Your faithful correspondent was strapped down, prepared for anything last night in the bunker. This is the thing about preparing for the worst, when things go slightly awry, I'm ready for it.

Peering out the window this morning, the rain is falling, the skies are a deep shade of gray and purple. In the distance, there's a familiar blue and red flashing of law enforcement. Lot's of law enforcement out last night, I guess that's appropriate on halloween. When the feeds start burning this morning, I'll have a better idea of the chaos that went on locally. There are certain days of the year I don't like reading the news, this is one of them.

Reading the news however is rather unsettling, the new nominee to SCOTUS, seems to be a rather disturbed individual, swinging right, where O'connor rarely swung left. It's become clear to me that Miers was indeed a patsy, set up to fail to allow Alito to slide in as a much "better" choice. I suspect that the powers that be wanted a nominating fight first, to make the battle seem that much nastier, to allow public sentiment make a demand that this guy, who appears on paper, to slide through like a fart through silk.

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows I have a big crush on Maureen Dowd, in some recent columns she's been extolling at length over the problems of dating men in the early 21st century. This has brought her some flack from the misogynist circles, one of whom has a contest to caption a provocative picture taken of her. As far as we've progressed in terms of women's rights, there are still gaps in the battle. There are still quite a few men intimidated by extremely intelligent, opinionated women.