THE POPULAR MECHANICS FOLKS are reporting from the Consumer Electronics Show.

AN ACHIEVABLE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: Clean Out Your Pantry. I need to do that . . . .

BEWARE THE asteroid apocalypse.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Robert Gibbs crows about power of big government, gets facts completely wrong.

Much more at The Truth About Cars. “With the media firmly focused on sales percentages, particularly the gaudy increases at Buick, GMC and Cadillac, nobody seems to be noticing as Chevy systematically kills the goose that lays the golden eggs. And no wonder: overall GM’s fleet sales were an inconspicuous 25.6%, a number that’s in line with the industry average of 27.5%. But Chevrolet’s volume is the glue that keeps GM’s North American operations together, and its brand integrity will be systematically wiped out if GM bosses don’t recognize that relying on fleet-based growth is not a sustainable model for the future.”

UPDATE: Several readers wonder what percentage of those fleet sales were to the federal government.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tom Elia says GM is “channel-stuffing.”

MORE: More on GM “channel-stuffing.”

STILL MORE: A reader emails:

I’ve been in the Army for almost 16 years. Since 2008 units I’ve been in have received 13 new vehicles from the Government Supply Agency (GSA). One was a Ford. The other 12 were GM or Chrysler vehicles. All of the in-bound vehicles I know of are either GM or Chrysler.

Of course this is just my personal observation of a very small segment of the government’s vehicle leasing activities, but it would not shock me in the least to find out that GM and Chrysler’s percentage of sales to the government far out-stripped Ford’s and was way out-of-line with the performance in other fleet sales that were tied to market-based purchasers.

Hmm. These numbers shouldn’t be too hard to come by.

A CHEAP DNA SEQUENCER the size of a printer.

IN FLORIDA, FORECLOSURE CHAOS involving “allegedly forged signatures, false notarizations, bogus witnesses and improper mortgage assignments.”

LOSING WEIGHT with beer.

IN THE MAIL: From Tim Pawlenty, Courage to Stand: An American Story.

DON SURBER: David Corn Goes Ezra Klein. And Corn is old enough to know better . . . . Surber writes: “Here is what is going on: For years liberals have used the courts to dodge the legislative process because liberals are outnumbered. . . . Now ordinary citizens are turning to the Constitution and this has liberals squawking. In their minds the Constitution belongs to them and not we the people.” Ouch.

UPDATE: Are Liberals Coming Out of the Closet on the Constitution?

PJM: We’re Keeping Tabs Now: The GOP Lame Duck Scorecard. “Nothing washes over anymore — we’ll be watching every congressman’s vote and holding them accountable.”

MOE LANE: “Marxism is intellectualism for stupid people – and, believe me: if you’ve got books by Stalin in your library and you’re using those books to look for ideas… yes, you are a stupid person.” Or, you know, evil.

CHANGE: Sirius XM slashing talent salaries, says former DJ. “They paid an exorbitant amount for Hollywood people like Jamie Foxx with no f—ing radio talent, so radio people like me have suffered.”

JOHN ELWOOD ON the President’s recent signing statements.

SALE, TODAY ONLY: The Eyeclops Projector.

SKYROCKETING OIL PRICES a “threat to recovery.”

DAILY CALLER: Democrats now in minority looking a lot like old GOP as they harp on high unemployment.

NICOLE GELINAS: The Benefits Storm: Why New York Can’t Afford Enough Workers To Clean Up The Snow.

RICH GALEN: How A Bill Really Becomes A Law.

ARE CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS BECOMING AN OLD-FOGEY PARTY? “Overall, the influx of 87 new Republican House members who will be sworn in Wednesday will lower the average age of House Republicans to 54.9 from 56.5 in the last Congress, a new Wall Street Journal analysis of ages in the new Congress shows.By contrast, Democrats in the House are moving in the opposite direction on the age scale. The 2010 election swept from office some of the party’s younger members from moderate swing districts, and the result is a Democratic caucus that is both more liberal and grayer. The average age of a Democratic House member will rise to 60.2 from 58.”

IT’S ALMOST LIKE building Y-12 all over again. Plus, some Cold War memories.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Using The Debt Ceiling To Send A Powerful Message.

Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, expounds in horror that not raising the national debt ceiling yet again would be “insanity.” Goolsbee should consult a floor speech delivered not so long ago by a certain member of Congress who offered this counterargument to automatic debt ceiling increases: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. … It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.”

Which die-hard Tea Party wingnut said that? It was none other than Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaking on the Senate floor in 2006 just before he voted against raising the debt ceiling. Obama was right.

Read the whole thing.

PARING-KNIFE UPDATE: Ashley Smithwick met with the Lee County Superintendent on Tuesday in a closed door meeting. She will be allowed to walk at her High School graduation.

CHANGE: More women marrying for money than in the 1940s.

BYRON YORK: IRS dithers while prisoners file phony tax returns, collect millions in refunds.

Well, they’re probably busy elsewhere.