ROGER KIMBALL: a 'nothing burger' with wheeze.

OOPS! Tunnel collapses at North Korean nuclear test site.

If only Kim Jong-un had been in the tunnel at the time....

NOT YET, BUT IT WILL: Has the Republican Party "surrendered" to Trump?

Read it all, and then the comments. A good balance, pro and con.

HAS THE TITLE ENGINEER become meaningless?

Of course not.

Merriam-Webster, among other dictionaries, defines engineering as "the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people." Nowhere in that definition do I see any indication that 'the application of science and mathematics ...' requires a certificate or government imprimatur.

In my nearly 50 years of professional experience, I've found that the only ones who want to restrict the title under the rubric of 'make it meaningful' are the wannabe guildmasters and others who can't make it in the competitive marketplace.

THE ONLY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER to kneel during the national anthem this season has been arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.

Virtue-signaling is not (yet) a 'get-out-of-jail' card.

BLOCKCHAINS: How they work and why they'll change the world.

Question: for better or worse?

I'm convinced I still don't understand fully how blockchains work, but of one thing I am absolutely certain: someone, somewhere, sometime (probably sooner than later) will figure out how to corrupt them.

ONE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE has developed a unique response to the "culture" of star athletes like Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance — a mandatory class on patriotism.

It used to be called Civics -- and taught in high school.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE settles IRS targeting lawsuits filed during totally scandal-free Obama administration.

Heh.

POWERLINE: investigating the 'Trump Dossier'.

DEREK HUNTER: Despicable People.

I never wanted to believe liberals were actually evil, just obstinately wrongheaded and misguided in their belief that the policies they advocate only failed everywhere they’ve been tried because they weren’t the ones implementing them.

The gap between 'liberal' and 'evil' is narrowing....

A 'FREEPORT QUESTION' FOR OUR TIME: "How many genders are there?"

The answer is here.

PAY FOR IT ON YOUR OWN NICKEL and don't waste my time virtue-signaling: Pretentions millennials who romanticize living in vans.

BEST COMMENT EVER:

Trump plays 3D Chess on a galactic scale while his more sophistacted [sic] opponents in the Deep State play Checkers. Meanwhile, his less sophisticated avbersaries [sic], like Hillary & most Dems, struggle to learn the rules for Tic-Tac-Toe and Hangman.

From this post on the Trump/Russia/DNC/Hillary/Obama investigation.

OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: How churches die. See also this post.

IF IT WAS AN ALIEN, it left in a hurry.

MORE REASON TO ROLL BACK GOVERNMENT REGULATION: City of Denver Won't Allow Single Mom to Sell Her Home for What It's Worth.

Hell, it's yet another reason to roll back government in toto. As "I'm mad, too" Eddie Chiles said back in 70's Texas, “The government should deliver the mail and stay the hell out of my business.”

'FRONT-ROW KIDS' AND THEIR VALUES have taken over our courts.

America is split between the “Front Row Kids” — who did well in school; moved to managerial, financial or political jobs; and see themselves as the natural rulers of their fellow citizens — and the “Back Row Kids,” who placed less emphasis on school; and who resent the pretensions and bossiness of the Front Row Kids.

While teaching constitutional law after the election, it occurred to me that though the Back Row Kids can elect whomever they want as president, senators or representatives, there is one branch of the federal government (and all state governments) that is, more or less by its nature, limited to Front Row Kids: the judiciary.

To paraphrase former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, "They don't know what they don't know."

MIKE ADAMS on grizzly bigotry at the University of Montana.

Just another 'university' welcoming diversity of everything but thought.

LIZ WHEELER: When NFL players disrespect the flag, they disrespect my family.

ON THE DEATH PENALTY, Pope Francis is going where no pope has gone before.

FORMER NPR CEO learns about liberal media bias. He actually went to red America and ...

I found an America far different from the one depicted in the press and imagined by presidents (“cling to guns or religion”) and presidential candidates (“basket of deplorables”) alike.

It's longish, but read the whole article.

BARNEY & CLYDE: I've noticed this, too.

