Comedy gold: Kagan pretends to admire Orrin Hatch's gun  —  An all-time classic in the annals of American culture clashes.  Entrenched Ivory Tower academics love the firearms, baby!  —  Like Karl says, noting the double-entendre potential of the pistol, she's killing two storylines here with one stone.

Video: Chris Christie destroys reporter for calling him confrontational  —  Via Ace.  Dude, I'm starting to think this might be the guy.  A solid first term, then reelection in 2014, and suddenly the wide-open 2016 primaries are right around the corner...  Elsewhere today …

Holder hasn't read Arizona law he criticized  —  Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona's new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn't yet read the law and is going by what he's read in newspapers or seen on television.  —  Mr. Holder is conducting a review of the law …

Anti-porn provision sinks Dem jobs bill  —  House Democrats had to scrap their only substantive bill of the week Thursday after Republicans won a procedural vote that substantively altered the legislation with an anti-porn clause.  —  Democrats had labeled their COMPETES Act …

NBC CANCELS ‘LAW & ORDER’ FLAGSHIP: Dick Wolf Furious That Net Reneged On Deal And May Take Show To TNT; Should NBC Reconsider?  —  BREAKING NEWS!  KEEP REFRESHING!  3:30 PM UPDATE!  Here's the latest news on this fast-moving story.  A deal was in place if NBC picked up the Law & Order flagship …

Size of Oil Spill in Gulf Underestimated, Scientists Say  —  Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: 5,000 barrels a day.  Repeated endlessly in news reports, it has become conventional wisdom.

Inhofe Says U.S. Soldiers Will Be Unwilling To Fight And Die For Their Gay Comrades  —  In an interview with American Family Association (AFA) radio yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) argued against repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), arguing that basically, members of the U.S. military …

Night Beat: Angry Obama Expected Tomorrow  —  President Obama is angry about the oil spill, its magnitude, BP's stalling and tomorrow, he is going to let his frustrations spill out at a late-morning press availability after he meets with senior officials.  —  Tonight, Obama raised $1.3 million …

Obama: Did what moment required  —  BUFFALO — Emboldened by positive jobs numbers and an uptick in his own polls, President Barack Obama stood squarely behind his economic record Thursday and accused Republicans of doing nothing to contribute to the growth.

The Federal Fat Police: Bill Would Require Government to Track Body Mass of American Children  —  (CNSNews.com) - A bill introduced this month in Congress would put the federal and state governments in the business of tracking how fat, or skinny, American children are.

Officials: Pakistan has arrested suspect who says he was accomplice to Times Square bomber  —  The Pakistani government has arrested a suspect with connections to a Pakistani militant group who said he acted as an accomplice to the accused Times Square bomber, U.S. officials said.

BREAKING: Oliver North Confirms Mullah Omar Capture  —  Late this afternoon Lt. Colonel Oliver North confirmed that Taliban leader and Osama bin Laden ally, Mullah Mohammed Omar has been captured.  The exclusive news of Omar's capture was broken by Big Government Monday evening.

US faces same problems as Greece, says Bank of England  —  Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, fears that America shares many of the same fiscal problems currently haunting Europe.  He also believes that European Union must become a federalised fiscal union (in other words …

Hey Girls, Play Ball!  —  This has-been ball player/Wasilla Warrior would like to send a shout out of support to the Highland Park High School Giants Girls Basketball Team in Illinois.  These girls have been working, having bake sales, and saving money for months in order play in a hoop tournament in Arizona.

Lautenberg wants firearms banned from airports  —  Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced a bill Thursday that would make it illegal for people to carry firearms into commercial airports throughout the country.  —  The measure would prohibit people from carrying guns into areas outside …

Supporter calls Obama a ‘hottie with a smokin’ little body'  —  President Obama got more than he expected when he stepped out for a bite to eat today.  —  Obama is visiting Buffalo, NY, and made a surprise visit to Duff's Wings, a local landmark a few miles outside the city.

‘Annie’ left a homeless orphan in newspaper world  —  Through more than 85 years of hardships and challenges — spanning the Great Depression, a world war, foreign cabals, corruption at home, several kidnappings and, well, being an orphan — she somehow always found a way to triumph.

The Dark Magic of Structured Finance  —  In Too Big To Save Robert Pozen gives a clever example, based on an excellent paper by Coval, Jurek and Stafford, which explains both the lure of structured finance and why the model exploded so quickly.  —  Suppose we have 100 mortgages that pay $1 or $0.

U.S. Approval to Kill a Cleric Causes Unease  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's decision to authorize the killing by the Central Intelligence Agency of a terrorism suspect who is an American citizen has set off a debate over the legal and political limits of drone missile strikes, a mainstay of the campaign against terrorism.

Well, These New Zuckerberg IMs Won't Help Facebook's Privacy Problems  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his company are suddenly facing a big new round of scrutiny and criticism about their cavalier attitude toward user privacy.  —  An early instant messenger exchange Mark had with a college friend …

Sestak Surges Against Toomey In November Matchup, Quinnipiac University Pennsylvania Poll Finds; Corbett Has Small Lead In Governor's Race  —  U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who has narrowed the gap against Sen. Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, also is surging …

A Hidden History of Evil  —  In the world's collective consciousness, the word “Nazi” is synonymous with evil.  It is widely understood that the Nazis' ideology—nationalism, anti-Semitism, the autarkic ethnic state, the Führer principle—led directly to the furnaces of Auschwitz.