FBI LAWYER PREVENTED ‘EVASIVE’ JAMES COMEY FROM ANSWERING KEY QUESTIONS, REPUBLICANS SAY: “Following his closed-door testimony, Comey told reporters he would be back to answer questions on December 17, adding that most of the Republicans’ questions were about Hillary Clinton’s emails, ‘which will bore you.’”

Ahh, the old Glenn Thrush, all disasters for Democrats are boring routine.

AT AMAZON, the 12 Days of Deals Continues.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HAS A PROBLEM: Texas Law School Student Suspended Because He Has Guns?

You idiots. This isn’t some dumb undergrad. This is a law student.

NOT IF YOU’RE CONSISTENT, BUT: Anti-Zionism Isn’t the Same as Anti-Semitism.

Goldberg writes, “certainly, some criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, but it’s entirely possible to oppose Jewish ethno-nationalism without being a bigot.” Sure, if you’re a libertarian or socialist type that rejects ethnicity and/or nationalism for anyone, then having the same view of Jewish nationalism is not anti-Semitic. But very few critics of Israel who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) are actually against ethno-nationalism; indeed, they want Israel to be replaced by an Arab/Muslim majority state ruled by that majority (and not, as Goldberg suggests, a “bi-national state”), and thus not only don’t oppose ethno-nationalism, they support replacing a liberal ethno-nationalist state that grants autonomy to its domestic Arab population to be exempt from military service, to study in Arabic in public school, and so forth, with an Arab one that would almost certainly be illiberal.

What would be the fate of the Jews of Israel under that scenario? Let’s hear from the late Edward Said, the leading Palestinian nationalist intellectual in the English-speaking world before his death:  “I worry about that. The history of minorities in the Middle East has not been as bad as in Europe, but I wonder what would happen. It worries me a great deal. The question of what is going to be the fate of the Jews is very difficult for me. I really don’t know. It worries me.” In short, while Said apparently hoped the Jews would make out all right, the strong possibility (I’d say great likelihood) that they would be murdered, exiled, and/or oppressed was not sufficient to tame his desire for a Palestinian state replacing Israel. That’s what most BDS supporters and anti-Zionists think, and that’s why declaring that “Palestine should be free from the river to the sea” is an implicitly genocidal slogan.

OVER AT LEGAL INSURRECTION, they’ve got video of my TV appearance last night.

Not exactly a barnburner, but I did get off a “They told me if Donald Trump were elected . . . ” joke, which makes it a success in my eyes, though I think it caught Martha MacCallum off guard.

THERE’S DEFINITELY GASLIGHTING GOING ON:

● Shot: Andrea Mitchell Blames Trump ‘Gaslighting,’ ‘Unfairness of Media’ for Hillary’s Loss.

—NewsBusters, today.

●  Chaser:

● Hangover: Pathetic MSNBC Runs Promo of Hillary Telling Andrea Mitchell She’s ‘My Kind of Woman’; ‘Love You!’

—NewsBusters, September 15, 2016.

WHEN DID SCIENTISTS BECOME SO JUDGMENTAL? Endangered Hawaiian monk seals keep getting eels stuck up their noses and scientists want them to stop.

TAMARA KEEL: Handgun Sights: The Weakest Link.

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Plus, deals in Kitchen and Housewares.

MICHAEL WALSH IS IN A CONTRARIAN MOOD: George H.W. Bush and the Failure of American Foreign Policy.

Read the whole thing.

THEY USED TO TELL US TESTOSTERONE WAS BAD FOR YOUR CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM: Higher Testosterone Level, Physical Activity Associated With Lower Risk for CV Death in Men.

P. DAVID HORNIK: Are Israel’s Strikes on Hezbollah’s Tunnels a Precursor to a Bigger Operation?

KIMBERLY STRASSEL ON TWITTER: “How good of a nominee is William Barr for AG? Based on the immediate demands by Democrats that he recuse himself from pretty much everything important—a pretty darn good one.”

GET MORE SUNSHINE, LADIES: Schizophrenia Is Linked to Lack of Vitamin D in The Womb, Claims New Study.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: The Little Town That Pot Built.

Garden City isn’t much of a city; it’s smaller than a square mile and has fewer than 300 residents. But it could afford to spend $3 million on downtown infrastructure upgrades thanks to its four bustling marijuana retailers.

Before the first medical marijuana dispensary in town opened in 2009, Garden City collected about $360,000 in revenue each year, said longtime Town Administrator Cheryl Campbell. Now pot is legal for recreational use, too, and last year, the town raked in over $2 million from sales taxes alone — mostly from the sale of bud, pre-rolled joints, edibles and other pot products.

“It’s not a stream of revenue they should rely on for their major, long-term spending needs,” said Katherine Loughead, a policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

But:

Thanks to the influx of sales tax revenue, Garden City has been able to spend more on public works such as the new sidewalks and crosswalks along Eighth Avenue, the street outside Empire State Pizza. The city also provides grants of up to $8,000 to help local businesses pay for property investments such as facade improvements.

Empire State Pizza’s landlord used one such grant to add windows, an awning and new tiling to the exterior of the restaurant and its neighbor, a popular hot wings restaurant called Wing Shack. Schwartz used another grant to replace the pizza place’s outdoor signage, he said.

The money also has allowed the city to add new services. Garden City used to be patrolled by the county sheriff’s office, but now it can afford its own four-person police force. Campbell’s staff — once just her — has swelled to three and a temp, not including the police department.

Government expenditures will expand to exceed revenues.

AT AMAZON, save on Women’s Lingerie.

THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT THE WAY I’D HOPED: AirDrop Assaults On The Rise As Criminals Cyber Flash Strangers.

LIFE IS BETTER NOW: Medieval skeleton’s boots reveal harsh realities of life on the Thames.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: The 2019 Pantone Color of the Year “Living Coral” beams optimism.

Flashback: “But I like taupe.”

ANGEL UNAWARE: The Woman Who Drove Her School Bus Through the Tunnel of Fire.

OVERSTRESSED: What’s Behind the Stark Rise in U.S. Military Accidents?

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: This Wasn’t Even Amazon’s First Bear Repellent Accident.

BUT OF COURSE: Snopes, Fact-Checker For Facebook And Google, Botches Fact Check.

The meme showed a picture of President Donald Trump with Republican lawmakers and members of his administration following the House’s vote to repeal Obamacare in 2017. Thirty-three people in the photo Snopes used had a red X over their face, though it cropped out a 34th person included in others.

The caption accurately claimed the photo was taken at the White House following the House’s Obamacare vote, then falsely claimed that “Everyone with an X has since been voted out of Congress.”

Political reporters mocked the meme’s inaccuracies after Nicholas Kitchel, a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, shared it in a Nov. 17 tweet.

But Snopes fact-checker Bethania Palma, a former writer for liberal website Raw Story, fact-checked the meme three weeks later and claimed it was accurate.

All organizations make mistakes, but when the mistakes all go in the same direction, it does tend to make people a tiny bit suspicious that there could possibly be an agenda at work.