Education

The survey says that Colorado is in a tie at 35th out of 50 with an overall high school graduation rate of 74%.

Here are the rates reported for Colorado as broken down by demographic groups:

• American Indian – 52 percent
• Asian/Pacific Islander – 81 percent
• Black – 65 percent
• Hispanic – 60 percent
• White non-Hispanic – 81 percent
• Children with disabilities – 53 percent
• Limited English proficiency – 53 percent
• Economically disadvantaged – 62 percent

In a possibly related story, with the changing of the State House from Red to Blue, the new chair of the House Finance Committee .

Never has that been more true than with the selection of HD6 Democratic State Rep. Lois Court to head the Colorado State House Finance Committee.  Rep. Court has, on more than one occasion, professed her lack of skills in math

Possibly a product of the local education establishment. I wonder if she understands the concept of a deficit?

The Future Of Transportation - Warp Drive

The physics of the space-time continuum is the playground of the scientist for the moment, and will be until the math is worked out suggesting that real phenomenon can be substituted for the chunks of the equations to produce a real working experiment.

Einstein famously came up with E=mc2 in the early part of the 20th century and some 40 years later the engineers came up with an actual demonstration of the equation.

What is needed at this point is a careful description of the phenomenon included in the math so we can get to the real business of building demonstrations on lab benches.

Some aspiring SF writer could certainly have some fun writing a description of the first such experiment on a bench somewhere and the result of moving even a small object at relativistic speeds across a laboratory of necessarily limited dimensions.

In the meantime I encourage the boffins to keep crunching the numbers. I'll keep a space clear on my workbench.

Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been.

                                           A. Einstein

Licensing Of The Press

Licensing of the press is being proposed in Great Britain, with only one newspaper so far coming out against it. The obvious outcome of something like this would be a press fawning over whatever party was considered most likely to abuse the licensing power. Misbehavior of this party would be studiously ignored while the smallest foible of the other side would be presented as evidence of unpardonable moral decay.

Of course if the Labour party passes this, and the Spectator refuses to participate, the Spectator will be shut down and its staff jailed to the sanctimonious clucking f the remaining press. "If only they could have followed the common sense rules" will run the editorials.

Of course if it works there, expect a similar regulation to be put forth here. This will most likely come as an extension of the powers of the FCC which can be done by executive order rather than getting tied up in the partisan bickering of the congress. Current practice is to simply not invite Fox news to the White House press conferences.

Thought: Some bloggers (not me) are pleased to call themselves journalists in attempts to question politicians. Some politicians, noting that some bloggers are notably unfriendly, have been known to forcibly push the bloggers away to the point of risking assault charges. Wouldn't it be nice if those pests were licensed and thus easily identifiable as friend or foe before the interview could get out of hand?

Term Limits

Here's some sentiment from the Shoe comic:

I suppose the more draconian version of this would be called a Terminator, no?

Gun Fun - E-Postal

This months e-postal over at True Blue Sams turned out to be among the most difficult I've seen so far. What I like about these matches is that when you get a simple looking target which when you finish you become convinced that either someone used a shotgun on it or you're in terminal Parkinsons, it's because the target was considerably more difficult than you thought.

Ranging from 1 hit on the bottle on the left to 5 each on the bottle and 'gong' on the right, those last two prove to be difficult indeed. Theoretically you should need 20 rounds for this. In reality 45-50 is more like it.

Art

The state of Art right now is that Glenn Beck has assembled and put up for auction, a piece of his own consisting of an Obama bobblehead doll in a jar of urine, reminiscent of the "Piss Christ" from way back when. He posted this on E-Bay with an asking price of $25,000 and had bids over $11,000 when E-Bay pulled the offering. Proceeds were to go to Beck's charity, Mercury One.

It seems that E-Bay does not allow the sale of bodily fluids on its site.

This brings up another possibility: Reminiscent of the portrait of the Virgin Mary done in elephant dung, how about a 3-D sculpture of the pres done in male bovine scat? This not only meets the E-Bay standards, but could probably be the best representation of the pres to date, on multiple levels.

With the artist's provenience that all the BS used in the sculpture was genuine BS from genuine bulls (not steers) I'd set the asking price at $50,000, proceeds to be donated to some worthy charity, say the Tea Party.

