IF SO, THEN A LOT OF MEN QUALIFY, TOO: Does Liking Lesbian Porn Make Me A Lesbian?

AUDIO: Solving the play deficit with Peter Gray. He’s the author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Ladies Who Shave Probably Are Getting More Action in Bed.

ORLY LOBEL: Set Workers Free To Gain Competitive Edge. The book is Talent Wants to Be Free: Why We Should Learn to Love Leaks, Raids, and Free Riding.

USA TODAY: OPRAH AS OUT-OF-IT GEEZER:

Shortly before receiving the medal of freedom from President Obama, Oprah Winfrey gave an interview to the BBC in which she seemed to chalk up much of the opposition to the president to racism: “I think there’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs … because he’s African American,” she said.

Her claim reminded me of the times when, as a child of the ’70s, my father would ask an odd question about my friends, “What is he?”

“Huh?” I’d ask.

“You know, what is he — Italian? German? Lebanese? What is he?” my father replied.

I had no idea what my friends’ ethnic origins were. It was only when I traveled with my father to the north side of Chicago where he grew up, and he pointed out which ethnic groups had lived in various parts of town, that I understood.

Well once all the out-of-it geezers die off, that kind of silliness dies with them.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Welcome To Cuba. “None of the Cubans I quote are high profile dissidents except when I cite what they’ve written for public consumption. Those who aren’t in prison live under total surveillance. The regime posts guards outside their houses and points cameras at their windows and doors. I’ve been told by reliable sources that state security agents will sometimes commandeer next-door apartments and houses to tighten the screws even more. If I were to walk into that kind of surveillance umbrella, there’s virtually no chance I’d get in and out without being questioned and tailed, and there was a strong chance I’d be arrested.”

If you like his first report, hit his tipjar. I did.

THE WAR ON single-family homes. Too much autonomy! It is bad for the collective!

#WARONWOMEN: New Hampshire Dems attack State Rep. Marilinda Garcia with sexist language, imagery.

AND YET, WE CAN’T BUY IT IN THE GROCERY STORES IN TENNESSEE: Ancient Wine Bar? Giant Jugs Of Vino Unearthed In 3,700-Year-Old Cellar.

AT AMAZON, Deals Galore in Holiday Entertaining.

Plus, 50% or more off on Holiday Sweaters for Women. Winter is coming.

Also, Hot New Toy Releases.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: The Real And The Fake of ObamaCare: Politicians can’t talk their way out of a technological mess.

THAT’S NOT WHAT WE WERE PROMISED IN THE PORKY’S FILMS: Study: Casual Sex Might Be Making Teenagers Sad.

TL;DR: The Kind Of Boredom You Experience Most Often May Be Linked To Your Personality, Say Researchers.

SO I PROMISED A REPORT on the Trebuchet kit I bought for my nephew’s 9th birthday. He took a while getting around to building it because he was absorbed in learning how to program Java animations via the Khan Academy (and then in helping other Khan Kids to do the same), but he put it together — all by himself — over the weekend and it worked perfectly. The photos my brother sent show him looking quite gleeful.

FORTUNE TELLING: Which States Will Legalize Pot Next?

WEIRD HISTORY: In 1983, Steve Jobs Hosted “The Dating Game” With Bill Gates.

SUFFERERS BEWARE: 30 Infuriating Images That Will Trigger Your OCD.

THUGOCRACY: Dem. Operative Involved in 2004 Tire Slashing Shows Up in Virginia Gov. McAuliffe’s Cabinet. “In 2004, Levar Stoney was involved in covering up and lying for five Democratic campaign operatives who slashed the tires of 25 vans rented by the Republican Party for get out the vote efforts.” This must have been some of that “voter suppression” we’re always hearing about.

TODAY’S ACADEMIA, HAVEN OF GENOCIDAL RACIAL HATE SPEECH: Lib Professor Tells Class: “If You’re A White Male, You Don’t Deserve To Live. You’re A Cancer, You’re A Disease. White Males Only Murder And Oppress Non-Whites”… I’m actually pretty sure this is a parody, but these days, who can tell?

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 5 Ways to Shine at The Office Holiday Party.

GRIM MILESTONE: TaxProf: The IRS Scandal, Day 200.

MICHAEL BARONE: Why opposition to gun control has increased over the last half-century.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Peace For Our Time.

The Iranian agreement comes not in isolation, unfortunately. The Syrian debacle instructed the Iranians that the Obama administration was more interested in announcing a peaceful breakthrough than actually achieving it. The timing is convenient for both sides: The Obama administration needed an offset abroad to the Obamacare disaster, and the Iranians want a breathing space to rebuild their finances and ensure that Assad can salvage the Iranian-Hezbollah-Assad axis. The agreement is a de facto acknowledgement that containing, not ending, Iran’s nuclear program is now U.S. policy. . . .

Aside from the details of this new Sword of Damocles pact, one wonders about the following: In the case of violations, will it be easier for Iran to return to weaponization or for the U.S. to reassemble allies to reestablish the sanctions? Will Israel now be more or less likely to consider preemption? Will the Sunni states feel some relief or more likely pursue avenues to achieve nuclear deterrence? Will allies like Japan or South Korea feel that the U.S. has reasserted its old global clout, or further worry that their patron might engage in secret talks with, say, China rather than reemphasize their security under the traditional U.S. umbrella?

The president’s dismal polls are only a multiplier of that general perception abroad that foreign policy is an auxiliary to fundamental transformation at home, useful not so much to create international stability per se, as to enhance Obama influence in pursuing his domestic agenda. Collate reset, lead from behind, “redlines,” “game-changers,” ”deadlines,” the Arab Spring confusion, the skedaddle from Iraq, Benghazi, the Eastern European missile pullback, and the atmosphere is comparable to the 1979–80 Carter landscape, in which after three years of observation, the opportunists at last decided to act while the acting was good, from Afghanistan to Central America to Tehran.

There is not a good record, from Philip of Macedon to Hitler to Stalin in the 1940s to Carter and the Soviets in the 1970s to radical Islamists in the 1990s, of expecting authoritarians and thugs to listen to reason, cool their aggression, and appreciate democracies’ sober and judicious appeal to logic — once they sense in the West greater eagerness to announce new, rather than to enforce old, agreements.

Nope. But Obama et al. care only about accumulating their own power, not about what others do. Just as they are happy to see the economic pie shrink, so long as they control a larger slice of what’s left.

THE AMERICA THAT DOESN’T WORK: It Costs $200B to Manage $500B In Federal Grants.