ADVICE TO THE WEALTHY: SELL!

LESSONS ON DOMINANCE AND AGGRESSION from monkeys and apes.

WELL, I’LL SLEEP BETTER TONIGHT: A Consummation Devoutly to Be Wished …

THE RISE OF Passive-Aggressive Wi-Fi Names.

CHANGE: Boys hitting puberty sooner. “The difference appears most pronounced in African-American boys, who are starting to see the first signs of puberty at 9.1 years. The average for Hispanic boys is 10 and 10.1 years for white boys, compared with the average age of 11.5 in previous studies.” There’s no clear cause.

IT’S OVER: Phoenix CBS affiliate calls election for Obama on Oct. 19th.

AMY ALKON INTERVIEWS one of the authors of Stop Calling Him Honey and Start Having Sex! Starting in two minutes.

NUCLEAR BOMBSHELL: SECRET MESSAGE TO TEHRAN?  Rumors are swirling that President Obama has sent a message to Iran through the Swiss embassy, in which he recognized Iran’s “nuclear rights.”

BILL QUICK: Want to Live Longer? Go On a Low-Carb Ketogenic Diet.

I HOPE SOME OF THESE ARE WORN WITH A SASH THAT SAYS “WELFARE QUEEN”: Big Bird Halloween costumes sold out: Thanks, Mitt.  And “Adult sales skyrocketed”?  Really?  How many were there before?

FINALLY, A FAMILY FERRARI!:  How’s that for alliteration? But seriously, the 4-seater, 4-wheel drive Ferrari FF is a sweet ride– and room for the kiddies!

GASLIGHTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:  Dorothy Rabinowitz documents the Obama Administration’s history of gaslighting the American people, adopting “deny, deny, deny” tactics in the face of obvious facts to the contrary.  Time to file for divorce.

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF HEALTH CARE RATIONING:  An eerie story at RedState about the “Pathway” end-of-life rationing program of the National Health Service.  As the story shows, once rationing is accepted, there is tremendous pressure to use it in a variety of contexts to control costs.

Obamacare, for example, will add an estimated 37 million people to the health care system– a massive increase in demand– without a concomitant increase in the supply of providers.  The result, inevitably, will be queues and other subtle, non-explicit rationing mechanisms such as significant reductions in provider reimbursement.

NOT OPTIMAL: Slate: How Bad Was Obama’s Appearance On The Daily Show?

WHICH BIRD IS WORTH SAVING?

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AT TOMORROW’S DEBATE, SOMEBODY SHOULD ASK OBAMA IF HE CONSIDERS THIS A FOREIGN POLICY SUCCESS, OR A FAILURE: New FJP leader in Egypt calls for Sharia law.

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MAMMOGRAM, PLEASE!:  In response to President Obama’s false claim that a reduction in government funding for Planned Parenthood would result in millions of women foregoing mammograms, a pro-life group, Live Action, decided to have 2,000 members call local Planned Parenthood offices to schedule the test.  Small problem: Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer mammograms (never has– it refers them out).

But I’m sure that government funding for Planned Parenthood is still necessary for some reason.  I mean, it’s not like private funders could keep it going or anything. It’s totally unpopular, especially with wealthy liberal types.

OBAMA PICKS UP TROIKA OF KEY ENDORSEMENTS:

● Happy October Surprise: Iran Endorses Obama.

● UN Warns Americans: Do Not Elect Mitt Romney.

● Russell Crowe tweets, ‘Obama is the light and the future,’ then throws hissy fit, blocks fans.

And that’s in addition to these earlier endorsements from Chavez, Castro, and Putin. Forward!

U.N. OFFICIAL ENDORSES OBAMA:  What a shocker!  LOL.  A U.N. Special Rapporteur, Ben Emmerson, says a Romney victory would be tantamount  to a “democratic mandate for torture.”  Of course, the word “torture” itself is inherently amorphous and subjective– one man’s “torture” is another man’s “enhanced interrogation.”  The bottom line is that sovereigns have an inherent right to protect their citizens, and interrogation–yes, even “enhanced” interrogation techniques– are one way to help achieve this goal, in the right set of circumstances.

