Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* North Korea Update: Rumors that Kim Jung-un's Uncle, Jang Sung-taek, was on the outs were confirmed when he was hauled out of a party meeting and arrested. They have already edited him out of some official videos.

* It's a month after the deadly typhoon in the Philippines, but people still need help. If you are so inclined:

Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org.ph/donate
World Food Program: https://www.wfp.org/donate/typhoon
Doctors without Borders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/overview.cfm?ref=main-menu

* "Top 25 Censored Stories from 2012-2013:" http://www.projectcensored.org/category/top-25-censored-stories-from-2012-2013/

* Republicans want to remind you that just as it was the moral thing to cut food benefits to children and the working poor because Jesus, the moral thing to do is to cut people's unemployment insurance right before the holidays because they reject the objective evidence that unemployment insurance helps keep people looking for work, and choose to belief the lie that it somehow makes people lazy even though it doesn't.

* No really. "Rand Paul: GOP ambassador to black America:"

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* Something is rotten in the State of New Jersey. "Dubious traffic jam shows signs of politics:"

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* Why is it that Conservatives hold contracts with the rich as sacred, but those with people who worked for a living are always written in water? "Judge Rules Detroit Pension Benefits Subject to Theft by Bankruptcy.:" http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/03/1259824/-Breaking-Judge-Rules-Detroit-Pension-Benefits-Subject-to-Theft-by-Bankruptcy

* "GOP starts a tough struggle to win back Asian American voters:" http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-asian-american-voters-20131208,0,6145540.story?track=lat-pick#axzz2myaL6m9X

I wonder if they will use the same quality of tactics they've been using with African American voters.

* "The Mandela Problem of the AWM Wing of the GOP:" http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/mandela-problem-wing.html

* "Okla. Satanists seek monument by Statehouse steps:" http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/08/satanists-oklahoma-statehouse/3908849/

"Brady Henderson, legal director for ACLU Oklahoma, said if state officials allow one type of religious expression, they must allow alternative forms of expression, although he said a better solution might be to allow none at all on state property."

* "Dude, Where's My Accent?:" http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/news-and-profiles/culture/articles/dude-wheres-my-accent-december-2013/

"Why the California Vowel Shift may have us all by the tongue."

They will pry my differentiated "ot" vs. "aught" from my cold, dead tongue.

* "Cleveland Media Back To Disrespecting Black Trans Women Again:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2013/12/cleveland-media-back-to-disrespecting.html

* Apartheid is Not Obamacare:

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* There is nothing so designed to make one feel old as signing a paper designating one's older roommate as a person who can "look after you if you get confused." *facepalm* I'm in my forties, damnit.

* Thanks to Linked in, I just got back into contact with J.B, whom I dated Spring of Freshmen year in College. He's the one some of you have likely heard me call "The Boy from Bethesda," and is one of the guys on my short list of ex-lovers I'd most like to hear from. It's just initial contact, so I don't know much beyond profession and location.

* "Coloring in your kids' drawings:" http://boingboing.net/2013/12/02/coloring-in-your-kids-drawin.html?