JENNIFER RUBIN ON BARNEY FRANK: Good Riddance! “His real legacy will be his cluelessness and indifference to reforming Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.” Which was a major cause of the current financial crisis.

UPDATE: Something to remember: The White House Warned Congress About Fannie Mae Freddie Mac 17 Times In 2008, Alone.

CHRIS CHRISTIE ON THE SUPER COMMITTEE: What the hell are we paying Obama for? Golf.

#OCCUPYFAIL: “Mostly Peaceful” Occupy Portland Anarchists Found With Body Armor and Machetes.

Sounds like they’ve been reading too much Steve Stirling. If that’s possible.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN CANADA: B.C. Tory leader wants bulb ban reversed.

Well, with Canada renouncing the Kyoto protocols, maybe there’s hope. For Americans, however, things don’t look so bright. But it’s not too late to stock up! Yet.

TAKING THE LONG VIEW: “Long after the time in which anyone can easily recall who was US president in 2011, or what party was in power, or which wars of declining empire were fought, and then long after anyone even cares about that ancient history, and later, long after the whole download slope of the history of the US is but a footnote of interest to scholars of the transition from second to third millennium, and later still, long after anyone can even find out with any great reliability who was US president in 2011 … long after all these things are forgotten, the first half of the 21st century will still be clearly recalled as the dawn of the era in which aging was conquered.” Let us hope.

DEEP-SEA FISHING 42,000 years ago. “What’s still unknown is how these ancient people were able to catch these fast-moving deep-ocean fish.”

AT AMAZON, Cyber Monday markdowns on DVDs.

PERHAPS THE VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL SHOULD INVESTIGATE: Richmond, VA Slaps Local Tea Party with a (Political) Tax Audit. I’d at least do a state FOIA request on all communications relating to this action. Also, the local Tea Party should drop by the Mayor’s house, since the ACORN and Occupy people have established that as a perfectly acceptable protest tactic.

“THE WORLD IS UNFAIR:” “Such is life when you allegedly insult Barack Obama. Had she only done this when George W. Bush was president she’d be a worldwide celebrity.”

MICKEY KAUS: “Is it too fusty to ask, if we can’t call illegals ‘illegals,’ and we can’t call illegals ‘undocumented immigrants,’ what words can we use? Is this one of those cases where we just need a new term every decade or so as the old term becomes tarnished by popular opprobrium? Or is the whole idea of distinguishing between people who have complied with immigration laws and people who haven’t complied with immigration laws now a forbidden thought?”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Researchers make magnetic nanoparticles that can latch on to harmful molecules and purge them from the blood. “The project involves magnetized nanoparticles that are coated with carbon and studded with antibodies specific to the molecules the researchers want to purge from the blood: inflammatory proteins such as interleukins, or harmful metals like lead, for example. By adding the nanomagnets to blood, then running the blood through a dialysis machine or similar device, the researchers can filter out the unwanted compounds.”

Faster, please.

STONEWALL: Napolitano, DHS Still Silent on Mohamed Elibiary. “Before publishing the original article, I spoke with DHS spokesman Chris Ortman. After grilling me about the nature of my source, he immediately terminated the conversation after I asked him how and when Elibiary got access to the HS SLIC system, telling me he would have to get back to me. Needless to say, I’m still waiting for that return phone call, despite follow-up emails.”

ENCOUNTER BOOKS TO PUBLISH America 3.0 by Jim Bennett and Michael Lotus.

#GREENFAIL: “Alberta’s $60 million carbon-cutting program is failing.”

CYBER MONDAY: 25-30% off Shoes & Accessories. Men’s, women’s and children’s.

HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY to the Institute For Justice.

KAY HYMOWITZ: How Brooklyn Got Its Groove Back. “It’s a story that contains plenty of gumption, innovation, and aspiration, but also a disturbing coda. Brooklyn now boasts a splendid population of postindustrial and creative-class winners—but in the far reaches of the borough, where nary a hipster can be found, it is also home to the economy’s many losers. . . . For all their energy and creativity, Brooklyn’s young entrepreneurs tend to have few employees, and they’re not likely to be hiring large numbers in the future. The factories of the past employed hundreds, if not thousands; Dumbo alone once had three firms that each employed more than 1,000. Today, Etsy, one of the area’s more successful companies, has a staff of just 180. The old Brooklyn Navy Yard now rents space to 275 businesses, employing 5,800 people. That’s an impressive rise from 3,600 in 2001, true. But compare it with the Yard at its World War II peak, when it had 71,000 workers, or in 1959, when it employed ‘only’ 15,000. Even Brooklyn Brewery has only about 50 employees, small potatoes when you consider that Schaefer Beer’s Brooklyn factory—now a luxury building called Schaefer Landing—once had 1,000. . . . Brooklyn’s story, then, doesn’t lend itself to a simple happy ending. Instead, the borough is a microcosm of the nation’s ‘hourglass economy.’ At the top, the college-educated are doing interesting, motivating work during the day and bicycling home to enjoy gourmet beer and grass-fed beef after hours. At the bottom, matters are very different.”

“THIS IS MY JOB:” What it’s like to be a custom parts fabricator.

HYBRID NEWS: Fisker says Karma will meet 15,000 production target for 2012.

Also: Toyota counting on Prius sales increase in 2012. I saw a truckload of Prius V models the other day. The Insta-Wife, who’s not crazy about the Prius (“too little”) liked ’em. She’d probably like a Fisker Karma better, though . . . .

IN IRAN, an earth-shattering kaboom.

NEW POLITICAL AD: DECLINE IS A CHOICE. It’s from Gary Glenn, who’s runnning in the primary for the Michigan seat currently held by Debbie Stabenow.

UPDATE: Well, it’s a good ad, but I’m told that Gary Glenn is a big anti-gay guy. That’s not cool.

STOLEN SPERM? Man says ex-girlfriend used his sperm, had IVF treatment that produced twins without consent. “His ex-girlfriend gave birth to twin boys and then sued him for child support. She was granted that child support after blood tests confirmed Pressil was the father. . . . In his lawsuit, Pressil said he found out about the plot when a receipt arrived in the mail, listing him as the patient. ‘Pressil was listed as the ‘patient’ on the receipt even though he had never been to (the clinic) nor ever sought treatment for male infertility,’ according to his lawsuit.”

Sounds like he may have a claim against the clinic. Meanwhile, read this piece by Michael Higdon.

UPDATE: Reader Joel Pomerantz writes: “I don’t understand why so many people refer to male nonconsensual reproduction as theft. Sperm typically has minimal value. Nonconsensual reproduction is rape. The appropriate remedy is to jail the rapist and give custody to the father.”

MICHAEL TOTTEN: The Christians of Egypt, Part II.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Howard Lovy: Drug Delivery Is One Way Nanotech Will Live Up to Its Hype.