AS I SAID THE MEDIA IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY:  USA Today Columnist: “I Care More Now Because I Am A Democrat”.

UH OH:  Secretary Of Defense James Mattis Has Resigned.

WHAT CAN WE DO WITH A PROBLEM LIKE COMEY? WELL, I AM A TUDOR-ENGLAND KIND OF GIRL. I SAY HANG HIM, CUT HIM DOWN WHILE STILL LIVING AND BURN HIS ENTRAILS BEFORE HIS EYES.  BUT NEVER MIND ME. I THINK IF WE USED IT MORE IT WOULDN’T BE UNUSUAL. AND AS FOR CRUEL, WELL, IT AIN’T A VISIT TO THE PARK.  IT’S NOT MEAN TO BE:  Comey channels Alfred E. Neuman.  Fine… fine, spoilsports. But I’ll hold on to my little hope.  It keeps me from going Sarah-Smash.

THE GREATEST DANGER TO THE MEDIA IS THE MEDIA:  Print the Legend.

JUST LIKE ALL THE LEFT, THEY ARE FOCUSING LIKE A LASER ON ALL THE WRONG PROBLEMS AND THE EVEN MORE WRONG-HEADED “SOLUTIONS”:  The UN’s obsession with Israel makes peace harder to achieve.

OF COURSE THEY ARE. THEY WANT SINGLE PAYER SO BADLY THEY CAN TASTE IT: Democrats are waging war against affordable health.

THOSE WHO READ ONLY HEADLINES WILL NEVER KNOW THIS:  No, America Does Not Rank Among the Most Dangerous Countries for Journalists.

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY EYES? THEY ROLLED SO HARD THEY’RE NOW ROLLING ACROSS THE FLOOR, CHASED BY CATS:  Women may not close pay gap for another 200 years.

AT AMAZON, bargains on Bestsellers in Beauty.

Plus, browse deals in Industrial and Scientific.

CHANGE: Trump signs Farm Bill and legalizes hemp, boosting Tennessee’s newest cash crop.

NEO: Comey channels Alfred E. Neuman.

AT AMAZON, last-minute deals in Tools, DIY, and Yard.

Also, save on Kitchen Gadgets.

YOU CAN’T PLEASE PEOPLE WHOSE GOAL IN LIFE IS TO BE ANGRY: Mount Holyoke, a Women’s College, Can’t Find a Logo Gender Neutral Enough to Please Its Trans Students.

OPEN THREAD: Did anything happen today?

RICHARD FERNANDEZ:

“AMERICANS, IT’S TIME TO EAT SOME VENISON. HASTA LA VISTA, BAMBI:” Deer Are a Menace and We Need to Kill a Lot More of Them.

BACK IN THE ’70S PEOPLE USED TO GET THESE FOR HANGOVERS AND JET LAG: Vitamin B-12 Shots Are Being Hyped As A Good Way To Lose Weight. I think I’ll pass, but maybe I’ll have a cheeseburger just to be safe: “According to the NIH, the daily recommended allowance for vitamin B-12 is 2.4 micrograms for both men and women (it goes up to 2.6 micrograms for pregnant women, and 2.8 micrograms for those who are nursing). JSYK: A double cheeseburger has 2.1 micrograms of vitamin B-12, per the NIH.”

The article does not mention that people on proton pump inhibitors (like Prilosec or Nexium) may have trouble absorbing B12.

THE STATE OF COLORADO IS STILL TRYING TO DESTROY JACK PHILLIPS. The state-sponsored harassment of Phillips isn’t just about his shop. It’s a warning to all those with unpopular opinions to stay in line:

On June 26, 2017, the day the Supreme Court agreed to hear Phillips’ case, Autumn Scardina, a transgender attorney and activist, called Masterpiece Cakeshop and asked Phillips to design a custom cake with a blue exterior and a pink interior to symbolize a transition from male to female. Phillips politely turned Scardina down. “I was stunned,” the lawyer risibly claimed in her complaint to the Civil Rights Commission.

Scardina, of course, didn’t accidentally ask the most famous Christian baker in the nation to make a “transition” cake. Scardina is leading a crusade against Phillips. In one call, Scardina allegedly asked for “an image of Satan smoking marijuana.” In another, members of “the Church of Satan” asked for “a three-tiered white cake” with a “large figure of Satan, licking a nine inch black Dildo.” “I would like the dildo to be an actual working model that can be turned on before we unveil the cake,” went the request. You can just sense the sanctimonious smugness of people who think this sort of thing is edgy.

In any event, the state of Colorado has allied itself with such activists, formally determining that there was probable cause that Phillips had indeed discriminated against Scardina based on “gender identity.” Of course the baker’s refusal to make dildo and pentagram cakes only proves that Phillips isn’t specifically antagonistic to the newly consecrated belief in malleable “gender identity,” but that he’s shown a consistent adherence to his less malleable Christian values.

As a wise woman once wrote, “There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

I’M SURE THERE’LL BE SOME WAY OF KILLING IT IN THE SENATE: House GOP approves Trump’s wall money as shutdown looms. But maybe I’m too cynical.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Claire McCaskill is othering Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as ‘That New York Woman.’

GOOD: Four-drug chemo ‘cocktail’ embraced as pancreatic cancer breakthrough.

SO WE THINK WE’VE GOT THE BOGUS-AD-REDIRECT PROBLEM UNDER CONTROL. But if you experience that, please email and include the link you’re redirected to. Thanks!

THE JOURNOLIST IS HOPPING: ‘The Walls Are Closing In’: Cable Journalists Chant Dems’ New Mantra Five Times a Day.

How many times before Betelgeuse appears?

CONGO’S DECEMBER ELECTIONS AND YOUR LIFESTYLE: We live in interesting times. (Bumped — a special bump for those who love love love electric cars.)

RELATED: Cocktails from Hell, Chapter 6: Congo: Anarchic Violence, Cyclic Intervention, and Mineral Wealth

21ST CENTURY MEDICINE: The Apple Watch is giving consumers control over their health, but some doctors say patients are taking it too far.

The Apple Watch is the first mass-market product with an ECG, which lets consumers get a reading of their heart’s rhythm and potentially pick up on a type of arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation. That’s a big deal, but it also raises some concerns.

While the device gives people more control over their health and better data on their conditions is laudable, many doctors are worried about false positives. That is, the Apple Watch may be wrong in some cases, resulting in healthy people rushing unnecessarily to the emergency room. Check out the Twitter hashtag #cardiotwitter to see how that’s playing out.

“I love the idea of patients participating in their own health, and I’m not anti-Apple,” said Dr. Brian Kolski, a cardiologist in Orange County, California. “But I also don’t want to be pulled away from those who are actually sick.”

Kolski said he recently started getting messages from patients who were using the ECG feature and just needed reassurance because they didn’t quite understand the reading. “U up?” one perfectly healthy patient emailed him at midnight one night, along with data from the watch.

The technology will improve in subsequent generations.