TIME FLIES: From five years ago this month.

THE OWL & THE CAT:



For your viewing enjoyment.

WOW: Total number of ObamaCare website enrollments on launch day was ... six people.

At that enrollment rate, they'll reach 1 million enrollees in only 456 years and 7 months.

OBAMA'S PROMISE: If you I like your plan, you can keep it.

HAPPY [HEALTHCARE] HALLOWEEN:

"IF YOU LIKE YOUR HEALTH-CARE PLAN, you can keep your healthcare plan. Period” . . . unless it’s 'inadequate'.

HOW THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION made sure you cannot keep your health 'insurance' plan.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. I think Investors Business Daily cartoonist Michael Ramirez was the first to recognize that President Obama has nothing between his ears.

HAPPY (DEMOCRAT) HALLOWEEN:

THE OTHER FALLOUT FROM FUKUSHIMA: Carbon emissions rise as nuclear plants are shuttered. The Greenies can't win....

POWERLINE: ObamaCare has made cheap affordable health insurance illegal.

DO YOU KNOW what developers call a website that takes three-and-a-half years to create? A failure.

OBAMA IN THIRD GRADE:

STICKER SHOCK: Insurers backing out of the ObamaCare exchange markets. And by reducing competition, in 2015 the shock will be worse.

OBAMACARE'S 'RATE SHOCK': You’ll pay more for less, and you’ll like it!

MOVIN' ON: New York-based American Tactical Imports moves to South Carolina.

OBAMACARE: the big thinkers forgot to bring in the big doers. That's the problem with progressives generally; the thought is taken for the deed. Action not required.

THE NEW MEANING of 'trick or treat'.

A MORALITY PLAY: The Arithmetic Absurdity of ObamaCare. And I'm like George, who only wants the "$2 life insurance policy he had before Mayor Barry was elected, but he can’t get that any more."

KRAUTHAMMER AGREES: I've long said that the 'reality-based community' lives in an altrnate world where the thought is taken for the deed. Here's Charles Krauthammer saying exactly the same thing about President Obama.

REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D-NY) falsely claims no Republicans voted for Social Security. Rangel is the archetype for a ZIP (zero-information politician).

OBAMA IS breaking his ‘if you like your healthcare you can keep it’ promise because he wants to.

PRUDEN ON POLITICS: It’s not arrogance, just stupidity. It's one thing to be arrogant, another to be stupid, but to be both arrogant and stupid takes an unpreceded degree of chutzpah.

I'm reminded of the Ford Focus 'and is better' commercial that's been airing on television recently. In Obama's case, 'and' is worse -- much, much worse.

SHOCKED! Shocked, I say. How can this be? I read your script for you.

LEED CERTIFICATION doesn't guarantee a 'green building.' In fact, the way to bet is just the opposite.

IS THE NSA eavesdropping on President Obama? Personally, I would suspect the opposite....

YEAH, RIGHT: Obama was unaware of spying on foreign leaders.

ROMNEY: Don't drag me into your ObamaCare mess.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: America's 'other' health-care revolution. American individualism and ingenuity at work.

IEEE SPECTRUM: Information technology woes. Let's see: there's ObamaCare (obviously), but also various state government systems, Microsoft's Windows 8.1 (my bane), Facebook, Nissan, and many others.

More glitches: spiders in Toyotas, easyJet reservations, and unemployment in Florida.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Is Obama still President?

Three considerations are keeping the U.S. afloat without an active president. First, many working Americans have tuned the president out and simply go on about their business despite rather than because of this administration. If gas and oil leases have been curtailed on federal lands, there is record production on private land. Farmers are producing huge harvests and receiving historically high prices. Wall Street welcomes in capital that can find no return elsewhere. American universities’ science departments and professional schools still rate among the world’s best. There is as yet no French or Chinese Silicon Valley. In other words, after five years of stagnation, half the public more or less ignores the Obama administration and plods on.

In name only. Obama is the Virtual President of the 'reality-based community' where the thought is taken for the deed.

MITT ROMNEY has an adopted grandchild — and the left erupts with venom. The grandchild is, uh ... not white.

IT'S ALIVE! Orion capsule powered up for first time.

ALAN GRAYSON IS AN IDIOT: Some thoughts about lunatics.

OBAMA: "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." Uh,huh. At the cost of an extra $3,600/year, as my doctor is moving to a concierge plan in 2014 as a result of ObamaCare. Luckily(?) I can keep my (employer-sponsored) health plan for another six months or so.

ASTRONAUT CHRIS HADFIELD on space exploration.

YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HEALTH PLAN -- if Obama likes it.

[T]his paternalistic mindset ... can also explain why the Obama administration was so willing to mislead on Obamacare: If people don’t know what’s best for them, there’s no reason to deal with them honestly.

It's about control; it's always about control.

BRYAN PRESTON: Five things we learned from today's ObamaCare hearing. Based on Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) security-related comments, you'd have to be either a fool or desperate to use the ObamaCare website.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S campaign group polling supporters on ObamaCare. Somehow I doubt the poll results will be made public....

OFFICER'S RENDITION of 'God Bless America' wows World Series.

Jeez ... more proof, if any is needed, that the media is desperately in need of people who are at least somewhat familiar with the military. As anyone can easily the gentleman is an enlisted Navy petty officer first class (which they got right in the interview segment).

That said, however, he is a great singer, and congratulations to Fox News channel for having him on the air.

A HALLOWEEN COSTUME the Left can embrace.

DREAM CHASER: Mission accomplished despite crash landing.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: If you follow the news even intermittently, you've been bombarded with the statement that 'healthcare constitutes one sixth of the U.S. economy.

