PEGGY NOONAN: America Needs More Gentlemen.

Here is why we’re discussing this. All the stories we’ve read the past few months about predators—not those accused of rape and sexual assault, which are crimes, but of general piggishness, grabbiness, manipulation and power games—have a common thread. The men involved were not gentlemen. They acted as if they’d never heard of the concept.

We have lost track of it. In the past 40 years, in the movement for full equality, we threw it over the side. But we should rescue that old and helpful way of being. The whole culture, especially women, needs The Gentleman back.

A person of the cultural left would say that is a hopelessly patriarchal thing to say. But one thing the #MeToo movement illustrates is that women are often at particular risk in the world, and need friends and allies to stand with them. That would be men. And the most reliable of them are gentlemen.

There are a million definitions of what a gentleman is, and some begin with references to being born to a particular standing. But in America any man could be one who had the guts to withstand the demands.

The dictionary says a gentleman is a chivalrous, courteous, honorable man.

As Glenn wrote a few years ago, “chivalry was a system, which imposed numerous obligations on women, as well as on men. It is, I think, impossible to critique what has happened to notions of masculinity, without thinking about what has happened to notions of femininity in our culture. But that could lead to dangerous heresies.”

And get you banned from Britain’s Channel 4 TV.

AND CERTAINLY LESS THAN I HOPE: The Effect Of A Government Shutdown On The IRS: Not What You Think.

GREAT MOMENTS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT: Lubed Up and Ready To Go! ‘Crisco cops’ in Philly out in force to prevent fans from climbing light poles.

Pretty sure I saw Law & Crisco playing on Cinemax last night…

I CAN’T THINK OF A SINGLE REASON, TO BE HONEST: Of course it’s possible to go surfing when it’s freezing outside. The question is, why would you?

JORDAN PETERSON CONTINUES TO LIVE RENT FREE IN VANQUISHED INTERROGATOR’S HEAD:  After Peterson’s half-hour interview with leftwing British TV host Cathy Newman went viral earlier this week, Newman has been desperate for victim status:

● Shot: Channel 4 News calls in security experts after trolls make ‘vicious’ threats to presenter Cathy Newman.

—The London Telegraph, yesterday.

● Chaser:

A Twitter user responding to Ian Miles Cheong‏ of the Daily Caller writes that “They’ve deleted this tweet since. I wonder why? Obviously not because it shows Cathy as not a victim, but instead someone with a sense of humour?”

Heh. If you haven’t seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to watch the whole interview. As the London Spectator notes, “If I was Channel 4 I would take it down. If I was Cathy Newman I would sue or seek a super-injunction. I don’t think I have ever witnessed an interview that is more catastrophic for the interviewer.” Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, is due out on Tuesday.

Earlier: Jordan B Peterson, Critical Theory, and the New Bourgeoisie.

UPDATE: “Left Reframes Jordan Peterson’s SJW Takedown as Misogynist, Alt-Right Bullying,” James Delingpole writes, with some very funny tweets attached from Peterson’s fans pushing back against Newman’s knee-jerk “so what you’re really saying is…” habit when confronted with doubleplus ungood crimethink.

WELL THAT DOESN’T FIT THE NARRATIVE: Star Tribune Minnesota Poll delivers promising results for Republicans.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to avoid fake news: Stop getting your news from Facebook, that’s how.

LEADING FROM THE FRONT: Trump calls for Republicans to trigger ‘nuclear option’ if stalemate continues.

FASTER, PLEASE: House Republicans ‘Charting Path’ to Release Explosive FISA Memo.

I KNEW TRUMP WAS SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT A YEAR AGO, BUT I HAD NO IDEA HE BECAME AN AFRICAN AMERICAN MOM AND VETERAN LAST YEAR TOO, TOO: My take on Trump’s first year as an African-American mom and veteran. Is there anything he can’t do?

Headline aside, though, it’s a good piece.

STEPHEN L. CARTER: Amazon’s Utterly Predictable Game of Musical Chairs: The same cities that always get a seat are still in the competition for HQ2. Yawn.

Amazon released the list this week. And, like lots of people who’ve taken a look, I was left underwhelmed. Because what immediately struck me is how conventional it is. Amazon has pretty much picked the same finalists that any company with an eye toward building a new headquarters would pick.

I mean, seriously. New York. Duh. Boston. General Electric Co. (or what’s left of it) is already heading there. Washington and its environs. Like they need more jobs and pricey real estate. Atlanta, Dallas and Raleigh, North Carolina. Where everybody else is moving.

Utterly conventional. Yet we’re all talking about it. Writing about it. Arguing about it. Amazon has accomplished an enormous act of public relations. Companies move headquarters all the time. They choose where to invest. But usually it’s a semi-private process. They talk to the right city and state officials, presentations and offers are made, and then comes the announcement. The news is a two-day story, if that.

State tax abatements and other “incentives” should be treated as taxable income at the federal level. States should be encouraged to have low taxes for every company, not just the favored few.

SEXISM IN FASHION: Presenting Men As Pigs And Dogs. “I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry at this idiocy. On one hand, it demoralizes the models in the show even though it is the male models who have reported being victims of sexual harassment. Why would the male models agree to wear such humiliating outfits? It makes them look like the predators themselves. Is this really the image they are going for? On the other hand, the men as dogs and pigs is derogatory towards all men. What if they dressed Jews or women etc. in such outfits?”

