Did Sandy Tip Election to Obama?

Did Hurricane Sandy, the October surprise, tip the election to President Obama? Perhaps. The disaster did give the president the opportunity to display leadership, a trait that Mitt Romney claimed the president lacked. If Sandy gets the blame for Romney's loss, it is in part due to it exposing a dubious claim at the heart of the Romney campaign. Call it nature's way of fact-checking a politician.

In any case, Hurricane Sandy was just the last of a long string of reasons, most of them self-inflicted wounds, that contributed to Romney's loss. After the jump, the rundown.

OTBR: A Rainbow in Utah

Latitude: N 39° 20.946
Longitude: W 111° 55.656
A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

The Wheel's Voters Guide

Local: Vote for doing the right things. Vote against doing things the wrong way.

State: Vote for public schools, for health care, for water supplies, for women, for voting rights, for paying for government, for science and fact-based government.

Federal: Vote for jobs, for Medicare and Medicaid, for health care reform, for Social Security, for paying for government, for a carbon tax, for financial regulation, for civil rights, for the environment, for immigration reform, for Keynesian economics, for science and fact-based government.

Most importantly, vote, while they'll still let you. ;-)

Playoff Bound: Richardson 47, Berkner 35

From 2012 11 02 Richardson vs Berkner

In a game with playoff implications, the Richardson Eagles defeated the Berkner Rams 47-35 Friday night at Wildcat-Ram Stadium. With the win, Richardson secured the fourth and final playoff spot in District 9-5A, while the Rams will finish in fifth place.

The Mighty Ram Band put on their UIL competition show at halftime as a final warmup before heading to San Antonio for the state marching competition in the Alamodome on November 6. Good luck, band.

More photos after the jump.

S2L77: "Caught Smuggling"

Singapore is commonly described as a "fine city" -- you are fined for dozens of small offenses: jaywalking, chewing gum, carrying durian on public transport (that fine is well deserved), driving in forbidden zones without a permit.

Singapore is where I first encountered the idea of relieving traffic congestion by requiring drivers to purchase permits to drive in the central business district. What struck me in 1977 as novel and a little draconian, I now view as a sensible way to keep automobiles from clogging our cities. Maybe it's not surprising that it was the people of the "fine city" of Singapore who gave such a practical policy a chance to demonstrate its effectiveness.

From 1977 01 29 Singapore

"The Good-For-Nothing Rich Man's Son Caught Smuggling"

After the jump, a place that reveals the puritanism behind the "fine city."