Sleepless in Midland

push-ups for pot possession -- more like that, please

This was a good example of street justice dispensed by the police. See Arlington police officer allows teen do push-ups instead of jail time for smoking weed:

When he went out, he saw the teenager finishing a cigarette and discarding it, smelling marijuana as he approached.

"Marijuana gives [off] a distinct odor. He knew what the teen was up to," said Lt. Chris Cook with Arlington police.

Lt. Cook said the teen was respectful and realized he'd made a mistake. While Officer Ball could have arrested him, he decided to do something different.

"He said, 'You give me 200 push-ups, I won't put you in jail," said Lt. Cook.

Let's expand the concept. Instead of speeding tickets, the traffic officers should assign some workout routine. Not everyone could do 200 push-ups in a short amount of time, but surely there's some exercise that could be punitive yet exhilarating. Jumping jacks on the side of the highway, for example. The more humiliating the better.

Here's where it could get good -- abled people parking their cars in disabled spots. The ticket fine is sky high in Texas. If a healthy person uses one of those spots then a couple of laps around the parking lot seems appropriate.

They'd have a choice, of course. They could always opt to pay the fine.

Terrorists, we're crazier than you are -- our youth go to malls to fight just from social media invite

Watching reruns of "Christmas Story" over the holiday weekend the typical viewer was exposed to a different era when Christmas was indeed a family holiday. If they kept watching, the nightly news told them how gangs of youngsters went to malls in 12 different states to fight. Yes, to fight. The inspiration for this mayhem supposedly was a notice on social media.

Is that crazy, or what? It's crazy.

But let's look at this in a different light. Crazies with a certain level of religious zealotry like to kill innocent people in the name of their god. Well, one defensive tactic in any effort to deter an attacker is to convince said attacker that the presumed victim is crazier than the attacker.

If there's any question of whether we're crazy, see Police suspect social media spurred mall violence.

We're crazier than the terrorists.

Obsessive adherence to the leftist agenda is a symptom of a psychological condition

Charles Battig says it more succinctly in Progressivism as a mental illness where he quotes these four statements from Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., to wit:

1. The laws and moral codes--the rules--that properly govern human conduct arise from, and must be compatible with, the biological, psychological and social nature of man.

2. The liberal agenda's Modern Parental State violates all of the rules that make ordered liberty possible.

3. The modern liberal agenda is a transference neurosis of the modern liberal mind, acted out in the world's economic, social and political theaters.

4. The liberal agenda's Modern Permissive Culture corrupts the foundations of civilized freedom and is destroying America's magnificent political achievements.

Numbers 2 and 4 seem almost contradictory. But it does fit when we consider that the cradle to grave regulatory environment where gay marriage is encouraged, but declining to bake the cake is grounds for public ridicule, boycotts, and legal action.

Number 3 left me confused, especially the phrase "transference neurosis." It's defined here as "a phenomenon occurring in most psychoanalyses, in which the patient undergoes, with the analyst as the object, an intense repetition of childhood conflicts, reexperiencing impulses, feelings, and fantasies that originally developed in relation to the parent."

Fitting that into the context must mean that politics is the tool with which the leftist acts out his/her childhood conflicts. Now it all makes sense.

It's probably insulting to progressives to psychoanalyze them like that. But they do it to conservatives all the time with what seems motivated more by a desire to insult than to understand. Therefore, just as they seek condescending explanations for why someone could possibly oppose them, we conservatives seek explanations for why they can't be more accepting of people with whom they disagree.

Finally, my take is that people are motivated by their own self interest, even if it's only the self satisfaction of casting a protest vote. But anyone obsessed with politics above and beyond that is a little bit crazy.

Mars -- the captivating TV mini-series from Nat Geographic

I watched a recording of the final episode of Mars on Christmas morning, and somehow it seemed fitting to experience the possibility of discovery of new life on that particular holiday.

