HMM: Iran Blast May Have Hit Missile Base.

ACROPOLIS NOW: Greece may be just the start: Other Eurozone countries are faltering, with far more worrying consequences.

NIALL FERGUSON: Europe’s Disaster Is Headed Our Way. “As an author who has just published a book on the crisis of Western civilization, I couldn’t really have asked for more: simultaneous crises in Athens and Rome, the cradles of the West’s law, languages, politics, and philosophy. . . . So why should Americans care about any of this? The first reason is that, with American consumers still in the doldrums of deleveraging, the United States badly needs buoyant exports if its economy is to grow at anything other than a miserably low rate. And despite all the hype about trade with the Chinese, U.S. exports to the European Union are nearly three times larger than to China. . . . But there’s more. Europe’s problem is not just that governments are overborrowed. There are an unknown number of European banks that are effectively insolvent if their holdings of government bonds are “marked to market”—in other words, valued at their current rock-bottom market prices. In our interconnected financial world, it would be very odd indeed if no U.S. institutions were affected by this.”

Plus this: “Today the U.S. gross federal debt stands at around 100 percent of GDP. Four years ago it was 62 percent. By 2016 the International Monetary Fund forecasts it will be 115 percent. Economists who should know better insist that this is not a problem because, unlike Italy, the United States can print its own money at will. All that means is that the U.S. reserves the right to inflate or depreciate away its debt. If I were a foreign investor—and half the debt in public hands is held by foreigners—I would not find that terribly reassuring.”

AT AMAZON, Pre-Black Friday Deals on Movies & TV.

ON THE LATEST GOP DEBATE (YES, THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE!): Ira Stoll comments. Also Bryan Preston. Plus, there seems general agreement that CBS was the big loser.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Police Clear Out Occupy Denver.

UPDATE: A firsthand report from Peter Ingemi.

MORE: Pam Geller and Jim Hoft Crash OccupyDenver Camp.

STEM FAIL: With all the higher education bubble talk, I agree that America would be better off if we graduated more people in science, technology, engineering, and math. But it’s not for everyone, and this cautionary tale is worth a look, especially together with this piece by Kenneth Anderson.

REX MURPHY ON THE NEWT GINGRICH RETHINK: “There is a threshold moment in some of our choices, and especially in some of our judgments about people. Sometimes that moment is experienced by a whole lot of us at once.”

#OCCUPYFAIL: Pressure to leave mounts on Occupy camps.

WELL, IF YOU’RE GOING TO LIE ABOUT YOUR OBJECTIVITY, you can expect people to make hay out of exposing you as a liar.

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste emails:

The problem isn’t that reporters are biased. They’re humans, and no human is completely objective.

The problem is that taken as a group reporters (and journalists) are overwhelmingly biased in one direction. If it were about fifty-fifty, half biased one way and half the other, then the industry as a whole would be pretty objective, representing all points of view.

But that’s not what we have.

No. And it’s made worse by their pretense that they’re presenting objective reality.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse deals on music.

EDUCATION: My Teacher Is An App: More kids than ever before are attending school from their living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens. The result: A radical rethinking of how education works. Not a moment too soon. “The drive to reinvent school has also set off an explosive clash with teachers unions and backers of more traditional education. Partly, it’s a philosophical divide.” But mostly it’s about the Benjamins.

Related item here.

OBAMA AWARDS QUESTIONABLE $433 MILLION VACCINE CONTRACT to a top donor. “Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.”

And note this: SIGA’s stocks more than double since SEIU’s Andy Stern was hired on board. Can you say “crony capitalism?”

ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T HAVE CAUSE AND EFFECT REVERSED HERE? How women are turning into Mean Girls because there aren’t enough good men out there.

#OCCUPYFAIL: “Ironic, isn’t it: woman is safer in meeting at the National Resturant Association than in a crowd at #OWS.”

GREEN FAIL: The American Corn Ethanol Disaster. Well, as a scheme for buying votes and lining pockets, it’s been a big success. Which seems to be how most of these “green” schemes turn out.

A BLOG THAT ANSWERS THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Who’s That Hot Ad Girl?

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Pelosi’s investments questioned in CBS report.

#OCCUPYFAIL: #OccupyDenver Is Weak Tea, No Party. “15-20 marchers abreast, with drums, claiming to be the 99%. Have an inverted American flag in the front row. ‘Support Socialism!’ screams one of them.”

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Women Aren’t Having Enough Sex, Says Science. “According to psychiatrist Dr. Naomi Greenblatt with the HealthyWomen organization, ‘hitting the skins’ may be as important as hitting the gym when it comes to preserving one’s youthful looks—and women aren’t doing enough of it.”

You can’t argue with science.

WRIST, SLAPPED: S.E.C. Disciplines Eight Employees Over Madoff Failure.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Mostly Peaceful Occupy Portland Closing Down Following Another Drug Overdose. It’s like the worst parts of the ’60s rerun, all in just a couple of weeks.

WANT A BETTER SEX LIFE? Try Yoga.

#OCCUPYFAIL: USING KIDS AS CANNON FODDER: Denver HS Teacher Brings Students to Join #OWS Mob As They Storm Conservative Conference (Video). She teaches at a private school where the tuition is $14K a year. One-percenter!

BETTER THAN A SMART CAR? Driving the Scion iQ.