MMLD #3.

* Oil! More here and here.

* We are rich enough. Economic growth has done as much as it can to improve material conditions in the developed countries, and in some cases appears to be damaging health. If Britain were instead to concentrate on making its citizens' incomes as equal as those of people in Japan and Scandinavia, we could each have seven extra weeks' holiday a year, we would be thinner, we would each live a year or so longer, and we'd trust each other more.

* Continued tough week for MSNBC as the Richard Wolffe scandal piles on the Fox détente scandal. Of course, the roots of corporate media corruption go much deeper than just this pair of incidents. UPDATE: For what it's worth, Olbermann emphatically denied the rumors on his show tonight during his Worst Persons segment, another proud entry in the "not KO's proudest moment" file. UPDATE 2: Olbermann posted a Daily Kos diary on both subjects today as well.

* Duke's Cathy Davidson is profiled at Inside Higher Ed for her plan to schematize student grades.

*PKD rocks Bookslut and the San Francisco Gate.

* And Terry Pratchett, suffering from Alzheimer's, is fighting for his right to die.

Day after Thanksgiving news update:

* American consumers have been forced to do the safety tests the federal government won't.

* Welcome to George Bush's America, Part 512: Probable cause no longer required for search warrants. Via MeFi and Matt Yglesias.

* The United States's prison population has quadrupled since 1980, despite the well-documented decrease in the crime rate during the 1990s. It currently stands at around 2.2 million behind bars and 4.8 million more on probation or parole—the highest rate in the world. China, a authoritarian state of 1.3 billion people, comes in at number 2 with 1.5 million incarcerated, though in fairness some people estimate that China's prison population may actually be much higher. If this offends you, check out "Unlocking America," a forty-page proposal for prison reform. Also via MeFi.

* "It's one minute before 12." An hour-long lecture explains what we all already know to be true: growth and expansion simply cannot last forever.

* Finally, Noam Chomsky explains the manufacturing of the Iran "crisis." Via Crooks and Liars.