Here's a question: Why does 'healthcare' take 1/6 of the economy? The answer, unless you're stupid or a Democrat, is obvious: regulation. But the answer only begs a larger question: What are the dollar costs of all the rules and regulations? What are the dollar benefits (savings) associated with the regulations. And are the benefits worth the costs?

I have yet to see any substantive discussion of the cost of government regulation -- especially the cost of overreacting to regulation (e.g., zero tolerance policies in schools).

HEALTH HAS COSTS: Gluten-free foods that make you gain weight.

I AM ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENT in my utter lack of confidence in your overabundance of confidence.

VALERIE JARRETT: Obamacare doesn’t force you off your plan; your insurance company does ... by complying with Obamacare!

GRETA: Witching hour for politicians' staff. It will be very interesting to find out what Obama's greatest supporter will decide for his staff....

ABSOLUTE ASSHOLE: So, Tom, tell us what you really think.

"FORGET 'HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS'. For those you have to do something and be conscious. Barack Obama should be impeached for cluelessness."

SPECIAL DELIVERY.

BIG GOVERNMENT, big failure: "[I]t remains indisputable that the federal government isn't very good at delivering on big projects. The obvious response is to not entrust the federal government with big projects on which it can't deliver. Instead, they should be left to those who can."

HEH: Year of the unemployed woman.

SAD GAS: What's causing your digestive discomfort?

I blame ObamaCare....

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: Problems with President’s Health Care Law Go Far Beyond the Website.

HUGE SECURITY HOLE found in Healthcare.gov. Based on this report, no one should attempt to log on to this website.

TECH TOPICS: A new way to detect accidental falls in the home. Potentially a boon for the elderly.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Checking the mail, I just received another batch of mailers from the Democratic Party of Virginia slamming all the Republican candidates as being 'anti-woman', wanting to keep them barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

Truth be told, the Democrats here are not pro-woman, or even pro-feminist; they're pro-female slavery. To be kept on the plantation as sex objects for misogynists. Shameful.

OBAMACARE SIDE EFFECTS: Top Democrat says law needed to be 'more precise'.

The admission from House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer comes after a 2010 document emerged that predicted millions might be dropped by their providers.

The document helped explain why thousands are already getting cancellation notices and being guided toward new plans. It also gave new meaning to Nancy Pelosi's infamous remark, shortly before the complex legislation was approved in March 2010, that "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

Do tell. If Americans had known what was in it, it never would have passed to begin with.

UPDATE from Instapundit: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.

IMAGINE THAT, a Washington professional politician claiming one thing all the while knowing that virtually the exact opposite was the truth: Obama knew three years ago millions would lose healthcare coverage.

Shit happens, even (especially?) in the land of unicorns and rainbows.

BOEING 747-8 performs ultimate rejected takeoff (video). What's amazing about the video is that you can only tell it's a worst-case test by the smoke and fire trucks at the end of the video. Otherwise the aircraft looks perfectly normal, tracking straight and true down the runway.

NOPE, IT'S GUN OWNERS: Is The Obama Administration The Cause Of Gun Ammunition Shortages?

I'm sure part of it is stockpiling by gun owners worried about gun control legislation.

MORNING EXAMINER: Why work when you can live comfortably on the government dole?

'FRACTIVISTS' caught in flood of Colorado lies. But then ... shit is way-in-the-distant-future oil.

THAT HIGH, EH?

CAVEAT EMPTOR: "Ratings intended to give shoppers an ability to compare [ObamaCare] insurance plans are not being posted by most state and federal officials, despite being required as part of the president's signature health care plan.

I don't think the Obama administration dares publish the ratings lest the applicants find out how poorly they compare relative to the private options they used to have.

DANA PERINO has some sound advice for Republicans in advance of the Energy and Commerce committee hearings with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday.

ATTACKERS IN MEXICO blow up nine electrical plants. Not terrorists or environmentalists, just plain-old-ordinary drug thugs.

THE TAX-AND-SPEND-OTHER-PEOPLES-MONEY PARTY is still the tax-and-spend-other-peoples-money party.

OREGON SCHOOLS TO TEACHERS: Carry guns if you want. In deep-blue Oregon? What are they thinking?

OBAMACARE MAKES LIFE HELL FOR COLLEGE PROFESSORS. A more deserving group of individuals I cannot imagine.

Note: apologies for the Star Wars allusion.

THEY'RE SMARTER THAN I THOUGHT: Budget cuts, furloughs have many young federal employers considering private sector.

A REASON TO FEAR DEATH:

FECUNDOPHOBIA: The Growing Fear Of Children And Fertile Women.

ALMA finds the coldest known spot in the universe. I'm surprised; I thought it was on the tip of the ObamaCare iceberg.

GLENN REYNOLDS: Technology could save us from ObamaCare. It's a pleasant thought, but I rather suspect it'll be denied to the 'little people' except under direct supervision of ObamaCare-istas.

NEWT GINGRICH ON 'BREAKOUT': A Strategy for Winning and Governing for 2013-2017. While I can't agee totally with Gingrich's proposals, the Republicans would be wise to pay close attention to his proposals and at least begin to move in that direction.

YET ANOTHER 'Hitler finds out about ObamaCare' video.

“ANTIBULLYING” IS A CROCK.

NEVER LET A CRISIS GO TO WASTE: Obama raising money off HealthCare.gov problems. Campaigning is sooo much easier than solving problems....

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane on Medicare insurance and ObamaCare's essential benefits: ObamaCare requires health plans offer a comprehensive package of items and services, known as "essential health benefits." to include at least the following:

Ambulatory patient services
Emergency services
Hospitalization
Maternity and newborn care
Mental health and substance use disorder services
Prescription drugs
Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
Laboratory services
Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
Pediatric services

So ... am I to assume that Medicare, an 'insurance' program limited to seniors 65 years and over, is required to offer maternity and pediatric care?

