THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN! “Thursday’s economic data was mixed: weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose while housing starts in April unexpectedly fell.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 27 Unexpected Ways Coffee Can Improve Your Life.

THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: “Previously owned U.S. home sales unexpectedly dropped in March.”

WELL, THEY HAVE TO RELY ON THIS BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ARGUMENTS: Victor Davis Hanson: The Dangers of Politically Inspired Moral Outrage—From Sandy Hook to What Next?

It is a bad idea to demonize your opponents with epithets such “shameful” and “lying,” given that the case was not made that proposed gun-control legislation would have prevented a Sandy Hook. To prevent these school-shooting horrors might require either armed guards in schools, or Draconian new laws about gratuitous screen and video-game violence, or more frequently incarcerating the mentally unstable, or, on the theory of reducing rapid rates of fire, confiscating millions of previously sold semi-automatic handguns and rifles. All those measures would have offended millions across the political spectrum in ways that demonizing the NRA apparently does not. In the end, it was not the “lying” “gun lobby” that persuaded enough senators to defeat the bill, but the president’s inability to make the argument that his proposals would help stop another Sandy Hook or Columbine.

Moreover, the current sophistry of using catastrophic current events to rush legislative agendas or build political capital is as natural as it is also dangerous — and can rebound in unexpected ways.

Indeed. Related: Former Justice of the Peace Shot Texas Prosecutors, Not Aryan Brotherhood as Chris Matthews Supposed. “The wife of a former justice of the peace revealed to authorities this week that she and her husband are responsible for the deaths of two Texas prosecutors, ending a months-long mystery that aroused speculation, especially by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, that members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas were responsible. On his show, Matthews routinely tied the Aryan Brotherhood to gun-rights supporters.”

NICK GILLESPIE AND TODD KRAININ: 5 Unacknowledged, Unexpected, and Unavoidable Facts about Govt Spending and the Economy.

I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Thunderstorms contain ‘dark lightning,’ invisible pulses of powerful radiation.

Scientists recently discovered something mind-bending about lightning: Sometimes its flashes are invisible, just sudden pulses of unexpectedly powerful radiation. It’s what Joseph Dwyer, a lightning researcher at the Florida Institute of Technology, has termed dark lightning. Unknown to Franklin but now clear to a growing roster of lightning researchers and astronomers is that along with bright thunderbolts, thunderstorms unleash sprays of X-rays and even intense bursts of gamma rays, a form of radiation normally associated with such cosmic spectacles as collapsing stars. The radiation in these invisible blasts can carry a million times as much energy as the radiation in visible lightning, but that energy dissipates quickly in all directions rather than remaining in a stiletto-like lightning bolt.

Dark lightning appears sometimes to compete with normal lightning as a way for thunderstorms to vent the electrical energy that gets pent up inside their roiling interiors, Dwyer says. Unlike with regular lightning, though, people struck by dark lightning, most likely while flying in an airplane, would not get hurt. But according to Dwyer’s calculations, they might receive in an instant the maximum safe lifetime dose of ionizing radiation — the kind that wreaks the most havoc on the human body.

I wonder if the mechanism is related to that by which Scotch tape creates X-rays? Interestingly, pilots have reported all sorts of strange sights on the tops of thunderstorms that meteorologists for years pooh-poohed, but science keeps finding evidence that there really are weird things going on there.

THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: “The pace of expansion in the U.S. manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in March, according to an industry report released on Monday.”

WHY YOUR KID CAN’T GET A JOB, as explained by Michael Malone of Forbes and Silicon Valley marketing executive Tom Hayes:

So what is a kid today to do? One answer is to establish a powerful personal brand independent of work experience. Not just cobble together a few starter jobs, but pursue their own aspirations – and then learn how to define them and market them to the corporate world. Another answer is to take advantage of being a digital natives and build new kinds of networks – and a sharing economy – and find jobs for each other and hire amongst themselves. Freelancing is likely to be their future anyhow, so why not start and learn the skills (from DIY bookkeeping to marketing) of being an entrepreneur now? Young job hunters need to rethink their social media presence. Social proof is critical to employers. Ditch the frat party photos, avoid the drunken tweets. Turn your public social media presence into a showcase of your personal brand and portal of interests and skills. Connect the dots for the prospective hiring manager. The best way to combat a thin resume is with photos, video, endorsements. Be unusual and memorable: if, for example, you reached Level 60 on World of Warcraft, tell your future boss why that means you have monster leadership skills. And, show you have a big and growing network that comes with you when you get hired.

