David Brooks Should Always Call Paul Krugman

before he writes something stupid, which is to say David Brooks should always call Paul Krugman before he writes anything.
I mean, he understands numbers and charts and, like facts and stuff.

For people in the center who worry, as my colleague David Brooks puts it, that there may be unintended consequences if you “centrally regulate 17 percent of the economy”: um, it’s a little late for that.

We Were Born of Revolution

And today yesterday Krugman takes took note of a little-remembered anniversary, Washington's crossing of the Delaware and the significance it should have for the history impaired, which is most of us.

Sinterklaass

Found this late. Sorry.

Now, The Workout: A Map

AP has a comparison of the House and Senate bills. I'll read it later. Have to get working on my part of the Christmas Eve feast.

Plaintive Cry Of Nostalgia

"when do we get back to the years with president’s penis in them?," one commenter comments about Sadly, No's review of the decade.
I think I am about to review my own personal decade. It seems like the appropriate thing to do.

Related Video

Honest, that was what YouTube said about this on the Known Universe page. I say Cosmic Intentionality.

Cosmic Intentionality, Huh?

Full screen recommended.

A Friend LIkes This For The Season

Who am I to argue. I should know who Queen was, give me 20 minutes.

10 Worst Things About The Oughties

From Juan Cole. And he oughtta know.

Merry Twilight Zone

from the genius, or one of them, behind Pixar.

Movie Review

My inner 14-year-old boy — let's call him Chad — loved District 9, out on DVD today. FYI.

Washingtonians Not All That Happy

In fact, we're just a notch above residents of D.C. Go figure.
For the complete list, go here.
Am I wrong or does it strike you that a large percentage of the top 25 are also Red States? Denialism feels good.

Errors O' Teh Year

Sometimes they're egregious and sometimes...

Bear sighting: An item in the National Briefing in Sunday’s Section A said a bear wandered into a grocery story in Hayward, Wis., on Friday and headed for the beer cooler. It was Thursday.

L.A. Times

We'll See

Marc Ambinder has some interesting things to say about the whole health care reform process, notably:

The bill that Obama signs will be "better" from the standpoint of liberal activists than the bill that the Senate is going to pass. It will contain more subsidies...probably some version of a trigger for some sort of insurance competitive mechanism...a reinstatement of mandatory cost controls for hospitals...and even tighter restrictions on insurers.

Cat Video O' Teh Week

I loves me some Roomba.

Is Christmas A Cosmic Joke?

Andrew Sullivan says it.

Sometimes I suspect Christmas is really a plot to advance the supergay. The kitsch, the artifice, the collective lie of good will, the power of superficiality, the naked materialism: it's all some super-ironic super-gay joke on all of us, right? Just don't tell Bill O'Reilly.

Yes!

TPM is heralding today's early morning vote on the first of six cloture votes needed to get to the final Senate bill — scheduled for Christmas Day — as the death knell for opposition while Josh worries that if they don't fix some of the delayed timelines, Democrats could be in trouble over the next two election cycles.
That's it in a nutshell, folks.
If you want all the gory details, go there.
If you've a taste for weeds, read Paul Starr.