CHALK ONE UP FOR THE BITTER CLINGERS: Dramatic shift in U.S. attitudes behind gun acquisition.

Natanel is a Buddhist, a self-avowed “spiritual person,” a 53-year-old divorcee who lives alone in a liberal-leaning suburb near Boston. She is 5-foot-1 and has a ready smile and a soothing voice. She’s a tai chi instructor who in classes invokes the benefits of meditation. And at least twice a month, she takes her German-made Walther PK380 to a shooting range and blazes away.

Two years ago, an ex-boyfriend broke into her house when she wasn’t home. The police advised a restraining order.

Ultimately, she got the Walther.

Read the whole thing. All is proceeding as I have foreseen. The next step is to widen the discussion. Related item here.

UPDATE: Advice from reader Todd Gross:

My wife, son, and I spent yesterday at a local indoor pistol range. Wide selection of rental guns to ‘try on’. We settled on a Glock model 22 (.40 S&W, full size) for the stocking. Except for youth hunting experience we are first time buyers.

Earlier this year myself, wife, and 2 kids (early 20s) took a Florida concealed carry course. Figured we’d commit while we still can.

For folks looking to take the first step, a friendly local dealer (preferably a small business willing to spend time listening), a local range, and trying before you buy are invaluable.

Indeed. And reader Jack Moody writes:

I’ll note that Eric Holder was mentioned in your article. Over ten years ago.

And back then he was working hand in glove with gun control organizations to restrict gun rights by using the fears of foreign terrorists buying arms from american gun dealers.

Well at least Holder wasn’t overseeing a plan to send arms to said terrorists back then.

At least.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Unemployed Lawyers Auction Their Services On The Web. The legal establishment doesn’t like the price-competition angle, shockingly. “Any lawyer who signs up for this service should be immediately disbarred, then tarred and feathered, then publicly humiliated.”

A LOVE STORY, and redemption.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Christians Are Still Having Sex. Who knew?

AT AMAZON, Top Holiday Deals.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: As Americans struggle, the Obamas make do with 37 Christmas trees. “The economy may be weak, unemployment strong and the first family soon to vacate the White House for another half-month of vacation in Hawaii. But the Obamas have gone all out in decorating their house this year, including a nearly quarter-ton gingerbread White House. . . . How simple, politically astute, symbolically helpful and cost-effective it would have been for the Obamas this year to say that in sympathy with so many struggling countrymen, they were curtailing holiday decorations to match the sacrifices of others. Mrs. Obama took another tack, however.” Shared sacrifice. But just think how many more stories like this we’d see if there were a Republican in the White House.

Just remember, when they fly to Hawaii, it won’t be on one of those evil corporate jets. It’ll be on a virtuous government jet.

UPDATE: Reader Edward Nutter writes: “I’d like to note that when Mitt Romney offered to bet Rick Perry $10 grand about the contents of Mitt’s book, he was putting up his own money. The flight costs alone for a DC to Hawaii round trip will be over 350 times that…of course on the taxpayer’s dime.”

P.J. O’ROURKE: If the 1% had less, would the 99% be better off?

“DO YOU WANT TO BE A MESS, OR DO YOU WANT TO ACT WITH GRACE?” How to Deal When Bad Things Happen.

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:

CBS Poll: 54% Say Obama Doesn’t Deserve Re-Election.

Matt Welch To Barack Obama: Hey, What About That “Net Spending Cut” You Promised Back in 2008? With video.

Frank J. on anti-intellectualism. He’s an expert!

Record oil production in North Dakota.

The shortage of blue-collar workers.

The future of higher education. Plus, Change.edu is free on Kindle for one more day.

Eurozone banking not looking so good.

What to do when the lights go out. More here.

Boston Occupiers Leave Site In The Kind Of Condition The Country Would Be In If They Were Listened To.

When politics meets science: LightSquared disrupts 75% of GPS receivers in gov’t testing.

Illegal no-knock raid costs Minneapolis $1 million. And they got off light.

Sexist claims from Sen. Patty Murray.

It’s not just Lightsquared: Regulators could sanction Falcone over trading.

Warehouse deals on Kitchen gear.

STACY MCCAIN: Barack Obama’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview Has Me Screaming at My TV Again.

RAND SIMBERG ON SPACE POLICY AND THE REPUBLICAN DEBATE: “Question for the Romney campaign. Why is the governor opposed to opening up new resources? Why does he think that we would have to spend more to do so than we are now on a rocket that will never fly?”

TODAY ONLY: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras, $144.

UPDATE: A reader (name omitted to protect possible Christmas surprise) writes: “Thanks for posting the Amazon link for the Canon lens. I didn’t know I needed it until I saw it. The lens will be nice addition under my tree.” Glad to be of help!

