IN VIRGINIA, Tea Party goes local. This is actually happening all over, in various ways.

OUCH: “If there has been a less competent Middle East negotiating team, I can’t recall it.”

GIFT RECOMMENDATIONS for everyone on your list.

MOE LANE on the difference between charity and indulgence.

“JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”

CROWDSOURCING JOBS TO A WORLDWIDE MOBILE WORKFORCE: “An ambitious startup strives to create a business based on paying poor people to do microtasks on their phones.”

BRADY CAMPAIGN going after Ghostbusters quotes? “It’s amazing how low the Bradys are willing to go these days. But cribbing quotes out of context from some kid’s Facebook has to take the cake.”

Well, to be fair, the Ghostbusters guys did have those unlicensed particle accelerators strapped to their backs . . . .

12 STITCHES FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA.

UPDATE: Metaphor of the day: Dems say Obama rebound is coming, Obama gets 12 stitches in lip after basketball game.

GUN OWNER RECOVERS $23,500 FOR WRONGFUL SEARCH: “Dale Stokes, an Allentown police officer, stormed into the store, detained Corliss for doing absolutely nothing illegal, searched him without a warrant and seized his pistol. Corliss was not charged and the weapon was returned, but those actions clashed with both the Bill of Rights and the Pennsylvania Constitution, which will cost the city, or its insurance carrier, $23,500 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Corliss, who now lives in Lebanon.”

HILLARY CHABOT: John Kerry: Deck my halls — Rich Pol urges strapped donors to give.

LIST: 100 Notable Books of 2010.

DAVID HARSANYI: Live Free Or Die! (When The Right Guy Is President).

SHEILA BAIR: Will the next fiscal crisis start in Washington? Well, this is comforting, especially considering the source.

STANDING UP TO TERRORISM: UCLA researcher says he won’t be deterred by animal activists’ attacks. “After the latest incident, in which he received a letter containing razor blades and threats that his throat would be cut, J. David Jentsch says he isn’t intimidated. ‘This is the work I feel morally obligated to do,’ he says.”

Animal “rights” activists are just anti-human. If only this got one tenth the publicity that a bogus charge of racism aimed at Tea Partiers gets as a matter of course.

SO DOES THIS MEAN THE ECONOMY’S IMPROVING? Throwing punches over Black Friday discounts.

HIDING THE DECLINE at the California state pension system.

.50 CALIBER AR-15 UPPER for sale at . . . Sears?

It’s this one.

PUTTING THE U.S. TO SHAME: Canada will boycott Durban III.

POPULAR MECHANICS: What’s With the All-Electric Nissan Leaf’s 99 MPG Rating?

THE END OF the clerkship cartel?

IN THE MAIL: From Jerry & Sharon Ahern, Written in Time.

BILL WHITTLE: WHAT WE BELIEVE: AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM.

This whole series is now available on DVD and would make a great stocking-stuffer.

CHANGE: North Korea says on ‘brink of war’ as US, South Korea prepare for military exercises.

So will Barack Obama repeat then-President Bill Clinton’s threat to “erase North Korea from the map of the world” if North Korea gets out of hand? It seemed to work for Clinton.

PROF. JACOBSON: How Do We Say “Hail To The President Of Our 57 States” In Austrian?

IS THE IRS TARGETING JEWISH GROUPS FOR BEING PRO-ISRAEL? “Imagine if the Reagan administration had scrutinized an anti-apartheid group because its demands for the economic boycott of South Africa contradicted the administration’s preference for quiet diplomacy.”