NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Swiss army chief warns of terrorism and unrest.

In a commentary in the “Schweiz am Sonntag” newspaper, the Lieutenant General said the world needed security – in areas including the economy, education, sport, research and even culture.

Speaking on the record for the first time since the November Paris terror attacks, Blattmann told the paper that despite a rise in security incidents over the past two years Switzerland’s means of defence were being reduced.

“Even if we are not (yet) directly affected by the conflicts taking place around the world we are already experiencing some impact,” the army chief said.

“The threat of terror is rising, hybrid wars are being fought around the globe; the economic outlook is gloomy and the resulting migration flows of displaced persons and refugees have assumed unforeseen dimensions.”

Blattmann warned that another risk was that a weakened economy would increase competition on the labour market.

“Social unrest cannot be rule out; the language is becoming dangerously aggressive,” he said.

Not a single mention of his confidence that the Obama/Kerry team will keep things safe and calm.

TED CRUZ IS PLAYING THE MEDIA PERFECTLY:

What started out with Internet memes and social-media snickers at Cruz culminated last week in Ann Telnaes’s cartoon at the Washington Post in which she depicted Cruz’s daughters as trained, leashed monkeys. The Post withdrew the illustration but did not apologize. Even primary competitor Marco Rubio, a father of young daughters himself, took a break from his fight with Cruz over immigration to defend the Texas senator.

Telnaes, whose Twitter wallpaper features a Charlie Hebdo cartoon, played the victim and censorship cards when criticized by Cruz and his supporters. What Telneas and our other brave truth tellers in media somehow don’t understand is that we on the right don’t care about the attack on Cruz as much as we care about the double standard of the media. Telnaes has the courage to satirize Ted Cruz’s children but not Mohammed. That’s why she’s not Charlie Hebdo. For my part, I wish the Washington Post had left the Cruz cartoon up.

Cruz’s response to Telnaes may have caught some pundits off guard, but for those following him and his campaign, it was vintage Cruz.

He did not respond with bomb-throwing tweets or statements that generate page clicks or mentions on cable news, and the Post’s attempts to anger Cruz enough so he’d hulk out into The Incredible Trump failed. He responded simply by defending his daughters, then by posting a cartoon of his own that portrayed the Washington Post and the New York Times as Hillary Clinton’s leashed lapdogs. It’s perfect red meat for his supporters, and the media fall into their own trap.

This has to be painfully frustrating for pundits and personalities who are attempting to goad Cruz into a fight that would prove he’s not as culturally savvy as Buzzfeed and IJ.com are making him out to be.

This is becoming a pattern for Cruz. Whether he’s halting the debate antics of an obnoxious moderator, responding to the incoherent Twitter rant of a pop star, or debating a Hollywood actress attempting to ambush him with cameras for her own show, Cruz is proving that he’s a savvy professional with a deft ability to handle the media. For those who are eager to see just how far they can push conservative candidates — how far they can go in attempting to Palinize conservatives out of mainstream culture altogether — Cruz must come as an unpleasant shock.

Read the whole thing.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Muslims sue Pam Geller for wearing an itsy-bitsy, red-hot, polka dot bikini.

I think this is just a reverse-psychology effort to get her to do it more often. I remember when she was bikini-videoblogging from the beach, though that link has succumbed to the effects of time.

[From Ed]: Ahh, the wild west early days of PJM — I’m pretty sure this is the video that Glenn is referring to.

BEHOLD, THE NEW ARISTOS: The New Masters of the Universe.  (And also Pfui.)

CALLING THE DESERT PEACE: In case you missed it, John Kerry is bringing peace to Syria.

YES, BUT OBAMA IS WORKING ON A KILLER NARRATIVE: In Afghanistan, Taliban Controls Most Territory Since 2001.

HIGHLY EFFICIENT: Salvation Army bell-ringers reveal how much they actually rake in.

GET OUT OF THOSE FAT GENES: The ‘DNA diet’ could be a game-changer for losing weight.

UH. THIS IS MORE ALCOHOLIC THAN MINE! The only eggnog recipe you’ll ever need.

ER… THEY DO REALIZE HE’S FICTIONAL, RIGHT: It’s time to reconsider Snoopy’s bad reputation.

REJECT ORGAN CONSCRIPTION: Adopt “Opt-Out” Organ Donation & Destroy Trust in Medicine.

THE PERFECT MULTITOOL? Roy Berendsohn loves the Leatherman Leap.

STOP LOOKING FOR A SAFE BLAME: It didn’t fly.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: The “linguistic contortions” the Obama adminstration uses to “mask” the “boots on the ground” that are the Special Operations forces.

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Today, Americans More Likely to Say Terrorists Are Winning Than at Any Time Since 9/11. “Frankly, this is just sad, considering all the sacrifices made by U.S. military personnel.”

AT AMAZON, year-end deals.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Massad Ayoob: 5 Gunfighting Myths Debunked.

NBC: Hard-Living Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead Dies at 70, Band Confirms.

HOW BAD ARE THINGS? “I work in a wealthy, mostly-white college town consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the country. If there’s anywhere that you might dare hope wasn’t filled to the brim with people living hopeless lives, it would be here. But that hope is not realized. Every day I get to listen to people describe problems that would seem overwrought if they were in a novel, and made-up if they were in a thinkpiece on The Fragmentation Of American Society.”

