Climate Fanaticism is Sponsored by the Students' Unions

This is from Toronto's Financial Post (via Blazing Cat Fur):

Engage in a discussion with university students or peruse the social media pages they stare at on their devices, and it quickly becomes evident that climate change is the political issue youth are most passionate about. University campuses are home to a sizable contingent of climate justice activists, who proclaim loudly that climate catastrophe is imminent unless we cripple the fossil fuel industry and end capitalism.

Much of the climate fanaticism is sponsored by the students’ unions. There are campaigns to ban the sale and distribution of plastic water bottles on at least two dozen campuses in Canada. The plastic bottle ban is supported by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), which claims that “communities, not corporations, must control water resources and services.” Evidently, the exchange of money for water is so offensive to their socialist sensitivities that it must be purged from campuses. Surely it won’t be long before students’ unions are setting up “safe spaces” students can retreat to when they feel “triggered” by the sight of plastic bottles.

In addition to the bottle ban, there is a strong and growing movement on campuses – also organized in part by the CFS – lobbying for universities to divest from fossil fuels. The fossil fuel industry “is a rogue industry and it’s immoral for our colleges to continue investing in it,” claims the CFS. According to them, fossil fuel companies are “spending millions of dollars to corrupt our political process,” they are “profiting while our children and communities pay the price” and “their greed for profit threatens the entire planet.” All that’s left is for the CFS to launch a campaign to have the scientist-muzzling, climate-denying oil puppet Stephen Harper deported for setting Canada on the path to Armageddon...

Keep reading.

Official from Loma Linda University Medical Center Discusses #SanBernardinoShooting (VIDEO)

At ABC News:

Inland Regional Center Serves People with Developmental Disabilities (VIDEO)

Watch, at ABC 10 News San Diego, "Regional Center serves people with disabilities."

More at WaPo, "Here’s the inspiring work done at the disability center, site of the Calif. shooting."

Chaos in San Bernardino After Mass Shooting (VIDEO)

From CNN:



PREVIOUSLY: "Cellphones Were Link to Loved Ones in #SanBernardinoShooting."

Cellphones Were Link to Loved Ones in #SanBernardinoShooting

At the Los Angeles Times (which has the best coverage), "'Active shooter.' For those trapped in San Bernardino, cellphones were a link to loved ones."

Also, updates, "What we know."

British Parliament Authorizes New Airstrikes Against Islamic State in Syria (VIDEO)

The British Labour Party's been having an existential time of it.

See the Telegraph UK, "Monday was Labour’s blackest day."

And today's news, "MPs back call to 'confront Isil's evil' by voting resoundingly 397 to 223 to launch air strikes in Syria."

Here's the speech from Labour's former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett:

MPs vote in favour of air strikes against Isil.

Hilary Benn spearheaded a show of defiance against Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday night as MPs voted in favour of air strikes against Isil in Syria following his call to “confront this evil”.

The House of Commons voted by 397 to 223 in favour of extending RAF action across the border from Iraq.

The margin of victory was far great than expected and included 66 Labour MPs, 11 of whom were shadow ministers - further undermining Mr Corbyn’s position.

More at that top link.

UPDATE: Suspect ID'd as Syed Farook #SanBernardinoShooting

There were loads of rumors earlier on the alleged Islamic background of one of the suspects, but the Los Angeles Times is now reporting on the official identification of one of the terrorists.

See, "San Bernardino shooting live updates: Syed Farook named as a suspect in attack that killed 14."

Also at NBC News, "JUST IN: Suspect in #SanBernardino shooting ID'd as Syed Farook; Another believed to be Farook's brother: Sources."

PREVIOUSLY: "UPDATE: Video Shows SWAT Swarm Inland Regional Center #SanBernardinoShooting."

UPDATE: Video Shows SWAT Swarm Inland Regional Center #SanBernardinoShooting

Here's a very concise Facebook update from Molly Grantham, at WBTV, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

And at ABC News 7 Los Angeles, "Video shows SWAT swarm Inland Regional Center, woman thought it was drill."

More at the Los Angeles Times, "Developing Police have killed man and woman connected to San Bernardino mass shooting."

PREVIOUSLY: "At Least 14 People Murdered in Mass Shooting in San Bernardino (VIDEO)."

At Least 14 People Murdered in Mass Shooting in San Bernardino (VIDEO)

This story is developing.

At the San Bernardino Press-Enterprise, "SAN BERNARDINO SHOOTING: Massive police response following shootout with suspects in SUV (BREAKING)."

And at the San Diego Union-Tribune, "14 dead, more than a dozen wounded in California shooting":

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — As many as three gunmen believed to be wearing military-style gear opened fire Wednesday at a Southern California social services center "as if they were on a mission," killing at least 14 people and wounding more than a dozen others, authorities said.

Hours later, police hunting for the attackers riddled a black SUV with gunfire several miles away, and one person lay motionless in the street — dead or dying — with a gun nearby. Officers appeared to remove a second person from the vehicle.

San Bernardino Police Sgt. Vicki Cervantes said authorities had not immediately confirmed whether those in the SUV were involved in the morning carnage. And the hunt went on, apparently for a possible third gunman. A law officer suffered minor injuries in the afternoon shootout.

It was the nation's deadliest mass shooting since the Newton, Connecticut, attack in December 2012 that left 26 children and adults dead.

Police shed no light on a motive for Thursday's massacre, which came just five days after a gunman opened fire at Planned Parenthood in Colorado, killing three.

"They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission," San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said, noting the attackers carried long guns — which can mean rifles or shotguns.

Witnesses said several people locked themselves in their offices, desperately waiting to be rescued by police, after gunfire erupted at the Inland Regional Center, which serves people with developmental disabilities. Some people telephoned their loved ones and whispered to them what was going on.

The attack took place in a conference area where the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health was renting space to hold a banquet, said Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the center. She said the building houses at least 25 employees as well as a library and conference center.

FBI agents and other law enforcement authorities converged on the center and searched room to room for the attacker or attackers, but it was feared that they had escaped.

Ten of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition, and three were in serious condition, San Bernardino Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said. Police cautioned that the numbers of dead and wounded were early estimates that could change.

No weapons were recovered at the center, though authorities were investigating unidentified items in the building and brought in bomb squads, Burguan said.

San Bernardino police spokesman Sgt. Vicki Cervantes told The Associated Press there were reports from witnesses of one to three gunmen.

As the manhunt went on, stores, office buildings and at least one school were locked down in the city of 214,000 people about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, and roads were blocked off...

More at the link.

And note that this is an AP report, so expect the Union-Tribune to have more with local news updates throughout the night.

Here's the YouTube page for CNN, and also the website is here.

Freddie Gray Case: Jury Selected, Baltimore Officer Trial to Begin (VIDEO)

Protesters will burn Baltimore to the ground if the officers are acquitted.

"No justice! No peace!"

At the Baltimore Sun.

Also, "Freddie Gray case: courtroom sketches offer peek inside first trial."

ISIS Prevents Civilians from Fleeing Ramadi

It's getting to be like the East Bloc during the Cold War. You can check in, but you can never leave.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Islamic State Prevents Civilians From Fleeing Iraqi City of Ramadi":

Islamic State fighters are preventing civilians from fleeing the city of Ramadi on pain of death after Iraqi forces warned people to leave ahead of an impending offensive.

Amazon Fulfillment Center in Phoenix, Arizona

I think it's Phoenix.

ABC News 10 Phoenix:



And shop, Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide.

Donald Trump Still Dominating as Ben Carson Fades, Poll Finds (VIDEO)

At CBS News, "Donald Trump still dominating as Ben Carson fades in GOP race, poll shows."

