OBSERVATIONS ON THE SURGE, from Iraq-war skeptic Stephen Bainbridge.

THOUGHTS ON HILLARY and the vast right-wing conspiracy.

A REPORT FROM Abu Dhabi.

MORE SIGNS OF FREDMENTUM?

UPDATE: Bill Quick is excited.

WHENEVER I GET AROUND TO REPLACING MY RX-8, it’s going to be with one of these. Well, I hope, anyway. Yowza.

JOHN KERRY BEATS DOWN GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS — but Extreme Mortman is made of sterner stuff.

OBAMA IS really hurting Hillary.

PHIL CARTER IS REALLY UNHAPPY with the New York Times vets-as-murderers story. “I’ve got a one-word verdict on this article and its research: bullshit.” (Via Abu Muqawama).

I REMEMBER WHEN THIS COUNTED AS A BIG HARD DRIVE: But now you can get 32 GB flash memory cards. And they’re even introducing 48 GB flash memory cards. Only problem — what can you back them up to, besides a huge hard drive? That’s 6 or 7 DVD’s worth of data.

I SHOULD NEVER HAVE POSTED on this.

THIS IS COOL:

University of Minnesota researchers have created a beating heart in the laboratory.

By using a process called whole organ decellularization, scientists from the University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair grew functioning heart tissue by taking dead rat and pig hearts and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells. The research will be published online in the January 13 issue of Nature Medicine.

“The idea would be to develop transplantable blood vessels or whole organs that are made from your own cells,” said Doris Taylor, Ph.D., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair, Medtronic Bakken professor of medicine and physiology, and principal investigator of the research.

Bring it on!

TOM MAGUIRE takes a skeptical look at Paul Krugman.

UPDATE: Related item here.

FREDMENTUM? Piling up the pesos.

Plus, “Mittmentum” in Michigan? Mitt would be doing even better in Michigan if he were pushing Bob Zubrin’s flexfuel plan — which would not only hurt OPEC, but which would benefit American car companies, who have an advantage in flexfuel technology.

UPDATE: Or is it Johnmentum in Michigan? Plus, a Thompson/Huckabee comparison.

THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION IS LOOKING INTO possible carbon offset scams.

IN BRITAIN: NO-GO ZONES for non-Muslims? Reader Fred Ray emails: “I grew up in the segregated South in the 50s and early 60s. Turns out I was really living in the multicultural South. Who knew?”

HILLARY CLINTON attacks Barack Obama.

UPDATE: The Uniters.

MORE: Obama Calls Clinton Allegations “Ludicrous.”

THE KIND OF JOURNALISM YOU OUGHT TO SEE IN NEWSPAPERS: Joel Rosenberg has a series on botched SWAT raids and demilitarizing the Minneapolis Police Department.

NO CONSENT REQUIRED for organ harvesting in Britain.

I don’t know if “I’m using it” will make them go away . . . .

NOW FOR SOME REALLY IMPORTANT NEWS: the new Bond girl.

GEORGE W. BUSH in Abu Dhabi.

Plus, Code Pink in Little Havana.

IT’S NOT JUST HUCKABEE: “Why isn’t Barack Obama’s faith-based problem making national headlines and the nightly news?”

COSMETIC SURGERY at the mall? My local mall even has a place that does 15-minute teeth-bleaching. It’s not even a storefront, but a kiosk with a few dentist chairs around it.

REVITALIZING OLD GAME CARTRIDGES with the Retro Duo console.

AUTOBLOG will be posting lots of coverage from the Detroit Auto Show.

And there will be 7 automotive X-Prize teams there, too.

A SHORT STROLL AROUND DOLLYWOOD DEMONSTRATES THIS: Obesity now a ‘lifestyle’ choice for Americans, expert says.