#OCCUPYFAIL: 80,000 Muslims Pray Together on Freezing Moscow Streets for Eid. “Forget OWS, this is the real deal.”

OBAMA DENIES MEETINGS WITH EXTRATERRESTRIALS. I believe him. Nobody looking for intelligent life would visit this White House.

#OCCUPYFAIL: “What a shock! The leaders getting criticized get to make the determination whether certain people can speak, and then whether their speech contains opinions or facts. What a great system OWS has designed … for people who want to seize control of the movement and the funds. It looks like this movement has its own 1% that want to dictate to the 99% how to live their lives. Frankly, I think the 99% have a better chance in the system we have than in the neo-Stalinist model they’re building in Zuccotti Park, and we have a century of experience on our side in that argument.”

#OCCUPYFAIL: 3 Charged With Dealing Crack; Occupy Boston ‘Deteriorating.’

#OCCUPYFAIL: The Occupy Wall Street movement may be starting to lose its luster with the American public, with four in ten now saying they have an unfavorable view of the protests, a new nationwide UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll shows.

MEDEVAC: Michael Yon responds to critics.

Meanwhile, suddenly Jake Tapper’s on the Medevac beat. My guess is the White House would like him to stay in Afghanistan for a while. . . .

#OCCUPYFAIL IS THE NEW #ATTACKWATCH. Heh.

“GIVE THE GIFT OF GARMIN:” Pre-Black Friday GPS Markdowns.

PROPERTY PRICES COLLAPSE IN CHINA. “Residential property prices are in freefall in China as developers race to meet revenue targets for the year in a quickly deteriorating market. The country’s largest builders began discounting homes in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen in recent weeks, and the trend has now spread to second- and third-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Hefei, and Chongqing. . . . What started slowly in September turned into a rout by the middle of last month—normally a good period for sales—when Shanghai developers started to slash asking prices.”

#OCCUPYFAIL: TIMES DISPATCH: Occupy Richmond’s Special Treatment Weakens Democracy.

On Friday, Oct. 28, Corky Mann, treasurer of the Richmond Tea Party, hand-delivered an invoice to the City of Richmond for the total costs incurred from three separate April 15 events at Richmond’s downtown Kanawha Plaza.

The annual Richmond Tea Party Tax Day Rally, a major venue through which we both alert and educate Virginians on fiscal and other policy issues, has been a mainstay event for the organization each year since the 2009 inaugural rally.

The $8,500 invoice represents dollars budgeted for the Richmond Tea Party’s three Tax Day rallies. When combined with the many hundreds of volunteer hours utilized for these events alone, the overall investment represents a good portion of the organization’s available resources.

For each event at Kanawha Plaza we filed timely applications for governmental review and paid all required permit fees. We arranged for toilets, first-aid care, staging, lights and sound, off-duty police officers for security, event insurance and volunteers trained to support an orderly day of protest. We always left the property as clean as — or cleaner than — we found it.

The Occupy Richmond group met none of these benchmarks while camped out in the same Kanawha Plaza between Oct. 15th and Oct. 31 (the morning they were finally evicted). So in the spirit of our founding principle of equal application of the law, the Richmond Tea Party is requesting a full refund from the City of Richmond for city-imposed costs related to these three rallies.

Occupy Richmond participants, as well as their political supporters, appeared to be using the immediate urgency of their concerns as an excuse for bypassing required procedures and costs. Yet, despite knowing the urgency of our fiscal and overall national plight three years ago, Tea Partiers never expected free services, never destroyed the public areas entrusted to us, never demanded access beyond that allowed by our permit, never failed to make proper payment of fees and insurance, and never strained police and emergency services systems to the detriment of those in need of those protections and services.

Such irresponsible actions and expectations never, to be blunt, crossed our minds.

That’s because you’re not socialists.

Plus this: “Democratic commentator Bob Beckel recently compared the disparity between the Tea Party’s treatment by local governments and the Occupiers’ to one person getting a better deal on a car than another. Imagine an America where basic equalities and a God-given right to public self-expression are reduced to clearance-sale status, depending on the agenda and whims of the ‘bosses’ on duty at a given time.”

That example — government as used-car salesman — captures both the ethos and the performance of Beckel and his ilk. The truth is, these people get a pass because, as client groups of the Democratic Party, they’re exempt from the enforcement of the law. This may make people who aren’t so favored wonder why they should pay taxes to, or obey the commands of, a system that doesn’t follow the law itself. Well: Why should they? Where’s the legitimacy?

#OCCUPYFAIL: The Mob Who Came To Dinner: Eyewitness as Occupy DC attacks the Tea Party summit.

