CHANGE: MoveOn supporter remorseful after roughing up conservative in Arizona. “MoveOn and Republicorps member Fred Highton says he regrets initiating a physical altercation with a conservative Tea Partier at a political event at the University of Arizona earlier this month. ‘If I’m going to take part in these political events, I need to learn some self-control,’ Highton said.”

WHAT “TEEN MOM” STARS EARN. On the one hand, it’s more than they deserve. On the other, it’s not that much for such a successful reality show.

POLL: Percentage of Black likely voters who are likely to vote for Candidate supported by Tea Party – 27%.

SMUGAPALOOZA!

VIDEO: St. Louis “Democorps” Group Crashes Local Restoring Sanity Rally (Video).

TWISTED, EXTREME, Halloween pumpkins.

But here’s something that will scare a lot of people.

Boo!

SPACE BUCKYBALLS: “Astronomers have discovered bucket loads of buckyballs in space. They used NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to find the little carbon spheres throughout our Milky Way Galaxy — in the space between stars and around three dying stars. What’s more, Spitzer detected buckyballs around a fourth dying star in a nearby galaxy in staggering quantities — the equivalent in mass to about 15 of our Moons.”

MARKDOWNS ON power tools.

REASON TV: The Legal Way to Rig an Election: Filmmaker Bill Mundell on Gerrymandering.

WELL, GET ON WITH IT, THEN: “We Have to Stop Demonizing Anyone We Disagree With.”

PROF. JACOBSON: Bill Maher Out Juan-Williamses Juan Williams, Media Silence Erupts. “Maher will get a pass because he serves other purposes.”

UPDATE: Reader Ric Locke emails: “Juan Williams was disciplined for getting off the reservation. Maher helps delimit the reservation.”

WHY NPR IS LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH. And why it’s different.

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND MEDICAL SCIENCE: “Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice?”

GOOD NEWS FOR STEPHEN GREEN: First human liver grown in lab.

IN CANADA, THE MASSES ARE REVOLTING and the media missed it:

Like my friends, the people who work in much of the major media – the CBC, the Toronto Star, even my own beloved paper – were stunned by the Ford tsunami. After all, the polls had predicted a squeaker. But there’s another reason they didn’t see the big wave coming. Very few of these people live or work outside downtown Toronto. Very few ever hang around with someone who voted for Mr. Ford and will own up to it. They remind me of the super-smart editorial writers at The New York Times who are sincerely convinced that Tea Partiers are dangerous crackpots – even though they’ve never met any.

The media think they understand why people voted as they did. As one Toronto Star pundit helpfully explained, the voters – Ford voters, that is – “were full of largely pointless rage.” Only pointless rage could explain why voters ignored the editorial endorsements of two leading newspapers, as well as a long line of former mayors who begged them, in the name of decency, to vote for George Smitherman. Even Justin Trudeau’s twinkle dust didn’t work.

Funny that in these circumstances they never ask “why do they hate us?”

Plus this: “The problem is simple. People have a lot more government than they can or will pay for. Mr. Ford and Tea Partiers know that. Scaling down the scope of government is the political challenge of the next generation. And if mainstream politicians stay in denial, they’ll be toast.”

HILLARY CLINTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Poll: Half of Democrats Think Obama Should Face Primary.

OBAMA HECKLED at Connecticut rally.

THE IMPACT OF “STUDENT AID:” “Increasing government subsidy for attending college doesn’t lower costs — it increases them and spreads them to taxpayers who would rather do something else with their money if they had any choice.”

ERIC SCHEIE: The Difference Between Crime, and, You Know, Crime-crime.

AN OVERWHELMINGLY WHITE CROWD at the Stewart/Colbert rally. Well, Stewart and Colbert are Stuff White People Like.

But they had a fundamentalist Islamist to add diversity. “The inclusion of Yusuf Islam in the Rally to Restore Sanity is sure to raise a number of eyebrows, given the controversy surrounding his alleged support of the fundamentalist Islamic fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. As Andy Levy tweeted ‘Rally To Restore Fatwas?’”

AT AMAZON, markdowns on office products and school supplies.

REASON TV: ATTACK ADS, CIRCA 1800.

ARMOR:  “Designed in Israel, Built In America.”

AN ALL-ELECTRIC, single-molecule motor.

IN THE MAIL: The 5 Big Lies About American Business: Combating Smears Against the Free-Market Economy.

BEDBUGS CAUSING COUPLES TO BREAK UP: “Stacie Handwerker, a real estate attorney, said that one man asked her point blank if she had bed bugs in her apartment. If she said yes, her date would have ditched. He didn’t even ask her if she carried any sexually-transmitted diseases. ‘Well, a condom can’t protect you from bedbugs,’ Handwerker said.”

UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails: “Hmm, is it easier or harder to make DDT than methamphetamine in a home lab? Because once bedbugs start interfering with peoples’ sex lives, there’d be one hell of a black-market opportunity. Just sayin’.”

I’ve written about homemade DDT before.

JON STEWART’S WAR AGAINST PHOTOGRAPHY? “Rally to Resore Sanity” pledges to “strictly prohibit filming” at National Mall. “The claim that Comedy Central can prohibit filming on federal property during an event open to the public is completely wrong.”

But it’s revealing that they’d try. It’s really the Rally To Reassert The Failed Narrative. Plus, from the comments: “We smell their fear.”

UPDATE: Charlie Martin emails: “It’s pretty clear that ’sanity’ in this context means ’seeing and hearing what we think is good for you.’”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Cornell and Dartmouth Shame Students for Not Adding Their Real Money to the Ongoing Bonfire of Imaginary Money. “Fundraisers at Dartmouth and Cornell singled out students by name for failing to donate money to the universities.” Chutzpah. Plus this: “The single student from Dartmouth’s 1,123-student Class of 2010 who did not contribute this year was criticized in a column in the college newspaper and on a popular blog, which posted her name and photograph.”

And this: “Why would anyone with a normal human level of income give any money to these universities? Today’s endowments and their fluctuations exist in a budgetary fantasyland; from the schools’ point of view, individual gifts are literally worthless. It is like writing a check to the Department of Defense.”

And, from the comments: “Who was the holdout, and does she need a job? I like the cut of her jib.”

TUNKU VARADARAJAN TELLS JON STEWART FANS, “Sanity Is Overrated.”

PJTV: Talking to Steven Malanga about his new book, Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against The American Taxpayer. The interview’s on YouTube, so no registration is required.

DON’T GET COCKY. No, really, I mean that. Just sayin’ . . ..

JOSEPH CAO UPDATE: “Obama’s favorite Republican” is on the ropes. “Meanwhile, Obama didn’t let his past fondness for Cao interfere with his desire to elect a Democrat. The president personally recorded a TV spot on Richmond’s behalf.” Cao’s pro-ObamaCare vote left him with no friends.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “This is how the great post-partisan, post-racial, New Politics presidency ends – not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a desperate election-eve plea for ethnic retribution.”

MAKING BIRYANI in a rice cooker.

JOEL KOTKIN: Prosperity Index Shows That Democracy Still Works Best.

With the Cold War well behind us, the real choice between systems lies in a growing variation in the form of capitalisms. Choices now range from the Chinese Leninist model – essential centrally planned exploitation of the greed gene – to various kleptocracies, divergent Anglo-American systems and varied forms of European capitalism.

None of these systems are likely to excite the most rabid Hayekian, especially now that the once free market haven Hong Kong is being integrated into the Chinese command and control system. But still, according a new study by my colleagues at the Legatum Institute, when it comes to delivering the best economic environment for people and families various forms of liberal capitalism still perform best.

The Legatum Prosperity Index found that all the more prosperous places – not only by income, but by quality of life, environment, education and health care – almost exclusively are democratic states. “Prosperity,” the report concludes, “is found in entrepreneurial democracies that have strong social fabrics.”

Read the whole thing.

ERIC SCHEIE: NO GLOATING OVER A G.O.P. SWEEP: “A sweep is not a sweep until it has swept.”

Plus this: “I have been too busy campaigning to have buyer’s remorse. Sure, I have my usual complaints about Republicans, and as a libertarian I have my usual complaints about conservatism. But this time around, I feel so strongly about getting the Democrats out that rather than holding my nose and voting per my usual style, I am holding my nose while campaigning!”

MICKEY KAUS: How’s that Obama base-rousing strategy working out?

LOOKING FOR WAR ON TERROR NEWS? Check out Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg. And hit the tipjar if you’re so inclined.

WHY IS JULIAN ASSANGE STILL ALIVE? “I don’t expect the U.S. government to kill Assange, but I do expect them to try to stop him. As of now, the plan seems to be to do nothing at all.” Because he’s a useful tool.