And Nancy Cordes reports, for CBS News This Morning:

Long-Hidden Details Reveal Cruelty of 1972 Munich Attackers

At the New York Times:

In September 1992, two Israeli widows went to the home of their lawyer. When the women arrived, the lawyer told them that he had received some photographs during his recent trip to Munich but that he did not think they should view them. When they insisted, he urged them to let him call a doctor who could be present when they did.

Ilana Romano and Ankie Spitzer, whose husbands were among the Israeli athletes held hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, rejected that request, too. They looked at the pictures that for decades they had been told did not exist, and then agreed never to discuss them publicly.

The attack at the Olympic Village stands as one of sports’ most horrifying episodes. The eight terrorists, representing a branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization, breached the apartments where the Israeli athletes were staying before dawn on
Sept. 5, 1972. That began an international nightmare that lasted more than 20 hours and ended with a disastrous failed rescue attempt.

The treatment of the hostages has long been a subject of speculation, but a more vivid — and disturbing — account of the attack is emerging. For the first time, Ms. Romano, Ms. Spitzer and other victims’ family members are choosing to speak openly about documentation previously unknown to the public in an effort to get their loved ones the recognition they believe is deserved.

Among the most jarring details are these: The Israeli Olympic team members were beaten and, in at least one case, castrated.

“What they did is that they cut off his genitals through his underwear and abused him,” Ms. Romano said of her husband, Yossef. Her voice rose.

“Can you imagine the nine others sitting around tied up?” she continued, speaking in Hebrew through a translator. “They watched this.”

Ms. Romano and Ms. Spitzer, whose husband, Andre, was a fencing coach at the Munich Games and died in the attack, first described the extent of the cruelty during an interview for the coming film “Munich 1972 & Beyond,” a documentary that chronicles the long fight by families of the victims to gain public and official acknowledgment for their loved ones. The film is expected to be released early next year...

Video from the movie production here, "Munich Memorial Project Interview with Dr. Steven Ungerleider."

And more from the Times, here.

Paris Attacker Abdelhamid Abaaoud Offers Insights Into Islamic State Strategy

This is a freakin' great cover story, at Der Spiegel, "Europe's Jihadists: What the Paris Attacks Tell Us about IS Strategy":

The biographies of those behind the Paris attacks offer deep insight into the structures and organization of Islamic State in Europe. And they confirm what experts have long warned about: The new jihadists have our cities in their sights.

On the horrific evening in Paris that only ended after 130 people had been slaughtered in jihadist attacks, something strange happened at 10:28 p.m., a development that only came to the attention of investigators much later. On the upper end of Boulevard Voltaire, where the Bataclan concert hall is located, three terrorists were in the process of gunning down people with their Kalashnikovs and exchanging salvos with the police, who were closing in on them. At the lower end of the street, another man exited from the Metro -- Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected leader behind the attacks.

He had just been a part of the group that had killed 39 people at La Belle Équipe, Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge. For a while afterwards, he had driven around aimlessly in a black SEAT through the neighborhood's streets, before parking it in the Montreuil suburb. He was then caught on CCTV cameras at 10:14 p.m. inside the Croix de Chavaux Metro station, as he jumped the turnstile to avoid paying and traveled back to the scene of the crime.
Over the next two hours, Abaaoud apparently went for a walk through the 10th and 11th arrondissements, the area where he had just unleashed a bloodbath. Investigators later used the geolocation data from his mobile phone to trace his movements that evening. At 12:28 a.m., as anti-terror units were entering the concert hall, the phone was just next to Bataclan. It's as if Abaaoud wanted to convince himself of his own success and view firsthand the inferno he had helped unleash. It wasn't much later that French President François Hollande arrived at the scene.

It's a disturbing thought, but one that also seems fitting for a terrorist as vain and brutal as Abaaoud. This, after all, was not the first time he had outfoxed security forces.

In terms of media coverage, Abaaoud had been Belgium's best-known jihadist, and yet he nevertheless managed to travel back and forth between Syria and Europe without raising attention and would ultimately conduct the Paris attacks together with an entire group of other jihadists. Few others have reported as openly on social media about their adventures in Syria as Abaaoud. In Dabiq magazine, an official propaganda organ of Islamic State (IS), he had boasted in January that he could "plan operations" and come and go as he pleased despite the fact that "my name and my picture have been all over the news."

Is the Worst Yet to Come?

With Abdelhamid Abaaoud and his men, Islamist terror in Europe has reached a new level. It's the first time that a major European city has experienced such a complex attack at the hands of the Islamic State, which resulted in 130 deaths and 350 wounded. In the week that followed, Brussels, another major European city, announced a state of emergency, a rare occasion in the postwar era. The city shut down its Metro system and closed schools. Local authorities said they took the dramatic steps in order to prevent attacks like the ones committed in Paris the previous weekend.

For years, terror experts had been warning about their fears of terrorist attacks in Europe and, in recent days, they appear to have become reality. The attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris and Copenhagen at the beginning of 2015 weren't isolated cases, Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at King's College London, warned in his new book "The New Jihadists," published in September in German. He believes what we have just witnessed are the "first, very dramatic warnings of what will play out on the streets of Europe in the next decades." Europe, he cautions, is standing "at the precipice of a new wave of terror that will still occupy us for a generation to come."

French journalist and jihad expert David Thomson offers a similarly bleak assessment. "Attacks like this will no longer be something completely extraordinary," he warns. "I can't say whether something like this will happen every six months or every year."

Thomson says that, according to his research, an Islamic State unit led by a Frenchman is currently preparing attacks in Europe. After the terrorist attacks in Paris, Western intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Abaaoud and Islamic State leadership in Syria. There had been similar clues after the attack in Beirut the day before and also after IS brought down a Russian jet carrying vacationers over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. When IS issued a claim of responsibility for the Paris attacks a few hours later, it provided no information about the perpetrators. But German authorities say this is standard practice for IS: The order is issued by the leadership, but it is then carried out solely by the terrorist cell.

'Islamic State Is Acting in Europe'

"We must assume that this was the first coordinated series of attacks," an internal government paper dating from Nov. 23 states. "The Islamic State is acting in Europe. The concerted action and the means used in the crime point to very well-trained perpetrators prepared to do anything, as well as longer and highly conspiratorial planning of the attack."

It's a disturbing development. In contrast to al-Qaida before it, terror attacks on the West had not previously been a part of Islamic State strategy. Instead, the group had limited itself to expanding its territories in Iraq and Syria and establishing state-like structures....

A Trove of Mobile Phone Photos

For German jihadists, that included questioning from a German-speaking IS fighter about motivation, ancestry and acquaintances. Former jihadist Ayoub B., from Wolfsburg, likens such units to a kind of Islamic State domestic intelligence agency. Upon arrival, he was interviewed by Mustafa K. and Nils D., two men belonging to a group from Dinslaken who were involved in almost all relevant activities undertaken by Islamic State troops. After questioning, Islamic State divides foreigners into two groups: suicide bombers and fighters. Thus far, German officials have identified more than 20 German suicide bombers.

The life of Abdelhamid Abaaoud of Belgium is better documented than almost any other jihadist. In spring 2014, the French journalist Étienne Huver came into possession of photos and videos that had been saved on Abaaoud's mobile phone. Huver had traveled to the Syrian city of Azaz, just a few kilometers from the border with Turkey, not long after Syrian rebels had finally managed to push the Islamic State out following an extended occupation. In Azaz, Huver was contacted by Syrian rebels who offered him photos of European IS fighters. "They told us: You have to publish them. People are coming from you to us and killing Syrians," Huver says.

The rebels had managed to copy the data with the help of a supporter who worked in an Internet café that Abaaoud frequented. When Abaaoud connected his mobile phone to a computer to share his photos with friends via Facebook, the Internet café employee made a secret copy. All of the photos were taken between Jan. 7 and Feb. 26, 2014.

