THE NEW SAMSUNG CHROMEBOOK GETS A REVIEW: Samsung’s Chromebook, priced at just $249, is a decent cheap laptop. But it’s not so good when there’s no Internet.

MEETING THE FAMILY: Do’s And Don’ts From The Movies.

WHAT WOULD JESUS BURN? The story of Frankincense and Myrrh.

99 CENTS ON KINDLE: From Joseph Bottum, Wise Guy: A Christmas Tale. You probably know him from his writings in the Weekly Standard.

DID WE EVER GET AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION? Does Piers Morgan’s Bodyguard Carry A Gun?

Hey, I’m still waiting to find out what kind of gun Rupert Murdoch’s bodyguards carry. And Mike Bloomberg’s. And note this, seen on Facebook:

HARD TO BELIEVE IT’S BEEN SEVEN YEARS since Jim Hawkins died. R.I.P., Jim.

DAVID HENDERSON: Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee: The Case of Erik Loomis.

It turns out, by the way, that Crooked Timber also misled by omission. Everyone knows that the expression “head on a stick” is a metaphor, and that is how Crooked Timber defended Loomis. But see here for some of his truly vile comments. Crooked Timber quoted none of these.

Also, the other person, besides the people at Crooked Timber, who is unwilling to defend freedom of speech is . . . Erik Loomis. When given a chance to clarify his views on LaPierre, he wrote, “Dear rightwingers, to be clear, I don’t want to see Wayne LaPierre dead. I want to see him in prison for the rest of his life.”

And what would he want LaPierre in prison for? For murder? No. It would be for speaking out in favor of, and lobbying for, people’s right to own guns. So, again, “freedom of speech for me, but not for thee.”

That’s consistent with their general approach. They’re lefty-defenders, not liberty-defenders.

Plus this: “Reading how vile the comments of this ‘gifted young scholar’ were, I did start thinking that, at a minimum, some people at URI should occasionally monitor his class or question his students to find out whether he brings anywhere close to that amount of venom to discussions with students who disagree with him.”

And, from the comments: “One irony of all this: While FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) is already at work defending Loomis against possible sanction by URI, I doubt very much that Loomis himself would be supportive of other work FIRE does to protect the rights of students who, for example, agree with Wayne LaPierre.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Next Step In Kansas’ Red Revolution: End State Pensions?

Since the right wing of Kansas’ Republican party gained control over the state government last month (defeating both Democrats and moderate Republicans to establish perhaps the most pro-Tea Party state government anywhere in the United States), we’ve been keeping an eye on developments there that could tell us what Tea Party governance would look like.

A new proposal on state pensions from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce offers a clue: the proposal would substitute defined contribution plans for the current defined benefit plan that goes to state retirees. For those of you not fully up on pension minutiae, this matters. In a defined benefit program, your employer promises a fixed stream of payments (usually with cost of living adjustments to take care of inflation) to employees when they retire. The amount of your payment is based on a formula that looks at things like your length of service and your pre-retirement pay.

This used to be the standard pension system in the private economy as well as for government workers. It is a very “blue model” system: it assumes a world of lifetime employment and stable employers. Often, defined benefit pensions emerged from negotiations between unions and employers.

In the private economy, the defined benefit system is in rapid retreat. Employers don’t like these pensions because they are both risky and expensive to manage. If the investments set aside to pay future pension obligations don’t perform well enough, companies have to divert current earnings to them or, worse, borrow money to make up the gap. Another problem with these pensions is that they create problems for companies facing fast technological change. Automakers, for example, need many fewer workers today than they did thirty years ago to produce cars; as a result the proportion of pensioners to active workers has shot up, and companies are stuck with legacy labor costs which make it more difficult for them to compete or attract new capital.

It’s not that radical. I have a defined-contribution plan, and it’s been the rule in Tennessee for decades.

RACISM IN OBAMA’S AMERICA: Is The Ivy League Fair To Asian-Americans? “An admission officer’s uncomfortable explanation for why they don’t get in as often as their test scores would predict suggests it’s not.”

AT AMAZON, Gift Cards Galore! Print ’em out or email ’em.

Also, today only: HTC One V Prepaid Android Phone (Virgin Mobile), $69.99.

UPDATE: Reader Carlos Velazquez isn’t impressed with the phone deal: “Radio Shack has it for $49.99.” So take note.

THIS IS LIKE AN OLD LADY WORRYING ABOUT TEENAGERS “SHOOTING UP MARIJUANA:” New York Times calls for limits on “high capacity ammunition.”

UPDATE: Reader James Druse emails: “Too bad the NY Times has only low capacity journalists.” Heh. (Bumped).

OFF-SCRIPT AGAIN: Cory Booker: “Criminals are killing people. Not law-abiding gun owners.” Plus: “We do not need to go after the guns. A law-abiding mentally stable American, that’s not America’s problem.”

A FUN TWITTER FEED: Modern Seinfeld tweets 140-character plot summaries for new Seinfeld episodes set in the present. Examples:

Kramer becomes an Internet famous photo bomber, so Jerry checks his photos and finds Kramer in the background of every single one of them.

Elaine attends a party Michelle Obama is speaking at, offends the first lady when she complains at the buffet about the crappy health food.

George trips, accidentally gropes someone on the train, and a video of it goes viral. Elaine gets a job writing menu copy for Guy Fieri.

Pretty funny.

JOBS: It’s Five Times Harder To Get A Flight Attendant Job With Delta Than To Enter Harvard.

AN ENTIRE GOVERNING PHILOSOPHY IN ONE SENTENCE: “You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.”

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: “First came the pen, and then the fist.”

EXAMINING SANTA CLAUS for inappropriate messages.

PROF. JACOBSON: I could not accuse Salon.com of tokenism, even if I wanted to.

NEVER: Jonah Goldberg: “When will liberals stop living in the past? Specifically, when will they accept that they aren’t all that stands between a wonderful, tolerant America and Jim Crow?”

AT AMAZON, $5 Albums On MP3.

WAIT, WEREN’T THEY TELLING US THAT WORRIES ABOUT GUN CONFISCATION WERE A PARANOID FANTASY? Andrew Cuomo: “Confiscation Could Be An Option.”

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ.

CATALONIA: Secession Looking More Likely. “Catalonia is the richest part of Spain. If it goes, Spain’s tax base shrinks dramatically. If it doesn’t go, but merely uses the threat to get lower taxes and more help with its own very large debts, Spain’s fiscal picture still looks a great deal bleaker. Which means, in turn, that Germany is going to have to pony up a lot more money.”

It seems like every European problem requires the Germans to pony up a lot more money. What if they don’t?

AT AMAZON, hot new releases in Blu-Ray.

LARRY CORREIA: An Opinion On Gun Control. (Reposted).