Pun Salad

… are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise.

• I liked this aside from Stacy McCain:

  Moral relativism is easier if your relatives are immoral.

• Seemingly determined to shed all remaining traces of its credibility, Politifact awards "Lie of the Year" to the description of Obamacare as "a government takeover of health care." Debunking for the home team is Captain Karl at Hot Air, Dandy Don Surber and Straight-shootin' Peter Suderman at Reason. Karl is especially good at noting that the team of "independent health care experts" on which Politifact conveniently relies are pretty much in the Democrat tank. Peter comments:

  Sadly, making important distinctions doesn't seem to be [Politifact's] strong suit. Somehow when picking their lie of the year, Politifact settled on a minority party exaggeration with elements of truth—and managed to ignore the near-continuous stream of full-blooded whoppers coming from the folks actually running things.

  My guess is that Politifact will continue to drop its non-partisan pretenses in the coming month.

• The Competitive Enterprisers bring you a little skit about US ethanol policy:

• Beginning to get excited about Christmas? If you'd like to cool down a bit, Lore Sjöberg rattles off a list of "The Least Christmasy Christmas Things". Nourish your inner Scrooge with examples like the "Christmas Bullet":

  William Whitney Christmas was a man who believed that humans should be free to fly like birds. Exactly like birds, in fact. He invented a plane with wings that were free to flap as they pleased. The plane, once launched, soared through the air like a mighty emu and hit the ground similarly, killing the pilot. The second Christmas Bullet also crashed and killed its pilot, one Lt. Allington Joyce Jolly. "Lt. Jolly and the Christmas Bullet" sounds like the worst holiday special ever.

  Still, I think I'd watch it. I'm in the mood.

• Back in May, I had some fun at the expense of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and their dreadful history of predicting the severity of hurricane season.

  It's therefore only fair to note that they managed to hit the target with their prediction this year. Good job, NOAA!