#GOVERNMENTFAIL: “Affordable Housing” Programs Don’t Deliver. “To help build homes for the poor, the city turned to the federal government, drawing $3.5 million for four projects that promised 202 units. Years later, all the money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME fund has been spent, but 83 houses have not been delivered. One project failed to produce a single home.”

MATT PATTERSON: Climategate proves scientists are – gasp! – human. “The lesson is simple: Just because experts say it’s so, don’t necessarily mean it’s so. They are subject to prejudices of heart and errors of logic like every other human being. . . . The emails also show AGW scientists conspiring to smear those who disagree with their apocalyptic diagnosis of the planetary temperature, and discussing with one another how to hide or minimize contrary evidence and evade lawful requests for their data.”

It’s funny because the press has done its best to ignore or minimize the Climategate scandals, but the polls demonstrate that the public has found out anyway.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Mortgage With Every College Graduation. “In order to have a healthy housing market you need to have a steady employment base and also a low level of distressed properties. Both of these prerequisites unfortunately are not applicable to the current economy. One albatross of future buyers is the now increasing burden of student loan debt. While virtually every other debt sector has contracted since the recession hit student loan debt is the only segment that has increased dramatically. . . . Just look at the data; in 2000 student loan debt was roughly 2 percent of all household debt. Today student loan debt makes up over 7 percent of total household debt. Many future buyers are going to have their purchasing power curtailed by the amount of debt they are carrying with student loans.”

Yeah, as I’ve been saying for a while, if you graduate college with the equivalent of a mortgage already, you’re not going to be so quick to take on another one.

And check out this graphic:

Others, equally disturbing, at the link. Moral: Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. This can’t go on forever.

RECYCLING old Cray supercomputers.

HERSCHEL SMITH ON NO-KNOCK RAIDS: “Do SWAT teams want to play soldier so badly that they are willing to endanger the public, and are judges concerned enough about a ‘small amount of marijuana’ that they are willing to see military tactics used against U.S. citizens?” Yes. Next question?

Meanwhile, Vox Day achieves an almost-Steynian degree of pessimism, while others go farther. I, on the other hand, think America will not only survive, but flourish in the coming decades, most likely without hanging even a single politician from a lamppost. But I’m just one of those Pollyannas.

Meanwhile, one day I’m going to have to actually read Pollyanna. It’s one of those books that nobody reads, but that has become an expression. I’ve never even seen the movie, which as a Disney item likely took liberties. The popular usage is probably unfair. On the other hand, I’m pretty well-known for my sunny disposition. . . .

NYPD ARRESTS WRONG GUY ON HIS WEDDING DAY. “He now has a mountain of legal bills. Oh, and while he was in jail, the actual ‘serial groper’ struck again.”

VIDEO: Why Obama’s Stimulus Failed.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Don Surber: Occupy Is The 1%. “For the most part they are spoiled rotten brats who took out huge loans to pay for four years of self-indulgence at some over-rated liberal arts college. Somehow, they were able to spend a few months in the fall camping out and protesting against the working class while not working themselves. They are in that upper 1% who do not have to work.”

DANIEL YERGIN: America’s New Energy Security: Thanks to new technology, the U.S. has become less dependent on petroleum imports from unstable countries. “U.S. petroleum imports, on a net basis, reached their peak—60%—of domestic consumption in 2005. Since then, they have been going in the other direction. They are now down to 46%. . . . U.S. crude oil output has risen by 18% since 2008. Some of that has come from an increase in deep-water output, although after last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill the pace of future growth is more uncertain. The big surprise is onshore, where the United States is experiencing an oil boom.” The Saudis and their allies the Greens are unhappy, but for everyone else it’s good news.

AMY ALKON: My Kinda Party. “Rocket scientists, bloggers, male and female bikers, a geiger counter and a radioactive dinner plate, a Hartung enthusiast, and homemade ice cream made in two minutes with liquid nitrogen.” Mine, too!

VOTING RIGHTS: It all depends. “If any of the Democrats at the rally recognized the absurdity of Communists demonstrating on behalf of voting rights, they kept it to themselves. Likewise with the delegation from CAIR.”

#HOLLYWOODFAIL: Movie audiences shrink below post-Sept. 11 level. “Hollywood’s holidays are off to a dreadful start: Fewer people went to the movies the last two weekends than during the box-office hush that followed the Sept. 11 attacks 10 years ago.”

That’s because their movies stink. And yet the ticket prices keep going up. And the sound is often overhyped and unpleasant. But mostly, the movies just aren’t good.