A common plaster bust of the prez dipped in ordinary liquid cow pies might be priced much more reasonably for the common man.

Tax The Rich

And feed the poor,
until there are no
poor no more.

Hey, it works! England, along with France is in the process of proving it. The citation from France says that Sothebys has sold more than €1.7 million worth of high-end property from April to June this year. If you're looking for a nice place in France, this probably signals the time to buy. Note: The WSJ's real estate section last week decided to specialize in really upscale properties and if you got below $1M, you were living on the wrong side of the tracks for sure. €1.7M is probably only 2 properties. Either that of the price of real estate in France is lower than I thought.

On the bright side, they're making real progress in reducing the income gap between the rich and the poor although this bodes ill for all those government programs once the people who have to pay for them pack up and leave.

Wave of the future: The Cayman Islands becomes a major manufacturing  trade and financial center after a consortium of wealthy capitalists buys the place outright. The locals, newly rich from the sale of their country, readily agree to the new name: New Hong Kong, which becomes the only sovereign country to be traded on international stock exchanges.

QOTD

"Gun-related violence has fallen steadily since 2006 in Virginia despite record firearm sales, according to a university professor's analysis."--Associated Press, Nov. 24.
                             H/T to Taranto at WSJO

It's something to point out to legislators when arguing against the assorted gun bans being proposed. Of course you may have to include an explanation, they're not quick learners.

Gun Grab

O.K. the election is over and we lost. Now comes the ritual paybacks. Last weekend the local fishwrap carried an editorial by Meredith Carroll calling for a renewal of the old AWB only this time the new and improved version. The premise is that this isn't the wild west anymore. Instead of isolated farmers with AR's fending off marauding Indians armed with AK's, it's flash mobs on the 16th st mall in central downtown. Certainly the use of automatic weapons in a crowded shopping venue is uncalled for. Not to mention they're hard to carry along with 5 or 6 big shopping bags.

This week the editorial has moved from the party line intensive Perspective section nearer to the front page in the Denver And The West section.

'Gun violence can be solved with science, public health experts say'

Colleen O'Conner is pushing the idea that guns should be regulated like medical devices.  This suggests that if the safety and efficasy of such a device cannot be proven, the device may be removed from the market. If the device can be proven to be a menace to anyone nearby, like cigaretts, the device may be subject to blanket confiscation in the interest of the public health.

At the same time, the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, whose only known member in Colorado is currently serving as Governor, is proposing to close the private sale loophole in Colorado. This "loophole" allows me to sell you a gun without paying a $35 "fee" on the sale. The reasoning goes that most crime is committed by people who buy their guns from private parties. This will prevent the potential armed robber from buying a gun from his acquaintance, the burglar.

Widespread Support:

·       According to a poll commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns in November 2012, 90% of Coloradans, and 90% of Colorado gun owners, support requiring all buyers to pass a background check.

·       In 2012 Frank Luntz, found 74% of NRA members and 82% of non-NRA gun owners agreed anyone purchasing a gun should be subject to a background check.

Somehow the results published here don't seem quite in line with my own observations. Sorry, no specific link. I notice on their website that they're current hobby horse seems to be to get your mental health records included as part of any background check so that people suffering from partial deafness, tinnitus, or having a history of voting the wrong way can be prevented from owning guns. A Variant of this is already being implemented in England.

The Colorado legislature now being 100% blue*, there is a distinct possibility that one or more of these things may make an appearance, sponsored by someone in a safe district and whooped through on a voice vote on a Friday as the last item before adjournment.

The time to begin calling, writing or otherwise bothering your state congress animal is right now. They understand that anything done now will be forgotten by the electorate in 2 years, so bear down hard, but politely. 

*The Dems hold a slim voting majority in both houses as well as the Governorship.

Cease Fire II

Scroll down a couple of posts and see "Cease Fire" . Note specifically the definition of the word "hudna".

Now go here and read this short article in the Jerusalem Post.

'Satellites show Iran moving quickly to rearm Hamas'

That was too easy.

The Future Of Transportation - Guns

Now here's an experiment that just cries out to be performed. Using the recoil of a GAU-8 rotary cannon to accelerate a car.

If I mounted a GAU-8 on my car, put the car in neutral, and started firing backward from a standstill, I would be breaking the interstate speed limit in less than three seconds.