Actually, in Paris, portraying Jews as pigs and dogs is becoming steadily more popular.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Students earned $11/hour to complain about Halloween costumes.

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Also, Kindle Daily Deals, and today’s Digital Deals.

IT TAKES AN AUSTRALIAN TO EXPLAIN ANTI-TRUMP HYSTERIA:  The clearest, most sober and non-emotional essay on Trump and the backlash I’ve yet to read. Fair dinkum. Kicker of the Year:

Perhaps those who hysterically condemn Trump as a means of ­expressing their own virtue need to consider that if their aim is to portray themselves as more tolerant and urbane than the US President, they might be setting a pretty low bar.

As the Professor says: “Read the whole thing.”

UPDATE: Non-paywall link here.

THE REAL THING FROM NOVEMBER 2001: Original U.S. Army “Horse Soldiers” photo.

A DONALD TRUMP OPED IN THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: A Year of Real Change.

We are putting America first, making real change in Washington, and creating opportunities for all of our people. From coast to coast, there is a renewed spirit. Our country is roaring back more quickly than anyone could have predicted. The American Dream is real again.

Estimates predict the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of more than 3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year – just like it did in the two quarters before that. The economy has created more than 2 million new jobs, and the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest rate in 17 years: 4.1 percent. We have achieved the lowest African-American unemployment rate on record, and the unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans has also hit historic lows. Chrysler has announced plans to bring jobs and production back to the U.S. from Mexico. And the stock market continues to set record high after record high.

Just before Christmas, we enacted massive tax cuts and tax reform for the American people. For the first time in 30 years, we reformed the tax code to make it simpler and fairer. We have lowered rates for both individuals and businesses, expanded 529 education savings accounts to be used for K-12 education, and doubled the child tax credit. These changes will not only allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money, but they will help make American workers and businesses competitive again. This sweeping reform also repealed Obamacare’s individual mandate – an unpopular, cruel, and burdensome tax that hit low- and middle-income Americans the hardest.

Over the year, as Americans have seen increases in their paychecks and retirement accounts, American companies in every sector have grown their business and created more jobs.

This is a real test of the “It’s the economy, stupid,” school of politics.

CHANGE: Tennessee Republican files bill aimed at ending private prison usage in state. I don’t care if it’s more efficient. I think it ought to be expensive to keep people in prison.

YEP, AND IT’S STARTING TO MOVE THE POLLS: Jeff Jacoby: That GOP ‘tax scam’ is putting money in millions of workers’ pockets.

t has been nearly a month since Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the most sweeping overhaul of the tax code since the 1980s. Of the 185-page bill’s many provisions, perhaps the most consequential is a reduction in the federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Among the tax bill’s leading opponents was Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who was scathing in her denunciation of what she called the “GOP Tax Scam.” Shortly before the final vote, she delivered a blistering speech on the Senate floor.

“Today is a terrible day,” she intoned. “A terrible day for the millions of working families in this country. . . . A terrible day for millions of people who just want to get on with their lives and not have Congress cost them even more money.” Reiterating a message she had pressed for weeks, Warren insisted angrily that what was about to be enacted was “a heist — a heist that steals from millions of middle-class families and hands that money over to the wealthy.”

The full text of Warren’s speech appears on her Senate website, in a press release she issued on Dec. 19. She warned in that speech that there would be “a reckoning” if the tax bill passes, and that members of Congress voting for it would be “held accountable for turning their backs on the American people.”

And now that’s turned out to be a lie, so there may be a different sort of reckoning.

THE HILL: Trump touts ‘unprecedented economic success’ in Women’s March tweet.

President Trump on Saturday acknowledged the thousands of people taking part in Women’s March demonstrations across the country, saying it was a “beautiful” day for people to “celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success” under his term.

In a tweet acknowledging the marches, which were planned for the one-year anniversary of Trump entering office and aimed primarily at protesting his rhetoric and policies, Trump urged people to focus on economic successes since he became president.

It was his best trolling yet, honestly.

WOMANSPIRATION: This Woman’s Sex Fantasy Is For Her Boyfriend To Pay Her Student Debt And Then Die.

“It’ll be like the ultimate roleplaying,” Keisha said. “He’ll be my white knight riding in on his noble steed to save the damsel in distress, and then he’ll be dead, which just ties up everything in a neat little package.”

Keisha also stressed that she really likes her boyfriend of six months, but she doesn’t necessarily see their relationship going anywhere serious.

“I definitely don’t see us lasting forever,” she says. “But when it comes to my student loans, there’s no end in sight. It would just be so sexy if Matt paid for them and then, you know, disappeared. Like he was dead? He doesn’t have to literally be dead.”

For a long time, Keisha kept her fantasy a secret. But she’s finally come clean in an effort to lead a more sex-positive life and to de-stigmatize unusual fetishes.

“There’s such a stigma around female sexuality,” she says. “Women aren’t taught how to communicate their sexual wants and needs. I decided it was time to be honest and admit to my partner that I want him to give me money. And then I want him to die.”

Yes, it’s a parody. And yet . . .

OPEN THREAD: Thread away.