NEW YORK TIMES: A quiet trip to the ozone hole. It strikes me as more akin to a very expensive coffin built for two.

OBAMACARE'S LAUNCH: It's just a glitch.

THE TAX BOX: Coming soon to your car. Remember, it's not about infrastructure, or even taxes. It's about control, moving you to an urban high rise subject to the latest progressive whim.

It's always about control.

HOUSE SESSION to fade away. The bright side is that without the House in session, there can be little more damage to be done to the American economy. This session, anyway.

LIES OF OBAMACARE: New Hampshire edition.

So it looks like our government has managed to introduce the same approach to healthcare that the very same folks introduced to higher education; if you make too much, you’ll pay for your healthcare and while you’re at it, pay for a voter of mine while you’re at it.

Linked from PowerLine.

UH, RIGHT: George Wallace was a Republican, and Herbert Hoover was Director of the FBI. You can trust those layers of editors and fact-checkers in the lame mainstream media to get things right every time.

"UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER tells students to avoid costumes including cowboys, indians, white trash or anything potentially deemed offensive." Does that mean I can't drive my truck to a Halloween party and go as myself?

NOW YOU SEE HER, now you don't.

She's probably been put in the Witless Witness Protection Program.

A HISTORY LESSON about your Social Security: just in case some of you young whippersnappers (and some older ones) didn't know this.

Social Security cards up until the 1980s expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the message 'NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION' written on the card was removed.

I still have my old Social Security card with the "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" message written on the face of the card.

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary.

Not any more.

2) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the Program.

It's now 6.2% [excluding Medicare] on the first $113,700 of income, with your employer contributing an equal amount.

3) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year.

Not any more.

4) That the money the participants put in went to the Independent 'Trust Fund' rather than into the General Operating Fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program.

Under President Lyndon Johnson the money was moved to the General Fund and spent.

5) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income.

Under Clinton & Gore up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed. If you have any income beyond Social Security, it probably being at least partially taxed.

Some Frequently [Un]asked Questions:

Q: Which political party took Social Security from the Independent 'Trust Fund' and put it into the General Fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the Democratically controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which political party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which political party started taxing Social Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party with Al Gore casting the 'tie-breaking' deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.

Q: Which political party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?

A: Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Even if they never paid FICA (Social Security) taxes.

Now the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away. And the worst part about it is that uninformed citizens believe it.

From my email.

I WAS ALL FOR OBAMACARE until I found out I was paying for it. Click through to the Los Angeles Times article, and be sure to read Instapundit's commenters.

DURING THE NATIONALLY TELEVISED GAME YESTERDAY, Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers made a gun with his thumb and forefinger and pointed it at the Minnesota Vikings after scoring a touchdown. It was a good thing he's isn't a high school quarterback; he would have probably been suspended, arrested, and charged with bullying....

[Update] Oh, and sued....

WHAT IF the healthcare.gov 'tech surge' is a PR illusion?

IF AL GORE SPEAKS IN THE FOREST and no one hears him, does Al Gore exist?

ANOTHER PEEK inside the 'reality- based challenged-community'.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: a continuing failure.

OBAMA THE AVATAR: in the Progressives' reality-based community. Just not in the world in which we live.

FIVE THINGS WE DIDN'T LEARN from ObamaCare's first 'operational update'.

And one thing we did learn: the most transparent administration ever still isn't.

ERIC HOLDER'S DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: "They're not your kids."

SCRATCH A BIGOT and see what's underneath: Anti-Redskins campaigner runs abusive [Oneida] tribal government.

Related item here.

THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION has weighed in on Obama's new health care package:

The Allergists were in favor of scratching it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.

Meanwhile, Obstetricians felt certain everyone was laboring under a misconception, while the Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.

Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the Pediatricians said, "Oh, grow up!"

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.

Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing and the Internists claimed it would indeed be a bitter pill to swallow.

The Plastic Surgeons opined that this proposal would "put a whole new face on the matter."

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.

Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and those lofty Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes in Washington ...

From my email.

AUTUMN LEAVES III: here's today's look at the leaf fall. We're not seeing the color changes we expected this year, given the amount of rain we had, but the leaves are starting to come down fast and furious. There will be several hours of leaf blowing for this afternoon and tomorrow.

Last week's photo is here.

LIES OF OBAMACARE: The Book of Ezekiel. My wife and I watched the episode last night (well, she did; I got disgusted and left after a minute or so). How Megyn Kelly kept her cool is beyond me.

The arrogance of Exekiel Emanuel is astounding. I was strongly reminded of the Spanish Inquisition. Emanuel's attitude was that of an inquisitor: "We're going to save your soul (keep you healthy) if we have to kill you to do it."

UNFORTUNATELY, this time he's probably right.

CHARLES HURT: Ineptness of Obama leaves America staggering.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Democratic Disasters to Come.

In contrast ... there are all sorts of conservative opportunities that focus on the welfare of the middle class. Take the 2012 stalled farm bill. It is a gift to agribusinesses (at a time of record high commodity prices, no less) not small farmers, to the degree there are any left of the latter, and should be opposed as corporate welfare. More gas and oil drilling on federal lands is also a naturally winning issue. Fracking and horizontal drilling will help lower energy and fuel costs for the public and offers the quickest way to provide more good jobs. Luring energy-intensive industries back to the U.S. should also be a conservative cause.

But will the (non-Tea Party) Republican establishment learn?

AS A DEMOCRAT.

HEH: Biggus Dickus.

FIRST RATE PEOPLE hire first rate people. Second rate people hire third rate people. Obama hires ... sycophants and 'yes men'.

