BUT I HEAR HIS INAUGURAL SPEECH WILL BE ABOUT UNITY: At Church, Obama’s Pastor Calls Republicans “The Enemies” – Starts Chanting “Forward.”

DESPERATION: Piers Morgan wants you to think he’s a serious journalist except that he attacks his critics with nasty taunts. If Piers Morgan wants me to think he’s a serious journalist, he’s doing it wrong.

WELCOME TO THE SECOND TERM OF HOPE AND CHANGE: “See, dissent is evidence of sinister motives. We’ve heard it before, during the fight over ObamaCare and the campaign on raising taxes. We will hear it on climate change and immigration. Only the president is pure, above politics. So when he unleashes his campaign team to function as the spear tip of White House policy, The New York Times actually calls it ‘a grassroots effort.’ Watch for TV ads like those that accused Mitt Romney of being a felon and causing cancer.”

SAYUNCLE: Why Are Anti-Gun Activists So Violent?

ROGER KIMBALL: The Next Target: Talk Radio. “Leftists hate talk radio. Why? Because it represents an independent source of opinion, a source, moreover, that is at once extremely popular and (from the perspective of the leftists) politically heterodox.”

PROF. JACOBSON: When Concerts Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Concerts. And isn’t banning gun shows because you don’t like the “gun culture” kinda like banning rock concerts because you don’t like the rock culture?

DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATOR IN JAIL AFTER THREATENING FELLOW LAWMAKER: “A Democratic assemblyman is in jail, arrested for threatening Democratic Speaker-elect Marilyn Kirkpatrick, according to North Las Vegas Police and Democratic sources familiar with the situation. Assemblyman Steven Brooks, 40, of North Las Vegas made threats to harm a public official Saturday afternoon, police said in a news release Sunday morning. A source said he was arrested with a loaded gun after threatening to shoot Kirkpatrick.” Maybe we just need gun control for elected Democrats. . . .

JOHN ROSS: Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Washington, D.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Racket. The whole civil-forfeiture thing is a racket everywhere. An absolute disgrace, one of many in today’s law enforcement environment.

99 CENTS ON KINDLE TODAY: Patrick Chiles’ Perigee. (Via Helen’s Page).

CAN ANYBODY POINT ME to the list of legislators who voted for that dumb New York gun law?

UPDATE: Got it. That was fast! Thanks to the numerous readers who sent the link within minutes.

PALEOISTA is a Paleo diet site.

WHY I WRITE ABOUT MY DAUGHTER ON THE INTERNET: “I walk the line of overshare on my site daily. I try to be truthful and intentional. Loving and honest. I don’t always make it.”

AT AMAZON, New Year’s Markdowns in Exercise & Fitness.

NECESSARY AND PROPER: Congress Won’t Permit “Contortions” at Inaugural Ball.

SO FOR ANYONE WHO’S INTERESTED, I’ve got an early version of my Due Process When Everything Is A Crime essay posted now. It’s pretty short, as I plan to submit it to the online law reviews for faster turnaround. Maybe later I’ll write a longer piece on the topic — I’ve already been asked if I’d like to do a book, but I’m not sure. Maybe someone else will pick up the ball and I won’t have to. . . .

UPDATE: Reader William Vine writes:

Thanks for the very insightful article. You explained concisely the legal ramifications of everyone is guilty. However, there are the psychological ramifications: Everyone is guilty. Everyone is immoral. Everyone is corrupt. Everyone is a failure. First explained to me in Atlas Shrugged. Unfortunately, do not remember citation details.

I believe this is the passage you mean:

“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against – then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

Things aren’t quite that bad. Yet. (Bumped).

FURTHER SUPPORT FOR MY THEORY that these people favor gun controls because they assume that others are as unstable as themselves: Antigun Virginia lawmaker who brandished AK-47 during legislative session was disbarred following assault, death threat.

A Virginia lawmaker who drew gasps from his colleagues when he brandished a borrowed AK-47 during an anti-gun speech Thursday was found guilty in 2002 of committing a vicious 1999 assault, was sanctioned for legal misconduct while prosecuting a rape case, spent six months in jail for contempt of a federal court, and saw his law license revoked in 2003.

Democratic Delegate Joseph Morrissey brought the rifle to the floor of the House of Delegates to demonstrate how easy it is to carry firearms in Virginia. Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert interrupted Morrissey’s speech to ask him to remove his finger from inside the gun’s trigger-guard — a basic gun-safety practice.

Not fit to own a gun? Possibly. Not fit to make laws as to who should own a gun? Definitely.

REGIS GILES: All You Need To Know About “Assault” Rifles. (Via Helen’s Page, where there’s an ongoing discussion).

CLARICE FELDMAN ON THE DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE. “All of this is taking place with no comment by the media — which like their counterparts in academia, Hollywood. Silicon Valley (and unfortunately too many big corporations) — are ideological partners in ‘progressivism’.”

As I mentioned earlier, it reminds me very much of the way they astroturfed campaign finance “reform,” which was really just a ginned-up media campaign.

Related: “One Potemkin village after another.”

IOWAHAWK: “Want to immediately reduce the national gun homicide rate by 5%? Sell Chicago to Canada.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Teenage Girl Says She Will Have Sex With Teenage Boy If He Gets 1 Million Facebook Likes.

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Storage, Cleaning, and Organization.

ANNALS OF THE ONE PERCENT: “The average tenured university professor at New York University or Columbia makes more than $180,000 a year, according to a 2012 survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Sweetening the deal for those looking to buy, N.Y.U. has offered mortgage assistance and discounted loans, while qualified Columbia faculty are eligible for a subsidy of up to $40,000 a year.”

RETIREMENT IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: America’s CEOs Want You to Work Until You’re 70.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Robber Needed Money To Pay Student Loan Debt.

A man who wore a three-dimensional Bucky Badger hat when he allegedly robbed an East Side credit union last week told police that he wants to go to prison and needed the money because he has $250,000 in student debt. . . .

An online UW-Madison directory lists Hubatch as a lead custodian at Union South on the UW-Madison campus. University spokesman John Lucas said Hubatch is not a current student but earned a bachelor’s in English in 1998 and a law degree in 2004.

Can’t say I’m surprised to see stories like this.

WARP SPEED: What Hyperspace Would Really Look Like. Not sure we’re on the same page with the description of “hyperspace,” though. They seem to be talking about superluminal flight in normal space.