Read the whole the whole thing, and then pass it along to someone who either needs the advice personally, or has kids who would benefit from these suggestions.

Though I’m not sure if ditching the frat party photos is the answer though. They can take you “unexpectedly” far in politics, to the point where you can declare “Peace In Our Time:”

CYPRUS: Gold Price Jumps — Unexpectedly! — as Cyprus Tries to Halt Capital Flight.

DEHUMANIZING ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC:  “[Anyone] who would run out to buy an assault rifle after the Newtown massacre has very little left in their body or soul worth protecting,” tweets Jim Carrey, in-between sparring with moviegoers on Twitter who disagree with his anti-Second Amendment viewpoint.

Presumably Carrey is wishing for his box office appeal to become increasingly “selective,” as Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith euphemistically explained his charges’ own declining popularity.

Update: An Insta-reader emails that Carrey’s hateful rhetoric is “a pretty harsh thing to say about Gabby Gifford’s husband….”

Meanwhile, Greg Gutfeld and Dana Loesch punch back twice as hard; including Loesch asking Carrey if he’ll be denouncing his own upcoming Kick Ass 2 movie, to remain consistent with his anti-gun rhetoric; Carrey bravely runs away in response. Unexpectedly.

(Bumped to top.)

WINNING THE WAR ON MEN MEANS MORE SINGLE MOMS:

Men are becoming less appealing to women. Meager earnings tend to make a man less marriageable. And as men are skipping college in greater numbers, their wages are dropping.

But as we noted yesterday, the turn away from marriage hasn’t made men any less likely to father children. As a result, single motherhood is on the rise, and boys growing up without fathers will face even worse odds of successful employment and marriage.

Men are doing worse, but female hypergamy remains a strong force. It makes a poor combination.

UPDATE: Reader George Milonas writes:

I think most men would deny they’re in decline. Men are having just as much sex but without the legal liabilities marriage impose on them. All I’m hearing from women in these articles is that men need to grow up and take responsibility for their actions, meaning they need to legally sign a paper imposing government sanctions on them if said marriage dissolves. There is no question that men are getting the shaft from the courts financially when divorce occurs. Furthermore women are also more likely to get custody of any children as well as more decision making responsibility.

Men have wised up after hearing horror story upon horror story from their older friends and family when the court system utterly destroyed their lives and have simply decided to go galt from the entire marriage process.

Divorce courts have become the ultimate nanny state intrusion into the lives of men and the average man has decided that it simply is not worth the risk. Exactly how is that irresponsible to the man? This is the ultimate unexpected consequence Virginia slim gets.

Yes, this is the precise thesis of the Insta-Wife’s forthcoming book.

THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: Homebuilder Confidence in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell in March.

WITH ALL THE BROKEN-GLASS INJURIES FROM THAT RUSSIAN METEORITE — 950 people according to this report — maybe it’s time to remind people to Duck And Cover upon seeing a bright flash of light. . . .

Related: Protecting Earth from Killer Asteroids.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits. “Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.”

Hey, weren’t these the people ObamaCare was supposed to help? Who could have seen this coming?

CHANGE: U.S., Canada, and Oz Prepare for the Asian Gas Wars.

Australia has designs on becoming the leading natural gas supplier for not only Asia, but the entire world. Indeed, the country has the offshore resources and the thirsty markets nearby in Asia to pass Qatar as the world’s top supplier of LNG.

However, Australia’s march towards energy superpowerdom is beginning to run into domestic problems—and new competition. Rising labor costs and high prices in Australia’s booming economy are making it unexpectedly difficult for the Aussies to export their gas and now energy-hungry Asian countries like China and Japan are starting to eye alternative and equally cheap gas from North America. . . .

