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!