Maggie's Farm

Car of the Future: The Pelosi GTxi

Fun stuff from Paglia, including ripping Dick Cavett

Searching the world for clues to asthma

Why do we believe in Santa? Dumb question, if you ask me.

Axelrod now says he misspoke. I think he spoke an inconvenient truth.

Do you believe in "The March of History"? I do not.

Recession: As the money goes away, so do the toxic wives:

'You loser!" screamed Katie, aiming a vase at her husband. "You've destroyed my life,'' she continued, hurling it. "Just look at my hair, look at my nails! You loser, you jerk, you nobody."

Recession: Women, minorities, and BS artists hardest hit

Why New England is in the dumper: Least economic freedom

Why do the mentally ill die younger?

Life without auto unions in Brazil. Sounds good to me. With union jobs, there's little chance for advancement beyond a union job no matter how good or ambitious you are.

If you think the Big 3 were bad before...

Teaching analytical thinking: "They see the problem, but they don't see into the problem...."

From Surber:

They told me that if I voted for John McCain, our troops would remain in Iraq, the tax cuts for the rich would stand, and we would get a third term of Bush at the Pentagon. I did. And they were right.

From the WSJ:

“What we’ve done in higher education,” said an administrator, “is let our dreams and aspirations dictate our cost structure.” For colleges, the dream is over...

Welcome to reality.

What is 6 months of your life worth? Do you want the gummint to decide?

Schools eliminating Fs. Failure problem solved!

We all saw this coming: reporters want government jobs

Warming debunkers to hold conference in DC in March. Related: News articles about global warming fears. Is this the real hockey stick graph? (graph from the NYT article)

Chinese house-hunting tours to the USA

Here endeth the new Gilded Age. This will please the envy-ridden.

Removing God from American history

Steyn: UK demographic deathwatch story of the day

Royal Navy not looking too royal

70% of black kids grow up without two parents. It's the socio-cultural catastrophe we aren't supposed to talk about.

Insty:

Virginia Postrel comments:

If anyone should fear a Depression, it should be journalists, who are already the equivalent of 1980s steelworkers. But instead, they seem positively giddy with anticipation at the prospect of a return to ’30s-style hardship–without, of course, the real hardship of the 1930s. . . . Oh the thrill of imagining a Great Depression. It’s an opportunity for Great Design and Really Cool Government.

Earth cooling because of global warming

Cheer up! And you will cheer up everybody around you.

More slaves in the world today...

Remarkable deer and bunny photos from Tanja Askani. More: Wolf and dog

Russia tightens Europe's energy noose

A prescription 9mm handgun. Would Medicare cover it?

Obama plans huge spending spree. Sounds like history's biggest pork festival. And what do school buildings have to do with good education? Or school internet, for that matter? (Unless the brains full of mush are required to read Maggie's daily...)

We've done this too. Paying an erroneous ticket simply to avoid the hassle.

Dems suddenly change their minds about waterboarding. It's really not that bad: they do it to me every time I go to the dentist. I wish they would let me control the suction.

Boston's border control chief hires illegals.

What's your religion? Atheists worship solstices. Who cares?

Urban safety and the great Jane Jacobs. Althouse

Truthers to the left of me, truthers to the right of me. Michelle

Cost-benefit analysis on wind power. Candles are cheaper.

Bill Ayers, Victim

And, related to the above, on the the Guardian's position on terror, via Thompson:

 Under no circumstances should we, rational Westerners, seek to apply the same critical standards to the Mumbai murderers and their supporters as we do - haltingly and insufficiently - to our own actions and those of our leaders. What we have to do is understand and empathize with their feelings and, as we can’t expect them to dilute their rage with reason or to seek methods to vindicate their claims that don’t involve hand grenades or AK 47s, we must make ourselves constantly ready to indulge their homicidal tantrums. Above all, we must never, ever treat them as our equals.

Krauthammer on Iraq. A quote:

For the United States, it represents the single most important geopolitical advance in the region since Henry Kissinger turned Egypt from a Soviet client into an American ally. If we don't blow it with too hasty a withdrawal from Iraq, we will have turned a chronically destabilizing enemy state at the epicenter of the Arab Middle East into an ally.