 Obviously a real crowd pleaser at the drag strip as long as there was no one waiting in the staging area.

Happy Turkey Day

The turkey run, mentioned here earlier, turned out to be about the coldest day we've had so far this winter. 22 degrees and snowing on snow packed roads in places makes for a bracing motorcycle ride. Most of us took cars. The closest I got to a turkey was a wild one seen along the side of the road.

On that note let's invoke Michael Mann and his famous "hockey stick" graph "proving " global warming. Put that together and you get:

The difference being that this one comes from reputable data sources that anyone can duplicate. The turkeys in question must have been the premium variety. Birds were available as low as $.49/lb around here.

Here's hoping all you had a good Thanksgiving, and have no trouble getting back on your exercise regimens tomorrow.

Cease Fire

There is allegedly a cease fire between Israel and Gaza. This apparently means that a reduced number of rockets are being fired into Israel and Israel has suspended counter attacks.

Just a reminder: Hudna is an Arabic word, translated in the western media as "ceasefire". What it actually means is "Oh please my enemy, I am wounded and out of ammunition. Please stop fighting until I can get medical attention and more ammo".

Reportedly the Israeli public is 45% opposed to a ground assault into Gaza. I agree. Flying over the territory and spraying it with a good strong pesticide would be far more productive in the long run.

But Billll, I hear you say, how can you advocate doing to the Arabs what the Germans tried to do to the Jews?

Easy. The Germans apologized and are now our friends. The Arabs haven't been anyone's friends including their own, since 650 AD or so. Since I can't figure out how to embed this, go to the Gates Of Vienna and watch the video lecture. It's a bit long, but very enlightening.

Now Do You Feel Old?

The first Star Trek episode aired closer in time to the ratification of the 19th Amendment—guaranteeing women in the US the right to vote—than to today.

Thanks a heap to XKCD blag. I just now found this and it was publishes back in September.

Looking Forward

Having established that my crystal ball is not the most reliable on the blogsphere, It's time to see if there's any looking forward to be had.

Now history has a way of repeating itself and the Gods of the Copybook Headings have a way of pointing out humanities collective mistakes, so first let's look back. Benito Mussolini, when he was running for office, pointed out to the Italian people that the best form of government was a benevolent dictatorship. As proof, he claimed that a problem brought to a partisan elected Parliament only resulted in partisan bickering and no actual solution, whereas a problem brought to a benevolent dictator could be addressed immediately to the greatest benefit of the greatest number, and immediately move on to the next issue.

The Italian government provided the best possible proof of this assertion and still does. The argument was a powerful one and got Benito elected. He promptly styled himself Il Duce and studiously ignored parliament from there on in. History records thet the trains never did run on time, and the experiment ended badly.

One can make the same argument today with the U.S. congress deadlocked with the Republicans in the house being ignored by the Dems in the Senate and vice versa. This leaves governing up to the President who can take your problem and turn it over to an unelected appointee in charge of an agency, ask them to make some rules, which carry the weight of statute law, and move on to the next round of golf.

If the agency's rules prove unpopular, in theory the congress can over rule them but this takes the approval of both houses and the president's signature. What do you suppose are the odds of this happening? So here we are in approximately the same state as Italy in 1935, being led forward by our own Il Douche (did I spell that right?).

Also in 1928 when everything was roaring except for unfair competition from underpaid foreign labor (Germans) providing shoddy merchandise, congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tarriff act. Trade wars are always a bad idea, and this one was a doozy. As the bill advanced through the house, the Senate, and on to the president's desk, at every step the stock market lost about 10% of its value. Coincidentally as we proceeded, so did practically every country in the world so that within 6 months of its passage, international trade, which accounted for about 25% of the global GDP, had come to a halt, and unemployment was at 25%.

Mish Shedlock has some ideas as to what might happen next that might require the attention of the president.

1. Not Addressing the Fiscal Cliff
2. Breakup of the Eurozone
3. UK exiting the EU
4. China Growth falls to Zero Because of Rebalancing
5. Currency Crisis in Japan
6. Failure to address pension problems in US
7. Rise of the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party in Greece Leads to War

I'm not sure who Greece would go to war with, but there is a movement in Italy to split off the productive North from Rome and the Mafia-rich south. Revisions to the political boundaries in Europe seldom happen without a lot of bloodshed.
CBS also has a compilation here.

