KABOOM: A second Iranian nuclear facility has exploded, as diplomatic tensions rise between the West and Tehran. “Perhaps it is the hand of God.”

FASTER, PLEASE: Fluorescent Spray Could Help Surgeons Identify Cancer Quickly.

AN ERIC HOLDER PHOTO CAPTION CONTEST.

UPDATE: Obama used to have higher standards on Attorneys General and oversight.

THE HILL: Democrat says Senate leaders don’t want vote on earmark ban.

SCIENCE: How a collapsing scientific hypothesis led to a lawsuit and arrest.

HMM: Declassified Memo Hinted of 1941 Hawaii Attack. “Three days before the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was warned in a memo from naval intelligence that Tokyo’s military and spy network was focused on Hawaii, a new and eerie reminder of FDR’s failure to act on a basket load of tips that war was near.”

There’s a new book, so this claim’s getting attention, but in William Patterson’s biography of Robert Heinlein I learned that while in the Navy Heinlein was involved in a Pearl Harbor carrier-attack wargame that eerily presaged Pearl Harbor. The Navy’s battleship mafia deep-sixed the report, but the Japanese noticed.

JERRY POURNELLE: After Atlas Shrugs Comes The Ice. Thoughts after a panel discussion on Fallen Angels, and Climategate.

TV: New Show About Guns Debuts Wednesday on Military Channel.

TRANSPARENCY: Obama Admin Seals Records of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Implicated in Fast and Furious.

No wonder Eric Holder is getting so testy.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: House subcommittee looking at rising tuition costs; not-for-profit colleges increasing more than for-profits.

RONNIE SCHREIBER: Drunk driving enforcement in this country has become a racket. It’s not about safety, it’s about money.

UPDATE: Reader Donald Gately writes:

Local governments are clearly shifting from chasing criminals to chasing revenue. Which, from the point of view of their own self-interest, makes a lot of sense.

Let’s say that you are a local government, and you think of your budget as YOUR resources and not those of your constituents. You have a choice of two broad strategies (or a mix thereof): either pursue actual criminals for CRIMINAL OFFENSES, a process which requires the expenditure of resources and can be hard/dangerous work. Or you can pick on generally law-abiding citizens for civil offenses via revenue light cameras, roadside BAC screenings, “driving while talking” laws, seatbelt enforcement, aggressive parking enforcement, laws limiting grass/weed height, etc. While those non-criminals may sometimes show up in court to fight the charge, they typically don’t run or put up much of a fight (physical or otherwise). They pay their fines and get on with working, raising their families, paying their taxes, etc.

Given the quality of our political class, and given how many bureaucrats and government employees see their job as a birthright rather than a solemn responsibility, it should come as no surprise that taxpayers are getting it from both ends, and are seen as prey for both criminals and bureaucrats.

Indeed.

HMM: Foreclosure fraud whistleblower found dead. “A notary public who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive foreclosure scam before blowing the whistle on the scandal has been found dead in her Las Vegas home.”

RAND SIMBERG defends Andrew Sullivan against charges of racism.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Hey, what happened to the press coverage of the Occupy movement? “I’m guessing that the expression of the protesters — in form and substance — wasn’t serving the interests journalists favor. Excessively left-wing speech coming out of an angry/confused/unclean face… it’s not helping the mainstream Democrats.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Weather, Not Climate:

Those Via Meadia readers old enough to remember Hurricane Katrina can no doubt remember the many moralizing predictions of smug and condescending green climate hacktivists that followed: global warming was going to mean more hurricanes and bigger ones. Our coasts were toast; it was baked in the cake. The rising sea level combined with the inexorably rising number of major hurricanes were going to knock the climate skeptics out of the park.

Well, no. Andrew Revkin has called attention to this post from Roger Pielke’s blog which shows that as of today it has been 2,226 days since the last major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) hit the US mainland. Unless a big hurricane hits this winter, it means we are on track to break a 100 year record for the longest gap between major hurricanes hitting the coast. (The last Big Calm was between 1900 and 1906.)

But this is just weather, not climate, for reasons Mead explains.

HMM: China Reduces Reserve Ratios to Spur Bank Loans. That doesn’t sound promising.

UPDATE: Are we living in the best of all improbable worlds?

CHANGE: Lawmakers Propose End To Congressional Pensions. “While vast numbers of the private-sector workforce have seen their pensions vanish over recent decades and find themselves with precarious, market-based 401(k) plans, members of Congress receive both a pension and a quality employer-match plan. According to at least two lawmakers, it’s time for elected officials to join the real world.”

IN LIGHT OF YESTERDAY’S POSTS ON LAW SCHOOLS TEACHING LAWYERING, reader James Eric Johnson writes:

The question really applies to any profession specific education program. Do engineering schools teach students how to be engineers? Hardly. I graduated from both an engineering school and a law school. I can’t say that either ever intended to teach me how to be one or the other. They teach concepts. They teach methods. They test whether you are able to grasp the concepts and implement the methods you will need in order to operate in the profession. Are law school graduates ready to be lawyers? No, but they’re vastly more ready than graduates of philosophy or grievance studies programs. That probably explains why all philosophy and grievance studies graduates want to go to law school. If they had the ability to pursue an engineering education, they would never have majored in philosophy or grievance studies to begin with.

Well, there’s math. Meanwhile, I should note that at the University of Tennessee College of Law, we have not only the clinical programs I mentioned in the earlier post, but a Center For Entrepreneurial Law aimed at business lawyers, and an advocacy program for people who want to be litigators, both of which emphasize practical training.

