Some folks like to wrap holiday gifts using pages from the Sunday funnies. Me, I’m more a “thousands of jobs lost in December as economy collapses” / “town’s Christmas tree felled by lightning killing 9 orphans”-type guy. — You know, lend some emotional balance to the season and problematize that rampantly artificial good cheer with a healthy dose of thoughtfully juxtaposed irony. Happy holidays, everyone. Try not to cut off

Former FBI mole Larry Grathwohl responds–at PJM, because the NYT won’t publish it: I must conclude by acknowledging that in one respect Bill is probably being absolutely truthful. When he says that “I never killed or injured anyone,” he is most likely being totally honest. Bill, like Charles Manson, never exposed himself to any kind of danger. He always gave orders and then left it to his then-girlfriend, Diane Oughton,

On 5 November, the upmarket Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3 aired a discussion about overpopulation between Dr Susan Blackmore (a neuroscientist) and Professor John Gray (of the London School of Economics). Dr Blackmore said the “fundamental problem” facing the planet today is that “there are too many people”. Professor Gray agreed. Then Dr Blackmore declared: “For the planet’s sake, I hope we have bird flu or some other thing that

Will Self on anti-antidisestablishmentarianism. But what’s the point of disestablishing the CoE?  Does it matter enough, anymore, to bother?  Self selflessly applauds the Archbishop’s condonation of sharia law.  I say so, because, were it to come about, Self’s authorship would disappear entirely.  Then again, suicide is the ultimate self-possession. Related: Daughter of famous author wants to make us go through Obama years sober.

Despite it all, it’s a pretty damned wonderful life: A few years later, we sold for a surprising profit and moved to a bigger house. Leverage, they call it – and we caught on fast – moving every few years to accommodate our growing family (eventually 12) and business, but also to maximize our investment. In some ways we lived modestly: Our most expensive car was a used 15-passenger van,

Recruiter suicides: Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting in strangers’ living rooms, trying to sign up their sons and daughters for an unpopular war. He put in 13-hour days, six days a week, often encountering abuse from young people or their parents.

They have to build cases for it.

“People told me he was trouble, but I really thought he was too evolved and sensitive to hurt me the way he did,” Katherine said. Katherine’s director was an Homme Fatale—a genre of man that New York women have come to know well. Often the creative type, he projects a deceptive vulnerability, while maintaining an appealing confidence. He’s usually not the best-looking guy in the room, but he is the

deeply concerned that righty bloggers may not be worshipful enough. Related, the White House Press Secretary’s response to the NYT article that argued Bush poured gasoline on the mortgage fire (adding to the list of his terrible crimes arson, which they’d almost overlooked before he got out of office, you see): The Times’ ‘reporting’ in this story amounted to finding selected quotes to support a story the reporters fully intended

Five tons of frozen pangolin meat seized by Vietnamese officials. Suppose we’ll have to make do with lamb this year.