncovered that … he wasn’t officially retired. He was still collecting checks. "

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Best of the Web Today: Are Boys Irrational? - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Are Boys Irrational? - WSJ.com: "City Journal's Kay Hymowitz has an informative and important new essay out surveying the social-science research into the effects of fatherless household on boys and young men. (Spoiler: They're baneful.) But Hymowitz, generally an astute observer, opens by framing her argument in terms of an immense fallacy of presumption, the unraveling of which should be helpful in any consideration of what those empirical findings mean."

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Kerry: If North Korea has a nuke, why, that would be a problem « Hot Air

Kerry: If North Korea has a nuke, why, that would be a problem « Hot Air: "How’s this for a confidence-builder as John Kerry prepares to sign off on a deal with Iran that will supposedly keep the mullahcracy from developing their own nuclear weapons? In an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, the Secretary of State appears unaware that North Korea has repeatedly proven itself to have nuclear weapons with three tests of its devices. Instead, Kerry talks about the DPRK regime “potentially” having nuclear weapons in the middle of discussing the show trial and execution of the new Dear Leader’s uncle."

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Should we cheer a China claim on the Moon? « The Greenroom

Should we cheer a China claim on the Moon? « The Greenroom: "Glenn Reynolds argues yes — but not because China deserves to sustain such a claim. Instead, Glenn thinks that a bold move to abrogate or bypass the 1967 Outer Space Treaty will spark a “gold rush,” and finally a competitive commercial market for exploration:

Though the landing was a big deal in China, most of the rest of the world responded with a yawn. Moon landing? Been there, done that.

But October Sky author Homer Hickam was more excited. He wondered on Twitter if China might want to make a territorial claim on the moon, noting that the area the lander is exploring may contain an abundance of Helium-3, a potentially valuable fusion energy fuel that is found only on the moon. According to former astronaut/geologist Harrison Schmitt, China “has made no secret” of its interest in Helium-3. Schmitt observes, “I would assume that this mission is both a geopolitical statement and a test of some hardware and software related to mining and processing of the lunar regolith.”"

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Video: Obamacare shutters Nevada mega-gym’s daycare facility « The Greenroom

Video: Obamacare shutters Nevada mega-gym’s daycare facility « The Greenroom: "Liberals have taken to whining about conservatives using Obamacare as a catch-all scapegoat for all of society’s ills.  To the extent that the new law is being blamed for “everything” — an exaggeration, obviously — Obamacare supporters have no one to blame but themselves.  When one markets a controversial healthcare overhaul as a panacea that will benefit everyone, with no trade-offs or losers, one should expect to reap the whirlwind when promised rainbows and butterflies fail to materialize and people start to notice.  Lies of the year don’t explode in a vacuum.  There are victims and consequences.  O’s loyalists can “explain” until they’re blue in the face; people aren’t buying the spin.  You broke it, you bought it, lefties. “B-b-but, the American healthcare system was flawed, with costs increasing, before the passage of Obamacare,” they protest.  No argument here.  But it was this president and his Congressional allies who insisted that their exorbitantly costly power-grab would eliminate these problems and usher in a new era of affordability and fairness. It hasn't. Indeed, the failure has been so comprehensive that by a wide margin, Americans now say they’d prefer to turn back to the old, flawed system rather than forge ahead with the new regime."

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Vice President Joe Biden gropes White House reporter | The Daily Caller

Vice President Joe Biden gropes White House reporter | The Daily Caller: "Sure, he likely didn’t mean anything overtly sexual by it. But Vice President Joe Biden is a folksy kind of guy who has officially entered dirty old man territory and done something sure to elicit laughs within the White House Press Corps. Look how he’s manhandling The Hill‘s White House Correspondent Aime Parnes for this photograph taken at a recent holiday party that she posted on her Facebook page. For most people’s tastes he’s grazing way too close to the vicinity of her abdomen. And watch her reaction. Is it shock, awe, utter disbelief? Whatever the expression, she appeared to roll with it with her hands firmly in control of his at least until the shot was over. If we were to guess her words we’d wager, “OH F–K SO THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING.”"

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Climate change expert's fraud was 'crime of massive proportion,' say feds - Investigations

Climate change expert's fraud was 'crime of massive proportion,' say feds - Investigations: "John C. Beale, who pled guilty in September to bilking the government out of nearly $1 million in salary and other benefits  over a decade, will be sentenced in a Washington, D.C., federal court on Wednesday. In a newly filed sentencing memo, prosecutors said that his lies were a "crime of massive proportion" that were “offensive” to those who actually do dangerous work for the CIA.

Beale’s lawyer, while acknowledging his guilt, has asked for leniency and offered a psychological explanation for the climate expert’s bizarre tales.

