YOU DONT HAVE TO LIVE LIKE A REFUGEE. Or maybe you do. Tax Practitioner Flees California for Nevada. “There comes a point where decisions are forced on you. With the growth of my business, I looked at possibly hiring another tax accountant in 2010. When I ran the numbers, I found that I would lose money by hiring a productive tax accountant. That’s because of all the regulations and costs that I would immediately incur if I had an employee. I’m not stupid: If I lose money by hiring someone, I’m not going to do it.”

SOMETHING HOPEFUL: The End of Stagnation and the Coming Innovation Boom.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on snow removal gear. Also, portable generators. Hey, if you wait until the blizzard comes, even overnight delivery won’t help you . . . .

ELEVEN HIGHLY EFFICIENT CARS that aren’t hybrids.

DEATH TO PENNIES?

#GREENFAIL: Ron Bailey on delusional thinking at the Durban climate conference. “T.S. Eliot wrote that ‘humankind cannot stand very much reality.’ This apothegm apparently applies to some climate change negotiators here in Durban who, when reality becomes too much, retreat to fantasies conjured by their rhetoric. The likelihood of draft proposals that require deep greenhouse gas emissions cuts by rich countries being adopted here in Durban is exactly nil.”

HYPOCRISY WATCH: Investor’s Business Daily: The Corzine Democrats: What Did They Say About Abramoff?

WHEN THE BUSINESS MODEL ignores your privacy. That’s pretty much all the time these days, isn’t it?

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Anti-Americanism as “Hate Speech.” I think this is a technique that should be exploited more often.

PROF. JACOBSON: White House/ThinkProgress Merger Complete. I wonder if Jennifer Palmieri will take the jar containing Matt Yglesias’ man-bits with her to the White House.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Jeffersonian Cyber-Yeomanry.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “This is just about the most absurd situation we’ve seen in a long time. We’ve previously reported on the State Auditor’s reports of some of the UNC campuses and they all show clearly that the financial condition of the campuses does not justify any kind of tuition or fee increase. But beyond that, we would once again suggest that if the university, including ECU, spent its money wisely there would be a tuition roll-back, not an increase.”

NUDE VEENA MALIK PHOTO Stuns Pakistani Twitterverse.

JERRY POURNELLE: Martha Stewart, Military Tribunals, and MacTribesmen.

COMING SOON: An Age Of Driverless Cars?

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: Hey Greens, You Sure You Want to Deface That Particular Statue?

AT AMAZON, best books of 2011.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Why “too big to fail” means “wait for it.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Reader Timothy Dunnigan notes that some universities are trying to be marketplace-relevant.

DANIEL DREZNER: Do authoritarian elections matter in Russia? Probably not as much as you think. “On the one hand, elections like these do matter, because they dent the veneer of an effective authoritarian being in control. Despite rigging the game, it appears that Putin and his loyalists couldn’t secure the desired result. Any time an authoritarian aparatus demonstrates fallibility is not a good day for the authoritarian apparatus. On the other hand…. “

HOMEOWNER DOES what a Taser can’t.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Advantage: James O’Keefe. “Wall Street hiring someone who despises Republicans? Oh sure, like that’ll ever happen. Next, you’ll be telling me that gambling is going on at Rick’s Cafe.”

AT AMAZON, most popular gifts in Kitchen & Dining.

MEGAN FOX ON rediscovering the lost art of homebrewing.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Mission Sort Of Accomplished In Iraq. “The Iraq War was unhappy, but it was no Vietnam. . . . The lesson: be cautious about going in, but once in, don’t run at the first sign of trouble. War has a logic of its own; Bush and Cheney did not fully grasp what they were getting into when they invaded, underestimating the risks and overestimating the speed at which a reasonably stable Iraqi government could emerge. But they had the honesty and vision to hang tough once they were committed, and to their credit the American people, disenchanted with the war and disgusted with its leadership, refused to cut and run while hope endured. President Obama and Vice President Biden must be deeply grateful that President Bush ignored his critics and went ahead with the surge; if they want to reduce the partisan polarization in Washington they could perhaps say something about it as our troops come home.”