PEELING THE ONION OF FAIL: HHS extends another ObamaCare deadline.

The Obama administration on Thursday pushed back the deadline for consumers to make their first payment for coverage under the healthcare law.

Rather than a deadline of Dec. 23, insurers will be required to accept premium payments through Dec. 31 for people who are seeking coverage that starts on Jan. 1.

In a conference call with reporters, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius said insurers have the latitude to accept premiums even beyond Dec. 31, and that the administration was “strongly encouraging” them to retroactively cover consumers that submit late payments.

It’s the latest in a string of unilateral delays the administration has implemented to buy time after the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov.

In addition to the one-week extension for premium payments, the administration on Thursday formalized its announcement that consumers have until Dec. 23, instead of Dec. 15, to sign-up for healthcare coverage that goes into affect Jan. 1.

Where, exactly, do they get the authority for all these exemptions, waivers, and extensions?

ED DRISCOLL: Never go full commie, man.

OH, I’M SURE THE NSA GUYS HAVE SEEN IT: Obama’s funeral selfie won’t be shared, as Danish PM says it didn’t turn out to be a good picture.

CHANGE: Obama’s popularity slide has made his coalition dangerously shallower.

GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE, THE LOBOTOMY FILES: “The U.S. government lobotomized roughly 2,000 mentally ill veterans—and likely hundreds more—during and after World War II, according to a cache of forgotten memos, letters and government reports unearthed by The Wall Street Journal. Besieged by psychologically damaged troops returning from the battlefields of North Africa, Europe and the Pacific, the Veterans Administration performed the brain-altering operation on former servicemen it diagnosed as depressives, psychotics and schizophrenics, and occasionally on people identified as homosexuals.”

That’s okay. Now it’ll just be people diagnosed as Republican.

AT AMAZON, Holiday Gift Deals in Home Improvement.

Also, Rosie Pope’s Parenting Picks.

Plus, Holiday Deals on Luxury Watches.

And, 25% off in Shoes & Handbags.

Also: most wished-for items in Kitchen & Dining.

THE LAPDOGS BEGIN TO BARK: White House press corps slams Jay Carney on access to Obama.

Related: White House Press Corps Angrily Confronts Press Secretary Over Lack Of Access.

You want to punish ’em, White House Press Corps? Just cover him the way you’d cover a Republican president. . . .

FOREIGN POLICY: “Obama simply prefers Iran over Israel.”

LUGGAGEBLOGGING: Andrew Morriss writes:

So I’ve bought the excellent suit bag you recommended and the truly awesome laptop bag, which is The Best Laptop Bag Ever (and I have tried many). How about your thoughts on a rolling, under the seat/overhead in regional jet bag that can hold a change of clothes and laptop? My wife is looking for one and your recommendations have been so much better than our alternative sources of information. And we’ll buy it via your Amazon link!

Hmm. Well, if it weren’t for the laptop requirement, I’d recommend this without hesitation, as it’s just a smaller version of the suit bag above. Helen has this Hartmann carryon, which has wheels and a laptop pocket. We’ve fit it in overheads on smaller jets, but since it’s hard-sided it may not work on all of them. So I’m going to open this up to the Insta-Readership for suggestions. Suggest away!

IN THE ATLANTIC, a bold call for men to do more housework.

IN A BIG WIN FOR BOEHNER, House Passes Budget Deal. You can defend this deal, but Boehner’s gratuitous Tea Party-bashing won’t help the GOP win next year. A lot of Tea Party folks stayed home in 2012 because the GOP establishment made clear it didn’t like them. That makes all this talk about the need to win elections ring a bit hollow.

I’M SURE THE POLITICAL CLASS IS OKAY WITH THAT: Who Owns the Code of Life? Washington control of genetic data would send us down the road to medical serfdom.

INSTAVISION: I talk to Brian Kilmeade about his new book, George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved The American Revolution.

WAR ON MEN: Men With Pelvic Pain Find a Path to Treatment Blocked by a Gynecology Board.

After visiting dozens of doctors and suffering for nearly five years from pelvic pain so severe that he could not work, Daniel Davidson, 57, a dentist in Dalton Gardens, Idaho, finally found a specialist in Phoenix who had an outstanding reputation for treating men like him.

Dr. Davidson, whose pain followed an injury, waited five months for an appointment and even rented an apartment in Phoenix, assuming he would need surgery and time to recover.

Six days before the appointment, it was canceled. The doctor, Michael Hibner, an obstetrician-gynecologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, had learned that members of his specialty were not allowed to treat men and that if he did so, he could lose his board certification — something that doctors need in order to work.

The rule had come from the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. On Sept. 12, it posted on its website a newly stringent and explicit statement of what its members could and could not do. Except for a few conditions, gynecologists were prohibited from treating men. Pelvic pain was not among the exceptions.

Dr. Davidson went home, close to despair. His condition has left him largely bedridden. The pain makes it unbearable for him to sit, and he can stand for only limited periods before he needs to lie down.

Pathetic.

TED CRUZ DEMONSTRATES how “rapid response” is done. Heh.

TUMBLR: The Real Life Of Julia, now that ObamaCare is in effect.

AT AMAZON, up to 50% off on Winter Storm Preparations.

Plus, most wished-for items in Home, Kitchen & Garden.

Also, deals on Party Dresses.

And, latest deals on Luggage.

I KEEP TELLING YOU PEOPLE THAT THE OXFORD COMMA IS ESSENTIAL: Comma on!: Twitter erupts over Obama-Castro ‘marriage.’

JAMES MORROW VS. THE NANNY-STATERS: Leave us alone to enjoy our simple pleasures – and sins.

The worst form of lust is the lust to control others. For it is never sated.

TEST-DRIVING THE Porsche 918 Spyder.

WHY, YES: As Lionfish Invade the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, Conservationists Say Eat Up.

That’s the conclusion of my own research into the subject, as well.

READER BOOK PLUG: From reader Paul Duffau, Finishing Kick.

TECHNOLOGY: How Remote Places Can Get Cellular Coverage by Doing It Themselves.

A four-hour drive from the nearest cellular coverage in the remote highlands of Papua, Indonesia, a new kind of guerilla telecom network is operating, albeit outside the law, using a cheap base station roped into a treetop.

The technology could provide a new model for self-managed “last mile” mobile coverage in the world’s hardest-to-reach areas, where traditional top-down telecommunications business models don’t work.

The project was set up by a team from the University of California, Berkeley. The resulting network is now operated by a tiny stand-alone telecommunications company run by a local NGO, with a laptop for local billing and a satellite connection to the rest of the world. The network relies on Swedish phone numbers because no local telecommunications company would provide them.

“It’s a telco-in-a-box that we put in a tree,” says Kurtis Heimerl, a developer at Range Networks and grad student at UC Berkeley who led the project. “It’s a demonstration that these populations can profitably and sustainably manage their own networks. We don’t need telcos to do this; these communities can do this by themselves.”

I imagine the telcos will be willing to do a lot to quash this sort of thing. They might even go so far as to provide service themselves . . . .

A PROBLEM BEYOND ANY CURRENT DISASTER-PREPAREDNESS: Collapse of the universe is closer than ever before.

CONFESSIONS OF a parking valet.