First, today is World AIDS Day, as is December 1st of every year.

Get a bunch of political/current event type links here.

One of the stories from that link I will highlight is this:

"The Congressional Budget Office also said yesterday that 'it estimates that the federal stimulus package sustained between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs in the third quarter, and raised gross domestic product by 1.2 to 3.2 percentage points higher than it would have been without the program.'"

Obviously that is significant on its own, but it is also a source Republicans love to cite, giving it some credibility.

Currently flying a little under the radar, but definitely worth paying attention to is the situation in the UAE. Places like Dubai were, not so along ago, some of the richest regions in the world. Now, they are deep in debt.

Interesting stat about the recent UW football trips to Notre Dame and the subsequent fate of the Irish head coach. Worth noting they were all UW losses, as the Huskies have never beaten the Golden Domers:

"..coach was gone at the end of the year. Lou Holtz, 54-20 winner over UW in 1996, retired, if that's the proper thing to call it. Tyrone Willingham, 38-3 winner over UW in 2004, was fired at the end of that season and ended up coaching somewhere else I can't quickly recall the following season. And now Charlie Weis."

And in a shameless plug, our good friend Jesse Baumgartner finally got his byline onto the JBJ Sports blog. Next on the list: Adam. JBJ is a great place for quick news, morning links and daytime updates. On the weekends it is good for analysis and wide-ranging coverage. And each month has seen great improvement. Can't wait for bowl season. Stay class, y'all. Kate, stop reading my blog.