READER HUGH AKSTON OFFERS SOME EXCELLENT ADVICE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA:

I think its time for President Obama to pull a “Costanza”. Remember the Seinfeld episode when George realized that every decision he ever made had been wrong? Then he decided to do the opposite of what he thought he should do. He ended up with an awesome job with the Yankees, dating a great girl, and moving out of his parents’ house. That’s kinda where I think President Obama is today. He seriously needs to re-think his position on almost every major issue. Perhaps its time to do the opposite of what Rahm thinks…. No new stimulus package, re-new the Bush tax cuts, leave a few more combat soldiers in Iraq, throw a bone to Israel, leave Arizona alone, etc., etc.

It just might work. And we’ve already established that in the future, everyone will be George Costanza eventually. So why not now, Barack?

POLITICO: Barbara Boxer aide charged with possession of pot. “A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports.”

STUART SCHNEIDERMAN: “In the end the American people bought an illusion, an illusion of competence and eptitude. They were wrong, and thus, they are getting screwed.”

DEMOCRATIC MODERATES organizing around Hillary Clinton?

BRYAN PRESTON: Tammy Duckworth Dishes Misinformation to Disabled Vet.

ASTEROID NEAR-MISSES are surprisingly common.

POLLING AND DEMOCRATIC PANIC?

YOU’RE WELCOME! Reader Eric Beeby writes:

Thanks to you I nailed the Burn’s Civil War and the Python complete set – plus jumped on the Jeeves and Wooster Amazon promoted with the Python set. It is going to be a fun Christmas.

Thanks again for those alerts!

ps – And thanks too for convincing me to go Amazon Prime a couple years ago – free 2 day shipping on all the above!

Yeah, the Prime rocks. And my brother gave me the Python set for Christmas a few years back. It was much appreciated!

IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN HITS KITCHEN OF FRENCH RESTAURANT. They told me if I voted for John McCain, the immigration crackdown would . . . oh, hell, no they didn’t. Nobody thought that.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “What is stupider than being stupid while calling other people stupid? You’d think Obama fans would at least learn from Obama’s mistakes.”

WHAT AMERICANS HAVE BEEN CRYING OUT FOR: U.S. names Asian carp czar.

UPDATE: Reader Michael Dobric emails: “Knowing the federal government, I fully expect that Asian Carp will not only fully invade the Great Lakes, but also that an Asian Carp will be voted in as Mayor of Chicago.”

KANSAS WATCHDOG: 126,000 voters with unknown or invalid mailing addresses in Kansas.

THE MILWAUKEE PARADOX: Claiming to Unite Us, Obama—Once Again—Only Divides. I dunno. More and more people are uniting in opposition. . . .

DAVE PRICE: Seriously, are there any benighted semi-despots out there Tom Friedman doesn’t have a bromantic poli-crush on?

SEEKING ALPHA: Visualizing the U.S. Higher Education Bubble.

HEH: “Man, if only we had a Politburo that could assign really effective commissars to trouble spots around the country, everything would be so much better!”

Or maybe just the newly-invented council-manager system of government!

FORGET THE ECONOMY: Let’s Talk About Me!

DAVE FOULK ON FACEBOOK: “Fifty member church in Florida gets international attention when it burns somebody else’s holy book. Five thousand member churches hold free clinics to everyone, food pantries, home fix-ups for free…. and never get a mention even in local news. It’s not so much that bad news travels fast, but good news rarely gets a ride.”

GOODBYE, ALPHA MALE. Hello, geek.

Related: Study: Fat men are better in bed. Hey, Ace has been telling us that for years.

SET ON “STUN:” Scientists examine possibility of a phonon laser, or ‘phaser.’

ONE-DAY-ONLY SALE: The complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus for $34.99.

PJTV: Brandi Milloy On The Border: Beyond Illegal: Smugglers, Cartels & Islamic Infiltrators Crossing Our Southern Border. (Bumped).

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, colleges would shut down speech criticizing the President. And they were right! “School officials at Palm Beach State College kicked members of the Young America’s Foundation off campus after they saw anti-Obama literature at their table.” Video at the link.

ILLUSTRATED: Barack Obama’s “lean government.”

HOW TO GET BETTER BATTERY LIFE FROM GADGETS.

