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.”

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Biographies & Memoirs.

And markdowns on Cuisinart Hard-Anodized Cookware. Personally, I’ve been as happy with the Cuisinart as with the Calphalon, and it’s much cheaper.

Also, a reminder: InstaPundit is an Amazon affiliate. When you do your Christmas/Hanukkah shopping — or any other shopping — through the Amazon links on this page, including the “Shop Amazon” tab at the top or the searchbox in the right sidebar, you support the blog at no cost to yourself. Just click on the Amazon link, then shop as usual. It’s much appreciated!

AT ESPN, calling a transssexual basketball player an “It” gets you suspended, but calling a black football player a “cornball brother” does not.

THIS IS JUST TOO WEIRD: The Very Real Plot To Castrate and Kill Justin Bieber.

THE KNITTING NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Not your grandma’s knitting tattoo. Unless it is.

WITH GRASSROOTS, TEA-PARTY POLITICS: How Republicans engineered a blow to Michigan’s powerful union.

From outside Michigan Republican circles, it appeared that the Republican drive to weaken unions came out of the blue – proposed, passed and signed in a mere six days.

But the transformation had been in the making since March 2011 when Colbeck and a fellow freshman, state Representative Mike Shirkey, first seriously considered legislation to ban mandatory collection of union dues as a condition of employment in Michigan. Such was their zeal, they even went to union halls to make their pitch and were treated “respectfully,” Colbeck said.

The upstarts were flirting with the once unthinkable, limiting union rights in a state that is the home of the heavily unionized U.S. auto industry and the birthplace of the nation’s richest union, the United Auto Workers. For many Americans, Michigan is the state that defines organized labor.

But in a convergence of methodical planning and patient alliance building – the “systematic approach” – the reformers were on a roll, one that establishment Michigan Republicans came to embrace and promised to bankroll.

Read the whole thing, but here’s the key: “They built from the grassroots, bottom up.”

FORGET MICROBREWERIES, NOW IT’S “NANOBREWERIES:” How nanobreweries—fledgling operations in garages and backyard sheds—are revolutionizing the American beer industry. “The brewers’ small scale affords them an unusual degree of freedom to experiment. Smaller batches mean less risk; a high-concept beer that turns out badly is still a disappointment, but doesn’t blow a hole in a business plan. As a result, nanobrewers create some of the most intriguing and original beers on the market.”

THE CHARLES DICKENS HOME opens in London.

NOW ON YOUTUBE: My InstaVision interview with Richard Vedder on the Higher Education Bubble.

ENTREPRENEURIAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS and the App Economy.

HOPEY-CHANGEY! Expiring Warrantless Spy Bill to Be Reauthorized by Year’s End.

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: A DIY Armed Drone.

AIRLINE HORROR STORIES. “The level of passengers has been degrading.”