RADIATION: When A Cancer Therapy Puts Others At Risk. “In 1997, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dropped a requirement that such patients be quarantined in the hospital. Instead, patients can be released right after their treatment, when they are at their most radioactive. And while most people go right home, one patient in New York boarded a bus for Atlantic City, N.J., and set off a radiation alarm in the Lincoln Tunnel.”

SPIRAL GALAXIES stripped bare.

A CORNUCOPIA OF Alaska Senate write-in candidates. Heh.

TRIBE, SOTOMAYOR, and Obama.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on flashlights.

POLITICO: 2012 Senate Looks Worse For Dems Than 2010.

ANSWERING TO OUR robot overlords.

ARE WE HAVING ANOTHER FOOD CRISIS? “The world food price index is at its highest since 2008, when food prices rocketed and millions of people suffered. This year the crisis seems to be happening again. Prices for the staple grains that underpin the world’s food supply soared after forecasts for the US and Chinese maize harvests fell in October, Pakistan lost its wheat to floods, and crop losses to drought and wildfire led Russia to ban grain exports until 2011. Food prices have soared in India, Egypt and elsewhere and are being blamed for riots in Mozambique.”

UPDATE: Reader Matthew Hennessy writes:

Inflation in food prices is explained by deleveraging: stuff you NEED to have that’s paid for in cash goes UP in price (inflation), while stuff you WANT to have that’s paid for with borrowed money goes DOWN in price (deflation).

Before asking about a food crisis, ask this: how much sugar/wheat/corn can you buy with an ounce of gold now vs. an ounce of gold 1, 2, or 5 years ago? If the amount is roughly the same, then you have your answer.

Hmm.

THAT’S MORE THAN MOST OF US CAN DO WHILE AWAKE: Sleeping Rover Finds Evidence of Liquid Water on Mars.

INSTAVISION: I talk with David Horowitz about his Academic Bill of Rights proposal, and his new book, Reforming Our Universities: The Campaign for an Academic Bill of Rights.

RICHARD POLLOCK: My Ordeal with Jon Stewart and His ‘Cone of Silence’ Event. “Interacting with Comedy Central over the upcoming Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity, or the March to Keep Fear Alive, or the This Is Not a Political Rally rally is much like trying to communicate with North Korea’s Kim Jong II.”

VIRGINIA: Red-light camera installed at accident-free location. “Albemarle County, Virginia plans this week to install its first red light camera system, ostensibly to reduce accidents caused by red light running. County documents show that at one of the two intersection approaches selected, there has not been a single accident caused by red light running in the past three years.” It’s all about the benjamins.

PERSONALLY, I LIKE THE THEORY THAT WE’RE LIVING IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION: Fermilab is Building a ‘Holometer’ to Determine Once and For All Whether Reality Is Just an Illusion. “The universe-as-hologram theory is predicated on the idea that spacetime is not perfectly smooth, but becomes discrete and pixelated as you zoom in further and further, like a low-res digital image. This idea isn’t novel; recent experiments in black-hole physics have offered evidence that this may be the case, and prominent physicists have proposed similar ideas. Under this theory, the universe actually exists in two dimensions and the third is an illusion produced by the intertwining of time and depth. But the false third dimension can’t be perceived as such, because nothing travels faster than light, so instruments can’t find its limits.”

SPACE HOTEL PROGRESS: Bigelow Aerospace Shows Off Bigger, Badder Space Real Estate.

FLIGHT RECORD SET by laser-powered helicopter.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

REASON TV: Where are the Jobs? The Parallels between Today and the Great Depression.

BILL WHITTLE on Natural Law.

A REPLACEMENT FOR MY HIGHLANDER HYBRID? 2011 Porsche Cayenne hybrid – with 21/25 mpg – goes on sale next month. Well, maybe if about 10,000 of you hit the PayPal button. . . . .

Meh. The mileage is only good compared to the non-hybrid Cayenne.

DOWN MEMORY LANE with Barney Frank.

HMM: Pancreatic Cancer Develops For 20 Years Before Killing. “Pancreatic cancer has long been viewed as a rapidly developing cancer because life expectancy from day of diagnosis is usually less than 3 years with 95% of those diagnosed dead within 5 years. But use of DNA sequencing technology has enabled researchers Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue, Bert Vogelstein, and evolutionary biologist Martin Nowak to determine that most pancreatic cancers [take] almost 20 years to develop enough to kill their victims. . . . Cancerous intestinal polyps are pretty easy to discover with colonoscopy. Unfortunately the pancreas isn’t as easy to inspect as the colon. But we need the ability to remove the pancreatic equivalents of colon polyps.”

