Yes, it’s last year’s Christmas Eve post — but with a new headline! Such is what passes for Tradition in these parts.

The Famous Yule Log [WPIX]

onfession time: When I was but a lad I spent a few years studying at a relatively well known Northeastern university which shall remain nameless except to say that it wasn’t Yale because, Jesus Christ, I’ve got standards, OK? Cut me some slack. At any rate, in the process of becoming “well rounded” I did take a political philosophy course with a Professor named Cohen. In fact, there were two Professor Cohens in my alma matter’s Political Science Department: one who was often invited to chair Presidential advisory panels and dated super models, and one who didn’t. My professor Cohen was the latter. And the reason my Professor Cohen didn’t chair Presidential Advisory Panels or date supermodels, I suspect, is because he lacked a certain… er… how shall I put it… intellectual rigor. If you asked him to, for instance, define “fascism,” the guy would ramble on for ages about militarism, cults of personality, authoritarianism, institutional racism, and blah, blah, blah. And when it was all over you were no closer to determining whether your RA confiscating your roomate’s water bong was an act of fascism or not. You knew it was fascism, of course, but Professor Cohen had done precious little to help you argue the case. Read more »

The problem: Hanukkah songs are all uniformly lame, unlike Christmas songs which are, without exception, awesome.

The solution? Choose one from the following list:

A) Commission Southpark co-creator and Jew Matt Stone to pen a handful of humorously offbeat additions to the seasonal canon.

B) Arrange a Hanukkah themed musical collaboration between ex-Dire Straits guitarst Mark Knopfler (Jewish father) and Jewish singer songwriter Janis Ian.

C) Have ultra-conservative Utah Senator and devout Mormon song-smith Orrin Hatch pen a few ditties in honor of the Festival of Lights.

You know what’s coming next without me even having to tell you, don’t you? That’s right: If you picked C… congratulations.

Sorry my Jewish friends, but this Hanukkah thing of yours just got a teensy bit lamer.

Given recent developments on both the domestic and international front, it is easy to become dispirited, shaking our heads at many of the decisions of the current Administration and wondering whether all our efforts and hard work were really worth the election of a President who, in retrospect and all too often, seems  far removed from the hopeful agent of change we enthusiastically supported. At what point and by whom were we informed that we should  set aside expectations nurtured by an energetic campaigner’s steady diet of “hope” and “change”  and instead satisfy ourselves with cold plate of “not as bad as the other guy?”

Leaves a bitter aftertaste, doesn’t it? Read more »

Sarah Palin is angry… again. You see, for the thirteen-hundredth time in as many months, the morally bankrupt liberal media establishment has shown itself to be little more than a grungy, stinking, mud-puddle of squealing sexist pigs, as exemplified in their most recent uncharitable comments about… well, about Sarah Palin. And Sarah Palin, defender of women’s rights that she is, is not going to stand for this scurrilous slander of womankind as embodied by the unjustly maligned personage who she, herself, happens to be. No, indeed. If nothing else, Sarah Palin lives by the motto “an attack on me is an attack on all of us” and such an attack cannot possibly be left to stand, unanswered by all of womankind. Read more »

OK.  There were issues previously raised herein by Comrade Nojo regarding The Audacity of Condiments (and Miracle Whip in particular). And there may be something to connecting Walt Whitman with blue jeans (given, I suppose, the whole Whitman, um, thing).

But this is just ridiculous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAXpJSvW5mA

Snaps for exposing America to homoerotica, ad geniuses. And yet, regardless: STOOPENDOUS FAIL.

As has been well-documented by this point (most lately by Fearless Leader Nojo), the Kenyanish birth certificate is a flat-out sham.  But: it was presented in a federal court as grounds for seeking an order that would make Hillary Clinton turn over documents.  And this is where Orly Taitz gets into deep trouble.

By presenting to the court a pleading, written motion, or other paper — whether by signing, filing, submitting, or later advocating it — an attorney or unrepresented party certifies that to the best of the person’s knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances… the factual contentions have evidentiary support or, if specifically so identified, will likely have evidentiary support after a reasonable opportunity for further investigation or discovery….

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)(3), ladies and gentlemen.  And Orly is caught.  “Inquiry reasonable under the circumstances” does not mean “finding what some crank posted on the internet without inspecting the actual document,” for example.  There’s more to Rule 11(b) than this, but this is the clearest foul. 

Read more »