HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Economic Growth Just 2%, Well Below Earlier Estimate. Unexpectedly!

IS FACEBOOK DOOMED? Possibly. In the last week or two, several people I know — all of them attractive women between their teens and early thirties — have quit Facebook. Their biggest complaint is the lack of privacy, and its tendency to attract creeps. Under not just one, but two of Kaus’s Rules Of Punditry (“generalize from your own experience,” and “three events make a trend”) this now represents a legitimate phenomenon.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: K.C. Johnson on a sudden, newfound concern for due process on campus. “Davidson’s latest stab at commentary came in response to the pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters at UC-Davis—which today led to the suspension of the campus police chief. Cal-Davis deserves all the criticism that it gets for this incident, and I agree wholeheartedly with the remarks of FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff on the issue. Yet there’s something . . . peculiar . . . about seeing Cathy Davidson standing up for due process, given what was (at best) her indifference when three of her own institution’s students faced the highest-profile case of prosecutorial misconduct in recent U.S. history.”

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GEORGE MONBIOT denounces anti-nuclear “snake oil” on Fukushima.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: Perspective: Debt With and Without Sequestration. Not much difference, for all the hoopla.

UNIMPRESSED EUROPEANS: German press irked by US, pushes WH on debt.

In an apparent suggestion of United States hypocrisy on debt issues, a journalist in the German media challenged White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on the role of the United States in responding to the European debt crisis.

“The U.S., as far as I know, has a worse debt-to-GDP ratio than the whole eurozone, and we are talking about the eurozone, not about the United States and that Congress can’t get its act together,” said a member of the German press during the briefing. “So from the European perspective, it seems that this country is in a bigger mess than Europe. We are not proud where we are. We know that it’s slow and not bold, and so on, but at least they are doing something; they are deciding something, they’re trying to pull that through. And here, nothing is happening — third time this year,” he added, referring to the Supercommittee failure.

He’s got a point. Now if we could just cut like Britain. Or Canada.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: U. S. Government May Be Primary Suppliers of Mexican Drug Cartel Guns.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA (CONT’D): Downgrade watch begins as debt panel concedes defeat.

#OCCUPYFAIL: OWS Needs More Cowbell.

ARAB SPRING NOT SO SPRINGLIKE: With 33 dead, 1,750 injured, Egypt teeters on the brink of chaos.

KEITH HENNESSEY: The President’s Missed Opportunities For Deficit Reduction. “The President’s press secretary tells us that the President and his Treasury Secretary have ‘been very engaged with their European counterparts’ in addressing their debt crises, but it appears the President’s involvement in the American Super Committee was to set a proposal on the table and then leave.”

He’s never actually wanted deficit reduction, so what would he do?

CHANGE: PJM Exclusive: New Law Cuts Ties Between FBI and Terror-Tied Groups. “When Barack Obama signed the continuing resolution this past weekend averting another potential government shutdown, it’s doubtful that he was aware that tucked into the bill, which funds several federal agencies through the fiscal year and extends the continuing resolution for the rest of the government until December 16, is a provision that may dramatically impact what Islamic groups and leaders the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can continue to work with.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Obama on Tuesday to face NH voters now sour on him. “The independent-minded presidential swing state he won in 2008 has shifted distinctly to the right since his last visit nearly two years ago. The local economy is struggling to grow and voters are increasingly unhappy with the president’s leadership.”

Key voter quote: “The country is worse off.”

JOHN PODHORETZ ON THE SUPERCOMMITTEE: They didn’t fail – they succeeded in doing nothing. “The supercommittee triumphed in accomplishing what it was truly intended to accomplish. It was created to kick the can down the road. The only thing that mattered was that it come into existence, and it did. Its invention made increases in the debt ceiling possible through the end of President Obama’s term.”

UPDATE: Barry Goldwater’s prophecy of disaster has come true.

DAN MITCHELL: American Politicians Should Copy Canada’s Leftist Government of the 1990s and Cap Spending.

CHANGE: China Property Dip Sparks Bank Fears. “The number of property transactions in China’s largest cities has fallen to dangerously low levels, according to regulatory documents obtained by the Financial Times.”

UPDATE: Property Prices Collapse in China. Is This a Crash? “Residential property prices are in freefall in China as developers race to meet revenue targets for the year in a quickly deteriorating market. The country’s largest builders began discounting homes in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen in recent weeks, and the trend has now spread to second- and third-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Hefei, and Chongqing.”

RAND SIMBERG: Congressman Dale Kildee (D-MI) Never Molested Me. “For whatever it’s worth, when I was growing up, I lived around the corner from Congressman Kildee, and delivered his morning paper. When I collected from him, he never invited me in.”

NEUTRINO FEVER produces media storm.

HOW’S THAT ARAB SPRING WORKING OUT? Egyptians expect to ‘see a lot of bloodshed.’

CORZINE’S MISSING MONEY: “The court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of MF Global’s brokerage now estimates that the shortfall in the firm’s customer funds could be more than $1.2 billion, double previous estimates. Regulators currently suspect that MF Global improperly used customer money for its own purposes in the days before filing for Chapter 11 protection, according to people briefed on the matter.”

ILLINOIS: Alderman Supports Concealed Carry, says state is in violation of Constitution, offers resolution.

ACCOUNTABILITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE:

A court-appointed investigator has found that the high-profile prosecution of the late Senator Ted Stevens was “permeated” by the prosecutors’ “serious, widespread and at times intentional” illegal concealment of evidence that would have helped Mr. Stevens defend himself at his 2008 trial, a federal judge disclosed on Monday.

But the 500-page report by the investigator, Henry F. Schuelke, recommends that none of the Justice Department officials involved in the case be prosecuted for criminal contempt of court because the judge who presided over the trial, Emmet G. Sullivan, of Federal District Court in Washington, did not issue an order specifically instructing prosecutors to obey the law by turning over any exculpatory evidence.

(Emphasis added).

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YOU ASK, I ANSWER: Reader Robert Sapp writes: “I’m about to start my Christmas shopping in earnest. Could you give your recommendations again on remote control helicopters? Thanks!” Sure. This is the one that so many readers bought and liked. And here’s a post with recommendations for fancier ones.

UPDATE: A reader — I’ve omitted her name to avoid spoiling a Christmas surprise — writes:

Bought one of those helicopters for the son-in-law for Christmas this year. Played with it.

Ha ha!

Now I have to order another one — for my son-in-law.

Heh.