IN THE MAIL: Share the Inheritance: Gifts of Intangible and Tangible Wealth.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Is Chris Christie Sarah Palin, Or Ronald Reagan? “I’d just point out that Chris Christie just finished his first year as governor in a state where ugly budget problems offer extremely unpleasant choices. He’s made real, deep cuts, as he’s had to–unlike Obama, to whom he is now being compared, he can’t just borrow money to paper over the holes.”

BYRON YORK: Smiling Dems Will Soon Cry “Washington Is Broken!”

With a significantly smaller, 53-seat majority in the Senate, Democrats will no longer be able to pass contentious legislation all by themselves or with just one or two Republican votes. On the other side, Republicans, with 47 votes, will no longer have to achieve perfect unity to sustain a filibuster and stop objectionable legislation. They’ll be able to lose three, four, five, even six members of the GOP caucus and still stop a bill.

That’s why you’re hearing confidence from the likes of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and deficit hawk Sen. Tom Coburn. “There aren’t going to be any big spending bills,” Coburn told ABC recently when asked to assess prospects for legislation next year.

It’s also why you’re hearing new rumbling about what many Democrats consider the ultimate fix for the Washington-is-broken problem: eliminating the filibuster. A perennial complaint, unhappiness with the filibuster is likely to reach new heights among Democrats in the next few months. Already, the entire returning Democratic caucus has signed a letter by Sens. Carl Levin and Mark Warner calling for rules changes that will make it easier to kill filibusters. Some are also hoping to make it possible to change the Senate’s rules with a simple majority vote, rather than the two-thirds vote required now. That way, Democrats could do anything they want, even without that 60-vote majority.

It won’t happen; there aren’t the votes. It could even be that Democrats are pushing the anti-filibuster argument so loudly because they know it won’t happen. That way, they can position themselves as favoring “filibuster reform” with the comfort of knowing they’ll still have the filibuster the next time they’re in the minority, which might be soon.

Indeed.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Pensions Push Taxes Higher: Cities Tap Homeowners for Revenue as Workers’ Retirement, Health Costs Rise.

AT THE MOMENT, IT’S LOOKING PRETTY GOOD: Would Global Warming Be So Bad?

NO MORE SHIPPING IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS, but you can send Kindle books or gift cards. Otherwise, I can’t help you. If you’ve procrastinated this long, it’s brave-the-malls time!

SHOCKER: NY Mayor Bloomberg Was “In Cahoots” With Planners of Ground Zero Mosque.

DER SPIEGEL: ‘Barack Obama Was the Biggest Loser of 2010.’ Hey, I thought electing Obama was supposed to make the Europeans approve of us. . . .

POLL: Public has no idea how high police and fire salaries are.

UPDATE: Reader Mark Ferrigno emails:

I can’t agree more. I live in Hawaii and the Honolulu Police Officers have had a 33.8% increase in the last 4 years. No one I work with believed me until I printed out and showed them the article

http://www.kitv.com/news/13391209/detail.html

Of course the “police spokesman” tells us the increase is need to “recruit and retain” officers. Hmm, head over to the HPD website and you will discover that they are not hiring. Guess that did the trick!

I wonder how many quit prior to the increase citing “low pay” Educated guess is zero.

Oh yeah, and the starting pay is 51K a year and after 5 years Officers also have the choice of using their own private vehicle for law enforcement duties as part of a subsidized program.

I would guess that retention isn’t that tough.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER EDITORIAL: Voters elected Republicans to end Obamaism, not expand it.

SCOTT JOHNSON: Gangster Government, TSA Edition.

HIDDEN DEFICIT: Cooking the Books: The 2010 Deficit Was $2.1 trillion.

ARE REPUBLICANS in danger of losing Middle America after all?

UPDATE: Reader Clint Block emails:

There is something which has been bothering me for some time: Oftentimes the term “middle class” is used as a rough equivalent of “median income”, as in “middle class tax cut” etc..

Originally the term Middle class referred to the merchant or Bourgeois class who were not tied to the land, like the feudal aristocracy and the peasants, nor part of the Clerical class. In other words, the entrepeneurial class. Middle class values were entrepeneurial values.

Republicans should stand for entrepeneurial values, not just the values which happen to be those of median income earners.

Well, that’s more likely to happen if they think there’s more to be gained by doing so . . . .

ROGER SIMON: Brain-Dead In Seattle.

PIGFORD UPDATE: Former Agriculture Secretary Confirms FBI Investigations Into USDA Inside-Job Pigford Fraud.

Related: Testimony: FBI Investigated ‘Broker’ Who Allegedly Recruited Pigford Claimants for Commission Cash.

DALLAS FEDERAL RESERVE: The Fallacy of a Pain-Free Path To A Healthy Housing Market.

CHANGE: Obama Readies First Execution.

WELL, YOU CAN STILL ORDER Amazon Gift Cards, but other than that you’re pretty much out of luck for delivery by Christmas at this point, unless you live in the select cities with local delivery on Christmas Eve. Otherwise, if you’ve procrastinated this long, it’s either gift cards, or braving the malls tomorrow.

Thanks to all the InstaPundit readers who’ve bought through the links on this page, or the search box in the right sidebar. I thank you, and my family thanks you!

THE TWELVE BOTS OF CHRISTMAS?

STEVE CHAPMAN on the state of global freedom.

TSA STRIKES BACK AT CRITIC: “An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security. . . . The YouTube videos, posted Nov. 28, show what the pilot calls the irony of flight crews being forced to go through TSA screening while ground crew who service the aircraft are able to access secure areas simply by swiping a card. . . . Video shot in the cockpit shows a medieval-looking rescue ax available on the flight deck after the pilots have gone through the metal detectors. ‘I would say a two-foot crash ax looks a lot more formidable than a box cutter,’ the pilot remarked.”

This is precisely the sort of vindictive — while fundamentally ineffective — behavior we expect from Janet Napolitano. And once again, we are not disappointed.

DEATH COMES TO RIVERDALE: Archie Comics explore alternate history.

13-YEAR-OLD BOY BUSTED FOR POSSESSING MAGIC MARKER. “A good thing he apparently didn’t draw boobs, or they probably would’ve booked him as a sex offender, too.”

ALAN BOYLE: Turn to the Weird Side of science.

GRATEFUL CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS from Toby Buckell.