Our guest columnist is Kayak Chief Marketing Officer Robert Birge, whom we still don’t understand after two readings.

We would like to apologize to anyone who was offended by how we handled our decision not to continue advertising on All-American Muslim when it returns in January. We decided to advertise on it in the first place because we adamantly support tolerance and diversity. Our 150-person team includes people from all over the world, and from all walks of life. Our team includes people who are descended from early Europeans who came here escaping religious intolerance, and newer Americans who include many religions. We get what America is about.

For the record, we didn’t “pull” our ads. Our ads kept running on this program, but we have made the decision not to give TLC more money when the show returns in January.

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Mitt unloads on Newt: “Zany is not what we need in a president. Zany is great in a campaign. It’s great on talk radio. It’s great in print, it makes for fun reading. But in terms of a president, we need a leader, and a leader needs to be someone who can bring Americans together.” [NYT, via Political Wire]

[via Political Wire]

Being of a Certain Age — and, more importantly, not of a Less Certain, Younger Age — we’ve long since given up tracking What The Kids Are Up To. It’s a condition that sets in when you pass 40: The moment you realize There are now grown adults who don’t share my hip Gilligan’s Island references.

At that point, you can be Bob Denver, a sad relic of an earlier time, or you can just give up and fucking deal with it.

(Note: The retro-hip Adam West option is not available to you.)

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“Say goodbye to Xe. The company formerly known as Blackwater — the world’s most infamous private security corporation — has jettisoned the name it chose in its 2009 rebrand. Now the ‘security solutions provider’ wants to wash away the taint of the 2007 Nisour Square shootings by adopting the new name ‘Academi.’” [Wired]

Trump cancels debate, mercilessly baits America’s Late-Night Comedians: “It is very important to me that the right Republican candidate be chosen to defeat the failed and very destructive Obama Administration, but if that Republican, in my opinion, is not the right candidate, I am not willing to give up my right to run as an Independent candidate.” [USA Today, via Political Wire]

“The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Palin and Burnett are pitching another reality series, this one more focused on Palin’s husband Todd and his career as a championship snowmobile racer. But for now, TLC owner Discovery Communications has passed, say sources. And A&E Networks, which entered into a bidding war with Discovery for Sarah Palin’s Alaska, also is not interested.”