YES, let's punish Iran.

A BRIEF HISTORY of railroad track signaling. Be sure to read the comments as well.

JEFF JACOBY: JFK was a closet Republican.

HEALTHCARE.GOV LIES TO CUSTOMERS about their insurance premiums. In my earlier post, I gave some estimates of what an ObamaCare policy would cost relative to my current insurance. Anyone want to bet that those numbers were low-balled?

THE REPUBLICAN 'ESTABLISHMENT' is taking aim at Sen. Mike Lee. If they do, they'll soon find out they've bitten off much more than they can chew.

NOW AVAILABLE: prices for every insurance plan offered on Healthcare.gov. Download it now before it goes away.

I've just had time for a brief glimpse, but my best guess is a 15% decrease to a 20% increase for individual plans that (from the data available) clearly appear to be inferior to my wife's current employer-sponsored PPO plan. There are only 4 such plans to choose from, all from the same insurer. All the remaining plans are HMO plans.

NOTE: the percent rate changes I've quoted above assume the employer contribution; if the rate change were based solely on employee contributions, the rate increase would be on the order of 115%-200%.

CHRIS STIREWALT: Why the ObamaCare Crash is so Embarrassing for Liberals.

A belief in science and technology is as central to liberalism as spiritual faith is on the right. That’s not to say that there aren’t lots of religious liberals, but just that the devotion to “progress” is the central aim of the political movement for more than a century.

How crushing, then, that the most liberal president of all time would oversee the most notable technological failure by the federal government, perhaps ever.

Liberals' faith in technology is astonishingly naive. In their Star Trek 'reality world', to imagine a technology is to create it.

IT'S NOT OBAMACARE; it's now SebeliusCare.

POWERLINE: Have Barack Obama and Eric Holder Caused an Increase in Mass Murder? The answer, I suspect, is 'yes', if only as a result of their frenzied -- amd irrational -- support of gun control legislation.

SENATE DEMOCRAT: On Second Thought, Let’s Delay Obamacare’s Enrollment Deadline. It's now time for the Republicans to say "No, you voted against it when we proposed it; now it's time for you to own it."

DEMOCRAT BLAMES PRIVATE SECTOR for ObamaCare’s wretched rollout. Henry Waxman illustrates the need to elect more retarded intellectually disabled people to Congress. They could earn a good living and likely do less damage.

HEH: New, improved ObamaCare now available on 35 floppy discs.

GOOD NEWS: Under ObamaCare, you don't have to pay the penalty if you can't afford to buy the insurance.

ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS: Buy Washington Post econo-blogger Ezra Klein a clue.

THE OBAMACARE WEB SITE is now up and running. Try it; you'll love the improved user interface.

YEAH, RIGHT. Death panels are a good thing. Unless you're the patient.

SOME SAY ObamaCare was the creation of Marxists. It was: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo.

With apologies to the Marx brothers: they were comedians.

THE NEW YORK TIMES' PAUL KRUGMAN gets soundly beaten about the head and shoulders. Bullies deserve to get beaten back.

Linked from Instapundit.

THE REALITY OF AMERICA'S FINANCES:

Linked from FreedomWorks.

ORWELLIAN: high school preaches population control to students. The phrase 'higher-order thinking skills' is just code for propaganda wrapped in a fuzzy blanket.

RAND PAUL: "[T]he American people, yet again, [get] the short end of the stick."

OBAMACARE: the 'unthinkable' is becoming thinkable.

UPDATE: not ObamaCare, VaporCare.

“I’M NOT LEAVING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY; the Republican Party is leaving me.” It's happening with me as well.

TWO DEAD, TWO INJURED in shooting at Nevada middle school. I will wager that sometime during the next year there will be another attempted school shooting; this time it will be stopped by a school employee carrying a concealed weapon in defiance of school rules.

GOOD QUESTION: "If ObamaCare needs twentysomethings to sign up in order to be a success, why did Obama support letting them stay on their parents’ insurance?"

MICHAEL BARONE: A software installer's view on the ObamaCare IT mess.

IT'D BE A HELLUVA 88TH BIRTHDAY PARTY: Newly discovered asteroid missed Earth but will try again in 2032.

TIM CARNEY: Tea Party needs to recognize that it's playing with live ammo. No, the Washington establishment (Republicans) need to recognize that the Tea Party is using live ammo; something the Democrats have been doing for years.

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? ObamaCare seeks to segregate patients, doctors by race.

A POLL I can believe in.

PAUL GREENBERG: The Shutdown Shuts Down.

POOR BABIES: Returning federal workers face horrific amount of unread emails.

MARK STEYN on Republicans and the shutdown: "Republicans spent a lot of time whining that, if Obama was prepared to negotiate with the Iranians, the Syrians, and the Russians, why wouldn’t he negotiate with the GOP? Well, the obvious answer is Rouhani, Assad, and Putin don’t curl up in a fetal position at the first tut-tut from Bob Schieffer or Diane Sawyer."

Read it all.

I'VE ALWAYS WANTED A PET TUMBLEWEED.

YOU ARE HERE: only there's no grass and no shade.

MORNING EXAMINER: Obama running the 'most control-freak' administration ever?

FRIDAY: HHS took Healthcare.gov down for repairs ... again. Some of the better comments:

I tried to get on with my ObamaPhone but the battery went dead and Obama will not send me a new one so I just pluged it into the wall scokett and blue smoke came out its a$$ sort of like Obama himself.

¡Díos Mio! ¿No hablas Ingles? Tough tittyolas, Amigos y Amigas.

When the Puffington Host is running sky-is-falling articles ... I have a little glimmer of hope. How pathetic it is to have to root for IT incompetence rather than Republican opposition.

