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

WEBB MOVING – From the Washington Times:   As he ponders an independent run for the White House, former Sen. James Webb of Virginia has retained the services of Sam Jones, the national finance director for the past effort to draft Vice President Joseph R. Biden into the race.  Mr. Webb’s camp said it has given a thorough look at ballot access requirements for independent candidates.  “After weeks of study, including consultations with ballot experts and independent activists around the country, we have a handle on what it takes to give voters in every state a real choice,” said Webb spokesman Craig Crawford. “We are so pleased that Sam Jones is coming on board to help us examine what is now the decisive issue: How to pay for it.”  What's a ballot expert?  Is that a real job?  Is there a degree for it in the Ivy League?  Is the field sufficiently diverse?  I mean, these are the important things.  Don't underestimate a Webb independent challenge.  Even if he takes three percent of the vote, he can change the outcome of the election.

AND NOW FINLAND – From Breitbart:  Finnish police reported Thursday an unusually high level of sexual harassment in Helsinki on New Year’s Eve and said they had been tipped off about plans by groups of asylum seekers to sexually harass women.  Helsinki deputy police chief Ilkka Koskimaki told AFP: “There hasn’t been this kind of harassment on previous New Year’s Eves or other occasions for that matter… This is a completely new phenomenon in Helsinki.”  Security guards hired to patrol the city on New Year’s Eve told police there had been “widespread sexual harassment” at a central square where around 20,000 people had gathered for celebrations.  Note, once again, the silence of "women's" groups in the West.  When are they going to be exposed for what they are, front operators for the political left, with very little interest in the horrors inflicted on women?

MAJOR PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS – From Fox:   SAN FRANCISCO – A macaque monkey who took now-famous selfie photographs cannot be declared the copyright owner of the photos, a federal judge said Wednesday.  U.S. District Judge William Orrick said in a tentative ruling in federal court in San Francisco that "while Congress and the president can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act."  The lawsuit filed last year by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sought a court order allowing PETA to represent the monkey and let it administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey, which it identified as 6-year-old Naruto, and other crested macaques living in a reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.  You know I kind of sympathize with the monkey.  I've worked in Hollywood where non-human species routinely get royalties – snakes, pigs, sharks.  You get the idea.

January 7, 2016