POPULAR SCIENCE: The Season’s Hottest Gadgets.

AT AMAZON, Black Friday deals on clothing and accessories.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Why Democrats needs to apologize to Paul Ryan over ‘Mediscare.’ “Now you tell us, NYTimes. Shorter version: Ryan’s idea of turning Medicare into a premium support system is actually a pretty mainstream idea.”

EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN: What Really Happened to Dominique Strauss-Kahn?

R.E.M. SLEEP STATE takes edge off painful memories.

UPDATE: Reader John Schedler writes: “Every troop in my old rifle company could have told you that. My uncle advised me that would be the case, as well. Glad to see ‘science’ is catching up.” Well, when they understand the mechanism, maybe they can produce a pill that does the same thing, but better.

CHEVY VOLT UPDATE: NHTSA releases Chevy Volt fire investigation details.

OOPS: Fiat J-Lo Ad Clusterfark Continues, Body Double’s Fiat 500 Broke Down in Mid-Shoot. So the Fiat was authentic, anyway.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Cairo: Paris Of The East? “Those of us old enough to have attended college back when even liberal arts and humanities professors routinely taught subjects that actually matter can dredge up our studies of the French Revolution and the subsequent 200 years of European and global reflection on the meaning and politics of that revolution to help us get to grips with what is happening in Egypt.”

UPDATE: Suddenly, the White House is changing its tone on Egypt. A bit late. “Is military rule a preferable outcome? Not at all. However, we should have tried to work through Mubarak first rather than rush to throw him aside. Meanwhile, the State Department insisted for months of brutal repression in Syria that Bashar Assad was a ‘reformer’ with whom we could work despite his alliance with Iran, while we castigated and abandoned one of the rare Arab leaders willing to keep peace with Israel. Whatever that was, it certainly wasn’t ‘smart power,’ and this outcome was predictable.”

A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO, in an unsuccessful effort to win me back from the world of Keurig, reader Aaron Blanco sent me some of his custom-roasted coffee. It was quite good, and even though the K-cup convenience won out in the end that wasn’t because of the coffee. But he writes that he’s now selling his coffee on Amazon, so those of you who aren’t brewing your coffee one cup at a time might want to give it a try.

UPDATE: Various readers write about refillable K-cups. Yes, I have one and they’re nice, but you have to fill them and then clean them, which takes away some of the appeal.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Some readers are complaining about possible “astroturf” positive reviews on Amazon.

MORE: Aaron Blanco writes: “Thanks so much for your post on our coffee. With regards to ‘astroturf’ I can say that my mom is definitely among our biggest supporters–whose isn’t? I’m trying to get her to delete her reviews for obvious reasons. (Just try to get a proud mama to stand down!) But every other review is from legitimate orders we have filled. We’re just a small biz with a product we wholeheartedly believe in, trying to make a dollar in this economy just like everybody else.”

And reader Chug Roberts emails: “The ekobrew Refillable K-Cup is MUCH better than the Solofill Reusable K-Cups. Much better – we have and use 3 of them in our office after trying out the Solofill.”

AT AMAZON, markdowns on computers, office equipment, and software.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Help Wanted: In Unexpected Twist, Some Skilled Jobs Go Begging.

DENVER—Ferrie Bailey’s job should be easy: hiring workers amid the worst stretch of unemployment since the Depression.

A recruiter for Union Pacific Corp., she has openings to fill, the kind that sometimes seem to have all but vanished: secure, well-paying jobs with good benefits that don’t require a college degree. But they require specialized skills—expertise in short supply even with the unemployment rate at 9%. Which is why on a recent morning the recruiter found herself in a hiring hall here anxiously awaiting the arrival of just two people she had invited to interviews, winnowed from an initial group of nearly five dozen applicants. With minutes to go, the folding chairs sat empty. “I don’t think they’re going to show,” Ms. Bailey said, pacing in the basement room.

Her challenge is a familiar one to recruiters, especially in industries that require workers with trade skills such as welding. Union Pacific struggles to find enough electricians who have worked with diesel engines. Manufacturers in many places can’t find enough machinists. Oil companies must fight for a limited supply of drilling-rig workers.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Custom car-maker David Kirkham emails: “Your WSJ link is (depressingly) more accurate than you may realize. I would hire 5 more guys right now if I could. However, it is virtually impossible to find anyone with skills anymore. The number one skill we are missing as a society is a work ethic. I speak to employers all the time and we all are looking for the same potential employee–someone who is honest, hard working, and who has reasonable intelligence. In other words someone who willing and able to learn new things and admit it when they screw up. Notice education is not on the list.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brett McSweeney writes: “True. My neighbor runs a Wheel & Tire shop. He calls it an adult child minding centre.”

