HAPPY SPUTNIKVERSARY!

DR. HOUSING BUBBLE: The reluctant California home seller – 35 percent of homes bought pre-2000 in California yet sellers still expect unrealistic prices. Market dominated by distressed properties of foreclosures and short sales. I still see a lot of unrealistic sellers around here, too. Plus this: “Ultimately the market can only support what local household incomes can adequately carry and if you haven’t been paying attention, the California economy isn’t exactly booming.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS (CONT’D): Why Are Women More Promiscuous Than Ever?

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: “Did Jesus Die For Klingons, Too?”

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE will request special counsel to investigate Eric Holder.

AT AMAZON, automotive tools & equipment.

JAMES LILEKS: Times Square to go Noir? “The most romantic visions of Times Square are black and white, but that doesn’t mean they’re noir. They’re real: the interplay between a million lights and a teeming street and the countless small storefronts, the dozens of buildings put up with no thought to a Grand Plan, only commerce, their variegated facades a reflection of the times that produced them and the teams that created them. In a way, it’s sad: the old Times Square motto was Look Up! Isn’t it glorious? We’re different now. Look down. We hope it reminds you of yesterday.”

THE DECLINE of conscription. “As of 1970, some 80% of the world’s governments used conscription, including the US and many of the democratic nations of Western Europe. By 2009, that had declined to 45%, and many of those nation that still have conscription have reduced the length of conscript’s terms and made it easier to escape the draft. Even France, the nation that first pioneered conscription in the 1790s, abolished it in 2001.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL: The U.S. Senate Slouches Toward A Trade War With China. Not smart.

HOW THE BRAIN MAKES MEMORIES: Rhythmically!

DAVID BARON, CALL YOUR OFFICE (CONT’D): Two mountain lions spotted on front lawn of Sierra Madre home.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Average taxpayers provide more in subsidies to elite public and private schools than to the less competitive schools where their own children are likely being educated.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Are online degrees “too convenient” to be valid?

FREAKING OUT: CBS Reporter Says White House Screamed At her Over Fast And Furious Reporting. “Well the DOJ woman was just yelling at me. The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. . . . Oh, the person screaming was [DOJ spokeswoman] Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House.”

Plus this: “They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I’m the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I’m unfair and biased by pursuing it.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: Adam Serwer doubles down on race after WaPo played its embarrassingly weak race card on Rick Perry.

Cain showed an insufficient concern about accuracy, to the point where Amanpour had to prompt him about the facts. He was helping WaPo propagate its meme about Perry, southerners, and racism. To give him a pass on that because he’s “a man with the living memory of what life was like for black people in the segregated South” — as Serwer put it — is patronizing. I doubt very much that Herman Cain wants that kind of special treatment. But, of course, it isn’t really any kind of caring concern for this man and his painful memories. It’s one more application of the template: Republicans have a race problem. Serwer is happy to perform that service. How’s that for postracial?

Or is “How’s that for postracial?” — Serwer’s question, above — a taunt only to be aimed at Republicans? Democrats want to keep playing the race card game, right? Oh, I don’t know. I seem to remember a presidential candidate back in 2008 making us feel that we were about to move into the postracial era. Was I only dreaming?

Apparently.

FASTER, PLEASE: Stem Cells For Myelin Made In Quantity.

MY CANDIDATE FOR BOOK OF THE YEAR: Iain Murray’s Stealing You Blind. It just fits the news so well, story after story . . . .

AN OVERWHELMINGLY WHITE CROWD at Occupy Wall Street.

UPDATE: Reader Dave Lange writes: “Danny Elfman’s phrase ‘middle class socialist brats’ seems appropriate.”

UNDERWHELMING: Hybrid Vehicle Sales Slip In September.

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERVIEWS BARBARA OAKLEY about her new book, Pathological Altruism.

COMING SOON: KaganGate?

LIVE-BLOGGING the iPhone 5 press conference.

VIDEO: F-35 makes first landing at sea. Aboard the U.S.S. Wasp.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “There is no sign that the legal market will improve. And even if it does, at many law schools one-out-of three or one-out-of four graduates will not get jobs as lawyers.”

I WONDER WHICH ARABS BRIBED WHICH OFFICIALS? European Union To Penalize “Ethical Oil:” “The European Union’s executive body will propose that oil extracted from sands should be treated as dirtier than conventional oil, a move that will inflame a spat with Canada, a major producer of oil from sands, an EU official familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The European Commission, which has executive powers within the EU, agreed Monday to set a higher value for carbon-dioxide emissions from tar sands compared with crude oil extracted from conventional wells, the official told The Wall Street Journal. This would discourage the use of oil from sands in Europe, where companies have an obligation to cut their CO2 emissions by 2020. To do so they will have to use the cleanest fuels. Monday’s decision is likely to deepen the EU’s dispute with Canada, which is negotiating a free trade agreement with the bloc and says such a provision discriminates against one of its key exports.” Am I too cynical?

UPDATE: Reader Robert Olemberg emails: “Suppose the Canadians were to levy a countervailing duty on EU products made using conflict oil?”