Rottentomatoes gave it warm reviews -- 63/58. So maybe the shows they have for comparison are more entertaining to their reviewers.

It's Elon Musk's vision of a manned mission to Mars, and most of the known risks are presented. The actual travel time between the two planets would be long, and thankfully, that happened off screen. And somehow they managed to overcome the cancer risk from radiation exposure during the trip.

Like that masterful real life crew of Apollo 13, the intrepid explorers portrayed in the TV series prevailed over the environment and the hardships it presented. Although, it's probably won't give too much away to point out that one of their members didn't adapt as well as the others.

All in all, it was a great TV mini-series. It doesn't make me want to volunteer for the expedition -- plenty of others have signed up already -- but it does make me hope to live long enough to see it happen. The U.S. couldn't afford it, but maybe a consortium of billionaires and 1st world countries could all chip in. Just like in the movie!

Musk is a master crony capitalist, and the series was a long commercial. It was made when the pundits were predicting a Clinton victory. So one has to wonder whether season two will be directed at Trump supporters. Would it matter? It's not too hard to imagine Trump supporting Musk's space endeavors, nor is it hard to imagine the "Trump" brand emblazoned on a compound on the red planet.

Who will ghost write Obama's new book if Bill Ayers is unavailable?

Kaitlan Collins at Dailycaller.com relays a report that Barack Obama Needs Time To Think About Himself Once He’s Out Of Office which includes the following:

Obama told Axelrod he plans on “writing a book and self-analyzing his time in office” during that time.

Oh my. Fact checkers -- legitimate ones -- will be working overtime to expose all the fake news in that book.

But the question that first springs to mind is, who will write it? Jack Cashill has pretty much proven as well as anyone could that Bill Ayers wrote Obama's first autobiography. See Did Bill Ayers Write Obama’s “Dreams”? To wit:

In short, Ayers had the means, the motive, the time, the place and the literary ability to jumpstart Obama’s career. And, as Ayers had to know, a lovely memoir under Obama’s belt made for a much better resume than an unfulfilled contract over his head. ...

Obama dissembles lethally when he describes Ayers as “just some guy in my neighborhood.” He is much more than that and quite possibly, as I have argued, the real author of Dreams From My Father.

Ayers has little motive to write another one. If some third party is brought in to ghost it, that writer will not only have to write for Obama, but he/she will have to sound like Ayers. That seems like a tall order.

This thief left behind a print of his bare behind

Seems that a thief left a partial print of his bare arse on the glass door of a shop in Wodonga, Australia, after a break-in. And the news writers had a field day. See, for example, Police still sniffing around for Wodonga bum print thief. To wit:

Authorities believe they know the cheeky culprit, but are not ruling out a line-up in order to help crack the case.

Oh boy, are they having a good time with that one?!

A few days later police charged a 15 year old boy for the crime. But it wasn't known whether some poor print specialist had to compare the crime scene print with the real thing.

---

Via Arbroath who we wish a successful and speedy recovery.

Have a holly, jolly Christmas

What more could you ask of a holiday? Gifts! Food! Fun!

Sure, it's actually Jesus' birthday, but he would probably want everyone to have a good time.

So do it! Have a holly, jolly Christmas, everyone!

Gloria Alvarez -- a voice of reason in South America

As everyone knows by now, John Stossel's TV show on Fox News has ended. I'll miss him even though I missed most of his shows. He was a breath of fresh air for conservatives and liberals alike, although his libertarian message seemed more at home on a conservative network than it did when he was on a liberal one.

This came to mind when I ran across a link to a segment from his show featuring Gloria Alvarez. Mark J. Perry has a tribute to Stossel at John Stossel’s TV show ends — his contributions to advancing libertarian principles have been unmatched, invaluable. There he linked to a youtube segment of a show I actually did see.

If you've got any concern for South America and its people, this is a must see. Gloria Alvarez is an amazing speaker, and let's hope she is persuasive, because she has a message about socialism South Americans need to hear.

