TRANSPARENCY: Big Mo for putting C-SPAN cameras on ‘fiscal cliff’ talks. Plus, why doesn’t David Gregory want voters to know what’s going on?

BILL WHITTLE: Afterburner: Unserious People.

BONO: “Aid is just a stop-gap. Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid.”

BOY, THESE REPUBLICANS SURE ARE SORE LOSERS:

At a certain point in the near future, if the current oligarchy cannot be removed via the ballot, direct political action may become an urgent and compelling mission. It may then be necessary for many people in many walks of life to put their bodies on the line. For the moment, however, although pressing and profound questions have arisen about whether the current government is even legitimate, i.e., properly elected, there still remains a chance to remove this government peacefully. . . .

This is all terrible and rather fantastic to contemplate. But what assurances have we that it is not all quite plausible? Having discarded the principles that Jefferson & Co. espoused, the current regime seems capable of anything. I know that my imagination is a feverish instrument. But are we not living in feverish times, in times of the unthinkable?

Oh, my mistake: That’s Cary Tennis in Salon from 2005. Though Tennis was roundly, and rightly, mocked at the time, this — like the talk of secession from people on the left back then, and people on the right now — does illustrate the significance of Jerry Pournelle’s observation about the dangers of an overly-powerful government:

We have always known that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It’s worse now, because capture of government is so much more important than it once was. There was a time when there was enough freedom that it hardly mattered which brand of crooks ran government. That has not been true for a long time — not during most of your lifetimes, and for much of mine — and it will probably never be true again.

If the Executive, and the federal government generally, were held within the limits envisioned by the Constitution, there would be much less reason to become so exercised over the “wrong” people being in power.

Meanwhile, depressed Republicans can remember that this is how Dems felt in 2005. But things changed for them beginning in the following year. Of course, they had a lot of help from the media, but then, they always do, and it doesn’t always help them.

SARAH HOYT on being ungovernable.

AT AMAZON, Toys & Games Under $10.

Also, Stocking Stuffers under $10.

And, today only: DEWALT Hammer-Drill Combo Kit, $169.99 with Instant $25 Off at Checkout.

REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR.

A CAROL FOR OUR TIMES: Deck The Halls With Macro Follies.

SHOCKER: Businesses Fleeing Greece For Greener Pastures. “Greece is entering the latest stage of its long decline, as businesses flee the country and move their headquarters away from the collapsing country. Those businesses that choose to remain not only face rising taxes and increased regulations; they are also risking credit downgrades for the simple fact that they are located in Greece.” A glimpse of our future?

FAST AND FURIOUS: Post-Election, Golden Parachutes Deployed. “You wouldn’t know it by perusing mainstream media coverage, but now that the 2012 election is out of the way, the Department of Justice is discarding some of the troublesome ATF and DOJ employees responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, the gunrunning operation that put more than 2,000 firearms into the hands of the Sinaloa narco-terrorist cartel. Eric Holder’s chief of staff, Gary Grindler, was the highest-ranking figure to go.”

LOOKING AT THIS BERKELEY KERFUFFLE, you’d think nobody had ever thought of having sex in the library before. I’m sorry, but what were these journalists doing in college? Apparently, they learned nothing of either alcohol or sex, which is downright odd. . . .

But reading the actual column, I feel that the Daily Cal’s “Sex On Tuesday” feature has gone downhill since the long-ago days of Rachael Klein, when it was regularly besting Salon.com’s sex column. On the other hand, the response from the librarian is pure gold!

MICHAEL S. GREVE: Interposition Now. “The heart and soul of our government is the delivery of services, benefits, and entitlements; and with the exceptions of Social Security and the federal tax code, all of that work is being done through and with the assistance of state and local governments: education, transportation, welfare, housing, food stamps, medical services, the environment, etc., etc. States cannot be compelled to do that work (the Constitution gets in the way); they have to be asked and incentivized. Under the ‘cooperative’ federalism programs that implement the states-do-the-feds’-bidding m.o., states gain what they lacked in 1798: an institutional trump against the feds. And for the first time in memory, states now have a powerful incentive to play that trump. They will very likely do so within the next two or three years, to altogether salutary effect.”

DICK CHENEY NOT SO IMPRESSED WITH OBAMA’S PERFORMANCE IN OFFICE.

