DOUG BERMAN: Fascinating federal “gun control” criminal charges in wake of NY ambush murder-suicide.

THE RISE OF THE BACKPACK. When I transferred from Bearden Jr. High in Knoxville, to Maryville Jr. High in Maryville, I got ahead of the curve — lots of people carried backpacks at Bearden (generally Army surplus knapsacks), but nobody did in Maryville and people thought it was weird. They got used to it after a while.

HOW TO REMOVE stripped screws, headless nails, and busted fasteners.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON LEGAL EDUCATION: “I think Deans like Rodriguez should put their administrative house in order first. At my school, and I’m sure at many others, the number of administrators, program directors, and other bureaucrats has increased dramatically. See Roland A. Cass & John H. Garvey, Law School Leviathan: Expanding Administrative Growth, 35 U. Tol. L. Rev. 37 (2003), which notes that the growth in the numbers of law school administrators has outpaced growth in those of faculty and students. Of course, the problem is not limited to law schools. . . . But that’s no excuse for law school deans like Rodriguez to ignore the problem of administrator bloat.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS ON THE DEBT CEILING: America’s Sorry Day Of Reckoning. “The feds have plenty of dough to pay bondholders and run auctions to roll over maturing debt. In 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the net interest expense of the US government will be approximately $218 billion, while revenue will be nearly $3 trillion. . . . See, the real debt ceiling is the one eventually imposed by global financial markets at some point on a profligate Washington. When that happens, Congress won’t be able to raise the ceiling even if it wants to. The only options then to avoid a financial crisis will be draconian austerity — both massive tax hikes and brutal entitlement cuts.”

NUMBERS: A Briton is 5 times more likely to die from government health care than an American is to die from a gunshot.

HOWARD NEMEROV: ‘Gun Control Fails,’ Say Statistics from … Gun-Control Advocates. “In response to Ezra Klein’s report titled “Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States,” below are eight fictions about gun control. Do note: all data cited below are from sources supportive of gun control.”

NEWS FROM THE AMERICA THAT CARES ABOUT THE CHILDREN: More Than 150 Utah Teachers, School Workers Go To Gun Class.

UPDATE: Not just Utah. Columbus Dispatch: Scores of school workers want gun training. “We’re pleasantly surprised, but it’s not shocking.”

HEH: Rockland County Times: What You Don’t Know About the Agenda-Driven Journalists in Your Neighborhood.

The Rockland County Times shares in the community’s frustration with the tactics of the Journal News, particularly the seeming attempt to draw a moral link between law abiding gun owners and the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The only remedy for this is for the editorial board of the Journal News as well as executives at Gannett to receive a taste of their own medicine.

We are publishing the home addresses of Journal News editors, publishers and the Gannet CEO to make a point; what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. We wish no ill will upon them.

This is why media competition is good. It would be interesting to run a background check on them, too, and look for DUI’s, unpaid support, etc. All in the public interest, of course . . . Especially since the Journal News is doubling down.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Teenagers Flee The Bursting Higher-Education Bubble For Brown Jobs.

The real significance of the story is that brown jobs are making it possible for Americans to make a decent living without a college degree. It’s a heartening sign of a new reality that some teens are finding ways to launch a middle class life directly out of high school. As the energy boom continues, we may be seeing a lot more of this. New developments in oil and gas extraction are already helping to point us towards energy independence. If they can also help build up the middle class, that’s even more reason to celebrate them.

My question. The New York Times seems upset that teenagers might skip college — which could lead to an, er, white-collar job — in favor of going straight into a “brown job” out of high school. So, according to the NYT, white=good, and brown=bad. Uh huh. Got it.

CHINESE EXPAND INTERNET CENSORSHIP: “We wait breathlessly for Thomas Friedman to either explain why this abridgment of personal liberties means that the Chinese are awesome.”

SACRE BLEU! French Court Says 75% Tax Rate on Rich Is Unconstitutional.

President Francois Hollande’s 75 percent millionaire-tax is unconstitutional because it doesn’t guarantee equality for taxpayers, France’s top court ruled.

Hollande’s plan add extra levies of 18 percent on individuals’ incomes of more than 1 million euros ($1.32 million), while regular income taxes and a 4 percent exceptional contribution for high earners are based on tax households, the court said today in an e-mailed statement. As a result, two households with the same total revenue could end up paying different rates depending on how earnings are divided among members of those households, which runs counter to a rule of equal tax treatment, the Paris-based court said. . . . The decision could be positive for France’s bond market because it shows there is a limit to the government’s ability to raise taxes on the wealthy and may decrease the flight risk of more rich French citizens, Barbet said.

The constitutional court lowered a series of other tax increases, calling them excessive or saying they also violated equality of treatment for taxpayers.

Maybe Gerard Depardieu can come back. . . .

REASON TV: “A lot of our gun control measures are aimed at people who would obey the law and get the permits. How does keeping me or you from having a gun really control gun violence in Washington or New York City?”

It’s an interview with Craig Whitney, whose new book is Living with Guns: A Liberal’s Case for the Second Amendment.

TOM MAGUIRE ON The Renewal of Warrantless Eavesdropping: “People who want reform of our FISA laws need to work for the election of a Republican President so the NY Times and the rest of the liberal media can become enraged again. The next renewal is in five years; if it happens under President Hillary it will be perfunctory, but if it is President Rubio, well, the media will discover FISA problems by the bushel.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: Should People Be Forced to Buy Liability Insurance for their Guns?

No. It’s just an effort to raise the cost of gun ownership, and to accomplish back-door gun registration so that antigun newspapers can run lists of gun-liability-insurance policyholders. But proposals like this do serve to underscore the bad faith of the anti-gun crowd, who are willing to try anything to get their way.

What’s going on is explained here:

The gambit is to get a victory, a win, and push the face of the losers into shit if you can, in order to gain momentum for the next victory, so that you can again humiliate and degrade any winger gun owners and intimidate any good folks who happen to have hunted in the past.

You start the process in motion with a win, and you aren’t sure which win will be the one win to start it, but you keep trying for it.

As I say, bad faith. By bad people.

JUST REMEMBER, YOU’LL HAVE TO LIVE UNDER IT WHEN YOU’RE IN THE MINORITY. AND YOU WILL BE. Leading proponent of filibuster “reform” claims he has 51 votes. Remember how unAmerican this was supposed to be back when a Republican-majority Senate was considering this approach? The publicity made them think twice. That won’t happen next time.

NOW I UNDERSTAND OBAMA’S POSITION: Will ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Cause More Millionaires to Die by Dec. 31?

MARC THIESSEN: Why Not Let Taxes Rise On The Middle Class?

During Obama’s first term, federal spending grew to more than 24 percent of GDP — the highest it has been since 1946. Yet almost no one in the country (except smokers and those who frequent indoor tanning salons) saw their taxes rise. Quite the opposite: 160 million Americans saw their payroll taxes reduced from 6.2 to 4.2 percent.

How can we expect people to care about the growth of government if it doesn’t cost them anything? . . .

So let’s do it. Let’s all of us experience the true cost of big government in the form of a bigger tax bill.

It might well be that the biggest mistake Republicans made during Obama’s first term was forcing the president to extend the Bush tax cuts. At the time, it seemed like a major victory by the newly elected GOP House. But in truth, it was a victory for Obama. Extending the tax cuts shielded the economy from the full brunt of Obama’s economic failures and allowed him to put off job-killing tax increases till his second term. It’s ironic. Obama never passed up an opportunity to blame President Bush for his economic woes, yet he rode the Bush tax cuts to reelection.

Extending the tax cuts also shielded Americans from the costs of Obama’s spending spree. Shopping on a credit card is fun until the bill comes due. But if the bill never arrives, what incentive do people have to stop the spending?

Absolutely. No representation without taxation.

MORE MOCKERY: I finally figured out what David Gregory displaying that prop reminds me of.

VIOLATING THE FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE: “The BBC offers this advice for anyone in Britain who is attacked on the street: You are permitted to protect yourself with a briefcase, a handbag, or keys. You should shout ‘Call the Police’ rather than ‘Help.’ Bystanders are not to help. They have been taught to leave such matters to the professionals. If you manage to knock your attacker down, you must not hit him again or you risk being charged with assault.”

This is not “civilized” behavior, though it is peddled as such. Nor is it a sign of a civilization that is in good health.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Americans Buying Out Ammo Stocks. Ammunition inventories are down 93% since the election, reportedly.

UPDATE: New York State Pensions Invest In Firearms Manufacturers. Some want to pull out, but given the performance of firearms companies as compared to the market in general, that would seem to be a breach of fiduciary duty. . . .

COMMENT OF THE DAY: “For ten years we have been told that the Bush tax cuts applied mostly to the rich. Now it is imperative that we extend them further or the middle class is going to take a big hit.”

PRIORITIES: Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers.

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