PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Why Gingrich is wrong about Bain Capital, corporate takeovers, and private equity.

HMM: Democrats Cave on Keystone in Payroll Tax Cut Deal.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “I Won’t Believe My Boyfriend has a Wife and Kids.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Where Do The Skinny People Shop?

CHANGE: Fitch warns Spain and Italy of downgrade as Moody’s cuts Belgium by two notches. Spain and Italy were both told to brace for a debt downgrade after a leading rating agency concluded that a ‘comprehensive solution to the eurozone crisis is technically and politically beyond reach’.”

UPDATE: Video: Paul Krugman’s 2009 comments on Belgium and debt.

UP TO 60% OFF ON sweaters, scarves, and coats.

Plus, half price on the Cyclops Thor rechargeable LED spotlight. A good deal for $39.99. As my brother said when he was a caretaker at a nature preserve: “At night, candlepower equals authority.”

UPDATE: Bill Quick emails:

Glenn, on that Thor Spotlight – when you first listed it, it was $39, a good deal. When I linked it, the price had mysteriously risen to $49. Now it’s over $51. What with the $7 shipping, it’s not really such a good deal any more.

Do you think the volume you sent to that item caused them to jack the price?

I’ve never run across this before.

It’s called “dynamic pricing,” and it’s happened to me on occasion. The exact workings are a mystery but basically more demand means a higher price. But sometimes a thirdparty seller runs out and it switches to another one, and that may have been what happened here, as I don’t think (though I could be wrong) that it was shipping from Mack’s Prairie Wings before.

SECRET SOCIAL SKILLS that successful people know.

MERRY CHRISTMAS: “I do think, at a certain point, you’ve got enough presents.”

JESSE FOX MAYSHARK remembers Christopher Hitchens: “He talked about reporting, he talked about Bill Clinton, he talked about Tennessee politics, which he turned out to know more about than me. That was no surprise. I got the feeling that if I had been a beekeeper from Ottawa, he would have known a lot about Canadian pollination problems, too. I finished my drink, and felt buzzed. There was a lot of gin in it. He tossed back the rest of his, and asked, ‘Another?'”

REVIEW: The Sig Sauer Concealed Carry Jacket.

JOEL KOTKIN: Heavy Metal Is Back: The Best Cities For Manufacturing.

NASA VIDEO CAPTURES COMET flying through Sun’s corona.

WILL OBAMA DENOUNCE THESE CORPORATE JETS? Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt have eight jets between the three of them, reports Mercury News. Plus a very special “public-private partnership” involving an airbase.

As I keep saying, I don’t want to hear one more goddamn thing about my carbon footprint.

Meanwhile, Drudge has been having fun with the Obama Family on a related front:

Worries about spending and carbon footprints are for the little people.

AIMING FOR THE optimal level of empathy. “I am as concerned about counterproductive empathy as I am by deficiency of empathy. I think empathy is a necessary attribute for humans to maintain a civilized society. But it is not an unalloyed good. It has to be tempered and empathetic feelings are not a substitute for rational thought.”

KATIE GRANJU IS giving away a Dell computer.

GREEN TRASH-TALK: Audi Chief Calls Chevy Volt “A Car For Idiots.”

YEAR-END CHARITABLE DONATIONS: Some IRS advice. If you’re looking for places to make donations before the tax year ends, here are a few suggestions.

The Foresight Institute. I used to be on their board, and they’re a good outfit, promoting nanotechnology research.

The Institute For Justice. You’re for justice, right?

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

RECKLESS DISREGARD: The folks over at ThinkProgress Green are calling me “Koch Industries attorney Glenn Reynolds.” I suppose that’s not technically libel, since few people would think less of an attorney who – unlike me — was actually able to claim Koch Industries as a client. More likely they’re just trolling for links in the hopes of boosting their web stats before year-end. Sorry guys. I’m not going to reward lies with traffic. But this kind of thing is pretty much par for the course with ThinkProgress and Media Matters.

CLIMATE-CHANGE STORMTROOPERS GO AFTER VOLKSWAGEN. Ha. Before you followed the link, you thought I was engaging in hyperbole about the stormtroopers, didn’t you? But as you can see, I was merely being descriptive.

THE ATLANTIC remembers Christopher Hitchens.

So does Michael Totten. And Ron Radosh.

CLIMATEGATE BOMBSHELL: Did U.S. Gov’t Help Hide Climate Data?

SHOCKING NEWS: Ron Paul Loses Online Poll.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: 1987 Lamborghini Countach on eBay.

DAVE KOPEL: How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution.