STACY MCCAIN: IOWA NOTEBOOK: Occupy Caucuses?

HMM: Romney 45, Obama 39. “I think what we’re seeing is that as Romney emerges as the winner within the GOP, his winner status makes him seem more appealing in comparison to Obama. And it’s an upward spiral: The more Romney looks strong compared to Obama, the more Republicans should want him as their nominee.” Is this how it will work? Some aren’t buying it yet.

Related: NYT quotes Washington insiders calling Obama “remote,” “distant” and “perfunctory.”

UPDATE: Reader Eliot Picard writes: “One thing that has occurred to me is that, while Romney is not the ideal ‘Reagan Republican’ that so many in the rightosphere want to see he is, thus far, the only R who does not melt under pressure like the others. Another thing is that, here in Massachusetts, having Romney at the top of the ticket may be just the thing to help put Scott Brown over the top against Liz Warren. Having a left-of-right-of-center local figure on top will certainly swing moderates and even bring out the not-so-small R base in MA which can only help down ticket. The union PACs have been dumping $millions around these parts for months with ‘Rethink Brown’ and have only yielded a within-the-margin-of-error lead for Warren so this could easily be the key bit.”

Meanwhile, Don Surber on Obama’s worst nightmare: “They have been saying a generic Republican could beat him. They don’t get more generic than Mitt Romney.”

AT AMAZON, loads of Kindle accessories.

WHEN VIRUSES invade the brain.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: DC ordered to pay $1M in historic gun case. “The District of Columbia has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in attorneys’ fees as a result of a historic gun case that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Dick Heller sued the city in 2003 over its ban on handgun ownership and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ban in June 2008, saying it violated the Second Amendment. A federal judge on Thursday issued an opinion awarding Heller’s attorneys $1,137,072.27 in fees and expenses.”

2011: The Year In Health Science.

AT AMAZON, Year-End Deals in HDTV and Video.

ANDREW MALCOLM: Kind columnist vows to help N.Y. Times readers on its reneged offer.

The Times worker, who will shortly be informed that he/she has accepted the next buyout offer, pushed the button. And off the email went — to nearly 9 million people on the wrong list.

People who had not canceled their subscriptions. People who’d given their email to the newspaper for some reason long ago. People who liked the generous out-of-the-blue offer to cut in half what they’d already paid in full. And people who had thought the famous newspaper knew what was going on in the world but now discovered in its own offices apparently not so much.

The phone lights began to twinkle and email acceptances flowed in.

So, according to Associated Press, in true Anthony Weineresque fashion, someone rushed out an urgent company Tweet suggesting spam: “If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It’s not from us.”

Alas, both were really sent from the East Coast Times, which is such a serious publication that it doesn’t even publish comics, except for Paul Krugman.

Read the whole thing.

AIRPORT SECURITY: STRIP Act targets TSA uniform: End ‘impersonation’ of ‘real cops.’ “It’s a new House bill that stands for Stop TSA’s Reach In Policy and would prevent Transportation Security Administration officers from wearing law enforcement uniforms and police-like badges and calling themselves officers unless they receive law enforcement training.”

THINKING ABOUT SAFER PASSWORDS.

UPDATE: Wisdom from XKCD.

UNDER A “LIVING CONSTITUTION” APPROACH, WOULDN’T THIS CALL FOR A DRASTIC REDUCTION IN CONGRESS’S COPYRIGHT POWER? Young people today lack even the “ideological baggage” to concern themselves with copyright as they go about appropriating images.

AT AMAZON, Top Deals on Printers.

Also, a sale on Duracell coppertop batteries.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How Your Fireplace Works.

JERRY BOWYER: Christmas, Kurtosis, Fat Tails, Black Swans and Risk Management.

TOO MUCH BUZZ: Social media provides huge opportunities, but will bring huge problems.

BREITBART: “Occupy The Caucus” Is Part of the Organized Left’s Efforts To Re-Elect Obama. Of course. Everything over the coming year will be part of the organized Left’s efforts to re-elect Obama.

BEST PHYSICS OF 2011: “Time Cloaking.”

ENERGY IS A NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE. THEREFORE, OBESITY IS A NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE: “Americans, on average, have gained enough weight during the past 40 years to cancel out automakers’ vehicle-lightweighting efforts such as using lighter components or removing spare tire, reflecting an additional challenge automakers face to meet progressively more strict fuel-economy and greenhouse-gas emissions standards. . . . The combined weight gained by the average American male and female can cut average fuel economy by as much as one percent, which could translate to an additional 153 million gallons of gas burned in the U.S. over the course of a year.” Hence, Michelle Obama’s food-nannyism is really about national security. Take it away, White House Press Office. . . .

HOWARD LOVY: Nanotech Fear Peddlers Are Back, Insisting ‘Here Be Monsters.’ “Get ready for the anti-nanotech Luddites in 2012. . . . They’re suing based on a danger for which there is no evidence, but maybe there will be, so we’d better ban it just in case.”

PAUL RAHE: What Is Wrong With The Individual Mandate.

FROM PROFESSOR W. JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The Debunking Of The Year.

MONEY POLITICS: “American liberals find high incomes more upsetting than poverty.” They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please. . . .

With, ahem, certain exceptions.

LOSE $1.2 BILLION, BECOME AN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ADVISOR:

During two days of recent congressional hearings into how as much as $1.2 billion disappeared from MF Global customer accounts, the chief operating officer of the imploding investment firm responded again and again that he did not know.

Yet as the House and Senate interrogated Bradley I. Abelow and other top executives at MF Global Holdings Ltd., lawmakers did not mention Mr. Abelow’s role as a financial adviser for the Environmental Protection Agency, which as of Tuesday listed him as the chairman of its financial advisory board.

Even as he finds himself the public face of a bankruptcy and admitted to lawmakers that he had no idea how client funds disappeared, Congress and the administration have voiced no public concern about Mr. Abelow’s role advising the $8.6 billion government agency on its finances.

In this administration, to lose only a billion is to count as frugal. . . .

EGYPT’S EMBATTLED CHRISTIANS seek room in America. “This year, mobs have looted and attacked Coptic churches, homes and shops throughout Egypt. Churches have been burned down, and one Copt had his ear cut off by a Muslim cleric invoking Islamic law. Strong gains by Islamist parties in the recent elections have further raised fears among the Christian minority that they won’t have a place in the new Egypt. The plight of the nation’s roughly eight million Copts poses a quandary for the U.S. The pivotal Middle East ally receives $1.3 billion annually in military aid, and the administration has riled some critics who say it has failed to strongly rebuke the transitional rulers amid recent violence against women, Copts and other minorities. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal advisory agency, asked the State Department to place Egypt on its list of ‘countries of particular concern’—egregious violators of religious freedoms. The department declined, saying that its goal is to work with the Egyptian government to improve conditions for Christians.” Don’t worry, folks — “smart diplomacy” is coming to your aid . . .