PATTERICO: How Important Is Your Vote? The Tale of the Slave.

KYLE SMITH: Inside The Plot Against The Middle Class: How a new class of entertainment and tech plutocrats, cheered on and abetted by a priesthood of media, government and academic elites, is impoverishing people like you.

It’s a review of Joel Kotkin’s important new book, which I highly recommend.

BUY A GUN: And Again: Fired Oklahoma City Nursing Home Worker Threatened Beheading. “His co-worker] said Muriithi identified himself as a Muslim and said he ‘represented ISIS and that ISIS kills Christians,’ the detective told a judge in the affidavit. . . . The woman said she asked him why they kill Christians and he replied, ‘This is just what we do,’ the detective reported.”

FRUITS OF THE WAR AGAINST THE TEA PARTY: Bill Quick not too sympathetic about the GOP’s money problems.

I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS: U.S. Troops Battling Ebola Get Off to Slow Start in Africa; Rare Military Effort Comes as Concerns Mount Over Epidemic’s Expansion.

Related: U.S. doctor exposed to Ebola arrives at NIH.

WELL, OKAY THEN: On the economy, POTUS says “the country is definitely better off than we were when I came into office.” But the people “don’t feel it.” Poor Obama. We keep disappointing him, in so many different ways.

ECO-HYPOCRISY: The Inconvenient Imagery of Leo DiCaprio’s Climate Speech at the UN: Luxury Yachts & Private Jets.

PROTESTER: “This Is Not Hong Kong Anymore!” (Video). A relatively free Hong Kong was useful to Beijing for 20 years or so. Now it’s more of a threat, by way of example.

OUT: President Obama is “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”

IN: Obama: Intel officials underestimated ISIS. When things go well, it’s always “I, me, mine” with this guy. When things go badly, it’s always “they” who screwed up.

Related: Former DHS chief: Obama made mistakes on ISIS.

IT’S POTEMKIN VILLAGES ALL THE WAY DOWN: Report: Green Party Candidate In Tennessee Hiring People To Infiltrate Social Media, Pose As Average Users, Push Agenda.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Today is the last day that Saturday morning cartoons aired on US broadcast TV.

YES, IT DOES: India’s Mars triumph signals a rising space power.

IMMIGRATION REFORM: “Canada is fed up with passport-holding citizens whose relation with the country is nothing but a piece of paper.”

CHIKUNGUNYA: New mosquito-borne virus spreads in Latin America.

Chikungunya is a word that comes from the Makonde language of Tanzania in eastern Africa and translates roughly as “that which bends up,” in reference to the severe arthritis-like ache in joints that causes sufferers to contort with pain. It’s usually accompanied by a spiking fever and headache. There have been only 113 deaths linked to the region’s outbreak, according to the most recent data, but chikungunya can be crippling.

Herman Slater, a 60-year-old gardener in Jamaica’s capital of Kingston, said he was laid out for almost two weeks this month with unimaginable joint pain, hammer-pounding headaches and fevers that came in waves.

“I tell you, I was surprised by how painful it was. It was taking me five minutes to get out of bed, and then I could hardly even walk,” Slater said. “My hands were so bad I couldn’t open a bottle, couldn’t comb my hair. Every night I was wet from sweat.”

In acute cases, pain can last for months. Joanna Rivas, who works as a maid in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, said she has had joint pain since May, and her 12-year-old daughter’s case is so severe the girl can’t hold her pen at school. Both have been taking the pain reliever acetaminophen, the main treatment for chikungunya, which has no cure or vaccine.

Bring back DDT.

FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES: The United States v. The Islamic State (and Global Warming).

BIG STUFF HAPPENING: Hong Kong Activists Defy Police Tear Gas As Protests Spread.

“YOUTH” IS “THE NEW BLACK.” Know who the press wants to be angry and motivated to vote, and who they don’t, and it will all make sense.

THE WHOLE POINT OF A TRAGEDY IS THAT IT OFFERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO CRACK DOWN ON TROUBLESOME MINORITIES: Sandy Hook Commission Calls For Government Crackdown On Homeschools. “The onerous new rules for homeschooling families somehow make sense in the minds of commission members because Adam Lanza massacred 20 young children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. in December 2012 — when he was 20 years old.”

This does not come as a surprise.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in Household Supplies.

Plus, Warehouse Deals on Shoes.

A HERO FOR OUR TIMES: Shawshank Husband: Plumber Dug Tunnel From Bedroom To Pub, Wife Never Suspected.

UPDATE: If you think the fact that he probably doesn’t actually exist makes him less of a hero for our times, then you haven’t been paying attention.

SHOULD YOU DO WEIGHTS BEFORE CARDIO?

SCIENCE: 9 Ugly Lessons About Sex From Big Data. It’s as if evolution and biology don’t care what you want, or what you want other people to want.

I REMEMBER WHEN LEFTIES SAID THEY WERE FOR NUANCE, AND AGAINST SIMPLISTIC MORALIZING: Liberal students attack speaker for saying sex assault allegations are complicated. That said, it’s kind of funny to see anarchists attacked by angry lefties.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Fate Of Free Speech.

What are the major threats to free speech today? Perhaps the overarching condition that threatens free speech is the spread of political correctness. This has sharply curtailed candor about all manner of contentious subjects. It is no longer possible, in polite society, to speak frankly about race, about differences between the sexes, or a hundred other topics — so-called “climate change,” for example, or the relationship between Islam and free speech.

It is extraordinary, is it not, that various Islamic groups, often with the collusion of Western politicians, including Hillary Clinton, are proposing to resurrect blasphemy laws , making it illegal — illegal — to “insult” Mohammed or criticize Islam? The end of their efforts is a “global censorship regime.” We’re not there yet, not quite, but we’re well on the road. One sign of the success of this campaign is the systematic reluctance of Western leaders to described Islamic terrorism as, well, Islamic terrorism.

It’s almost as if our leaders have been frightened, or bought off, or something.