EUROPE: TOO SOCIALIST FOR THE CHINESE:

Also last night, the chairman of the supervisory board of China Investment Corporation, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, put further distance between China and the eurozone bail-out, saying that Europe’s bloated welfare state meant that people did not work hard enough.

“I think if you look at the troubles which happened in European countries, this is purely because of the accumulated troubles of their worn out welfare societies,” Jin Liqun said in an interview with Al Jazeera television. “I think the labour laws are outdated – the labour laws induce sloth, indolence rather than hard working. The incentive system is totally out of whack.”

Eurozone leaders had been hoping that China would use some of its trade surplus to back the bail-out fund.

I couldn’t say it better myself.

UPDATE: Malaysian reader Daniel Riveong sends the link to the original interview. He blogged about it here.

BAD NEWS FOR municipal bonds?

GERMAN PREPARATIONS FOR “A Eurozone Chapter 11?”

#OCCUPYFAIL: DANIEL BLATT: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Of Liberal Tea-Party Envy?

#OCCUPYFAIL: Head and Body Lice Outbreak Announced at #Occupy Portland Squatters Camp. It’s like all the bad stuff of the 1960s, condensed.

ANDREW MALCOLM: When a soaring NASA rocket prompts thoughts of earthly politics.

#OCCUPYFAIL: “A SLIVER OF MADNESS:” New York Post Reporter Candice Giove spends the night in Zuccotti Park.

They call the NYPD — and it becomes abundantly clear that the cops down there are sick of the antics.

“Every single night it’s the same thing. I mean, some guy was a victim of rape!” an officer snarls. “There comes a time when it’s over. This is a disaster. It’s all we’re doing, every two seconds, is locking somebody up every time. It’s done.

“It’s done,” he repeats. “Occupy Wall Street is no longer a protest.”

Scenes like this — and far worse — have been playing out since the Zuccotti Park “occupation” began on Sept. 17.

The parcel is now a sliver of madness, rife with sex attacks, robberies and vigilante justice. . . . “We have three-quarters of a million dollars in the bank and all these f–king people are not doing financial accounting while we’re calling for it from the larger corporations,” says the transgender leader. “A lot of good people are quitting.”

A day later, a female-only “safety tent” would be erected to shield women from predators.

Organizers plan to add a medical tent, as well as others designed to provide safe sleeping for gay, transgender and co-ed groups.

The threat of rape is very real here — for women and men.

A teachable moment.

JANET DALEY: Europe’s Democratic Deficit Grows Wider By The Day: The Eurocracy’s contempt for the nation-states it governs is growing ever more flagrant. “Is membership of the euro (or the EU) like being a Soviet satellite: a prisoner nation held in bondage to a superior power? Or is it more akin to being the client state of an imperial benefactor, which can call the shots on internal policy and replace elected governments with puppet regimes when it sees fit? . . . If this is now one ‘homeland’, as Mr Sarkozy would have it, who are its enfranchised electors? Where does the power lie to overthrow or replace its rulers? What are the mechanisms for recalling the governing elite? Apparently, they will have to be foregone in the present emergency. “

CHANGE SAME: Rediscovered 2004 Senate ad shows Obama pitching similar rhetorical themes.

WHY WALL STREET can’t handle the truth.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: The Numbers: J.D. Degrees and Lawyer Employment. And eye Thomas Cooley’s numbers skeptically. But note this: “From 1996 to 2010, the economy created 146,000 lawyer jobs according to the CPS. In the same time period 614,089 people graduated from ABA law schools.”

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MY SUNDAY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN: Occupy Gets The Ink But Tea Party Gets The Votes.

TIM CAVANAUGH: Pot calls kettle green in solar dumping petition. “It’s hard to spot all the absurdities in the death spiral of the U.S. government’s green energy policy. But here’s a big one: A group of solar equipment makers is trying to lock inexpensive products out of the United States, and the argument of these subsidized companies is that subsidies create an unfair market.”

SOME BAD NEWS: I was in Lenoir City yesterday, and saw that Leo’s Pulled Pig is gone, replaced by a pawn shop.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Hey, that hashtag seems to be getting some traction. So is #OccupyHollywood.

HOW TO PREP YOUR HOME AND TOOLS for the winter cold.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Online dating is no longer just for weirdos.

MEANWHILE, IN LIBERTARIAN NEWS: Libertarians Promote Justice For All. “While Occupy Boston has dominated headlines recently by marching on streets and turning parks to campgrounds, Students For Liberty, which claims to share some of the same ideas and values, has quietly sprouted up on college campuses, organization leaders said.”

IN THE MAIL: Money in a Free Society: Keynes, Friedman, and the New Crisis in Capitalism.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Walter Russell Mead: Occupy Blue Wall Street. “Members of what Howard Dean likes to call ‘the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party’ prefer not to think too much about Blue Wall Street and its role in the Democratic coalition, but particularly as times get tougher for the blue social model, it is Blue Wall Street that makes things work and calls the shots. For Blue Wall Street the conflict between the interests of the private sector and the power of the government does not really exist. The symbiosis between Blue Wall Street and the state is strong and deep. The pension funds, bond issues and other financial transactions that blue city and state governments need helps nourish Blue Wall Street; Blue Wall Street helps integrate the policy agenda of other government focused interest groups with larger national priorities and movements. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the archetypes of this symbiosis: they are government-backed forces in the capital markets built around support for the single most important American social program of the blue period: home ownership. . . . Blue Wall Street benefits much more from the blue social model than the other elements in the coalition. Five figure cop salaries and low six figure salaries for goo-goo social engineers pale before the seven, eight, nine and ten figure paydays on the Street. There is a direct connection between those big paydays and the connection between big finance, big government and Democratic (as well as Republican) interest group politics. Good relations with politicians help make money: ask the leadership of Goldman Sachs.”

Hey, they don’t call him President Goldman Sachs for nothing.

Knoxville, Tennessee. I dropped by Sam and Andy’s the other day for lunch. It was just as good as always, which was very good.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How Grade Inflation Hurts Math And Science Education. “If taking math, science and engineering courses requires students to sacrifice their GPAs and class standing, it should be no surprise that many choose other courses of study.”

TODAY ONLY: Save up to 62% on “CSI,” “CSI: NY,” and “CSI: Miami.”

#OCCUPYFAIL: My Sunday Washington Examiner column on the Tea Party vs. the Occupiers.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Assaults raise concerns about crime at Occupy L.A.

NO CHARGE: Duke Energy Warns Customers to Not Use EV Charging Stations After Fire Involving Siemens Charger and Chevy Volt. “After a house fire in Mooresville, NC which started in the home’s garage was traced the the area near a charging station for an electric vehicle, WSOC-TV reported that Duke Energy, which installed the Siemens built charging station, has warned customers to not use similar units while the investigation into the fire proceeds. When fire investigators went through the burned out garage, they found a Chevy Volt plugged into the 240 volt station, the second garage fire reportedly involving a Volt. Since it was not the only electrical appliance plugged in that area of the garage, the charging station may not be at fault.”

MARK STEYN:

Way back in 1968, after the riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Mayor Daley declared that his forces were there to “preserve disorder.” I believe that was one of Hizzoner’s famous malapropisms. Forty-three years later Jean Quan, mayor of Oakland, and the Oakland city council have made “preserving disorder” the official municipal policy. On Wednesday, the “Occupy Oakland” occupiers rampaged through the city, shutting down the nation’s fifth-busiest port, forcing stores to close, terrorizing those residents foolish enough to commit the reactionary crime of “shopping,” destroying ATMs, spraying the Christ the Light Cathedral with the insightful observation “F**k,” etc. And how did the Oakland city council react? The following day they considered a resolution to express their support for “Occupy Oakland” and to call on the city administration to “collaborate with protesters.”

That’s “collaborate” in the Nazi-occupied-France sense: The city’s feckless political class are collaborating with anarchists against the taxpayers who maintain them in their sinecures. They’re not the only ones.

Plus this: “At first glance, an alliance of anarchists and government might appear to be somewhat paradoxical. But the formal convergence in Oakland makes explicit the movement’s aims: They’re anarchists for statism, wild free-spirited youth demanding more and more total government control of every aspect of life — just so long as it respects the fundamental human right to sloth. . . . At heart, Oakland’s occupiers and worthless political class want more of the same fix that has made America the Brokest Nation in History: They expect to live as beneficiaries of a prosperous Western society without making any contribution to the productivity necessary to sustain it. This is the ‘idealism’ that the media are happy to sentimentalize, and that enough poseurs among the corporate executives are happy to indulge — at least until the window-smashing starts.”

UPDATE: Reader Bart Hall writes: “Those #Occupy elitists do not expect to live in a statist society, they plan to RUN it, with all attendant benefits. The AN-archism part is that nobody else will have any power to stop them. These are folks whose dysfunctional attitudes and weak work ethic have denied them what they so fervently believe they’re fully entitled to, so they plan instead to seize it. Because, by right, it should be theirs.”

THE HILL: Eric Holder Has A Gun Problem.

As the chief law enforcement officer Attorney General Eric Holder came out swinging in the first months of the Obama administration as he pushed to reinstate the assault weapons ban, pointing to the rising levels of violence in Mexico and increased presence of U.S. guns south of the border.

