AT AMAZON, Holiday Deals in Health & Beauty.

Also, Manager’s Specials in Personal Care.

Plus, today only, a Garmin nuvi 2350LMT 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Traffic & Map Updates, $129.99.

UPDATE: Reader Mark Alexander writes: “You should also let your readers know that on Amazon for $10 more they can get the 5-inch Garmin and save over 50%.” Thanks, Mark!

SAYING GOODBYE TO CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS.

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A HARVARD PROFESSOR? Liz Warren and Keystone.

This isn’t about partisan debate. There are legitimate points to debate on the economy and energy policy. But just shouting “No war for oil!” isn’t a debate. It’s adamant stupidity.

By the way, why aren’t we shouting “No war for oil!” anymore? If you really believed that, you’d support domestic drilling and the Canadian pipeline, right? Instead, the Liz Warren left starts with “No war for oil,” then “No oil from Canada,” “No nukes,” “No coal” and then the inevitable, “Hey — wait! My iPad just died and there’s no electricity to charge it. Where’s my oil?!”

Remember: They’re the smart ones.

Ouch.

UPDATE: Keystone: Stimulus that would actually create jobs. If they’re not jobs for bureaucrats of crony-capitalists, I don’t think they count.

THE HILL: Shutdown averted: Deal reached on $1T omnibus package. The rider to suspend the light-bulb ban stayed in. A victory for good sense! And an unexpected one.

AMAZON IS NOW OFFERING Free Super Saver Shipping Through Monday, for delivery by Christmas.

MY PJTV INTERVIEW WITH JOEL KOTKIN ON SUBURBIA is now up on YouTube.

LARRY KUDLOW: Keystone Blue-Collar Blues: Obama’s clean-energy obsession is alienating American hard hats.

BLINK: NASA Backs Off Its Document That Riled Private Space. “Earlier this year we reported on the fight brewing over the document NASA had drawn up to govern its dealing with private space companies. Those companies saw the possibility that NASA could exert control over designs, ask for changes, or delay projects. Today, NASA abruptly threw out the controversial document and said it would keep doing business the old way.”

Space policy, ironically enough, represents one of the Obama Administration’s few policy successes.

SUSANNAH BRESLIN: How To Get On TV. And why it matters: “I’ve written articles, and created blogs, and gotten profiled, and had my portrait taken, and been on the cover of a major newspaper, and interviewed celebrities, and talked on the radio, and been on TV. You know what people care about? That I was on TV.”

STRATEGERY: So When Should You Default On Your Mortgage?

As you can see, I think that people who are in financial trouble and cannot make their mortgage payment have a perfect right to walk away–and to do so as early as possible if there is no reasonable likelihood that their circumstances will change. On the other hand, I think that if modest lifestyle changes like less steak and more hamburger, less cable and more library books, can make your mortgage payment affordable, I think you have an obligation to make those changes. And if those changes aren’t even necessary–if the default is purely and simply because you would like the bank to eat the lost equity rather than you–I don’t think that’s right.

But for all the discussion of those people, I’m not sure how many of them there are. Some, undoubtedly–in a country as big as the US, there is always some jerk doing almost anything you can imagine. But given what we know about bankruptcy, I tend to think that the overwhelming majority of people walking away from their houses are doing so because they cannot support both the home, and a basic decent life for their families. Obviously, I also tend to think that’s how it should be.

Read the whole thing.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Why Won’t Obama Say “Victory?”

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: U.S. ban on driver cell phone use not realistic.

RICHARD SALSMAN: Why Do Takers Obama and Gingrich Attack Creators Like Romney?

RULES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: State police defy order to release Lt. Gov. Tim Murray crash data.

BRYAN CAPLAN: “Wages Must Fall!”: What All Good Keynesians Should Say. Good luck with that.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS HAS DIED: Vanity Fair has the story.

IS IT A BAD SIGN WHEN FINANCIAL WEBSITES are talking about survival gear?

I think my post on low-budget disaster-prep is better, but maybe I’m kidding myself.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Mark Steyn on double standards: “These two stories usefully clarify the peculiar pathology of the antiwar left. On the one hand, we need international investigations if Americans are insufficiently decorous in their questioning. On the other, it’s perfectly justifiable for disaffected Muslims to target Western civilians purely on the basis of their ethnic identity.”

BRYAN PRESTON: Showdown in Sioux City: Ron Paul’s Waterloo?

UPDATE: Thoughts from Ira Stoll.

HMM: Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer. If true, the GPS spoofing is a huge issue.

