Beyond our regular contributors, we also congratulate TTPers dkemp, edd7, ella, feebie, and mrapp for freelance link suggestions that met the test.

If there's a theme this week, it's a set of emerging tectonic upheavals, driven by technology and wrapped in political responses to their coming. The lead articles in Economos, Techne Logos, and Stratiootika all speak to different aspects of it, and so do some of the ancillary pieces (Matt Damon, taking money from OPEC to trash fracking? Seriously?).

Beyond that, we're going to change your mind about the passwords you pick and remember, then provide you with easy resources to help you execute. Polis has a couple segments that will firm your resolve, and we end with inspiration from the 1940 movie "New Moon."

To simplify your scans, I've divided the links into sections: Economos (global economy), Techne Logos (tech), Polis (domestic politics), Stratiootika (geopolitics & military), plus 1 Useful Web Resource and 1 Good News This Week item to brighten your week and/or make you better. Enjoy!

Polis

I'm writing this before the debates begin, but it doesn't matter. There's a certain point where you just have to commit to fight for your beliefs, and act. We've reached it. Fight! (You might consider giving would-be Sen. Josh Mandel [R-OH] a hand). Meanwhile, the guys at Trifecta make a lot of sense when they remind us of who Romney is, and what that means re: polling.

• How Carter Beat Reagan (American Spectator, Sept 25/12). From ella. The fake polling game in 1980 and 1984, as played over "battleground" states. Note the similarity of the themes to today's reports, and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee's open admission that they were an "in-kind contribution" to the Democratic campaign.



• CNN, newspapers hammered as Americans turn to mobile news (Washington Examiner, Sept 28/12). jkatzman: Double-edged implications here, worth thinking about.



• The GOP's Female Trouble (WSJ, Sept 27/12). jkatzman: NOT what you think. Strassel has concrete suggestions and a persuasive thesis, based on the successful experiences of the free-market IWF.



• DHS Purchases 200 Million More Rounds of Ammunition (InfoWars, Sept 18/12). prosenberg: Adjust that total please: DHS has now purchased 1.4 Billion rounds of ammo. But it's all for target practice, right?

We finish the Polis section with a happy update from Alan West, whose campaign has opened a 9-point lead in his Florida district. Patrick Murphy is getting money from Super PACs and Pelosi, but as this devastating ad illustrates, Lt. Col. West knows a thing or 2 about how to fight. Yet the clip I'm going to leave you with instead is the one that begins with: "What they need to understand, is that I serve a mighty G-d. And my G-d does not walk in the realm of fear! My G-d walks in the realm of strength and courage!"

Walk in the realm of strength and courage, and fight alongside us. You are not alone.

Economos

This session on energy will change your mind re: what is possible, and explain why this is a tri-partisan issue that can win majority support with GOP, Independent, and even Democrat voters. From Newt University in September 2012. If you want to jump to key statistics, financial implications, and then polling insights, click here.

• The third industrial revolution (Economist, April 21/12). feebie: Foreign Affairs' "How to Make Almost Anything: The Digital Fabrication Revolution" is its companion, which shows how revolutionary 3D printing/ "additive manufacturing" can be in bringing work, the free market and the economy back to the individual. Its ultimate potential: breaking the protected relationship between the old manufacturing corporate monopolies and their the government cronies.



• Obama's Last, Desperate Attempt to Save Capitalism (Center for a Stateless Society, Aug 28/12). mrapp: The darkest view of the motives behind the NAMII (National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute) in Youngstown, OH. Note, you can make guns this way. C4SS adds: "If you think the music industry has a hard time combating file-sharing...."



• Russia reveals shiny state secret: It's awash in diamonds (CS Monitor, Sept 17/12). prosenberg: "...the diamonds at Popigai [crater] are... ideal for industrial and scientific uses.... "The resources of superhard diamonds... are, by a factor of 10, bigger than the world's all known reserves," Mr. Pokhilenko said. [JK:] But they have to compete against man-made extra-hard industrials.



• Damon's 'Promised Land' Uses Money from OPEC Member to Trash American Oil Companies (Big Hollywood, Sept 28/12). edd7: Another useful idiot.



• College Debt Crushing American Families (Via Meadia, Sept 27/12). dkemp: Meanwhile, young people are ditching grad school - more specifically, some kinds of grad school. Walter Russell Mead's entire blog is worthy.



• A Chinese Mega City Is On The Verge Of Bankruptcy (ZeroHedge, Sept 27/12). From dkemp. Not just any city, either, but China's manufacturing hub of Dongguan. Pay special attention to the patterns of authority and incentives it describes, which will be repeated throughout China.

Techne Logos

• We Are This Far From A Turnkey Totalitarian State" - Big Brother Goes Live September 2013 (Zero Hedge, March 17/12). jkatzman: Describes the NSA's "Stellar Wind" project & Utah data center, and how it was designed to have no legal or constitutional safeguards. Here's the WIRED article that triggered the ZH piece.



• DHS Enlists Citizen Spies Via New Smartphone App (Prison Planet, Sept 20/12). prosenberg: Remember that nasty neighbor you had? DHS will give him a phone app to help him turn you in as "suspicious." And, of course, the data and data collection mechanisms are immune to scrutiny.



• All Your Private Data Are Belong To Obama (Zero Hedge, Sept 28/12). devry (also feebie): The record speaks for itself.



• Why Apple Had To Release Its Terrible Maps App Now (Forbes, Sept 29/12). "I think if Steve Jobs were alive today, Apple Maps would have been introduced at the same time, in the same place and in the same shoddy condition. Here's why..."



• Wind Map. mrapp: Surely there are some really smart people who could figure out something useful to do with this US map. Other than just stare at it, like I've been doing for a while now.

Stratiootika

• The Global Spring (Mike Krieger, Sept 28/12). prosenberg: An important analysis from a former Wall Street insider.



• What a Real Alliance Looks Like (World Affairs, Sept 27/12). dkemp: Morocco? Who knew?



• Give Egypt's Aid Money to Libya (WSJ, Sept 27/12). jkatzman: Michael Totten, who wrote the Morocco article, has a sensible idea.



• Catalan parliament approves resolution on self-determination (El Pais, Sept 27/12). dkemp: As KT Cat notes, Catalonia is one of Spain's wealthiest regions. Maggie Thatcher said that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. Then again, the people with the money may run out on you. TIME looks at the roadblocks, while Wikipedia offers some history & context.

Useful Web Resources

hardcharger suggested adding 1-2 clever web sites each week for bookmarking and use, to help people become smarter Internet users. Good idea. From xkcd:

• xkcd password generator. jkatzman: devry recommends the diceware method, which is better - but either one will probably improve your existing security. Even 3 words (2^33) means 2.72 years instead of 3 days.

Over The Hump: Good News This Week

Your song of the week, folks, from a better time in Hollywood. Will you be one?

Reader with questions or submissions for next week can email me (thanks to the great scrim service!)

For The Constitution!

Joe Katzman