But nearly two years later assault weapons can still be bought and Holder has found himself at the center of a quagmire involving a botched gun-tracking operation that sent thousands of high-powered firearms to Mexico in the hands of known or suspected straw buyers for drug cartels.

Amid a plethora of Republican calls for Holder’s resignation, Democrats have silently indicated their support for the attorney general. Instead of taking him to task for Operation Fast and Furious, Democratic lawmakers have tried to draw attention to what they describe as the country’s weak network of gun laws.

In other words, they’re trying to stage a distraction. Let me be clear: I think it’s possible, and maybe even likely, that this operation was intended to provide PR support for the Administration’s gun-control program by putting traceable U.S. guns at Mexican crime scenes so that Holder could point to them as a reason for more gun control in the United States. (Other explanations — such as that this was a sort of Iran/Contra deal involving the U.S. Government deliberately arming one side in the Mexican drug wars, are even worse). Heads should roll, starting with Holder’s, but not ending there.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Leaders of Leaderless Movement Seizing the Money? “On Sunday, October 23, a meeting was held at 60 Wall Street. Six leaders discussed what to do with the half-million dollars that had been donated to their organization, since, in their estimation, the organization was incapable of making sound financial decisions. The proposed solution was not to spend the money educating their co-workers or stimulating more active participation by improving the organization’s structures and tactics. Instead, those present discussed how they could commandeer the $500,000 for their new, more exclusive organization.”

More exclusive. It really is playing out just like Animal Farm, isn’t it?

#OCCUPYHOLLYWOOD: Forget Wall Street: Occupy Hollywood!

5.6 EARTHQUAKE in Oklahoma? Story here. Nobody hurt, but another preparedness reminder.

UPDATE: More.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Furr writes: “I felt it, sitting at home in Dallas 200 miles away! The wonder of the Internet — felt some slight rocking, so I got on Facebook and all my Arkansas friends were suddenly checking in babbling about houses and shelves shaking. I could pretty well estimate it to be in Oklahoma just based on social media!”

MORE: XKCD on social media and earthquakes. Heh. Seems about right.

HISTORY: Egyptian Mummy Had Prostate Cancer; Lots More Ancient Peeps Probably Did Too. “Scientists report in a paper soon to appear in the International Journal of Paleopathology that the mummy, known as M1, died when he was between 51 and 60. He is the oldest case of prostate cancer identified in ancient Egypt, and the second oldest in the world (the oldest was in the 2700-year-old skeleton of a Scythian king in Russia). M1′s scans also show a malignant cancer that had spread to his spine and other areas around his pelvis.”

SO MUCH FOR THE “HOPE AND CHANGE” STUFF, I GUESS: A year from Election 2012, a dark mood awaits Obama and GOP rival.

ED DRISCOLL: Andrew Cuomo Is Kidding Himself.

VIDEO: Mark Levin keynote at Defending the Dream Conference.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS: President Obama marks the Hajj and Eid al-Adha.

MATT WELCH COMPLICATES WILL WILKINSON’S NARRATIVE: “But here’s the thing that non-Republican, gay-marrying, pro-immigration, pro-choice, anti-empire potheads like me (and Will) need to grapple with if we insist on talking about the relationship between ourselves and various large political blocs: The GOP has been more receptive to libertarian ideas these past couple of years.” And the Democrats, not so much, despite all the “liberaltarian” hype.

RAMPANT SEXISM AT OCCUPY WALL STREET: “If there were a few attacks by black people, would they set up a white-only section? Why stigmatize all the men as criminals based on the acts of a few?”

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JOEL KOTKIN: Illinois Is In Big Trouble.

#OCCUPYFAIL: “Let it sink in: Their protests now need rape shelters. This is actually happening. And New York City lets it go on. . . . This can’t be repeated enough: With a few exceptions, foremost among them the New York Post, the coverage of OWS protests compared to the coverage of tea-party protests is the worst media double standard in recent history. Nothing compares, because nothing else involves this much distortion on both ends of the coverage.”

UPDATE: A roundup.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rampaging Occupiers Attack 78-Year-Old Woman.

MORE: Reader Joel Mackey writes: “The media reaction to Abu Ghraib vs. their blind eyes in Zucotti Park say more than their hours of broadcast, or drums of ink ever could. The fourth estate’s value has fallen further than a Las Vegas McMansion.”

ARIZONA: Union tries to fire trustee who asked to audit taxpayer funded account. “This incident takes place in Phoenix, Arizona at the offices of AFSCME Local 2960, where one of their trustees – charged with monitoring the prudent spending of union funds – apparently exercised the poor judgement to ask if she should be auditing where some of that money goes, specifically in the handling of a large insurance fund.”

ANDREW CUOMO: “You are kidding yourself if you think you can be one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, have a reputation for being anti-business — and have a rosy economic future.”