It should be clear that socialism has a brilliant but short life span. And it always ends in misery. (Yeah, I know, Sweden seems to be an exception. But whatever magic keeps them going hasn't occurred elsewhere.)

Anyway, here's John Stossel's interview with Gloria Alvarez. It's short. Watch it. With enough young people in South America like her, there's hope.

So Obama compares himself with MLK

The Daily Caller tells us this: Humble Brag — Obama Says He’s Basically Been The MLK For Hondurans. He says that apparently because he believes open borders in the U.S. are best for the little children of the world and their families.

But the comparison with Martin Luther King, Jr., is apt only so far as both won a Nobel Peace Prize, although the only thing Obama did to win it was to get elected to the Presidency. He had a lot of help, but he did win the job twice.

However, MLK is best known for his efforts to end racism against blacks. And those of us who lived through that era must conclude that he was quite successful in helping end racial strife. Few can forget those famous words:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Right on.

Unfortunately, President Obama blew the opportunity to appreciate King's remarks by creating more racial strife than we've seen in years. Instead of comparing himself to Martin Luther King, Jr., a better comparison might be to Al Sharpton.

Why the big cities vote for Democrats

I recall reading years ago about how animal behaviorists showed that rats forced to live in an environment with too many other rats tend to get hostile and aggressive. The implication was that the phenomenon applies to people, too.

Fast forward to 2013 when writers were explaining how it was that Obama beat Romney in the big metropolitan areas, and Romney won in the wide open spaces of flyover country.

One theory was expressed in How the Density of Your County Affects How You Vote. This article argued that the more dense the population was the more likely the people were to vote for Democrats. Excerpt:

People who live close to one another are more likely to know someone of a different color, a different income group, or a different sexual orientation. They therefore rely upon and appreciate the provision of public goods and public services (transit, parks, garbage collection), even as they consume fewer public dollars than their less-densely populated counterparts.

That suggests the race turned on prejudices and public services. But looking back at the rats, the tight pack may have made them meaner. And it was easier to strike out at someone who is different, someone belonging to another tribe, someone who they wouldn't likely have to share an elevator with. That would be Republicans.

Fast forward again to 2016 and the same thing happened -- the big cities voted for Clinton for the most part. Now listen to Democrats, and you sure can hear that mean streak.

news about exploding e-cigs is interesting but not especially helpful

A lot of e-cigarette smokers have decided that the benefits outweigh the risk. But there are also a lot of folks who are opposed to the whole idea of e-cigarettes. Some of those folks are in government and some are affiliated with special interest groups.

The idea of exploding e-cigs is frightening. But there's something missing from the news reports. They need to name names. If it were any other industry, eager reporters would be investigating the hell out of this. And specific companies would be identified and pilloried in the press.

But now all we have are pontificating politicians and lawyers displaying their clients. No one is willing to identify a company or product to help e-cig users avoid them.

The media are willing to blame Russia for tampering with the presidential election without having seen any proof. But they really dropped the ball on the case of the exploding e-cigarettes.

Dems want to blame Putin but it was so easy there had to be others who pilfered their data

The common refrain among Democrat pundits these days is that Russia hacked Hillary Clinton and the DNC for the purpose of helping Trump win the election. There are a lot of problems with that narrative. One of the main ones is that Putin would have been better off keeping the information secret for use against Hillary Clinton for Russia's advantage if she won. Furthermore, Russia would benefit from a U.S. president who opposed fossil fuel production.

But here's another issue. It seems that the Hillary's server and DNC's computers were easy to hack. And Podesta was such a novice any half witted trickster could have gotten him to divulge his password at a fake site.

So here's a theory. There was a lot of hacking going on because Hillary, the DNC, and John Podesta made is so easy for them. There must have been several entities and individuals who did it. The next two questions are who passed the information to Wikileaks and why.

It could have been the Russians. But Democrat pundits who grab onto that and say the intent was to get Trump elected need to produce some evidence of the actual intent.

