Europe blows cold on warming

The EU's reputation as a model of environmental responsibility may soon be history. The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking -- jeopardizing Germany's touted energy revolution in the process.
The climate between Brussels and Berlin is polluted, something European Commission officials attribute, among other things, to the "reckless" way German Chancellor Angela Merkel blocked stricter exhaust emissions during her re-election campaign to placate domestic automotive manufacturers like Daimler and BMW. This kind of blatant self-interest, officials complained at the time, is poisoning the climate.  But now it seems that the climate is no longer of much importance to the European Commission, either. Commission sources have long been hinting that the body intends to move away from ambitious climate protection goals. The Süddeutsche Zeitung has now reported as much. [Source]
     [BLS]

Dim Crims: Wrong time, wrong place

Our Alaska Contributor, TG, sends this cautionary tale. 

Dumb Slebs: Rodman enters rehab

Dennis Rodman has checked into an undisclosed alcohol rehabilitation center to treat his struggle with alcoholism, his agent says.
Darren Prince declined to say which facility will treat Rodman and how long he will be there. Rodman recently returned to the United States from his latest trip to North Korea. He has apologized for comments he made in North Korea about a detained American missionary, saying he had been drinking and was under pressure as he organized an exhibition game there. He also sang "Happy Birthday" to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the start of the friendly game

What Americans think of Joe Biden

Progress Notes for Patient 540463: OBAMA, Barack, H.

01/17/14: Patient has a long-sufferingly air about him...almost a whiff of martyrdom. "It's not that I resent allowing Michelle a moment to shine on her 50th birthday," he said during our Friday session."But dear Lord, Doctor, does she have to pose for the media hacks with her AARP card?  I would have much preferred a photograph of the two of us with her looking at me with the boundless respect and affection she feels for me."
"Yes, Majesty" I said soothingly. and gave him a quick shot of Ativan before he got stuck on transmit. ---Dictated by S.H. Rink, M.D.

Dim Crims: Burglar foils his own crime

A man managed to pry the lock off the front door of The Shambles bar in Wicker Park, Chicago. But he failed to open the door ... because he was pulling it, despite the fact that there is a sticker on the door clearly marked "PUSH," DNAinfo reports. He gave up; the incident, which was caught on surveillance video, is under review.  [Source]        [BJS]

Dim Crims: Dumb as a stick

In Massachusetts, a delivery driver was delivering a food order when three men, one with a knife, approached him. They took the food and his keys, but when they got into his car ... "not one of them knew how to drive a stick-shift car," an aide to the police commissioner tells the Springfield Republican. They argued, then ran off; the incident is still under investigation. [Source]   BJS

Dim Crims: You want highs with that?

A McDonald’s employee who recently served time in prison on a narcotics charge has been arrested for allegedly selling heroin from a branch of the fast food restaurant, police report.  Theodore Levon Upshaw, 28, was busted  after selling “20 stamp bags of heroin” to a confidential police informant, according to a criminal complaint.  While this transaction took place in the eatery’s parking lot--after Upshaw took a break from work--the informant had “previously made multiple purchases of heroin,” from Upshaw inside the McDonald’s in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. [Source]

Cartoon: A.F. Branco

[From: Legal Insurrection]