NICK GILLESPIE: George McGovern, Libertarian Hero.

When you take a longer view of his career — especially after he got bounced from the Senate in 1980 during the Republican landslide he helped create — what emerges is a rare public figure whose policy positions shifted to an increasingly libertarian stance in response to a world that’s far more complicated than most politicians can ever allow.

Born in 1922 and raised during the Depression, McGovern eventually earned a doctorate in American history before becoming a politician. But it was as a private citizen he became an expert in the law of unintended consequences, which elected officials ignore routinely. He came to recognize that attempts to control the economic and lifestyle choices of Americans aren’t only destructive to cherished national ideals, but ineffective as well. That legacy is more relevant now than ever. . . .

He scandalized liberals in a 1992 letter to the Wall Street Journal, detailing his travails as the proprietor of a Connecticut hotel. Having sunk most of his savings into the venture, it went belly up, he said, partly because of a bad economy but also due to “federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc.”

Lamenting his lack of business experience while he was a legislator and presidential contender, McGovern concluded that “ ‘one-size-fits-all’ rules for business ignored the reality of the marketplace.”

As he explained, “setting thresholds for regulatory guidelines at artificial levels — for example, 50 employees or more, $500,000 in sales — takes no account of other realities, such as profit margins, labor intensive vs. capital intensive businesses, and local market economics.”

In 2008, also in the Wall Street Journal, he attacked what he called “economic paternalism” from right-wing and left-wing politicians who were seeking to ban subprime loans and the pay- day lending business. Such laws don’t actually help people of limited means, he stressed, even as they reduce everyone’s ability to deal with their finances. He also took aim at “health-care paternalism” that made it impossible for consumers to shop across state lines for insurance and stuck them with unwanted or unaffordable gold-plated plans. “I’ve come to realize,” he wrote, “that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.”

If only he’d run on this platform in 1972.

SHOULD YOU WATCH educational sex videos instead of porn?

THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN CLOSE ELECTIONS: Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown writes in the SF Chronicle that Rev. Wright has been de-underbussed by President Obama:

“If Obama looks as if he’s going black, he could turn off white people. So he’s largely been lying low on the race issues – visibly pushing for the Latino vote, the gay vote, the women’s vote, but not the black vote. But last weekend, he held a conference call with a collection of black preachers that included his old pastor, Jeremiah Wright. He wanted to talk to them about getting out the vote.”

Note that this potentially juicy story is listed six paragraphs into an opinion piece; but then, burying damaging news for Mr. Obama rather than selling newspapers has long been the style at Chronicle.

SHOWING UP: 10,000 Rally For Romney-Ryan In Daytona Beach. Reader Steve Gosney writes: “Born and raised here in Daytona Beach, Volusia County which has been 60% democrat as long as I have been here. I have never seen the turnout in this county, estimated at 10,000 plus, for any political event. And it was organized in less than a week.”

Video here.

AIRBRUSHING: New York Times Caught Editing Iran Story After White House Denials. “Normally, a pro forma denial by the White House would not send reporters and editors scurrying to cover up their work. With good sources, and reliable information, journalists could be expected to stand by their story. Now, with the Times carrying out edits that it apparently hoped no one would notice, the entire story seems like a desperate attempt to set the stage for the Third Presidential Debate in a way that favors the incumbent.”

RELATED (From Ed): Shades of the New York Times’ infamous botched “NYTrogate” October surprise from 2004.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What Does Panda Taste Like?

VIDEO: Notecards from the Underground: A visit with Gay Talese in the wine cellar he converted to his home office.

