IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES, 1870-2007: A graphic representation. Very cool. (Via Jonah Goldberg).

WHO TO BLAME for job losses:

Atlas has shrugged all over the country.

Like many business owners, we are no longer willing to take all of the financial and legal risks and put up with all of the aggravation of owning and running a business. Not with the prospects of even higher taxes, more regulation, more litigation and more emboldened bureaucrats on the horizon. Like others we know, we are getting out while the getting is, well, tolerable. Many who aren’t getting out are scaling back. . . . It is no secret that owners circulated endless emails leading up to election day discussing lay off plans were Obama to win. Entrepreneurs instinctively understand the danger posed by larger liberal majorities in power. The risk-reward equation and fierce independence spirit of start up businesses are anathema to the class warfare, equality of outcome and spread the wealth mentality of the left. . . .

We got into business to be independent. We will get out for the same reason.

Read the whole thing.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “How easy it is to address foreclosures, however, depends on what the reason is for the foreclosure. Are people missing payments because changed circumstances mean that they can’t afford them, or are people missing payments because they don’t want to make payments on a house that was worth $500,000 when they bought it, but is now worth $300,000? . . . Is the government going to guarantee approximately 70 million owner-occupied homes in America against a 25% price drop? No, because that’s $3.5 trillion dollars, if my mental arithmetic serves. Or is it only going to give the money to the least responsible homeowners: the ones with small (or no) downpayments, houses they could only afford at short-term teaser rates, and a long string of missed payments? The numbers, and the political arithmetic, don’t add up. Indeed, any such program would positively encourage people to default, in order to get the government to cram down their loans.”

ADVANCING TOWARD INDIVIDUALIZED CANCER TREATMENTS with nanotechnology.

A LOOK AT THE PROSPECTS for offshore wind power.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Chapter 11 is the right road for US carmakers.

DANIEL KLEIN: What should liberals liberalize?

IN THE MAIL: Brian Doherty’s Heller book, Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment. I’ve actually read this one and it’s very good — and exceptionally well-blurbed!

JESSE JACKSON on the importance of being incorruptible, and related topics.

UNDERFUNDED, OVERGENEROUS, WHATEVER: ‘We don’t exist to fund employee pensions,’ says San Diego’s mayor.

ROGER KIMBALL ON The Dangerous Book for Boys. I guess Roger’s “hyper-masculine,” too. I hadn’t realized, but I suppose the bow-tie should have been a tipoff . . . .

IF YOU CRITICIZE THE UNIVERSITY IN AN EMAIL: You’re a spammer!

ERIC DREXLER is blogging now.

YOUR HOMELAND SECURITY DOLLARS AT WORK:

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation’s top immigration official. The company’s owner says the workers sailed through the checks — although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants.

Now, owner James D. Reid finds himself in a predicament that he considers especially confounding. In October, he was fined $22,880 after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators said he failed to check identification and work documents and fill out required I-9 verification forms for employees, five of whom he said were part of crews sent to Chertoff’s home and whom ICE told him to fire because they were undocumented.

“Our people need to know,” said the Montgomery County businessman. “Our Homeland Security can’t police their own home. How can they police our borders?”

Perhaps the workers breezed through immigration by claiming to be Michael Bolton. Note the rather lame official response.

WELL, THAT MAKES SENSE: “According to the U.N. climate negotiators, Singapore and Kuwait are among the poorest countries in the world.”

SHIKHA DALMIA on Arming India Against Terrorism. “Relaxing gun control laws would be a good start.” Indeed.

MORE EMBARRASSMENTS FOR THE DEMOCRATS? Madoff Charged in $50 Billion Fraud at Advisory Firm. People are emailing that he was a big donor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as Charles Rangel and Hillary Clinton. And he was, but if you scroll down a bit you’ll see he gave to quite a few Republicans, too, so I don’t think the GOP can make much of an issue out of this.

BUSSARD FUSION AND MORE: A Google TechTalk from incoming Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

MEGAN MCARDLE says it’s good that the bailout failed. Plus, her take on libertarianism.

ESTHER DYSON: Internet anonymity is like abortion. “I’m pro choice, but I think abortion is an unfortunate thing. I think the same thing about anonymity: Everybody should have the right to it, but it’s not something one wants to encourage.”

TROUBLE RATHER THE TIGER IN HIS LAIR than tangle with Terry Teachout on matters of culture. Ouch.

MATT WELCH: Free Speech, Limousine Liberal-Style: A Comedy in Six Acts. Comedy, tragedy, whatever. I blame George W. Bush! And John Ashcroft!

BETTIE PAGE has died.

MICKEY KAUS: “Hierarchy Recalibration! Let the record show that Rod Blagojevich, sitting governor of Illinois, the fifth largest state in the union, was apparently willing to sell a U.S. Senate seat and his soul, and abandon his office, for a job paying less money ($250,000-$300,000) than is made by several hosts on National Public Radio.” In Blagojevich’s defense, the soul was used, and in poor condition.

IS IT RAHM, or is it Memorex?