SEAN SORRENTINO: I’m one of the #GunBullies. Why aren’t you? If I join, can I give Bloomberg a wedgie?

PLAYING POLITICS WITH STUDENT AND TAXPAYER MONEY: Fairness at U. of Michigan: Fund Liberal Events while Denying Conservative Ones.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

Plus, up to 70% off on Shoes & Handbags.

BEWARE, IT MIGHT FORM A SINGULARITY OF AWESOMENESS: On January 11, Bill Whittle and Ted Cruz together in Texas.

ED DRISCOLL: Pinkwashing Norman Rockwell.

ADVANCES IN pizza-box technology.

SHOCKER: Compelling Evidence Makes the Case for a Market-Driven Health Care System.

FLASH MOB: Mob of teens overruns mall in Brooklyn.

ANOTHER OBAMACARE DEBACLE: All Iowans Who Applied For ObamaCare Asked to Reapply at State Website Due to Ongoing Glitches.

SCIENCE: Retrieving An Asteroid.

AT AMAZON, Year-End Deals in Tools & Home Improvement.

Also, up to 75% off on Men’s Coats.

Plus, up to 50% off on Plano gun cases and tackle boxes.

I WAS GOING TO MAKE A KEITH RICHARDS JOKE, BUT THERE’S NOTHING “MODERATE” THERE: Moderate alcohol consumption and hearing loss: a protective effect.

DEREK KHANNA: A Look Back At How The Content Industry Almost Killed Blockbuster And Netflix (And The VCR).

THAT’S NOT WHAT OBAMA WAS PROMISING A WHILE BACK: Feds Say Just One Car Out of 100 Will Be Electric in 2040.

Electric vehicles are gaining a small foothold in the U.S., but according to the feds, it will remain just that — small. Fossil fuels will power the vast majority of vehicles for the next two and a half decades, with electric cars accounting for a scant 1 percent of vehicles sold in the United States in 2040, according to Uncle Sam.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration Annual Energy Outlook report for 2014 predicts that by 2040, nearly eight in 10 cars sold will run on gasoline, down marginally the number sold last year. The number of diesels rolling out of showrooms will double to 4 percent of all vehicles sold, while hybrids will comprise 5 percent of cars. That’s up from 3 percent last year.

But the headline figure is this: The EIA predicts that only 1 percent of total vehicle sales in the U.S. will be plug-in hybrids, with another 1 percent being fully electric in 2040.

I’d like to see more, but the engineering turns out to be tougher than many people thought.

ZERO TO SIXTY: YES. Review: 2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 Bluetec.

READER BOOK PLUG: From Anita Young, Eyes Of Osiris.

HOW TO INSTALL BLUETOOTH AUDIO in any car.

CHANGE: Ramona Pierson’s remarkable tale: From near-death to Silicon Valley CEO.

MARK WHITTINGTON: U.S. can still beat China back to moon.

FRONTIERS IN HUMAN ENHANCEMENT: Man on meth fights off 12 cops while masturbating in bar.

On Facebook, Ted Frank asks: “Is this supposed to discourage me from meth or make me think meth is AWESOME?” I hope they save some of his DNA for our enhanced-supersoldier project. I’m guessing samples won’t be that hard to obtain. . . .

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 233.

MICKEY KAUS: Welfare Queen Probed, Krugman Hardest Hit.

I put off reading Josh Levin’s piece about Linda Taylor, the famous Chicago “welfare queen” of the ’70s, in part because I feared it would be so engrossing and revealing I’d be consumed with professional jealousy. I’ve now read it. It’s engrossing and revealing and I’m jealous. (Also, Slate‘s new format mysteriously makes reading a long article easier. You should go there immediately.) But Dave Weigel’s idea that Levin’s piece somehow “vaporizes” Ronald Reagan’s use of the Taylor case in his campaigns is silly.

Levin doesn’t vaporize Reagan’s story. He confirms Reagan’s story.

Indeed.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: As Rich And Poor Take Their Slices, Who Will Stand Up For The Middle Class?

On almost every left-right issue that divides Democrats and Republicans — as well as Republicans themselves — there is a neglected populist constituency.

The result is that populist politics are largely caricatured as Tea Party extremism — and a voice for the middle class is largely absent.

The problem with ObamaCare is that its well-connected and influential supporters — pet businesses, unions and congressional insiders — have already won exemption from it.

The rich will always have their concierge doctors and Cadillac health plans. The poor can usually find low-cost care through Medicaid, federal clinics and emergency rooms.

In contrast, those who have lost their preferred individual plans, or will pay higher premiums and deductibles, are largely members of the self-employed middle class. They are too poor to have their own exclusive health care coverage but too wealthy for most government subsidies. So far, ObamaCare is falling hardest on the middle class.

Consider the trillion-dollar student loan mess. Millions of young people do not qualify for grants predicated on either income levels, ancestry or both. Nor are their parents wealthy enough to pay their tuition or room-and-board costs. The result is that the middle class — parents and students alike — has accrued a staggering level of student loan debt.

Universities are of no help. Their annual tuition costs have usually gone up faster than the rate of inflation. On too many campuses, vast increases in well-paid administrators and lower teaching loads for tenured professors — as well as snazzy new campus recreation facilities — were all predicated on students obtaining more federal loans and going into astronomical debt to pay for those less accountable and better off.

Illegal immigration also largely comes at the expense of the middle class. The supporters of amnesty tend to be poor foreign nationals who desire amnesty. Corporate employers and the elites of the identity-politics industry do not care under what legal circumstances foreign nationals enter the United States.

Instead, the two kindred pressure groups seek cheap and plentiful labor and plenty of ethnic constituents.

Lost in the debate over “comprehensive immigration reform” are citizen entry-level job seekers of all different races who cannot leverage employers for higher wages when millions of foreign nationals, residing illegally in the U.S., will work for less money.

Entirely true.

IT DOES NOT BECOME A DIGNIFIED MEMBER OF THE MEDIA TO ENGAGE IN UNRESTRAINED GLOATING. But we’re talking Stacy McCain here, so. . . .

Backstory here.