58 GREAT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS, NOT ONE OF WHICH INCLUDES THE WORD ‘DIET:’ You can thank Margot Cleveland of The Federalist for this gem of a New Year’s Day post.

My favorite is #40 — “Help an elderly neighbor. Bring back his trash cans, offer to mow her lawn, invite him on a walk to chat.” I know from experience how meaningful this can be for an elderly shut-in.

FIVE MOST INSANE CAMPUS FREE SPEECH CONTROVERSIES OF 2018: Speaking as an alum of Oklahoma State University (72), I am shocked and saddened that the heartland university that touts itself as “America’s Brightest Orange” is on this list. 

Speaking of suppression of expression, would you go to jail for your most basic beliefs as this Chinese pastor has? Beijing is targeting Muslims, too. Campus authorities in the U.S. on that top five list would undoubtedly be horrified and offended by the suggestion their actions have anything in common with China’s anti-religion crusade.

WHY NO, JESUS AND MITHRAS WEREN’T BOTH BORN OF VIRGINS: If you think this issue is an irrelevant pre-modern scrap, think again because it deals with an important sector of the Left’s deconstruction of the West.

THESE PROTESTORS WANT TO ‘KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ IN 2019: The creator of that familiar 1960s slogan would likely be spinning in his grave (if he were in it, which he’s not!) as Tesla owners find themselves unable to re-charge, thanks to “ICEing” protests.

MAYBE MEXICO WILL BUILD A WALL BEFORE TRUMP: Now here’s an interesting idea from Monica Showalter, writing at The American Thinker: “Mexico can erect a border fence on its southern border, same as President Trump is trying to do on the U.S. southern border, to keep unauthorized migrants out. Given that it’s a far shorter border, it wouldn’t take much to get up.” More here.

HERE’S HOW THEY DECIDE WHO CAN SAY WHAT ON FACEBOOK: Blatant censorship of unpopular political speech is rampant on the world’s largest social media platform. In fact, it appears to be in Silicon Valley’s DNA. If you doubt that, read this. Then share it. Until they stop you.

LAME-DUCK GOPERS LIMP HOME, LAME-DUCK DEMS KNEECAP GOPERS: Required reading at The Last Refuge comparing the out-going GOP House majority in 2018 with the out-going Democrat majority in 2010:

“While 63 Democrat seats were lost in the November 2010 election (and six Democrat Senate seats), those exiting Marxists, despite just having suffered the worst defeat in almost 100 years, audaciously –and unapologetically– voted in the December 2010 lame-duck session, to fully fund President Obama’s next two years in office.

“This was done by Speaker Nancy Pelosi specifically to block the incoming GOP wave from upending the priorities of the Obama administration in 2011.  That was called the ‘Porkulous’ spending bill; and the Democrat-Marxists didn’t give a snit about how it looked.

“Now, did Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Leader Mitch McConnell do anything as bold to fund and secure the budgetary priorities of President Donald Trump in this lame-duck?”

Lesson (Just one among many): A One-and-a-Half Party system isn’t a Two-Party system. Go here for the rest.

BRE PAYTON OF THE FEDERALIST HAS PASSED AWAY: I never met her in person but I loved her work on The Federalist. Morgan Murtaugh has the sad, sad news.

REMEMBER OAKLAND MAYOR LIBBY SCHAAF? She’s the California official who took it upon herself to warn illegal immigrants in her city that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were about to launch a raid.

Schaaf has no regrets about compromising a raid that still managed to arrest 232 illegals, 180 of which were found to have criminal records. Townhall’s Cortney O’Brien reminds us that Schaaf said she was willing to go to jail when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned of the possibility.

BIG CHALLENGES FOR CHRISTIANS IN PEW’S LATEST ‘NONES’ SURVEY RESULTS: Fully a fourth of all Americans now identify themselves as having none when asked their religious affiliation. The percentages are even higher among recent college graduates.

But rather than despair, NBC Dateline cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace – himself an articulate Christian apologist – sees great opportunities for believers in Pew Research Center’s latest results from its survey of a representative sample of 1,300 Nones, especially when combined with a key question that wasn’t asked in 2018 but was in previous years.

