Go Israel!

Video via Fox News, of Israel shooting down a drone of unknown origin.  Of course just this year, Iran was said to be making a copy of a U.S. drone it had captured.

Saturday Learning Series - Law and Economics

This is the final installment of the Mises Austrian School of Economics 101, presented by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Jörg Guido Hülsmann. Previously in part 10 of 11, they discussed welfare economics.  This time they discuss the law and economics.

Important happenings

Coming into the home stretch of the 2012 election cycle, and hopefully the Obama presidency, I've suddenly  but not unexpectedly, gotten pretty busy with a tense work situation.  Consequently I've had far less time over the past week or so to blog about some pretty important events and situations than I'd really hoped to be able to discuss.  Nevertheless it's important to point out for the less informed among the American electorate, so I'm still striving to do my part.  That's true even though readers here are typically very well informed and the uninformed voters don't know this blog exists among the 150 million other blogs on the planet, a third of which I'm sure are probably odes to Justin Beiber.

Here are the recent critical events that I'm talking about, squeezed into one post.

Debate observations

There's so much to say about the debate last night and I don't have much free time today. Here are some high level thoughts:

Romney clearly won. Flash polls confirmed that the perception of voters watching was exactly that. Romney won by a wide margin - both the debate and the polling.

Romney won because he did what McCain would not do in 2008 - he went after Obama. He was not afraid to go on the offensive. He also backed up everything with facts and he didn't allow himself to be put on defense. He was dynamic. He had 4 minutes less than Obama of speaking time and yet liberal commentators complained he ran all over the moderator Jim Lehrer. He was just more engaging when he spoke.

Obama the media is spinning, looked like he didn't want to be there. Of course he didn't want to be there - he was getting his butt handed to him. Obama was not distracted - he was flustered, and frustrated and way out of his element on defense. Look for him to come out firing at Romney, guns blazing, at the next debate. He won't hold back. He can't afford a repeat of that first performance.

The post debate bounce for Romney may be blunted by polling sampling ratios but it will be undeniable. This will bring the race back to a dead heat over the next week. Which, means that Romney will in reality be ahead. Buut he won't stay there for long if his second debate performance is not close to his first in quality. He has set himself a high bar. The media will spin anything less as Romney reverting to form and Obama as doing the same.

Liberal pundits, who have elevated Obama to a mythical status seemed apoplectic last night. They can't believe their guy lost. They can't believe he isn't infallible. Today they will be recomposing themselves and readying for the next rouund.

Romney should, and will, be doing the same.

Truth

The new ad from American Crossroads is worth spreading the word about, particularly in swing states.

Debate Night thoughts

Obama supporters already know who won tomorrow's debate.

I've been reading opinions about the debate tomorrow night, and the consensus seems to fall into two categories.  Firstly, Democrats are downplaying the expectations for the president - he's not a great debater and Romney is, so Romney should win this thing.  Secondly, Republicans seem to think Romney needs to take the battle to Obama because he's down a few points and this is his chance to take a few calculated risks and go after Obama in a specific way while contrasting it with his own specific plans for recovery.