I Recycle

Reloading is recycling. Over at Peoples Cube there's a lengthy post on the topic of recycling old Soviet jokes which now make more sense here in America.

Apropos of the Ethanol post below:

What has one hundred legs and eats cabbage?
The line at the butcher shop.

Long-Range Shooting

Here's a somewhat lengthy bus quite interesting piece on long range rifle shooting from back when long range meant 100 yards to today when long range means bagging a prairie dog at 3,125 yards.

Technology

For any of you who have been to the movies and seen the dapper pilots of WWI sitting in the smoothly idling Sopwith Camel prepering to take on the Red Baron, here's the real story.

The point of this video was to show a Camel and a Spitfire flying together in formation, the Spitfire near stalling, flaps down, and the Camel running wide open. Interesting to note is the Camel's throttling system. The carburetor had no adjustment, it was wide open only, and speed was controlled by cutting the ignition on and off.

Makes for an interesting flying experience to say the least.

Found here at Theo Spark and worth repeating.

Ethanol

It's been a while since this topic has come up here but the EPA is at it again. As we all know ethanol adds to pollution by reducing fuel economy in cars, and by extension helps fund Al-Quaida through the extra oil required to make up for the lowered economy.

The law mandating ethanol in gas was written in such a way as to require ever increasing amounts of ethanol to be added to the gasoline we buy as time goes on. There is an exception to this but so what:

The EPA said Friday it had not found evidence to support a finding of severe "economic harm" that would warrant granting a waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Rapidly rising food prices amongst the peasantry doesn't actually count as a problem. 

Secession

The latest craze is petitions from various states to secede from the U.S. and be allowed to form their own governments. Noteworthy is the lack of knowledge that the various states are sovereign and theoretically allowed to do whatever they want. Also not noted is that the federal government has specifically enumerated powers and is not actually permitted to do anything beyond what is permitted.

There are petitions from 30 states at last count including that bastion of right wing Tea-Partiers, New York.  I haven't seen their petition but if it were me writing it it would offer to leave New York City to the old country. I expect that any petition from Illinois would offer to leave Cook County behind as well.

 Unbiased reportage on the topic includes an article in Westword headlined:

Obama haters petition for Colorado to secede: More than 3,000 signatures at WhiteHouse.gov

Good opening. If you read down, second page on their online post:

The petitions, which don't mention Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, come just weeks after both candidates made commitments to bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle in their final pleas for votes.

Emphasis mine. So both candidates may be responsible for this, but probably only Mitt.

In parallel to this is a petition has been launched to charge anyone who signs one of these petitions for redress of grievance with treason, revoke their citizenship, and deport them, although no destination is mentioned.

Someone with a sick sense of humor should put together another petition demanding that the government, by executive order, have all the signatories picked up and removed to re-education camps where they will be given 6 months weeks to learn the error of their ways, or else be executed for treason. I bet you could get the 25,000 signatures fairly quickly from the Kosmonauts or the Puffington Hostesses.

Update: Seven states have now reached the 25,000 signature mark required for official notice. Colorado is 2/3 of the way there. Predictably Austin has asked to not be included in a Texas secession. Most Texans would gladly go along with that.Colorado would certainly let Boulder exempt itself.

All 50 states now have petitions in the queue. Maybe we're taking the wrong approach. Maybe we should be petitioning to throw D.C. out and keep the rest of the union.

Layers Of Editorial Scrutiny

Sometimes fail if you're in a hurry to get something published. D'wife was watching the TV news last night when a picture of P. Broadwell's book was put up. She was sure she was hallucinating or misreading as no one in their right mind would put such a title on a book, but:

Re-affirms my faith in the MSM with its multiple layers of highly paid editors.

7NEWS sincerely apologizes for a mistake that we aired in our broadcast Monday, a mistake that has gone viral on the internet. ... We are following up internally as well to avoid a repeat of this inexcusable oversight," Harris said.

"following up internally" means you are VERY happy that you are NOT the eventual scapegoat.

Advice From A Frenchman

The Dissident Frogman has an essay in which he analyzes the current state of the American political landscape and offers some warnings. It's worth the read, so click on over.