An image taken on Feb. 1 shows him in Syria for the first time, wearing a wool vest and an oversized Afghan pakol cap and posing for selfies with a Kalashnikov. In one photo, he has his head thrown back and the morning sun shines onto his face. He sent the photo to friends and acquaintances back home in Belgium -- and also to young women he wanted to impress.

The photos and videos Abaaoud made during the ensuing four weeks were for his own private use. They consistently show him with the same group of people: Eight young men who speak accent-free French and broken Arabic with a North African accent. All of them are Frenchmen or French-speaking Belgians. It almost seems as though they were a group of friends enjoying a bit of adventure in Syria.

Francophone Fighting Unit

Abaaoud gave himself the nom de guerre "Abu Omar al-Soussi" -- Abu Omar from the Souss Massa, a region in Morocco where his parents are from. Islamic State, however, dubbed him "Abou Omar Al-Beljiki," transforming him back into the Belgian he was.

Some of those in the group already knew each other from Brussels. Others likely only met in Syria when they joined the French-speaking unit that Belgians and French fighters were assigned to for matters of simplicity. It was deemed too problematic to put them in Arabic-speaking units because they wouldn't have been able to understand the orders given.

German security officials believe that the plans for the Paris attacks were likely developed within this Francophone fighting unit. German Islamic State fighters, by contrast, are spread out among several different units.

During his first days in Azaz, it has become clear, Abaaoud had close contact with notorious German Islamists; in spring 2014, his group lived in the same house with the "Lohberger Brigade," a group of young men from the Lohberg neighborhood of the Ruhr Valley city of Dinslaken who joined the jihad in 2013. During the time they lived together, the two groups posed with decapitated heads in front of the same statue in the center of Azaz.

Early on, Abaaoud seemed fascinated by the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State fighters and documented it on his mobile phone. "They fought for democracy and secularism, and thus, against us," Abaaoud narrates in one video of dead rebel fighters -- a comment that had little to do with the power struggle underway between the Syrian rebels of Azaz and Islamic State.

Abaaoud was notable even then, a natural leader because of his charisma. He instructed his comrades to speak into the camera or told them to take a picture of him next to a foreign IS fighter. He seemed to have a clear goal in mind with his photos and videos: that of encouraging more young people from Europe to join Islamic State....

A Shoot Out in Saint-Denis

It was only four days after the attacks in Paris that officials were able to track down Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who spent the evening of the attacks near the Bataclan. Together with two other members of his cell, Abaaoud had barricaded himself in an apartment in Saint-Denis. One of them was his alleged cousin, Hasna Ait Boulahcen.

Officials believe they were planning another attack, this time on the La Défense quarter of Paris. In Saint-Denis, he and his accomplices engaged in a seven-hour battle with the hundreds of police, anti-terror officers and soldiers who deployed to capture him. The operation ended with their deaths.

French security officials knew soon after the operation that Abaaoud was among the dead, but kept the information quiet for quite some time. The police had found several mobile phones in the possession of the now dead terror suspects and hoped to use them to find Abaaoud's contacts.
Still, two weeks after the attacks in Paris, many questions remain open. Not all of the perpetrators have yet been identified and investigations continue into several suspects.

Most of all, though: Nobody knows if the next Abdelhamid Abaaoud has long-since set up shop in Europe.

'Don't stop ... thinking about tomorrow...'

From yesterday afternoon's drive time, at the Sound L.A.



It's a terrible video, but Christine McVie's seen at this more recent comeback concert, "Fleetwood Mac (with Christine McVie) - Don't Stop - The O2 Arena - Live in London - Sept 25 2013."

Don't Stop
Fleetwood Mac
4:09 PM

Cat Scratch Fever
Ted Nugent
4:05 PM

Beds Are Burning
Midnight Oil
4:01 PM

Telephone Line
Electric Light Orchestra
3:50 PM

Sultans of Swing
Dire Straits
3:45 PM

What Is and What Should Never Be
Led Zeppelin
3:40 PM

Takin' Care of Business
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
3:35 PM

De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
The Police
3:24 PM

Too Much Time On My Hands
Styx
3:19 PM

All Right Now
Free
3:14 PM

Burning Down the House
Talking Heads
3:10 PM

Purple Haze
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
3:07 PM

Can't You See
The Marshall Tucker Band
3:01 PM

ICYMI: Erick Stakelbeck, ISIS Exposed

At Amazon, ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam.

Alana Blanchard Catches Some Great Surf in Mexico (VIDEO)

She's so smooth and effortless.



FLASHBACK: "Afternoon Alana Blanchard Rule 5."

Islamic Jihadists Reach Out to Refugees in Germany

Heh.

Of course it's a huge surprise. Huge!

At WSJ, "German Officials Warn of New Security Risk: Local Extremists Recruiting Refugees":

German officials warn of another security risk: local extremists recruiting refugees https://t.co/IVbT0e4F81 pic.twitter.com/2Wq3oVTcOx

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 30, 2015

BERLIN—The Paris attacks have raised fears of terrorists slipping into Europe by posing as refugees. But in Germany, the top migrant destination, security officials have another worry: Local extremists will recruit the newcomers to join the Islamist cause once they arrive.

German authorities warn that migrants seeking out Arabic-language mosques in search of the familiar are increasingly ending up at those attended by Islamist radicals. In interviews, security officials from Berlin to the southwest German state of Saarland said they have registered a sharp rise in the number of asylum-seekers attending mosques they believed attracted extremists.

Federal officials said they have counted more than 100 cases in which Islamists known to them have tried to establish contact with refugees. According to state and local agencies across the country, Islamists have offered migrants rides, food, shelter and translation help. In some cases, they have invited them to soccer games and grill parties, or brought them copies of the Quran and conservative Muslim clothing.

“They start by saying, ‘We will help you live your faith,’ ” said Torsten Voss, the head of the German domestic intelligence agency’s Hamburg branch. “The Islamist area comes later—that is, of course, their goal.”

Security officials across Germany describe the potential radicalization of migrants, still entering the country by the thousands every day, as a challenge that adds to Europe’s existing security threats. With Germany expecting to take in roughly one million asylum-seekers from the Middle East and elsewhere this year, authorities are scrambling to prevent new pockets of radicalism from forming.

Intelligence services say they have no evidence of successful recruitment efforts, pointing to the risk as a long-term problem.

Many politicians and migrant advocates argue that refugees fleeing Islamic State and religious conflict generally have no interest in extremism. Still, others, including Jewish organizations, warn that many of the migrants are coming from places where radical views are common.

“Many of the refugees hail from societies in which anti-Semitism and enmity of Israel are propagated,” Josef Schuster, president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, said last week, urging that new arrivals be well-integrated and arguing that Germany’s capacity for doing so was limited.

Germany—the European Union’s most populous country—hasn’t experienced a major Islamist terror attack in recent years, though it is home to one of Europe’s largest Muslim populations. Part of the reason, security officials say, is that most of Germany’s Muslims have roots in relatively secular Turkey rather than the Arab world.

But many of the migrants arriving now are from Syria and other Arab countries and are seeking out Arabic-speaking mosques—some of which have ties to extremists, security officials say.

Berlin authorities describe the Ibrahim Al Khalil mosque, inside a ramshackle, two-story brick warehouse in an industrial section of the German capital, as a key meeting point in the city for fundamentalist and potentially militant Muslims. On Friday, many recently arrived migrants were among the several hundreds who gathered for weekly prayers.

Many of the migrants there said they were there simply out of convenience. One Syrian man, who said at least 40 people in his refugee shelter rode the subway to Al Khalil every Friday, said he had discovered it via a smartphone app listing nearby mosques.

“We come here to do our Islamic duty,” said another Syrian, 27-year-old Ali Kafri. Referring to fundamentalist movements, he added: “We don’t care if it’s a Salafi or a Muslim Brotherhood mosque.”

