You know that regulations have gone too far when the FDA has to regulate wheelchairs

This young man has helped design a computerized wheelchair that allows users to better control how the wheelchair operates.  It sound like a great idea.  But in listening to this piece at the WSJ I was surprised that the FDA had to approve the wheelchair before it could be produced.  Is the FDA soon going to regulate any type of chair that the disabled might sit in?  What happens if someone with disabilities sits in an unapproved chair?  Will the FDA SWAT team descend on the house?

Another example of women being more risk averse then men?: Scottish polls on independence

Bloomberg's Businessweek has this:

Women backed staying in the U.K. by 55 percent to 45 percent, while men favored independence by 52 percent to 48 percent. . . .

Bakersfield, California Vice Principal shows that concealed carry permit holders can legally carry guns on school property

This story won't be a surprise for those who have followed the CPRC (or here).  In California, concealed carry permit holders are allowed to carry on school property if they have approval of the school superintendent, which it would be too surprising for Vice Principal to obtain.  From KBAK/KBFX in Bakersfield, California:

A Tevis Junior High School administrator who was arrested and subsequently released last month after bringing a gun to school has filed a claim against the city of Bakersfield and its police department, according to his attorney Daniel Rodriguez.

Kent Williams, 51, vice principal at the school since 2010, said he was falsely arrested by BPD officers for bringing the handgun to school, because he has a valid concealed-weapons permit and showed it to them before the arrest was made.

"Me, being a law abiding citizen, that was the first time I had ever been exposed to handcuffs," Williams said. "I was frightened and scared out of my mind."

Rodriguez said his client brought the gun to school for safety reasons.

He said several laws were violated by the arrest on behalf of the department, which later released Williams from custody.

Police said it was initially believed that Williams may have violated the California Gun Free Zone Act but said the vice principal likely did not break any laws because of his valid concealed-carry firearms permit, which was issued by Kern County. . . .

Pollsters expecting "sizable" Republican wave in November's election

Stu Rothenberg in Roll Call predicts "at least 7 seats" for the Republicans in the Senate:

While the current Rothenberg Political Report ratings don’t show it, I am now expecting a substantial Republican Senate wave in November, with a net gain of at least seven seats.
But I wouldn’t be shocked by a larger gain. . . .
Of the seven Romney Democratic seats up this cycle, Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia are gone, and Arkansas and Louisiana look difficult to hold. Alaska and North Carolina, on the other hand, remain very competitive, and Democrats rightly point out that they have a chance to hold both seats.
But I’ve witnessed 17 general elections from my perch in D.C., including eight midterms, and I sometimes develop a sense of where the cycle is going before survey data lead me there. Since my expectations constitute little more than an informed guess, I generally keep them to myself.
This year is different. I am sharing them with you.
After looking at recent national, state and congressional survey data and comparing this election cycle to previous ones, I am currently expecting a sizable Republican Senate wave. . . .

From Gallup:

“Americans indicate that these negative attitudes will increase their probability of voting this fall, and history suggests it is more likely that Democrats than Republicans will suffer as a result, given Democratic control of the White House."

Of course, there is also Nate Silver giving Republicans a 65.1% probability of taking over the Senate.

Meanwhile, a new ABC/Washington Post poll shows most Americans view Obama as a "failure."  That is a pretty tough way to phrase things.

There are a couple of pollsters such as Sabato and Cook who say that there isn't evidence of the wave yet, but Rothenberg's comments deal with that perspective.

UPDATE: The Hill has this on the newest NBC News and the Wall Street Journal poll.

Republicans hold a two-point lead nationwide on which party registered voters want to see in control of Congress, and that lead expands to 10 points in the Senate battleground states at 50 percent to 40 percent in the poll, conducted by Democratic polling firm Hart Research and Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies. 

"With 56 days until Election Day, our poll provides greater insight into what is likely to happen, and the news is not good for the Democrats," Democratic pollster Fred Yang writes in an accompanying memo. . . .

Concealed carry permit holder defends himself against six gang members who tried to rob him, gang members part of dozens of robberies over past 3 days

From TMJ4.com: "Police bust a dangerous teenage crime ring after a 15-year-old suspect is shot to death by one of his intended victims." These "thugs" were believed to have previously beaten and robbed a young woman. The 15-year-old who was shot and killed had been shot in a similar robbery last month.

More on the story from WISN.com TV:

Police in Milwaukee say the person shot during a robbery attempt Monday was a teen with a long arrest record.

Police said a group of people attempted to rob another group of people near South Second Street and National Avenue early Monday morning. Investigators said one of the would-be victims produced a gun and shot one of the would-be robbers. 

VIDEO: Police: Teen shot, killed early Monday part of crime spree 

Lt. Mark Stanmeyer said the shooting victim was a 15-year-old boy that he called "a known gang member" who had a lengthy arrest record including armed robbery and auto theft. 

