JAMES TARANTO: Georgia Voters Bury a McCarthyite Smear. “Chambliss’s victory assures the GOP of at least 41 Senate seats. It also lays to rest one of the nastiest McCarthyite smears of recent times: the repeated assertion by Democrats and the media that former senator Max Cleland’s patriotism is in question.”

ELEVEN CLEVER TIPS for digital camera owners.

A POLITICAL FIRING at the University of Toledo.

HERE’S A REVIEW of the Panasonic Lumix LX-3.

BILL RICHARDSON, DOZING BEHIND THE WHEEL until he gets a little help from Obama:

As I’m chatting with Obama, the moderator says, “Governor Richardson, what do you think of that?” And I look at him like a deer in the headlights. I was about to say that I hadn’t heard, when Obama puts his hand over his mouth and says, “Katrina.” So I gave my four-point plan on Katrina. When I was done and the debate moved on, I looked over and said, “Thanks, you’re okay.” He said, “Nothing to it, brother.”

A friend in need . . . .

HMM: Poll: 61% oppose auto bailout. “A full 70% of respondents indicated that a bailout is unfair to taxpayers.” Plus, funny photo caption here.

CREATING A body-swapping illusion.

PROGRESS IN preventing and treating esophageal cancer.

RANGEL UPDATE: Government Watchdog Group Wants New Allegations Included In Ethics Probe Of Rep. Charles Rangel. “A watchdog group, Common Cause, has called for the ethics investigation of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) to include new allegations that he had helped preserve a tax shelter for an oil-drilling company, whose chief executive at the time was pledging $1 million to a school named after him.”

WASHINGTON POST: Ethics Questions Still Hounding Rangel.

DO BADLY BEHAVED DOCTORS contribute to medical mistakes?

A REVIEW OF 10 cordless drills. I’ve had this small Bosch for a few years, and I like it better than the bigger one (I think it was a Ryobi) that I had before.

HEART OF DARKNESS: The Mudville Gazette on different views of Iraq.

MY COUSIN STACEY EMAILS TO SUGGEST that the way to save the economy is to buy her chocolate-covered cherries. “It’s well known that a bite of decadent chocolate boosts endorphin levels & serotonin, and will therefore help America cope!!” Makes as much sense as a lot of other things I’m hearing . . . .

HOW TO get your Significant Other into gaming.

NICK GILLESPIE AND MATT WELCH: The Libertarian Moment: “Despite all leading indicators to the contrary, America is poised to enter a new age of freedom.” I certainly hope so.

ATTACKS ON SPEED CAMERAS are happening all over.

IN THE MAIL: Big Boy Rules: America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq. Favorably blurbed by Tom Ricks. Now that Iraq seems to have moved into the “win” column, will attitudes on this sort of thing change? Maybe they should . . . .

CAITLIN FLANAGAN: What Girls Want: Thoughts on the meaning of the Twilight novels. Personally, I think the best vampire books are Fred Saberhagen’s, but then I’m not a teenage girl.

LIVING ON MARS: A conversation with Bob Zubrin.

THEY HAVEN’T GIVEN UP: Here are some post Black Friday Amazon Deals.

VITAMIN D: Vital for the heart.

FOUR DECADES of defending self-defense.

T.J. RODGERS ON the opacity of modern financial statements. It’s almost as if they were designed to obscure, rather than reveal.

A REPORT ON Romania’s anticorruption fighters.

HMM: Germany Wants One Million Electric Cars on the Road by 2020. Of course, they’ve got a few years.