The chairman of the Al Khalil mosque in Berlin, Adnouf Nazir, rejected the authorities’ claim that his congregation had ties to extremism.

“We want to live in peace,” Mr. Nazir said. “It can be that some people have other thoughts, but that doesn’t mean that we are responsible for this.”

Still more.

USC Names Clay Helton Permanent Head Football Coach (VIDEO)

Hey, USC made a major move here, offering Helton a full five-year contract.

At LAT, "USC names Clay Helton as head football coach."

And from Bill Plaschke, "USC got it right with hiring of Clay Helton."

Watch #USC players go bonkers when the announcement was made that Clay Helton is coach: https://t.co/p5BHP5XZPF

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) November 30, 2015

Anne-Marie Slaughter 'Devastated' After Hillary Clinton Slammed Atlantic Monthly Cover Story About Women 'Having It All...'

This a juicy little piece, at Politico, "Anne-Marie Slaughter 'devastated' by Clinton's take on her 'have it all' article."

What's particularly interesting is that Slaughter, who was Director of Policy Planning at the State Department from January 2009 until February 2011, was jonesing for direct access to Clinton, and was brutally denied. I guess her emails protesting were "forwarded" to Secretary Clinton, heh.

Here's the Atlantic piece, which I vaguely remember reading at the time, "Why Women Still Can’t Have It All."

New from David Horowitz, The Black Book of the American Left — Volume 5: Culture Wars

At FrontPage Magazine, "CULTURE WARS: VOLUME V OF THE BLACK BOOK OF THE AMERICAN LEFT."

And at Amazon, The Black Book of the American Left — Volume 5: Culture Wars.

The Irrationality of the Leftist Narrative

Yeah, leftists are pretty irrational alright.

It's like a clinical syndrome, sheesh.

At iOWNTHEWORLD Report.

Target's Website Crashes on Cyber Monday

At Bloomberg, "Target Site Stumbles on Cyber Monday, Locking Out Some Users."

And USA Today, "Target website couldn't keep up with record traffic on Cyber Monday."

Charles Krauthammer on Syria Ground Troops: 'I wouldn't do any operations of this scale under Obama because there's going to be a lot of needless deaths..." (VIDEO)

Oh man, that's harsh.

On Bill O'Reilly's earlier:



RELATED: At Politico, "Hillary Clinton: No troops in Syria or Iraq."

Another huge surprise there.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Strips Down for Very Racy Burberry Fashion Campaign (PHOTOS)

She's a good lady!

At the Express UK, "Rosie Huntington-Whiteley strips NAKED for Burberry's 2015 Christmas campaign."

Monogrammed for @RosieHW, the @Burberry cashmere scarf. Shot by @MarioTestino pic.twitter.com/8K8p8ujgd2

— Burberry (@Burberry) November 30, 2015

China Chokes on Smog as World Climate Change Talks Begin in Paris (VIDEO)

China just released some catastrophic report on the coming climate change apocalypse.

See, the Boston Globe, "Chinese assessment of climate change depicts grim scenarios."

But I think the Chinese should worry about their own backyard --- and refrain from lecturing the international community about catastrophic scenarios --- considering the literally unlivable conditions in Beijing, and I suspect the other major Chinese urban centers.

Watch this mind-boggling report from Beijing just today, from Seth Doane, at CBS News This Morning:

Developing Countries Announce 'Global Solar Alliance' to Combat Climate Change

Solar energy accounts for about 1 percent of global energy supply, so India's Narendra Modi has his work cut out for him.

At the Guardian UK, "India unveils global solar alliance of 120 countries at Paris climate summit":

India’s prime minister has launched an international solar alliance of over 120 countries with the French president, François Hollande, at the Paris COP21 climate summit.

Narendra Modi told a press conference that as fossil fuels put the planet in peril, hopes for future prosperity in the developing world now rest on bold initiatives.

“Solar technology is evolving, costs are coming down and grid connectivity is improving,” he said. “The dream of universal access to clean energy is becoming more real. This will be the foundation of the new economy of the new century.”

Modi described the solar alliance as “the sunrise of new hope, not just for clean energy but for villages and homes still in darkness, for mornings and evening filled with a clear view of the glory of the sun”.

Earlier, France’s climate change ambassador, Laurence Tubiana, had called the group “a true game-changer”.

While signatory nations mostly hail from the tropics, several European countries are also on board with the initiative, including France.

Hollande described the project as climate justice in action, mobilising public finance from richer states to help deliver universal energy access.

“What we are putting in place is an avant garde of countries that believe in renewable energies,” he told a press conference in Paris. “What we are showing here is an illustration of the future Paris accord, as this initiative gives meaning to sharing technology and mobilising financial resources in an example of what we wish to do in the course of the climate conference.”

The Indian government is investing an initial $30m (£20m) in setting up the alliance’s headquarters in India. The eventual goal is to raise $400m from membership fees, and international agencies.

Companies involved in the project include Areva, Engie, Enel, HSBC France and Tata Steel...

Keep reading.

World Leaders in Paris Vow to Overcome Divisions on Climate Change

I'd like to see how they're actually going to overcome these divisions, because any global climate change agreement is going to suffer from a major collective action problem.

At WSJ, "President Barack Obama calls on countries to ‘rise to this moment’":

PARIS—World leaders on Monday vowed to finish a deal to curb greenhouse gases and overcome a thorny divide on financing, as they kicked off international climate talks against a backdrop of heavy security.

President Barack Obama called on governments to develop a long-term framework to cut greenhouse emissions, saying the time is coming when it will be too late. He pledged the U.S. would do its part to slow the warming of the planet, and urged other countries to “rise to this moment.”

“I’ve come here personally as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second-largest emitter to say that the U.S. not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it,” Mr. Obama said.

At a heavily guarded airport complex just two weeks after terrorist attacks killed 130 people, other leaders from Russian President Vladimir Putin to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon underscored the urgency of addressing global warming in the two-week conference, dubbed the Cop 21.

Evidence of a long-standing divide quickly re-emerged. Developing countries said the richest nations that have emitted the most carbon dioxide must do more to finance a transition to greener energy and help prepare poor countries to stave off the early effects of a changing climate.

Developing countries want their highly industrialized peers to make good on pledges to mobilize $100 billion a year in public and private climate financing from 2020 onward. Some officials have warned they won’t support a deal in Paris that doesn’t deliver high levels of funding. Any agreement would require the consent of nearly 200 countries.

To help bridge the divide, several rich countries unveiled programs to boost funding. Germany, Norway and the U.K. said they would provide $1 billion a year until 2020 for payment based on emissions reductions from forests and improved land use.

Mr. Obama and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates unveiled a multibillion-dollar program involving 20 countries to boost green-energy research and development.

Yet another commitment Monday—from Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland—would provide $500 million for projects in poorer countries via the World Bank.

Emerging economies made it clear that to conclude a deal in Paris, they want to see more progress in the 2020 goal and perhaps even more funding afterward.

“Developed countries should honor their commitment of mobilizing $100 billion each year before 2020 and provide stronger support to developing countries afterwards,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said, adding that Beijing would also help finance poorer countries through its own funding vehicle.

South African President Jacob Zuma said rich countries have a “historic responsibility” to at least meet the $100 billion target.

Just before officials gathered, India slammed an October estimate on how much financing rich countries have provided to poorer countries, saying the “methodologies were inconsistent.” The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which produced the estimate, sees India’s criticism as “misjudged and inaccurate,” according to Simon Buckle, head of climate change at the organization representing highly industrialized countries.

Ahead of the Paris talks, most of the countries involved submitted their own plans for curbing emissions of greenhouse gases linked to climate change or boosting the share of green energy after 2020.

An accord clinched in Paris would codify those national plans, part of an original goal to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels...