O has 'no sense of what he wants to do in the world,' says military expert

President Obama is “chronically incapable” of military strategy and falls far short of his predecessor George W. Bush, according to one of Britain’s most senior military advisors.
Sir Hew Strachan, an advisor to the Chief of the Defense Staff, told The Daily Beast that the United States and Britain were guilty of total strategic failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Obama’s attempts to intervene on behalf of the Syrian rebels “has left them in a far worse position than they were before.”
The extraordinary critique by a leading advisor to the United States’ closest military ally comes days after Obama was undermined by the former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who questioned the President’s foreign policy decisions and claimed he was deeply suspicious of the military.
Strachan, a current member of the Chief of the Defense Staff’s Strategic Advisory Panel, cited the “crazy” handling of the Syrian crisis as the most egregious example of a fundamental collapse in military planning that began in the aftermath of 9/11. “If anything it’s gone backwards instead of forwards, Obama seems to be almost chronically incapable of doing this. Bush may have had totally fanciful political objectives in terms of trying to fight a global War on Terror... but at least he had a clear sense of what he wanted to do in the world.
The dithering over intervention against President Bashar al-Assad has empowered the Syrian ruler, undermined America’s military reputation and destabilized the Middle East, said Strachan.  “What he’s done in talking about Red Lines in relation to Syria has actually devalued the deterrent effect of American military capability and it seems to me that creates an unstable situation, because if he were act it would surprise everybody,” Strachan said. [Source link]

Cartoon: Gary McCoy

[Cagle Cartoons]

Of course: Obamas' luxury vacation was 'for the People'

In what can only be described as a remarkable sacrifice for the public good, the Obamas’ extended vacation in Hawaii was staged entirely to showcase for the public what happens when you allow too much income inequality, writes Keith Koffler --tongue-firmly-in-cheek -- at White House Dossier.
"According to White House advisors close to the president – not close, as in standing next to him all the time, but who have a close relationship with him, at least professionally – the Obamas planned and executed their exorbitant excursion to Hawaii for no other reason than to show Americas how disgustingly well the disgustingly rich live and to drum up support for Obama’s agenda to close the income gap.
“The president and Mrs. Obama this year wanted to just take a three-day weekend at a Ramada Inn in Philadelphia,” said one White House source. “But they felt that, for the good of the country, they must head to Honolulu so people could understand what’s really going on with income inequality."

Progress Notes for Patient 540463, OBAMA, Barack, H.

1/15/14: I will have to consider a renewed course of a mild sedative for patient, who is again showing symptoms of paranoia. When I entered the family room of his private apartment, my heart dropped. There he was again face down on the hideous brown sofa, beating it with clenched fists. He looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes. "Bastards!" he said.
"Which bastards, Majesty?" I asked gently.
"Senators of the Intelligence Commitee--dumb as a sack of  bricks-- now reckon the Benghazi attack was preventable. I had an important fund-raiser to  attend next day and I needed my sleep...preventable? My ass."
"Why don't you roll up a sleeve, Excellency, and I'll give you something to calm you down."
"Excellency?  That's 'Majesty' to you, Rink, and don't you forget it."
"I'm so sorry, Majesty," I said soothingly and plunged a shot of Ativan into his arm."Yikes! he cried and almost immediately calmed down. I quickly tippy-toed out of the apartment. ---Dictated by S.H. Rink, M.D.

Dim Crims: Naked angel arrested

A naked woman wearing a pair of angel wings was arrested early yesterday after police spotted her walking on an Arkansas street.  Christine Lawrence, 47, was busted for indecent exposure after a pair of Mountain Home Police Department officers responded to a 3:20 AM call about “a female walking down the middle of the road with nothing on besides angel wings,” according to a police report.
The police report does not indicate why Lawrence was promenading in her birthday suit, though yesterday happened to be her birthday. More details here

Progress Notes for Patient 540463: OBAMA, Barack, H.

1/14/14: Patient is angry today and his ire is mostly directed at Israel, which he says has been rude about John Kerry's efforts to negotiate peace.  "What seems to be the trouble, Your Majesty?" I asked. [as noted before, I often address patient as a monarch, when he's insecure. It soothes him.]
"The zionists are frustrated that have to negotiate with us, before they can get face-to-face with other parties," declared Patient, "and they accuse Kerry's efforts of being aimed at securing a Nobel Peace prize,  rather than insuring Israel's future security."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Majesty," I replied. "Perhaps you should give Bibi Netanyahu a call and exercise some of your famous diplomatic charm. Patient  almost glowed with pleasure at my flattery. Mission accomplished---Dictated by S.H. Rink, M.D.at my