CHANGING OF THE GUARD: Michael Walsh is leaving BigJournalism.com, and Dana Loesch is taking over as editor-in-chief. A good man, replaced by a good woman.

HOUSING ISN’T THE ONLY SECTOR that’s underwater.

ANDREW FERGUSON: Paranoid Politics.

THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY PRETENDING TO BE RICH.

THE POWER OF SELF-DELUSION.

HOW CLOSE IS A WORKABLE BRAIN/COMPUTER INTERFACE? About 15 minutes closer than the first workable brain/computer interface virus, would be my guess . . .

APPARENTLY, THE LONG MARCH THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS HAS GONE PRETTY FAR: VFW endorses … Senator Ma’am? I’m guessing this is yet another institution where the leadership has gotten out of touch with the grassroots. . . .

HEALTH RULES, LIKE TAXES, ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Mayor’s Soda Plan and His Company’s Policy Differ.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my Canadian readers!

ROBO-ANIMALS AT WAR: Fish, Birds and Bats Inspire Navy’s Next-Gen Drones.

IT’S ROASTED CHICKEN SEASON. You know, it is. Here’s my recipe for InstaChicken. An oldie, but a goody.

UPDATE: Reader Tom Ganley writes:

The ingredients to make your roast chicken, to feed 3-4 people, cost about as much as one Mac D’s meal deal. It amazes me when people say that poor people are obese because they can’t afford to buy good food, they can only afford to eat junk. If you add a salad, garlic bread, and a decent bottle of grocery store wine, you’d have a delicious healthy Sunday feast for 4, at less cost than fast food to feed the same number of people.

Yeah, that argument’s pretty lame. You can eat healthy and delicious food for not much money if you’re willing to cook.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Antoinette Aubert writes:

You said people can eat healthily and inexpensively if they are “willing to cook.” There is another proviso; you have to know how to cook. How many of the inner city poor being raised by single moms ever learned how to cook?

My mom was a lousy cook. But I went to school back in the bad old days when girls had to take cooking and sewing classes. I save my family money not only by cooking, but by repairing torn clothes and even occasionally making new ones. Do any kids of any sex still take home ec anymore? Don’t take the ability to cook meals for granted. I know plenty of people who just can’t.

Sigh.

MORE: Reader Marica Bernstein writes:

Two three thoughts:

1. “I’m too busy to cook.” B-o-l-o-g-n-a. (Thanks to Oscar Meyer for teaching me how to spell that.) All you need is a system that works for you– a weekly menu that dictates your grocery list,* maybe do your prep cooking while watching Sunday football, find your crock pot, Tuesday night “veggie night,” with some to spare, means you have side dishes for the rest of the week. … Et cetera. “I’m too busy to cook” is like saying “I’m too busy to live.” Of course, I say this on a full stomach.

2. As much as you can, grow your own produce. Everyone can have a window herb garden. Many can grow tomatoes and peppers, lettuce, collards, and whatnot. It’s not hard. Glen, you’ve linked several times to Bill Quick’s new forum, and there are others like it out there as well, all with people who have gardens and who grow an amazing amount of their own fruits, veggies, and herbs, even in apartments and urban settings. The how to info is out there. No excuse for not giving it a go.

3. Cooking is fun. No matter where you get the ingredients, putting them together to create a meal for yourself or your family is a fundamental human activity. Feeding is, after all, one of the big Fs in biology. If you’re not good at it at first– well, then keep trying! (None of us were all that great the first time we tried the other Fs, now were we? Practice, practice… .)

And just FYI, we’re not nut jobs. Honest.

Why would I think that?

VOTER FRAUD WATCH: UNCLE PAJAMAS WANTS YOU. “Under ‘Voter Fraud Watch’ PJMedia seeks to develop a network of citizen journalists/poll watchers to monitor as many polling places as possible across the nation on election day.” (Bumped).

VIDEO: Google’s Secret Driverless Cars In Action.

HOW WILL HUMANS EVOLVE?

“FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS” in the over-50 set. “‘Friends with benefits’ are uniquely suited to two groups of people — the young, who want to delay starting their life, and older people, who don’t want to complicate it.”

THE WORLD’S FIRST robot census.

MICHAEL YON: The Linda Norgrove Rescue Tragedy.

EXPERIMENT: Treat your gas guzzler like an electric car to see how real “range anxiety” is.

THE TONGUE PATCH DIET. “Dr. Nikolas Chugay can surgically apply a patch onto your tongue which will make eating difficult; therefore, you will lose weight.”

THE DEATH OF BIGLAW and the birth of what?

MICHAEL TOTTEN: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Declaration Of War. “No one in the West but Barry Rubin seems to have noticed, but the Muslim Brotherhood just declared war on the United States.”

“WHORE-GATE:” Who’s in bed with Jerry Brown?

IN THE MAIL: She’s the Boss: The Disturbing Truth About Nancy Pelosi.

MICHAEL BARONE: Can Skinflint Mitch Daniels Win The Presidency?

WELL, THAT’S ENCOURAGING: Relax, there are worse pests than bedbugs making a comeback:

Although I know of people whose hotel stays have been ruined by waking up with red, mosquito bite-like welts, the creepy crawlies are not known to transmit diseases.

Mosquitoes, of course, are another story. You could fork over $300 for a portable heating unit to bake bedbugs into oblivion, but you might be better off spending it on insect repellent and long-sleeved shirts for your next vacation to Florida – where dengue fever is making inroads after a 75-year absence. And, like other mosquito-borne scourges such as malaria and West Nile virus, dengue can disrupt a lot more than a night’s rest.

There. Don’t you feel better now?