So, it’s official: 19 days in, more people have been dumped off their insurance than have applied for, let alone ENROLLED in, Obamacare.

Best damn $600M I’ve ever spent.

Lookin' good, Obama administration. Lookin' real good.

HOMEBUILT AIRCRAFT converge to break record for largest civilian formation. At a football game, no less.

ISS ASTRONAUTS continued work during shutdown. Non-news, since a) staying alive is kind of important, and b) not all the astronauts are U.S. government employees.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES: Aftermath edition. It was a slow week, but the best one is excellent:

PJ MEDIA: ObamaCare’s Useful Idiots.

GUN BOX: your hand is the only thing that should stand between you and your weapon.

ADVENTURES IN OBAMACARE: the rollout. Megan McArdle's Bloomberg View column argues for a 'drop dead' date to delay the ObamaCare rollout, but I prefer that it be allowed (encouraged?) to die of natural causes rather than being aborted in utero.

YELLOWSTONE ANGLERS ordered to kill rainbow trout. It would be wise not to fuck with Mother Nature in the first place, something progressives (and government employees, if that's not an oxymoron) in their 'reality world' bubble consistently fail to understand.

WORLDNETDAILY: Obama 'crashing health-care site on purpose'. Newt Gingrich explains why.

[T]he administration chose to require users to register and enter lots of personal information before showing them the prices of various plans, so that consumers would only see prices after their subsidy was factored in. The administration insisted on the more complex registration system because it was afraid of the sticker shock Americans might feel if they saw the true costs of the policies.

Sticker shock, indeed.

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING: that barista gig you spent your college years preparing for may be going away.

HEH: Lincoln frees the slaves. You have to back up a few panels to fully appreciate this one. Start here and click 'next'.

AUTUMN LEAVES II: It's been a week since the first post in this series, and while the leaves are beginning to fall steadily (it took 3 hours of leaf blowing to get the yard as clean as it is), the colors have not yet begun to change.

The first post is here.

RELATED: the view from my office window.

HEH: Lincoln frees the slaves. You have to back up a few panels to fully appreciate this one. Start here.

GRAND THEFT OBAMA NATION: Red States, Younger Americans See Highest Rate Hikes from Obamacare.

BREAKING NEWS (just not in the mainstream media): Global warming is good for you.

LOS ANGELES TIMES bans letters from climate skeptics. “The religion of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW) does not tolerate non-believers.”

MORE PEOPLE HAVE APPLIED TO LIVE ON MARS than have signed up for ObamaCare so far. To be fair, though, Mars One has been accepting applications since April.

Linked from Instapundit.

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10, what is your favorite color in the alphabet?

CAN'T LET FACTS INTERFERE WITH AN OPINION: Yale professor surprised to find that Tea Partiers are scientifically literate. But "the results wouldn’t change his negative views of the Tea Party...."

DILBERT is a Republican.

THE NEW NORMAL: "The Republican Party may be frustrated by its inability to halt the growth of the welfare state. But congressional Democrats will probably soon find themselves equally frustrated by their inability to get voters to pay for it."

MORNING EXAMINER: The government shutdown ends, not with a bang but with an earmark. Or two....

"THIS MORNING, HIS MAJESTY KING BARRY THE FIRST magnanimously took some time out of his busy day to perform his most important task as King of America: condemning the common rabble who resist his will."

EVEN THE CHINESE ARE PILING ON: Chinese agency downgrades US credit rating.

OBAMANOMICS in a single cartoon panel.

DEPRESSING: Reading Among the Ruins.

HITLER learns about the ObamaCare exchanges....

HITLER learns about the ObamaCare exchanges....

AS GOOD AS IT GETS? Writing on the ObamaCare disaster, the Washington Post's Ezra Klein manages to cycle through the first three of Elisabeth Kübler Ross's five stages of grief.

I look forward to Klein entering the 4th stage, but then I hope he realizes the 5th stage isn't inevitable.

WHO KNEW? Police dogs are racist.

ANIMAL FARM REVISITED: “All healthcare is affordable, but some healthcare is more affordable than others.”

OTHER THAN THAT, the story was accurate:

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story indicated that the Berlin Wall was built by Nazi Germany. In fact, it was built by the Communists during the Cold War.

Last item in this article.

ADDED: for the reality-challenged readers of the Huffington Post, it helps to be born rich to accomplish all this before age 30.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: the problem with Democrat strongholds is that the cost of living is so high that the people living there can't afford to buy a clue.

NOW THAT THE SHUTDOWN SLOWDOWN IS OVER, who is to blame?

PROGRESSIVE BLOGGER shocked by ObamaCare rate hike for his family. He probably wonders what happened to all those millionaires and billionaires who were going to pay for his 'free stuff'.

This comment from PowerLine pretty well sums it up: "In the old days, it was said that a neoconservative was a liberal who had been mugged by reality. Today’s liberals are apparently so obtuse that they can be mugged by reality ... and not notice."

OBAMA IN WONDERLAND. The 'reality-based community' -- if they were honest -- would better describe themselves as the 'alternate-reality-based community'.

WEBSITES secretly track your device fingerprint. Here a case where the whole is the sum of its parts.

RELATED: Cyberthreats multiplying like Tribbles.

TED CRUZ RAKED IN $1 MILLION during Obamacare fight. Money implies support, and the Republican establishment should keep that carefully in mind in the days to come.

MORNING EXAMINER: Something very strange going on behind Healthcare(dot)gov.

HO-HUM: Just another shutdown slowdown casualty.

ANN COULTER: "[L]iberals ... have absolutely no morals and yet are ferociously judgmental."

WHO KNEW? Fox's Megyn Kelly is a more powerful ratings draw than MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

Some things are obvious when you live outside the 'reality-based' community.