After all, the one thing we learned from the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton is that intent is paramount.

farm subsidies -- will Trump rein them in?

As president, there really isn't much he can do about them except tweet complaints and browbeat Congress.

Subsidies go to large agricultural corporations, they cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, and they distort the market. If they actually do provide some sort of safety net to the family farmer then that's a minor side effect of this government largess.

Fortunately, others see the problem. See The Insane World of Agriculture Subsidies and To Drain the Swamp, Trump Must Reform Agricultural Policy, for example.

Unfortunately, a lot of those subsidies went to companies in states Donald Trump carried. Conservatives, libertarians and independents would like to see a reduction in government expenditures. And a cut to the farm subsidies would certainly seem appropriate. But in his view, the farm industry may be one of those he thinks deserves a handout.

There are many in Congress who think farm subsidies are just fine. So it may be unrealistic to hope to see some reform. But we'll see.

One good reason Putin wouldn't want Hillary as president after all

The spin these days is that Vlad Putin initiated the hacking of the DNC and the successful phishing and eventual publishing of John Podesta's emails. And the intent attributed to him by Democrats is that he wanted Donald Trump to be president. Maybe, maybe not. We've heard too much from them during the campaign to take Democrats or the msm seriously on matters that don't include irrefutable evidence.

Melissa O'Sullivan set forth a theory on why Putin would want Hillary Clinton to win -- Clinton's opposition to fossil fuel energy. Russia is a major producer, and the U.S. is a competitor. If the U.S. energy industry has it tough because the government is trying to stifle it any way it can, that's good for Russia in the world market. Therefore, Russia would prefer Clinton over Trump.

See The Fake-est of Fake News.

The last thing Putin wanted was for Alpha Male Trump to be prez-elect. Look at his picks- Tillerman from Exxon to be Sec State, Perry from Texas to be Sec Energy. Look at Trump’s rhetoric on the Dakota access pipeline. A Trump presidency means carbon based energy-friendly policies. In no way is this in Russia’s interest.

Drill baby drill.

Obama will try to remain relevant -- will the msm oblige?

Not long ago there was speculation that Barack Obama, once he's out of office, would try to establish his own network to try to stay relevant. A post at this blog encouraged him to do that so that he and his cohorts could exercise their lamentations over their victimization in their own bubble.

So here's a quote from this article: Obama's threat to meddle with Trump’s administration if Muslim registry is created. To wit:

Speaking to The Daily Show, Mr Obama, who will be leaving the White House in January, suggested he would not sit idly by if the billionaire implemented policies “going against American values”.

Lefties have been co-opting our language for a long time. And there's an example. The phrase "American values" can't possible mean the same thing to him as it does to those of us who don't subscribe to the leftist agenda. Obama has put his thumb in the eye of real "American values." But for him to sound hypocritical is not a new thing.

Anyway, one has to wonder how big a market there will be for Obama's opinions about current events once he is out of office. Currently, the cable news channels shut down normal programming whenever Trump, Obama, or Clinton walk up to a podium. Most cable viewers are probably getting tired of it. If it continues much longer maybe it's time to turn off the TV and open a book.

Got a problem? It's Trump's fault

"George Bush stole my puppy." I heard that was the caption on a sad little boy's sign in a political cartoon back in the day when GWB was the president. Trump is getting the same treatment.

The best one so far is the woman whose dating life was ruined. See Howard Kurtz' Fine Whine: Now Trump is being attacked for ruining a woman's dating life.

“‘I can’t,’ I told him. ‘I just can’t.’ I’ve lost the desire to attempt the courtship phase.”

And that’s it. Poor Stephanie is depressed, so she doesn’t feel like dating, and it’s all Trump’s fault for messing things up. Sad!

Dang! Can people just get a life?

Happy Bill of Rights day -- December 15

If you know that the 1st ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution are called the Bill of Rights, you would have scored that question correctly on the naturalization test for citizenship.