NOT OPTIMAL: “Asked about the lack of response to repeated warnings from our diplomats about the security situation in Libya, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin told Chris Wallace:”

Look at the situation on the ground immediately afterwards, when the Libyans were demonstrating in the streets in support of the United States.  It is a volatile situation.  It is always easier the day after to say how you could have won that football game.

Interesting — for Durbin, the Americans running Gitmo are the equivalent of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. In contrast, the terrorist attack in Libya is the equivalent of a football game. Noted.

MASS SHOOTING NEAR WISCONSIN MALL LEAVES SEVERAL DEAD, Deputies search for suspect.

UPDATE: Dispatcher: Wis. spa shooting suspect found dead.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’ Discusses Her Creepy Internet Fame.

QADDAFI’S SON KILLED in Libya fighting.

MAN BITES DOG, 2012: Harry Stein at City Journal, on honoring the seemingly few MSM journalists left who commit actual journalism.

CONN CARROLL: Why America Is Breaking For Romney.

NOTHING BUT UNICORNS ALL THE WAY DOWN: White Vote Surges to Romney, But Reuters Zooms In on Sliver of White Male McCain Voters Voting Obama.

FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION: Obama’s agenda at odds with founders, writes Katherine Kersten in…the Minneapolis Star-Tribune?

And note this:

American intellectuals encountered Germany in the 1870s and 1880s, when thousands of them flocked there to study the new “social sciences” at its universities. Many were dazzled by what they saw as the world’s most advanced and efficient nation, and by the top-down social welfare system Bismarck was building.

Continue reading ‘FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION: Obama’s agenda at odds with founders, writes Katherine Kersten in…the …’ »

NEUROSCIENCE: What prehistoric art tells us about the evolution of the human brain.

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JUST FYI: NFIB v. Sebelius: Five Takes, coauthored with Brannon Denning, is still #1 on SSRN’s Top Downloads list.

‘ROMNESIA:’ Did Obama Give Gloria Allred’s Game Away?

RELATED: “Reggie, I don’t think this one quite has the distance.”

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: White House ‘lied’ on Libya because they had ‘the media in their pocket.’

TEA PARTY RALLY IN FLORIDA DRAWS THOUSANDS:  Just the tip of the iceberg, folks.  Tea partiers in the Indian River part of central Florida show up in droves to wear oven “Mitts” and tea bags– with the central message being:  We must vote.  And vote they undoubtedly will.  A lot of people (who get their news only from the lamestream media) are going to be shocked when the tea party turns out in full force on Nov. 6.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Compare and contrast: “Sandra Fluke, the woman at the center of a media firestorm earlier this year after Rush Limbaugh called her a ‘slut,’ spoke Saturday in front of about 10 people at the Sak ‘N Save in north Reno.” (Bumped). (And bumped again, because this is just too sweet).

ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The entire crowd fit into a single parking space! With elbow-room to spare. (Bumped one more time. I just can’t resist.)

MORE (FROM GLENN): “Why should more than 10 people show up at a Sak ‘n Save at in Reno to see Sandra Fluke? . . . What a splash of cold reality to find yourself deposited — by your promoters — at a grocery store in Reno where nobody cares.”

NOT EXACTLY A “SHOTGUN WEDDING:” An Iowa jeweler is offering free rifles for husbands-to-be who spend at least $1,999 on an engagement ring at his store near Iowa City.

THEY ENDORSED OBAMA IN 2008: Houston Chronicle Endorses Romney. “Four years later, President Obama’s deeds have failed to match his words, much less his specific vows to cut the national debt by half and bring the nation’s unemployment rate to 6 percent. As Texans, it is a particular vexation that this president’s attitude toward the interests of our state has occasionally bordered on contempt.”

SYRIA’S BASHAR AL-ASSAD BANS GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS: “The law is meant ‘to preserve the health of human beings, animals, vegetables and the environment.’” He used to do a good job mimicking the prejudices of silly Westerners and saying exactly what they wanted to hear, but no one’s buying this crap anymore.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Britain on mission to tap Moon water.