DESERVEDLY SO: ObamaCare meltdown triggers congressional investigations.

BREAKING BAD: Obama's health care 'reform'. Lies, damned lies, and ObamaCare.

AUTONOMOUS DRONES speed-map the Matterhorn.

BYRON YORK: An alternative history of the last two months.

Points well taken, but why 'instead of' and not 'in addition to'? The Affordable Care Act is such an 'Obamanation' that it should be fought on every available front.

THE FARCE IS STRONG IN THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY: The South is holding America hostage.

I never knew that common sense was racist.

DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND the monuments are closed?

ALASKA: We can’t confirm one ObamaCare enrollee yet.

IF OBAMACARE COSTS TOO MUCH, stop working so hard.

More here.

GLENN REYNOLDS: Government? Who needs it?

Think about it -- how much has the shutdown slowdown affected you (other than having to listen to the politicos/pundits/'journalists' whining)?

ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA to hold protest against the tea party in D.C. today. Via Iowahawk, who tweets "How can you tell if it's a left protest? It happens during the work week."

I HIT THE TV'S MUTE BUTTON before he got started. The only people who consider the team name 'an insult, a slur' are the racist liberal twits who persist in bringing it up.

OBVIOUSLY A LIBERAL: When he grows up he'd like to be a governor.

THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: before and after.

HOW TO AVOID OBAMACARE and still have health insurance.

SCOTT ADAMS' secret of success: failure. If you learn from the failures.

THE REAL STORY OF THE SHUTDOWN: 50 years of GOP race-baiting. Time for a brief look inside the 'reality world' of liberal projection.

It's hard to fathom how they can survive outside their bubble, but I guess that's the point -- they can't function outside their bubble.

GOOD-ENOUGH COMPUTING: We could save energy in everything from smartphones to supercomputers by letting them make mistakes. It's a very interesting software devenopment; in my field of systems engineering, we learned very long ago that 'best' is the enemy of 'good enough'.

Perfection is not only unattainable; it is also (usually) not optimum.

KEEP IT CLASSY, SPITE HOUSE: 'Essential' government employees sent to reinstall 'Barackades' around National Mall memorials.

OBAMACARE = SLAVERY? Dr. Ben Carson thinks it's an apt analogy. So do I.

SENATE DEMOCRATS continue to block any debt ceiling compromise.

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: America is becoming more conservative, less Republican. Williamson finds that strange; I don't. As far as I'm concerned it's the Republican party that's become the Republican-in-name-only-Party.

EXCEPT FOR THE FACT that I already think Starbucks coffee tastes like used charcoal, now I have another reason to drive by the drive-thru.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEMOGRAPHICS

From Business Insider. I'd kind of like to see it broken into politicians, pundits, and the rest of us.

WISCONSIN COLLEGE 'PROFESSOR': You can't do your homework because of those mean Tea Party Republicans.

IT'S COME TO THIS: Your kids are belong to me.

ZERO-CAR FAMILIES on the rise:

"Changes in alternatives to travel, such as communication substituting for travel and renewed interest in and availability of options such as transit, bike and walk, helped dampen interest in expanding auto ownership."

Unlikely. I would bet on inner-city congestion and a declining economy.

CAN SELF-CHECKOUT MACHINES trump cashiers at the grocery store? Perhaps one day, but I doubt it will be soon. And another issue: unless the store gives me an explicit price break for scanning my stuff, why, exactly, should I be rejoicing about doing their work for them?

DAILY CALLER: the world's dumbest blog item ever. I would only add that private schools -- and home schooling -- are growing rapidly.

ANOTHER LUMP OF COAL at the end of the ObamaCare rainbow.

THIS SIGN ought to be posted on every street corner in America.

JONAH GOLDBERG: "For the first time in American history, a president confessed to deliberately hurting his country to score points against his enemies."

Read it all.

EVEN NBC acknowledges ObamaCare rollout "a complete mess".

HOW TO GET OUT OF OBAMACARE: have yourself declared dead.

MARK STEYN: Obama has King John's idea of public lands. [Translation: he thinks they're his.]

RATE SHOCK: it's only going to get worse.

It's time to stock up on popcorn and watch the comedy as Democrats circle the wagons in the face of incoming fire. Remember those old westerns? Sometimes the Indians won....

WHEN THE BLEEDING HEART becomes the iron fist. The bleeding heart has always been carried in an iron fist. Read it all.

MR. PRESIDENT, tear down this wall!

UNION: join or lose your job.

MALLARD FILLMORE on the decline of government schools:

All the more reason to dramatically cut the size of government.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT can't default on its debt obligations. Maybe so, but I can certainly envision Obama trying.

DECISION-BASED EVIDENCE-MAKING: More Disgrace From UN Panel on Climate Change.

SENATE DEMOCRATS reject proposal from noted right-wing extremists Susan Collins and Joe Manchin.

A backlash is overdue.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Captain Chaos.

EARLIER I posted John's Story; now let me add some thoughts about Aaron Alexis and the Navy Yard shootings.

As we now know, Aaron Alexis was mentally ill; and as we see in
this video, he was not armed with an 'assault weapon' but with this shotgun, a conventional pump-action hunting weapon. The shotgun has a 4-shell fixed tubular magazine, meaning that Alexis had to reload it at least twice, which is not as simple as simply punching a button, dropping the empty magazine from the weapon and inserting a new fully-loaded magazine.

It's not about a deranged 'assault' weapon in the hands of a sane shooter. It's never about a deranged assault weapon; it's always about a deranged shooter with any weapon, 'assault' or otherwise. Yet when the mentally ill kill, we continue to blame the weapon, not the wielder. Will it never end?

