SIX HARSH TRUTHS that will make you a better person. I think most InstaPundit readers already grok this stuff, but it’s interesting to see it in that venue.

INSIDE THE WORLD OF GAY RUSSIAN SKINHEADS. “These gay Russian neo-Nazis fight against the rampant homophobia of their land, often leading to fights with their fellow homophobic skinheads. Though Balu, a member of the Gay Aryan Skinheads (GASH), told Chester he doesn’t understand why they — the skinheads — can’t all just get along.”

DAVID BRIN: What If The 21st Century Begins In 2014? “The last two centuries (and possibly more) didn’t “start” at their official point, the turning of a calendar from 00 to 01. That wasn’t when they began in essence, nor when they first bent the arc of history. No. Each century effectively began in its 14th year. Think about it. The first decade of the 20th century was filled with hope and a kind of can-do optimism that was never seen again — not after the horrific events of 1914 shattered any vision that a new and better age would arrive without pain. . . . All right, that’s just one data point. Is there another? Well, look at 1814, the beginning of the Congress of Vienna and the so-called Concert of Europe that made possible the continent’s longest extended period of overall peace, as the great powers turned from fighting bloody wars to perfecting their colonial empires. Those two years — 1814 and 1914 –- each marked a dramatic shift in tone and theme (in the West, that is), so much so that they represented the real beginnings of the 19th and 20th centuries. Suppose the pattern holds — and remember this is just a thought experiment — what might it mean about the true 21st century?”

BRET STEPHENS: Obama’s Envy Problem: Inequality is a problem when the rich get richer at the expense of the poor. That’s not happening in America. Well, Obama’s working to change that.

Plus this: “Class-consciousness has always been a fact of American life, but rarely is it about how the poor, or even the middle class, feel toward the very rich. It has been about how the professional class—-lawyers, journalists, administrators, academics—-feel toward the financial class. It’s what Volvo America thinks about S-class America.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Chaneya Kelly On Falsely Accusing Her Father Of Rape. “Dear Daddy … I do feel bad about telling a lie. All I want to do is put it all behind. You want the truth I’ll tell you the truth … I guess Mommy was drunk or something, Mommy came in with the belt asking me ‘what did your father do to you?, what did he do?’ I said ‘nothing.’ She said ‘Tell me or I’ll beat you.’ So I didn’t want to get beat so I made up a lie that I’d take back any day … I feel guilty when I talk about it. I feel that I should be in prison instead of you. I Love You daddy and the love I have for you can never be changed. Everytime that I talk about it I think you and god both hate me …”

The guilty parties here deserve a Mandela-approved necklacing.

AT AMAZON, New Year, New Tech Gear.

Also, up to 25% off Good-For-You Groceries.

EXERCISE: Stanford’s Distinct Training Regimen Redefines Strength. “From 2006, the year before Turley arrived on the Farm, as Stanford’s campus is known, through last season, the number of games missed because of injury on the two-deep roster dropped by 87 percent. In 2012, only two Cardinal players required season-ending or postseason surgical repair; this year, only one. . . . His approach is grounded in physics, on the premise that low man wins on contact, that to get low requires mobility and stability and the ability to apply force in the opposite direction. His players bench press, but he cares more about how they lift — with hands closer together, without bouncing the bar off their chests — than how much. He wants them to bend all the way down when they squat.”

A SHOCKING STORY: What Happened When Axl Rose Rented My Apartment. “Axl Rose is the best tenant ever.”

SCIENCE: Replacement artificial heart keeps first patient alive. Faster, please.

MAYBE WE SHOULD AMEND THE FOURTH AMENDMENT BY ADDING THE WORDS AND WE REALLY MEAN IT! Court Upholds Willy-Nilly Gadget Searches Along U.S. Border.

A federal judge today upheld a President Barack Obama administration policy allowing authorities along the U.S. border to seize and search laptops, smartphones and other electronic devices for any reason.

The decision (.pdf) by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in New York comes as laptops, and now smartphones, have become virtual extensions of ourselves, housing everything from email to instant-message chats to our papers and effects.

The American Civil Liberties Union brought the challenge nearly three years ago, claiming U.S. border officials should have reasonable suspicion to search gadgets along the border because of the data they store. But Judge Korman said the so-called “border exemption,” in which people can be searched for no reason at all along the border, continues to apply in the digital age.

Alarmingly, the government contends the Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone stretches 100 miles inland from the nation’s actual border.

Hopey-changey. It’s sort of funny to see Wired call this a “President Barack Obama administration policy.” No weasel-worded “government” reference there.

JOE PAPPALARDO: The 10 Best Science Fiction Movies As Chosen By Scientists.

2014: A Good Year For a Great War? I hope not.

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 237.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Meaning In 3-D.

Yesterday’s post looked at what divides Christians and other theists from atheists; today we cut deeper and look at what separates Christians from believers in other religions.

And the truth is that nothing separates Christianity from other religions like Christmas. That little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying so cutely in the manger is the biggest trouble maker in world history, and the shocking claims that Christianity makes about who he is and what he means irritate and antagonize people all over the world.

