End of year swampage plus deadlines.

Here are some bowl picks: Tulsa -1½ over BYU (5 units), Iowa State -1 over Rutgers (5 units), Mississippi State -7 over Wake Forest (3 units), Oklahoma -14 over Iowa (4 units.)

BTW, the Okla State line has moved from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2. It'll be 6 by game time. Make your investment early if you like Okla State, as I do (best bet in a long time imo.)

Open thread.

Lots of end of year stuff to take care of. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

From Wired: The year intellectual property trumped civil liberties.

Update: ICE launches a hotline and new form for detained individuals "to ensure that individuals being held by state or local law enforcement on immigration detainers are properly notified about their potential removal from the country and are made aware of their rights."

... detained individuals can call if they believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime. The hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by ICE personnel at the Law Enforcement Support Center. Translation services will be available in several languages from 7 a.m. until midnight (Eastern) seven days a week. ICE personnel will collect information from the individual and refer it to the relevant ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office for immediate action.

The new form, available here, instructs law enforcement they may not hold a detainee more than 48 hours after the individual would have otherwise been released.

I'm swamped. J too from the looks of it.

Open Thread.

Big stories for today: The the Zetas' radio network and the ongoing hacking of credit card and email databases by those identifying themselves as members of Anonymous/AntiSec or related groups.

Both are more interesting than which Republican will win the Iowa caucuses, but since we've had no politics posts all day, here's an open thread, all topics (politics or not) welcome.

Update: Also interesting, this article about fears over tiger prawns (giant shrimp) invading the Gulf of Mexico.

Christmas is over, the news is slow, I'm starting on my "end of year" tasks. What are you hoping to wrap up or change by New Year's?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Christmas Eve has arrived. This year at the TL house, we're celebrating with dinner and movies. "Love Actually" is my favorite for this time of year, even though I've probably seen it 10 times.

Whether you're cooking, watching movies, relaxing or celebrating with friends and family, we wish you a Very Happy Holiday Eve.

Darlene Love on Letterman is a Christmas Tradition. I really like this 2005 version.

If you're tracking Santa, he just arrived in Uzbekistan.

What's getting you in the mood for Christmas?

Wait, what? That's right- SATURDAY NFL Open Thread. My investment touts:

Redskins (-7) (3 units); Cardinals (+4 1/2) (3 units); Ravens (-12) (4 units); Chiefs (-3) (3 units); and the J-E-T-S! JETS JETS JETS JETS! (-3) (5 units.) I'm rooting for the G-Men, but the Jets are going to win.

Also too, here's my top investment opportunity in 4 years - Oklahoma State (-3 1/2) over Stanford. LOVE this one. I like the Cowboys by 20.

Finally, Joe Posnanski on Tebow Time:

The Tebow story might be the only story in recent years about which I literally cannot get enough. We live in the Era of Overkill, and most of the wonderful sports stories lose their joy just a few hours into their news cycle. The story (and Tebow himself) have been hyped, re-hyped, soaked, drained, lauded, scorned, celebrated, mocked, on and on and on, to the point where it’s clear that we’re not even talking about Tebow anymore. We’re talking about so many other fascinating things — faith, teamwork, convention, talent, history, will and so on. We’re probably talking about ourselves.

Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings!

The ACLU has the Criminal Justice Year in Review.

EFF reviews 2011 as "The Year Secrecy Jumped the Shark."

Former DEA agent (now author and security consultant) Robert Mazur, who laundered millions for the cartels on behalf of the agency, smacks down Congressman Darryl Issa's misguided call for a DEA money-laundering probe. (He also delivers a few punches to Union Bank in San Diego, which was in Issa's district, as well as Wachovia.) [More...]

We've got blue skies and sunshine today. Time to head outdoors and get all those last minute errands run.

If you missed the X-Factor last night, Melanie Amaro won the $5 million Sony record contract and has producers lining up. The other two finalists needn't worry, Simon Cowell says contracts are also likely to be offered to Josh Krajik, Chris Rene (and Astro.) Ratings were high last night, the show will be back for a second season. I hope it's without Nicole Scherzinger.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

There's nothing better than homemade green chile and a good bottle of wine on a cold winter's night.

That's what we're doing here, and watching the finale of the X-Factor.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

We got 9 inches of snow last night, and it's still piling up. 12 to 16 inches are expected before the storm is done-- much more outside of Denver. It's a great day to work from home.

As usual, viewers from our local Channel 7 news have submitted some great photos.

[Hat tip to Skippy for making this graphic several snow seasons ago.]

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.