MARY GRABAR: It’s Not The Economy, Stupid. “It’s racial politics. And you don’t beat them by adopting them.”

CHARLES COOKE: Buzzfeed’s Illiterate Insinuation. They keep moving toward ThinkProgress territory. I don’t think they’ll prosper there, unless they’re getting Soros money.

HOW TO DEVISE PASSWORDS THAT DRIVE HACKERS AWAY. I use “nudepicsofHelenThomas,” personally. Nobody wants to be typing that in.

AND WITH GOOD REASON: Lawmakers raise questions on how Petraeus affair was handled.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Cheating on rankings at George Washington University.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Shouldn’t the obvious step upon hearing that GW undergraduate rankings were based on false data be an audit of GW’s other rankings? Like its law school ones?” Makes sense. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.

BENGHAZI UPDATE: Were there Libyan “militia prisoners” at the Benghazi CIA annex?

UPDATE: Reader Tom McCobb writes: “The higher the pile of Benghazi cr*p gets, the more I think, ‘Yeah, Obama got re-elected; so did Nixon.'”

And say, does this revelation mean that the Obama Administration was operating one of those dreadful secret foreign CIA prisons?

ANDREW KLAVAN: It’s All Over. Not. “Since Tuesday, I have heard enough conservatives saying, ‘It’s over! We’re through!’ in serious, important-sounding voices to last me the next four years. I don’t care how important you make it sound, it’s whining; any child can do it. I’ll let you know when it’s over by putting you in the ground and throwing six feet of dirt onto your face. Until you get that secret signal, really, pull yourself together.”

See, libertarians are less despondent because (1) conservatives start out gloomier; and (2) we’re much more used to disappointment. Also, we’ve seen real progress in many areas over the last couple of decades.

UPDATE: Looking at this again, I’m reminded of a line from Firefly: “May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.” I aim to misbehave.

COMPETENCE: Pentagon releases Benghazi timeline: took 19 hours to respond.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in Health & Personal Care.

BEWARE: The “Squirrel Whisperer” Will Put Tiny Hats On All Your Squirrels. “It’s kind of a give and take. They’re not going to play with me unless I have food to give them.”

VIDEO: A robot version of the classic Roland TR-808 Drum Machine.

RESVERATROL NEWS: Compound in grapes, red wine could be key to fighting prostate cancer.

FIGHTER PILOTS NOT YET OBSOLETE: Predator Drones Once Shot Back at Jets… But Sucked At It. “There’s very little about their current capabilities — from their speed to their maneuverability to the range of visibility afforded to operators — that encourages operators to arm or employ them for air-to-air engagements in defended airspace.” It’s also likely, of course, that the fighter jocks who run the Air Force aren’t eager to speed the process along.

AT AMAZON, featured “Countdown To Black Friday” Deals.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Writing a single-atom qubit in silicon.

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

AT SOME POINT, I THINK, YOU’VE RAISED ENOUGH MONEY: It’s “Shock The System” Week At College Insurrection.

CAR NEWS: 2014 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series, Revealed. I’ve seen a few SLS’s on the road and they’re quite handsome cars, especially by comparison to most of Mercedes’ line. Of course, for the price they should be.

TIM FERRISS’S NEW BOOK: The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life.

IS THERE A HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE BUBBLE? The Minerva Project aims to create a high-status online university. Instead, it may be the sign of a venture-capital bubble in online education. Just remember, the Internet Bubble didn’t mean that the Internet wasn’t in the process of changing everything. It just meant that the flood of capital was coming faster than the flood of good ideas for a while.

DISASTER PREPARATION: A Camp Stove That Also Charges Your Cell Phone.

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY. (Though the day is still young.)

UNEXPECTEDLY: PETA unintentionally red-lines the irony meter: “PETA Thanksgiving billboard asks kids: Would you eat your dog?”

Well, it does seem like a viable first step for any young man on the path to the presidency days.

AND THIS IS BEFORE ANYONE GETS AROUND TO REPEALING THE HOLLYWOOD TAX CUTS: Morgan Stanley Explains How Rich New Yorkers And Californians Could Get Really Screwed In A Fiscal Cliff Deal.

But, you know, we really should repeal the Hollywood Tax Cuts!