TEN YEARS AGO IN INSTAPUNDIT: “If you want attention from females, regardless of age, there are few things better than a near-life-size inflatable Scooby Doo.”

VARIOUS PEOPLE ARE WRITING ABOUT ADS FOR ALAN GRAYSON ON INSTAPUNDIT: I can’t see them, because they’re targeted somehow. But just think of it this way: He’s spending money on ads to persuade InstaPundit readers to vote for him. Good luck, Alan!

Anyway, my rule is no Nazis, no Commies, no porn. Pretty much everything else goes.

UPDATE: Reader Dave Ivers writes: “I see them once in a while. If that’s the best pic of him they’ve got, I pity him. He’s got that Pat Buchanan ‘I scare children and pets’ look about him. He looks slightly demented. Really.”

AT AMAZON, top deals in computers.

Also, in software.

WELL, HE HAS A VACATION SCHEDULED: Celebrating Hanukkah Prematurely At The White House. “The eight-day Jewish holiday doesn’t really start until Dec. 20. But by then the entire Obama family including his mother-in-law are scheduled to be at a luau — or at least in Hawaii for 17 days.”

AT WISCONSIN’S THE ISTHMUS, they can’t handle contradiction. Wimps.

MORE TRANSPARENT TRACKING: A call for smart-phone software that lets users see what data their gadgets are sending out.

PROF. MARK PERRY: Fact Of The Day: Hunting Is Safer Than Bowling.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh emails: “I appreciate Prof. Perry’s point, but wouldn’t one need to control for the magnitude of the injury to determine what’s ‘safer’? It’s at least possible (and, I expect, likely) that serious injuries are more common in hunting than in bowling even if total injuries are more common in bowling than in hunting.” You’d think so, if you hadn’t seen my release . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chuck Oey writes: “Prof.. Volokh may have a valid point, but there are many ways to be injured while hunting, and I suspect that actual gunshot wounds are a small fraction of the many possible injuries. It would be interesting to see the numbers broken down.”

MORE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “Here in south-central Missouri, right in the middle of deer hunter central, I can tell you that in the 23 years I’ve been here I can recall maybe 1 gunshot injury, most seasons people fall from trees, usually from a deer stand, messing up their legs or back.”

SOME COMIC RELIEF: Islamic cleric bans women from touching bananas, cucumbers for sexual resemblance. “An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any ‘sexual thoughts.’ The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.” Real, or parody? Who can tell the difference, these days?

REASON TV: Why Obama’s Stimulus Failed: A Case Study of Silver Spring, Maryland.

TIM CAVANAUGH ON ERIC HOLDER’S TESTIMONY TODAY:

To recap: An American cop is dead because Holder’s BATFE sold weapons to known drug lords.

This dereliction of the most basic law enforcement responsibility – to promote the safety and property rights of Americans – would have led to Holder’s resignation already if he were any kind of man.

Here are two comments to the committee from the most prominent accessory to Brian Terry’s murder:

“Some people have not let facts get in the way.”

“I’m a big guy. I’ve been in Washington a long time.”

Holder is also using his testimony to make the case that you should not be able to have a gun yourself.

He makes a better case that we shouldn’t have an Attorney General.

UPDATE: Moe Lane says hey, rube! “Being a functional adult, I didn’t care for Tim Cavanaugh’s reasons for voting for Obama in 2008: so I don’t particularly care for Cavanaugh’s laughter at a situation in 2011 that he himself helped to create.”

Well, let’s hope a lot of other people who voted for Obama in 2008 are experiencing a similar epiphany about now. That’s me — glass-half-full!

Plus, give Cavanaugh credit, as he did admit that his reason for supporting Obama was “indefensible.” More than you knew, Tim. More than you knew. . . .

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Plummeting income shaves household cash. “The housing market collapse, historically low interest rates and corporations stingy with dividends helped cut the median household income in two of every three U.S. counties, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.” On the other hand, the Washington, DC area is doing just fine. . . .

And once again, I’ll note that if we had a Republican president we’d be seeing endless tear-jerk accounts of senior citizens’ suffering because of low interest rates and shrinking dividends.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “It’s amazing that the press can’t rediscover homeless people during the second Great Depression. I guess they’re just stacking up those stories until President Bachmann gets sworn in.” Well, once their howls of fear and anguish stop, anyway. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Gregory Smith writes: “Not to mention 2 years of 0% Social Security non-increases. Which is also not to mention 2 years of 0% non-increases in Veterans disability pensions. Not a peep from the press, AARP, et al.”

RICHARD EPSTEIN: Why Progressive Policies Always Fail.

We have rigged our tax policies so that, depending on the year, close to 40 percent of the income tax revenue comes from the 1 percent of the population that controls 20 percent of the wealth.

Close to half the population pays no federal income tax at all. This is a political disaster in the making.

The American economy is currently stagnating for two main reasons. At the top of the system, a relentless program of redistributive taxation undermines incentives for long-term investment and growth.

Yet from this vain pursuit of economic equality, we get declining standards of living for all. Simultaneously on the ground, excessive regulation of labor and real estate markets chokes off growth — employer by employer and house by house.

Our lopsided structure cannot last. Stock market losses cut the total income of so-called “one percenters” by around 30 percent between 2007 and 2009, with the greatest losses in the top 0.1 percent.

Higher tax rates will drive that overall level of wealth lower still, given that so little government revenue comes from the bottom half of the income distribution. Low tax revenues plus shiny new entitlements create an unsustainable situation where 40 percent of current expenditures are funded by long term debt, on which principal and interest payments will soon come due.

