THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT can’t even print money right these days: “The flawed notes represent more than ten per cent of the U.S. currency on the entire planet.”

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE ON ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: “Pulling the fire alarms on Alderaan five minutes after the Death Star shoots.”

GAS PRICES near record highs. “The price of gas has never exceeded $3 per gallon during the holidays, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic, but the current regional average is $2.97 — two cents above the national average — and could break the $3 barrier.”

CHANGE: Britain Arrests Wikileaks Founder In Sex Inquiry.

READER KEVIN GREENE WRITES:

Hmmm,

* Leaving Gitmo open.
* No trials for terrorists
* 30,000-soldier surge in Afghanistan.
* Extending tax cuts.
* Re-upping the Patriot Act.

You know, I didn’t vote for Barack W. Bush, but I’m starting to like the cut of this man’s jib.

Heh. On the other hand, Gene Simmons is experiencing buyer’s remorse.

OUR POLITICIZED JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Panel finds Justice reluctant to take cases of white victims.

MICKEY KAUS: “Greetings, IPO Suckers! General Motors’ cars are piling up on dealers’ lots again, the result of an apparent production surge designed to force sales during September and October in order to make the numbers look good for GM’s November IPO … sorry, I mean in order to maximize shareholder value!”

ROB NATELSON: The 1787 Constitutional Convention Was Not a “Runaway Convention.”

CHEAP IMAGE EDITING: Today only, Corel Paint Shop Pro X3 for 25 bucks.

UPDATE: Reader Donald MacQueen writes:

I went to the link you posted and read the reviews. The product has a ‘phone-home’ capability and the license agreement allows Corel to make changes to your system. Some of the reviewers call it spyware. I agree, and will not be buying it.

Still the most interesting blog on the the Intertubes!

Thanks to readers like you, mostly. But note that Corel has posted a response.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI: The Muslim Brotherhood Roundup.

CHANGE: Gallup: Bush’s job approval now higher than Obama’s.

STILL REMEMBERING Pearl Harbor.

KATHY GRIFFIN GETS BOOED BY THE TROOPS: “Apparently Griffin forgot she was performing for American troops. Insulting the sister of a serviceman might not be the way to go, huh?”

REMAIN CALM. ALL IS WELL. US Treasury Outlook: New Supply Seen Sold at Discount. “The U.S. Treasury will likely need to pay higher yields on this week’s debt auctions given supply will outstrip bond buying by the Federal Reserve and investors are also reticent to invest heading into year-end.”

RECOMMENDATIONS: Gifts Under $25.

HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY OZONE HOLE?

JENNIFER RUBIN: Obama Sells Out The Left. “There really is no other way to say it: the Republicans won, the liberal Democrats lost, and the president sided with the Republicans. . . . A Capitol Hill aide described Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s demeanor upon returning from the White House: ‘He looked like someone shot his dog.'”

UPDATE: Splitting the Democratic Party?

CHANGE: Obama announces tentative deal to extend Bush tax cuts.

UPDATE: Kevin Williamson: “Classic Washington: a tax cut that combines the maximum in forgone revenue with the minimum in benefits. . . . And spending remains untouched.”

TEN CLASSIC AIRLINERS. Some of these are classic. Some are just old.

A CAR DEALERSHIP Frozen In Time For 30 Years.

AT AMAZON, lots of pre-Christmas markdowns.

SO THE REASON BLOGGING HAS BEEN LIGHTER OVER THE LONG WEEKEND is that I’ve been in Turks and Caicos, where I went scuba diving with the folks from Caicos Adventures and saw lots of friendly marine life. Also saw a tiger shark, but didn’t get a picture of that one, along with the usual assortment of turtles, moray eels, rays, etc. The visibility was roughly comparable to Cayman — perhaps a bit less, but they’d just come off some rough weather that left things stirred up. The Caicos Adventures folks, recommended to me by Cayman dive guide Liz Parkinson, run a good operation. We went 18 miles offshore to French Key and the boat ride, over glass-smooth water that left the bottom looking three feet down instead of 30, was delightful.

Turks and Caicos is recovering from Hurricane Ike, which did some pretty major damage, and which found the government unprepared. (If they were regular InstaPundit readers, they’d have spent more time and money on disaster-prep.) They’re still recovering, physically and financially.

They’ve also been hit pretty hard by the financial collapse. With real estate and tourism their main industries, things are, I’m told, a lot different here than they were in 2007. There are whole mothballed hotel-and-condo projects that were partially completed in 2008, just waiting for the economy to recover to be finished. Tourism is down, and the locals we spoke with seemed quite grateful for what remains. We came because we got a terrific deal (found online by the Insta-Daughter) and our long weekend here was very pleasant. We’ll probably be back. The weather was excellent, and the water is some of the most beautiful I’ve seen in the Caribbean, which is saying something. We stayed at Grace Bay, which is reminiscent of Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach, only less builtup. The whole atmosphere here reminds me of Cayman ten or fifteen years ago before the last big wave of development hit.

On the other hand, there have been big problems with government corruption, producing some political turmoil that has brought outside supervision from Britain. We’ll see how that works out.

I have neither the means nor the inclination to be an overseas real estate investor, but prices are way down. There’s some sign that the TCI government is trying to follow Cayman by building up an offshore banking sector. I don’t know how that will work out, but since — unlike Cayman these days — they don’t have tax treaties with anyone, they may manage to pull it off.

Places that depend on tourism are hurting; if your income is reasonably secure, this is a good time to take advantage of the deals, and to help out folks who can use the business. Plus, well, you get to spend a nice long weekend somewhere warm . . . .

OBAMA PARTISANS HOPE MASS DEATH WILL HELP HIS POLITICAL FORTUNES. Classy. But given his limpness on national security, I think it would do more harm than good.

ART HORN: MSM Inertia: What We Can Learn from 120 Years of Climate Catastrophe Reporting. “The media falls in love with catastrophic predictions, and is consistently 10-15 years behind(!) in reporting on what the global temperature is actually doing.”

THE UNITED STATES OF AUTOCOMPLETE: “What happens if you let the notoriously fickle (and sometimes downright dirty) Google search autocomplete feature take over U.S. geography? A completely new State of the Union that’s heavy on universities, history and other peculiarities, that’s what.”