Whether it’s Australian, American, or Canadian gas that wins the race to the Asian market (and most likely, there is plenty of demand for all three), a few things seem clear:

(1) The long era in which the Middle East was the global supplier of hydrocarbons is coming to an end.

(2) A global switch from coal to natural gas is one of the most practical ways available for civilization to begin the transition to a new kind of energy market. Greens take note.

(3) Asia is not going to be self sufficient in either energy or food in the 21st century, which, from the standpoint of those who hope to see the world becoming a more peaceful and economically integrated place, is a very good thing. The rising Asian powers will need a healthy, stable and secure global system to feed their people and run their economies.

Indeed.

THE BIG FREEZE: Cold Weather Across Europe, Asia Kills Hundreds.

Cold weather in the past few days has sadly gone from severe to deadly. While unusually high snowfall has disrupted the travel plans of millions of Americans, freezing temperatures have taken the lives of hundreds of people from Central Europe to South Asia. The BBC reports that in Poland, 49 people have died; in Ukraine, 83; in Russia, 88; and in India, at least 93. The majority of those dead are the elderly and the homeless.

Besides being an obvious tragedy for many across the world, this is a reminder that “weather” is not “climate,” unless it suits the needs of environmental hotheads to claim that it is. When there’s a hot spell or a dry spell or a wet spell that can somehow be connected with the climate change narrative, the media resounds with panicky warnings. But when people die of frostbite in Punjab and temperatures hit -58F in Russia, the silence of the alarmists is deafening.

In the past few years we’ve seen climate change blamed for hot weather, for floods and for droughts. It’s been blamed for both the presence and the absence of storms. It’s been blamed for excessive snow as well as for the absence of snow. We don’t blame the smart greens for these recurring epidemics of media foolishness, but we wish they did more to focus the public discussion on practicalities and realities.

For the record, Via Meadia accepts the scientific evidence pointing to rising temperatures around the world. But we remain deeply skeptical that the nostrums proposed by green activists offer much in the way of practical steps, and the more green policies we see that fail due to ‘unexpected’ complications the less confidence we have.

More significantly, we’ve seen how the press selectively conflates weather and climate to advance a predetermined narrative. As they do in so many areas. I think it’s because they’re insufficiently diverse, like the all-white New York Magazine.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall. “Not one of them has a four-year degree. Only one is still studying full time, and two have crushing debts. Angelica, who left Emory owing more than $60,000, is a clerk in a Galveston furniture store. . . . even after accounting for financial aid, the costs of attending a public university have risen 60 percent in the past two decades. Many low-income students, feeling the need to help out at home, are deterred by the thought of years of lost wages and piles of debt.”

Go to college, but don’t borrow money to do it. Plus this: “The growing role of class in academic success has taken experts by surprise since it follows decades of equal opportunity efforts and counters racial trends, where differences have narrowed.” Unexpectedly!

CRITICIZING THE “DEATH PORN MEDIA.”

UNEXPECTEDLY: US Manufacturing Declines in November: ISM Index. “U.S. manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in November, falling to its lowest in over three years in a sign the sector may be struggling to gain traction, according to an industry report released on Monday.” Funny, there was no sign of this before the election. . . .

On the other hand, there’s this: Knoxville One Of Just Three U.S. Cities In Recovery From Recession.

UNEXPECTEDLY! U.S.: Dallas Fed Manufacturing Business Index Falls Unexpectedly to -2.8 in November.

BUT IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF THE JAPANESE TSUNAMI SANDY: Unexpectedly, Right After Election, Jobless Numbers Hit New High. “Sandy drove the number of people seeking unemployment benefits up to a seasonally adjusted 439,000 last week, the highest level in 18 months.”

UPDATE: Mocking the Sandy excuse.

WELL, I CERTAINLY WOULDN’T HAVE EXPECTED IT: WWII Nazi’s Tank Manuals: Unexpectedly Hilarious! Though “hilarious” is a bit strong. “Amusing,” maybe.