RAND SIMBERG: YOU JUST MIGHT BE A MARXIST.

WELL, THAT’S ONE CURE FOR “RANGE ANXIETY:” Nissan Leaf road tour gets help from a diesel truck with 440V chargers.

CHANGE: CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION REPORT: “High-level” political officials interfered in NBPP case, forced withdrawal.

KATIE GRANJU: Hell freezes over: I defend Christine O’Donnell. “The obnoxious first person accounting from the anonymous asshat who says he went on a single date with her three years ago – and whom Gawker admits to paying ‘in the low four figures’ for the story and photos – actually tells the tame tale of a woman who DID NOT have sexual intercourse during what Gawker describes tantalizingly as a ‘one night stand.’” Yeah, everybody’s piling on this lame hitjob, all across the partisan divide. Nick Denton is a uniter, not a divider!

ROBOTS WITH GUNS.

IN THE MAIL: The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics.

POLIWOOD: A Nightmare in Poliwood: The Best Scary Movies of All Time.

UH OH: Social Security Cash Flow Deficit Worse Than Expected.

JOE PAPPALARDO: Wikileaks Provides Another Clue That Iranian Missiles Are In Iraq.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: “Part of any trip to Georgia getting the most out of local color: the food, the scenery, the Stalin Museum. But there’s another dimension to Georgia: geopolitics. Divided, occupied in part by Russian troops, Georgia is one of the world’s most at-risk countries and the shadow of new crises with Russia hangs over everything in the country.”

A VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH: University Of Virginia Repeals Its Speech Code. “I’m pleased to read from FIRE that my law school alma mater UVA has repealed its speech code and now has a Green rating from FIRE. UVA joins William & Mary, which already had a Green rating. I’m disappointed that I cannot say the same about George Mason, which still has a Red rating.”

THE HORROR: “Margarine Is My Nemesis.”

THE NEW REPUBLIC: Four Myths About The Tea Party.

A LOOK AT faculty political donations and where they go.

THOUGHTS ON THE RAND PAUL RALLY and attempts to assassinate Gerald Ford.

A NOVEL DEFENSE: MY CLIENT DIDN’T TAKE THE WHOLE BRIBE: HE ONLY TOOK A LITTLE! “The jury sitting in judgment of City Councilor Chuck Turner began deliberations yesterday after a final bizarre twist in the trial — the accused pol’s lawyer said in his closing remarks that his client took no more than $200 of an alleged $1,000 bribe, that FBI informant Ronald Wilburn pocketed the rest and that Turner never did anything for Wilburn.”

Somehow that reminds me of this: “‘We’re not going to break them,’ he added of colleges’ endowment funds. ‘We just want a little.’” They just want to wet their beaks a little. And then a little more.

NEVER-NEVER LAND: Elizabeth Warren has office at an agency she doesn’t work at.

GOOD GRIEF: Is Tuesday looking so bad that even Dennis Kucinich is an endangered species? Yeah, I got the plaintive email from Kucinich, too.

ERIC HOLDER WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: “Remember when Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was ridiculed for saying headless bodies were being found in the desert? Well, now they’re turning up in the Phoenix area. It’s curious how the Democrats aren’t running against her this election cycle. They obviously realize what a losing issue they support. Speaking of losers, has anyone seen Eric Holder lately?”

He was sighted at an awards dinner, I think.

READER KIM SOMMER WRITES: “Poll watching. Ubiquitous cameras. Remind ‘em.” Ok. Done!

Related: Voter Fraud Watch Video Exclusive: Poll Watcher Witnesses Misconduct in Houston. Plus, University of Texas at Brownsville asks faculty to end class early and walk students to vote.

And if you’re interested in reporting voting fraud, there’s an app for that.

UPDATE: Election complaint filed in Nevada.

WELL, ONE HOPES: GOP Insurgents May Disrupt Leaders’ Plans and Go Rogue.

Related item here.

TAXES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE (CONT’D): DNC Repeatedly Delinquent On Property Taxes.

The Democratic National Committee and the party’s private club in the nation’s capitol have been delinquent with tax payments on sixteen separate occasions over the last seven years, Pajamas Media has learned.

