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'A Christmas Story' It wouldn't be Christmas without 'A Christmas Story,' the 1983 movie that became an instant holiday classic thanks to its winning cast and quotable scenes. The film is as time-honored a tradition as getting your tongue stuck to a pole in freezing weather. Here's a then-and-now look at the gang from fictional Hohman, Indiana, who brought the 'original, traditional, one-hundred-percent, red-blooded, two-fisted, all-American Christmas' tale to life ...

NBC News has a problem. The question is whether it is a legal one or a journalistic one. -snip- The legal problem here is nearly self-confessed. D.C. code plainly prohibits magazines with capacities exceeding 10 rounds of ammunition. Of this regulation, “Meet the Press” cannot possibly claim ignorance or oversight.

The father of New York gun control was Democratic city pol “Big Tim “Sullivan — a state senator and Tammany Hall crook, a criminal overseer of the gangs of New York. In 1911 — in the wake of a notorious Gramercy Park blueblood murder-suicide — Sullivan sponsored the Sullivan Act, which mandated police-issued licenses for handguns and made it a felony to carry an unlicensed concealed weapon. This was the heyday of the pre-Prohibition gangs, roving bands of violent toughs who terrorized ethnic neighborhoods and often fought pitched battles with police. In 1903, the Battle of Rivington Street pitted a...

The day of Adam Lanza's murderous assault on Sandy Hook Elementary School, Mike Rogers said stricter gun control would not be an appropriate response. "The more realistic discussion," said the Republican congressman from Michigan, "is how do we target people with mental illness who use firearms?" Last week, another Republican congressman, Howard Coble of North Carolina, agreed that "it's more of a mental health problem than a gun problem right now." And last Friday, when the National Rifle Association broke its silence on the Sandy Hook massacre, the group's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, called for "an active national database...

Circle March 25, 2013 on your calendar. That's the last day you can submit your claim form from this official U.S. government website to collect fifty thousand tax-free American dollars, courtesy of the Obama administration in its current multi-billion giveaway scheme. No, you don't need a potted plant and you don't even to be black or even Hispanic; as long as you are a woman (or related to one) and you fill out the forms correctly, you can collect the money because nobody will verify your information. Welcome to the Love settlement for women farmers, the close relative of the...

In the wake of the Newtown school massacre, we've noted a strong uptick in our site traffic by people wanting to find out how different the U.S. might be if the nation adopted Canada's much more restrictive firearms laws. This post gathers all our analysis on that topic from 2011 in one place. Who Kills Who We examine the FBI's data on the race of victims and their killers. We find that the vast majority of offenders prefer to kill their own kind (that evidence is borne out elsewhere, where criminals also seem to prefer killing other criminals!) U.S. vs...

The 31st annual “Christmas in Washington” concert shown on the TNT cable network December 21 suffered a dramatic 25% loss in viewers from the previous year, according to Nielsen Media Research. The 2011 cablecast of “Christmas in Washington” drew 1.5 million viewers. The 2012 showing had only 1.136 million viewers. The concert, traditionally attended by the President and his family, drew international attention over the scheduled appearance by Gangnam Style rapper PSY (given name Park Jae-sang) when it was revealed the South Korean entertainer had made highly inflammatory anti-American performances the previous decade. In an insult to America’s troops and...

AK-47 found in paroled felon's car after high speed chase Authorities found a loaded AK-47 rifle in the trunk of a car driven by a paroled felon after a high speed pursuit that concluded with a crash and short foot chase. West Covina police attempted to stop a gray Toyota Camry for traffic violations at the Sunset Avenue exit off the 10 Freeway shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday. The driver led police on a chase that reached speeds in excess of 90 mph on city streets, West Covina police spokesman Rudy Lopez said. The suspect vehicle entered the westbound 10...

Lots of folks scoffed in town when reports surfaced that Democrats had petitioned the President of the United States to insert himself into the unseemly debate over Right to Work. Some asked out loud, doesn't POTUS have more important things to do than lobby Gov. Rick Snyder on that? But lobby the president did. During an exclusive one-hour sit down on WKAR-Public TV, the governor confirms that he and President Barack Obama shared a few minutes in private and the president looked the governor in the eye and said, "He wasn't pleased with Right to Work," Mr. Snyder reveals for...

The Iranian Christian pastor who was acquitted just two months ago on charges he converted from Islam to Christianity and freed from prison has reportedly been re-arrested in Iran. Sources close to Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, including the British group Christian Solidarity Worldwide and the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), say the Iranian Christian pastor was reportedly taken back into custody on Christmas Day. … According to the sources, Nadarkhani was re-arrested by Iranian authorities to serve the remainder of a three-year sentence he had received for helping Muslims convert from Islam to Christianity. …

Fierce market competition is pitting the multitudes of 3D printer companies against one another, forcing lower prices on higher-quality machines. Like a new iPhone, Solidoodle is releasing the third iteration of its printer with some updated parts, bigger size, and improved performance. A pre-sale offers the latest printer for $799, but it will not be shipped for eight to 10 weeks, so don't count on it arriving in time for Christmas. But perhaps, for the price, it may be worth the wait. The resolution of obtainable printings is dependent on layer thickness. Solidoodle says the new system has a potential...

