SERIOUSLY? Time Magazine Once Compared Soleimani to Lady Gaga, James Bond.

Somewhere in Publisher Heaven, Henry Luce, the center-right Republican creator of Time, who during WWII, dubbed the 20th century “The American Century,” weeps at what’s become of his magazine.

#JOURNALISM: Media Struggle to Explain Recent Wave of Anti-Semitic Attacks Without Blaming Jews, Trump.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Britain’s positive embrace of vaping puts our nanny state to shame.

HEH: Progressive Enjoying TV Show She’ll Denounce As ‘Extremely Problematic’ Within Five Years.

HARSH, BUT FAIR:

RISK? THEY’VE PRETTY MUCH ALREADY DONE IT: Salena Zito: Tone-deaf Democrats risk handing western Pennsylvania to Trump. “Whether it is the call for fracking bans or making demeaning quips about coding, it is those kinds of remarks directed at the families and the communities in western Pennsylvania that Allegheny County chief executive Rich Fitzgerald specifically urged the candidates running for the nomination not to do in a letter he sent this past this year to all of the campaign headquarters.” They didn’t listen.

BEN RHODES IS SUDDENLY INTERESTED IN CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORIZATION.

How odd. In 2014, NPR bragged that “Wielding A Pen And A Phone, Obama Goes It Alone.”’

Or as Jim Treacher notes behind the PJM VIP paywall: Trump Has the Pen and Phone Now, and Dems Can’t Stand It.

HENRY RACETTE: Trump’s Sins:

I don’t think President Obama really liked America very much, at least not the America I grew up in and love.

In contrast, I have little interest in knowing about President Trump’s past, because I think I understand the man well enough without it. I think he’s a narcissist, a self-promoter, a rambling promise-anything hustler, a man with essentially no ideology, and also a man who wants to be loved and admired. I think he has, for whatever reason, identified success as a patriotic, pro-business, get-the-job-done conservative as his path to the love and admiration, the greatness, he wants, and playing that role is more important to him than anything else.

That works for me because of the role he’s chosen, and again, for whatever reason, has him pursuing goals congruent to my own interests.

My interest in Obama’s past was that it might help me to expose him as the anti-American progressive I thought (and still think) he was. And, now that he’s out of office, I don’t even care about that.

I have little interest in Trump’s past, since his behavior now is self-evidently, and usually, the kind of behavior I want in a President, and I don’t expect it to change. I don’t think he’s a particularly complicated man.

Obama was a private, secretive man. Trump, the good and the bad, is transparent.

I think that’s why Trump’s sins don’t bother me. We want good character in a President in large part because character is a predictor of behavior. We don’t need a predictor with Trump: he’s driven by an unflattering aspect of his character, his pride, in such a way that he feels compelled to do things of which I happen to approve.

That works for me, though I think Trump is more sinned against than sinning.

ICYMI: How the big airlines are using Uncle Sam to keep the cost of flying artificially high.

Related: I say, time to let foreign airlines compete.

Flashback: Cabotage, baby!

Also: Kurt Schlichter calls for opening domestic airline routes to foreign competition.

CELIA HAYES AND JEANNE HAYDEN’S LUNA CITY OMNIBUSES ARE NOW IN PAPER:  The Luna City Compendium #1 (Collected Chronicles of Luna City).

Welcome to Luna City, Karnes County, Texas! Population … well, that varies, depending on the time of year. Luna City; whose Town Square is the architectural jewel of South Texas.

Where the high school football team is called the Mighty Fighting Moths and their yearly Homecoming game is under some strange and irregular curse.

Once meant to be a stop on the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad, but derailed by True Love …

Where there might be a fortune in gold hidden somewhere for the last hundred years ….

Where half the townsfolk has the surname of Gonzalez or Gonzales, they’re all related and descended from the holder of the original Spanish land grant but no one has ever been able to figure out whether his name ended in an ‘s’ or a ‘z’, due to illegible handwriting on the original paperwork! A historic marker on Town Square marks the spot where a local bootlegger was nearly hung in 1926 for (among a long list of offenses against the laws of God and Man) impersonating a nun!

Luna City, where eccentricity is just a part of every-day life. Drop in for a visit – you might never want to leave.

AND:  The Luna City Compendium #2 (Collected Chronicles of Luna City).

Welcome back to Luna City, Karnes County, Texas … Population 2,456, depending. Depending on births, new residents, grandchildren retuning to the ancestral nest … and of course, the regular return of treasure-hunters, ghost hunters, curious tourists, a motorcycle club, guests at the upscale resort spa of Mills Farm … and hurricane refugees! Fugitive former celebrity chef Richard Astor-Hall is beset with challenges in his
attempt to build a new life in tiny Luna City, Joe and Jess Vaughn cope with being parents, a traveling food show is coming to town, and the company which owns Mills Farm is planning an extensive renovation of the place … and maybe more! And then there is the mysterious skeleton discovered on the banks of the river … Gentle comedy, the doings of small towns – all here in one volume: Luna City IV, A Fifth of Luna City, and One Half
Dozen of Luna City. Stop in for a visit – you may never want to leave.

THEY CAN BE OVER TEN FEET LONG AND WEIGH MORE THAN A TON, SO YOU THROW THEM OFF THE BOAT:  Two giant sea lions steal sailboat and the video is hilarious.

SOME ELEMENT OF OWNER RESPONSIBILITY IS EXPECTED:  Woman sues Blue Buffalo dog food company for making her pooch fat.

IT’S HARD TO LAUGH WHEN YOU’RE NAUSEATED, BUT YOU MUST TRY:  Stopping The Fifth Column.

CONSIDERING HOW GOOD THEY LOOK WHEN NEW, THIS AIN’T MUCH OF AN ACHIEVEMENT:  20-year-old McDonald’s burger looks good as new. [VIDEO]

NOTE TO AMERICAN FEMINISTS: THIS IS WHAT MISOGYNISTIC PATRIARCHAL SOCIETIES ARE LIKE:  Sudan’s women pursue soccer dream, challenging conservatives.

GEE, IF ONLY WE HAD SOME KIND OF EARTH TO ORBIT CAPABILITY SO WE COULD HARVEST THESE THINGS:  Asteroid that could cause ‘violent sky explosion’ as powerful as 30 nukes approaching Earth tomorrow, Nasa warns.

Alternate comment: “I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky!” What? Coloradan, remember?

THE LEFT HAS BECOME WHAT IT PRETENDS TO HATE:  The Racism That Does Not Dare Say Its Name.

WE DO LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES:  Judicial Watch Sues CIA and DOJ for Communications of Eric Ciaramella.

THAT’S UNPOSSIBLE — THE GOVERNMENT’S BEEN SAYING REDUCE MILK FAT FOR, LIKE, EVER. AND LOOK HOW SVELTE EVERYONE HAS BECOME!  Study hints at the surprising benefits of drinking whole milk.

BECAUSE I BELIEVE LAUGHING AT OUR ENEMIES IS IMPORTANT (AND AT OUR LOCAL IDIOTS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT) BECAUSE IT ROBS THEIR MADNESS OF STATUS, AND BECAUSE I FOUND IT ON THE INTERNET:

IRAN’S LATEST REDSHIRT NAMED, MEET HIM BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE: Iran names Quds Force number 2, Esmail Ghaani, to replace slain Soleimani. Hey, Esmail, pay no attention to that buzzing outside your window. . . .

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT:

I reported this hate-tweet, wishing violence on people, to Twitter. I’m sure they’ll get right on it.