AT AMAZON, a whole bunch of coupons.

JOEL KOTKIN: Illinois Is In Big Trouble.

#OCCUPYFAIL: “Let it sink in: Their protests now need rape shelters. This is actually happening. And New York City lets it go on. . . . This can’t be repeated enough: With a few exceptions, foremost among them the New York Post, the coverage of OWS protests compared to the coverage of tea-party protests is the worst media double standard in recent history. Nothing compares, because nothing else involves this much distortion on both ends of the coverage.”

UPDATE: A roundup.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Rampaging Occupiers Attack 78-Year-Old Woman.

MORE: Reader Joel Mackey writes: “The media reaction to Abu Ghraib vs. their blind eyes in Zucotti Park say more than their hours of broadcast, or drums of ink ever could. The fourth estate’s value has fallen further than a Las Vegas McMansion.”

ARIZONA: Union tries to fire trustee who asked to audit taxpayer funded account. “This incident takes place in Phoenix, Arizona at the offices of AFSCME Local 2960, where one of their trustees – charged with monitoring the prudent spending of union funds – apparently exercised the poor judgement to ask if she should be auditing where some of that money goes, specifically in the handling of a large insurance fund.”

ANDREW CUOMO: “You are kidding yourself if you think you can be one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, have a reputation for being anti-business — and have a rosy economic future.”

AT AMAZON, up to 50% off men’s & women’s contemporary clothing.

ROGER SIMON: A night at the Los Angeles Public Library. “Naive me — I had assumed that regardless of political stripe most people in the US of A regarded the downfall of the Soviet Union as a plus.”

THIS MUST BE MORE OF THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WE WERE PROMISED: Obama’s Sarkozy remark offends French. “Obama thought he was making a gentle joke about Mr. Sarkozy, host of the summit, when he congratulated Mr. Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni on the birth of their baby daughter on Oct. 19. Instead, Mr. Obama caused a minor international incident.”

IT’S ABOUT TIME: An Outbreak Of Equality In Wisconsin.

THOUGHTS ON GEOGRAPHY AND POLITICS: “Why is it that the bigger the city, the slimier the mayor? Look at the big three: Bloomberg, Villaraigosa, and Tiny Dance… er, Rahm Emanuel. Is there one of these people that you’d buy a used car from? That you’d trust to hold your wallet while you jumped in the water to save a drowning kitten*? That strikes you as competent enough to sweep your driveway without you checking up on him every five minutes to make sure he hadn’t boosted your broom or subcontracted the job out to your kid?”

DID FEDS’ USE OF A FAKE CELL TOWER CONSTITUTE A SEARCH? Yes.

IF YOU’RE THINKING OF STOCKING UP ON PEANUT BUTTER it’s still cheap at Amazon. At least, it was about double this price when I was at Target last night. They were asking $6.99 for a jar. We don’t buy much peanut butter, but that seemed awfully high. More here.

UPDATE: Reader John Marcoux writes: “We were tipped to the peanut butter price rise by Mormon friends in Memphis. Stocked up at Costco.” Yeah, I can see where they’d be up on this kind of news. Here’s a news story on skyrocketing peanut butter prices. “The J.M. Smucker Co. recently announced plans to increase its wholesale prices for Jif peanut butter by 30 percent this month and Kraft Foods Co. raised prices on Planters peanut butter 40 percent on Monday, according to the Associated Press.”

68 YEARS AGO YESTERDAY: First continuously operating reactor goes critical.

IS THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE BACKING ERIC HOLDER? “This makes me wonder what they were promised by the Administration in return for their support.”

WOMEN WHO RAPED 17 MEN WANTED MORE THAN SEX.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: What Federal Loans Do for Law Students and Law Schools.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Chaos In DC: Occupy Protest Turns Violent.

UPDATE: With rape and sexual harassment a problem, separate women-only tents set up at Zuccotti. “The large, metal-framed ‘safety tent’ — which will be guarded by an all-female patrol — can accommodate as many as 18 people and will be used during the day for women-only meetings, said Occupy Wall Street organizers.”

