COYOTES AREN’T DOGS, AND THEY DON’T CAT AROUND:  A new study by Ohio State researchers found that urban coyotes tracked over a 6-year period were 100% monogamous, never once messing around with anyone other than their mate. The scientists surmise that the fidelity is evolutionary, “Unlike the males of polygamous species, a male coyote ‘knows that every one of those pups is his offspring’ and has a clear genetic stake in helping them survive.”   Or maybe they’re just great guys.

ELITE v. GRASSROOT REPUBLICANS:  Ross Douthat has an interesting column in the New York Times exploring how the alleged dichotomy between the “elite” (0ld school) and “grassroots” (Tea Party) Republicans is real and 180 degrees from their positions during primary season.  Now, it seems the old-line conservatives (elites) are criticizing Romney for various gaffes and a lackluster campaign, while the Tea Party types (grassroots) are lining up dutifully and pragmatically to defend the Republican nominee.  To me, this highlights that there is still an ongoing battle for the soul of the Republican party, with the Tea Party votaries providing the energy and optimism essential to victory.  Old school Republican elites are beginning to remind me of Eeyore.

BOMBSHELL:  OBAMA’S POSSIBLE TIES TO ARAB WORLD DEEPENS:  A reporter for a paper called the Daily Interlake, Frank Miele, recently discovered a 1979 op-ed by Vernon Jarrett (the father-in-law to Obama Senior Advisor, confidant, Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett) in the St. Petersburg (FL) Evening Independent.  Miele reports the column addressed:

“rumored billions of dollars the oil-rich Arab nations are supposed to unload on American black leaders and minority institutions.” The columnist quoted a black San Francisco lawyer who said, “It’s not just a rumor. Aid will come from some of the Arab states.”

Well, if anyone would know, it would have been this lawyer — Donald Warden, who had helped defend OPEC in an antitrust suit that year and had developed significant ties with the Saudi royal family since becoming a Muslim and taking the name Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour.”

A-Mansour is a black nationalist, Muslim, and a lawyer to Saudi princes who has publicly professed his hatred of the U.S.  In a television interview in 2008, Percy Sutton (a prominent black political leader and former Manhattan borough president) told a reporter that Sutton was introduced to Obama by al-Mansour, who “was raising money for him [Obama]” and asked Sutton to write a letter in support of Obama’s application to Harvard Law School.  Sutton wrote the letter in support of Obama, and the rest is history.

So let’s get this straight:  Our President may have deep ties (personal and financial) not only to black nationalist extremists, but also wealthy Arabs who publicly floated the idea of financing, among other projects, the top-flight education of young black Americans who might (hopefully) one day share their hatred of America?

THE COMING BACON APOCALYPSE:  Yes, it’s true.  Brace yourself for the coming world bacon shortage.  Apparently pigs aren’t like rabbits, and they just ain’t havin’ enough babies no more.  But hey, there’s always Bac-O’-Bits, right?  Mmmmmm…. a nice filet, wrapped in Bac-O-Bits.  :)

SEX STRIKES & POLITICAL/LEGAL REFORM:   Geez, all this time I thought political and legal change required passion, commitment and sustained effort.  Turns out, as women in many African nations have recently discovered, all it takes is not putting out for a little while.   Feel the power, sisters!  LOL.

MORE HOPE & CHANGE!:   Median U.S. household income declined an additional 1.1% in August.  Since President Obama took office, the decline has been a staggering 8.2%.

EMPTY CHAIRS AND THE INTELLECTUAL EMPTINESS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:  So a guy in Colorado decides to pull an Eastwood and hang an empty plastic lawn chair in a tree.  Admittedly in bad taste because it evokes symbolism of lynchings.  And while the guy may be a real jerk (I don’t know), this is classic political speech fully protected by the First Amendment. In the chair owner’s words, “The current administration in Washington is an empty chair,” Jacobsen said. “They just aren’t doing their job for America.”   Now the progressive political correctness crowd is calling it “hate speech” and trying–in typical fashion–to bully him into taking it down.

OOPSY! POST-OBAMACARE HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS RISE DRAMATICALLY:   John Merline over at Investor’s Business Daily reports that the new Kaiser Family Foundation employee benefits survey reveals that employer-based health insurance premiums have risen a whopping 9.5% in 2011 and another 4.5% so far in 2012, due in large part to the insurance “reforms” of Obamacare such as mandatory coverage of kids to age 26, mandatory loss ratios of 85%+, mandatory free preventive care, etc.  So much for President Obama’s pledge to cut health insurance premiums by $2,500 in his first term.

Even worse news?  Premium increases will skyrocket in 2014, when the (most expensive) remainder of Obamacare health insurance “reforms” kick in, including the mandate to buy health insurance, elimination of annual and lifetime coverage caps, mandatory community rating bands and prohibition of the use of pre-existing conditions for underwriting.