Yes. That's the point.

Best ad of the year: The Doghouse

Mumbai's the Word. Dalrymple. One quote:

... making the justified assumption that the terrorists were not actually deficient in raw intelligence, it was not the target that was important to the young killers, it was the act of killing itself. And their manipulators probably knew that there are always fools enough, at least among intellectuals in the west, to assume that if you go to extreme lengths, you must have some 'cause' - which is to say some good cause - that impels you to go to them.

Will the academic bubble be the next to burst? The Next Bubble by Donald Downs. One quote:

A prescient friend of mine recently related a thought he had while teaching a few years ago at a "third tier private school" that had high tuition. At "job fairs" at the school, most of the positions being offered involved jobs as low-level managers at Target, McDonalds, and similar businesses. My friend surmised that students had to wonder why they or their families had depleted their bank accounts to pay for an educations that led to positions that simply did not require the pedagogical preparation the school offered. To be sure, a liberal education is a precious thing in its own right. But its preciousness has a way of declining when its costs put middle class citizens in a vise---especially when those citizens are already living in the vise of the new economy.

Nativity scenes are full of hate?

The ten most irritating phrases

And more snow in England. It's "climate change"

Moslem prayer rooms in every Roman Catholic school?

GM's magical thinking

Why bailouts don't work: Reason. Related: Public spending crowds out private spending

Stock up on canned goods. Coyote makes the case that the media uses the same fears to sell economic trouble as they do to sell snowstorms

Dino: Much of the financial world stopped functioning 80 days ago

The case against physician-assisted suicide

Dick Fuld: Villain or victim?

Climate lawyers? Sheesh.

I seethe, therefore I am. Ace

"No you don't have a higher duty - you're a reporter." Driscoll

Fake Chinese Nintendo consoles burst into flame

In 1962, President Kennedy said:

The problems are more difficult than I had imagined them to be. The responsibilities placed on the United States are greater than I imagined them to be, and there are greater limitations upon our ability to bring about a favorable result than I had imagined them to be. And I think that is probably true of anyone who becomes President, because there is such a difference between those who advise or speak or legislate, and between the man who must select from the various alternatives proposed and say that this shall be the policy of the United States. It is much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgments. . .

The Baron mocks VA Tech's "welcoming environment". Related: Moslem convert to Christianity warns of multiculturalism

How to qualify as a Vermont Woodchuck.

Fellowship and reading scripture, with wealth as an example. AVI

Russia will drill the Gulf oil if we won't

Freedom and the Left: Sowell

Ant Supercolony dominates Europe. No, I don't mean the EU

Oil windfall tax under the bus. Reality Rules!

How Bob Rubin made his last $115 million. Nice work, if you can get it.

For the tenth time, why is Chapter 11 "out of the question"? Poll says 61% oppose big three bailout. Or "little three..."

Golf biz hard-hit by economy

Has Cape Wind's time arrived? I think this wind thing is a dumb fad. It kills birds, and it requires govt subsidies from my pocket.

How much did Sarah help Saxby?

Our friend and occasional guest blogger Nathan emails:

Write a letter to NYTIMES, the lede should be:

Japan and GM ExecutivesGM executives should follow Japan's custom: commit hari-kari for their failures and as a condition for government bail-out.  Forget selling corporate jets or $1/ year compensation for the CEO; a good gutting is a more convincing first-step towards sincerity.

Hell is a perfect memory. Frontal Cortex

17,000 tons of CO2 to save the planet. Satire, meet Reality.

Bombay aftermath: Winds of Change

How democracies perish, Brit version. Roger

I hate to waste ink on quoting Insty, since most of y'all probably read him anyway, but

IS VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA’S FISCAL FREEFALL the beginning of a trend? More problems with those underfunded/overgenerous public employee pensions:

But the largest share of the blame in Vallejo has centered on public-safety salaries and benefits, which make up about 75 percent of the city’s general fund budget. Base pay for firefighters is more than $80,000 per year and employees can retire at age 50 with a pension equal to 90 percent of their salary, the result of a retroactive pension increase several years ago. . . . The California Professional Firefighters union proclaims, “If allowed to stand, Vallejo’s attack on its own employees would send shock waves throughout the labor movement.”

