ANOTHER POLICY NOSTRUM FAILS: Calories on fast food menus not changing eating habits, study says.

DEALS GALORE: Shop Amazon’s Holiday Toy List – Top 100.

Plus, Secret Santa Gifts in Home Office.

Plus, today only at Amazon: 25% off Aquariums and Supplies.

And, also today only: 25% off select Gillette & Venus products.

BREAKING: German Intelligence Official Arrested in Islamic Terror Plot.

As Michael Walsh notes, that’s some serious fundamental transformation.

EVEN FASTER, PLEASE: Congress set to vote on bill that promises to speed up drug approval.

THUNDERBOLT AUDIO TECHNOLOGY FOR BOTH APPLE AND WINDOWS*: For my fellow DIY music recording enthusiasts, over at the PJ Lifestyle blog, I have a review of the new RME Fireface UFX+ audio interface.

* Well, this is the 21st century, you know. (To coin an Insta-phrase.)

TALK ABOUT BURYING THE LEDE: CNN’s Christiane Amanpour equates climate ‘deniers’ with proponents of ‘ethnic cleansing and genocide.’

Yes, as is often the case, Amanpour’s moral equivalence is disgusting. But note the baby steps taken here; a CNN mainstay has actually denounced  “ethnic cleansing and genocide!” Sadly, that’s an all-too-rare occurrence at the network that Ted Turner and Eason Jordan built.

SPACE: Tiny ‘Black Magic’ Satellite Packs Origami-Like Radar Dish.

CRASHING BY DESIGN: Roger Simon asks, Does Hillary Clinton Have a Guilty Conscience?

AGING: Emma Morano, world’s oldest and likely last living person born in 1800s, celebrates 117th birthday.

Italy is known for its centenarians – many of whom live on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia – and gerontologists are studying Morano, along with a handful of Italians over 105, to try to figure out their longevity. Bava has credited Morano’s long life to her genetic makeup, “and nothing else.”

One of her sisters lived to be over 100 and another to nearly 100.

“Her longevity is a genetic fact, nothing else,” Bava said. “She is a person who from a young age had a difficult life that would have sapped the energy out of anyone.”

He said Morano’s husband beat her and she lost an infant son to crib death at 6 months. She supported herself working in a factory making jute bags, then in a hotel, working well past retirement age.

“She abandoned the husband in the Fascist era, when women were supposed to be submissive. She was always very decisive,” her doctor said.

Bava, who has known Morano since she was 90, also praised her emotional stability.

“She is always a very serene. The beauty of Emma is that it is normal that she smiles, but also in difficulties, she is very decisive,” he said. “But perhaps this tranquility comes with age, which becomes wisdom. Who knows?”

Indeed.

GOOD: SpaceX investor joins Trump defense transition team. The Pentagon could use some of that spirit.

COME BACK NEWTON MINOW, ALL IS FORGIVEN! Is ‘The View’ the Dumbest Show on TV?

(Classical reference in headline.)

UPDATE: ‘They Don’t Hate the Country!’ Whoopi Defends Flag Burners on The View.

Trump’s trolling the DNC-MSM is paying dividends fast!

PARENTING: You Can’t Enjoy Your Children if They Are Out of Control.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Neuroscientists Wirelessly Control the Brain of a Scampering Lab Mouse. “Implanted in that mouse’s brain was a device about the size of a peppercorn. When we used our wireless power system to switch it on, the device glowed with a blue light that activated genetically engineered brain cells in the premotor cortex, which sends signals to the muscles. We watched in amazement as the mouse stopped its random motions and began to run in neat circles around the cage.”

SENATOR MIKE LEE: Conservatives Should Embrace Principled Populism.

For all the challenges a President Trump may present conservatives during his term, his populism need not be one of them. Far from contradictory, conservatism and populism complement each other in ways that can change history — as did the most successful populist in recent decades, Ronald Reagan.

The chief political weakness of conservatism is its difficulty identifying problems that are appropriate for political correction. Conservatism’s view of human nature and history teaches us that problems are inevitable in this world and that attempts to use government to solve them often only make things worse.

This insight actually makes us good at finding solutions. At our best, conservatives craft policy reforms that empower bottom-up, trial-and-error problem-solving and the institutions that facilitate it, such as markets and civil society. At our worst, though, we can seem indifferent to suffering and injustice because we overlook problems that require our action or resign ourselves to their insolvability.

Populists, on the other hand, have an uncanny knack for identifying social problems. It’s when pressed for solutions that populists tend to reveal their characteristic weakness. Unable to draw on a coherent philosophy, populists can tend toward inconsistent or unserious proposals.

The rough terms of a successful partnership seem obvious. Populism identifies the problems; conservatism develops the solutions; and President Trump oversees the process with a veto pen that keeps everyone honest.

It’s telling that this message comes from Mike Lee, whose small-government/constitutionalist credentials are perhaps unequaled in today’s Senate.

OPEC TALKS UPDATE: Iran Says It Won’t Cut Oil Production as Talks Remain Deadlocked.

Our OPEC friends can’t afford to cut production, but they can’t live off today’s prices, either.

PHILIP KLEIN: Here’s how Trump’s HHS pick wants to replace Obamacare.

