WELL, YES: Forbes: “Assault Weapon” Is Just A PR Stunt Meant To Fool The Gullible.

SNOPES: Media Quiet About Theater Shooting That Was Stopped With Gun By Off-Duty Deputy.

BILL QUICK: In California: Dems Large and In Charge, Making Government Work!

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: 2013: Welcome to Very, Very Scary Times. “These are the most foreboding times in my 59 years. The reelection of Barack Obama has released a surge of rare honesty among the Left about its intentions, coupled with a sense of triumphalism that the country is now on board for still greater redistributionist change.”

ROSS DOUTHAT: Cliff Deal Shows Obama’s Weakness, Not Strength: “If a newly re-elected Democratic president can’t muster the political will and capital required to do something as straightforward and relatively popular as raising taxes on the tiny fraction Americans making over $250,000 when those same taxes are scheduled to go up already, then how can Democrats ever expect to push taxes upward to levels that would make our existing public progams sustainable for the long run?”

They can’t, because those programs are unsustainable at any level of taxation. Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.

Plus: “There is a significant constituency among Congressional Democrats that was already uncomfortable with the $250,000 threshold and wanted to push it higher — all the way to a million dollars, if a certain influential New York Senator had his way — and the possibility that these Democrats might go wobbly in a post-cliff scenario gave the White House a reason (or an excuse) to concede ground that Obama had once promised to defend unstintingly. Nor is this tax-wary caucus likely to grow weaker with time: It exists because many Democratic lawmakers represent (and are funded by) a lot of affluent professionals in wealthy, high-cost-of-living states, and that relationship is only likely to loom larger if current demographic and political trends persist.”

That’s the problem with that whole war on the rich. Obama’s enemies are the small-business Kulaks, who vote Republican, but he can’t go after them without hurting the nobles who support Democrats financially.

I’d push 5% per year cuts in federal spending across the board — no “flexible freeze” BS — and do it each year until the deficit was under control. I think this would sell fairly well politically, too. Nobody believes that any federal department couldn’t cut costs 5% without impacting performance.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Perform The Fireman’s Carry. Plus, building strength with the carry-a-person-to-safety workout.

My concern is that too many people today are sufficiently obese that Phil Heath wouldn’t be able to lift them — and/or so rotund that nothing could keep them on a shoulder. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Hannah Sternberg writes:

Neat that you shared that. My boyfriend was at PT with his Marine brother once when they had to do a fireman’s carry. The guy he was paired up with had no idea how to do it, so he just picked my boyfriend up in his arms. The sarge stopped the whole exercise and hollered, “What are you doing, private, that’s a bride carry!”

Also related: one of my best friends is an EMT in the Washington area. It turns out they really can’t lift most patients (since, for every real disaster they’re called for, there’s a good dozen cases of obese people who roll out of bed and can’t get up again). They have special (expensive) gear for that, including a lift to take the special obese stretchers down stairs when necessary, so none of the EMTs get injured. These are strong boys and girls who are often extreme athletes in addition to being EMTs, but yes, there are serious concerns that these patients could crush them.

Serious indeed. Also, with really obese people it’s hard even to get a solid grip.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: After Arrest, a Wider Inquiry on SAT Cheating.

SO MANY QUALIFIED CANDIDATES: What Was the Most Tragic Policy Development of 2012?

INDEED: ‘Death of the Tea Party’ Claim by Mainstream Media Premature…Again.

HOUSE APPROVES FISCAL CLIFF DEAL.

Related: Condensed Obama statement: “Now that I have gotten my way on tax policy, anyone know what I can blame my deficits on?”

Also: Democrats, who for years said #GOP tax cuts are to blame for near economic collapse, just reversed course and said 98% of them good policy.

TYLER COWEN ON HOW TO HUNT DOWN cheap, tasty food.

AT AMAZON, A New Year, A New You. Discounts on all sorts of self-improvement, from language lessons to weight loss to financial management.

OUR SORRY POLITICAL CLASS: Hollywood Tax Credits, Rum Subsidies, Indian Coal and Scooters: The Senate Fiscal Cliff Bill’s 4 Worst Ripoffs.