ANOTHER ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF MY PROPOSED SURTAX ON “EXCESS” POST-GOVERNMENT-EMPLOYMENT EARNINGS: ObamaCare Bill’s Architect Cashes Out, Takes Job With Pharma Giant. Maybe we need to extend it to Congressional aides.

MICKEY KAUS: Why Social Security Is Not Like Medicare.

REALLY, WHO’S DUMB ENOUGH TO TANGLE WITH KATHY SHAIDLE? OH, RIGHT. Hear the show Warren Kinsella couldn’t stop! “Yes, a group of self-described liberal, feminist men tried to silence two women.”

HOPEY-CHANGEY: Newly Released Drone Records Reveal Extensive Military Flights in US.

AT THE SPECULIST, A CONTEST: It’s The End Of The World As We Know It.

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE: Gun Sales Surge: Smith & Wesson Announces Sales +48%.

WELL, IN A COUNTRY THAT’S ELECTED A BLACK PRESIDENT TWICE, THERE’S A GOOD ARGUMENT THAT IT’S OBSOLETE: Ward Connerly Foresees An End To Affirmative Action.

On the other hand, like all such programs, now that it’s established it has a constituency. What would all those “Diversity Officers” do?

NOW THEY TELL US: NYT: Obama admin approved secret weapons deals that ended up arming Islamists in Libya.

BILL STRAUB: 5 Ways The Fiscal Cliff Drama Could Play Out.

THIS IS PATHETIC: Staffer axed by Republican group over retracted copyright-reform memo: Big Content doesn’t like the GOP advocating for copyright changes.

Reader Matt Thullen emails:

Dear Prof. Reynolds:

Although I should have learned by now, I’m simply astounded at the treatment of Derek Khanna by the GOP leadership. I’m starting to entertain the possibility that John Boehner and the rest of the GOP leadership are deep sleeper agents planted by the Democratic party decades ago who are now just being summoned into action.

Here is the message that I just sent to John Campbell, my congressman:

Dear Congressman Campbell:

I’ve been a pretty loyal Republican since 1990, but I think I’ve just about had it. The proverbial straw that is breaking the back of this GOP camel is your treatment of Derek Khanna.

Here is a guy who simply proposes to reform an area that could use reform. His ideas would also not only help make the GOP more acceptable to younger voters, but would also stick a thumb in the eye of Hollywood and the major entertainment companies–the same companies that massively fund the Democratic party, and whose products constantly and incessantly denigrate Republicans, conservatives, church-going people and the values that made this a great country. It is no exaggeration to note that the reason that so many young voters vote for Democrats is due to the constant message from the products of major entertainment companies that Republicans are hateful, repressed and nasty people, while liberals and Democrats are cool, accepting, good people.

To see the GOP screw over itself and its core constituents simply to mollify big business is one of the more idiotic things I’ve seen the GOP leadership ever do, and that’s saying a lot. It’s one thing to reject Mr. Khanna’s plan. It’s quite another to toss him out of the Congressional staff, which is an action that is designed to stop anyone from any type of innovative thinking at the Congressional level.

This is a party whose current leadership seems bent on suicide. The GOP, under its current leadership, seems to have no greater interest than to simply perpetuate its elected members at the expense of principle, strategy or leadership. Instead of exploring ways to broaden its appeal and at the same time stop providing aid and comfort to those who wish to destroy the party, the GOP leadership is more interested in trying to live down to the stereotypes that the U.S. entertainment industry perpetuate about the party–that it is beholden to big business.

Matt Thullen

Yes, it’s stupid.

PEOPLE FIND NARCISSISTS ATTRACTIVE: Psychology Uncovers Sex Appeal of Dark Personalities. “Although most people probably don’t consider narcissism or psychopathy desirable qualities in either their friends or romantic partners, many of us are mysteriously drawn toward people with these personality traits.”

INNATE FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY AND INSECURITY?

As we watch the Syrian dictator struggle to survive, and the Egyptian would-be dictator run from an angry mob, and as we think back to the many fallen dictators of the recent past – Gorbachev, Ceausescu, Pinochet, and their numerous ilk– we might well ask ourselves two questions:

Why does that job look so good?

And why do so many intellectuals cozy up to the dictators?

It doesn’t say good things about the “intellectuals,” though.