Sleepless in Midland

Fox Friday 10-31-14 -- a recent arrival gets a name

Welcome to this week's Fox Friday, a collection of the best urban fox photos snapped in the last seven days at the Bone Yard hidden somewhere deep in the heart of Midland, Texas. Let's get started.

The foxes look so similar it's difficult to tell them apart. However, a distinguishing characteristic seems to be the way they hold their tails. Old Crooked Tail is a regular, but it's time to give a more recent arrival a name.

Meet "Question," so named because her tail looks like a question mark.

Old Crooked Tail give the "All clear" to Question whose eyes we see glowing on the left.

Question gives us a closeup.

Here they are together. That's Old Crooked Tail in the foreground and Question in the background. They both have a tail bend, but the difference is the location of the bend.

Here they are again a couple of nights later.

There's still the problem of the feral cats. One cat in particular gets to the food first and gobbles most of it up before the foxes get there, but fortunately, the foxes keep coming back for the cat's leftovers. 

That's all for this Fox Friday.  See ya next time.

P.S.  Happy Halloween!

Updated November 1. It is with great sadness that I report that one of our beloved foxes died last night. The mean streets of Midland are no match for a naive country fox trying to adapt to life in a city with unforgiving late night drivers demanding the right of way. Old Crooked Tail appeared all alone in last night's photos. The deceased fox was so mangled that it was impossible to identify, but I believe the victim was Question.

Hillary taps fat cats for funds while appealing to far left

The Clintons have been friends with Wall Street for ages, and the Clintons are now tapping that source of funds to finance Hillary's campaign as well as fatten the Clinton nest egg. The Wall Streeters are motivated by the need to insure their own protection as a wave of populism takes over the Democrat base.

To this group of Democrat voters, corporations, businesses and bosses are selfish meanies who are too stingy to share the wealth with the workers who made them what they are. Obama and Elizabeth Warren know this voting bloc well, and they're good at telling them what they want to hear.

This brings us to Charles Gasparino's article, The new new Democrats — Hillary fans beware. He describes those new new Democrats as follows:

For these Dems, the fulcrum isn’t the “radical middle” successfully sought out by Hillary’s husband, President Bill Clinton, in the 1990s, but an array of radical interest groups, public-employee unions, environmentalists and other assorted dingbats, joined in support of extremist policies and politics.

The details of their credo are as stupid as Hillary’s comment: Small businesses can easily pay for big hikes in the minimum wage; large corporations are keeping money and hiring overseas because they’re simply unpatriotic (it has nothing to do with high US corporate taxes); ObamaCare is working great.

The Wall Street fat cats think they're buying exemptions with their donations and speaking fees. But Gasparino cautions them to beware. Hillary will have issued a lot of IOUs to extremist groups before it's all over. And the Obama/Warren school of economic thought will be hard for Hillary to counter should she become president.

Another reason why people don't trust main stream media -- they buried Hillary's dumb remark about job creation

It was right up there with Obama's "You didn't build that." Hillary paraphrased it somewhat with, “Don’t let anybody tell you that, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.”

But here's the thing: The main stream media declined to report it. When a Republican makes a gaffe they're all over it, but they seem to be covering for Hillary. In Hillary Clinton Flunks Economics Newsbusters gives us a list of the media outlets that ignored it, or in the case of New York Times, buried it deep in the paper. Newsbusters close with this observation:

The people who complain that our news media consumption is too “polarized” -- and their assumption that conservatives depend too much on alternative media – fail to acknowledge how our traditional "news" media are consistently burying Democrat gaffes they don’t want anyone to hear about. When Hillary says something stupid, they want it to be just like that metaphorical tree that falls silently in the forest. Peace and quiet is comforting.

What a shame. And what an insult to the consumers when the main stream media spoon feed them only what the media minders want them to know.

