NICK KRISTOF: Bleeding-heart tightwads. “This holiday season is a time to examine who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but I’m unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.” When you’re spending other people’s money, it’s not compassion — it’s compulsion.

Related thoughts from Don Surber and TigerHawk.

RANGEL UPDATE:

A series of scandals concerning Rep. Charles Rangel’s vacation retreat and fund-raising efforts have been all over the news lately. They haven’t mattered all that much to most Harlemites. What matters far more to them is the fact that Rangel and Gov. Paterson are neighbors, with spacious rent-stabilized apartments, in the same luxury complex.

“They enjoy what most in Harlem need,” 92-year-old Sophie Johnson told me, “someplace to live that’s affordable.”

How nice for them.

SO, WALKING AROUND NEW YORK THIS WEEKEND IT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE A RECESSION: Lots of people walking around, buying stuff; lots of people lined up at theaters, lots of traffic. But various folks we talked to said that it’s slower this year than last, and that although people are buying, they arent’ buying as much. They’re certainly traveling on Amtrak, though — the trains were packed.

RIOTING “YOUTH” IN SWEDEN. “Clashes in the Malmo suburb Rosengard have escalated after the police in the beginning of the week cleared out and closed a basement facility in a rental building that was occupied after a dispute between the real estate owner and the Islamic cultural society in the neighborhood, local media reported.”

MOUTH BUT NO MONEY on Proposition 8? Generally, when I “beat the bushes” for contributions, I also contribute myself. Apparently Andrew Sullivan feels differently, or perhaps there’s some mistake somewhere.

UPDATE: A commenter says it’s because Andrew’s not a citizen. That makes sense, if California law bans donations by non-citizens; does it? You’d think Michael Petrelis, a gay journalist in California who’s covered Prop. 8 extensively, would know if it does.

ANOTHER UPDATE: You’d think that, but apparently you’d be wrong: Dan Collins says foreign nationals can’t donate. So no story here.

MORE: A reader emails: “Maybe we should make Sully produce the hospital records to prove he’s not a citizen. Did his mother really give birth to him, or did Bristol Palin travel through time? ;-)” That way lies madness. No, really.

And Jules Crittenden says I’ve missed the real story here. Plus, Dan Riehl calls for marital money-laundering. I don’t think it’s fair to demand that, though it’s certainly not unknown in politics.

SOME DOUBLE STANDARDS on boys, girls, and sex.

ALSO, SUN RISES IN EAST: Joe Biden makes fool of himself on Constitution again.

BRIAN DOHERTY ON the grimness of inflation, and how to beat it down.

TONIGHT’S THE END OF TWO-DAY SHIPPING IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS at Amazon — unless you’re an Amazon Prime member, in which case you’ve got until Monday afternoon.

RICK WARREN, GAY HEARTBREAKER: “Oh LGBTers. Don’t cry. I know President-elect Barack Obama’s breaking your heart. It sucks, doesn’t it, when you hitch your wagon to a political party, but the party is just not that into you? . . . But you know who your real friends are, LGBTers. And we’re going to help you get through this. Besides, who knows better than libertarians what it’s like to be in a long-standing lopsided love affair with a mainstream political party?”

MICHAEL PORTILLO: Britain has lost the stomach for a fight. “Blair’s military adventures exposed the gap between Britain’s pretensions and capabilities and perhaps between our aspirations and national character.” Plus this: “The secondary cause of failure was a misplaced British disdain for America, shared by our politicians and senior military. . . . Pride has certainly come before a fall. British commanders underestimated both the enemy’s effectiveness and the Americans’ ability to adapt. Some apparently failed even to observe how much had changed. . . . If a fair-minded account of the Iraq war is written, credit should go to President Bush for rejecting two years ago the report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group that called for force reductions. He defied conventional wisdom and ordered a troop surge instead. It has been an extraordinary success and, unlike Britain, the Americans will not withdraw in defeat.”

UPDATE: Mark Steyn comments.

BUILDING CIRCUITS with custom carbon nanotubes.

TOUGH TIMES for the U.T. Physics Department. That really stinks.

SPARE THE ROD, spoil the inauguration?

AN INTERVIEW with Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Dr. Horrible fame.

WRONG QUESTION: Leonard Downie asks Could we uncover Watergate today? The real question, given the way the press covered for John Edwards, Barack Obama, et al. is whether the press would cover a Watergate if it happened under a Democratic administration.

TOO MUCH MONEY, not enough trust?

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD where giant inflatable apes are banned?

I would say no, except that they’re the cause of the credit crisis.

UPDATE: Okay, I was just kidding — but it turns out I was onto something!

IN THE MAIL: Isaac Asimov’s The Stars, Like Dust. Nice to see his stuff is staying in print.

THE YEAR OF LIVING SCANDALOUSLY: “It was a year Democrats came to believe in the audacity of hope. Or maybe just plain audacity.”

MORE ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S growing diversity problem.

FAUSTA WERTZ ON LATIN AMERICA, at RealClearWorld.

TAXPROF: Year-End Tax Planning.

GETTING BETTER COVERAGE VIA TWITTER than via Big Media on the Denver runway incident. Somebody should write a book on this sort of thing . . . .

REASON TV: Peter Wallison on how the government created the financial crisis.