MORE ON THOSE OVERGENEROUS / UNDERFUNDED PUBLIC PENSION PLANS: Pittsburgh retirement plan’s value has decreased $124 million this year. “That leaves the fund with just 29 percent of what it should ideally hold to cover its long-term commitments, according to state standards.”

Meanwhile, look at the situation in California. It’s gotten so bad that some people are even suggesting that public employees will have to share the pain.

(Via PensionWatch).

A BUNCH OF RECOMMENDED stocking-stuffers for kids.

NO MOB VETO. (Via Rand Simberg).

GEE, DO YOU THINK? How Much An Industry Gives May Affect The Chance Of Its Getting Bailed Out. Can you have a healthy country and economy when the return-on-investment for political donations vastly exceeds the return on any actually productive activity?

LIFE WITH FLUORESCENT BULBS. Sorry, but this kind of wonky no-sacrifice fixit nostrum reminds me of Al Gore, or Jimmy Carter’s sweaters, and I don’t think it’ll play well, or deliver as promised. And I say that as someone who’s boosted compact fluorescent bulbs to a considerable degree.

“I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?”

MORE FINANCIAL PROBLEMS FOR BIG MEDIA: Tribune Hires Advisers to Help Stave Off Bankruptcy.

UPDATE: Virginia Postrel comments:

If anyone should fear a Depression, it should be journalists, who are already the equivalent of 1980s steelworkers. But instead, they seem positively giddy with anticipation at the prospect of a return to ’30s-style hardship–without, of course, the real hardship of the 1930s. . . . Oh the thrill of imagining a Great Depression. It’s an opportunity for Great Design and Really Cool Government.

And in 1914, a lot of the same sorts of people were giddy with anticipation for the war, because they expected a transformative and purifying experience. It was transformative.

ANOTHER UPDATE: What’s Wrong With This Picture?

MORE: Related thoughts from Dan Riehl. And some worrisome China news that you may have missed.

MORE DRUG WAR IDIOCY.

XCOR SUBORBITAL ROCKET TICKETS are now on sale.

MANUFACTURERS VS. RETAILERS on minimum pricing.

THIS IS PROBABLY A GOOD SIGN: “It’s no fiction: Scientific fact has usurped science fiction as TV’s favorite inspiration for prime-time story lines. And to keep everything on the up and up, show writers and producers are hiring scores of researchers and technical consultants to get the science straight.”

CAROLINE KENNEDY TO REPLACE HILLARY IN THE SENATE? Jane Hamsher says thanks but no thanks. “It’s a truly terrible idea.”

YOU CAN APPLY TO WORK at Reason TV.

A LIST OF THE top 50 Blu-Ray discs of the year.

TEDDY BEARS in space.

IT’S NOT JUST YOUR IMAGINATION: “The research – to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published – shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people.”

AT AMAZON, THE Twelve Days of Christmas Holiday. “12 Days of Holiday?” What does that even mean? Besides someone not wanting to say “Christmas,” that is. (Via Mark Steyn). “Holiday” is not, in fact, a synonym for “Christmas.”

UPDATE: Reader Rob Maida writes:

Glenn,

I can’t define “12 Days of Holiday”, but a quick look at Amazon sites in Canada, the UK, France, and Germany show that they have no problem with the dreaded “C”-word (Christmas). Seems it’s only the US site where it’s banned.

Regards,
Rob

P.S. I still love Amazon and really wish they wouldn’t do stuff like this.

Yeah, me too. I did notice that the Amazon.co.uk site is headlined “Best Buys For Your Christmas Stocking.” Meanwhile, reader Kenneth Mitchell writes: “Glenn, I’m Jewish. I don’t ‘do’ Christmas. But my attitude has always been, just because it’s not _my_ birthday, that doesn’t mean that I can’t help friends celebrate!” And Mike Twain writes: “QVC.com is perfectly willing to have a 12 Days of Christmas promotion…then again their target demographic isn’t quite as ‘sophisticated’ as Amazon’s.”

Or the QVC marketers are more sophisticated. I mean, I don’t want to go all John Gibson here, but this sort of circumlocution is just lame. If you’re cashing in on Christmas — as all merchants are — you shouldn’t be afraid to say the word.

A LOOK AT MICHELIN’S “active wheel” technology for electric cars.

A LOOK AT AMERICA’S successful missile defense program.

IN THE MAIL: From Tanya Huff, A Confederacy of Valor, which is her first two Confederation novels in one fat-and-cheap paperback. (Hmm, we seem to be seeing a lot of that lately; are SF publishers girding for a recession?)  Good, rousing space opera, though it seems to me that Huff is more into her Blood Price series of fantasy novels.

WITH THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING SEASON WELL UNDERWAY, and lots of gloomy econ-talk in the news, it’s time for another exciting Insta-Poll!