They got a building down in New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. `Cause I wanted to look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York, and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I walked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604." - Alice's Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie, 1966

- Twilight! The Movie! Nay, the LDS Sparkledammerung! As reviewed and culturally annotated by a former LDS member, so you don't have to suffer it yourself. (via)

- The Obama cabinet so far, along with names being considered for still-vacant top posts.

- I read good things about Chu for Department of Energy, and a mixed review on Jackson for EPA. But they're both honest-to-Maude scientists, and words can't convey how happy I am that our next president will be talking on a regular basis to people who won't hear the term "peer review" and wonder if it refers to teenagers who've gotten really organized about encouraging each other's bad habits.

- Yesterday was the 118th anniversary of the Wounded Knee massacre.

- Another taser death, and a report of a man who was tasered because a diabetic shock was mistaken for resisting arrest.

- How can a person get so angry about not dressing up in stupid costumes that they'd tell a 5 year old to "go to hell"? Baffling.

- WalMart: "Always low wages. Always"

- New life for the nuclear disarmament movement comes with the inauguration of the Global Zero campaign with its high profile buy-in by notables like Sir Richard Branson and Queen Rania of Jordan. The European Union also seems keen to take steps towards global disarmament. Godspeed with that one.

- Basic, preventive health care can be transformative, as a program that trains locals as community health workers in rural India demonstrates.

- The JCPenney holiday gender police would like to remind everyone that pink things and girl toys are way icky. If you would like to thumb your nose at them, you could consider a feminist holiday gift guide for those special people in your life who can tell the difference between women and doormats.

- Union organizing for bankers, SEIU-style. Here, if you like, you can imagine me steepling my fingers together, looking shifty and saying, "Eehhhhhhksssellent, Smithers."

- Senate Democrats want Blagojevich to resign and are threatening not to seat anyone he might try to appoint to fill Obama's former position.

- Governors and Democrats in Congress expected to widely support Obama's economic recovery program. Republicans are expected to oppose it, but not all of them, because some of them would like to get re-elected someday.