DON’T THANK ME, THANK JEFF BEZOS: Reader DRJ emails:

I know you get lots of email so I’ll make this pretty quick.

I first “discovered” Amazon.com from reading your website several years ago but I was tentative about using it at first. Over the years, I ordered more and more items and last year I joined Amazon Prime. If I’m typical, Amazon Prime is one of the best ideas Amazon ever had because my online orders increased significantly after that.

This Christmas will be all-Amazon at our house. I’ve already ordered at least 20 items and, despite the ease of ordering, we’re well within our target budget and getting everything we wanted.

So I just wanted to say, Merry Christmas and Thanks!

As I’ve noted before, Bezos got a lot of flak from Wall Street for his “fixation” on free shipping, but it’s paid off. Amazon Prime rocks. It’s certainly caused me to shift an awful lot of my shopping to Amazon. I actually kind of resent it when I have to go to an actual store to buy things.

And some related thoughts, here.

THE INSTA-WIFE COULD HAVE USED THIS: “Transplanting genetically engineered cells into the heart may reduce the risk of a fatal condition which occurs after heart attack, research suggests. Ventricular tachycardia – an unusually fast heart rhythm – is the main cause of sudden death after heart attack. In mice, transplants of skeletal muscle cells engineered to produce a specific protein prevented the condition.” Instead she got Tikosyn and an ICD — good, but not as good as a cure.

UPDATE: Note that this starts out with embryonic stem-cell research, but led to reverse-engineering adult stem cells to do the same thing. This seems to underscore my point, made here repeatedly, that it’s a mistake to shut down embryonic stem cell research even if you believe that adult stem cells will eventually be the winning play.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jeff Johnson emails: “Thanks for linking to the article on heart stem cells. Like you, my 43 year-old wife has had a ICD implanted due to ventricular tachycardia after heart failure. This is definitely a ‘faster please’ development for us.” Yep. I get irritated at people who don’t seem to realize that slowing down research costs lives.

EXCERPTS from Mitt Romney’s speech on religion.

WINNING IN IRAQ: T.M. Lutas is saying “I told you so.”

UPDATE: And Lutas isn’t the only one gloating. I think it’s okay to gloat about things that are good for America.

FORGET THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE — how about a lobbyist to nowhere?

FRITZ SCHRANCK HAS THOUGHTS on mortgage bailouts and self-inflicted financial risk.

SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO BE LONELY: Your body has 10x more bacterial cells than human cells.

JOHN BOLTON on the N.I.E.: “Rarely has a document from the supposedly hidden world of intelligence had such an impact as the National Intelligence Estimate released this week. Rarely has an administration been so unprepared for such an event. And rarely have vehement critics of the ‘intelligence community’ on issues such as Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction reversed themselves so quickly. . . . That such a flawed product could emerge after a drawn-out bureaucratic struggle is extremely troubling.”

UPDATE: Related thoughts here: “

KYLE SMITH reviews Charlie Wilson’s War:

I somewhat enjoyed “Charlie Wilson’s War,” but I’m glad I don’t have any money invested in it. It would be exaggerating only slightly to call it The Congressional Record meets “Ishtar.”

How strange is this film? So strange that there aren’t really any stakes for the main character. So strange that pages and pages of dialogue float by trying to convince you to care whether the 1981 covert ops budget for aid to Afghanistan’s mujahideen fighting the invading Soviets was $10 million or $40 million, or how many T-55 tanks the Soviet invaders used. So strange that Democrats are shown killing Commies. Not calling for sanctions against them; not filing paperwork against them in the U.N.; not calling for investigations of how their prisoners of war were treated: just getting them in the crosshairs, and pow.

Well, I might pay to see that — if I didn’t also have to watch Tom Cruise.

UPDATE: And I don’t have to! Somehow, probably having something to do with being on my first cup of coffee, I read “Tom Hanks” as “Tom Cruise.” Now, Tom Hanks I might pay to see.

Cruise I might pay to avoid. Which opens up a new profit avenue for Hollywood, if they’re smart enough to exploit it, I guess . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Brian Gates emails: “A movie about American efforts to fight totalitarianism that focuses on one Democrat in Congress? I think I’ll wait 20 years and watch the sequel, ‘Joe Lieberman’s War’.”

MARY KATHARINE HAM talks MILFS with Bill O’Reilly.

FRANKLIN FOER ON BEAUCHAMP, via IowaHawk.

THE PLEO ROBOTIC DINOSAUR gets a good review at BoingBoing — except for the torture films.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON STANFORD AND THE MILITARY:

If you believe the left’s theories about hegemony and hierarchy in education, you’d have to conclude that when the Dean and 80% of the faculty send such an email to students, it sends a signal to those faculty and students who support either the Solomon Amendment and/or “don’t ask, don’t tell” that their views are marginal and illegitimate. It tells students and faculty of the right “what their elders and betters want” and that “they’ve got to kiss ass and toe the line.”

Obviously, I’m not suggesting that faculty should hide their political views under the proverbial bushel (well, duh!). I am suggesting that collective actions by faculty on controversial political issues needs to be undertaken with great care. I’m also suggesting that there is a double standard among many law school faculty who somehow manage to simultaneously bring this sort of pressure on students while embracing the left’s theories of hegemony and power in education.

Indeed. But that sort of pressure is just to encourage them to do the right thing and think the right thoughts.

UPDATE: Related post here.

FRED THOMPSON gets serious.

Plus, don’t let the government tell you what to eat.

UPDATE: Also, locking up the Jack Bauer caucus.

TEACHER NOT CHARGED for dumb blog comment.

AS YOU KNOW, I SUPPORT LIFE EXTENSION: “10 Minutes Of Staring at Boobs Daily Prolongs Man’s Life by 5 Years.”

UPDATE: Debunked. But why take chances?

THE ROBOTS AT AMAZON send this list of gift recommendations for cooks. I certainly see some things that I wouldn’t mind getting.

Also, recommendations for gamers. Nice of them to be so helpful.

MORE ON HILLARY’S slide into protectionism. She’s a weathervane, and that’s the way the Democratic winds are blowing.

STRATEGYPAGE: “Al Qaeda appears to be moving its main effort to Afghanistan, after operations in Iraq, North Africa, Somalia and Europe (not to mention North America) have all largely failed. But continued Taliban activity in Pakistan and Afghanistan has provided al Qaeda with one area where they might be able to have a little success. But that will require a change in methods.”

ARLEN SPECTER slams Harry Reid.

GIRLS DOMINATE THE SIEMENS COMPETITION: “In a first for the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology for U.S. high school students, girls walked away with top honors in both the individual and team categories.”

MICHAEL O’HANLON offers advice for the Democrats on Iraq.

STILL MORE home theater advice, this time on audio setup.

IF WE HADN’T, THE TERRORISTS WOULD HAVE WON: World Turns Attention to iPhone, Boobs and Videos, Forgets Osama.

CONGRESS DECLARES a pink Christmas. “And they dare say they support the troops?”