Carol Costello's ridicule of Bristol Palin -- her sin was doing it so openly

When Carol Costello went bananas over the audio recording of the Palin girl's complaints about being assaulted it was telling. Costello didn't just snap, it was premeditated. One has to assume that her mindset is quite typical of the people on the left, people who felt so smug bashing Sarah Palin and her family in 2008 in order to get Obama elected.

Costello knew her audience. And the complaints didn't come from them. That audience was quite content with a spokesperson willing to get out in public expressing their own feelings -- contempt so fluid it drools from their chins. They just needed a little confirmation every once in a while by someone in a position of media power so they know it's still OK.

And yet they try to accuse political opponents of waging a war on women. What a farce. It would make a great sitcom if these minions weren't leading us all down the road to serfdom.

Sharyl Attkisson got a raw deal from CBS and the people suffered for it

This has got to be one of the worst MSM cover ups since CNN squelched coverage of Saddam Hussein's atrocities in the run up to the war in Iraq.

Fortunately, Sharyl Attkisson didn't shut up and go quietly, and she's out selling her new book, "Stonewalled." Here's a taste from Daily Mail:

Eric Schultz, part of the Obama press team, reportedly yelled at her when she pressed him about the scandal over the ATF's gunwalking scheme called Operation Fast and Furious.

'Goddammit, Sharyl!' he shouted. 'The Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, The New York Times is reasonable. You’re the only one who’s not reasonable!'

"Not reasonable" apparently meant not helping smother the uncomfortable facts. It's almost like a fanatical cult. A nonbeliever is out there blaspheming their religion, but fortunately, their rules of conduct forbid them from beheading her.

Meanwhile, in case anyone wonders what would happen if Watergate happened today, here's Dailysignal.com quoting Attkisson:

The investigative reporter and author  of the book “Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth in Obama’s Washington,”  said Nixon likely would refuse to turn over the tape recordings of his Oval Office conversations to Congress, aides would refuse to testify before congressional investigators or plead the Fifth, and journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward — the Washington Post reporters who broke the story of Watergate — would be “controversialized” on social media by special and political interests.

There should have been a caveat. Nixon was a Republican, so the same thing would likely happen today as happened then. It's Democrats who get handled with kids' gloves.

Updated 10/28/14: CBS stonewalled reporters who asked for response to Attkisson's allegations.

Morning paper mourning over voters unable to produce ID

The morning paper published an article in the print edition the other day from New York Times' partner, Texas Tribune, titled Analysis: A Missing Piece in the Voter ID Debate in which Ross Ramsey says that a half million Texas registered voters "did not have the credentials needed to cast ballots under the new requirement."

The requirements do present a roadblock to those without the underlying documentation. I know that first hand from having helped an elderly individual whose driver's license had expired get a Texas photo ID. But we got it. And there are bound to be others in that category. But half a million? That seems like a stretch.

So maybe there's something missing from the Tribune article. Specifically, how many of those registered voters are actually U.S. citizens?

In the state of Texas a juror must be a U.S. citizen. It's possible that many non-citizens get called for jury duty, and therefore, before a jury panel is selected all the prospective jurors are invited to go tell the judge if they are ineligible, non-citizenship being one of the accepted excuses. It's their responsibility to report their ineligibility to the judge. But the fact that this procedure is part of jury duty tells us there must have been many instances in which in non-citizens got called in for jury duty. That tells us that the government records haven't weeded them out. Could they have gotten the jury summons because they were registered voters?

WashingtonPost.com may have an answer. See Could non-citizens decide the November election? There, Jesse Richman and David Earnest provided some educated speculation that non-citizen voters, who generally vote Democrat, could have swayed some close elections.

So before dumping the Texas voter ID laws based on what the Texas Tribune reports, let's add a step and ascertain whether those people without IDs are American citizens.

Ya gotta love an optimist like Larry Kudlow

I used to enjoy his TV show on CNBC before it ended. But he's still around and still the optimist. Here's one of his latest missives at Washingtonexaminer.com: The optimistic GOP story everyone is missing. What they're missing is this:

The idea that nothing much will change if the GOP captures the whole Congress is just plain wrong. The politics and policies in Washington are about to change in a major way.

