I hope everyone manages to have the best, most love-filled, happy Christmas possible. Everyone but me and the dog are sick, depressed are both in my household, but I’m making it work. It will be a “Christmas Story”-style Chinese food Christmas, though, the way it’s shaking out.

1. Now THIS is an unethical home Christmas decoration…

…except that according to the story, the neighbors don’t mind. At great expense, Jason Pieper erected this 900 pound thing after purchasing it at an auction for over $2,000. He then decorated surrounding trees with blue and white lights to follow the theme: remember those blue light specials? To me, this would seem to be a bit out of whack with the spirit of the holiday, but perhaps no more than the giant Christmas Imperial Walker, the 20 foot inflatable penguin and some of the monstrosities in my neighborhood.

2. Workplace ethics. Jeffrey Toobin should feel too bad. An L.A. County Sheriff’s deputy had his radio mic open while he was in flagrante delicto. His sex partner was moaning over his panting as the dispatcher from the Sheriff’s station tried to get her deputy’s attention without success. “The deputy was immediately relieved of duty,” the Sheriff’s office informed the media.

Americans are becoming such prudes.

3. What George Will calls “condign justice”: California governor Gavin Newsom wanted to get credit for appointing longtime state pol Alex Padilla as the state’s first Hispanic U.S. Senator, but instead was criticized by other Democrats, like San Franciso mayor London Breed, for not appointing a black woman to replace Kamala Harris, a sort-of black woman, after she left the office to become the first female Vice-President of color. None of the discussions seemed to involve actual qualifications, just group memberships. That is to be expected, since demonstrated ability had nothing to do with Hariss’s selection by Biden, so there was no perceived reason to worry such trivia in choosing Harri’s successor in her Senate seat.

4. I know you’ll all be cheered to know that Kevin Spacey once again has left us an inspirational Christmas eve message on his YouTube channel. He says,

“If you’re standing in a place that you can no longer remain standing, if you’re suffering, if you need need help, if you feel guilt or shame, if you’re struggling with your identity, if your back’s up against the wall, or if you feel that there is no path for you, whatever your situation, I promise you there is a path. At this time during this holiday and beyond, even if you don’t feel it, there are people out there who understand and who can help, because you are not alone.”

Among those who have no need for the cancelled actor’s sympathy are Joe Biden , Governor Cuomo, and Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, none of whom suffered any negative consequences after they were accused by named female victims of sexual assault and harassment, though Spacey’s career was destroyed without any of the accusations against him being proven any more than those against the three elected Democrats.

5. Update: the President is still threatening to veto the monster bill, having warmed up by vetoing the defense bill. . He should. Presidents should demand clean bills on such matters as the pandemic funds, and state as an unequivocal governing principle that it won’t matter what other provisions and dollars are involved, if it isn’t just addressing the matter at hand, then the bill will be blocked. [Correction notice: The earlier version of this item incorrectly stated that the President had vetoed the pandemic relief bill. As of this writing, he hasn’t. He hasn’t signed it, either. A pocket veto is a possibility.]

6. Good: The President pardoning his associates and others who were only targeted by law enforcement because of their connections to him or his campaign. In fact, it would be ethical for the President to pardon Michael Cohen, sleaze that he is, even though Cohen turned on his long-time client in a desperate effort to trade confidential client secrets for leniency.

7. Today’s Wuhan virus hypocrite: North Carolina county executive Dena Diorio, who, like Governors Gavin Newsom, Andrew Cuomo, Gretchen Whitmer, and J.B. Pritzker; Mayors Lori Lightfoot, London Breed, Bill de Blasio and Murial Bowser (D.C.), Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the recently disgraced Dr. Birx, showed her contempt for the “little people” be telling county residents they should stay home for Christmas and , almost immediately afterwards admitting that she would be traveling by car to Durham (142 miles) to spend Christmas with her family. 

She wins special idiot points, however, by actually trying to explain why her decision was justifiable, saying,

“I know who the family is, I know where they spend their time, so I feel comfortable making that trip. It’s two people in a household, it’s not a group. It’s a very small number of people and I feel very confident about their safety. If I did not feel comfortable, I would not go. I’m making a personal decision based on information that I have, and so that’s the decision that I’ve made, and I think everybody needs to do the same.”

Except that she didn’t advise her community to decide on their own whether it was safe to travel for the holidays based on how “comfortable” they felt….