AN UNEXPECTED parade of events.

EXPECT MORE OF THE UNEXPECTEDLY: Hey, look on the bright side: it will be fun to continue seeing all bad economic news reported as “unexpectedly” in the MSM for another four years.

FROM “HOPE AND CHANGE” TO “REVENGE:”

During a speech in Springfield, Ohio today, the president ad libbed a remark when his supporters started booing Mitt Romney: “No, no, no — don’t boo, vote,” Obama said. That’s his standard response to booing at his rallies. But then he added this: “Vote! Voting is the best revenge.”

Ahh, the wonders of punitive liberalism; Robert Reich would likely approve Obama’s message.

RELATED: Peggy Noonan: How Far Obama Has Fallen. Not exactly unexpectedly, however.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Military Ballots Are Still a Problem.

WHY LIBERALS THINK WHAT THEY DO, as explored by Victor Davis Hanson:

Anger, envy, and the primordial emotions

For some, especially those who are well-educated and well-spoken, a sort of irrational furor at “the system” governs their political make-up. Why don’t degrees and vocabulary always translate into big money? Why does sophisticated pontification at Starbucks earn less than mindlessly doing accounting behind a desk? We saw this tension with Michelle Obama who, prior to 2009, did not quite have enough capital to get to Aspen or Costa del Sol, and thereby, despite the huge power-couple salaries, Chicago mansion, and career titles, felt that others had far too much more than the Obamas. “Never been proud,” “downright mean country,” “raise the bar,” etc., followed, as expressions of yuppie angst. The more one gets, the more one believes he should get even more, and the angrier he gets that another — less charismatic, less well-read, less well-spoken — always seems to get more.

So do not discount the envy of the sophisticated elite. The unread coal plant manager, the crass car dealer, or the clueless mind who farms 1000 acres of almonds should not make more than the sociology professor, the kindergarten teacher, the writer, the artist, or the foundation officer. What sort of system would allow the dense and easily fooled to become better compensated (and all for what — for superfluous jet skis and snowmobiles?) than the anguished musician or tortured-soul artist, who gives so much to us and receives so much less in return? What a sick country — when someone who brings chain saws into the Sierra would make more than a UC Berkeley professor who would stop them.

You can see that mindset hard at work in this angry and punitive Tweet from Robert Reich:

Will we comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable under President Obama, or do the exact opposite under President Romney?

I missed the section of the Constitution that calls for the government to afflict the comfortable — but I bet Mr. Obama can find it.

(Incidentally, isn’t it journalism’s self-designated role to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable?” Though that’s a task that the industry seemed to “unexpectedly” begin to forget, starting in 2008.)

UNEXPECTEDLY: Hooray — Warmists Find One Obama Green Project That Has Not Failed.

(Via Maggie’s Farm, which has loads more links today.)

UNEXPECTEDLY: Chick-fil-A thrives despite gay rights issue. “There was a lot of talk that this would hurt Chick-fil-A, but it actually helped the brand. . . . They were saying to their core constituency: Here’s what we believe.”

CBS BUSTS OBAMA — AND ITSELF — IN BENGHAZI COVER-UP:

CBS News has released a clip of an interview by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes on Sep. 12 with President Barack Obama that indicates Obama knew the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya was a premeditated terror attack–and suggests the White House later deceived the public by blaming protests against an anti-Islam video. CBS chose not to air the clip for over a month–but did air Obama’s attack on Romney that same night.

Obama told Kroft that the attack in Benghazi was different from the violent protest at the U.S. embassy in Cairo: “You’re right that this is not a situation that was exactly the same as what happened in Egypt, and my suspicion is, is that there are folks involved in this who were looking to target Americans from the start.”

Obama’s remarks pointed towards a premeditated attack, in contrast to the story the White House went on to tell for weeks.

CBS chose not to air that portion of the interview with President Obama–not even in the days and weeks that followed, when it was highly relevant–first to the question of the nature of the Benghazi attack, then to the question of whether the president had in fact called it an act of terror from the start.