KILONOVA: What happens when neutron stars collide. The pictures are stunning.

IN VIRGINIA GOVERNOR'S RACE, Republican Ed Gillespie focuses on crime and consequences. And he's right:

The crime rate appears to be rising in Virginia. For example, the state recorded 383 murders/non-negligent manslaughters in 2015. In 2016, it recorded 484. The Washington Post itself reported that in Prince William County, a little south of Washington, D.C. and its close-in suburbs, the murder rate more than doubled in 2016.

After watching the trends in northern Virginia, I voted with my feet in 2016 and left. But Barbara Comstock kept Prince William County in the Republican column in 2016, and my sense is that Ed Gillespie, also a northern Virginia resident, will win the governorship this year.

DNC CHAIR TOM PEREZ: "The Electoral College is not a creation of the Constitution. It doesn't have to be there."

Article II, Section 1 of of the Constitution:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Any questions, Tom?

AUTUMN LEAVES, October 29:

Well, it's winter; unoffically if not officially -- it started snowing this morning about 8 am and is still going, lightly but steadily for over 2 hours. Here's today's deck view:

Over the last week the leaves went from green to gold to brown to gone. The change was pretty dramatic when the cold air started to pour in about midweek. Here's the driveway view:

Since it's mostly evergreens on both sides the change hasn't been as striking, but more browns are in evidence across the road.

No pond picture this week; it's cold (just above freezing), snowing, and I'm not about to go down -- and up -- a 120-step flight of stairs for a pond picture. So instead here's a picture from the road looking back toward the house.

For the most part what you're seeing is evergreens and 'sticks' -- the deciduous trees have all lost their leaves. And finally a view from the loft:

These are about the only trees left on our property that have both leaves -- and color.

KURT SCHLICTER: culturally appropriate this, you social justice jerks.

When they [SJWs] demand that I conform to their dictates, I’ve got a counter-offer.

How about I do exactly what I want and you stand there and suck it up?

Read the whole thing.

BECAUSE HE'S NOT ONE: Progressive 'male' thinks 'man' is a dirty word.

PROGRESSIVE, “FAIR WAGE” PIZZA SHOP is closing its doors.

Economics strikes again.

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures has been posted. I have two favorites this week.

This first one is about 'cultural appropriation' ... from the party of 'inclusion':

Should real native Americans be insulted?

My second favorite is just plain funny:

Happy Halloween. Now go and see the rest.

IMPORTANT ONLY IN THEIR OWN MINDS: "For many in official Washington, highlighting the irrelevance of their work is President Trump's unforgivable sin."

AMMO GRRRLL: Old books, new books; whichever support today's narrative.

LIBERALS try to connect with normal Americans.

The 'trigger warning' is a nice touch....

THE FACE of true patriotism.

NATIONAL REVIEW Give university trustees a role in faculty hiring.

An excellent idea - every lawn needs weed control.

JEFF JACOBY: Liberate government workers from forced union fees.

Government workers should never have been allowed to unionize in the first place.

EPA HEAD SCOTT PRUITT: 'sue-and-settle' is gone. That's a good beginning, but the environment will be better served by getting the government completely out of the protection racket.

(Note: the Regional Haze rule referred to is here.)

FOUR GOP SENATORS standing in the way of progress. Actually six, with the addition of Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Bob Corker (R-TN) joining the 'Never Trump' legion.

On the bright side, though, it does appear that the Republican establishment (the GOPe) is beginning to get the message from the voters that 'go along to get along' is outside the bounds of Trump's new Republican party.

The swamp will be drained.

POWERLINE: Is the Left cracking up with this 'we can achieve diversity by all thinking alike' nonsense?

From the comments:

This is not unique to Apple or even Silicon valley. These people populate the human resources department of every corporation large and small, and they have foisted this stuff on all workers, who have learned to "keep your mouth shut or else." We used to call it the Personnel department, which assumed that employment was about people who were persons with personalities. We've reduced them the human resources ... like a bin of scrap wood or nails. Just another basket of inanimate objects. The HR department of your company is the political commisar of the left. All those Republican establishment types who occupy the boardroom have allowed the left to make their companies into communist "re-education" camps. Hopefully you guys will begin to catch a clue and understand Trump's appeal. I'll be throwing my support behind Steve Bannon in the upcoming election.