Sounds like a pretty sophisticated shakedown scam to me. Jacob Zuma? The guy's a freakin' crook.

But keep reading, in any case.

Take 20% Off Cyber Monday Savings

At Amazon, Shop Fashion - Cyber Monday Savings.

Also, Deals in TV, Video & Audio.

And, a bestseller, Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker, 6Qt/1000W, Stainless Steel Cooking Pot and Exterior, Latest 3rd Generation Technology.

BONUS: From Jack Cashill, Scarlet Letters: The Ever-Increasing Intolerance of the Cult of Liberalism.

Scientists Dispute 2-Degree Model Guiding Climate Talks

Well, they're gonna get thrown out of the "tribe."

At WSJ:

The single most important benchmark underpinning this week’s talks in Paris on climate change—two degrees Celsius—has guided climate-treaty discussions for decades, but some scientists question the validity of the target.

Many researchers have argued that a rise in the planet’s average global air temperature of two degrees or more above preindustrial levels would usher in catastrophic climate change. But many others argue that is a somewhat arbitrary threshold based on tenuous research, and therefore an impractical spur to policy action.

“It emerged from a political agenda, not a scientific analysis,” says Mark Maslin, professor of climatology at University College London. “It’s not a sensible, rational target because the models give you a range of possibilities, not a single answer.”

Policy makers tend to assume the two-degree target expresses a solid scientific view, but it doesn’t. The exhaustive reports published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are considered to be the most comprehensive analysis of the science of global warming. Yet the two-degree limit isn’t mentioned in a single IPCC report.

Still, many scientists are willing to back the goal because they see it as giving policy makers a clear-cut target to shoot at in the fight against global warming...

Okay, so far so good. But then you get this doozy:

Most climatologists agree that the earth is getting warmer and that the emission of greenhouse gases is the main driver of this change. But the question of when a catastrophic tipping point might be reached is up in the air...

Um, greenhouse gases are not the main driver. Frankly, we don't know what the main driver is. It could be anything. We're talking about the whole damned earth and the freakin' solar system. The number of possible variables is staggering.

But Professor Maslin's right: It's a political agenda, not a scientific program.

But keep reading.

Oxford University Women's Rugby Team Strips Down to Raise Money for Charity

Heh, these ladies are in great shape!

At WWTDD, "Oxford University Female Rugby Team Nude Calendar."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Oxford University women's rugby players strip off ahead of Twickenham debut against Cambridge to raise money for charity."

Last Boeing C-17 Leaves Long Beach Assembly Plant (VIDEO)

End of an era.

At Boeing, on Twitter, "Last #Boeing C-17 Globemaster III departs Long Beach Airport TODAY noon Pacific."

Also, "I was here for the first 24 years and I am here for the last. Goodbye C-17. Thanks for the memories."

YouTube video here, "C-17 Beoing Last departure from Long Beach Airport."

Plus, reports at KTLA News 5 Los Angeles, "Last Boeing C-17 flight leaves Long Beach, ending era of California aircraft manufacturing," and LAT, "Last Boeing C-17 takes flight as California aerospace era ends."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



More at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark's, "Sunday Cartoons..."

Still more at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Jihadist in a Box."

Cartoon Credit: The Economist.

'Physical' USC Beats UCLA 40-21 at Coliseum, Clinches Pac-12 South Title (VIDEO)

Everybody was using the adjective "physical" to describe USC's mauling of the virtually hapless UCLA Bruins in yesterday's citywide rivalry thriller.

At the O.C. Register, for example, "Physical, opportunistic USC beats UCLA, 40-21, clinches Pac-12 South title."

Also at the L.A. Times, "USC turns on the power to beat UCLA, 40-21, and advance to Pac-12 title game."

More, from Bill Plaschke, "This victory removes all doubt: Make Clay Helton USC's permanent football coach":

Every hit was a prayer. Every run was a plea. Every time a USC player punched a UCLA player in the mouth on a bruising, revealing afternoon at the Coliseum, there was a message.

Hire Clay Helton.

It was heard when Adoree' Jackson caught a punt, shrugged off a shot by Cameron Judge and raced 42 yards for a touchdown. It resounded when Claude Pelon racked Josh Rosen into a fumble that was carried 31 yards by Rasheem Green for a touchdown. It echoed when Darreus Rogers bullied through the grasp of Nate Meadors for a touchdown.

Hashtag Helton2016.

Pat Haden had to be listening. The Trojans alumni and boosters are surely understanding. There is absolutely no way anyone with any Trojans influence can argue against the reality of what is happening.

In the wake of USC's 40-21 blasting of UCLA on Saturday, it is clear that Clay Helton should be named the Trojans' permanent head coach, and it should happen now.

Don't wait for the outcome of the game against highly ranked Stanford in next week's Pac-12 Conference championship bout. How fair is it to judge an interim coach with a 6-2 record, a bowl victory, a win over UCLA and six decorated years on the USC staff on whether he can lead a team from the dregs of a distracted season to the Rose Bowl?

Save the announcement for after the game to avoid distraction, but get the news conference and paperwork ready now. The coronation occurred Saturday, when Helton's culture change was brutally evident in how the Trojans outmuscled, outhustled and simply outfought a Bruins team that had spent the previous three seasons beating them double-digit senseless...

Keep reading.

Holiday Toy List

At Amazon.

Also, Cyber Monday - Save on TV, Video & Audio.

Plus, from Alonzo Hamby, Man of Destiny: FDR and the Making of the American Century.

Nina Agdal Holiday Wrapping for Michael Kors (VIDEO)

I'm behind on my Nina Agdal blogging.

She's perfect.



BONUS: At WWTDD, "Nina Agdal Topless."

Robert Lewis Dear Registered to Vote as 'Unaffiliated Female'

This guy was a literal psycho.

At Gateway Pundit, "COURT RECORDS: Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooter NOT Republican, Identifies as Woman."

And ICYMI, "'Our society has been persuaded by liberals that the demented and deranged should never be criticized because criticism might hurt their feelings. Wackos and lunatics are very sensitive people, we are required to believe, and deserve our sympathy...'"

Brazilian Beauty Mariane Tarrafel Strips Down

At Egotastic!, "MARIANE TARRAFEL STRIPS OUT OF HER LINGERIE."

And bonus Rule 5 at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……are greenery that will be decimated by too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist," and "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup."

And at Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY."

Daniela Lopez Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

A nice Sunday treat.

'Our society has been persuaded by liberals that the demented and deranged should never be criticized because criticism might hurt their feelings. Wackos and lunatics are very sensitive people, we are required to believe, and deserve our sympathy...'

Heh.

Yeah, let's let all the wackos out of mental institutions. Wait. Leftists already did that.

But see Robert Stacy McCain, "Crazy People Are Dangerous":

"A divorced Waffle House waitress goes online looking for love and finds this weirdo loner." https://t.co/p58yALi978 pic.twitter.com/GfeLvJBIAY

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 29, 2015

Liberals tell us it is heartless and “mean-spirited” to suggest that public safety would be best served if mentally ill people with histories of dangerous behavior were locked up in psychiatric wards. Americans are told that it’s OK to let delusional and antisocial freaks roam around free in our society, because what could possibly go wrong?

When one of these dangerous kooks who roam among us finally commits the kind of crazy violence, however, liberals quickly rush to tell us that his insane actions have some kind of political significance and that the proper response to this atrocity is — wait for it — more liberalism. Another crazy killer, therefore, vote Democrat!

Liberalism would be laughable, if it were not so deadly...

More at the Washington post, "Alleged Colorado gunman was adrift and alienated."

And at the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Robert Dear, Suspect in Colorado Killings, ‘Preferred to Be Left Alone’."

Liz Kelley, High School English Teacher in Ballwin, Mo., Has Accrued $410,000 in Student Loan Debt

That just seems impossible to me.