Instead of extending Hollywood tax credits, I think we should repeal the Hollywood tax cuts!

SUPERWEAPONS THAT NEVER MATERIALIZED: Brits Planned Ships Made of Ice During WWII, And New Zealand tested underwater ‘Tsunami Bombs.’

THE PRESENCE OF A MASSIVELY OVERWEIGHT SALLY STRUTHERS DOESN’T HELP EITHER, EVEN IF IT HEIGHTENS THE CONTRAST: Showing Pictures Of ‘Starving’ People In Africa Has Stopped Working For Charities. “Over-exposure to negative media and advertising portrayals of Africa and developing countries in other parts of the world was described as ‘depressing, manipulative and hopeless’ by respondents.”

Then there are those ASPCA ads featuring starving abused animals — when the money is probably really earmarked to pay off a settlement for bringing an abusive, fraudulent lawsuit.

But I’d donate to a charity that helped these Africans.

SOME NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS from the Insta-Wife. I’d say don’t try not to make money, exactly, but focus more on doing things that you like. As taxes bid fair to keep climbing, the incentive to sacrifice to earn that extra buck declines. If you like what you do, that’s less of a disincentive to work than if you hate it.

HARDBALL GETS HARDER: Group claims hacked subscriber database of NY newspaper which published gun permit map. I enjoy the irony of the Journal News posting armed guards at its HQ. But apparently they should’ve updated Norton. . . . Plus, from the comments: “Will the Journal News be publishing the names and addresses of its newly-hired armed guards?”

AT AMAZON, up to 40% off on Toys & Games.

FROM JOHN HINDERAKER, a positive take on the cliff deal. “It will soon become apparent that the fiscal cliff deal, including precisely the tax increases that Obama has been demanding for four years, makes hardly a dent in the deficit. At best, it will reduce the deficit by five or six percent. We will continue to run up deficits of close to $1 trillion a year, and the national debt will continue to grow, as Obama has always intended. This fact can’t be hidden; it will be reported. . . . All of this is another way of saying that, with the Democrats’ BS about raising taxes on the rich out of the way, we can have a rational debate about the country’s fiscal future. And that is a debate the GOP can win, as most voters continue to believe that it is better to cut spending than to raise taxes on them.”

BEWARE OF KNIFE-FREE ZONES. The exclusion of pocketknives is idiotic.

AT AMAZON, up to 60% off on Pet Supplies. Stock up!

Also, today only: Up to 50% Off Select Exercise Bikes from Schwinn and Nautilus.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “You want silence? You want backing down? You want me to not to dare say a thing like that? That’s how you want to control political debate in the United States? Thanks for reminding me once again how deeply I hate that and for giving me an (easy) opportunity to model courage for the more timid people out there who are cowed by the fear of shaming.”

It’s hard to be shamed by people who — as demonstrated repeatedly over the past several years — have no sense of shame themselves. Just as the “have you no decency?” line has little resonance when uttered by people who — as demonstrated repeatedly over the past several years — have no decency themselves.

THIS WILL JUST MAKE IT HARDER FOR CITIES TO BORROW MONEY, THOUGH, WHICH OVERALL IS A GOOD THING. Stockton Tries To Pull A Chrysler. “The municipal bankruptcy unfolding in Stockton, California is giving investors a bad case of deja vu. Just as the Obama Administration bailed out the United Auto Workers in Chrysler’s bankruptcy while hanging bondholders out to dry, the city of Stockton is subordinating its bond debt to worker pensions. But what’s really scary is that the Stockton case could be replayed in dozens of California cities. . . . Ratings agencies downplay the ‘systemic risk’ that the Stocktons of the United States pose to the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market. But then they also said mortgage-backed securities were Triple-A. While the market may not be in danger of blowing up soon, bondholders face a very real danger of being blown off to preserve worker pensions.”

Even the possibility that this might happen will make it harder for cities to borrow. But probably not as hard as it should be.

PORTUGAL: What A Real Fiscal Cliff Looks Like.

THE SENATE’S BENGHAZI REPORT: Where Is The President? “The president, his national security adviser and other top White House officials have not been queried as to their actions. That said, the report is a stern and broad rebuke of the entire administration.”