Gasp. Maybe he even had nail clippers.

*Here's one for you to think about next time you're standing barefoot in the airport with a TSA perv groping around between your legs.

While the feds and the airports are getting pretty good at thwarting terrorism by twiddling your willy and confiscating your Coke, they haven't quite mastered the art of building a useful fence around JFK.

"(A) 31-year-old man swam to a Jamaica Bay shore and then walked past motion sensors and closed-circuit cameras of the airport's state-of-the-art Perimeter Intrusion Detection System. The $100 million system* is meant to safeguard against terrorists."

The cops have charged the swimmer with criminal trespass. Wrong. He rates whatever kind of reward the feds give to heroic whistle blowers.

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* I wonder if  this is the same fence company hired to "secure" the Mexico/U.S. border?

Speaking of home invasions

A threat yesterday to the Camp J Transient Officer Quarters

But ever-vigilant New Dog Libby to the rescue. A few seconds after this shot there was a certain amount of growling, shrieking, and fur flying before Woody retreated beneath the deck. I feel so protected.

Little Leon, Iowa. doesn't make the news often. Pretty quiet down there in the quasi-Ozarks of southern Iowa. So imagine our surprise to discover some sort of redneck ninja outbreak.

Now, a young woman and her three kids can be terrorized anywhere, any time; but by four guys all dressed in black armed with a bow and arrows -- plus a stun gun --  demanding guns, money, and drugs?

For once I agree with the news writer that "bizarre" is an appropriate adjective for a home invasion. There must be a whole lot more to this story than meets the eye, and I hope there's some followup reporting.

The Ayn Rand candidate

Is Atlas about to shrug?  No, of course not, but it's still pleasant to read that a Contender (however slim his chances) has read the book and found its ideas compelling.

In a 2005 speech to a group of Rand devotees called the Atlas Society, (Paul) Ryan said that Rand was required reading for his office staff and interns. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he told the group. “The fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of individualism versus collectivism.” 

That's music to our ancap ears even if we agree with the dreary political prophets who advise us to  gird for another four years of His Ineptness and the Jacobin chorus. When a man who might some day lead the country can use the phrase individualism versus collectivism,  things are not quite as bad as they might be.

But even if the anti-Obamaites find a way to win -- essentially by neutralizing the far-left northeast and the  assured 78 Obama electoral votes  along the Pacific coast and in Hawaii  --   we're not necessarily making great libertarian/objectivist progress. Because Alan Greenspan.

As a young fellow, Alan stopped barely short of moving his clothes to Ms. Rand's closet. As an old man and the national money czar, Alan had to spend a lot of time sputtering that, yeah, objectivism was a pretty good idea, but  not in the "real world."  

Sic transit integrity.

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The cite is from a New Yorker profile of Ryan. It's recommended reading for folks who still appreciate old-school magazine journalism.