Stanmeyer said the shooting victim had also been shot in an incident on Aug. 1
Police said the 30-year-old West Allis man who shot the teen was taken into police custody and released. He has been ordered to report to the District Attorney's Office at a future date. 

Stanmeyer said five people were arrested and are believed to have been part of dozens of Milwaukee-area robberies over the past three days. Stanmeyer said the ages of those arrested range from 14-18 years. . . .

New York Times has devastating expose on how the Brookings Institution sells its research and access to Obama administration officials

Brookings is the old line liberal think tank in Washington, DC.  It isn't too surprising that the New York Times would have a lot of connections with Brookings.  Those connections have done a lot of damage to Brookings.  Here is just a few of the examples in the piece:

Qatar, the small but wealthy Middle East nation, agreed last year to make a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings, which has helped fund a Brookings affiliate in Qatar and a project on United States relations with the Islamic world. 

Some scholars say the donations have led to implicit agreements that the research groups would refrain from criticizing the donor governments. 

“If a member of Congress is using the Brookings reports, they should be aware — they are not getting the full story,” said Saleem Ali, who served as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and who said he had been told during his job interview that he could not take positions critical of the Qatari government in papers. “They may not be getting a false story, but they are not getting the full story.” . . . 

“I am surprised, quite frankly, at how explicit the relationship is between money paid, papers published and policymakers and politicians influenced,” Amos Jones, a Washington lawyer who has specialized in the foreign agents act, said after reviewing transactions between the Norway government and Brookings, the Center for Global Development and other groups. . . . 

The Brookings Institution, which also accepted grants from Norway, has sought to help the country gain access to U.S. officials, documents show. One Brookings senior fellow, Bruce Jones, offered in 2010 to reach out to State Department officials to help arrange a meeting with a senior Norway official, according to a government email. The Norway official wished to discuss his country’s role as a “middle power” and vital partner of the United States. 

Brookings organized another event in April 2013, in which one of Norway’s top officials on Arctic issues was seated next to the State Department’s senior official on the topic and reiterated the country’s priorities for expanding oil exploration in the Arctic. . . .

Scotland moves to independence, the political ramifications: a much more conservative and less EU friendly England

With Labour holding 40 of the 59 Scottish seats in the UK parliament, Scottish independence is going to dramatically transform British politics.  Forty seats out of 325 needed for a majority and the most recent polls showing a slight majority of Scots in favor of independence, the Labour Party is in disaster mode, with Labour MPs flocking to Scotland to convince voters there not to vote for independence.  

A lot of the purported fears about Scottish independence are pretty weak.  Take the claim that new Scottish government won't be able to continue to share the pound with the rest of the UK in a formal currency union.  There is a simple what that Scotland can do that without any help from the UK government.  Just look at how Panama and China used to link their currencies to the US Dollar.  Both countries committed to exchanging their currencies at a specific rate to the dollar.v

If this independence occurs, it will put the Conservatives in England and Wales in office for years.  It will probably also make the party more conservative as the party has room to compete with the UK Independence Party.   Scotland has been a strong supporter of the EU, so Scottish independence would probably doom what ever chance there was of defeating the referendum that Cameron has promised in 2017.  My guess is that all this also means that England will be a much stronger ally of the US.  

Another case where registration type records are used for confiscating guns?:Government retroactively changing its mind on what is a legal gun

From Fox News Insider:

Joseph Palumbo, owner of the Albion Gun Shop in Albion, New York, was forced by state police to hand over 165 customer records or risk having his store raided. 

Palumbo spoke to Tucker Carlson this morning on Fox and Friends Weekend and explained that the police said they were looking for anyone who had purchased a modified AR-15 rifle. 

Although the police did not have a written order to seize the customer records, Palumbo said they made it clear there was the imminent threat of a SWAT team raid of his store, so he complied and handed over the records. . . .

"We had been told by the state police that this modification was legal over a year ago," said Palumbo, who has hired an attorney specializing in the Second Amendment. . . .

Liberal Politico slaps Obama over pushing back amnesty for illegal immigrants until after the election

Will voters realize that Obama is just delaying amnesty until after the when voters can punish him for amnesty?  It is hard to believe that this trick could really protect Democrats from any fallout, but Obama is sure going to try.  From Politico:

President Barack Obama has one person to blame for looking indecisive, dithering and cowed by bungled political calculations: Barack Obama. 

He’s the one, after all, who strode into the Rose Garden on June 30 to announce that America couldn’t wait forever on immigration reform and pledging to move forward with a set of executive actions “before the end of summer.” He’s the one who spent that afternoon lighting into Republicans in Congress for punting and punting and punting again. 

Now he’s the one punting. 

Obama, appearing on “Meet the Press,” attributed his decision to punt immigration reform action until after Election Day to making “sure that the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted,” or “getting all our ducks in a row,” on the legal side and needing to spend some more time explaining himself to the American public. . . .