But then, the MSM has a long history of burying Mr. Obama’s “unexpectedly” damaging statements, rather than actually using them to break news.

DO WE BELIEVE ANYMORE? “We live in an age of disbelief, in which citizens increasingly do not believe what their government says or, for that matter, what is accepted as true by popular culture,” Victor Davis Hanson writes in his weekly PJM column.

In the 1960s, the left insisted that we “Question Authority.” Now that the reactionary left is authority – ancient, sclerotic, calcified though it may be, they seem to be having second thoughts about that notion.

Unexpectedly, of course.

SOMEONE TELL THE PRESIDENT: Chinese paratroopers storm island during mass exercise.

A recent joint exercise by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is caught on camera, as the world’s largest military force mounts a show of strength in response to mounting tension with Japan over disputed islands.

Apparently a weakened US does NOT mean peace on Earth.  — Unexpectedly!

HMM. Unexpected jump in consumer sentiment coincides with polls showing Obama could lose.

NEW CIVILITY WATCH: New tone? Despicable lefties fantasize about ‘hate f**king’ Paul Ryan.

For an ideology whose buzzwords are peace, tolerance, diversity and coexistence, the left sure seems rather “unexpectedly” obsessed with “hate f***ing” its enemies, doesn’t it?

JOE BIDEN GIVES CHRIS MATTHEWS HIS TINGLE BACK, but delivers some “unexpectedly” different results at CNN:

Even CNN’s Gloria Borger admits, “He was condescending at times to Paul Ryan. I think I could have done with a lot less eye-rolling and chuckling on the part of Joe Biden.”

Meanwhile, Ace adds, “This debate will not strongly impact the race, but note that Ryan — the crazy extremist who wants to kill your grandparents — is viewed as likable by more than a majority of the public, whereas Biden has… the Democratic Client System base.”

Love the photo atop his post.

UPDATE: On the other hand, “MSNBC Call Biden Out Over Lie About Libya Security Requests” — “Good heavens, when Andrea Mitchell is calling the Obama administration out, you know they’ve gone too far.”

IOWAHAWK: White House Scientists Struggle to Contain Outbreak of Scrutonium:

WASHINGTON DC – Engaged a relentless battle against time and fatigue, a select group of message scientists assembled by the White House’s Center for Narrative Control say they will take “all steps necessary” to contain a recent outbreak of scrutonium, a deadly poll-eating supervirus that attacks the immuno-hope system, leaving victims vulnerable to material facts.

“Failure is simply not an option,” said an exhausted Mission Chief David Axelrod. “If left unchecked, this virus may actually force us to move back to Chicago.”

The recent re-infection of scrutonium into the body politic has been a harrowing turn of fortune for Axlerod and his scientific team. In November 2008, they had declared scrutonium “all but extinct,” although they kept small amounts of the strain for use in laboratory experiments with Republican tax returns. It was thought to be in containment as recently as five weeks ago, with scientists citing poll results showing resistance to doses of unemployment previously considered fatal.

All that changed on September 12 after an unexpected outbreak in Benghazi, Libya. Although it caught Axlerod and his team by surprise, they were temporarily able to keep it under control with a regimen of YouTube blame therapy and gaffe-meme injections. But the new Benghazi strain proved stubbornly resistant, and has continued to slowly spread.

But when will legendary conservative’s conservative T Coddington Van Voorhees VII finally see the light of the day and endorse Romney?

UNEXPECTEDLY: Military Times poll results “indicate that about 66 percent of those surveyed support Romney, compared with about 26 percent who say they will vote to re-elect President Obama.”

“Economy, not military issues, tops concerns,” the article adds.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Chavez wins re-election, AP reports. Love the upside photo of Chavez currently atop the Drudge Report.

UPDATE: “Nothing says democratic legitimacy like Fidel Castro’s niece saying she has the results in advance.”

MORE: Photo of armored cars in the streets of Venezuela tonight.