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ROGER SIMON: A night at the Los Angeles Public Library. “Naive me — I had assumed that regardless of political stripe most people in the US of A regarded the downfall of the Soviet Union as a plus.”

THIS MUST BE MORE OF THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WE WERE PROMISED: Obama’s Sarkozy remark offends French. “Obama thought he was making a gentle joke about Mr. Sarkozy, host of the summit, when he congratulated Mr. Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni on the birth of their baby daughter on Oct. 19. Instead, Mr. Obama caused a minor international incident.”

IT’S ABOUT TIME: An Outbreak Of Equality In Wisconsin.

THOUGHTS ON GEOGRAPHY AND POLITICS: “Why is it that the bigger the city, the slimier the mayor? Look at the big three: Bloomberg, Villaraigosa, and Tiny Dance… er, Rahm Emanuel. Is there one of these people that you’d buy a used car from? That you’d trust to hold your wallet while you jumped in the water to save a drowning kitten*? That strikes you as competent enough to sweep your driveway without you checking up on him every five minutes to make sure he hadn’t boosted your broom or subcontracted the job out to your kid?”

DID FEDS’ USE OF A FAKE CELL TOWER CONSTITUTE A SEARCH? Yes.

IF YOU’RE THINKING OF STOCKING UP ON PEANUT BUTTER it’s still cheap at Amazon. At least, it was about double this price when I was at Target last night. They were asking $6.99 for a jar. We don’t buy much peanut butter, but that seemed awfully high. More here.

UPDATE: Reader John Marcoux writes: “We were tipped to the peanut butter price rise by Mormon friends in Memphis. Stocked up at Costco.” Yeah, I can see where they’d be up on this kind of news. Here’s a news story on skyrocketing peanut butter prices. “The J.M. Smucker Co. recently announced plans to increase its wholesale prices for Jif peanut butter by 30 percent this month and Kraft Foods Co. raised prices on Planters peanut butter 40 percent on Monday, according to the Associated Press.”

68 YEARS AGO YESTERDAY: First continuously operating reactor goes critical.

IS THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE BACKING ERIC HOLDER? “This makes me wonder what they were promised by the Administration in return for their support.”

WOMEN WHO RAPED 17 MEN WANTED MORE THAN SEX.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: What Federal Loans Do for Law Students and Law Schools.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Chaos In DC: Occupy Protest Turns Violent.

UPDATE: With rape and sexual harassment a problem, separate women-only tents set up at Zuccotti. “The large, metal-framed ‘safety tent’ — which will be guarded by an all-female patrol — can accommodate as many as 18 people and will be used during the day for women-only meetings, said Occupy Wall Street organizers.”

This is proceeding like a parody written by Norman Spinrad and P.J. O’Rourke.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Union-backed Occupy Chicago thugs interrupt Scott Walker speech. Ann Althouse comments:

The rudeness is sickening. I don’t understand how the protesters imagine that they will win support from anyone that way. They do seem driven to preventing Walker from ever speaking, but in fact, he did speak after they left. He said:

“The bottom line is, no matter how loud you shout, the facts are the facts. The facts are that our reforms have worked and continue to work in the state of Wisconsin.”

It only makes him look better.

Indeed. Plus, in the comments: “They are the argument against themselves. They sound and look ugly and scary. It’s not a good protest. It is lacking in charm. The only way they can begin to look good is if someone gets physical or nasty against them, which they would then catch on camera and edit and post.” They keep this up, and even that’s not going to help.

MORE: Ray Patnaude emails: “My wife and I were at the AFP dinner. Some info on the AFP member who was pushed down the stairs by the protestors… she is the second woman the police are helping up in the Daily Caller video. Her name is Dolores Broderson, age 78. She rode on a bus for 11 hours from Detroit to get there. She went to the emergency room with a bloody nose and bruises on her hand and leg.”

STILL MORE: Reader Glenn Gallup writes: “The reason these guys use violence to try to silence their opponents is because they know Brian and Scott and whoever on CNN and all the press guys have their backs. And nobody in the Administration is going to do anything about it either. They think they are going to win.” They’re sadly mistaken.

Related: Fear Of Violence Spreading To OccupySeattle.

MORE STILL: Reader John MacDonald writes:

When the green movement in Iran protested , Obama didn’t tell the regime to get out of town like he told Mubarek & Gaddafi.

The Community Organizer in Chief didn’t tell the protesters to go home.In the past he’s used phrases like ‘ get in their faces” and never let a crisis go to waste (Rahmbo).You’re dealing with people that know exactly what they are doing and which buttons to push while wondering around like Mr. Magoo …and trying not to leave fingerprints.