Obama may still be president. But he is going to be immediately confronted with a flood of new bills that will change the debate on tax reform, energy, health care, education, international trade and regulations. ...

Obama's head will spin with all the new paperwork on his desk. He may even have to cut back on his golf game.

Of course, because of his left-wing ideology, Obama may veto everything. But if he does, he's setting up a new Republican agenda for the 2016 presidential race. Either Hillary Clinton completely jumps the Obama ship, or she's pulled way left by the Democratic party's Bill de Blasio/Elizabeth Warren/Sandinista wing. Either way she's in trouble.

So is a Republican win in the Senate a done deal? We should wait til the votes are counted -- Obama's minions have a way of pulling votes out of the woodwork in close elections. But if Republicans do win then maybe, just maybe, they can slow down the momentum toward socialism and steer the country toward a smaller government with fewer regulations and an honest tax system.

Hey, I'm an optimist too! It will happen!

Bowling for Ebola

Dr. Craig Spencer is the Ebola carrying doctor who returned to the U.S. and went bowling. Here's what dailymail.co.uk reported:

New York's Ebola-stricken doctor was told by the charity that he worked for that he did not have to self-quarantine after returning from an Ebola-ravaged country

Dr Craig Spencer returned to the U.S. on October 17 from Ebola 'hot zone' Guinea where he was treating patients with non-profit group, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Not such good advice.

Meanwhile, the CDC had the job of warning people about Ebola without inspiring panic. So what did they do? Here's Alex Berezow of USAToday.com:

Likely aware of this, the CDC chose the worst possible action: In an effort to keep the public calm, the CDC pretended to know more about Ebola than it actually does.

Way to diminish your credibility, CDC. You're right up there with the IRS, the ATF, the VA and Obamacare. The pattern of government agency competence seems to be that they perform adequately until they're tested or tempted.

By the way, Doctors Without Borders, in spite of the bad advice given to Dr. Spencer, has provided a good lesson. Nations need borders.

Coming in the future: Patients Without Borders -- organization with the goal of moving infectious disease ridden people from third world countries to more prosperous countries where they would presumably get better treatment. Past achievements include importing thousands of undocumented minors from Central America to the U.S. where they've been welcomed and injected into local school systems. Many of them were disease free.

Fox Friday 10-24-14 -- using tails to identify

Welcome to Fox Friday, the weekly collection of the best photos of urban foxes from the previous seven days at the Bone Yard, an undisclosed feeding station in the heart of Midland, Texas.

The foxes look so similar it's difficult to distinguish them except for the tails. Their tails are so long they have to work to keep them off the ground. So maybe the tail position is a useful way to tell them apart. Or it could be the same fox coming around each night fooling me with a different tail position.

Saturday night -- This one holds her tail straight.

Tuesday night -- Now look at this crooked tail held high. It's like a question mark.

Thursday night -- This one looks like an "S."

So were these all the same fox? Could be. If so, I'm glad she keeps coming back.

That's all for this Fox Friday. See ya next time.

Buzzfeed mocks efforts to make Communism cool

We should be grateful for this, because it's easy to imagine them going the other way. It's Ten Super Disturbing Ways Communism Is Being Made Cool Again.

Here they are:

A Karl Marx piggy bank sold at Urban Outfitters.
The 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Thomas Piketty’s book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century."
The lefty love affair with Cuba.
Che-Guevara T-shirts.
Theonion.com. [I can't vouch for this one.]
Dennis Rodman chumming it up with Kim Jong-un.
Celebrities in general.
Vlad Putin's Western admirers.
Socialist protesters every time there's a gathering of protesters.

While it's nice to see Buzzfeed display an article mocking communist sympathizers, they did deny any endorsement by their editorial staff, so that's a bit more in line with what we might expect.