UPDATE: A reader who requests anonymity emails:

Add computer science degrees to that list. Schools rarely teach their students how to work as software developers, not even at the “concept” level. Good design, testing, and user interfaces are notably absent from the taught skill set, in favor of rote procedures. The exceptions apparently exist primarily because of the relative infancy of computer science to other fields. The constantly evolving technology encourages some cross-pollination between those providing the credentials and those doing the work. However, the norm is still that a new hire out of school, even one with a masters degree, must first be “untaught” bad habits before real work can commence.

Well, a school is not an apprenticeship program. But I do think we’ll see increased pressure to narrow the gap.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kenneth Parker writes:

I’m a professional in the field (~25yrs). I don’t expect schools to teach students how to be professional programmers; they aren’t trade schools. The problem we’re seeing for the last five years or so is that kids are graduating from reputable state and private schools – with good grades – but without even the foggiest clue about fundamental concepts. Even stupid questions with no wrong answers like “Explain some of the differences between text files and binary files” stumps them. We had one interviewee that couldn’t remember the names of any of his courses from last semester, much less what was taught in them.

While price is certainly part of the education bubble, the other is that many kids simply aren’t learning anything. Whether that’s on the schools or the students I don’t know.

Yes, the value is declining on both the price and the result sides.

MORE: Reader Ray Ward writes:

One of your correspondents has officially gored my ox.

That probably explains why all philosophy and grievance studies graduates want to go to law school. If they had the ability to pursue an engineering education, they would never have majored in philosophy or grievance studies to begin with.

I majored in Philosophy at UT (the real one, in Texas). Two of my classes were all that was needed for a career in Computer Science: Symbolic Logic, and The Philosophy of Science. I have been in that field from bottom to top, both in the technical and the managerial tracks, since 1975. I taught my self the languages and concepts out of books, while working my way through school. The ability to think, learn, pursue knowledge, and the persistence to gain and hone skills, are the basics. The ability to read critically, write, and speak also help. Public speaking I acquired by training NRA firearms instructors, and teaching firearms classes.

I took Philosophy because it gave me the most freedom in scheduling different kinds of classes. I wanted and got an education before job training. That way I knew what was valuable, what to want, before considering the practical aspects of a job and career.

I took Symbolic Logic. History of Science, too, though it wasn’t taught in the Philosophy department.

But the Texas UT isn’t the real one, it’s a Johnny-Come-Lately.

And reader Michael Wallace writes:

I have two daughters. When they were in grade school I told them they better understand the math and science because I will only pay for a real degree and I will only pay for four years. Not long afterwards they began asking what real degrees were and the answers were engineering, science, medicine and accounting. Seeing how much I worked I knew that would develop no desire to be an accountant. (Not that it is easier in other professions, they just wouldn’t see it first hand.)

Year after year I made the same point when their report cards came in and when they complained. Eight months ago the oldest earned a CE from CMU in four years. Even though she was nowhere near at the top of the class (most of her A’s came in liberal arts requirements) she currently is working as a production engineer in the Texas oil fields and earning at a rate of 70/pa. In a couple months she will probably get a scheduled raise which will increase the rate to 80/pa plus a car allowance. It is hard work. It is a little dangerous. It has long hours. She loves it. Anyone know any poetry majors earning like that? Or drama majors? Outside of sales that is.

The youngest? She is working on an EE with a Math minor out in Silicon Valley. Teach and prepare your kids for the real world. If they are destined to be poets or writers or critics then they can do that after they have a real degree and are prepared for the world.

Preparing for the real world.

AT AMAZON, they’re running new post-Cyber Monday deals all week.

TOM BLUMER is live-blogging the Herman Cain appearance this morning.

UPDATE: Michael Graham says the real problem is the GOP nominating process.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Occupy Irrelevancy: Is Movement Already Fizzling Out?

WE HAVE NOTHING TO SNEER but sneer itself.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Conservatives should think twice about Newt.

But why do/did people like Newt? Or Herman Cain? Or Michele Bachmann? Because they weren’t afraid to go after Obama hammer-and-tongs. Romney take note.

UPDATE: On the hammer-and-tongs point, reader David Shorrosh writes:

You are exactly right. Here in Oklahoma (where none of the 77 counties went to Obama in 2008), the ‘normal’ folks I’m around don’t normally talk politics that much but — but:

1 – Thanksgiving dinner ended up with a robust discussion on politics, focusing on Obama’s policies/political associations and the juxtaposition of Tea Partiers vs #OWS’ers

2 – The three folks who admitted voting for Obama admitted they made a mistake based on media hype and Bush fatigue, and

3 – Pretty much all were fired up about Newt specifically because he is going after Obama — and the media

It looks like this groundswell will be too big for the MSM arm of the Democrat Party to control. I’m hoping, anyway.

We’ll see. But I agree that disgust with Obama will be the main issue this election — if there’s enough, he’ll lose. If not, he’ll squeak by. And Romney needs to take the hammer-and-tongs lesson.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Edward Nutter writes:

While we’re still in the primaries Mitt and Newt should play nice with each other. Their debates and discussions should focus on which hammer size of tongs would best knock Obama down and drag him out of the White House.

Romney in particular could answer the DNC’s “flip flop” ads three for one. His staff could research by simply doing a search on Instapundit for “They told that if I voted”.

Heh. Indeed.

MORE ON THE HORRIBLE “STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT:” NBC Universal Threatens Partners That They Need To Sign ‘Grassroots’ Support Of SOPA/PIPA Or It Might Have To Drop Them.

Take a moment to call your Representative and urge them to vote against this horrible sellout to Hollywood.