ANDREW KLAVAN: It's because he's black. Klavan's post leads to an interesting question: Would you rather be opposed because you're black or because you're an idiot?

SATELLITE spots Lockheed Martin mystery drone.

IT'S THE SYSTEMS ENGINEERING 80/20 RULE: 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Read Augustine's Laws for more.

SO MAYBE THE BUYERS DON'T WANT THEIR NEW SNEAKERS STOLEN? Adidas blasted over new 'shackle' sneaker.

ASK GOOGLE how racist we are. If this is an example of a Harvard doctoral dissertation, America is in deep doo-doo. Just cataloging the errors, false assumptions, and strawman arguments would take a week to do (not to mention that this is an economics dissertation).

AMERICA’S TAX REFUGEES: citizens flee states with big government. The migration map referred to is here; pick a state, a start date and an end date, and you can find out how many people and how much income moved to and from that state, from and to every other state, in the time period you've chosen.

I chose to look at the net migration data for the years 2000-2009; then for 2001 (President Bush's first year in office) and finally 2009 (President Obama's first year in office). Over the 10-year period 2000-2009, the top ten states in out-migration were, in order, New York, California, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Louisana, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Total out-migration was 2,173,604 households. All but Louisana (solid Republican) and Ohio (tossup) were designated as solid Democrat on the Washington Post's electoral prediction map.

The top ten states in in-migration were Florida, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Washington. Total in-migration was 2,090,493 households. Of the top in-migration states, 5 were designated as solid Republican, one was solid Democrat, and the remaining 4 were designated as tossups.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the net migration data for each President's first year in office (there is only Obama's first year data available).

During Bush's first term, Connecticut and Louisana were replaced by Iowa (tossup) and Indiana (red) in the out-migration data. Virginia (tossup), Oregon (blue), and Maryland (blue) replaced South Carolina, Washington, and Tennessee in the top ten for net in-migration.

During Obama's first term, Minnesota (blue), Wisconsin (tossup), and Indiana (red) moved into the top ten for out-migration, replacing Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Louisana (which moved from a top ten out migration state to a top ten in-migration state). Oklahoma (red), Virginia (tossup), and Louisana (red) moved into the top ten for in-migration.

The single most interesting point is that the migration pattern appears to be largely independent of the President/administration. At least 7 of the top ten in both in-migration and out-migration didn't change with respect to who was in office (there is obviously more data from the Bush presidency than from the Obama presidency). The migration pattern appears to be most strongly influenced by state rather than federal government: blue states to red or tossup states.

Here's the electoral map I used courtesy of the Washington Post (assuming it will load correctly for you; it randomly chooses to do me evil....).

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Democrats are the ‘Big Tent’. “We’re tolerant and respectful of a diverse point of view."

Just as long as you don't express it.

THE WASHINGTON POST'S E.J. Dionne proposes a new obama campaign slogan: Keep the change.

MADNESS: the media's moral morass.

SMART: West Virginia Democrats distance themselves from Obama by skipping national convention.

WHY OWN A BMW when you can have a Zombie Survival Machine?

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: How much is ‘enough’? President Obama has long been a proponent of 'fairness' ("I do think at a certain point you've made enough money.") so I ask what are the limits to 'fairness'? Is fairness strictly limited to earnings? Or does it extend to wealth?

Is is fair that I own a 4-bedroom house when it's occupied by only my wife and
myself? Or should the government step in and require that I move to a one-bedroom apartment?

Is it 'fair' that I own over an acre of land where my house is located? Or should my property be broken up into 1/4 acre (or smaller) parcels and given to others?

Is it 'fair' for me to have two cars when there are only two of us? Or should we be forced to give up one car to someone else who is needier?

Is it 'fair' for me to take Social Security when I could live on my retirement income? Or should I be forced out of a system I've paid into for over 40 years?

Is it 'fair' for me to be on Medicare when I could afford private insurance (assuming, of course that Obama would let an insurance company sell me a high-limit health insurance policy)? Or should the government force me into Medicaid?

Is it 'fair' for me to bequeath my estate to my children and grandchildren? Or should the government tax it all away for the benefit of others?

Obama's vision of 'fairness' is a zero-sum game: a nation of equal poverty (except for the government overseers, of course).

SINCE WHEN has citizen 'happiness' been a part of the Constitution?

MASSACHUSETTS SENATE: Sen. Scott Brown has agreed to debate Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, but only if it is not on MSNBC. Looking good, MSNBC, looking good.

SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT: Buy now, buy used.

BLUE MARBLE 2012: The Arctic Edition.

THERE'S NOTHING like a brand-new 'shiny object' to distract from the 2012 presidential election. An older news report, complete with an X-Files-like video, is here.

A GOP bait-and-switch on campaign finance disclosure? I too have been a member of the full disclosure camp -- until I saw this year the liberal/progressive willingness to use disclosure to threaten donors. Now -- as much as I don't like the idea -- I'm moving toward the anonymity camp as long as amounts are fully disclosed.

THIS KIND OF NONSENSE would go away very quickly if the council members had to pay for the study out of their own pockets.

WHAT? Me worry? Skim the comments -- some people simply can not take a joke.

10,000 POSTS: This was my first post, on August 4, 2006, as I prepared for my first tour at Camp Victory in Bagdhad, Iraq. At that time the weblog was meant to be my method of communicating with my family from Iraq. Little did I know how much it would evolve over the last (nearly) six years.

Little else has changed, however. Six years later, Daisy is still webmistress, Shadow is still keeping the socks from sneaking out of the sock drawer, and Diamond has joined the team as the 'snack mistress'.