I saw this coming when Personnel departments started becoming Human Resources departments. Still, the sheer depth of this lunacy is astounding.

WELL, THERE ARE LOTS OF THEM OUT THERE: I see stupid people.

EVERYONE CAN WIN ON IMMIGRATION if we stop playing politics.

Which won't happen....

TRUMP TO REPUBLICANS: leave our 401Ks alone!

Don Surber: "I paid far more into Social Security than I did my 401k plan. Now retired, I draw down more from my 401k (even as it grows) than I do Social Security."

Similarly here: my wife's and my 401K required minimum distributions (RMDs) are 193% of our combined Social Security income.

Here's how it works.

THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS will scream helplessly at the sky on Trump's election anniversary.

With luck, the resulting laryngitis will give the rest of us a few days of peace and quiet....

THE ESTABLISHMENT flunks out.

But I do agree with Instapundit that the chess club is treated unfairly.

ALGEBRA AND GEOMETRY perpetuate white privilege.

[C]urricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem ... perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.

So would he prefer the Native American version of the Pythagorean theorem?

NEW DARWIN AWARD CANDIDATES: 'Idiots of the century' swim into crocodile trap.

HEH: "In a recent speech to the San Mateo County, California Republican Party, House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes said that at this moment investigators have more evidence of Democrats colluding with Russians than of President Trump doing so."

Swords have two edges....

MORE ON REP. FREDERICA WILSON (D[UMB] - FL): "An empty hat rack, only dumber."

DIMOCRAT FREDERICA WILSON: Don't confuse me with facts; my mind (such as it is) is already made up.

(Note: that's not a spelling error above.)

BERNIE SANDERS: Sure, you'll pay higher taxes, but look at all that 'free stuff' you (read as 'I') will get in return.

THE FINGER-POINTING at the finance firm TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF).

I never trusted them and got out years ago - but it took 10 years to withdraw all my assets.

POWERLINE'S http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/10/the-week-in-pictures-continuing-liberal-freakout-edition.phpWeek in Pictures is up. Most of the cartoons are about the Democrats' hurricane 'Hollywood Harvey Weinstein', but some were NFL related. My favorite:

From here on out I'm no longer watching NFL football when I noted that the networks are no longer televising the pregame National Anthem.

Now go and see the rest of the cartoons.

I’M MAD AS HELL and I’m not taking it anymore.

We have a real cultural problem in this country, the result of the Leftist multicultural agenda. Multi-ethnicity is perfect and should be encouraged. Having more than one American culture is destroying the country. But then again, that is what the Left wants.

Read the whole thing. And welcome to the crowd....

AUTUMN LEAVES, October 22:

This week's pictures were taken in the early morning, rather in the mid-afternoon as I usually do. The bushes in last week's picture have been trimmed back to get a better view of the pond; otherwise the view is relatively unchanged. The trees are sparser, as we had winds that took down most of the dead leaves, so the view is a bit greener.

From the driveway very little has changed, although the trees - especially across the road - do look a bit sparser as a result of the winds.

Next are two photos of the pond area. Since I rarely take pond pictures from a consistent location they're a bit harder to compare week-to-week. This one was taken from the dam, looking back toward our 'spare' lot, which was cleared of the brushy undergrowth last week. The bridge over the creek feeding the pond is at the right side of the picture and for all practical purposes marks the property line boundary.

This last picture is taken from the stairs down to the pond, about midway up. The sun is just above the treeline to the right. As with the other pictures, the dead leaves have mostly been blown away, leaving the evergreens dominant on the other side of the pond.

No blaze of color this year; next week I expect to see mostly yellows and the evergreens.

CNN REPORTER mocks Mitch McConnell for needing help with stairs, not realizing he survived polio.

Post-polio syndrome is real, and debilitating. I know; I suffer from it.