Do people even consider the possibility that they might have to pay this money back? I guess not.

At the New York Times, "Student Debt in America: Lend With a Smile, Collect With a Fist":

The American student loan crisis is often seen as a problem of profligacy and predation. Wasteful colleges raise tuition every year, we are told, even as middle-class wages stagnate and unscrupulous for-profit colleges bilk the unwary. The result is mounting unmanageable debt.

There is much truth in this diagnosis. But it does not explain the plight of Liz Kelley, a Missouri high school teacher and mother of four who made a series of unremarkable decisions about college and borrowing. She now owes the federal government $410,000, and counting.

This is a staggering and unusual sum. The average undergraduate who borrows leaves school with about $30,000 in debt. But Ms. Kelley’s circumstances are not unique. Of the 43.3 million borrowers with outstanding federal student loans, 1.8 percent, or 779,000 people, owe $150,000 or more. And 346,000 owe more than $200,000.

Ms. Kelley’s debt woes are also mostly a matter of interest, not principal, a growing problem for the nation’s student debtors. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the number of active borrowers enrolled in college has declined to roughly nine million today from about 12 million in 2010. Yet the total amount of outstanding debt continues to increase, because many borrowers are not paying back their older loans.

This is partly a function of continuing economic hardship. But it also reflects how the federal government has become the biggest, nicest and meanest student lender in the world.

Ms. Kelley, 48, first enrolled in college in 1990 at Maryville University, a private school near St. Louis. She was a nontraditional student, already married with children. She took out loans to help pay tuition, and by the time she graduated with a degree in English in 1994, the total was $26,278, which is the inflation-adjusted equivalent of about $42,000 in 2015. This is not an unusual sum. The typical private college graduate who borrows holds $32,600 in debt.

Then as now, the job market was not clamoring for English majors. Practicing law and teaching seemed like the best options, and Ms. Kelley chose the former. Entering law school also allowed her to delay repaying her undergraduate student loans. She again borrowed for tuition, $37,000 for the first three semesters, which is also a fairly typical amount. Law school graduates today often have six-figure loans...

You can see where this is going.

I think on the regular federal student loans you have deferred interest until 6 months after graduation, when you have to start making payments. That's what I did. But not this lady. She kept borrowing for more schooling while her old loans starting accruing.

Whoa.

More here.

Shop for Holiday Gifts

In televisions, at Amazon.

More, Holiday Gifts.

And for him and her, Amazon Fashion Gift Guide.

Plus, Braun Series 7- 790cc Pulsonic Shaver System, Silver.

BONUS: From David Horowtiz, The Black Book of the American Left - Volume 5: Culture Wars.

Climate Skeptic Judith Curry Says She Was 'Tossed Out of the Tribe...'

Heh.

At Instapundit, "TRIBALISM IS NOT SCIENCE. SO YEAH. ‘I was tossed out of the tribe’: climate scientist Judith Curry interviewed."

London Antiwar Protest Against Syria Airstrikes (VIDEO)

At the Guardian UK, "Syria airstrike protesters rally across UK - as it happened."

Black Friday Online Sales Far Outpace Brick-and-Mortor Shopping Numbers

At IBD, "Has Black Friday Jumped the Shark? Importance Fading?":

Black Friday's importance as the key shopping day of the year is ending, observers say, as Thanksgiving Day sales zoom and easy mobile shopping makes other days just as important.

The strong trend of online sales growth far surpassing offline sales continues, though.

Cowen analyst Oliver Chen estimates that while online traffic during Black Friday weekend will rise 20% vs. a year earlier, in-store traffic will fall 2% to 4%.

Online sales have enjoyed double-digit growth rates since the dawn of the e-commerce era.

Adobe Systems' (NASDAQ: ADBE) Adobe Digital Index, which says it measures 80% of all online transactions from the top 100 U.S. retailers, said sales between midnight and 11 a.m. ET Friday rose 15% from the year-earlier period, to $822 million.

Thanksgiving Day online shopping, however, jumped 25% vs. Thanksgiving 2014, to $1.72 billion.

Third-party sales even on top site Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) grew far greater year-over-year on Thanksgiving than they will on Black Friday, Scot Wingo, executive chairman of Channel Advisor (NYSE: ECOM), a firm that helps third parties sell on e-com sites, told IBD.

"Thanksgiving came on the scene two years ago, and it's really blown the doors off," Wingo said. Black Friday growth, on the other hand, was "OK," he said.

"This is the year we'll look back and say Black Friday jumped the shark," Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Group, told IBD...

Still more.

Enjoy Lauren Francesca's Behind the Scenes with Playboy (VIDEO)

Watch, "Now that you’ve seen the many sides of sexy YouTube star Lauren Francesca, it’s time to sit back and listen to what she has to say about the first video she ever made, teaching women to be good kissers, and her favorite thing on YouTube."

More, "Video Sensation Lauren Francesca Shows All Her Personalities."

And at Playboy, "We Dare You to Try and Keep Up with Internet Sensation Lauren Francesca (PHOTOS)."

Is Political Correctness Preventing the U.S. from Grappling with Root Causes of Islamic State?

Yes.

Next question?

At Foreign Policy, "The Democrats’ Problem with ‘Radical Islam’."

Maria Menounos Shows Off on Snapchat (VIDEO)

Heh.

At Egotastic!, "MARIA MENOUNOS SHOWS OFF CLEAVAGE ON SNAPCHAT."

Watch, "Maria Menounos CLEAVAGE - Snapchat - SUPER HOT."

Plus, she bares all here, "Debra Messing, Maria Menounos and More Pose in the Buff for Allure (VIDEO)."

FLASHBACK: "More Maria Menounos!"

Some Stores Temporarily Shut Down by Black Friday Protesters in Chicago (VIDEO)

From Lee Stranahan, at Big Government.

And more video from yesterday's protests:

Many Families Skipped Black Friday Shopping Altogether (VIDEO)

We're seeing something of a culture shift away from this monstrosity of a shopping day.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Winter Is Coming

This one's also on my Christmas list.

I love books!

At Amazon, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.

Slovakia Gun Shop Was Source of Weapons in #ParisAttacks

Following-up from yesterday, "Planning for #ParisAttacks Hatched in Plain Sight."

And here's the latest on that, at WSJ, "Slovakian Shop Is Eyed as Source of Guns in Prior Terror Attacks":

PARTIZANSKE, Slovakia—For more than two decades, a store in the basement of a Soviet-style building here has sold deactivated weapons and replica Nazi uniforms to private collectors or for use as movie props.

This year, it has also been a source for weapons that European security officials say were later reactivated and used by jihadists in at least two terror attacks on the continent, a chilling exploitation of Europe’s fragmented gun laws.

European security officials said decommissioned guns purchased legally from the AFG store, owned by AFG Security Corp., have been transferred to safe houses in Western Europe, primarily Belgium, a known weapons-trading hub. Jihadists used weapons sold by AFG and reactivated in Belgium in a three-day spate of terror attacks in Paris in January, the officials said, as well as in an attack on a French high-speed train in August, foiled when the culprit was tackled by passengers after his gun misfired.

“The AK-47 type automatic gun used in the thwarted Thalys [train] attack came from the same provider as the guns used in January,” a French police officer close to the matter said. “The gunmen didn’t get the guns themselves directly in Slovakia, but from intermediaries in Belgium.”

In a recent interview from behind the counter at AFG, Frantisek Gajdos, the 24-year-old son of the store’s owner, said the business hadn’t broken any laws. “We sell these guns to many people, and some of them are foreigners,” he said. “But that’s legal.”