THE WORLD’S FIRST HIGH-SPEED AMPHIBIOUS VEHICLE. “The vehicle – called the Quadski – can travel at speeds of up to 45mph on water or land.”

TURNING POINT: El Alamein veterans gather in Egypt for 70th anniversary of battle.

VODKAPUNDIT’S WEEK IN BLOGS.

READER BOOK PLUG: Reader James Miller asks me to plug his new book, Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World. Done! Looks interesting.

A TECHNOLOGY EVERYONE CAN SUPPORT: A breast-cancer-detecting bra?

GEORGE McGOVERN, RIP: ’72 Democratic presidential nominee, dies at age 90.

UPDATE: Much more from Steve Hayward at Power Line.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: New York Post: Obama campaign accepted foreign Web donations — and may be hiding more. “The Obama re-election campaign has accepted at least one foreign donation in violation of the law — and does nothing to check on the provenance of millions of dollars in other contributions, a watchdog group alleges. Chris Walker, a British citizen who lives outside London, told The Post he was able to make two $5 donations to President Obama’s campaign this month through its Web site while a similar attempt to give Mitt Romney cash was rejected. It is illegal to knowingly solicit or accept money from foreign citizens. . . . The Obama campaign’s apparent lack of safeguards makes it possible to violate the law, says a report released by the Government Accountability Institute, a Florida-based watchdog group. The report found that one Obama site — Obama.com — gets almost half of its traffic from foreign computer addresses. The site directs users to an Obama donation page.”

This is an old story in the blogosphere, but it’s nice to see it getting some mainstream media attention. Of course, if he were a Republican, this would be a national scandal of the first order. But then, so would Benghazi, Solyndra, etc., etc., etc. . . .

RECRUITING VIDEOGAMERS to be the next generation of spies.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Rise of the a-hole. Two books examine why there are so many of them these days.

JONATHAN FREEDLAND AT THE GUARDIAN: “When Israelis kill Arabs there is outrage. But Assad’s brutal campaign has cost 30,000 lives and there’ve been no protests.”

BENGHAZI: US ‘too slow’ to act as drone’s cam captured Libya horror.

Say, you know who we haven’t heard from in all of this? CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus. Why not?

OBAMA/ROMNEY NOW TIED in NBC/WSJ poll.

DO NOT FORGET: Obama campaign accepted foreign Web donation — and may be hiding more.  Covering scandals with other scandals is what Obama does, but we must not forget this one.  Do you want a president made by China?

IN THE MAIL: The Liberal War on Transparency.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Why the Benghazi terrorist attack still dogs Obama.

Because he lied. “When it comes up in the presidential candidates’ foreign policy debate Monday night, President Obama will have some serious explaining to do about the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last month that killed the US Ambassador and three other Americans.”

Related: Anti-Muslim filmmaker detained for almost a month…next court date three days after election. How convenient.

BUBBLES ARE BURSTING everywhere.

WELL, IT’S HARD WORK AND THERE’S A LOT OF REJECTION: Study: Writers Twice As Likely To Commit Suicide.

HOW’S THAT ARAB SPRING “SMART DIPLOMACY” STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): New poll: Egyptians turning toward Iran, want nuclear weapons. Well, they see Obama as the “weak horse.”

BIRTH CONTROL, HO CHI MINH, RICHARD NIXON BACK AGAIN: Video: The Obama Presidency In Song.

TWITTER LYNCH MOB: Unhinged: Prospect of Romney presidency inspires threats to burn down the White House.

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CHANGE: Narcissism, Consumerism And The End Of Growth.

WHAT KILLED BEST BUY? At the start of the year, Forbes believed it was Amazon. This weekend, the Chicago Boyz econo-blog says it’s Apple. In any case, the remaining outlets really do feel like Dead Store Walking, don’t they?

