IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS: Memo to single women: there is nothing ‘wrong’ with men today.

HOW TO AVOID gadget-buyer’s remorse.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Biographies & Memoirs.

PROF. JACOBSON: Why I Respect Jennifer Rubin.

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTHSHATTERING KA-BOOM: Scientists Model Chicxulub Meteorite Impact. “2 million times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb is pretty extreme.”

STANDARD-ISSUE HYPOCRISY: Lefty activist demands oped ‘transparency,’ but hides own funding ties to Big Green, anti-energy groups. “I wonder if the 50 journalists – five of whom identified themselves with the Society for Professional Journalists – who signed a TrueTies.org letter to The New York Times endorsing the demand for oped page transparency were aware when they signed the letter of the hypocrisy behind the campaign or Elsner’s prevarication about his group’s stance on energy issues? I’m guessing it wouldn’t make any difference if they did.”

A LOU GEHRIG’S DISEASE BREAKTHROUGH? Major ALS Breakthrough – Common Cause of All Forms of ALS Discovered.

ADVICE ON securing your home.

LECH WALESA figures things out.

VITAL RELATIONSHIP ADVICE: “I think it’s just smart to ask yourself if someone you’re dating would last in the event of the zombie apocalypse. It’s an important consideration.”

THINGS YOU CAN LEARN FROM THE MOVIES: Including this: “When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in your room will still be clearly visible, just slightly bluish.”

DO YOU REALLY NEED A FLOWCHART TO EXPLAIN WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? “In Three Years, He Never Slept With Me Once!”

NOT-SO-FREE SPEECH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA:

The word “audience” refers to people listening. Didn’t these protesters intend to chant or shout or otherwise wreck the speech? If a university arranges a speaking event for someone who is invited as an honored guest and the event transmogrifies into one in which he will serve as a platform for other people who want to yell out their ideas, then the university should to expect him to decline to participate in what has become an alternate event of a sort that he would never have accepted if it had been the original invitation. To portray the erstwhile honored guest as fearful of critics and skeptics is demagoguery.

From the comments: “So, the people who were mad that Cantor was scheduled to speak are now mad that they won’t have the opportunity to shout?” I love the Dr. Weevil comment, too.

When famous people on the right speak at universities, they’re often abused. Why send taxpayer money to support institutions where this sort of thing is common?

CLASS WAR ERUPTS AT “OCCUPY NEW YORK:”

All occupiers are equal — but some occupiers are more equal than others. In wind-whipped Zuccotti Park, new divisions and hierarchies are threatening to upend Occupy Wall Street and its leaderless collective. . . .

Facilitators spearheaded a General Assembly proposal to limit the drumming to two hours a day. “The drumming is a major issue which has the potential to get us kicked out,” said Lauren Digion, a leader on the sanitation working group.

But the drums were fun. They brought in publicity and money. Many non-facilitators were infuriated by the decision and claimed that it had been forced through the General Assembly.

“They’re imposing a structure on the natural flow of music,” said Seth Harper, an 18-year-old from Georgia. “The GA decided to do it … they suppressed people’s opinions. I wanted to do introduce a different proposal, but a big black organizer chick with an Afro said I couldn’t.”

To Shane Engelerdt, a 19-year-old from Jersey City and self-described former “head drummer,” this amounted to a Jacobinic betrayal. “They are becoming the government we’re trying to protest,” he said. “They didn’t even give the drummers a say … Drumming is the heartbeat of this movement. Look around: This is dead, you need a pulse to keep something alive.”

The drummers claim that the finance working group even levied a percussion tax of sorts, taking up to half of the $150-300 a day that the drum circle was receiving in tips. “Now they have over $500,000 from all sorts of places,” said Engelerdt. “We’re like, what’s going on here? They’re like the banks we’re protesting.”

All belongings and money in the park are supposed to be held in common, but property rights reared their capitalistic head when facilitators went to clean up the park, which was looking more like a shantytown than usual after several days of wind and rain. The local community board was due to send in an inspector, so the facilitators and cleaners started moving tarps, bags, and personal belongings into a big pile in order to clean the park.

But some refused to budge. A bearded man began to gather up a tarp and an occupier emerged from beneath, screaming: “You’re going to break my fucking tent, get that shit off!” Near the front of the park, two men in hoodies staged a meta-sit-in, fearful that their belongings would be lost or appropriated.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Michael Ubaldi emails: “The Occupation movement is doing for anarchist theory what the Obama administration has done for European-style socialism: put all the myths festering on college campuses over two decades to the test so the world can watch them falter utterly.”

THIS MUST BE MORE OF THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WE WERE PROMISED: Iraq rejects US request to maintain bases after troop withdrawal. “Obama announces the full withdrawal of troops from Iraq but fails to persuade Nouri al-Maliki to allow US to keep bases there.”

UPDATE: Reader Fred Butzen writes:

With regard to the troop pullout from Iraq: Has anyone noticed that the end of this year is only ten weeks away? How in the world does thenpresident expect the orderly withdrawal of 40,000 US troops, with all their weapons and equipment, in that brief time?

President Obama is doing what I feared he would do when he first took office: order a mad dash for the exits. An army in disarray is an army that’s vulnerable; no doubt the Iranian terrorists are licking their chops at the prospect of hitting vulnerable American troops and installations. I hope to God I’m wrong, but I’m afraid that the New Year’s is going to get pretty ugly over there.

I’m sure this has been thought through with the same care as the stimulus bill got.

IT’S PLEDGE WEEK FOR JERRY POURNELLE. Consider giving generously.

I’m a “Patron subscriber,” personally.

SIGH: Unvaccinated Behind Largest U.S. Measles Outbreak In Years. “The largest U.S. outbreak of measles to occur in 15 years — affecting 214 children so far — is likely driven by travelers returning from abroad and by too many unvaccinated U.S. children, according to new research. The finding could highlight the dangers of a trend among some U.S. parents to skip the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine for their children, out of what many experts call misguided fears over its safety.” I blame Jenny McCarthy.

TODAY IS THE 25th Anniversary of the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

ANOTHER CONFLICT coming to Korea?

THOSE SPORTS PEOPLE SURE ARE PREJUDICED: NFL Analysts: Tim Tebow Hated Because of His Faith. “Outspoken Christian athlete Tim Tebow, now the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, has been widely criticized by many in the media. NFL analysts are starting to admit that criticism, in large part, has been because of his faith.”

If only those sportswriters and sportscasters were as open-minded and tolerant as the Tea Party.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, OTHER COUNTRIES WOULD ACCUSE AMERICA AND ITS ALLIES OF MURDERING IN VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Gaddafi’s death breached the law, says Russia. “In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Geneva Conventions had been breached with the killing of Colonel Gaddafi.”

Of course, this may be what’s actually at stake: “The main concern for Moscow now is whether the new Libyan authorities will honour contracts signed by the Gaddafi regime.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Fewer Jobs, Less Pay.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Fed Is Poised For More Easing.

Dave Voda, call your office.