On the other hand, reader Don Wolff writes:

These employers are shooting themselves in the foot. Disciplined work ethic personnel are out there if they really make the effort to look. They just have to understand the ‘code’ in which to communicate and the somewhat arcane way that institutions work. The ‘code’ is Military Occupation Specialties (MOS) there is an civilianized listing here.

And specific to your posting, some of these seem pertinent.

Every major Army installation runs a Separation Transfer Point in the Adjutant General’s office which knows 6 months in advance who’s coming up on the termination of their contracts. At the small cost of a regular FOIA inquiry they can obtain the name and unit of personnel who have the skills or related skills to which they need to be filled and will soon be available to the market. Another key is focusing on installations that have the larger pool of personnel in the skills they’re looking for to increase their chances of hooking the one they need. That too can be done by FOIA as well. Of course this means the prospective employer needs to do some paperwork or visit the nearest military personnel office. The other services operate similar activities.

One advantage that potential civilian employers have is that the real retention officer in the military is Mom. If she ain’t happy, there’s a good chance that traveling days may be coming to an end. Make her happy and the hiring becomes even easier.

And reader Dennis Coxe emails:

Unfortunately I could not afford to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal so I could not read the entire article, but from what is available to the general public I have to say the situation begs the question, why can’t Union Pacific hire “willing-to-work” unskilled labor and train them? This is an area that I think also contributes to the higher education bubble. As you note there are a lot of positions that do not require a full four-year degree, but business’s do not want to invest the money to hire unskilled people and train them. The usual business argument is that there is no employee loyalty so why should they (the business) invest in training people in a skill if they are just going to quit and go to a better paying job elsewhere?

This is a symptom that runs rampant throughout our society in which many people, businesses, non-profits, and government want something for nothing. If these positions are so important to the Union Pacific then they will hire and train people willing to work and commit themselves to a five- or ten-year contract with the railroad, and not wait until skilled workers get let go elsewhere.

I would guess that it’s hard to train people and not have them poached away by other employers. You can’t really hold someone to a five-year contract — but you can lock someone into 20 years of student-loan payments.

And sorry about the subscription-only link. I subscribe, so sometimes I can’t tell which ones are open. I tried to quote the key bit, anyway.

Reader Mike Steele isn’t buying it: “Crap that they cant find workers? I’ll call BS on that. I can’t find work and nobody’s hiring. I have a Masters in Management Information Systems and a MBA in Project Management. I did 21 years in the US Army, so I’m not a stranger to hard work, and I have flexibility and adaptability that is first rank. Oh and did I mention that I’m adaptable? All these folks that cry and whine to you about no workers are just BS’in I want to work, but can’t get hired!”

Somebody want to give him a job? He’s in Colorado, but will move.

BLUE BLOODS: A Crime Drama With Family Values? “I’ve made the Waltons comparison myself, but this production is in some ways the mirror image of a mafia show.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, TOM-FRIEDMAN-CALL-YOUR-OFFICE EDITION: China to Cancel College Majors That Don’t Pay. “The move is meant to solve a problem that has surfaced as the number of China’s university educated have jumped to 8,930 people per every 100,000 in 2010, up nearly 150% from 2000, according to China’s 2010 Census. The surge of college grads, while an accomplishment for the country, has contributed to an overflow of workers whose skillsets don’t match with the needs of the export-led, manufacturing-based economy.”

PLEASE SEND YOUR CONDOLENCES: James Joyner’s wife has died.

ABOVE THE LAW: A Message from Career Services: Ladies, Please Learn How to Dress Yourselves.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “I have been a long time reader and am currently in the process of separating from the US military. I noticed this post and the link it has to the Above the Law article and compared it to my recent attendance at a transition to civilian life program. The instructor gave roughly similar ideas out but the requirement for both is a bit odd, in that appearance in the work place is so far removed from students’ or service members’ normal dress that we ‘require’ instruction. Although they could have used a more formal style in communicating the information.” Indeed.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Don Howard writes: “I was recently called for jury duty in a criminal trial. When the opposing sides came in to take their places at the tables, I was sure it was a prostitution case, since a young woman at the defense table was dressed like a .. well, a slut. Nope. Lawyer. The defendants were conservatively dressed.”

I blame Ally McBeal. My female law students started dressing very differently once that show appeared. Things have regressed to the mean somewhat since then, but not for everyone.

TODAY ONLY: Steep markdowns on Panasonic shavers.

HOW THEY DO IT IN TEXAS: Customer, armed robbers engage in shootout. “Two armed suspects attempted to rob a Denny’s restaurant, but ended up fleeing for safety after a shootout with a customer.”

