I don’t know exactly how many shopping days are left until Xmas, but am trying to maintain a hard-earned reputation for ignoring it all until the last possible minute. News-cycle blogging is good for that. Here are some mid-day news bites.

* RightWingWatch’s Brian Tashman has some truly looney-tunes quotes from homeschool lobby chieftain Michael Farris on the disabilities treaty Senate Republicans killed yesterday.

* New ABC/WaPo survey shows 57% of Americans support HRC presidential bid in 2016. Her job approval number is 68%.

* Sheldon Adelson says he’s pro-choice, pro-immigrations and favors “socialized health care.” No wonder he personally kept Newt Gingich’s presidential campaign afloat for months.

* New York Times’ Eduardo Porter examines trajectory and implications of new organizing efforts aimed at lowest-wage workers.

* Douthat defends his reference of low-population-growth societies as “decadent.”

And in non-political news:

Jazz legend Dave Brubeck dies at 91.

Back in a bit. But check out this very interesting video for Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance.”

YouTube video

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.