THE CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES IS UP: And it’s all about turkey!

THOUGHTS ON FIREARMS AND ETHICS, from Eric S. Raymond.

FREE AIRPLANE SEATS for fat people. Frankly, I think someone so fat they need two seats is a safety hazard. Wouldn’t they plug up one of those exit windows?

JULES CRITTENDEN: Why Obama Should Thank George W. Bush.

BYRON YORK: Have We Changed Yet?

IN THE MAIL: From Eric Flint, 1635: The Dreeson Incident.

LARRY SUMMERS will head the National Economic Council.

UPDATE: Jim Steinberg as Deputy Secretary of State? He’s praised by Michael O’Hanlon, who was good on Iraq, urging Democrats to get out of their pre-surge funk. (O’Hanlon even credited Bush with keeping Iraq WMD-free.) So let’s hope this is a sign of good sense from the Obama camp.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hillary Plays Hardball: “The first sign of friction in the Obama camp as Mrs Clinton demands – and gets – a purge of her critics before accepting Secretary of State role.” So will we wind up with Clinton loyalists at State and Obama loyalists at the NSC? A team of rivals. . . .

MORE: But will Democrats flipflop on the “Saxbe Fix?” I’d bet on it.

Plus, Hillary Rodham Muskie?

And Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary?

But look out for ideologues among the lower-tier appointments.

STILL MORE CHARLES RANGEL TAX SCANDAL: Really, this is beyond a joke at this point. (Via LawHawk).

BLANKET OF SOIL MAY HIDE vast Martian glaciers. “New evidence from radar surveys by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter strongly suggest that the lobes are pure ice in the form of glaciers, buried under a thin layer of soil and rock. If so, there may be an enormous amount of ice on Mars apart from the poles, potentially providing a convenient resource for human missions.” Good.

STEELE FOR CHAIRMAN: Here’s his website.

Plus, text your ideas on the future of the GOP.

YOU THINK? Mark Halperin: “Extreme Pro-Obama Coverage” in the Press.

HANK PAULSON ON A PLANE: Dan Riehl can personally attest that the Treasury Secretary is not zipping around on corporate jets.

DETROIT NEWS: Members of Congress, Not Auto Execs, Deserve Grilling:

Representatives and senators should have been answering questions from the automakers about why they approved government policies that have played the biggest role in driving American carmakers toward extinction. . . . Why did members of Congress — such as House Banking Chairman Barney Frank, Senate Banking Chairman Christoper Dodd and others — raise fuel economy standards, adding more than $85 billion in costs as the industry was restructuring itself?

If the reason was forcing automakers to deal with higher gasoline prices, perhaps the politicians could explain why they have made fuel more scarce by blocking domestic drilling for oil and preventing new refineries from being built during the past three decades.

Perhaps Detroit could be running ads asking those questions, if they weren’t having to grovel for goverment cash. Rather than grovel, I’d be thinking about filing Chapter 11, while blaming members of Congress by name. But that’s probably why I’m not an auto industry CEO, and it’s probably a good thing . . . .

SOME BLOGS ARE MANLIER THAN OTHERS. Personally, I’m quite comfortable with my feminine side.

“CANDY-ASS GOES MAINSTREAM:” Plus, a shocking Obama poultry photo. Nobody tell MSNBC!

UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!

THOUGHTS ON the life of a blogger.

UH OH: Britain is in no position to laugh at Iceland’s problems. “Is Britain simply a bigger version of Iceland? Certainly the City of London is starting to look a bit too much like Reykjavik, but with taller buildings and fewer cod. It is an exaggeration, but not that much of an exaggeration, to liken the UK to the broken, bankrupt North Atlantic island.”

HOPE AND CHANGE: “So a mere two weeks after victory, ‘hope and change’ and ‘a break from the past’ reified into parceling out posts to dozens of Clintonite retreads, plenty of the old requisite Ivy-League law degrees, ample influence from establishment ex-lobbyists, de rigueur Sidwell Friends for the kids, and apparent sudden existential angst and uncertainty over FISA, getting out pronto from Iraq, closing down the Constitution-shredding Gitmo, and overturning the McCarthyite Patriot Act—and all to acclaim and relief from aristocratic Beltway pundits of both parties? So that was all the election was about? Just new faces on the same old, same old?” Actually, I was hoping for not too much change, so I’m fairly happy with this . . . .

SOUNDING THE NUCLEAR ALARM: “The U.S. will not have a credible arsenal unless Washington acts soon to replace aging warheads.”

A LOOK AT THE FOUR-DOOR Porsche Panamera.

REJUVENATING YOUR FACE WITH infant foreskin extract! “A new dermatological treatment pulls the cells from newborns’ foreskins and injects them, Botox-style, into aging faces. . . . In preliminary studies, Vavelta has worked well at eliminating wrinkles and scars without any side effects other than mild redness and itching (and the weirdness of knowing that you’ve got a foreskin in your face).”

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of Apple Computer, iPod, iPhone, etc. news.

TENNESSEE RESISTS OBAMA WAVE: “Republicans routed Tennessee with a moderate, bipartisan style that could offer a path to recovery for the national party. Using a ‘Take the Hill’ campaign to win the legislature, they largely avoided hammering such issues as abortion and immigration in favor of campaigning on lower taxes, among other economic issues, to appeal to independents, who make up 30% of the state’s electorate.”

(Via Dan Cleary).

UPDATE: Reader John O’Sullivan writes:

I can assure both you and the WSJ that the GOP in other states was not exactly beating the drum on the abortion and immigration topics, to put it mildly. And the McCain ticker was running to Obama’s left on immigration.

Of course, the WSJ is simply seeing what it wishes to see. That’s a bad trait for a news organization to have, whether it be the WSJ or NYT.

I think that in Tennessee, the Democrats have done for their reputation what the Congressional Republicans have done.

AN INTERVIEW with Gen. Ray Odierno.

AN AUTO BAILOUT: Weekend at Bernie’s for the domestic car industry?

Plus, is G.M. using auto bailout money to beef up its Brazilian operations?