THE WAGES OF SIN: Slime-bag Louis Farrakhan Is Getting Cash From U.S. Government.

HORMONE PROBLEMS: Could soaps, shampoos be pushing girls into early puberty? Seems plausible. I don’t think they’re doing much for boys, either.

Possibly related: Children born in the most recent century have bones that reach full maturity earlier – by nearly 10 months in girls and nearly seven months in boys – according to a new study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine. Though this is probably the result of better nutrition.

SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE AND UNFUNDED LIABILITIES: Five remarkably candid tips from departing Gov. Jerry Brown.

“In politics, you should take care of your friends,” said Brown, noting that both Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, and Rose Bird, former chief justice of the California court system, started out working for his various campaigns. “Loyalty is important. Keep the meritocracy within limits.”

But there are limits on repaying loyalty too.

“Politics is a difficult business,” he said. “You need to raise massive sums of money from people who all want something and if you give it to them directly you’ll go to jail. But if you don’t give it to them in some form, you won’t be elected to the next office.”

Maybe the problem is in treating elected office as a career, rather than as a brief opportunity to accomplish something important for the people of your state.

AT AMAZON, Last-Minute Deals of the Day.

BRUCE BAWER: Where’s Tutu? “As blacks visit horror on white farmers in his country, he has no more ‘one human family’ speeches to give.”

It’s different this time because you can’t fight racism without taking away the life, liberty, and property of white people.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: An Island Nation’s Health Experiment: Vaccines Delivered by Drone.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Venezuelans Regret Gun Ban. “Guns would have served as a vital pillar to remaining a free people, or at least able to put up a fight.”

As Kurt Schlichter is fond of saying, an armed person is a citizen but a disarmed person is a serf.

Eventually, anyway.

RELATED: NY Bill Would Require Gun Owners to Carry $1M Insurance Policies.

Since illegal gun owners and criminals won’t carry insurance, let’s call this bill what it really is: A payoff to Big Insurance and an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms.

GETTING INSUFFICIENT SLEEP can make you crave carbs.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Liberal Arts Weren’t Murdered — They Committed Suicide.

The tragedy, then, is not just that a campus of the University of Wisconsin would drop the history major but that the custodians of history in the 21st century lost the ability to teach and write about history in a way that sustains a hallowed 2,500-year tradition. In other words, what is being jettisoned is likely not just history as we once understood it but rather de facto poorly taught “-studies” courses — which sadly become snapshots of particular (and often small) eras of history — designed to offer enough historical proof of preconceived theories about contemporary modern society. The students then are assumed by the course’s end to be outraged, persuaded, galvanized, and shocked in politically acceptable ways. Usually they are just bored, as supposedly with-it professors endlessly regurgitate the esoterica picked up in graduate schools.

Of course, not all historians see the past as an orthodox way of fixing the present, but enough do to discourage students, especially when younger faculty members draw on their rather specialized doctoral theses or narrow journal-article expertise to drive home an agenda that seems preachy or proselytizing to naturally resistant young spirits. To the Millennial mind, calcified Sixties-era radicalism is about as edgy as once was the Stalinist 1930s Old Left sermonizing to the Woodstock crowd. Trendiness that once pleased faculty committees and careerist deans did not always please students, and therefore the result is now not so pleasing to faculty committees and careerist deans.

As I’ve written here before about the Left: They’ll destroy or smear what they cannot seize.

Anyway, it’s Victor Davis Hanson so read the whole thing.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIALIZES ON THE FLYNN FIASCO:

Well, that was bizarre. We’re referring to the fiasco Tuesday of what was supposed to be the sentencing of Michael Flynn. The sentencing was postponed until next year, but not before federal Judge Emmet Sullivan damaged his own reputation with an extraordinary public attack on the former national security adviser for a crime he’s not been charged with or admitted to.

Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty a year ago to a single count of lying to the FBI. Yet after being assured that the former three-star general is sticking with his plea, Judge Sullivan unloaded on the defendant over his supposed violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.

“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Adviser to the President of the United States. That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out,” said the judge. He also used the words “treason” and “treasonous.”

But Mr. Mueller has never charged Mr. Flynn with violating FARA, though the former general did represent the government of Turkey before he joined the Trump Administration. A judge isn’t supposed to lose his cool on the bench and berate a defendant for crimes that haven’t been adjudicated in court, much less spread false information.

The outburst was too much even for the lawyers for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who had to tell the judge that Mr. Flynn did not represent any foreign entity while at the White House. Judge Sullivan later apologized, sort of, telling the courtroom not “to read too much into” his outburst about “treason.” But that came after the falsehood made global headlines.

As I noted yesterday, people filed judicial ethics complaints against Brett Kavanaugh for less. But the right doesn’t play as rough as the left, even in the Trump era.

ENDORSED: INTRODUCING THE TIM BLAIR CARBON OFFSET PROGRAM. “Readers are invited to join my carbon offset program by simply listing all the ways their behaviour cancels all of that holy greenism.”