Retire at 50 with 90% salary? Good grief. I'd take that, and get another job - but I'd never get a deal like that in the private sector.

Slow long-term growth. I would not be surprised.

EPA wants to tax livestock. I guess it's a farting and breathing tax, same as for humans.

And here's another tax idea for the US: A VAT

Too late to sell, and too soon to invest? A quote from The Street.com:

Though share prices seemingly discount anything short of a Great Recession, visibility remains ever more clouded and a wide range of S&P 500 profit outcomes from 2009 to 2011 seems, to this observer, to be an important contributor to an unprecedented degree of volatility not seen in our professional careers. And that volatility is being exaggerated by a trigger-happy and rapidly consolidating hedge fund community that seems to accentuate both upside and downside market movements.

This weekend:

Out on biz in the early AM. Leaving these good droppings:

America's other auto industry. WSJ. Related: but the homegrown auto assemblers are worse off than you think. Zombies indeed. Too old.

Obama's netroots problem. Is that a real problem? Nobody really cares about what people say on websites - except their readers. And most folks neither know nor care much about politics anyway. Related: The Obama Jolt: Is he a closet centrist? I do not think so.

MSNBC anchor wonders why election didn't end terrorism

Squeegee guys return to NYC. That is bad news. I have not seen any of them yet. Are they all ex- Bear-Stearns guys?

Liz Smith: Palinophobe. I do not think she realizes how dumb she sounds.

Bad day for equities? We already told you it wants to get to Dow 7500 - at the least. See The China Debacle. It's a small world...

Speaking of Bad Days, California is having one. They won't stop spending and they cannot raise taxes. Just like the Feds, but they cannot print $ either.

I am a white male. Why not just shoot me? Get it over with.

The Tuna Tragedy of the Commons

David Warren: My Father. It made me wonder what it's like to grow up without a Dad, or with a dysfunctional Dad.

Strange meal. What wine(s) should you have served for Thanksgiving? Prof B

QandO:

... in terms of real foreign policy experience, Clinton's resume is as slim as Obama's.

Ace:

... after years of calling more or less explicitly for a cleansing defeat in Iraq, liberals are beginning to make the case that we shouldn't lose a war we've already won just to appease the netroots-- in other words, Bush was right.

But they didn't say that before. Only now that Obama has been elected to they admit it.

Steyn: Mumbai is just another front in the war

Perverse incentives and historical preservation

Favish is creeped out by a kids' book on Obama.

What kind of American are you? You're not a "first American," cuz the Second Americans wiped them out. Are you a Third? Or a Fourth?

Whack-a-mole? The hockey stick is baaaack!

More abandoned mental hospitals

Haha. Volokh Conspiracy has new Terms of Use

The EPA

...leaves the US with no new drilling, no new nuclear plants, no new hydro plants and no new coal plants. In short, it leaves us with no real substantial new energy sources except perhaps plants that burn natural gas....

From Telegraph via Drudge:

Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment.

Gateway comments on the above. Related, UN Climate Chief says stop eating meat. My reply to him: No, thank you.

I am re-linking No Pasaran's piece on Europe's apparent lack of interest in individual freedom. I think America is unique in this regard.

Images: 1. We're glad Newsweek will fix the world, with Obama's help. Whew!  2. A photo of real America, from Ace.

It's snowing hard this morning in NYC. Lovely, but I am concerned - deeply concerned - about the glacial advances and their effect on real estate values. Perhaps Dr. Merc is wise to live on his boat in Florida.

Moslems say they will quit attacks if Americans give up beer. Good grief. Perhaps they do not really love "peace."  Related, from Am Digest, Repulsive Islam.

Related: I guess it is all about the beer, because electing Barack Hussein Obama just didn't calm them down.

