BUT WHO WILL WATCH? Obama Plans Farewell Speech From Chicago.

The address is set for the evening of Jan. 10 at McCormick Place, a hulking convention center overlooking Lake Michigan. In an email to supporters, Mr. Obama said the speech would give him “a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here.”

After all this time, Obama still seems to believe that all he needs to do is make one more speech.

BULLISH ON 2017? You’re not alone.

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FAKE NEWS: “On ‘Meet the Press’ today, Chuck Todd — interviewing the NYT executive editor Dean Baquet — showed a disturbing inability to do his job, to be a professional journalist. I don’t see what’s so hard about understanding professionalism. You’re a journalist, you cover the people in the news, and you don’t let the subjects of the news shake you up by telling you you’re doing it wrong. As long as you are following principles of professionalism — maybe you aren’t and that’s your problem — you should be able to stand your ground firmly. Yet somehow, Donald Trump’s criticism of journalists is dogging him.”

NOW #3 ON SSRN’S TOP DOWNLOADS LIST: My Second Amendment piece, Permissible Negligence and Campaigns to Suppress Rights. Thanks to everyone who downloaded it!

IT’S COME TO THIS: Hipsters Broke My Gaydar.

At a holiday crafts fair, a cute woman with a half-shaved head and a septum piercing pushed a tin toward me. “Smell this — it smells awesome,” she said, smiling. People brushed past me; the sun lit the woman’s head like a halo.

I reached for the tin, which had an image of a mustache on it. Our fingers touched, and I noticed a tattoo of the “female” symbol on her wrist.

“If your boyfriend has any facial hair,” she said, “this’ll make his face less scratchy for you!”

The tin held $14 beard pomade. I blinked, startled; I don’t have a boyfriend. If she casually assumed I was straight, that means she probably isn’t queer. But … how?

I backed away from her table. I was surrounded by strangers; I’d lost my way. I used to have a talent, but now it’s gone, vanished, like a beautiful dream I can’t remember.

I once had wonderful, startlingly accurate gaydar. I spent years writing a humor blog about the topic to educate fellow queers. Now I can’t always tell right away. It’s ruining my life.

In cities, trendy young people — queer and straight, male, female and non-binary — are blending together, look-wise. That’s because mainstream style is now hipster style. But here’s the thing: Hipster style is just queer style, particularly queer women’s style.

Put another way: Lesbians invented hipsters.

Okay, I never had anything against lesbians before, but now I feel they have a lot to answer for . . .

I MADE JOHN HAWKINS’ LIST OF 20 BEST QUOTES OF 2016, with this one, on the Tea Party and the Trump movement: “When politeness and orderliness are met with contempt and betrayal, do not be surprised if the response is something less polite, and less orderly.”

WHEN YOU’VE REACHED THE POINT OF SUCKING UP TO SHAUN KING, IT’S OVER:

UPDATE: From the comments: “Just two white guys patting each other on the back…”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Annapolis stun gun ban challenged on Second Amendment grounds.

STEVEN HAYWARD: Has Leftism Ruined College Football Bowl Season? “The TV broadcasters are taking great pains to not show the stands, which are mostly empty. Rightly so, since many of the games feature .500 teams from distant conferences that have no historic rivalry and don’t much care about each other at all.”

It would probably be worse still, if so many people weren’t boycotting the NFL.

WHEN PROTEST IS PATRIOTIC: The Return of Civil Disobedience: The sixties produced a conviction that “democracy is in the streets.” The Trump era may echo that.

Basic rule: Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, but only when there’s a Republican in the White House.

IT’S BAD WHEN THE NYT IS DISCONNECTED EVEN FROM ITS OWN READERS ON THE ISSUE OF IMMIGRATION: A screen-grab from the NYT gives a good hint why Trump won.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Eugene Volokh: Silencing professor speech to prevent students from being offended — or from fearing discrimination by the professors. As always, of course, the concern about offense or discrimination is transparently one-sided.

HMM. DIRTY ACADEMIC POLITICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON?

Why were university administrators so keen to adopt this flawed report? Perhaps because the administration itself was responsible for much of the resulting educational disruption, including student outrage, damage to the law school’s reputation and a toxic law school atmosphere.