A BOOMING BUSINESS: Battling bedbugs.

TIMING: Senate Gun Hearing The Day Of Delaware Primary.

HOW TO MAKE CANDLES from used shotgun shells. Just be sure they’re used.

FIRST PHOTO: NASA Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes Comet Target.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE NEWS: Higher Debt: Is the student loan industry headed for a meltdown?

A MESSAGE FROM RENEE ELMERS, who’s running against “Huggin’ Bob” Etheridge in North Carolina.

EVOLUTION AND the selection of leaders. “When you view leadership and followership through the prism of evolutionary psychology, many peculiarities about the way we choose our leaders look less odd. For example, political scientists have no convincing rational explanation of why taller candidates almost always beat shorter rivals. But hundreds of thousands of years ago, when tribal conflicts were resolved physically, lofty tribesmen would have enjoyed an edge over opponents of modest stature. Our societies continue to insist leaders should look “statesmanlike” without spelling out what this means, which suggests that we have some innate concept of what a leader should look like.”

“WHAT THE HECK IS A ZESTER?” Good grief, doesn’t everyone know that?

BLAST FROM THE PAST: 1970s Biker Magazine Covers. Personally, I always preferred Iron Horse to Easy Riders, but that’s a matter of taste.

CHANGE: Last GE light bulb factory closes. “It is doubly sad. The workers are losing their jobs, and we, who love traditional light bulbs are being deprived of a product we want. And those vile CFL bulbs? They’re made in China. Thanks a lot, Congress.”

LEARNING TO LOVE the prenup.

THAT MAKES FOR A GOOD DRY WEIGHT FIGURE: Microwave-Powered Rocket Ascends without Fuel.

DAN MITCHELL: A DEBATE BETWEEN JOHN F. KENNEDY AND BARACK OBAMA ON TAXES. Video at the link.

ROBIN HANSON: Romantic Love vs. Religious Conversion.

REPUBLICAN PROPOSAL: Roll back spending to 2008 levels, extend all tax cuts. “Be sure to stick around to the end, when George Stephanopoulos makes sure that he asks Boehner about the real pressing issue of … his tan. Boehner laughs it off with good humor, but seriously, is this the best that Stephanopoulos can do in the middle of a midterm election season?” Yes.

Plus, from the comments: “Stephie is just warming up for his interviews with Crist, one supposes.” Heh.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Inflation Won’t Help Us With Our Debt Load. “The broader availability of information on things like currencies makes it much harder for governments to get seignorage. There’s a lot of data that would tip analysts to a money supply growing unexpectedly rapidly, which means that interest rates on government debt would rise too fast for the inflation to do much good. That’s why I find the historical examples of all the sovereigns that debased their currency in order to ease their debt burden less than convincing, even though they are much beloved by many history-minded conservatives. I do not want to fall into the error of thinking that we are so modern as to be beyond all that sordid nineteenth century mess; human nature doesn’t change much. But technology has, and it has made this particular piece of trickery much harder.”

A NOISEMAKER for electric vehicles.

WITH THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE, a textbook bubble? “Prediction: Just like the unsustainable housing bubble eventually peaked and crashed, the textbook bubble is likewise unsustainable and is set to crash.”

UPDATE: Reader David Christian writes:

Having just spent $500.00+ on my freshman son’s textbooks, I really wish the professorial community was more aware of Connexions (http://cnx.org ). This is a site that allows professors and other learned folk to contribute textbook content under the creative commons license. It also allows teachers to mash up content to customize material designed for their course. Students can download this mashed up content, in the form of a free PDF or have the PDF printed and bound (for a fee). It’s all sponsored by Rice University./blockquote>

So noted.

PAM GELLER: My position on the Koran burning in Florida by a whacko church aligned with the vile anti-military, anti-semitic Westboro Church that defiles the funerals of our honored fallen soldiers. “The burning of books is wrong in principle: the antidote to bad speech is not censorship or book-burning, but more speech. Open discussion. Give-and-take. And the truth will out. There is no justification for burning books.”

STILL MORE ON THE EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (D-TX) SCANDAL: Johnson requested scholarship money be sent directly to family members. “According to letters obtained by the Morning News, however, Johnson was not only involved in the decision to give the money to her family members, she also personally intervened to make sure they literally received it, instead of their schools.”

