memeorandum: Anarchy in the U.S.A. — The roots of American disorder. (Matthew Continetti/Weekly Standard)

2:25 PM ET, November 25, 2011

Top Items:

Debbie Goffa / L.A. NOW:

Customers hit by pepper spray at Wal-Mart describe scene of chaos — Matthew Lopez went to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch on Thursday night for the Black Friday sale but instead was caught in a pepper-spray attack by a woman who authorities said was “competitive shopping.”

Shelby Grad / L.A. NOW:

Shootings, pepper-spray attack mar Wal-Mart Black Friday sales — As shoppers converged on retailers around the country looking for Black Friday deals, authorities reported scattered problems. — In Porter Ranch, a woman pepper sprayed customers at a Wal-Mart in what authorities …

Discussion: CNN, Nation Now and Guardian

CBS News:
Black Friday shoppers pepper-sprayed in Calif.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, L.A. NOW, DCist and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Black Friday Sales Show Divide Between Shoppers

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Guardian, American Power, BAGnewsNotes, Gothamist and Wonkette

Valentina Za / Reuters:

“Awful” Italy debt sale heightens euro zone stress — (Reuters) - Italy paid a record 6.5 percent to borrow money over six months on Friday and its longer-term funding costs soared far above levels seen as sustainable for public finances, raising the pressure on Rome's new emergency government.

Discussion: americanthinker.com

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:

Is the end near? — I am seeing reports of 7.7 on the Italian ten-year bond, over eight percent on the two-year bond, 6.5 percent on the six-month note, and so on. Here is one account. — Maybe these markets simply will shut down soon. There is so much talk about what the Germans should do, but I don't see the viable options.

Discussion: Financial Times, Brad DeLong and AMERICAN FUTURE

Robert Pear / New York Times:

Support Builds for a Plan to Rein In Medicare Costs — WASHINGTON — Though it reached no agreement, the special Congressional committee on deficit reduction built a case for major structural changes in Medicare that would limit the government's open-ended financial commitment to the program, lawmakers and health policy experts say.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Hullabaloo and The Enterprise Blog

CEPR: NYT Claims Increasing Bipartisan Support for Plans that Could Raise the Cost of Medicare Policies by $34 Trillion

Guardian:

Frank Miller and the rise of cryptofascist Hollywood — Fans were shocked when Batman writer Frank Miller furiously attacked the Occupy movement. They shouldn't have been, says Rick Moody - he was just voicing Hollywood's unspoken values — A sturdy corollary emerges in the wake …

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, Althouse, americanthinker.com and Samizdata.net

Andrew Osborn / Telegraph:

Russian newsreader fired after Obama middle finger insult — A top Russian female newsreader who appeared to defiantly show US President Barack Obama her middle finger during a live newscast has been fired. — Tatyana Limanova, an award-winning senior newsreader at the channel, can be seen briskly reading out an item about APEC

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, ABCNEWS, Liberty Street, Big Journalism, The Raw Story, Weasel Zippers, HotAirPundit, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Jammie Wearing Fools

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

We Are the 99.9% — “We are the 99 percent” is a great slogan. It correctly defines the issue as being the middle class versus the elite (as opposed to the middle class versus the poor). And it also gets past the common but wrong establishment notion that rising inequality is mainly …

Discussion: Prairie Weather and Hullabaloo

Nation:

Not Photoshopped: Beam of Light Shines on Fallen Soldier's Miracle Dog — Reported by ABC News' Kimberly Launier: — It was an overcast day in Newport, N.H., when a simple “20/20″ shoot turned into something that made me wonder about life after death.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Weasel Zippers, ABCNEWS and Hot Air

Matthew Continetti / Weekly Standard:

Anarchy in the U.S.A. — The roots of American disorder. — Ever since September, when activists heeded Adbusters editor Kalle Lasn's call to Occupy Wall Street, it's become a rite of passage for reporters, bloggers, and video trackers to go to the occupiers' tent cities and comment on what they see.

Discussion: Moe Lane, Klein Online and The Other McCain

Logan Smith / KLTV-TV:

Man arrested for Facebook comment threatening Gov. Haley's life — COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - A South Carolina man is accused of threatening the life of Gov. Nikki Haley on Facebook, but he claims he was only making a point about free speech. — When 26-year-old Nathan Shafer heard about the arrests …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, RedState and Verum Serum

New York Times:

Image Expert Shapes Romney (His Hair, Anyway) — BELMONT, Mass. — Voters routinely ask about it on the campaign trail. Pundits chronicle the slightest changes in its presentation. There is a Facebook page devoted it — not to mention an entire blog. “Has it always been this good?” read a recent online entry.

Discussion: Mediaite and Iowa Caucuses

Michael Marshall / New Scientist:

CO2 may not warm the planet as much as thought — The climate may be less sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought - and temperature rises this century could be smaller than expected. That's the surprise result of a new analysis of the last ice age. However, the finding comes …

Discussion: Power Line