After all, when the Halloween event first became known, administrators repeatedly failed to inform students of the actual intent behind the costume (of which they were fully aware), or of the professor’s record as a defender of minority rights. And when these facts surfaced, officials doubled down by claiming that her intent did not matter, a position now echoed in the report. …

Why was the administration’s response so conducive to inflaming rather than calming emotions? Admittedly, some misguided administrators may actually have believed the professor’s intent in donning the costume simply didn’t matter.

But we should also note that the professor in question was one of seven law school professors who had complained to university officials about the managerial performance of the law school dean [Michael Moffitt]. Isn’t it often the case that the settling of personal scores underlie ideological purification campaigns?

Whatever the reason for administrators’ responses, let’s not forget what’s at stake in this sordid affair. According to the university, a professor is guilty of racial discrimination and harassment for donning a costume that sought to advocate for racial equality. And that act of political expression is not protected by the rights to free speech nor by academic freedom.

This is a sad day for the freedom of speech and expression at the University of Oregon.

Shameful.

THE GOOD SIDE: Travel Is So Much Better Than It Was .

ER, SAYS THIS LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE GRADUATE… HAVE THEY MET US? Hunting for Soft Skills, Companies Scoop Up English Majors.

A QUESTION TO LIVE BY: Do You Want to be Right, or True?

NOT THAT THERE’S MUCH SENSE IN THE WHOLE SITUATION: Making Sense of the Russian Hacking Saga.

WHEN REASON DISAPPEARS, ALL THAT’S LEFT IS: Witchcraft. 

START OFF 2017 WITH DAVE BARRY’S REVIEW OF 2016, WHICH HE SUMS UP IN TWO WORDS: “WHAT THE…?” Plus a few more words, including:

In U.S. politics, the Republicans gather in Cleveland to nominate Trump, although many top party officials are unable to attend because of an urgent compelling need to not be there. Nevertheless Trump receives enthusiastic prime-time endorsements from former celebrity Scott Baio, several dozen Trump children and current Trump wife Melania, who enthralls delegates with a well-received speech in which she tells her heartwarming story of growing up as an African-American woman in Chicago. The dramatic highlight comes on the final night, when Trump, in his acceptance speech, brings the delegates cheering to their feet with his emotional challenge to “grab the future by the p—y.”

On the Democratic side, the month gets off to a rocky start when FBI Director James Comey, announcing the results of the bureau’s investigation, reveals that when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, her official emails, some including classified material, were basically as secure from prying eyes as a neon beer sign. Nevertheless, Comey says he is recommending that no criminal charges be brought against Clinton, because, quote, “I don’t want to die.”

With that legal hurdle cleared, relieved Democrats gather in Philadelphia for their convention, which opens — in a bid to placate Sanders’ delegates — with the ceremonial caning of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. This is followed by several hundred speeches praising Hillary Clinton for the many accomplishments she has achieved, as well as the achievements she has accomplished, while at the same time being, historically, a woman. In her acceptance speech, Clinton calls on Americans “to join with me in building a better world for us and for our children,” adding, “or I will crush you like an insect.”

In a media shakeup, Roger Ailes resigns as chairman of Fox News following allegations that his name can be rearranged to spell “I ogle rears.”

That’s just (an incomplete) look at July. Read the whole thing, now that 2016 is safely behind us. Just like Alien hiding in the Narcissus, Glenn Close lurking in the bathtub at the end of Fatal Attraction, and every other horror movie shock ending…

GO TELL IT TO THE CITY FATHERS OF CARTHAGE: Reviewer Bashes ‘Rogue One’ for Thinking ‘Solution Is to Blow Things Up’.

THERE’S SOME SERIOUS CONFUSION IN THAT HEAD: Merkel’s New Year message expresses Europe’s immigration contradiction in a nutshell.  Maybe in all their heads.

IT’S FAIR: 2016 Man of the Year: Castro’s Death Jeep.

NEVER TAKE NUMBERS ON FAITH WITHOUT SEEING THE WORK: Holiday sales disappoint after DC misleads us again.

RICH CONFIDENT AND ATTRACTIVE: Science says these are the men who will make you orgasm.  WHO could have guessed?