AT AMAZON, January Savings in Winter Sports.

WHAT FEMINISM HAS DONE TO RELATIONSHIPS, IN A NUTSHELL: “Couple this with the fact that as women get on average more educated there are fewer hypergamically-eligible males at every SES, and you have the jaws of a vicious vise. It’s especially hard on high-status women and low-status men. The main beneficiaries are high-status men, who often behave like entitled assholes because the new rules tilt the playing field in their favor even more than the old ones did. . . . I don’t have a fix for this problem. As you imply, if women were able to coordinate a retreat to withholding early sex they would regain some of their lost bargaining power, but I don’t see any realistic possibility of this today. The problem is that the refuseniks from such an agreement trying to form, and the defectors after it formed, would be rewarded with more sex with high-status men, which is exactly what every player on the female side is instinctively wired to want.”

I know I linked to this essay by Eric S. Raymond last night, but it was worth breaking this out.

HERE’S TONIGHT’S OPEN THREAD: Enjoy each other’s company.

IT’S LIKE 100% MEDIA NEGATIVITY IS ALREADY PRICED-IN: After “Fire and Fury” and the “shithole” smear, Trump isn’t any less popular than before. “He seems to be even a little more popular.”

As people see that they were lied to about the tax bill “only helping the rich,” he’s likely to gain traction against the press.

“GANG VIOLENCE.” Swedish PM does not rule out use of army to end gang violence. “Sweden will do whatever it takes, including sending in the army, to end a wave of gang violence that has seen a string of deadly shootings, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in Wednesday. Sweden’s murder rate is relatively low in international terms, but gang violence has surged in recent years and Swedes are worried that the police are unable to cope.”

Weird that Sweden never had this problem until recently.

HISTORY: Fightin’ Iron: The Krag-Jørgensen Rifle.

NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Andrea Mitchell: Dems Must Get Deal ‘Written in Blood’ to Avoid Shutdown.

Earlier today: “CBS This Morning co-host John Dickerson on Friday touted Democratic talking points regarding a government shutdown. Talking to Senator Cory Gardner, Dickerson tried to explain away demanding a DACA fix in return for keeping the government open. He lectured the Republican: ‘Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging.’”

Earlier:

• NBC’S RACHEL MADDOW SHOW SPARKED FBI INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH THREATS AGAINST MCCONNELL, PRUITT.
• Rand Paul: Recovery after attack ‘was a living hell.’
• Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History.
• FCC Chairman Ajit Pai canceled his appearance at CES because of death threats.
• Terry McAuliffe says he’d punch Trump: ‘You’d have to pick him up off the floor.’

As Steve says, come and see the violence inherent in the leftism.

HE’S A MARINE, THEY KNOW HOW TO LEG IT: Mattis Was Late For A Speech, His Solution Will Make All Service Members Cheer. And somehow Mattis manages to look more badass in civvies than all those younger guys in uniform.

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE AND THE BATHROOM WARS: Oregon Parents Sue School District Over Transgender Bathrooms, Claiming Civil Rights Violations.

PROTECTING AGAINST frozen and stuck car doors.

AT AMAZON, save on Bestselling Game Downloads.

Plus, new offerings in Amazon Instant Video. Why be bored?

RAND PAUL’S ATTACKER PLEADS GUILTY TO FELONY. I’m not so sure I believe that it was lawncare related, but a felony plea is a felony plea.

ANNALS OF FEMINIST AUTOPHAGY: Neo-Neocon on Margaret Atwood: feminist vs. feminist.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Link was broken; should be working now.

ROLL LEFT AND DIE: NFL Playoffs Ratings Plunge by 23 Million. As Ace writes in response:

This year may be the first year I completely blow off the Super Bowl. Even if the Dreamy Tom Brady does start in it.

Maybe I also blew off last year’s game; I forget. I know one recent year I didn’t watch the first half, but tuned in for most of the second after I got the impression from social media and blog comments that it was a competitive game.

Anyway, not really feeling I’m missing anything. Looks like 23 million other people are not really missing anything along with me.

What about you guys? If you’ve stopped watching, what phase are you in? Are you in the phase I was in two years ago (watched some clips and recaps), last year (checked the paper occasionally, watched an occasional game digest on YouTube), or this year (only saw one football play by accident on Neil Cavuto)?

I click through the Super 70s Sports Twitter account and wonder how the NFL weathered a decade as tumultuous as that without a single anthem kneel. Why, it’s as if Pete Rozelle understood the average sports viewer just slightly better than Roger Goodell. Or as Iowahawk wrote:

Let us know your phase of NFL withdrawal (if any) in the comments.

THAT’S ALWAYS BEEN MY SUSPICION AS TO ITS TRUE PURPOSE: Could a Chinese Space Junk Laser Double as a Weapon?

CESSPITS OF MISOGYNY (CONT’D): Committee Calls for GAO Probe on ‘Pernicious Problem’ of Sexual Harassment in Science Community.

HOW REGULATIONS MADE CALIFORNIA’S FIRES WORSE:

After raging through almost all of December, the so-called Thomas fire, California’s largest wildfire ever recorded, was finally contained on January 12.  While the worst is behind us (for now), the fact that last year’s wildfires so violently spun out of control puts the spotlight on the Golden State’s government and its lack of fire prevention measures.