Hungry people are grumpy -- government funded study reports

This is from Tom Coburn's latest 2014 Wastebook. Chapter 7:

The feeling of anger caused by hunger is so well-known that pop culture has given the feelings their own name hanger. Armed with voodoo dolls and chalkboard noises, federally funded researchers wanted to prove a hangry spouse is also an unhappy one. ...

Funding for the voodoo doll project came in part from National Science Foundation grant worth $331,000.

If they had studied Ebola they might be heroes. But that would have been hard.

Via Foxnews.com.

I'll miss Tom Coburn.

George Lakoff may be Saul Alinsky's successor

Alternate title: Lakoff took the handoff.

CM Phillips explains how George Lakoff's theory works in How Liberals Dominate the Public Debate. It's all in simple easy to understand narratives and metaphors. They don't have to be true, just believable.

Phillips provides ten examples of how progressives, aided and abetted by the msm, manipulate the language to keep the flock from straying:

“Affordable Care Act” AKA Obamacare. They care about you. And you can afford it!
"Progressive." Their opponents must be regressive.
"Tea Baggers." What an easy way to disrespect a bunch of decent people.
"Pro-Choice." Wouldn't want to admit abortion extinguishes a life.
"Trickle down." You might get some crumbs from the rich.
"Capitalism." It's the capital (money) that brought success, not you, who, by the way, didn't build that.
"War on Women." Oppose abortion at anytime prior to actual birth and it's war.
"The 1%." They've got all the money, and if you're lucky, something might trickle down.
"Racist." Anyone who disagrees with a Black Democrat.
"Democracy." Democracies are good. Democrats must be too. Never mind that the U.S. is actually a Republic.

Democrats have been doing this forever. Remember James Carville's "It's the economy stupid" back when Bill Clinton ran against George H.W. Bush? Clinton beat a sitting president back when the economy influenced the vote.

In any event, as long as Democrats control the narrative and the electorate remains uninformed they'll be hard to beat.

Here's why Democrats are so opposed to voter ID requirements

Here are some plausible explanations for why Democrats fight so hard against voter ID requirements. J. Christian Adams gives us three practical reasons in Why Do Democrats Oppose Voter ID?, and it's not because Democrats want to preserve a tactic for cheating.

First, racial divisiveness has been a very useful tool for mobilizing the base the last several years. Scare minorities into thinking the majority is out to get them, and they'll vote for you.

Second, it's the bigotry of low expectation. Democrats would have us believe that minorities are simply not capable of doing the things that most people do easily. (Michelle Obama seems to believe it.)

Third, race based and civil rights groups use it as fund raising tools.

Makes a lot of sense.

This is what happens when we elect a citizen of the world instead of an American

Clarice Feldman writes what many have been saying for several years. President Obama sees himself as a citizen of the world first and foremost. See Obama: Our House is Your House. Excerpt:

The problem with voting into the presidency an internationalist is that his oath to “protect and defend” the Constitution (and by implication the nation) doesn’t apply to this nation.  He sees it as his duty to protect and defend some undifferentiated poor folks in the Third World.  You suckers just pay the bills and suffer the consequences of his actions.

Proof is overwhelming that this represents Obama’s mindset.  This week is no exception.  From a review of the expenditures made by this administration with tax revenues meant to protect our health and safety and his immigration policies, we can see yet again where he’s coming from.

Read the whole thing if you need examples.

Democrats' problem - sleepy voters, per Michelle Obama

Not a problem here at Sleepless in Midland. But apparently, sleepy voters is a problem for Democrats, at least according to Michelle Obama. See Weeklystandard.com:

In an effort to boost turnout in November, the first lady told the crowd that she runs across voters "who are like, no, I ain’t going to vote, or I couldn’t wake up."

Via Thomas Lifson at Americanthinker.com who adds:

I would say that she knows her base.

What would happen if a speaker at a tea party rally said Democrats have trouble getting up early enough to go vote? Don't answer. We all know. The race card has been played so many times you can see it coming a mile away.

