SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

JUST ROUTINE – From Fox:  "It was a violent Christmas Eve in the District as there were six separate shootings throughout the day. The shootings have resulted in five deaths.  D.C. police say officers shot and killed a robbery suspect in Southeast D.C. It was one of two police-involved shootings on Wednesday.  The first police-involved shooting occurred at around 3 p.m. near Naylor Road and 30th Street."  Hmm.  Nothing from the protesters.  I guess those black lives don't matter.

PERFORMING ARTS NEWS – From the New York Post:  "Claire Danes is lucky no Emmy voters live in Islamabad.  Pakistani officials are furious with Showtime after watching the fourth season of its hit show 'Homeland,' which they say portrays their country as an ugly, ignorant, terror-plagued 'hellhole.'  The diplomats took copious notes of every slight while binge-watching all 12 episodes — including the lack of greenery in the depiction of the nation’s capital, Islamabad."  It's the old lack-of-greenery slur.  Can't we all just get along?  Actually, the Islamabad scenes were photographed in Cape Town, South Africa.  Another garden spot.

FOR THE TECHIES – From Reuters:  "DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran is to expand what it calls 'smart filtering' of the Internet, a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning them completely, as it used to, the government said on Friday.  The Islamic Republic has some of the strictest controls on Internet access in the world, but its blocks on U.S.-based social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks (VPNs).  Under the new scheme, Tehran could lift its blanket ban on those sites and, instead, filter their content."  Why, it's practically Jeffersonian Democracy.  Oh, thank you, kind mullahs, for your smart filtering.  And I promise not to watch the evil, Western, Zionist-controlled sports shows.

December 26, 2014