SLATE: The Case For Price Gouging: Trying to prevent merchants from hiking prices during disasters is futile and counterproductive. Yes, on Twitter I tried to instruct Chris Christie on this point, but shockingly I was ignored.

BLOOMBERG CANCELS MARATHON: “Facing mounting backlash over holding the New York City Marathon in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Friday that he has canceled this year’s race, despite his early assurances that no resources needed for those affected by the storm would be diverted. It marks the first time in the marathon’s 42-year history that it won’t be run,” Time magazine reports.

“The lights just came back on in the east Village for 67,000 people,” Allahpundit adds. “Presumably he didn’t want media outrage over the marathon cannibalizing the good news about power returning and the subways coming back online. Poof: Bye-bye, marathon.”

#BENGHAZI A BLIP ON MEDIA’S RADAR: Less Than Two Minutes of Coverage on ABC, CBS; NBC Punts.

To be fair to NBC, the network simply couldn’t make room to squeeze Benghazi in, given their wall-to-wall coverage of Obama’s Fast and Furious scandal.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Do Blondes Really Cheat More?

WARGAMING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE: Steve Green’s final election weekend scenarios, plus Steve, Bill Whittle and Stephen Kruiser on PJTV’s Trifecta: Electoral College Predictions: What Will the Final Numbers Be?

LENO: Trick or Treater Played Dead on My Porch Wednesday — Said He Was The Economy.

HE’S NOT THAT INTO US: Obama and the politics of contempt.

HURRICANE SANDY SATELLITE PHOTOS: Before And After.

ABSOLUTE MORAL AUTHORITY, THEN AND NOW: Rand Simberg on the ubiquity of Cindy Sheehan in 2005, versus the crickets that Tyrone Woods’ father has received from all but one television network.

THOSE WHO DON’T UNDERSTAND CIVILIZATION ARE DOOMED TO DESTROY IT: Bloomberg: Let’s Go Forward With The Marathon So People Without Homes, Power, Warmth, or Food Will Have Something To Cheer About.

FROM “HOPE AND CHANGE” TO “REVENGE:”

During a speech in Springfield, Ohio today, the president ad libbed a remark when his supporters started booing Mitt Romney: “No, no, no — don’t boo, vote,” Obama said. That’s his standard response to booing at his rallies. But then he added this: “Vote! Voting is the best revenge.”

Ahh, the wonders of punitive liberalism; Robert Reich would likely approve Obama’s message.

RELATED: Peggy Noonan: How Far Obama Has Fallen. Not exactly unexpectedly, however.

TWO GRAY LADIES IN ONE:

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.

— Thomas Friedman, the New York Times, September 8^th, 2009.

“Wary of Future, Professionals Leave China in Record Numbers,” — the New York Times, November 1^st, 2012.

WE MUST NOT EXPERIENCE BENGHAZI FATIGUE: Benghazi news round-up.

ATOMICS: From Hiroshima To The H-Bomb, 10 Earth-Shaking Moments In Atomic Science. “Sixty years ago today, the U.S. detonated the first hydrogen bomb. Here’s how we got there. Plus, the atomic spaceship we’re still waiting for.”

WHEN LIBERALS ‘APOLOGIZE’: SiriusXM Gay Leftist Host Michelangelo Signorile Issues Apology, Of Sorts.

Bruce Carroll’s translation:  “Gay Romney supporters are still scum and should die, I was just tired and got caught on tape.  I’m not making excuses, but actually I am.  Also, I was ashamed into apologizing by Andrew Sullivan of all people.” — read the whole thing.

I have great sympathy and admiration for the bloggers at Gay Patriot for daring to speak out.  The left reserves their vilest attacks for those of us — me?  Female, immigrant, from country considered “Latin”, post grad, in an artistic profession — who break ranks.  As such, I honor all rank breakers. I was in the “conservative closet” for may years.  Not any more.  Win or lose, it’s time to push back.  Question their claiming of vast swaths of people.  Come out, come out, wherever you are.  (And if it’s not clear what I mean, I mean come out about your political beliefs, even if, like me, you’re NOT gay.)  There are many more of us “rank breakers” than you think. Only Marxists would think people’s beliefs fall in neat groupings.  Be not afraid!

AT AMAZON, pre-Black Friday Deals.

NICK GILLESPIE: Hating Breitbart’s Powerful Post-Partisan Message. Gillespie’s likening of the New Media world to the DIY/Punk ethos is a comparison I’ve made myself, and agree with.

Key bit: “At more than one point in the movie, Breitbart asks members of audience he’s addressing to hold up their iPhones, pocket cams, and other recording devices and to turn them on. You, he says, are the media. That gesture is the essential takeaway of Andrew Breitbart’s work – and of the documentary Hating Breitbart. Such moments illustrate how something weird and wonderful is happening when it comes to media. Surely it’s more than a little ironic that just as Hating Breitbart hit theaters, the Daily Beast pulled the plug on its sick sister, the comatose magazine Newsweek, and Breitbart’s protege James O’Keefe released a video about voter fraud that led Patrick Moran, the son of Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), to resign in shame from his father’s campaign.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Your Post-Hurricane Home Inspection Checklist.

IT’S TOUGH RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS: Pub Owner Hides Body to Keep Police Away. “What if you’re a pub owner who finds a dead body in the men’s bathroom on a Friday? In South Wales, Jason Chidgey’s answer was to allegedly hide the body in the upstairs bedroom until Tuesday—so police wouldn’t shut him down for the weekend and take away business he badly needed, the Daily Mail reports. What’s more, according to court testimony, Chidgey got the cleaning lady to help drag the body upstairs.”

Back when I was managing rock’n’roll bands, I developed a lot of sympathy for saloonkeepers. But you still want to count the money twice. . . .

#GREENFAIL: False Gas Mileage Claims From Hyundai, Kia. I wonder what they’ll offer customers in the hopes of forestalling lawsuits? When the horsepower on my Mazda turned out to have been modestly overstated, I got 8 years worth of free extended warranty by way of recompense.

ISSA DEMANDS ANSWERS ON WHITE HOUSE STATE DINNERS, RELEASES “ALL THE PRESIDENT’S PARTIES” VIDEO: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa says “excessively lavish” dinners contradict President Obama’s professed desire to eliminate “stunning” federal spending. DO NOT MISS the video!

READER BOOK PLUG: From Reader Jonathan Koehle, Zombies!!!

WHY PARROTS MIMIC HUMANS, and why they swear so much.

THE OBAMA DEFECTORS:  You know things are a’changin’ when the Washington Post does a story on the Obama Defectors.  Here’s their graphic:

KIA, HYUNDAI ADMIT INFLATED MILEAGE CLAIMS: Hyundai has been getting grief for two years for its 40 mpg Elantra claim. That’s just one of multiple models from the South Korean conglomerate that will now get revised EPA figures.