Something that can’t go on forever, won’t.

MEGAN MCARDLE: In Defense Of Kitchen Gadgets. “With all the reverse kitchen snobs proclaiming that they don’t need anything except a chef’s knife, a wooden spoon, and a cast iron skillet, someone has to speak up for the joy of owning these marvelous machines.”

Of course, the rotating pizza oven that’s caught my eye isn’t quite in the same league with Megan’s $1500 food processor.

UPDATE: Reader Christopher “Spoons” Kanis emails:

I wanted that stupid rotating pizza oven since it first came out, but a series of girlfriends and/or wife always rolled their eyes and guilted me out of getting it. Finally, tech lust won out over the other kind (or maybe I just won an argument and figured I had a ‘gimmie’ coming), so I went out and bought the Pizzaz.

Oh, for the lost years of crappy oven-made frozen pizza!

The Pizzaz is the greatest thing since round bread covered with sauce and cheese. It makes frozen pizza MUCH better, and it cooks it faster because you don’t have to preheat the oven. It also does a superior job of cooking just about any frozen artery clogger — pizza rolls, potato skins, taquitos — you name it.

If Dr. Helen won’t give you too much grief, then I highly recommend picking up one of these kitchen marvels.

And reader Paul Curtis writes:

Funny, you recommended the Pizzazz Pizza Oven more than four years ago on the blog. I know because I bought one at the time, and I’ve never tired of it! In fact, this year I bought additional turntables, because I’ve put so much wear on the original.

The device is so convenient, I’ve even started carrying it with me in my car, when I visit friends.

So I’m slightly surprised to read that you never actually bought one.

In any case, thanks for the recommendation; if you like pizza, the thing pretty much pays for itself after just a few uses.

Yeah, but Helen has pretty much vetoed any new kitchen gadgets on counter-space grounds. And she kinda has a point, alas.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Deb Call writes:

As a person who went to the effort of building a clay oven in my backyard specifically for making pizza, I have to give the Pizzazz the thumbs up! It was a wedding gift and I laughed when I saw it and thought, oh boy, we’ll never use that. Wrong! Hands down, my clay oven makes the best pizza I’ve ever had but a close second is the Pizzazz. Just turn it on and it’s ready to go. It only takes about 12 minutes start to finish compared to the roughly two and a half to three hours required to fire the clay oven to the ideal temperature to bake pizza. Get one and find a place to stash it! You’ll use it all the time.

Maybe I’ll give in. (Bumped).

WE NEED TO BE: U.S. Not Ready For Euro’s Fall.

The eurozone financial system is at serious risk of collapse — which would mean calamity for the US system, too. But our government’s not prepared. Euro-area policymakers are finally talking about the kind of bold reforms needed to fix their ailing system. But they’ve waited so long that they’re now racing against time, and a collapse can’t be ruled out. Leveraged to the hilt and broadly exposed to the risky debt of countries on the brink of default, many euro-area banks are floundering, so depositors and other bank creditors are running for the hills. Unless the run can be halted, it will at some point shut down much of the banking system in the euro area. . . .

Don’t feel smug: If the euro-area breaks up, America will suffer wide-scale collateral damage. Financial markets everywhere would freeze up. And even though investors would flee to safe assets like US Treasuries, many US financial firms would be forced to scramble for funds — perhaps having to do “fire sales” of their assets, taking massive losses to realize cash in hand.

Ugh.

ROGER SIMON: The L.A. Times: Always In Barack’s Corner.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Sensenbrenner floats impeachment of Obama admin. officials as ‘Fast and Furious’ response.

ONLY TRAINED LAW-ENFORCEMENT PROFESSIONALS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CARRY GUNS (CONT’D): Police sergeant charged after gun goes off at Southridge. “A Milwaukee police sergeant whose gun went off inside Southridge Mall in Greendale on Nov. 2 has been charged with endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon.”

Somebody call Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn.

HMM: PUTIN SLAMS CLINTON FOR ENCOURAGING PROTESTERS: “Prime Minister Vladimir Putin strongly criticized U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday, accusing her of encouraging and funding Russians protesting election fraud, and warned of a wider Russian crackdown on dissent. By describing Russia’s parliamentary election as rigged, Putin said Clinton ‘gave a signal’ to his opponents.”

Related: A Russian Awakening? Let’s hope it works out better than the Arab Spring. . . .

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why Sugar Makes Us Sleepy (And Protein Wakes Us Up).

AT AMAZON, pre-Christmas markdowns in Health & Beauty.

PJTV: Bill Whittle and I talk about Occupy and U.C. Davis.

THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE AND THE ONE-PERCENTERS: On Campuses, the Income Gap Widens at the Top. “Within the world of private higher education, there are a handful of college presidents who earn considerably more than professors on their campuses, or gobble up a notable share of their institutions’ budgetary pie, a Chronicle analysis has found. There are also significant pay gaps among presidents, 36 of whom earned more than $1-million in 2009.”

A CURE FOR SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT? Require Data Sharing.

That’s more consistent with my thoughts than many proposed approaches.

THE LIMITS OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM: HARVARD KILLS COURSES OVER ANTI-MUSLIM STATEMENTS: “In an unusual move, Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted this week to eliminate two summer school courses in economics because of anti-Muslim statements the instructor made in an op-ed published in India.”

They told me if I voted for John McCain, religious fundamentalists would censor expression even in America’s most eminent universities. And they were right!

WASN’T THERE A SOUTH PARK EPISODE ABOUT THIS? “Pooping Is A Feminist Issue.”