NANNY BLOOMBERG AT IT AGAIN:  NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t satisfied with dictating what kind of oil your french fries soak in or how big your Big Gulp can be.  He’s at it again, now proposing to ban all junk food in the city’s public and private hospitals.  So if Mom is in the hospital for an operation, junior can’t be comforted with an ice cream.  Spouse battling an infection or cancer and your tummy rumbling at 4 pm?  No Snickers for you!   News flash, Mayor Bloomberg:  WE’RE ADULTS.

BOTTOM FEEDERS?   A New Zealand man recently presented himself at an emergency room to have an eel removed . . .  from his . . . arse.  Luckily, for the man, the extrication went smoothly.  According to this Huffington Post report, apparently this isn’t the first time an eel has been reported to have slithered to unusual nether regions.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING, PART II:  Eugene Volokh (guru of the Volokh Conspiracy), pointed out to me– correctly– that the Manhattan Institute’s study documenting the California exodus of 225,000 residents per year is more precisely described as “net domestic out-migration.”  Translated:  California’s population loss is “domestic,” meaning  American and foreign citizens who live in California pack up and move to another State.  The 225,000 figure does not include the continued in-migration to California of immigrants from foreign countries such as Mexico.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ (NOT!):  A recent study by the Manhattan Institute shows that California is no longer a magnet for Americans seeking a better life.  Instead, the Golden State is losing residents at the clip of 225,000 net loss per year– 3.4 million since 1990.  The exodus is fueled largely by a poor economic climate, population density, and the fiscal instability of state and local governments.

ELIZABETH WARREN: OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB!:  Progressive poster girl Elizabeth Warren not only has small image problems defending Traveler’s Insurance and a large mining corporation against claims of the “common man,” but she also apparently, um, actually doesn’t have a valid law license in Massachusetts, where she has been practicing law for years while a Harvard Law prof.  This isn’t just an oversight, folks:  Every lawyer knows you have to be licensed to practice law.  It’s chutzpah, arrogance, stupidity, or some combination thereof.  Whatever it is, it isn’t the kind of character worthy of a potential U.S. Senator.

CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES (CLS), WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION, AND HATRED OF THE CONSTITUTION:  Here’s a great essay by Paul Roderick Gregory at Forbes.com about the wealth redistribution agenda of progressives–the legal iteration of which is embodied in Critical Legal Studies–and its worldview that the U.S. Constitution is inherently “flawed” because it doesn’t protect “positive” rights that redistribute wealth, such as health care, housing, education and economic security.  Oh, and BTW:  The old USSR constitution contained these juicy “positive rights.”  Yeah, er, um…. THAT worked!

WHO’S AFRAID OF AYN RAND?  Paul Ryan, apparently.  He’s now back-walking some of his 2005 remarks to the Atlas Society about Social Security and Medicare.  Who wants to bet all these progressives who shudder at the mention of Rand have never read any of her work?  LOL.

NEW VERB:  TO BE “CHICK-FIL-Aed”:  William McGurn astutely observes that the continuing saga of Chick-Fil-A’s skirmish with gay rights’ forces isn’t a political fight about a controversial topic, but instead part of a larger progressive agenda to silence all opposing views.   There’s one small problem that I see with the attempt to vilify CFA:  their sandwiches–oh, the essence of pickle!– are divine.

THE 10 PERCENT PRESIDENT:   This is shaping up to be an election of percentages:  99% (Occupy Wall Street); 47% (Mitt Romney), and now, in a brilliant editorial by the WSJ, 10% (Barack Obama).  In an upcoming 60 Minutes interview of the President by Steve Croft, who pointed out that the national debt has soared 60% under Obama’s watch, received this response from Mr. Obama:

 “Well, first of all, Steve, I think it’s important to understand the context here,” Mr. Obama replied. Fair enough, so here’s his context in full, with our own annotation and translation below:

“When I came into office, I inherited the biggest deficit in our history. And over the last four years, the deficit has gone up, but 90% of that is as a consequence of two wars that weren’t paid for, as a consequence of tax cuts that weren’t paid for, a prescription drug plan that was not paid for, and then the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

“Now we took some emergency actions, but that accounts for about 10% of this increase in the deficit, and we have actually seen the federal government grow at a slower pace than at any time since Dwight Eisenhower, in fact, substantially lower than the federal government grew under either Ronald Reagan or George Bush.“

In a series of 7 “footnotes,” the WSJ editors then rip apart Obama’s response line by line.  A classic, must read.

