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.