AWESOME NEWS IF IT PANS OUT: Spending bill blocks light bulb standards. “The shutdown-averting budget bill will block federal light bulb efficiency standards, giving a win to House Republicans fighting the so-called ban on incandescent light bulbs. GOP and Democratic sources tell POLITICO the final omnibus bill includes a rider defunding the Energy Department’s standards for traditional incandescent light bulbs to be 30 percent more energy efficient. DOE’s light bulb rules — authorized under a 2007 energy law authored signed by President George W. Bush — would start going into effect Jan. 1. The rider will prevent DOE from implementing the rules through Sept. 30.”

So if this works, what will I do with my closet full of incandescent bulbs? Er, use ’em, just like I would have anyway. But it’s great if we can scuttle the idiotic bulb-ban.

Plus, an interesting take from a Democratic Congressman: “It’s the power of Michele Bachmann and the presidential campaign.”

UPDATE: More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Cindy McNew writes: “While I agree it’s idiotic–it’s more, it’s a first potentially really big in-your-house salvo in the Green religion wars. I don’t mean to sound overly dramatic, but a lot of those folks would like to take away your clothes dryer and your trash can, too, and replace them with a clothesline and a compost bin. Low-flow toilets and shower heads are minor annoyances compared to being required to have a houseful of ugly and dangerous florescent bulbs. The repeal can’t come soon enough. Signing that law and “No Child Left Behind” are really the only things I know for sure that I need to be irritated with President Bush for.”

NEW YORK TIMES: Romney Ku Klux Klan Report Backfires on Media.

Don’t just repeat it. Report it.

That’s the lesson this week for MSNBC and for The Washington Post, both of which apologized for repeating a liberal blog’s claim that Mitt Romney had uttered a phrase on the campaign stump that was used in the past by the Ku Klux Klan.

It appears that Mr. Romney did not in fact say the words “keep America American,” as AMERICAblog reported on Tuesday. The blog said that he had done so on two occasions, one last year and one last week, and stated (accurately) that “Keep America American” was a phrase employed by the K.K.K. in the 1920s.

But Mr. Romney had actually said “keep America America” on both occasions, according to online video.

MSNBC apparently did not contact the Romney campaign for comment before it briefly reported on Wednesday morning that “you may not hear Mitt Romney say ‘Keep America American’ anymore, because it was a rallying cry for the K.K.K. group.” The anchor credited AMERICAblog; the graphic on the screen read, “Romney’s KKK Slogan?”

Conservative blogs called out MSNBC for the report, and when executives at MSNBC and NBC News saw that, they were disturbed that the blog’s observation was reported as fact, without any added reporting.

That’s pretty much how they do everything: Without any added reporting.

EUROPE: Debt crisis: Brussels accord on the verge of collapse. “Some of the world’s most powerful investment banks were downgraded by ratings agency Fitch as Germany’s cherished European fiscal compact appeared to be unravelling.”

Related: Chaos?

DOINGS AMONG THE ONE PERCENT:

The New York Times Company today abruptly announced that its 61-year-old chief executive officer, Janet Robinson, will leave at the end of the year, with no permanent successor lined up.

An SEC filing says Ms. Robinson will get $4.5 million plus health insurance for a 12-month retirement and consulting agreement, including “two-year non-competition, non-solicitation and non-disparagement covenants, a three-year cooperation covenant and an indefinite confidentiality covenant.”

The Times itself reported that Ms. Robinson’s pay in 2009 was $4.9 million, so she’ll earn almost as much as a retired consultant as as a full-time CEO.

The handy investment calculator on the Times corporate Web site shows that $10,000 invested in NYT stock the day Ms. Robinson took over as CEO, on December 27, 2004, would be worth $1,855.14 today, a decline of 81.45%. The price of the stock went from $40.59 when she took over to $7.53 today, and though some dividends were paid out early in her tenure as CEO, the dividend has since been suspended.

Consequences for failure are for the little people.

GETTING READY FOR THE LIGHT BULB BAN.

Hey, there’s still a little time to stock up!

UPDATE: Reader Don Bagwell writes: “In all your posts about the incandescent ban, I’ve not seen anything about the emergence of the LED bulb. To my eye that’s a game-changer, provided they do it right (warm light, proper life-span, etc.). Costco had a bunch of ’em. My sense is that’s the next wave. What say you?”

Well, this post sums up my mixed experience with LED bulbs so far. If you pay a lot, they’re okay. If you don’t, they’re no better than CFLs. I think we’re at least two or three years — maybe more like five or ten — away from LED bulbs that are really as good as incandescents.