If Christians saw that little baby as nothing more or less than a beautiful symbol of human innocence and love, there would be no problem. Even recognizing him as an important teacher and religious leader does not raise many hackles. Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet and the predicted Messiah; as we have seen, Islam has no trouble with the idea that he was born of a virgin, and the Virgin Mary is a popular and well respected figure for Muslims. When it comes to his moral teaching, much of what Jesus says is unexceptionable. The Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have others do unto you) has its analogs in many religious traditions. Jesus’ summary of the moral law (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself) is both drawn from and perfectly compatible with Judaism and is also something that people from many different religious traditions can take to heart. Many non-religious people (and non-Christians like Mahatma Gandhi) have been inspired by Jesus’ example and teaching. If Christians were simply celebrating the birth of a moral teacher on Christmas, there would be little controversy about it.

But that’s not how most Christians see the baby in the manger. They don’t think he is a symbol; they don’t think he’s a messenger. They think he is the real thing.

Some people are put out by that, as Mead notes.

WALTER WILLIAMS: Limited Government Solves Constitutional Violations. For some that’s a feature. For others, it’s a bug.

AT AMAZON, New Year, New You. Help with diet, fitness, finances, and more.

Plus, today only: Up to 40% Off Functional Fitness Essentials.

Also today only: Inspiring Reads For The New Year, $2.99 or less.

YA GOTTA LOVE MATT DRUDGE:

ARMS-SMUGGLING COURTESY OF OBAMA AND HOLDER: Fast and Furious gun turns up after Mexican resort shootout.

IT’S POTEMKIN VILLAGES ALL THE WAY DOWN: No, 2.1 million haven’t enrolled in Obamacare plans.

With President Obama’s health care law scheduled to begin in earnest when the new year kicks off, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius claimed on a Tuesday conference call that as of Dec. 28, “2.1 million people have enrolled in a private insurance plan” through the program.

Later in the call, Sebelius emphasized that enrollments wouldn’t be completed until individuals paid their first month’s premiums.

But HHS officials still won’t disclose how many of the 2.1 million they claim enrolled through the federal healthcare.gov website or one of the state-based exchanges actually paid for coverage.

Though Sebelius left the call before the question-and-answer session, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman Julie Bataille declined several times to provide payment information. . . .

Later in the call, CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Bataille if she could at least say with confidence that a “very high percentage” of those 2.1 million had paid.

Instead of answering in the affirmative, Bataille said, “We are confident that those consumers have selected a plan and know what the next steps are for them in terms of securing coverage.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that: “As of Monday, however, only about half of enrollees billed for plans offered by more than 100 insurers in 17 states had paid their first month’s premium, said Mark Waterstraat, chief strategy officer at Benaissance, a third-party billing firm that works for those insurers.”

It isn’t clear whether that figure is indicative of the story nationwide, and it’s true that insurers have opted to give individuals until at least Jan. 10 (in some cases longer) to pay their premiums for coverage beginning on Jan. 1.

But there’s no reason to believe Sebelius’s claims that 2.1 million have enrolled as of Dec. 28, and journalists shouldn’t report that 2.1 million enrolled until HHS releases data showing that 2.1 million paid for their plans.

During the call, Bataille also declined to provide a demographic breakdown of those who have selected a plan so far or say how many of the 2.1 million signing up for insurance were previously uninsured.

Demographic information is important, because it is vital for the exchanges to attract a critical mass of young and healthy enrollees to offset the costs of covering older and sicker participants in the program.

Also, because millions of Americans have received cancellation notices from insurers, analysts want to know whether the law resulted in a net gain of those who have private insurance. Knowing how many of the 2.1 million signing up were previously uninsured could help provide insight into the question.

If the numbers were good, they’d be telling us.

NOW THAT OBAMA’S TANKING IN THE POLLS, WE GET THIS: Obama pollster: Reporters should stop covering polls in 2014.

After a year of seeing President Obama’s approval ratings plummet, the president’s pollster is offering a strikingly candid and pessimistic New Year’s resolution.

Reporters should go the next “year without reporting any public polling data,” Joel Benenson, president and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group, said. . . . If reporters actually did forgo reporting on the president’s polling data for a year, the next time the public would hear about Obama’s approval numbers would be after the 2014 midterms.

Just to be safe, they should also skip any reporting on the economy, unemployment, ObamaCare, and foreign relations, too.

SMART DIPLOMACY: AP: Putin Triumphs In 2013.

CARRYING CONDOMS? You Must Be A Prostitute!

THE WORST THING ABOUT THAT SHIP STUCK IN THE ANTARCTIC ICE: “This misadventure has energized climate change contrarians, offering a distraction from serious research on the impact of climate change on Antarctica.”

THE FUTURE? IMAGINE A BOOT PRESSING DOWN ON A HUMAN NECK. AND BEING CUT OFF BY A LIGHT SABER. THAT’S RIGHT, A GODDAMN FUCKING LIGHT SABER! 2013: The Year Defiance of the State Became Cool.