The fires across the state caused unprecedented damage and loss of life.  Unsurprisingly, California governor Jerry Brown was quick to pin the blame on climate change for the forest fires’ ferocity and extraordinary longevity this season.  Whatever truth there may be to this, it would be a mistake to gloss over how misguided policies and regulations have hurt California’s ability to prevent and respond to fires.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), shrubs and live and dead vegetation are the most important factor in forest fires, being an easily ignitable fuel source that helps spread the flames quickly over vast distances.  For a dry and warm state prone to fires, regular clearing measures removing this vegetation should be common sense.  However, California has enacted several laws that heavily restrict such vital fire-preventing measures as logging, removal of dead trees, and clearing of dry underbrush.

As Jonah Goldberg noted today in his column titled “Does the California Model Really Work?”

Wealthy liberal Californians can be quite smug about how they can afford their strict land-use policies, draconian environmental regulations, and high taxes. And wealthy Californians can afford them — but poor Californians are paying the price.

Californians of all income levels had their lives disrupted, some tragically so, by December’s fires, but given that Jerry Brown has blamed them on the global warming boogieman, I doubt lefty Californians will be rethinking the destruction caused by their religious environmental beliefs. It’s tempting to quip sometimes you have to fry a few eggs to make an omelet, but to paraphrase Orwell, when does to California get to see the omelet?

(Via Small Dead Animals.)

NEW CIVILITY WATCH:

CBS This Morning co-host John Dickerson on Friday touted Democratic talking points regarding a government shutdown. Talking to Senator Cory Gardner, Dickerson tried to explain away demanding a DACA fix in return for keeping the government open. He lectured the Republican: “Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging.”

Yes, Dickerson is paraphrasing Samuel Johnson, but murdering Republicans seems to be a recurring fantasy for the CBS anchorman:

Go for the Throat! Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party.

—Headline, John Dickerson’s column at Slate, January 18, 2013.

Earlier:

● NBC’S RACHEL MADDOW SHOW SPARKED FBI INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH THREATS AGAINST MCCONNELL, PRUITT.

● Rand Paul: Recovery after attack ‘was a living hell.’

● Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History.

● FCC Chairman Ajit Pai canceled his appearance at CES because of death threats.

● Terry McAuliffe says he’d punch Trump: ‘You’d have to pick him up off the floor.’

As Steve says, come and see the violence inherent in the leftism.

I THINK TRUMP’S STRATEGY IS TO LET THE SHUTDOWN LAST FOR A MONTH, THEN LAY OFF ALL THE “NONESSENTIAL PERSONNEL” WHO WEREN’T MISSED: Kurt Schlichter: Please Don‘t Shut Down The Government, Democrats, Because That Would Be Awful (Not).

Please do it.

Here’s the thing – most of Trump supporters aren’t takers – they’re makers. They’re the people the government flunkies come to with their palms up whenever some bureaucrat wants to spend a zillion bucks studying LGBT issues among Antarctic penguins or funding the NPR’s X-rated reenactments of the Nativity. How sad are Trump’s supporters going to be if the deal is, “We don’t hand over citizenship to a bunch of people who shouldn’t be here and everyone they’re related to down to their 29th cousin three times removed, and in return, we make the government stop spending money.”

There is literally no Trump voter who will say, “Why, that’s a terrible deal! If that happens, we don’t give amnesty and we don’t spend money!”

Not one.

To the extent that a shut-down hurts some of the government’s few useful employees, like the members of our military, I eagerly look forward to Chuck n’ Nancy and the other circus freaks who make up the Democrat Capitol Crew explaining to the American people why they chose to make our men and women in uniform suffer so the Democrats can import some new ballot stuffers. “Support the troops unless we need to screw them over so we can ship in foreigners to vote for future Maryland Senator Chelsea Manning” seems like a flawed message, which is why I heartily encourage the Dems to try it out.

Kurt has a way of putting things.

Meanwhile Jim Treacher is panicking: A Government Shutdown Could Take Away Our Panda Cams!

OH, CANADA: Bonuses, performance pay for government executives rose in Trudeau’s 1st year.

Spending on bonuses and other performance pay for top federal government executives increased by more than double the rate of inflation in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first year in office, CBC News has learned.

The 3.2 per cent increase in spending for 2015-16, the most recent year available, was also more than twice the 1.25 per cent pay increases the government has negotiated with many of its public sector unions.

Spending on performance pay for top executives increased to $75 million from $72.6 million the year before with wide fluctuations in the percentage increases — or decreases — in many departments.

Trickle-up economics.

JONATHAN TURLEY: James Clapper’s perjury, and why DC made men don’t get charged for lying to Congress. In DC, perjury is not simply tolerated, it is rewarded. In a city of made men and women, nothing says loyalty quite as much as lying under oath.

“The problem is not that the perjury statute is never enforced. Rather it is enforced against people without allies in government.” (Bumped).

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Employee Lawsuit Reveals Google As Intolerant Race Cult.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Horsepower Versus Torque: An Explainer.