UPDATE: A reader emails: “I believe that one of the major turning points for concealed carry (at least in Texas) was the Luby’s massacre in Texas. Change the law to enable people to rely more on themselves and each other, instead of the government, and we see very different results. That sort of sums up the entire conservative vs liberal debate. Remember, when seconds count, the police are just minutes away.”

Yes, one of the survivors, Suzanna Hupp, had left her gun in her car as state law required. She became an advocate for liberalized carry laws in Texas and nationwide.

MARK STEYN: INTO THE DEBT ABYSS:

In the course of a typical day I usually receive at least a couple of emails from readers lamenting that America is now the Titanic. This is grossly unfair to the Titanic, a state-of-the-art ship whose problem was that it only had lifeboat space for about half its passengers. By contrast, the SS Spendaholic is a rusting hulk encrusted with barnacles, there are no lifeboats, and the ship’s officers are locked in a debate about whether to use a thimble or an eggcup.

A second downgrade is now inevitable. Aw, so what? We had the first back in the summer, and the ceiling didn’t fall in, did it? And everyone knows those ratings agencies are a racket, right? And say what you like about our rotten finances, but Greece’s are worse. And Italy’s. And, er, Zimbabwe’s. Probably.

The advantage the United States enjoys is that, unlike Greece, it can print the currency in which its debt is denominated. But, even so, it still needs someone to buy it. The failure of Germany’s bond auction on Wednesday suggests that the world is running out of buyers for western sovereign debt at historically low interest rates. And, were interest rates to return to their 1990-2010 average (5.7 percent), debt service alone would consume about 40 percent of federal revenues by mid-decade. That’s not paying down the debt, but just staying current on the interest payments.

And yet, when it comes to spending and stimulus and entitlements and agencies and regulations and bureaucrats, “more, more, more/how do you like it?” remains the way to bet. Will a Republican president make a difference to this grim trajectory? I would doubt it. Unless the public conversation shifts significantly, neither President Romney nor President Insert-Name-Of-This-Week’s-UnRomney-Here will have a mandate for the measures necessary to save the republic.

Well, the cautionary example of Europe’s implosion might shift that conversation at least a bit.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Mocking Garry Wills on being taken in by Michael Bellesiles.

EUROPE: Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns. “British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.”

UPDATE: Euro May Unravel Before the Region’s Governments Act to Save It, UBS Says.

Meanwhile, the Great Divider is engaging in golf and basketball. “Meanwhile on this side of the Atlantic, White House Dossier reports that Barack Obama took advantage of the unseasonably warm November weather and enjoyed a leisurely round of golf, shot some hoops and then gathered Michelle and the girls aboard Marine One to attend the Towson University-Oregon State basketball game in nearby Baltimore. The Oregon State team is coached by Michelle’s brother Craig Robinson. “

THE MORE A SYSTEM IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT EQUALITY IN THEORY, THE MORE IT PRODUCES AN ARISTOCRACY IN PRACTICE: Children of the Revolution: China’s ‘princelings,’ the offspring of the communist party elite, are embracing the trappings of wealth and privilege—raising uncomfortable questions for their elders. “State-controlled media portray China’s leaders as living by the austere Communist values they publicly espouse. But as scions of the political aristocracy carve out lucrative roles in business and embrace the trappings of wealth, their increasingly high profile is raising uncomfortable questions for a party that justifies its monopoly on power by pointing to its origins as a movement of workers and peasants. . . . The state owns all urban land and strategic industries, as well as banks, which dole out loans overwhelmingly to state-run companies. The big spoils thus go to political insiders who can leverage personal connections and family prestige to secure resources, and then mobilize the same networks to protect them.”

Hey, at least the Ferraris are red.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Other than China’s state-owned industries, this sounds awfully familiar here in the US. Brings to mind what I think is your most memorable line:

We now have a government OF and FOR the well-connected, paid for BY the non-connected.

When oh when are Republicans going to figure out the power of the crony-capitalism issue?!!

When they stop aspiring to join the cronies.

AS TIMELY AS HIS CURRENT FOREIGN POLICY: Obama Goes Book Shopping, Buys “Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.”

JEREMIAH WRIGHT still scares Democrats.

First, the notion that showing images of blacks in a video is an attempt to invoke Jeremiah Wright is preposterous. There also were plenty of whites in the video; momentary flashes of non-whites does not give the video a racial overtone.

Second, and most important, this was nothing more than a pre-emptive Democratic attempt to make it toxic for anyone to bring up Obama’s long association with Wright by making charges of racism even when Wright is not mentioned. That shows you how much the Democrats fear a true investigation of Obama’s background and his ridiculously incredible claims that he did not know that his pastor and mentor was a race-baiting flame thrower.

Given Obama’s performance in his first term, the Wright association is more dangerous than it was in 2008.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: 1980 VIDEO: Thomas Sowell Debates Frances Fox Piven.