THE FUTURE OF OBAMACARE: Britian's NHS proposes refusal of surgeries to smokers, obese. Who's next? The aged?

DEMOCRAT NATIONAL COMMITTEE meeting schedule is published. By Republicans.

Yes, it's satire.

MY SYMPATHY METER IS HOVERING AT ZERO: SJW talks about why he's afraid of other SJWs.

Pass the popcorn, please. The comedy is beginning....

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL: Colin Kaepernick's case against the NFL is as lame as his skills at quarterback.

Heh.

I'VE HAD THE VERY GOOD FORTUNE to fly on a couple of these Southwest Airlines flights.

AUTUMN LEAVES, October 15:

Here's the pond view from the deck this week. The 'big' changes are two: the two trees in the right foreground are now almost entirely denuded, and the crowns of the trees on the opposite side of the pond have pretty well turned brown and begun to drop leaves.

The driveway view hasn't changed that much over the week since the brush has been pretty well cleaned out. There is less green on the opposite side of the road at the end of the driveway, but that's about it.

The pond view has changed considerably in the past week. That bright yellow from last week is completely gone - brown and denuded. The vibrant greens are now pale green, and the crowns of the tallest trees are now brown and gone.

Autumn is taking hold.

THE BRIGHT SIDE of progressivism.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES: more on Hurricane Harvey [Weinstein]. My favorite, though, is this one:

Go and see the rest.

MICHELLE OBAMA’S condescending and disgracefully out of touch advice to job-seeking women. Unless they have wealthy and powerful husbands.

AUSTIN BAY: Trump’s North Korea threat-theater is working.

THE LEFT'S fetish for gun control.

IF THEY'RE SO 'WOKE', let the NFL players handle it.

From my email.

KURT SCHLICTER: Hollywood has attained peak fail.

OBVIOUSLY IT'S TRUMP'S FAULT for withdrawing from the Paris climate accord: Yellowstone supervolcano could blow faster than thought, destroy all of mankind.

IF YOU CAN PAY FOR ASPIRIN, you can pay for birth control.

BEHOLD OUR BETTERS: "They wonder why they got Trump. They are why they got Trump."

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: the 'Russian collusion' failure.

VENTURE THUGGERY: Communist front group called 'Refuse Fascism' and funded by the George Soros-funded Alliance for Global Justice plans a Nov. 4 'revolution' to unseat Trump.

Good luck with that. Morons....

COWARDS: ISIS fighters, having pledged to fight or die, surrender en masse.

UPDATE ON how progressive policies are ‘helping’ San Francisco businesses. Helping them go out of business, that is....

OBAMA LIED. My fourth health plan died.

HEH. The only comment I'll ever have about the Harvey Weinstein hoo-hah.

ONLY IF IT'S NOT HIS: Sportswriter opposed to free speech.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU'RE DETERMINED TO KILL THEM: Soiled ISIS fighters surrendering in droves.

The 'strong horse' finally arrived.

FREE COLLEGE could be far too costly for those who most need such education. It may seem counter-intuitive, but free things are usually worth what you pay for them.

TRUMP UNVEILS NEW IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT PLAN:

The plans ... include President Trump’s calls for a border wall, more deportation agents, a crackdown on sanctuary cities and stricter limits to chain migration — all issues the White House says need to be part of any bill Congress passes to legalize illegal immigrant “Dreamers” currently protected by the Obama-era deportation amnesty known as DACA.

About time.

LIFESTYLE RATIONING: Single-payer health care means you might be denied surgery for being too fat -- no, really.

It's called rationing.

THE UGLY TRUTH FOR LIBERALS: Gun control will not stop mass shootings.

PROGRESSIVES: What part of 'unalienable' do you not understand?

LIBERALS: Six reasons why your right-wing friend isn't coming to your side on gun control. (Although I'll be happy to control my guns when it's your life at stake.)

I'LL BET THE BAN WON'T INCLUDE THE GOVERNMENT OR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: California is thinking about banning gasoline-powered vehicles.