And some jolly Islamophobia from Steyn - one quote:

Signora Fallaci then moves on to the livelier examples of contemporary Islam -- for example, Ayatollah Khomeini's "Blue Book" and its helpful advice on romantic matters: "If a man marries a minor who has reached the age of nine and if during the defloration he immediately breaks the hymen, he cannot enjoy her any longer." I'll say. I know it always ruins my evening. Also: "A man who has had sexual relations with an animal, such as a sheep, may not eat its meat. He would commit sin." Indeed. A quiet cigarette afterwards as you listen to your favourite Johnny Mathis LP and then a promise to call her next week and swing by the pasture is by far the best way. It may also be a sin to roast your nine-year-old wife, but the Ayatollah's not clear on that.

That Steyn is so multicultually insensitive, isn't he? How does the sheep community feel about this casual dating?

Have Europeans ever believed in freedom? I very much doubt it. (And voting isn't freedom, is it?)

Black Friday and Love. Anchoress

"A murderer in Canada has more rights than somebody accused by the Canadian Human Rights Commission." Ezra Levant

Bush through the Obama prism. VDH

Via Boudreaux:

In modern America, the market's bounty is assumed always to be there, as if it emerges naturally from the soil, available for us to "redistribute" as we wish.

About that famous old "Message to Garcia"

In Phil Gramm's defense. Dust My Broom

It's the culture, stupid. Culture, race, and the aboriginal industry

The Krugman recipe for Depression. Amity Schlaes

Conservatism needs to get sexy again. And how.

They call this "security"? (Maybe they think "full auto" means a car full of Somali immigrants?)

The British security guards escaped by jumping into the water, said a news release issued by their company, Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions.

Photo of Coney Island, 1910, via Dr. X who always has interesting photos. Note that sign "Special Ten cents." Does your keyboard have a "cents" symbol? (Dr. Merc probably knows how to do it.)

The new political economy. Krauthammer

Why they hate Mumbai

I heard that Lord&Taylor was empty, but somebody got crushed to death by crowds at WalMart. Viking went to WalMart, and they were sold out of TVs. I have never been to WalMart, and I don't go Christmas shopping. Re shopping, Greg Mankiw wants you to buy this book.

Kingsley Amis on everyday drinking.

It's all about the Credit Default Swaps (h/t, reader)

Where to set up a weather station. Nothing like asphalt to keep those temps interesting. But the entire subject is on the back burner now. Or, should I say, in the back of the fridge?

Vintage marijuana

Targeting our Yankee trains? We've already had enough from those people. Arm the passengers and engineers.

Libs: Are they impossible to please? (h/t to I-forget-who)

Media bias infects media self-examination.(Also, h/t to I-forgot)

Foolish me for not knowing what a Dyson is.

Photo: That's the Unsinkable Molly Brown's house in Denver

Man, do I need an extra-large coffee this morning. Here's Thanking the Puritans.

"Average Joe" Biden and his $4 million Nantucket house. I still believe that Liberals and Leftists love money, and that quasi-Libertarian-Conservatives like me just value free opportunities to do whatever we people want to do. Related: Biden still without portfolio. Makes good sense to me.

India terror attack is Obama's first test. Related: India matters. NRO. Related: Jihad Update at Atlas.

Obama on the "urgency" of fixing global warming. What global warming?  I think it's a modern-day apocalyptic myth. We humans love such myths to organize and to "give meaning" to our lives...or don't we? I think I need my own life to give meaning to my life. As far as I know for sure, it's the only life I've got.

Rahm Emanuel:  we should "never let a serious crisis go to waste..."  I am afraid I know what he means. Crises, whether real or trumped-up, are opportunities to expand gummint power. Same for Bush.

Rove praises Obama's economic team.

Jules is thankful for a few things. I am thankful for personal things - that I have a big family, and a decent job, and that I have the chance to live in NYC for a while. It's a darn lively spot this time of year. Inspiring, really, how smart folks are and how hard people work - and how they find ways to have a good time doing it.