This is proceeding like a parody written by Norman Spinrad and P.J. O’Rourke.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Union-backed Occupy Chicago thugs interrupt Scott Walker speech. Ann Althouse comments:

The rudeness is sickening. I don’t understand how the protesters imagine that they will win support from anyone that way. They do seem driven to preventing Walker from ever speaking, but in fact, he did speak after they left. He said:

“The bottom line is, no matter how loud you shout, the facts are the facts. The facts are that our reforms have worked and continue to work in the state of Wisconsin.”

It only makes him look better.

Indeed. Plus, in the comments: “They are the argument against themselves. They sound and look ugly and scary. It’s not a good protest. It is lacking in charm. The only way they can begin to look good is if someone gets physical or nasty against them, which they would then catch on camera and edit and post.” They keep this up, and even that’s not going to help.

MORE: Ray Patnaude emails: “My wife and I were at the AFP dinner. Some info on the AFP member who was pushed down the stairs by the protestors… she is the second woman the police are helping up in the Daily Caller video. Her name is Dolores Broderson, age 78. She rode on a bus for 11 hours from Detroit to get there. She went to the emergency room with a bloody nose and bruises on her hand and leg.”

STILL MORE: Reader Glenn Gallup writes: “The reason these guys use violence to try to silence their opponents is because they know Brian and Scott and whoever on CNN and all the press guys have their backs. And nobody in the Administration is going to do anything about it either. They think they are going to win.” They’re sadly mistaken.

Related: Fear Of Violence Spreading To OccupySeattle.

MORE STILL: Reader John MacDonald writes:

When the green movement in Iran protested , Obama didn’t tell the regime to get out of town like he told Mubarek & Gaddafi.

The Community Organizer in Chief didn’t tell the protesters to go home.In the past he’s used phrases like ‘ get in their faces” and never let a crisis go to waste (Rahmbo).You’re dealing with people that know exactly what they are doing and which buttons to push while wondering around like Mr. Magoo …and trying not to leave fingerprints.

The end justifies the means…so they’ll be ramping up for 2012. The sooner the Tea Party and independents know who they are dealing with and their objectives the better. Sept of 2012 is too late to figure out what’s really going on.

Indeed.

ZIPCAR IS now profitable.

ANTI-VACCINE CRAZINESS: Genius Parents Are Organizing ‘Pox Parties’ on Facebook. “CBS 5 KPHO in Phoenix reported on the extremely gross, not to mention dangerous, shipping of infected lollipops, Q-tips and rags enclosed in nothing more than a zip lock baggie and an envelope. Which means that these irrational mothers, who despite gobs of research that says vaccines are not associated with Autism (which is often the reason parents give for not vaccinating, though some kids might be allergic), are endangering anyone who might come in contact with the infectious contraband.”

Related: Confirmed Whooping Cough Cases In Bozeman Nearly Double In 24 Hour Span.

INDEED: Expensive Urban Real Estate Is A Consumption Choice.

MASSIVE SOLAR FLARE MISSES, this time. “What I find fascinating about Thursday’s eruption is that even though scientists saw it and recognized its power immediately, the rest of us were oblivious to it. The flare was ignored by the media.”

#OCCUPYHOLLYWOOD: REX MURPHY: Forget Wall Street, Occupy Hollywood. This seems to be a groundswell.

I GUESS THEY REALLY ARE TAKING TAHRIR SQUARE AS THEIR MODEL: Female Reporter Harassed at #Occupy Protest. “I actually don’t feel safe going back to those protests. . . . I actually did not feel comfortable, because at one point there were a whole group of men surrounding me saying, ‘F—Michelle Fields.’ And I went to a police officer and I told him that I felt these people were harassing me. And the police officer said he’d take care of it, but it never ended.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Blue San Francisco Plans To Stiff The Unions. Nobody can afford those public pensions any more, I guess.