Thank you, Anchoress.

So, in one of my rare applications of Stacy McCain’s Rule 5, I’ll chime in with my 2 cents on the topic. That way you can claim you subscribe to The Skepticrats “for the articles,” just like Playboy subscribers.

I’ll start with outrage — outrage, I say! — over two obvious omissions: Patti Ann Browne and Jenna Lee.

Techincally, Jenna’s with Fox News Business instead of Fox News, but she should have made the list anyway, and I doubt I’m the only one that thinks so:

And how can you leave Patti Ann Browne off the list? I always thought she was great looking as an anchor, but see her let her hair down on Redeye:

When she sat behind the anchor desk, it was hard to tell she was so . . . healthy.

On to those who made the list.

Right wing darling Megyn Kelly made the list.  I’m not big on blondes generally or her look in particular, but now the she’s pregnant, she does seem to have that “pregnancy glow” about her.

The only one on the list I can truly, truly, agree belongs on the list is Julie Banderas.  Gorgeous, gorgeous hair, and the rest of her — at least what we can see on screen — ain’t bad either. Hot enough to make you lose your head around her and say shocking things like this:

Did he really mean to say that?

Speaking of what you can see on screen (and what you can’t), Courtney Friel fans are in for a treat at nextround.net.  Here’s just the headshot from one of two bikini pics:

By the way, this is a follow-up to nextround.net’s list of “The 9 Hottest CNN Reporters.” Just remember, conservative babes are generally hotter. Just imagine you had hot identical twins next to each other, each on the opposite ends of the political spectrum from the other.  Who would you find hotter?

Then again, I once had a very politically conservative friend who viewed the desireability of women this way: you want to date a liberal, but you want to marry a conservative. If you get my drift.

UPDATE: Word Around the Net has “Tea Party Cuties.” (H/T Stacy McCain, who also links!)

UPDATE #2: Ace links in the headlines! Ace. I’m going to take a screenshot, frame it, and put it over the fireplace. Even though he doesn’t mention the blog by name. I’ll know it’s me.

With gas-tax revenues plummeting, the state of North Carolina is looking seriously at taxing motorists for how far they drive.

If the “road-use tax” is implemented, it would at first be simple – with the state checking your odometer annually and taxing you based on how many miles you have driven. But transportation experts say new GPS technology could allow the state to charge people different rates based on when and where they drive, in an attempt to manage congestion.

I’m anticipating no objections from the ACLU, at least as long as the government promises not to to use the GPS monitoring to identify, track, or apprehend terrorists.

H/T: Michelle.

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

Obscene.

People will blame this on consumerism or the commercializaton of Christmas, but I don’t. Though many Christians are offended by the commercialization of Christmas, I am not. (The secularization of Christmas is another matter.) Gift-giving is a terrific thing, and I have no objection to it in connection with the celebration of Christ’s birth.

The root cause, and what does offend me is hysteria, and Black Friday is an hysteria if there ever was one. I hate it being the lead story on TV news in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I hate the name “Black Friday,” I hate stores opening at 4 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, and I hate the ridiculous celebration of consumerism (though consumerism itself I find much less objectionable).

Get a grip, people. It’s a freakin’ sale, not a natural disaster.

H/T: Michelle Malkin.

Believe I or not, politic intrudes on my thoughts even as I pray for the firefighters and the people whose property is threatened or has already been destroyed. Why, you ask?

Because it reminds me of another fire almost twenty years ago, when I was in law school, where politics raised its ugly head in the face of tragedy.

You see, Montecito — just south of Santa Barbara — is a ritzy area. And that’s putting it mildly.  The homes there are amazing, worth millions, and the town is home (at least part of the year) to many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey.  So we’re talking about some very wealthy people losing their homes and their contents.  The last estimate they gave on the news was more than 100 homes lost.

The fire nearly 20 years ago hit a similarly prosperous area in hills in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Actually, that area was probably less prosperous.  And I don’t remember news of of any celebrity residents.

And in the aftermath of that fire, some expressed the sentiment that the fire was not so bad because it had hit some rich folks.  Some went so far as believing that these rich folks essentially had it coming as some kind of karmic justice for trampling on the rest of society.

Don’t ask me for links.  (This was nearly 20 years ago.)  Don’t ask me for specific instances of people expressing this.  I think these thoughts came from classmates, but they could have come from other sources as well.  But I remember very clearly telling my wife how amazed I was by this reaction.

So, now I’m wondering if it is going to happen again.  I’m no longer on a campus, so I’m not likely to run across the demographic segment most likely to express such sentiments.  I’d like to think no one will be thinking that way his time around.  But I fear that the only thing that may prevent it is the fact that Hollywood types are among those who will suffer loss.

I’m not preemptively castigating people.  I’m hoping there’s no one to castigate.