WEAK HORSE: Hunt for Obama’s Middle East Policy Comes Up Empty, Jeffrey Goldberg writes at Bloomberg News:

Yet all we have from Obama is passivity, which is a recurring theme in the administration’s approach to the Middle East. So is “aggressive hedging,” a term used by the Brookings Institution’s Shadi Hamid to describe Obama’s strange reluctance to clearly choose sides in the uprisings of the Arab Spring.

“There’s a widespread perception in the region that Obama is a weak, somewhat feckless president,” Hamid, who runs the Brookings Doha Center, told me. “Bush may have been hated, but he was also feared, and what we’ve learned in the Middle East is that fear, sometimes at least, can be a good thing. Obama’s aggressive hedging has alienated both sides of the Arab divide. Autocrats, particularly in the Gulf, think Obama naively supports Arab revolutionaries, while Arab protesters and revolutionaries seem to think the opposite.”

Leaders across the Middle East don’t take Obama’s threats seriously. Neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the Arab leaders of the Gulf countries believe he’ll act militarily against Iran’s nuclear program in his second term.

RELATED: Obama waives sanctions on countries that use child soldiers:

“When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed — that’s slavery,” Obama said in a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative. “It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world. Now, as a nation, we’ve long rejected such cruelty.”

But for the third year in a row, Obama has waived almost all U.S. sanctions that would punish certain countries that use child soldiers, upsetting many in the human rights community.

And finally, Obama: ‘protecting’ American lady-parts. Egyptian ones? …Well, not so much.

None of which should seem very “unexpectedly” at this point — even to Bloomberg.

FAST AND FURIOUS: Univision Breaks New Details of Obama Admin’s Fast and Furious Cover-Up.

And a question from Bob Owens: Will Romney mention Fast and Furious during the debates, to help force an issue to the surface that the palace guard MSM are “unexpectedly” reticent to discuss?

UNEXPECTEDLY! Business Activity in U.S. Shrinks for First Time Since 2009. “Business activity in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted in September for the first time in three years, adding to signs manufacturing will contribute less to the economic recovery. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its business barometer fell 49.7 this month from 53 in August. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction.”

UNEXPECTEDLY: Chris Matthews wins Media Research Center’s ‘Obamagasm’ award at annual gala; Katie Couric ‘worst reporter in history.’

No word yet on Chris’s thoughts on this achievement, but no doubt, they would be along the lines of “it reminds me of the 1930s in another country,” and/or comparing the MRC to the Khmer Rouge or the North Koreans. I only hope that someday, he evolves.

UNEXPECTEDLY! As this latest example highlights, with Bloomberg News, always expect the unexpectedly.

Meanwhile, from lefty blogger and JournoList member Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, another “unexpectedly” today, this time involving “An unexpectedly ideological presidential election.”

Inconceivable!

UPDATE: For those who’d prefer a swanky Continental version of the same theme, Bloomberg is happy to oblige as well today: “Euro-Area Economic Confidence Unexpectedly Fell in September.”

UNEXPECTEDLY: Obama Campaign’s Flag Poster No Longer Appears In Store.

Looking at the above juxtaposition, I can’t understand at all why they’d pull that from the shelves. But then, pages have a tendency to disappear themselves from Obama Websites at purely random intervals for no apparent reason at all.

UNEXPECTEDLY! More Americans Than Forecast Filed Jobless Claims Last Week. “Jobless claims decreased by 3,000 in the week ended Sept. 15 to 382,000, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 49 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected 375,000.” And if history is any guide, they’ll be revised upward next week.

UPDATE: More: “Today’s initial claims print was the 5th week out of 6 in which expectations missed: instead of coming in at the consensus number of 375K, down from last week’s 382K, the BLS reported a miss to expectations of 7K, resulting in a seasonally adjusted number of 382K, or what is now once again secular shift higher. But, wait big miss was actually good news: why? Because the ever data-massaging BLS was kind enough to revise last week’s print upward (for the 86th week in a row) from 382K to 385K (just as we predicted last week) which in turn led to such farcical headlines as U.S. weekly jobless claims drop slightly to 382,000 from the WSJ.” Yeah, this pattern with the revisions is so consistent, it’s almost suspicious. Note the damning graph on headlines vs. revisions at the link.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Recovery Faltering as Corporate Profits Fall. “Here’s some more bad news for the economy: analysts are predicting that corporate profits may fall this quarter for the first time in three years. This comes as a bit of a surprise.”

