GM APPARENTLY THINKS THAT THE CURRENT OIL-PRICE DROP WON’T LAST: Tahoe, Yukon and Escalade not being replaced.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

SILICON GRAFFITI: Live from the Ministry of Truth!

FEDERAL CHARGES FOR changing grades on a university computer.

POLIO IS SPREADING: “Polio infections are increasing and spreading to new countries, according to case counts recently released by the World Health Organization.”

PLUG-IN HYBRIDS OFFER opportunities and challenges for utility companies.

SHOULD WE TAKE BARNEY FRANK’S CALL FOR A 25% CUT IN DEFENSE SPENDING SERIOUSLY? No, that’s just a headline grabber. I’m sure he’d be willing to compromise on fifteen percent.

MATT WELCH ON Obama, libertarians, and wishful thinking.

THE END OF FAT? How long until there’s a drug that makes it easy for anyone to be thin?

THIS WEEK’S Grand Rounds is up!

RESEARCH ON love, sex, and infidelity.

IN THE MAIL: Ira Stoll’s Samuel Adams: A Life.

THE EXAMINER: Why Earmarks Matter a Great Deal. “Just as senators and representatives protect each other’s earmarks in an ingrained culture of mutual back-scratching, they also protect each other’s big ticket spending proposals as well. So the message is: ‘I’ll vote for your planetarium in return for you voting for my otherwise unneeded line of new submarines or another duplicative, wasteful welfare program’ or whatever.” Yes, earmarks matter out of proportion to their financial cost for the same reason that bribes do.

STEVE CALABRESI on redistribution and the courts.

Plus, related thoughts from Mickey Kaus.

KATIE GRANJU ON GAY MARRIAGE: Your Marriage Is No Threat To Mine. “The anti-gay-marriage argument that simply makes no sense to me is the one that says allowing gay folks to marry will mess up my marriage – my heterosexual marriage. I don’t follow the reasoning that gay married couples will undermine the ability of straight married couples to form and sustain marital partnerships.” Yeah, I don’t get that one either.

ROGER KIMBALL: “What I find depressing about this–as, indeed, about the whole Obama juggernaut–is the extent to which it represents a return of bad ideas that have already been tried time and again, have failed and made people poorer and less stalwart, and yet seem poised to make a sorry comeback once again. . . . Still, I do not despair.”

A MOVEMENT TO draft Fred Thompson for RNC chair?

THE NEXT FOUR YEARS? How about the next four million?

WHERE KWAME KILPATRICK will be residing for a while.

IP COLLOQUIUM is a series of podcasts on intellectual property.

PROTESTING SEXISM in Dallas.

DUMBEST QUOTE OF THE YEAR? Don Young in defense of Ted Stevens.

MORE SHADY RECORD-CHECKING IN OHIO: “Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the child-support computer system for information on ‘Joe the Plumber.’ Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed yesterday that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher after the Oct. 15 presidential debate, in which he was mentioned repeatedly by Republican Sen. John McCain.” But she says it wasn’t politically-motivated, so that’s okay . . . .

IRAQ UPDATE: “The war is over.” It appears we won. Strangely, nobody seems to care much. (Via Stephen Green).

UPDATE: See this report from J.D. Johannes, who’s there now.

HEH: Imagining the Sarah Palin scenario with the parties flipped.