Look at the French Right. See it? Look harder, as it is now very difficult to distinguish from the Left. Back in 1981, when the French elected their first officially Socialist president in a long time, and the French Right went on a losing streak, collapsing at the polls under what was then dubbed la vague rose ("the pink wave". Rose in French meaning both the color pink and the rose flower, emblem of the French Socialists) they figured, quite cynically, that they had to give the voters whatever they demanded—and moved left. They are now only nominatively Right wing, yet are consistently chided and scorned by the French press as right-wingers, ultra conservative and free market fundamentalists.

In other words, the French "Right" is now always wrong, and only has herself to blame.

Sound familiar? Lose an election and react by becoming more like the people you lost to, tacitly endorsing their thinking. There is no Conservative party any more, just the Democrats and the Dem Lites.

QOTD

Joke of the day too:

Ben Bernanke walks into a restaurant and orders a pizza. The waiter asks him if he'd like his pizza sliced into 6 slices or 8. Bernanke replies "8 slices please. I'm really hungry".

Anyone who doesn't get it flunks Econ 101.

From the comments here.

Back To Nature

Something fairly small and industrious has dug a passage under my fence and under 2 cinder blocks to get into the old fox den under my back porch. There is enough wildlife running about in this neighborhood to make me think one of those wildlife cameras might find semi-regular use on the back porch.

Whatever it is, it picked a good time as it's too cold for me to do much about it, and I'd hate to start digging and find out it's a skunk although there seems to be no odor.

Another Political Test

This one put out by the PEW research group so it's a pretty good bet that Ted
Kennedy would be considered middle-of-the-road on this one. There were 3 areas (two actually) Fiscal, social, and combined. For combined I got:

With a pointer just shy of the right end in the "very conservative" area.  Fiscally I got an arrow at the extreme right end.

Daddy Warbucks couldn't have done any better. Socially I scored just to the right of the moderate republican.

Keeping in mind that a moderate republican, according to Pew would be Arlen Specter. Averaging the fiscal and social would put me almost spot on the "average republican, which is probably equivalent to the average Neanderthal in Pew's eyes. They seem to weight the fiscal part about 3 or 4 times the social part. I guess if I'm not willing to waste other peoples money freely, it puts me beyond the pale.

Update: Added link to test. Sorry.

Never Surrender! Never Give Up!

O.K. so it works both ways. Sen Dianne Feinstein is preparing an assault weapons bill which will likely be introduced in the lame duck congress that goes even further than the last one.

This same “pretty good intelligence” says the items that would lead to a ban would ban pistol grips and “high-capacity” magazines, eliminate any grandfathering and ban sales of “weapons in possession”.
The law “would essentially ban thousands of firearms and require gun owners to turn them over to the Federal government” Slavo writes.

The exact wording is as yet unavailable. One assumes that all the features that cause otherwise inanimate objects to go on killing sprees like bayonet lugs and a do-hicky on the end of the barrel would be included in the description.

Requiring a turn-in is a new feature first tested in California where owners of AK pattern rifles were told to register their guns, and when they did, were then told to turn them in.

Feinstein became a minor celebrity among gunnies when her bill limiting semi-autos to 10 round magazines resulted in the development of the so-called pocket-rocket group of easily concealable 9mm pistols.

I for one do not expect this to pass. Gun control is a third-rail issue that most Dems are reluctant to even bring up. Offering such a bill allows for a kabuki theater vote in which Dems in  reddish districts can vote against to improve their chances with otherwise squishy Republican voters, and Dems in safe districts can vote for to cement their credentials with the extreme left. The vote count will be carefully tabulated beforehand as to assure the bills narrow defeat.

Meantime there's the president's rapidly improving dexterity with executive orders and compliant agency heads. The congress is rapidly becoming nothing more than a cigar and finger pointing society and superfluous to the actual passage of law.

QOTD and More

Political freedom requires economic freedom, taught us Milton Friedman. You don't have the latter, don't expect the former.

This gem from the Grumpy Economist who has a quick summary of some of the regulations coming our way. My favorite is from the administration's hit men, the EPA who are proposing a regulation on "Agricultural Methane". Yup cow farts.

Best solution is to do like the oil industry does and flare it off.

 Then there's the end of the energy industry and tighter regs on fugitive farm dust.