Given that Trump offered scant details on healthcare during the campaign, [Tom] Price could have outsized influence on the incoming president’s health policy. Price happens to also be close with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who he succeeded as chair of the Budget Committee. Both of the men have similar attitudes on health policy, including overhauling Medicare and Medicaid. During an interview I did with Price for my 2015 book “Overcoming Obamacare,” we discussed his basic philosophical approach to replacing the law.

Two things should stand out to those trying to understand the thinking of the next HHS Secretary (assuming Senate confirmation).

Price told me unequivocally that reforming the system has to start with fully repealing Obamacare: “It needs to be fully repealed, because the first step out of the gate for Obamacare is a step in the wrong direction and that is for government control over every aspect of health care, so it’s hard to fix the system that they have put in place without ending that premise that government ought to be running and controlling health care.”

When Adam Smith wrote “There’s a lot of ruin in a nation,” he might as well have been prophesying America’s hundred-trillion-dollar (give or take) entitlement crisis — which remains my number one issue.

If Price can successfully gut and replace ObamaCare with something that works, it might give him (and Trump) the necessary clout to tackle the Medicare/Medicaid albatross.

FLASHBACK: Peter Thiel: The New Atomic Age We Need. “The single most important action we can take is thawing a nuclear energy policy that keeps our technology frozen in time. If we are serious about replacing fossil fuels, we are going to need nuclear power, so the choice is stark: We can keep on merely talking about a carbon-free world, or we can go ahead and create one.”

JILL STEIN IS THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: Dems fear recounts help Trump, hurt rebuilding plans.

The Democrats hope to regain competitiveness in the Rust Belt after suffering surprise losses there fueled by the defection of white working class voters who supported Democratic candidates for decades. They worry that the possibility of elevating Trump’s image through pointless recounts, and giving him in effect another win, is not a good first step.

“We should all want to know the final count of this election, which was closer than many people realize, and identify any voter suppression or irregularities that are subverting our democracy,” Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic operative who previously advised Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, said Monday in an interview.

“However, by waiting two weeks, we have undermined our credibility with the public and will be seen as sore losers,” Mollineau added. “And the last thing Democrats should be doing is giving the American people any reason to feel sympathy for Donald Trump.”

Democrats haven’t exactly been giving the American people any reason feel sympathy for Democrats.

UPDATE:

Yesterday, we found out Wisconsin will charge us $3.5M—an outrageous increase from the initial estimate of $1.1M for #Recount2016.

— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) November 29, 2016

You might consider throwing a couple bucks her way, just to help keep the charade going.

CORN, POPPED: In OPEC Poker Game, Iran and Iraq Call Saudi Arabia’s Bluff.

Together, Iran and Iraq pump more than 8 million barrels a day, up from about 6 million barrels a day from late 2014 when OPEC adopted its current pump-at-will oil policy. Saudi Arabia remains the largest producer at more than 10.5 million barrels a day.

“The reality is that only Saudi Arabia and perhaps the U.A.E. and Kuwait are prepared to make any cuts, and those will be modest and short-lived,” said Bob McNally, founder of consultant Rapidan Group in Washington. “At best, Iran and Iraq will sign for production freezes.”

Perhaps with that in mind, Khalid Al-Falih, the Saudi oil minister, tried over the weekend to change the OPEC narrative. Oil prices will stabilize next year, “and this will happen without an intervention from OPEC,” he said in Dhahran, eastern Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, according to the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

That may be nothing more than wishful thinking:

“If OPEC does not come up with a credible agreement to cut production on Wednesday oil prices will end the year below $40 a barrel and be chasing down $30 a barrel early next year,” said David Hufton, chief executive officer of brokers PVM Group Ltd. in London.

If oil prices do rise, then American frackers will reap much of the benefit — and cap that increase at $50 or $60. If prices fall or merely stay the same, that’s cheap gas for us and slashed budgets for the OPEC nations.

After decades of the Saudis having us over a barrel, it’s nice to be on the other side of the “heads I win, tails you lose” scenario.

HELSINKI SYNDROME. ‘We Learned a Lot from Fidel’: Supporters Defend Castro’s Legacy.

TROLL LEVEL: PRESIDENT-ELECT: That moment when the MSM realizes Trump just took a position advocated by Hillary Clinton in 2005.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: Obama’s Labor Market Mischief.

BRING A GUN TO A KNIFE FIGHT? How universities train students, faculty for ‘active shooters’

Attacks like the one at OSU remain relatively rare across the nation. However, campus police chiefs and other officials all said authorities would be remiss if their universities did not continually train and educate faculty, staff and students on what to do — and what not to do — in an active shooter scenario. This week, UC will host to “shelter-in-place” workshops. Just last week, Xavier University Police Chief Joseph Milek trained about 30 staff members in an active shooter seminar.

“Who would have known that less than a week later, we would all be watching it live on TV,” Milek said. “The main goal is to get people thinking in advance. It can be little things, but they are important: How many exits are there to get out of your area? Where are they? We get complacent; but this isn’t rocket science.

“But you do have to put effort into preparing,” he said. “It just pays off.”

It seems unkind to mention that yesterday’s “shooter” was wielding a machete, but I will remind you that here in Colorado we take a somewhat different approach to campus safety.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1300.