The Bill of Rights became a part of the U.S. Constitution on December 15, 1791, and President FDR proclaimed 12/15/1941 to be Bill of Rights Day. It stuck, although today there probably aren't that many people who celebrate it.

I plan to. For starters, I'll take a swig from a fifth, then plead the 5th. HA!

For anyone needing a refresher, read the entire Constitution, including the amendments, here.

So Tillerson got along with Putin -- yawn

The typical viewer of the news shows might come away thinking Trump's potential Secretary of State pick, Rex Tillerson, is the worst choice ever because he got along so well with Vladimir Putin. Tillerson even received some sort of Russian friendship award.

The opposition seems to be based on the theory that if Tillerson becomes Secretary of State he will put this personal relationship with Putin ahead of the USA.

But shouldn't Russians be just as worried that Putin would put his friendship with Tillerson over his love for Mother Russia? Somehow they don't seem worried about that.

As for Tillerson, Exxon shareholders weren't disturbed by the relationship because obviously it had to be good for Exxon. The idea that he would put his relationship with Putin over his loyalty to the company seems absurd. The same principle applies to the Secretary of State post. To think that Tillerson would put his love for Putin over his loyalty to the USA requires the kind of conspiracy theory only partisan politics can bring out.

troubling future -- while our kids huddle in safe spaces with their participation trophies, Iranian kids train to shoot us

It's always troubling to hear that our enemies are training their children to kill us. It's reminiscent of the post WWII stories about how the Japanese had trained their soldiers in brutality.

Obama's misguided overtures to Iran have produced nothing but fear in Americans. And it's no help to see articles like this from thesun.co.uk: war games --Iran opens chilling kids’ military theme park with AK47s where children as young as 8 fire bullets at US flags and effigies of the Israeli PM. Excerpt:

The City of Games for Revolutionary Children park lets youngsters dress up in full combat gear and pretend to be attacking Iran’s enemies like Israel and the West.

They are shown how to fire plastic bullets and artillery shells at US flags and at an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ...

There’s also assault courses where they can learn to scale walls and crawl under ropes and through barbed wire while orders are barked at them by trainers and the sound of machine gun fire is played through speakers.

It is aimed at boys aged 8-13 and entry is free to the park near Mashad, Iran’s second largest city.

Not to worry. They will be no match for our own kids when they emerge from their safe spaces full of the confidence they got from their participation trophies.

hot wiring with high tech -- It's official, devices let thieves start our cars

We've been hearing about these devices for a couple of years. And it's still not clear just how common they are. But assuming that big car theft rings like the ones we see in the movies are real, we can probably assume they know about them.

The primary source of this news is the National Insurance Crime Bureau. See NICB Reveals Mystery Device That Opens and Starts Vehicles:

The device obtained by NICB was purchased via a third-party security expert from an overseas company. It was developed by engineers in an effort to provide manufacturers and other anti-theft organizations the ability to test the vulnerability of various vehicles’ systems. Called a “Relay Attack” unit, this particular model only works on cars and trucks that use a keyless remote and a push-button ignition. ...

The vehicles were tested to see if the device could:
open the door
start the vehicle
drive it away
turn off and restart the engine without the original fob present

The NICB was able to open 19 (54 percent) of the vehicles and start and drive away 18 (51 percent) of them. Of the 18 that were started, after driving them away and turning off the ignition, the device was used to restart 12 (34 percent) of the vehicles.

It makes sense that a car manufacturer would make a master key use at the dealers' shops. And it was only a matter of time before some unscrupulous mechanic pilfered and copied one of those keys.

I miss the good old days when a thief would use a slim jim to break in, then hot wire our cars like they did in the movies.

