December 20, 2011 - For those of you have put off the inevitable til the last minute, I've put together a list of lists that you might find helpful. There is not much time left to order Christmas gifts that need to be delivered, but there are quite a few merchants still offering free overnight shipping. Another option for shopping procrastinators: Digital downloads. Those are software items that you can instantly have delivered right to your own computer, which you could then email to someone. Let's get right to it:

Amazon.com is offering up to 50% off on Apparel and Accessories, with free "super saver shipping" and free returns on clothing

December 18, 2011 - This is how the North Korean people learned about the death of their leader Kim Jung Il earlier today, as reported by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).



See related story from BBC World News.

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Vote now (poll is below) to let us know who you think won the Republican debate in Sioux City, Iowa. It was the last major debate to happen before the Iowa caucus, less than three weeks away.

What's a caucus?"The caucus process has been used since Iowa became a state in the 1840s, but Iowa's First in the Nation status did not gain its current political and media prominence until the 1970s. Caucus meetings for both political parties are held every other year. Prior to 1972, Iowa's caucuses were held during the middle of the primary calendar." More about the Iowa caucus at IowaGOP.org...

Image via WikipediaDecember 16, 1811 - A violent earthquake shook southeastern Missouri and neighboring states at approximately 2:15 a.m. in the small town of New Madrid, Missouri on the Mississippi River. That's in the "Kentucky Bend" region (map, left).

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) extimates the quake at M7.7. Early reports indicate that there was minimal damage to buildings, but there are no reports of deaths in the sparsely populated area of southeastern corner of the state. The shaking was felt widely throughout the region, and even rang church bells in Boston - half way across the country. More at UFO Shock....

12/13/2011 - RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFNS) -- An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper crashed at the Seychelles International Airport in Mahe at 10:22 a.m. Dec. 13. [See Map]

Image by james_gordon_los_angeles via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia
Suppose, for the sake of discussion, that Newt Gingrich gets the Republican nomination for president. If you vote for Gingrich instead of Obama next November, says Glenn Beck, you're a racist. That's what he told Fox News host Andrew Napolitano on December 9's "Freedom Watch" show. Here's what Beck said:

“If you have a big government progressive, or a big government progressive in Obama… ask yourself this, Tea Party: is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me. If you’re against him but you’re for this guy, it must be about race. I mean, what else is it? It’s the policies that matter.”



Got that? I'm no fan of Newt Gingrich, and I agree that he is not a true conservative. But Gingrich would be a helluva lot better than another four years of Obama. I say that without consideration for race. I say that because Barack Obama's socialist policies, combined with his fascist embrace of banks and auto manufacturers, not to mention "Obamacare," have taken this country from serious condition in 2008 to critical in 2012. Gingrich could not possibly be worse, and even with his progressive tendencies in some areas, President Gingrich would be better for the nation than more of Obama.

Yet Glenn Beck says that you would be a racist if you voted for Gingrich over Obama. Beck's premise for saying that is flawed: He equates moderate Republican Gingrich with quasi-Socialist, Constitution trampling Obama. Again, I'm no fan of Gingrich, but I'll willingly and without hesitation hold my nose and vote for him next November if it comes down to that.

Beck's own hypocrisy here is stunning. On the April 6, 2010, Beck said this:

"When did referring to someone as a socialist become akin to calling somebody a racist name? I mean, I understand the meaning of racist words and the hurt there. But socialism is not that. That's political ideology defined by discernable characteristics and if somebody points out those characteristics, you're pointing out a political viewpoint or policy."  - Glenn Beck show, Fox News

In that show, Beck called Obama a Marxist. He's called Obama a Marxist many, many times. Call Gingrich what you will, nobody has ever seriously thought of him as a Marxist. Why Beck suddenly feels that getting Gingrich as our next president would be worse than four more years of the "Marxist" Obama is a mystery.

Today, in late 2011, Beck is equates a voting for Gingrich over voting for Obama to racism. Perhaps Beck forgot his own words, or did not mean them in the first place. Perhaps he no longer thinks that Tea Party people - or anybody else, for that matter, including Democrats who have lost faith in the Obama they once voted for - are capable of choosing Gingrich over the full destructive policies of Obama. To paraphrase Beck himself, to vote for Gingrich over Obama would be voting out a political viewpoint or policy, not racism. I mean, I understand the meaning of racist words and the hurt there. But voting for the far-lesser of two evils, and against more Marxism, is not that.

Breitbart and Beck both have huge egos, so it should be interesting to watch this clash of media titans as it plays out. I suspect it will not end soon. Breitbart's book, "Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!" is available at Amazon.com and is testimony to his sense of self importance.  (While you're at Amazon, by the way, check out "Debunking Glenn Beck: How to Save America from Media Pundits and Propagandists" by Karl Alan Rogers.)

Image via WikipediaI was a Glenn Beck fan years before many of you probably even heard of him. I loved his goofy radio show, and it was interesting to watch him "evolve" into a serious political commentator. What's worried me over the past two years, and really broke his spell on me about a year ago, was the realization that Glenn Beck is no expert on anything.

Beck repeats what he's told by paid staffers and advisors who have fooled him into thinking that they are experts. Sure, I've agreed with much of what Beck has told us, but just this one statement alone is enough for me to no longer simply not be a Beck fan. I now actively dislike him.

I don't trust him. I am offended by him. As Breitbart said of Beck, "“I don’t care what he does, because he is dead to me."

December 1, 2011 - Herman Cain's attorney Lin Wood stood his ground nicely this evening as a guest on "Piers Morgan Tonight" (CNN). Effete Leftist water boy Morgan interviewed Wood, concentrating on the recent allegations by Ginger White of having a 13-year "affair" with Cain. Morgan, unhappy that Wood was not caving in, was contentious and actually called him "naive" more than once. Morgan seemed unable to comprehend Wood's repeated argument that none of the accusations against Cain have been proven to be true.

"I'm sorry if you find me naive," Wood said, "or if you find my statements about Mr. Cain preposterous." Referring to What I find naive is the failure on the part of the members of the media to be asking the tough questions of the accusers.

Wood said several times that the media should be asking equally tough questions of the women who are accusing Cain of wrongdoing, Morgan kept shifting from feigned indignity to partial stupor. Great back-and-forth here, worth watching. Lin Wood held his ground nicely.