ON CONFIDENCE: “We do not double down on failure, and President Obama has failed,” Hugh Hewitt writes.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY POST-RACIAL STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? Obama DOJ: Growth in Violent Crimes Against Whites. “The rate of violent crime increased by a whopping 17% last year, according to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), marking the biggest jump since 1993. Property crimes also went up 11% last year. That means that in 2011 there were nearly 6 million violent victimizations and more than 17 million property victimizations, according to the DOJ figures. . . . Here are more unsettling statistics buried deep in the DOJ’s new crime report; there has been a large increase in the rate of violent victimizations for whites, Hispanics and younger people. That means white non-Hispanics and Hispanics experienced an increase in violent victimization rates, while the rate for black non-Hispanics was stable, according to the DOJ stats. Additionally, crime rate in the suburbs is growing much faster than in the cities or rural areas, the government figures show.”

Well, you know, Obama’s never liked the suburbs.

TRIBALISM: Matt Welch: “As I wrote during the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic othering of Romney and Republicans has become central to their identity.”

Related: Obama in 2004: “Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us.”

LOW-INFORMATION VOTERS: Oh dear: Twitter users slam GOP presidential nominee ‘Nick Romney.’

MEGAN MCARDLE WILL ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS.

ANDREW KLAVAN: Go See Hating Breitbart!

THE OCTOBER SURPRISE: Michael Ledeen writes:

At least one element of the Times story is true: the agreement, if there actually is one, is undoubtedly “a result of intense, secret exchanges between American and Iranian officials that date almost to the beginning of President Obama’s term.” Indeed, there were talks between Iranian officials and a representative of the Obama campaign, even before the Inauguration. Secret talks between the two countries have been going on for decades, and I do not know of any American president from Jimmy Carter to the present who did not secretly pursue a deal with Tehran. (I participated in such talks in the mid-1980s during the Reagan Administration).

So what is happening? The most likely explanation is that Obama is still desperately seeking his grand bargain, the one that would validate his (and the Nobel Committee’s) claim to be a talented peace maker. That deal is not available, because the Iranians don’t want it. But he wants something to show for his efforts, so he settled for a big nothingburger: an agreement to talk some more.

Even if the story turns out to be true, I don’t think it will help him. “We’re going to talk to the Iranians!” isn’t a very sexy headline.

Heh, indeed.™

FASTER, PLEASE: Drug From Chinese ‘Thunder God Vine’ Slays Tumors in Mice. “A drug made from a plant known as “thunder god vine,” or lei gong teng, that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine, wiped out pancreatic tumors in mice, researchers said, and may soon be tested in humans. Mice treated with the compound showed no signs of tumors after 40 days or after discontinuing the treatment, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center. The research, funded by the university and the National Institutes of Health. was published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.” Let’s hope this pans out.

VOTE SUPPRESSION: Military voters still face trouble at the polls.

FLORIDA SUBURBANITES: THE KEY TO VICTORY IN 2012?

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Romney’s Tax Deduction Cap: Good Economics, Better Politics. “The Obama campaign and the press corps keep demanding that Mitt Romney specify which tax deductions he’d eliminate, but the Republican has already proposed more tax-reform specificity than any candidate in memory. To wit, he’s proposed a dollar limit on deductions for each tax filer…. The idea may be even better politically. The historic challenge for tax reformers is defeating the most powerful lobbies in Washington that exist to preserve their special tax privileges. … This is one reason President Obama wants Mr. Romney to be more specific: The minute he proposed to limit the mortgage-interest deduction, the housing lobby would do the Obama campaign’s bidding by running ads against Mr. Romney’s plan. Mr. Romney is right not to fall for this sucker play. By limiting the amount of deductions that any individual tax filer can take, Mr. Romney is avoiding this lobby-by-lobby warfare.”

“I THINK WE’RE HAVING MORE FUN RIGHT NOW THAN THEY ARE.”

