While you were preparing to celebrate Christmas, America's first Muslim president abstained at the UN Security Counsel, effectively condemning Israeli settlements

From the story "Obama faces widespread backlash after abstaining from UN Israel vote" here:

On Friday, the Security Council voted 14-0 on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory as a “flagrant violation” of international law that have “"no legal validity." It demands a halt to "all Israeli settlement activities," saying this "is essential for salvaging the two-state solution."

The United States has veto power in the Security Council and has used it for similar resolutions in the past. The Obama administration’s decision to abstain represents a break from the longstanding U.S. policy of shielding Israel from U.N. reproaches.

A Christmas card from Ann Coulter

John McLaughlin, whose health appears to have declined markedly since Christmas, fails to appear on this week's McLaughlin Group

Watch it here, but it's uncomfortable without the old boy, who turned 89 in March.

We had ham on Christmas Eve . . . it was delicious

Merry Christmas: The world is experiencing the benefits of Western liberty like never before

The Nativity at Night c. 1490

Freedom from want, loneliness, ignorance, danger, disease, discomfort and drudgery.

From Richard Rahn:

As we go into this Christmas week, you should count your blessings that you live in 2014. ...

People in the world live far better today than they did a mere half-century ago. World per-capita gross domestic product is now a little more than $14,000 per year, a little less than where the United States was in 1960 or where the Japanese and United Kingdom were in the mid-1970s (inflation adjusted). In October, the World Bank reported that those living in extreme poverty fell from 36 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2011. ...

Read the whole thing, here.

About 61,000 In Michigan Still Without Power Two Days After Christmas

Blotches indicate some of the 61,000 still w/o power today in MI

Story here:

Michigan utilities reported that over 61,000 customers remained without power Friday morning and said it could be Saturday before all electricity is restored.

Over 200,000 Still Without Power In Michigan On Christmas Day After Ice Storm

Consumers Energy outage map showing some of Michigan's 200,000 without electricity on Christmas Day

According to The Detroit News, here:

Roughly 214,000 homes and businesses across lower Michigan were without power late Tuesday. Officials at the area’s major provider, Consumers Energy, described the storm that hit the region over the weekend as the largest Christmas-week storm in its 126-year history. Overall, it’s the largest storm in the last decade, they added.

Gasoline In Grand Rapids Is Up 25% Since Christmas

Gasoline is up about 25% in Grand Rapids, Michigan, since Christmas to date, just two short months ago. We're actually a little off the highs today. Prices have been erratic at places like Sam's Club where lines are long for what is often the cheapest gasoline in the area (members only). I waited 20 minutes to fill the day after Valentine's, with a bitter cold wind blowing which was not deterring anyone from filling at $3.689/gallon. Today it's $3.769. The price of a fill for me is basically $12 higher today than it was at Christmas.

Radiation 3km WSW From Fukushima the Day After Christmas 65.10 Microsieverts Per Hour

That's still over 90 times what an American can expect on average from all sources, including natural environmental, medical and transportation-related exposures. Just from normal environmental conditions the level is nearly 600 times normal for Japan at the location measured.

(source)

No Bank Failures on the Friday Before Christmas

George Bailey, eat your heart out.

There were two failures a week and a day ago, which appear to be the last we're going to have in 2011.

#91 was Premier Community Bank of the Emerald Coast, Crestview, Florida, costing the FDIC $31.2 million.

#92 was Western National Bank, Phoenix, Arizona, costing the FDIC $37.6 million.

An unofficial list of problem banks here stands at 973 institutions with just under $398 billion in assets, not very different from last year at this time when it was 919 banks and $408 billion in assets.

Extend and pretend continues, which allows banks slowly to heal. But modern banking is rotten to the core nonetheless, just like everything else, in my humble opinion.

Preparing Our Hearts For Christmas, With George Washington and Thomas Paine

From Paine's December 23, 1776 The American Crisis, which Washington had read aloud to his troops as they prepared to attack Trenton on Christmas:

Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.


Enjoy it all, here.

Decline in Christmas Card Traffic Mirrors Unemployment Rate

How do you write the annual Christmas letter, anyway, when you have to write the following: "Gee, we've been out of work for a year now, we're six months behind on the mortgage, they're coming to get the car on Monday, and we're getting heating assistance and food stamps. But other than that, Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year!"?

Considering that the U-6 measure of unemployment is around 17%, a similar percentage drop off in Christmas card traffic just about fits.

“A lot of my friends aren’t sending real cards this year,’’ Willingham said. “I suspect every year it will decline, just like the rest of Western civilization.’’

Go here for more on the story from Boston.com.