“With the help of his therapist,” wrote attorney John Kern, “Mr. Beale has come to recognize that, beyond the motive of greed, his theft and deception were animated by a highly self-destructive and dysfunctional need to engage in excessively reckless, risky behavior.” Kern also said Beale was driven “to manipulate those around him through the fabrication of grandiose narratives … that are fueled by his insecurities.”"

This is ridiculous.  How he got away with it for so long is anybody's guess.  Probably because the government is terrible at holding employees accountable (and highly gullible it seems.)

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Federal Judge: When One Partner Is Dying, Same-Sex Couples Should Be Able To Marry Early

Federal Judge: When One Partner Is Dying, Same-Sex Couples Should Be Able To Marry Early: "A federal judge in Illinois has said same-sex couples in the state who face terminal illness should be able to marry ahead of when the state’s marriage equality law takes effect in June 2014. The only question that remains for the court is whether a method can be devised for enforcing such an order."

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The Death of Obama's "Noble Lie" - Reason.com

The Death of Obama's "Noble Lie" - Reason.com: "Back in 2009, to accuse President Barack Obama of lying about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was to crawl onto a pretty lonely branch. In December of that year, when I leveled the charge in response to the president's knowing mischaracterization of the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of his signature piece of legislation, I was called "flagrantly dishonest" by none other than the (rightly respected) civil liberties blogger/reporter Glenn Greenwald."

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Peter O’Toole, RIP « The Greenroom

Peter O’Toole, RIP « The Greenroom: "And for that matter, RIP Tom Laughlin, too, the star of the Billy Jack films, which no one would confuse with High Art, but which have a cachet all their own.  Mike Huckabee and I discussed the man-card value of Billy Jack a few years ago.

Peter O’Toole was one of the greats of the cinema and stage, offering memorable roles for decades — Lawrence of Arabia, My Favorite Year, The Stunt Man, to his recent role in For Greater Glory, which told the story of the Mexican government’s war on the Catholic Church nearly a century ago.  He has at least one film in the can, Katherine of Alexander, and perhaps another in Mary, although it’s not clear whether any filming has taken place in that production yet."

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Freakishly realistic telemarketing robots are denying they're robots

Freakishly realistic telemarketing robots are denying they're robots: "This is how it starts, people. First we get our chatbots to sound and act realistic — and then we get them to convince everyone they're actually human. Listen to this crazy conversation between Time's Michael Scherer and a telemarketing robot who refuses to admit her true artificial nature.

Recently, Time Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer received a phone call from an apparently bright and engaging woman asking him if he wanted a deal on his health insurance. But he soon got the feeling something wasn't quite right."

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Gingrich Schools Reich: 'Every Major City Which Is a Poverty Center Is Run By Democrats' | NewsBusters

Gingrich Schools Reich: 'Every Major City Which Is a Poverty Center Is Run By Democrats' | NewsBusters: "ABC This Week viewers were treated to a classic conservative versus liberal debate Sunday.

When former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich tried to blame the increase in poverty in the past five years on Republicans, former Speaker of the House and current CNN host Newt Gingrich called it "baloney" firing back, "Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats.""

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Bob Barker Endorses Republican in U.S. House Special Election | NewsBusters

Bob Barker Endorses Republican in U.S. House Special Election | NewsBusters: "Adam Wollner at NPR’s It’s All Politics blog reported that longtime “Price Is Right” host Bob Barker is endorsing a Republican for Congress in the special election to replace Rew. C.W. “Bill” Young, who recently died in office.

Barker, who's just turned 90 and retired from the popular CBS daytime show in 2007 after 35 years, appeared in a television ad Thursday on behalf of David Jolly, a lobbyist and former general counsel to Young in Florida’s 13th district."

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Photographer Who Took Obama ‘Selfie’ Shot at Mandela Funeral Now Says He’s ‘Ashamed of Mankind’ | NewsBusters

Photographer Who Took Obama ‘Selfie’ Shot at Mandela Funeral Now Says He’s ‘Ashamed of Mankind’ | NewsBusters: "Perhaps the most-discussed news item out of the Mandela funeral trip was a picture that was taken of Obama, British prime minister David Cameron, and Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt taking a “selfie” -- a self-portrait usually shot with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone -- a moment that was caught by Roberto Schmidt, a photographer for the French Press Agency. Now, Schmidt says that the overwhelming interest in the shot makes him “ashamed of mankind.”

In an article for National Review Online, Laura Bennett stated: “The big news from yesterday’s Mandela memorial was not a rousing speech or particularly moving tribute. It was a photo, captured late in the ceremony” of the three world leaders with their “faces smushed together.”"

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