Around here if you're a farmer and you want a government subsidy for not growing anything, you have to disc your fields to prove that you're not. Otherwise it counts as pasture and you don't get paid. Last summer I can remember two days when it rained. Disk plus no rain = dust. Probably a big fine for that. You need to submit a plan to remediate the dust. I suggest hiring that fake Indian from Massachusetts to come out and do a rain dance.

RTWT. It's fascinating what can be done without a pesky congress full of partisan bickering.

Miscellany

Grab bag of what's going on.

The Dow is down 440 pts over the last 2 days, but I suppose the smaller loss today suggests a limit to the garment rending on the market floor. Idle question: Why is the NYSE still in NY? If they moved to Dallas say, they'd have no personal income tax, lower overall taxes, could still operate on EST, saving their employees time and aggravation getting to and from work, and wouldn't have to put up with the mayors and governors of New York.

True Blue Sam has the latest postal match, shooting bottles without the bother of cleaning up the glass. Guess I need to get a sling on the Nylon 66. Results of the last one still haven't been posted at Traction Control, which is probably just as well considering how I shot.

Blogger Fest is still on for tomorrow night. Go here for details.

Harry's Roamers Turkey Run is still on for Saturday, and just in time the weather is changing from sunny and mild to rain mixed with snow. This may well be the first one I don't do in a motorcycle.

Friday:  Partly cloudy, breezy and mild.  Morning lows are forecast to be from 34 to 39 degrees, afternoon highs from 62 to 67 degrees.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy with rain and snow showers possible during the morning and early afternoon.  During the evening snow will develop. Morning lows from 35 to 40 degrees. Afternoon highs 42 to 47 degrees.

Update: Re: Postal match. I missed the results when they came out. It seems I shot better than I thought. Also several really good shooters weren't there.

The Morning After

So I can't call elections. So sue me, I'll find another line of work.

Interestingly Obama drew nearly 10M fewer votes this time than he did in '08. Romney however managed to draw about 2M fewer votes than McCain did, 57M v 59M. This big a falloff in turnout suggests that a lot of people wanted "none of the above". When offered a choice between big government nannyism and big government nannyism, the voters chose big government nannyism. Like there was an alternative.

So it's time for the Republican party to go the way of the Whigs, or maybe it's time for the Whigs to point out that the Republicans have outlived their usefulness and stage a comeback. Or maybe it's time for the Tea Party to come out of the closet as it were.

Election Day

Not only do I live in a battleground state, I live in one of two critical counties in that battleground state.

The lines are long as is the wait.

Gun Stuff - Hi Point

Beemiller is pleased to announce that they are now the nations #12 firearms manufacturer.

Click to enlarge or if that doesn't work, follow the link and click to enlarge. They are right behind Kel-Tec, and don't make shotguns. Perhaps they could take advantage of the anti-gun political maneuvering to keep Saiga shotguns out of the country by picking up a license to make the magazine-fed guns here.

Speaking of Hi-Point, I've got a new sight mount installed on my 4095 carbine which is delivering one-ragged-hole groups at 25 yards. Yes, I know, with a bullet that big, you can get one ragged hole with a wrist rocket at that distance. Sure you can. Out of the box the gun shoots about 6 MOA. I'm looking at half that, maybe less. What this means is that if you're shooting prairie dogs at 200 yards, the little varmints have about a 50% chance.

Testing is in progress. Film, as they used to say, at 11.

Scorched Earth

In spite of the brave front everyone on the hustings is putting up, some folks in Washington are thinking they may not be employed much past January 22 and are planning a scorched earth retreat.

More than 50 EPA staff are now crashing to finish greenhouse gas emission standards that would essentially ban all construction of new coal-fired power plants. Never before have so many EPA resources been devoted to a single regulation.

Agency regulations are issued by the likes of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker behind desks in Washington. They owe their jobs to the man in the White House and know what to do to keep the gravy flowing.

Their regulations have the weight of statute law only without the bother of things like debate and voting as the congress knowing that they know nothing about the topics, abdicated their responsibility to the agency's. To undo anything an agency dictates, the congress would have to pass nullifying legislation and the president sign it. This means overcoming any filibuster threats by Senators who see an opportunity to bring home big pork in exchange for their votes. Remember the "Cornhusker Kickback" and the "Louisiana Purchase" that helped buy Obamacare.

Look for more such shenanigans to pop up between Nov 6 and Jan 22 if Obama loses. Of course if he wins, look for the same thing over a longer time frame.

