MERRY CHRISTMAS:

MARK STEYN: “The problem with the advanced West is not that it’s broke but that it’s old and barren. Which explains why it’s broke. Take Greece, which has now become the most convenient shorthand for sovereign insolvency — ‘America’s heading for the same fate as Greece if we don’t change course,’ etc. So Greece has a spending problem, a revenue problem, something along those lines, right? At a superficial level, yes. But the underlying issue is more primal: It has one of the lowest fertility rates on the planet. In Greece, 100 grandparents have 42 grandchildren — i.e., the family tree is upside down. In a social-democratic state where workers in ‘hazardous’ professions (such as, er, hairdressing) retire at 50, there aren’t enough young people around to pay for your three-decade retirement. And there are unlikely ever to be again. . . . If the problem with socialism is, as Mrs. Thatcher says, that eventually you run out of other people’s money, much of the West has advanced to the next stage: It’s run out of other people, period.”

THE SPIRIT OF GIVING: World Giving Index 2011: U.S. Is #1 (Out of 153 Countries). “Using data from Gallup’s Worldview World Poll, the report is based on three measures of giving behaviour – giving money, volunteering time and helping a stranger. The results show that the USA is officially the most charitable nation in the world.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

GO DADDY GONE: Go Daddy loses over 37,000 domains due to SOPA stance.

BRITAIN TO ARGENTINA: Don’t even think about the Falklands.

OKAY, IT’S TOO LATE TO SEND CHRISTMAS GIFTS — unless you send a gift card, or a Kindle book, or an MP3. But now Amazon has rolled out its after-Christmas year-end deals.

Also, today only: Battlefield 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3, $34.99.

MERRY CHRISTMAS:

Via Molly Lewis. Entire Wade Johnston Christmas Extravaganza here.

CHANGE: E.U. APPROVES AVASTIN FOR OVARIAN CANCER: “The European Commission has approved Roche’s drug Avastin for treating women with newly diagnosed, advanced ovarian cancer, offering new options to sufferers previously limited to surgery and chemotherapy. . . . In two late-stage studies, Roche found that women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer who used Avastin and chemotherapy and then continued on just Avastin lived quite a bit longer without their disease getting worse compared with those who received only chemotherapy.”

PEACE ON EARTH: Radical Muslim sect claims bomb attacks on Nigerian churches; at least 25 killed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the TSA.

CHRISTMAS WEEKEND NEWS DUMP: Obama Campaign, DNC Return Corzine Contributions After MF Global Collapse.

WHAT DO WE DO When The Internet Mob Is Wrong?

PUBLIC SCHOOLS TODAY: School accused of putting autistic student in bag: ‘He was treated like trash and thrown in the hallway,’ mom says.

CNN POLL: Americans still prefer ‘Merry Christmas’ over ‘Happy Holidays.’

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, and to all a good night.

MARK STEYN: Silent Night. “On this Christmas Eve, one of the great unreported stories throughout what we used to call Christendom is the persecution of Christians around the world. In Egypt, the ‘Arab Spring’ is going so swimmingly that Copts are already fleeing Egypt and, for those Christians that remain, Midnight Mass has to be held in the daylight for security reasons. In Iraq, midnight services have been canceled entirely for fear of bloodshed, part of the remorseless de-Christianizing that has been going on, quite shamefully, under an American imperium. Not merely the media but Christian leaders in the west seem to be embarrassed by behavior that doesn’t conform to their dimwitted sappiness about ‘Facebook Revolutions’.”

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: “EUROPE IS MERELY A GEOGRAPHICAL EXPRESSION, Jim Bennett writes, and the Euro-alchemists are busy turning gold into lead.”

SECURITY: Stratfor Hacked, 200GB Of Emails, Credit Cards Stolen, Client List Released, Includes MF Global, Rockefeller Foundation.

PROF. LARRY RIBSTEIN HAS DIED. That’s terrible. My condolences to friends and family.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in health, fitness, and dieting.

HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” AND “ARAB SPRING” STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? Egypt: Islamists consolidate gains in 2nd round of parliamentary elections.

RUSSIA: Tens Of Thousands of Protesters Pressure Putin.

PETER INGEMI: Under the Fedora: Communists, Lies, and the Unseen Wound.