The Social Security program ran a $47.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2012 as the program brought in $725.429 billion in cash and paid $773.247 for benefits and overhead expenses, according to official data published by Social Security Administration. The Social Security Administration also released new data revealing that the number of workers collecting disability benefits hit a record 8,827,795 in December—up from 8,805,353 in November. The overall number of Social Security program beneficiaries—including retired workers, dependent family members and survivors and disabled workers and their dependent family members—also hit a record in December, climbing from 56,658,978 in November to 56,758,185...

Another good job by Remy and the folks at Reason TV.Last year, they produced this parody about Grandma’s Christmas visit to Gitmo.Now we see what happens when Santa tries to slip past the Transportation Security Administration.And if you’ve ever been curious about what a “hooha” is, here are two additional TSA Christmas videos.P.S. If you’re in the mood for some more holiday humor, we have a couple of videos from Larry the Cable Guy, one featuring slightly modified Christmas carols and the other telling the politically correct version of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”Remy: I Saw Daddy Pat Down Santa...

NBC News asked D.C. police for a high-capacity ammunition clip to use as a prop on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” show, a request District authorities said Wednesday they denied. But host David Gregory appears to have obtained one anyway — and then displayed it on national television. Now D.C. police say they’re investigating whether the District’s gun laws were violated in the incident. -snip- It’s not clear where the prop used during the show was obtained, or who obtained it. -snip- Any request to use a magazine would have been turned down as a matter of course, the official saids,...

MOSCOW - Russia’s upper house of parliament approved a bill on Wednesday that would prohibit Americans from adopting Russian children and impose other measures in retaliation for a U.S. law designed to punish Russians accused of human rights violations. The bill, which President Vladimir Putin has hinted he will sign, would also outlaw some U.S.-funded non-governmental organisations and impose visa bans and asset freezes on Americans accused of violating the rights of Russians abroad.

Amid Hispanic calls for immigration leniency, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is scrapping a program that allowed specially trained state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law. On Dec. 21, the Friday before Christmas, ICE announced that it has decided “not to renew any of its agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies that operate task forces under the 287(g) program.” ICE said it has concluded that “other enforcement programs, including Secure Communities, are a more efficient use of resources for focusing on priority cases.” …

, the brain trust in Chicago was also obsessed with superstitions, particularly after the president’s disastrous performance in Denver at the first debate. As Thrush and Martin report, the unlikely ringleader of the “superstitious obsessive-compulsive disorder” was the uber-rational David Plouffe. Here are some fun tidbits they dug up about the guidelines the Obama camp followed before the second debate: No Thai food, because that’s what the team ate before the Denver debate. No one can wear the same clothes they wore before Denver. No one can follow the same exercise routine. (“If you had gone for a jog thirteen...

'Gerry Anderson, creator of the Thunderbirds and Joe 90 puppet superhero TV shows, has died at the age of 83, his son has announced. Anderson had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease since early 2010, and his condition had worsened in the past six months, Jamie Anderson said. Gerry Anderson also created Stingray and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Thunderbirds was filmed on Slough Trading Estate in Berkshire and was first broadcast in 1965. Jamie Anderson announced the news on his website, saying his father had died peacefully in his sleep at noon on Wednesday. His other creations included UFO, Space:...

Sgt. David M. Gerardi, a weapons sergeant with the Army National Guard's 19th Special Forces Group, received the nation's third highest medal for his actions while deployed in 2011 as an active-duty Marine with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), II Marine Expeditionary Force. (Marine photo by Marine Cpl. Jacob D. Osborne) PITTSBURGH (Army News Service, Dec. 18, 2012) — It’s not every day a National Guard sergeant receives a Silver Star for actions performed as a Marine. But that’s exactly what happened in Pittsburgh, Dec. 10.Sgt. David M. Gerardi, a weapons sergeant with the Army National Guard’s 19th...

Administration puts an expensive end to a disgraceful episodeGeneral Motors will no longer be “Government Motors.” The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced its intention to liquidate federal holdings in the automobile company over the next 15 months. The final tally will show this policy has been a disaster for taxpayers. Under the best case scenario, the public will wind up shelling out more than $13 billion by the close of this unfortunate episode. Though President Obama has portrayed the GM bailout as saving Detroit, it was really a reward for the auto unions. It was a celebration of bad management...