GOOD: Acting SECNAV Posthumously Awards Wings of Gold to NAS Pensacola Shooting Victims. “They each embody the warrior ethos we expect and require of all wingmen. There is no doubt in my mind they each would have led the charge in their respective Naval Aviation careers. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and our hearts are truly with the families and friends of our Shipmates.”

UPDATE: From the comments: “How about he awards those who kept them disarmed with court martials.” If we got rid of all our dumb generals, how many generals would we have?

SUZANNE VENKER: Feminism’s collateral damage is the breakdown of society. You say collateral damage, I say goal, potato/potahto.

BLOOMBERG CONTINUES TO POACH HIS NEWSROOM TO STAFF UP 2020 CAMPAIGN.

Why, it’s as if the media are Democratic Party operatives with bylines, to coin an Insta-phrase.

MINESTRONE VS. MALARIA.

LEFTISM: The Danger of Making Ruthlessness Seem Reasonable.

So when I hear Nancy Pelosi say, “Civilization as we know it today is at stake in the next election, and certainly, our planet,” I don’t laugh. When I hear Greta Thunberg say, “For way too long, the politicians and the people in power have gotten away with not doing anything to fight the climate crisis, but we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer,” I don’t just roll my eyes. When I hear AOC say, “There’s no debate as to whether we should continue producing fossil fuels. There’s no debate,” I don’t wonder what she’s been smoking.

These people are dangerous. They make ruthlessness seem reasonable.

Do they?

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Megan Rapinoe Calls Out Sports Illustrated’s Lack of Diversity in Sportsperson of the Year Award Speech.

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND: BBC Segment on the Definition of ‘Woman:’ “So, there we go. Jo Swinson, the leader of the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom, does not know what a woman is, and has promised complete reform of the Gender Recognition Act, which she does not understand the consequences of.”

MATT YGLESIAS: “At Vox I think the implied audience is a graduate of or student at a selective colleges (which also describes the staff and our social peers), and if you assigned me the job of serving a less-educated audience is probably need to think about how to change things up.”

OK then.

SPACE FORCE! Compromise defense bill expands benefits, creates Space Force.

FASHION FOR THE COMING FALLEN ANGELS ERA: These Puffer Jacket Dresses Will Keep You Warm and Looking Fancy This Winter.

ALMOST WORTH IT JUST TO BE ABLE TO PARK IN ALL THOSE UNUSED ELECTRIC-CAR CHARGING SPACES: Audi Q7 Adds Plug-In-Hybrid Model with Up to 449 HP.

WHY DOES LEFTISM REVOLVE AROUND VIOLENCE AND RACISM? Black conservative student leader reportedly slapped several times by white student described as ‘deranged leftist and LGBT activist.’ “The white student also yelled ‘you’re gonna end up f***in’ dead!’ apparently at black student.”

The violent disruptive “activists” are a small and — often literally — crazy minority, one that exercises disproportionate power because the university administrations allow them, and even encourage them, to act as they do. Unsurprisingly, this guy is a little weasely fellow, as they so often seem to be.

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME AND THE K-12 IMPLOSION: Michigan High School Teacher Tears Off Teenage Girl’s Trump Pin. “Get ready for more of these stories around the country as we get closer to the election. Scratch a lib, find an authoritarian. They hate fascism so much that they won’t abide any dissent from their own views.”

I’M OUT OF ORDER? YOU’RE OUT OF ORDER! Kentucky Family Court Judge Accused of Threesomes in Chambers, Drinking, and Debauchery.

REVIEW: Winchester 350 Legend. “Should you have to defend your family from a home invasion, you can do it very effectively with an AR-15 chambered for the 350 Legend.”

AT AMAZON, Holiday Savings on Bestselling Jewelry.

Plus, deals on Power and Hand Tools.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Cut out Washington noise: Let’s pay respect to the men who died last week serving the U.S.

Although it’s fashionable to mock millennials and Generation Z as a “snowflake” generation, these men did not melt under pressure. They ran toward the sound of the guns and, though unarmed, took action.

John 15:13 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And Gen. George S. Patton said that, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”

Both have a point, but it’s hard to feel that these young men who displayed such courage and self-sacrifice wouldn’t have brought a lot more to the world if they had been given the time. We can only be grateful that at a crucial moment, they chose as they did, even as we mourn that such a choice was forced on them.

Had their superiors done a better job, it wouldn’t have been.

GIVING BACK: Gary Sinise Takes 1,000+ Gold Star Kids to Disney World.

And for my VIP members at PJMedia: Tom Brokaw Blames Social Media for Breaking Trust with Journalists.

If you’ve been thinking about becoming a member, the promo code VODKAPUNDIT is still good for a nice little discount.

C’MON, MAN. Public university rejects animal rights club, citing ‘emotional risk’ to students. Oh no! Vegetarians! Run!

RIP: Pete Frates, A Driving Force Behind The Viral Ice Bucket Challenge, Dies At 34.

JOHN T. MOLLOY, CALL YOUR OFFICE: In a split second, clothes make the man more competent in the eyes of others.

Of course, the researchers explicitly assume that this “bias” is unrelated to facts. But perhaps people who dress better are, on average, more competent. After all, this “bias” has been well-known forever (it wasn’t really news when Molloy published his first book, he just systematized it — and reminded people of it during a fashion era where people needed to be reminded). So if, knowing this, you don’t bother, well . . . .

WELL, THEY’RE RIGHT: Family of Josh Watson, Pensacola attack hero, calls for arming service members on military bases.

DEVELOPING: Two Gunmen In Shootout With Police On Block With Kosher Grocery In Jersey City.

JAMES BOVARD: Inspector General report on FBI’s FISA abuse tells us one thing: We need radical reform.

Yesterday’s IG report was only the latest in a long series of revelations about FBI misconduct at the FISA court:

*In 2002, the FISA court revealed that FBI agents had false or misleading claims in 75 cases and a top FBI counterterrorism official was prohibited from ever appearing before the court again.

*In 2005, FISA chief judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly proposed requiring FBI agents to swear to the accuracy of the information they presented; that never happened because it could have “slowed such investigations drastically,” the Washington Post reported. So FBI agents continued to have a license to exploit FISA secrecy to lie to the judges.

*In 2017, a FISA court decision included a 10-page litany of FBI violations, which “ranged from illegally sharing raw intelligence with unauthorized third parties to accessing intercepted attorney-client privileged communications without proper oversight.”

* In October, a secret FISA court ruling was released documenting the FBI’s illegal conducted warrantless searches of vast numbers of Americans’ emails despite congressional legislation seeking to curb FBI data roundups.

FBI machinations at the FISA court are especially perilous to American democracy because that court is extremely docile to federal agencies. The FISA court “created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans,” the New York Times reported in 2013 after Edward Snowden leaked court decisions. FISA decisions have “quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court…regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny.” The court’s servility can boggle the imagination, such as its rubber-stamping FBI requests that bizarrely claimed that the telephone records of all Americans were “relevant” to a terrorism investigation under the Patriot Act, thereby enabling N.S.A. data seizures later denounced by a federal judge as “almost Orwellian.”

Ironically, the FISA court was created in 1978 to prevent Nixon-style political spying.

Or at least, that’s how it was sold.