I'd suggest progressives read the whole thing, but it contains (gasp!) numbers.

WE'RE TOO BUSY GETTING WORK DONE: FEMA head Brock Long dismisses San Juan mayor's complaints as 'political noise'.

CALIFORNIA DECLARES ITSELF A 'SANCTUARY STATE'; ICE responds by arresting everybody.

Heh.

FEDERAL COMMUNICATION COMMISSION: turn on the FM receivers in your smart phone (so we'll have another way to interfere in your lives).

As if Amber alerts, weather alerts, and 'emergency' alerts weren't bad enough. At least they can be turned off.

SALENA ZITO: Support your local newspaper.

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND. Unless you're a feminist, then it's impossible.

AFTER LAS VEGAS, the Democrats send in the clowns.

As Instapundit might quip, "To be fair, they have plenty of them."

IT'S A NEW GAME: U.S. forces clean up Obama's ISIS mess. Remember Bin Laden's 'strong horse' theory? When you begin to focus on killing them, "hundreds of militants surrendered amid fresh signs the terror group is collapsing."

I'm reminded that Gen. Mattis (now Secretary of Defense) is reported to have said "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

DALLAS COWBOYS OWNER JERRY JONES: Players won't play if they disrespect the flag.

Good for him. I didn't watch the game today, but I hope he stood his ground.

PEGGY NOONAN: The culture of death - and of disdain.

Lectures from - and by - arrogant snots are no longer acceptable.

BIG TECH has big plans to help reconnect Puerto Rico.

But, but ... are those government-approved spill-proof gasoline containers?

MORE SERIOUSLY: Look at the picture. The street and sidewalk are filled with litter, and the Puerto Ricans are just sitting around waiting for the government to give them gasoline. And clean up the street.

And you wonder why my sympathy meter is hovering around zero....

NOTHING MAKES LIBERALS ANGRIER than normal Americans insisting on their rights. They seem to believe that only Liberals have rights; the rest of us have only responsibilities (to acquiesce to their demands).

IT'S A HURRICANE, DAMMIT! So where are the gale-force winds? Driving rain? Raging rivers? Journalists posing as meteorologists? Sobbing deplorables posing on camera?

The rain is somewhere between mist and drizzle; winds are on the low side of zero; waves pounding the pond shore are under 1/8 inch; and there's not a journalist or sobbing deplorable in sight.

UPDATE (& BUMP): Finally! we sustained some hurricane damage - a dead tree broke in half and punched a hole in the fabric of our little windmill by the carport. A little dab of fabric glue and it'll be all right....

IF 'CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY' IS NUTS...



... why aren't our streets raging rivers of blood?

DO BEARS SHIT IN THE WOODS? Yes, and at least one government employee uses the halls of the EPA.

I think it's safe to say there's at least one excess employee in government....

HEH: “The settlement of other continents by Europeans is called colonialism. The settlement of Europe by people from other continents is called multiculturalism and emergence of a global society.”

Read the linked article as well.

TAKING A STAND: Vice President Mike Pence leaves NFL game as players kneel.

Bravo!

AUTUMN LEAVES, October 8

Herewith, today's pictures. From our deck, looking down at the pond. It's still mostly green; the only change is that the single tree that started dropping leaves early is now completely bare.

The driveway view is almost unchanged. Some brown is in evidence in the trees across the road, but other than that almost marginal change, nothing.

The pond view, however, is spectacular. That single tree across the pond is a bright gold in the afternoon sun - the picture simply doesn't do it justice. The other trees along the walking path are beginning to show change - unfortunately, no golds or reds in the passage to brown.

Last week's pictures are here for comparison.

HEY, SNOWFLAKE, it's a shoe lace.

More.

PRESIDENT TRUMP is killing ObamaCare by making states follow the ObamaCare law. Rules actually, but still....

GET SMART: use dumb bombs.

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures has posted. My favorite:

I use Lysol....

FINALLY, A DEMOCRAT 'WOKE': Top House Democrat says it's time for Pelosi — and her lieutenants — to hit the road.

