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OPINION: Note to the Secret Service: This column in no way calls for any harm to come to the 43rd POTUS. It's just that there is a monetary gain that will accrue to some of us upon his demise and so, well, we're interested in his health, that's all. A long time ago on a planet very similar to ours, two friends had a practice of giving each other bad Christmas presents. It was a contest of sorts in which the winner was whoever could find the most outrageously awful gift ...

OPINION: Let's say you are a moron and a member of the treason party. Oh I'm sorry, let me make that easier to understand: Let's say you are a republican. And let's say you want to indoctrinate your progeny in private. Oops, sorry again, I mean: Let's say you want to home school your kids. Are you ready for the challenge?

OPINION: For anyone with an I.Q. above seventy, the Drudge Report is a wasteland of filth, bile, lies, and dreck. So when it was reported that a former writer for that site published an expletive-riddled story equating conservatism with cancer, a great many people took note.

OPINION: Sixty million people voted for Mitt Romney in the 2012 race for President of the United States and since that candidate was one of the least-qualified in modern history it should be obvious that the ranks of conservative voters are huge. And yes, "rank" would be the operative word.

OPINION: The seven core positions of conservatives pose a very real threat to democracy in the United States. You have undoubtedly noticed some of their more onerous activities, but it might be instructive to examine their seven subversive doctrines all at once. Hold your nose and let's start wading through the muck of the Seven Pillars of Perfidy.

BOOK REVIEW: How much humor do you expect from an astrophysicist? How much passion? What should be the ratio of fact to fancy in the essays of a scientist? With Neil deGrasse Tyson, you get an enjoyable mixture of levity and reality on a subject that might hold the key to your future.

BOOK REVIEW: Every presidential election is deemed crucial to America but with the choice of Obama versus the obviously unqualified Mitt Romney, it was more than crucial; it was imperative. In the detailed yet fast-paced 'The Center Holds,' author Jonathan Alter takes you inside the campaigns and reveals some of the evil forces backing the GOP.

BOOK REVIEW: The deterioration of our country during the past three-and-a-half decades makes for a broad canvas but author George Packer provides insightful detail and hits some emotional high points. There was an incredible battle in the United States from around 1978 until right now, a conflagration that did not emphasize armed conflict but which decimated large chunks of the basic goodness of our nation.

COMMENTARY: Do not get too excited about the good news for marriage rights because the troglodyte half of the Supreme Court has gutted a...

BOOK REVIEW: Want to know how and why Washington is such a mess? Two respected analysts of governmental policy, one from the progressive Brookings Institution and the other from the troglodyte American Enterprise Institute, demonstrate that the GOP is at fault.