WILL OBAMA FREE THE BLIND SHEIK?  Former AG Michael Mukasey notes that the Obama Administration’s responses to press inquiries– yes, actually press inquiries by the MSM! [insert happy dance here]– are equivocal at best:

The State Department’s spokesperson last week, after the ceremonial “let me be clear,” said that there had been no approach on this topic “recently” from any “senior” official of the Egyptian government—an elucidation laden with ambiguity and certain to send chills up the spine of anyone familiar with Abdel Rahman’s record and President Morsi’s inclinations.

All of this plays out in the context of an Obama administration that hasn’t hesitated to employ executive orders to get around Congress, led by a president who was caught on a “hot mike” assuring Russia’s leaders that if he wins re-election he will have more “flexibility” to accommodate Russian demands that the U.S. curtail missile defense in Europe.

It appears that the only course open now is for Congress to demand an unequivocal statement from the State Department and the White House that the U.S. will not transfer or release Abdel Rahman under any circumstances. Absent such assurance, it may be time for Congress to make clear that such a transfer or release could be considered the kind of gross betrayal of public trust that would justify removal from high office.

And of course the real reason for the murder of the US ambassador to Libya and assaults on US installations worldwide isn’t some lame Muhammed video, but raw anti-Americanism and a concerted effort to free the Sheik.

THE TERROR OF EXTRADITION, OR THE EXTRADITION OF TERRORISTS:  The BBC is reporting that the European Court of Human Rights has greenlighted extradition from the UK to the US of wanted terrorists Abu Hamza and Babar Ahmad.  Both had argued that they should not be extradited because the US would torture them.

WATCH OUT, GEORGE JETSON: AUTOPILOT CARS ARE COMING:  From the Wall Street Journal, Dan Neil tells us why having a “driverless” car is in your future, and why it’s a good thing.  I don’t know about you, but I actually like driving.  Neil’s point:

“If autonomy were fully implemented today, there would be roughly 100 million Americans sitting in their cars and trucks tomorrow, by themselves, with time on their hands. It would be, from an economist’s point of view, the Pennsylvania oil fields of man-hours, a beautiful gusher, a bonanza of reverie washing upon our shores.”

Neil thinks we’d use all the extra time to engage in substantive work.  I think he is a bit idealistic:  Think of all the texting, online shopping and blogging we could do!

YOU STINK! (BUT NOT TO A PSYCHOPATH):  A new study suggests that individuals with self-reported psychopathic traits– lack of empathy, manipulative, criminal tendencies– have a harder time than others distinguishing between distinct smells such as coffee, orange, and leather.  Time to break out those blindfolds and have a little fun!

I HAVE A DREAM! (NAH, NEVERMIND):  Robert Samuelson’s latest column at the Washington Post asserts that the American Dream is dead.  Samuelson correctly points out that low-income children are likely  to graduate high school (if at all) with very low grade point averages, poor standardized test scores and other disadvantages such as parents who have served time.  He then concludes,

“Government has only limited power to offset these disadvantages. The appeal of the American Dream is that it’s disconnected from nasty facts and choices. It’s a slogan that shouldn’t survive — but will endure precisely because it’s an exercise in make-believe.”

Samuelson is right about government having limited power to correct these facts. But here’s where Samuelson is wrong:  The American Dream is an “exercise in make-believe” only for those who do not believe and work hard to take advantage of its abundant opportunity.  President Barack Obama is a shining example of this– the supposedly low income, son of an immigrant, mixed race boy grows up to be President of the United States.  A Horatio Alger story if there ever was one, but far from the last.

COMETH THE REVOLUTION?  Yet another billionaire– Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater– tells the mainstream media that he’s concerned about “social disruptions” that could be triggered by additional economic downturns.  He reminds us that dictators/tyrants/totalitarian regimes are generally preceded by social unrest– often poor vs. rich–preceded by a bad economy.  But nah, this could never happen in the U.S., right?

THE VIDEO MADE THEM DO IT– JUST KIDDING!  Stephen Hayes over at the Weekly Standard hits the nail on the head, asserting that for over a week the Obama Administration insisted the attacks on American installations were “spontaneous” outbursts against a stupid Mohammed video on YouTube.  He concludes:

So we are left with this: Four Americans were killed in a premeditated terrorist attack on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, and for more than a week the Obama administration misled the country about what happened.

This isn’t just a problem. It’s a scandal.

Yet unsurprisingly, the bulk of the lamestream media doesn’t seem to care.

POPCORN LUNG???? REALLY????  Apparently so.  A jury in Colorado late last week awarded a staggering $7.2 million against a microwave popcorn manufacturer and grocery store, as remedy for “popcorn lung“–a rare bronchial lung disease apparently caused by inhaling that yummy fake butter smell.  Guess it’s time to break out the old pan and oil again and do it the old fashioned way.  Real butter is better anyway!