THE EPA’S new grading scale.

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY.

TOWING AN AIRPLANE with a Mazda Miata? Mazdas. Is there anything they can’t do?

EVEN ANDY GRIFFITH’S POLL NUMBERS are being driven down by ObamaCare.

UPDATE: Jim Treacher: Andy Griffith throws away 50 years of good faith in 30 seconds. Ouch. And I doubt he changed anybody’s mind.

THE LATEST storyblogging carnival is up!

IN THE MAIL: From Scott Rasmussen and Douglas Schoen, Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System. I’m reading this now. Great book.

PJTV: Minority Report: Deroy Murdock, The Reagan Revolution and the Forbes Flat Tax.

THE GERMAN MIRACLE: Germany has cut government spending and its economy is growing smartly. It’s not the first time that market-friendly policies have led the nation out of crisis.

In the following weeks Erhard removed most of the Bizone’s remaining price controls, wage controls, allocation edicts and rationing directives. The effects of decontrol were dramatic.

The shortages ended, black markets disappeared, and Germany’s recovery began. Buying and selling with Deutsche marks replaced barter. Observers remarked that almost overnight the factories began to belch smoke, delivery trucks crowded the streets, and the noise of construction crews clattered throughout the cities.

The remarkable success of the reforms made them irreversible. A few months later the French zone followed suit. The Allied authorities went on to lower tax rates substantially.

Between June and December of 1948, industrial production in the three Western zones increased by an astounding 50%. In May 1949 the three zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly called West Germany, while East Germany remained under Soviet domination as the German Democratic Republic.

Read the whole thing.

THE CHRONICLES OF A gay libertarian survivalist.

NOT SUCH AN UNCOMMON MOVE: From Fourth-Tier Law School Grad to Millionaire.

IN INDIANAPOLIS, it’s autoworkers vs. autoworkers.

COINCIDENCE? “I THINK NOT!”

SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION: $1.3 Trillion in Broken Spending Data.

TSA ATTACKS PHOTOGRAPHERS INSTEAD OF TERRORISTS. “What should we find suspicious about the figure in the picture? That’s he’s carrying a camera near an airport? Maybe it’s the hoodie. But then maybe it’s cold outside. Point is, TSA is putting in our heads that photographers are people we ought to view with suspicion.”

How about sending them a copy of this article?

LAW CLERK IDEOLOGY and the principal-agent problem.

LIST: Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, So Far.

REASON TV: Anchor Brewing Company – A conversation with craft beer pioneer Fritz Maytag.

DO YOU THINK? “The ongoing increases in college tuition and fees make the housing price bubble seem pretty tame by comparison, and we should therefore be very concerned about the possibility that we might now be facing an unsustainable higher education bubble.” If something can’t go on forever, it won’t.

JOHN HINDERAKER: Selective Enforcement At Obama’s Justice Department.

INTRODUCING the Student Free Press Association. (Bumped).

CHANGE: State Budget Crises Mount as Medicaid Rolls Soar.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: Those damned capitalists are still here!

ROBERT HIGGS: More Government ‘Stimulus’ Will Ensure Protracted Economic Stagnation.

HANS VON SPAKOVSKY: There Really Is Something Rotten In The Justice Department. “It’s too bad that a private citizen has to carry out the responsibility of the Justice Department because it has failed to do so and, in fact, refuses to do so for ideological and political reasons that have nothing to do with the impartial administration of justice.”

BUBBLE, BUBBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE: There Are Now Enough Vacant Properties In China To House Over Half Of America.

MAN DEFENDS HOME FROM GANG, is arrested by police.

TIM CARNEY: Credit card regulation: Big government vs. small business.

ACTUALLY, MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS, “THAT MANY?” Gallup: Just 1/3 Of Americans Approve Of The Job Either Party Is Doing. “A new Gallup Poll out this morning finds barely one-in-three Americans approves of the job being done in Congress by either party — 32% approval for Republicans and 33% for Democrats.”

COMING SOON: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel?

ALEX KNEPPER: FRIENDLY ADVICE TO THE WHINER-IN-CHIEF.

HMM: At least 70 House seats in play, says Obama’s campaign adviser.