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SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

“Tennessee played a great game tonight. They were well prepared and well coached, and the team executed the game plan flawlessly. The loss was due to the poor policies left over from the Fulmer era.”

Auditioning to be Obama’s next Press Secretary…

Heh.

THE INSTA-WIFE: Things I Want To Shout To The World Before The Election.

GAY PATRIOT: The only people who call gay Republicans “faggots” sit on political left.

STANDING UP: Hollywood Conservatives ‘Resisting the Bullying from the Left.’

NOW THEY TELL US: Diabetes Study Ends Early With a Surprising Result. Of course, I wonder what “diet and exercise” regimen they used in the study.  Instead of following the “recommended” diet which contained both more calories and more carbs than he’d had in years, my husband — after being diagnosed with diabetes — cut his carbs considerably below the most severe Atkins phase and stared exercising a couple of hours a day.  (The diet, which we’re still following, is not dissimilar to Taubes’ recommendations.)  The end result is that he dropped 136 pounds and is not functionally diabetic.  (I.e. he takes nothing, keeps his sugar normal and the very rare indulgence — birthday cake, say — does not cause a spike in sugar.)

GLENN GREENWALD DISCOVERS SOMETHING THAT OTHERS HAVE KNOWN ABOUT FOR YEARS: The remarkable, unfathomable ignorance of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

IS KIM KARDASHIAN OKAY WITH PRISON RAPE?

“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Chris Stirewalt: Obama re-botches Libya response.

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL ENDORSES ROMNEY:  Another large paper abandons Obama in favor of Romney.  The Reno Gazette- Journal, which endorsed Obama in 2008, switches to Romney, telling its readers:

A vote to re-elect Obama promises four more years of the same. In the two debates between the two candidates so far (a third, on foreign affairs, is scheduled for Monday), the president has shown little understanding of how his failures are affecting the nation, and he hasn’t offered any tangible proposals to change course.

Precisely.

JIM TREACHER: Biden livens up woman’s cancer survival story with his “inappropriate laughter” shtick.

A SEXY HALLOWEEN COSTUME:  A binder full of women . . . well, woman, anyway.    I like it!   LOL.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: President Obama’s binder full of tax hikes on women.

EVERYTHING MUST GO! DOWN TO THE BARE WALLS! 30% Off On Everything At The Barack Obama Store!!!

BILL CLINTON BLAMES “IMPATIENT” AMERICANS:   Daddy Clinton, in a typical elitist, progressive fashion, blames Obama’s plunge in the polls on the stupid ordinary folk for being “impatient” and “not understanding why the economy isn’t hunky dory now.”   Too bad we can’t all be as smart and patient as Bill.

PROF. JACOBSON: Don’t Get Mad, Get Even.

SNARKY, CONDESCENDING, PEEVISH AND SMALL:  The essence of the Obama campaign . . . as described by liberal mainstream media.  Yes, you heard it right, folks:  Even the mainstream media is beginning to smell the desperation of Obama’s petty, pandering, distraction campaign.

NEVILLE AGAIN: The New York Sun on “Obama’s ‘Agreement’ With Iran:”

Just in time for the debate between President Obama and Governor Romney on foreign policy, the New York Times is reporting that the White House and the mullahs in Iran have “agreed” to what the Times says would be “one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.” Fox News is reporting that the White House is denying the report. The Times calls the agreement a “last ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran.” It looks to us like a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert the election of Governor Romney as the 45th president.

* * * * * *

This is a moment for Mr. Romney to remember the lessons of Munich. It is not necessary to liken the mullahs to Hitler to keep in mind that the big mistake at Munich turned out to be not simply the deal that was made there, though that was mistake enough. The mistake was going to Munich in the first place. The mistake was in the delusion on the part of Prime Minister Chamberlain and Premier Daladier that there was no danger in simply talking with Hitler. In the end the talking was the appeasement.

Read the whole thing.