P.S. Next thing you know someone will invent a master wheel lock key so the tire thief doesn't have to make his own like this guy did.

healthcare providers still using Windows XP make themselves vulnerability

Anyone who has visited a doctor's office or hospital may have caught a glimpse of the idle screen on a computer monitor. The last one I saw showed the Windows XP logo. Turns out there are lots of health care providers who still use Windows XP in spite of the lack of support from Microsoft. I concluded that Microsoft must have outsourced the right to help secure those old systems. But that was a wrong guess.

This comes to our attention today because of this article at NakedSecurity.sophos.com. See Windows XP ‘still widespread’ among healthcare providers:

Capture Billing, a medical billing organization based in South Riding, Virginia, estimates on its website that one in four of the world’s PCs still run Windows XP and it’s likely many healthcare facilities need to “take corrective action” immediately. The company warns that such organizations might be violating HIPAA.

Hackers who are able to sneak in ancient malware can go undetected by modern anti-virus software. But having an updated system is still no guarantee of safety. All it takes is a system connected to the internet and some gullible user clicking an unsafe email attachment. It was only a few months ago that Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center got hacked and ended up paying ransom to get back access to their medical records.

Democrats in Texas show their colors when it comes to tax hikes and government debt

Texas is much like the rest of the U.S. politically -- the populated areas vote Democrat, and the fly-over portions votes Republican. True to form, voters in three big Texas cities voted to take on huge debt burdens -- $720 million in Austin for a transportation bond; $1 billion in Arlington for a ball park; and $450 million in San Antonio for education. See Blue cities in red state of Texas vote themselves deeper into debt.

Here in little Midland, Texas, citizens had their say, and last September elected leaders hiked their taxes anyway. To escape the red state mentality of tax-and-spend it would seem that one would have to seek even smaller communities, but even then, there's no guarantee.

Meanwhile, all those debts and promises eventually come due. And at least one writer, when looking at Dallas' underfunded police and firefighter pension liability asked, Dallas to Declare Bankruptcy? That may have been a bit of hyperbole, but the problem of local leaders being tempted to over-promise and hike taxes is ever present.

Well, guess who really is moving to Canada -- Mexican refugees

Canada is getting ready for an influx of refugees from Mexico if they aren't allowed to resettle in the U.S. See John McCallum says Mexican visa could be 'reimposed' if refugee claims spike.

CBC News has learned officials at IRCC and other departments have held high-level meetings to discuss a potential flood of Mexican asylum-seekers due to both the visa lift and the result of the U.S. election.

It's interesting that the "refugee" status is being assigned to our Southern neighbors, although that's probably nothing new. It's reasonable enough to assume the narco-terrorist cartels can be sufficiently violent to generate refugees. Although, it's ironic that the very same cartels run the businesses that smuggle immigrants into the U.S.

Meanwhile, we heard cries from some wealthy celebrities that they'll leave the U.S. if Trump won. They could probably afford to go anywhere they would be welcome. But Canada would seem to be a likely choice. But who would have guessed it would be Mexicans who were rejected by the U.S.?

One celebrity may actually leave, if he can be believed. That makes one: Hollywood’s George Lopez insists he really will leave the country due to Trump. Now where would he go? He wouldn't say. Mexico is probably out of consideration, but maybe he can get refugee status in Canada.

Republicans, don't fall for that 3 year trap on Obamacare repeal and replace

It's a trap! It's a trap!

Prominent lawmakers proclaim that three years is a suitable time for replacing Obamacare. One would think it would be Democrats who are trying to stretch it out to three years, but no, it's Republicans. See It could take 3 years for Republicans to replace Obamacare. Excerpt:

“We’re talking about a three-year transition now that we actually have a president who is likely to sign the repeal into law,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday, according to Politico. “People are being, understandably cautious, to make sure nobody’s dropped through the cracks.”

Chuck Schumer is egging them on. To wit:

"They know they can't just repeal it, so they say we'll do it three years from now," the New York Democrat said. "They have nothing to put in its place, and believe me, just repealing Obamacare -- even though they have nothing to put in its place and saying they'll do it sometime down the road -- will cause huge calamity from one end of American to the other."