It's time to address the real problem.

BLAME & DEFY: it works for me.

PHOTOS: Veterans Overrun the Barrycades, Liberate the Memorials in Washington!

MEDICAL SCREENING PROCEDURES may do more harm than good.

USE OF LETHAL FORCE: Did the police make the correct decision in the Washington Mall shooting?

DE-MAN THE BARACKADES: Washington D.C. had a shutdown and no one noticed cared.

WOW! Veterans remove barricades from memorials and take them to the White House.

Linked from Instapundit.

[ADDED] Dammit, I miss all the good stuff. Apparently, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Sarah Palin were all there this morning.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: the Nobel Peace Prize should be renamed the Nobel P.C. Prize.

YES, LET'S MAKE IT WORSE: Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) tries to block oil and gas exploration during partial shutdown.

CALIFORNIA CONTINUES on its path to becoming America's first failed state. Detroit was actually the first to fail, but it's only a city....

DANIEL J. MITCHELL: Yes, let's make fun of the government shutdown.

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT) has proposed a 'Fairness and Opportunity Tax Reform Act' to replace today's ungodly mess of income tax laws. Here's Lee discussing his tax plan.

Business Insider reporter Josh Barro is okay with it. Me, as well. I'd prefer a consumption (Flat or Fair) tax as being less likely to be 'gamed', but Lee's proposal is acceptable.

KU KLUX KLAN hit hard by shutdown. All 9 of them.

THE ARGENTINA BOND DEFAULT: "In the competition for the world's most incompetent and irresponsible economic policy, Argentina struggles for the lead against the likes of Venezuela and Greece."

Question: will the United States, under the Obama administration, try to compete with Argentina? It needn't be this way since U.S. tax revenues are more than sufficient to pay the interest on the national debt, but could Obama just refuse to pay (without being impeached, that is)?

BRAVO!

OBAMACARE MANDATE could lead Washington grocery workers to picket line. The unions supported ObamaCare, they got what they supported, and now they're against it?

AUTUMN LEAVES: the fall begins.

The first of this year's series of photos documenting the change of season. I'll post a photo weekly until the trees are bare.

UPDATE: I posted about the first noticeable leaf fall here.

OBAMACARE: 1-800-T-O-T-A-L-F-A-I-L.

BATTLEGROUND TEXAS misfires. But on the other hand, I suspect that if they'd have known about the wheelchair, they'd have assumed him to be a Democrat and supported his campaign....

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: members of the self proclaimed 'reality-based community' are finding out that their reality isn't real. Neither are reality shows on television.

VIDEO: Allentown mother forced to choose between ObamaCare and feeding family. Watch for more -- many more -- reports like this to surface soon.

JOHN’S STORY: Post-1960s, Parents Struggle to Hospitalize Mentally Ill Children.

FROM MY EMAIL: A comment supposedly posted on the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare Facebook page:

I actually made it through this morning at 8:00 A.M. I have a preexisting condition (Type 1 Diabetes) and my income base was 45K-55K annually I chose tier 2 "Silver Plan" and my monthly premiums came out to $597.00 with $13,988 yearly deductible!!!

There is NO POSSIBLE way that I can afford this so I "opt-out" and chose to continue along with no insurance. I received an email tonight at 5:00 P.M. informing me that my fine would be $4,037 and could be attached to my yearly income tax return.

Then you make it to the "REPERCUSSIONS PORTION" for "non-payment" of yearly fine. First, your drivers license will be suspended until paid, and if you go 24 consecutive months with "Non-Payment" and you happen to be a home owner, you will have a federal tax lien placed on your home. You can agree to give your bank information so that they can easy "Automatically withdraw" your "penalties" weekly, bi-weekly or monthly! This by no means is "Free" or even "Affordable".

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

Since it came by email and I don't have a Facebook account, there's no way I can verify the statement, except to say that the penalty appears correct ($96 or 1% of your income, whichever is greater).

I am suspicious of the 'repercussions', however. My understanding of the law is that the only step the government can take is to reduce your federal income tax refund by the amount of the penalty ... so that all you need do is to make sure you owe the government and not conversely. I do that as a matter of routine.

DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE: "ObamaCare ... will be judged a 'success' as long as it doesn’t destroy America."

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: any advertisement with 'weird' in the title is axiomatically worthless.

GOOD: Business Groups See Loss of Sway Over House GOP. Maybe not in the short term, but in the long term they'll be grateful to the Tea Party conservatives.

MARK STEYN on petty despotism.

THE SUN THAT DIDN'T ROAR: another example of science malunderstood. Something for climate-changers to think about.

NOT ANY MORE: Can Should you trust the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)?

FROM AN EARLIER POST, this question was raised:

Let's say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceiling. What do you think you should do ... raise the ceiling, or remove the shit?

If you're a liberal, the answer is obvious: demand a new home in another location, compensation for inconvenience, and abandon the old home to decay. But clean up the shit? Never.

CRUZ TO HECKLERS: I’ve taken more questions today than Obama has all year.

IS OBAMA'S debt ceiling 'catastrophe' just another scare tactic?

[A] memorandum by Moody’s, one of the three leading credit rating agencies:

We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact.

The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit the government from servicing its debt. There is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.

In other words, if Moody’s is to be believed, rather than the catastrophe predicted by the politicos, failing to raise the debt limit would be more akin to an accounting inconvenience for the green-eyeshades in the bowels of the Treasury Department.

In other words, yes.

TEA PARTY VS. OCCUPY WALL STREET:

Which do you think might have the higher viewer ratings?

HEH: Federal Judge Orders National Park Service to Reopen Park. McLean is in Fairfax County, Virginia, the third richest county in the U.S. Might that be the reason the National Park Service decided to back off?

WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? Me, or those lying White House visitor logs?

FBI: We’re still keeping the gun purchase background system online. Why? Because gun owners purchase guns.

MSM WARNING: the plantation is forever.

EXPERIENCE OBAMACARE at HealthCare.gov.

WORSE? How could they possibly be worse?

WOW: Five Iowans manage to purchase health insurance through ObamaCare exchange in 8 days. I suspect the smallest car dealer in Manassas sells twice that many cars in a single day....

CIVILITY: "Maybe it should start with you, Mr. President."

NOW WE KNOW where the alien spacecraft are hiding.

Linked from Instapundit.

NEWT GINGRICH: the Obama-Reid gamble. Pray for a Republican spine.

LEGISLATION PASSED by the House to minimize the government shutdown. Courtesy of Speaker John Boehner.

NO POINT IN PISSING OFF BIG CONTRIBUTORS: National Park Service Leaves Ritzy Golf Course Open During Shutdown.

I'm sure the Andrews AFB golf course is still open too.

iCANDY: You 3-D Printed What?

DAVID GELERNTER: How to talk to liars.

SHOCKER: Liberals’ ‘Anti-Bullying’ Programs May Be Teaching Kids How To Be Better Bullies. Obvious to anyone who lives in the real world as opposed to the liberals' 'reality' world.

Related thought: There's a reason why it's called 'reality television'; it ain't real.

THIS POST in one easy-to-read chart:

[Update] an observant reader (my brother) noted an error in the 'total budget cuts' line (circled above). It should read $385.00 instead of $38.50. So now the budget hit is 1.8% instead of only 0.18% of earnings ($21,700). Or if you prefer, only 1% of total expenditures instead of 0.1%.

Not what I would call major suffering either way....

"THE 'TEA BAG REPUBLICANS' want to sow even greater cynicism about the capacity of government to do much of anything." Why? The Obama administration seems to be doing a fine job on its own....

NEWT GINGRICH: I was there; you weren't.

IOWAHAWK tweets:

2009: cover banks with TARP
2013: cover national monuments with tarp

The Obama administration in 68 characters.

"DOING THE JOBS the GOP establishment won’t do, I guess." The GOP establishment should keep in mind that I vote with -- and donate to -- Sarah.

WHY YOU should be a cat person.

ONLY 51,000 PEOPLE signed up for ObamaCare through the federal exchange during first week. [Note from the embedded link that we have to depend on British newspapers for well written, factual U.S. news.]

MORE SHUTDOWN SLOWDOWN THEATER: Get off my beach! says the president.

GO TO HELL: Blistering letter follows.

A NEW LOW: White House says death benefits bill 'not necessary'. That's only because a private foundation has already agreed to pick up the tab.

And yet a private individual is not allowed to pick up the trash and mow the lawn around the Lincoln Memorial. [Don't want to embarrass the Occupy Wall Streeters? - Ed.]

And in the state of Arizona dependent communities can't pick up the tab for keeping the Grand Canyon open. And private businesses leasing space on national park properties aren't allowed to stay open.

The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming.

SIX SIGNS that you’re a liberal who is out of touch with reality.

Actually, the proper phrasing should be "in touch with 'reality'."

RANDOM THOUGHT from the retirement lane: Republicans ought to agree to a 'clean' CR (continuing resolution) and increase in the debt ceiling in return for Harry Reid's immediate resignation from the Senate.

YES, WE CAN CONE.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY...

We are always hearing about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about Welfare running out of money?

From my email.

CONSENSUS BUILDING for a short-term debt-ceiling hike? There's always a consensus for kicking the can down the road....

GRADE SCHOOL BANS HALLOWEEN because maybe it’s religious. It is appalling beyond belief that a pin-headed, arrogant mini-dictator can ban something because a few hypersensitive twits insist that the world must make way for their reality.

It's time for some straightforward, in-your-face, aggressive civil disobedience.

FIGHTING BACK AND WINNING: Roadside inn reopens after feds tried to shut it down over budget impasse.

NO, LIBERALS, the Koch brothers aren't behind the government shutdown.

Instapundit comments: "Of course not. If they were, it would be handled competently."

NOW PLAYING:

Read the post.

IT'S RAINING IN D.C.; that'll keep those pesky Tea Partiers out of our Obama's national parks and monuments.

IF THE GOVERNMENT CAN’T MOW THE LAWN, no one can!

COWARDS! I was online earlier today at the Senate web site looking for email/telephone/fax numbers to contact my Senators. Here's what I found:

I thought it strange, but Sen. Kaine has always made email contact difficult. So I tried my other Senator, Mark Warner. Same thing.

But ... try a Republican Senator. I checked theTexas senators, Cruz and Cornyn. There web sites are up and running; the email contact forms are available. My wife checked a number of other senators, and the rule seems to be this: if your Senator is Republican, no problems; if your Senator is a Democrat from a deep blue state (think California), no problem; if your Senator is a Democrat from a red or purple state (e.g., Virginia), big problem. It's not the shutdown slowdown, the cowards are afraid to hear from you.

One teeny, tiny little problem they missed: you can still find their district office phone and fax numbers on their home pages ... and I have a fax modem!

RAISE MY DEBT LIMIT. Where are the grandkids when you need them?

OBAMA: for the first time in 17 years, Republicans shut down the Federal government. Oh?

MENS REA: Lois Lerner sent confidential taxpayer information through private emails. Sometimes I have to wonder if that isn't a good thing given the government's repeatedly demonstrated incompetence at protecting citizen privacy.

POOR BABIES: Shutdown leaves lawmakers reusing their towels at House gym. Maybe they can learn how to use a washing machine like the rest of us....