ALL MEN MUST DIE: But must it be in vain?

MEGAN MCARDLE: ‘The Force Awakens’ Has a Perfection Problem.

Like pretty much all of the rest of you, my family saw “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” over Christmas week. I emerged from the screening into a lively Internet debate over whether Rey, the main hero, was or was not a “Mary Sue”: an author’s wish-fulfillment character, perfect in every way, beloved by children, dogs and everyone around her. Plotwise, this character is improbably central to everything — the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral. . . .

The answer is that of course Rey is a Mary Sue, though not in this case for the author; she is a stand-in for every 10-year-old who imagined themselves into the Star Wars universe, and particularly the women who wanted to be Luke, not Princess Leia. J.J. Abrams has taken all the skills of the main characters of the first “Star Wars” cast and rolled them into one: She is a pilot as good as Han Solo, also a mechanic; she is apparently fluent in multiple languages; she is a terrific hand-to-hand fighter, a good shot and, oh, she knows how to use a lightsaber the first time she picks one up. Also, mid-movie, she discovers that she can do Jedi mind tricks without having any reason to know that they even exist — apparently not content to make her Luke, Abrams also had to make her her own Obi-Wan Kenobi.

What Abrams left out is twofold: first, the sense that these are skills that have to be trained and developed, not simply inborn traits one has, like blue eyes. Second, and more important, he’s omitted the weaknesses that made the original characters so appealing: the genuine streak of nasty self-interest in Han Solo, Leia’s bullheaded arrogance, Kenobi’s wistful sense of being past his prime, Luke’s needy, whining sense of entitlement to greater things than he has gotten from the universe so true to actual teenage boys. . . .

I also tend to believe that this undercuts the longevity of the films. Kids will like it, because kids love action-packed CGI stuff. But how many people who watched this movie as a kid will keep coming back to it as an adult, the way my generation has with the original? The movie is fine for what it is, but what it is is, as my friend Terry Teachout noted, “an homage to an homage,” missing much of the charm that made the original so enduring. If the three prequels had not been so downright terrible, people would be being much harder on “The Force Awakens.” The fawning critical reaction is mostly just a vast outpouring of relief that George Lucas hasn’t been allowed to inflict more damage on his own creation.

Well, that’s a relief.

WHY IS HILLARY SO RACIST? “You could’ve at least let Rosa sit at the front of the logo @HillaryClinton.”

THE TRUMP/HILLARY FIGHT HAS REOPENED THIS: The Jeffrey Epstein Affair Imperils Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Prospects.

YEAR END DEALS ON Amazon Devices. I just bought the Fire TV Stick with voice remote, for the living room TV that has cable but no Internet. I’ll let you know how it works out.

OKAY, THIS ISN’T DON’S BIGGEST SCOOP EVER: Don Surber: Newsweek Is Run By Idiots.

BRENDAN O’NEILL: Never Mind Rhodes: It’s The Cult Of The Victim That Must Fall.

Also, the practice of caring what college students think.

IT’S BACK! After an Instalanche-induced stock-out, my book The Power of Glamour, is again available from Amazon. Thanks to everyone who bought it for Christmas—or just to read yourself—and to the kind commenters who urged others to read it too.

Lest you share the common misconception that “glamour” is a synonym for fashion, here’s a column I wrote on the glamour that attracts recruits to Islamic State. Here’s a happier excerpt on the tech glamour of wirelessness. Here’s a Q&A I did on glamour for financial advisers (yes, you read that right), as well as interviewer Ken Silber’s review of the book. And here’s a review that describes how the book’s discussion of Star Trek‘s glamour gave the reviewer a better understanding of women’s relation to beauty-magazine imagery than the usual feminist “beauty myth” critique.

REVEALED: NSA Spied On Israel, US Lawmakers. In a less politicized environment, this would bother me less. But you know this was mostly about domestic politics, not national security.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Death Of Gratitude.

SO THE TECH COMPANIES ARE JUST AN ARM OF THE GOVERNMENT NOW: Windows 10 covertly sends your disk-encryption keys to Microsoft. And under the “third party doctrine,” the government can get them from Microsoft without a warrant. But wait, there’s more:

Windows 10 has many unprecedented anti-user features: a remote killswitch that lets it disable your hardware; keylogging and browser-history logging that, by default, sends it all to Microsoft, and a deceptive “privacy mode” that continues to exfiltrate your data, even when you turn it on.