For the next two years Democrats and the main stream media will be drumming into the public consciousness how crazy Trump is and how mean Republicans are in general. Trump hysteria started during the campaign, and in the month since the election it has metastasized into full blown Trump derangement syndrome. There's obviously an audience for this. And it will get worse.

By 2018 voters will be suitably brainwashed and ready for change. And Democrats will win control of the House or the Senate. Then any chance for a repeal-and-replace will vanish.

Republicans, do it now! There's a window of opportunity that will eventually close. Democrats are counting on Republicans missing it.

Simply Fit Board -- wait, what about that hole it made in the floor

I certainly don't want to bash Lori Greiner. She's one of the most personable sharks on Shark Tank -- there are some on the panel most people wouldn't want as a partner because they don't like the idea of groveling to an authoritarian.

But it looks like there's an important "feature" associated with usage of the Simply Fit Board currently experiencing an advertising blitz. Watch the ad at this Youtube site.

The user stands atop the curved board then does the peppermint twist to get a good workout. All well and good. But the board twists on the floor with the weight of a human body. And whether it's a carpet or hard floor, the board is going to grind into it leaving a hole or at least a worn spot.

So here's a product for a future Shark Tank applicant -- a floor protecting mat for the Simply Fit Board. Surely Lori Greiner will grab that one before one of her shark competitors snatches it out from under her.

Dreaming of single payer healthcare? The VA is your worst nightmare.

Mark Steyn tells what happens from time to time in Britain. A story will make the media rounds about some horrible thing that happened to a patient in a government run hospital, and the public is appropriately appalled. Then a few weeks later there will be a story highlighting some individual expressing gratitude to the service for saving his life. So it balances out, and nothing is done, and everything goes on as if the first incident didn't happen.

Part one of that scenario is happening at the Department of Veterans Affairs, our version of government healthcare. Two recent headlines:

VA dentist resigns after possibly infecting 600 veterans with HIV and hepatitis, and

4 quit after Oklahoma veteran with maggots in wound dies.

Unfortunately for the VA, there didn't seem to be anyone coming along later with a heartwarming story about how they saved his life. They didn't even try to claim the maggots were part of the healing regimen.

Godspeed to those who want to reform the department. Oh, and the same to those who want to repeal and replace Obamacare, too.

Obama to work in media after leaving office, as if we will still need his opinion

If this is true, Barack Obama hopes to establish an online media entity after he leaves office. That's good. Many of us feared he would be one of those pundits the cable channels go to when they need a guest to fill time. And we imagined a constant, tiresome, presence. His writers would give him a pithy statement which would saturate all the channels.

Here's one source for news of his plan: Obama considering post-presidential digital media career, sources say. Via Of course: Obama reportedly considering launching his own media company.

With his own company he can live in his own bubble. And his audience will be like minded people. He won't change any minds, and in fact, few outside that bubble will bother looking at his web channel, Youtube channel, or whatever it is he puts together.

So do it, President Obama. We would prefer that he leave the public sphere like other former presidents have done. But he has no skills -- he can't paint, he can't build a house, he can't even organize a community. But if he must be in a spotlight, then his own private channel is the best route for him and us.

Democrats want vote recount -- mum on fraud crackdown

You really can't blame them. The recount movement is aimed at ousting Donald Trump and achieving a victory for Hillary Clinton, not highlighting voter fraud.

A few individuals are trying to bring voter fraud to light.

Hans von Spakovsky is one. See Hans Von Spakovsky: ‘We Know for a Fact There Are Non-Citizens Registered and Voting All Over the Country’. To wit:

“But anybody who thinks there aren’t organized efforts, just take a look at that undercover video that Project Veritas released, where you had two Democratic campaign consultants saying, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ve been committing fraud in prior elections. We’re going to do it again in this election.’ And how do they do it? They organize groups of people and either bus them or send them in private cars into states to vote where they’re, of course, not supposed to be voting. How are they going to do that? They use the names on the voter registration list of people who have died, who’ve moved away, and false names fraudulently registered,” von Spakovsky continued.