VIRAL CHRISTMAS TANTRUM VIDEO PROOF THAT BAD PARENTS PRODUCE BAD KIDS, as spotted by Bethany Mandel at the PJ Parenting section, who writes, “We shouldn’t hold back in our condemnation of the Internet Shame Machine. The same goes for Internet-shaming parents — we shouldn’t hold back in calling them what they are: terrible parents:”

The day after Christmas, a video of a kid having a temper tantrum went viral. On Christmas morning he found himself unhappy with his gifts and very clearly informed his parents of his displeasure. Immediately the headlines and tweets screamed about the child’s bratty nature. My first thought was, “Wow. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

If a child is so accustomed to getting what he wants and is unable to express any modicum of grace or gratitude, guess whose fault that is? If a parent is unable to show a child that his or her behavior is inappropriate without posting a video online, guess whose fault that is?

The video, posted on YouTube [and embedded in Mandel’s article — Ed], has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. As an average American you only get one “15 minutes” and this is it for this child. His parents and family have willingly put him in front of the Internet Shame Machine’s firing squad to let them do their dirty work.

To be clear: these parents intentionally triggered the tantrum by purposefully giving the wrong gift because the child had been “bad” all year, and after the tantrum, when the camera went off, the individual responsible for posting the video told a fellow tweeter that he was “whooped” for his behavior. That was clearly not enough punishment, and his online reputation is now sullied forever because the video was then uploaded online.

The original tweet was eventually deleted and the account it was sent from was quickly made private, but not before the video was posted on YouTube. The internet is forever and this child’s behavior, and the horrible parenting that led to it, will live on.

Victor Davis Hanson writes the obituary for gratitude today amongst a wide swatch of the adult population — which means it’s an outlook fewer and fewer parents will be passing down to their kids. Long before VDH’s newest column, Jonah Goldberg has been fond of quoting a passage apparently by Hannah Arendt that “every generation, Western civilization is invaded by barbarians – we call them ‘children’” – but increasingly, their parents can be awfully barbaric themselves.

Related (especially since I’ve been meaning to link to this since last week, but I haven’t be able to find another hook until now): “Meaning in the Age of Selfie Sticks.”

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Stratford Teacher’s Aide Offered Boy, 15, Money to Keep Sexual Relationship Quiet: Report. “The woman, who had at one point been the boy’s preschool teacher, has been charged with sexual assault.”

DON SURBER: Speaking of cultural appropriation, keep your mitts off mine.

OK, fair is fair. As a white Christian, I won’t eat halal. I won’t eat Thai. I’ll even give up General Tso, which is something I actually do eat.

Now give me back the polio vaccine. It is part of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It was developed by Jews (there are two vaccines).

Also, give back pasteurized milk.

The automobile.

The airplane.

The train.

Electricity, the Internet, skyscrapers, radio, television, and the cellphone — or any other kind of phone. Transistors, too.

Jews and Christians have done more positive good for the world than any other group.

Slavery? Don’t go there. Slavery pre-dated Christianity and even Judaism. The Indians practiced it long before Columbus arrived, and long after. The only continent that never had slavery was Antarctica. . . .

If Jews and Christians are so evil, why is the migration to our countries?

Don’t like cultural appropriation? Then get the hell off the computer.

But stay. We are Jews and Christians. We share.

Heh.

SO THIS STORY SOUNDS LIKE THE CONGRESSIONAL BAN ON CDC GUN CONTROL RESEARCH LED TO SOME MODERATELY INTERESTING FINDINGS IN WILMINGTON:

The final report, which has been submitted to the state, reached a conclusion that many here said they already knew: that there are certain patterns in the lives of many who commit gun violence.

“The majority of individuals involved in urban firearm violence are young men with substantial violence involvement preceding the more serious offense of a firearm crime,” the report said. “Our findings suggest that integrating data systems could help these individuals better receive the early, comprehensive help that they need to prevent violence involvement.” . . .

“You’ve got maybe a few hundred holding the city hostage,” a county councilman, Jea P. Street, said.

Traditionally, the solution the CDC has advocated is to take guns away from everyone else.

TWO NEW YORKS IN ONE!

Shot: NYT Theater Critic: ‘Grumpy Guys’ in GOP Would ‘Be a Lot Looser’ If They Were Like Drag Queens.

Chaser: You Will Be Made To Care: Fines of up to $250K In NYC For Misgendering:

“…landlords, employers and businesses they could be running afoul of the law by purposely calling a transgender woman “him” or “Mr.” when she prefers a female title and pronoun, or by barring her from using a women’s restroom.”

Perhaps someone in the GOP should sue the Gray Lady using that Manhattan law over the paper’s latest sexist-transphobic heteronormative-based micro-aggression. (My Star Trek Universal Translator is in the shop on Starbase 11. Did I get all the current buzzwords in there, or are there other 21st century leftwing adjectives that could also be applied?)

YOUR OASIS OF CIVILIZATION IN BILL DE BLASIO’S NEW YORK AWAITS: Sixty thousand New Yorkers sign up for ‘tiny house’ development: 265 square foot apartments with retractable beds attract huge wave of interest… but would you pay up to $3,000 a month for this?

G.I. Joe, Barbie and the cast of Toy Story would find these apartments claustrophobic — “And planning officials are proposing to end a limit on how small apartments can be, opening the door for more micro-apartments that advocates see as affordable adaptations to a growing population of single people.”