Scott Brown

Wow.

To the last minute, I never thought he could make it.

I am in two minds about this. On the one hand, I did not want to see Martha Coakley in the US Senate at any price; her part in numerous injustices showed her to be, at the very least, bad at judging and obstinate in sticking to misjudgments, and obstinacy in error (especially murderous error) is the last thing one wants from a powerful elected representative. On the other hand, I simply do not want health reform defeated a third time, even though the barely examined Democratic proposals have "bad news" written all over them. A poor system can be reformed, but a nonexistent one must be. And please, all of my libertarian and conservative friends - we have been over this. You will not convince me of what I know to be wrong.

The worst news from England in quite a while

While 20% of white people between 16 and 24 years of age are unemployed - which is bad enough - 48% of blacks are. Whatever the reason, and whether or not anything can be done to correct it, that means bad trouble to come. And more to the point, there is something essentially wrong with it. A fair society should not put up with a whole section of it being unable to access employment.

Things I learned no.2 - a new proverb

If you commit a crime in the wolf's lair, you get the wolf's justice.

(For all those Europeans who are caught with their pants down in distant countries and whine about savage sentences or the death penalty.)