Fox Friday 10-17-14 -- out foxed by a cat

I try to be objective, but to hell with that. I like the foxes better than the feral cats. So it's painful to see the feral cats get away with the food put out for the foxes. But that's survival of the fittest, I suppose.

This is a scene from a few nights ago. The food consisted of two frozen chicken drumsticks. It takes a while for them to thaw, but the frozen state doesn't seem to affect the cats' appetites. The drumsticks had been on the ground for a half hour in 60 degree F air temperature, so they were still mostly frozen.

Old Crooked Tail sniffs one then turns up her nose and leaves. A cat arrived 20 minutes later and made a meal of both drumsticks. So what gives? Either the fox already had a full belly, had access to better grub elsewhere, or lacked the ability to recognize frozen fare as food.

But don't worry, here's Swoop earlier in the week grabbing a morsel. Mmmm. Morsels! See ya next Fox Friday!

Ann Coulter on Obama's unwillingness to restrict passenger flights from Ebola land

Ann Coulter has a knack for nailing progressive hypocrisy, and she's done it again with President Obama's unwillingness to prohibit passenger flights from Ebola stricken regions. He seemed so eager to ban flights to Israel back when they disagreed with Mr. Obama on a cease fire. But when it comes to choosing between protecting Americans and maintaining political correctness toward an African nation, he picks political correctness.

Here's Coulter:

It’s becoming increasingly clear this is just another platform for Obama to demonstrate that we are citizens of the world. The entire Ebola issue is being discussed — by our government, not the United Nations — as if Liberians are indistinguishable from Americans, and U.S. taxpayers should be willing to pay whatever it takes to save them.

Maybe we should give them the vote, too! If Ebola was concentrated in Finland and Norway — certainly Israel! — we’d have had a travel ban on Day One.

And there's this interesting observation:

What is it with liberals living in gated communities always telling us that fences don’t work? THAT’S WHAT A QUARANTINE IS.

Ann Coulter sure does have their number. No wonder she's the perennial progressive bogeyman.

What determines when a farmer plants his crops? The climate, soil conditions, or government?

That's an easy question for anyone who reads the newspaper. It's the government. Take a look at the headline in the photo.

Even millennials are wising up about the inability of government planning committees to run industries. But you can't keep the old pols down. We've got the basic driving forces: the need for food, clothing and shelter. Right up there with them are the twins: The desire for governments to control the economy and reach by citizens for government handouts. It defies party boundaries.

Imagine the outcry if this Ebola outbreak happened while George Bush was president

The Center for Disease Control dropped the ball on the Ebola thing and hasn't looked good lately. And here we have a doctor telling us Ebola is primed to go airborne, and the CDC hasn't tested whether coughs can spread it.

Well, that's bad. The CDC obviously should have put a little bit more effort into it.

But what if George W. Bush were president? Everything that happened during his administration, even bad weather, was blamed on him. Can't you hear the main stream media? Bush lied, Africans died.

Barack Obama's own incompetence is catching up with him. But will the main stream media fix blame on him? That would mean admitting they were mistaken to put so much faith in him in the first place, but now that they've got another mission -- getting Hillary elected -- there's a slim chance they'll do it.

James the burglar video, revisited

The crime statistics released by the city of Midland, Texas, on February 6, 2014, show 568 burglaries in 2013. That's just shy of two a day and up from 559 in 2012. No one wants to be burglarized, and I suppose each of us has devised a method of preventing burglaries or redirecting them to another house. My own method is to own things so old and cheap that only an idiot would break in to steal them.

Be that as it may, there's an excellent video online at the Richardson, Texas, website titled James: Confession of a Burglar. Probably part of a plea deal, a prolific burglar named James describes his tactics. It's 17 minutes long and worth the time it takes to watch it.

Here's a direct link if the embed doesn't work.

Note: If all this looks familiar it was featured on these pages last year at James the burglar describes his M.O..

P.S. Be sure to check out Crimemapping.com for criminal activity near you.

