HARSH, BUT FAIR.

CAN WE EXPAND THIS TO UN OFFICIALS? ‘Not a Crime’ To Kill an Israeli Soldier, UN Official Says. But seriously, if it’s total war then let the spirits of Arthur Harris and Curtis LeMay govern.

HE’S CLEARLY UNFIT: The New Rules Dictate That Biden Be Struck From the Ballot With the 25th Amendment.

MAKING YOUR LIFE WORSE ISN’T A SIDE EFFECT, IT’S A POLICY GOAL: Biden Admin Targets Fridges, Freezers in Latest Slew of Appliance Crackdowns.

JOHN HINDERAKER: Degenerate Animals. “Upon re-reading this post, I realize that I may have inadvertently maligned the animal kingdom. To be clear, there is no animal species, no predator, anywhere near as cruel, as heartless, as vicious, as ignorant, as the Muslims who carried out the atrocities of October 7–and the much larger number of Muslims and Western liberals in the press, at Harvard, Penn, MIT, etc., who cheered those atrocities. No animal species has sunk that low.”

OPEN THREAD: Happy New Year’s Eve Eve.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Japan’s ispace shows off a tiny moon lander for its 2nd moon mission in 2024.

HMM: Intermittent Fasting Seems to Result in Dynamic Changes to The Human Brain.

WHEN NARRATIVES FAIL: Suicide rates for Vietnam veterans no higher than general population.

JOHN HAWKINS: How Many Load-Bearing Walls Have to Come Down Before America Collapses? “Like spoiled trust fund babies living an opulent lifestyle off the profits of a company grandpa built, but they don’t understand, many Americans (including many Americans with power) simply have never put any thought into why our society has succeeded or what makes it work.”

ALEX BERENSON: On the sexual atrocities Hamas committed on Oct. 7: We cannot ignore the depravity of these attacks, or what they mean for women.

We cannot, but Western feminists certainly have found it easy. And this is the kind of thing they’re ignoring: “The first victim she said she saw was a young woman with copper-color hair, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back.”

Plus:

So. Why? Why single out women for this special abuse?

And the answer appears to be that the men of Gaza bore a particular rage for these women who lived free and secular lives – in particular the teens and twenty- and thirty-something women they captured at the Nova rave.

The freedom of these women, in particular their sexual freedom, became worthy of the most hellish punishment (un)imaginable. They were unworthy even of being vessels for children. And so they weren’t bred. Instead their sexual organs were mutilated and their bodies desecrated even as they were raped – and sometimes further after they had been killed.

It’s as if these people are a bunch of degenerate animals, which is because that’s what they are. Hamas and the — majority — of Palestinians who support them. And their western supporters — including the Western feminists who went crazy about a fictional frat-house rape that left its “victim” alive and unscarred — are utterly complicit as well.

And we’re supposed to pretend somehow that these degenerate animals aren’t degenerate animals because of a bullshit Cultural Marxist theory created by people whose goal was always to undermine Western civilization and replace it with something that looks a lot like a cross between Hamas and Stalin. Garbage ideas from garbage people who deserve to be treated like the garbage that they are, but that are instead amplified and legitimized by our academic/media/political complex, which is itself no better. It is important to make that truth utterly clear and to repeat it and throw it in their faces.

HISTORY: The VW Golf Through the Years.

WELL: Argentina pulls out of plans to join Brics bloc.

Argentina’s new President, Javier Milei, has withdrawn the country from its planned entry into the expanding Brics club of nations.

In a letter to the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Mr Milei said decisions taken by the preceding government had been revised.

The Brics countries are often seen as a counterweight to the Western-led world.

Argentina had been among a much-vaunted new tranche of six countries poised to join the grouping next month.

It would have been admitted to the Brics club on 1 January, alongside Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Its change of heart comes after Mr Milei, a populist right-wing outsider, won a surprise election victory in November with radical pledges to overhaul the South American nation’s ailing economy.

He succeeded left-wing Peronist Alberto Fernández, whose views were more aligned with those of the bloc’s existing members.

The BRICs are a losers’ club and if you want to be a winner you don’t join.

SO, LIKE “GENDER AFFIRMING” SURGERY, THEN: Mental health problems not reduced after obesity surgery in young people.

LOOKING FOR A YEAR-END DONATION IN A GOOD CAUSE? Consider donating to FIRE, a campus free speech organization I’ve supported for years. They do excellent work.

I also recommend the New Civil Liberties Alliance. I sit on their board and they’re making major legal inroads against the administrative state.

LOOKING FOR A YEAR-END DONATION IN A GOOD CAUSE? Consider donating to FIRE, a campus free speech organization I’ve supported for years. They do excellent work.

I also recommend the New Civil Liberties Alliance. I sit on their board and they’re making major legal inroads against the administrative state.

GUARANTEEING THAT IF TRUMP LOSES HALF THE COUNTRY WILL REGARD THE ELECTION AS ILLEGITIMATE: Matt Taibbi: The Mess in Maine: The 2024 presidential election is already an unprecedented political quagmire.

Related: Colorado Bans Trump From Running Over Concerns Usual Election Rigging System Could Fail.

OPEN THREAD: Do it.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: First satellite for Chinese G60 megaconstellation rolls off assembly line.

NOW THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR: Scientists Have Discovered a Way to Actually Make Coffee Taste Better.

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOME MAGIC IN THAT OLD MAGMA CAP THEY FOUND: Ice and Fire: The Tale of Frosty, Alaska’s Dormant Stratovolcano.

You might think from the name that the volcano has something to do with the stratosphere, but actually it’s a volcano made up of alternating strata of lava and ash.

COPYRIGHT SHOULD BE FOR 28 YEARS, RENEWABLE ONCE. Legal battles loom as first Mickey Mouse copyright ends.

In the past, Disney always managed an extension, but for a variety of reasons, mostly self-inflicted, it lacks the clout today.

MICROBIOME NEWS: Gut microbes may determine patients’ response to a drug that delays onset of type 1 diabetes.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Blending In While Carrying Concealed.

SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX successfully launches two rockets hours apart.