Slovakia’s laws governing decommissioned weapons have long been less restrictive than elsewhere in Europe. Until recently, these weapons were sold legally to anyone over 18 years old, no license required. Although it is illegal to restore them in Slovakia, doing so isn’t as difficult as it is with weapons bought in other European countries, according to gun experts and Slovak officials.

Denmark decommissions weapons by sawing them in half; Italy fills the barrels with lead. Guns sold in Slovakia had their barrels perforated with a pin, a step gun experts said could be defeated by changing the barrel.

In July, six months after the first Paris attacks, Slovakia’s government tightened the laws on selling and reactivating decommissioned weapons, which experts say will make it more difficult, but not impossible, to restore such arms. Last week, the European Commission said it would tighten legislation to ensure deactivated guns couldn’t be easily restored...

Well, more gun laws won't stop terrorism. There's a freakin' weapons pipeline from Eastern Europe into the EU nations. Expect more jihad terrorism.

But keep reading.

Don't Take Family Time for Granted — Ever!

From Michelle Malkin, "Have a Happy, Politics-Free Thanksgiving":

Many people naturally assume that since I work in political journalism, I must breathe, drink and eat politics 24/7/365 — including on the Thanksgiving holiday.

The thought of it gives me indigestion.

Self-absorbed creatures who have no life outside the Beltway world are the most tiresome ogres. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest advised Americans “sitting around the Thanksgiving table” to talk about gun control. The left-wing National Memo published “5 Things To Tell Your Republican relatives at Thanksgiving.” And The New York Times served up its own version of “How to Talk to Your Relatives About Politics at Thanksgiving,” stuffed with poll data and hyperlinks to other liberal sources of information.

Nobody needs tryptophan when you’ve got Pundy McPundit (amateur, professional or otherwise) at the table to bore your company to death with his or her insights on “climate-proofing” your holiday feast; bombard you with details about Bernie Sanders’ latest Web ad; regurgitate John Kasich’s latest attacks on critics of his massive Medicaid expansion; or champion Jeb Bush’s latest re-re-re-reboot (two exclamation points, new talking points, a fix-it toolbox, blah, blah blah).

Zzzzzzzz.

I feel sorry for rabid partisans on either side of the aisle who refuse to talk to family members, co-workers or friends who support a candidate they don’t like. Life’s too short — and 99 percent of all politicians are crapweasels, anyway.

I’ve encountered unhinged hotheads who yelled at me in front of my kids at IHOP over my appearances over the years on Fox News. Way to ruin a Funny Face Pancake moment, one-dimensional oafs.

And I’ve known people who shunned my left-leaning in-laws because they refused to denounce their conservative daughter-in-law. Gotta love the Tolerance Brigade.

Newsflash: Even amid a heated campaign season, global jihadist terror and economic insecurity, there is more to life than #WINNING political arguments.

It shouldn’t be a struggle to avoid yelling about Bush, Clinton or Trump as you pass the sweet-potato casserole. Don’t get mad. Get perspective. Here, let me help:

If your children are alive, free and healthy, count your blessings and say a prayer for all those parents spending the holiday week in hospitals, hospices, clinics, jails or funeral homes.

If you can’t think of something nice to say to the person sitting next of you, trade memories of the dearest, departed loved ones you share a connection with who are no longer sitting at the table at all.

Pick up an instrument and play music together or sing some old hymns of Thanksgiving (“We Gather Together” was always my favorite).

Take a walk, breathe fresh air, go out on the deck and make fire pit s’mores (or use the gas grill).
Show the young ones at your gathering how to make rubberband stars, advanced paper airplanes, origami hearts or crochet snowflakes.

Get silly. Play “Charades” or “Spoons” or “Balderdash.” Laugh at yourself and laugh with your relatives.

Don’t take family time for granted. Ever...

Well, I'm not forgetting.

I took my 14-year-old son to see "The Hunger Games" yesterday. We had fun, although those Katniss movies aren't the same without the actual "Hunger Games" in them, heh.

In any case, still more at Michelle's.

#UCLAvsUSC to Determine Line-Up for #Pac12 Championship Game — And More! (VIDEO)

Following-up from Thanksgiving, "UCLA Bruins Riding the Wave of College Football's Crosstown Rivalry in Los Angeles (VIDEO)."

See the O.C. Register, "USC-UCLA about more than bragging rights this year":

LOS ANGELES – Forget bulletin board material.

The lead-up to Saturday afternoon’s UCLA-USC rivalry game offered little as far as shots or verbal sparring between the players and coaches.

“I’m not too big into rivalries and hate for another school,” USC’s two-way star Adoree’ Jackson said. “I’ve got much love and respect for those guys over there.”

Among the Bruins, they hardly expressed love, but they avoided needling their crosstown counterparts. No one publicly said “Southern Cal,” a name unpopular among USC fans and officials, so much so that the school’s media guide explicitly requests it not be used.

During his first few years as UCLA coach, Jim Mora rarely turned down the opportunity to utter the term.

But the Bruins have moved on.

“We’re finger tips away from what we’ve worked so hard for,” UCLA sophomore linebacker Kenny Young said.

Both No.22 UCLA and USC go into this game knowing a win gives them the Pac-12 South title and a rematch with Stanford.

The winner advances to the Dec.5 conference title game in Santa Clara against the Pac-12 North champion Cardinal, which has been a thorn in the side of both programs lately. Stanford has won eight straight against the Bruins (8-3, 5-3 in the Pac-12) and five of the past seven against the Trojans (7-4, 5-3).

“It’s really not about the rivalry,” USC senior defensive tackle Antwaun Woods said. “It’s about fixing our errors. We’re not really worried about them or the rivalry.”

Clearly, much more than city bragging rights are at stake.

A win will be a narrative-shaping moment for either side, adding to USC interim coach Clay Helton’s case to take the reins on a full-time basis or putting Mora in position to win his first Pac-12 championship in his four seasons in Westwood. The former NFL coach has had little trouble putting away the Trojans, winning all three previous meetings by double-digits, but he has yet to beat either of the North Division heavyweights, Stanford and Oregon...

More.

Plus, at the Los Angeles Times, "UCLA and USC paths were filled with rocks but still could be strewn with roses."

Rocky Mountains Planned Parenthood CEO Says No Reason to Believe Colorado Springs Would Be Targeted (VIDEO)

Definitely a sad day in Colorado, and for the nation.

At the New York Times, "During Planned Parenthood Shooting, Fear and Chaos at Shopping Center."

Leftists were off the bat faster than a Mike Trout long ball, politicizing the shooting to advance the far-left extremist agenda.

See Leon Wolf, at Red State, "Planned Parenthood Shooter Finally Convinces Leftists that Beliefs Matter." And at Gateway Pundit, via Memeorandum, "COURT RECORDS: Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooter NOT Republican, Identifies as Woman."

Sounds like a leftist, heh.

More at CNN, "Rocky Mountains CEO Vicki Cowens says she has no reason to believe that their Colorado Springs facility would be targeted by a gunman":

Planning for #ParisAttacks Hatched in Plain Sight

This story is still front-page news, almost two-weeks later.

At WSJ, "Paris Attacks Plot Was Hatched in Plain Sight":

BOBIGNY, France—Three days before the attacks that ripped through Paris, Djazira Boulanger handed the keys to her row house, across the street from a kindergarten, to a guest who had booked it over the website Homelidays.com. His name was Brahim Abdeslam.

She didn’t know that Mr. Abdeslam was a central figure in plotting the deadly assault. As Ms. Boulanger tended to her two young children at home, authorities say Mr. Abdeslam and a band of cohorts were down the street preparing weapons for an assault on the Stade de France and Paris’s nightlife district.

“Did I suspect something was wrong? Not at all,” Ms. Boulanger said.

A day after he checked in, Mr. Abdeslam’s younger brother, Salah, pulled up to the roadside hotel Appart’City on the southern outskirts of Paris, according to staff, to claim reservations he made on Booking.com—also under his own name. The rooms were for another set of gunmen in the attacks: those assigned to mow down spectators inside the Bataclan concert hall.

