GOLD INTO LEAD: How In Europe, Even Admission Of A “Plan B” Is Equivalent To Failure.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Eric Holder ‘one of the most incompetent attorneys general in US history.’

CLAUDIA ROSETT: The Long, Rough Awakening Of Russia.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Christmas with blended families. It still works pretty much the same way with us a decade later, though we’ve lost some folks, sadly, but picked up some new ones, gladly.

It’s not as easy for everyone.

AT AMAZON, loads of Year-End Deals.

SOME PEOPLE ARE feeling unappreciated.

STACY MCCAIN is heading for Iowa.

MERRY CHRISTMAS:

TEN THINGS TRAINERS wish you knew about your workout.

Meanwhile, inspired by my Mark Rippetoe interview, I went to the gym on leg day yesterday and did a bunch of heavy squats and deadlifts as outlined in his new book. Today, I’ve been walking a little funny as a result. . . .

IOWA FORECAST: Moderate Weather.

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY to Bill Quick’s DailyPundit. How many of us blogging back in 2001 thought we’d still be doing it ten years later?

CHRISTMAS, 1981. “Things sure have changed in the past 30 years…”

BELARUS: The Irresistible Lure Of The Dark Side.

RUSSIA: Vast Rally In Moscow Is A Challenge To Putin’s Power.

JEFF JACOBY: The Affirmative Action Myth.

ON PJTV: Bill Whittle and I talk about our favorite Christmas toys as kids. With awesome Johnny Astro video.

CALIFORNIA ATHEISTS BLOCK OUT NATIVITY SCENES: You know, atheism would be more popular if atheists weren’t such schmucks.

HOPE AND CHANGE: U.S. Retirement Assets Declined by $1.4 Trillion.

SAYUNCLE is switching teams.

OBAMA ON SIGNING STATEMENTS, then and now. “I agree with the Obama of 2008. Just because presidents are incompetent and can’t get what they want from congress doesn’t mean they can run off and decide which laws to enforce and which to ignore. ‘Gridlock’ is not an excuse.”

JOHN HAWKINS: THE 50 BEST POLITICAL QUOTES OF 2011.

ON FACEBOOK, Jay Cost recommends Sean Trende’s The Lost Majority: Why the Future of Government Is Up for Grabs – and Who Will Take It.

And hey, if you got a new Kindle for Christmas, why not fill it up here?

MERRY CHRISTMAS:

ROSS DOUTHAT: THE CRATCHIT TAX CREDIT: “In 21st-century America, the well-off and well-educated have the best odds of enjoying the domestic stability that the Yuletide stories celebrate, while the very people who most need resilient families — the Cratchits and Baileys, the working poor and the hard-pressed middle class — are less and less likely to have them. . . . There is no government program that can guarantee a happy childhood or a devoted spouse. (If you replaced Clarence from “It’s a Wonderful Life” or the Angel Gabriel of the Gospels with a Health and Human Services bureaucrat, those stories would probably have a much grimmer ending.)” Just remember, people respond to incentives, even perverse ones.

RAND SIMBERG: Obama has achieved his goal of higher energy costs. This should be a powerful campaign theme next year: “Obama got what he wanted. Did you?”