ANOTHER REASON TO KILL AMTRAK? “I believe you can make an argument that the Acela has actually helped birth the stranglehold the finance industry has over federal fiscal and monetary policies, and thus has hurt America. . . . The geographic proximity of New York to Washington, with quick trips back and forth on the Acela, facilitates this. Clearly, you could get back and forth on the shuttle without it, but given the Acela’s popularity, it does seem to have some big benefits in shrinking the distance between New York and DC. I’d argue this has been unhealthy for America. If true high speed rail ever came to the NYC-DC corridor, who knows what might happen?”

COVERED ON PJM/PJTV LAST SUMMER, NOW HITTING THE MAINSTREAM NEWS: Border County Sheriff’s Son Arrested in FBI Drug Investigation. Advantage: PJM/PJTV!

“BASELESS:” Seven Secretaries of State Criticize Michelle Obama for Claiming GOP Voter Suppression Occurred in the 2012 Election.

AMERICANS’ BIGGEST ECONOMIC PROBLEM: High Fixed Costs. Funny but in our household both of us — but especially the Insta-Wife — have always tried to keep fixed costs as low as possible. That way it’s easier to adjust your spending if your income takes a hit.

Housing, health care, and education cost the average family 75 percent of their discretionary income in the 2000s. The comparable figure in 1973: 50 percent.

Some of this is due to costs going up, but some of it is to people wanting bigger houses or fancier educations than they did then.

UPDATE: Reader David Schipani writes:

You quoted, “Housing, health care, and education cost the average family 75 percent of their discretionary income in the 2000s. The comparable figure in 1973: 50 percent.” Is it a coincidence that those are the three areas the federal government has been the most involved in providing financial assistance for? If you want to jack the price of something sky-high, get the government to help you pay for it.

Indeed.

JEFF SOYER NOTES A POINTED DRUDGE JUXTAPOSITION.

RAND SIMBERG ON Property Rights In Space.

GOOD NEWS: Plants In Space Prove Gravity Is Unnecessary For Normal Growth.

EVERGREEN: In the New York Daily News: People don’t stop killers. People with guns do.

INFOGRAPHIC: How To Make Beer.

THE ORIGINAL WAR ON CHRISTMAS: The short, glorious history of the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving.

MULTIPLE FATALITIES AT Connecticut School Shooting.

Stay tuned, and remember that most original reports about the Clackamas mall shooting turned out to be wrong. Early reports often are.

Meanwhile, get ready for cynical attempts to push gun control on the back of a tragedy, again. As William S. Burroughs once said, “After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.”

READER CD PLUG: From Larry Shackley, Evergreen & Ivory. Christmas music!

WHY THE HOT SAUCE INDUSTRY is the new Craft Beer industry. “Beyond established companies, thousands of kitchen and garage cooks have begun decocting their own spicy blends, with dozens of new sauces hitting local shelves and mail-order catalogs each year. A quick survey of recent entrepreneurial sauciers included a 13-year-old boy from North Carolina, a formerly homeless veteran who used sauce to rebuild his life and a Palo Alto, Calif., firefighter who grows his peppers behind the station.”

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.