Because moms are gonna mom, these political pundits were chastised on C-Span by their mother, who called in to tell them not to bring their nonsense to Christmas dinner.

The following words and phrases drive me crazy—take, hot take, deep dive, long form, think piece. There is no link here. I just wanted to say this.

I also hate tiny houses. I rage against tiny privilege, the luxury of declaring, “I am tired of all this space and want to be done with it.” The fetish to rid oneself of material possessions and live in a Post-It note is beyond my comprehension. I recognize that I am the problem here. I am from the Midwest. A woman named Dee Williams counts her belongings. She keeps a tally of her stuff. She has 305 things right now. She lives in a space that is 84 square feet. She built her home herself and she is clearly living her truth, which is lovely but… No. Also, if she injures herself, how will she get into the sleeping loft? On HGTV, I saw a show called Tiny House Hunters or something like that. This couple wanted to downsize from a 750 square foot apartment which, as a country girl, just blows my mind. Turn down for what? Anyway, they looked at some options but the husband was very intent on having a composting toilet. His wife was not having it. They have plumbing in their new home.

In many homes, that may amount to the stuff found in the kitchen cupboards, or the contents of one walk-in closet. For Ms. Williams, it included all of her worldly belongings, from her bedroom suite (a mattress and a quilt) to her home entertainment equipment (a laptop) to her jewelry collection (four pieces in all: two necklaces and two pairs of earrings).

Shani O. Hilton, Buzzfeed’s executive editor, talks to Nieman Reports about building a good newsroom.

When I started at BuzzFeed, there were three black employees. That number has grown dramatically. It’s really nice to be a place where you don’t have to agree with the other black person out of solidarity. You can disagree with them publicly, and it’s fine. That’s really great. That can’t be underscored enough.

Clearly, I am not in the cheeriest mood because I also want to say that I have no interest in space tourism. There’s plenty for me to see right here on earth. Still, Mars is burping and that’s fascinating.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced their 2015 inductees. No sleep until John Hiatt is inducted on the beauty and power of Have a Little Faith In Me, alone. Have a little faith in me.

Arizona State University is trying to move their instructors to a 5/5 teaching load (teaching five courses per semester) without an increase in pay. The school is no stranger to making bad decisions about how they educate their students.

There are no words to adequately address the massacre in Peshawar, Pakistan but I did not want this tragedy to go unmentioned.