Balloons crisscross through the Albuquerque Box at the annual Balloon Fiesta

The fall wind patters create an ideal condition for the annual Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM. The weather phenomenon is called the Albuquerque Box, and it's the condition created by cool air flowing down the mountain through the valley at night and early morning while a little higher up the prevailing breeze is blowing the opposite direction.

So when a balloon launches it gets blown South. The pilot then heats up the balloon air to lift it to the next level where the wind blows it North. After traveling North for a while, he let's the balloon sink back down to the first level to go South. Picture a box. Theoretically the balloon can take off and land on roughly the same spot. It's rather remarkable.

This year's festival ended today, and here are a few photos from last week.

 
They send up a hand full of balloons in what they call a "Dawn Patrol" around 6:30am to see if it's OK up there. They are quite spectacular as they cross the full moon.

They use propane burners to heat the air after pumping them up with big fans run by generators.

There were some unusual shapes. Darth Vader required a little gamma correction to bring out his features.

There were lots balloons and lots of spectators. And why not?

The Sandia mountains East of Albuquerque had some beautiful lenticular clouds over them. Nah, who am I kidding? Those are actually UFOs hoovering over there so the occupants could see the show for free.

Note to future attendees: On Saturday of the last weekend of the event the parking lots filled up by about 7am. There were no alternative parking suggestions offered on the radio station I was listening to. However, the Albuquerque city website provides some info about a park and ride program. So plan accordingly.

Obama hates the press because he owes them so much

The Brits and Yanks saved France in WWII, and France hates them. That's a weird psychological phenomenon that makes some people resent those who do them a favor they can't repay. And it appears to be happening with Obama and the press.

This comes to mind after seeing the headline: James Risen: Obama hates the press.

The first reaction is that Obama should love the press. But on reflection, maybe Risen is onto something. Risen is under a threat from the Department of Justice for refusing to disclose a leak source. And perhaps a bit of paranoia as well as self preservation makes him want to attribute the pressure he's getting to hatred of his industry. But maybe Obama really does hate the press.

The mainstream media is largely responsible for putting Obama into the White House. They built him up, hid his weaknesses, and carried his water. Many people saw through this fraud, but a majority of voters didn't.

Obama owes the media big time. And like the debtor who can't pay back his lenders, he resents them for it.

Well of course he lied about Ebola exposure to get into the US

Who wouldn't?

This may be old news by now. It's from Breitbart.com and it's about Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan: Boss, Coworkers of US Ebola Patient: He Knew He Had Ebola, US Trip Was 'Desperate Attempt to Survive'.

Dailymail.com says 'She was bleeding from the mouth and couldn't walk': Cab driver who ferried U.S. Ebola patient and sick pregnant woman he helped tells of fateful ride explaining how Mr. Duncan may have picked up the virus himself. What a shame that the people catching it are good Samaritans trying to help the afflicted.

Meanwhile, our Southern borders are still wide open with 71 immigrants from Ebola countries in the first seven months of this year.

We're gonna need more space suits.

Obama's transformation of the nation from combination of incompetence and negligence

There was always the question of whether the things happening in the government these days were due to incompetence or intent. Barack Obama did promise to transform the nation, and James Longstreet contends the result came from both in When the Fulcrum Collapses, to wit:

The incompetence and negligence of this administration appear to be intentionally dispensed, complete with an animosity towards this nation on the part of those who have allegedly taken an oath to serve the country.

Incompetence directed intentionally -- now there's an ugly picture.

Agencies in the news of late which seem to have caught the disease are the Center for Disease Control, the Department of Justice, the Veterans Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, The Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the National Security Agency. Are there more?

Mr. Longstreet's metaphor is that the fulcrum on which the nation is balanced depends on honesty, competency and the desire to obey the law. Remove those from our bureaucracy and we've got government agencies looking out only for select individuals.

What's the solution? Mr. Longstreet doesn't have one, possibly because it's practically impossible to imagine. But here goes: Eliminate unneeded agencies and do a top to bottom revamping of the remainder. Well, it's not impossible to imagine -- we can still dream, can't we? It's just impossible to imagine it getting done.

