NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why You Should Have A Pellet Stove.

BALTIMORE SPEED CAMERA tickets stopped car for “speeding.”

UNIONS TO MICHIGAN GOV. RICK SNYDER: ‘We’ll Be At Your Daughter’s Soccer Game!’

Of course, this thuggishness is, as usual, also accompanied by the trademark union-label incompetence: “It appears that union protesters would have little luck finding the governor at the soccer field. According to a player profile on AnnArbor.com, his daughter participates only in softball and volleyball.”

You just can’t get good goons nowadays. But how will union folks react if Tea Party protesters start showing up at their homes? Turnabout is fair play, and every time they act this way they expose themselves to more. And who’s got more to hide from people following them around with cameras? They’re not thinking things through . . .

JONAH GOLDBERG likes my ideas on media.

AND EVEN THE PRESS IS STARTING TO NOTICE: Boehner Is Trying, Obama Is Not.

COMEDY GOLD: Dem rep: I’m deeply sorry for calling abnormally small people “midgets.” I’m beginning to rethink the idea that it’s the GOP that’s the “stupid party” here. . . .

SHOCKER: Prosecutor: SEIU organizer committed voter fraud in 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court election. “An investigation by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has led to a subpoena of SEIU’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and has implicated the prominent labor union in a voter fraud case that threatens to lead to criminal prosecution.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: There’s No Perfect Time To Start Having Kids.

UPDATE: Reader Bart Hall emails:

Nor is there a perfect time to STOP having them. At age 64 I have a 2-year-old daughter, and my soon-to-be-95 mother thinks that’s fantastic. My GG-grandfather (father’s side) started his second family in his mid-50s and went on to produce five more children. Some people are burnt out at 45. Others remain dynamic at 85, or older. Your mileage may vary. And, oh, my mother’s GG grandfather made it to 111, long before modern medicine. I guess when you’re made up primarily of piss and vinegar … such things can happen. It gives me hope.

Wow.

CHANGE: Russia Reveals Its Weakness In Syria.

This is huge. After years and years of providing generous support and political cover to the Assad regime, Russia is finally admitting that it simply can’t do much to keep its close ally in power. Clearly, this is a bad omen for Assad, but Russia’s resignation here highlights just how impotent the ex-superpower remains in a part of the world that is of vital interest to it. Beyond its leverage on the Security Council, Russia simply lacks the ability to influence events on the ground in Syria.

Rest assured, this lesson will not be lost on other countries in the region. And from the Kremlin we should expect an attempt to distract attention abroad and at home from the spectacle of Russian impotence. For President Putin, whose appeal and prestige at home has always been tied to perceptions that he has been leading Russia back to the center of world politics, the failure in Syria is a domestic as well as a foreign policy setback.

I’d feel better about this if I thought the outcome in Syria would turn out well for us, however.

NEW TREND: Converting Churches Into Condos.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Obama To Send U.S. Troops, Patriot Missiles To Turkey.

AT AMAZON, 25% Off On Christmas Toys.

Also, today only: Scotch Thermal Laminator, $16.99 (79% off).

DIVORCE BY REPUBLICANS = NEWS. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BY DEMOCRATS = “DISTRACTION.” Jim Geraghty: WashPost Style section showing a lot more interest in frmr Sen. Bill Frist’s divorce than any Moran news.

NEW YORK POST: LABOR’S SORE LOSERS.

Sometimes the pro-union left just needs to take a chill pill and accept defeat; Tuesday, after Michigan passed its right-to-work laws, was one of those times.

Sure, the law — which ban mandatory union fees — deal a blow to labor in the heart of a traditional bastion: the industrial Midwest.

But the bills were passed by duly elected lawmakers and signed by a democratically empowered governor, Rick Snyder.

So is it too much to expect the unions to accept that outcome civilly? Nonviolently?

Apparently.

However, they’re also ineffectual.

AIR TRAVEL: Marine Double Amputee Gets Help From Fellow Vets Angered by Delta Airlines Treatment.

Last Sunday, almost exactly a year since those grievous injuries forced him to learn to walk on two successive pairs of prosthetic legs, Brown was “humiliated” to the point of tears on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Washington after being clumsily wheeled to the back row of the plane, according to a complaint sent to the airline by an outraged fellow passenger.

Worse yet, according to retired Army Col. Nickey Knighton’s detailed “customer care” report to Delta, efforts by several fellow vets to shift Brown from coach to a first class seat offered by another flyer, were rebuffed by the crew. Flight attendants insisted no one could move through the cabin because the doors were being closed for takeoff, she wrote.

Maybe someone should share this story with passenger-critic and airline-defender Claudia Helena Oxee.

TRYING TO CRACK THE COVERUP: House GOP Seeks Info On Alleged EPA Internal Email Accounts.

OBAMA IN POT QUANDARY: Leahy Wants Clarification on State Marijuana Laws. “Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy is asking the Obama administration to clarify its position on the recreational use of marijuana, which two states legalized by referendum Nov. 6 but remains illegal under federal law. The Vermont Democrat on Thursday released a letter he sent to Office of National Drug Control Policy Director R. Gil Kerlikowske on Dec. 6 asking how the agency intends to react to new state laws in Colorado and Washington that allow adults to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana for personal purposes. The states’ laws also allow adults to create licensing schemes for the cultivation and distribution of the drug. Marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law, with cultivation, possession and distribution punishable by prison time.”

WELL, GOOD: US says it won’t ratify UN telecom treaty. “The United States said Thursday that it will not sign a United Nations telecommunications treaty that U.S. technology companies warn would disrupt governance of the Internet and open the door to online censorship. The U.K. and Canada also said they would not ratify the treaty after negotiations ended at a conference hosted by the U.N. International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Dubai.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations.

BOO FREAKIN’ HOO: Politico, Daily Kos Upset ‘Fox News-Breitbart Crowd’ Gaining Influence.

MEDIAITE’S RESIDENT RACIST, SEXIST HACK: Patrick Moran smashed in his girlfriend’s face; Tommy Christopher slams the real villains: Ace and Twitchy.

I’ve busted Tommy Christopher for racism before. Because unlike Mediaite, that sort of thing isn’t tolerated at InstaPundit. We don’t defend girlfriend-beaters, either. But that’s just how things are different here than at Tommy Christopher’s Mediaite.

SINGER, LOSER, WHATEVER: Rapper’s fans threaten to rape Michelle Malkin for criticizing singer. I suspect they all wear Meggings.

UPDATE: John Hawkins: Here’s my @thegame imitation: “I’m a Compton thug, but I need help cuz there’s a tiny Asian woman roughing me up on Twitter.” Really, it wouldn’t be an even contest if it were all the rappers against Michelle Malkin.

MOE LANE: By the way, the GOP just took control of Washington’s State Senate.

Plus, commentary from Michael Barone. “Barack Obama may be holding most of the cards in Washington, D.C. But his party isn’t doing so well in the state capitals.”

IF YOU MISSED IT EARLIER: My New York Post column: Advice to big GOP donors. “Buy women’s magazines.

Some related thoughts here. “Cultural battles are fought before political contests, and as we saw in 2012, they largely pre-determine the outcome of elections. Big-money Republican donors were fighting a battle they mistakenly believe was joined after the GOP primary concluded, but in truth some vital terrain was lost long before the primaries even began. Elections are tactical exercises, featuring battleground maps that cover individual consistencies and geographic regions. But the culture wars are about long-term strategy – the vital moves which occur before the first electoral shot is fired.”