MICKEY KAUS: “There’s a $1.6 trillion deficit but the feds are still hiring.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Opponents of Gun-Free Zones at Universities Find Unlikely Hero in Nevada Woman.

Across the country, lawmakers are debating whether universities should let students and faculty with permits carry their concealed weapon on campus. Those who want to put an end to such gun-free zones have found an unlikely hero in a petite, soft spoken, young woman who wonders why colleges protect most Constitutional rights, but not the one that matters most when staring into the face of a violent criminal.

Amanda Collins, 25, is a wife and new mom, and a concealed weapon permit holder for years. At her father’s law office in Reno, she showed us the 9-mm Glock she carries for her safety.

“It’s got a pretty standard magazine,” she said, “and night sights so you can see in the dark when you’re aiming.”

However, Collins couldn’t aim her gun at the serial rapist who attacked her at the University of Nevada at Reno, where she was a student. That’s because, like most public colleges outside of Utah and Colorado, UNR is a “gun free” zone. The rule required her to leave her gun at home, leaving her defenseless the one time she needed its protection most.

Read the whole thing.

AFTER I WENT TO BED LAST NIGHT, Congress struck a budget deal.

Related: Boehner Wins Big.

As Boehner himself repeated throughout this debate, “Republicans control just one-half of one-third of the federal government.” And yet look out the outcome. Perhaps more significant than the $38.5 billion in cuts, which Boehner told members was “the best deal we could get,” are the political implications as both side prepare to tackle the bigger spending issues. “We’ve changed the conversation,” said freshman Rep. Tim Griffin (R., Ark.). “This year we’re talking about how much we’re going to reduce — cut — and that’s a major cultural shift in a matter of months.”

Indeed, Harry’s Reid dramatic shift on spending cuts — from denouncing the initial GOP offer ($32 billion) as “draconian” and “unworkable,” to celebrating a $38.5 billion spending cut as “historic” — is remarkable in and of itself. Also telling was the way that Democrats artificially inflated the amount of cuts being offered. (At least they care enough about the political sensibilities of American voters to lie to them about it).

Heh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Peter Ingemi: “In terms of the Tea Party Agenda this is an important change; culturally the ‘idea’ of these cuts is huge and it’s just the beginning, particularly when we see so many democrats forced to give lip service to them.” Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.

But Stacy McCain is not so happy.

VIDEO: Oddly enough, new celebrity Planned Parenthood ad doesn’t mention abortion.

Don’t run away from the issue, Planned Parenthood. Own it!

Heck, I’m even willing to stand up to Mary Katharine Ham’s fashion criticism.

UPDATE: Dana Loesch on Facebook: “If you expect people to pay for your ‘family planning’ you are inviting Uncle Sam into your bedroom. And he’s a pervert.”

REPORT: Oprah Won’t Endorse Obama In 2012.

CHANGE: Coming to bars across DC: Top 10 ‘government shutdown pick-up lines’.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on camp knives and tools.

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON: “It’s time DC told the Congress to go straight to hell.” Don Surber comments: “The feeling should be mutual, lady.”

When I was a student at Yale Law, she was held up as a Great Thinker and Moral Role Model. I saw the video of her on this and she looked like an angry ignoramus. How are the mighty fallen. Or, perhaps, revealed to be as they always were. . . .

LIBYA: The Rebels Are Unimpressed.

OPEN SECRET: Planned Parenthood turns tax dollars into donations to Democrats. “It has everything to do with the Democrats’ political health. They would be voting to cut off their own campaign cash, pried from the hands of taxpayers.”

MICKEY KAUS: The Opposite Of A Smoking Gun In Wisconsin.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

WIND POWER: Even Worse Than You Thought: “A new analysis of wind energy supplied to the UK National Grid in recent years has shown that wind farms produce significantly less electricity than had been thought, and that they cause more problems for the Grid than had been believed.” Oh, goody. Plus this: “High electricity prices worsen the case for electric transport, electric heating and electric industry, so there are reasons to dislike windfarms even from a carbon-emissions point of view. There would be little point going to partially-wind electricity if the effect is to drive people more and more into using fossil fuels wherever possible. But that’s the way we’re headed.”

L.A. TIMES: Now, Obama is warning Syria about deadly violence. They told me if I voted for John McCain, we’d have a blowhard in the White House who’d go around threatening dictators indiscriminately. And they were right!

QUITTING THE SMARTPHONE MAY PRODUCE Gadget Withdrawal.

CHANGE — AND HOPE: “Whether the government shuts down or not, here’s the big takeaway from all of this: We are currently debating how much to cut rather than debating whether or not to cut.”

SILICON VALLEY BOOMING? Investors Not Buying It. “In truth there are reasons to worry. For starters, growth in IT spending continues to decelerate steadily. In the 1970s IT outlays grew on average 15% a year. In the 1980s annual growth slipped to 13.1%; in the 1990s, 10.8%. In the 2000s, in the period between the bubbles–2003 to 2008–growth was around 10%. This year, according to Gartner, spending should grow less than 6%.”

I’M WATCHING BILL O’REILLY TALK WITH REP. PETER ROSKAM ABOUT THE SHUTDOWN, and O’Reilly is being dumber than usual, acting as if the only thing this is about is a couple of billion dollars’ difference in spending levels.

CONDITION ONE: An iPad photojournalism app.

P.J. O’ROURKE reviews Amy Chua’s book.

STUDY: Smartphones Can Really Improve Public Transit. “The point is for transit agencies to provide enough information to put riders in control of their experience and have greater choice in when and where to ride. People don’t want to feel they are at the mercy of paper schedules, even if they are, and there’s nothing worse than waiting for buses that may or may not be on time.”

DON’T LET YOUR IPHONE see you naked.

TAXING THE RICH: The math just doesn’t work. But as we’ve seen, Obama and the dems seem deep in the grip of innumeracy — or, alternatively, they hope the voters are.

WHO KILLED THE DEEP SPACE CLIMATE OBSERVATORY: “Nearly a decade ago, NASA built an Earth-monitoring satellite that could have observed global warming in action. Then the agency stashed it in a warehouse in Maryland, where it remains to this day.”

JOHN GLENN ON the future of space.