NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to pair beer with Girl Scout cookies.

HUGH HEWITT: Fire Obama’s ‘Deep State’ Sleeper Cells Yesterday.

Faster than yesterday, please.

YES. WHY SUBSIDIZE AMERICA’S OBESITY AND DIABETES EPIDEMICS? Food stamps and sweets: Should they be kept apart?

The debate aligns two sides that may not appear to have much in common: critics on the right of government overspending and public health advocates. Debate about how food-stamp benefits are spent was sparked by a November report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which found that households receiving SNAP benefits used 20 cents of every dollar to buy soda, candy, desserts and other unhealthy foods.

“Almost half of added sugars consumed by the U.S. population come from sweetened beverages,” said Angela Rachidi, research fellow in poverty studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, during testimony at the House committee hearing. “This is why it is so alarming that such a notable percentage of food/beverage purchases in American households are for sweetened beverages.”

She added, “Supporting such purchases, especially at levels suggested in the data, directly contradicts the stated goals of the program,” which say the money should be used for “improved levels of nutrition among low-income households.”

I’ve been reading Gary Taubes’ The Case Against Sugar, and, well, he makes a pretty strong case. And if nanny-staters want to ban Big Gulps for people who are spending their own money, I don’t see how you can oppose limits on what people buy with taxpayers’ money.

MILO YIANNOPOULOS RESIGNS FROM BREITBART.COM AMID PEDOPHILIA COMMENTS SCANDAL.

Related: Was Evan McMullin involved in the opposition research?

CHARLIE MARTIN: We’re Doomed! More Awful Media Coverage of a Radiation Incident.

SPEED KILLS, AND SO DOES INEXPERIENCE: That “Supercar Experience” Could Be More Dangerous than You Think.

FAITH: Ultra-Orthodox Israelis Struggle Against New Draft Law.

MISTER, WE COULD USE A MAN LIKE HERBERT MCMASTER: Trump’s pick is known for saying superiors “want criticism”

Want it or not, they always need it.

QUESTION ASKED: Was ‘Weird Al’ the real star all along?

Yankovic has sold millions of albums, played 1,616 shows and outlasted so many of the stars he once spoofed. His most recent album, 2014’s “Mandatory Fun,” featured parodies of Iggy Azalea, Lorde and Pharrell Williams, a polka medley and his usual smattering of original songs. The album hit No. 1. At 57, he’s now readying a complete set of his 14 studio recordings, plus an album of bonus tracks. “Squeeze Box,” on sale through a PledgeMusic drive until the end of February, will naturally come in an accordion-shaped box. “Comedy recording and funny songs go back to the earliest days of the record industry,” says Barry Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento, the radio host who introduced Yankovic to the public 40 years ago. “But Al is unique. There’s nothing like him in the history of funny music.”

For Chris Hardwick — the comedian who created the Nerdist empire and hosts two game shows, “@midnight” and “The Wall” — Yankovic is more than a musical success story. He’s a triumph for all the oddballs and outsiders.

I still remember all the words to “I Lost On Jeopardy,” but couldn’t tell you anything about the original Greg Kihn song other than the name.

MY INVITATION MUST HAVE BEEN LOST IN THE MAIL: Mercedes-Benz is letting 20 customers drive an electric semi truck for a year. Then again, who wants to clutter up the gently-curved drives of Stately InstaPundit Manor with a semi truck?

CHILDHOOD’S END: These Dolls Were Classified as ‘Hidden Espionage Devices’ in One Country. “Regulators in Germany have decided that when it comes to devices that can be used for spying, especially on children and their parents, that being “connected” is not a good thing. My Friend Cayla is a doll that recently became popular, but those who have purchased it are being asked to destroy it.”

REMAIN CALM! ALL IS WELL! Rioting erupts in immigrant-dominated Swedish suburb.

STAGES OF ELECTRONICS: Cellphones as a fifth-order elaboration of Maxwell’s theory. “As I pass the zombielike figures on the street, oblivious to anything but their cellphone screens, I wonder how many of them know that the most fundamental advances enabling their addictions came not from Nokia, Apple, Google, Samsung, or LG. These companies’ innovations are certainly admirable, but they amount only to adding a few fancy upper floors to a magnificent edifice whose foundations were laid by Maxwell 152 years ago and whose structure depends on decades-old advances that made it possible to build electronics devices ever smaller.”

LET’S GET ON THAT: Endless nuclear power can be found in the seas.

The best way to get uranium out of salt water is to dip plastic fibers coated with an organic chemical called amidoxime into seawater. The uranyl ions stick to the amidoxime, and can later be extracted and refined into uranium fuel. The key to its practicality is how quickly ions can be capture, how much sticks and how often the fibers can be reused.

The Stanford team came up with a conductive hybrid carbon and amidoxime fiber prototype that’s better in all three of those areas. By sending electric pulses down the fiber, it was able to absorb up to nine times as much uranyl as previous fibers without becoming saturated. Over an 11-hour test at Half Moon Bay, the team captured three times as much uranium and the fibers had thrice the lifespan of standard amidoxime.

In 2012, a Japanese team estimated that their seawater extraction technique, using previous tech, could be developed for about $300 per kilogram. That was about three times the commercial price at that point, but right now, the price is around half of that. “We have a lot of work to do still, but these are big steps toward practicality,” said the paper’s co-author, Li Cui. “For much of this century, some fraction of our electricity will need to come from sources that we can turn on and off. I believe nuclear power should be part of that mix.”

Anyone serious about cutting carbon emissions has to be serious about nuclear power.

WAIT, AZTECS ATE AT CHIPOTLE? New Evidence Links the Collapse of Aztec Society to a Deadly Salmonella Outbreak.

ALTERNATE HISTORY:

It’s a little funny and a lot sad.

(Hat tip, Paul Barbehenn.)

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE:  College Writing Center Declares American Grammar A ‘Racist,’ ‘Unjust Language Structure.’

In-state tuition to the University of Washington, Tacoma is 11k. Out of state tuition is 33k. Parents and students, choose where to spend your money wisely.

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: Canned Bacon Grease. (Bumped. Because bacon.)

YA THINK? Former Clinton Adviser: Democratic Party’s ‘Technocratic Speak’ Turning Off Voters

Technocratic speak — talking down to the proles — is one way the Left maintains the proper pecking order. Giving that up won’t be easy, or sincere.

IT’S A STOPGAP UNTIL THE SOMA COMES OUT: When Retirement Comes With A Daily Dose Of Cannabis.

SAITH THE MAN-GOD: ‘EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.’ “Ross Douthat is correct: if you don’t like the Christian Right, wait till you see the Post-Christian Right. To that I would add: look at the Post-Christian Left. You cannot deny the God-Man and replace him with the Man-God with impunity,” Rod Dreher writes.

Read the whole thing.

WELL, YES: Trump isn’t really campaigning earlier than other recent presidents. He’s just more upfront about it.

The “permanent campaign” was invented by (or maybe “for”) Bill Clinton a quarter century ago, and for better or worse it’s now a permanent part of our political landscape.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Everything You Need To Know About Fuel.

MARK ELLIS: Build the Wall, But Realize That We’ll Still Need Seasonal Agricultural Workers.

True, but an official guest-worker program would be much more orderly than today’s mess — and considering the 21st Century’s issues with terror and infectious disease, probably a bit safer as well.

AND THE LEFT HAS BEEN WALLOWING IN RADICAL CHIC EVER SINCE: Fifty Years of Bonnie and Clyde.