WANT AN ACADEMIC JOB? Surrender your DNA. “Many colleges now require criminal background checks of all new employees. But the University of Akron — in what some experts believe is a first — is not only requiring a criminal background check, but is stating that new employees must be willing to submit a DNA sample.”

HEH: “Reason 2 is reasonable but boring; but reason 1 is why I blogged about this.”

MYCONGRESSMANISNUTS.COM.

SEA CHANGE: Pataki Endorses Hoffman.

OH, GOOD GRIEF: “The House health care bill unveiled Thursday clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. With an estimated 10-year cost of $894 billion, that comes out to about $2.24 million per word.”

Here’s the really scary part, though: “And for some members, that may not be enough.”

UH OH: Actually, Case-Shiller Shows That The Housing Crash Has Already Resumed. I hope not.

KILL THOSE INCONVENIENT IDEAS: George Soros launches a $50 million effort to purge economics of its free-market zeal.

If I had money, I’d endow a chair in currency-market manipulation.

IF FRAUD UNDER MEDICARE IS $60 BILLION, how much would it be under a totally-government-controlled health care system?

WHITE HOUSE STIMULUS CLAIMS EVEN COMING UNDER FIRE FROM CBS NEWS.

BUSINESS INSIDER: The White House Stupidly Goes To War With Car Website Edmunds.com. “Seriously, what’s the point of this? Clunkers is over. It just makes The White House look thin-skinned, though it’s great publicity for Edmunds.” More here.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Death Cometh For The Greenback. Let’s hope he’s wrong.

ROGER SIMON: Should I Read The New Healthcare Bill Or Finish Remembrance of Things Past?

A REPORT ON THE Hoffman, Owens, Scozzafava Debate.

BATS DO IT, CATS DO IT, EVEN PEOPLE WITH TACKY TATS DO IT: Fellatio keeps male fruit bats keen.

Okay, the cats, not so much. But I needed a rhyme. (Via Hot Air.)

WHY CREIGH DEEDS IS LOSING: “It’s not that Bob McDonnell can sincerely compliment his opponent; it’s that Creigh Deeds doesn’t dare.”

MARKDOWNS ON reconditioned power tools.

CHANGE: Top Obama fundraisers get posts. “More than 40% of President Obama’s top-level fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, from key executive branch jobs to diplomatic postings in countries such as France, Spain and the Bahamas, a USA TODAY analysis finds.”

MURTHA / PMA UPDATE: Seven members of House defense subcommittee scrutinized by ethics investigators.

The investigations by two separate ethics offices include an examination of the powerful subcommittee chairman, John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), as well as others who helped the PMA Group secure earmarks for clients. The lawmakers received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients. Records obtained by The Washington Post show that the members under scrutiny also include Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) , C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.).

The records also indicate that the House ethics committee staff recently interviewed the staff of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) about the lawmaker’s allegation that a PMA lobbyist threatened him in 2007 when he resisted steering federal funds to a PMA client. The lobbyist told a Nunes staffer that if the lawmaker didn’t help, the defense contractor would move out of Nunes’s district and take dozens of jobs with him.

Read the whole thing.

STUDENT JOURNALISTS FACE CHARGES FOR REPORTING. More here.

MEGAN MCARDLE:

So GDP grew at 3.5% in the third quarter? Are we out of the woods yet?

Maybe. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

Me neither.

POWER LINE: Scozzafava sinking, Hoffman rising, Newt erring.

TENNESSEE ATTORNEY GENERAL: Landlords Can Ban Tenants’ Guns.

WELL, I’VE ACTUALLY STARTED MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING, so I guess this Christmas toy list isn’t too early.

A FIVE MINUTE REVIEW of the Verizon Droid phone by Motorola.

THE NINE MOST ECCENTRIC EXOPLANETS found so far. I think it’s just cool that you can make a list like this.