FAT: NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL? Plus this: “If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.”

That, of course, is the thesis behind various “paleo” diets and Gary Taubes’ book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, which I found fairly compelling. And Tim Ferriss is pushing pretty much the same line in his new book, The 4-Hour Body. It didn’t stop me from having french fries at lunch, though.

MICHAEL STEELE WOULDN’T NEED TO PLAY THE RACE CARD, if he had previously been able to play the competence card.

A LOOK AT THE NEW Honda Accord plug-in hybrid. “Honda intends to launch a production PHV in 2013, so there’s still ample time for the automaker to modify its powertrain before the vehicle debuts, but these preliminary specs suggest that a plug-in Prius fighter is in the works.”

HOWARD LOVY: Gold-Plated Liposomes An Anti-Cancer Stocking-Stuffer.

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

IN THE MAIL: From Stephen Hunter, Dead Zero: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel.

HASTENING THE DAY OF RECKONING: How ObamaCare Is Making State Budget Problems Worse.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MCCAIN, we’d see the war in Afghanistan escalated into Pakistan. And they were right!

ONE-DAY-ONLY SALE: Roku XDS for 79.99. Mine’s worked fine — my daughter and I watched Spinal Tap on it the other night. The cable-TV folks should be very afraid.

RADLEY BALKO: Beyond Bars: A new project has conservatives thinking more seriously about crime.

JIM HARPER: The FCC Should Not Regulate The Internet. So abolish it, turn the technical frequency-regulation bits over to the Department of Commerce, and call it a day. It’ll save money, and promote freedom.

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES: A Guide to Understanding the U.S. Government Debt and Deficits.

GET JANET NAPOLITANO A CALENDAR: Janet Napolitano is working “24/7, 364 days″ to keep us all safe.

FACING THE PENSION MESS: “Most of the nation’s 107 million private-sector workers are forced to accept 401(k) plans and other defined-contribution pensions — in which the employer makes a fixed contribution to the employee’s retirement account, rather than guaranteeing a fixed payout. By contrast, nearly all of the more than 22 million federal, state and local public employees enjoy defined-benefit pensions — with payouts fixed at some percentage of the individual’s pay for the last year or two they worked (often including overtime and payments for unused sick or vacation days).”

Nearly all is an exaggeration, I think. Or maybe I should feel worse about my own defined-contribution plan. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Michael Hankamer writes:

You should be grateful your employer set you up with a defined contribution plan. I retired (early, at 55); my employer’s defined benefit plan pays me roughly $16K/yr. No COLA. My “high 5” at the time was about $95K. That’s, er, 16% of annual earnings after 20 years. My employer was a large defense contractor.

My wife, when she retires in 2011, will receive roughly $13K for 20 years of teaching in VA and TX. That’s about 17% of her “high three” and roughly half what it would be had she stayed in either VA or TX for her entire career (be sure to read the fine print in your defined benefit plan).

Think that’s bad?

Social Security, if you think about it, is also a defined benefit retirement plan, with the “benefit” only loosely tied to the “employee’s” earning record. And it’s even worse. I’m fully retired now, and I get very near the SS maximum of $2349/month. If my FICA withholdings had been treated like a defined contribution plan, when I retired last month I could have purchased an annuity on the open market paying $3300/month.

If you want details, you can find them here.

I think he’s wrong about federal employees, too, except for military.

MORE: Another reader emails:

All federal employees, since 1987, are covered under FERS. There’s 3 parts to FERS, social security, TPS (our version of a 401k), and the basic benefit. The basic benefit is what Meister at the NY Post must mean by a defined benefit pension. See page 5 of this PDF. Here is a calculator for the payout of the basic benefit. If I reach the top of my payband (GS14) and retire when I’m 65 in 2041, it says I’ll get $41K a year from the basic benefit. I’m not sure what that’ll be worth in 2041, but it doesn’t sound bad now.

If you decide to share this, please leave out my name. I don’t want my back against the wall when the tax-payer revolt begins.

Hey, an Insta-Mention might help. As a great man once said, I’m all that’s standing between you and the pitchforks. . . .

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Loan Reform Puts Taxpayers On The Hook. “The dramatic rise in student debt—and in student loan defaults—could leave the American taxpayer on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars. The landmark healthcare reform law signed by President Obama last March included a relatively little-noticed provision that overhauled the federal student loan program.”

HOW TO choose a dutch oven.

A FRESH BUNCH OF hot Christmas deals at Amazon.

Also, today is the last full day for two-day shipping, though Amazon Prime members will have free two-day shipping until 7:30 pm tomorrow.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, WE’D HAVE DUMB HICKS TRYING TO BAN INTERNET PORN. And they were right!

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Give The People What They Want.

LAME DUCK CONGRESS won’t create race-based government after all. “Good news out of Congress this week (and by good news, I mean they didn’t screw things up any more than they already are): The infamous Akaka Bill, which would create a ‘Native Hawaiian’ government for purposes of racial preferences and other unconstitutional goodies, will not be a part of the slimmed-down legislation that funds the government until Congress gets around to passing an actual budget.”

EURO IN DANGER AS DEBT SPREADS. “Despite calls for bold initiatives to counter Europe’s mounting financial crisis, European leaders who met in Brussels last week essentially kicked the can down the road.”

REWRITING HISTORY: CNN Credits Obama For The Bush Tax Cuts.

I DON’T LIKE COLD: Prediction: Mini Ice Age Coming.

It’s looking more like Fallen Angels all the time.

THE AK-47: The Single Most Important Weapon In Modern History? Probably, but I’ve never liked ’em for accuracy. On the other hand, I’ve fired an SKS that was smooth and accurate right out of the box — it was cheap and Chinese, but it felt precise, and the trigger action was silky. Accurate out to 200 meters with iron sights, too.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: As though 1989 never happened.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. And the evil now have a whole industrial complex dedicated to convincing good men to do nothing.