The end justifies the means…so they’ll be ramping up for 2012. The sooner the Tea Party and independents know who they are dealing with and their objectives the better. Sept of 2012 is too late to figure out what’s really going on.

Indeed.

ZIPCAR IS now profitable.

ANTI-VACCINE CRAZINESS: Genius Parents Are Organizing ‘Pox Parties’ on Facebook. “CBS 5 KPHO in Phoenix reported on the extremely gross, not to mention dangerous, shipping of infected lollipops, Q-tips and rags enclosed in nothing more than a zip lock baggie and an envelope. Which means that these irrational mothers, who despite gobs of research that says vaccines are not associated with Autism (which is often the reason parents give for not vaccinating, though some kids might be allergic), are endangering anyone who might come in contact with the infectious contraband.”

Related: Confirmed Whooping Cough Cases In Bozeman Nearly Double In 24 Hour Span.

INDEED: Expensive Urban Real Estate Is A Consumption Choice.

MASSIVE SOLAR FLARE MISSES, this time. “What I find fascinating about Thursday’s eruption is that even though scientists saw it and recognized its power immediately, the rest of us were oblivious to it. The flare was ignored by the media.”

#OCCUPYHOLLYWOOD: REX MURPHY: Forget Wall Street, Occupy Hollywood. This seems to be a groundswell.

IN THE MAIL: From Bryan Alexander, The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media.

I GUESS THEY REALLY ARE TAKING TAHRIR SQUARE AS THEIR MODEL: Female Reporter Harassed at #Occupy Protest. “I actually don’t feel safe going back to those protests. . . . I actually did not feel comfortable, because at one point there were a whole group of men surrounding me saying, ‘F—Michelle Fields.’ And I went to a police officer and I told him that I felt these people were harassing me. And the police officer said he’d take care of it, but it never ended.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Blue San Francisco Plans To Stiff The Unions. Nobody can afford those public pensions any more, I guess.

#OCCUPYHOLLYWOOD: GOOGLE MAY JOIN YAHOO IN DIVORCING THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE over the horrible “Protect IP Act.”

CALIFORNIA’S HIGH SPEED RAIL DEBACLE: $100 BILLION ESTIMATE COULD BE TOO LOW. “A bullet train business plan released Tuesday notes that the system cost of $98 billion could jump an additional $19 billion depending on the route and construction features.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Occupy What?

Occupy Wall Street follows three years of sloppy presidential name-calling — “millionaires and billionaires,” slurs about Las Vegas and the Super Bowl, profit-mad, limb-lopping doctors, introspection that now is not the time for profits and at some point we should cease making money, spread the wealth, punish our enemies, and all the old Obama boilerplate. Someone finally got the message about the evil 1%.

When Ms. Pelosi and President Obama voice support for the protestors, we enter 1984. Does that mean that the Pelosis now pull their millions out of Wall Street, that the First Family eschews the 1% at Martha’s Vineyard and Vail? That Obama turns his back on Wall Street cash, and, for once, accepts public funding for his 2012 campaign? Postmodern class warfare is an insidious business, and hinges on its advocates not looking in the mirror.

No wise politician should invest in the bunch like those rampaging in Oakland. Their nocturnal frolics are a long way from Woody Guthrie’s Deportee, the Hobos’ “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” and the world John Steinbeck fictionalized. It is the angst of the wannabe class, overeducated and underemployed, which chooses to live not in Akron or Fowler, but in tony places like the Bay Area or New York, where annual rents are far more than a down payment on a starter house in the Midwest. Being educated, but broke and in proximity to the wealthy of like upbringing and background, are ingredients for riot.

I saw videos of youths burning things in Oakland, but was told that it “was a small minority” and atypical of the protest. Not long ago I saw no clips of anyone spitting at black congresspeople wading into the Tea-Party demonstration, but was told they did and that it was typical of tens of thousands of racialists on the Mall.

Funny, that.

UPDATE: “Anarchists for statism.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Occupy Protester Arrested In $10M Arson Fire.

#OCCUPYHOLLYWOOD: DAVID POST: How About Occupy Hollywood? “One of the obvious dangers of the Internet Age is that we’ll be so distracted by everything going on around us — lots of it interesting, complicated, and even important (not to mention all the stuff that’s idiotic and unimportant and fundamentally uninteresting) — that we will fail to recognize the truly important stuff when it comes along. The IP bills that Congress now has before it — the Senate version of which is known as PROTECT-IP, the House version as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), sometimes known as the “E-Parasite” bill — are deep and profound threats to the Net and to our freedom on the Net. If anyone has good ideas about how to fight back other than to stand on the street-corner, as I am doing now, and shouting to the rooftops, I’d be interested to hear them.”