Poll Disclaimers

Drudge is showing 3 polls, one of which has Obie winning by 3. The others show R by 1-2. So I followed the link:

The 50-47 percent difference is not statistically significant at the customary confidence levels used in survey research. But it’s likelier than not to reflect a slight Obama advantage, given this survey’s models of who’s most apt to vote.

Translation: This poll was conducted in such a way as to show Obama winning and is otherwise not to be trusted.

Well O.K. then.

The Future Of Medicine - Female Viagra

A drug described as "female Viagra" is entering clinical tests in Austrailia and Canada.

The drug called Tefina is a testosterone gel that is absorbed into the body through the nose, and is claimed to boost female sexual arousal and satisfaction.

It is said to be effective some 30% of the time. I imagine it will work better when used in conjunction with candles and reservations.

Polling Colorado

My partner at the gun show table lives in Denver, near the Denver University campus. Deep blue country. Last election he said he saw nothing in his neighborhood but Obama yard signs. This election they're all but extinct, replaced by Romney signs.

One, he noted was adjoining a sign for Diana DeGette, the liberal's liberal.

If you've lost the DeGette blissninny vote, you've lost. Period.

In other news, Romney sold out Fiddlers Green, cap 18,000, while "Slow Joe" Biden's appearance at my old High School netted him a photo op with a single row of faculty behind him as no one else seems to have shown up.

Domestic Benghazi?

Drudge has such a way of aggregating the news:

Drivers Waiting 6 Hours For Gas in NYC...
Tempers Rise in Wake of Storm...
'Finding bodies left and right'...
Restaurant, hotel prices skyrocket...
CHUCK SCHUMER CONFRONTED: 'We Are Gonna Die!'
CRAIGSLIST: $15 a gallon...
Utility workers pelted with eggs...
Misery...
'We have nothing'...
Residents Furious RED CROSS Offering Cookies & Hot Chocolate, Not Blankets Or Clothes...
Jet Fuel Supply Fast Becoming Concern At Airports...
Staten Islanders Plead for Help: 'We Need Food'...
'Please don't leave us'...
VIDEO: Stranded New Yorkers Defecating in Apartment Buildings...
DIRE...
NJ counties enact 70s style gas rationing... Developing...

Bloomberg was forced to cancel the New York Marathon. Now instead of 2 big generators for the marathon and one backup, he has 3 big generators and no idea what to do with them. And for you New Yorkies, to quote the guy in Blazing Saddles; "You're on your own, son."

Gun Sales Spike

It is by now something of a truism that gun sales spike in advance of elections. Here's a graph of gun sales from 91 through present from infowars:

For anyone who missed them there was an election in 92 in which a gun grabbing Democrat got elected and tried to nationalize the U.S. health care industry. Result: minor bump. In 94 he managed to get the AWB passed. At the end of 92, the Dems got their heads handed to them and gun sales followed hunting seasons until 1995. in 95, Eric Holder, a minor political hack from Chicage called for brainwashing people against the use of guns. I'm obviously missing some big event in 95.

The gun grabber was re elected in 96 to a big yawn from the public since Republican control of the congress acted as a buffer. In 2000 an alleged Republican was elected and the bursting tech bubble was news. Even 9/11 did little to spur gun sales, but look what happened when the Dems took over the house and Senate in 2006 and the whole government in 2008.

Note to new gun buyers: Unless you bought your gun from your buddy, the feds have a record of your purchase which can and will be used to track down and confiscate that brand new gat you just bought. Yes, I know the background check isn't supposed to be kept by the feds, but it is required to be kept by the dealer and turned over to the feds on request.

My theory is that once people noticed how well Florida's CCW law was working out, owning a gun looked a lot better than relying on calling the cops, at least in the opening minutes of the drama.

Food For Thought

Here are some dinner menus, depending on who and where you are:

Things are looking up. Alpo is upscale food.

Found at Power Line along with several other pithy images.

Happy November!

Kicking off the month, the management at work has re-arranged the deck chairs one more time and this time it's me whose left without one. And only 3 months away from retirement.

My thoroughly un-detailed plan at this point is to go on unemployment for 3 months, then retire.

Of course there is the possibility that something low key and part time will pop up, you never know. Mean time there's the $50/week I won't be spending on gas.