THE REVOLUTION OF 2014
This could be what I call a "FS Year" - like Sinatra sings in It Was A Very Good Year, 2014 could "pour sweet and clear" for freedom in America, if only we take advantage of the opportunity history is handing us. Pick your metaphor or adage. The setup for a political "perfect storm," an epic "correlation of forces," an ideal example of "the greater the danger, the greater the opportunity" is here before us. We have a chance at victory on not just one, but on both of our country's most important battlefields. The stakes couldn't be higher. Which means if we blow it this year, surmounting 2016 will be as hard as climbing Everest without oxygen.
THE BENGHAZI BACKFIRE
A policeman walking his beat late one night spotted a drunk on his hands and knees in front of a lamppost, peering intently at the ground. "I'm looking for my car keys," explained the drunk after the cop asked him what he was doing. After helping the drunk search for a few fruitless minutes, the cop asked: "Are you sure this is where you dropped them?" "No, I lost them in the park across the street," the drunk replied. "So why are you looking for them here?" asked the exasperated cop. "Because the light is so much better," the drunk replied. The joke illustrates the "streetlight effect" -- bias in scientific studies which occurs when researchers look where it's easiest rather than where answers are most likely to be found. I was reminded of it by a lengthy article in the New York Times on Sunday (12/29). That's because while it's hard to find the truth when you look in the wrong places, it's harder still when you are only pretending to look.
MY FANTASY RESOLUTIONS
New Year's resolutions are difficult to keep. That is why I find it easier to make them for others, rather than myself, as part of my other-people improvement program. The country would not be on the road to ruin if those in government would follow the New Year's resolutions I propose for them, starting with President Obama (as part of my fantasy world). Resolution #1: The President should start telling the truth. As is well known, the president has difficulty telling the truth, which, as most children learn at an early age, can lead to many troubles. He must have a review committee to verify the truth of his statements and speeches before he makes them. This would also have the side benefit of causing the president to say far less. Resolution #2:...
HOW OBAMA PLANS TO GET THE WOMEN’S VOTE BACK
News item: New York Post, December 27, 2013: Women Comprise Biggest Opposition to Obamacare OBAMA: That's impossible. I'm polling below zero? WHITE HOUSE POLLSTER: I've never seen anything like it, sir. The "negative numbers" poll hypothesis was discarded a generation ago. The only explanation is that even the imaginary voters we regularly survey to boost your ratings are down on you. OBAMA: Intolerable. I want my blocs back. Women--my women!-- have slip-slided away. HHS? KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: We're paying for abortions now, Mr. President. Regain women's loyalty by paying them to have abortions, say $500 per protoplasmic blob. And think of the benefits to humanity of all the fetal stem cells we'd harvest. OBAMA: Make it so. George? SOROS: Giff generous bonus for twins und triplets, zir. OBAMA: Excellent! New fertility and abortion clinics will spring up all over the country to cash in, meaning an uptick in the next year's jobs reports. JOE BIDEN:
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/27/13
Well, here we are - the last HFR of 2013. We start looking forward to what's in store for 2014 next week. For now, let's reflect on what's been going on in the world. The best political cartoonist in the country is the IBD's Mike Ramirez. On Christmas Eve (12/24), he epitomized the year-long train wreck of the Republican Establishment: 
And sure enough, right on cue, yesterday (12/26) Reince Preibus issued a RNC statement wishing everyone a "Happy Kwanzaa!" - proving Ramirez right about the GOP being the Stupid Spineless Party.
TODAY IS BETTER THAN THE GOOD OLD DAYS
If you think things are bad, you might be consoled in knowing that most things for most people on the globe were never better than in 2013. We may pine for "the good old days," but in truth the good old days were not so good for most people compared to now. The good news is that most people are living longer with more real income and more security than they did a year ago, a decade ago, or at any time in history. Global personal safety is at a record high. The number of people killed in wars last year was at most a few thousand -- a tragedy, but only for a minuscule portion of the world's population -- unlike the tens of millions killed per year during the world wars of the last century. Violent crime and murder rates are declining almost everywhere in the world. Life expectancy is highly correlated with economic well-being and the quality of medical care. Global poverty is diminishing at a very rapid rate, and very few now starve to death, but when they do, it is almost always caused by incompetent or venal governments. If things are really getting better, which they are, then why so much pessimism? Science writer and frequent TTP guest columnist Matt Ridley explains it well in his book The Rational Optimist:
THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS IS TOMORROW
I want to wish you the Merriest of Christmases today, Wednesday December 25, but according to the song, the First Day of Christmas is the day after Christmas, December 26. Ancient Christians celebrated "The Holidays," as our militant secularists insist on referring to them now, starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th with the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany. Start with 12/26 and end with 1/6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas. You may be really tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, yet you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in a pear tree and eight maids a-milking have to do with the birth of the founder of Christianity. So I thought we might take a break from Serious Thoughts About World Events, and take a look at the song's origin, meaning, and myth.
A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FOR REGRESSIVE ANTI-CHRISTIANS
Merry Christmas. If that offends you, why should I care? It's your problem, not mine. Let me explain your problem a little more fully. You folks don't want to be called "liberals" any more because most everyone else has figured out you don't believe in liberty but its opposite - the repression of individual liberty by a fascist nanny state. So now you demand to be called "progressives" - but we will not comply. For you believe in a regression away from freedom. You are part of the past, not of the future. You deserve to be called "regressives." Another thing you are a regression from is reality. Christmastime is an opportune moment to focus on one fundamental aspect of reality about America: America is a Christian country. It's your job to deal with that, because you're not going to change this fact. America has always been a Christian country, and - open wide now, because you're going to have to swallow this - it will continue to be. You have been waging a war against Christmas and Christianity, but you are going to fail. Here's why.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/20/13
Jack Kelly sure is right - Christmas has indeed come one week early. Not only has there been the series of judicial decisions he itemizes - but day before yesterday, the clueless losers trying to con twenty-somethings into buying Zerocare completely and totally jumped the shark. Just in case you got lost in the Asteroid Belt and didn't see it, Zero's two-digit IQ lobbyists of OFA (Organizing for America) actually tweeted this pitch: 
The nerdy metrosexual twit in his onesies is an OFA employee named Ethan Krupp. Dubbed "Pajama Boy," the tweet has gone instantly mega-viral with a tsunami of ridicule and mockery flooding the internet. Two samples plucked from the flood:
CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY
Christmas has come a little early for lovers of liberty, thanks to five federal judges and a White House task force. *The National Security Agency's collection of "metadata" on nearly all telephone calls made to, from or within the United States appears to violate the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said Monday (12/16). "I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate' and ‘arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval," Judge Leon said. *During oral arguments in a different case last month, U.S. District Judge William Pauley also expressed skepticism about the legal basis for the NSA collection program. Three more judges gave us Christmas presents.