HYPOCRISY, THY NAME IS PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Capital Research Center’s Michael Watson goes beyond the unexpected New York Times expose earlier this week to shine additional light on the abortion mill’s “un-progressive labor practices.”

TRUMP’S MANAGEMENT STYLE NO SURPRISE IF YOU GREW UP RUNNING HOTELS: Like Robert Weissberg, whose father owned major hotels in multiple big cities across the country.

Writing in American Thinker, Weissberg says “overseeing a hotel empire is comparable to managing a fire or police department in a Detroit-like city. Hotels operate 24/7, 365 days a year and exist in near perpetual crisis. I grew up hearing about electricity or hot water suddenly going kaput, reservation systems gone awry, unions threatening picket lines, or health inspectors warning about closing restaurants while an awaiting mass transit strike meant that hotel workers could not show up for their jobs.”

And that’s not the half of it! Go here for the rest. Doesn’t answer the question of whether running the country like a hotel chain is the best way, but it sure beats running it like a social justice experiment on campus.

WASHINGTON POST ‘JOURNALIST’ LAUNCHES PC ATTACK ON TRUMP WALL FUND: Jeff Bezos’ party-line daily displays this slogan on its logo: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” That should be “Journalism Dies Here,” thanks to newsroom activism such as this latest example described by Jeff Dunetz at The Lid. 

WHAT A TANGLED PATH THE LEFT WEAVES WHEN IT PRACTICES TO DECEIVE: It’s Thursday and the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Andrew Kerr has new details on how a lefty non-profit sought to cover its tracks regarding the Antifa activities and advocacy of its employee, Joseph Alcoff AKA “Chepe” and “Jose Martin.”

HE WAS SCREAMING ‘ALlAHU AKBAR’ AS HE SWUNG THE SWORD: But Mohiussunnath Chowdhury claimed he was just kidding about being an ISIS supporter and what he really wanted was for the British police he was attacking to kill him. So the UK jury found him not guilty of attempted terrorism. Robert Spencer has the details.

RIPPING OFF THE MASK OF ANTIFA ANONYMITY: Andrew Kerr of the Daily Caller News Foundation’s (DCNF) Investigative Group has done a remarkable piece of deep-dive journalism that went live this morning: “Revealed: Antifa Leader Relied on Anonymity to Push Radical, Violent Communist Agenda.”

The Antifa leader in question is known on Twitter as “#Sabokitty.” But that’s just the beginning, according to DCNF’s Kerr:

• “The Daily Caller News Foundation has determined that an influential Antifa leader uses aliases to spread radical and often violent rhetoric while concealing his actual identity.
• “Joseph ‘Jose’ Alcoff works with congressional Democrats as part of his day job as a manager with a DC-based advocacy group. But he spreads socialist and communist propaganda when going by the name ‘Jose Martin.’
• “Identifying as ‘Chepe,’ Alcoff advocates for the violent overthrow of the government and for the murder of the rich. He has relished the mainstreaming of Antifa’s militant tactics in the Trump era.
• “A 2017 book identified Chepe as an organizer behind Smash Racism DC, the Antifa group that mobbed Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s home in November and ran Ted Cruz out of a restaurant in September.”

So how many more liberal non-profit activists are leading double or triple lives? One hopes DCNF and Kerr are prepared for the reaction because the Left will not take having this kind of light shone on its dark corners lying down.

SOROS HELPED FUND LEFTY THUGS WHO HARASSED FLORIDA AG: Remember in June when Florida Attorney General Pam Biondi and her boyfriend were hounded away from a movie theatre by left-wing “protestors”? Turn out the protestors were with a group that calls itself Organize Florida.

Just happens, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s Luke Rosiak, that Organize Florida received a $500,000 grant from George Soros’ Open Society Policy Center in 2017. No, I’m not surprised either. Rosiak has more details here.

