MICHAEL WALSH: San Francisco, 1978, Dianne Feinstein and Gun Control.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, MORALISTIC SCOLDS WOULD BE SHAMING PEOPLE FOR WHAT THEY DO WITH THEIR OWN BODIES. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Shaming fat people into losing weight is the only way to solve obesity epidemic, leading health academic claims.

Daniel Callahan, the 82-year-old president emeritus of The Hastings Center a New York think-tank specializing in health policy ethics, calls for increased stigmatization of obese people to try spur weight-loss across America.

The senior research scholar says fat people should be treated like smokers who have become increasingly demonized in recent years and thus ‘nudged’ by negative attitudes of those around them into giving up the unhealthy habit. . . .

They need to be leaned upon, nudged, and—when politically feasible—helped by regulations to understand that they are potentially in trouble. They should not want to be that way, nor should others.’ he writes.

Judged!

YES, I WISH THAT PJTV WERE AVAILABLE ON ROKU, TOO.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: UN opens probe into US armed drone strikes.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Vermont Law School to Offer Buy-Outs to Faculty Next Month Due to Declining Enrollment. “The downsizing comes as a result of fewer applications over the past three years, VLS officials said, a problem that exists for law schools nationwide as potential students, dissuaded by a lack of open law jobs, don’t bother to apply. Westberg said that about 200 students are set to graduate with juris doctor degrees this spring. She said the school is predicting between 150 and 170 students to enroll this coming fall.”

J.D. TUCCILLE: What Illicit Police Snooping Tells Us About Government Databases. “Having compelled us to cough up the gruesome details of our life, they give us smiles that don’t reach their eyes and assure us that our information is secure. And then we find out that Florida cops have been dipping into motor vehicle records to stalk their dates and for purposes of retaliation. Thanks for the assurances, folks.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: “The effort on the left to stereotype Rand Paul as a nutcase is so strenuous that it stimulates my root-for-the-underdog instinct. And makes me suspicious. I feel a Rand-Paul-must-be-destroyed conspiracy theory blossoming within.”

NOTHING TO SEE HERE: North Africa/England Edition.

OBAMA’S GLOBAL WARMING JUNK SCIENCE:

Historical analysis of wildfires around the world shows that since 1950 their numbers have decreased globally by 15%. Estimates published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show that even with global warming proceeding uninterrupted, the level of wildfires will continue to decline until around midcentury and won’t resume on the level of 1950—the worst for fire—before the end of the century.

Claiming that droughts are a consequence of global warming is also wrong. The world has not seen a general increase in drought. A study published in Nature in November shows globally that “there has been little change in drought over the past 60 years.” The U.N. Climate Panel in 2012 concluded: “Some regions of the world have experienced more intense and longer droughts, in particular in southern Europe and West Africa, but in some regions droughts have become less frequent, less intense, or shorter, for example, in central North America and northwestern Australia.”

As for one of the favorites of alarmism, hurricanes in recent years don’t indicate that storms are getting worse. Measured by total energy (Accumulated Cyclone Energy), hurricane activity is at a low not encountered since the 1970s. The U.S. is currently experiencing the longest absence of severe landfall hurricanes in over a century—the last Category 3 or stronger storm was Wilma, more than seven years ago.

Stop the Democrats’ war against science!

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Futuristic Blues. “The economic vision of the meritocrats nicely complements this view that the revolutionary and leveling phase of the liberal experiment has come to an end. An economy in which the talented minority generates wealth that, in its wisdom and compassion, it then shares with the passive majority becomes a society destined to be ruled in perpetuity by that talented minority. The titans of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, advised by the professors of the great universities and the high civil servants, can perpetuate their social privilege and power forever as long as careers are open to talent. . . . The economy is making us more unequal, but a wise elite can mitigate the harm—if only we are willing to live under their tutelage. That is what liberalism 4.0 offers today; from an ideology of populism and reform it has mutated into a defense of the status quo.”

HOPEY-CHANGEY: Gallup Poll: Americans Most Negative On the Nation And Economy In 30 Years.

This iconic photo from the very first days of the Obama Era turns out to have been not merely iconic, but prescient.

IT’S LIKE THE WHOLE THING IS ONE BIG PRETEXT: Feinstein Falsely Politicizes Virginia Tech Massacre. “Given that she cited Virginia Tech, it’s worth asking whether or not Feinstein’s proposed legislation could’ve changed the outcome of the event. . . . So what did Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech gunman, use to kill 32 of his fellow classmates? He used two sidearms, a .22 caliber Walther P22 and a 9mm Glock 19. You’ll notice that neither of these semi-automatic weapons are on the list above. Cho also used a number of 10 and 15 round magazines. Theoretically, Feinstein’s bill may have limited Cho to smaller magazines (8 or 9 rounds each). Would this have made a difference?”

VIDEO: Allen West: Are We A Nation of Political Illiterates?

TAKING A SNOWBALL TO A FIREHOSE-FIGHT: Snowballers pick the wrong victim. “A gang of youths who pelted firefighters with snowballs in Leeds learned a valuable lesson – when they ended up soaked. The firefighters, who were working on a boat, turned their hose on the younsters, drenching them with freezing water from the River Aire.”

PERSONALLY, I’M HAPPY TO SEE MY FRIENDS DO WELL: Is Facebook Envy Making You Miserable?

A SCOTT WALKER SUCCESS STORY: “Wisconsin budget surplus projected to grow to $484 million.”

AT AMAZON, warehouse deals in TV & Video.

CHANGE: Religion As An Activity Engaged In By Consenting Adults In Private. “Let me venture a sociological hypothesis here: The new American secularism is in defense of the sexual revolution.”

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY: Guilt of modern mothers at having too little time for children.

TODAY IN HISTORY: