Professor Jacobson has the most succinct analysis I've seen of last nights primary results.

Endgame assessment:  Big night for Rick.  Bad night for Mitt.  The Honey Badger don’t care (nsfw).

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:01 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I haven't opined on politics in a while. With this being an election year, it seems like a good idea to put my cards on the table and weigh in on various current issues.

^{"Oh God NO!" " PLEASE don't. We were almost making friends and EVERYTHING!"}

OK! OK! !t's below the fold.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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It looks that way.

The head troll of the long suffering hermit kingdom reportedly has passed away.

One can certainly hope that some good comes out of this monsters passing, but at the moment its looking like even with his death rattle he is sowing fear.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A week or two ago #OCCUPYSQUALOR announced that today would be their day of action. The eviction yesterday and multiple arrests seems to have neutered their plans a bit, but why did they chose today of all days. Why did it have to be today when they knew an eviction was coming?

Cdr Salamander knows.

Just be very glad September has passed.

Related item here.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Regards Perry's explanation of which agencies he would cut, I....

Oh hell with it. I'll let this young lady comment.

"He was being coherent and everything!"

I guess all we can do now is blame Texans Avatar and Ubu for that  horrible moment and move on with our lives.

UPDATE: OK. Decent recovery on a later question but damn.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:40 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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There are elections tomorrow for the Senate and House of Delegates in Virginia. A quick overview of whose in what VA district can be found here. The State Board of Elections page is here. There is a good page  on Virginia at Ballotpedia as well.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'd been up for 2 and a half days dealing with butler issues when I finally got a relief in the form of my sister, who came by Saturday afternoon. So when I laid down, I stayed down and slept through the Gingrich/Cain debate on entitlement reform. Fortunately, being C-SPAN, it is available here.

As expected, Gingrich won. He excels at this format. Indeed at one point Cain dropped a bit on defined benefit vs defined contribution plans. However, he did recover and otherwise did alright. Cain really was no slouch and showed he had a lot of good ideas, but Newt really owned the stage.

  Gingrich deserves credit for setting this up and Cain deserves credit for agreeing to this. It is telling (and a sad commentary on the state of politics) that no one else in the Republican field agreed to talk specifics  about this third rail stuff. These two are at least serious about dealing with these problems. Gingrich's outstanding performance may well have given himself a considerable boost towards escaping third place. However, by virtue of participating, and speaking thoughtfully in intelligent English rather than bumperstickerese both guys are on my shortlist.

A lot of Cains's arguments, tended to be more philosophical, though it is obvious he has given considerable thought to the issues at hand. Gingrich on the other hand was a cornucopia of facts and figures replete with anecdotes related to the mind numbing stupidity he witnessed first hand in congress.

What was most refreshing about the debate was its intelligence and civility. I strongly urge you to take 90 minutes and watch it. Two really smart guys discussing entitlement reform is certainly no roller coaster of thrills, but it is damned refreshing and was a really informative talk.

There is going to be a similar exchange hosted by the Heritage Foundation (with the addition of Paul and Romney) on national security on November 22.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Uh-Oh!
That title looks like this post might involve politics or something!
As a precaution we've put the post below the fold and replaced it with Squid Girl (Who we assume to be non-partisan).

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't have much to add but AllahPundit sure does.

I agree with a lot of his analysis, though calling it a "smart call" rather misses the point. Palin was the only candidate talking about the inherently corrupting nature of corporatism and the worrisome implications of an increasingly insulated political elite. I'd have liked to see her run to push those issues.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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UPDATE: As this is a political post, it has now descended below he fold.

Note that the .gif is actually somewhat related.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:49 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This post drifts into the partisan arena below the fold. It may contain images that some will find disturbing, or unpleasant.

^{Everyone ought to read more Yotsuba&!}

As compensation for this, here is the very antithesis of partisanship... Yotsuba&! producing less worrisome images.

For those who dare, hit "more" to get on with the politics...

UPDATE: The post below the fold has been updated.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:11 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Reuters reports on an EU study that indicates that nearly 40% of Europeans suffer from mental illness. The definition of mental illness in the study seems on one hand to be rather broad, as it includes insomnia and anxiety. On the other hand I don't think the government study is likely to recognize THIS for the madness it is...

At the instigation of a mentally unbalanced bee-keeper, the similarly unbalanced European Court (EuGH), the highest court in the EUSSR, is considering whether honeybees are allowed to approach genetically modified plants and take their pollen. If they are not, then, first, the resultant honey must be removed from supermarket shelves and burned in a carbon-neutral fashion. Second, bees will be forbidden to approach inappropriate blossoms.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...was great.

Seriously, it was a really good exchange. I was surprised.

Despite the focus on Perry and Romney several of the others were quite strong. Perry was not stellar but he gave a credible and solid performance and Romney seemed to hold his own.

Cain did well in previous debates and he has grown as a candidate. This was his best performance ever, with answers that were not only well delivered but remarkable in their specificity.

Thank goodness for Newt...he is not executive material but he is a damned good idea man and these debates are much better for his presence. He actually did hit it out of the park a couple of times. He needs to at least be an adviser in the next administration.

Huntsman came off better than he has before, in that he got to talk, and though he likely did himself no favors with the base its obvious he is a thoughtful guy.

All in all it was one of the better discussions of our problems I've seen.

OTOH the hosts did not cover themselves in glory as they tried (quite unsuccessfully) to start petty fights and in one remarkably patronizing moment, they brought in a Hispanic reporter to ask questions about immigration...and then dismissed him. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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She's running! She's running! She ran.
She did pretty good too.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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^{Note: Not a real Economist cover. Was pilfered from 4-Chan
Apologies for the profanity....but damn.}

Not only can’t the Super Committee fail, it’ll be under enormous public pressure to reach a grand bargain. That’s the silver lining in this cloud — they have to get serious now. They have no choice.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:30 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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That is my story and I am sticking to it.

...and even if it was politics I don't have to put it below the fold 'cause to be appalled by it (or to suffer from cognitive dissonance) you'd have to click on it.

So I'll just leave this here...

^Via

In case you did click on it and got yourself all appalled and stuff, then as a palate cleanser here is a remarkably cute catgirl with some fish that was drawn by Toshihide Sano.

^{The Above link is his PixyV page. His official website was here but is either inactive or is blocking access from the US.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Let's see how this reader reacts.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...but the results are hard to tell apart. The Anchoress has a post up regarding the current administration that some will find off-putting, but it's a good opportunity to touch on something I've wanted to...

..What?

Oh right. It's politics...so it goes below the fold...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:40 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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