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IF YOU MISSED IT ON PJTV YESTERDAY, here’s the YouTube version of my interview with Harman Kaslow, producer of Atlas Shrugged, Part I, out on DVD Tuesday. Part II will be out next summer.

THAT’D BE SWEET: Oakland: Shotgun-wielding developer for Mayor?

NOT SO HAPPY WITH the Simon Property Group. (Via Tam).

UPDATE: For people who don’t regularly read Tam — shame on you — the backstory is Simon Properties’ hostility to gun owners.

CNBC: Has Occupy Wall Street Had Its Day? It’s starting to make Dems look bad, so watch the press coverage evaporate.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Court Affirms Prof’s $350k Award Against Law School for Fraud in Tenure Buyout.

RAND SIMBERG: What Are The Chinese Up To In Space? “As milestones go, this could be seen as a small one. After all, China merely performed a feat that Americans achieved more than 45 years earlier (and its space station is about the size of the Salyut 1 Russia flew about 40 years ago). There was a key difference, though: While the first American docking was with a manned Gemini capsule and an unmanned Agena upper stage, the Chinese performed the entire operation with unmanned spacecraft—a feat that the U.S. had never actually performed until recently, and a tribute to the intervening decades of technological development. The question now is: What does China’s recent success say about its goals in space? . . . Chinese leaders openly want to have a manned space station by the end of the decade, and this demonstration is crucial to that goal for two reasons.”

THIS IS COOL: Hubble directly observes the disc around a black hole.

JOHN HINDERAKER: Is Democrats’ Demagoguery Fueling Anti-Semitism?

UPDATE: OccupyBoston invades Israeli consulate. “Still, the whole event illustrates the way the Occupy movement has become a forum for people to air whatever pre-existing grievance or agenda they have, even if it has nothing to do with Wall Street. And how readily a protest against bankers can elide into one against the Jewish state.”

HMM: Central Banks Quietly Accumulating Gold.

JAMES TARANTO: Sexual Harassment Stories: A report from the field illustrates both the need and danger of regulations. “The fallen nature of man is gender-neutral. Some men are pigs, and some women are liars. Current sexual harassment law deals justly and effectively with the former at the cost of allowing the latter to do great harm to innocent men. The presence of both sexes in the workplace makes necessary some combination of laws, policies and customs to regulate sexual behavior on the job. But the principle of heads-she-wins-tails-he-loses does violence to both justice and equality.”

Plus, advice to women: “Most women need to date men they work with. If you are in your mid-twenties with a good job, you probably spend more time at work than anywhere else. And most of the men you meet are through work. And you have a biological clock ticking loudly. So it would be absurd to restrict yourself to non-work dating. It’s too inefficient in an area that has a tight deadline.”

UPDATE: Don Surber:

Liberals cannot complain.

Paula Jones shut them up on the subject of sexual harassment in 1998 when — after years of ridicule — Paula Jones made Bill Clinton give her every dime she asked for to settle out-of-court a lawsuit in which he perjured himself, which would cost him his law license and almost cost him his presidency.

What can James Carville say about Herman Cain? “Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find”? Suddenly not only are chickens coming home to roost, but they stand ready to peck some eyes out, if necessary. . . . Politico blew it by not showing any patience on the story. Instead of developing the story, they rushed headlong with basically nothing.

Liberals cannot press the issue. They have no credibility. They blew it by standing by their man in 1998. I knew this day was coming. Surprisingly, I am neither happy nor satisfied. It is what it is.

Of course, they’ll complain anyway.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Howard Stern Defends Herman Cain: “I Think It’s A Smear Job.”

#WIKIPEDIAFAIL: Star Parker page deleted from Wikipedia?

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Palin reminds Occupy protesters: Obama gives the fat cats their cat nip.

MICHAEL YON has some cool night pics posted.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, A LAWLESS WHITE HOUSE WOULD STONEWALL AND PLEAD EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE: AND THEY WERE RIGHT! “President Obama’s attorney sent a letter to Congressional investigators on Friday, saying the White House would not cooperate with a subpoena requesting documents related to its doling out a $535 million loan guarantee to now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.”

YEAH, FOXMAN’S BECOME A DISGRACE. Or, more likely, was one all along and is just showing it more now. ADL’s Hypocritical Abe Foxman Executes a Perfect Clintonian Deflection. He’s a Democratic hack, posing as a crusader against antisemitism. No one should take him, or the ADL, seriously.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, PEOPLE WHO CRITICIZED THE WHITE HOUSE’S WAR STRATEGY WOULD BE PUNISHED. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Gen. Peter Fuller removed from duty as a top Afghanistan commander for remarks to Politico.

Remember when “Listen to the generals” was the Dems’ buzzphrase?