I don’t trust these guys.

CAUSE AND EFFECT:

Shot: New York Times Editorial Board Calls For Nationwide $15 An Hour Minimum Wage.

Chaser: New York Orders Fast-Food Workers Replaced With Robots, Kiosks, Mobile Apps — A state panel recommends hiking the minimum wage by 70%.

RICHARD NIXON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: U.S. Spy Net on Israel Snares Congress:

President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.

But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S., pursuing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran at the time, captured communications between Mr. Netanyahu and his aides that inflamed mistrust between the two countries and planted a political minefield at home when Mr. Netanyahu later took his campaign against the deal to Capitol Hill.

The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.

Related: “Your Employer Can’t Stop You From Recording Conversations At Work.”

That’s pretty much been Barry’s motto, hasn’t it?

Also Related: Minneapolis Councilwoman and Black Lives Matter Supporter Doxxes Critics Writing to Her, Then Plays the Victim Card When She Is Criticized for Doxxing Her Critics.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Louisville Law Prof Objects To ‘Chinese Mind Control’ Diversity Training.

A couple of years ago, the acting dean of the law school ordered all law faculty and staff to attend “diversity training” sponsored by the vice president for diversity. At that training, we were first asked to identify our religious preferences: Would everyone who is Catholic please stand up? Would everyone who is Jewish please stand up? Would everyone who is agnostic please stand up? Would everyone who is atheist please stand up? We were then asked to identify our sexual orientation. Would everyone who is gay please stand up? Would everyone who is a lesbian please stand up? We were asked then asked to stand if we were disabled.

The session was conducted like Chinese mind-control training. Before the first group was asked to stand up, we were instructed that we were expected to clap for each group, and we were told that polite clapping was simply insufficient. For each group, we were required to clap and affirm with a “woo-hoo” level of vigor. Thus, devout Catholics were required to go “woo-hoo” for agnostics and atheists, agnostics were required to do likewise for Catholics, and heterosexual individuals were required to go “woo-hoo” for gays and lesbians.

Group speak was the agenda of the day. Individuality and, indeed, diversity of thought were adamantly discouraged.

This is what organizations do when they have too many people onboard who aren’t contributing to their actual mission.

UPDATE: Russ Weaver emails: “Anyone who knows me should be able to answer the question about whether I stood, clapped or went ‘woo-hoo.'” True!

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION OFFICE? Feds improperly gave away $64 million in Social Security Disability payments because they failed to check the recipients’ income. Oh, and they did so despite the fact the SSA Inspector General has issued at least two reports in the last decade warning that millions of tax dollars are being lost because of such sloppy work, according to Ethan Barton of the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group.

BOMBSHELL: Pataki about to drop 2016 bid.

On the other hand, perhaps, there is (to coin a Tatooine-minted phrase) A New Hope: “Santorum Could Trample Trump.”

As Allahpundit deadpans in response, “Big if true.”

Nay, Yuuuuuge.

MICHAEL LOTUS: Avi Davis: A Personal Reminiscence and Thoughts on Honoring his Memory and Carrying on the Cause.

Jim Bennett reported that the Magna Carta event was a smashing success. He also told me that the generally hopeful and optimistic aspect of our message was greeted with some disbelief, even scoffing, but also with relief, hope and a desire to know more. This has been our usual experience. Most conservatives and libertarians, as well as opponents of jihad and supporters of Israel, tend to be pessimistic. They know they are right, they know the other side is wrong, and often evil. But in their guts they think history is not on the side of freedom, the rule of law, civilization and the West. So when we suggest that this is a very bad phase, but we will get through it, this message has a strong impact on people who are willing to listen. As I came to learn, Avi had been struck by this as well.

Read the whole thing.

TWILIGHT OF THE HEADBANGERS: How long can the legends of heavy metal keep on rocking?

