Citation of some research showing essentially that conservative people are more scared of change than non-conservatives. Makes sense. Then the author ties this fear to the Republicans' political strategy of sowing fear (of communists, gays, liberals, etc.) to keep their folks in bed with them. Then he points to what might be an effective strategy for Democrats: sowing fear of religious nuts, conspiracy nuts, etc. Ain't politics grand?

This is cool. It's a story about the only house for miles that survived Hurricane Ike. The house was built back in 2006 after the owners' original home was destroyed on the same site by Hurricane Rita. They asked the contractor to build a house that could withstand a Category-5 storm. As one commenter on the story said, I think the contractor who built it will be very busy over the next few years.