Murderers are people too say lefty college students

This is, of course, about the loopy decision by the students at a liberal arts college to allow the convicted cop killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, to give the school's commencement speech.

Washington Times says: "The Pennsylvania prison should unplug his microphone and tell Mumia to put a sock in it."

No. Let him talk. This provides a clear image of the students at Goddard College for potential employers to assess their ability to think. It provides a dog whistle to identify a solid lefty who is way too much into authority disrespect and celebrity worship.

There's an old saying: "Their minds were so open their brains fell out." Here's a good example.

Fox Friday 10-3-14 -- The fox who loved cat dancing -- rope-a-dope in the arena

Some nights the cats arrive first. Some nights the foxes arrived first. Some nights they are there at the same time, and that's when the fur flies.

The foxes are at a disadvantage. They have bigger mouths with plenty of teeth, but to use them as weapons they've got to lead with their faces. The cats have those sharp claws which keeps the action at arms length. In head to head competition for the food the foxes have to use their cunning and speed to grab the meat and avoid the claws.

Here's an example.

First attempt -- cat guards one drumstick while fox gets too close to the other. cat leaps, fox plays rope-a-dope

Fox circles the arena and returnes for round two. Zoom! Escapes the claws again. But still no food.

Cropped to show the open mouth. This came about a minute later. The fox must have been breathing hard from that last round of snatch-and-grab. Or maybe she's calling her companion. They do better with the cats when they work in pairs.

Patience paid off. The cat finally left and the fox got the chicken leg after all.

Finally, to show that they do sometimes work in pairs, here's one from a few nights earlier.

There are so many good dramas playing out that it's difficult to keep it to minimum. But these will have to do. See you next Fox Friday.

Why does Mike Conaway keep showing up in these non-news newspaper stories? Oh yeah, there's an election coming

U.S. District 11 of Texas Representative Mike Conaway once told an audience that he has a person on staff full time whose job it is to get him in the news. He/she might be earning the money -- hopefully not taxpayer money -- because the local newspaper seems eager to put him on the front page for free.

This election season Conaway is opposed by Libertarian Ryan T. Lange. Let's compare how much each reported having raised this season in campaign contributions as of June 30, 2014:

Name	Amount
Mike Conaway	$1,587,781
Ryan Lange	0

Source Opensecrets.org.

Are those donors that afraid of Ryan Lange? Maybe the better question is, what do those donors expect as payback from Conaway? Here's another: Will he deliver? The local newspaper is sure to do some crack reporting to answer those questions.

Speaking of the local newspaper, search at MRT.com for Mike Conaway between the first day of this year through the first day of October and get 31 hits. Some of them are so puffy they need to be anchored to the page.

Poor Ryan Lange (or Ryan T. Lange). He gets a solitary mention, and even that one put Conaway in the headline.

Swiss voted down switch to gov health insurance

The Obama admin was in a big rush to copy European mandatory health insurance programs, but apparently it wasn't as easy as it looked.

Switzerland is supposed to have a system on which Obamacare was modeled. It requires that each resident purchase medical care insurance from one of 61 companies. Source. That's a lot of choices, much more than in the U.S.

Anyway, just like everywhere else, their medical prices are going up. So along came some geniuses who proposed a government takeover. But unlike in the U.S., the citizens got to vote on it. They voted it down. See Swiss reject switch from private to state health insurance. Here are some select quotes from that article.

Geneva (AFP) - Swiss voters on Sunday rejected a plan for a seismic shift from the country's all-private health insurance system to a state-run scheme.

Referendum results showed that almost 62 percent of voters had shot down a reform pushed by left-leaning parties which say the current private system is busting the budgets of ordinary residents.

This next part is interesting:

The results also underlined the national divisions over the hotly-contested issue as the country's German-speaking regions voted against the plan, while their French-speaking counterparts were in favour.

Maybe they saw how Medicare or the Veterans Administration are working in the U.S.