The world has become normal again. SNAFU.

Can Marxism ever die? Am Thinker. No ideology has produced more death, misery, injustice, and oppression.

Obama tells disappointed supporters: "I am the Change." Hmmm. WTH? Well, OK for now, but he sounds like a pompous goofball to me. I hope he doesn't believe his own BS.

Pilgrims as Nazis? I thought immigration was a good thing.

Why the dimples on golf balls?

A new edition of Thornton Burgess' animal stories. Classics, for sure.

First-ever online spending decline

Viking beavers arrive in England en route to Scotland. Cool.

Does Europe really believe in International Law? Only when it suits them

The Western $ that flows into Gaza. Chesler. What is it buying?

Kudlow: Revive the animal spirits with lower taxes. Related: Wilkinson on Romer

The myth of Obama's small donors.

The people of Iceland mad at their government

Riehl:

My biggest fear isn't that these bailouts won't work... My bigger fear is that the bailouts will "work" in preventing a total meltdown by ensuring that future generations of Americans will come to know the grinding pain of a system that will give us permanent and almost total government control and responsibility for nearly everything in America.

Just the notion that a government can "fix" an economy is ridiculous. Or "fix" anything else, really. That sort of thinking raises dangerous and insidious expectations.

Cyberspace swallowed up my morning post, and it's too late for me to try to reconstruct the items. Just a few, plus some that Bird Dog forwarded:

This will be fun. The no-nonsense and thus far sole Honorary Maggie's Farmer Vaclav Klaus next head of EU. (The terminally-arrogant NYT makes their feelings about him quite clear.)

Now that we have Dems in power, the AP changes its tune on Iraq. Suddenly, success matters. Intellectual integrity is so pre-pomo.

Boiling Frog Socialism comes to America

A black Republican quoted at Villainous:

I can vouch that being a moderate black Republican isn't easy. My black GOP colleagues and I endure endless ridicule and questioning from other African Americans, including close friends and family members who wonder how we can belong to a political party that is so overwhelmingly white, male, Southern, conservative and seemingly closed to ethnic minorities.

Critical thinking about "critical thinking." A quote from Prof Deneen's essay:

“Critical thinking” is a form of intentional deracination and displacement. Its basic assumption is that students enter college or university with a set of under-explored moral commitments that they have inherited from the broader culture. Most dangerous and of concern are those students who enter college with traditional, particularly religious commitments that represent an obstacle to “critical thinking.” The implicit opposite of “critical thinking” is faith, understood as an unreflective set of commitments to pre- or anti-rational beliefs. An education in critical thinking takes on the appearance of contentless inquiry, but is in fact deeply informed by a considerable set of Enlightenment beliefs, including the effort to inculcate deracinated reason, a conception of the individual as a monadic “self,” antipathy to culture and religion, philosophical skepticism, a deep-seated materialism, and a devotion to a cosmopolitan outlook that permits one to be comfortable everywhere and nowhere in particular. The vast panoply of our “diverse” institutions of higher education are increasingly dedicated to the uniform formation of this particular sort of human being, and in the absence of a good understanding of the implicit content of “critical thinking,” are successful in that endeavor.

Indeed, "critical thinking," "deconstructionism," multiculturalism, and general Pomo Thought need more of their own attitudes applied to themselves. They are flimsy constructions, the plastic hula-hoops of our generation. The name of the game is being cool - and tenure.

Why some people are lucky, and some are not. (h/t, YARGB)

Parents of fat kids charged with abuse in Britain. What's wrong with being fat?

Why to be a well-dressed man

What good is monasticism? Anchoress

China's gruesome organ harvest

Palin's gruesome turkey harvest

Ten politically-incorrect thoughts. VDH

Arianna Huffington: Online entrepreneur

Dear Whole Foods: We're through...

Insty:

THE SHAM OF SEX HARASSMENT TRAINING: “It’s little more than politically correct indoctrination.” I’m shocked, shocked to hear this.

Where's my bailout? (Image via Michelle). Related: The American auto makers need a bankruptcy to survive. Prof B. And how about a bailout for the modern art market?