WASHINGTON POST: It's not a lie if you're stupid.

ABUSIVE GERRYMANDERING can be stopped, but not by judges. To abuse an old saying, a drunk Indian (excuse me, Native American) on a blind mule in a sandstorm could do better than our political class.

AMMO GRRRLL on 'girls' gone stupid.

FEARLESS GIRL is underpaid.

In the Democrats' La-La Land, words take the place of deeds: 'do as I say, not as I do'.

JUST DESSERTS: UC student who stole 'MAGA' hat in viral video could face felony charges.

DREXEL UNIVERSITY IDIOT PROFESSOR: Extreme "Trumpism" and "white victimization" motivated the Las Vegas shooter.

I'd suggest the bozo, er, 'professor' look in the mirror to see the real perpetrator. I suspect a strong case can be made that the Las Vegas shootings were a direct result of years of 'white privilege' demonization of men.

Prove me wrong (if you can).

THE GUNLESS vote for Democrats. Disarming people is the quickest way to suck them into socialism.

A FAIR ASSESSMENT: We may be a society that is too stupid to survive.

MASSACHUSETTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRARIAN rejects Melania Trump's donation of Dr. Seuss books. The illustrations, apparently, are examples of “racist propaganda.”

Unless Michelle Obama reads them....

DEMOCRATS TAKE ACTION FOLLOWING LAS VEGAS SHOOTINGS: Ban silencers suppressors. As if hearing the shot will prevent it from striking.

As every hunter, and even the most marginally aware Democrat, knows the average muzzle velocity from any rifle is between two and three time the speed of sound. For the less-than-marginally-aware Democrat, that means the bullet will arrive long before the sound

The most absurd claim - not even relevant to mass shootings - is that hunters want suppressors to not startle the prey they're hunting. Only if they know they're going to miss the first shot.

IT'S ABOUT TIME: Trumping the welfare state.

BLACK LIVES 'MATTER': Everything is white supremacy.

FIRST YOU'D HAVE TO REMOVE THE CONCRETE: If only Thomas Friedman had a brain.

HILLARY CLINTON: ‘put politics aside’ and blame NRA for mass shooting.

I wish she'd shut up, but there is a bright side: the more she talks, the better is is for the Republican party.

TRUMP TO MEDIA ON HURRICANE MARIA: Eat crow; here's a recipe.

MY JEANS ARE 'WOKE':



Linked from PowerLine.

THE LEFT ON GUN CONTROL: "It’s as if they’re incoherent, stupid, and power-hungry or something."

Yes. Yes, they are. All of the above, and more.

HO-HUM: Just another PC college idiocy.

TWITTER'S DARK HEART -- dismissing 58 lives in 140 characters and blind partisanship.

It's not Twitter's dark heart; it's the dark hearts of the twits who use it.

POWERLINE on 'spinning' the Supreme Court.

JEFF JACOBY: Why not an independent Kurdistan?

A POSSIBLE END TO GOVERNMENT UNIONS? Supreme Court agrees to review forced unionization for public employees.

[P]ublic sector unions ... provide the lion’s share of the Democrats’ funding. They take money involuntarily from their members, a large majority of whom have never even voted on whether to be represented by a union, and many of whom disapprove of the union’s agenda, and recycle that money into left-wing causes, Democratic Party candidates, and inflated salaries for countless union officials. The entire system is the number one form of corruption in American public life.

If repealed, it would devastate the public sector unions, which should have never been permitted in the first place.

A BITTER AND PATHETIC HILLARY CLINTON peddles fake news about Trump and Puerto Rico.

PUERTO RICAN CEO DISAGREES: It's the local government that's failing. Particularly this mayor.

INSTAPUNDIT: "The worst side effect of the civil rights era is the attitude of moral superiority toward ordinary Americans that it inspired in the political class."

BAD 'SCIENCE' FICTION: at the Huffington Post. It's Barbra Streisand; little wonder it's bad....

NORMAL AMERICANS TO GOPe: Hear us now, or hear us later (in 2018).

