SANTA CLAUS ARRESTED BY THE I.R.S.

ED DRISCOLL: Shifting The Goalposts At The Washington Post. “If you’re a politician on the right, reading that your views have ‘evolved’ since taking office in the Washington Post is code that your ideology is slowly moving leftward. But when it comes to Barack Obama, voted the most liberal member of the Senate by the National Journal in 2007, just the opposite transformation has been taking place in recent months, as the Washington Post gears up to aid in his presidential reelection bid next year. The Post is morphing Mr. Obama into Barry Goldwater so slowly, I hardly even noticed. But let’s review the timeline anyhow, just for fun.”

THE PUBLIC HAS BEEN PRETTY CONSISTENT ON THIS: Rasmussen poll shows most voters want gov’t spending reduced.

OBVIOUS, BUT NOT OBVIOUS ENOUGH: “We Can’t Achieve Development by Going Backwards to the Stone Age or Being Ignorant.”

IRA STOLL PREDICTS the big headlines of 2012.

EGYPT: As Grim Islamists March Toward Power, The Naïve Dance in Tahrir Square.

EVERYWHERE THE POLICIES ARE ENACTED, THE RESULT IS THE SAME: Businesses Exit California and Illinois; Tax and Destroy Policies of Governors Quinn and Brown; Unemployment Rates By State.

OBAMA AND the F-word.

A NOVEL SUGGESTION: “If he wants money. Get a job. Work, like everybody else in this world.”

STACY MCCAIN knows how to impose. “Right now, I’m typing this in the passenger seat while Aaron is driving his brand new Honda Civic with less than 9,000 miles on the odometer. I’m sure this car could hit 110 mph, but Aaron has this whole Midwestern law-abiding thing going on, so he refuses to push it past 80.”

A LAST-CHANCE DEAL from DaTechGuy.

PATTERICO: Obama/Holder DoJ Blinds Itself to Voter Fraud Concerns.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “ANDREW SULLIVAN WAS RIGHT ABOUT FIFTH COLUMNS, says this OpinionJournal piece by Farrukh Dhondy.”

#OCCUPYFAIL: Occupy Eugene Protester Choked and Beaten to Death at Camp – #Occupy Death Toll at 9.

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WHY TYRANTS fall.

BRITAIN: Treasury Plans For Euro Failure. “The Government is considering plans to restrict the flow of money in and out of Britain to protect the economy in the event of a full-blown euro break-up.” Good grief. And this inspires confidence: “Britain’s response to the possible break up of the euro would reflect measures taken by Argentina when it dropped the dollar peg in 2002, according to sources.”

If I were British, I’d be trying to move some money offshore now.

PUTTING OBAMA on clearance.

UPDATE: Two bucks at Big Lots.

CHANGE: Scholars Retract Another Study Linking Virus to Fatigue Syndrome.

ROBERT SAMUELSON: A Country in Denial About Its Fiscal Future. “There are moments when our political system, whose essential job is to mediate conflicts in broadly acceptable and desirable ways, is simply not up to the task. It fails. This may be one of those moments.”

SHIKHA DALMIA: The Right Way For Ron Paul To Respond To The Newsletter Controversy.

I PROVIDE THE RAW MATERIAL, you take care of the rest.

UH OH: Europe: Bye, bye, AAA. Unhappy new year promises downgrades across the indebted eurozone.

HOW JAPANESE CARMAKERS won the West. “California weather is kind to tin cars. Its twisty mountains and coastal roads were best driven with manual transmissions. Californians could choose between freeway cruisers idling in traffic jams under smog clouds, or break away in little four cylinder, manually rowed, cheap little Japanese cars. Always striving to be different, and tiring of the ancient Volkswagon Beetle’s commonplace shortcomings, Californians fell in love with Toyotas, Hondas, and Datsuns. What Californians did in 1973 was watched by every American from Bangor to Battle Creek. . . . The Japanese cars, except for the FWD Civic, the Datsun Z and the Toyota Celica, were not exceptional cars. This Corolla was as dull as they come. But to America, these cars were new, different, cheap and dependable.”

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