SEE, QUANTUM MECHANICS CAN EXPLAIN HOW SOMETHING COMES FROM NOTHING: This fascinating experiment by a team led by a Spanish researcher is sure to spark new debate in the media, academia and various public policymaking bodies about origins, intelligent design and creation. I’m skeptical (scroll all the way to the end, please) but am very much interested in what folks here think.

WILL JUDGE SULLIVAN ACCEPT BEING GIVEN THE IDIOT’S TREATMENT? U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan recently ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller to produce to him the 302 form and related notes from that infamous “interview” with former Trump national security adviser, Gen.(Ret.) Michael Flynn in the White House.

Mueller replied, but as Powerline’s Scott Johnson points out today, “the attachments to the reply memorandum include neither. Where are they?” Either Director Christopher Wray is in control of the bureau or he’s not. At this point, the latter seems to be most likely. And a vacating of Flynn’s conviction warranted.

See also Johnson’s Friday comments here.

WE WERE SIDE-BURNED ONCE AND YOUNG: Stumbled across this photo from my first job on Capitol Hill. Back when there were still real journalists covering Congress. Brought back a lot of memories. And a good many Sunday evening chuckles, too.

MEET MARC ELIAS, QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST DANGEROUS DEMOCRAT IN D.C.: Political junkies Left and Right have heard of him but even folks with an above-average interest in public affairs could rarely pick Marc Elias out of a lineup of D.C. VIPs.

Name a major national Democratic figure, issue, donor or campaign entity, however, and odds are Elias is an advisor, counsel or otherwise involved at the highest level, and that creates something akin to a political MOAB.

The reason, as Capital Research Center’s Christine Ravold explains, is “this constellation of left-leaning interests shows a unique concentration of Democrat strategic intelligence—all protected by attorney-client privilege.” Go here for the first of Ravold’s two-parter on Elias. Part two will be worth the short wait.

OCASIO-CORTEZ IS WORSE THAN YOU OR PELOSI THOUGHT: The American Spectator’s David Catron lays out the several fronts on which the It Girl from New York can be a real pain in the — for the presumptive Speaker of the House.

But he also offers this warning for the freshman who breathlessly told her supporters recently that her office is a mere two doors down the hall from the California Democrat: “Pelosi has been a member of the House since June of 1987, more than two years before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born. Nancy Pelosi has seen a lot of ambitious young fire breathers immolated by their own hubris.”

Read Catron now, then store it away to re-read in six months. It should be clear by then whether or not AOC figured it out.

UPDATE: Yes, I know, AOC represents a district that includes parts of the Bronx and Queens instead of Brooklyn, as I originally wrote above. Hey, I’m from the South and you know how confusing all those big Northern cities can be for us.

ANY MINUTE NOW, MSM WILL DEMAND CONGRESS REVEAL HUSH FUND USERS: I mean, mainstream media journalists believe in transparency and accountability in government, right? And such journalists don’t have any partisan axes to grind, right? Journalists like these always report without fear or favor, right?

So I’m willing to bet reporters from CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, Washington Post, New York Times, Vox, USAToday, TPM, etc. etc. are at this very moment screaming into their cell phones at recalcitrant Democratic flaks demanding to know if their bosses ever used the tax-funded hush fund to pay off sexual harassment accusers.

Why are you laughing so hard? What’s that you say, I should read The American Thinker’s  Daniel John Sobieski’s “Reveal the Hush-Fund Hypocrites.”

YES, POLITICAL BIAS HAS MEASURABLE EFFECTS ON HOW WE SEE ‘NEWSWORTHINESS:’ That’s the conclusion of Instapundit contributor Gail Heriot of the University of San Diego School of Law and Harold Pashler of the University of California, San Diego.

I think this is a significant study of how readers assess the significance of news stories and explain why on the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) web site. And I hope Heriot and Pashler do a similar analysis of the attitudes of journalists who decide what is and is not news.

HERE’S THE JAMAL KHASHOGGI YOU PROBABLY DON’T KNOW ABOUT: Writing in The American Spectator, Joseph P. Duggan describes a fascinating lunch conversation he had in 2012 with the recently murdered Saudi “journalist.” There is so much more to Khashoggi than the mainstream U.S. media has reported. Read the whole thing.