BAD: Republican candidate applies 'religious' test to Democrat congressman.

GOOD: Democrat senators apply 'religious' test to federal judicial candidate.

Can you smell the stink of hypocrisy?

ANTHONY WEINER: no longer a Democrat. Just a prick.

Heh.

THE LAS VEGAS SHOOTING and the attack of the carrion crows. Among them:

(now former) CBS Vice President Hayley Geftman-Gold;

ABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Terry Moron Moran;

failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton;

and a bevy of other Democrats.

Not even 12 hours has passed since the murders.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: "You can't fix STUPID. And Democrats excel at it."

Taken from this PowerLine post.

THE IDIOTS' GUIDE to censorship.

TAYA KYLE: an open letter to the NFL.

TECHNOLOGY: Who'd've thunk it? Software can be biased.

NOTE TO CNN: It's about lives and property, stupid.

This elitist reporter, whose own home and livelihood were secure thousands of miles away, was telling real storm victims that he doesn’t “give a damn” about the loss of their property?

That's what virtue signalling is all about....

TURNING PURPLE, COUNTY BY COUNTY: the elephant in the blue room.

MARRIED COUPLES WITH CHILDREN AND JOBS: the causes of income inequality.

LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE: the Left's national nervous breakdown, and how to exploit it ruthlessly.

To overuse Bugs Bunny's quote: "What a bunch of maroons."

MORE ON PUERTO RICO: The problem is distribution. And leadership.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES, no kneeling edition. My favorite:

Go see the rest.

THE LEFT LOVES THE CONFEDERACY ... when it suits their purposes.

OOPS! Diversity might not be such a good thing (for Democrats) after all.

[N]ew research that shows that minority groups may become more conservative if they view other rising minority groups as potential competition.

"Maybe this partly explains why Trump got a higher share of the Hispanic and black vote than Romney or McCain...."

WHAT A BUNCH OF INGRATES: black students offended by cotton centerpiece at dinner table.

Bozos. Instead of giving them an apology, the president should have given them the boot from the university.

'DREAMERS' CAN STAY but never vote. It's an idea I can get behind, even to the extent of adding in the entire U.S. population of illegals, with two caveats: one, they must have been in the U.S. for 'X' years as of a date certain; and two, had no contact with the criminal justice system for that same period of time.

And yes, if they want the vote, they must go home and return legally.

NOT OFTEN ENOUGH: a feel-good NFL story.

HEH: Moving from a blue state to a red state made my life better.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1977: The day that destroyed the working class.

DONALD TRUMP TO THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: pound sand.

DESPITE MY 'EVERY WEEK' PROMISE, it's been two weeks since I started my "Autumn Leaves" posts. Herewith are this week's pictures, along with a promise to be more faithful in posting.

The first is the usual 'photo from the deck'. The hill across the pond will gradually become more visible as the fall progresses, but about the only difference from two weeks ago is that (almost dead) tree has lost all its leaves, and the pond is a bit more visible since I've spent the last two weeks clearing the underbrush on the slope down to the pond.

The next photo is the driveway view. Eventually it will show the most dramatic change, but for now about the only change is the brush removal on the right-hand side.

The next one is the 'bench view' from two weeks ago. The leaves are still green, but the view is much better now that the brush has been cleared out. It's now walkable all the way down to the pond from anywhere on the property if 'walkable' is interpreted to include a 30-45 degree slope....

The last two are pond views; one from each end of the pond. The first was taken looking roughly north from the stair above the dock; the second looking back toward the dock from the opposite side of the pond. The blue sky, unfortunately, is washed out from that southwestern summer sun pouring into the camera.

There's still lots of green, with just a touch of brown. My suspicion is there's not going to be a lot of color this year, just leaves going from green to gold to dead....

ANDREW KLAVAN: Trump is 100 percent right about the NFL.

I love the NFL. I love football. But I love America infinitely more. If they keep disrespecting our flag, I will never watch them again. Trump is utterly right about this and they are utterly wrong.

Agreed. And I'm no longer watching until the NFL does the right thing and stops the protests.