Where’d Lemmy go? The stage is empty: vacated mics, cooling drum stool, the blocky, buzzing statuary of amps and speakers. Motörhead, the legendary Motörhead, is not there anymore. I’m in a heavy-metal hangar in Salt Lake City in late August, and singer/bassist Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister has just walked off, shakily and in evident distress, after only four songs, anxiously pursued by his drummer, Mikkey Dee, and guitarist, Phil Campbell. A man in a bandanna approaches me, pop-eyed with dire foreknowledge: “He’s not comin’ back, man! He’s not comin’ back! He’s too old!” Then he reels away, into the hormonal half-smoke and press of bodies in front of the stage. Should we riot? Are we sad? Is it possible that Lemmy—69 years old, pacemakered, diabetic—Lemmy, the great survivor, opposer, grizzled odds-beater, humanity’s middle finger, was crying? “Listen,” he’d said to us before exiting, in his familiar English roar-gasp, that voice of fiery exhaustion. “I’m really sorry—I can’t tell you how sorry I am—but my back’s gone. I’ve got this bad back and … I can’t breathe up here either.” Then he covered his face with his hands, and he left us.

A sadly prescient Atlantic article from last month, given the announcement of Lemmy’s death yesterday. Motorhead wasn’t my cup of arsenic (Led Zep and The Who are about as hard as my mp3 collection rocks), but as more and more rockers exit the stage, increasingly I wonder about the future of pop music. Or the lack thereof.

(Via Sonny Bunch.)

JUST NBC THAT MEMORY HOLE! “Donald Trump appeared on NBC’s Today where co-host Savannah Guthrie attempted to convince Trump that former President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs (and specifically what occurred with Monica Lewinsky) were merely ‘alleged’ and thus might not be fair to bring up in a campaign involving Hillary Clinton.”

In contrast, even the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus can see the obvious: “Trump has smeared women because of their looks. Clinton has preyed on them, and in a workplace setting where he was by far the superior. That is uncomfortable for Clinton supporters but it is unavoidably true.”

But then, truth is the ultimate scarce resource inside NBC and most other DNC-MSM newsrooms.

Related: ‘I will not stop talking about this’! NRO’s Katherine Timpf won’t let Hillary off ‘feminist’ hook.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Victims and Microaggressions: Why 2015 Was The Year Students Lost Their Minds.

WAPO: Trump is right: Bill Clinton’s sordid sexual history is fair game.

HEY, WHEN DID FOX BUTTERFIELD START WRITING HOLLYWOOD REPORTER HEADLINES? How Eddie Redmayne’s Transgender Role in ‘The Danish Girl’ Went From “Commercial Poison” to Oscar Contender.

(The Danish Girl’s not exactly printing money at the box office, which only benefits its chances in the era of the uber-politicized stick-it-to-the red states Academy Awards; Butterfield Effect explained here.)

In other news from politics and gender-obsessed Tinseltown, “The new Ghostbusters are fighting the ghosts of the patriarchy.”

Bless their souls! But of course they are.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Bay Area Job Growth Slows After Minimum-Wage Hikes:

The pace of hiring in the leisure and hospitality sector fell to a five-year low for the Bay Area last month, Labor Department data show. Job gains have slowed to less than half the rate that preceded Oakland’s and San Francisco’s adoption last spring of the highest citywide minimum wage in country.

After rising close to 5% a year, hiring at restaurants, hotels and other leisure sector venues rose just 2.2% from a year ago in November. Meanwhile, in the rest of California, where the minimum wage is generally $3.25 below the $12.25-an-hour level set in Oakland and San Francisco, leisure and hospitality employment rose 4.9%.

The data suggest potential employment headwinds from the higher minimum wage, which jumped 36% in Oakland and 14% in San Francisco. On top of that, Oakland’s minimum wage is set to rise to $12.55 in January while San Francisco’s will jump to $13 in July.

Also in news of fresh disaster from the formerly Golden State, What Price Will Californians Pay for Decent Roads?

Of course, all that deferred maintenance on some of the worst roads in the nation now also helps Jerry Brown sell his party-like-its-1899 fantasy of “high speed rail” to connect the state, the ultimate “desire named streetcar,” given all of its potential for graft and eminent domain abuse:

(Via Betsy Newmark.)

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Liberal Professor Admits: Higher Ed’s ‘Falling Apart.’

COURT EUNUCHS PROTECT THE KING: Why did it take this long for a comedian to mock The One and his Giant Ego?

And speaking of the symbiosis of Obama and the DNC-MSM, Barry O’s transformation into Barney Stinson is finally complete:

As John Nolte likes to say, “Democrats sure got it good.” Obama and his staffers can only post trolls like that knowing that he has protection from being mocked by the media and its late-night talkers. Or by nightly news anchormen placing that image into context by reminding viewers that “3 weeks ago we had the worst terror attack on the homeland since 9/11.”