The future of Cod in the North Sea

A book: The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power   (h/t, Wilkerson). It's basic psychology. Lots of people want a strong parent to protect them and take care of them. Why they think politicians are the ones to do that is beyond me. It's not my great-grandfather's America any more.

The eHarmony and homosexual dating story, at Moonbattery

Great news! The US is going down. Jules

Shrinks doing less and less psychotherapy. That's a shame, in my view. A nice, wise old shrink helped me get my head straight when I was in college. I am forever grateful to him, because I was an immature jerk with a negative attitude.

Our new AG on guns. Ouch is right. As we have noted before, post-election gun sales to honest citizens are through the roof, and prices are up.

Dropping oil prices is like a tax cut. It's also making it tough on some: Look who's over a barrel

A short course in Behavioral Economics. Edge. Very cool.

Is Citibank Citigroup going to zero? I think it's a bear raid, but I don't know how the world economy can function without them.

Hot hot hot. Global warming and sex.

Waxman? Good grief.

Obama cannot quit smoking. Is smoking allowed in the White House?

It's snowing this morning in NYC. So much for global warming.

Imported cars piling up in Long Beach

Ghost resorts with the economic downturn

Obama won the election, but it's a Clinton administration

How low can Fed rates go?

3 financial myths. Tiger

Romney: Let them go bankrupt (video)

There is now no journalism as we knew it: VDH. Related: What's the future of news? h/t, Am Digest

Has the middle class really had income stagnation?

There is no sea level rise. h/t, Junk Science

Lots of good comments on yesterday's economy post. One reader is waiting for the Really Big Barf to get us to Dow 6000. Thus far, the global loss of wealth seems staggering to me. Andy Kessler in the WSJ advises Ignore the markets until Feb.

The disasters pile up and yet the faith in government solutions persists. And of course because of unintended consequences more government is required.

Simon at Classical Values

Aleinikoff’s account may be read as both predictive and normative, an indication that American elites not only believe that our constitutional democracy will be subordinated to global authorities but also desire that this come to pass.

"Global authorities"? This sounds like old-fashioned Imperialism, Soros-style.

World Peace and Bacon Grease

Trained Thought Crime snitches in Canada's schools. 1984 was not written to be a handbook.

Obama's AG pick is a gun-grabber. No surprise there.

The government couldn't even run a whorehouse

The complicated logistics of war in Afghanistan

Govt pensions and the markets. A mess. Taxpayers may need to pay twice.

Cash is king?

Blue Dog Dems gain power.

American Jews don't care about Israel? Powerline

Auto bail-out on the way. A quote:

With George Bush in the White House and somewhat slimmer Democrat majorities on the Hill, the very fatty pound of flesh the unions want is not possible now. This week's Congressional shenanigans are just chumming the waters and to allow the networks to have all Thanksgiving and Christmas to run "woe is me" stories about the wonderful hard working union families facing economic extinction after the holidays.

That will set the stage for what is sure to be the first big battle of Obamunism. And it is a hugely important battle for the future of business in this country. Forget this little distraction about Hillary and the Secretary of State job. If the Obamunists (my name for the hard core leftists who support Obama and on certain days, Obama himself) can get everything they want regarding the auto industry and widespread forced unionization via the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act that would abolish the secret ballot in unionization elections, this country will be plunged into Euro-socialism faster than Hillary and Bill could have dreamed with their ill-fated "Hillary Care" in 1993.

Nanny Bloomberg is losing it. I think he has a hang up about what people do in restaurants and pubs. The guy is a jerk. There must be more pressing issues.

Who are the "most important people in America"? Pols? No way. Docs? Naw. Bond traders? Heck no. The guys who clean the sewers? Fugettaboutit. It's Trial lawyers.

Murdoch to MSM: You lost your monopoly. Same as GM - they lost it when they deserved to lose it.

Soros Update: Soros and Franken. Also, Soros group shaping Obama agenda. Does Soros still own the Dem Party?