Oh how the Earth Hour gang hate this time of year, with its Christmas tree lights, electric train sets, buildings all lit up, etc. It’s all so bright, and festive – it’s the carbon positive lifestyle!

BECAUSE REALITY: 2 Students Explain Why They Defended Teacher Fired Over Transgender Pronouns.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Would the End of All Human Life Really Be That Bad?

But if your guilt about your part in the alleged destruction of the planet is making you contemplate the death of every human being on earth, here’s an idea:

After you.

Go ahead. If you really believe we’re such a burden on this planet, if the fewer of us kept breathing the better, then it’s your moral and ethical obligation to show us the way. Get to it.

Well, that’s different, isn’t it? It’s not just a thought experiment anymore. It’s not just a way to pass the time. Not when it’s your life.

Read the whole thing. You just know the New York Times views the disintegration chambers from the Star Trek’s memorable “A Taste of Armageddon” episode as a first-class idea for population control.

KINDNESS: For 10 years, George H.W. Bush was the secret sponsor of a boy in the Philippines.

Bush learned about Compassion International, a nonprofit that connects sponsors with children from poor communities, in 2001, the organization’s former president, Wess Stafford, told CNN on Tuesday. Bush’s security team did some digging, and after vetting Compassion International, they agreed that he could sponsor 7-year-old Timothy. There were some rules, though; he had to use a pseudonym, to protect Timothy from someone who might target him due to his link to Bush.

For 10 years, Bush sent letters — signed “George Walker” — and funds that paid for Timothy’s education, activities, and food. Stafford screened Bush’s letters, describing them to CNN as being “the most sweet, spirited letters I have read from any sponsor, but he kept giving hints as to who he could be. He was really pushing the envelope.” Bush sent photos of his dog, Sadie, and told Timothy that he was invited to the White House for Christmas. Timothy drew pictures for Bush, who in turn sent him sketch pads, colored pencils, and paint, even though gifts were not allowed.

Lovely.

ALAS, THIS IS PRETTY MUCH THE SLEEPER DIET: Nine of the Worst Foods You Can Eat.

TYLER O’NEIL: SPLC Demands Zuckerberg, Sandberg Leave Facebook Board Over ‘Hate Groups,’ Anti-Semitism.

Plus: Sam Harris Drops Patreon, Citing ‘Political Bias’ Likely Inspired by SPLC’s ‘Hate Group’ List.

That’s quite the hate racket they have there.

“VILE ABUSE” IS WHAT THE GUN CONTROL MOVEMENT, AND THE LEFT — BUT I REPEAT MYSELF — SPECIALIZE IN. This Parkland dad blamed gutlessness, not guns, for tragedy. For that he faced vile abuse. Remember, loss of a child only gives you “absolute moral authority” so long as you toe the Democrats’ line.

TYLER O’NEIL: In Wake of Obama, 89 Percent of Top Universities Get a ‘D’ or ‘F’ on Due Process. “Betsy DeVos Title IX regs would raise their scores to a “C” or better.”

But I bet you still won’t be allowed to call it a Gentleman’s C.

I’M NO GREENWALD FAN, BUT WHEN HE’S RIGHT, HE’S RIGHT:

3RD ARMORED CAV JAVELIN IN IRAQ: Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment live fire a Javelin anti-tank missile on a range near Al Asad Air Base, Iraq.

THIS ACTUALLY REQUIRED A FACT-CHECK? No, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not repeat a quote that disparages socialism.

Sleep easy, comrades.

AS IT SHOULD: Public university draws legal threat for telling fraternities they ‘do not have due process rights.’

RIPPING OFF THE MASK OF ANTIFA ANONYMITY: Andrew Kerr of the Daily Caller News Foundation’s (DCNF) Investigative Group has done a remarkable piece of deep-dive journalism that went live this morning: “Revealed: Antifa Leader Relied on Anonymity to Push Radical, Violent Communist Agenda.”

The Antifa leader in question is known on Twitter as “#Sabokitty.” But that’s just the beginning, according to DCNF’s Kerr:

• “The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined that an influential Antifa leader uses aliases to spread radical and often violent rhetoric while concealing his actual identity.
• “Joseph ‘Jose’ Alcoff works with congressional Democrats as part of his day job as a manager with a DC-based advocacy group. But he spreads socialist and communist propaganda when going by the name ‘Jose Martin.’
• “Identifying as ‘Chepe,’ Alcoff advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich. He has relished the mainstreaming of Antifa’s militant tactics in the Trump era.
• “A 2017 book identified Chepe as an organizer behind Smash Racism DC, the Antifa group that mobbed Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s home in November and ran Ted Cruz out of a restaurant in September.”

So how many more liberal non-profit activists are leading double or triple lives? One hopes DCNF and Kerr are prepared for the reaction because the Left will not take having this kind of light shone on its dark corners lying down.