It’s almost . . . unexpected!

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): EMPIRE FED PLUNGES TO -10.41 (-2.00 EXPECTED). “The Empire Fed manufacturing index fell to -10.41 versus expectations of a -2.00 reading and a prior reading last month of -5.85. New orders tumbled to -14.0 from -5.0 last month. . . .The employment index fell to 4.3. . . . Economists polled by Bloomberg forecast the key business activity index will rebound to -2.00 from its August reading of -5.85. A reading above zero indicates expansion.”

Unexpectedly!

YOU DIDN’T FILL THAT: #EMPTYSTADIUMDAY. Hey, who could have foreseen a chance of thunderstorms in North Carolina in the summer? Or a threat of lightning? So they had to move indoors. Unexpectedly!

UPDATE: Hey, wait a minute: “October 2008 in Pennsylvania: ‘A little bit of rain never hurt anybody’.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Hedges writes:

The Democrats should have no problem at all proving that Obama’s speech was moved indoors due to the weather and not due to poor turnout. All they need to do is point to the 50,000 convention-goers who would have attended the speech but now can’t. My guess is that most of them are from Milwaukee.

I must say, I have read your blog over the years for the variety of links, but I’m loving all the jokes lately. Granted, it’s the material, but still.

It’s a target-rich environment.

MORE: Limbaugh laughs.

HOW TO TEACH A ROBOT TO IMPROVISE. “Self-piloted drones have become sophisticated enough to land on moving aircraft carriers, but put a single unexpected tree in the way, and they will crash. Now a five-university group that includes specialists in biology, computer vision and robotics is trying to teach drones to dodge obstacles on the fly. Working with $7.5 million from the Office of Naval Research, the scientists aim to build an autonomous, fixed-wing surveillance drone that can navigate through an unfamiliar city or forest at 35 miles an hour.”

If there’s a tree in your way while you attempt a carrier landing, I think being taken aback is entirely understandable.

UPDATE: Broken link now fixed.

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL IS NOT COVERING ITSELF WITH GLORY THESE DAYS: Liz Warren Taking The Low Road.

Does Liz Warren really believe that Scott Brown is pro-rape? Or wants to somehow “redefine rape” in a way that would hurt women or benefit racists?

Of course not.

But is Liz Warren willing to smear Scott Brown by suggesting he’d do all this — and more — as part of a “war on women?”

She already has. . . . This is how low Liz Warren is willing to go, how much of her own dignity she’s willing to destroy, just to — as her campaign put it in a fundraising mailer — “win back Ted Kennedy’s seat.”

Ah, yes, Ted Kennedy. The exemplar of the virtuous treatment of women . . .

The self-proclaimed intellectual force behind the Occupy movement needs to step up and take responsibility for all the Occupy rapes, then. Maybe some of the fiercely independent Massachusetts press corps will raise this with her.

UPDATE: Reader Paul Jackson writes: “Guess who’s writing her speech for the Dem convention? A cartoon character from Doonesbury (yes, that comic strip still appears, albeit on the editorial page, of my Baltimore Sun). Pretty much sums up how she’s run her campaign so far doesn’t it? The storyline has been running for about a week now and I haven’t seen a word about her Occupy rhetoric or alleged Indian lineage. I guess Trudeau gets all his news from the NYT and other traditional media outlets and is unaware of her campaign’s struggles.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ho hum. Another Democrat shiny object. “The Democrats, in the midst of a Medicare battle that is giving them unexpected trouble and a welfare mess of their own making, are scrambling to raise what Democrats like to call ‘wedge’ issues when Republicans bring them up. It is reminiscent of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s 17-point win, when the Democrats and much of the media wanted to talk about McDonnell’s school thesis (I kid you not) on social issues. What mesmerizes Democratic elites is often irrelevant to actual voters.”