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War. h/t NRO

"Pursued by screaming homosexuals,..." Yikes. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Steyn remembers the wonderful Alistair Cooke

A dying Ted Kennedy wants Medicare for all. Watch out for ye olde unintended consequences.

The pirates are having a field day.

Bring back the uptick rule. I am in favor of that. It makes prices more difficult to manipulate.

Made me feel good to vote for a black guy. That is racist.

FIRE is on my list for December donations this year. Insty agrees.

Lying just comes naturally to Bill Clinton. It's a life-style.

Great Depression 2 is on the way. In 2011, which is way before Global Warming will kill us all.

Schwartzenegger:

Let's go and . . . fund programs if they're necessary programs and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility."

Just brilliant! Go broke, California.

Note to our Editor: I am out of pocket Tuesday morning -

The way cool new pledge of no allegiance

How about a Spam sandwich? I had enough fried Spam when I was a kid, but, when a hungry, growing lad, fried Spam and potatoes isn't too bad.

Via SDA:

"Obama Sued Citibank Under CRA to Force it to Make Bad Loans."

Wyatt Earp was a horse thief?

The demise of Playgirl Magazine

A cautious yet sane thumbs-up for Obama from Tiger. And insane verbal priapism from the MSM. If it lasts longer than 24 hrs, call your other girlfriend.

From Surber:

The $100,000,000 fortune of the Clintons is being combed for possible improprieties. I think those are spelled C-A-Y-M-A-N I-S-L-A-N-D-S. Remember all those cute stories about what a great big grown-up Chelsea was working for a hedge fund. Suddenly, the job isn’t such a good idea…

Those pirates got a big boat

Afghanistan update. It's iffy. Jules

The Big Dig moved the traffic jams from point A to point B. Brilliant!

Melanin Revisited. Thompson

Real paper airplanes

You already read the story about the hottest October on record, didn't you?

Love and hate.

One major difference between love and hate appears to be in the fact that large parts of the cerebral cortex – associated with judgement and reasoning – become de-activated during love, whereas only a small area is deactivated in hate.

The Swedenizing of America. Gates

Why it's incorrect to say that the "auto industry" in North America is in trouble. It's the UAW which is in trouble. From Powerline:

The $639 million loophole

Paglia on Palin and the election

The Iraq war is over. The good guys won. But is this how to restore America's moral stature?

The UAW is the force behind the auto bailout. Related: The US Treasury's ATM is open for biz. Here's your bailout form. Send it in TODAY and get your own Free Government Money!

Insty:

A LOOK AT subdivision wildlife. Interesting discussion in the comments. I see deer in my neighborhood pretty regularly, and saw an eagle the other day.

Google Earth does ancient Rome in 3D

The US credit boom since 1980. The whole country is leveraged to the hilt, thanks to cheap money.

Bobby Jindal on What's wrong with the GOP

The health care banana peel. Yes, it's one of those third rails of American politics. We take it for granted, but American medical care is the envy of the world.

The Money Hole. If you haven't seen this yet, here's your chance:

The new Russian submachine gun

Repubs are losing the IQ War. Duh.

NYT: The next Ice Age will be a long one. We've been warning about the coming Ice Age for three years here, but does Al Gore listen to us? Nope.

The election being over, Ayers is cashing in on his new-found fame. Lefties always love money.

The election being over, Ayers says the Obamas were family friends

Free Money (for deadbeats only)

We recently wrote about Our Two-Class Society - Taxpayers and Non-Taxpayers. Is it paranoid to imagine that the Dems would like to get the Non-payers up to 51%? Here's At What Point Does Atlas Shrug?

Here's an idea:

So, we’re thinking of bailing out the Detroit auto industry to the tune of something like $25 billion. Hmm. I notice at at present stock market values, GM--the whole thing--is now worth less than $2 billion, and Ford is worth less than $5 billion.

Why doesn’t the feddle guvmint just buy up GM and Ford lock, stock, and barrell (and union contracts), and save the taxpayers money (at least for a while). I’m sure the feddle guvmint can run the auto industry at least as well as Amtrak and the Post Office.