John Fund is another. See his 2014 article, Undercover agents were able to vote as dead people, but election officials are attacking the agents. Excerpt:

Liberals who oppose ballot-security measures claim that there are few prosecutions for voter fraud, which they take to mean that fraud doesn’t happen. But as the New York DOI report demonstrates, it is comically easy, given the sloppy-voter registration records often kept in America, to commit voter fraud in person. (A 2012 study by the Pew Research Center found that nationwide, at least 1.8 million deceased voters are still registered to vote.) And unless someone confesses, in-person voter fraud is very difficult to detect — or stop. New York’s Gothamist news service reported last September that four poll workers in Brooklyn reported they believed people were trying to vote in the name of other registered voters. Police officers observed the problems but did nothing because voter fraud isn’t under the police department’s purview.

Finally, John Lott provides a list of voter registration abuses in It’s Delusional To Think That Voter Fraud Doesn’t Exist.

Most of us think of Democrats when we think of voter fraud, and if that's a realistic assessment, it's little wonder that Democrats work so hard at ignoring the problem.

Why, in the face of obvious voter dissatisfaction, are Dems digging in on the left of center positions?

Many asked why Republicans didn't come around when it appeared liberalism was on the rise, so with Nancy Pelosi as the clear choice of Democrats for Minority Leader, it's a fair question of Democrats. But it's a recurring question. Here's something from my "Pending" file from way back in November 2014.

Gene Schwimmer offered an explanation in Democrats 'On Top of the World':

Could it be that liberals, watching the results streaming in on election eve, concluded that it was not their candidates, but their entire philosophy and worldview that lost on November 4, 2014?

Could it be that that our liberal friends, having flown so near the sun for the first two years of Obama’s presidency, with a liberal president, a House majority and a filibuster-proof Senate, only to crash and burn only six years later, have decided that they have nothing more to lose and so to go for broke for what’s left of possibly – probably? – the last liberal majority and presidential administration ever?

The hypothesis was that they had nothing to lose.

But from where I sit it appears that many Democrats are so thoroughly committed to the leftist agenda that they are content to be the champions of like minded people, thinking they'll eventually regain the majority.

They're right -- they've go the education system cranking out little socialists every year. And TV and the movies continue to perpetuate their agenda. So it's a constant battle for conservatives. Our country is like a nice big yard. It's beautiful, but it needs constant maintenance.

Politico: Muslim employees in government consider quitting -- hmm, this seems like one of those fake news stories

This comes from Muslim government officials huddle on ways to survive Trump:

Muslim-Americans and other minorities holding national security jobs in the federal government fear for their futures under President-elect Donald Trump — enough so that some have held informal meetings to discuss how to protect themselves from potential anti-Muslim witch-hunts. ...

“My initial reaction was, ‘Oh my God, should we quit and leave?’” said a State Department official of Muslim heritage who — like most sources contacted for this story — was unwilling to speak on the record for fear of angering the new administration.

This seems like a reporter-generated story considering all those anonymous sources. Oh sure, some government employees probably did issue those statements, but only after persuasion from the reporter. But let's face it. When government employees threaten to quit because of the election outcome, that's an empty promise. That 35% of government employees who threatened to quit if Trump won are still there, by the way.

Anyway, for a quick list on which employees should quit, see Muslims in State Department, Defense Department, and CIA debate quitting. To wit:

If they won't name radical Islam at the enemy we are fighting, they should resign.
If they view Donald Trump as more of an enemy than ISIS, they should resign.
If they have a problem with focusing on certain mosques and Muslim groups like CAIR to locate terrorists, they should resign.
If they have an objection to limiting immigration from countries where Muslim terrorists come from, they should resign.
If they blame America for terrorism rather than terrorists themselves, they should resign.

Should we hold our breaths?