According to District of Columbia government records, since 2004 the Democrats’ main political committee and its National Democratic Club — an exclusive restaurant and hideaway on Capitol Hill where prominent Democrats and their guests dine — have been hit with fines and interest penalties in excess of $115,000 for failure to pay their property taxes on time.

They don’t pay taxes. They spend taxes.

MAKING FOOLS OF THEMSELVES: Syracuse’s Lords of Political Correctness Hunt Down Law Student Bloggers.

SCANDAL: DOJ Voting Section Deputy Chief Misled Civil Rights Commission on Black Panthers Case.

Reader C.J. Burch writes: “Don’t normal Americans get indicted for this type of thing? Miguel Tejada, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds did.” False statement laws, like taxes, are for the little people.

RASMUSSEN: Most Americans Say Tax Cuts Trump Increased Government Spending.

FREEDOM: Sheila Jackson Lee wants DOJ to monitor tea partiers at polls. “The King Street Patriots have also gone after Jackson Lee, saying Jackson Lee is asking for votes right outside polling places. They’re now inviting the Justice Department to come to its poll watching training meetings, saying they have nothing to hide.”

DOUBLING DOWN: Political-Class Republicans who backed Obama say they may vote for him again. “The Hill contacted 17 prominent Republicans and members of ‘Republicans for Obama’ groups that launched across the country two years ago. Most of them defended the president and indicated they might vote for him again in two years.” But is “Obamican” Robert Monk’s comparison of Obama to a chimpanzee playing a piano the kind of support Obama wants?

Then there’s Colin Powell, whose continued support is no surprise:

Colin Powell, who served as Bush’s secretary of State, recently said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I think he is a transformational figure. Some people don’t like what he’s done in transformation, and it’s caused him some difficulty.”

Yep. “Transformation” can come in all sorts of forms. Meanwhile, some people are just hunkering down:

Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of former President Dwight Eisenhower who spoke at the Democratic convention in 2008, declined to comment. Others who didn’t respond to The Hill’s request for comment included former Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), former Rep. Claudine Schneider (R-R.I.), White House intelligence adviser Rita Hauser and economist David Friedman.

How’s that hopey-changey stuff working for you guys?

IN ECUADOR, A WITCH HUNT? More like a purge.

ILLINOIS: Bobby Schilling Stops To Energize Supporters.

IRA STOLL: Vanguard Blogger Is Democratic Donor. “The Vanguard mutual fund official responsible for the pre-election Vanguard blog post crediting the Obama stimulus bill passed by Congressional Democrats with averting a second Great Depression has given $11,600 in campaign contributions over the past seven years — every last cent of it to Democrats.”

ANYBODY SEEN BILL AYERS LATELY? The FBI said on Thursday that it has linked a shooting at a Marine Corps recruiting station in a Virginia suburb outside the U.S. capital to two other shootings at the Pentagon and a Marine Corps museum.

THEY’RE ALREADY SAYING IT’LL BE A COLD WINTER: Russia’s Kamchatka volcanoes spew giant ash clouds.

JIM TREACHER: Keith Olbermann wants to save the world from rich white guys who can’t handle dissenting opinions.

“DUDE.”

GAWKER FAIL: Lefty gossip site somehow unites entire blogosphere behind Christine O’Donnell. “It’s not quite the entire blogosphere that’s cringing, but … it’s pretty close, including former Gawker editors, Media Matters fellows, and feminist bloggers. Even Donna Brazile has the dry heaves over it.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: L.A. Times on the Jon Stewart rally: “Nearly 225,000 people had RSVP’d on the event’s Facebook page as of Thursday morning.” “Why do journalists keep writing the RSVP number like that? Look at the Facebook page. The number who say they are attending is (currently) 10,019. 239,164 RSVP’d to say they are not attending. 112,812 say — are they just being polite? — they are “Maybe Attending.” Hey, me too. I’m maybe attending!“

CHANGE: FTC Drops Investigation of Google Less Than a Week After Company Exec Hosts Obama Fundraiser.

KEITH RICHARDS KNOCKED OFF by “online flash mob.”

DAVE KOPEL: Ronald Reagan, Extremist Collaborator.

THE STEWART/COLBERT RALLY: “‘Here we are now, entertain us’ was a great lyric for a song. As a political slogan, it is decidedly wanting.”

Related: “Once upon a time jesters courted kings. Now enfeebled kings court jesters.”