AT AMAZON, the Holiday Toy List.

JIM TREACHER: Joe Biden conspicuously silent on Occupier sex-crime spree. “Remember when all Joe Biden could talk about was rape? He kept saying the Republicans aren’t backing the American Jobs Act because they want everybody to get raped? Then he clammed up about it for some reason. But we’ll always have the memories. Good times. As the media tries to feed the embers of a sex scandal despite a distinct lack of A) sex or B) scandal, let’s take a look at our good friends in the Occupy movement who are giving ol’ Sheriff Joe something to cry about. In less than two months, they’ve already racked up an impressive list of rapes, sexual assaults, and other assorted sex crimes across the country.”

UPDATE: Internal Survey Confirms #Occupywallstreet Is Overwhelmingly White, Janeane Garofalo Unavailable For Comment.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Video: Are Police Giving OWS Protesters a Free Pass?

MORE: Giuliani: Occupy Wall Street Will Take Obama’s Presidency Down.

“I believe that Barack Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement,” Rudy Giuliani said at the Defending the American Dream Summit. “It would not have happened, it would not have happened but for his class warfare. And remember, as it gets worse and worse because it’s going to get worse and worse, where it came from. Barack Obama. He praised it. He supported it. He agrees with it. He sympathizes with it. And as it gets worse and worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama’s neck that will take his presidency down.”

Once it starts hurting him, the media oxygen will be withdrawn. In fact, that’s already starting to happen.

MORE STILL: Can Dish Out, But Not Take: Michael Moore Lashes Out At CBS4 Over Wealth Questions While Visiting OccupyDenver.

I love the part about how Moore was “escorted to his waiting SUV.” Sounds like a one-percenter to me!

STILL MORE: Reader Kim Sommer emails: “The POTUS didn’t seem to mind the term Obamacare. Let’s push Obamaville in describing the encampments.”

VIDEO: #OWS Protesters Attempt to Storm AFP Defending the American Dream Summit.

IN RESPONSE TO YESTERDAY’S POST ON SOUTHERN MANNERS, reader Jill Wildermuth writes:

As a recent (female) Yankee transplant to the south, I can’t speak of past southern manners, but I can speak of what I’ve seen and experienced since I’ve been here. It’s been nothing short of culture shock, in a wonderful way. I work in a retail store where it’s occasionally required of me to help customers out to their cars with heavy packages. I have no problem with this, but I have yet to seen a man let me take the heavier box, and if I try to, they won’t let me. My male co-workers won’t curse in front of me, or even discuss “inappropriate” subjects without first saying “excuse my language” or “pardon me for this”. I routinely have customers tell me not to worry about helping them with heavy packages, and that I should make the guys carry them. I’m called “ma’am”! (And occasionally, “darlin’”, which is also perfectly acceptable.) I’m treated like a lady wherever I go, not just another random customer. I rarely have to open a door for myself, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been offered assistance to my car when my arms are full after grocery shopping, from both men and women alike.

And the women are no less polite and warm-hearted. They’re happy to have a quick chat or offer an opinion on something if asked by a random stranger. They’ll politely catch your attention if you’re dropped a penny or a piece of paper from your purse to return it. They seem to have a big, wide, authentic smile and a kind word for everyone. They say “Please” and “thank you”, and mean it. And most shockingly, those mothers who bring their young children with them into the stores actually discipline them to make them behave, and will even apologize to the employees if their kids are being unruly.

I’m amazed and grateful for a culture that teaches such manners. If this is a decline in southern manners, then I can only imagine what they were like at their peak.

Shh. Don’t tell anyone. Stories like that one from the NYT are plants, designed to discourage immigration from the North.

UPDATE: Reader Bruce Webster writes: “I’ve lived in Texas twice — two years in Houston (1979-81), and 18 months in Dallas (1998-99). The phenomenon is real. There is a cultural graciousness that permeates all ages. It doesn’t mean there aren’t jerks there (though I suspect a lot of them are transplants), but it does mean that there are genuine good manners everywhere. I think it’s the guns. :-) ..Bruce.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Menard writes: “As a long term (30+) transplant, will you stop this? We got too many Californians and New Yorkers here already. Austin is damned near unlivable with them. Tell the truth: Lynchings! Religious Fanatics with guns! Mexican gangs! Asian gang wars! Deliverance is real. They shoot your pets, there are no dentists, and no one can read. Yankees are targeted for abuse and mistreatment; their cars get stolen and their children kidnapped. Californians are hunted in a 50 week long season. Fire ants, poisonous snakes, large hairy spiders, coyotes that eat your poodle, wild hogs that eat your cats! Lots of biting bugs…. Stay home where it’s safe!!!”