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.”

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.

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 …

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.

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

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

Why cutting fiscal deficits is an assault on profits  —  Reducing the government's debt was “proving harder than anyone envisaged”, David Cameron, UK prime minister, said in a speech on Monday.  He even admitted that “high levels of public and private debt are proving to be a drag on growth …