Is he inflating? So that if the Republicans “only” pick up 50, it can be spun as a Democratic victory? Or are things really that bad?

PETER BEINART: Obama’s Foreign Policy Has Failed.

JOHN RATZENBERGER: We Need More Skilled Workers.

GREGG EASTERBROOK: It’s time for Obama to stop declaring new recovery plans.

Here’s what the endless succession of plans has in common – they haven’t worked. If something hasn’t worked, why does this cause us to think more of the same is required? The White House, Treasury Department and Congress should stop contemplating new plans.

Endless emphasis at high political levels on the need to “do something,” if only to appease the press, communicates the message that U.S. leadership is either panicky or has no idea what’s going on or both. When leaders act perpetually panicked, voters and business managers become nervous. Voters want new leaders and business managers put off decisions until they have a better idea what may happen next. The result, for the economy, is slower growth than the mainly good world situation — no resource shortages, low international tensions, rising education levels, liberalizing trade – would seem to suggest.

Read the whole thing.

LOS ANGELES: Leading the Nation in Vacant Lots.

COMING TO THE GAME LATE: Now Obama wants tax cuts for business. Plus an astounding deficit graphic.

KOS MEDIA AND RESEARCH 2000 reach tentative settlement.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN THIS WOULD HAPPEN: Judge Keeps Ban on Stem Cell Funds. And they were right!

TIM CAVANAUGH: Manliness Is Next to Joblessness. “Daily Markets’ Mark Perry declares the Great Mancession in session, with help from a mesmerizing time-lapse chart tracking employment growth by job type since 2008. Click here to watch the real-time shrinking of majority male sectors in opposition to the growth of two majority female sectors — education and health care. . . . In fact the most disturbing thing in the job sector statistics is that health care jobs have been growing at such an insatiable rate. Are people sicker than they used to be?”

UH OH: Here Are 13 Signs That We’re Actually In A Depression Right Now.

CLIVE CROOK: Obama Surrenders On Jobs.

JONATHAN CHAIT: “Obscure blogger linked by InstaPundit.” Ipse dixit!

But does the Washington Examiner’s Fenty endorsement change the analysis?

HEH: “He could end all of this if he’d just show us his dog licence.”

ERIC SCHEIE on environmental eliminationists and Ebola.

A TEA PARTY MAJORITY?

THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE shortlist.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: How Unreliable Is CBO Scoring?

CAN THE LEFT RAISE MIDDLE-CLASS INCOMES? Prof. Bainbridge has his doubts.

JAMES TARANTO ON THE CHANGING RACIAL ZEITGEIST: “It used to be that white conservatives were ever fearful of being cast as racist. Today Tucker feels it necessary to declare defensively that she isn’t prejudiced. Liberals, even black liberals like Tucker, no longer feel confident simply asserting their moral superiority when it comes to matters of race. This turning of the tables suggests that blacks and whites, as well as liberals and conservatives, are approaching a sort of equality. We won’t have gotten beyond race until both sides can make their arguments in good faith without such disclaimers. But this new parity is a big step in the right direction.”

STACY MCCAIN: Anti-Palin Folks Behind Effort To Revive Murkowski Candidacy. Murkowski has to be thinking about whether a spoiler run in Alaska is worth the enmity of Tea Party folks nationwide. My guess is she’ll decide that it’s not.

A BOLD TAX PLAN: People Should Smoke And Drink More. It’s for the children!

ONE-DAY ONLY SALE: Taxi, the complete series.

DAVID ADDINGTON GOES TO HERITAGE, Jack Goldsmith comments.

HEH: The BBC Fails to Understand the Tea Party Movement — Says the Telegraph UK.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Buck Up, America!

I don’t want to minimize the challenges that face us, and especially the suffering of those among us who’ve lost jobs and seen the value of their homes and their savings erode. Indeed, in the months to come I will be posting about the challenges ahead of us and the costs of failure. If anything, we are still underestimating the risks, and the upheavals ahead are in many cases even bigger and scarier than is yet generally understood. Living up to the challenges of our time is going to take everything we have — and then some.

But even from that perspective, the current mood of pessimism and hand-wringing seems overdone.

Depends on what happens in November, I guess. . . .