Prosecutors suspect the brothers were preparing the logistics for Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged architect of the massacres, to arrive in Paris and swiftly mount one of the deadliest terror attacks in French history. Brahim would later blow himself up during the attacks, while Salah is now the target of an international manhunt.

Mr. Abaaoud was the kind of adversary France had dreaded since the Syrian conflict began drawing European nationals in droves. Mr. Abaaoud—who would die several days after the Paris attacks in a police raid—drew on his experience as a battlefield logistical officer in Syria to launch a guerrilla-style ambush on unarmed civilians in the French capital.

The account emerging from French officials, witnesses and those who interacted with the suspected terrorists shows how the operation hinged on Mr. Abaaoud’s ability to use the tools of everyday modern life to lay the groundwork for the massacre. The ease with which he and his teams moved—all while avoiding detection by France’s security apparatus—suggests the challenges in identifying would-be terrorists and preventing further attacks in the fluid, digital and transnational world of today, especially when they are European citizens...

That doesn't inspire much confidence, now does it?

Keep reading.

Donald Trump Under Fire for Mocking Disabled New York Times Reporter (VIDEO)

At this point, who freakin' cares?

Donald Trump's going Donald Trump. All the outrage just keeps him in the news. It's brilliant, actually.

At the Washington Post, "Trump draws scornful rebuke for mocking reporter with disability."

Alessandra Ambrosio for Maxim (VIDEO)

Following up from earlier, "Alessandra Ambrosio Is Maxim's 'World's Sexiest Businesswoman...'"

Here's the video:

World's Sexiest Robot Steals the Spotlight at World Robot Exhibition

Well, flashback to September at Instapundit, "NOBODY TELL NOTORIOUS ROBOPHOBE MATT YGLESIAS: By 2050, human-on-robot sex will be more common than human-on-human sex, says report."

Well, I guess by then you'll have your pick of robot hotties, lol.

At London's Daily Mail, "The 'world's sexiest robot' revealed: Eerily life-like female android turns heads in China."

'World's sexiest robot' revealed https://t.co/aH7fiOsV5F pic.twitter.com/tw9jxG5H7V

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 27, 2015

Laquan McDonald Found to Have PCP in His System

Well, there goes another angelic-black-protester-gunned-downed-by-racist-white-cops narrative.

See Robert Stacy McCain, "The #LaquanMcDonald Farce":

Laquan McDonald had PCP in his system on Oct. 20, 2014. We know this from the autopsy performed after McDonald, 17, decided to exercise his constitutional right to vandalize cars and stagger down the middle of Pulaski Road, brandishing a knife at the Chicago police officers who were trying to arrest him. The coroner’s conclusion was that the cause of Laquan’s death was institutional racism...

Keep reading.

RELATED: At the Chicago Tribune, "Protesters, joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union, marched down the Magnificent Mile on Black Friday in support of police shooting victim Laquan McDonald and called for the resignation of police Superintendent Garry McCarthy."

Plus, video at Ruptly, "Protesters disrupt Black Friday shopping demanding justice for Laquan McDonald."

Save 20% on Digital SLR Cameras

I don't know how well actual cameras go over these days, considering all the cellphones in use. (Frankly, I'm not all the photographer that I used to be either.)

In any case, shop for cameras at Amazon.

Plus, Canon EOS Rebel T5 Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm IS II plus EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Bundle.

Holiday Book Buying for 2015

Suggestions, at Free Beacon, "It’s Not All Doom and Gloom: Holiday Book Buying for 2015":

Politics, history, literature, sci-fi, fantasy, classics, and more.

I don't see it there, but check out Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Book 1: A Scare of A Dare (Volume 1).

Maybe I'll get that for my kid, heh.

More books at Amazon.

Violent Black Friday Shopping: Walmart 'Riot' (VIDEO)

I suppose I should update my last post at bit, here, "Black Friday Has Lost Its Edge."

Turns out Black Friday's been pretty violent so far, especially at Walmart. See the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Black Friday 2015 fights: Videos show Kentucky mall brawl, Walmart 'riot,' more." And at that link, "People Riot Over Black Friday Sales at Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas."

Black Friday Has Lost Its Edge

Well, it hasn't completely lost its edge, what, with all the Black Friday brawls.

But with fewer outlets participating in the super-duper early-bird crush of pre-dawn sales, it's getting to be less of a thing.

At the New York Times, "Black Friday Falters as Consumer Behaviors Change":

In 1939, the nation’s largest retailers sent Franklin D. Roosevelt an urgent plea. Thanksgiving fell on the last day of November that year, giving merchants too few days before Christmas to unleash the season’s sales.

The holiday might be a time-honored tradition, but wouldn’t Mr. Roosevelt consider moving the day up by a week?

The president’s acquiescence to retailers helped cement the pre-eminence of the post-Thanksgiving sales rush, now known as Black Friday. The day became an annual ritual, a family affair — a shopping orgy that delivered big profits for retailers, as well as a lift to the entire economy.

Seven decades later, Black Friday has lost its distinctive edge. Tens of millions of Americans will still hit the malls this Friday. But the relentless race for holiday dollars has blunted the day’s oomph, as stores offer deep discounts weeks before Thanksgiving and year-round deals in stores and online are causing sales fatigue. Some fed-up shoppers cheered this year when the outdoors retailer, REI, declared it was opting out of Black Friday sales altogether.

On the eve of yet another Thanksgiving weekend, retail experts and economists are asking the question: Is Black Friday over?

“It definitely matters so much less than it’s mattered in the past,” said John J. Canally, chief economic strategist at LPL Research. “The last couple of years, ‘Black Friday disappoints’ has been the usual story.”

But contrary to doom-and-gloom predictions this holiday season, dwindling sales for the long Thanksgiving weekend (which now begins Thursday afternoon) do not necessarily signal a cautious consumer. Americans are generally spending just as much of their hard-earned dollars as in the past.

Overall consumer spending since the beginning of 2014 has risen at a rate of 3 percent after lackluster gains in 2012 and 2013, and most stores achieve decent profits, on an earnings per share basis, during their holiday quarter.

The decline of Black Friday instead points to a shift in the way consumers spend their money.

“They’re online,” Mr. Canally said. “And they’re spending more on experiences. A day at the spa, a baseball game, the ballet — rather than a sweater or a pair of socks that no one wants.”

As a result, retailers rang up $51 billion on the day after Thanksgiving last year, down from a peak of almost $60 billion in 2012, according to the San Diego-based private equity firm LPL Research, which crunched data from the National Retail Federation and comScore...

More.

Family of Milagros Perez Gets $10,000 Donation to Replace 4-Year-Old Girl’s Specialized Wheelchair (VIDEO)

It's almost impossible to believe that someone would actually steal this little girl's custom wheelchair. It cost the family $1,500 and would have been difficult for them to replace.

But now they're received a charitable gift, just in time for the holidays. That's the spirit.

At the O.C. Register, "$10,000 donation made to replace stolen specialized wheelchair for girl, 4, born without legs":

A Beverly Hills philanthropist has given $10,000 to the family of Milagros Perez to replace the 4-year-old girl’s specialized wheelchair, which was stolen from her Santa Ana home over the weekend, police said.

Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department said Thursday that Joyce Brandman gave the family a check, delivered through NBC4, which aired a story about Perez and the missing wheelchair.

Brandman is the president of the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation, which gives funding to medical, educational and Jewish causes and organizations, including Chapman University, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Perez was born without legs among several other medical issues. She wasn’t expected to survive. Her mother gave her a name which means “miracles” in Spanish.

After the story of Milagros’ missing wheelchair appeared on news outlets, donations began pouring in...