SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

WOOF! – FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:  Airports across the country increasingly are turning to therapy dogs to help relieve the stress of flustered fliers.  But confusion and even conflict can result from the growing packs of pooches, after dogs used by security agents and emotional support animals traveling with passengers are factored in.  Therapy dogs can now be found in at least 46 of the nation’s largest airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, with dog programs most recently launched at the Hollywood Burbank Airport as well as airports in Connecticut and Colorado.  The dogs roam the terminals with their volunteer owners, reducing stress by letting passengers pet and socialize with the animals.  Watch.  This will spread to college campuses.  Students will demand therapy deans, therapy social activists, even therapy substitute parents.  They have rights!

NUT CASE – FROM BREITBART:  Friday on MSNBC, climate activist Bill Nye warned conservatives to “watch out,” saying progressive blue states will “address climate change” on their own.  Nye said, “Only 40 percent of people in the U.S. think that Congress should be addressing this and that’s because certain conservative groups, especially from the fossil fuel industry, have been very successful in introducing the idea that scientific uncertainty, plus or minus two percent, is the same as plus or minus 100 percent.”  He continued, “There’s a lot of emphasis from conservatives on what are writ-large states rights. Just watch out, conservatives, if states rights include California, Illinois, New York — these places that, where people voted in a progressive fashion — watch out if all those places start to address climate change and then impose economic sanctions, either overtly or by default, on places that have not embraced the work that needs to be done. Then you’ll end up with this states rights working the other way.”  No, dork, you'll wind up with a super Supreme Court case.  Don't get your hopes up, especially if Trump gets another appointment.

AND ANOTHER – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  First it was MSNBC’s Mark Halperin. Then “The Today Show’s” Matt Lauer. Now, the recent string scandals involving creepy men who happen to work for NBC News has hit the peacock network’s business channel.  CNBC Director Dan Switzen has been arrested for allegedly spying on his teenage babysitter with a nanny camera placed in a tissue box in a bathroom of his Westchester, NY home.   The New York Daily News reports on the complaint filed by Pleasantville police which details how the teen discovered the camera and reported it immediately to authorities.  That is very weird, and very stupid.  I know a former Pleasantville cop, and I'll ask him about this strange case.

December 30, 2017